A New Beginning by Melba Moon, Editor

My pal Melba Moon stopped by to tell us about her very interesting journey to publishing!

I know you will give her a big welcome! 

A New Beginning 

By Melba Moon, Editor

Have you ever considered just scrapping everything and starting over? I have several times, and usually when I do I have to force myself to follow through. It is about reinventing yourself. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not talking about leaving your spouse or kids.  I’ve been married to the same man for more than forty years, have raised two children and currently have two grandchildren. Those stats are not going to change for me.

What I’m talking about is recreating yourself, who you are, what you are and what you want to be. I’ve done this several times over the course of my life. I discovered a long time ago that I am, and should be, the master of my own destiny. I adopted a motto years ago and still follow it to this day.

If it is to be, it is up to me.

That’s my motto, no one has ever given me anything. Every achievement has come through hard work and struggle. Sure, I had support along the way. But it was my own determination, effort, sweat, and tears that brought about those changes.

You see, I’ve always been one to do things the hard way. I’ve learned by experience and some of those lessons weren’t easy or kind. My first lesson was to learn to value education. It wasn’t that I didn’t value it, it was that life got in the way. I married young and had two children within the first three years. So, once I realized that lacking a high school diploma would hold me back from getting a good job, I went to night school and got a GED.

Next lesson, the person with the GED is the first one to go when times get tough and a company is forced to make lay-off. I met this challenge by enrolling in college and earning not one, but two degrees. Since earning that first degree, I have been employed and secure in my career.

My next lesson was harder to figure out. I had an education and two degrees, yet still I felt there was something missing. It wasn’t about family or social commitments or being happy in my life. It was about being fulfilled. You see, I had always wanted to be a writer. I love to read, and writing is the natural continuation of that love.

If it is to be, it’s up to me. (Remember?)

No one was going to help me write. No one was going to say, here take these free hours and write. No, I had to learn to fight for the days, hours, or minutes. I had to put writing first. I gave up sewing, my second love. I sold all my stacked back bundles of  cloth, cleaned my sewing room and created my office.

I spent the time to learn to touch type. My first manuscript was written on an electric type writer using carbon paper. Does anyone remember those days? Then I bought a computer, one of the early ones with no hard drive, just two floppy drives. That made life a little easier. Then I upgraded to a computer with a hard drive and finally to a laptop that would allow me to travel and to go to Starbucks for writing sessions. I submitted and was rejected. I submitted short stories and was published.

Still I continued on my quest. I joined writer’s groups, I attended meetings and conferences. I honed my craft. I have recently been offered a contract for a short story that will be in the first anthology to be published by Gilded Dragonfly Books. I’ve been asked for fulls and partials and I’ve been rejected by the best of them. But…

The next amazing step along my journey is becoming an acquiring editor at Gilded Dragonfly Books. www.gildeddragonflybooks.wordpress.com. I’m looking for a different story, a great story, a great voice and talent to match. I’ll be acquiring historical, contemporary, paranormal and romantic suspense. If you have a great book, send it to me at Novelkid@aol.com. Be sure to mark it attention Melba Moon