It’s been a long journey.

What exactly is your first novel? The first one you write? Or, the first one you publish? Does that include self-publishing or do you need the imprint of a “real” publisher to claim first novel status? And given the state of the industry, what is a “real” publisher? Do we even know? Hard to figure. If you research most authors, I bet you will find a treasure trove of written but never published manuscripts serving as the foundation for “the first one”.

However you decide to qualify, “first novel”, my hat is off to anyone with the imagination and discipline to actually make up and write a several hundred page story. Because that is what it is really about; the need to create something. To exercise that creative muscle, watch it grow and get stronger with each session at the keyboard.

I’m getting published this coming November. First novel? Second? How many shitty manuscripts did I have to write before “the one”? I won’t bore you with the semantics.

Hopefully I won’t bore you with my novel, either. Let’s just say, all things considered, I’m pretty damned pleased with myself.