A Look Back

It has been a little over a year since I made the decision to pursue writing as a full time venture. Well, as full time as I can with the kids, but even with everything else on my plate I have tried to give my writing career a strong push.

My first step was starting this blog at the suggestion of a romance author from the one place I want to visit- Ireland. Derick Hudson has written two extremely funny, off-beat novels and self-published them. He uses his blog as well as other social media sites to help publicize his work.

I took his advice and here I am. My fiction career may not be growing by leaps and bounds, but my freelance one is taking baby steps forward. Thankfully, I have an understanding spouse.

My first paying job as a freelancer was with Rant Political where I wrote news and opinion pieces. While my rant needed some work, I really enjoyed writing news pieces and was more than a little sad after the website shut down after four months.

My next gig was covering the New Jersey Devils for Rant Sports. Now, if I could pick my dream job, it would be as a travel writer, but being a sports writer is a close second.

These two positions as well as some other small writing jobs along the way have helped to give me some experience and confidence as a writer.

Last week, I started my new position at http://www.hubsm.com/ where I get to write mostly hockey features which I love to do.

It would be awesome to say I am a former player, but the truth is I took skating lessons a few years ago just to be able to keep up with my boys on the ice.

I have grown up around sports and with two hockey playing sons and a husband who plays as well, I have developed a fondness for the sport and am very excited about my new position.

My new editor worked in the newspaper field for sometime before moving on to a second career so it was really great to hear from him that I had the chops as a writer.

Now, I know that I still have a long way to go, but I am committed to staying on the writing path. It is finally time to clean out all of my old teaching stuff from the basement and turn the page.

I also have not given up on my fiction career. Secrets, Lies and Trash just went out to another publisher last week. Here's to hoping it eventually finds a home!