Wow. My first blog entry. If you’d told me a year ago that I’d be starting a blog I would’ve laughed in your face. Hello followers! My name is Kirsten Hendrickson, happily married mother of two, and one who’s apparently crazy enough to have an ambition.
Thank you for embarking on this journey with me. I’m so excited. I’ve always wanted to be a published author, ever since I can remember. Not sure why it took me until I was 47 to take the leap but here I am. Maybe it was self-confidence, or lack there of. But part of me wishes I started this road at a younger age, then I would have more time to enjoy it, this art of story telling.
First of all I’d like to apologize for any spelling, grammar, or punctuation mistakes. I’m so use to my word processor, and my Editor fixing everything, I’m terribly spoiled. Oh and I’m new at blogging too so I’ll be an idiot as to how all of this works. Someone told me that I need to start a blog, so here I am.
“What the heck am I gonna talk about?” I asked them.
“Treat it like a journal, or log book of your writing experiences so others can follow your progress, and learn from you” they said.
So for the past couple of years I have written several, I’m thinking seven, revisions of a suspense/romance novel. I believe I may soon have a final draft. Some have told me it’s actually called ‘Women’s Fiction’, what I’m writing. Of course this statement, final draft, is funny. Ask anyone on my Facebook feed, they’ll tell you I’ve said this before.
I’ll bring my ‘finished’ manuscript to my Editor/mentor with a proud smile on my face, only to leave with my head hung in defeat. But you know what they say, nothing worth doing is ever easy. I love my Editor, without her I would be lost in a sea of low-grade E fiction with no audience. It’s my biggest dream to move people with my stories. And by move I mean in either a northerly or southerly direction. Someday soon, after my book is on a shelf many of my readers may be quoted, saying:
“Why would you give any kind of literary spotlight, albeit negative, to terrorism?” or,
“Why on earth would you support the Italian Mafia by writing them into a romance novel?”or,
“Why would have your heroin protagonist snorting cocaine?”
Well, the answer to that last one is because good fiction depicts flashes of real life amongst the fantasy we dream up, and in real life people make mistakes, we are all human.
When I tell people I write romance they usually form a picture in their minds. That picture? A bodice ripping historical western with a lusty, sheet slipping plot that gets your hormones racing in five directions. The girl ends up winning the cowboy, and they ride off into the sunset. The book I have in the works couldn’t be farther from that.
Romance, from my perspective, has evolved immensely over the years. Strong heroines, provocative protagonists, racy, controversial antagonists, and challenging plots are shaping this industry. What I’ve learnt so far from some of these folks? I know very little. I’m a rookie in this literary world, but man, this journey is going to be a wild one.
First thing I have to do is finish my book, I’m thirty thousand words away, 60,000 so far, I’ll tell you about it in a minute. Second, I need to write a synopsis. I HATE WRITING A SYNOPSIS! It’s like trying to stuff a twenty-five pound turkey into a convection oven. But unfortunately, in order to submit manuscripts to publishers an author needs a synopsis, a query letter and a miracle.
Hopefully soon I’ll have something I can post, a teaser.
Until my next blog friends, thanks for you time!
Kirsten, Momsfirstblog.
Mom's Journey To Her First Book 