One year ago, we met Mary Akers in the first ever interview for the Writer Profile Project. A lot has happened in Mary’s life since that time. For one thing, the non-fiction book she co-authored was released today in Australia. (It’s March 1st there!) I asked her to give us an update, and this is what she said:

Mary says:

I’ve had an amazing year. For starters, I’ve had two of what I consider to be excellent short story acceptances: Bellevue Literary Review and The Fiddlehead (Canada). I am honored to have my work appear in these two fine journals, both of which valued the work and spent a lot of time in edits getting things just right, and one of which accepted the first short story from my newest (ocean-themed) collection. Both will be forthcoming shortly.

Secondly, the non-fiction book I co-authored was picked up by Allen & Unwin publishers (Australia) and is set for release on March 1st, 2008, the anniversary of my interview with you. And even pre-release we’ve had some wonderful interest for Radical Gratitude and other life lessons learned in Siberia: several in-depth interviews with Australia’s leading magazines, lots of words of praise from our advance readers, and I should just say that our publisher, editor, publicist and all of the people we’ve worked with at A&U have been outstanding, committed professionals and they’ve produced a stunning book with several added touches that really make it stand out. Initially the thought of publishing Down Under concerned me, but they have been so amazing, if I had it to do over again, I would definitely give my book to Allen & Unwin first.

To make things even better, we’re currently finalizing deals with Simon & Schuster for UK and Canadian rights and we have a German publisher who plans to release the book in November 2009 in translation! Poland is also interested. Still not the US, oddly enough, but whatever. I’m used to coming in the back door.

No US release does mean that it’s more difficult for interested readers to get their hands on a copy of the book, however, so for far-flung family and friends who want a signed copy, I’ve put a PayPal button on my blog (http://www.maryakers.blogspot.com) and this way they can get a signed copy for less than it would cost direct from the publisher, because, well, the publisher is in Australia, and it costs $10 to ship a book from Oz to the US.

I’m still looking for an agent to represent my fiction, but I believe that will come when the time is right, and I just keep plugging away, finishing stories and revising manuscripts so I’ll be ready when the phone finally rings. And Andrew and I have started a new non-fiction book tentatively titled Aging Isn’t for Sissies. He’s 73 and goes to the gym faithfully every day, backpacks in the summer, grows his own organic garden…I can’t imagine a better ambassador for aging gracefully.

Oh, and one final thing. I just want to encourage everyone who is still striving and trying and hoping. This isn’t an overnight success story. I started writing in earnest 12 years ago. Yes, I’ve been at it for a while, but as I said in the earlier interview, writing is mainly about persistence. So don’t give up, all you aspiring writers. It really will happen if you just keep your butt in the chair, keep your fingers on the keyboard, and keep open to the possibilities.