Hello everyone.
I just joined yesterday and am already addicted, much like I am to the Files. I feel sort of at home here, in a cyber sort of way.
Anyhow...I've been writing stories since I was able to understand and manipulate the English language. It's one of those things that doesn't really have a beginning, I've always just loved telling stories. Granted, until recently most of my stuff was crap, and I'll be the first to say it.
However, I've gotten very serious about pursuing my dream of being a professinal author, and recently posted my first completed work on an online writing group.
Within a few days I got an extremely positive review from one of the reviewers, and a personal email from a fiction editor at a small press.
This all very exciting for me, but, to tell the truth, I don't really know what i'm doing, as far as the business end of this stuff is concerned. And all I have really completed is a 5000 word short story. I'm about half way through the novel I'm writing, but it could be a year before I finish it, because I have to work around a full time job and a part time job. But I would really like to start querying agents and more established publishers.
Are there any writers here who have recently had their break, or any undiscovered writers who are serious about pursuing a writing career? I'd just like to know some real world opinions about the first publication, and how people have gone about it, or are going about it.