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Thursday, January 7, 2016

My Second Chance As A Writer. What Would You Do With A Second Chance?


Hi friends! Have you heard about SECOND CHANCE? SECOND CHANCE is an exciting series on FOX about a disgraced sheriff who gets a second chance at life through dangerous, experimental technology that was secretly created by billionaire tech geniuses. Last week I had the opportunity to preview the pilot episode of SECOND CHANCE on FOX and it got me thinking about a time in my own life when I had a second chance. While most people think about second chances, I think they usually think about having an opportunity to right a wrong. My own second chance was at a writing career, and the story begins quite a few years back. I was always making some kind of art in college and throughout high school. I made jewelry and experimented with all different kinds of crafts; drawing, painting, stained glass, enameling, I even dabbled in quilting.

After a while I focused in on stained glass and jewelry, selling my work locally and then online on my own website. In any case, the time came for college and though I was basically doing art every single day – even if I wasn't realizing it sometimes – I was always set on a vision of myself as a writer. I was good at it. I love reading and writing so when it was time to pick a major I chose what I naturally gravitated towards, which was English, books, and writing. I thought briefly about an art degree but I remember thinking to myself, I already do art. I don't need to go to school for a degree in art, to make art! A few years later I had earned my Bachelor’s Degree in English, Professional Writing from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania.




The funny thing is, throughout my years in college, aside from loving school and studying hard, the only other thing I really did was make jewelry and sell it. I did this not only because I enjoyed it, but because I had success with my sales. All of a sudden my jewelry was in demand. Even though I only sold it in small batches online, it always sold quickly, and so I did what any person would do, I kept making jewelry. It helped pay my way through college. I married soon after college, and had two children within the following couple years. I kept making jewelry. I was a full-time mom, so I wasn't able to go out and get a writing job, but I kept a daily journal and I enjoyed writing out the descriptions for my jewelry on my website, and any other type of writing that was related to my small but growing jewelry business. Fast forward a few years and there I was, creating my jewelry, happy with where I was in my life, but sitting on a writing degree that I had never used. Then one day, everything changed.

I received an email from a woman who worked for a publisher. She was an editor, and she explained that she had come across my jewelry in my online shop, shared  it with some coworkers who also loved it, and then proceeded to ask me if I had ever written a book about my jewelry and if not, if I would be interested in writing one?

I was in shock. This couldn't be real. Editors don't usually seek authors to write books. It's the other way around! Especially in the craft industry, where everyone is trying to create something new and different and then pitch it to a publisher hoping to get a contract. I was thrilled. I'll never forget how I responded to her email; "...as a matter of fact, I happen to have a writing degree." I had come full circle.

Not only did I have a second chance as a writer, but I was using my degree to write a book about my jewelry. If it weren't for technology, my online shop and this editor's ability to find my work online and then email me, I would've never had this same opportunity. Who knows, I may have never had a second chance at a writing career. Science and technology can indeed change life as we know it. In FOX's series SECOND CHANCE, technology also plays a specific role in the show, it really made me think about how technology may help give people second chances at things in their lives in the future.


What would you do with your own second chance?

Read more about SECOND CHANCE, which FOX describes as, 

A thrilling new action-drama about a man brought back to life by two scientists playing god in the quest to save one of their own lives.

Seventy-five-year-old JIMMY PRITCHARD (guest star Philip Baker Hall, “Modern Family,” “Magnolia”) is a shell of his former self. A drinker, a womanizer and a father who always put work before family, Pritchard was forced to resign as L.A. County Sheriff for corrupt conduct more than a decade ago. Now, some 15 unkind years later, he is killed when he stumbles upon a robbery at the home of FBI Agent DUVAL PRITCHARD (Tim DeKay, “White Collar”), one of his two children. But death is surprisingly short for Jimmy, who is brought back to life by billionaire tech-genius twins MARY GOODWIN (Dilshad Vadsaria, “Revenge”) and her brother, OTTO (Adhir Kalyan, “Rules of Engagement”), founders of the social networking empire, Lookinglass.
Resurrected as a younger, better version of himself, with physical abilities of which he never dreamed, a re-animated Pritchard (Rob Kazinsky, “True Blood”) is given a second chance at life. What will he do with it? Will he try to repair the damage he did to his family? Will he embrace a new sense of purpose or fall prey to old temptations.”

Be sure to tune-in to SECOND CHANCE on FOX on Wednesday, Jan. 13, at 9/8c!