Once upon a time, about 1990 or so, I had a story idea set in Deep Space. The story had spaceships, aliens, and a whole lot of action and suspense. So, I wrote it and it was good. However, my ambitious storytelling wasn’t shared by traditional publishers and the original drafts of Parallax met with lukewarm responses, but ultimately not accepted.
Did I give up? Not hardly, and I tried several more times to find it a home before shelving it for a while to work on other projects. Parallax refused to disappear into my Pending Projects File and so I edited, rewrote, and resubmitted queries several times until it dawned on me that the problem wasn’t the story itself….
It was me. I wasn’t accepted because the traditional publishers didn’t know who I was and like most businesses in general, weren’t willing to take a chance on an unknown quantity. Many new writers/authors don’t realize that when they are rejected, it’s only because they are but a face in a sea of faces. They may be exceptional, but they don’t stand out.
What did I do about it? I could have moped, given up, moved on to other occupations, but I LOVE TO WRITE, and so I decided to hunker down and continue working to improve my craft and build up a name for myself. To that end (and some pushing by dedicated friends), I decided to go into self-publishing via Amazon.com.
Those of you who are familiar with me, know about the three novelettes that are currently on sale at Amazon.com: Corona, The Three Safeties, and Vessel. They were the first of my works to be put out there and they seem to be liked very much.
Now we get to Parallax.
I dusted off Parallax a few years ago and began to do a major rewrite. I had learned a LOT between the last time I worked on it and it needed some love. As I went through the usual stuff (spelling, punctuation, grammar, plot content, etc), a new story began to emerge. I could have released the old draft at anytime, but this new story grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. So, I decided to run with it and it pulled me in a new direction.
This series of articles is the story behind the story. The story of the daily trials and tribulations of me getting a full-length novel ready to go out to the World. It’s one part promotion, one part confessional, at a last part that I hope is inspiring to those who are facing similar circumstances and need some moral support.
See you next Thursday….
Writing in Real Time 
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