I had written short stories off
and on for about ten years without being published. I decided on a
whim in January of 1992 to take a novel writing class at Orange Coast
College, a community college in Costa Mesa, California. I wrote the
first chapter as part of the class assignment and it was really bad.
I read all the criticisms of the other members of the class as well
as the teacher and finished all but two chapters during the summer while
working part time at the Huntington Beach Library in the Children's
Department. I wrote half the book sitting in McDonald's, probably
because I was used to working with children swarming around me.
I took the novel workshop again in the
fall, but the teacher had gone on sabbatical and was replaced by Jo-Ann
Mapson, author of Hank and Chloe and Blue Rodeo. I
turned in my revised first chapter as part of the first assignment and she
asked me to stay after class. She then asked me how much of this
book I had done. I told her I was almost finished. She told
me she'd like to read it when it was done. I was really excited
about that. It was the first time anyone had shown an interest in
my work. She read it in two days and told me that she thought it
was marketable. She had me add to some sections and helped me draft
a cover letter and proposal to her New York agent, Deborah Schneider.
Deborah agreed to read it on Jo-Ann's recommendation. It
took her a few days to get to it, but she read it one night on the train
ride home. She messengered it out to Putnam-Berkley and within a
week, I had a three-book contract for the series.
This is the Rios-Caledonia adobe in San
Miguel, California. It is down the street from the San Miguel
Mission. San Miguel is in the northern part of San Luis
Obispo county in California. This adobe was the inspiration
for the Josiah Sinclair Folk Art Museum in my books. I keep a
picture of it next to my computer where I write. It has a
wonderful gift shop where I found the oddest thing a couple of years
ago--a western belt with the name "Jack" carved on it. I keep
that on my desk too, a reminder of Benni's first love.
This is a picture of me and my real
Arkansas gramma. Her name is Muriel Sue Webb Phillips.
Her maiden name is Harper (yes, that's where I got Benni's last
name). Dove has a lot of my Gramma Webb's characteristics (we
call her Gramma Webb because that was her first husband's name...my
mother's father). She is tenacious, strong, stubborn, loyal
and has a great sense of humor. This picture was taken in
March 2000. She is 95 years old.
My husband and I went to
visit her and take her out to a Cracker Barrel restaurant (one of
her favorites) where we both had fried chicken and blackberry
cobbler. We used to love it as children when she came to
visit us because she has always believed in eating your dessert
first. Her favorite colors are purple and red and she has no
compunction about wearing them together.
Here's a picture of the old
county courthouse in San Luis Obispo. There's a new section right next door but this one is still in
use. It's right downtown across next to the San Luis Obispo
library.
