Number Seventeen

By Laura Bradford

Next Tuesday marks the release of the 8th book in my Southern Sewing Circle Mysteries (and my 17th book overall), REMNANTS OF MURDER.

I guess you could say I’m proud of both those numbers. Proud that a series I took a chance on is thriving so well it even has eight books, and proud that I achieved a dream I’ve had since I was ten years old and have stuck with it through 17 books.

There’s not a day that goes by when I don’t have a memory flash of myself sitting at my friend’s kitchen table, drawing the pictures to go with a little story I’d written about a little bear, named Kidney, who learned a lesson (cleverly titled, Kidney Learns a Lesson). Or the story about the gnome, named O’Casey, who had a wish (that would was called, O’Casey’s Wish).

Something about the process of creating a world and characters enthralled me even then and by the end of that first story, I knew I wanted to be a writer. I knew I wanted my books in libraries. I knew I wanted people to read my name on a book’s cover.

Now, some thirty-five years later, they are (though, in the case of Tuesday’s book, they’ll be reading my pen name).

And as exciting as each new release still is on some level, I think the part that excites me most these days is the example that it sets for my kids–the example that says if you want it badly enough…and work at it hard enough…you can make things happen.

So yeah, come Tuesday afternoon, I will be having a little celebration. Not sure what it will entail, probably a stop at B & N to see the book on the shelf and eat some sort of chocolaty-treat in the café, but whatever I do, I know I’ll be glancing over at my kids and hoping they’re taking it all in…