Meeting An Author at The Hard Bean Cafe

“I pounded my heels into the flanks of my horse, and he sprang forward at my earnest command.”  This is the first line in The Windrider Saga,  Speculative  Fiction written by Rebecca P. Minor.  She had been invited to speak by The Pottstown Area Homeschoolers  at the Hard Bean Cafe in Boyertown, Pennsylvania on May 10, 2012.

I brought my younger daughter to meet her. The advertisement for the meeting said she would talk about her book and  how she got it published.

I was expecting to hear exactly how to  publish a book. I was looking for a secret formula.  A  twelve step program for success.  Perhaps she would say you needed to do twenty-four jumping jacks, stand on your head, and then count to ten twice, and your book would be published. I was looking for secret tricks.

Instead, she told me what was obvious. She told me something I already knew, but was avoiding. She said, “Half of this whole writing thing is following through. Finishing what you start.”

The Windrider Saga was written as a serial fiction for Digital Dragon Magazine –an on-line magazine. They offered to publish the complete work as a book at the end of the  thirteen month series.

Minor attended the  Greater Philadelphia Writers Conference last year and had her manuscripts read by several editors. She was offered a contract at the end of the conference for the book she had written. The next conference is August 1-4, 2012.

I was ahead of myself.  I wanted to publish something I haven’t finished writing. Today I will sit on my chair and write.  I will also do twenty four jumping jacks, stand on my head, and count to ten twice.