Hawaiian Supermom

I don’t know when it started. I mean, it wasn’t an age thing because I sure as hell don’t feel old (even if you think I am, so keep it to yourself ya whippersnapper.) It wasn’t a peer pressure thing because when it started, my kids were my peers and they weren’t pressuring me to do anything except to stuff their faces and change their butts. I’m guessing it was a need to live thing.

I’m one of those people who say, “I’ve always wanted to be a writer.” I’m also one of many who say that I was reading at two and that that I’ve known since I was in elementary school that I was going to write books that didn’t talk down to the reader like some of the books I read did– that I was going to write books with characters in it that multicultural kids like me could relate to. And again, I’m one of those who will tell you that I actually did start out by writing things that were worth sharing with an audience.

Still, it took a while for me to gain the confidence to write a book. But eventually, I did.

When my three oldest kids were babies, I wrote three novels and three kid’s storybooks. None of them were published by any of those big book houses, and I assumed that it was because of a lack of education on my part. So five years ago, I took my heavily pregnant self back to school to get my Bachelor’s degree in English so professionals would see that I am committed to this writing business. I also went out and took additional writing classes and started applying for jobs that would let me write for money so people would know that I am serious.

Was all that time, effort and money worth it?

A million times yes. After going back to school and rereading those old books I wrote, I can see that they do need polishing before I send them out again. And because I’ve had years of training, I can edit them better.

I think I’d better tell you that while I’m not a perfectionist, I am one of those people who want to excel in everything I take seriously. I want to put my best work forward so I tend to go overboard and throw myself into what I’m doing. I thoroughly invest myself. My time, my money, my life.

When it comes to writing books, I don’t buy the write, write, write, read, read, read speech that a lot of people give because to me, writing is worth more than that. Of course we know we have to write. That’s the whole point of being a writer, isn’t it? And yeah, it’s good to read but reading other people’s stuff doesn’t make us write better. It’s honing our craft, studying and refining our work, investing time, money, and energy into ourselves and then putting what we’ve learned into practice that makes us better.

I’m not writing this because I think I know better than anyone else, I mean what do I know, I’ve only published two books so far. I am writing this with the belief that we’re all students and we’re all teachers; writing this in hopes that it will encourage someone to take action. That someone might even be me.

I guess a quicker way of putting this is, you can’t get out there and show people what you’re made of

unless you practice hard, learn from good people, take chances, mix things up, do your best, and jump.