The emotional part of my brain is still frustrated, though.
Since the release of the book, I've been doing what I can to garner publicity on a very small budget, and it's gotten me thinking about what it means to 'be a writer'.
For practically my whole life, my career dream has been 'to be a writer' someday. It occurred to me this morning, however, that I always WAS a writer. I've got diaries I've kept off and on since I was nine years old. I have notebooks full of short stories where history notes probably should have been. I wrote for my high school's literary and fine arts magazine, and occasionally submitted things to the paper in college. I had a Livejournal account from 2003 up until the time Facebook took over social media. (for the record, I do still update it from time to time.) I even wrote fan fiction.
To be a writer, you only have to write, is my point. What I really meant when I said 'I want to be a writer' is 'I want to be the kind of writer that other people read.'
That's harder. I am now, officially, a published author, thanks to Wild Rose Press, and I've had the thrill of holding a book I wrote in my hands. It's a wonderful accomplishment, and I am proud.
And yet.
There's always another hill, isn't there? I wanted to be a writer. I wrote. I wanted to be a PUBLISHED writer. I got published. And now I want to be the kind of writer other people want to read.
To do that, I need to become a marketer, a publicist, a saleswoman. That's a harder challenge.
I think I'm up to it. I hope I am.
