GENREALITY

Since I’ve been sharing about my own issues lately, and because I’m not quit ready to talk about any new projects I might be working on, I’m going to share more of my journey with you. This past week I was going over my own blog posts from the past few years, just sort of reliving my past career path, planning my future and thinking on what I want from my career…some of my old posts really resonate to this day. This one was written in March of 2004, about two years after I started writing. Rereading it did my heart good, so I thought I’d repost it…see what y’all think.

I never planned to be a waitress all my life, but just after I turned 30 I realized it could happen.

With nightmares about turning into Flo from MEL’s DINER filling my head I searched my heart and finally acknowledged that deep down I’d always wanted to write. I’d even taken a night class at the local community college when I was 23 on magazine writing. Traveling is another of my loves, and if I could find a way to get paid to travel, then Whoo hooo! I would be in heaven.

Only, how was someone with only a high school education going to become a writer? I couldn’t even remember what a verb was, or a noun.

Lucky for me I was blessed to have been raised by a woman who taught me I could do anything if I set my mind to it. So I did. I found a correspondence course on “How to Make Money Writing.” And I sent away my check for $800 and waited impatiently for my books and lessons to arrive on my doorstep. The first thing I had to do was fill out a questionnaire about myself.
One of the questions was what do you like to read?
My answer: Romance, Mystery, Erotica, Thrillers, and Bill Bryson Travel Books
Next Question: What do you want to write?
My Answer: Travel Stories, Maybe a romance, maybe a screenplay. Short Stories, Articles. Anything but Poetry.

My assigned tutor jumped on the fact that I read erotica and asked me to write him 2 short stories for that genre. What about Travel stories? I asked. He was quick to educate me on how hard it was to sell a travel article. “If you want to make money, or better yet, build a career, that isn’t the way to do it.”

So, with heart pounding and not a clue about fiction writing I sat at the kitchen table and with pen and paper attempted my first story. He read it and told me…my salacious imagination was going to make me an excellent erotica writer. I don’t know about excellent or not, but I am a writer whether I make a lot of money at it or not.

So it’s true, Anything is possible . . . if you set your mind to it. And if you’ll notice…HANDLING AMANDA takes place in South Africa, so I still get to write about my travel stories. They’re just a bit more adventurous than I’d anticipated.

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