I have a friend, Justin, whose wife, Heather, wanted to write a book. Now, sure, lots of people want to write a book, but Heather wanted to so much that she actually did write a book. After writing it, she sent it to a load of publishers, all of which, in return, sent her their boilerplated rejection letter.

Justin wanted to help, but Justin has no experience with writing or publishing books. If you need to do ANYthing complex with a computer, Justin is your man. But if you need help publishing a book, not so much. This said, Justin is a clever fellow so decided to turn his attention to his wife's situation. He began ruminating on her problem, and before long, had an idea.

One of his wife’s heroes was a woman who had published multiple books and, like Heather, got a late start writing. Justin, sly boy that he is, found contact information for this woman and penned a thoughtful message to her. In it, he explained his wife’s quandary, and of course made note of his wife's admiration for this woman’s work and personal journey. He explained that he thought Heather was so very close to success, but there was just something missing, and neither of them knew what that something might be. Justin went on to ask if he could hire this woman for a few hours to counsel his wife about about what Heather might do to crest this hill.

Days later, a reply came. The woman said while she’d never gotten a request like this before, she would be happy to visit with Heather and see if she could be of help. Regarding compensation, she suggested charging her speaking fee, noting the amount. Justin Venmo’d the money within minutes of finishing the email—hoping to circumvent any reconsiderations. In their next exchange, the woman offered to record a video message to Heather announcing their collaboration. If you thought Justin responded promptly to the fee, you should have seen him move on the offer of a video message.

Once Justin had the recording in hand, he was like the first child up on Christmas morning. Even though this was meant to be a birthday present, Justin knew there was no way he could wait the double-digit days to share it. The next time he saw Heather, he walked, guided, and nudged her to a desk chair where he had the video queued and ready to go. These would be the last moments Justin would be the most excited person in the room. If there is a downside to this gesture, it is that it will likely never be topped in all his future gift-giving.

The first call went swimmingly, and Heather and her new mentor fell into an easy rapport. The next call was planned for a few months out to give Heather some time to work on their initial discussion points. However, the author contacted Heather early and suggested that instead of waiting for their scheduled video chat, she should come to Nashville (from Minnesota) for a writer’s retreat. I will let you guess how long it took Justin to book the plane tickets. And the relationship has only grown from there.

Oh, and Heather’s next book got published. I was impressed by and envied her first effort. I was also delighted to accurately identify the character she based upon Justin. Granted, anyone who worked next to him for eighteen months like I did would have easily made the connection. When I told Heather I repeatedly heard like tirades in the nineties, she confessed it made sense because she captured those words on a recorder lurking outside Justin's office while he did battle with some obstinate bit of code, insulting his screen and abusing the hapless keys on his keyboard with a practiced flair. While technology may be changing by the hour, I find it comforting that the people making it happen are not.