You’ve got to be tough to be a writer. If it isn’t the waiting for a publisher, editor or agent to get back to you about your work, you’re sweating over a deadline or receiving potentially unflattering reviews. You might even be getting bad news. You hear the stories about writers who had to submit their work dozens (hundreds???) of times before they finally found the ‘One‘. You know, the publisher who finally agrees to put their work in print. Hearing the stories and living them are two totally different things. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that I’ve submitted my stuff dozens of times or even a dozen times. Still, each time I receive a rejection it’s another stone slamming […]
Read moreAuthor: Michell
A New Day has Dawned
It was a sad day when I posted my final entry for StartingWriteNow. I had been posting for almost two years and I was feeling a profound sense of loss. Still, the SWN team came to a mutual agreement of sorts; we all realized that for the site to flourish it needed to evolve. Unfortunately, none of us have the time to spend on that evolution right now. So the grand experiment ended… or at least has been put on hiatus. For me, dropping off the Internet is not really an option. I have a book currently in front of a publisher and my fingers are crossed that they accept it. If they don’t, I have two other publishers who […]
Read moreThe End of the Beginning…
As always, Aaron is a tough act to follow, but he does say a lot of the things that I have been thinking too. Like him, I’ve come a long way since my first post. When I started with StartingWriteNow I had never blogged before, I hadn’t finished my first book. I had lots of undirected passion about writing, but that was pretty much the extent of it. When I started I knew that I wanted to be a published writer. Today I still have the passion but I also have a new-found sense of purpose. I’ve finished three books, one of which is currently in front of a publisher. I’ve also finished a fistful of short stories. Today I […]
Read moreMaking Connections
You never know when you’re going to meet someone who can help your career. That is true of any job and is especially true of writing. That particular point was driven home last weekend when I was volunteering for the Calgary Young Writers’ Conference. This was the fifth consecutive year that I’ve volunteered to help out as a host. I remember thinking the first year how cool it would be if I had the chance to present at the conference. It was so long ago and I remember how big a stretch it seemed, how far from my reality. Today, it seems so much closer, the dreams so much more real. Each year that I have gone I have met new authors […]
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