Meet Dawn Colclasure--A Deaf Mom and Writer

Sometime last year, I did a search for authors who are deaf or hard of hearing. I came across Dawn Colclasure and her book, Burning The Midnight Oil: How We Survive As Writing Parents. A quick visit to her website, Books By Dawn Colclasure, and I found her email address. On a whim, I emailed her, asking her how she got started with her writing. We began emailing back and forth as I started my forage into publishing some of my own works.

That initial email turned into an online friendship. Dawn and I often chat several times a week via instant messaging. Author of five books, Dawn is hard at work writing a few more. "My first book was a novel called NOVEMBER'S CHILD. At the time I wrote it, I thought it would be a suspense or mystery book, but the publishing company made it a horror novel, which I wasn't really convinced it was," said Dawn.

One of Dawn's popular books is 365 Tips for Writers. Her love for writing came at a young age. "I've been writing for as long as I can remember," said Dawn. "I started writing poetry and then moved on to short stories, then longer stories and plays. It was never a matter of deciding to write; I just started doing it and kept doing it since."

Rejection and frustration are a part of every writer's life, but Dawn encourages other writers to keep trying. "It's easy to get frustrated by rejections, writer's block and competition from your peers. The hard part is trying to get published, writing your book, and getting yourself out there."

"Once you reach those goals," Dawn continued, "Once you look those frustrations in the eye and say 'you will NEVER crush me!' that's when you'll know that you're on your way to making your writing dreams come true. Write what you want, when you want and be what you want with your writing. There's no limit to how far you can go as a writer!"