Local authors and publishing options

Yesterday I went to my local downtown library (the library system in the town I live in is fantastic by the way) to see a panel discussion by eleven local authors (although two were coauthors on the same book). Most of them were nonfiction, self-published, and/or for adults, which doesn't exactly fit what I'm doing. I mean, I might as well say that I've never really considered self-publishing. I want to be an author as a full-time profession eventually, even if that means waiting, and I would like some professional guidance. But it is tempting. (And then I remember that I'm in the process of major rewriting and I can't just send it off soon anyway.)

I'm rather shy about the whole "I wrote a book when I was young and have spent years editing and working on a sequel" thing, even though there was another very young (self-published, not-trilogy work) author there. But eventually I talked to one traditonally-published author who writes historical fiction books about kids and teaches creative writing at a local university (also her son apparently goes to the same school I do, and is a year ahead of me). She suggested that I submit something to Scholastic's yearly young author competition to get used to deadlines, although that seems to be either for elementary and middle schools or about picture books from a quick Google search and I am...not an artist. (Although I have a friend who wants to be an illustrator...) I also got her card and was invited to email her, although I don't exactly know how I would go about that. I suppose I could just email the first couple of chapters I have (mostly) edited...sometime...I'm always so nervous though. I've heard that getting a mentor is a great idea though. Even though I'm not planning on publishing for years...