As A Newly Self Published Author, I Am Amazed By How Many People Have Told Me That They Have A Novel Or Idea For A Book That They Always Wanted To Have Published. I Usually Tell These Aspiring Writers That It Can Happen And, If They Are Willing To Listen, I Tell Them My Story About How I Self Published My Book. I Have Always Enjoyed Writing, Mostly For My Own Enjoyment, But Knew I Had A Talent For Creative Writing. My First Audience Was My Co-workers At A Bank I Worked For In Seattle, Where Everyday, I Filled In For The Receptionist While She When To Lunch. During That Hour, I Wrote Installments To A Suspense Thriller, Set On The Oregon Coast, Which I Shared With The Other Assistants On The Floor Who Eagerly Awaited My New Chapters. Years Later, I Moved To Hawaii And Sent Regular Email Updates Of My Adventures To My Friends, Which I Called Memos From Maui. Living In Hawaii Is Kind Of Like Living In A Foreign Country And I Had Fun Sharing My Observations Of Life On A Tropical Island. Memos From Maui Were Well Received And I Knew Then That I Was Hooked; I Had To Do Something With My Writing. Like The Aspiring Writers I Mentioned Earlier, I Too Was Engaged In Making A Living As Well As Dealing With Lifes Other Distractions. I Have Had A Number Of Different Careers, But None Gave Me The Satisfaction I Felt When I Had People Tell Me That They Liked My Writing.Returning To The Mainland, I Settled Into A Familiar Routine Of Working For A Living. One Day, I Picked Up A Learning Annex Catalog And Came Across A Screenwriting Class And Decided To Enroll. The Instructors Name Was Lew Hunter, Who For Years Taught His Screenwriting 434 At The UCLA Film School. His Method For Writing A Screenplay Is A Formula Based On The Three-act Greek Play. His Class Taught Specific Methods Of Story And Character Development. It Gave Me An Entirely Different Set Of Tools As A Writer And I Began To Write My First Screenplay. After 3 Months Of Writing, I Completed Dance Of The Heart. The Method Of Writing I Learned From Lew Made The Process Of Writing Much More Structured And As A Result, Made Writing Easier. I Sent My Screenplay Off To A Couple Of Screenwriting Competitions And Readers, But Like Most Screenplays That Are Written, It Didnt Get Noticed. My Story Sat In My Files For About 5 Years Until I Decided That I Believed In My Story And That I Would Rewrite It Into A Novel. I Took Me About A Year, But I Finally Finished Dance Of The Heart As A Novel.When I Was Ready To Explore How To Get Published, I Again Picked Up A Learning Annex Catalog And Found A Daylong Book Camp, Which Was A Workshop On How To Publish A Book. It Was An Informative Day And I Quickly Realized That Getting My Book Published By A Traditional Publisher Was As Likely As My Screenplay Being Made Into A Movie. The Good News Was That The Instructor, Penny Sansevieri, A Self-published Author Of From Book To Bookseller, Had Representatives From Companies At The Workshop That Offered Self-publishing Services To Writers. They Provided Me The Technical Support And Expertise That I Lacked And Made It Possible For Me To Publish My Novel. So With Motivation And Dedication, And A Little Help From The Learning Annex, I Am Now A Published Author And Am Quick To Share With Others That They Too Can Realize Their Dream Of Seeing Their Words In Print. Its Just A Matter Of Being Committed To Your Dream; Believing In Your Work And Not Letting Anyone Say It Cant Be Done. I Am Proof That It Can!
