The First Time

That's little Penny. I made this sketch when I was in my early twenties, but that's how I saw myself as a kid--a skinny klutz. Notice the bandage on my shin and the scraped knee.

One summer, at the age of nine, I decided to write a book. It was a very short book. I used green ink on yellow legal paper and added illustrations. Not many people have seen it. Today it would be considered a paranormal romance--mostly because in the story the protagonist could fly. If I was able to fly at that point, maybe I wouldn't have had so many scraped knees and other injuries from tripping over my own pigeon-toed feet.

I enjoyed every moment of writing that story. That is what got me hooked on writing. Still,  I had other things to do as well--like get an education, work, get married, and raise children.

I knew, even as a youngster, that my writing would probably not be profitable--at least, not for a while.

So as the years went by, I was often too busy to write, though sometimes I wrote poetry in desperation because the urge to put words down on paper and express myself remained strong. However, my poetry was horrible--or at least when I handed it in as an assignment, the instructors wrote all over it and thoroughly discouraged me because I was not brave enough yet to believe in myself.

Courage is a necessary part of writing but it took a long time for me to develop that type of confidence.

Nurturing my children reignited all my creative juices. I read a book on smuggling as I nursed the baby at my breast. Suddenly, I had a whole novel running around in my head--and it kept clamoring to be let out.

It wasn't until my youngest turned four that the book I had been holding inside for quite a while refused to wait any longer. I was about to return to work in September. If I was going to write a book, I figured it was now or never. I set up my old manual typewriter on the dining room table and I typed out the story--page after page piled up.

Truthfully, writing in a great rush was like flying. It consumed me. I lived in the story and only came up for air to feed the family and tend to laundry. It took me two months to reach the end.

Then we went on a camping vacation and hubby took the time to read my story. He was surprised. "Where'd you learn to write like that?" he asked.

The truth was that I had a rough draft in my hands and it took a long, long time for that book to be published. However, by then I had acquired the necessary determination to survive endless rejections.

Writing is a tough business which requires the same kind of tenacity as a superhero, but writing a story is better than a magic carpet ride. Well, it was for me and still is.

That's why I write.

It Takes Courage

Writing takes courage. Writing a book takes a lot of courage--along with commitment. In the beginning, it is doubtful whether any writer will actually sell books. The process of getting to the end is long. Once the end is reached, it is necessary to go back to the beginning to revise and edit.

I write romantic fiction. I make it up but it still has to approximate reality. It must make sense and that's not easy.

This month, I joined the New Jersey Romance Writers' writing challenge, JeRoWriMo. I am attempting to add 30,000 words to a novel in which I had already had 20,000 words. I did the same thing last year and finished Patriot's Heart. I received a contract from Prism Book Group for that book and it is now available everywhere (with a gorgeous cover). :-)

A blank page is a scary thing. To compose the book, it helps to turn off the internal editor that questions every word, every comma, and every plot twist. A writer has to just let it go and write. The book can be fixed later--but there has to be something to fix.

Being a member of this challenge pushes me to throw the words down without quibbling over which word is exactly the right one. In the end, I will have a rough draft and it will need fixing. I'll turn my internal editor back on for that.

I've more than doubled what I started with on this project. The plot took a few unexpected turns, but that's fine. A few surprises can be fun.

My house is dusty and meals are usually leftover leftovers, but with one week to go, I am on target to reach 30,000 words. Wish me luck. :-)