Last night, Hubs and I watched Armageddon again. I love that movie so much. And not just because it's action-packed and funny with characters I can root for who save the world. It's part of the reason I wrote my first book.
January 2004. I was sitting in my little apartment watching movies. I don't remember exactly how it came about, but I'd watched both Armageddon and Deep Impact within a day or two of each other, and something hit me. After whichever one I watched second was over, I sat down at my computer and wrote. And wrote. And wrote. Into the night.
That book took me nine months to complete, but it was the first book I ever finished. (Lord knows, I'd started quite a few over the years.) Eventually it would become Fear Itself. And it's more about the fear of something than the actuality of it.
Of course, not long after I started the book, I met and fell in love with Hubs. 2004 was a busy and eventful year for me. After we got married, he encouraged me to finish the book and gave me the opportunity to do so.
I still love that book. I'd still like to see it polished and published. Whether that ever actually happens? :shrug: It's a behemoth. And I've learned so much since I first wrote it that turning it into something publishable may be a pipe dream. But hey, pipe dreams can still come true. Right?
If you're a writer, what spurred you to write your first book? If you're a reader, what pipe dreams do you have?
Well...let's jump on the Way-back Machine. My first "book" would be considered really bad fan fiction today. Written in junior high, it told the story of two current rock stars, my at-the-time best friend, and me. YA time travel romance. It shall forever remain lost to the world. My next attempt at romance, was so 70's old skool that when I came across part of it, I wanted to burn it. The first book I tried to get published was actually written to help LG get through his last few semesters of law school. It was a sexy action-adventure about a team of former female soldiers--okay the leader/heroine was actually a Navy pilot but whatever! I submitted it to Gold Eagle (a part of Harlequin, interestingly enough) that was the publisher of the Mack Bolen series. They actually liked it and encouraged me to keep writing, but they didn't see a market for women commandos. I've considered updating Operation: Wild Goose but at the time, the war tech was cutting edge and now it's just old hat. I'd have to come up with all new stuffs and I've discovered that war toys change so fast my brain can't keep up. There were others, which HAVE made it to publication and I still dabble with the idea of publishing both Shadow Dance and Supreme Sacrifice.
ReplyDeleteAnd this was way more info that you wanted. LOL
My first book was fan fiction, too, a Dark Shadows knock-off, maybe 50 handwritten pages long. I *think* I finished it... I was 11 or 12 at the time.
ReplyDeleteMy first real book became Illusion's Child, and I started it because I was reading all sorts of crap, and thinking "I can write a better story than this!" LOL!