Tuesday 10 June 2014

My Thoughts On Becoming A Writer...

I'll soon be starting on edits for The Connelly Chronicles 1: Family Connections... I love this story so I don't mind... Bit of useless information... when I first started writing this book I think it was about 1996... I was a young single mum who had way too much time on her hands

This story started as a conversation between me and my niece Leigh Walker (she's 2 years younger than I am)... any way getting back to the story... at that stage the story was just called Ray & Viv.

I never wrote full time because I had so much going on with my daughter...doctors... sports...school. But, at night when she was in bed I needed something to do so during late-night phone calls with my niece we would start talking about my characters and how I saw the story going... At the time Leigh was also writing a paranormal book, but in the end her life took her in a whole other direction (she became a high school teacher)

After a while I put the book away thinking -- what the hell am I doing? I'm never going to be a real writer so why bother? I wasn't depressed or anything - I just was at a cross roads in my life... I still wanted to do something in the writing area and decided to become a journo... until I realised I really didn't want to be asking people all about their private lives. So I went back to writing.

In 2010 I met someone one line (get your minds out of the gutter) James Adkinson later became my beta reader and we have been friends ever since. I even went all the way to America to meet him. he was the one that talked me into submitting something... instead I wrote my first ever fan letter to Carol Lynne and asked her if she would possibly have time to read one of my stories... The amazing thing was she took time out of her busy schedule to read The Lines Of Marsden 1: Rules Are Meant To be Broken... I then sent that story into MLRPress--Why them I hear you ask? I will not admit to or deny that I may or may not have been stalking Ethan Day. Actually I have many books released through MLR they are an awesome company to work for.

Totally Bound was not the first place I subbed The Connelly Chronicles 1: Family Connections... The story had previously been published by the ill fated Silver Publishing (if you want all the goss -- you'll have to go on waiting as I won't be the one losing my temper over everything that happened.) I'm just thankful that someone else saw the potential in the story and was willing to take me on.

The truth is I love writing... I always have... the best present anyone could ever buy me is biros/pens and loose leaf paper. I dream about my own stories... OR... I dream about future stories I'd like to write. I'm the type of person who finds it hard to plot out a story. I much prefer to sit in front of the computer and write whatever falls out of my head. Writing de-stresses me... I find it calming to forge a new world and new characters.

I'm just lucky to have a family that understands my insane need to write... Hell, when we bought our house the first thing my hubs did was build me an office... since then he has closed in part of the front veranda and added on a library for my many books -- both research and pleasure reading.

I have attended a few author conventions such as Meet & Greet with Mark A Roeder (USA)... GRL (Albuquerque; New Mexico; USA)... OZMMMeet (Sydney; Australia)...  and I'm possibly attending the Mid-Summer Festival (Melbourne; Australia) next year. I'm not a huge lover of crowds, but they were so worth attending because I got to meet so many wonderful and fascinating people.

I think if you're meant to write then it's as easy as breathing -- Do I think I'm the greatest author out there? Hell No! I write because in my mind if my stories touches at least one person then I have done my job. I personally think I get better with each book I write... The depth of my imagination is endless -- who knows where it will take me in the future.

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