Journey

Don't stop believing

Hold on to that feeling...

The words fade. (As does the first season of Glee that brought this fabulous Journey song back into the limelight. Wasn't that a different world.) However, my journey has been on my mind a lot lately. Especially the long boring years where nothing happened. Work. Home. Sleep. Repeat. Words percolated in my mind, blossoming into themes, stories, fairytales. Even when I was doing something else, like sleeping, they'd wake me up with their insistence. Write me down, they seem to demand. My bedside table has been and always will be the receptacle of forgotten images and once grand ideas. 

Don't stop believing...

In my thirties, my best friend forced me to joining a Writing Group. (Really, I think there was arm-twisting involved, maybe the pulling of teeth.) But sitting down with those women, I knew I would be a part of something good.

Short stories, theme writing, and whatever-caught-my-fancy writing filled the months. Until, “Well, what about Beauty and the Beast?” The idea had been at the back of my mind for years, so long that I'd forgotten it somewhere along the way.

Hold on to that feeling...

A beastly Beauty, so wretched only I could love her. I poured the lonely days of my girlhood, my hopes for tomorrow, my humor, and my frustration with my purposeful but romance-free reality into Bella and her story. The process was cathartic. But when I held a copy of Becoming Beauty in my hands, I had no idea how it would change my self-perception. 

Not only was I a writer, I was an author. And other people knew it. (Not the whole universe, but at least some people were aware of it. And they were happy for me.) It took a while for reality to sink in, but when it did, I saw myself differently. I wasn't just The Best Kindergarten Teacher Ever (really, I do have my days!), I was something more. After having one set of dreams for so long, it was nice that the heavens saw fit to gift me with another.

Just like Bella. 

You never know where a journey will lead until you set your feet on the path. Be brave, try something new and scary (like writing and publishing a book) and see what new avenues open up for you.

For more about my journey, try out: Expect the Unexpected, Ready or Not, My First..., Author Envy, or Meet Your Adoring Public. Happy reading! And as always, thanks for dropping in!

For more about Bella's journey, find her and Becoming Beauty on: 

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

books & things

iTunes

Goodreads