Carolyn
asked
Joan Dempsey:
Just dropping in from Facebook to let you know I am here, too. Your page looks great! Very polished and professional. One question about THIS IS HOW IT BEGINS: What took you so long? I've been following your great writing advice blog for quite a while. From your wise, measured advice, I thought you were a veteran writer.
Joan Dempsey
Nice to see you, Carolyn, and thanks for the great question!
I've been a serious writer since 2000, when I took my first fiction workshop at Grub Street Writers in Boston. Since that time, in the margins of my life as I've worked full-time at non-writing jobs, I've worked diligently to learn the craft of writing and build a writing career. I wrote a complete novel, entitled VIGILANT, before I wrote THIS IS HOW IT BEGINS. Agents and publishers to whom I submitted VIGILANT, while praising my chops as a novelist, felt it was too quiet and literary for them to easily sell.
After some time, I was deeply and happily into writing THIS IS HOW IT BEGINS, and continuing to push for the publication of VIGILANT was taking far too much of my precious, in-the-margins-of-my-day-job writing time, and so I set it on a shelf and focused intensely on my second novel.
During the past seventeen years, in addition to writing the two novels, I've published a few short pieces (stories, personal essays), earned my MFA in fiction writing from Antioch University Los Angeles, earned a teaching certificate (in writing—also from Antioch), and have critiqued hundreds of manuscripts by other creative writers (fiction, non-fiction, memoir).
I started writing THIS IS HOW IT BEGINS in October, 2009, completed it in summer, 2015, and it will be published on October 3, 2017. The first 2+ years I spent doing research into the topical areas involved in the novel: the Warsaw ghetto in WWII, the psychology of those who rescued Jews in WWII, the modern day "culture wars" between religious fundamentalists and the LGBT community, art theft and Polish contemporary art, and more. The following three years I wrote for only about an hour a day, and then I quit my day job to focus full time for a year on finishing the novel, which I did. Fourteen months of seeking a publisher, and finally a signed contract with She Writes Press in September of 2016. And here we are!
So, as you can see, I've been an incredibly active writer for seventeen years now, and hopefully you'll find that THIS IS HOW IT BEGINS provides evidence that I am, indeed, a "veteran writer." Not yet widely published, but nonetheless "veteran." :)
Does that help answer your question, Carolyn? Thanks again for asking.
I've been a serious writer since 2000, when I took my first fiction workshop at Grub Street Writers in Boston. Since that time, in the margins of my life as I've worked full-time at non-writing jobs, I've worked diligently to learn the craft of writing and build a writing career. I wrote a complete novel, entitled VIGILANT, before I wrote THIS IS HOW IT BEGINS. Agents and publishers to whom I submitted VIGILANT, while praising my chops as a novelist, felt it was too quiet and literary for them to easily sell.
After some time, I was deeply and happily into writing THIS IS HOW IT BEGINS, and continuing to push for the publication of VIGILANT was taking far too much of my precious, in-the-margins-of-my-day-job writing time, and so I set it on a shelf and focused intensely on my second novel.
During the past seventeen years, in addition to writing the two novels, I've published a few short pieces (stories, personal essays), earned my MFA in fiction writing from Antioch University Los Angeles, earned a teaching certificate (in writing—also from Antioch), and have critiqued hundreds of manuscripts by other creative writers (fiction, non-fiction, memoir).
I started writing THIS IS HOW IT BEGINS in October, 2009, completed it in summer, 2015, and it will be published on October 3, 2017. The first 2+ years I spent doing research into the topical areas involved in the novel: the Warsaw ghetto in WWII, the psychology of those who rescued Jews in WWII, the modern day "culture wars" between religious fundamentalists and the LGBT community, art theft and Polish contemporary art, and more. The following three years I wrote for only about an hour a day, and then I quit my day job to focus full time for a year on finishing the novel, which I did. Fourteen months of seeking a publisher, and finally a signed contract with She Writes Press in September of 2016. And here we are!
So, as you can see, I've been an incredibly active writer for seventeen years now, and hopefully you'll find that THIS IS HOW IT BEGINS provides evidence that I am, indeed, a "veteran writer." Not yet widely published, but nonetheless "veteran." :)
Does that help answer your question, Carolyn? Thanks again for asking.
More Answered Questions
Peter Turnham
asked
Joan Dempsey:
Hi Joan - this is Carol, on Peter's Goodreads page, ie Admin Dept as opposed to Creative Dept! Thanks for the short story - I always print out, read, and pass on to a friend, so it will be shared. It's good to 'meet you'; I hadn't yet discovered your blog? Looking forward to hearing your advice via Inkers.com.
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