‘The Best Things Come, Well, to Those Who Write’ – Guest Post by Kathryn Elizabeth Jones

I recently made the (online) acquaintance of an accomplished author named Kathryn Elizabeth Jones, whose latest release is ‘Conquering Your Goliaths – A Parable of Five Stones.’ She was kind enough to write a guest post about her journey through the novel writing process.

'The Best Things Come, Well, to Those Who Write' by Kathryn Elizabeth Jones

“It was a dark and stormy night…”

Actually I was pregnant with my first daughter and feeling the urge to sit around for awhile and eat doughnuts and Hostess Cupcakes when I first decided I wanted to be a writer.

         

I was bored.

My husband worked full-time and I worked part-time as an Avon representative. In-between adventures selling perfume, lipstick and other necessaries I slept on the couch and ate at my convenience. It was a terrible thing.

         

The good news is that I’d started writing. My first story, “Weebles Wabble,” was fitting in my current situation and I felt happy and renewed after I’d written it. Years later, I dread re-reading it, but it was my first attempt at writer-hood and, for that reason, I still keep it filed away.

         

I really didn’t know anything about writing when I first began, other than I figured it would be pretty easy to publish. All I had to do was write how I felt about things and someone was bound and determined to take my work.

         

I was in for a surprise.

It took eight years; after that first day of writing, to get something published. Most of the stuff I’d written before that was practice, I suppose, a sort of rant about things such as children, a busy husband, cleaning, and an assortment of feeling as if life should be different--somehow.

         

After that first sale, I continued to write, and I continued to publish, but the items were small, paid little, and left me wanting…

         

I should write a novel!

         

I must have been crazy to think that I could pull that first novel out of a hat, because it didn’t work out that way. For years I struggled to sell, and when I did, it was never a book.

         

But in 2002 something changed. I don’t know if the change was an inner one, or just one that had to happen because I’d spent years perfecting the craft, but there is was, in middle-reader black and white. “A River of Stones” was born.

         

I’d finally made it!

I did all I could to sell my book; did most of my marketing, had a few sales, but the journey just wasn’t what I expected. Even the book signings were more like some sort of ghost town surprise. It just didn’t make sense.

And I just didn’t get it. So I went to college and got a degree in Mass

Communication. I minored in Creative Writing just so I could keep the creative juices flowing, but I wasn’t so sure I would ever publish a book again though I had written many that were shelved in the same cabinet along with my first piece of work.

         

It took me ten more years from publishing my first book to publish my second book, “Conquering your Goliaths—A Parable of the Five Stones,”  and this time around? The sailing, (Can I say it?) is a bit smoother.

         

I like what’s happened with my book, and I like that I’ve opened myself up to share what I know is true. And I like that people are actually interested in buying my book. I’m gutsier now that I am (cringe) 50, and I’d like to think that all of that experience writing since the birth of my first daughter has finally come to something great.

         

And it’s about time. 

Thanks, Kathryn, for sharing your inspirational journey!

Please come back tomorrow to learn more about her book, ‘Conquering Your Goliaths – A Parable of the Five Stones’ and how you can win a personally autographed copy!