Writing is what I love.
I also love my family, friends, dogs and horses, but since this is about me, I thought I'd put that in first.
I've kept a journal since I was fifteen years old. I wrote in it every day, stories, observations, rants, poems (oh, man, were they full of angst!) and anything I could think of that I needed to have kept somewhere permanently. Believe it or not, I still have these journals. And every once in awhile, when I'm feeling particularly down, I read how horrible I thought my life was as a teenager and get a good laugh at myself.
There are stories in my head that I hope to live long enough to write. In the files are story starts and notes and newspaper articles that I thought would make good books or short stories, and I fully intend to get around to writing them someday. There are also four complete really long fantasy mss. in boxes in my file cabinet that will never see the light of day, but they got me through tough times and if it weren't for them and my old Brother portable typewriter, I'd either be institutionalized or incarcerated now.
In case you're wondering, it took me a very long time to get published. Yes, I wrote a great deal, but I have to admit that I was very reluctant to send things out and even more reluctant to be rejected. So, in all, I have but six rejection letters in my files. I could have had many more if I had sent more of my work out to publishers and editors and agents. To those friends of mine who had stacks and stacks of rejections, you did the right thing...the brave thing. To those people reading this who want to be writers and eventually published authors, I can say this...you can't obtain your goal unless you actually venture outside of your comfort zone and send out your stuff. Just do it. Really. Just do it.
