Check out this book cover!!! It's so whimsical and fun!!! Anyone know a good artist? I'd love to turn my children's book into a reality!!!
As I near the time of posting my writer's guidelines for my Second Annual Rogue Bud Writing Competition in Memory of Joel Muska (Yes, in memory. My friend and co-worker has passed away.) I wanted to share a bit about myself. This that I am sharing is an updated bio that I wrote when I was a featured writer in a local writing group that I am a member of. I just wanted to give everyone a look at what hard work and dedication can accomplish!
Audrey Semprun lives in the heart of Prescott with her husband and the youngest of her six children. She has roots stretching as far as Upstate New York, where she was born, to the sun-drenched shores of the California coast, where she grew up with her parents and two older sisters and younger brother.
Writing has always been a major part of Audrey’s life; beginning with the poetry that she had published in a local newspaper when she was a small child in grade school.
Her passion for writing led her to write her first novel – or at least a good part of her first novel. That book was never brought to completion. Upon the advice of a good friend she threw the on-going manuscript away. He had told her that her new life style as a Christian wasn’t being positively portrayed in what she was busy creating. Audrey was young and naïve and took to heart what her friend had said and abandoned her many hours of effort; but that didn’t squelch her desire to write. She determinedly picked back up her pen and began what would be her first completed novel, An Angel of Mercy.
It would take Audrey a full seven years before she could get past page twelve of that manuscript. There was something that was preventing her from being able to progress the story. She didn’t know what was wrong, or missing, or out of place, but she had a story that she wanted to tell and she was determined to bring that novel to fruition.
Always an avid reader, Audrey read numerous writing magazines, searching for that breakthrough to pull those words successfully out of her mind and onto the page. In the process she was also inadvertently sharpening her knowledge base and writing techniques. Through her research and studying she found the missing link. She had found the ‘voice’ that was needed to tell the story. She did what she needed to do, which was to start the novel over and discard those faulty first pages. From there the words flowed out of her mind and onto the page. At times it amazed her as the story took on a life of its own.
After completing the rough draft came several more years of trial and error to actually turn that initial completed manuscript into a cohesive and well-structured novel. Through that experience she discovered what she needed to do to keep track of her characters and to keep a consistency to the story. She then took that experience and knowledge base and used it to the means of completing her subsequent second, and then third novel, Angel of Insight and Destiny’s Child. These three novels are a Trilogy.
A writing competition spurred Audrey on to actually write a memoir. The challenge was to write 50,000 words in thirty days. It seemed to her a daunting task, and writing what she knew was the only way that she felt that she could tackle such a challenge. EVEN IN SILENCE, The Journey of a Lady Preacher was the result of that writing competition. There was a website that was offering all of the challenge ‘winners’ who had successfully completed their 50,000 word challenge a free book. Audrey went on the website and created a cover and formatted her memoir into an actual book.
From there Audrey has produced several books, including those three novels, and another book of memoirs, Follow me Down, A PATH OF PEACE and a hard-back coffee table book of poetry and devotionals titled, And the Glory. Last Fall Audrey took her creative and editorial skills a step farther by producing a book of poetry and short reflections for a friend. Majesty, by Diana Edwards, is Audrey’s first publication for someone else under her ministry umbrella of Joyful Noiz Ministries; a name she has carried all of her writing career.
Becoming an Independent Publisher is merging into Audrey’s future at a slow, but steady pace with her own sponsorship of The First Annual Rogue Bud Writing Competition In Honor of Joel Muska that she will be judging after the contest deadline of September 15, 2010. The winner of that contest will be published by Joyful Noiz Ministries, AKA, Rose Audrey. She has yet to get involved with the Marketing and Distribution end of publishing, but is edging her way closer and closer to that eventual goal. (Unfortunately, the winner of that first contest failed to follow through and present a book for publication, but Audrey remains determined to press on and will be sponsoring The Second Annual Rogue Bud Writing Competition in Memory of Joel Muska this coming summer and fall.)
And what else is Audrey up to? She is busy writing a new novel that is Speculative Fiction titled, The Back Track Conspiracies, which is greatly stretching her imagination. She also has a couple of other projects of her own under construction; one is a book of short stories which is titled, ON A RAMBLE On a Bright and Sunny Day: Mostly True Stories, Including Creepy, Creepy Spider and also a collection of Scripture Chain Reference Stories, parables, and meditations titled, CROOKED PLACES STRAIGHT: Straight Talk about Hard Places; and to keep her heading in her Independent Publishing aspirations she is currently working on the initial manuscript of a memoir for a friend that will be titled, Darkest Before the Dawn. (Completed and published: Spring of 2011.)
Her dedication, determination, and drive is what keeps Audrey moving forward to see her dreams of becoming a successful Author and Publisher a reality.
