It’s April and it’s been a long journey, and this journey has tested one of my biggest vices: patience. Much work goes into creating a masterpiece, but all I’m doing is writing a book, yet this adventure has lasted 5+ years.
Over the last nine months, I have been diligently seeking the opportunity to publish my first novel, something I wanted to do since I was 13 years old. I remember articulating that I want to be a school teacher based on my love for math and my language arts teacher. Math and language arts were so much fun for me, and I felt encouraged by my teachers, who influenced me to want to do the job they were doing.
But I also wanted to write. I loved putting words together in sentences to create and form an entire paper. I was somewhat disappointed when my stepdad told me there’s not much money in writing, but he told the truth. When I first started writing for a newspaper back in 1994, I had to quit because it was not sufficient enough to take care of a household.
When I started researching authors and realized that some make a lot of money, I also found most writers do not make much money at all. I will say I’m not doing this for the money, obviously, but if this writing could sustain me and generate enough income to do it full-time, I would love to retire as a writer; but if not, I have just as much enthusiasm to one day retire as a teacher.
The journey of writing this book has demanded many late nights after work, on weekends, a lot of reworking, a lot of re-writing, and there was one point where I asked if it was worth it. Would I make enough money to even break even?
But what I’ve done is equal to more than just money; it equals accomplishing something that I set out to do almost 40 years ago. It’s like the beginning of a basketball season when you are training, running, lifting weights, sweating, puking…going through all that is necessary. You may not win the championship at the end of the season, but you do finish the season and have accomplished many things: scored many points, played defense, played as a team, and had fun. There were wins and losses, and despite the disappointments of maybe not winning it all, it doesn’t mean all of the hard work was for nothing. Yeah, it was worth it. That’s how I feel about this book.
I’ve said it before that if I sell one, 100 or 1000 books, it doesn’t matter because I’ve finally accomplished something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time, and the process is still not over, but I’m trying to stay patient as I head down the final stretch. I have a goal to release My Invisible Father by May 12, about a month from today, and I look forward to all that has been accomplished up to this point. Until then, thank you to all who have walked this journey with me.
God Bless & Take Care!