April ISWG Blog Post

Today’s A to Z challenge is below this blog.

Here it is. April. One quarter of 2023 is already behind us. Time seems to fly these days, or perhaps, I’m just getting slower. We’ll be celebrating Easter this weekend, and I still have some of my outdoor Christmas decorations out–frozen in the ground. Time waits for no one but Mother Nature. Bits of green have poked their noses out in my flowerbeds, but I don’t expect to see anything bloom for some time to come, unlike last year when everything was up weeks ahead of schedule. Unfortunately, early to bloom meant early to die, so by mid-August, I was cleaning out the beds for winter. Perhaps things will be more ‘normal’ this year.

This month’s question is an interesting one for me as I mark my ten-year anniversary as a published author. It’s hard to believe so much time has passed, and yet it feels like only yesterday.

April 5 question – Do you remember writing your first book? What were your thoughts about a career path on writing? Where are you now, and how is it working out for you? If you’re at the start of the journey, what are your goals?

This is an intriguing question The first book I wrote was for a writing class ten years before I actually realized that I could in fact achieve my dream of becoming a published author. That manuscript sits on my desktop in a folder entitled. In Process. It’s the only ‘complete’ manuscript in the file, but perhaps complete is a misnomer. Once of these days, I may even revise and publish it. I got top marks in the course, and the people who read it all loved it, but for the life of me, I can’t imagine why. The plot is adequate, although there are a few holes the size of the Grand Canyon in it, but it’s still quite viable since it was a fantasy dealing with fairies, crop circles, and Stonehenge, a place I’ll be seeing for myself, in person, come July.

The issues are in the writing. Point of View couldn’t have been a big deal for the professor since she ignored the incredible amount of head hopping I did–and not just head hopping. I have talking heads all over the place! There have to be at least two dozen different characters with POV, something that might’ve worked for Tolkien and Dostoyevsky, but isn’t quite as popular today when the omniscient POV isn’t as popular. I have a couple of books where I have three POVs and some readers have difficulty with that.

But writing that book did whet my appetite for more. I wrote a few short stories and some non-fiction before retiring from teaching. That was when I decided to try and write a book of my own. I did. I submitted it to a publisher, and it sold. That was 44 books ago. I now chose to self-publish and continue to put out books on a regular basis. In 2022, I wrote five new ones and in 2023, I already have 2 to be released next month, one almost finished, and I hope to finish at least 3 more before the end of the year. Lofty ambitions.

I enjoy writing. The books I write cover differnt genres depending on the mood I’m in. I’m not getting rich by any means–I don’t have the capital to invest in the kind of promtion needed for that, but on the whole I’m satisfied.

Hope April is kind to us all. Check out other posts on this topic here. https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html