A 20th Century Fiction Author in the 21st Century
Times, they are a-changing
In the 1990’s, I went through the fiction author gauntlet to get to that prized acceptance: query letter to agents, with three chapters and an outline available if there was a nibble of interest. Critique groups, contests, conferences, I participated in them all. I wanted to write genre fiction, mass market entertainment, to give readers a couple hours of bliss in their frenetic days.
And I did it! Seven books published by big name traditional publishers: Warner Books, Berkley, Tor/Forge, and a contract for two more books. I wasn’t a New York Times bestseller, I was a competent midlist author, but I was on top of the world doing my dream job.
Then my world imploded.
It was all I could do to not be a Humpty Dumpty that couldn’t be put back together again. I wrote about falling down the rabbit hole. You can find that article here, but it is not intrinsically relevant to this article.
What is relevant is I stopped fiction writing. I couldn’t do it anymore. My life had become a nightmare I couldn’t escape. I canceled my book contract, paid the publisher back for the advance against royalties for the two unwritten books, and went to work in corporate America. I paid for the roof over our heads, put food on the table…
