My guest is best selling author, Julie Ann Walker. She looks more like one of those beautiful women who grace the cover of a book rather than the one who wrote it. Julie's degrees are in mathematics, and while I'm sure she's excellent with numbers, it's her flair with words and dialog that grabbed this reader. I thoroughly enjoyed the fresh perspective Julie brings to special ops fiction and a tough group of former military guys, Black Knights Inc, who ride Harleys and get the bad guys. Love these guys!
Julie talks about her road to publication and the concept of the 10,000 hour rule.
I'm the world's worst when
it comes to a touching story involving my journey to publication...
I hear so many authors speak
of their struggles, their setbacks and heartaches, which then makes the tales
of their eventual victories so sweet I often find myself sitting on my hands
for fear of shooting a crudely impulsive fist in the air. "Huzzah! After eight years and ten manuscripts, she
finally sold!" I LOVE those
stories. Everybody does. Because there's nothing more satisfying than
knowing through struggle, dedication, and perseverance, dreams do come true.
But for me, my writing
career didn't come upon me after the requisite slog. Quite the contrary, it was a freight train, barreling down the
tracks under its own steam, with me just along for the ride. Now, I must set you straight if you're
getting the impression I'm some sort of prodigy. For the record... I. Am. Most. Definitely. Not. It may seem that way when you learn I won
contests with the first manuscript I ever seriously submitted, I snagged an
agent within two weeks of sending out query letters, and I signed a three-book
deal within eight weeks of securing an agent.
But the truth of the matter is, I've written all my life.
Journaling. Blogging. I was the senior editor of my school newspaper. I've been a dedicated pen pal, an amateur
poet, and travel writer for my family vacations since I could put pen to
paper. In short, if I could string all
those sentences and poems, ruminations and letters together, I'd probably have
a catalog of over hundred books.
So, though it may be true, I
didn't suffer through the rejection letters and slush piles. It's my contention the only reason that's
the case is simply because I didn't attempt to publish until I already had
hundreds of thousands of words under my belt.
In Malcolm Gladwell's book, Outliers,
he discusses at length the concept of the 10,000 Hours Rule. Put simply, the
key to success in any field is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing a
specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours. And I'm here to tell you, if I haven't written a total of 10,000
hours in my life, I'm pretty darned close.
Well, then
the question becomes, how did I know
I was ready for publication? How did I
know I'd practiced enough? And the
answer, as uninspiring and trite as it may sound, is that I didn't.
You see, all my life I considered my writing to be a hobby. Something I did for my own pleasure and the
pleasure of close friends and family.
My degrees are in mathematics, and I was very certain I would spend the
rest of my days in the classroom, teaching fresh, young minds the wonders of
Algebra and Calculus, the beauty of numbers and patterns and symmetry. Then the unthinkable happened. My husband lost his job and we were required
to move across the country. Teaching
positions were scarce, and I found myself at loose ends.
For
entertainment, I sat down at my computer and decided to write down the first in
a series of stories that'd been banging around in my head for years. On a whim, I entered that story in a contest
and you know the rest...
So, for
those of you who dream of being a writer, I have one simple piece of
advice. Write. Then write some more. And after that, write some more. And when you think you've been writing for
about 10,000 hours, submit your work to the world. According to my experience and according to Malcolm Gladwell, by
then you should be ready. See, it's just that simple. Hahaha!
Thanks to
Sia McKye for having me on today. It
was lovely. Cheers, happy writing, and happy reading!
And before I leave you, I have a question... For those of you who love to read books, have you ever considered writing one?
And before I leave you, I have a question... For those of you who love to read books, have you ever considered writing one?
REV IT UP BY JULIE ANN WALKER
Jake
"the Snake" Sommers earned his SEAL codename by striking quickly and
quietly - and with lethal force. That's
how he broke Michelle Carter's heart.
It was the only way to keep her safe - from himself. Four long years later, Jake is determined to
get a second chance. But to steal back
into Michelle's loving arms, Jake is going to have to prove he can take things
slow. Real slow...
She Aims to Make Him Beg…
Michelle
Carter has never forgiven Jake for being so cliché as to "love her and
leave her." But when her brother,
head of the Black Knights elite ops agency, ticks off the wrong mobster, she
must do the unimaginable: place her life in Jake's hands. No matter what they call him, this man is
far from cold-blooded. And once he's
wrapped around her heart, he'll never let her go...
For more information, please visit www.julieannwalker.com or follow her on Facebook and/or Twitter.
