You're writing a what, about a who?

Well, let me start at the beginning...

On December 31, 2008, I sat up in the bed and looked at my doting husband and said, "Wouldn't it be cool if someone wrote a story about DragonCon? You know, playing on the idea that some of the fantasy exists there was actually real?" And instead of saying - "Woman, you're nuts!” he said, "That is a pretty cool idea."

I continued getting dressed and let the idea dance around a little more inside my head. By the time I arrived at the office, I had pretty much laid out the outline for the first chapter minus character names. When I arrived home that afternoon, I read him chapter one. And so the journey began.

While working full time, going to school full time, and still being a pretty decent mother (who am I kidding, I rock!), I wrote the bulk of the novel in about 4 months. The idea became much more than a book about DragonCon and more a love story that was plagued with obstacles while maintaining a humorous tone. My logic - laugh or the world will kill you. And in this story, oh does it try.

I had heard of this horrible thing called, shudder, writer's block, and I knew it was coming. I feared it for the beast it was and was terrified that it would come and rob me of my story. The story that I desperately wanted to share with others. At the end of the four months, the ideas began to slow and then trickle, and then be tiny little thoughts rather than what was once mind-blasting, must get to keyboard, pull the car over or I will write with my teeth balancing the notebook on the steering wheel, breakthroughs. It had arrived. Or so I thought.

Let me back up. I write mosaic style. Although I started at the beginning, I didn't write chronologically. I start with an outline, and I then write what I feel. Put the scenes on the page as they come to me. I think I finished the ending before I wrote chapter 4. When the ideas stopped coming, what I thought was that horrible creature that I dreaded was actually a mostly complete story.

A month later I decided to start at the beginning, begin my first read through, and connect the scenes. When I finished three chapters, I then inflicted them on three people who so lovingly volunteered to read and critique what I had wrote. This has kept me on track by holding me accountable. This brings me to where I am now....

I can see the end of the book on the horizon. It is within my grasp. I have seven more chapters to clean up and send out. Step 2: Actually correct my horrible grammar and punctuation. Once that is complete, then it is time to dive into the deep end of the agent pool hoping to find my mythical creature to swim along side of me as we deliver Iron Obsession to the world.

But first, finish the next seven chapters! Hope you join me on this journey.