My life as a writer: blame it all on Scarlett and Rhett.....
My first book signing at Davis Kidd
I actually attempted writing my first novel when I was thirteen. That was the year my mother bribed me to read Gone with the Wind. I loved it, but hated the ending. I decided I would find some way to get Scarlett and Rhett back together, but my efforts stalled quickly. I had a vague concept of something called a “copyright," and I didn’t want to break any laws, so I tried to write my own Civil War saga. It was beyond awful, of course.
Then disaster struck: my mother found my scribbled pages. She loved it; I was mortified. Writing, I believed, was the most special magic in the world, and while my mother might think I was the next Margaret Mitchell, I was sure that everyone else would laugh at my presumption.
I never finished that first novel. I kept a journal and wrote some essays, but I didn’t write fiction again until I was a sophomore at Agnes Scott College. There came a quarter when I couldn’t fit a single English course into my schedule except for creative writing. I was terrified.
Of all the classes I took at Agnes Scott, I worked harder in that creative writing class, and enjoyed it more, than anything else I ever did, except perhaps afternoons drinking beer with my art professor.
But after graduation from Agnes Scott in 1985, I had no clue what I really wanted to do with my life. Writing as anything but a "hobby" never occurred to me. It wasn’t until I asked myself the simplest of questions that the answer appeared, as unmistakable as a cartoon light bulb over my head. I asked myself: what could you be happy doing for the rest of your life? Forget what you think you should do. Forget what you think is possible, what you think you could make a living at, what other people think you should do. Forget even what you think you have a talent for. What do you want to do?
I wanted to tell stories. So I began writing in earnest.
The first novel took almost five years - an embarrassingly autobiographical story about four girls at a small women’s college. That novel earned my first, second and third rejection letters before I realized that perhaps every writer has to get that one hideously bad novel out of their systems.
My second novel was better, but the stack of rejection letters grew. I was beginning to wonder if I was just wasting my time.
Then, I saw an advertisement for a contest by the Audio Book Club. First prize was having your story produced as an audio book. I pulled out a short story I'd written a few years back -- for another contest -- called Small Change: The Secret Life of Penny Burford.
And I won. Once Small Change came out in audio, I was able to get an agent and find a publisher for hardcover and then paperback printing. (Small Change is also now available as an ebook.)
Something Blue, about three generations of Southern women trying to survive a small town wedding, has just come out in 2014 in both paperback and Kindle edition. So far reviews have been very positive, and just about every reader says they laughed out loud.
The Cadian Chronicles is a fantasy saga, in a similar vein to Game of Thrones, which so far has five volumes: Misery's Child, Misery's Flight, Misery's Curse, Misery's Disguise and Misery's Tribe. These are all available as ebooks from Kindle. I think another two books will see the story wrapped up.
Then disaster struck: my mother found my scribbled pages. She loved it; I was mortified. Writing, I believed, was the most special magic in the world, and while my mother might think I was the next Margaret Mitchell, I was sure that everyone else would laugh at my presumption.
I never finished that first novel. I kept a journal and wrote some essays, but I didn’t write fiction again until I was a sophomore at Agnes Scott College. There came a quarter when I couldn’t fit a single English course into my schedule except for creative writing. I was terrified.
Of all the classes I took at Agnes Scott, I worked harder in that creative writing class, and enjoyed it more, than anything else I ever did, except perhaps afternoons drinking beer with my art professor.
But after graduation from Agnes Scott in 1985, I had no clue what I really wanted to do with my life. Writing as anything but a "hobby" never occurred to me. It wasn’t until I asked myself the simplest of questions that the answer appeared, as unmistakable as a cartoon light bulb over my head. I asked myself: what could you be happy doing for the rest of your life? Forget what you think you should do. Forget what you think is possible, what you think you could make a living at, what other people think you should do. Forget even what you think you have a talent for. What do you want to do?
I wanted to tell stories. So I began writing in earnest.
The first novel took almost five years - an embarrassingly autobiographical story about four girls at a small women’s college. That novel earned my first, second and third rejection letters before I realized that perhaps every writer has to get that one hideously bad novel out of their systems.
My second novel was better, but the stack of rejection letters grew. I was beginning to wonder if I was just wasting my time.
Then, I saw an advertisement for a contest by the Audio Book Club. First prize was having your story produced as an audio book. I pulled out a short story I'd written a few years back -- for another contest -- called Small Change: The Secret Life of Penny Burford.
And I won. Once Small Change came out in audio, I was able to get an agent and find a publisher for hardcover and then paperback printing. (Small Change is also now available as an ebook.)
Something Blue, about three generations of Southern women trying to survive a small town wedding, has just come out in 2014 in both paperback and Kindle edition. So far reviews have been very positive, and just about every reader says they laughed out loud.
The Cadian Chronicles is a fantasy saga, in a similar vein to Game of Thrones, which so far has five volumes: Misery's Child, Misery's Flight, Misery's Curse, Misery's Disguise and Misery's Tribe. These are all available as ebooks from Kindle. I think another two books will see the story wrapped up.
