Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Everything's coming up Sharon

I must confess I'm on a bit of a writing high at the moment. And there's irony in it all.

I suffered really bad writer's block after my dad died. However, I still had some things out there that I was hoping to get good news on. But I didn't. Things just stayed stagnant.

Frustrated, I got mad at Karma for some reason. I felt I was owed some good after all the bad I had been through in the last 18 months (my grandma died too). Pretty silly I know, but that was how I felt at the time.

After telling Karma exactly what I thought of the lack of good things coming my way a light bulb went off in my head. What if Karma was actually a person? Well not just one person, but a whole clan dedicated to keeping the balance in the universe.

I was planning on making it into a novel after I finished the first draft of Dirty Rainbow, but then I saw a competition for YA short stories. So I wrote Karma as a short story. And it's been short-listed. The first story I've written since Dad died and it's a success. And now I'm expanding it into a novel. (EDIT: Karma was runner-up in the competition and I got feedback as my prize from Sara Foster. She gave me great comments on ways to further develop the plot and characters AND she thought the concept should be expanded!)

And this was after I also found out that a story I wrote dealing with a loved-one being diagnosed with terminal cancer, Growth, was being published in The Australian Literary Review's anthology THE BASICS OF LIFE

These achievements are not huge life changing events in some ways. They are rather small achievements in the publishing world. But it's a start. So thank you Karma, as now I feel like everything's coming up Sharon.

5 comments:

  1. I am so happy for all your recent success. It's all leading to something big, I'm sure. :-) I hope you've celebrated and I wish you nothing but continuous sucess in writing and getting your work published.

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  2. Congratulations! Sometimes all we need is a little Karma.

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  3. Hi Sharon. I know where you have been. Trev, Nerida and I had to sneak off during Gran's wake to have some time alone as Dad's wake was only about 2 or 3 weeks prior to that. I am glad that something good came from the moments you were feeling so bad

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  4. I didn't mean to be anonymous, but this is the first time I have commented on a blog and I couldn't work out how else to do it. :)

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  5. Congrats on the amazing stuff Sharon! I'm glad things are going good for you :)

    Btw, you have two awards on my blog :)
    http://writingsmydrug.blogspot.com/2011/05/i.html

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