This all began with an email, of course. Writer’s Digest will be having their Intensive Editor’s conference in a couple weeks, in Cincinatti, Ohio. There’s just no way I can go, and believe me, as always, I struggled through many dead-end thoughts on where I’d find the money, as though I could open an invisible, yet magical door, where the necessary funds would be put into my outstretched hand. Wouldn’t that be great?

I did read through the description of the course, and one of the topics was going to be about the necessity of a blog for soon-to-be published authors, to promote a good online following and show how intent and serious you are about begining your writing career. Was also going to detail how to start one.

Well, I’m nothing if not self-taught. So here I am, right as I’m about to embark on my second round of querries.

Sorry.

I’m about to embark on my second round of querries! Yay! Excitement is balanced out by anxiety. I can write a story of 144,000 words, with three more follow-ups, but writing a one page letter with a one paragraph description of my story is harder than pulling teeth (which I know how to do, so I can adequately make that comparison. It’s not all that easy!).  And I’m horrible at first impressions, especially in the realm of interviews. Or possibly that’s all the same difference.

But I’m excited. A blog, and this morning I also joined a forum hosted by Harper Collins, Authonomy.com, used to promote the new voices of the writing world. I posted the first 15 chapters of my book, The Daughter of Elaar, and hold my breath with every new backer and comment. But, so far so good. Anyway, a blog and my book on the internet, and I feel like I’m finally, finally moving forward, finally making progress and am just a little bit closer to being published, which truly is first, with a million dollar deal second on my list of importance

Writing this book has taught me so much about myself. It took off into something I never anticipated when the idea first came. As my character went through a journey of self-discovery, she forced me to acknowledge and debate topics I may not have otherwise given voice to.  Family, religion, love- the fundamentals of life. It’s drastically changed and improved who I’ve become, even sparking me to change my name to an otherwise lost family name after my divorce.

The story first sparked sitting in the Auditorium one afternoon in high school. I knew right then it was something way more than a 16 year old could handle, so I decided to set it to the back of my mind and try to concentrate on things like college and work on the life experiences needed to write Daughter.

I honestly don’t know how I made it through Bel-Rea. Lira’s story would not stay hidden, which is the under theme of the whole series. I was always completely set on listening to my lectures and doing the required work, but when you have these vibrant scenes and lives and stories screaming at you to write it down, you have to obey. With all the current syndromes people seem so quick to be diagnosing in others today, I am completely shocked no one has come up with Writer’s Schizophrenia, with a temporary occurance of Writer’s Split Personality Syndrome. There’s days when you are just miserable and ansty all through work until you can run home and write your character out of their current emotional trouble, thereby releasing yourself from the emotional overhaul of their emotions. But I wouldn’t ever want that to stop.