Welcome to samsara. Lets turn the wheel. Im sending daimoku to all my friends in the Northeast who were nailed by that nasty snowstorm. I would also like to thank all the people who have written to me via my blog (I hate that name). Keep those letters and opinions coming.

Alas, Ive broken my promise to you - again. Youve been promised all these way out articles and this week all I can offer you is more of the same old crap. No, the dog didnt eat my research and I havent been in bed with the flu. The truth is that I just finished my latest manuscript and sent it to my publisher. Its taken me eleven months of nonstop work to finally get it in the mail.

Today, Id like to talk about the writing business and what it takes to succeed and why some writers go crazy. Most people I know are closet writers who love to spin a yarn or write a poem, hoping someday that they can get their work published. My mother warned me about being a writer. When youre a writer the only thing that will stop you is you. My mom was very pragmatic especially after a few martinis. She thought I would make a good doctor or lawyer. At the very least, she hoped that I would be a salesman. I almost made the salesman dream come true for her, but if you read last weeks column, I might have ended up with a cellmate named Joe-Bubba. So she was pleasantly surprised when I landed a fulltime sportswriters job for a large daily newspaper in the Chicago suburbs, immediately after graduating from high school. I was paid $80 a week plus mileage. Not much, even for 1970, but I was on my way.

Lots of people want to be writers. I live just off campus near the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, and this town is crawling with aspiring journalists, scholarly writers, poets, frustrated novelists, and screenwriters with dreams of six figure advances dancing in their head. The world of writing, especially books seems romantic. In my opinion its about as romantic as a blues artist hoping to sit in on the final set before the bar closes at 2:00 AM. Its a calling.

Book writing is a tough business to get a start in and just as tough to stay in. Journalism is usually more stable and the pay is better. But if you must dream about writing books, heres the inside dirt. If you can handle 99% rejection, working a fulltime job in another field then, when you get home, write until your neck burns and your eyes glaze over, book writing is the field for you. If you dont mind editors sending back the manuscript you slaved over with a form letter and no constructive commentary, book writing is the field for you. If you can deal with major publishers refusing to even look at your manuscript because you dont have an agent, youve picked the right field. If you dont mind having to sell yourself to aloof agents and waiting months at a time just to be told no, youve found your true career path. If you dont mind waiting months at a time to learn the status of your manuscript from a publisher, which is no 99% of the time, youve found your ideal gig. When youve been abused, avoided, dismissed, cut to ribbons, cheated, humiliated, and generally ignored, you will have paid your dues. Even when that happens, you may still not have a book deal. Sorry, I didnt mean to bum you out.

Here is my advice to you. Dont give up. You may have sent your manuscript out to 100 publishers and feel like youve been dragged behind a car on the interstate, then someone came over to your now still body and kicked you in the short ribs to see if you were still breathing. But it might be that 101st submission that gets you the offer and all that pain and frustration will melt away. My original manuscript for Modern Buddhist Healing was sent to more than 250 American and overseas publishers before someone would take a chance on it. I went through two agents and chanted millions of daimoku. It wasnt like I had no experience as a writer. By the time I signed a contract on my book, I had been writing professionally as a freelancer and professional resume writer for 30 years. Less than 5% of book writers make their living at it fulltime. Fortunately, those people who are serious about the craft will do whatever it takes to make it into print. To them, I say bravo!

Without Nichiren Buddhism and the creative powers that daimoku brought out, I would not have done as well as I have. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is the artists philosophers stone that lens into the deepest strata of consciousness and feeling that a writer needs. Some are born with that insight and others need to reach deep. Sometimes they come up empty, but they keep going back to the well, hoping for a bucketful of water instead of muck. When we chant, dark clouds obscuring previously hidden worlds of imagination are blown away. Daimoku enables us to create on the highest level possible for us. The discipline of gongyo is the ultimate training for a writer because it teaches us the necessity of challenging ourselves, even if we are busy or tired.

My new Buddhist healing book was not an easy project. My last one flowed from my mind and keyboard like water over Niagara Falls. This one was like passing a kidney stone while being constipated. In my mind, that was a good sign. It meant that I had to reach deeper and fight through more obstacles for the perfect book. I spent more than 1200 hours writing and editing, researched more than sixty books, and I was unable to attend many Buddhist meetings and activities because I was on a tight deadline. Just two months ago, I felt like there was a gun pointed at my head. The pressure to find just the right words that would allow people to overcome their illness was immense. Passages that were brilliant the day before seemed dysfunctional. During those difficult times, I would sit in front of the Gohonzon and chant with all my heart to convey the right words. The beauty of our practice is that it never lets us down. I found the strength, perspective, and inspiration to fight through my doubts and finish the manuscript.

Now the real work begins. I will go through nearly a year of back and forth rewriting with my editor before it hits the bookstore. This site has been the ideal escape for me. Samsara and BuddhaJones has allowed me to showcase my work and opinions and have a lot of fun at the same time. Now that my manuscript is finished, its time for the next interim project. I am trying to make the jump from non-fiction into novels. I have a supernatural thriller or two in the can and will start marketing those. Ill get to experience (again) all the dues paying crapola I just told you about. If youve got something decent, someone at some point will notice. With daimoku, you can make that happen.

For all you writers out there, keep chanting, keep writing, and dont let the marketplace get you down. With daimoku, one day youll get your break. In samsara, you can ride the wheel or be caught under it. Daimoku makes all the difference.