![ChapterOne](http://www.sandypaull.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/ChapterOne.png)
Innocent Author Beginnings
An author’s ultimate goal is of course not to disappoint their reader, but sometimes the reader’s expectation becomes a little too high and they boldly voice their opinion as to what should or shouldn’t have happened to make a story better.
18years ago I suffered from foot-in-mouth disease when I criticised the book I was reading at the time and my husband issued me the ultimate challenge … write something better! I had two choices ‒ shut up, or write, so I dragged out the typewriter and went to work. It was so good when he finally bought me my first computer. No more white ink/liquid paper. Anyway, I didn’t know where this would lead, but I was more than a little surprised at where my imagination took me. I soon became addicted to writing, and Bryan and I would joke about him being my manager if I ever became a published author. Years later, I realised this was where my passion lay, and I became a full-time writer in 2014, with plenty more to learn!
100,000 words is nothing for me to come up with. The daunting part for me is having the final story read by an editor, and then seeing my creation in print for public consumption. OMG … talk about nerve-racking! You become paranoid, vulnerable and open to criticism. Yay! The very things a private person wants to avoid. But I obviously felt the need to do it all over again with this 2nd novel, having been fortunate to publish my debut novel just over 6 months ago...I can report the feelings of insecurity did indeed resurface.
‘In the Dead of Night’ was the very first manuscript I wrote all those years ago and I am nervously excited about putting it out there for you all to enjoy. The title has changed somewhat since the early days, and now fits the storyline better. It’s no longer a sexy romance, but an action/suspense plot, spiced up with desire and intrigue. My first novel published, ‘Clouds of Grey’, was in fact the seventh book that I penned.
English was never my forte, but the one thing I’ve always been gifted with was a good imagination. What I don’t want to do is to die with the music still in me. Daydreaming can be a time for creativity. You never know where it will lead you. Be who you were meant to be and not what others think you should be. Enhance your inner self and be happy. Now pick up that pencil or keyboard and get to it!