Last weekend, I spoke on a writers panel at The Authors and Artists Festival at the Shaler North Hills Library. It was a fantastic event, and I was able to talk a little bit about what inspired me to write The Whisper Trilogy. One audience member asked a question to our panel that no one had ever asked me before.
How has your book changed your life?
One author replied that publishing her book had forced her to be more of an extrovert, to talk about and “sell” her book to readers.
This happened to me too, although I’m still not altogether comfortable “selling” my books.
Another author commented that publishing her young adult historical novel taught her how much she really loves history and research.
I didn’t have to do much research for Whisper or Beautiful Secret, and I’m not a huge history fan, so this wasn’t part of my experience.
So, my mind started reeling. How had my books changed my life?
I went way analytical and broke down every aspect of the answer.
The writing.
At first, it was an outlet.
Writing Whisper freed me from emotions that were weighing me down. It helped me take my worries over what was happening with today’s youth and turn them into something fun and inspiring. Once Whisper decided to turn into a trilogy (and yeah, Whisper made that decision, because I would never have been that wacked-out crazy to commit to such a thing,) the writing became a mission. I knew how I wanted the books to end, but I needed to make sure I touched on all of the themes I wanted to hit within the story.
Writing Beautiful Secret was total therapy. It allowed me to play in my memories of my grandmother, to create a concrete story for her out of all of the different tales my family had woven over the years. It had me swimming in the Ionian Sea, sipping wine beneath my great uncle’s grape vine in Calabria, and traipsing through the French countryside. Each chapter brought my faraway family to my fingertips. I could hear my great uncle’s wheezy laughter and feel my great aunt’s tiny hand holding my own. Simply writing this book was one of the best experiences of my life.
The selling.
Not. Fun.
As I said earlier, I’m not a salesperson. Most writers aren’t. Trying to get agents and editors to read my book out of the bazillion stories they had to choose from just was not my bag.
I sent queries to about ten agents for Whisper and probably waited for half to respond before deciding to self-publish. I was impatient and uneducated and then resentful after I realized it was going to be a freakload of work to try to sell my self-pubbed book on my own. I did it though, and it’s been awesome. Last weekend, I ran into one of my teen fans at Target. She was with three of her friends, whom she
This was super awesome.
Beautiful Secret was such a personal story, that selling it was a wholly emotional experience. The eighteen months I spent querying the book were a roller coaster ride. During and after several writing conferences, I’d be flying high, filled with adrenaline. A month or so later, I’d be diving into rejection letter after rejection letter. It was maddening and hard.
Really. Hard.
Sometimes, I was bitter and resentful of even having written the book. I cursed it and swore I’d shelve
it and never let another soul read its pages.
It was not all peaches, cream, and literary sunshine, but I stuck with it, obviously. And now, I get to be part of Pandamoon Publishing - a really amazing company that is unlike any other publisher out there. Through Pandamoon, I’m learning social media marketing strategies and how to sell my book with Twitter and how to brand myself as an author. This is really useful stuff, and when Pandamoon released Beautiful Secret this summer, all of my new knowledge will come in super handy.
So, how did my books change my life?
-a means of expression
-inspiration
-made me feel like a rock star
-made me feel like a loser
-heartache
-triumph
-a legacy for my children
All of these things happened to me because of my books, and some of them were life-changing, even attitude-altering in negative ways at times. But, the number one way that my books have affected my life is that they’ve connected me to people I never would have met had I not made the insane decision to share my writing with the world. I’ve always been a writer, but my books forced me to come out of the closet and share them. This is when things started happening.
It started slowly – becoming a member of my local library’s critique group. Suddenly I had six other unique pairs of eyes – totally committed to bettering my work. Over time, these pairs of eyes became dear friends whose writing I am honored to be able to read before it hits the big time.
I began attending conferences, meeting other writers, literary agents, and editors. One intense workshop was the New York Pitch conference, where I spent three days with the same twelve authors, learning how to pitch Beautiful Secret. Over half of these authors are now my friends. We share in each others’ triumphs, both literary and otherwise. I get to experience their gifts.
Becoming a “Panda” has also been life-changing. I’m suddenly attached to this whole new group of authors, editors and designers who really care about me and my writing. It’s a total support system. We read each others’ books, critique, promote, etc… We are learning each others’ backstories, and through our online portal we are always connected.
The more people I meet and the more connected I become, the more I am moved by their uniqueness and also their likenesses. We all have different gifts. We’re all creating beauty from nothing. This touches me. We all have similar struggles with varying nuances or degrees. Pain is pain. Loss is loss.
We all understand that language, and it pulls us together.
The older I get, the more strongly I believe that we are here on this earth for each other, for people, to be connected. That our talents are directly linked to our individual purposes and that they have something to do with touching other people’s lives.
Writing and ultimately sharing my books with the world has given me the opportunity to be in relationships with others. I have had the opportunity to learn from them and be inspired by them, as well as to teach and to inspire.
It may seem overly simple, but this is how my book has changed my life, by putting me in positions to be moved by people and their art. For this, I feel quite lucky.
If you’re an author, how has your book changed your life?
