Readers and writers, welcome to Rob Mahan Books! I’m Rob and I’m an emerging author. Perhaps you are, too. Or maybe you’re a reader who loves to discover first-time authors or a reader who just loves a good book. In any case, we need to talk.
After almost two years of work, my first novel is in its fourth draft and close to its final form. On this blog, I plan to share thoughts and experiences from the path I have taken to get from a “blank sheet of paper” to 100,000+ words. I have no formal training in writing fiction, but I have always been a reader and books have always been a part of my life, thanks to my mother. (You’ll recognize her as Helen, a young girl in my short story The Dictionary.)
Topics for future posts will include where my ideas have come from so far, how I set out to write one kind of novel and ended up writing something entirely different, resources I’ve discovered along the way, some basic mechanics of writing I’ve learned, taking feedback gracefully, and the decision process I’m struggling with now—to go the traditional agent-publisher route or to self-publish.
And, of course, I’ll tell you a lot more about my first novel, An Irish Miracle.
Thanks for being out there!