“It was one of those haphazard decisions that you make casually and affects the next 30, 40 years of your life.”
Garrison Keillor – The Man on the Radio with the Red Shoes.
My husband and I are huge public radio fans, Prairie Home Companion fans in particular. Recently, we were watching an American Masters program called The Man on the Radio with the Red Shoes about Garrison and his radio show, which has been on the air since he started it in 1974. He told of how he grew up in a small town in Minnesota but always dreamed of living in New York and writing for The New Yorker Magazine. But a glancing thought while at the Grand Old Opry in Nashville about how he could do a radio show like the old Opry show changed the course of his life.
At the National RWA conference in DC last week, a young lady who’d just joined RWA sat beside me—or rather I sat beside her—at a workshop and we got to talking before the author began speaking. I recalled my first national conference and how awestruck I’d been. I told her how less than a decade ago I would never have dreamed I’d get to someday meet the wonderful authors I’d been reading for years, much less BE a published author.
Me? Be a writer? If someone had told me that in high school, I’d have given them a polite yet worried look and thought they were one beer short of a six-pack. The worst grade I ever received in my straight-A-student life was a C in Honor’s English class my senior year, because no matter how I poured my heart into a 12-page dissection of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby the teacher thought my writing stunk.
And it probably did. I wasn’t a writer in my youth. I didn’t yearn to scribble stories from the moment I could hold a crayon. I never kept a diary or a journal. And I absolutely hated writing papers for school.
But I was a reader. I started out with Nancy Drew in 3rd grade and never looked back. The Witch of Blackbird Pond. 
Island of the Blue Dolphins. Jane Eyre. All the Georgette Heyers and yes, all of Barbara Cartland’s novels I could get from our small suburban library. When I was 14 I borrowed my mom’s copy of Kathleen Woodiwiss’ The Flame and the Flower. I read Phyllis Whitney,
Catherine Cookson and Mary Stewart. Every summer my mom would have to force me to get my nose out of a book, get off the couch and go outside. As I grew older my reading tastes turned to Romantic Suspense. Barbara Michaels and Elizabeth Peters, Elizabeth George and Anne Perry. Then one day in 1997, with 2 toddlers in tow, and having exhausted the library of all my favorite authors, I turned to the paperback rack out of sheer desperation. And I read Amanda Quick’s Ravished. 
It was my first adult experience reading hot sexual tension and a strong heroine making passionate love. I was hooked on the modern Romance novel.
So, how did I end up being a writer?
It just started with a story in my head. It stayed there for about a year and a half. Finally we got a computer with a WORD program and I thought it might be fun to see if I could actually write the story. After joining RWA and learning some of the craft of writing, and after finding wonderful critique partners who stuck with me through 3 years of revisions, it sold! Part luck, part timing, true, but…I’d sold a book. Something *I* wrote! Maybe I wouldn’t have to work at Wal-Mart after all. Of course, I say that same thing every time I get a new contract. (Took me another 3 years to get my second contract) But I can’t help but look back and think–how did I ever imagine that I could be a writer? Never in my wildest dreams…
Hopefully that haphazard decision I made so casually will affect the next 30-40 years of my life.
You just never know.
Entries (RSS)
So funny… I at 14 snuck my mother’s copy of Woodwiss’s, Shanna into my room and didn’t come out of my room for two days. At one point my mother burst into the room and I hid the book. She asked me what I was hiding and I sheepishly showed her the book. She said “Thank God, I thought you were doing drugs in here!”
You know, Juliet, I was the bane of many an English teacher’s existence because I had the writing talent but not the drive–to put it plainly, I was a lazy-ass and it drove them nuts. I never really enjoyed writing until senior year in high school when I was writing a fictionalized encounter between CS Lewis and the demon Screwtape where Screwtape apologized for not showing Lewis any ID because ID cards always melted in hell. At that point, I discovered I liked writing humor. I always read romance, but it wasn’t until the start of humorous romantic comedies that I seriously considered writing lighter books since they were a good fit for me.
Marie
I too was afflicted with the lazy bug when it came to writing, now i did always want to be a writer, well and a photgrapher, and artist etc…
My problem was that i had literature class right before my english class and loved on and hated the other, can you guess which one i loved?? yup i loved to read and dissect book but hated learning about constructing properly, i soo wish i had listened to my teacher more back then. Things would have went smoother now if i had. Oh well.
I’ve always loved writing, and it does improve the more i do it. Hopefully with more practice and alot of luck i’ll pass the right story to the right editor and get a call.
love your wiritng Jillian, keep up the good work!
jody :-P
My mom had to ration my books. I was limited to one a day, so I began checking thicker books out of the library.
I love to read, I too can finish more than a book – a day- if I try. It keeps me broke and constantly in the book stores around town. Is it a bad thing when you walk into a book store and the clerks can greet you by name?
It was my love of reading that eventually made me turn to my own computer and give writing a try. Years ago, I never would have guessed that I would find joy in crafting sentances and playing with words. I almost did not graduate, because I nearly failed senior year English. My term paper was the culprit. We were allowed 3 gramatical errors for the whole paper. I had 3 errors on the first page. Not my finest hour, even though the rest of my grades were good. I honestly believed that the teacher had it in for me. ( I did not join his precious drama club.)
A less than a year later, much to my surprise, my College English Professor stood in front of the class waiving MY term paper over his head screaming “I’m letting this girl teach this class! You wanna learn to write- talk to her.” There was not a red mark on the entire paper. As I sat right by the door I tried to crawl out un-noticed. But it didn’t work. I never understood exactly what happened to have that turn of events become possible. I just know it happened.
Maybe one day I will have the drive and the good fortune to meet the right people at the right time. Until then Thank you Juliet for giving me a push. After a long dry spell I’m writing again. Once I get up the nerve to join my local writer’s group I may feel differently about my goals. Right now I still see them as a golden dream.
-Pamela
Hi all,
I set my blog to publish Saturday and then left for a week long family vacation before it posted on Monday. I’m so sorry I wasn’t here to answer your comments, but I thank you for posting!
Liz,
Too funny about your mom being “gald you were only reading a romance novel! I would feel the same about my teenage daughter.
Marie,
So glad I’m not the only one to do poorly in English class.
And I’m really glad you found your niche writing the lighter the side of Romance!
Jody,
Here’s wishing you luck, timing and above all, the joy of writing Romance.
Hugs!
Heather,
I remember when I used to be a book-a-day reader. That was before I started writing…
Hi Pamela,
I know what you mean. I think all the managers at my local booksotres know me on sight and some even know my voice on the phone.
I’m so glad you’re writing again after a dry spell. (Y)
After I joined my local chapter of RWA, I did something I think helped me meet a LOT of people who helped my career and becamse close friends: I volunteered. It’s the best way to get to know people in this industry and it helps your chapter at the same time.
Good luck!