I WALK WITH TITANS
By: Gwendolyn A.Cuizon
I pursued Bachelor of Science Major in Accounting inthe University of San-Jose Recoletos. It never occurred to me that one day my job description would not be accountant but Published Book Author –International.
When I was in college, my family could barely make ends meet. I pursued accounting at USJ-R because it was the most practical choice. When I graduated, I worked for several accounting-related jobs. The desire to write never left me though. It was like an itch,the more I scratched, the more intense it became.
My accounting background did not prepare me for what laid ahead. When I first made the rough draft of my manuscript “Change of Plans, Change of Hearts”, I had no idea what I had gotten myself into. I wrote at home everyday after office hours. Days turned to weeks, weeks to months and months to years with no end in sight. I submitted the first three chapters of my manuscript to publishers worldwide but it got rejected 100% of the time. After a year of toiling and foregoing the night life in favor of writing, I began to entertain serious doubts on my calling. Where would this lead me? Would I ever getpublished?
In rare cases though, when your heart is in perfect accord with your mind - giving up is not an option. This was the case for me. So I wrote every night and submitted my manuscript to more than a hundred publishers worldwide for the next four years. It was rejected the entire time. After five years of ceaseless toils, I know it was time to give up. There was no point in continuing something I thought would never bear fruit.
Feeling dejected, disappointed, disillusioned, I decided to stop submitting my manuscript for a year. I exhausted every possible means to solve the problem -all to no avail. There was nothing left for me to do.
Nothing.
Then it occurred to me there was one option I had not fully explored. And that was - To pray. To lift things up to God. I realized that the solution I searched for could possibly be in the spiritual and not in the physical realm.
Human efforts alone obviously do not suffice to conquer the obstacles I faced. I need help beyond human strength. I NEED God.
Armed with an invigorated sense of hope, I stopped submitting my manuscript to publishers and started an entirely new approach - I prayed. I attended Virgen de Regla novena, completed the Misa de Gallo, followed the Sto. Nino procession, petitioned in Simala, I attended daily dawn masses at Mount Carmel Chapel, frequented Poor Claires, prayed the holy rosary every night, sponsored prayer gatherings or ‘barangayan’ in my house and attended Sunday masses for a year. The lists of my religious activities went on.
Few days after Sto. Nino fiesta and after I stopped submitting the manuscript for one year, I finally mustered enough courage to submit my manuscript again– for the last time. If my manuscript got rejected, it would be my cue that I was never meant to write in the first place.
I knew that everything I worked for, for the last six years of my life, was at stake here. I prepared for the worst. January 22, 2004, after praying, I randomly selected a publisher from the internet. The name TreeSide Press from British Columbia, Canada cropped up. I forwarded my manuscript that day.
That was it! My fate was sealed. The rest was up to God. I forced myself not to think about it.
A week passed,I received an email from TreeSide. With dread and trepidation, I opened the email from the publisher. Iwas almost sure that the manuscript was rejected again.
But …… NOT this time.
As I read the contents of the email, tears swelled in my eyes. The manuscript I submitted “Change of Plans,Change of Hearts” was FINALLY accepted! I got the answer I needed. I was meant to write after all.
After SIX long years of struggles, after more than a hundred rejection slips and all the disappointments and failures I went through, I made it! I clinched a publishing deal!
The trials did not end there though. After 2 months of signing the contract, TreeSide had to close because the publisher got ill. Somehow, the confidence I got from the publishing deal was enough to carry me throughout the ordeal. I submitted my manuscript next to an award-winning Canadian publishing firm from Ontario, Double Dragon Publishing Inc.
July 2004, I signed another publishing contract this time with Double Dragon. November 30, 2006, the book “Change of Plans, Change of Hearts” came to exist.
When I look at my book now, I just don’t see a book. To me, it serves as the physical embodiment of the triumph of the spirit over insurmountable odds. My journey for the last eight years is summed up in this one incredible paperback. All kinds of odds were against me - for every 10,000 writers submitting their manuscript only 1 gets published, I am not a native English speaker, my orientation was accounting not writing, and so many other impossiblities. Yet, with God's help, I managed to surmount them all.
It may appear that I have influenced all the details written in my book “Change of Plans, Change of Hearts” but in truth it is the book that inflicts so much influence on me, especially on the spiritual aspect. In hindsight, I realized that the book paved the way for my greatest achievement of all - a closer relationship with God.
I grew up reading classic authors such as Hans Christian Andersen, Mark Twain, Shakespeare, Emerson, Victor Hugo and contemporary authors - the likes of Sidney Sheldon, Daniel Steele, John Grisham, Stephen King and so many others. Undoubtedly, these are the titans in the literary world.
Despite the years that gulfed among us, I feel strangely connected to them in spirit. I could empathize with them perfectly, having gone through the same ordeals myself. I may not have achieved stellar success yet but to some extent I am one of them now.
I’m glad to say, I have earned my right to walk with the titans. I found my niche among them.
Addendum: "Change of Plans, Change of Hearts" is currently the No.1 Bestseller in
Paperback Edition in my publishing firm- Double Dragon Publishing.
