Guest Blogger Time: HC Zuerner and The One

Today, we have guest blogger HC Zuerner (I still don’t know how to pronounce that), and she is going to talk about The One with us. For me, The One is Nemesis, I suppose. It’s one of those really strong stories that won’t shut up.

And I’m going to shut up now and let her talk…

HC Zuerner and The One

I have been concocting stories since I can remember. I started many a book, short story or something of the like. I wrote poems and lyrics, which mainly were penned in junior high during the 80’s, so you can imagine how Hair Band they were. I started my first true novel the summer before I started high school.

We had our first computer, and I was typing on Word Star. I still hold great nostalgia for that blue background with white text. It was during the time that Young Riders was on TV and I was obsessed with Wild Bill Hickok. I had always loved the history of the Wild West, and I was inspired to write a historical fiction with him as a main character. I started writing and kept at it day and night until school started. I plugged away the next couple of years until I had over half of it finished. I even printed out 5 copies and put them in manila envelopes addressed to the publishing companies listed on my favorite books (I pulled the addresses from the inside cover of the books). Yes, I had no idea what I was doing, but that didn’t matter.

I was a writer.

Throughout the years, I had many more ideas and started several other novels. I seem to be incapable of short stories. I kept going back and revising my historical fiction, all with the intent of one day finishing it and being published. I even was a Writing/Lit major with a US History minor at college.

Life got in the way, and I became very ill. I had little energy to spend, and my writing became sporadic to almost non-existent at times. I finally started a blog to force myself to have a small avenue to write. It was a silly inspiration, but reading through the Twilight Saga made me desperate to write again. I also wanted to try my hand at something I had previously turned my nose up at, first person.

For years, I had been trying to write the story of my dream warrior, Gabriel. In fact, I had at least three separate Word documents attempting her novel. It wasn’t until I started writing her in first person that I found her; and then, an odd thing happened. I couldn’t STOP writing. I wrote in chunks. I wrote scenes in a notebook. I stayed up nights on end, typing, crafting, creating. I couldn’t sleep well because I was anxious to be up, going over what I had just written, revising and adding. I talked nonstop about it to my husband and friends.

The story consumed me, and I realized I had found The One.

It’s the story that isn’t just enjoyable or a piece of us writers. It is the story that brings us to life. The story we can’t put away, no matter what else clamors for our time. The characters that are more real to us than most of the people we know. The One is the story that owns us, mind and soul.

This is the story I will seek publication with; the story I will not stop writing until I have brought it out of my head and poured it onto the page. This is The One that will make my dreams reality.