In September 2016, in response to a comment one of my students made on a “welcome to my class” writing assignment, I decided to sign up for Wattpad. I posted the YA Fantasy novel I’d written while on parental leave with our eldest daughter. This was the start of my Wattpad journey.

Last year, I was invited to participate in a Wattpad x CBC GEM pitch contest for a web TV series. I was really excited about the opportunity to challenge myself creatively and to write with a different medium in mind. When the Top 10 was announced last May, I found out my idea made the cut. While I didn’t ultimately win that competition, it got me on Wattpad HQ’s radar (though, I might have been there before because my YA Fantasy story was shortlisted for the Watty Awards in 2017).

In October 2019, I was invited to become a Wattpad Star. Previously, the star status seemed to be reserved for writers with the largest followings, hottest books, or strongest/most unique writing skills. I’m not sure which of those categories (if any) I fall into, but I was really flattered to be offered the chance to join such a unique and diverse group of people.

Then in January 2020, I was invited to enter what was then called Movie Star Memories into consideration as a Paid Story. Wattpad expanded from a free reading site into a site with selected paid reading in 2019. So, the program is still pretty young. In any event, since I’d love to make a career out of writing, I jumped at the chance to be involved in another arm of Wattpad. I get a lot of joy out of posting my stories there and interacting with readers. Getting reader reactions in real time is deeply gratifying and really helps to push through writer’s block and sometimes their comments can stir a new idea.

On April 22nd, 2020 during the COVID19 pandemic, When Stars Fall (formerly Movie Star Memories) entered the Paid Stories arena. The response has been overwhelming and very flattering. As I’m writing this, my novel is #1 in Romance (which is a category with 1.5 million stories). The idea I’m sitting at the top of that heap (however briefly) is something I never thought I’d see. It’s always felt like an impossible mountain.

So, I wanted to take an opportunity to document this moment because amongst all the strangeness in the world, this exciting thing is happening to me, and I couldn’t be more grateful.