I have six days until I go to my first 'official' book signing, next Saturday June 5th. I am excited, scared, worried, thankful, determined, and scared. Did I already say that? I am not only signing books, but I am also supposed to talk for twenty minutes on my experiences, ect. I think it will all turn out fine, I am working for the next few days on a draft of what I will say. There will be 29 other authors there, and each of them will be speaking as well. I am gratful that I wont be the first speaker. I hope I have some interest in my books. I have had great reviews, but you know how these things go...I will be writing more as the week progresses.
Be sure to Visit my website to learn more: www.publishedauthors.net/lfallon
~ L ~
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Making the Dream a Reality
On October 2nd, 2009, I submitted a manuscript to a publisher. I practically bit my nails off for the next week. I looked through the manuscript, and found misspelled words, punctuation errors. Wow…what was I thinking? They won’t accept this. It’s no good. I cried myself to sleep a couple of nights in a row. All the inferiorities and insecurities came flowing through me. My heart was in knots and I was a failure, without even hearing from the publishing company, I knew I was an idiot for sending something so inaccurate to them. I wanted it to be something special and it was nothing. I was nothing.
On October 8th, 2009, I got an email from the publishing company. I didn’t open it right away. I sat there and looked at it listed among the other jokes and poems that had been sent to me. Should I open it? Maybe I wasn’t strong enough to take rejection. Why wouldn’t I be strong enough, I’ve been rejected my entire life.
Finally, I clicked on the email and it opened. I was given the word that my book was going to be published. I couldn’t believe it. My eyes watered and my heart was so grateful. Someone somewhere had acknowledged me. Someone accepted me. I was someone with a chance to show what I could do.
~ L ~
Be sure to Visit my website to learn more: www.publishedauthors.net/lfallon
On October 8th, 2009, I got an email from the publishing company. I didn’t open it right away. I sat there and looked at it listed among the other jokes and poems that had been sent to me. Should I open it? Maybe I wasn’t strong enough to take rejection. Why wouldn’t I be strong enough, I’ve been rejected my entire life.
Finally, I clicked on the email and it opened. I was given the word that my book was going to be published. I couldn’t believe it. My eyes watered and my heart was so grateful. Someone somewhere had acknowledged me. Someone accepted me. I was someone with a chance to show what I could do.
~ L ~
Be sure to Visit my website to learn more: www.publishedauthors.net/lfallon
Pursuing the Dream
On a cool December evening, my parents happened to stop by while I was writing. I only wrote for my own enjoyment, but happened to read them the first chapter of a story I was in the process of creating. They both had very different reactions. My mom wasn’t quite as impressed as my dad. Anyway, after they left I shelved that story and went on with life as ‘boring’ normal as it was.
About four months later I was at my parents’ house and my dad showed me something that he had been working on. A book. He had been inspired by my writing and went home and started working on one of his own. I was so impressed. I helped him out with some of the editing process and he was ready to send it off. I told him not to hold his breath. The process of getting a book published was a long and tedious affair. I’d always heard that ‘unknown’ authors rarely get published unless they know someone who knows someone.
Two weeks later my father called me and said his work was being published. He couldn’t see me over the phone, which I was grateful for, because my mouth dropped to the floor and my mind went to mush. I couldn’t believe it! At eighty years of age, my father was undertaking a new adventure as an author, and here I had written for more than twenty years and didn’t do anything with it. I felt like the man in the bible who had ‘hidden’ his talents.
“That’s it!” I thought. After years of reading all the “How-to” books of writing and then jotting notes and talking myself out of it, and back in to it, and then out of it again, my father was getting published.
So with renewed determination, I set my fears and insecurities aside and I began writing – Really Writing! I was focused on my goal! “I am going to be a published author,” I repeated to myself daily. I had to start moving forward, towards my goal. Day after day, month after month, I gave my all. I’d change a sentence fifty times before I was happy with it. Then change it again if the next sentence didn’t sound right. I edited and re-edited, and edited it some more. It was going to be perfect.
