Many people ask me how I began my journey as a writer and if you didn't read my guest posts during my September book tour here is how it started:
My earliest
recollection was a story written in crayon. It wasn’t a big prize, a publishing
contract or the gateway to success, but the golden stars glistened like a
precious metal on a story of a boy who built a rocket ship.
Over forty years
later I picked up my pen, and enrolled in a creative writing class at the
community college. It wasn’t a spur of the moment thing, but on my list of
things to do in my retirement years. With the economy plummeting, savings
dwindling and the stock market on a downward spiral, retirement seemed an
unreal goal. So, before I reached the age of retirement, I picked up my list
and began at number one – write a novel.
Although I hadn’t
attempted as much as a short story. writing had, nevertheless, been a passion of
mine and after moving away from home as a teenager, I wrote long letters home,
embellished with daily life in the west country of England. I described, the
milkman, the postman, the farmer next door. I told stories of the tiny gosling
that wandered into my kitchen lost and muddy, of the meadow I found full of
bluebells and the winding stream trickling over rocks under a canopy of trees.
Each letter was a short story in itself.
The excitement I
felt after enrolling in the class when I was in my late forties quickly waned.
Each week, a petite bun headed lady, wearing a kimono one week and Scottish
tartan the next, each accompanied by white trainers, spoke of publishing,
famous authors and her childhood. None of which helped me in my endeavor to
write a novel.
“Forget outlines and
just write,” she suggested.
And I did.
I poured out words
that had been colliding in my mind for years and before long I had three
chapters of my first novel.
She reviewed the
first chapter, suggested I kill off the main character and find a way to
destroy the fishing village where the character lived. Obviously, the teacher
and I were not on the same page.
Discouraged, I
chatted with a fellow student and it was then that my writing career, like a
paper airplane unsteady and without an engine, took flight. She introduced me
to a writing group that met weekly.
Among published
writers, I felt nervous and wasn’t sure if I wanted to subject my work to
further criticism. But at that first meeting, I discovered the difference
between criticism and critique. What I came away with was valuable notes. Not
only were the group writers, they were also readers and their suggestions and
words of encouragement made me want to improve my craft, learn more, spend time
with people on the same journey.
It was at one of
writing group meetings that a member suggested my stories were like cozy
mysteries so I researched the genre and killed off, not my main character, but
her aunt, immersed the protagonist in a fictional fishing village and studied
books like The Breakout Novel by Donald Maas and purchased Margie Lawson’s
lecture notes on editing. With a thirst for knowledge, I attended workshops,
writing conferences and joined Cowtown Crimesolvers, who are affiliated with
Sister’s in Crime. I contacted agents, publishers and sent short stories to
e-zines, but apart from the acceptance of a few stories for anthologies, my
writing and novel were declined.
“Rejection is a
speed bump in the road, not a brick wall,” said Jeffery Deaver during an author
interview and my road had become littered with speed bumps.
I continued writing
and joined the thousands of writers who, in November, took the challenge to
write a fifty thousand word novel in one month. NaNoWriMo or National Novel
Writing Month, was the idea of a few West Coast college students and has turned
into a global event. I sailed over the last day of November with over fifty
thousand words and was declared a winner, proudly printed the winner logo, and
stuck it by my computer. Now what?
The answer came in
an e-mail from the folks at NaNoWriMo. Along with the winner logo, I was
entitled to a free proof of my book from Createspace, an affiliate of Amazon.
Once my manuscript had been formatted, I uploaded it to the Createspace site,
used their wizard to design a cover and sent off for my proof.
I recently uploaded
the file and cover image of my eleventh book. I don’t expect a gold star, and I
won’t be getting advances from a big publishing house, but each month Amazon
sends me a check, thousands of people are reading my books and most of all, I
have something to pass on to my children and grandchildren – a little glimpse
into the imagination of a girl who once wrote about rocket ships and trips to
the moon.
