When I was growing up in the 80s, Romance Fiction was deeply fantasy and heavy heat. As I honed my skills as a writer, from the age of ten onward, I determined that love was definitely the most needed genre but that it should be available to as wide an audience as possible. This decision was influenced from a wide pallet that was developed during my youth that included V.C. Andrews, Judy Blume, Toni Morrison and sneaks here and there of Alice Walker’s The Color Purple.
I dug my heels in and followed my interest in writing – expanding to writing nonfiction - where I earned my first paid writing scholarship from the Greater Los Angeles Area Mensa Association in 1990. However, love stories with an emphasis on youth or new adults, in some aspect, remained my passion.
As an English major at a historically black college that emphasized the role of influence that the Bible may have had on certain classic writers and works such as by John Milton, William Shakespeare and Harriet Beecher Stowe, I learned how to analyze a story and increased my understanding of African American authors I’d loved since childhood.
Then came Terri McMillan’s Waiting to Exhale. I found her work to not only be a lot of fun with a great and seemingly simple style that I could continue to learn from, but I found that she was in the vein of both the classical greats like Zora Neale Hurston and my popcorn favorites who also veiled the intricacies of their style like Jackie Collins.
What’s good about a degree in English is that you learn to explore different forms of writing as well as analyze what works and doesn’t work for some of the most renowned writer. You learn what makes a good story and you have the skills (though you may doubt them) to begin work in the industry.
I began my career as an adult with a degree in English as an intern at McGraw-Hill Publishing in New York. It was 1994. That same year, I won a contest for poetry based on a hybrid memoir inspired poem entitled Children of the Night. It marked my first publication as a writer.
Over the years, a writer’s career evolves. We may start with one interest and expand to other genres as we try to learn our own unique style and develop our voice. Degreed or not, every writer must approach and begin to climb this mountain.
Often it involves periods where we are writing and submitting with no response or plenty of formal rejections. You may give up for a short while or for decades, but eventually you either take the pen or typewriter (at the time) out or you struggle to know how to live with the stories that live and actually want to grow inside the world they hope you express and realize for them.
I didn’t write my first novel until 2006. By that time, I had amassed some life experience, work experience and continued immersion in creativity. Ironically enough though, it wasn’t the intermittent publications of my work and continued encouragement from peers that gave me the confidence and the words to feel my true idea (which I had tried to develop since circa 1998) had been birthed; but a one to one bible study with a religion I still practice to some degree and admire greatly.
Understanding as I did that The Source for creativity can be whatever the writer’s understanding of God or creator is, I found that I finished my first novel like a pantser, though I do not consider myself to be one. In fact, I am just learning to write with outlines when I desire to finish a project quickly.
Lessons Learned
Most of my lessons in writing, I’ve taken from consciously studying the writing style of other authors in my down time between careers as a clerical assistant in the entertainment industry, an actor in pursuit of knowing more about self-expression, and as a social worker at the Master’s level.
My favorite piece of advice (in fact I drink up all he has to say writing wise but have never read one of his books and barely seen movies inspired by his work because of the genre) usually comes from Stephen King. He once said a writer should never throw away any of their writing. That was something I’ve practiced since I began to submit to writing contests and assignments at the age of 17.
While some seem to get a lot of satisfaction from being a “published author”, I believe you are an author the minute you agree that you are going to write and you begin to practice. From my experience with interviewing some bestselling authors, we writers know early, begin practice at young ages and can focus on skill while knowing that ‘the cream always rises to the top’. That’s a bible promise actually.
What Kind of Romance Writer Am I?
I find that though my first book, Ring Envy, still available with book sellers online, is best considered to be Christian Fiction in the Romance Genre, I most desire to never be limited to one style, genre, or even tropes. In fact, I don’t believe that most writers in their heart or practice are.
I’ve dabbled in poetry, non-fiction essay, journalistic style author interviews, articles and now speculative science fiction. I also have a love of screenwriting though I’ve decided to keep my focus primarily on novels.
Because creativity can be whatever the writer’s understanding of God or creator is, I found that I finished my first novel like a pantser, though I do not consider myself to be one. In fact, I am just learning to write with outlines when I desire to finish a project quickly.
