‘Tis an Author’s Life for me

Like most people, at some point or other anyway, I used to want to be rich and famous. Who hasn’t? Especially if you’ve been dirt poor in the past (I definitely qualify). Fortunately, I eventually realized that I was to blame for my financial misfortunes (in 99% of the cases, regardless of the circumstances, you are responsible for what happens to you – if you’re truly honest with yourself, you’ll realize this), and thereafter did my best to dig out of the hole I’d dug for myself. I’m all dug out now, and on this wondrous, lengthy and convoluted pathway to publication and success as an author, I’ve asked myself, Why am I doing this? Do I want to be rich? Do I want to be famous?

The answer is no. I would like to be financially secure enough that money doesn’t become a deciding factor in anything I do (for most people, that would qualify as being ‘rich’); however, I don’t want the money for the money. I don’t want the money so that I don’t have to work. Ideally, I want to find what it is that I love to do, can do every day, and that will provide me with a livable income.

I don’t want to be famous. To be perfectly honest, I despise the media (media being defined as newspaper, magazine, television, radio, etc. where the people reporting ‘the story’ blow up, exaggerate, misquote, harass and otherwise completely disrespect the intelligence and privacy of others – all for the sake of ‘the story’) and have no desire to have a screaming fan club. I would like to be pleasantly inconspicious but responsible for something that other people find of value.

So what are my strengths? I’m good at alot of things, but according to the above criteria there’s only one thing that takes advantage of a strength of mine with the potential to become financially secure and create something of value to others.

Becoming an author.

I wish I could say that’s how I came to be writing, or that I’ve always wanted to write since I was little, but that simply wouldn’t be true. I remember the very first time I tried to write a book. I was in middle school, living in rural Garner, NC and started scribbling on lined paper out on the back deck. I quickly realized that there was a lot more to writing a book than just writing, but the next time I would pick up a pen to try again would be more than ten years later. The catalyst for doing so? Short answer: I realized my dream of becoming a world class professional table tennis player was not realistic. I looked at the phenomenal success of J. K. Rowling and said to myself, “I want to have an impact like that, to be responsible for creating a legacy that will endure beyond myself.”

There it is. That’s why I started writing again. The funny thing is that I used to not like writing. Or, as I realized later, not like to do the writing I was forced to by my middle school and high school teachers (AP English doesn’t encourage creative writing). It was during my tenure as a exchange student at Waseda University in Japan that I came to the realization I actually was good at writing.

The journey from that day in early 2004 – in the common room of Waseda Hoshien (the dorm I was staying at) where I first started seriously writing – to this one, has been a long one filled with a tremendous number of mistakes and learning experiences. If you happened to read the rubbish I first wrote, and what I write now, you would probably:

But if there is one thing I consider a stregth of mine, it’s enduring the hardships that invariably come before reaching a goal. Not to say that I’ve reached my goal. I won’t have until my book is published, but my book (the first in a five part series) is almost done and I have confidence that my writing is of publishing quality material.

Of course, finding a publisher is perhaps the most difficult part of actually getting published. I fully understand that, and will do whatever is necessary to reach my goal. If I must, I will send it to every publishing company and literary agent in the English speaking countries of the world. If necessary, I will go back to square one and objectively evaluate my writing to make sure it’s up to snuff – if it’s not, I’ll make sure it is. This road to publication could potentially be long. Very long. One day, however, I will make it.

See you on the bookshelf.