Veteran Aspiring Author

I won't apologize for letting this blog sit and gather a few cob webs. I've been engaged in the work this blog espouses. Writing. Reading. Editing. Learning. Oh, and periodically, living my life, too, outside of the literary pursuits--such as it is. Blogging is a spurt-sport for me. I do it in spurts. Not so with the writing of my books.

Currently, I am pitching my books to agents and publishers, and while this is a fresh endeavor, it's not due to any greenness on my part. I have said many times that I spent 20 years falling in love with my craft, rather than with my words. The tide has shifted so that I finally feel I can offer my work for public consumption in a more professional and acceptable way. So I'm doing that now.

In the midst of sending two different queries for two different commercial novels, and receiving my first two rejections (yeah! Two down, an unknown number to go!), I am also in the middle of three queries for three different books to three different small publishers. And I am also writing five other books. (I don't work on them at once, really, but sometimes I get stuck on one, or inspired about another and I switch off. Different writers have different modus operandi. ).

The issue that has reared its mottled head, is that because I have been at this writing endeavor so long, I find myself in a strange netherworld of "Veteran Aspiring Author." I do not feel like I "aspire" to be an author. I already am one. But then you have to get into the quagmire of definition. What is the difference between an "Aspiring Author" and "An Author"? An author, in its simplest definition, and the one to which I refer, is a person who writes a book. Not "tries" to write it. But writes it. Completes it. When you begin your first book, you are a writer. When you have finished it, you then become an author. That is to me the most concise way of framing what an author is.

So, having said all that, I am an author. I have written 13 books. I am currently writing 5 others. Imagine my discomfort when I try to find my peers. I join writing groups and the discussion is "How do i get ideas to write about?" or "do i need to start a new paragraph when each character speaks?" or "Why dont publashers except my writeing?"

Okay, not on that level anymore... But having peer reviews from other "unpublished" writers can be equally frustrating, when I've read their work and know that they are still making horrendous stylistic, grammatical and plotting errors in their own material, while seeking to help me "improve" mine. That's a risky thing to say, as it can easily come off arrogant. I assure you, there's a difference between arrogance and substantiated confidence.

Anyway. That's where I am. Veteran Aspiring Author.

Veteran Aspiring Author