POD: the Intro

Something amazing has taken place in my life recently, and I’ve realized and accepted that it deserves a place on this blog as much as any and all of my glorious music-happenings do. The tagline of my life (i.e., Blog) is Violinist, Author, Composer/Arranger, and Educator, right? So what’s up with this new Author part, anyway? I know, many of my closest friends out there have already been lambasted with all the nitty-gritty details behind this news for about the past year or so, and the avalanche keeps coming as things get moving, faster and faster here. I apologize ahead of time if any of you feel this is overkill, lol! But I felt it’s finally time to move this announcement to an official place on this blog, since it’s, well, all about Me. Hee hee…

Well, let’s start with a little background…

When I was fourteen, I embarked on a grand adventure. Since I was little girl, I was an author of fiction. I loved it! I’d experimented with all sorts of stories, in school and out of school, mainly in either the sci-fi or mystery genres. Some of my more “milestone” works included a seven page sic-fi story I type-wrote (yes, on a typewriter!!!! Fond memories, sigh…) in grade school, called, “Journey to the Edge of the Universe”; that little story actually won a finalist prize in a State competition – I was really proud of myself! Duly encouraged, I wrote my first “novel” (I don’t remember, perhaps it was a whopping twenty or thirty pages??) – a Nancy Drew knock-off about three girls going around solving a mystery – pretty gruesome murders in that tale, too, if I remember right. Ha! After that, I wrote a sequel, about the continuing adventures of the same characters. The summer before I was to start high school, I was preparing to write the third “book” in this warped little “series” of mine…

Then, I had a dream. I know, kinda cliché… But it’s true. And that dream was the depiction of what was to become, years later, the Prologue for In Pursuit of Truth.

Spurred on by this lightning-strike of inspiration, I spent my high school years writing out this new and strikingly different book – and yes, it was turning into a real Book! – while simultaneously pursing my musical exploits on the violin. I was such a rebel – if I wasn’t practicing, I was writing – and, usually, I was writing instead of practicing… Then, toward the end of the creation of this new work’s original draft, I saw the makings of an amazing sequel…

Approaching the college-years, I really didn’t know whether I wanted to pursue music or writing. In fact, I once had to write an essay to be considered for a college scholarship about what I intended to study. And I pretty well said, either writing or music! I was completely torn!! But, all violinist Kay Pech had to tell me was, if I majored in music I could take free lessons with her. That did it! I studied music! The rest of that angle of my life is history, the most well-known part of my history…

In between studying and touring and playing, and all the amazing places life took me, I still persisted in the writing of these two amazing novels! And then, somewhere in the midst of it all, I began to write a third – this crazy story was to be an epic trilogy! I was excited because it was unlike anything I’d written before… But it was challenging to keep plugging away at it consistently with everything else going on in my life as I grew (especially since it doesn’t “bring home the bacon” on the front edge of it). I went through two major re-writes of the first two books (with many, many little re-writes), before the milestone event to change the course of these works came in a little point of inspiration…

I had hardly shared this part of my life with anyone, but one casual conversation with a good friend at a Dragonas concert (you know who you are! ) opened my heart to share what I had “cookin’” in the background of my crazy life… I sent him what I had written of the Prologue of the second book of this “epic trilogy”, and he wrote back utterly raving about it! I was so enormously touched and encouraged by his words (and his demands to see more!) that I took up the challenge to do these works justice and finish!…

With the encouragement and constant prodding of a few eager friends, I started a massive ReWrite project in the middle – completely re-working and fixing up the “Author’s Cut” of the second book! By that time, more friends caught wind of what I was doing, and demanded to see it – BUT, they wanted to read the tale from the beginning! So, I dove into the complete re-working of the first book; this was exhilarating to say the least, going back and updating the nostalgic tale that started me on this path at fourteen years of age!

Thanks to weekly reading sessions that began to take place (thank you, Danielle!), a small band of “nerdy fans” developed and pushed me hard to finish the first book, as we gathered regularly to read the chapters I had just finished each week past. It was this excited nudging that pushed me onward, and gave me the courage to work toward furthering this journey!

So where am I now? As of this post, I am delighted and proud to say, Books 1 and 2 of my seventeen year old trilogy are at last complete! They are more complex and beautiful than I could have ever hoped they would be. I don’t regret any of the time that has passed, for it has allowed me to grow and develop in my own life and lessons-learned, that I might apply all I am, and have become, to these characters and their Universe. I am currently putting together a professional proposal for submission to publishers (I have my list!); right now, I’m working through the synopsis of Book 1 – which has been an interesting challenge for me, indeed! Those of you who’ve read Book 1 can understand! At the same time, I have begun the massive re-working of Book 3. A lot of notes, a lot of planning… It’s exciting times, let me tell you!

[Update: Currently, the synopsis for book 1 has been finished and the proposal for Tor Publishing has been received in New York; I'm expecting to hear back sometime during or after February 2012... And in the meantime, I'm working hard on the 3rd Book: Rivalry of Power...]

Last note: why the POD indication in this post’s title?? Well, that’s sort of an inside joke! It’s an acronym for the original working titles for this trilogy, and I’ve always just referred to them as such on the whole. I have a silly affection for it; I might reveal what it stands for eventually, to some of you! Hahaha!…. For now, content yourself in knowing that, from now on, if you see POD in the title of a post, it will be in reference to this trilogy project… unless I change my mind later, haha…!

I will begin faithfully sharing my thoughts and experiences, and any news and events to come, related to this literary life of mine on this blog, alongside my musical exploits!

(Further thoughts…!)

What is this “amazing” Trilogy about, anyway?

How has writing and studying music helped me in the writing of these books?