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Onward

Maybe the hardest part of this process is behind me. Maybe. Or it could be that I'm just over this one very big hurdle. Either way. I'm one step closer to the finish line. And it just so happens that I have two different end goal. The first one is to finish out this semester and earn my Masters degree. The second is to sell my book to a publishing company. It would be really cool if by graduation in May my novel, Misunderstood has already been sold to a publishing company and the announcement has been made in the Rights Report (a place where publishing companies announce newly acquired book deals weekly.) Talk about a full circle moment. I'm going to put it all the way out there in the universe my making this declaration. By the time I walk across the stage in May to earn my diploma, I will have sold my book-- which was started during my time as a graduate student.

Okay, so this week was pretty stressful but I made it though. After reading through 328 double-spaced pages of my novel. I was able to make up the text and make corrections in the margins for revisions. After I did things the old school way, I pulled out my laptop and changed the manuscript for the third time some I signed with my agent. I sent off my revisions to John on Tuesday night, I was totally supposed to be planning my E-lit project and I kinda was in my mind I have the entire thing mapped out. And that is half the battle.

Then on Wednesday afternoon, he'd sent me back some thoughts of some more tweaks to make. I moved around a chapter and changed some word choices last night and I sent it back to him. Now I'm waiting to hear back from him. I seriously keep checking my emails every thirty seconds. The good thing about the wait is that it gave me a moment to start working on my reflection in regards to the novel. Something I hope will become an afterword or a foreword for my book.


Here's what I able to write thus far: 
Stories have always lived inside of me. I've always had quite the imagination where I could come up with a story true or not right off the top of my head. There were times when I picked up and put down my pen never really thinking I had a place in the world amongst writers who I love. So I stopped writing. My career as an educator and my love of reading led me to pick up my pen once more. It was in my search for books to read to my daughters to novels to recommend to my students that I noticed a void. I read The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas then I went on a frenzy where I searched for more books like it. I loved it every child I told about the book loved it as well. In my search, I found more novels written by authors, Nic Stone, Tami Charles, Tiffany D. Jackson, and Dhonielle Clayton. A world of authors who looked like me and wrote stories I would've killed to get my hands on as a young adult now exists in the world.

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