I imagine I am not the only writer who has shed a few tears, feeling as though I’ve worked my fingers to nubs on the keyboard to little or no good result.  When I first started writing I remember the depression of being rejected over and over again.  Being the tenacious and stubborn person that I am I continued writing, attending writer’s workshops, reading and submitting.  While the rejection pile continued to grow so did my writing.  After some time I began to publish occasionally and win an honorable mention for contests entered.  Setting goals to submit something somewhere every month became a fever that I couldn’t shake and as time went on and my writing improved I saw more and more success.  It took a lot of time, rewriting, and a good critique group to make real progress.

When I decided to write for magazines I worried it would interfere with my fiction writing.  It did a little at first, but once I got in the swing of researching, interviewing, writing, and editing to a timetable I made time for novel writing, too.  Okay, so the house is a bit cluttered and herds of dust rhinos have moved in under the bed.  But it was worth it – I write regularly for a local and regional magazines, my first novel (Feisty Family Values) is published and in the bookstores, and my second novel is written and being edited.  I’m a little embarrassed by the state of my house, so I’ll do a little cleaning this weekend, but I’ll get some writing done, too.

It’s spring, time for new growth and opportunity.  Time to work up a sweat doing what needs to be done. I don’t shed as many tears as I used to, but if I need a good personal shower I’ll let them flow.