Hoppers! My morning went awry and I am late to post. Forgive me.

This week Leslie Hachtel asked, what is the most valuable thing you’ve learned about writing. Who did you learn it from? If you missed Leslie’s post you can always click her name and hop back.

I have been at this writing gig a long time. It took me 17 years to finally hone my craft enough to where someone was willing to publish me. I had a lot of advice along the way. Most of it was of the never give up kind.

In 2011, I wrote a novella for an End of Days call. (A “call” is when the publisher request a certain type or theme of book) As soon as I read the call, I had a great idea in my head and I wrote it. I was living in Texas and the book was rejected. Shortly after that, I visited New Jersey and went to a Romance Writers of America meeting of the NJ chapter. Really, I went to visit my old, dear friends. I complained that I thought to give up on writing as my best work had just been rejected. My good friend Shelley Freydont looked me in the eye and said, “Don’t be an ass, just send it somewhere else. You can’t let one person’s opinion derail you career.” or something to that effect. Shelley is neither old or a fool, but she is wise and moreover she was right. I sent the manuscript to another publisher who loved it and published it. Mayan Afterglow is the result.

As they say…The rest is history.
Go back to the beginning, you can find out who gave Jenna Da Sie advice and what she’s done with it.