#207: Born to Write (Friday, December 17)

A few years ago I started to write a book. It was based on characters that I'd had in my mind for years. It wasn't the first book I'd written, but it was the most difficult. I shopped it around to publishers who didn't understand Caribbean culture and got responses that it had "too much emphasis on complexion and color and class" or that "our demographic wouldn't understand it."

I got discouraged. I started thinking that maybe these publishers were right and that this was just a wild dream. I discounted the feedback I got from readers, the people who would buy my book, as them "just being nice because they knew me." I told myself my priorities had changed and the reason I started writing the book had also changed. I put it on the back burner, half-finished even though I had the entire story in my head and I knew exactly how it would end.

But recently, I've had a series of mini epiphanies, which is making me realize that your destiny is no accident. So, I've started my search again for a publisher and I think I'm making headway. Hopefully A Scandal in Sandy Lane will be published soon. :)

Happy Birthday to me!