ALilSouthernBoy

A Lil' Southern Boy's Dream

From the words of my mother, I began to attempt to write at the age of 4, and by the time I
was 6, I was forming paragraphs and creating stories. I’ve been writing for over thirty years
and was more than content with keeping my work to myself and letting a select group of
friends read my work. For years those same friends continued to encourage me to shop my
work, even once had a college professor suggest that I consider writing as a career, but as I
stated, I was more than content with keeping my work to myself.

Well now here I am entering the second year of a literary career that when it started, things
were looking GREAT!!!! Had a good book out with good reviews, had a couple of agents
seriously talking to me about future projects. Had everything anyone very new into the
literary world could dream to have. I even had a very well known publishing house
requesting to read the manuscript of my yet to be released second novel. “Livin’ Ain’t Easy”
(I often wondered how I came up with that title little did I know it would become my
trademark).

Less than five months after the release of my first novel “If It Ain’t Right, It’s Wrong,” I
signed with an agent and I just knew without a doubt, my career would take off like crazy. I
conversed with a couple of authors represented by this agent and they had nothing but the
best to say. One author even told me that before signing, he had worked with someone for
over a year that left his career stagnant, but within three months of signing with this new
agent, his career SOARED. That gave me hope that my career would follow the same path.
WRONG!!! I am now in the same shoes of that author before the soaring of his career and I
often feel as if I am stuck.

For fifty-two and a half weeks of communicating with my agent, I’ve had to live with
disappointment after disappointment, and the sad thing about it is none of the
disappointments had anything to do with my work. I usually heard things such as; family
issues or busy reviewing works/contracts of other clients. My Agent, on several occasions
has mentioned that my work is wonderful and salable yet please be patient. Patience, is
now a word, after fifty-two and a half weeks later, it feels more like a stab into my heart

It’s been suggested by friends that I need to (A) Find another agent, (B) Contact publishers
on my on or (C) Self-Publish (Of course they don’t understand the difficulties in any of this)
but that’s what friends are for, right?

Recently I came across an agent on MySpace and after looking at all she’s done for her
clients over the past year alone, I could not help but let her know that, although I am not a
client of hers, it does my heart HAPPY (yes I am a southern boy and that’s how we say
things. LOL), to see how hard she’s working for her clients, and to see their careers blossom.

In closing, I must say that although the past year has brought more disappointments than
triumphs, YET, STILL I WRITE! Yes many days, (actually most days) I want to say “To Hell
with it all,” YET, STILL IWRITE! I often read works of other writers, new and seasoned, and
at the end of the book I am left with a “What the (Please Lord Forgive me for using that
word) was that?” YET, STILL I WRITE. Often times I wonder is it really worth it and often
times I tell myself no it isn’t, YET, STILL I WRITE. I’ve come to the sad realization that the
only reason I choose not to give up is because in a nutshell, I am just nosey, and I want to
know exactly what the end will really bring. LOL.

As hard as it is to do so, I will continue to press on through the many disappointments of this
literary journey, and who knows, just maybe one day soon, someone will hear me and lift me
out of the rain…. And if not YET, STILL I WRITE!!!

Be Blessed,

That Lil’ Southern Boy

Péron F. Long

YET, STILL I WRITE