Welcome to the next stage of my professional life—the journey of an author. How did I decide to make this transition?
I've always chosen my own road—lawyer, pilot, and recruiter—but sometimes the road chooses you. I've been writing since I was a child. First, two-page plays for my brother and me to enact for our mother. As a sixth grade student at P.S. 162 in Queens, our principal read an essay I wrote titled "Winter" over the public address system to the whole school. In junior high and high school, I wrote poetry, and won New York public school system awards for it! I got selected to read it publicly as a teenager. I watched my family, mother, aunt, brother, even grandparents dress up in their best clothes to hear me speak the words I'd written in front of a group of strangers.
Writing has always been in me, but that first novel eluded me. I started writing it over 20 years ago. After 23,000 words, I printed it on blue paper in Word Perfect and stuck it in a folder called "Book." I schlepped those pages all over the country as I moved from Chicago to San Diego California. I'd rummage through my file cabinet, looking for something else, and my breath would catch when I saw that manila folder. Finally, I could no longer ignore it.
My first novel will be published by Acorn Publishing, LLC, a women-run San Diego company. Publication date is tentatively set for later this year—standby for updates on this. But first, I will be reading an excerpt from the book in June 2018 at the launch event for "A Year In Ink," published by San Diego Writers Ink., an amazing community of creatives.
Please join me on this journey from teenaged poet through recovering lawyer to pilot to middle aged author!