My earliest aspiration was to be an author. However, I learned fairly quickly that whenever the word novelist slipped from my lips, it was met with opposition. The idea of writing stories for a living was something to laugh at or discourage. So I started telling everyone I wanted to be a teacher. It was a lie, but I came to realize that people tend to prefer the lie. At times, it’s far easier to swallow. And so began my secret, double life. My love affair, as Kazin puts it (above).

I went to college like everyone else, took classes I did not enjoy, and worked toward a career for which I had no passion. By day I was a mediocre student; by night I traveled to different worlds and wrote down everything I saw, smelled, tasted, heard...

To keep up my facade of normality, I settled on a career in web design, which happened to be a nice compromise. Coming up with a new design for a customer was similar to creating a plot and characters. Writing code was almost as good as writing prose. I even wrote a little ad copy. But I still craved more, so I buckled down and endeavored to write my first novel.

In the meantime, I was given the opportunity to meld my two lives a bit further. I co-founded a parenting website with a few friends of mine. With our combined professional prowess, we were able to create a great resource for parents and carved a place for ourselves online. Real Simple Magazine named us one of the best new parenting sites on the web within our first year, and we now have thousands of followers on Twitter. We even co-wrote and self-published a cookbook to serve as a marketing campaign for the site and continue to sell quite a few copies. I enjoy my daily life, spent sifting through article queries and submissions, editing content, and improving layout.

Then something wonderful happened. Somewhere between honing my writing skills, learning the ins-and-outs of the publishing world, and becoming a social media buff, I finished my novel. I spent a year rewriting and another six months editing and polishing. My love affair had become a whirlwind romance.

So now I’m off on a new journey, taking the advice of an old friend of mine (and published author) who said, “If you've written a book, you owe it to all who have not yet read it to at least try to get it published.” It’s time to transform my secret life into my real life.

Will I succeed? Only time, and query letters, will tell.