
Once upon a time, there was a young girl who had no idea what she was doing but knew in her heart she wanted to tell stories… all kinds of stories.
It started with my brother and long car trips. My mother’s words echo in my head. “Tell your brother one of your stories, Pam. Keep him entertained.”
I would look out the window and immediately conjure something to entertain him. If he stayed interested, I knew I was succeeding.
At sixteen years old, I had a lot of support and encouragement to pursue my dream of writing. My parents, my teachers, and my friends all read and re-read my stories. The gift of an electric typewriter made my life much easier. I no longer used my spiral notebooks, unless it was for research. I learned what blood on a manuscript was and I learned not to be so disheartened when my work was bleeding to death.
Manila envelopes were mailed back and forth, teachers corrected and re-corrected the grammar before anything was sent out and I became published. Short stories were my thing at the time and I was doing quite well for a high school student.
Life, college, marriage, and children put a hold on any form of creative endeavors. The life of an author was put aside. The stories kept torturing me to be put on paper. Years went by and the voices wouldn’t go away.
My schedule started to slow down and the voices, the stories started yelling at me and I started writing again. Pieces of scrap paper, napkins, magazine covers, all had scribbles of ideas for stories that just needed to be told.
I wrote a book. This time, it was a bit harder. I had no contacts, no knowledge of where to go, who to send it to and off I went to the library. Research time. What to do?
After a few reject letters, I finally got an acceptance and after several bleeding edits it went to print.
Fifteen year later: It’s a different world. Everything is done electronically. I have for the first time received an electronic edit from an editor. I stared at it. What am I supposed to do with this? It took a few moments but I figured it out. It was a far cry from what I was used to but once I got moving it was awesome!
Promoting books are now the responsibility of the author. (Unless of course you are making millions for the publisher) Setting up a web page, social media pages, contact with readers, newsletters, etc. are all required and necessary for putting your name out there.
That part I can do. My “day” job is promotion and advertising. But, even with the experience I have I still need to keep my ear to the ground, eyes peeled, because it can change in a heartbeat. It’s a whole new world of publishing and I’m glad I’m in it.
Indie authors are no longer shunned. (Unless they don’t produce a professional book) They’re encouraged to self-publish and I’m thrilled. I’ve taken my original published books, re-written them, had them re-edited, and re-released them.
Enter the Wilderness Series, which technically is a saga but I stuck with series because originally that is what my original publisher recommended. Across the Wilderness is the first in the time travel series. It has a bit of a cliff-hanger at the end but there are a couple of subtle hints that let the reader know that it’s a happy for now.
If you enjoy Native American stories, this has a lot of historical facts and an honest love of Native American culture.
Thank you for your time.
Have a good moments day,
Pam Ackerson
www.pamelaackerson.com
Pamela Ackerson
Bio:
Pamela Ackerson’s storytelling all began with her younger brother, creating wonderful children’s stories on vacation trips to keep him occupied. Later, she started writing poems and short stories as a teen.
Born and raised in Newport, RI where history is a way of life, Pam now lives on the Space Coast of Florida where you are encourage to reach for the stars. She’s just a hop, skip, and jump from Orlando and Disney World, where imagination and fantasy abounds. She has three children, all girls, three grandchildren, and a wonderful husband who puts up with her writer quirks.
Pam may have majored in child psychology with a minor in English, but her distinguished choice of careers never made fruition. Instead, life led her to working in restaurants, interior decorating, owning an advertising business, content editor for a publishing house, teaching and owning a ballroom dance studio, and real estate investments. She is a practicing herbalist and has been involved in the use of natural treatment with raw herbs for over thirty years. As her day job, she currently works as the V.P. of Marketing and Advertising for the book review magazine, Affaire de Coeur.
Contact Links:
Amazon author website:
http://www.amazon.com/Pamela-Ackerson/e/B00QY1ARI4
Website:
http://www.pamelaackerson.com
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pam.ackerson.7
Twitter:
@pamackerson
Email:
Pam@PamelaAckerson.com
