One Fictionista’s Literary Bliss
By: Katherine Owen
I was anointed a female fictionista by an overzealous Georgia
Bulldog fan on Twitter. I immediately took it for my job description.
So, here’s what you should know. I write. I write a lot. And,
when I'm not writing, I think about writing a
lot. You may think we're having a conversation, but invariably I'm stealing
your name, asking how to spell it, and secretly describing the look on your
face in five words or less in my mind. My writing tends to be dark, moody, and
sometimes funny. Sometimes, it can be a bit lyrical or even literary. It’s
often edgy, so be forewarned. My readers
complain they can't put my books down. Or, just when they think they've figured
the story out, it changes and becomes something else. My stories tend to be dark and comprised of
broken heroines; even the heroes in my books have a few flaws that cause
trouble. It’s true; my characters may disappoint you or surprise you or piss
you off, but I think you’ll understand why they do what they do because of the
way I write them. I strive to reveal the deepest underpinnings about life,
about love, and about human nature, but it’s not for the faint of heart. I’ll
take you through a proverbial emotional ringer before reaching resolution and it’s
never as predictable as you might think. Do I sound like your kind of
fictionista? Come along, darling. This way.
Something else you should know about me is that I’m a huge
George Clooney fan. Maybe, Up In The Air wasn’t
one of his usual gigs, but I loved that movie. And, let’s be frank, I watched ER without him for years, but it was
never the same. Never. Anyway, I
digress. There’s a scene in Up In The Air
where he’s telling this guy to follow his dream after George has told him he’s
been laid off. When I saw that scene, it
was as if George was practically speaking to me because I was there, two years ago, when I was laid off from a high tech
sales job, had always harbored a dream to write full-time, and went for it
after that. Is it a coincidence that Up
In The Air came out about the same time? I think not.
So now, this is what I do. Write. Write all the time. I’ll
admit it was hard at first. It still is—hard, harrowing, humbling. Believe me,
it would be easier to go out and get another high paying sales job than write
for a living because writing causes me to question my mental toughness so much
of the time. Can I do this? Am I good
enough?
Yet, here’s what I’ve learned: you just have to turn off that
voice in your head off or ignore what is being said. Sometimes, all you need to do is stand up for
yourself, stop depending upon the opinions of others, and just go after what
you really want.
For me, that’s writing. For you, it might be anything else,
but just pursue your passion whatever it is.
With this anthology, my debut novel, Seeing Julia is featured. Seeing
Julia is a labor of love and represents a lot of hard work. Truly, this
book has caused me as much grief as it has joy. After I first wrote this novel,
I entered it into a literary contest and promptly forgot about it. I was busy. I was taking classes at The Writer’s Studio, becoming literary
savvy, and writing another novel called Not
To Us.
I remember it was a Monday morning in early June of 2010 when
I received a call from the president of the Pacific Northwest Writers
Association telling me I was a finalist in the romance category with my entry
of Seeing Julia. “What?” She asked me if I planned on attending the conference. “Well, I guess so.”
Lucky for me, I attended the summer conference, bought a new outfit, and won
the Zola Award and first place with Seeing
Julia the night of the awards dinner. It was a surreal moment, when I had
to go up to the front of the room with those seven hundred people watching and
accept my award. But, truly? I was more concerned about navigating all those
tables and chairs on my way up to the podium than actually seizing the moment.
As word spread about my writing award win, self-doubt had already set in. It
was a fluke. It was dumb luck. As high as my emotions soared about winning;
they fell just as fast when literary agents still rejected my work. Yes, the
win opened a number of literary agent doors for me, but I wrote several
different versions of that novel when a number of them took greater interest,
but then wanted to change everything about the story. One agent called me up
and lectured me for forty-five minutes about the book and then promised to take
a look if I made more changes. I sent her the revised manuscript, but she never
called again.
This was a year ago. I was at a crossroads with my writing
and myself. I kept thinking if I did what they said and changed it, yet again, I would get to the next
step—literary bliss. But I wasn’t getting anywhere.
Discouraged, but still determined, I reviewed what the
critiques and feedback about Seeing Julia
had been. Based on those, I sifted through what I thought would need to be
changed and began rewriting the story, working
day and night through most of November. With just getting a few hours of sleep
each night, I kept up the intense pace and by the time the novel was finished; I knew it was. I’m extremely proud of Seeing Julia. During the process of
rewriting it for the last time, I reached an important pinnacle with my
writing: I trusted myself. Confidence entered into the realm. And, along with
it, swift understanding: I had to make my
own literary bliss.
Two additional things became clear. First, it was essential
for me to have complete control over the publishing of my work; and second, the
publishing industry was in the midst of a perfect storm because of e-books and
I needed to take full advantage. And, so I did.
In late April and early May of this year, I released two
novels: Seeing Julia and Not To Us. These books are available as
e-books as well as print trade paperbacks.
Many wonderful readers have responded to my work. They often
reach out to me and let me know how they love my novels. I love and cherish
their enthusiasm for my work.
This is literary
bliss.
Of course, my family’s number one complaint is that I write too much and
all the time. Now, add to that the twittering and the facebooking and the
wordpressing and now google plus-ing, and checking Amazon, and taking writing
classes; it's a full-time gig. But, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
The good news is that with the encouragement of my readers
and confidence in my writing, I’m working on my third novel, When I See You, and hope to release this book before the end of
this year. And, I already have drafts
for two other novels, Saving Valentines
and Finding Amy.
Oh yes, there are occasions, rare ones, when I'm not writing.
That’s when I like to drink a fine wine, check in with my family, and look at
my awesome view which I can see when I look up long enough from my computer
screen in my writing refuge.
And so, welcome. Welcome to my little piece of the universe.
I’ll leave you with this—a philosophy I now live by, borrowed
from one of the greatest women tennis players of all time: “You’ve got to take the initiative and play your game. In a decisive
set, confidence is the difference.” Chris
Evert
Oh, Chrissy, you are so
right!
***
This is one story from Indie
Chicks: 25 Women 25 Personal Stories available on Amazon
and Barnes
& Noble. To read all of the stories, buy your copy today. All proceeds
go to the Susan G. Komen Foundation for Breast Cancer.
Also included are sneak
peeks into 25 novels! My novel, Seeing
Julia, is one of the novel excerpts featured. It is available at most
online retailers in trade paperback as well as e-book formats.
Seeing Julia
Smashwords (various
e-book formats for Sony e-book, Kobo, Apple iBooks and Diesel)
Some of Katherine's other books. When I See You will be available this week on Amazon.
For more information
about Katherine Owen, visit these links:
Website: http://www.katherineowen.net
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Katherine-Owen/e/B004Z3BG3I/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
Follow her on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/KatherineOwen01
Connect on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KatherineOwenauthor
I'm on Tumblr,
here: http://katherineowen.tumblr.com/
