And We're Off!

Hello, dear readers!  Kassie here, ready to embark on what I HOPE to be a journey of self-discovery, creativity, and networking to rival that of no other author who has ever lived.  Lofty dreams, huh?  My mama always told me to dream big, so why not reach for the stars?

A little about me for those not in "the know:" First and foremost, I am a mommy to two inspiring, creative, and hopelessly hilarious children.  Miss Hannah, at the ripe old age of 9, is the drama queen in the family, happy to sing and dance and draw her way into the future, and Mr. Ian... oh, Mr. Ian... at almost 4, he's single-handedly changed my life in more ways than one.  People on my personal Facebook frequently check in just to see what Ian antics I have shared today (because let's face it... it's better to laugh than to cry, right?  Right?  What?  You're like me and tend to do both?  Yay!  I don't feel so alone now!)

I'm also a wife.  Marriage is... a challenge.  I'm a bit of a control freak, and have a very hard time letting go enough to just enjoy it.  I have to second-guess everything, feel the need to defend my every action pertaining to the house and finances and what-not, and ... it's just a burden most days.  BUT, my man is a decent human being.  Yes, he has his faults, and yes, we fight, and yes, we will likely continue 'til we self-destruct or survive... either way.  Eleven years of marriage can't be considered a failure by any stretch.  Just sayin'.

So, onto the project.  I plan to use this blog to chronicle my journey to a hopeful career in writing.  My first novel, written over the course of two measly weeks during my husband's deployment to Afghanistan, was inspired by a dream.  I know, that sounds cheesy, but I woke up so enamoured with the story as it unfolded in Dream Land that I couldn't resist.  I jotted down the outline, opened Word, and started typing.  I wrote probably 10 hours a day (thank goodness for my in-laws, who I was staying with at the time, who helped with childcare).  The words flowed and I was so excited.

Then came the reality.  Once I was all finished, I tentatively sent the file to my cousin, an avid reader and intellectual whose opinion I regard like I imagine I'd regard Mother Theresa's... Her initial feedback was very positive (which, I admit, I suspected was due to our being cousins, but later, I accepted with great fervor).  Unfortunately, having written a children's book and sent out a million query letters to publishers before, I knew that getting noticed would be difficult, if not downright impossible.

So I sat on the project.  I refined it.  I read and re-read it.  I edited.  I added details.  I fixed words that weren't quite right.  Then I sat on it some more.  The fact is, I was nervous.  I was nervous about rejection and nervous about having to pour money into it just to MAKE money, etc.  We're a single income family, on a modest Army salary... yes, it's my dream, but... I like feeding my kids, ya know?

My best friend's husband, Scott, encouraged me to check out the Amazon Kindle store, having noticed that one could publish one's material on there.  By this time, I'd branched out and let my mother, best friend Tyffanne, and Scott read it as well, and they were more than impressed.  The fact that Scott, a man's man, was so moved by the story (which I consider to be chick lit in every sense of the term) spoke volumes to me. So I did it.  Within a few days, "Another Eternity" was available on Amazon for Kindle.

Sales were modest... at best.  The only people buying were people I knew... which isn't a bad thing.  I knew it wouldn't be instant success and notoriety.  I had a slew of people who didn't have Kindles or didn't want to read it on their PC, so... I felt like I was at square one again.

That's when I found smashwords.com.  It was like the clouds opened up and sun beamed down on my face.  I heard birds and angel choirs... okay, so that's an exaggeration, but it felt so good, so liberating, to get my book out there, even if "just" in e-book format.  I loved how Smashwords marketed my book FOR me... suddenly, "Another Eternity" was available on Barnes & Noble's website for the Nook... available for Sony e-readers, and Kobo, and Apple... I just sat back and watched as... 3 copies were sold.

Hey.  It's more than I could've done... I think we're up to maybe 30 copies total sold (of course, I don't have the tracking power to know how many were sold via other portals).  My dream, though, is to be discovered, like Amanda Hocking.  Granted, it's one novel.  I have ideas for others swimming around in my brain.  I've been encouraged to write about my experiences with my kids, and that's the latest obsession... trying to decide how to go about that.  But we'll see how it goes.

In the meantime, I'm just plugging away, trying to get noticed via Facebook... trying to get positive reviews that will, hopefully, pay off in the end.  The mere fact that I've already gotten to cross "write and publish a novel" off my bucket list is *almost* enough for me.

'Til next time, friends!