I received one of those “See your memories”
notices from facebook this morning.
“Three years ago…” and it displayed
one of my early “art” works I used to advertise my first published book, Dark
Moon Rising.
Three years and a few months ago I
was just a guy writing in his spare time. A suggestion was offered that I might
find writing cathartic. I had tried my hand at writing while still on active
duty in the Army. As you might imagine an Army officer has very little spare
time for any pursuit outside of his normal required duties.
Additionally, I wrote by hand, on
paper, with a pen. Imagine.
Needless to say, that poor attempt
was worthless, but I did enjoy it.
When I started writing again, I
tried writing a fictional story set in WWII, drawing heavily on my own experience
which, it turned out, was not a good idea.
That partially completed eight-thousand-word
manuscript still exists, but it’s on a floppy disk and so lost to the world…thank
heavens.
Sometime later I took my then young
son to a science-fiction movie he wanted to see. The story concept was a good
one but the movie was terrible. I thought to myself as we left the theatre, I
could write that story better than that!
So, I put my computer where my big
mouth is and sat down and did just that. I showed the completed work to friends
who are sci-fi fans, and one fellow who’s a hard core “Trekkie.”
Every one of them said they really liked
it, but I had a lot of punctuation errors and more than a few spelling mistakes.
Well, I started to generate stories
and commit them to digital paper.
After I’d written over twenty
stories a friend suggested I submit one to a publisher. I blew that Idea off.
But, it sat, fermenting in my mind.
So, I started reading up on how to get
published. I read all I could about query letters. I found gobs of Sci-Fi publishers
who accepted these letters from unproven writers and started sending them out to
all I could identify.
A couple actually asked to see the
first three chapters. However, all ended up send me nice, boilerplate,
rejection letters (I’ve kept them all).
Then by a happy circumstance I met
Cheryl. I was only told that she used to be an editor and perhaps she could
give me some advice.
We met one lovely afternoon for
lunch. And we chatted for over two hours. She did indeed have great advice for
me! I wrote it all down (still have the notes).
She asked that I send her my first
chapter and she’d look it over.
After a few days she sent an email
suggesting I get the manuscript professionally edited then send her the complete
document.
After I learned what the editing
was going to cost, I almost decided to let the entire matter drop.
It was my wife who encouraged me and pushed me over the
edge.
Once the editing was done, I sent
the manuscript to Cheryl, all the while hoping I’d get it back loaded with
advice and suggestions on how to improve my writing.
Some two or three weeks later I received
an email from Cheryl explaining that she was with Prairie Rose Publications and
offered me a contract.
I can’t begin to describe the since
of surrealism that engulfed me at that moment.
“Are we reading the same thing?” I asked
her.
Well…three years later and I have five
books on the market, and a sixth awaiting publication.
With each published book I still
get the same feeling, the same butterflies, as I did with the first.
And when I pick up any of them off
my bookshelf and see my name on the cover it’s still surrealistic.
Was it fate, synchronicity, luck? I
don’t know, may never know. But I do know that I owe a debt to Cheryl and the lovely
people at Firestar Press who rolled the dice on me.
Thank you.
My Website - http://www.mikegonzalesauthor.com/
The other page on Facebook -https://www.facebook.com/GONZOfiction/?pnref=lhc
Fire Star Press Blogspot -http://firestarpress.blogspot.com/
Your road to getting published is so much like the road most of us have walked. Cheryl is right about getting a good editor and that money is never wasted. BTW, I write by hand with pencil and paper, especially when I get stuck.
ReplyDeleteYou can do what I cannot; you write science fiction. Sheesh, as much as I love to read sci-fi, I cannot write it. It takes a special blend of talent and technical knowledge to write it. So, kudos to you.
I can relate to you in that, as much as you have experience with the military and war, you couldn't write that WWII book. All my 47 years of critical care nursing would seem to great fodder for stories. I do have stories I could tell, but when I try to write them, I just can't make myself write about them.
I wish you great success, Michael. I loved reading your writer story.
Thank you Sarah. Yes, some stories are too close to home. I do, of course, draw on my military experience in my stories, but I keep at arm's length that which I must.
DeleteI like "soft" SyFy and Fantasy writing. I could never write a nonfiction book or a "hard" syfy story because I like making things up out of whole cloth.
When I was writing DMR I had to attend a conference and had no laptop,so I kept writing, in the evening, but in my notebook, with my pen. When I got home and tried to transfer my thoughts into the computer I found I had a very difficult time reading my own handwriting. Ha!