Yes, every once in a while, even writers catch a lucky break.

Yes, we do have our serendipitous moments.

And to my surprise, one week ago serendipity hit me in the aisle of a Cracker Barrel.

You see,  I’m the SFWA chairman of our joint 35th Anniversity, Howard Camner Poems Landing on the Moon Christmas party.

What an endeavor!

And one of my assignments is to look for stuff related to our theme, “The Moon.”

So I’m walking down that Cracker Barrel aisle and I find a display of moon-related stuff.

“Wow. How fortuitous,” I think and I wonder, “Was this display here because of the eclipse? Who knows?”

But as I examine the tchotchkes and a smile eclipses my face. My eyes spy upon a box of porcelain salt & pepper shakers.

Not your ordinary run of the mill shakers but ones shaped like the Earth, the Moon, a rocket, and an alien.

A blue and green earth which highlights the continents, a pink moon pockmarked with craters, a black and white rocket with one porthole and four fins and a scary red moon alien.

Before my eyes, Howard Camner’s miraculous story has been told in porcelain.

On Earth, Howard crafts his poems.

Then a rocket flies them to the Moon.

Where aliens read them and think that our SFWA member is one hell-of-a-poet.

I buy half of the box of these salt & pepper shakers:

As gifts for Howard and his wife;

As party favors for the folks that plan and run the event;

As door prizes;

As a prop for this story.

So my fellow writers and poets, remember no matter where you are, be on the lookout for

serendipity.

For she may inspire you to write a poem or a story that ends up on the surface of the Moon.