Life of an Author

 Full candor here: I attempted querying for the first time.  It didn't go well to say the least.  LOL  I know that some of my favorite authors got rejected several times before making it big, but that still doesn't soften blow. I took what little critique I got back and am pressing on with new ideas, revisions, and revamps.  The publishing world is hard y'all.  I'm not giving up, and that in and of itself makes me proud of myself.   After publishing my sports romance to Wattpad in October of 2023, I learned that there is an audience for my work.  It currently sits at around 56,000 reads as of February 2024.  It has been so much fun interacting with the readers and hearing their thoughts about the book, so I published another one! Today, I published the first in a series that I have been working on for the last 3 years.  It is an adult "romantasy" novel that involves the Fae titled, The Source .  If fantasy/romantasy is your thing, check it out for free on Watt

 I decided to crack open the first book I ever wrote the other day.  I composed this contemporary romance back in 2009 after watching several seasons of Gossip Girl for the hundredth time.  It was set on the Upper East Side/The Hamptons and revolved around fashion and romance.  I was so excited to delve into high society like I was sitting on the MET steps with Blair and Serena, but was my story a work of art? The level of cringe that I felt reading it was indescribable! LOL :)  The writing is awful and beyond basic, and I cannot wrap my brain around how I ever thought it was anywhere even in the realm of good.     The upside of my trip to the past is the realization of how far I have come as a writer.  My stories that I have been writing these days have so much more depth with complex characters and richer dialogue.  I've moved away from realistic fiction into the world of fantasy that sets my soul alight.  Ah, it feels good to grow! I have the urge to re-write that first book an

 Well, my fantasy novel now has a sequel in the works!  My characters, and the new ones they have met, have really been traveling down some fun roads with this one!  So much has happened and still the plot develops.  I'm starting to think that this might become a trilogy or more!   I've thought about putting the first book of my fantasy series on Wattpad, but something keeps telling me to hold on to it for a little while longer.  I can't explain it what it is making me wait, but it feels as though maybe opportunity is coming. Now, let's talk about the wolves.  I hadn't ever really thought about writing a wolf fantasy book before.  I've read plenty (Hello Nalini Singh's Psy-Changeling series), but the Fae have always called to me to write their stories.  That is until a job posting on Indeed popped up. Getting frustrated with my teaching career, I decided to explore job postings for writers one day.  There were two looking for fantasy writers, so I applied ju

 No Guts, No Glory As an author, you work endless hours crafting stories that you become attached to as if the characters are your dearest loved ones, but what comes next? You have a manuscript.  You love it more than words can express.  But now someone needs to read it. (let all fear take hold here).  I am a self proclaimed perfectionist who could never settle for anything less leading to all kinds of fun struggles with self worth because as we all know, no one is perfect.  The thought of someone else reading my writing was absolutely terrifying!   What if they hate it?  What if they think I have no talent?  What if this thing I love so much gets ripped away because I'm no good at it?   I agonized and fretted going back and forth about whether or not to take a risk for something that I am passionate about. About two weeks ago, I took that leap.  I published my contemporary romance novel I had written about year ago on Wattpad to see if maybe I could make this thing work.  Within 4

 The Author's Journey I had forgotten how much I loved writing stories until that fateful day in my 8th grade Accelerated English classroom.  My students that year loved writing narratives and were actually good at it, so I promised them that after the mundane, unnecessary, soul sucking act of taking dreaded standardized tests at the end of the year, I would let them spend a whole week writing stories. My first block class decided they all wanted to use the same story prompt and see who could write the best one.  I scoured Pinterest and found a scenario for a narrative about when children come of age, they have to fight the monster under their bed and defeat it to enter into adulthood. They began furiously writing/typing excited to get all the ideas they had on paper, and it warmed my teacher heart to see so many teenagers exhibit a love of writing.  As I began to watch them work and assisted them when they got stuck, a story popped into my head.  Characters quickly introduced them