Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Time to Say Good-bye

Vonnie Davis
This will be my last post at Voices From the Heart. I didn't renew my membership with FTHRW this year for a variety of reasons. Life gets busy. Time gets stretched. Sad choices get made. Even so, I've enjoyed my time with this group of awesome writers. I'd begun my time here as a first-time published author, full of dreams. I leave with eight titles published and a contract for a paranormal series with Random House and a Christmas novella with HarperCollins. I'm busy with edits, writing installments on the series and the ever-annoying promotion.

I like to think my time here with you helped all that happen. For that, I'm grateful. People who help you achieve your dreams are to be cherished.

As writers, we know dreams have to go hand-in-hand with hard work. And so, we're about expanding our skill set. We read books on craft, take online writing workshops and study other writers. This is how it should be. After all, the learning curve of a good writer is continual. A good editor can help us grow, too. I've been very fortunate to have had some tough editors. Ones who didn't hesitate to point out my many weaknesses. As a serious writer, it was up to me to learn all I could from them. To email and ask why do you want this change made? Tell me, please, so I know not to do this again.

I've also learned when to stand my ground, to defend my characters or GMC.

Calvin and I have just returned from Paris and Berlin. We'd made the trip so I could research some places for future storylines pingponging around in my brain. While in Paris I experienced a dream come true. Famous bookstore Shakespeare and Company agreed to stock my romantic suspense, MONA LISA'S ROOM. Several scenes in the book had taken place at Shakespeare and Company and, for that, they wanted copies. I was thrilled.


Dreams do have a way of coming true when we don't give up. I leave you all with one of my favorite quotes...

All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible. ~ T. E. Lawrence.
 
Best of luck, success and happiness to you all. Hugs, my "writerly" friends.

2 comments:

morgan said...

Vonnie,
I will miss you. Can you friend me on my author page so I can follow your books and your post feeds? I think it might be liking. I get the two confused.
www.facebook.com/AuthorMorganKWyatt

Maybe I am supposed to like you, I get that part confused too. Going off to like you now.

Dawn Marie Hamilron said...

Vonnie, so sorry to see you leave. You will be dearly missed. Hope to catch up with you elsewhere. Good luck with your career!

~Dawn Marie