Release Day Reflections...

Yesterday was the official release day for my first YA novel, I Was a Teenage Popsicle, and I'm here to tell you all--especially the unpubbed writers among you--that all the pain and suffering you're going through is totally and completely worth it!

The TKA gang has kindly invited me to guest blog today, and I want to tell you a little about my writing journey. Some of you know I'm a former romance editor. What you may not know is that I've written two romance novels. You don't know because they were written many years apart, and they no longer appear on my website.

The truth is, it took me a long time to realize I wasn't meant to write romance. Well, not traditional adult romance, anyway. My YA novels definitely have strong romantic components, and editing/writing romance novels was invaluable training for writing YA. But I found writing romance really, really hard.

Yes, of course writing is always hard. Writing Popsicle was certainly no walk in the park; I wrote several drafts on my own, then did a couple more huge rewrites with my editor. But the YA voices and characters came much more naturally to me, and hence, the process was much more enjoyable.

I consider myself very lucky to have discovered my true voice after years of flailing around, achieving sporadic but ultimately unsatisfying success in another genre. Now I have many other YA projects in the works (the ideas are coming fast and furious!), a well-respected agency solidly behind me, supporting and encouraging me every step of the way (ginormous, public thanks here to Elaine, Deidre, Julie, Jana and the rest of the gang!), and the huge satisfaction of knowing I've found what I'm meant to do at last. (The book's gotten a great reception, and I've become a marketing machine, enthusiastically stumping for it wherever I can--which is totally unlike me, surely another sign that this is what I'm meant to be writing!)

Some people are lucky enough to discover their true calling right off the bat. For others of us, it takes longer. Those of you still on your journey will be envious of the others (been there, done that!), of their 'instant' and continued success. But I'm here to tell you, you'll get there, too. There are all kinds of ways to reach a destination. Sprinting is one way. Walking is another. And guess what? Walking allows you to appreciate the journey--and your final destination--a whole lot more!

Much love,

Bev (Katz Rosenbaum)