Next year, I'm planning
to release a 15th anniversary edition to celebrate the journey of this book
that is about taking your journey. I have gotten a lot of
feedback over the years from readers from all walks of life, whose lives were impacted positively by reading
this book. Some of the most unexpected feedback was from a young (American) man who was
living in Japan at the time. I ran across him over 10 years ago online, when I tripped over his review of the book on his web site. I tracked him down to find out if
he was connected in any way to a good friend of mine, also in Japan, who was
the first reader of Driftwood to contact me because of how much that book
had impacted her. I answered the email she sent to my publisher and we became friends
and have remained so to this day. There was no connection between the two of them.
Driftwood had been given
to him by his sister in Kentucky. I'd sent autographed copies at the
request of the owner of A Charmed Life, a gift shop that Yelp lists as being
closed now. They contacted me because of hearing about my books from my
cousin, who lives in Paducah. It's one of those examples of moments when you
don't have any idea when some small action on your part will have a big impact
on the other side of the world. This is called the "Butterly Effect"
in Chaos Theory, and it's interesting to observe it in action in our daily
lives, but it requires awareness. What is truly synchronistic is that I've
compared Rita's transformation in Driftwood to the metamorphosis of a
butterfly. It happened when and where it did because she was ready to take her
journey and become the new being she was meant to be. Now the butterfly is having her own Butterfly Effect. Those affected have been readers from all walks of life who have been able to identify with Rita
because she is an every-woman type of character. The details about the type of
transformation needed by the reader vary greatly, but the call to take our
journey is applicable to everyone. Sometimes it starts when a sister on the
other side of the world sends us a book at just the right time to help us to deal with whatever challenge is currently facing us. Driftwood's publication coincided with a personal
transformation of my own. I was changed in so many ways after that butterfly
broke free from its chrysalis. The changes continue to reverberate throughout
my life and now around the globe through my writing. That is truly humbling to
see.
