| Romance Author |
| Mary Beth Lee |
It did. The story about a little boy saving the life of a man choking on a french fry, a man who turned out to be a millionaire, a man who gave a reward to the heroic young boy, didn't make any best seller charts. But it accomplished its purpose. I got to sit in the chair at the front of the classroom. And that began my love affair with writing.
My love affair with happily ever after happened even before that; I just didn't realize it at the time. I loved fairy tales. Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Rose Red, I loved them all--especially the ones with wicked villains and heroic Prince Charmings.
But happily ever after was far more ingrained in my psyche than my adoration for fairy tales. My friends always liked to hang out at my house...and they always commented on my parents' love. They acted like teenagers--holding hands, kissing, teasing. I took it for granted. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of summers at Grandma's and my grandma's teasing, "Stop that Odell," after Grandpa smacked her backside.
Romance was simply a part of my life.
So it came as no surprise when I fell in love with Silhouette's young adult romance line when I was a teenager. I read the books and realized I could do this! And thus I discovered my true calling. I don't know how many novels I wrote with Eraser Mate pens and blue spiral notebooks. Each book took three spirals. My first critique partners were a group of friends waiting anxiously for me to finish the next chapter.
My mom, one of my first readers even then, wanted to know why I set out to make her cry. I just smiled. When she bought my first subscription to Writer's Digest, I was still in high school. But she figured if I was going to be a writer, I needed to learn some tools of the trade.
Life happened for a while and I became more and more of a romance reader than writer. School, family, job--advising writers is an easy substitute for writing yourself--I forgot the dream. Until my professor called me late one day and reminded me that I'd always said I wanted to be a writer. I enrolled in classes and my journey to publication began.
The classes didn't necessarily make me a better writer. But they did expose me to language, thoughts, genres I'd never really paid much attention to.
Today as I pursue my dream of publication I find myself experimenting more with language, the feel of it, the sound of it, but I don't experiment with happily ever after. It's just part of who I am.•