Amelia Earhart needs to raise a little money

How is flying a plane round the world the same as publishing a novel? In this case, funding. There were a lot of theories about Amelia's marriage to G.P. Putnam, (yes, as in G.P. Putnam and sons, or as we call it now, Putnam which now specializes in best sellers). No one ever seemed to find the relationship romantic, most viewed it as a marriage of convenience. I see it more as a meeting of two very clever and driven minds.

To manage to achieve a goal that is both so difficult and so expensive, you have to have incredible focus. And you have to believe that whatever it costs is worth it. I mean that in every possible sense. You have to have a huge ego. And an endless supply of energy and enthusiasm. What you want, what you believe, what you intend, you have to have such confidence in it, such a deep seated belief in your own importance. You have to know that what you write is worth reading. And what you're attempting matters. More to the point, whatever it is, has to be worth the cost.

It's not solely financial after all. In order to soar Amelia refused the more traditional pleasures that her sister chose, hearth, husband, home. They felt constricting to her, as they do to many women of this generation. Still, I think about the way she raised money for each new adventure, how she sold herself and did it gladly, knowing that she'd get what she needed in return. If she had doubts, she hid them. She was a remarkably unself-conscious role model. Think of who girls look to and look up to now and the kind of artifice that's attached to these so-called heroines. Fame seems to be an end in itself. It's not what you do that brings you fame. It's you. Just you. Everything is image these days.

And so I think about being a writer, and what I've chosen to write about, nothing as brave or as daring as what Amelia did. But still, it's not solely me on the page. I write because I want to create something surely more fascinating than my own, unremarkable life. As for image? I have to admit, I find it hard to know how to construct one that's commercial. I know this is not time to be self-effacing, that it's a bad habit, still. So I think of Amelia and how she was willing to use her image in order to get what she wanted most. It was a means to an end, not an end in itself.