If you have a dream, don’t just sit there.
Gather courage to believe that you can succeed and leave no stone unturned to
make it a reality.
~ Roopleen
The countdown to Kodiak
begins! For the month of July and most of August, I’m concentrating on writing
my memoir, so there won’t be as many blog posts. Have a book-filled summer!
s I scribble
down notes for yet another chapter idea, I wonder why the heck I ever thought I
could write a book, much less one that anyone but my therapist would read.
It’s a
common doubt that writers (and most artists) share: will anyone accept the work
we have created?
It’s also
one that should be locked away until the work is finished. There is no magic formula, there is no easy
way. And the road to publication is long
and filled with rejection potholes.
Oremus pro invicem,
~
Mikaela
Long Way
to the Top
Lynda Cox guest
blogging here. Give me a few seconds to make the introductions and then we can
get down to brass tacks, as my grandmother used to say.
I’m a
fifty-something grandmother raising one of the grandkids, and when I’m not
writing romances, I show collies. I’ve been involved in the sport and insanity
known as dog shows for better than thirty-five years.
I’ve been
a Star Wars AND Star Trek geek all of my life. I grew up watching syndicated
westerns, with a steady diet of John Wayne westerns thrown in. I’m also a huge
Harry Potter fan.
The AC/DC
song “Long Way to the Top” kept running through my head while I was thinking
about writing this blog.
In my late
thirties, I enrolled in college. My first day of classes, I looked around and
realized that I was old enough to be the mother to almost every kid in the classes
I was enrolled in. During my freshman year, I took a creative writing class.
Maggie Wheeler, the instructor in that class, encouraged me to keep submitting.
So I
did…and kept getting rejections. But I
didn’t stop writing or submitting.
It took
almost twenty years to get published. I refined my writing, submitted my manuscript
to an agent, and received countless form rejection letters. Sometimes, I’d get a very personal letter
that gave me hope to keep on trying.
There were
times I stopped writing, but never for very long.
After my
undergrad degree in English, I went back to work on my master’s. I concentrated
in creative writing. One of the instructors I had as a grad student also served
on my master’s committee and that man pushed me harder than I had ever been
pushed. Aaron Morales told me after I’d defended my creative piece for the
masters that the reason he pushed me so hard was he hadn’t seen the kind of
writing talent I had in a long time. That was funny, coming from someone who’s
almost twenty years younger than me.
But Aaron
not only pushed me to go in directions I never would have thought I could go
with my writing, he pushed me toward publication.
In a class
of twenty five students, more than fifteen of us were published at the end of
that semester.
Because I
was concentrating in creative writing, I could take Aaron’s class more than
once. Each semester, I found myself being published in a literary magazine:
Blue Mesa Review, The Heartland Review, and Indiana English.
Those
short stories opened the door for me to be published in novel length. I was
better prepared to research where to submit. I now had publication credits in
highly respected literary magazines. I decided I didn’t need an agent, that I’d
work my way up through the slush pile. I submitted to The Wild Rose Press and
waited. I received the standard form response that my query had been received
and I should hear something in six to eight weeks. Almost twelve weeks went by
without a word, so I sent an e-mail to The Wild Rose Press, asking if there was
any news.
I received
a very personal e-mail back, apologizing for the delay, and oh, by the way, if
I would be willing to make some changes to the manuscript they were very
interested in publishing my romance novel. I was working at Indiana State
University at the time, directing the operation of the Writing Center, and I
made my boss, the department chair, read that e-mail because I couldn’t believe
what I was reading.
I made the
changes that Susan—who then became my editor—asked for and within a week of
submitting the changed manuscript, I had a contract for The Devil’s Own
Desperado.
From
signing the contract to release date was just a little under a year. I spent
that year alternating between being so happy I was giddy to incredible
self-doubt. The self-doubt grew worse when I thought about submitting a second
romance to The Wild Rose Press.
What if I
was only going to be a one hit wonder?
That doubt
was removed when I was offered a contract for my second book, Smolder on a Slow
Burn.
After The
Devil’s Own Desperado was published, one of the professors at State asked me to
come and talk to his Popular Literature and the Mass Media class, as one of the
books read in that class is a romance novel. I was shocked to learn that Dr.
Connelly was using my romance in his class. One of the questions the students
asked was if I’m any different now that I have a published novel to my credit.
And the
answer is, no. I’m still the same person I was before I signed my contract,
before I saw the cover to my first book, before I held my first book in my
hands. I’m just one of the lucky ones to have a romance novel published.
Yep, I’m
one of the lucky ones. And, it’s still a long way to the top.
Lynda J. Cox will tell anyone who will listen that she was born at least one
hundred and fifty years too late, and most definitely in the wrong part of the
country. Her heart has always belonged to cowboys, the wide open spaces,
horses, and Lassie. She grew up on a steady diet of cowboy movies, syndicated
Westerns, and Lassie. All of those influences play a role in her life now. She
writes western historical romance and raises and shows collies. She holds a
master’s degree in English with a concentration in creative writing from
Indiana State University after earning her BA from the same university as a
non-traditional student. (Think being old enough to be mom to 90% of the
students in her freshman cadre.) She’s kept busy with two spoiled rotten house
cats, a 30 plus year old Arabian gelding who has been nicknamed “Lazarus” for
his ability in the later years of his life to escape death, and quite a few
champion collies. When she isn’t writing, she can be found on the road,
travelling to the next dog show. She loves to chat about books, the writing
life, and the insanity which is called a “dog show” and can be reached through
her Facebook page.
Media and Web Links
lyndajcox.com
