Publishing is a difficult industry to break into. There’s the subjective side of it, and then there’s the scamming side. It’s hard to tell who has your best interest in mind. And hearing your book isn’t a good fit, fifty to one-hundred times while elbow deep in the querying trenches can really make you go hmm…
But us authors keep going. We strive to achieve our goals, because our dreams matter, and they are important to each of us. At times we may want to quit, pull our hair out, question our abilities, but when it comes down to it, we don’t write because we want to be famous or rich, we write because it’s in our blood. Telling stories is what gets us through the week. At least for me that’s what it is. I love having a fictional place to go when I need to recharge.
When we grow fond of our worlds, and our characters, we fight for them as if they were real. Finding them the perfect home is scary. We want our book babies to be safe and we put our trust in agents, publishers, editors, and small presses, because we believe that our stories need to be told.
I’ve always wanted to be a published author. I fell in love with the art of writing in fifth grade. My teacher Mrs. Powell made writing fun, and even before that there were always stories in my head. When I’d watch movies or TV, I’d focus on minor characters or even when the lead character’s weren’t on screen I would come up with a scenario in my head; where they were, and what they were doing.
My writing wasn’t always an original idea. In fact most of my first stories were fan fiction on loads of loose leaf paper. Notebooks filled with stories about how Bill and Jo from Twister met in elementary school and fell in love, to stories about crushes, and eventually Hanson, and even Good Charlotte fan fiction, and then dabbling in the world of Twilight too. Writing has always played a significant role in my life.
Flash forward past my days of fan fiction and my obsession over Twilight and all the cringe-worthy writing in between, to late 2012. Becoming a first time mom was challenging and beautiful, but writing took a backseat for a long time.
In 2013, I discovered Wattpad. After diving back into writing with quick fan fiction after a Hanson concert, I’d almost forgotten how amazing it felt to write a story. So I began to write every chance I got. In 2017 I finally wrote my first full length novel, then titled Hanging By A Moment, and more recently known at A Walk In Your Shoes, which was chosen to take part in the Watty’s Bootcamp. I was proud of my accomplishment, even if that first draft was utter crap.
A year later I wrote another one that was originally titled Instant Connection, but after getting chosen as a Mentee for Wattpairs on Wattpad it turned into The Summer I Met You, which currently has over 13k reads.
I swear I’m almost done. Flash forward to NaNoWrimo 2020. I buckled down and wrote my first adult novel based off of a Wattpad writing prompt. The characters refused to leave my head, they wanted their story told. January of 2021 I received my first full request for a mentorship outside of Wattpad. Although I was not chosen, I was provided with great feedback. I went on to Revpit where I received another request, and then WriteMentor with my YA that received two. At this point I felt confident enough to start querying.
Within the first few weeks I’d gotten a full request from an agent. A few partials rolled in too. In the midst of querying I wrote another novel, The Two Week Promise. It didn’t get as many hits as I would have liked, but I was still determined.
After doing some research, I decided that I wanted to pursue publication with a small press. So I went for it.
On September 30th, I got up around 5am. My middle daughter always ends up in my bed, so I wanted to move her. I couldn’t sleep so I decided to check my email. Sure enough there was my first ever offer from Bloodhound Books. And on top of that it was a three book offer!
I didn’t want to get too excited, because in this Industry you can’t be too sure, but this has always been my dream, and everything went smoothly through negotiations, so I decided to pursue my interest in working with them. Everyone involved has been so welcoming and I cannot wait to start working on my book.
The past few months have been a whirlwind of emotions, but I’ve had the help of several writing friends to guide me and help me through this life changing experience. I am so grateful for them and for my family for encouraging me to keep writing.
I can’t wait to share the rest of this journey with all of you.
Dear 10 year old me writing Twister and Hanson fan fiction in notebooks. Guess what, we made it!! 😁
Regina Brownell - Author 