– Eleanor
Roosevelt
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Is that a good idea? Really? I don't think Mrs. Roosevelt meant things like--touch a spider. Or eat raw sea urchin. But if life becomes predictable and ordinary, your experiences will pale and fade away--and you just have this one life, right? (Far as we know....)
I guess what Mrs. Roosevelt meant was--go for it.
Our guest today exemplifies going for it. And here she shares her journey!
And we have a lovely copy of Death of A Schoolgirl for one commenter who tells us something brave they did! (I drove a stick shift in actual traffic..does that count? I went down the diamond slope skiing...but I splatted. I guess that doesn't count.)
Last month my
seventeen-year-old niece came for a visit. She’d never flown without her
parents before. She’d never been in a taxi. And she’d never walked through a
revolving door. As she tackled each of these new ventures, I noticed the glow
of pride suffuse her face. Watching her tickled me, because each experience
recalled similar moments in my life.
Moments when I felt that panic of uncertainty, that thrill of
determination, that shock of the unknown, and finally that welcome relief of
accomplishment.
This year I
did something that scared me. Something really big. I wrote a historical
mystery. Not just any historical mystery…
I borrowed the protagonist from Charlotte Brontë’s classic Jane
Eyre.
The idea had
been noodling around in my head for years.
Could I do
it?
Could I pull
it off?
Could I
manage all the research—and not commit such humongous errors as to make myself
a laughingstock?
Fate
intervened.
At an MWA
meeting, I was fortunate enough to sit next to Louis Bayard, an author whose
work I’ve long admired. We’d corresponded in the past because I’d suggested Mr.
Timothy to my online book club, the one I’m in with a dozen other
writers. When we had questions about the novel that demanded answers, I wrote
Louis. I figured, “What the heck? If he doesn’t respond, that’s fine.”
But he did.
Graciously.
Now as we
chatted over dinner, I reminded him of our correspondence. He was as generous
in person as he’d been via email. I told him I was thinking of writing a
historical mystery, but I worried about the research. Seemed to me that he’d
done absolutely tons of research. It goes without saying that Louis is an
erudite man. He has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the
Huffington Post.
He assured me
that he might not have done as much research as I thought.
Honest, he
said, and he smiled.
And then I
started thinking…
Maybe the
biggest stumbling block wasn’t the research. It was my fear of doing something
new. Something that would cause me to stretch. Something at which I might well
fail. Something that could embarrass me.
So, Dear
Reader, I wrote the book, my historical mystery.
And yes, Dear
Reader, much of the time that I was writing, I was scared to death!
How about
you? What have you done this year that scared you?
**
Multi-published author Joanna Campbell Slan’s newest
work—Death
of a Schoolgirl—has been said by Publishers Weekly to “credibly recreate Regency London and the
era of the Bow Street Runners.” Kirkus Reviews has noted that the book “refashions a beloved heroine as a surprisingly canny
detective.” RT Book Reviews
calls it “a very
entertaining, believable extension of Jane Eyre” and
continues to praise Slan’s work by saying, “she has done an impressive job
using rich historical details to transport readers back in time.” Visit an
incredibly relieved Joanna at www.JoannaSlan.com
