Are You Harboring a Writer Within?

(this post originally posted at Romancing the Past--07/27/2011)

"What made you decide to write Native American Historical books?"

This is a question I am often asked. I always smile, simply because I never wanted to write anything! At least nothing more than chatty letters to friends or my great-grandmother (who loved receiving letters).

Okay, I’ve surely dated myself somewhat here because I grew up without computers, emails, social media or text messages! I also skimmed by high school English, actually, school period! It just wasn’t my thing.

But, I had two things going for me that led to my current writing career. First and foremost, I was, and still am, an avid reader of romance (write what you know). Second, I am a natural storyteller.

I remember stories I told as a child, a teen, and even a young adult. However, they were not written on paper or told to others. They were in my mind and I lived them. I created them, rewrote them, went back to scenes and rewrote them. Once a "story" was perfected, I went on to a new story. I called myself an incurable daydreamer. It wasn't until I was in my 40's and had already sold my first book that I discovered that my daydreaming was actually storytelling! All the elements we writer require in our books were in my dream worlds.

Does all that sound like a writer? Yep. So this little story starts when I was married with two young children in the late 80's. My current passion during that time was Native American Historical genre. I consumed these books about strong heroines and handsome warriors like an ocean swallowing a beach! One day, in my typical "daydreaming" or "story creation mode", I came up with a heroine who meets a young, virile hero at stream. Hero was Native American and this "story" kept intruding on my thoughts--more so than normal.
I could see these two characters so clearly: she was running away from an evil uncle, and my hero was a troubled young warrior. Before I knew it I had a nice little scene going of these two people so in love and so right for each other. And so insistent that I do something I’d never done before: take them out of my head and give them life on paper (good thing I had a computer by this time). Okay, I thought. I’ll write a nice, steamy love scene. I could see it, feel it, so no problem, right?

Wrong! Before I could write about these two people, I had to know more about them.

• Why was my heroine alone in the wilderness?
• Why was she fleeing her uncle? What did he want and how bad did he want it?
• What troubled my warrior and why was he in the same vicinity as my heroine?
• Why was he drawn to my heroine aside from her blonde hair? Why her and only her?
• Was he willing to risk it all for her?

Before I knew it, I had back story, and four chapters! Several people read it and told me I had to finish the story. The rest they say is history! The writer within was born!

I choose this topic for my first blog here at Romancing the Past because I never, ever considered writing to be a hidden talent. I figure my old English teachers if they ever found out had to have been shocked to their core! It was only when I listened to that inner voice telling me to step out of my comfort zone that I made an amazing discover about myself.

The path from that first time of committing a story to paper has not been easy. It took 7 years of writing and rewriting and learning the craft of writing and submitting and rejections before an editor asked for a full manuscript. Add another year before I had my first offer, then yet another year before that first book, White Wind was on the bookshelves in 1996. Nine years total!

15 years later and once again I’m anticipating seeing my first book hit the shelves with a new cover in its new digital format with Carina Press. The excitement and anticipation is the same, as is the worry–will readers like my baby! Some things do not change!

So in retelling this story, it is my hope that someone reading this makes a self-discover of their own. Are you harboring a writer within? If so, what are you doing about it? I’d love to hear your "writer within" stories.

Coming November 2011, look for White Dawn, White Dusk, White Shadows and White Wind. Check out my website at http://susanedwards.com for updated news and excerpts along with a member only area for my readers. You can also sign up for my newsletter. Note: New covers should be available for view during August!

Original White Covers

BEGINNINGS

This is a topic that has been on my mind for a while. Mainly, because I am facing new beginnings. First, let’s talk about beginnings. How many of us really think about this and the effect it has on our lives. Let's list the obvious beginnings:
▸ Birth. I did say obvious
▸ First day of school
▸ First job
▸ First day of college
▸ First career
▸ Marriage (or equivalent)
▸ Birth of a child.

And here the cycle repeats within our lives as we watch each of our children go through those very same beginnings and more. Then there are the dreaded or much awaited years of the empty nest. Which is of course, another beginning as we face another change in our lives.

Then there are beginnings that we don’t really choose. Loss of job, death, divorce, etc. These are the result of life, fate, circumstances, whatever you choose to call it. This is where I am now in my cycle of life. I published my first books starting in 1996, which was a very exciting beginning for me, something I am reminded of by the many new authors on a list that I am part of who are so excited over their first sales and first covers of their soon-to-be-published books. Yep, nothing like that very special beginning and I remember my 'firsts', especially now, as I am about to relive many of those with new covers for my books.

You see, my life took a different route for many years while building my writing career. My mother was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer and needed to come live with me and my husband. Life changed for me as I was faced with the beginning of taking care of a parent. There were choices to be made and priorities to be adjusted.

Whatever it took to keep my mother interested in life became a priority as I opened a shop in order to have access to cross stitch patterns and supplies which helped keep her going.  And talk about strange acts of fates, when she switched to knitting, the economy forced me to close my shop.  Something I just  now realized!  I guess I no longer needed to have my shop though that was a painful ending!

Back to my mom.  I’m so proud to say that she beat this difficult cancer. Six months has become seven and we have entered our eighth year. By the way, our relationship as mature adults living under the same roof was another beginning . 

So, now that the stress of that time of my life is over (yes, there is a blog to be had there) I find myself starting over, facing new beginnings as I jump back into the writing life.

