Starting to feel like a real writer

I've written all of my life, in some capacity. When I was in college, I wrote papers and essays. When the kids were younger, I wrote romance novels that never saw the light of day. When I started to work, I wrote technical papers, then speeches, then press releases, testimony, presentations, internal and external stories about employees, etc., etc., etc. So I've always been a writer.

But now, with a book soon to be published, the process seems more real, and much more personal. Sharing your work, marketing yourself, is almost as difficult as the process of writing itself. And so much of the work is on you as the author.

Don't get me wrong--I'm learning a LOT about the publishing world, and I'm grateful for that knowledge. And I hope those of you who might have stumbled across this page somehow realize that becoming a published author is within your reach. Yes, it's hard work. But anything worth its salt is difficult, right?

We turn the page and somehow find ourselves in a new chapter of the same story. And we plow ahead with trepidation or expectation, most of the time, pleasantly surprised with what we find.