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Writing about myself is not as easy as writing about my hero and heroines’ lives. You see, my life is nowhere as interesting or exciting. Nah, just kidding. My life has been anything but uninteresting. I mean, I'm the girl who used to collect firewood for her mama and fetch water from the river in a tiny village in western Kenya and now I'm penning a romance story to share with women around the world. Sounds unbelievable, huh? Fetching firewood and water aside, I grew up in a small town, learned to read at a young age, my dear mama’s influence. May her soul rest in peace. I read anything I could get my hands on, and when I couldn't, I read the bible. Amazing how engrossing those Old Testament stories can be.I later discovered Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. Then one day, I stumbled upon my older sister’s stash of Mills & Boons and discovered the eighth world wonder, romance. SHATTER THE SKY was my first read. Yeah. I know it's weird I can still remember the name nearly thirty years later. It meant that much to me. I can’t remember who the author was. Janet Daily? Maybe. I become a romance fan overnight, at a tender age of twelve. Of course, in those days there was no kissing until the end of the book. Sex? Hell no. Totally okay for a preteen. Fast forward to high school. I jokily told my best friend I’d one day become a writer and she laughed. Keep dreaming, she told me. I went on to write and produce a stage play that garnered fantastic reviews from my peers and my teachers, all nuns. But I didn’t think I’d pursue writing as a career even then. It was just a dream. Instead, I did what good girls do, worked my butt off and went to college. I got my Bachelor of Science degree. A year later, I landed a scholarship, packed my bags and passport, and headed to good ol’ USA to grad school for my Ph.D. in chemistry. A look way from water fetching years, I’d say. Onc e again, I told a colleague I’d one day be a writer, a romance writer.His response was, “Why romance?” My answer, “Because everyone has a story to tell—your grandparents, your parents, your aunts and uncles, even you—and it’s not a story about hatred. It’s about responsibility, respect, commitment, and love, the very foundation of any society. That’s romance. That’s what I want to write about.”He shut up for about...three seconds, then came back with, “But there’re way too many romance writers and books out there.” “So? I’ll find my niche,” was my response. Oh, boy. Talk is so cheap. I’m a long way from finding that niche. For a while, I was having too much fun dating the man I later married to write anything. Then I got busy playing house and making babies. Once again, I had no time to write. Ph.D., a dream husband, and two kids later, I needed something to counter being a stay-at-home mother in northern Utah. Yeah, that’s where I reside, in a picturesque town in the center of a valley, surrounded by lush vegetation and mountains. Summers are hot and green, spring and fall colorful, and winters cold. I’ve been here for fifteen years now and love it. It's home. We're now a family of seven.Sorry for deviating from the script. Back to my writing career. My first attempt at writing was pitiful: I wrote a time travel for young adults, terribly dramatic, terribly boring. All I received was rejection after rejection. I moved to picture books. More rejections. I still have a couple of them taking up useful RAM in my PC. I decided to write something I knew and loved, romance story. I went for a full length novel, a historical based in ancient Egypt and Nubia. “The Reformed Rogue” never got revised or submitted, but I have hopes. One day…oh yeah, one day it will grace shelves in bookstores. From 1998, while expecting my third child, to 2001, I worked on three books. I polished them, never thought of entering them in contests, just started submitting to editors One Day at a Time was accepted in 2002 and published in 2003. My first two books were still occupying space in my computer. I never gave up on them though. I polished the contemporary Kenyan manuscript, and was thrilled when it was accepted as part of a two-book deal in 2003. Vows of Passion came out in May 2004, and Timeless Devotion, the sequel to One Day at a Time, came out in Aug 2005. I am presently contemplating the last two books in that series while writing about the Satchels.I hope you'll get to read their stories. I've come a long way as a writer and continue to learn, grow, and improve with every book. I hope I haven't bored you with my rumbling. I'd love to hear from you, so be sure to drop me a note.
Bella McFarlandbellamcfarland@netscape.net |
