I did a lot of writing after high school. I went from Editor of my high school's news paper, to Editor and contributor for a community news letter. I was always writing, from articles to speeches and became involved in a number of civic activities in my community. I was also actively involved in youth ministry at my church.
As I mentioned, I was always writing. A good deal of it was for other people who wanted things written, and others I began to compile for myself. For a long time, I just wrote for people and never held onto what I wrote. I guess, even though I had the dream of being published, I did not yet believe it to possible. But then, somewhere along the path, the dream began to become a desire and I began putting pieces together. I also began searching for publishers. I had no knowledge about computers or the internet for that matter in those days, and so my only source of information was the Reader's Digest and other magazines with advertisements.
Agents
My first dream was to be published the traditional way. As a matter of fact, I thought that was the only way to be published. So my initial quest was to find an agent to represent me. That was a daunting task. I wrote to a number of them but most did not respond. Other that did, turned me down. I never got to send any of them my work.
My Restoration
Then I read about the novelty of self-publishing. That sounded hopeful. That was at ;east, until I knew how much it was going to cost. I communicated with a couple of companies but we did not have a good fit, until I came across a company called Vantage Press out of New York. The cost was not bad, and they gave a flexible payment plan. However, although reasonable and flexible, the process still took about two years to complete. Finally, several years after my father's death, my first book was published and I dedicated it to him. In fact, the book was titled with him in mind. It was a book of twenty-three poems and two plays
and working on it had taken my mind of loosing him. More importantly, I had always promised him that I would look after him and my mom when I became published and successful. To my mind, may be success was about to happen.
Did it happen...............................? We will find out more next time.
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