Hey y’all,

Welcome to my new website!  I decided to take a leap of faith and grab a domain website under my own name.  Believe it or not, there are other authors out there with my same name. I am still undecided if I want to create a nom de plume (pen name), but figure I can do that at a later date if necessary.

Please excuse the messy links on the side bar.  It is late as I am posting this and the necessary tweaking will have to wait until mañana.

For now, I am still keeping my other blog: http://newwriterjourney2pub.blogspot.com/ because it was created to journal my journey to publication. And well, since I am not yet published, it is as relevant as it ever was.  Keeping my fingers crossed, figuratively that is…that I will be able to lay that blog to rest before the close of 2013.

Over the next week, I will copy a few of those more recent posts to the “Blog” tab of this new website.  So stay tuned.

As I post tonight, I am offering a silent prayer that very soon, my website will become much robust with the news of my book getting picked up by a publisher.

Sleep well…

A whole lot has happened since my last post. Primarily the birth of my first grandchild, seven weeks ago. And since that time, I have had a hard time focusing on the task of writing. Baby Olivia has simply been such a lovely distraction.    

At 47, I guess I am old enough to be a grandma.  But like entering into parenthood, I am not sure if you’re ever truly ready; but when you do, you are overcome with feelings that you could never have anticipated. 

I am simply loving this new baby girl.  

I never knew that I could love a child as much as I love my own sons, but I do. Oh, yes indeed, I do. I’ll post more on little Miss Olivia at a future date.  

Let’s get back to the business of writing. Here is a brief update on what I have been up to.  

I finished my manuscript way back on September 18th.  I was overcome with JOY that day, and in awe of my accomplishment; especially after I printed out all 595 pages of the completed manuscript. After all, that day was the culmination of seven months of hard work.  Days and months filled with the frustration of learning a new and complex craft, and all the while trying my best not to become immobilized with self doubt and fear that I lacked the necessary talent.  

But there were good days as well.  Oh, so many good days.  And on those days, I found myself obsessed and intoxicated with by characters.  Over the course of those seven months, they had evolved into seemingly really people with motivations and fears as real as my own. On those illusive days, I felt it.  The faint ripple of my talent.  And in a flash, it would be gone. But I knew it was still there, hiding, trembling just beneath the surface, bidding me to write on. 

After finishing the manuscript, I put it aside for a month.  And let me tell you, that was difficult to do.  I wanted to jump right into the process of rewriting, but had read somewhere, that I needed to distance myself from my manuscript to gain a fresh perspective before beginning the arduous task of revision. 

I had no idea how difficult it would be to rewrite my novel. 

I am but one fourth through the process and I am feeling frustrated with the task at hand.  I do not want to rush it, but I am finding that I am having to rewrite whole chapters.  

And let’s not talk about having to “kill my darlings”. 

Yes, I understand that much of the novel will need to be left on the so called, cutting room floor; but it is so very hard to hit the delete button on so many words that I took such great care in crafting just so.  But I know it must be done.  So, I will take a deep breath… and continue sculpting my novel into something much more appealing to the ear and eye, than was my first, rough draft. 

I have several great ideas for my next novel that I plan on starting in early February 2013.  It will be a Young Adult (YA) novel with a paranormal twist. Last night, I wrote out an outline so that I would not forget the general plot, then put it aside and got back to the business of rewriting my completed manuscript. 

In early January, I plan on submitting queries to numerous publishing houses and agents.  

So wish me luck! 

And when I begin to collect the multitude of rejection letters, I will not obsess over whether or not my book will be picked up for publication…because I will be working on my next creative project.  

I haven’t said much about my first novel but plan on posting a synopsis soon. So stay tuned…

Lessons learned:  

• Do not take so much time trying for perfection with your first draft.  It will be a waste of time!  Just get your book written as the thoughts come to you, because you will likely change much of what you’ve written during the rewrite process.
• You will have times when you feel like a complete, talentless hack. All writers feel that way, even the great ones. It is all part of the process, so get used to it and get over it. 
• Write what you know, and be truthful with what you write.  In the end, it is all that you have and it will be what sets you apart. 

Writing advice:  Read “On Writing” by Stephen King.  Fantastic read. Wished I had read it BEFORE writing my first novel.