Today I am taking part in the All Authors Blog Blitz put on by Y. Correa and the All Authors Magazine. (a very well put-togther magazine…you should have a look)

I am featuring Debbie Boswell on my blog today. She is the author of House of Mirrors

Meet Debbie…

Debbie Boswell has a B.S. in accounting and an Enrolled Agent license (E.A.).  She is also the owner/manager of Crafts by Grace, a cottage industry in which she makes candles, soap and designs T-shirts.  Debbie co-wrote and co-produced her first screenplay, OPEN/CLOSE, through the Brooklyn Young Filmmakers Center.  House of Mirrors is her second novel.  Debbie resides in Brooklyn, NY where she was born and raised.

Here is a little bit about her journey in coming up with her novel, followed by the book trailer…

The first step is always the hardest. 

I was at Grand Central, watching the lunchtime crowd and worrying about a schedule I had to prepare that afternoon.  I’d never done that particular one before and in the anal attentive world of public accounting, perfection wasn’t an option.  I got my head chewed off by a tax manager once for not having the staples aligned evenly on a tax return.  To this day, I can’t staple my income tax return without developing a nervous tic.

As I observed workers hurrying back and forth with their Styrofoam cups or grabbing that quick bite before dashing back to the office, it hit me:  I hate my job.  Co-workers sighing loudly and scratching themselves before the day begins, permanent scowls branded on their faces, the schmoozing, the backstabbing.  This lifestyle wasn’t for me.  I needed to make a change.

I always wanted to work for myself.  I assumed it would’ve been accounting-related, but deep down, my soul was crying out for me to write.  I was writing stories ever since I was a little girl.  I used to get this spark every time our class went to the library or whenever I had to write a story, had art class or rehearsed for the school play.  While commuting to work or during lunch, I was reading books and magazines on how to write a manuscript.  I fantasized about seeing my novels in bookstores, even better, having them made into film!  Oddly, that spark returned during these activities.  I knew then what I wanted and if I wanted to feel that zest for my job again or for life, I was going to have to be true to myself.  I wasn’t an executive.  I was a writer.

However, the pressure to conform overrode my desires.  Fear of going against social mores kept me trapped.  So, I remained where I was, losing pieces of myself overtime, enduring nervousness and emotional abuse in the cutthroat environment of corporate America where I also faced the possibility of fading into oblivion.

Yet something inside of me kept saying, You don’t have to accept this lifestyle.

But fear is powerful.  It prevented me from taking the necessary step to make a change…until I got a little push, more like a shove—from a totally unexpected and unrelated incident.  I was figuratively, pushed into a pool without any water.  Devastated, hurt and angry, I took stock of my life and finally found the courage I needed to start living for me.

Gradually, I walked away from the corporate life.  Was it scary?  A little.  Adjustment always is.  Even starting this website is intimidating.  Plus, there’s risk of criticism and rejection.  Then again, I was experiencing that in academia, then in the work world.  Why not go through it while doing what I love:  writing?

Traces of my misadventures in accounting are in my debut novel, Miriam’s Journey.  The turning point I reached after that shove provided some material for my current novel, House of Mirrors, which ironically, which would’ve been my first novel, but after writing the first hundred or so pages, I decided that I wasn’t ready to write this particular story yet, so I put it aside.

The pain that led me to take that first step into writing produced two novels, my own business, Crafts by Grace and a screenplay but that’s another story….

You can also find out more about Debbie here: CraftsByGrace