The Internet as we know it was created by scientists at CERN in Switzerland, and at first, it was used only by academics and scientists.
It was opened to the public in 1992, and I joined in 1994, to find out what this Internet thing was all about. I joined a number of writing groups, including a group dedicated to discussions about screenwriting.
I didn’t pursue screenwriting for a number of reasons, but learning about screenwriting techniques revolutionized my novel writing. The first book I wrote after learning to plot out a screenplay, with character arcs, etc., won a national writing award. That same book and the next book I wrote both sold to different publishers in the same week, a few years later.
You could say that the screenwriting group was a major influence in my life, but not just for what it did for my writing. In early 1996, I started chatting with a Canadian in that group. Nine months later, me and my two children moved to Canada, and I married Mark the next February (on the day that is both our birthdays).
But that’s not all. There was another writer on that group, Diana Stout, who also wrote romance novels (at the time). Diana has remained friends with Mark and I ever since. We’ve Zoom-chatted at Christmas time, and emailed. But we’ve never met in person. (Yet!)
Diana has a Ph.D. and a Masters in Fine Arts. She recently released a book that speaks to the creative inside everyone; Finding Your Fire & Keeping It Hot: Discovering Your Why, Your Passion, Your Purpose in Life. Actually, she released this book on nearly the same day I released my own first non-fiction book: The Productive Indie Fiction Writer. Neither of us knew the other was releasing a non-fiction book, either.
So we laughed about the coincidental timing, and Diana offered to interview me for her Featured Guests blog.
You can find that interview here: https://dianastout.org/2023/12/28/featuring-tracy-cooper-posey-author-indie-publisher/
It’s worth clicking through even just to see what I look like as a Jedi. 🙂
Scandalous Scions Box Four out soon!