Book Releases, Blog Birthdays, and Graduation Anniversaries

May was a big month: the blog turned two [throws confetti in air], it marked two years since I walked down the aisle at Bloomsburg in a cap and gown, and on top of all those awesome reasons to celebrate, my very first book published.

On the social media sites, I’ve been seeing that a lot of friends and colleagues are in the midst of graduating with Master’s degrees, something I detoured, and it made me think about where I would be if I had taken that path instead. I’m pretty happy with my self-designed MFA in Non-Fiction Writing (note: not official. Just what I’m personally calling it. Still only have a formal BA degree!) because really, when you think about it, the time and research investment I made in this book was equivalent to an MFA. As much as I love learning and education, my real goal is to be a writer, so I’m happy that I spent the past two years working on what has become a published book. I prefer that path for myself.

Referencing Neil Gaiman’s “Make Good Art” speech, as I’m wont to do, I think focusing on my writing, rather than another degree, is helping me get closer to my mountain. Hopefully the next two years will yield something even more wonderful. (An agent, another book contract, a published YA novel…? I’d be so happy with any and all of the above. On that note–off to more novel revisions! I need to perfect the manuscript in order to shop the manuscript!)

On the blog front, The (Writer’s) Waiting Room has more than doubled in followers and views since this time last year, which is a lovely feeling. It’s been great connecting with an ever widening community of writers!

(Image: July 1922, Flickr Commons, Library of Congress.)