New Website!

Please take a look at my new website. www.kathrynfitzmaurice.com
And be sure to watch the video about my upcoming novel. You'll find it under the Books page.

Notes from a first time children's author

When I sat down to write my first children's novel, I had no idea it would take me three years. Three years. Had anyone told me, "This will take three years of your life." I might have walked away. Instead, I went to all the writer's conferences I could find. I joined a critique group. I took writing classes at University of California, Irvine. I read every middle grade novel my librarian handed me. This was the mysterious and elusive recipe given to me from veteran writers that would hopefully lead to happiness and, possibly, if I was very lucky, publication. I remember the first week of my "serious writing", where I had decided to quit my other job (teaching) and fully commit. When it was just me and my computer and my doubts and my dream.

In this blog, I hope to catalogue my road to publication for anyone who is taking the same chance I did three years ago, sitting with their computer, wondering if it can be done, and, finally, joyfully, starting their own serious writing.