Two years ago, I had never heard the term Women’s Fiction, although I had been reading it for my entire life.
On Women’s Fiction Day 2022 (when I did not know it existed), my last child was leaving toddlerhood, and I knew that it was time for something new in my life. I debated professionalizing my embroidery, creating a business around custom fitted garments, and I started jotting down notes for some of the stories that I had developed in my head. I wasn’t sure which direction to go, but I had been a full-time mother for well over a decade. I love the life I have created around my family, but I felt the need to reach beyond my household and immediate community and build something else in my life.
I decided that I was going to commit to becoming an author. I have worked on novel-length works in the past, and I knew it was a major investment of time and energy, so I took this decision seriously. I set up a work space, blocked out my schedule, and resolved to treat this like a I was taking on any other job: 4-8 hours a day of focused work.
Since I’m still responsible for raising, feeding, and educating five kids (in three different school settings, including two who homeschool) and managing the household, my work time doesn’t look like an office schedule. Some days I can work while the little kids are in school; some days I’m busy with family responsibilities all day and get in a few hours at night; some weeks have zero-work days and long-work days. Overall, though, over the last two years I really have averaged at least 6 hours of work each day relating to an author career.
That first autumn, I drafted my first (this time around) manuscript and joined the Women’s Fiction Writers Association. The WFWA gave me purpose, direction, and education. I started working with critique partners who are now some of my trusted friends, and I rewrote my entire manuscript to share it with them I entered it in a competition, and – most fortuitously of all – I joined the HistFic group and a little spin-off called “the anthology committee.” We have met every single Tuesday ever since then.
Around Women’s Fiction Day one year ago, I learned I was a finalist for the Rising Star competition. I absolutely could not believe it! I had thought I couldn’t see where to go next with my first manuscript, but that summer I dove in and completely re-wrote it, as well as finished drafting my second novel. That fall, I queried “The Bonnet Brigade,” attended multiple writing conferences, learned so much more about craft, and began to visualize becoming a fiction editor as well as writer. I made even more writing connections, friends as well as established writers and editors who took the time to talk with me. I did major edits on both my manuscripts and they began to take a real form.
That winter, I succeeded at the first major milestone of becoming traditionally published when I signed with a literary agent. I am proud to be represented by Kristina Sutton Lennon of Focused Artists, and we have been working together to get ready to send my work out on submission to publishers.
Meanwhile, I have started my next novel, taken my first research trip (to northern England), worked on social media accounts, planned a Substack newsletter, and worked with the other anthologists through all the detailed steps to self-publish… oh, and revised my first manuscript.
This Women’s Fiction Day, 2024, I am officially a published author. That little committee has kept working consistently and passionately, and compiled 23 stories into a real, live book. I can search and find me on Amazon and GoodReads. I am proud of how much I have accomplished as a writer in the last two years, but I’m also so proud to work with so many other amazing authors.
I am proud of all the 17 authors who are selected for our anthology, and I am honored that you have trusted me with your writing. I have worked on every single story depending on what each needs, from brainstorming ways to help emphasize the most interesting points to adjusting capitalization, and then forward to envisioning how to market it, and celebrating every compliment that comes in for every author. I am proud to have spent so much time working and laughing with my excellent co-editors; I have learned so much from all of you.
And now, thinking ahead to the next year of writing, and where I might be for Women’s Fiction Day 2025…
I’m in the middle of revising my first manuscript (again! – in case you’re counting, that’s five top-to-bottom, it’s-a-whole-new-book versions – five!) in order to go out on submission to publishers in September. Soon I will be able to return to my other manuscripts, and believe that now that I have written one book six times, the next six books are going to come together much more gracefully. I can’t wait to see how Feisty Deeds does now that it is out in the world! I want to publish more short-form work, such as more short stories and essays. And hopefully by this time next year, I will have a publishing contract and my next book will be on its way out into the world!
Happy Women’s Fiction Day!
