Early Years
MY FIRST NOVEL
was all about horses (that should tell you it was written in my teens), and as soon as I had finished, I thought it was embarrassing, and so I managed to loose it. Nothing as definite as burning it, I just left it lying about until it vanished in the way so many things vanish if you don’t keep an eye on them. However, for Christmas 2006, it showed up, bound in a book! My sister had secretly kept it in a drawer for years, typed it, added illustrations and has now given it to me as a wonderful Christmas gift.
MY SECOND NOVEL
took shape some twenty years later. It was a detective story placed in Indonesia. That’s when I first noticed that I needed help. So I bought my first books about story writing (Sol Stein and others) and studied them until the pages fell apart. I finished the novel and started to shop it around.
No success. (I see you’re not surprised.)
When I finally nailed down one unfortunate editor, she said, “Your dialog isn’t bad. But . . .” I could feel the wealth of arguments she hadn’t put into words with that single “But.” So I lost this novel too and started to look around for more help.
