Write On, Mammas!

I went to a great author panel at the Napa Bookmine earlier this month, featuring five members of the group Write On Mamas and I left feeling unexpectedly hopeful.

They began writing together nearly two decades ago, whenthey were all at totally different places in their lives and writing careers. Back then, they wouldn't even have called their writing anything more than a hobby, a secret dream. A spark that burned despite all of their doubts.

None had published a book yet. They met in libraries and coffee shops, squeezing writing time around jobs, childcare, and everything else that competes with the dream of making art. Now, every woman on the panel has published a book. Some have published several.

There was something moving about seeing the evidence of all those years gathered together on one stage. Even though they all come from wildly different backgrounds and write in different genres—Janine Kovac's The Nutcracker Chronicles is a hilarious memoir about her years as a professional ballet dancer. Mindy Uhrlaub's The Last Nerve chronicles the life-altering experience of being diagnosed with ALS and the work she is doing to help find a cure. I added two children's books, Makenzie's Ring and Heartland, to my reading list, by Teri Stevens and Jilanne Hoffmann.

I was especially inspired by Marianne Lonsdale, whose debut novel, When the Road Curves, came out this summer. Lonsdale is seventy-one (which I would never have guessed) and hearing her talk about publishing her first novel now felt like its own kind of permission. (I still have time!)

It reminded me that writing careers don't necessarily follow a neat trajectory. Sometimes the work happens quietly for years in coffee shops, libraries, and stolen hours. Sometimes the dream takes much longer than expected. It's an inspriation for me to remember to keep going.