I, Mitos, am an Author

“Now, I can boast to all my friends that my sister is an author,” my sister Conni said. She’s my biggest fan and staunchest supporter. I can say that not just because she’s morally supportive AND she bought more copies of my debut memoir than anyone else I know. She gifted them to almost all her friends, even if they’d been willing to purchase it. Thanks, Sissie!

Even if it was a dream come true, it felt weird being called an author. I didn’t really feel much like an author until I finished my second book; that was a milestone for me.

My journey as an author started in high school when I had to write an essay. It was fascinating to try and breathe life into an inanimate object like my shoelace. Where else can you do that? I wrote passionately about the fate of my shoelace and my essay caught my English teacher’s attention. She took me aside and said, “You really got the gift! I would encourage you to develop it. ” She’s probably forgotten me by now, if she’s even still alive. Maybe that was one of her teaching techniques to encourage each student to read and especially write. Whatever the case, it definitely worked on me. That day, I decided to be a writer.

By the time I was in college, I tried my hand at business and economics, but somehow the numbers dissolved on me. I decided to shift to liberal arts and delve into Asian Studies and World history. For what’s it worth, I was mesmerized with human evolution and the events of the past whether it was a career path or not!

At any rate, the curriculum trained me to research and know my subject, so I had plenty of materials to write about. I was naturally drawn to apply for work in our local newspaper in Cebu City, believing that it was a pre-requisite to my dreams of being an author. I was not shy about telling them about my desire to write, but initially they saw me as a person to solicit their ads for them. At last the paper gave me an opportunity to write a VIP column to interview local celebrities, community influencers, local musicians and star athletes. They encouraged me to write about them, but they wanted ‘sugarcoated’ articles, because the real goal was selling ad space; it was the heartbeat of the newspaper.

Since my column began pumping life into the newspaper, they rewarded me by providing me feature front-page headlines; I could finally write what I wanted. Mostly I wrote about travelogues and history pieces of the Philippines, the Barangays, and towns.

After college, I moved to Germany and somehow life got in the way again and my dreams were buried. My only writing practice consisted of letters to home about my new life abroad. Still, I had to write and rewrite my letters to perfection even if they were private and just addressed to my family.

When I moved to California several years later, I began working for a local newspaper again and befriended an editor, who capitalizes on writer wannabes like me that wanted to see their name in print. For the sake of vanity, she managed to get most contributors to write for FREE. She also sensed my sales skill, and she suggested I augment my income by selling ad space. Again I flourished a bit and landed full page and half page ads, in exchange I got my articles featured.

I didn’t give up on my dreams of becoming an author and explored writing again by joining local writing groups. Although the group gave me encouraging feedback, I felt lost and confused by all of the opinions; they were drowning my voice.

I wrote for a digital startup company and I dived into tech writing about digital currencies, bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as well as company valuations, acquisitions, and mergers. I thought I had to do this to pay my dues and make it look good in my resume, but is this really writing?

I wasn’t sure if this is what I wanted and I wondered, am I just moving words around? It was definitely a good exercise to writing and research.

Eventually, I thought I will just produce my first book, “A Doorbell, A Dictator, A Dad” and that’s it. Bucket list checked. I can die happy now!

But after the release of my first book, I felt I had more to say and before I knew it, I was rolling with a second book, ‘Shards of Time’.

I learned more about the publishing process. It’s not a hard goal after all, but there’s SO much to learn!

I can already see my cover on my third book and the outline. Authorship seems to be sinking deeper into my system and I’m discovering that it’s not a goal, but a process. I can comfortably claim the title because it was only a milestone and not an end. If you’ve got the writing bug and feel compelled to dive deeper into the trenches, I think the key is to ‘just do it!’

So yup… I, Mitos Suson am an author, and hopefully one day, a best selling author! I can still dream can’t I?