The HEA Cafe

Like many writers, it seems I’ve been at it for years. I joke about submitting to Archie and Veronica comic books when I was seven or eight but, honestly, that’s when I got the writing bug. I submitted faithfully for two or three years without getting even a rejection letter to my name.

Throughout junior high and high school, I kept at it, writing poetry, songs and short stories, dreaming of becoming an author. But college and kids and life got in the way and I put those dreams back on the top shelf in the back of my mind. I plugged away at the technical writing work I’d been fortunate to get, telling myself that I’d get back to it tomorrow, or next month, or next year. It isn’t surprising that it took forty plus years to finally get my name on a fiction book.

Friends (aspiring writers, all) ask what finally got me off my duff (or, rather, back on my duff and in front of a computer monitor) to pen my first full length novel.

Well, it wasn’t the money, that I can promise you. After publishing a sports magazine geared to kids, I already knew how hard it is to make a decent living in publishing. Yes, there are multimillionaire authors out there, but for every one of them, there are thousands like me who just hope to make a little spending money after the marketing bills are paid.

The hard truth is I did it because I realized that tomorrow, and next month, and next year had come and gone. I’d been waiting for the perfect time and finally realized there is no perfect time.

Has my life changed since making the decision to try to make my dreams come true? You bet your sweet bippie it has (if that doesn’t date me, nothing will!) For one, I’ve chosen to immerse myself in the writing life. When people ask what I do, I tell them I write. I surround myself with yeah-sayers instead of naysayers, other writers who understand how hard this business is but keep plugging away. I drag friends to RWA chapter meetings, plug RWA Online, and volunteer at conferences. I shamelessly self-promote and buy lots of books from fellow authors, hoping they’ll do the same for me. When opportunities to travel for research present themselves, I pull out my credit card and jump in with both feet.

Over time, I’ve learned to take constructive criticism well, and to look at my writing not as something written in stone, but as a product I’m willing to rework over and over until it shines to perfection. I never stop working at the craft of writing and I plop myself in front of my computer nearly every day. I’ve got one book under my belt and two in the hopper.

I don’t have time to wait. Tomorrow is here!

Have a great day!