Here goes...
Some things take a long time. Like getting around to writing a blog. But here I am, writing the first post of my first blog.
Writing novels takes a long time for me for many reasons. A big one is I have to fit the hours in around my (more than) fulltime job. Another is that I have to revise again and again, usually on paper.
Faith and Fat Chances took about ten years to write, including about twenty full-on revisions. Another four years before it found a home at Curbstone/Northwestern University Press.
In life and in writing, persistence pays. At least that’s what I tell myself. Maybe the real truth is that hard work, dumb luck, and brazen disregard for nearly unbeatable odds, pay off. I don’t really know. All I do know is that I never gave up working on the new novel, never gave up on the story I wanted to tell, and the characters I created to tell it.
I didn't know if it ever would happen, but it did. On September 30, 2015, Faith and Fat Chances will be in bookstores. I'm grateful to everyone who helped and encouraged me, including my mother, who didn't raise a quitter.
Me in Hawaii, where I love to write. Notice the cork. Yes, wine helps.
