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The Long and Winding Road to Making a Novel

Many of you who visit this blog frequently know that I have had a long and winding road with my fiction and creative nonfiction. I'm working on a book now, set in the magical South Jersey Pine Barrens that started ten years ago as a memoir. I believe fiction allows me to spread my wings and take magical liberties so although it may be based on a true story, it is a work of fiction.

                                                       Photo by Jon Tyson on Upsplash

This book has a thick road behind it littered with rejection letters from agents and publishers. It has also gotten some very promising remarks from agents and some publishers have expressed serious interest in publishing it. It has had deals but they weren't right. As it's my baby, my story in so many different ways, I take the rejections to heart and on the other hand, I deeply appreciate those who "get" the novel.


                                                      Photo by Dustin Lee on Upsplash

Recently, I applied to @storystudio Story Studio's Novel in a Year Program. Low and behold, I got accepted. (Happy Dance). The year-long program with Jac Jemc, focuses around Speculative Fiction. You know that my work delights in folklore, mythology, magic, witchcraft, shamanism and hoodoo, so speculative fiction is my groove. I love magical realism and the art of the dark fairy tale. Our program has just started.

I am a testament to the fact that you don't have to give up on your stories. Especially those most personally meaningful to you. My novel started a decade ago as a memoir. Slowly over the past ten years, it has morphed into a work of fiction, as I've taken it out of the desk drawer, dusted it off and revised.

I'm with a cohort of 11 extraordinarily talented writers from various backgrounds and ages with a rich plethora of stories to tell. I see the ashe in this journey and I'm delighted to be on the path to seeing my first novel get polished and crystal clear.


                                                 Photo by Jeremy Perkins on Upsplash

Blessed Be! Ashe, ashe.

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