My Path to Publication: A Long and Winding Road

I was probably eight when I discovered I could lose myself in words, and from there it wasn’t long till I hunkered down in my bedroom and devoured every novel my mother owned because I’d already torn through every age-appropriate book available to me. She eventually opened a Book-of-the-Month Club account just so she could keep up with my need to read. That, and a library card, saw me into adulthood.

I soon found myself traveling to Hawaii with Michener and the deep South with Harper Lee. I searched the streets of NYC for Holly Golightly with Capote. And somewhere along the way, I knew I wanted to write. I knew this in the same way I knew that to live I needed to breathe. I knew that I wanted to pull readers out of their moments and drown them in laughter and sorrow and hope. I wanted to hand out dreams and magic like ice cream trucks dispense treats.

But life got in my way. Marriage. Babies. Divorce. Repeat. You get the picture? I had responsibilities. I dabbled through. I wrote essays for my local newspaper about small-town life: finding the perfect Christmas tree, dressing up as the Easter Bunny wearing only a swimsuit under my costume and getting locked out of my house (and sweating bullets because the temperature hit a record high that year). Baking sixty loaves of cinnamon bread for friends and family during the holidays only to have perfect strangers track me down to order loaves for themselves. As if I was in the bakery business.

People loved the articles and writing them (somewhat) satisfied my need to put pen to paper. 

And then my children grew up, my ex-husband moved to the beach—I lost track of the first one, and I retired from a job where the only writing I had done was designing insurance products for the health care industry and sales promotions for retail stores.

So I wrote a book. I wrote a book without taking one craft class or reading one craft book. Trust me. I’m not bragging. And it was pretty awful. I learned the hard way because that’s the way I always learn: there was more to writing a book than what I’d thought.

So my path to publication started with my love of books and a poorly written manuscript. That manuscript led me to some perfectly wonderful writing organizations and instructors where I learned the basics of novel writing. I then built on that knowledge with additional classes and retreats and seminars. I met writers generous with their time and knowledge.

I learned pacing and tension and backstory and not too much backstory and character arcs. And foreshadowing! I also learned some pretty hard facts: the publishing business is a business. And while I might want to romanticize my life as I searched for that perfect phrase, writer and businesswoman needed to be synonymous. 

Writing was my dream. Holding a book in my hands with my name on it was, is, my dream. Receiving a phone call from a publisher offering me a contract was my dream—the best thing to happen to me. You know, other than children and grandchildren.

NOWHERE NEAR GOODBYE will be published in 2020 by Red Adept Publishing. I don’t have a pub date yet, but you can be sure that once I do, I will shout it from the rooftops.

Just a snippet from my forthcoming debut:

One almost horrific act does not define a person. Or does it? 

Oncologist Emma Blake chose career over family because of a promise. Guilt that she lived and her childhood friend died compelled Emma to never give up. She created a procedure to prevent the GBM brain tumor from growing back—because that was the problem—the damn tumor kept growing back. 

Emma proved herself to be a courageous surgeon, but when her daughter’s life was at stake, she wanted nothing more than to give up.

Nowhere Near Goodbye is the story of family, failure, and second chances.

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Barbara Conrey worked in the health care industry for many years before opting for early retirement which lasted exactly three months. She then accepted a position in finance, for which she had absolutely no background. Four years later she decided to write a book. 

But not about finance.

Travel is a passion, along with reading, writing, hiking and exploring antique shops. Barbara’s greatest passion is Miss Molly, her rescue beagle. There are stories to be told about beagles and Barbara hopes to incorporate some of those stories into her books.

Barbara lives in Central Pennsylvania, close to family and friends, and of course, Miss Molly.

Links:

Instagram.com/barbaraconrey

Twitter barbaraconrey

Author Page – Facebook.com/baconreywriter

Web Site – barbaraconreyauthor.com/

 

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Category: Contemporary Women Writers, How To and Tips