A Reintroduction

It’s been a year and a half since my latest post. What has happened in that span? Will this blog change? What does the future hold?

• I realized that working a full time job, writing a novel, and keeping up with this blog was hard. Something had to give. Unfortunately, it was the blog.
• I work in a warehouse that specializes in shipping bbq and meat packaging supplies across the country. That entails lifting heavy packages, shipping packages, and being on my feet all day.
• I have four children. Their ages are 16, 11, 9, and 3 (we think of the youngest as our special blessing, which I wrote about in this post).
• I’ve been busy querying literary agents about my novel, Reel Ghosts, over the past year. Fifty queries in all, yet no offers of representation. Not so much as a request for a full manuscript reading.
• I’ve realized that traditional publishing isn’t in the cards for me at this time. So, I stopped querying. I felt like I was stuck in an endless loop where I repeated the same mistakes over and over, hoping and praying for different results. I decided my self-worth will not be defined by a literary agent’s opinion.
• While I was querying, I started a new novel. It was a story that had been on my mind for a year at that point.
• The writing process was rife with trouble from the beginning. I really should read my own blog and take my own advice, as I broke several of my own rules. I started a story that I thought people would like, rather than one that I liked. That lack of enthusiasm on my part led to trouble, as I would avoid writing after work when possible. I thought I knew best, rather than listening to the story. That decision led the story to change into something I hadn’t meant to write. So, I took a break, knowing full well that I wouldn’t return to it. Yet, I surprised myself by returning to the novel after 2 weeks. I had solved my problem. I would kill a troublesome character that I had morphed from a single scene side story into a novel stealing problem. It would have worked (at least I think so) had I been able to find the words. I was blocked. The troublesome story was dead, and I had killed it with my ego, forgetting that I’m not the stories creator but a conduit by which the story is told.
• In a previous post, lessons learned, I listed some of the things I have learned as a writer. A lot of these were through my own experiences and mistakes. I thought I was done making mistakes in this field. I was wrong.
• Now I’m searching for a novel to write, while embarking on an exciting new adventure. Which is…
• I plan to self-publish Reel Ghosts.
• The timetable for publishing Reel Ghosts is uncertain. Currently, I’m reading through the manuscript, and putting a final polish on it. There will be some formatting that needs to happen in order to publish. Lastly, I plan on asking a few trusted people for their opinions on the novel before publishing. I’ll update on this blog and on social media when I have a publishing date.
• Here’s a hard truth. When I started this blog, I didn’t know what it was going to be. Years later, I still don’t know. I knew that a writer needed a website or a blog in order to be taken seriously in the publishing world. Is that a good reason to have a blog?
• I’m still not sure what this blog will look like going forward, however, I can promise insights from my personal experience, along with an occasional story.

Hopefully, you won’t have to wait a year and a half for my next post. Until then, remember to follow your dreams, even if they terrify you.

Stephen Roth