I was on my way – writing my first novel.
~ L ~
Be sure to Visit my website to learn more: www.publishedauthors.net/lfallon
About four months later I was at my parents’ house and my dad showed me something that he had been working on. A book. He had been inspired by my writing and went home and started working on one of his own. I was so impressed. I helped him out with some of the editing process and he was ready to send it off. I told him not to hold his breath. The process of getting a book published was a long and tedious affair. I’d always heard that ‘unknown’ authors rarely get published unless they know someone who knows someone.
Two weeks later my father called me and said his work was being published. He couldn’t see me over the phone, which I was grateful for, because my mouth dropped to the floor and my mind went to mush. I couldn’t believe it! At eighty years of age, my father was undertaking a new adventure as an author, and here I had written for more than twenty years and didn’t do anything with it. I felt like the man in the bible who had ‘hidden’ his talents.
“That’s it!” I thought. After years of reading all the “How-to” books of writing and then jotting notes and talking myself out of it, and back in to it, and then out of it again, my father was getting published.
So with renewed determination, I set my fears and insecurities aside and I began writing – Really Writing! I was focused on my goal! “I am going to be a published author,” I repeated to myself daily. I had to start moving forward, towards my goal. Day after day, month after month, I gave my all. I’d change a sentence fifty times before I was happy with it. Then change it again if the next sentence didn’t sound right. I edited and re-edited, and edited it some more. It was going to be perfect.
I was on my way – writing my first novel.
~ L ~
Be sure to Visit my website to learn more: www.publishedauthors.net/lfallon
Having a Dream
I’ve always written things.
Weather it was in diaries, journal’s, taking notes in school, writing thoughts or stories, I’ve loved writing. I think in a lot of ways it was an escape. Writing was a way to maybe make things better, or take my mind away from my insecurities. I had a huge inferiority complex growing up, and when I wrote, I could change myself and be someone else, if only for a little while. I usually only wrote for myself, and had hundreds of bits of paper rolling around in my life with little jotted notes on them. I collected them all up and put them in a manila folder and kept them in a box. Whenever I had an idea or thought, I jotted it down and put it into the box. One day shortly after I got a computer, I decided to go through them, and began typing them out and saving them in special folder in my documents. I literally have hundreds of stories that have been started but very few have been finished.
I started reading books about ten years ago on how to write novels, and the techniques and tips other writers. I was intimidated to say the least. I could never write like that. So I shelved my dream. I loved Mary Higgins Clark and the way she wrote, and thought I could never do that. I wasn’t that good. I struggled with sentences and punctuation and knew I could never be the type of writer I wanted to be. But the fire kept on glowing inside, and I continued to have inspiration and ideas.
~ L ~
Be sure to Visit my website to learn more: www.publishedauthors.net/lfallon
Weather it was in diaries, journal’s, taking notes in school, writing thoughts or stories, I’ve loved writing. I think in a lot of ways it was an escape. Writing was a way to maybe make things better, or take my mind away from my insecurities. I had a huge inferiority complex growing up, and when I wrote, I could change myself and be someone else, if only for a little while. I usually only wrote for myself, and had hundreds of bits of paper rolling around in my life with little jotted notes on them. I collected them all up and put them in a manila folder and kept them in a box. Whenever I had an idea or thought, I jotted it down and put it into the box. One day shortly after I got a computer, I decided to go through them, and began typing them out and saving them in special folder in my documents. I literally have hundreds of stories that have been started but very few have been finished.
I started reading books about ten years ago on how to write novels, and the techniques and tips other writers. I was intimidated to say the least. I could never write like that. So I shelved my dream. I loved Mary Higgins Clark and the way she wrote, and thought I could never do that. I wasn’t that good. I struggled with sentences and punctuation and knew I could never be the type of writer I wanted to be. But the fire kept on glowing inside, and I continued to have inspiration and ideas.
~ L ~
Be sure to Visit my website to learn more: www.publishedauthors.net/lfallon
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