Why I Wrote My Books (finally)

And here's the post I promised a few posts ago: Why I wrote my books (hint: it wasn't for the money).

The Radical Elements of Radical Success: Inspired by my first exposure to Tom Peters, I wrote this one to explore my own ideas about organizational behavior, professional excellence, the nature of success, and to basically figure out what I wanted my life to be like. This wasn't the book I wanted to write - it was the book I had to write. In the process, I learned how to write - I learned about writing discipline, structure, flow, voice, editing, etc.

The Simplicity Cycle: Frustrated by dealing with engineers who overvalue complexity, I wrote this book to help myself understand design and to counter those complexity advocates. I wanted to explore and express certain truths about design, and by explaining these truths, to be able to understand and apply them. I was also aiming to help establish my reputation as an expert of some kind, and to create something beautiful and elegant.

The Boomer Sisters books: I wrote these as a gift for my daughters (and future grandkids). I wanted them to impart lessons about creativity, love, family, self-expression and courage. I am glad to report that my oldest often refers to scenes from the books when faced with certain situations. I love it when that happens.

The Desert: This one was an attempt to use my writing in explicit service to God. In a sense, all of my books have a spiritual thread, but this time I was doing it on purpose. The Desert is an exploration of ideas about faith, love and hope - and like the Simplicity Cycle, I was aiming to better understand and apply certain truths by expressing them in writing.

All of my books are experiments and explorations. Maybe they'll make some money some day (a few have already made a little), but making money was never the point. The success of these books doesn't depend on how many of them I sell, but on the journey of writing and the enjoyment my kids get out of them.