Hello! This is freaking me out since I don't know the first thing about blogging!
I am the one who started The Wordslingers two years ago. I must say it was one of the best things I have EVER done! I love this group of women and sometimes feel closer to them than almost anyone else. It can be a hard, lonely road as a writer. I usually do not disclose I am a writer when I first meet someone. Main reason being people either A. think you are boasting or B. ask you every five minutes if you have been published C. think it is not a HUGE accomplishment that you make it to the computer and create these amazing characters even when you have children tromping through the house screaming, three dogs barking, a husband demanding you clean out the fridge, a full-time job and a love for too many distractions.
I started writing in the third grade. My first great work:Never Walk through the Alley Again, which I passed around to fellow students. I had a creative writing teacher offer to help me publish a piece I wrote about an abused girl...I never followed through (I was 16). I picked it up again about five years ago. I have two finished books, one YA multi-cultural fantasy, one very edgy and raw. I am now trying to finish my third, Shadow People.
One year ago I had two agencies interested in my work, one in each of my finished books. It's so funny how things happen that way. One moment you are cleaning the kitchen, and the next answering an agent's phone call telling you they love your manuscript. I ended up signing with the second agency in April. The picture is of me proudly holding my contract. The pitch letter for my first book is being sent out this month, cross fingers!
Whew, enough for now...apparently I have a bad case of verbal diarrhea today!
T
I am the one who started The Wordslingers two years ago. I must say it was one of the best things I have EVER done! I love this group of women and sometimes feel closer to them than almost anyone else. It can be a hard, lonely road as a writer. I usually do not disclose I am a writer when I first meet someone. Main reason being people either A. think you are boasting or B. ask you every five minutes if you have been published C. think it is not a HUGE accomplishment that you make it to the computer and create these amazing characters even when you have children tromping through the house screaming, three dogs barking, a husband demanding you clean out the fridge, a full-time job and a love for too many distractions.
I started writing in the third grade. My first great work:Never Walk through the Alley Again, which I passed around to fellow students. I had a creative writing teacher offer to help me publish a piece I wrote about an abused girl...I never followed through (I was 16). I picked it up again about five years ago. I have two finished books, one YA multi-cultural fantasy, one very edgy and raw. I am now trying to finish my third, Shadow People.
One year ago I had two agencies interested in my work, one in each of my finished books. It's so funny how things happen that way. One moment you are cleaning the kitchen, and the next answering an agent's phone call telling you they love your manuscript. I ended up signing with the second agency in April. The picture is of me proudly holding my contract. The pitch letter for my first book is being sent out this month, cross fingers!
Whew, enough for now...apparently I have a bad case of verbal diarrhea today!
T
3 comments:
Yes, you almost sounded like me!
You ever notice that when you tell people that you are a writer, they act like you think you are smarter than they are? I once told someone, who asked me what I did for fun, by the way, that I had just finished the first draft on one novel and was starting my third, and she sniffed at me as if to say, "What's so great about that?" Then, of course, the eternal question-- "Have you ever published anything?" Man, I hate that question.
I know, that is why I don't tell people right away...they think I am trying to say I am better than them in some way. I wouldn't ask an artist if they had ever sold a painting or singer if they had ever made an album. You can still be an artist without a sale, so why can't a writer be a writer without being a "published writer"?
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