What I Write

I picked up my first romance novel in the 6th grade. My grandma actually gave it to me when I was staying over for the weekend. My mom wasn't so happy about that, but all I know is I fell in love with love and romance. There's just something about two people who meet and fall in love in the pages of a book. Ahhh love. *sigh*

And I kept reading as much romance I could get my hands on. Then a friend introduced me to a genre called "chick lit". Soon I was buying every new chick lit book I could lay my hands on. I related to everything written in those pages because I was that 20-something searching for love and struggling with my career. I'd go back and forth between Nora Roberts romance, a bunch of chick lit and Mary Higgins Clark suspense. Soon I was thinking, "Hey, I could write a book!" And that thought never left me. It was like a little voice that would never go away, nagging me, pushing me to chase after this crazy dream of mine.

Then in 2010, I decide to make this dream of mine a reality. I found ways I could write for fun and get my name out there. I love to write and sometimes that means writing for FREE. Writing is very therapeutic for me. First it started with writing for the Shakopee Valley News (way before 2010) but in 2010 I knew I needed to branch out even more. I loved writing for the local paper - getting my everyday thoughts out and seeing my article in print! Then I heard about KSTP looking for writers and jumped on board. Soon I was blogging for the Minneapolis Star Tribune and then for AOL PATCH. First it was for the town of Eagan, then Apple Valley, then Rosemont. Life became rather busy.

I also took a four-week writing class to learn how to write a book. Let's just say I had accidentally sent an email to a literary agent saying, "I have this great idea and heard I don't need to write the book...I just need to sell you the idea."

Don't trust what you read on Google when you search, "How to write a book."

*major eye rolling*

Oh, so embarrassing. But we all learn along the way, right?

I wrote and wrote and never looked back. I spent all of 2010 and 2011 writing and editing, until I had over 380 pages of contemporary women's fiction. I guess agents don't like the word "chick lit" anymore these days - it's a subjective market out there. And now I'm on a mission to publish this "women's fiction" book. Along the way, I of course had to blog about my trials and tribulations and share them throughout this blog.
Check out my writing journey.