I am finally officially a writer!

All through college, I knew I wanted to write. I thought I would go to grad school, get a degree in creative writing, and teach writing the rest of my life. Life, however, had different plans for me, and my dreams of writing have been on hold for a long, long time. This past year, however, I subscribed to a gardening website, Dave's Garden, and found a wonderful, supportive community of people. Everyone posts their successes and failures, asks their questions, and offers their wisdom. Somewhere along the line, another member asked if I'd ever considered joining the "Writing Team" and writing articles for the weekly newsletters. She said some of my posts on learning how to compost, and venturing into new areas of canning and pickling, were practically ready-made articles. I looked into it, and quickly received an official invitation to join the Writing Team. At the time, I didn't even have any clue that I would be paid for it! Let me tell you, there is no feeling in the world like holding a check in your hand, as payment for something you've written! It isn't a lot, but it does help supplement my meager teacher's aide paychecks!

Thus far two of my articles have appeared on the website, and three more are scheduled throughout the next year, to fit with the appropriate season. I have several more in the draft stages. My list of proposed articles keeps growing, too! Best of all, I've made some wonderful gardening friends, and gained some cyber-mentors in the process.

Funny how young and vulnerable I feel every time I submit an article to the editors. Reminds me of when I'd pour my heart into an essay or story in college, and then wonder if I'd overdone it, or revealed too much of myself. My friends used to laugh at me, because they'd all be asking what the minimum length was for an essay, and I'd be desperately editing, trying to get it down to fit into the maximum length accepted!

So, those cycles in life are coming around again, and I've rediscovered my love of writing. And on a website with so many subscribers, I know someone is reading it. The difficult part of blogging is wondering if you are putting it out there for yourself only, or if anyone else ever actually reads it!

If anyone is interested, here are my first two articles. They seem very rough and amateurish to me already. . .wish I could go back and edit them now!

http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/1943/

http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/1557/

I've learned so much more about layout and editing since submitting those early efforts. I need to go back and double-check the ones slated for publication soon, to see if I need to further tweak anything! Nice that we can still make adjustments up until the day of publication, if necessary. My next one is due on January 8, on forcing bulbs in the classroom.