Is that a guest blogger I see?

Maybe it's a little early in my blogging career to have a guest blogger, but I have many wonderful and intelligent friends with lots of crazy, helpful, uplifting, inspiring and funny things to say. I'm hoping that some of my "closet writer" friends will be able to use this as an opportunity to share about themselves and their writing. Not all of them will be writers per se, but they'll all have something special to contribute to my blog. So if you know me, expect that I may some day ask you to be a guest blogger some random Friday in the future. And hey, if you are interested in guest blogging, by all means let me know!

My first guest blogger is my inspiration and, if I'm correct, one of my biggest fans. Meredith Pritchard, or M.R. Pritchard, (who I will probably always refer to as "my author") is the writer of the first books I've ever edited that have been published. I am humbled by her "fangirl" praise and comments, as well as the support and encouragement that she's given me. Here is her story: 

My life as a writer.

I have been a writer my entire life. How do I know this? I remember as a kid my parents got me this book on how to draw animals step by step. I went around for weeks making books about farm animals (specifically goats, hey we lived on a goat farm at the time). I would illustrate them and write them, then bind them with a cardboard cover. Maybe that was when the bug hit me. I’m not sure. All I know is that I loved to write and I loved to read. In high school the bug hit me hard. I took every creative writing class offered. Instead of writing reports I would take the teacher’s offer to write a short story on a topic we were covering. And the thing that stuck in my brain all through high school was one of my teachers telling the class that the world didn’t need good scientists, it needed scientists that could write. Because better than half of science and research is writing. And it’s boring. Because scientists are boring.

Enter me about to take the stage to collect my degree in Biochemistry. I graduated in December, so there was a mishmash of students. Everyone was asking what the other was graduating with. I was standing next to a woman getting her Masters in writing and I was pretty jealous. So I walked across the stage, collected my degree in Biochemistry, went to work in a research lab, and wrote journal articles. Now, it wasn’t easy. The learning curve was steep. But when I had my journal article accepted to BONE with no revisions needed, and my boss was impressed, I knew that I could write. I had excelled at not being a boring scientist.

Flash forward a few years. With the pressure of lab funding running out and having a newborn at home, I shifted my career to nursing. Flash forward a few more years. I loved nursing, but I was bored. When people asked me if I missed the lab, my response was always the same: I miss writing.

So last year, I finally did it. Opened the laptop I had always used for writing school papers and scientific journal articles and started writing down ideas and stories I’d been carrying around in my head for years. My husband thought I was crazy. He was the only person who knew. I wrote two books before I told another soul. I let two of my close friends read my first book, under the threat of death if they told anyone. And then I wrote another book. In less than nine months I had written three full length novels. The feedback from the few people I let read was positive. Really positive. I sent out query letters to agents, which got me nothing. So I read up on self-publishing. I studied self-publishing for months. I started my blog. I played around with formatting. I read and read and read about the industry.

In February 2013 I finally decided to take the plunge. I went ahead and published my first novel with Amazon. And then I drank a lot of alcohol.

The first reviews were amazing. And since they were reviews from strangers, it was uplifting. When I found a review on Goodreads from Ian Hocking (a successful sci-fi author who started out Indie), I was stunned. Yes, there were haters also. But you can’t let them bother you. I just repeat in my head what my mother said to me: “If it’s not the New York Times, then who cares?”

Since I am a middle-class American with bills and a small child, I couldn't put a lot of money into this venture. I self-published on a budget and that budget was $0. That means I couldn't afford an editor. I used computer programs and friends, but I knew from being out of the writing world for so long my skills were rusty. And the wonderful reviewers on Amazon let me know this. Enter Kristy Ellsworth and her offer to edit my work. The union was made via Facebook messenger and it has been one of the best decisions I’ve made in this venture. (So, fellow Indie Authors, if you’re looking for an editor don’t pass up your chance on Kristy. She’s going to be busy very soon. I can feel it!)

Now it’s seven months later. Am I a millionaire like all of those other Indie success stories? Nope. Does that make me regret this? Nope. I have a job and writing is not my job. It’s my release. It’s my fun. Some people scrapbook, some people bake, but writing, yeah, writing is my hobby. I write my stories. I have conversations with fictional characters. I work with my husband to design original book covers. I have the rest of my life to advertise and make a little extra pocket change. Right now I want to put out the best work I can. I’m thankful for the team of people I have around me helping and I am thankful for my fans. My fans are the best people. Without their support and excitement, this would be a much less rewarding venture. 

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You can follow her blog at what I consider my "sister site" at Secret Life of a Townie, where she talks writing, handling critics, unicorns and surviving a zombie apocalypse! Come back next week because you'll never know who will pop up on Guest Blogger Fridays!! 

As a heads-up, weekends will be dedicated to business matters; Saturdays to Mary Kay and It Works! Global with Product Spotlight Days where I will pick my favorite products and let you know all about them. Sundays will be Business Advice Days. I will give you tips, tricks and opportunities that I have learned throughout my journey. A large part of business is social and communication skills, and I will let you know the kind of things I have learned and overcome as a small business owner. There is incredible potential for guest bloggers here as well & I already have some people in mind! Looking forward to sharing with all of you! As always, thanks for stopping by!