Encouraged, pushed forwards, and Caught.

A few years ago I joined my first social networking site, Gather.com, and met, amongst other good friends, a wonderful lady called Sarah Collins Honenberger. Knowing she was a genuine published author (I bought and enjoyed her first book, White Lies), I was amazed by Sarah's kind and encouraging comments on my writing. So, when she suggested I submit something to an online magazine, I plucked up courage and asked which one. Sarah suggested NightsandWeekends.com, who had already published something of hers (Night Noises). So I tried, and they said yes. My journey began!

Some time later Sarah Collins Honenberger's second book came out, Waltzing Cowboys, and she offered me a book exchange, her second real book for my second self-published one! A real live author actually my book and wanted a review from me! And so my years of book-reviewing began.

We met again, online, in the Amazon Breakout Novel Awards competition. My Divide by Zero made the quarter finals. Catcher, Caught, by Sarah Collins Honenberger, most deservedly went further. Divide by Zero, much edited and remodeled, will come out in print this summer (July 2012, from Stonegarden), so in a way Sarah, with her continued kind comments and encouragement, has pushed me yet again in the direction I wanted to go. Meanwhile...

Meanwhile Catcher, Caught isn't just in print. It's in schools! Building on J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, it tells the modern-day tale of a teen diagnosed with leukemia as he follows Holden Caulfield's lead, questioning authority, searching for identity in the face of death. A 21st century re-telling perhaps.

I've long dreamed of getting my writing into a bookstore, but Sarah Collins Honenberger dreams further and wider and continues to inspire and encourage me. Congratulations Sarah, and if anyone reading this is looking for a new American best-seller, try Catcher, Caught.

Comments

Liz Grace Davis said…
Wow, Sheila, that's very encouraging. Well done. I'll be sure to check out your book. I wish you lots of sales.
Fun reading your good news.

Malcolm
Congratulations to you, Sheila. Perseverence is the number one factor in writing success. Perseverence to edit, to learn skills, to practice, and to seek publication. Sheila is a perfect example. It took me three novels and fifteen years to have an Amazon bestseller, but it's been the most satisfying thing I've ever done (beyond 3 brilliant children and 34 years of marriage). To create characters in a way that entices readers to want them to solve their problems requires hard work and exercizing your imagination on a much deeper level to reach that underlying resonance that speaks to readers.

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