How I Got Here
I post on Instagram on our kids’ birthdays, and then, it’s baby photos from thirty years ago. I’ve never posted on Facebook. Ever. I barely "like" other people's posts because what if I "like" someone's post and someone else sees that I "liked" it, and I hadn’t "liked" their post? This is me. An introvert with severe social media phobia. And now I have a website? What the heck? How did I get here?
I guess it started in the 1980s. That's when I first became an Army spouse. That's when I first thought someone should write the story about these women. A decade later, I knew I had to write their story. They were amazing! Thrown together from all walks of life, they left their families and hometowns, their friends, their jobs. They moved to a random Army post in the middle of nowhere where the only person they knew was their soldier, and that soldier was always in the field or the motor pool or deployed to some faraway place. Yet, these women thrived. They volunteered at the thrift shop, delivered casseroles to people they’d never met, and hung wall plaques that read Home is Where the Army Sends You! I had to write their story.
It took me a while. About forty years. I'll blame having kids and all that. When I finally started to write this story, I’d penned humor columns, articles, editorials, and Christmas card letters. How hard could it be to write a novel? I didn’t know what I didn’t know.
My vision was to write a story that paralleled The Brotherhood of War series written by W.E.B. Griffin. Griffin's series chronicled the lives of a group of soldiers as they rose through the ranks: The Lieutenants, The Captains, The Majors, etc. My story, I hoped, would be from the spouses' perspective. But somehow, as I wrote, my characters, jumped out of the framework I’d drafted and created their own lives. I needed a hook; our house got walloped by a hurricane. And before I knew it, The Roof Above became the story of a young woman’s journey to find belonging.
When I typed “the end” after what seemed like the 167,894th draft, I mistakenly assumed it was “the end”. Did I mention I didn’t know what I didn’t know? After beta readers, critique readers, an editor, software, and more beta readers, I was as done as I could be done. I began the agent hunt. I researched and sent query letters. I felt like I was throwing darts blindfolded. Was I even hitting the dart board? I never knew! The agents seldom replied! After a few months, I took off the blindfold, researched, and approached independent presses. I was thrilled to learn these independent presses actually responded! Miracles abound! I connected with a publisher, Black Rose Writing (BRW), and gained the support and encouragement of the BRW community of professional authors. That whole "I didn't know what I didn't know" was immediately confirmed.
One of the many things I didn’t know was the importance of social media. Hence, this website. I'm contemplating posting a photo on Instagram that isn't thirty years old, but don't hold your breath. And don’t count on any Facebook activity. That’d be pushing it. I'm going to go out on a limb here and declare that introverts with social media aversion are allowed to take baby steps. I’ve got a website! I wrote a book! I hope you enjoy it!