When I wrote a blog entry a couple months ago about writing contests, I’d given little thought to winning an award. As it turned out, I won an honorable mention in the Writer’s Digest 80th annual competition for my story For God So Loved. I knew I’d poured my heart and soul into that story, but with a magazine like Writer’s Digest that receives thousands of entries, chances of winning anything are very slim. So, this award has brought me some satisfaction as well as encouragement. It showed me that as a writer I can achieve anything if I work at it hard enough. (more…)

Establishing yourself as an author or freelance writer is not a task for the faint-hearted. I am realizing this everyday, but I’m also realizing that there are thousands of writers who succeeded because of their perseverance. Would you believe that authors like Stephen King, Carrie, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Anne Frank, The Diary of Anne Frank, Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar and Agatha Christie, Murder on The Orient Express, to name just a few, all experienced the pain of rejection. When I think of what these famous people have contributed to the world of literature, I wonder where we would be if they had given up. (more…)