Winner: Thanks for your comments everyone. The random winner is Scarly
Please contact Ashwini at naliniDOTassistantATgmailDOTcom with your mailing address.
I'm delighted to have
Kaily Hart visiting us today! I've spoken about
Rise of Hope, the start to her intriguing new Fabric of Fate series
on the blog, and now Kaily's going to tell us about her journey to publication.
Please welcome Kaily to the blog everyone, and don't forget to enter her contest!
I’m a writer! Wait…I’m a writer?
Kaily Hart
I met Nalini last year at a small writing conference in the US when we both happened to be breakfasting with Lori Foster ;). We also had an opportunity to get together again at the Romantic Times convention in Chicago earlier this year. Nalini is gracious, friendly and just…well…super nice. It might seem such a bland description, but I can’t honestly say that about a lot of people, especially one as successful as Nalini. It might also have helped that we’re from the same hemisphere and slice of the world :-). I was a huge fan of her work before we met and I don’t know…knowing the creator of those books is a nice person has made subsequent reading experiences that much richer. Does that seem weird?
That meeting was just one of many surreal moments I’ve had since I started on this particular journey. I’m a writer. An author. A
published author. Many of the writers I know or meet always knew they wanted to be writers. Many talk about making up characters and crafting stories from the time they could hold a pencil. They often mention it being a ‘calling’, something that pulled at them throughout their lives so that not to write was never an option. A lot of them yearned for it, ached for it, felt as if there was no other option for them. Me? Nah. I never, ever would have guessed I’d end up a writer.
I never really knew what I wanted to be when I grew up and I cycled through many options—artist, psychiatrist, scientist, fashion designer, accountant. See a trend? Yeah, I didn’t either LOL. Many of my friends knew their path, knew from an early age what it was they wanted their career to be. Not me, so I ended up doing a business degree (because it seemed like a good idea) and I majored in Information Technology for goodness sakes LOL! I landed a spot in a prestigious graduate development program. I was recruited by a company from NY and moved to the US. I had a successful career as an independent consultant, I created and built my own IT services company, worked at the highest levels of corporate America. I was the mega type A over-achiever :-), on my way to take over the world. Well, not quite, but I was on a very different path and a lucrative one at that. Oh and along the way I’d also managed to have 4 kids. I said over-achiever, right?
So what happened? I decided I needed to spend more time with my kids. Yep. I was going to get more involved at the kid’s schools. I was going to take time for myself—get fit, take some classes,
relax. Only…I couldn’t LOL. I needed to do something…more. I’d always read, all different things, but I had a secret preference for romance. And one day I just decided ‘I was going to write one’. And if you knew me, you’d know that once I set my mind to do something, I just do it. So I wrote that book. And then another. And another. And…gulp…before I knew it, I was a writer. Huh.
I’m often asked where I get my ideas. My first thought?
I. Have. No. Idea. Not anything I can specifically put my finger on, anyway. As with most writers, I can make up a story about anything, anytime, anywhere. Inspiration is everywhere and it’s all a constant stream going in. I probably forget 90% of the ideas I get before I have an opportunity to capture them (and sometimes that’s a scribble on the back of a used snow cone wrapper I’ve found in the car from a kid’s birthday party). Don’t laugh. I did that once LOL.
The funny thing is…now? If I had the choice to do anything, be anything, it would be a writer J. I’ve found my niche, my groove, the thing I think I might have been meant to be. I’ve enjoyed all the things I’ve done professionally, but I love being a writer. Some people think writers are born. That might be true for some, but I’m thinking for most of us, it’s a long, hard road to make ourselves into writers. At least a writer someone would want to read! And the exciting thing? I’ve just started this amazing journey and have so many more books and stories to tell so stay tuned.
So…what about you? Are you doing the ‘thing of your heart’? If not, what would it be if you could choose? Or are you like I was, still wondering, searching? A random commenter will win their choice of my ebook backlist.
Link to Kaily's Website
The fine print: To enter the draw, just leave a comment with your answer to Kaily's questions on this post (on the main blog
rather than the Goodreads feed), before noon Saturday 6th October, New Zealand
time. Make sure you either leave a way for me to contact you, or check the blog on Sunday to see if you've won.
One entry per household. No purchase necessary to
enter. Winner will be chosen randomly using random.org and his or her
name posted on this blog by or on Sunday 8th October 2012. Void where
prohibited.
Look! The gorgeous cover for the US/Canada
version of the e-book for "Angels' Dance". I adore it! 
