During the coronavirus pandemic, I’ve been deeply moved by so many random acts of kindness around the world, from a neighbor singing “Happy Birthday” to the 94-year-old who is home alone to John Krasinski throwing a prom for the class of 2020. So many different ways people are pitching in to help make this crazy time bearable.

And each Friday night, Andrew Lloyd Weber is offering 48 hours of  free streaming for one of his musicals, starting at 8 p.m. (in France).

Well, we got in on it a little late, after he’d shown Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Jesus Christ Superstar. But then we heard that Phantom of the Opera was coming on. Besides Les Miserables, Phantom is my favorite musical. Our sons grew up hearing that music playing loudly in the background (on a cassette tape, no less) while their stressed-out mom screamed high-pitched notes to match dear Christine.

My first visit to The Phantom was with my beloved grandmother in 1995. We took a trip to England together to celebrate my first contract for my first novel and got to see The Phantom of the Opera in London.

It. Was. Perfect.

I’ve seen The Phantom at the Fox in Atlanta and watched The Phantom movie and listened to the soundtrack oodles and oodles of times.

But getting to watch the 25-Year-Anniversary production sounded like the best way to spend a Friday evening in confinement. So Paul and I tuned in at 8 p.m. on the dot. We enjoyed every minute and have been singing Phantom songs ever since, my high-pitched screaming mellowed into the evocative chords of All I Ask of You and Music of the Night.

So when Paul reminded me at dinner on the next Friday night that ALW (Andrew Lloyd Weber) was offering another free musical, I rushed in to watch it. It was called Love Never Dies. I should have taken the hint that if I had never heard of an ALW musical, there was probably a good reason for that. But I ignored that internal tug and blithely streamed it.

It. Was. Awful.

A sequel to The Phantom. A sequel???? What was ALW thinking? I hated the plot, in which he turned every single person in the play into a despicable character. I mean, poor Raoul, a drunk gambler, the Phantom having fathered Christine’s ten-year-old son in a night of passion—really, really?? Dear friend Meg freaking out and shooting Christine who dies in the Phantom’s arms as they’ve declared their love, and the Phantom supposedly keeping the boy who just found out the Phantom is his dad. And poor drunk Raoul is off to France.

The music had some nice songs, I guess, but mostly it was weird, Coney Island, freak-show bizarre.

And that’s when I thought, “Gracious, ALW! You should have quit while you were ahead! Don’t try to make a profit off of a sequel to a beloved musical (the most beloved in the world, if you believe the stats).”

I shook my head after finishing the show, and I did what I often do when I am really not pleased with a movie or book or musical. I see what others have said. And this was super interesting. There were bad reviews, all right. But it seemed like someone paid the top reviewers to simply NOT review it. As if,  since reviewers, tail between their legs, were all embarrassed and unable to find one decent thing to say, many said nothing (or, ah-hem, were paid to say nothing. I mean this was ALW’s musical!)

So I want to learn that lesson again, Lord. If I’m trying too hard with a book, with a plot, if I’m turned down again and again, well, maybe I need to quit while I’m ahead. Leave that project behind and move on to something new.

You may redeem it later, as You’ve done with Two Destinies, the third book in my Secrets of the Cross trilogy. The first two novels, Two Crosses and Two Testaments, came out first in 1996 and 1997, while good ole Two Destinies waited 14 years to be published in the States. (Yes, it came out in Dutch, German, and Norwegian in the early 2000s, much to my delight.)

Fourteen years after it was written, TD made it’s American debut (and yes, it was a finalist for The Christy Award, thank you very much.) But I had to let that beloved novel go for a very long time.

I have another novel, The Wren’s Nest, that I wrote in 2015 that was published in Dutch, German, and Norwegian in 2016.

But The Wren’s Nest remains unpublished in the USA, having been turned down by many American publishers. I love the story and think it’s an important one. But maybe, just maybe, it isn’t the right story right now in America. Or maybe it never will be.

After several heart-breaking refusals by publishers, I laid it aside and concentrated on writing The Long Highway Home, When I Close My Eyes, and The Promised Land.

I don’t want to make the same mistake that ALW made with Love Never Dies.

Now I’ve decided to revisit the manuscript this coming year, do some heavy editing, and trust You, Lord, to show me if and when to publish it in the States.

Meanwhile, I’m immersed in research for a new novel and enjoying this process immensely.

May I pray, listen, write, and wait, all for Your glory, Lord.

And sometimes, may I simply quit while I’m ahead and trust You for the ‘if’ and ‘when’.

Is there anything in your life right now where the Lord is asking you to ‘quit while you’re ahead’?

ELIZABETH MUSSER writes ‘entertainment with a soul’ from her writing chalet—tool shed—outside Lyon, France. Find more about Elizabeth’s novels at www.elizabethmusser.com and on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and her blog.