I began writing when I was a child. Although I practiced other forms of creative expression, I was most attracted to writing. Through words, I could paint pictures and make music. Through words, I could make people laugh and cry and think.

The first story I wrote was called The Magic Pen. This story was about a pen, that when used, created stories without the use of any human input as if a sacred power came through the ink of the pen. I could have never known that this story would end up being so relevant in my adult life. While writing my novels and stories, characters were continually surprising me by doing things I had not anticipated. Lines of dialogue and description would come to me as if some divine force was whispering them to me in my ear.

Writing has greatly enriched my life and through writing, I’ve learned a lot. I learned the greatness of discipline, which was the thing that enabled me to write two novels in two years while working full-time.  I learned many strategies that helped me in my writing journey such as making an outline in accord with the three-act dramatic structure and making this outline rough so as to allow for organic growth of my story. I learned to read writers that I emulate on a daily basis. I learned to not go anywhere without a pen and paper. I learned that some of my best ideas come to me when I’m walking, so I also learned to write and walk simultaneously.

As an independent author, I learned a great deal about the publishing process including elements of desktop publishing, cover design and eBook creation.  Although print books are great, I relied much more heavily on eBooks for gaining exposure and for growing an audience.  Writing, in itself, has greatly added to the richness and happiness of my life but growing an audience is very important as I want to share my stories with the world, and in turn, having an audience helped me to keep writing.  I continue to focus on creating awareness of my books through various means including techniques such as making my books available through all major online retailers, growing and maintaining traction to my website and soliciting readers for reviews.

I learned about writing, publishing and marketing through classes, workshops, webinars and my own research. As a veteran librarian, I’m a tenacious researcher and was able to discover a plethora of great resources. After writing my first novel, I developed my own workshop on indie publishing which I conducted at the San Francisco Public Library. The lecture was well-attended and received extremely positive feedback. Attendees expressed their gratitude and one woman told me that I had saved her hours of research time.  I subsequently conducted other workshops and began contemplating a way that I could share my knowledge and experiences with writers on a greater scale.  After writing my second novel, this desire to share my knowledge and experiences grew as I then had even more to share. So I wrote Tell the World Your Story. Published in 2014, this guide is now two years old, but the information and resources are still extremely valuable, and relevant to fiction as well as non-fiction authors. I regret that I didn’t have time to write a longer and more extensive book, but there just aren’t enough hours in the day for me.