The first words of The Strandlock were not typed on a computer. They were written by hand in a notebook thirty-three years ago. That notebook contains the earliest surviving pages of a story that began taking shape in 1993. I was working full-time and wrote on the weekends and in the evening.
Critique Partners
During the 1990s, a critique partner helped review my early chapters. He wrote science fiction, and I wrote fantasy. His suggestions improved my writing.
Long before cloud storage and online critique groups, drafts traveled across the country on 3.5-inch Zip disks (the technology after floppy disks). Word processing software changed from WordPerfect to Word. I crossed my fingers each time files transferred from one format to another.
First Writing Contest
In 2005, the Tampa Writers Alliance held an annual writing contest, and I entered the first chapter of Strandlock, along with its synopsis. My entry earned third place in the novel category and appeared in the anthology entitled Wordsmith 2006.
The story had a promising beginning. Writing additional chapters continued intermittently over several years, while I continued to work a corporate job until I retired in 2015.
Royal Palm Literary Award
By 2021, Strandlock was a completed manuscript. I entered it in the Florida Writers Association’s (FWA) annual competition, the Royal Palm Literary Awards, in the unpublished young adult fiction category. Winners are normally announced at the FWA’s annual convention. However, due to the Covid pandemic, the winners were named online.
On the evening of the award announcements, I sat alone in my home office in front of a laptop. Strandlock received the Gold Award in its category. I quietly celebrated and jumped up in disbelief when the announcer named it second runner-up for the unpublished Book of the Year.
The news thrilled me, but the virtual announcement lacked the applause and celebration that usually accompany an award ceremony.
Several weeks later, the scoring sheets from the three judges arrived and contained very encouraging feedback. Based on their comments and the Gold Award, I briefly queried for an agent without success. While this was disappointing, I decided to follow a different path.
Waiting Patiently
For several years, Strandlock waited patiently while I focused on bringing other manuscripts to readers. I wasn’t ready to use it as a test case for self-publishing.
It was never forgotten, but other stories moved ahead first as I learned the self-publication process.
More Revisions and Edits
While working on its sequel, I returned to Strandlock several times to ensure consistency in character names, settings, and story details. The title changed from Strandlock to The Strandlock.
Beta readers also offered valuable suggestions, leading to a final round of edits. It was now time for the manuscript to advance to the next stage.
After thirty-three years, countless revisions, several notebooks, and technology changes, The Strandlock is finally ready to leave my desk and find its readers. For no story should wait forever.
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