On writing

  As far back as middle school I have been writing. Mostly short stories but stories nonetheless. It wasn't really until tenth grade however, when I often found myself in trouble for writing instead of doing my classwork, that I even entertained the idea of someday becoming a published author. I wasn't kidding myself then or even now that getting one of my stories out in front of millions of readers would be an easy task. That is, in fact why I continued to put it off until this point in my life. I wasn't willing to sacrifice my children's life growing up for a dream regardless of how badly I wanted it.
  Oddly enough it was the persuasion of my husband and a friend to submit a manuscript to a publisher that kick started me so to speak. It made me realize that now in my forties is the time to chase that dream. I have already received my first rejection letter and I am okay with that, in fact I expected it. This is a learning curve for me and what I discovered is that it is better to build up a resume of sorts first because it looks so much better on a cover letter and you get to learn at the same time. Yes, even after all these years there is still much to learn.

 

 

  So now I have submitted manuscripts to four different competitions and will be entering my fifth soon. The best part about this is that for a small fee your manuscript is read by judges usually one of whom is from a publishing company. If they like it you could potentially go on to be published even though the chance of that is very slim. More importantly, they critique your work and that is what is the most valuable to me right now. It will tell me what I am doing right, what I am doing wrong, and what publishers are looking for.

 

I may go on to be a published author or I may not. The important thing is that I am trying and I will be for the rest of my life. I have to get up five thirty every morning but that means I get to spend two whole hours with my characters and it is so much fun.

 

By the way, the book cover shown above is just a mock up but it does contain the title of the book I am currently working on.