A Second Mile Marker On My Writing Journey
Driving to a caricaturing event in Dwight, IL, yesterday, I called my friend and mentor, the Bram Stoker award-winning author Mark McLaughlin, to catch up. When I’m taking long drives is typically when I call my family and friends. It helps pass the time because these drives, while beautiful, can get a little long and lonely.
It was an unfamiliar route, a single-lane road that wound through small, slightly creepy empty towns, vast rolling cornfields, and beneath the occasional shadows of wind turbines. While I drove, Mark and I talked about writing, publishing, and my newest book, Stories For Imaginary Friends: 50 Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi Stories, And Essays. I sent him the first draft of the author proofs, and he’d made helpful suggestions. When I called to thank him for his help, he half-jokingly said that writing two books separates a writer from an author. “It shows the first book wasn’t a fluke!” He said, “This is something you’re going to be doing a lot more of!”
Today, I’m thinking about what he said. It feels true! I (probably) became an “author” when I published my dark fantasy novella, Little People: A Fantasy Story About Fathers, Sons, and Monsters. Before that, I just had tons of stories floating around the internet, most of which I’ve collected in Stories For Imaginary Friends. I’ve also published a little ebook, Horrible Writing: 10 Horror Stories You Probably Shouldn't Read, containing the ten most popular Internet stories. On my hard drive and in my phone's Notes app, I’ve got manuscripts I can spend years turning into something more. But, at this point, I have two printed books available. They are two solid chunks of words, thoughts, and dreams that I’ve written, published, and that now occupy physical space in people’s hands, on bookshelves and coffee tables.
It feels like the beginning of a journey. It’s an unfamiliar and winding road. One sprinkled with strange towns, vast horizons, and towering shapes and shadows. But I am enjoying the drive because I get to talk to you, my readers, along the way.
It was an unfamiliar route, a single-lane road that wound through small, slightly creepy empty towns, vast rolling cornfields, and beneath the occasional shadows of wind turbines. While I drove, Mark and I talked about writing, publishing, and my newest book, Stories For Imaginary Friends: 50 Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi Stories, And Essays. I sent him the first draft of the author proofs, and he’d made helpful suggestions. When I called to thank him for his help, he half-jokingly said that writing two books separates a writer from an author. “It shows the first book wasn’t a fluke!” He said, “This is something you’re going to be doing a lot more of!”
Today, I’m thinking about what he said. It feels true! I (probably) became an “author” when I published my dark fantasy novella, Little People: A Fantasy Story About Fathers, Sons, and Monsters. Before that, I just had tons of stories floating around the internet, most of which I’ve collected in Stories For Imaginary Friends. I’ve also published a little ebook, Horrible Writing: 10 Horror Stories You Probably Shouldn't Read, containing the ten most popular Internet stories. On my hard drive and in my phone's Notes app, I’ve got manuscripts I can spend years turning into something more. But, at this point, I have two printed books available. They are two solid chunks of words, thoughts, and dreams that I’ve written, published, and that now occupy physical space in people’s hands, on bookshelves and coffee tables.
It feels like the beginning of a journey. It’s an unfamiliar and winding road. One sprinkled with strange towns, vast horizons, and towering shapes and shadows. But I am enjoying the drive because I get to talk to you, my readers, along the way.
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message 1:
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Mark
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Oct 20, 2021 10:36AM
Your journey as an author has just begun! :-)
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