Writing and publishing my first novel

I wrote my first novel at the kitchen table, at night, after work, over four years. It is set in a small island town that I made up, with a street that steams after rain, a table where the old men play dominoes and a shore where the boats come in under a very large moon. I knew every house before I knew a single plot.

The letters are about all of it: the writing, the rewriting, the days I wanted to burn it and the long wait to find a publisher. I send one every Thursday, and there is a little of the island in each, because that is where I go when I want to remember why I started.

I am not an expert, only someone who finished one. What I sell is what got me through: the novel as an ebook, a guide for reading groups, my drafting notebook as a template, and two video courses for people who have a first draft half done and are afraid to look at it.