December 23, 2022
Daily Diary, Day 843: My Favorite Things #15 Writing Fiction
I debated about broadening this to cover any sort of writing, including these daily posts, but finally decided that these really fit more into the “talking to my friends and family on the phone” favorite thing category, since in many ways these daily posts do feel like I am talking to as my friends in cyberspace. Instead, I decided I needed to honor the fact that creating imaginary worlds and writing about the people and events within those imaginary worlds is the favorite thing that brings me the most joy in my life right now.
I knew I wanted to write fiction by the age of 12. I wrote my first short story, a shameless Georgette Heyer knockoff, when I was 15. Then in my late 20s, I wove stories into my dissertation, imagining what life was like for the women I discovered in the 1880 census, despite being told by one of my dissertation advisors that these sections of the manuscript read too much like fiction.
Then, I finally wrote my first full-length novel, which would become Maids of Misfortune when I was 39. With each of these forays into fiction, I found incredible joy. Yet each time this happened, I would put that pleasure aside to do what I saw as the real work, in the real world, of teaching. Work that enabled me to support myself and my family. Not that I didn’t enjoy my decades of being a professor. But that was work that I felt was my highest priority, and I tended to see writing as a kind of indulgence. So, I would bring that first manuscript and the dream of writing fiction out of the desk drawer every summer and tinker a bit with it, imagining what it would be like to write full-time.
Finally, when for a variety of reasons I semi-retired in 2007, I decided it was time for me to put my dream first.
That’s when I seriously worked on rewriting Maids of Misfortune, investigated ebooks and self-publishing, learned how to format and upload ebooks and print so I could start publishing this book, which I did in December 2009. That first year, 2010, was exciting, in that I sold 4500 books, greater success than I had ever imagined having. However, best of all, I spent 2010 writing the second book, Uneasy Spirits, from scratch, and rI ediscovered how much I simply loved writing. That’s when I decided to retire completely, in order to writing fiction my first priority in life.
Now, twelve years later, after writing eleven novels, four novellas, and nine short stories, my enjoyment has not diminished one iota, and creating both the world of Victorian San Francisco and that of New Eden in the Paradisi Solar system and telling the stories of characters I have come to love is absolutely my favorite thing.
As a bit of shameless promotion, a reminder that Maids of Misfortune, like Between Mountain and Sea, the first book in my Science Fiction series, is permanently free. In addition, for a limited time this holiday, Uneasy Spirits is only 99 cents and Pilfered Promises is free, while the audiobook editions of Maids of Misfortune, Pilfered Promises, and Dandy Delivers are discounted and would all make fun reading or listening over the holidays or a very easy and expensive last-minute gift to give to someone you love!