The "Fifteen Years of Writing" Blog Post

Hey there--long time no post, huh? You may be wondering what's brought me here today. Well...

It's my fifteen-year writing anniversary! 🎉 

And on this momentous occasion, it seemed appropriate to pop in here to ye olde blog and post a little update.

Spoiler alert: if you've been around since my ten-year writing anniversary--or maybe even my five-year writing anniversary (waaaay back in 2012, when everyone was dancing Gangnam Style and the world was clearly superior to 2022)--then you know I've been writing and illustrating and pursuing publication for a long time. A long, looooong time.

Well, I'm still not there.

In that ten-year anniversary post, I wrote, "It takes a certain type of insanity to battle the odds and keep chasing the publishing dream. It's not for the faint of heart or sound of mind." Five years later, I think that is still 100% true. For whatever unknown reason, I'm still stubbornly chasing my pie-in-the-sky dreams--I'm just a little older, and wiser, and maybe a teensy bit nuttier now, too.

I'll be honest: I really, really, REALLY thought I would be further along the path at this fifteen-year-mark. Maybe even have a published book sitting on my shelf. But things happen, and life happens, and pandemics happen, and more life happens. And I'm learning that that's okay.

Recently, I've been cleaning out and organizing lots of old papers and files. During that process, I stumbled on this:

This was a college project I did sixteen years ago--a year before I started my first novel and officially launched my publication dreams. My very awesome children's lit professor gave us a variety of final class projects we could choose from, so unsurprisingly, I selected the option to write and illustrate a picture book. It was about a kid who loves her toaster until it burns her bread and ruins breakfast. (The story is not based on autobiographical experience and she totally does not look like me.) In true Kathryn-fashion, I was up until the wee hours frantically drawing, and stressing about color choices and text placement, and hardly made the deadline. 

But what really gets me is that "author info" page. It makes me smile and want to reach back through time and hug little nineteen-year-old Kathryn. A lot has changed since I wrote that bio, but also hardly anything at all.

What has changed is now I've got fifteen years of experience to accompany me on this journey. Fifteen years of SCBWI, critique buddies, conferences, classes, retreats, mentors, submissions, art practice, and many MANY revisions across my many manuscripts. Fifteen years of contacts I've made, places I've been, and seeds I've planted. I've learned patience. BOY have I learned patience. 

And while I haven't achieved all my own goals over these fifteen years, I like to think that I've played a small part in helping other writers, illustrators, and friends achieve theirs.

I feel like this is the point in the post where I should make a comparison between my writing career and something that gets better with age. Like a fine vintage wine. But wine is gross and I'll have none of it here on my blog. 

So how about I'm like a piece of steak that's been marinating in the back of the fridge for a very long time? 

A good bleu cheese that's getting nice and moldy in the dark?

Or maybe a cicada egg, waiting patiently underground until the day I finally burst out, wreaking havoc everywhere with my evil, insect schemes while people scream their heads off?!

Let's stick with the meat one.

So on this milestone day, overall, I'm doing all right. I'm embracing my fifteen years, and I'm excited to see what becomes of my buried seeds and cicada egg minions. 

Now let's revise that sentence from the beginning of this post about my pursuit of publication: Well, I'm still not there yet.

Besides, it'll be WAY more interesting to tell the tale about how it took me over fifteen years to get published someday than if it had taken me only two or ten years. Who doesn't like a good story?