Pay it forward

This coming Halloween will mark one year for me as a published author. It has been exhilarating and exasperating both at the same time. I have sold a few but not very many. I have received excellent feedback on both the writing and the stories themselves. One year ago I wouldn't have believed I would have five titles in 'print' but that is just the case.

Newly released is the last book of The Crystal Point Legacy series, Death of Kings. It is the wrap-up of an epic fantasy that involves an all-encompassing war, extreme heroics, betrayal and both personal growth and failure. It is life itself in all its many facets.

I look back at this year and remember how it was to put out something for public inspection. To be candid, I was nervous. I recently gave advice to another author who was putting up his first work. I belong to an author's forum that has been tremendously helpful to me as this year has progressed. His request was simple; read and give some advise. What I read took me back to the beginnings of my writing experience. I started over twenty years ago and received some of the same advice I gave to this new author. I believe he writes in a similar way to myself when I started out. He can craft a story and put words together that flow and have meaning. The trick is to learn some of the ins and outs of the techniques and structure of writing paragraph after paragraph. I have a copy of his work and he is on the path to success.

It's sort of pay-it-forward advice. Had I not received the straightforward yet respectful advice on my work twenty years ago, I may not have learned the lessons I needed to learn. Writing is not just about putting words down on a page to get to the end of a story, it's about creating emotion and placing the reader in the middle of the tale.

I had a complete stranger give me some of the best advice I could get all those years ago. It's simply my time to pass it forward. (Oh, the new book is on the right there at the top). ---->