Guest Post: Holly Schindler on The Power of Sticking With It

By Holly Schindler
for Cynthia Leitich Smith's Cynsations

I got my master’s degree in the spring of ’01. Basking in the glow of a few short publications (poetry, fiction, lit critique), and armed with the belief that a life as a novelist was mine for the taking, I decided to dive headfirst into my writing career.

This was made possible, of course, because of support from my family—Mom knew it had been a lifetime dream, and encouraged me to stay home, turn the spare bedroom into an office, and de...