Casual Friday: My writing origins

Many superheroes have an origin story, a story that explains who they are or how they got to be who they are. I realized today that I hadn't shared much about myself and I also didn't share much about my early years writing. I think that I always had an interest in writing. I'm not sure if I was one of those authors who used tell stories before I was able to write, but I do know that I made everyone read to me. One of my early favorites was the Bernstein bears.

When I started going to school I started writing short stories about dogs and cats and my friends. As I grew older I started writing stories with vampires and werewolves in them. Needless to say, Goosebumps had a big influence on me.

When I turned twelve I started writing songs, but they were more like poems because I didn't have anyway way to make music. I didn't play instruments, and I think that most people would be happy if I didn't try to sing. I kept writing poems until I turned about eighteen and then I took a break from writing. I didn't write again for years. When I did decide to write again I was in my twenties, and I no longer wanted to write songs. I wanted to write stories. I had an idea for one in particular, it was about a woman who could turn into a fox. The idea wouldn't go away so I had to write it down. I got a good way into the story before the computer I was currently using crashed. I was beyond upset. I hadn't done anything to back it up. I may go back and rewrite it someday, but it was my early work and probably wasn't very good. I started on another story, and then I started querying agents. I made a couple of really huge querying mistakes during that time. I think the biggest mistake was that I didn't ever finish anything before I sent out queries. I was just so excited that I decided to research how to query and then I sent out my work. I thought that I could work on a deadline, but I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't have been able to. Every response that I received was a rejection, so I knew I had to work harder. I decided that I should give up on querying for awhile and work on the actual act of writing. I finished the first rough draft of Hair of The Wolf, which was titled something different at the time. After finishing Hair of The Wolf I decided that I didn't want to go the traditional route. I had heard a lot about Amanda Hocking at that time, and while I know her story isn't typical, I also learned a lot about self publishing. I decided that it was the way that I should go with my work. I could get my writing out there quickly and learn more about the publishing business. I could make mistakes and learn from them. Anyway, long story short, that's how I got to be where I am. Hopefully I will be able to release my book soon.