My Journey to Publication - Part 3

Seems last time we were talking about this, we stopped at December 2005, when I graduated from Long Ridge Writers Group.

As much as I was thrilled to be done with the course, the task of daily writing is much harder to keep up when you're not working on deadline. My monthly articles for Destiny 3 Fiction were something to look forward to, but they didn't exactly take 27 days out of the month to perfect.

Lack of a regular schedule led to all sorts of nasty things: procrastination, Internet surfing, and plain ole goofing off. Gasp! Me? Can you believe it?

Then an even worse thing for productivity happened--my gig at Destiny 3 Fiction ended when the editor pulled the plug on the online mag. Sigh, so much for those clips.

I hung out sometimes at the Long Ridge Forum, a resource for their students. My relationship with the editor of Destiny 3 Fiction led me to an online writers forum, StoryCrafters, where I am still a member. Not as much going on there these days, but would love to perk up the place.

Then the next greatest thing for my writing career happened--I heard about the Muse Online Writers Conference.



Read Part 2 here!

My Journey to Publication - Part 2

So, where did we leave off on our little journey? Oh, yeah, I talked about my drama filled moment when I decided to embark upon a writing career. I was real bold, telling my journal instead of people. But, I digress...

The next thing I did was spend money. I am female, after all. Okay, well, not really too female because I actually hate shopping; but Amazon has made it so easy to shop without having to deal with driving and crowds, that I can handle shopping from time to time--though the UPS man must hate me by Christmas. I swear I should at least include him on my Christmas card list.

Anyway, I ordered some books on the craft--many of which I haven't read yet. Gasp! Well, there really is a reason for that. I ended up enrolling in Long Ridge Writing Group's Breaking into Print program.

I can't say my husband was too supportive of me spending hundreds of dollars on an unknown commodity; but he supported my desire to become published and stay home with our children, which by this time numbered three. While the school couldn't guarantee I would be published by the the time I graduated from the program, the number of students who were published by their graduation date led me to believe this was a good choice.

It was!

My instructor, Karen O'Connor, provided invaluable insight into my writing and the market. She also provided Tip Sheets that I still refer to from time to time. The course included a workbook and two writing craft books (I actually read those). While the Breaking into Print program allows you to focus on articles or short stories, I decided to focus on articles. Nonfiction had been my preferred genre for years, and I figured that's where I would be spending most of my time.

I sent out submissions while I worked through the program. After several months of rejections, the quickest of which came from Good Housekeeping only a week after I submitted it (ouch!), a friend I met through Long Ridge asked me to write a series of six articles on time management and organization geared toward writers.

My first article appeared at Destiny3Fiction, an online magazine, in November 2005. A month later I graduated from Long Ridge.

I was on my way!


Read Part 1 here!