I'm Back! And Fired Up!

Hello, everyone. I know you thought I was gone for good. I thought so, too. But I read Tim Denning’s Unfiltered Substack newsletter just now, with quotations from someone who says things differently and doesn’t whitewash his thoughts. Charles Bukowski. You’ll want to find it.

“Find what you love and let it kill you.”

Wow! I realized that’s what I’ve experienced over and over during my 42 years as a writer. My dream—to be a successful novelist—was shot down, stomped, then kicked repeatedly when something I tried fell flat. Years and years of caretaking slowed my enthusiasm to less than a crawl, and finally pinned it to the floor beside my malfunctioning computer, which deleted my new book after I’d told my editor to expect it. That was awful. I rewrote the book, using a first draft to get started. It took as long to rewrite it as it did to write it the first time. Finally, I sent it to her.

I’ve told you what happened. She loved the story, loved my writing, but it exceeded the strict parameters of category romance, so she couldn’t buy it. That was close to the worst setback, made more serious by my body’s age of 72. My mind, heart, spirit, and soul are about 40. And a server at Jalisco’s in Seminole told me she thought I was 59. I could’ve hugged her. You should’ve seen her face when I told her, 73.

That’s what Tim’s article about Charles Bukowski did for me. His quotations told me to forget all the setbacks and focus on making my dream come true, no matter how old my body is. I should tell you that my arthritis doesn’t hurt anymore. Really. Well, once in awhile, when a new knot starts to grow. A new one below my restructured thumb joined the carpal tunnel in my right wrist, but it was a good thing! Why? Because it made me look carefully at my right hand. What I discovered wasn’t good at all.

Remember when I told you Dupuytren’s Contractures had squeezed my left hand to the point it was smaller than my right hand? Surgery stopped the shrinkage in 2020. Reconstruction surgery on my right thumb in 2021.

Well……my right hand is now the SAME SIZE as my left. Yep. Dupuytren’s strikes again. This time, with knots going across the palm of that hand, shrinking it. Yes! Surgery #3 ASAP to keep my hands the same size. I’ll see my surgeon Wednesday, hopefully set the surgery for the 25th. I’m already reminding my left hand it will have to take over for my right hand again. No problem.

Back to my novel. FORGIVE ME, CINDY has been sleeping quietly for the past year. I’ve been looking for a big publisher who’ll accept unagented submissions, and I finally found one. The “biggest publisher of romance fiction” isn’t Harlequin, as I thought. It’s Kensington.

They don’t require an agent for anything they publish! And there’s an Assistant Editor (best to submit to an Assistant because they’re looking for a writer who will carry them to full Editor, kind of like Nora Roberts took her editor all the way to the top of Harlequin) who’s looking for romance fiction that’s both romance and women’s fiction. Kind of like a bridge. That’s my book!!!!!

I’ll be sending CINDY to Ms. Trout (yes, that’s her name) ASAP so she might have time to see it before going to the Romance Writers of America national conference July 27-30. $525 just to attend, plus BIG hotel fees, meals, and flight to Washington DC. Can’t do it. I’m a writer!

Every romance editor will be there. Every last one. But I want Ms. Trout to request the whole manuscript for CINDY before she goes, then returns to hundreds of queries.

This means, of course, that I must get busy writing another book for her, so I can mention that MAGGIE is in progress, to be followed by HOLLY and ALYSSA.

I actually feel the enthusiasm I felt when I was conference-hopping, speaking, teaching 20 years ago. It’s required. And since my writing is “a joy to read,” according to my lovely Harlequin editor, I can write MAGGIE in a real hurry. I’ll be waiting at least 3 months after sending the book. That’s enough time to finish MAGGIE and start HOLLY.

Want to rekindle your enthusiasm for a dream you may have thought couldn’t be achieved? Read Tim’s article with 10 of Charles Bukowski’s quotations. Then, let me know if you get as fired up as I have!

Hugs and Happiness and ENTHUSIASM!

Linda

Linda George has been a professional writer since 1980. She and Charles collaborated on 68 nonfiction books, and Linda has published 5 of her 8 romantic novels on Amazon. She and Charles have been married 51 years!