Remember the TWISTED contest? You guys claimed dates and times for when the last bit of snow would melt in my yard, and the winner would receive a signed copy of TWISTED.
It’s been warmish here and raining and the lawn had been emerging from the snow, though banks were still piled against the house. Yesterday we had a flock of robins come through.
This morning, we have several inches of fresh snow. So no winners yet.
Today’s to-do list is long, but it includes answering a bunch of fan mail letters that came from middle school students in Daejeon, South Korea. That will be fun.
I finally unpacked my suitcase. Now I am so tired I need a nap.
Good grief, “several inches”??? We only have a dusting here – and that was a major downer this morning. Nap and be cozy …
Well, my July 4th is starting to look more and more like a contender! hahaha. Actually, I’m very amused, because of having lived in your area for the better part of 19 years… I’m still amused by the fact you had fresh snow this morning whereas here in NC the Azalea’s are in full bloom (good thing! The Azalea Festival is next weekend.) and yesterday hit 85. Oh yes, I so miss New York… not. (Although, yesterday there was so much pollen blowing around as that cold front moved in that it LOOKED like snow! There’s still pollen banks in my work parking lot.)
I had a quick question that I’ve been meaning to ask for quite some time now, and I actually remember it.
When did you decide that you wanted to be a writer and how did your education help shape your decision to become a writer? Did you major in college? Did you know that you wanted to write novels for a living?
I’m sure there are better ways of wording those questions, but as a typical college student, I’ve pulled an all-nighter studying for exams so I’m not exactly functioning on the higher levels of cognition. :/
WHAT* did you major in college?
Sorry.
Hehehe! So i guess I was WAAAAAAY off. So much for trying to use my birthday to win contests 🙂 Good luck with your fanmail, that should be interesting!!!!
I majored in Linguistics in college. I hated English class because I did not like deconstructing text. It never occured to me to take a creative writing class.
Somehow I wound up in journalism after I graduated. That’s where i learned to write. I decided to try my hand at writing for kids when I was 30 years old. After many years of rejection and a lot of very badly written books, I finally figured out how to write well. It is now 15 years later and I am an author who makes her living off her books, but I still spend 50% of my time on the marketing and business end of things, and 50% actually writing.
My suggestion? You need to have Plan B. How are you going to make a living (and get health insurance) while you are waiting to break into publishing? It takes most people who succeed about 10 years to get to the point of “making it.” But don’t fool yourself – only JK Rowling and Steven King have made real money. You become a writer because you NEED to, not to make a fortune.
New Fans
Well, I’m not sure how else to tell you, but I just wanted you to know that my daughter read your book entitiled Speak. I have always had a hard time getting her to read books, and she read this book cover to cover in ONE DAY! Thank you so much for being an inspiration for her to read. I just hope she will continue now. She is excited to read your other books now. Again, THANK YOU!