I've identified myself as a writer since... Oh... About the time I wrote my first story. (In 3rd grade.) It's just part of who I am and what makes Wondra Wondra.
But I want to be more than a writer...
I want to be an AUTHOR.
I want to see my name on the cover of a novel. I want to know that my stories are coming to life in other people's minds. I want to inspire at least one person to be a writer the way authors like LJ Smith did for me.
Kind of a big ask, huh?
But you have to dream.
The first step is the hardest: Write the damn novels. Well, check. I've written four novels to date. they're sitting on a shelf, gathering dust.
I guess that's the next step: Make them publishable. (aka: edit, edit, edit) I have the biggest problem with this bit - which means I never get to the next stage: SUBMIT.
If I want to be an author I have to get my work out there. So I have to spend some quality time polishing those novels up, and submitting them. Quality time is not something I have in abundance. I work full-time, go to school-part time, and spend the rest of my time running a house.
No rest for the wicked, eh?
Since time is the biggest problem getting in the way of making my dream of being an author a reality, I have to do something about finding some. (Time, that is.)
So, this month, I took a rather big step: I applied for something called a Buying Time Writer's Bursary from Literature Wales.
If I'm successful, it will result in me having six months (paid) off work to do nothing but focus on my writing. It would be, I think, life changing.
I submitted my application (along with the first 10k of a novel in progress) over two weeks ago and now I'm just waiting. (And waiting.) They won't make a decision until February so I'm trying not to spend too much time dwelling on it - especially since I don't know how many people I'll be up against, or how good those people are.
Keep your fingers crossed for me!
