New York Chapter of the National Writers Union  (UAW Local 1981)

.

.

NWU MEMBER PROFILE OF THE MONTH

         Breaking Into Writing

By Arnittress Dowdy 

For some strange reason I can remember falling in love with poetry in elementary school. I thought it was so cool how you could express your feelings about something or someone or even describe what you would consider to be a beautiful scene through poetry and the poem didn’t necessarily have to rhyme. What the heck did I really know back then? But I can admit to dibbling and dabbling in poetry back then myself. Here’s something crazier, when I was in junior high school, my dad would look over my homework and if my handwriting was sloppy, he’d make me re-write everything.

Needless to say, I hated to write for school but I loved writing my friends four to five page letters. It wasn’t until my junior year in high school that I fell in love all over again with poetry and writing. You’re probably thinking it was Shakespeare that got me interested again right? Well you’re actually, wrong. It was the Greek epic poem, The Odyssey. Yes, The Odyssey, something about the wanderings of Odysseus after the fall of Troy. It just sparked something in me to want to write and the short stories and poems began.

If you attended college after high school, got a job or even joined the Army, you went through the “finding yourself” stage. And for me, the best way for me to understand what I was going through I had to write about. It became all about writing. Whenever a problem arose or something just happened and I didn’t understand, it was solved or figured out by creative writing. I was always the type to keep my poems in the notebook I carried around and of course in college everyone needs a sheet of paper. When my friends would go through my notebook they were always coming across something that I wrote. And it was always followed by a nice compliment and a request for a copy. 

I graduated from high school in 1994 and by the time 2001 rolled around I had a lot of short stories and poems that I had written. I was getting compliments not only by my peers but from my mothers’ peers. These were people who had experienced my growing pains and were going through my love pains. It was my poems that helped them get through what they were going through and there was a twenty year age gap. I had people paying me to write poems for them. It was then that I had my, aha moment. Why not publish my poems? This is when my quest began.

I began to look online for publishers that were accepting manuscripts. Mind you I didn’t have any knowledge on the publishing industry. I thought you submit and they either decline or accept. The first publisher told me I had a way with words and description on love and life. This publisher liked my work so much that they wanted to publish my poetry. Then I received the contract, yes for all that money I’d tell any and everyone that they had a way with words. I actually signed that contract and it was then, that I began to research and educate myself on the publishing industry. The more I discovered and learned the more I began to feel in my heart that I was better than paying for publishing and it was going to be extremely hard to promote a chapbook/poetry book. I had already signed the contract but I was at the point where if I didn’t make any more payments they’d stop but I wouldn’t get any money back. I had to chalk it up as a loss. I continued to write my poetry but I also picked up the novel I started in 1999 all the while continuing to read as many writing and publishing books that I could.

In 2004, I was ready to submit my novel. I queried agents first and I got as far as submitting the first three chapters along with a synopsis. My novel was good but it wasn’t the right time. I didn’t let the rejections get to me, well I actually I did but in a positive way. I allowed the rejections to make me stronger and my hunger for having my book published, well let’s just say those were hunger pangs I didn’t mind.

After my last rejection, I asked myself, what’s next? In the mail came a brochure for a writing class as well as a brochure for a screenwriting expo. I thought that these were my answers. I registered for the writing class and I went to LA to the screenwriting expo. When I returned from the expo I applied all the knowledge from there to my novel. I changed the title from Killer Martini to Dreamtini. My book was a romance novel and not a murder mystery and I looked into other publishing options. I had to put in my mind that at that moment I’d have to pay for publishing and later I’d get that publishing contract.

Here we are 2008 and my first novel, Dreamtini has been published. And the best part about it is that I didn’t have to pay for publishing but I’m still waiting for that publishing contract while currently promoting Dreamtini which is currently available online where books are sold and there are copies on the shelves of the local Barnes & Noble where I live. How cool is that? Oh what is my book about?  Dreamtini follows Missy as she is two weeks away from getting married when her ex-boyfriend returns to prevent her for making the same mistake he made. With all that Jerry had to say Missy goes home to one of her infamous Dreamtinis. Could it all be a dream or could it be reality? Go to online booksellers to find out……Oh and I’m working on the follow-up to Deamtini.

You can use this area to showcase additional text or photos. Try to reinforce the message on the rest of this page, or simply ask your visitors to contact you, as in the sample below.

Still have questions? Please contact us anytime! We look forward to hearing from you.

Hint: Be sure to include a link to your contact page!