Be Our Guest...

Join me in welcoming today's guest, Lynn Andrade. She's kindly agreed to stop by and share a few words with us.

Welcome, Lynn.

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I started writing at the age of eight. The first story I wrote won my grade level category in a school-wide competition. The piece concerned something that a kid would consider very important, finding a magical cat. The prize wasn’t college transcript material, but the idea that people found my flights of fancy interesting intrigued my young mind. After all, before that, story-telling tended to get me into trouble.

So I spent my time happily writing away, amusing myself, friends, and family with the things I’d come up with. As I got older, every so often I’d imagine how nice it would be to make writing something more than a thoroughly enjoyed hobby.

Thinking about a writing career is much different than the actual pursuit. I didn’t deal with researching markets, publishers, or trends. I didn’t have to worry about queries, submissions, or rejection letters. Hell, when I spent my time daydreaming, I didn’t even have to finish anything. Not exactly the best course of action for a writer with serious aspirations. But until about three years ago, I was cool with that.

So what changed? Spiritual boot to the head. I decided that my writing had to take a more serious role in my life.

I didn’t really know what to expect when I started this thing. I didn’t even know what I was doing. Truth be told, I’m still a little fuzzy on a lot of the intricacies. Thank the gods for the internet. Writing is the easy part against the workings of the industry. And from everything that I’ve been told, that I’ve seen, and that common sense would dictate, you can never be too informed. I have a bookmark folder full of blogs and pages dedicated to industry information that I regularly read.

There are boring aspects to every job. There are also phenomenally great aspects. Writing is no exception. I’ve spent a while whining about the less than fun things. But those are just as important as the fun stuff. It’s what allows the fun stuff to continue. It’s what keeps a writer and their interests safe for future endeavors. Every time I feel like pouting and throwing a fit, I remind myself of that. And also that I need to stop acting like I’m eight.

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Lynn Andrade suffers from an incurable case of multi-genre-itis, with pieces ranging from literary fiction to horror.She lives with her family (and too many dogs) just off center in Washington state. You can find her random thoughts concerning the writing life at http://lynnandrade.blogspot.com/.