By Doyne Phillips, Managing Editor & Annette Cole Mastron, Communications
Director for Southern Writers Magazine
So, You Won the
Lottery???
Well I’m sure you have
heard the news of a $1.6 Billion MegaMillion Jackpot and the Powerball are
still in play. And I am sure you have been asked, should you win, what
would you do with the money? And again, I’m sure the odds are you have thought
about what you would do with the money if you win. I have, and I not only enjoy
the thought of what I might do with the money but what would others do with the
money. The thing I hear first and foremost is I’d quit my job. Then I hear I’d
buy a new home, spend it on my family and give to a charity. Then there are
what some may call the ridicules: Travel to space, Start/buy your own
sports team, Buy a plane and fly around the world, Build a casino in Las Vegas
and name it after yourself, Pay for college, Buy a private island, Buy a snow
machine and every year give a new city a white Christmas, Build a water slide
inside your home, Put an ATM in your kitchen and, of course, Build an
underground luxury panic room.
Now, that is fun but
some of these are hard to comprehend even if you did have a $BILLION. My
question to you is, “When you win the $1.6 Billion Lottery will you continue to
write?”
The lottery pot of a
billion plus dollars made me think of one of my favorite book series written by
Mary Higgins Clark. The amateur detective protagonists are married lottery
winners who solve crimes that seem to find them. The protagonist couple have
old-fashioned, memorable names, Alvirah and Willy. I often wondered if a
lottery win inspired her book series. My research hasn’t found anything to
indicate that as her inspiration for the lottery series.
So, tonight as you
check your numbers with us think about these questions. Dream big. Write it
down. As an author, can you imagine writing a book after you win a billion
dollars? What would it be about? With the resources of millions at your
fingertips how would you market the book? Would you turn your book into a
movie?
It’s sure fun to think
about. We would love to hear from you.
