What made me decide to be a writer? I can’t remember when I wasn’t writing poems and short stories or story ideas bombarding my imagination. The person who encouraged me to write, but I saw how little he made from his writing and that practical side of me kept saying, “Not now. Go for it later.”, was my grandfather. He gave me my first “How to Write” book, which I still have. When I finally felt I could go for that dream, without starving and putting a burden on my family, I left the corporate world of finance and picked up that dream of long ago.
How did I react when I got the “Call” and was told my first book was published? I was shocked it happened the way it did. I sent an e-mail to Triskelion, which included the Synopsis, on THE MISTLETOE AFFAIR and HIS FARM, HER CIRCUS, which is what they were renamed later. I’m a night owl so I sent the two e-mails late at night, expecting to hear nothing for a long while or if they did write, expecting to have Triskelion request the first three chapters of each book. Surprise! Almost immediately I received an e-mail requesting that I send both manuscript files. I almost fell off the chair. I spent a lot of time reformatting the files to their specifications and sent them. When the e-mail came in saying they wanted both books and were sending a contract on them I wish I could say I was calm. I was anything but calm. I cried and pictured my grandfather, who never lived to see this, but I felt he knew what was happening to me at that moment. I remembered all the times he’d encouraged me not to wait too late in life to go after that dream and I whispered, “We did it, Granddad. You and me, we did it!”
Judith Gilbert/J Gilbert
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