About Tessa
Tessa Quinones is a Southwest Florida writer who blogs about the writer’s group experience. She began her writing career in her teens, working as an Intern at Firman Technical Publishing and providing copy-editing for software technical manuals.
An avid member of the Davie Writer’s Group since 2012, she has written multiple short stories. She published When Feldspar Giggled on Amazon KDP in 2020 and immediately garnered a five-star review. During Covid, she began work on a larger science fiction novel, Blue Light. She lives in southwest Florida with her wife and their cat.
My Writing Journey
I cannot physically not write. My love of reading and writing started early, in my childhood. By my high school years, I was writing satire for an underground newspaper and interning with my mother, who was a technical writer. When other teens were at the mall or on the beach, I spent my summers copy editing (manuscripts? Manuals?). In college, I turned my skills as a writer into a side hustle to support myself. I assisted upperclassmen and even graduate students by writing their technical papers and editing their PhD dissertations. Writing has been my hobby for over 25 years.
Then Covid happened in 2020 and I found myself with more time than I had ever imagined in a world that seemed more dystopian than any novel I have ever written. I turned to writing as a coping mechanism. Steven King has a great book called “The Artist’s Way” where he mentioned writing for about an hour a day and it was through that exercise that I learned to value myself and my contributions as a writer. I got addicted to spending time in my worlds and in my books. I started attending writing groups and did great coming up with impromptu stories for stories slams. I worked with a writing coach to hone my craft and took courses with Gotham Writers.
It has not always been smooth sailing. I wrote Trophy Club, an enormous 100,000-word book with no plot, by the seat of my pants. I just put words on the page, writing down whatever came out, and it was a giant clusterfuck (excuse my French). Some of the feedback was tough. My beta readers and teachers pushed me to expand my world building and tighten up my plots. I went back to the drawing board and later in 2020 published my first work, When Feldspar Giggled, on Amazon. It was a 16-page book that I wrote in 46 minutes, but it received a 5-star review from someone I didn’t know. I was so proud. That was the moment where I though, “Wow… I can really do this. I can be an author.” One of the most exciting moments I have now is when people read an excerpt of my work and tell me that they can’t wait to see what happens next.
Now I’m on to my most recent adventure, Blue Light, my debut novel. I’m so excited to invite you all into the world I’m creating filled with characters that I hope will make you laugh, cry, think, and feel.
A special thank you
I’d like to take a moment to thank a few amazing people in my life for supporting my journey as an author, helping me to become a better writer, and showing me how to take the vast universe of worlds, characters, and stories out of my head and onto the page. First, Carolyn MacCullough of Gotham Writers Workshop who taught me how to write a query letter. Next is Sally Cooper from One Lit Place, my amazing writing coach who encouraged me to world build. Then of course there’s Balam Abello, the host for the Davie Writer’s Group, who took me aside and taught me everything that I didn’t know that I didn’t know. And last but certainly not least my captain, for 16 wonderful years and a lifetime of love and laughter.
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