To Be a Writer - I'm already there!

Today is March 1st, which means it's 30 days until my novel comes out as an e-book. Snowstorm is my first novel, and it seems like I've been working on it forever. Now, as the release date gets close, I'm happy and excited, but also slightly terrified.

What if, after all the work and anticipation, it isn't well-received? Argh! It's a hard thought to take.

On the other hand, it's another in a long, long series of what ifs. When I started writing, it was "what if" I really could  pull together a novel. Now that would be an accomplishment, I thought, even if nobody else ever looked at it. Then it was, what if it gets good feedback at the writer's conference. When that happened, it was what if an editor asked for it, and liked it, and made a contract offer, and on and on.

So now, here I am thinking what if it sells? What if it doesn't? If it does:: hallelujah! If it doesn't,  I will keep at it, because by now I really am a writer. I will keep writing, that much I know.  I spent too long doing other things and found writing too late to give it up now.

Over the past several years, writing and the challenges of the field have taught me things about myself I never knew. Abilities, values,  faults, and weaknesses have shown themselves to me. Whatever happens with the book and my success, writing teaches the writer to examine things in new ways. And that, I can never give up.