Set the scene

Set the scene

Have you ever wanted to write a book? Maybe a novel? I have. Since I was a child.

A little bit about my personal journey...

I was first praised for my writing in fourth grade. I wrote a little story about a fish and the teachers gushed over my description of how the sun glinted off the scales. Yes, even all these years later I remember. A teacher leaves his or her mark for a lifetime. These teachers of mine even passed it around to all the other fourth and fifth grade teachers AND the principal AND librarians to read. I was encouraged to keep writing. They said I had talent.

I wrote my first book at ten years old after learning about the Lost Colony off the east coast of my home state, North Carolina. I was fascinated, enthralled, and I had so many questions. So many questions that did not have answers. I decided if I wanted any answers I was going to have to make the up myself. So I wrote the story of the colony from the perspective of a teen girl in diary form. I lost that book as it was handwritten and I have no idea what happened to it after all the moves and purges over the years. I like to think it was good-for a ten year old.

I was so pleased with myself I continued to write. This time I turned to the fantasy genre and wrote a trilogy about witches and the struggle between good and evil. It took me the entire span of my middle school years to write it. Again, I lost that book as it was a written attempt but I remember my main character: Sabina with the purple eyes and jet black hair and her courage and determination. I am still drawn to the fantasy genre but find my imagination as an adult lays more in the struggles of reality rather than fantasy. But maybe one day I will change my mind. I kind of hope I do.

In high school I began writing things to try to publish. And I occasionally I did. In adult publications. One time I couragesly submitted to I think it was the Saturday evening post not really expecting to be accepted but wanted feedback. And I was not accepted. But I received a lovely hadndwritten letter from the editor encouraging me to keep writing and that he hoped to see me submit again in the future. That was so long ago I doubt that editor is still there but his letter meant the world to me.

I also had an internship at the local paper and had a weekly column. I had some minor hits including an impassioned plea for people to vote in local elections as well as a column written as a confessional "Why Teenage Girls Should Not Drive Red Zippy Cars." It was read on the radio. And friends' parents posted it to the refrigerators-no kidding.

Then I got really determined to publish and began writing things that I thought editors wanted to hear. But, it turns out, they didn't really. Or my style was inauthentic because I wasn't writing about things I cared about or that mattered to me.

Then I hit a slump. I was like Jo March in Little Women trying to write things to get published but not telling my own truth.

Then I went to grad school and was told I wouldn’t be taken seriously as a scholar if I continued to write fiction. So I stopped. I regret it. It killed my creativity. I couldn't write anything for years. Not even a diary entry.

It wasn’t until my daughter was born tha I felt that urge-need-almost akin to lust-to write again. So I did. And I felt my creativity reignited. I wrote short stories, poetry, little things here and there to warm up and get ready. But I couldn't find my story.

Finally, I wrote a scene that I knew would be the start of my first full novel. And it hurt. The scene. It exposed painful truths about loved ones. And to keep writing and actually develop a plot, I had to turn a beloved family member into a villain.

My novel is a novel. It is fiction. But like so many other writers I write what I know and many of the aspects of the story are very real and based on real people.

And so I didn’t try to publish it. It was too raw. Too real.

Then I changed my mind. This is my story. And it is not a romance. It is not science fiction. It is not a great work of Art of a literary genius. But it is mine.

The rest of this blog will reflect on aspects of the writing process, the publishing world, and the (as I see it) the drudgeries of marketing.

My first novel, What We Leave Behind will be available soon in both digital and print format. I will include a link when it becomes available on Amazon Kindle.