Journeys Aren’t Only About Travel

Join me Fri. Nov. 16, 9 am Pacific, Google+ Hangout On Air

I write about journeys, travel journeys. Today I thought I’d tell you about a different journey, my book journey. Like many writers, I had a book inside me that I had to get down on paper. I didn’t know how I was going to do it, only that I had to do it.  So in 2008 I resigned my full-time job to write my story.

Postcards From Home manuscript – Many a tear had to fall to write this baby!

The book-writing learning curve was steep and the road, not always smooth. Read-and-critique groups could be merciless; sometimes I had to stop writing for a few weeks (or 10) and let my wounds heal. But then the book would begin crying out to be released and I’d return to the computer and my fingers would type. Some days the words that I’d string together actually made sense, other days not so much.

I enrolled in writing classes, I attended writing retreats, and I tried a new read-and-critique class. And I kept writing. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…

So what’s the book about? Postcards From Home (working title), recounts my family’s home exchange adventures in 2000. Here’s a summary:

Overworked and struggling to raise a shy young daughter and a son on the cusp of puberty, Shelley Miller and her husband find their relationship stressed to the danger point. But a unique plan for a five-month adventure in Europe, trading homes in five countries, may mend this modern American family. Locked in a London loo, accused of vandalism in Germany, threatened by gypsies in Italy, Shelley fears that her quest to reinforce family bonds and find ancestral roots will alienate her family still further— until the quiet miracles start happening.

There you have it. That’s my story. I completed the manuscript in 2011. Oh, continue to tinker with it; I can’t seem to stop. Somewhere I read that painters never finish their work, they simply step away.

I can relate. So I’ve set a deadline for myself. I will step away from my manuscript by Dec. 31, 2012.

OK. Goal is now in writing AND announced to others.

A book proposal is like a business plan for a book. – Literary agents require writers send them a proposal first. If agents like the proposal, they’ll request “sample chapters” from the manuscript.

The biggest challenges of 2012 have been 1) delving into social media and 2) writing a book proposal. Literary agents review book proposals before they agree to take on a writer. In order for me to find a publisher I must first lasso up a literary agent. I plan to publish traditionally, not self-publish; call me crazy, but that’s my dream.

A friend of mine requested that on Fri. Nov. 16 I chat with her about my journey. Get into the nitty-gritty. And I cheerfully agreed. So if what I’ve been writing about here is of interest to you, join us for about 45 minutes on Nov 16 at 9 a.m. Pacific/Noon Eastern at the Google+ Hangout On Air called Possibility Partners. Here’s the link:

Possibility Partners Hangout On Air

You’ll have the option to ask questions or simply sit in. Parties are more fun when friends are there, so I really hope you can come!

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