About Candice

I’ve realized that if I don’t write, I don’t sleep (not that being a mom is condusive to sleep in the first place). So, rather than spend my life as an insomniac, I’ve decided to put my ideas on paper during the day and let my mind rest at night. This site is dedicated to my journey to taking the next step and becoming a published author. At this point my stories and poems only grace the homes of my friends and family and the occasional website, but soon I hope to submit my inner most thoughts to complete strangers and open myself up for praise or ridicule, which ever happens to come my way (I’d prefer the former, but I will take the latter if it means my novel is on a bookstore shelf somewhere).

I started off, as many writers do, as an avid reader.  I used to get in trouble as a teeenager for reading too much (not a common complaint among parents of tennagers), but I must admit my reading interfered with my chores and homework at times.  I also loved writing poetry and prose, and even won a few contests, but it wasn’t until recently that I discoverd my true love, writing novels.  I found myself waking up in the middle of the night with ideas for characters.  I would rush to the office and grab a notebook and start scribbling furiously, sometimes filling up ten pages with ideas.  Then the following morning I would try to decipher what I had written, which was no easy task.  Finally, I decided to let my creativity loose during normal daylight hours; I sat down and wrote a two-page prologue. 

I didn’t think much of what I had done until I got the courage to hand it to a few people. I started with my husband who loved it (he later told me he loved it so much he couldn’t believe how bad my first chapter was, though he didn’t say so at the time, smart man).  His enthusiasm about it empowered me, and I began giving it to a few other select people, including a writer friend.  They all loved it.  Now, I know it’s important to be careful of feedback you recieve from friends and family, and I am, but what I found interesting was that I began getting constant requests for more pages.  One of my readers would call or email and say, “Can I just have a page or even a few paragraphs?”, and if I didn’t write for a few days I heard complaining about my lack of progress.  I realized at that point I really wanted to finish my story.  It was, after all, floating around in my head, and it wasn’t going anywhere, so I might as well share it with others, I thought.  

I have since recognized that it’s unfair to say that a writer is just lucky or talented.  I almost consider that an insult.  Certainly, you have to have an inclination, but you also have to be willing to pay the price.  Writing my books is a labor of love and extremely fulfilling, but it is definitely work.  In the past months I have spent countless hours writing, reading, editing, swallowing my pride, listening to criticism along with the compliments, and researching literary agents. 

Even when I’m not actively working on my books, I’m thinking about the plots and the characters; they speak to me when I’m doing the dishes and laundry or playing with my son or laying in my bed.  At times, I feel like I’m a slave to do their bidding and tell their story.  Does that sound dramatic or crazy?  Sometimes it does to me, but fortunately my husband is a psychologist and has assured me that he will let me know if I ever cross the line.  I think I’m doing okay.

So that’s my story so far…