What did country singer Lynn Anderson Teach me?

You're going to get a laugh out of this. It wasn't funny to me at the time, but now . . .

Back in the day when I was writing and promoting my songs to various artists, I had a chance to preview some of my songs to country singer Lynn Anderson (Rose Garden). She was gracious enough to take my cassette player/recorder to her bus to listen to them. Good deal, huh?

Well, as it happened, the player/recorder I had with me had TWO ways to turn it on to listen to tapes. One was the usual on/off switch and the other thing that had to be done to turn it on was an additional switch on the attached microphone. And … yes, you guessed it … I had forgotten to turn on the switch on the microphone. Naturally, Ms. Anderson could turn on the regular switch, but nothing would happen because the microphone switch wasn’t turned on. And no one would have thought to flip that switch if they didn’t know it had to be done.

Unfortunately, when she returned the player to me and told me it wouldn’t play the tape, she had no more time to listen to my songs.  I had lost a great opportunity that day simply because I wasn’t prepared. I was truly heartbroken, of course. And I will never forget that day as long as I live.

So, what did that teach me? First, always be totally prepared for opportunities. Second, don’t rely on instinct alone – always double-check everything. And that is true for all of us, whether we write songs, novels, whatever. And when we are submitting our work to editors, publishers, agents, etc., always be certain that everything is perfect and ready for submission. Usually, lightning does NOT strike twice and an opportunity lost is an opportunity lost forever.

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J.A. Fulkerson, Author

No Sad Songs (contemporary mainstream novel)

The Teenage Ward (Teen/young adult novel)

BMI affiliated songwriter

Ghostwriter