The End of A Beginning

While I have been writing since I was a young girl, have been sitting with a dream, swinging my legs impatiently, it wasn't until 2008 that I began to write with the idea that I wanted to be published.

I wrote a novel with the aid of writing workshops and fell into the lap of a writer's group made up of characters I had no business meeting with (a New York Times staff writer, a Professor of Comparative Literature at Columbia, to give you an idea of how far outside the league I sat.) 


This writing thing...we're all a bit like bored housewives, aren't we? one of the big leaguers said.  And I thought, if this 'writing thing' is a frivolous endeavor to someone like him, an established journalist frequently on assignment in Iraq with one non-fiction book already under his belt, then what on earth would it be to someone like me?

I decided to take the plunge anyway, decided to take myself seriously enough to learn, at least, all I could about the publishing industry, the business of it, and what it would mean to be a part of it.

I started by reading two blogs where I learned...well...everything I know.  Which is to say, very little, and yet a lot. That's just how much there is to learn.

Last week, both of these bloggers, just one day apart, announced they would no longer be blogging.  What now? I wondered.

This now, I guess. I thought I'd share the archives of their blogs here, their wealth of information, in the hopes that if you didn't begin there, you'll end up there anyway.

Allison Winn Scotch's Ask Allison

Jessica Faust's The BookEnds Literary Agency Blog

Is there a place you began learning about writing and publishing? Please share!