Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Starting Over

I want to be a published author. This is not a surprise to my nearest and dearest, who've listened to me mumble about being a writer and wanting to write professionally for years now.

I've always loved books. My mother started teaching me to read when I was eighteen months old at my request, and I was literate at age 3. I read constantly. At any given time, a book can almost always be found within 3 feet of me. When I say constantly, I do mean constantly. I was perfectly happy reading for six or seven straight hours. (And still am.)

When I was five, my mother entered me in the March of Dimes reading competition. I read 665 books in a month. (The local bank president had promised to sponsor $.50 a book. He thought my mother was lying to him, so he called me into his office, and quizzed me about random books on the list. I told him all about them. He paid up.) Technically I read more than that, because I kept reading the same ones over and over again and bringing them to my mother who had to make a list so she could make sure there weren't duplicates.

Strangely enough, I never considered "writing" as a serious career choice. I went with the more academically impressive-sounding "chemical engineer" which was a dismal failure. I like chemistry, but I don't like the career that goes with it.

It wasn't until I was fired from a job I hated that I realized what I wanted to be when I grew up. I didn't want to work in a cubicle farm, and I hate the traditional hours of 8-5 for productivity. So I spent the next three months banging out a first draft of a manuscript, while looking for another job in the pits of despair. I finished it, and now it's working on being polished in the hands of beta readers. It's only 45K, and needs to be at least 65, but it's a start, right?

I know it's a difficult road, and I'm not looking forward to the pain and pitfalls and agony and sacrifice it requires. I'm scared of the parts of the business I'm not good at, like web-savvy and an e-platform, and all the rest. But I am going to try.

So I'm going to overcome my initial paranoia about PEOPLE ON THE INTERWEB (you are all very scary), and write a blog under my REAL name and REAL identity, about my REAL life journey to try and write a book worthy of publication.

1 comment:

  1. Attagirl Pook. Actually had to alphabetize your book list to facilitate verification. Congrats on finally discovering your niche. Wishing you abundant success. Current crawdad escaped, traversed length of living room looking for you. Re-captured without incident. Love, Mom

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