Guest Blogger Joana James!!!

 

Why/How I started Writing:

I loved to read from childhood and I was always considered a book worm. Right around my teenage years, I realised I could write stories that were pretty darn exciting. They made good entertainment and got me good grades in English. That’s when I realised I could actually write. But back then, I wrote mostly poetry (which right now, I absolutely hate writing!). One of my goals was to become a published writer by age 18…it took ten years more than that for it to happen.

I held off on writing because somebody told me “you can write after you retire; right now you need a real job to make real money.” I listened, but I’m not sure that I regret listening. I did pitch a few ideas to a few publishing companies and of course, got rejection letters from all. I gave up because I figured that living on an island as small as mine, I’d never really get a chance to prove my worth.

Fast forward to ten years later, my love for reading got the better of me and I bought myself a kindle. In the early days of owning that kindle, I lost many nights of sleep. I followed every kindle related twitter account I could find, and I read, read and read some more.

One day, twitter proved its worth to me. I came across a tweet that said I could get my own work published on kindle. Until then, I didn’t even know that KDP existed. I did my research and found that I could self-publish my stuff without putting out any money up front. (Even though I have a real job, I don’t necessarily have the real money part just yet).

So, I set to work. I put together a short story in about a week, spent another week editing and tweaking and re-edit and voila! I had my test book. To me, it really was just that, a test book. But my friends went crazy over it and started asking for a sequel so my two-part short story, “Rise from the Ashes” was born.

I decided it was time to get serious and put together my first novel. I threw away many synopses before I settled on one, and when I did, I was scared to death that it was crap. But, I persevered, and finished it. “Nightmare at Emerald High was born.”

I’m not sure how everything will turn out, but I’m super proud of myself for producing two books. I’m in the middle of my third and I can’t wait to get it out there. I pursued a dream and I won’t stop writing, or self-publishing. I would love to quit my day job and write all the stories I have in my head, but we’ll see how that goes.