Writing is My Life

By: Theresa Oliver

“I’ll live my life, and then when I get to old to live it, I’ll write about it.”

That’s what I used to think, but then I realized that I was wrong.

You must write about life as you live it.

Writing is my life. It always has been. I started writing when I was in high school. I hid in my room and wrote short stories, poetry, letters … virtually anything I could think of. I wrote my first short story The Door at 14 years of age, which I later rewrote and published in an anthology. Writing has always been therapeutic; a way to get my feelings out and onto paper. I loved escaping into the worlds I created, tagging along with my characters on their adventures.

Then, life happened. I still wrote when I could, but not like I wanted. So, later in life, I decided to go to college for writing. First, I earned my Associate of Arts degree at Palm Beach Community College, Lake Worth, Fla.

After my husband was laid off from U.S. Airways due to Sept. 11, 2001, we moved to Tennessee. It was then that I decided to pursue my dream of writing in earnest, so I enrolled at the University of Tennessee at Martin, Martin, Tenn., and earned my Bachelor of Arts in Communications degree, News Editorial sequence. While in attendance, I was pregnant with my youngest child. One semester I attended my classes; I had my baby over the summer, and went back for my final semester. Even though I had three children at home — and one a baby — I didn’t give up my dream of becoming a writer.

We moved back to Florida and I became the assistant layout editor for the Florida Catholic. While in college and working, I wrote and published over 125 news articles. Although I loved feature writing, it just wasn’t enough.

I missed writing fiction. Then life happened again and we moved to Georgia. There, I earned my Master of Arts in Teaching, Early Childhood Education sequence, from Armstrong Atlantic State University, Savannah, Ga., and became a teacher.

I almost thought that my writing days were over when I remembered the infamous words of one of my professors, Dr. Richard Robinson, at UTM. When I told him I wanted to write a book, he told me simply, “Well, what’s stopping you? You only need a pencil and paper—and maybe a computer.”

He was right.

Soon, I wrote my first novel, “Cambria, Cambria Series, Book1.” Even though it was very rough and I had to revise it several times before publication, I had written my first novel. Then I read Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer after a recommendation from a fellow teacher. I read the whole Twilight Saga within a week over a Christmas break. After reading the series, Stephenie Meyer inspired me to write young adult fiction.

I stumbled across the Stephanie Meyer Facebook fan site, ran by two fans, Nikki Shah and Dana Piazzi. I began entering their writing contests and won several when Nikki encouraged me to create my own short story page. After some deliberation, I decided to take the plunge. Soon, I found myself writing four novels at the same time, posting the chapters of each on Theresa Oliver’s Short Story Page and a fan base quickly grew.

Then, I was accepted by a publishing company, where two of my short stories were published in two different anthologies: The Christmas Cottage was accepted in A Home for theHolidays, and The Door was accepted in 13 Tales of theParanormal.

Soon I published Star, Starland Vamp Series, Book 1, and my publishing company Write More Publications was born. Now I have signed 15 authors and their novels.

So the moral of this blog post is never to give up. If you want to become a writer, what’s stopping you? In the infamous words of Dr. Richard Robinson, “You only need a pencil and paper—and maybe a computer.”

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Theresa Oliver is the author of Cambria, Cambria Series,Book 1and Star, StarlandVamp Series, Book 1. Her novel Thou Shalt Not Kill is coming soon from Write More Publications, along with her first children’s picture book Crystal the Christmas Angel, and Five Loaves, Two Fish, One Boy and Jesus. Oliver will also publish her first middle grades book A Horse Named Dog, coming soon from Write More Publications, as well. For more from Theresa Oliver, please visit her at theresaoliver.com or on Facebook at Theresa Oliver’s Short Story Page and her author page, Theresa Oliver. Oliver is also the owner of Write More Publications, which you can visit at writemorepublications.com and on Facebook at Write More Publications.