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A Home for Harriet or Aim for Gold...

2/17/2018

 
PictureCutting a dash on the slopes in 1995 (By the way... the now 'vintage' jacket is for sale... )
I am watching the Winter Olympics, awed by the seemingly effortless ability to balance on thin pieces of steel, hurtle down slopes at great speed, leap and twist in the air and still land on your skates/skis/boards. Every single medal winning athlete interviewed after the event looks at the interviewer with bright eyes and says… ‘This has been my goal… this has been my dream…’

World championships are nothing, winning Olympic fame is what they all strive for.


What we don’t see in their graceful performances, are the years and years and years of practice and broken dreams (and bones) that lie behind these few minutes. Through the pain and heartache they never let go of their goal to compete at the Olympics.

I may have been a complete klutz at sport, but I had a dream too… which began when I was a youngster, perched on a branch in the willow tree in the school quadrangle with my best friend, scribbling stories in our shorthand notebooks. We are going to be published authors we told each other… but, for me, came university, marriage, children, career… while my friend saw her first book published.  I rejoiced for her but writing for me seemed a very distant dream. 

Given my analogy to the Winter Olympics, it is ironic that my writing career, in fact, kicked off with a skiing accident that saw me confined to a lodge at Dinner Plain while the family hit the slopes for the day. With one arm in a sling and snow drifting against the windows I began the story that became BY THE SWORD. For months afterwards, I stole secret time to continue the story, drawn by the characters who had lived with me for so long. Was it really possible that the flame of hope that had burned so strongly in my teenage years could be rekindled? Could I become a published author? (In November last year I wrote a long post about my journey... you can click HERE to read it.)

Like those Olympic athletes I had to learn my craft and like them there have been falls and missteps, disappointments and the writerly equivalent of injuries (interference from career commitments mostly).  After the initial optimism (coming runner up in the Emma Darcy… even getting an agent – not my current one), my hopes began to waver. The agent experience was not a good one and apparently I was writing really good, but unpublishable books. ‘Can’t sell the English Civil War’ was the universal response. It would have been easy to hang up my pen and forget about writing… except I had stories to tell and a dream to fulfil.

Some years ago Mary Jo Putney asked me what I liked to read, when I confessed to crime and mystery she asked the very pertinent question… Why don’t I write it? I thought about it and I realised I did write it… under the guise of a romance both GATHER THE BONES and LORD SOMERTON’S HEIR are historical mysteries.

Picture
1992 and the start of a writing career (the rabbit was my 7yo son's... he gave it to me to make me feel better).

Which leads me to Harriet Gordon, who came to life off the pages of an old copy of Singapore’s Straigts Times (there will be much, much more about Harriet in posts to come). I had written her story during the 2011 Nanowrimo as a cosy mystery. I went back and rewrote and rewrote and rewrote. I submitted and was rejected, I pitched at conferences and was ignored or rejected… but I had huge faith in Harriet and so did my wonderful agent, Kevan Lyon, who picked me up after I pitched to her at the HNS Conference in Portland last year - a trip that changed my life (see the November post).

So by way of postscript to my November post, came this week’s news… and it was BIG. In publishing terms, Olympics big. Berkley (Penguin USA) wanted to buy Harriet and here, at long last, was the two book contract with a big US Publisher.

I am not so naive as to think ‘this is it’… I’m on the podium. It doesn’t get any better. Uh, uh…  this is just the beginning. All the old insecurities creep in… How do I meet deadlines and still have a life? What if the editor hates it? What if the public hate it? And so on… but I will get there. Harriet and I will get there together!

At an age when I should be actually retired and dandling my grandchildren on my knee, I am embarking on a whole new career. Doors I never thought I would ever reach have opened to me and the future is exciting but daunting and involves harder work than I have ever done in my life. This is not the end… it is just another beginning and like all new beginnings I have no idea what the future will hold but this is what I have wanted to do since I was a thirteen year old sitting in a willow tree writing ‘The Locket of Grace” (an English Civil War romance of course).

