I’ve spent the last five years waiting for my novel, Ocotillo Dreams, to be published. My first task was to finish the book, something I accomplished after completing the PEN Center USA Emerging Voices Fellowship. In 2007, I entered the program with two creative writing publications: one poem and one short story, accepted for the anthology: Latinos in Lotusland: An Anthology of Contemporary Southern California Literature. The fellowship came with writing classes, working with a mentor, the support of six writers, and author evenings to show us the ropes. Some of the author events were pretty grim as established writers leaned heavily on the word Luck. I kept reminding myself that luck may not grace me and that I should keep my focus on writing and publishing. When I felt confident about sending out my manuscript, the fifth publisher I sent it to, Bilingual Press, housed at Arizona State University, accepted my novel for publication in 2009.
The years of waiting in the wings went by quickly and before I knew it, I had dozens of poems and stories published. I wasn’t afraid to read my work at open mics and events sponsored by the journals that published my work. I treasured every opportunity to read. However, nothing beat listening to other writers read their work. There were times when I was frustrated, when I thought my writing wasn’t worthy of attention, yet alone publication. Every week my mailbox was cluttered with rejection slips, letters, and rejection emails. I would reach low points in my writing career, only to be given small glimpses of validation and the will to succeed. When I started to lose hope of success, I received small miracles of acceptance. Sometimes the miracles came after a reading, when an audience member would take me aside and ask for my book. Sometimes the miracles were simply acceptance letters. And sometimes, those acceptance letters came with a check or cash for my writing. I might admit that luck played a role in my being the first person in my PEN EV Fellowship cohort to publish a book.
Subsequently, did luck play a role in my winning a scholarship to the Squaw Valley Community of Writers Poetry Week in 2008? Did luck play a role when I won the 2009 Kulupi Press’ Sense of Place competition? Did luck play a role when Bilingual Press accepted my novel, Ocotillo Dreams, for publication? Did luck play a role when I held an author copy of my book in my hands?
Most likely, luck played a small role. However, so did hard work. I wrote poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. I rewrote my novel while working on unrelated short stories, poetry, and news articles and columns. I took writing classes, attending workshops, talks, and read novels, read books about reading and writing, read newspapers and journals, read. I told anyone who would listen about my writing, about my novel, about my poetry. I started maintaining a website and blog in January 2006 after my first poem was published. I told myself I wasn’t going to write about the trials of not getting published. I was going to celebrate the opportunities I received as a writer who hadn’t yet published a book. Although I didn’t know the name for it, I was building my platform by taking myself seriously as a writer and by working on my craft.