Jump Right In

Good Morning,
I wager most writers start out bashful and insecure about their work. I felt that if I professed to wanting to be an author I would get looked at like I had grown horns. So I hid my work. I wrote back in the day when I had to do it by hand, then I had an old Royal typewriter. I do mean old - 1950 era. Once in awhile I sent out a short story and got back rejections. I look at those stories now and realize their construction was terrible. I sent the usual self addressed envolope with the story. I remember the day my husband got the mail. He asked me why I had written a letter addressed to myself. That was when I spilled the secret to him.
Then my father had Alzheimer's for ten years. I kept a journal as an outlet for my feelings. After he died, I turned that journal into a book written by hand with about 160 thousand words too many - "Hello Alzheimer's Good Bye Dad" (ISBN 1438278276)
Now sold on Amazon and in Lemstone Christian Book Store in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Never thought I would ever have a computer. The day came I decided I wanted to have one if nothing else as a new toy to experiment with just to see if I could master it. What helped is my younger brother is expert at using a computer so I had a built in teacher. I bought the computer and copied the manuscript about my father into it. Step one and it was saved.
Step two: I worked at the Keystone Nursing Care Center as a Certified Nurse Aide. Had plenty of experience with Alzheimer's residents. A nurse said to me, "Why don't you write a book about what you know?" I replied, "I already have." When I explained what the book was about, the nurse asked if she could see it. Although I felt shy about the whole prospect, I printed the book out, put it into a notebook and let her read it. Without me knowing it, she passed it on to the administrator who past it on to a retired teacher who had given me and others a six week writers course in the back of the town library years ago. The book was way too big and poorly written. I knew that. Ten years later, I cut the book down to size and added tips in between the chapters and self published it. Alzheimer's is a disease that people suffering and families suffering need to hear and read that they are not alone. By reading a book like mine, they realize I hope that others are there with the same problem and need help.
How did I get up the nerve to publish this book and the fifteen others I've written? Simple. I had a support system that kept telling me the books were good. I had a retired teacher looking at my early work that edited it for me. These wonderful people bolstered my courage, fed my ego and gave me the nerve it took to keep writing other books and to take the rejections I kept getting with a grain of salt.
Here is an excerpt from "Hello Alzheimer's Good Bye Dad"
Why would I choose to relive ten painful years of my life by writing this book? I could have let the memories fade and continued on with my life, couldn't I? I'll tell you why. Because I know there are other people going through the same situation my family did, caring for a loved one with Alzheimer's disease. It's a lonely disease for the people who have it and for their caregivers as well. Anyone who has been through this has the same kind of stories to tell. If as once was the case with me you are adjusting to the diagnosis, you may not have a clue what to do next. This book isn't just about what happened to us. I wrote the book to show you how to hand the situations we found ourselves in. Hopefully, it will help give you some ideas about what to do when the same thing happens to you.
So give up that hid away book you have written to someone close and let them read it. Find someone who will tell you the truth about the story's weakness. Take the criticism and construct that book to be the best it can be and find a publisher or agent. Plenty of them now that you can email and that keeps down your cost. I have a book so I kept tract of postage and rejections. For one thing, it helped me not to send to the same publisher again. For another, I thought I needed to keep track of my expenses. After years of writing down the expenses for stamps and stationary, I never added it up. No need since I didn't have anything to deduct for income tax. SO JUMP RIGHT IN!
Enjoy the day,
Fay Risner