At what moment did writing for you turn from being just a hobby to play around in to something you took seriously enough to create a salable novel, and a resulting career?
This is an interesting question for me, most likely because my road to publication and a career as a novelist was actually a bit of an accident. You see, I didn’t grow up with the idea of being a writer. I didn’t dabble with short fiction or work for the school newspaper. I didn’t major in English or get lost in creative writing classes. In fact, I didn’t seriously consider the idea of being a writer until after I had sold my first novel.
I am, and always have been, a voracious reader. While in college I happened to read a novel by a bestselling writer. It had been praised by all the usual sources and was one in a long line of very success full novels from this writer. I figured I was in for a good read.
A few hours later I was throwing the now finished book across the room, absolutely disgusted at what I took to be a rather hackneyed effort. The plot was predictable, the characters boring and I had the whole thing figured out within the first several chapters. After listening to me complain and boast that even I could have written a better book, my roommate bet me a case of beer that I wouldn’t even be able to complete a full novel, never mind write a better one.
To make a long story short, I wrote a complete novel long hand on legal pads over the next two months, won the bet, and happily drank the case of beer in celebration with my roommate. The novel, the first draft of what was to become RIVERWATCH, went into a shoe box and was quickly forgotten.
For whatever reason, I held onto that shoebox over the next several years as I moved from place to place. Years later, when I got married and moved into a new home with my wife, she discovered the rough draft and encouraged me to do something with it. Taking her advice, I typed it into a computer, cleaning it up as I went, and submitted it to several small presses.
Much to my surprise, I quickly had an offer and sold the manuscript for $2,000.00 to a now defunct small press. A few months after that, the book ended up being nominated for both the Bram Stoker Award and the International Horror Guild Award. But it was when the mass market paperback rights sold to Pocket Books that I started giving some serious consideration to the idea of being a writer.
Over the last several years I’ve discovered that not only do I have some talent for telling stories but that I enjoy it too. And I hope to continue doing it for many years to come!
