Introducing Bethany Griffin

Today On Princess Bookie, we have a special guest! Hello Bethany!

When Did I Become an Author and How did that Change my Life?

As an author I feel it is my prerogative to randomly capitalize the title of this blog post…otherwise, I don’t know. I tend to call myself a writer more often than author. Maybe I prefer the term because I’ve been a writer longer than I’ve been an author… maybe I’m a little bit humble. Maybe it’s because I spend a good part of my day teaching writing and creative writing rather than creative authorship. I don’t really know.

I’ve always been a writer. As a kid, my mom would write my stories down before I could actually manipulate the pencil. In elementary school I entered the local “Young Author’s Contest” every year. I never won, never even got honorable mention, but I had a lot of fun sewing the books together, though not so much fun trying to cover the cover with contact paper (that stuff is really sticky).

In high school I had great teachers and encouragement, and I wrote some truly awful stuff. I’m not saying it was because of the great teachers or their encouragement, rather in conjunction with great teachers and encouragement, I wrote some truly abysmal stuff. I continued this trend well into college, at which point I decided to be an English teacher, a career that sucked out all of my creative energy for the next half-decade. So, I was teaching other people to write but not doing much of it myself. I like to consider that a hiatus.

Anyway, long story short, a few years back I started seriously writing again, and was teaching high school and loving YA literature, and that’s really the only thing I can see myself writing.

How has being an author changed my life? Well, I’ve missed some awesome parties while doing revisions, missed out on a lot of sleep, and…met some wonderful people, the online writing community is pretty fabulous, and I’ve made online friends who I get to see at writing conferences 2-3 times a year.

I haven’t quit teaching and don’t plan to, but my husband was able to switch from a soul-numbing management job to working 30 hours in the library of the high school where I teach, so that’s been wonderful, and it will be much easier to do book signings and with him home more. I’ll be travelling this summer, which is an awesome perk of being an author.

Holding my book in my hands is the most awesome feeling in the world. I got to be on the local news once, I was upstaged by Santa Clause, and I’ve never watched the video because I hate seeing and hearing myself on video, but as an experience, it was pretty cool! I have a certain credibility with my students, and it’s just really gratifying to have created something that other people have enjoyed.

At this point, Masque isn’t out to the general public, but it will be very soon, and at that point, maybe my life will change more, but at the end of the day, I’ll still be doing the dishes, reading to my kids, and, occasionally, checking my reviews on Goodreads!