Lessons Learned
Most of my lessons in writing, I’ve taken from consciously studying the writing style of other authors in my down time between careers as a clerical assistant in the entertainment industry, an actor in pursuit of knowing more about self-expression, and as a social worker at the Master’s level.
My favorite piece of advice (in fact I drink up all he has to say writing wise but have never read one of his books and barely seen movies inspired by his work because of the genre) usually comes from Stephen King. He once said a writer should never throw away any of their writing. That was something I’ve practiced since I began to submit to writing contests and assignments at the age of 17.
While some seem to get a lot of satisfaction from being a “published author”, I believe you are an author the minute you agree that you are going to write and you begin to practice. From my experience with interviewing some bestselling authors, we writers know early, begin practice at young ages and can focus on skill while knowing that ‘the cream always rises to the top’. That’s a bible promise actually.
What Kind of Romance Writer Am I?
I find that though my first book, Ring Envy, still available with book sellers online, is best considered to be Christian Fiction in the Romance Genre, I most desire to never be limited to one style, genre, or even tropes. In fact, I don’t believe that most writers in their heart or practice are.
I’ve dabbled in poetry, non-fiction essay, journalistic style author interviews, articles and now speculative science fiction. I also have a love of screenwriting though I’ve decided to keep my focus primarily on novels.
Because creativity can be whatever the writer’s understanding of God or creator is, I found that I finished my first novel like a pantser, though I do not consider myself to be one. In fact, I am just learning to write with outlines when I desire to finish a project quickly.
Most of my lessons in writing, I’ve taken from consciously studying the writing style of other authors in my down time between careers as a clerical assistant in the entertainment industry, an actor in pursuit of knowing more about self-expression, and as a social worker at the Master’s level.
My favorite piece of advice (in fact I drink up all he has to say writing wise but have never read one of his books and barely seen movies inspired by his work because of the genre) usually comes from Stephen King. He once said a writer should never throw away any of their writing. That was something I’ve practiced since I began to submit to writing contests and assignments at the age of 17.
While some seem to get a lot of satisfaction from being a “published author”, I believe you are an author the minute you agree that you are going to write and you begin to practice. From my experience with interviewing some bestselling authors, we writers know early, begin practice at young ages and can focus on skill while knowing that ‘the cream always rises to the top’. That’s a bible promise actually.
What Kind of Romance Writer Am I?
I find that though my first book, Ring Envy, still available with book sellers online, is best considered to be Christian Fiction in the Romance Genre, I most desire to never be limited to one style, genre, or even tropes. In fact, I don’t believe that most writers in their heart or practice are.
I’ve dabbled in poetry, non-fiction essay, journalistic style author interviews, articles and now speculative science fiction. I also have a love of screenwriting though I’ve decided to keep my focus primarily on novels.
Because creativity can be whatever the writer’s understanding of God or creator is, I found that I finished my first novel like a pantser, though I do not consider myself to be one. In fact, I am just learning to write with outlines when I desire to finish a project quickly.
My favorite piece of advice (in fact I drink up all he has to say writing wise but have never read one of his books and barely seen movies inspired by his work because of the genre) usually comes from Stephen King. He once said a writer should never throw away any of their writing. That was something I’ve practiced since I began to submit to writing contests and assignments at the age of 17.
While some seem to get a lot of satisfaction from being a “published author”, I believe you are an author the minute you agree that you are going to write and you begin to practice. From my experience with interviewing some bestselling authors, we writers know early, begin practice at young ages and can focus on skill while knowing that ‘the cream always rises to the top’. That’s a bible promise actually.
What Kind of Romance Writer Am I?
I find that though my first book, Ring Envy, still available with book sellers online, is best considered to be Christian Fiction in the Romance Genre, I most desire to never be limited to one style, genre, or even tropes. In fact, I don’t believe that most writers in their heart or practice are.
I’ve dabbled in poetry, non-fiction essay, journalistic style author interviews, articles and now speculative science fiction. I also have a love of screenwriting though I’ve decided to keep my focus primarily on novels. They are both a challenge and an artistic endeavor that transfers easily to other mediums.
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