RL Sutton

See more writing by RL Sutton

View RL Sutton's profile

Add a comment

Subscribe to RL Sutton's RSS feed

Today, I received word my submission towards full membership had been accepted. 

At first, I felt an immense sense of relief.  My odyssey from writing professional ad copy into writing fiction for my self and my family, writing online blogs and guides was as thorny a journey as any.  About six, no seven years ago, I began work on what would become a first novel.  When it was finished I considered whether it was fit to publish, and began another journey of learning as much as I could about the publishing industry through the excercise of self-publishing.  It was exhausting, but very enlightening and thankfully, not too expensive.

I add a warning:  It is not for everybody.  Too many expect too much and become disenchanted with the entire industry.  It can be much too easy to proceed before your work is good enough to see the light of a bookstore.  As education, however, it worked for me.

Of course, in somewhat backwards order, I then thought it might be a good idea to get serious about my craft.  My days in college writing classes and workshops fell away years ago in the trenches of earning a living, but there was a spark that remained. During the waning days of our 20-some-odd year family business, I had actually dashed off two full novels and more than half of the third while sitting behind the cash register counter.  I'm sure this indication of how much time was on my hands is not lost on the reader.  It helped me relieve the sadness of watching a nurtured child -- our gallery -- sicken and fail after 18 years in one location. The act of writing fiction helped me absolve my own guilt in my failing business and pointed me towards a new endeavor.

As my initial relief at the Litopian acceptance of a short story faded, it was replaced with not a small amount of trepidation at what lies ahead.  A great deal of very hard work and ego-slashing commentary awaits.  My hands are actually shaking a bit, but that might be from the coffee.  At the same time, I'm encouraged that my new endeavour -- that of writing novels that I can actually say are as good as they can be -- begins today here in the Houses. 

My skin is appreciably hardened. For the coming pain, I'm grateful.