Friday, November 20, 2015

What "Mountains Wanted" Is All About

I've been writing since I was a young girl.

When I was 7, I distinctly remember writing a series of stories featuring the character Strawberry Shortcake. I may have had a bit of an obsession with the curly red-headed, berry-scented doll. My mother, a teacher, sat me down and explained the ins and outs of proper punctuation to me. Here I was this tiny thing writing dialogue with quotation marks and the whole nine yards.

I wrote books, poems, short stories, songs, angst-filled manifestos - anything and everything. In my college and grad-school years I had a little addiction to The Sims video game. I wrote stories with my Sims characters which were then uploaded to the Sims website. I garnered an international following, and My Christmas Rose Trilogy was one of the top-ranked stories for months.

Then I became a blogger. I blogged on MySpace, LiveJournal and god knows where else until finally I joined an adult site with a very active blogging community. That is where I found my voice, writing about my sexual reawakening. That is also where I grew a thick enough skin to accept criticism - not always gracefully, but I'm still learning and growing in that area. You have to start somewhere.

You do have to start somewhere. Those early writings were like foothills that I ambled over. It was easy then. Not that many seven-year-olds to compete with, you know? The blogs were possibly my first mountain range. There were about 500K blogs on the site which had a ranking system based on the number of comments received each month. And the competition to get to the top of that list was pretty cut-throat. You probably won't believe this, but my life was threatened a time or two when I was in or near the number one spot.

I met my husband in the midst of all that. I've blogged about our story before and how it became the foundation for my Mountains Trilogy. I got the title "Mountains Wanted" from his username on a dating site. I knew what he meant by it. We live where it's very flat, almost sea-level. There are no mountains for miles; there are not even any hills to speak of. He enjoys the majestic beauty of the mountains and misses it, even though he loves living near the ocean as well.

But for me, Mountains Wanted became a metaphor for wanting to overcome obstacles or challenges in my life. In the Mountains Trilogy, that's certainly the case for Dr. Sarah Lynde when it comes to James McAllister. He is a challenge that she first wants, then climbs. At long last, she is able to step back and see that she loves the mountain, James, unconditionally, both his peaks and valleys.

As much as mountains were a symbol in my own relationship, the metaphor also extends to my writing career. That's why I chose to call my publishing company Mountains Wanted. You don't just wake up one morning and think, "Oh, I'll climb Mount Everest today." God, no. A journey like that takes months or years of preparation and training, but all the preparation and training in the world is useless without the the mental energy and strength of WANTING it.

I know what it's like to want it, to climb it, and to love it. I know what it's like to be stuck in the valley, to suffer setbacks. I know what it's like to take a deep breath and try again.  If you feel like you have a book inside you and you want to see it come to fruition, give me a shout. I've been there. Let's talk about your mountain, why you want it, and how I can help you climb.

1 comment:

  1. I've read most of your work and have enjoyed what I've read. Sorry I can't read the earlier stuff. :)

    That's a very cool offer about helping.

    ReplyDelete