2.5.08 - You see, I have this problem. For many, many years, I have been hearing these voices in my head. No, I don’t think I am hallucinating but if I am, they are very detailed hallucinations. The voices are not only talking, they are acting – arguing, fighting battles, making love – living entire lives that are playing like movies in my head. I never realized that the only way to shut them up was to write them down.

In the non-credit class schedule of my local community college, in about 1996, I saw that a fiction writing class was being offered. What the heck, I thought. I used to write pretty good stories when I was a kid, but all that creativity got lost in the mire of essays and term papers. So, I signed up for it and took the plunge. The instructor, a multi-published romance author, had us read our first chapters aloud for the class. With a quivering voice, I read the beginning of a book I have started, but never finished, Glen Arden (I think I will work on it again after I finish my current WIP). She actually told me it was good (Wow!), and asked me if I knew about Maryland Romance Writers. Nope, I didn’t. After class she gave me some information about the chapter. She also went over my manuscript with a red pen. At that time, I knew nothing about point of view, passive voices, you name it and I didn’t know about it. By the time she was finished, it looked like she had opened a vein and bled all over my paper!

So, okay, maybe I could write. I joined Maryland Romance Writers and Romance Writers of America, and began attending meetings. I wish I could say the rest was history, but of course it wasn’t. I wrote occasionally, but it never really went anywhere until I found my critique group, The Naughty Little French Tarts, or “Tarts” for short (more about the name in another blog). I could not have found a greater group of writers–or friends—to help me on this journey. You will find links to their websites on my Links page, and I hope you will check out their books as well – they are all wonderful writers, each with her own style and voice. If it weren’t for their input and encouragement, I would never have even finished a manuscript, much less be published. So here’s to the Tarts – Kathy, Kate, Chris, Lisa, and Janet – thank you from the bottom, top, and sides of my heart for all you have done for me. You gals are the best!

I can’t promise I will post on this blog on a regular basis, but I hope you will keep stopping by. Until later, Kate