I finally did it. Self-publishing in my day was expensive and, to my thinking, kind of a cheat. I always wanted the validation of a publishing house telling me I was good enough. But my terror of rejection keeps me from submitting and digital publishing is, to quote a friend, "how it's done now". Oldest Sister has done it and she showed me how, so there I am on Amazon.
My first ever Beta Reader was Oldest Sister. Her gentle critiques guided me, and for a long time she was the only person to read my stuff. Eventually some of my other siblings read and told me what they thought - one time I had a red front porch light in a story and had to be told about Red Light Districts!
When I got to high school, I eagerly signed up for Creative Writing. The teacher hated me even before I walked into the classroom. (My family's reputation preceded me - Mother, for all her faults, went full Mama Bear if she though the school was wronging her offspring. She once went to war with an English teacher for punishing use of "ain't" as improper.) She allowed Destructive Criticism and even engaged in it herself. That class devastated me.
I did meet a peer who wrote and we became fast friends. We planned and wrote parts of an entire series. We went through the "Diversity for diversity's sake" stage together. We even got picked up by a local company, but the publishing branch folded before we hit print.
She and Oldest Sister coaxed me into a local writer's group. I was terrified, remembering that class in high school. I was stunned by the encouragement and advice. They helped me in ways I cannot articulate. I learned there, from them, that writing can be a goal in and of itself. I joined another group, this one online and largely focused on fan fiction. When my world collapsed around me (for non-writing reasons), some of the members of both groups were there with me, helping me through. They celebrated with me when my muse came back.
The two books I've published through Amazon were written after that, but the characters have roots all the way back to that disastrous class in high school. Bits and pieces of everyone who touched my writing life are scattered throughout the stories. I'm not going to try to name anyone, because I avoid names in this blog to protect privacy of others and also because I know I'll forget someone!
Oldest sister set me on this road, but there are a myriad of others who kept me on it. Some of them cheered, some corrected my course, some just loved me and never read a word.
Oh, yeah.... Amazon search P.J. Schmidt Stillwater Farm. That's me! (And Oldest Sister is R. Collins My Dubois.)