To that end, my agent sold my back list of titles which had all gone out of print so now I’ve begun a new beginning as a Carina Press author. My books will be rereleased in E-Format starting November 21st 2011. Now,after twelve books, this should be old hat for me, but that would be too easy!

So yes, you've guessed it, another beginning has dropped into my life: that of figuring out the E-pub industry, the promotion that will be the most effective and creating an online presence through Twitter, Face book, and yep, blogging. I'm being dragged into a whole new world.

So with all this said, what do I think of beginnings? Are they hard work? Is there pain? Are they necessary or a necessary evil?

First, let me say that I love beginnings. You should see all the knitting and cross stitch projects I have in progress, not to mention a partially painted kitchen . I love the feeling that comes with birth, taking something like a pattern, yarn and needles and putting them together and watching it take shape and become something (yes, I do finish projects for all you who are shuddering). There is just something invigorating about this process, which is really about change (see my first blog).
 
We all feel this, just think about Spring and the new life that unfolds after a long winter. Beginnings give hope. After all, if I had nothing new to look forward too, nothing new to learn, what would be the point in living? I’m looking at that big neon arrow that is pointing me in my new direction.

Beginning can and do mean hard work, and unfortunately, there can be pain but if growth is the outcome, and if we tweak our attitude and embrace beginnings, then our lives will be rich and fulfilling. At least I hope so.  

So what do you think? Are you experiencing change? Is it necessary or a necessary evil.

Susan Edwards
Magic, Myth & Wonder
Http://susanedwards.com
White Series/SpiritWalker Series
White Dawn~White Dusk
White Shadows~White Wind
Nov. 2011 Carina Press-Digital Format

LIFE IS CHANGE

Yesterday I was a guest blogger at:  http://scotteagan.blogspot.com/   For a long time I've put off venturing into the blog world.  What to say?  When to find time to say it?  How to do it?  So I ignored it.  Hard enough to keep up with twitter, facebook and myspace.  But once faced with creating my first blog, I found it not as bad as I'd feared and now, as I tend to do in my life, I'm just jumping in with both feet. 

This first blog is the same one posted above.  I found I enjoyed writing it and hope it finds meaning in your life.   


LIFE IS CHANGE.  GROWTH IS OPTIONAL.  CHOOSE WISELY.
anonymous

We’ve all heard that there are two things we can rely on in life: death and taxes. Well, for writers, there is another.

Change.

Change is a constant in the publishing world and if we as writers/authors do not change, then we dry up and fade away like a pile of autumn leaves. Most people do not like change because change is scary but I have always embraced change whether it is a new home or rearranging my house or even a new job. Change freshens my life. It is a renewal of heart, mind and soul--a breath of fresh air to chase away the stale and stagnant.

In the publishing world, what’s selling now will eventually fade away to be replaced by something new and fresh. Or perhaps something old will be reborn. Like historicals, angels, time travels and ghosts. Think of the writing world as a big circle with cycles and seasons. Nothing remains the same.

If we accept that our industry is always shifting and changing, then we as writers/authors must be prepared not to just ride those winds of change but to grow as writers for styles of writing also change. Today’s author must be prepared to change and keep up even if it means reinventing ourselves to keep pace with the changes in our world.

While writing White Vengeance, book 11 in my White Series, I felt as though I was slogging through muck. Each word, each scene was a struggle. I loved the characters, loved the story, but something was happening to me as a writer–I was growing and changing yet my White books were not. At least not much.

My books always had a bit of the mystical with the use of visions, gifts of sight and other aspects of Native American culture. As the series grew, I wanted as a writer to explore the mystical aspects of Native American beliefs and go deeper into the mystical world yet my books were historicals, not paranormals. Suddenly, I had a choice: continue to fight the change happening within me as a writer or give in and grow as a writer.

So I wrote something new. Summer of the Eagle is still a Native American Historical but I let the paranormal, the mystical world bloom. And I had fun. I loved the book, the characters, the writing. The change in myself, my writing attitude was a wondrous feeling. I knew then that as a writer I had to embrace change–let myself grow.

I gave myself permission and the freedom to grow and change. It was a scary step that involved taking some time off writing to really think about what I wanted for myself and my writing. I discovered that I needed to write, loved to write and so I allowed myself time to really create the SpiritWalker world that I’d just barely touched upon in Summer of the Eagle.

This process took a couple years, but I believe that by listening to my inner voice, I choose wisely. I have a new series that I love, that has pushed me to grow as a writer and will continue to for some time and I also know that I can return to my beloved White Series with a fresher heart and mind.

No matter what we write, how well we write it, we change because life is change. However, growing as a writer is completely up to us. We can resist, refuse or embrace. We can listen to our inner voice or ignore it. The choice is ours.

While we have to write what is selling, we can still grow as writers. It takes courage to look at our writing career and admit that we’ve grown stagnant. What we do about it is up to us.

Life is Change. Growth is Optional. Choose Wisely. I found this quote by annomonous on the web and I love this for it is so true. My challenge to you: Look for change. Find it. Embrace it. Then grow with it for I believe if you do this, you’ll have the ride of your life on that wonderful, exhilarating, and oftentimes crazy roller coaster called Life.

Susan Edwards
http://www.susanedwards.com/
(Website is in process of being completely redone--another great change!)