 |
| Gina & David 2007 |
Writing is Hard: The Road
to Sangre Cove
Summer
2007, I stumbled around a small town in Texas purchasing last minute items for
the wedding reception. A couple of friend and my future husband loaded bar
items into the bed of the truck and made our way over to the reception hall.
Bright colors of red, yellow, green, purple, and blue splashed across the room
with novelty items reminiscent of a Mexican Festival. It was beautiful. When we
finally finished, we had dinner and rested for the big day to come.
The
next day hundreds of people arrived as I sat nervously in the turret of one of
a couple of dozen castles in Texas. I was about to take the first step into my
fairy tale life. My handsome prince awaited me and we would set forth on a
marvelous journey together.
Fast
forward one year, we get the phone call from our social worker that we would be
parents—if we chose. This was an instant family of 3 boys. Shock settled over
us and we discussed our option. It was daunting. My husband would go from being
a new step dad, to a dad of four boys—four. In the span of one year. I cannot
even imagine what was going through They arrived our lives changed and we never
had a spare moment. Wow!
Then,
just six months into being the parents of four boys, three under six, we got
another call from our social worker. She said she had a placement for the boys.
You see, when you go through the state, you have to have the children with you
for at least six months before you can adopt. It’s call legal risk. I say that
to tell you the words the social work spoke, “Good Afternoon Mrs. Castillo. We
were just calling to tell you we have a placement for the boys.” My heart squeezed
and my through tightened. Tears threatened and slowly made way over my bottom
lid and down my cheeks. It was that quick that our instant family would be
taken.
I
finally found words and said, “But they have been with us six months. We are
planning to adopt.”
“Oh,
no ma’am. We don’t have a placement for them. We have a placement for you. Mom
just had a baby and we would like to keep the children together. Are you
interested?”
“What?
How old is the baby?”
“The
birthdate was March 10th.”
“I
need to talk to my husband.” I said.
“Of
course. But they will release the baby tomorrow. So, we need to know or they
will need to find alternative placement.”
“Okay,
I’ll call David and we will get back to you. Is the baby a girl?” I asked.
“No,
it’s a boy.” She said.
“Okay,
we will call you as soon as we talk.”
My
husband and I talked, we decided, and the next evening we had a week old baby
delivered to our home and he was precious. This baby was beautiful. Now our
family had grown again. We were now a family with five boys—four under the age
of six. Wow!
Due
to some of the baby’s issues and how many days I was missing from work, I
decided to stay home with him for a while. I was a teacher and it was difficult
to find out at the last minute that I need a sub for my classroom. It was hard.
So, for two years I stayed home.
I
tell you all this to tell you that this is when I had some ‘free time’ to do
some things I enjoyed. This is when I started to write. And it is a process.
Those of you who are able to write a novel. Pat yourself on the back. Getting
fifty to ninety thousand words on paper is an adventure. Breaking those words
into scenes and chapters is an incredibly feat. You have done an amazing job.
But the job doesn’t stop with getting the words, scenes, and chapters written.
Next
comes social media sites. My twitter groups have been invaluable. I read and
study and hashtag like crazy. I’ve gotten many beta readers and critique
partners that have been a tremendous help and I enjoyed this process.
Social
media groups help you to find contests as well. I’ve entered contest that I may
not have won, but I did receive amazing critiques from industry professionals
that were invaluable to me and to the writing process. I encourage any writer
to seek these contests out. Some contest gives you free help with edits which
have been amazing as well. All of these things have help me move forward.
Then
came the query process. Ugh! This was not fun at all. I’ve sent out many
queries and had many rejections. I’ve gotten some requests for full or partial
manuscripts, but in the end I still didn’t get an offer of representation.
Then,
the time came for me to go back to work. My son was in pre-kindergarten and
life’s challenges proved I need to go back to work. So my writing slowed a bit.
I continued to work with critique partners and send out queries to no avail.
Then, I sent my query to Calumet. I had an appointment to talk with Ian and the
phone cut out. I couldn’t get back with him. I wasn’t that good with
technology. I thought about it and the non-traditional route would be difficult
for me at the time. So, I just kept on critiquing and querying. Nothing.
Then,
I start the new year at school. The ability to write slowed down. I was tired
and not feeling well. My breathing was labored and I thought I was catching the
flu. I took some over the counter medications and started to swell. So, I had
put it off too long and decided to head over to the urgent care after work. The
doctor looked at me said the words that really scared me, ‘congestive heart
failure.’ I headed to the hospital and didn’t emerge for six days. Not able to
see my kids was difficult. Knowing my husband was having to do everything was
even harder.
This
put my writing on hold for a long while. But, I started to feel better slowly.
I wasn’t entirely exhausted at this point and started to write again. I put
that book to the side and started a second. I love my first book, because it had
been inspired by my sons. I had woven in some of our culture with their names
and it was very special to me. But I was writing. Stealing moments at night
when boys were watching a movie or in bed. Working on it on the weekends,
sitting my recliner while be boys watched their movies. I wrote.
Then,
I started to critique and query. I got lots of requests for full manuscripts,
but still they passed in the end. I was frustrated. I send an email to Calumet,
but didn’t follow through. Then, as I was about to give up on writing. Going
through the ups and downs of sending out your writing was taking its toll on
me. I didn’t want any more rejections. Publishing is super subjective and I
wasn’t breaking through and getting noticed.
Then,
I got an email from Calumet. They said they would like me to send a full. So, I
sent in my manuscript and got an email in a few weeks. Calumet isn’t
traditional. It’s a hybrid model of a partnership between the publisher and the
author. I spoke to my husband and decided to get started.
From
there, it was editing. Reading over my revisions at night after the boys went
to bed and my extra school work was complete. Writing. Editing. Revising. All
in my free time. Oh and along the way, our social worker called a couple more
times and our family grew from five boys to seven boys. Yes, all boys. Not a
girl in the bunch. So, the older boys are pretty self-sufficient. Our new
babies are not. Without my husband, I would never be able to write.
So,
I am back to stealing time in the evenings and weekends. I am exhausted most of
the time. But my fairy tale life that began in a Texas castle many years ago
has had a happily ever after. December of 2020, I published my first book. I
say first, because I hunger to continue. I don’t want it to take me ten years
to complete the process of writing my second book. I want to push through and
really begin to market this book, so that my dream of writing will continue.
The happily ever after will continue being—happy.
