Working on my Book

Since I first learned the basic skills of writing words in kindergarten, I've been writing. Anything from poems to short stories. I love to write! My dad always teased me because I was a horrible speller. He thought it was downright hilarious that I enjoyed doing something so much that I was so bad at.

But I wasn't bad at writing. I was only a weak speller. My passion wasn't how the letters were put together it was about how the words were put together. Thank the stars that computers have spell check!

While I have have greatly improved upon my spelling skills, mainly due to the amount of times I have written each word... it can still be a struggle. Story telling and writing, however, have always just flowed from me like a fountain of inspiration with no obstacles to slow them down.

It has always been and still remains, my most effective way of communication. I am a writer.

While I have written a great many things throughout my life, I had never finished an entire book through to completion. Life always seemed to get in the way. By the time I got back to whatever I had managed to get out, I wanted to change it. The tweaking and improving of the project would get interrupted by life again and the cycle would repeat.

I have a very good friend who is addicted to books of all sorts. She reads every day, many times multiple books at a time. I trust her judgment when it comes to the critique of anything written. Once I had written about 50 pages worth of a book, years ago. She kept taking the pages as I finished them to read and edit what I was writing.

She kept getting upset with me that I wasn't writing fast enough. She wanted to know what was going to happen next! It was very flattering to have her be so interested in my work.

Well, I finally got around to finishing an entire book this year. It is the first in a series of Fantasy Fiction. It's a little over 81,000 words. I let her have the first copy from my printer so she could read it & edit it for me. I wanted to make sure it was perfect before having it published.

My friend loved it! She never stops telling me how amazed she is at how well I write. She keeps saying that I have a style unlike anyone she's ever read before that just sucks the reader in and leaves them wanting more.

I want to cry every time she gives me a compliment because my heart just swells so full of love, pride, joy, and accomplishment. I can't describe how much it means to me because I know that what she says is sincere. While she is my friend, she isn't a soft spoken person. That woman will tell you what is what. If I needed to improve somewhere, she will let me know. She is an awesome friend.

Anyway, she just finished the first "read through" last week and is currently going back over it to edit it for me. I'm getting really excited about it. I can hardly wait until she is finished so I can correct all of the little grammatical errors she finds.

Ever since I was a little girl I wanted to be a published author. Now, together, we are making that dream come true!

Doing some intense study online I have come to realize that almost every single "old" publishing house doesn't really like taking on new authors. So my plan is simple:

I'm going to self-publish and self-promote this first book as well as the rest of the series that goes with it. Once that's out there for the world to see and enjoy, I'll try to contact a publishing house with my next book, or set. That way I will be able to show them that I've already been published and have had some success. It won't be as much of a gamble for them. At least that's my plans right now.

It will most likely take me about 5 years to complete the set I'm currently working on. Who knows where that will bring me by the end of it.

I do have about 20 people already waiting for me to announce when my first book will be ready for sales & ordering. That's pretty good considering most self-published books only sell about 100 total (even the really super good ones). I already have 1/5 of that waiting! Those are only the ones who have verbally expressed to me that they want and/or will buy my book.

I'm really not trying to brag. I'm just so excited right now. I am so proud of myself for being so close to finishing this project I've been working on for such a long time.

I must admit, this hub is not one of my best. I almost feel like I'm babbling my way through it.

I wanted to share my excitement and joy with fellow writers who might be able to understand where I'm coming from. No one else in my family is a writer, nor are my friends. They are always asking me to write things for them, even resumes. So it's difficult at times for them to truly understand what this means to me.

So that's it. I just wanted to shout from my mountain top for a minute about how jazzed I am. Thanks for reading & happy hubbing everyone!