As I promised over the weekend, I have the pleasure of introducing you to a great young author, Ms. Stephanie Campbell.
A Guide to Dreams—and Why the Bigger the BetterBy Stephanie Campbell
I’m a young writer, only twenty, and ever since I was twelve years old, I have wanted to be a writer. I see myself in the limelight, waving “hello” at the camera on the Today Show and posing sexily for the New York Times. When I was younger, people called me crazy constantly, even my own friends.
At the time, I had been hurt and embarrassed and learned to keep my big dreams to myself, but I never gave up on them. I wrote everyday, no matter what. My friends would go off to parties and I would reject invitations, writing at my computer. Once again, I was crazy.
I wrote my first book, six hundred pages worth, at the age of sixteen and sent query letter after query letter. I got enough rejections to wallpaper my room with. I cried a lot. It was a very painful experience, and sometimes I wonder how my soft adolescent heart ever got through it.
When I was seventeen, I published my first novel, Until We Meet Again. I got my first copy just in time for graduation. I was proud of that book, editorial mistakes and all.
Fast forward time three years and you get where I am now. I have yet to stand on the set of the Today Show and I’ve never even been to New York, but I am a lot farther today than I was then. I have many publishers, over six books in production in the next couple of months alone, and I am in the middle of interning with a publisher so I can start my own publishing house.
Nobody calls me crazy anymore.
Maybe I’ll never get my big dreams, but I will never give up on them no matter what. My dreams taught me how to live. I grew stronger with every rejection, I learned the meaning of the word persistence after the first hundred query letters, and I give one hundred and ten percent every single day.
Dreaming isn’t a crime. It doesn’t matter if you want to be a burger flipper or a rock star. The biggest stars in the world started as a regular human being. The bigger the dreams the better, because they teach you how to live.
You can find my guest blog on her site at http://writersos.blogspot.com/2011/10/guest-blogger-jm-leduc.html
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