NINE YEARS LATER...

FINALLY...Nine years later, my first novel is complete. I would certainly be a publishers nightmare if it took me this long everytime... The truth is life got in the way, or perhaps it was me, standing in front of myself.

The point being, a self-taught writer, through the help of so many people (mainly my fellow Critique Circle critters) I'm done...for now. I can move forward to the next project and since it is a sequel, my main character, Georgia can finally move forward as well.

The writing of my book may be finished but the work has just begun. THE PITCH. There are so many sites and blogs available on line to teach you how to query and write a synopsis. I was fortunate enough some time back to have the help of author, Susan Juby and Diane McIntosh of Bright Ideas Design to teach me about pitching. And with the help of my critters have refined my approach.

Okay, so now I have my materials together...WHAT'S NEXT?

Who do I pitch to? Do I go with traditonal publishers or self-publish? Hmm... That's a subject for my next blog. (Okay...so you've looked at my history of blogging. Not great!)

Now I've reached this stage in my writing, I know how important my blog can be as a tool to reach my writing goals. So I intend to keep it updated. And I have this, perhaps misguided, belief you all would like to join me in my journey to being published.

At the moment, my manuscript is in the hands of two publishers. One who read it last year and took time to show me where it needed work. He suggested I do rewrites and would look at it again after that. The other recently requested the whole manuscript after reading the first four chapters. And so begins mine and Georgia's journey through the world of slush piles and rejections.

The sole intention of this blog is to tell you to follow your dreams, perservere. I did and I'm proud of how far I have come. I've reached a stage in my life where I can devote time to my dream of being published. Nine years? So what...life is a series of journey's, some roads are longer than others.