I fear that I will be 'discovered' long after I have written these words! After all, isn't this the way it goes?
Truthfully, success is when someone reads my books and connects with the characters. I love it when someone contacts me; interacts with me while they're reading one of my stories. Our lives as writers are spent alone with only our characters interacting with us. In the process of creating a book; the people we create within the pages will grow, misbehave, and evolve. In the end; we love our creations. They carry with them our values, fears, and history. Then we release them into the world to live within the pages of a book; to connect with others.
It is an honor to our craft when a reader connects to share how much they loved the love interest. How fearful the adversary that we created was or how they identified with the plight of our main character. It's why we do it; because we are storytellers.
Most of us will never be rich, some will never win accolades, but we all desire to win over readers.
I have a theory that a writer's first book gives you a glimpse into who they are. Just as in portrait art, the artist has to be trained not to incorporate their own features into the painting. It is the same with writing, you cannot help, but to share a bit of yourself between the pages. In my first book; Ell's Double Down, the reader learns of my love for old houses. I have always loved finding old abandoned houses and walking through them. Granted, it is not the safest of hobbies and now I ask permission, but when I was younger I was bolder.
My favorite is the family home of the founder of the Marriott Hotel chain. It was a simple modest farm home that sat in southwest Ohio down a forgotten gravel road. It was not spectacular to the naked eye, but to me it was a piece of history that I could touch and experience. The furnishings remained since they had been built inside the home, there were massive bed frames and cupboards now aged by decades of neglect. I recalled in the stairwell there were small windows set every few risers; a necessity in a pre-electric society. Below home was the ice house and a well that was still full of clear water; both fed by underground springs. To the right was an overgrown orchard of apple and pear trees; their gnarled trunks still bore fruit for the picking. At the bottom stood the main barn where the horses were kept in large box stalls. I imagined the surrey or buckboard that might have sat in the massive aisle at the ready for a trip into town.
My husband went there with me when we first began dating. He told me he was falling in love with me while we stood under the ancient exposed wood beams of the home. Just another reason to love this structure, our memory became one with all the others.
Sadly my memory is all that remains, the home was torched to the ground taking with it the history of the site. No one now remembers the significance of the place and the road has been overgrown with weeds, and is hidden from view. This is why the Marriott Homestead was preserved in the pages of Ell's Double Down. With a bit of artist license, I salvaged my favorite memories of the structure, and gave my reader a glimpse into this writer's heart.
There is no shame in walking away from a manuscript if you are stuck or if a character will simply not behave! Often space will clear your mind and when you return you come back to it refreshed.
