Most Mondays are a drudgery: finish everything you didn’t have time to get done over the weekend, rush into work, do inventory and paperwork and wait on customers… but this Monday was different. I received an email from Romance Writers’ of America administrative assistant informing me I am now eligible for PAN. For those of you who do not know, this is a group within the RWA―the Published Authors Network. As a published author who has sold a certain amount of books, I am now eligible to join PAN. This is one more step on the ladder of achievement I’d never thought to reach.
For years I didn’t think my stories were good enough. I hid them away but I couldn’t stop writing. My husband David and my best friend, Robina began pushing me to share my work. When I started attending the Pamlico Writers’ Group and The Writers’ Read, I began getting feedback from fellow writers. Marni Graff, Angela Silverthorne and Lane Shroeder each encouraged me to keep writing. They believed in my talent.
Robina dragged me off to my first Romantic Times Readers and Writers Convention where I pitched my story for the first time. I was out on the veranda taking a smoke break when a lady joined me and we began talking. She asked about my writing and thinking she was just another writer, I told her. She informed me, I’d just pitched my story to my first agent. She was gracious offering advice and support. She then offered to read my story and even though it didn’t quite happen, that meeting gave me the confidence to start sending my work out.
Choosing to self-publish Chrome Pink was terrifying. The support I’ve received has been humbling. For a girl who never thought she was quite good enough, to have the love and support of my friends and family is a feeling I cannot put into words. I feel that this accomplishment―reaching PAN, should be shared with all those who have given me the confidence to keep writing.
Thanks to my husband, my bff Robina, my writers’ groups Pamlico Writers’ and Heart of Carolina, The Writers’ Read and Marni Graff, all of you who have bought my first book and those of you who have shown excitement for its sequel.
Thank you!
—
Sherri Lupton Hollister
White Gold
Edge of your seat romantic suspense set in idyllic inner-coastal town.
You must be logged in to post a comment.