Patience. Perseverance. And a Love of the Written Word

By Kristen Simmons

I didn’t know I wanted to be an author until my senior year in high school. It was in my English class at McQueen High in Reno, Nevada, when Mr. Shields read my essay on A Tale of Two Cities aloud to the class. I was embarrassed—I mean, stoplight red, quaking in my seat, really hoping my crush in the back row wasn’t listening, embarrassed. Those minutes lasted a lifetime, and when Mr. Shields was finally finished, he placed the paper on my desk, and said, “You’ve really got something.”

I thought about those words that night, and many nights after. I thought about them when I went to college and wrote my first book, a mystery about a woman who (spoiler alert) kills her husband but (double spoiler alert) can’t remember doing it. The story was 300 pages, and when I finished, I printed it out, and sent it to a batch of literary agents. 

I thought I really had something.

Every agent sent back the same reply: no thanks.

It was a fluke, I told myself. I’d sent the story to the wrong agents. I was hurt, but moved on. I got a degree in psychology from University of Nevada, Reno, then a master’s in social work. I wrote my second story, a children’s chapter book about a boy who takes magic elevators to different worlds. Telling myself I had something, I sent it off to a new list of agents—a longer list this time. 

They all replied no.

A couple years passed, and I got a license in clinical social worker, doing therapy with teens, and then veterans who’d served in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. But every morning before work, every lunch break, and every night before bed, I wrote stories.

I finished three more novels for which I sought publication. I didn’t tell anyone about it, not even my parents—I was that ashamed. I thought I’d had something, like Mr. Shields had said. I’d written whole novels. But no one thought they were good enough, which meant that maybe I wasn’t good enough. This identity I’d embraced—writer, author—no one else could see, and it tore me apart a little more every day.

It wasn’t until I wrote my sixth novel (Article 5), about a United States where the Bill of Rights has been removed, and a young woman is charged with a violation against the recently instated Moral Statutes, that I finally got the interest of a literary agent. She sold it as a series in New York, and when it came out, I held my first published novel. 

Ten years had passed since I’d started that journey. Ten years, and over 200 ‘no, thank you’s.’

Now I’m preparing for the publication of my 14th and 15th novels. My books are printed in different languages. They’re taught in schools. This August, my most recent series starter, The Deceivers, was Nevada’s featured title at the National Book Festival. I am humbled beyond words, and am still grateful for what Mr. Shields told me that day.

Because what I now realized he meant, is that I had potential. Patience. Perseverance. And a love for a craft that refused to be silent, even after 10 years of rejection. 

Kristen Simmons is the critically acclaimed young adult author of the Article 5 series, The Glass Arrow, Metaltown, Pacifica, and The Deceivers, as well as books for adults. She has worked with survivors of abuse and trauma as a mental health therapist, taught Jazzercise in five states, and is forever in search of the next best cupcake. Currently she lives in Cincinnati, Ohio with her husband, where she spends her days supporting the caffeine industry and chasing her son.