The
Road to Authorship
My
desire to become an author can be traced back as far as my first grade
class. I always had an active
imagination so when the assignment was to take an oak tag panel, a set of
crayons and an idea and create an illustration with a story stapled to it, I
took to it like a fly to…well, perhaps that’s not the best analogy. I quickly
got lost in the story and by the time I was done, the teacher was already
collecting our stories.
Sometime later in the semester during a PTA
meeting, Ms. Ratner, my teacher took out my story and began talking in hushed
tones with my parents. As a rambunctious first grader, you can just imagine the
thoughts that went through my mind. I
thought I was in trouble for something…again!
It turned out that Ms. Ratner was quite impressed with my story, which
was that of a family on a cruise ship, whose little child fell overboard and
the suspenseful rescue that ensued.
I remember feeling quite relieved when I found out
that I was not, in fact, in trouble, but that my teacher thought I had an
exceptional talent for someone of my age.
I never paid that much thought because all I cared about was the fact
that I was not going to be grounded for anything…this time.
As school progressed over the years, I always
enjoyed writing “spelling stories” (the ones you write with your weekly
spelling words), the scripts for class plays, and even in my college years,
scripts for homemade movies for my church youth group. These were just fun projects I did on the
side, while I spent most of my time on playing baseball, football, doing the
magnifying glass/ant activity that most boys do, and generally trying to stay
out of trouble.
By the time I got to college, I knew that music
was my passion in life. So much so that
I spent 12 years in college and amassed all the student loan debt that comes
from getting a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree from Juilliard, and a Doctorate
from Johns Hopkins University.
After college and a nice stint with classical
music which took me across the USA, Canada, Israel, Egypt, South Africa and
Jordan as a cello soloist and principal cellist in several professional
orchestras, I got married and soon learned that in order to have the family life
and stability I valued more than anything, I needed to find a steady job. So for the next 12 years I worked in the I.T.
(Information technology field.)
This turned out to be a great career move as I
began around the height of the internet boom of the late 1990s. I missed my life as a professional musician,
but the birth of my son far eclipsed anything else. So I traded one life for another. Happy to be home every evening to see my
family (as opposed to working evenings playing concerts), I contented myself in
the path The Good Lord had paved for me.
During these 12 years, I found myself returning to
my love of story. I remember once seeing
a movie and wondering why the ending hadn’t been written differently. Thanks to the internet, one is able to share
their thoughts with many other strangers and even make friends with them. So as I proposed my own alternate endings,
some of my new online friends encouraged me to write for this universe (Hint: It was a well-established SciFi franchise.)
To make a long story short, my stories sold to
three anthologies published by Pocket Books and led me to the professional
workshops run by the editor. It was
there that I realized where my true passion was. It had always been there since the first
grade. And it was there that I decided
that writing was what I wanted to ultimately do with my life.
So I immersed myself in it. I spent all my spare money on books, books on
writing, workshops, conferences, and wrote like crazy. For one of the Pocket Books anthologies, I
submitted 23 stories in less than one year.
These were new stories. I wrote
about 1-2 stories per week and gave myself soft deadlines. Learning to write no matter how you feel was
one of the best skills I’ve acquired as a professional writer.
By 2008, I learned that my entire I.T. department
at FICO was going to be laid off. The
job market was really suffering at that time, and my mother-in-law had just
passed away with cancer. After losing my
job, I spent all my time between looking for a new job praying, studying the
Bible, and connecting with wonderful, positive people. Most importantly, I took advantage of this
time to write, write, write. During this
time, I completed another novel called Darkroom.
It was around this time that I realized a calling
on my life. To write books that will
entertain as well as any of the bestselling authors such as John Grisham,
Stephen King, Dean Koontz, James Patterson, but at the same time, leave a
memorable impression and provide people with a chance to challenge their
thinking and to find hope.
My wife and I discussed it, and decided to make
the sacrifices needed to allow me the opportunity to become a full-time
writer. In faith, we sold our big,
beautiful house and downsized into a rental property.
In 2010, my book Beyond
Justice debuted and hit several bestseller lists, won several accolades
including the International Book Awards.
During that year, I submitted Darkroom
to several major publishers. I had
learned that rejection was par for the course and not to take it personally. After all, Dean Koontz’s first novel had been
rejected about 75 times before it sold, so until I reached that many rejections
on Darkroom or any other novel, I
would not even begin to think anything strange or negative about it. It was probably around rejection #43 that
something finally happened.
I can remember it well. There I was in my office praying after some
time of reading the Bible. I usually
don’t even have my computer on during this time, but for some reason, that day
I did.
I heard the email notification chime and would
have ignored it, since I was praying, but something inside me told me to go
ahead, finish praying and check the email.
That email was my offer letter from Simon &
Schuster/Howard Books for Darkroom.
While the road to my writing career seems long (8
years at the least, over 30 years at the most, depending on how you count) it’s
really just beginning. If you were to
ask me how I did it, I could list a few small ideas without being able to
guarantee similar results. But one thing
I know: All of my success, anything of
any worth came not as a result of my own abilities but by divine providence and
unmerited grace. The opportunities, the
people who “just happened” to appear in my life and guide me, the publications,
the ability to write books and stories people actually like? All by God’s grace.
I believe we each have a calling and path that has
been designed for us. But we also have
the freedom to choose or ignore whatever path we wish. Some of the paths I’ve mistakenly chosen were
not nearly as bad as some have. And not
all the paths I’ve chosen have yielded the greatest results. I believe the best path we can take is the
one that has been written by the Author of the Universe, the One who declares
the end from the beginning. Happy is
he/she who discovers this path, this calling, and walks in it.
I know I have found mine.
And for that, I’m truly grateful.
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Joshua Graham's debut novel, Beyond
Justice, won the 2011 International Book Awards and was a
bestseller on BarnesandNoble.com and Amazon.com. Graham grew up in Brooklyn,
New York where he lived for the better part of thirty years. He holds a
Bachelor and Master's Degree from Juilliard and a Doctorate from Johns Hopkins
University. He has performed as a soloist and principal cellist domestically
and internationally. During his tenure in Maryland, he taught as a professor at
Shepherd College (WV), Western Maryland College, and Columbia Union College
(MD). Today he lives with his beautiful wife and children in Southern
California. Under different pen names, his short fiction works have been
published by Pocket Books and Dawn Treader Press.
Pre-Order Darkroom
today!
Thanks for sharing this, Josh. It further enhances my respect for you as an author and a friend.
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