The news these days is often depressing at worst and frustrating at best. It’s easy to let it get us down. Never fear… The News Blender has you covered. Once a week we feature Something Good and, in return, all you have to do is tell us something good that has happened to you this week, something you are thankful for, a joke, a cute animal story, an inspiring tale of heroics, a Random Act of Kindness… SOMETHING good.
Today’s something good is that good things are worth waiting for.
After law school, Lloyd Devereux Richards studied writing for two years with a local college professor because a story was percolating in his brain. He then spent a decade pouring himself into writing a serial killer thriller, according to the Washington Post. Lloyd was an attorney for a life insurance company and was raising three kids. Writing time was hard to come by, so he wrote in the middle of the night in an uninsulated attic and got about four hours of sleep a night for most of the 14 years he was writing his novel “Stone Maidens”.
Eventually, after many rejection letters and ups and downs, Lloyd found a publisher to publish his book. But sales were disappointing and got worse over time. Only three online versions were purchased between December and January. Through it all, Lloyd remained positive and optimistic, never giving up.
Marguerite, Lloyd’s 40-year-old daughter, hatched a plan to help her dad. She figured if people had a chance to know him and that the book existed, sales might improve. She recorded a brief video of her dad writing in his attic office and shared it on TikTok from an account she had made for an unwitting Lloyd.
The next morning, her video had a million views. She thought that had to be a glitch, but when she looked on Amazon, she found that “Stone Maidens” was one of the top selling novels in its category. It then soared to the number one best seller on Amazon, surpassing Prince Harry’s “Spare”.
When Marguerite showed Lloyd the TikTok and explained what had happened, he was overwhelmed by all the kind, supportive comments from the folks who watched the video. Lloyd and Marguerite celebrated his newfound success with a chocolate milkshake.
Lloyd has been working on a sequel to “Stone Maidens” for more than 4 years. With the sudden increase in sales and being a best selling author and all, hopefully finding a publisher will be easier this time around.
The support and success that Lloyd has experienced from a little TikTok was worth waiting for. Now it’s your turn… tell me something good!
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