There was a desire. No, not that kind. This isn’t that kind of story. This little blog is to document my journey to become an ‘Author’. Not a writer – apparently a writer can be anyone. An Author is published. My dabble into … shall we say, romance, not-withstanding, I’m not published. But I’m going to be, some how, some day, somewhere!

You may have noticed that I’m grammatically challenged. I just put ….s and ;s and -s where ever I feel they should go. Like I was talking. I skipped those classes in High School. So my first goal is to hone my skills. And get motivated. That’s part of why this is here.

I took a wild jump and joined one of those ‘self improvement/actualization’ conferences. Strangely – created by Matthew McConaughey called Roadtrip. I made a conscious decision to put my cynicism in a box and leave it at the door. I know, a leap of faith for me is not SOP. But it’s been quite helpful. To realize I want to write and be published and share my ideas with the world soooooo bad. And helped me realize WHY.

Maybe I’ll share that when we know each other better.

I went to Balticon last weekend. That’s a local Sci-Fi Book Convention (Con in geek speak) in Baltimore (probably self evident). I went for two reasons – old Con friends were going to be there and my favorite author, John Scalzi, was receiving the Heinlein award and was going to be there in person to accept. I attended a number of writing and creative workshops, got my favorite book signed by Scalzi (Redshirts if you are wondering), and went out to a 4 course award dinner with Scalzi and the Heinlein society. Apparently like you do.

I may have mentioned to others at times that I have amazing luck. I really do. Not at gambling or cards, but at life. Honestly, surviving High School is proof of that. I am often in the right place at the right time, and have the ability to grab that opportunity. It may be weird, but how ‘real’ John Scalzi and his wife Krissy were makes me want to pursue my dream of being an author even more. It was one of those moments where you are like, ‘they’re just like me’. It made it seem obtainable.

If that makes sense. If not, too bad. It does to me.

So the journey – get better at writing. I can develop characters, world build and describe my way out of a paper bag. But beats, plots, story arcs… no clue. There’s apparently a science, or at least a pattern, to it. As mentioned, I skipped those classes. Literally. My 10th grade English teacher claimed I plagiarized a story I wrote. She challenged me on the meaning of some of the words I used.

Bitch. I was reading Heinlein and Asimov before 5th grade. She did this in front of the class. One of the straight A students, a friend who I regularly exchanged SF&F books with, stuck up for me, that I did write that story. But I’d had enough. I threw the papers in her face and walked out. And never went back.

I have some really great story ideas, but I don’t want to waste them if I’m not good enough to tell them yet. My first plan is to write. Good one, I know. Unique. But I need schedules. Deadlines. Otherwise, I have forever and will never get done. I’m going to enter a bunch of short story competitions. Learn to write quickly, improve my skill, get used to rejections (sigh) and get exposure.

First one is with Grist, submit a climate fiction short story, 3,000-5,000 words by June 13. I have a plot layout and ideas swimming in my head. We’ll see how it goes!

Wish me luck!