My road to having River of Tears Published 

River of Tears, as I have stated, was a long journey in and of itself in its writing stages alone. (Its publishing stage is a whole different story) When I started writing it I was doing it more for myself. I had to get those feelings I had inside of me, out. The only way I knew and still to this day was to write them. Be creative and build my own world, making it what it is now.  

Back in November, while browsing the Internet, I came across a fairly new site and they were sponsoring a contest. The winners would win a nice sized publishing package. So of course I read the rules and thought to myself that River of Tears would be the perfect candidate.  

The story has a strong intriguing plot, interesting characters, lots of action and yes, even love. However, at this point in the game the story was not finished. If you can recall it was still in the box with the other unfinished stories, however I was at that time working with Behind Blue Eyes. 

Now, Behind Blue Eyes is a huge three series project, there was just no way for me to get that book done by then and hope to see it win a contest as it was. I don't think the sponsors wanted a three part series anyway. They wanted something like River of Tears. 

I noticed that the cut off date was January 15th. It was November. I said what the heck, I have time.  

Time is an important word here. Time is the one thing many of us run short on; time is the one thing we all wish we had more of. But hey, remember it was November the deadline was months away. Yeah right.  

Anyway, I pulled River of Tears out of the box and began typing it up. Don't forget, I write all of my stories on paper first. I find that I can concentrate better if it's just me, my paper, and my pens. I love my computers, however I have no control at all whatsoever. That means that many times, even in the middle of an important scene or what have you, I'll run to the Internet. Before I know it, an hour has passed and I've lost that time. Of course I'm doing research, but it wasn't something that couldn't have waited till I got to it. This is just a small example.  

Well, there I was, it was mid-November, and I started typing River out. I believe I had the first six chapters on paper and that was it. Those six chapters needed to be rewrote and of course I wasn't finished with the story so I was already behind and did I know this? Nope. I was sure I was just fine. 

Now, I don't know if you're aware of this or not but when a writer writes, they sometimes run into, what I call road blocks. These so-called roadblocks can still a writers mind for days, for weeks, sometimes months, and years. A lot depends on their environment. I know if I have a lot of personal stress running on around me I can only ignore it for so long before it affects me and my writing. When it happens, I'm frozen. It's not that I can't write it's more like my brain's creative side shuts down allowing only room for the stress that's happening. When that happens I get so angry that there are times I really want to find a corner and just scream. It's not often that this happens but when it does, it does.  

I spend a lot more time with my writing than I do anything else, (hubby never has to wear dirty socks and hasn't lost one pound) even when I'm in a rut. I push myself until that stress that threatens to stop me is the one making room for my creative side to take control. I believe the longest I've been at a standstill since I stopped working two years ago, lasted maybe two weeks. This was at the time I decided to work on River.  

Once I rewrote the first six chapters, I had a few personal things come up and I fell into that rut for two weeks. I could get nothing from my characters. They were hiding. By the time I found them again, we were on our way back home to Denver for the holidays. Back home was the magic I needed. I needed to see my grandkids; I needed to see my family. Though I didn't get a lot accomplished while on vacation with River of Tears, I did connect with my plot and my characters in a whole new way. A bright new world had opened and it was all due to my attitude.  

I was treating the stress as the enemy it is and I allowed it to rule me. I allowed it to control me and my mind and once I figured out that's what was going on. I took another approach and wow was I on a roll. 

I had that story finished by January fifteenth and had it submitted into the contest.  

Here's where the fun begins……………… 

To be continued………………