My Writing Journey

I grew up when astronauts were rocketed into space and landed on the moon. I clipped every newspaper and magazine article I could get my hands on in hopes of one day writing a book on how it was to grow up in the Space Age. Alas, the dream drifted away and Homer Hickman, author of Rocket Boys and later the subsequent movie October Sky beat me to it. Although I have to admit, his story was a great deal better than what I imagined mine would be.

And as life goes with school, followed by marriage and a family, my dream of writing was put by the wayside. Then as I became an empty nester I found I could not devour enough books and soon my dream of writing a novel resurfaced. Because my husband and I worked different shifts, I was able to try on my writer’s cap with no one the wiser. I wanted to see if I could do it. I’d not written anything longer than a term paper or short story, so attacking a full length novel for me was a huge undertaking.

When I completed my story, I stumbled across a writer’s group and their national conference-Romance Writers Of America(RWA). On a whim, I flew across the country to RWA’s national convention. I learned so much in those few days. I met actual writers (Debra Clopton, Linda Goodnight, and Janet Tronstead) and the encouragement I received from them and others fueled my desire even more. I was hooked—even if my story flopped.

Since then I have completed six manuscripts (and a dozen other non-finishers). I’ve had five rejections and my English teacher is probably laughing at me for trying, but I keep pushing on! My latest manuscript, which you can learn about on my website jennieatkins.com is called Enduring Hope. My agent Sarah Freese of Wordserve Literary, is approaching several houses with it.

So, I guess you could say . . . the rest of my story is still to be written.