Ladies and Gentlemen, We Have A WINNER!!!!
To say this was the most exciting challenge I’ve ever attempted and SUCCEEDED, is to put it mildly. With only 3 days to go, and 8,000 words to write, I really put my fingers and creativity into high gear!
Didn’t help that near the end, my main character said one line…ONE LINE, that took the entire plot into a completely different direction. I had to kill off one of the main characters, and I really hated to do that, but there just wasn’t any other way to solve the problem.
So, I show the really cool WINNERS certificate I printed hot off the press, to my 23 year old daughter and she says “You got a certificate for writing a bunch of words…so?”
Don’t ya just LOVE family? Well, I really can’t complain. It takes a writer to really understand this type of goal. Afterall, I didn’t train to run a marathon, in fact I pretty much sat on my ass from 9am this morning until 9pm tonight, and even though the contest didn’t really end until midnight on the 30th, they were already handing out the congrats to people who had a lot more time on their hands than I did, so I just HAD to get that little piece of paper, and yes, it is now in a frame next to those other pieces of paper in beautiful frames my 1977 BS college diploma and my 2007 Law Degree that pretty much have the same meaning as far as any real monetary value in today’s economy.
But it was such a personal triumph, even if my kids don’t quite “get it”.
The book could easily end right here, but there is still another chapter, a love scene, to add and some loose ends to tie up, and then, of course the hours and hours of re-writes and edits that will be necessary before I send my new baby out into the wild wild world of publication, so stay tuned!
“Overnight” Success Takes About 10 Years
The writer’s road is paved with pot holes and detours. Unless you’re a well-established author, a celebrity, or a politician, where publishing houses beat down your door with offers of huge contracts and advances, most writers are simply doing our best to just keep going.
I spent eight years writing my first novel “Red Wine For Breakfast”. It was never my intention to publish the book, it was only an exercise to help me deal with the untimely death of my best friend. I thought it was a decent story, so I printed it in booklet form on my lasejet and took it to a printer who bound it with a plastic comb. I gave it to some friends, who agreed the book was pretty good and convinced me that I should try to have it published.
That was in 1996, long before the explosion of the Electronic Revolution, and Print On Demand publishing. After sending it out to a few literary agents, I was very excited to receive letters of acceptance from several. Until I read the last paragraph which recommended that I first hire a “Book Doctor” to made some edits, and then they would consider representation. My initial excitement turned to suspicion when I received six letters from different agent, all with the exact same recommendation. After a bit of internet checking, I discovered these acceptance letters were part of a kick-back scam.
I was then approached by a woman who had read my book and wanted to option it for a movie. I was thrilled. Press releases were sent, events were organized, but she never signed the contract agreement for payment. The only similarities between my book and the script was the title, the names of the characters and the setting. The person who wrote the script had changed everything else, so I cancelled the option, took my book and what was left of my dream, and walked away.
Soon after, I signed with iUniverse, one of the very first POD’s in the publishing business. They promised that their titles would be in every Barnes and Noble store, we could host book signing events and be a “published author”. For only $99. I was the featured author at several of these events, but in time book stores became inundated with “published” authors, and stopped scheduling iUniverse authors.
Then, I received an email from another author who was going to start his own publishing company. He not only wanted to re-publish Red Wine For Breakfast, but would create a new cover, along with my new Pen Name, and also publish my second novel First Class Male.
I was thrilled. I scheduled a huge book party at a local hotel, invited friends and the media to attend and everything was set for the new release;
September 15, 2001.
The books were grounded, along with every other airline, and never made it to my event.
In 2006, he published Journey To Dimension Nine, a collection of erotica short stories. The cover was perfect, the book went up on Amazon.com. And not a single one was sold. I then received an e-mail from a new independent publisher who was starting an erotica sub-section for his company, had read my book, and wanted to publish it under his new section.
He sent me a contract. I sent him the files. Again, I was elated. Again, I was disappointed.
The publishing date was to be June of 2009, then July, then August. Yesterday, I received an email saying that his entire venture was going to have to be pushed back until January of 2010…or later, if at all.
Throughout these highs and lows of my writing career, I never gave up. A few months ago, I received an email from another publisher who was interested in “Red Wine For Breakfast”. I called her, we talked for over an hour. She sent the contracts, I sent the files. We worked to exhaustion over the past few months going over the manuscript line by line to produce an excellent novel that everyone is very proud.
The scheduled release date is September 15.
I’ve always said that “overnight success” takes about ten years. It’s been a very long, very bumpy road since 1999 when I started this journey, but now I’m on my third novel with many more to go. No one said this trip would be easy, but success, real success, never is.
Author Raven West 
The Olympics and the Loneliness of the Long Distance Writer
Raven West ♦ December 13, 2009 ♦ Leave a comment
When they had doubts, when they fell on the ice, or landed in a pile of snow, numerous supporters were ready at a moments notice to help them back on their feet. And when they were finally in the arena, thousands of spectators watched, cheered and applauded their every achievement as well as felt their anguish when they didn’t quite make it to the finish line.
Yet, in our own “Wide Wide World of Writing”, the only “applause” we hear is from our fingers hitting the keyboard. Our biggest motivator is the blinking cursor on a blank screen “screaming” at us to KEEP GOING. Writing is a passion unlike any other. It comes from deep within, and has few rewards on the other side. The road is rifted with obstacles, and laden with the hazzards of rejection. Most of our friends and family members can’t possibly understand that our burning desire to create the “perfect” sentence is just as strong as any skater’s quest to nail the “perfect” triple axle. Yet, we press on. Alone.
We watch an athlete practice for the great event and can feel their struggle. We see the “thrill of victory” and “the agony of defeat” as the camera zooms in on their faces at the end of a competition. The “team” hugs each other in triumph, or consoles each other through tragedy. It is a magnificent show of physical ability, strength and endurance, as they go for the gold, the trophy, the championship ring.
No one else can “feel” the enormous weight of a writer’s block, or the pressure of a looming deadline. And no one but a writer knows the absolute, total thrill when, after hours of mental aguish, we find the one word that makes us literally jump up from our chair and yell “YES!” Usually, to an empty room.
The world revolves around athletes. From the youngest to the professional, families work their schedules around practices and games. Laundry, dishes and other household chores are for the “less talented” members of the family. If one of them happens to be a writer, it’s their world that constantly gets interrupted. (Pause here while I take the laundry out of the dryer).
Team pictures line the walls in an athlete’s home along with trophies, medals and other awards of achievement. And while it is true that the writing profession does have its own established awards, you won’t find many trophies for writers displayed inside glass cases in local high schools or colleges.
Writing is not a competitive sport, (although I know some writers who might disagree). For most of us who started down this road, either by choice or by chance, we chose to walk it, initially, alone. But on the way, something miraculous occurred. We meet other writers who wear similar scars of repeated rejections, and bruises from scathing reviews, and yet somehow found the strength to continue the journey.
We find “comrades in arms” through writing organizations, or meet many faceless friends on-line, who offer support and encouragement. And with each new writer we meet, we begin to feel not quite so alone as we did when we started the journey.
Not everyone can be an Olympic Athlete and in spite of what many people think, not everyone can be a writer. We may never be on the pitcher’s mound in Yankee Stadium, but we can write a great story about an athlete who is. We may never sign a multi-million dollar product endorsement contract, but we can create a dynamite thirty second commercial spot. We may never stand on a podium and receive a gold medal, but we will always be there writing the script for the announcer who tells the world of their achievement.
Even if we don’t perform for thousands of cheering fans, we will always have this one fact to keep us going: Civilization will still exist without the Olympics, the Super Bowl or the World Series. But without writers…
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