One of my interests in creative writing. Like many people, I took creative writing courses and worked on various pieces over time. I took a great course called "Writing and the Path to Publication" in 1986 at Western Connecticut University and used what I learned to get my first free lance piece published in "Manage" in 1987. I've since had numerous articles published which I've blogged about elsewhere (or try looking up "Culture Clash IMS" on Google to find my most recent one).
But, my real interest was in writing a novel. Back in 1990, I decided the time was right and kicked around ideas for what I would write about. I wrote a couple of chapters early on and then my life got really busy as my wife and I had our first child and I started my own business. During that time, I wrote a quarterly newletter, wrote for clients and so on, so I had much less time to work on the novel.
In the background, I kept at it, and had the first half of the book basically done by the end of the Nineties. I then pushed pretty hard over the next several years and finally completed it last summer. The book is called "Growing Up Single". It is a coming of age story of a young man named Jack Riley who grew up during the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties.
Since then, I have been submitting the novel via query letters to various agents, looking for the right one who would take it on. I have gotten some encouraging words, but no agreement to represent me on this. In the meantime, I've also kicked off some other writing projects, all of which is a spare time activity vs. my full time work as a product manager with Cantata in the Voice over IP industry.
Recently, I found out about a first novel contest that is being put on by the social networking web site Gather.com . Gather seems to be directed mainly to Baby Boomers and so it sounded like an interesting venue to submit my novel to. The winner of the contest gets a publishing contract with Simon and Schuster. So, I've made the plunge and sent it in.
The rules are that the first chapter of various novels will be published on the Gather.com site for 14 days and Gather.com members can vote on the entries, along with an editorial board. The top 20 will then get to have the 2nd chapter published, then later the top 10 get the 3rd chapter published. Eventually, a winner gets selected. For those who might want to enter, see the rules at Gather.com
Pretty soon, the link for my first chapter will be posted and then I'll publish it here and elsewhere. In the background, this is actually a pretty clever way for Gather.com to build up its membership, since a lot of what it will take to win will be social networking, since one of the criteria is how many votes an entry receives, as well at the "rating" (1-10), where 10 is of course the best. I'm at a disadvantage on the social networking side, since I just joined the site when I found out about the contest. Of course, I'm hoping that the quality of the submission will get me an honest reading from enough people so that I get my fair shot. I have had some pretty positive feedback from the early readers.
Over the next 2 weeks, I'll blog about this process, in between other things like an upcoming trip to Miami. As a writer, I'm looking for publication, but also for an audience. This contest will give me a shot at both, so we'll see how it goes.
