And The Winner Is . . . .

By Helen Lacey

With Oscar time coming up, the Golden Globes a recent event (Yay to Hugh Jackman!), test cricket, the Australian Tennis Open etc – there seems to be a whole swag of things happening where people can be competitive in their chosen field and be in with a chance to take home a statue, a cup, a title or some other manner of prize. For romance writers there is the upcoming Rita and the Golden Heart, the Romantic Times award and closer to home the Ruby, Emerald, Ella and very soon the ARRA awards (Australian Romance Readers Awards). As well as numerous smaller writing contests for both published and aspiring authors. That means there is plenty of opportunity to be recognized and/or rewarded, although often the nomination is reward enough.

I was thinking about this the other day when a writer friend told me a story about her elderly father, who’d worked in public service all his life and upon retirement began pursuing his passion for fish. At first I thought she meant finishing, but no, this was the fish-tank variety. He joined an aquarium society (I didn’t know there was such a thing) and after some time began entering competitions with his marine aquarium. My friend told me that her dad just came back from a competition and had won Best In Show for his Harlequin Tusk-Fish and a also very respectable second for Best Display. She had a photo of her dad holding up his trophy and his happiness about his win was delightful. Seeing his commitment made me realize that everywhere, all over the globe, people are chugging away at their chosen craft, hobby, or job, putting themselves ‘out there’ much like an author does every time a book gets subbed to a publisher or  it hits the selves. Or like an actor does with every movie. Or like a contestant does on Masterchef. Or a tennis player does every time they walk onto centre court.

Passionate people are everywhere in life - so what’s your passion? Is it painting? Parenting? Parachuting? Are you a scrapbooker? Latin dancer? Athlete? Whatever our job, hobby or career - if we do it with passion and commitment, that makes us all winners - regardless of how many awards or tropies we might or might not win.

Are you pursuing a long-held passion at the moment? Or have you discovered a new passion in 2013? I have a copy of my January Harlequin Special Edition, His-And-Hers Family to give away to one commenter.