My Writing Journey So Far

The road to publication often feels long and daunting. 

At thirteen, I was given the assignment of writing a psalm, in Biblical fashion. I remember trying to harness the poetic grace of King David as I poured out my teenage angst onto the page. Something ignited inside me that day. As I continued playing with words I learned how the stories inside my head could come alive when they made it onto the page. 

Teenage "Miss Pen Page" regaling her readers with yet another speculative fiction short story within our illustrious newspaper.

I am accompanied by my best friend, and wartiologist, Doctor VonTuse.

Journalism appeared to be the right path for me during my college years, so I majored in communications. While working in China I had an article published in the local newspaper of my hometown.

That short-lived career was derailed when I married and moved to Canada. As I awaited my permanent residency, I was unable to work within the country. Instead, I worked online for a U.S. college, thankful to even have a job during the waiting years. 

Then the babies came. While I admire career authors who can write amidst the tantrums and potty training, I was not one of them. While filling my heart with love, my littles were also cranky, curious, and. exhausting. 

During this time I wrote in a personal blog and built my fine art wedding photography business. I photographed weddings on the weekends, then blogged these stories of romance as well as my stories of motherhood during nap times.

In 2013 our family moved to Florida, back to my hometown, where I continued work as a wedding photographer throughout the southeastern U.S. (and occasionally beyond). By then, my work had been featured in numerous online publications as well as some print. I often wrote copy for the submissions, which were then featured on blogs like Style Me Pretty. 

The summer of 2021 is when I decided to get serious about my dream. I knew I would never have read enough, trained enough, or experienced enough to feel ready to write my first novel. While taking Lisa Cron's "Wired for Story" course I wrote an inciting incident scene...and it wasn't horrible. 

That gave me the gumption needed to plunge into drafting my first novel. Nine months later, after revising and rounds of edits through my critique group, I began the querying process. 

While I felt I had steeled myself for rejection, I hadn't really. The weight of each "pass" and "no" felt heavier by the week. The hope that ignited from the four full manuscript requests was only crushed more after the rejection that followed. 

I can remember the weighty feeling of devastation as I sat on my back porch in the middle of the night. Tears streamed down my face as I told myself it was over. 

Chuck Palahniuk said in his book Consider This, “If you’re dedicated to becoming an author, nothing I can say here will stop you. But if you’re not, nothing I can say will make you one.”

It wasn't over. Writing bubbled up inside me until it forced its way back onto the page. I just needed more support and more direction from those within the traditional publishing industry. 

Using my rejection feedback I drafted once more. Six months later, my second manuscript was submitted for an editorial assessment by an editor who worked on All The Light We Cannot See. I am hopeful that her professional insights will help me bring this novel to the caliber of work required for publication. 

The rest of the story is yet to be told, but I'll be right here ready to tell it...once I know all the plot twists. Thank you for being on this journey with me and I look forward to the stories yet to be written.