When I first started writing “The Swan Harp” in 2011, I had no idea what a long journey this would be, or how many bends there were in the road. There were days when I was euphoric – getting an Ontario Arts Council grant to fund my writing, actually completing the first draft and summoning up the nerve to submit it to Penguin books when they had an open submissions call. There were days when I was desperately unhappy – my first rejection after the agent had requested a full read, a fourth draft where I stalled out and had no idea how to fix this story.
Did I think this day would come? Most times I was hopeful, sometimes I was not. (My husband was always confident it would, though!)
I knew it would take work and persistence and research. And did I mention persistence? And work? It also takes a lot of support, and I’ve had friends, writers and otherwise, who have given me that, consistently and generously.
What began as a single standalone story has metamorphosed into a trilogy. Characters have appeared and vanished, whole episodes been deleted or rewritten drastically, and in the process I’ve learned that the absolute best thing you can do as a writer is write what you love, and what you want to read.
When I was five years old I knew I wanted to be a writer and an artist. I’ve been both for a long time, but secretly what that five-year-old meant was she wanted to write a story and have it made into a book. And today that has happened. As they say, livin’ the dream.
Elizabeth Creith 