The Wednesday after I retired from thirty-three years of teaching in June 2006, I began attending classes at UCLA’s Writing Program through Extension. A whole new world opened to me as we wrote and shared, laughed and cringed (what was I thinking when I wrote that???). Eventually, I had taken all the classes Extension offered, both in-person and online.
I attended writers’ conferences. I joined critique groups with friends from the classes. I entered innumerable contests and queried agents via letter and personal interview. Ultimately, I wrote and self-published two anthologies of poetry, two anthologies of flash fiction, and four novels. The fifth novel is currently undergoing painful revisions.
The turning point in deciding to self-publish came after I received an exciting email from one of the top agents I had talked to at a San Francisco conference. The email said, “I knew our acquisitions editor would love your book! Please send the rest of the manuscript.” I was so excited. I was busily imagining my book on the shelves of book stores, my book being read in book groups. I had only notified my husband. And then the balloon burst. A second email followed, “Oh, we are very sorry. We sent the letter to the wrong Eileen.” I had met the “right” Eileen. I was happy for her and furious for myself.
And thus, I self-published.
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