Made It Moment: KJ Roberts
Some of you know about JA Konrath’s blog and his recent departure to points Kindle. (Or points Amazon.) In a week or so a commenter from JA’s blog will post a Moment here about her own forays into those uncharted waters–only she didn’t have JA’s platform and history of sales. But today we feature a Moment by an author who is exploring the same Kindle landscape. Read on, because I have a feeling there may be more of these on this blog as the literary clime continues to evolve.
I’m not sure I feel as if I’ve made it yet. Writing is a journey and I’m evolving as I go. I used to dream of writing a children’s book and illustrating it. I loved to draw and paint. But I also wanted to join the military. So I chose the armed forces over college, I set up house and had kids. Then I homeschooled for a bit, but I still wanted to write.
While my kids were little, I read to them a lot. It stirred my passion again. I tried to write a picture book, but nothing really clicked. It wasn’t fun, and I struggled. I decided to give up. And I did. But I still yearned to write. I switched gears and wrote a few romances. My son got tired of never being able to read my stories, so I wrote a mystery for him. And it was good.
Now, I still write romances, and they’re where my heart is. I’ve seen my growth and my writing strengthen with every critique I’ve gotten. I cringe thinking about how many hours some writing friends of mine took just to teach me POV. The endless blue marks, line after line, have thinned out to a few here and there. My husband even enjoyed reading my latest romance manuscript I’m marketing.
I think for my mystery and YA writing, I’ll feel like I made it once I hold my story Pieces of the Star in my hand in graphic novel format. The combination of a good story, written for kids added with pictures, that will hit the dream spot and give me the, I achieved my goal, sigh.
Country girl born and raised, KJ Roberts has been writing for longer than she can remember. It’s a natural part of life to her. Indiana native, her stories are usually set in the Hoosier state. After a ten year stint in the military, she moved to Mississippi with her husband and two kids. She loves reading, listening to her son play guitar and watching her daughter dance.