Authors' Journeys

Liz Kreger

We have to talk about our Writer's Journey, huh? Geez ... let's see. That began so many years ago. I'm 46 years old right now, so I guess I have to say that my journey began when I was 10. I was a voracious reader and was fascinated by the fact that people actually wrote the stories that I consumed. I would copy simple stories into a notebook and pretend that I'd written them. It was a short leap to actually beginning to create my own tales. In those days it was mostly about horses and other critters. I wish I could find those notebooks now. I'd love to see what I attempted to write so many years ago.

Fast forward to my late teens when I discovered Harlequin Categories. I read those by the bucket and figured it couldn't possibly be too difficult to write one. Was I wrong! Those suckers are HARD to write. I didn't get far with that attempt. I moved on to historicals, then contemporaries, both without success. I couldn't find a story that held my interest long enough to get past the first five chapters.

I gradually got bored with categories and historicals began to feel repetitious, so I began reading science fiction. Read it for years until one day, on a whim, I wandered into the romance section of a book store and discovered something called paranormals. Imagine my surprise. A combination of romance and science fiction. I'd found my calling (and my genre). Sat down, began writing and I think I finished that first book in about four months. All 600 pages of it! I was completely clueless when it came to getting published. Taking a step in the right direction, I attended the Romantic Times conference in Orlando, Florida and discovered people just like me! I was amazed. I was thrilled. I was relieved. It was also then that I discovered Romance Writers of America.

Since joining RWA, I learned so much. I actually had a clue as to what I was doing. I was invited by Edie Ramer to join a crit group and I haven't looked back since. My writing has improved in leaps and bounds and I've since written five books (all paranormals). My biggest thrill was when "Forget About Tomorrow" was published by Samhain Publishing, Ltd. It came out in ebook format in April of 2007 and will be coming out in print February of 2008. My second book, "Promise for Tomorrow" will be released in ebook format in November of this year.

Was it a difficult journey? You bet it was. Writing is not for the faint of heart. It's hard work. It's discipline. It's rejection and disappointment. But most of all, it's a joy. There is such satisfaction in finishing a tale and knowing that one day, it will be in print. Sorta like when I was a kid and reliving that fascination when I held a book in my hands and knew that someone had actually created this.

I always wondered what I wanted to be when I grew up. Little did I know that it wasn't until I was 46 years old that I discovered that what I wanted most in the world was to be a published author.