Funny Thing Is

I have been writing a long time now. Long enough that friends and acquaintances who do not know the nature of this business view me as a failure.

I know this by the way the broach the subject. Or react when someone else mentions it.

"Hey Travis, whatever happened to that book you were writing?"
"Did that book you wrote ever get published?"
"You're still writing?" 


I understand their position. Really I do. It's understandable to think after more than a decade of nearly constant effort you should have more than a couple dozen short story creds, a handful of contest wins, one ebook anthology, and a smattering of freelance work. But the nature of this business is not everyone who sets out to write a novel or even finishes one, two three or five will see it published. Especially by a traditional royalty paying publisher.

Lately there have been some big signs that I'm not totally crazy. That I haven't wasted an entire decade pursuing this dream. Plundered Booty has been well received and I thank the people that have taken the time to buy and read the anthology it is included in. I offer a double thanks to those who dropped me an email relaying their thoughts or left a review at B&N or Amazon. And my latest project, Lettuce Is The Devil has garnered FAR more attention that anything I've ever written. Both are humor projects.

And my blog, at least until lately when I've neglected it has always been successful. It too is more humor based than anything.

So I've gone the long way around to say this ...

I was talking to a  friend at work the other day and he was asking me about my writing endeavors. I was feeling pretty good that day so no doubt I was gushing about the way things were going.

And that's when he said, "It's about time you abandoned all that emotional women's fiction crap. A funny guy like you needs to concentrate on humor and forget about romance and all that other emotional stuff."

I realize he meant it as a compliment, but his words were somewhat like a punch in the gut to me. The first three novels I wrote were either women's fiction/romance. As were a lot of my short stories. I certainly do not think of any of them as crap. Sure some of it was rough in that I was finding my way as a writer, but the emotions he so casually dismissed as stuff was real. The hours I spent writing and editing those words made me who i am as a writer, funny or otherwise.

I came very close on several occasions to both landing an agent for that material and to publication. I still believe in my abilities to write romance and or women's fiction. Funny is not the only emotion I have in me.

And on that note I have decided to package three stories on my own. Two fiction and 1 memoir. Very soon I will release them for Nook and Kindle for the low sum of 99 cents. Maybe I'm trying to prove something. Maybe I'm simply trying to make myself feel better about where I am at this point in my career. Maybe as I begin to move more into humor writing I am trying to justify the years behind me. Whatever the reason, I hope you will check the stories out when I release it in the near future.