Ramblings ahead…

The other day, I was talking to my mom about how my career went this past year. In 2016, I felt like I finally carved out a tiny little space for myself in the industry. It’s tiny, but it’s kind of cozy. I’m wiggling as much as I can to keep making the space bigger, of course. I’ve gained a better understanding of my strengths and weaknesses as a writer and as a professional author. I’ve also been more comfortable in my little space, less like I’m flailing wildly. It’s warm in here and I have snacks. I can completely sustain my own business and contribute financially to our household.

My first book was  a self-published novel (which I’ve since pulled to revise), which I published in 2013. I had no idea what I was doing, but I learned a whole hell of a lot. Eventually I sold a novel to Avon Impulse and that was MAKE IT COUNT, which was released in the summer of 2014.

It’s now the end of 2016, and so much has happened since I started on this path, that’s for sure. I blocked out a lot of the growing pains I’ve had so far. While talking to my mom, she reminded me how discouraged I was back when I first started. How talking about my books felt like I was shouting into an empty room. How I busted my ass and wrote non stop, and my royalty checks–to be blunt–kinda sucked.

I closed my eyes and I remembered some of the phone calls we had. The ones where I cried. Where I told her that I always quit shit when things got tough. And this authoring shit was getting tough. I was working my ass off and results were slow.

Now, nothing in publishing is guaranteed, even with hard work. But I felt in my heart that this career was what I wanted, so I kept going. I just kept writing. My agent was a constant source of encouragement. She didn’t let me flounder or wallow. Instead she’d ask, “when are you sending me the next proposal?”

The tears dried and I kept writing. Things didn’t happen overnight. There were still bitter phone calls to my mom or venting sessions with my writer friends.

But I kept going. And now I’m staring down 2017, with a full plate. I have some successful series under my belt. I’m a USA Today bestseller! I was in the Washington Post! I signed a print deal with Grand Central Publishing and I’ll be in bookstores in 2018! I was asked to be a part of 1001 Dark Nights! I’m still a little tiny fish with a tiny little swimming space.

But it’s all relative. Every day I see fellow authors struggling, and it took my mom jogging my memory for me to recall just how bad I struggled. I’ve been that person in tears ready to delete Scrivener off of my computer. Sometimes I get asked what I did to get here where I am now, which isn’t even that far in my journey to be honest. I got all kinds of goals moving forward.