My Writing Journey by Hope Gibbs

My Writing Journey…

By Hope Gibbs

As a debut novelist at the age of fifty-one who had absolutely no experience before I produced a 95,000-word manuscript, I’m often asked a question. “Was it a dream of yours to become a writer?” and I reply, “Yes, since I was a little girl.” But it wasn’t books I aspired to; rather, I wanted to write for soap operas. After all, I was named after a young woman from The Guiding Light. Every Friday afternoon, I would come up with little storylines in my head for my favorite characters. I was obsessed, images of Daytime Emmys floating in my tiny head. It was not exactly age-appropriate entertainment, but it certainly stoked my creativity.

By the time I was in college at Western Kentucky University, I’d given up on that dream but decided to stay in the medium by majoring in marketing and television production. I loved everything about it, even interning at the CBS affiliate in Nashville. But after graduation, facing a heap of student loans, I changed directions again and began a career in the merchandising department of a large corporation in my hometown. It was safer and paid better. At twenty-one, I needed to be pragmatic.

Four years later, after the birth of my first child, I decided to leave that “sensible” job to become a stay-at-home mother. It was hard to say goodbye to the company I’d grown to love, but I knew being with my son full-time was the right choice for me. Before I knew it, I had four more children.

Life began flying by, and in a blink of an eye, my oldest had graduated from high school. Then it hit me. My job, the one I had devoted two decades of my life to, would be ending soon. My gold watch of retirement and an empty nest was suddenly barreling my way. What now?

To help me cope with this mini-midlife crisis, I began re-evaluating my life. What was going to be my next chapter? On the advice of a dear friend, I started journaling my feelings on a laptop as an outlet. That lasted about a week before I noticed I wasn’t writing about me or my goals—I was creating a whole new character named Penny Ray Crenshaw. It was thrilling, fulfilling, and it gave me the confidence that I was more than just a middle-aged wife and mother. I could actually be, dare I say it, a writer?

A few months later, I had accomplished nothing more than crafting a few secondary characters with their own complex backstories. I still had no direction. I kept asking myself, “Who is Penny? What does she want, and why would anyone care about her in the first place?” But all that changed on a Sunday morning, in church of all places, when my minister mentioned the name Bob Dylan. Of course, my ears perked up—not that I wasn’t already listening, but a folk icon from the sixties rarely gets a shout-out from the pulpit. Then my minister mentioned one of his songs, one I had never heard of before, and those four words changed my life forever—Tangled Up in Blue. I felt like I had been struck by creative lightning. I had found the direction I needed. That “next chapter,” the one I had been agonizing over, turned into multiple ones and soon, the first draft of a book.

Every free moment, I wrote when I had the chance. In the beginning, it was usually after dinner, when my children were busy with homework and my kitchen was clean. But that only got me so far. With a house full of active children who played multiple sports, I took every “free” opportunity I could get. I started toting around my laptop to basketball, football, lacrosse, and soccer games when there was a break in the action in case something struck me. 

Looking back at that first draft, I barely recognize it. I was so new that I didn’t obey “the rules.” And trust me, I learned the hard way how difficult it can be to write a POV in the third person, but it’s still the same story I set out to write. One woman’s journey to either accept her troubled past by embracing the power of forgiveness or risk losing a second chance at love in a small Kentucky town.

With the help of industry articles, books on writing (I highly recommend The Emotional Thesaurus), and the guidance of a free-lance editor, I had a manuscript I was proud of, ready to query publishers. In late July 2021, I started the process. By the first week of December, Red Adept Publishing had offered me a deal for publication. In September 2022, Blackstone acquired the audio rights.

It’s been an interesting journey, as it is for anyone who dares to throw their hat into this ring. But the one thing I do know is that there’s no right path to getting a book published. Everyone’s story is different. For me, it took years of patience, perseverance, humility, and a lot of luck. 

If there are aspiring writers out there, in the words of Nike, “Just do it!” You’ll never know unless you try. Of course, there are going to be bumps, sometimes mountains, along the way, but if you believe in yourself, your voice, and find the right support system, you can make it happen too.

—

 Hope Gibbs grew up in rural Scottsville, Kentucky. As the daughter of an English teacher, she was raised to value the importance of good storytelling from an early age. Today, she’s an avid reader of women’s fiction. Drawn to multi-generational family sagas, relationship issues, and the complexities of being a woman, she translates those themes into her own writing.

Hope lives in Tennessee with her husband and her persnickety Shih Tzu, Harley. She is also the mother of five. In her downtime, she loves playing tennis, singing karaoke, and curling up on her favorite chair with a book.

Hope has a B.A. from Western Kentucky University and is a member of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association, Women’s National Book Association, and a Tour Guide for Bookish Road Trip.

Follow her on Twitter https://twitter.com/HopeGibbstuib

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hopegibbsauthor

Find out more about her on her website https://www.authorhopegibbs.com/

WHERE THE GRASS GROWS BLUE

Penny Crenshaw’s divorce and her husband’s swift remarriage to a much younger woman have been hot topics around Atlanta’s social circles. After a year of enduring the cruel gossip, Penny leaps from the frying pan into the fire by heading back to Kentucky to settle her grandmother’s estate.

Reluctantly, Penny travels to her hometown of Camden, knowing she will be stirring up all the ghosts from her turbulent childhood. But not all her problems stem from a dysfunctional family. One of Penny’s greatest sources of pain lives just down the street: Bradley Hitchens, her childhood best friend, the keeper of her darkest secrets, and the boy who shattered her heart.

As Penny struggles with sorting through her grandmother’s house and her own memories, a colorful group of friends drifts back into her life, reminding her of the unique warmth, fellowship, and romance that only the Bluegrass state can provide. Now that fate has forced Penny back, she must either let go of the scars of her past or risk losing a second chance at love. Can she learn to live an unbridled life?

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Category: Contemporary Women Writers, How To and Tips