Hello, and welcome to my blog!

This is a pretty exciting point in my writing career. My first book, Adventures of the Horse Doctor’s Husband, is off to the editor. My second book, DimWorld: Foundation, is almost completed, and I’m working on the outline for the second book in the DimWorld series. I got my Facebook page going, I got my website built, and I’m making my first blog post. It’s been a busy day! I’m kidding, of course! It’s been a journey of about 9 months to get to this point. I have learned so much since it all started that it’s hard to comprehend it all at once.

Let’s back it up a year, and try to recreate some of this process. Let’s see, it’s August of 2017 right now. In August 2016, none of this had started. I have been writing short stories since I was in high school back in the early 90’s, but my longest work was about 10K words, and most of them were around 5K words. I had been toying with the idea of writing something longer, but I couldn’t really focus my ideas into a story. I wanted to find a way to share my philosophy about society, and personal responsibility, and self-awareness, but the ideas were really broad, and no one wants to read a treatise on my problems with the world!

Nanowrimo, or National Novel Writing Month (November) came up last year, as it always does, and I decided I was going to participate, just to see how hard it is to write 50,000 words in a month. Instead of philosophy, I decided to write about my life today. People tend to be interested in my oral stories about some of the exciting things I get to do as a veterinarian’s husband, and the emergency situations that I get involved in, so I decided to use that as the topic of my experimental book.

It turns out that it was a lot easier to write than I expected! I exceeded my word count goal significantly, and prior to editing, it was just over 80K words (my editor might change that, but it’s a starting point!). I was overjoyed to find out that I am capable of writing more than I thought I was. Riding on that success, I decided to write a fantasy novel and see how that goes. So, while working on getting my first book into the pre-publishing process, I started writing the second one. I realized early on that the fantasy book has more potential to be a series than a single book, so I adjusted course on that. I’m wrapping it up this week, and moving right on to book 2. I want to keep the momentum going, so that people don’t get invested in the story and then find themselves waiting a year to find out what happens next!

In my next post, I’ll detail some of the steps I’ve taken to get to here, for those of you who are trying to go the same direction that I’m going. Make sure you subscribe to my blog so you are plugged in to the action! Speaking of action, here’s Pesca, who always has to be in the middle of the action. Half of the first book was written, quite literally, on this cat! What’s that? Am I typing from a recliner on a wireless, ergonomic keyboard in comfort and style? You better believe it!

J. Boyd Long is an author, blogger, website developer, and the CFO of Springhill Equine Veterinary Clinic. In his spare time (ha!) he likes to paint, read, canoe, and hike in the wilderness. You can subscribe to this blog in the big blue block, and future blogs will be delivered to your email. Warning: Subscribing may increase your awesomeness quotient. Please feel free to comment, and share this blog on your favorite social media page! To learn more, please visit JBoydLong.com