Year End Reflection & Thanks

The past few years have been full of change for this gal who has mostly hidden away like a hermit writing secretly for the past twenty or so years. My ‘coming out’ in 2014 with the release of “Losing Faith” was both terrifying and liberating, and remains so even now six months after the release of my second book, “Loving Emma”. It’s a delicate balance, this tightrope walk we writer’s perform, eagerly hoping to share our creations with the world and secretly wishing we didn’t have to do so. Weird, I know. But in the years since I first started to hear those voices in my head (yes, some are crazy but most are those people whose lives I have to put a story to), I have learned that sharing my ‘babies’ is not an easy task. While always my own harshest critic, taking criticism from others is never easy, and anyone who says it is…well, they’re lying, plain and simple. However….criticism is a necessary evil, just like going to the dentist or paying taxes. Criticism makes us question ourselves, question the choices we’ve made, question a different path that we may not have considered. In a word, criticism is required if we want to grow as writers and as people.

Now that I’ve chosen this path and am never looking back, there’s always the question…what’s next? Every writer writes his or her own way. I write daily, sometimes obsessively, although admittedly I have days when the thought of looking at the computer sends me running. I now outline my stories, although I’ll never be as organized as some other writers who put the entire book idea down on paper and then start to write. I jot down my idea, the path I hope to take, and more times than I can count I deter from that path simply because that’s what my fingers do when I’m in the moment. I know…you can say it…we writers are strange ducks.

I have a whole new appreciation for those who do it right, and maybe someday I’ll be one of those. But even though I turn (gasp) 50 next month, I’m quite literally like a newborn when it comes to this entire writing THING. Learning is good, I tell myself daily. Learning is required if you want to succeed in this business where there are so, so many wonderful writers. Learning is essential if you – if I – have any hope of growing in this industry.

2016 will be a year of change for me. I have a few books I hope to release, but as with everything, time will tell. Until then I’ll keep reading anything and everything I can. And of course, I’ll be writing!

I want to thank each and every one of you for the reviews, the Facebook comments, the Twitter follows. You will never know how much that means to me. I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a blessed New Year!