My Journey to Date

Good afternoon readers and authors,

I would like to share with you my journey of writing my first book. Time’s Trodai is Book 1 in the Just in Time series. You can find more information and a description of the story on my website http://patrickpenwright.com. My journey started when I was still in high school, thirty-five years ago.

I first started writing portions of this book when I was fifteen, as an essay for English class. Bless Mr Ward for being a fan of sci-fi/fantasy fiction. Fast forward two years and Mr Willick’s grade 12 English Media course where the scenes I had written in grade 10 became a written script with all the camera shots and angles and zooms. I worked on the story on and off and went through several iterations of names for the book and even the characters.

I started writing seriously when I enrolled in a course through the Institute for Writers out of Madison, CT. I sent them my entry essay in early 2016. They sent me a letter in July, telling me I was accepted. Every six weeks I would be assigned some type of writing work and eighteen months later, I was finished course one. They offered me a discount for course two if I wanted to continue my writing. I did. Another year later and I had finished not only the second course, but what would amount to seven chapters of my first book.

Just before Christmas 2021, I started writing that same story again. Some days I wrote lots and other days (weeks), nothing. I stumbled across this program offered for writing sprints. I didn’t know how that would work, but I signed up. I couldn’t make the first session, which was held on a Monday and received an email that night about how I was missed. Strange that they would send me a message, so I vowed that on Tuesday, I would be there. I met Kat Caldwell that morning and she and I were the only ones in the sprint.

The sprints are two-hour writing blocks broken into smaller parts and everyone involved is accountable to everyone else writing. The next day I was introduced to a few more writers and realized that I had joined a group called Pencils and Lipstick. About a week later, they said that they were discussing whether I should join their group. It was all tongue in cheek, because I didn’t realize that I was the only male in the group. I even asked about changing the name to Pencils and Chapstick.

Through their advice, nurturing and occasional kicks in the pants, I started writing for real. When I started with them in December 2021, I had about 25,000 words written. Four months later, I typed the words ‘The End’ after 109,000 words. Without their assistance and insistence, this book may never have gotten off the ground. BUT IT HAS!!

I am in the final stage of formatting my book for both print and e-book options. Follow me on my website http://patrickpenwright.com, on Facebook at Patrick Penwright Author or on Instagram at patrickpenwrightauthor. I look forward to sharing more of my journey with you. And I would like to thank all of you for your support. It means a great deal to me.

Cheers,

Paddy.