I started this thread to brag about my sister, but now I have to crow about myself for a second. I've mentioned before that I'm a songwriter, that I've written over 100 songs and performed them in local coffee shops, music festivals, even on a local TV show. About 3 years ago, I submitted a song about a train engineer on the Lamy, NM line to the Great American Songwriting Contest and it was a finalist in the Folk category (just shy of winning anything, heh). After some research, I sent the song out to a guy named Greg schindel, the "Train Singer" who entertains passengers on the Skunk Train in Willetts, California. He loved the song and said he wanted to record it and would pay me royalties for each CD sold. We discussed it off and on through snail mail (he doesn't do computers) but so much time passed by I had pretty much forgotten about it. Then, almost three years later, this Christmas Eve, I received a box with five CDs with several of Greg's songs on it and his version of MY "Lamy Lament" on it. As exicting as that was, the box also contained a royalty check for the first 1,000 copies. I can now say that I am a professional songwriter and mean it! Woohoo!
I looked on the Train Singer web site but apparently he doesn't have this newest CD up yet. It's called Dreamline Express. I'm sending four of the CDs to my far-flung family and keeping the last one for a place of honor on my bookshelf along with a printed scan of the check!
I guess the moral of the story is to cast your bread upon the waters and never, never give up!
