I've worked most of my life as a technical writer. I take great pride in this writing even if I am a published author of content that people rarely, if ever, enjoy reading. However, writing a novel that people would actually enjoy reading was always my dream.

How does one make a dream a reality? When I got serious about writing a novel, I realized that the process I'd used for technical writing was the same I needed to write fiction: planning, organization, and hard work. When I got serious about writing a novel, the writing process was actually easy.

Deciding whether I was going to put a piece of myself out there for others to dissect and perhaps reject was the hard part. Did I really want to do that? With encouragement and support from my writers' group and from friends and family whose opinions I respect, I took steps to get Life Unexpected published. After two years of rejections from agents and traditional publishers, I almost gave up on my dream. But those same people who had supported me in the beginning wouldn't let me give up. Self-publishing Life Unexpected wasn't my first choice but it ended up being the right choice. Readers embraced Corey and Tripp and I was inspired to keep writing! And now the release of Life Unexpected with a traditional publisher in October 2016 seems like further validation of that choice. 

And so, I encourage everyone who has a dream to take a chance, work hard to make it a reality, and don't give up if things don't go quite as planned. The results may just surpass your wildest dreams!