Sunday, July 13, 2014

WIFYR

Last fall, one of my favorite college professors from BYU, Chris Crowe, recommended that I attend a conference called Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers. It was $500 to attend. I wrote it off.

Then we won a car in a random raffle at Layton Park. I never win anything. It was a nine year-old Ford Taurus, with dents and scratches, but it ran well.

We sold my '95 Corolla for $300 (more than it was worth), and shelled out the remaining $200. (I want to point out, by the way, how amazing and supportive my husband is to invest a large sum of money in something important to me).

The conference was amazing. I attended Carol Lynch William's class. And I left feeling like a real writer, not just a wannabe.

My class. Carol is in the middle in the purple shirt. She wrote The Chosen One, My Angelica, and her latest is Signed, Skye Harper, among others. You should read them.

This blog is private, so I can say that through Carol I met an agent named John Cusick from Greenhouse Literary in New York. He read the first five pages of my story. He didn't hate it. He asked to see the full manuscript as soon as it's ready.  I could have died. I was that happy.

If I thought I was busy before the conference, it's a lot worse now. I'm writing 2,000 words every day. I finished my first draft. I'm well into the second draft rewrite. I'm pulling out hair, obsessing over every detail of my book, and worrying constantly that it's not how I want it to be yet.

But it will be.

I'm working harder on my writing than I ever have. Casey is incredible. Several months ago we agreed to treat writing like it's my job-- because that's what we want it to be. Every night when he comes home from work I try to have dinner on the table. He helps the kids finish their meals, plays with them, and puts them to bed while I go to the library and write from 6pm until 9pm. If I haven't hit my word count goal by 9pm, I come home and write until I do.

It's so much work, and we have so far to go. But we're going to do it. I know we can do it.

Our goal is to have one book published by the time Bethany starts kindergarten. That gives us at least three years. I think it can happen.

1 comment:

Jenny said...

What!? Lisa you are amazing! I am so excited to hear about this adventure of yours! I totally see you being wildly successful at this! I wish you luck and I can't wait to hear the updates as things progress!