How the Dream came to life

Like so many people I have met in my life. I had a dream that I wanted to achieve and I did nothing about it for 10 years. I just thought about my magic world and would jot down ideas whenever they came to me, usually when I was at work doing something completely boring, like working in house keeping for a hotel. Uhhh, I hate being bored. Why is it that most jobs are so mind numbingly boring? So after "living" in my dream world for 10 years to help me cope with the boring real world, I decided to start actually writing. In all fairness to myself, I was a lost soul trying to figure out what I wanted to do when I grew up. I worked every job known to man, I think, and hated most of them. So I started writing my book at work on pieces of paper from the printer. I was working as a bellmen at a 4 star hotel at the time and would usually have a couple of hours of down time. I loved writing! It was so great to finally get the world out of my head and onto paper. I found that I was happiest when I was writing and would really look forward to when I could get back to it. Stupid real world job kept getting in my way and I had to go to school to keep my feet grounded in this reality. haha. It took me 2 years to write my book. I first wrote it all out long hand, at work, and then I typed the whole thing into my computer, which actually was a good thing because I changed alot of things and polished it up while typing it. Every step was a lengthy process. I liked every step except for the editing and revision process. I couldn't stand either one, they both take FOREVER! It took a whole year to get the editing done and the interior pictures. I had an artist friend of mine, Joseph Gale, do the interior artwork. He did a great job but he didn't think I would actually finish the book so he wasn't really motivated to work fast on them and he is very hard to get ahold of. The publishing process took around 6 months and then the revision process took another 6 months. It took almost 2 years after my book was done to get it made into an actual book. It about made me crazy! But I wanted it to look good, so I put up with the lengthy process. My next book better not take that long, I think I'll go loony. So how did I get it published? I got some how to publish your novel books from the library and then I sent my manuscript to every agent in the book that was even interested with a fantasy book and every one of them told me no or didn't respond back to me. I had one agent who really liked my novel but decided to go with another one that was more in line with what they did. They did more romance type books. Mine is an action fantasy novel so I can understand why they would go for the sappy book over my exciting one. lol. To each his or her own, whatever floats your boat. I gave up on that route, I was too anxious to hold my book in my hands, so I went with a self publisher called Mill City Press. They are associated with Amazon and I think they did an amazing job with my book. They had an artist do the cover of the book for me and I love it. They were great to work with. A little pricey but I have books now that I can sell and I can tell people that I'm an Author. It feels really good to finally be able to say that.