It’s hard to explain how I feel when I’m writing. As difficult as it is to stare down a blank page praying for a strong start to the current project, once the words start flowing it feels like coming home after a long absence. I get a tingle in my toes and butterflies in my middle at the prospect of where my words will lead me. So it’s hard to push that adventure in prose aside, giving my writing a backseat to the business of getting a debut novel published.

Publishing is no easy feat. A retired English teacher and avid book reader recently told me that my book would never get published. And she said this without reading word one of anything I’ve written. This was her opinion? She made this statement without malice because she already knew what I am learning as I prepare query letters and synopsis pages—it is rare to get a contract if you are a virtual unknown.

Take, for instance, the rejected works of Stephen King, John Grisham, and J.K. Rowling. Best-selling novels Carrie, A Time To Kill, and Harry Potter spent time on rejection piles before catching a break and jump-starting stellar careers. To know that those great authors were rejected and kept plugging away gives me hope and the courage to continue my quest to sell Still Life.