Photo by Zach Lucero on Unsplash
When I sat down inside my RV to write my blog today, I wasn’t sure what to write about. Then, out of nowhere, Kellen Dunn, the main character of my unpublished novel, was sitting on my shoulder, begging me to write about her. Kellen is an Olympic track star shooting to win a gold medal until someone she trusts threatens her success. Kellen must choose between risking her reputation and hurting the people she loves or forfeiting her dream to compete in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.
The 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles are less than two short years away. The road ahead for prospective athletes hoping to make Team USA is arduous, much like the author’s road to publication. To the public, fine-tuned Olympic athletes simply appear on the starting line, yet viewers cannot comprehend the number of years they’ve spent training, competing in meets, sacrificing, along with suffering setbacks and injuries. Similarly, when a reader sees the beautiful cover of a novel displayed in the window of a Barnes & Noble, they can’t appreciate the hours the author spent drafting, rewriting, editing, querying agents, or attending conferences before the production of the novel.
My journey as a writer started when I was nine years old, writing stories in composition books, which then grew into a single-spaced, 30-page typed book titled “School Dance”. My best friend, who was also the artist of the book’s cover, maintained the ongoing list of seventh-grade girls waiting to read the tattered copy of “School Dance.” Likewise, there is the journey of a ten-year-old sprinter who practices starts every morning in her backyard, trades a social life to train and travel to meets, becomes a national champion, and finally qualifies for the Olympics. It’s all part of the process, one that both elite athletes and published authors must endure.
Kellen Dunn, my protagonist, is eager for me to get her story out into the world. But she needs you, my blog readers, to root for her along the way. It’s important for me to get my novel published by 2028 in time for Kellen to be a part of Team USA and for the opportunity to win a gold medal in LA. Both require talent, hard work, and a leap of faith!
Over the next 20 months leading up to the LA Olympics, join me on my journey to publication along with the athletes’ journeys to the LA28 Summer Olympics.
Thank you in advance, my subscribers. I hope you’ll share my new blog with friends, readers, runners and sports enthusiasts, and anyone else interested in the Olympics!
Shellie
Where the rhythm of the road meets the rhythm of the page
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