November 1st is National Author's Day, a holiday that I didn't really know about until I got a notice from one of my author newsletter subscriptions that the day was coming up. How should you celebrate your favorite author? In my opinion, it would be leaving a review on one of their books. (Would you leave one on mine?) Or at least curling up comfortably and reading a book!
For this special day, I thought I'd reintroduce myself to you as an author, and talk about my writing journey. Read on, friends!
My Story
Ever since I was a child (maybe the earliest, age 8) I wanted to be an author. I would write in these blank books my teacher would sell to us, and fill them to the brim with a single story--my first was a cheesy one called The Fantasy Club that ripped its plot from a lot of TV specials. It also featured all of my friends (and me!) in real life having these crazy adventures.
At age 12 I continued to write stories but I also wrote my first play, a full-length adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera. A year later, I wrote an original (though highly "borrowed" plot from old comics and gangster stories) called Virgo Moon. In high school I wanted to write a musical, and I did, but it didn't work out with the music, so I rewrote it as a straight play--In the Hands of Mr. Hyde. In college I wanted to write for the stage but the head of the theater department actively discouraged me left and right, so I didn't have a new play until after I graduated. It was an original musical (finally!) called Melancholia, my pride and joy. After that, I rewrote In the Hands of Mr. Hyde again for more mature audiences.
I thought I was going to write plays forever. But the stories in my head started growing larger and larger. Plus, I was desperately ill for most of the time I did theater, so I associated it with my bipolar disorder and a lot of toxicity. As much as I would love to write a musical again, I think I'm done with the stage (unless they want to do Melancholia again. I added a bunch of new music and songs to it and changed the ending).
Anyway, as I said before, the stories just kept growing bigger, and I felt like the more I wrote of scripts, the further I was walking away from my original dream, which was to be a novelist.
I ended up going to graduate school for an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. At age 30, I graduated having written my first novel, The Name and the Key. I queried it a few times, but realized there were lots of issues with it, and shelved it. I took a long break from writing until I moved to Japan, where I wrote Son of the Siren--two years to write it, and then one year revising it based on beta reader feedback--and then at age 40, it became my first published novel through Oliver Heber books.
At the moment I've stalled my writing due to my health issues, but I am working on rewriting The Name and the Key and adapting it into a trilogy. The next two books are The Step and the Walk and The Fear and the Flame. I know deep down in my heart I've got a great story there. I just need to get better so I can focus on my writing again.
And that's where we are now, and how I got to be here. Thanks for celebrating National Author's Day with me by taking the time to read my writing biography.
Now, have fun reading your favorite author's book, and don't forget to leave a review!
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