The Roses of Prose: Reader

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

The #Journey from Idea to #Reader by Brenda Whiteside

When you pick up a novel to read, did you know your hands are the final destination of a long and often winding road for that book. Every book, romance, suspense, or any other genre, has a journey from conception to reader, and you might be surprised at the obstacles to clear, hoops to jump, and mountains to climb that story took to get to you.

This is Journey of a Novel for the first book I published, Sleeping with the Lights On. It's my favorite journey because it was my first and could've been my last. I don't know. Maybe. I'm not easily discouraged, but you never know.

Sleeping with the Lights On began life as a joke and a short story. My sister was in between husbands and complaining to me about the frustrating dating scene. We got to reminiscing about some of her more noteworthy dates. That led to laughing and my comment that I should write down some of this.

Side note here: Having had only one husband and marrying him while I was a child, her experience in the man field was fascinating. I'd also written another book and was getting nowhere with it.

I made her start with date one back in high school and made a note on all of them. Next day, I started my story which turned into a book. Second side note: I did embellish her experiences. Had to make it a bit more juicy, you know.

Several months later, I started researching publishers. Then I had an idea to submit it to a contest. I sent it off and waited. I'm not one to wait, so when I heard of The Wild Rose Press and that RWA recognized this fairly new publisher, I submitted my baby. And waited.

I'm doing a lot of waiting at this point. Agonizing, especially for a never been published in novel form writer. Weeks and weeks later, I came home from my day job and checked my email. Ping! A communication from the contest. Pow! Punch to the gut. I didn't place, and if the one judge who was so kind as to send me a written critique had her say, I'd never even publish the story. I couldn't believe she'd read the same book I'd written. Her comments were so deflating.

I sighed, rubbed my head, and fought off tears. Glanced at the screen again and there was a message from TWRP. I held my breath, heart beating in my throat. I'd probably been turned down.

AHA! My book was fresh, and WANTED! I was going to be published! Yeah, I'm not supposed to use that many exclamation points, but I need you to know how elated I was. Take that contest judge. You don't know squat.

How fortunate I had not waited for the contest results to come back to submit my book for publication. Sleeping with the Lights On might still be vanquishing under my bed with a few other attempts. Hmmm...might ought to dig those out.

Seven and a half years later, and twelve publications later, I'm still proud of that first published book.

Brenda and her husband are gypsies at heart having lived in six states and two countries. Currently, they split their time between the pines of Northern Arizona, the desert of Southern Arizona, and the RV life. Wherever she roams, she spends most of her time writing stories of discovery, suspense, and the tangled relationships of life.