Olivia Darnell

I think I've been writing all my life. Even before I could actually write or print, I was making marks in the dirt or on paper with crayons, pretending that I was writing stories. When I was a young child, I couldn't wait to start school. Once I was in school, I couldn't wait to learn how to read and write. I remember driving my mother crazy reading to her over and over 'Run, Tip, run!' 'See Tip, run.' 'See Sally pet Tip.' I couldn't understand why she was not as interested in Tip's adventures in those first grade primers as much as I was and I think it was about then that I decided that I would need to write new and better adventures for Tip as soon as possible.

I never grew bored or tired of school. Of course, some of it was hard, especially the math classes as I progressed into high school and on to college. I never got along well with mathematics. And it was this problem with numbers that drove me further and further from my personal goals as I learned that I was never going to be an astronomer or an astro-physicist. I fell more in the humanities and literature crowd as fate would have it and excelled in composition. Well, duh! I wanted to be a writer so it seemed that hard core science was not for me, though I retain an acute interest in astro-physics, nuclear physics and other things that drive most people crazy. But these became more like hobbies over the years and I still enjoy listening to Michio Kaku expound upon the infinitudes of the cosmos.

I had several college professors who encouraged me to write or at least encouraged me to further my education in that direction. But again, fate intervened and I had to switch horses in mid-stream. I ended up with a degree in education, which isn't so bad as degrees go, but it does limit one's career. I mean it was hard to go to work for the USGS when the degree certificate said 'teaching' instead of 'engineering'. Alas, I drifted, unhappy, unsure of what I wanted to be until I was too old to make the decision. Life had made the decision for me. After a short stint teaching school, I left that stressful environment for another, stressful environment... that paid more. It was a job, I told myself, a temporary job until I really decided what I wanted to be when I grew up. (I was thirty-two at the time!)

Needless to say, I stayed with my government job and finally made a career of it. I can't say that it hasn't been interesting, but I can say that it was not a dream career.

Over the years, I continued dabbling in writing. Here and there, I banged out some fan fiction and some short stories. Got an agent, paid him some money and got nothing in return. Kind of like hiring a lawyer, letting him boss you around even though he works for you, right? And then finally losing the case in court. Not a good feeling. In fact, I was completely discouraged. I did send off manuscripts until I was broke from paying postage. They were all rejected and that was how I felt... rejected.

Finally, a friend told me about Kindle and the idea of self-publishing my work sounded like something I might like to try. It was free, it was fast and I had control of it. I wanted to see if anyone would read my work and so I went for it. Since then, I have published my first book on Createspace and learned that I do have an audience out there after all. I'm planning to bring some of my dusty tomes out of retirement and spiff them up in the near future. See what comes of it. Who knows? I could be mining gold out of my attic. One can only hope.