No Coincidence

It was ten years ago, and I had written a fantasy novel and my agent was in the process of nearly getting an offer from a bunch of really good publishing houses. I was out running errands thinking about how I’d like someone to buy that book. “What I need,” I thought, “is another Bill Webb.”

Bill Webb was the man who’d published two large Dungeons & Dragons adventures I’d written in the early 2000s. I’d met him in the restaurant I was working in at the time after a friend had showed me the copy of an adventure he’d just published. I walked up to Bill and said, “I should be writing for you.” I knew somehow this was true. At that time, no one was writing for him but him. He was a one man show. Nonetheless I sent him my idea, and he called and said he wanted me to write it. Okay, I said.

Bill paused on the other end of the line. “You understand you’re the first one I’ve let write for me. Like, I don’t let other people write for me.”

“Okay.”

I knew he was trying to tell me something but I couldn’t hear it. The first time I met him he seemed like an old friend, and it so it only made sense to me that I should write for him. Technically, he was my first publisher, but he didn’t feel like my publisher, he just felt like a partner, a like-minded soul. That’s who I needed, I decided. I was not interested in writing adventures anymore, but surely there was someone like Bill in the world of book publishing.

I wasn’t home five minutes from my errands when the phone rang and I answered.

“What ideas you got?”

The man on the other end of the line was talking as if we were in the middle of conversation.

“Who is this?” I asked.

“It’s Bill. I’m about to get on a ferry. We’re starting up again. Send me your ideas. Okay, gotta go. Talk later.”

And that was that. I stared at the phone.

“No,” I said aloud finally. “Like Bill Webb. I said, like Bill Webb.”

I didn’t hear from Bill again for many years and my agent never did sell that book, but that call from Bill stayed with me. I thought something and then it happened. The issue, I’ve come to learn, is time. I have since found that agent and a publisher, like-minded souls interested in the stories I want to tell, it just took a while, the request winding its way through life’s many strands until all souls involved were ready to meet.

If you like the ideas and perspectives expressed here, feel free to contact me about individual coaching and group workshops.

Fearless Writing: How to Create Boldly and Write With Confidence.
You can find William at: williamkenower.com