You know you have made it as a writer when...

An old folks home and hospital has a reading of your work as one of their daily activities.

*Crazy Grin*

I work in an old folks home part time. When I won the trophy for my short story recently one of the staff took in a copy of the news article (I was soooo embarrassed). The old folks were totally thrilled, some of them have photo copies of the article on their wall!

Many of them asked me to bring in a copy of the story so they could read it. I warned them that it was a young adults fantasy / fairytale but they were quite insistent.

So earlier this week I enlarged the font, printed off a copy, put it in a clear leaf folder and took it in.

It has been making the rounds ever since and the latest word on the street is that they're going to read it aloud sometime this week as one of the activities.

Now I know that it is really small time, so-what type stuff, but the experience has really opened my eyes to the buzz of writing.

I've always said I wrote to share something with others, to make others smile and give them a taste of another world. But lets be honest, apart from my beta readers and my writer's group the world hasn't been reading my work.

This past week I have experienced what it's really like to have the world read my writing, embrace it, be thrilled by it and make it their own as only readers can.

The buzz it amazing!

Most of these people are in their eighties and nineties and they're being enthralled and inspired by a story for young adults, that in itself has been an eye opener.

One lady came up to me, her face aglow, and said, "I kept thinking, she can't die, she can't die. It's marvelous! I read it three times and I was almost late for tea!"

Another said, "I was there. It was as if I was her. It was so good!"

An old man said, "It was really good. I read the first sentence and I just had to keep reading. That's the rub for me, if the first sentence doesn't grab me I won't keep reading. But yours did and I had to keep reading right to the end. You had me the whole way through."

This is it. This is why I write. This is the buzz I crave. To have people love and enjoy the stories (the adventures, the worlds and the characters) that I create.

You know you have made it as a writer when ... your work has given pleasure to others.

This is what it's all about!