Through all the slips, trips, missteps, misdirections, poor choices, rejections and almost theres of my writing life, I never once lost sight of my goal. The answer was there all along, I just had to write something that someone wanted to publish. Easy. As easy as a triple lutz in figure skating… (and mercifully I didn’t have to rupture my ACL to get there – only dislocate my shoulder!)!

From that day in 1992 I made the fatal mistake of following my husband down a slope at Mt. Hotham that didn’t ‘look too steep’ (his words), it has only taken me twenty five years to become an overnight success.
​
So... there you go! Just like those Olympic athletes, hold on to your dream, never stop learning, view each set back as a learning experience, pick yourself up off the ice, pick up the beat of the music, smile to the judges and keep going… You may not be a medal chance at these Olympics but there’s always the next one.
​
Picture
PS. If you would like to keep up to date with progress and news about the debut of the Colonial Mystery series, sign up to the exclusive newsletter. The sign up button is below OR go to the A.M. STUART website click HERE! 
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Nas link
2/17/2018 11:36:40 am

Wow! What a journey! I'm so happy and excited for you!

All the best!

Alison Stuart
2/17/2018 02:55:46 pm

Thank you, Nas! Reality will hit sooner or later ... in which case send chocolate!

Beverley link
2/17/2018 02:55:49 pm

Inspiring! Perseverance pays! Well done, Alison

Alison Stuart
2/17/2018 04:13:10 pm

Thank you, Beverley :-)

Helen
2/17/2018 03:10:03 pm

Woohoo Alisson I am thrilled for you and for us readers I look forward to reading this one well done you rock

have Fun

Helen

Alison Stuart
2/17/2018 04:13:45 pm

Thank you Helen... I do hope you like it!

Sandy link
2/17/2018 04:11:36 pm

Alison, your talent shone through in "By the Sword" and it's taken far too long for publishers to see it.I'm so thrilled you have gained your gold medal.

Alison Stuart
2/17/2018 04:14:52 pm

Thanks, Sandy. It was so frustrating to be told it was a good book but unsaleable.. At least for that I proved them wrong!

Helen S Bianchin
2/17/2018 06:17:49 pm

The very best news, Alison, and so well deserved. Couldn't happen to a more dedicated writer.

Alison Stuart
2/19/2018 09:50:43 am

Thank you, Helen... dear friend! It has been the quiet support of wonderful writers like yourself that has sustained me over the years.

Christine Wells link
2/18/2018 08:19:54 am

So very thrilled for you, Alison! You have never taken the easy path, writing to market. I admire that you have stayed true to your own vision and tastes and you now have a fabulous deal with a great publisher. It couldn't have happened to a nicer person and I wish you every success on your publishing journey!

Alison Stuart
2/19/2018 09:52:11 am

In our family we have a saying... if there is an easy way or a hard way to do something, we will always choose the hard way! But I couldn't 'write to marke'... even my one attempt at a Regency turned into a murder mystery. I realised I had to stay true to my core story.

Pauline Johnston
2/18/2018 08:38:34 am

The Fantastic Journey. Thanks for sharing. Your successs is well deserved. I've been watching the Winter Olympics too. It brought a tear to my eyes every time an athlete, win or lose, said thanks for letting me be a part of it. Made me think how lucky we are and the worlds that have opened because we can read and write. All the best to you and Harriet. Huzah!

Alison Stuart
2/19/2018 09:52:57 am

Thank you Pauline... and what a thrill it was to share 'the call' with you and the rest of the tribe!!!

Cathryn Hein link
2/19/2018 09:49:01 am

If it doesn't rain, it pours!
Thrilled to bits for you, Alison. Wonderful, wonderful news. Congratulations.

Alison Stuart
2/19/2018 09:53:53 am

It is certainly a case of 'be careful what you wish for'! But so strange that the decision to walk away from the outside career seemed to be the signal to the universe!


Comments are closed.

    Alison Stuart

    Alison writes historical romances and short stories set in England and Australia and across different periods of history.
    ​She also writes historical mysteries as A.M. Stuart.

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