If you’re waiting for a serendipitous break to launch your glorious writing career, stop waiting. Start doing.

I’m not saying that serendipity is a bad thing. But sitting around waiting for it to happen is indeed a bad thing.

The Encarta Dictionary on my computer says that serendipity is “the accidental discovery of something pleasant, valuable, or useful.”

The problematic word in that definition is “accidental.” I would substitute “unforeseen,” or maybe “unforeseeable,” because the discovery of something pleasant, valuable, or useful is virtually never accidental.

Take, for example, a currently evolving serendipitous sequence in my life.

This coming Saturday, January 12, I’m having a signing in The Erie Book Store for my first book, Lives of Quiet Inspiration, Volume 1. Book signings are a complete bust without publicity. I needed some pre-event coverage by the Erie Times-News. I had grown up near Erie, and had gone to high school and college in the city, but I hadn’t lived there in years. I didn’t know anyone who worked at the Times.

I should have contacted the paper at least a month ago, but I was too caught up in writing and in business affairs to even think about it earlier. So I started writing a press release on this past Friday, just two days ago.

Nevertheless, this morning, January 6, administrative editor Liz Allen wrote about my booksigning in her weekly Sunday Erie Times-News column.

Did that happen because I was the beneficiary of dumb luck? No. It happened because of a serendipitous series of events that started in 1999 – or maybe in 1958. Or maybe even in 1942 – in Fiji, of all places.

In 1942, Jimmy Blose, a fighter pilot from nearby Sharpsville, PA, crashed his plane while on an intercept mission in Fiji. The jungle where he crashed was so thick that intense week-long aerial and ground searches could find no trace of him.

So what does this have to do with me? Be patient. You’ll find out below.

In 1958 I graduated from Cathedral Prep high school in Erie. Again, you may ask, so what? Again I say, be patient and keep reading.

In 1999 I left my communications position with the Air Line Pilots Association. The employment prospects for 59-year-old communications professionals were slim to none. So I decided to do freelance writing. I wanted to write features for the Sharon Herald, but I didn’t know anyone there. I sent a resume and maybe a writing sample or two to Sarah Adams, the news editor. She said they didn’t need features, but needed a “stringer” to report on school board and township supervisor meetings, etc. Very exciting stuff, you know.

Many experienced writers and even many beginning writers would have turned up their noses at a small-town newspaper editor’s request to report on local government budgets and petty school board conflicts. But I said yes. I went to boring meetings, worked until early morning hours to get the copy in by the deadline, and probably earned a couple of bucks an hour, without a byline.

Two weeks later Sarah called me to say the paper had no one available to cover a local speaking engagement by Brian Stafford, the Director of the U.S. Secret Service. She asked if I could attend the meeting and write a feature. I said sure. From then on I freelanced many features, making sure they were as good as I could make them, and always submitting them before the deadline. I continue to write features for the Herald to this day.

In 2005, Herald editor Jim Raykie decided to publish an ongoing series of “life stories” about senior citizens in the Herald’s circulation area. Because of my feature writing, he was confident enough to assign the job to me. To date I have written 64 of them, and I’m sure the series will go on as long as I want to continue it.

I put the first 30 life stories together in Lives of Quiet Inspiration, Volume 1. After publication, I arranged for several book signings, including the one next Saturday in the Erie Book Store.

Now here’s where serendipity really comes into play.

In September, 2007, I wrote a feature article on above-mentioned Jimmy Blose because his remains, recently discovered, were being brought home to be buried next to his parents. That article was read by an Erie man whose father was related to the Bloses. He called me last week to compliment me on it. He asked me if I was the Joe Zentis who graduated from Cathedral Prep in 1958. When I said yes, he said he was Morgan Jacox, who played trumpet alongside me in the Prep band. He asked me if I ever get up to Erie. I told him about the book signing on January 12. He said some class of '58 Prep grads got together occasionally for lunch. Dave Eichelsdorfer, another 1958 Prep grad, coordinates the lunches. Morgan suggested that I call him to see if he could get one together for January 12.

On Friday, January 4, while taking a break from writing a press release about the book signing, I called Dave with Morgan’s suggestion. He said he would see what he could do. I asked him if he knew anybody at the Erie Times-News who might be able to help me get the press release printed. He recommended that I contact a friend of his, administrative editor Liz Allen.

I looked up Liz’s e-mail address on the Times-News web site and sent her the press release, using Dave as a reference. I was simply hoping she would find a place in the Times-News for the press release, or at least a part of it, before next Saturday.

But she helped me more than that, while helping herself. It was a classic win-win scenario. Something in the press release triggered her interest because it fit in with the column she was writing for today. So yesterday, she interviewed me over the phone, and a good portion of her column today is about me, my book, and next Saturday’s book signing.

So, to summarize:
1. Without doing my best to write news bits on school board meetings, I wouldn’t have written feature stories for the Herald.
2. If I hadn’t written feature stories, I wouldn’t have written “life stories” – hence, no book to promote.
3. Nor would I have written about Jimmy Blose,.
4. Therefore: - No phone call from Morgan Jacox - No way to know about the “Lunch Bunch” - No call to Dave Eichelsdorfer - No contact with Liz Allen - and no publicity for the book signing.

What was foreseeable in that sequence? None of it. What was accidental? None of it – well, okay, except maybe Jimmy Blose’s plane crash. But the point is, I didn’t sit around in 1999 waiting for something better to drop serendipitously into my lap. I did the task at hand to the best of my ability, which led to all the rest.

So, don’t wait. Do something. You never know what little pieces of serendipity may evolve.

- Joe Zentis