I never thought I would have a website with my name on it. Nor that I’d ever have the self-discipline to write a novel. But life is full of surprises.
I got a great idea for a romantic comedy film—one I wished someone else would write and produce. But no one did. Yet the characters, scenes and funny one-liners kept creeping into my thoughts, along with something the great author, Toni Morrison, said:
“If there’s a book that you really want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”
Since I couldn’t get the idea out of my mind, I decided to go for it. But just as I began writing the screenplay, there was a death in my family and I forgot most of the great comedic scenes I had imagined. When I got back to writing, my rom-com morphed into the celebrity romance, In Your Dreams!.
Ken Levine, an old friend from my earliest Radio Days, who went on to become an Emmy-winning TV writer, reminded me that no reputable studio or production company would ever read a screenplay by an unknown writer. He’s the one who said I should publish the story as a book; then if it sold enough, maybe someone in the film industry would consider reading the script.
I had never considered writing a book. I had never written any fiction… other than my daily to-do lists. Oh, a long time ago, I started co-writing a dramatic movie for TV with a professional TV writer in Alaska, but I moved away before we finished it.
So, the fiction-writing world is new to me, and rather intimidating, too. I’ve been writing for decades, but it was always news, public service announcements (PSAs), radio commercials, news releases, brochures, newsletters, and in recent years, public information for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife website.
What a difference!
To write fiction is to invent characters and make up situations—the opposite of my “Just the Facts, Ma’am” work in Radio, TV, nonprofit organizations, and government. So, in the past few years I’ve taken scores of classes and workshops, consumed dozens of webinars, books and blogs, and attended several writers conferences. I turned my big dining room table into a book and paper-covered desk, and have written and revised my debut novel, In Your Dreams!, more often than I care to admit. Finally, I think it’s ready for anyone who wants to distract him/herself with someone else’s world and love life.
In Your Dreams! is the first of a three-book contemporary, later-in-life romance series about an independent, middle-aged woman in California and a playboy actor in London who fancies her. He turns her comfortable, emotionally-stable, solitary life upside-down. Then, after having to make a gut-wrenching choice, his emotions force him to re-examine his own dreams and priorities.
While it’s not the Rom-Com I originally imagined, some of the humor remains, and I still hope the book sells well enough to interest a reputable film production company in a screenplay. (Hello, SunnyMarch?)
I hope you enjoy it, as well as Dream On! and A Dream Come True, the two books that will follow… when I recover from this one. 😊