James O. Born writes:
Years ago while working on long surveillances with the DEA I would read to pass the incredibly long and boring hours. I remember reading Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy and feeling like I had found gold. Then I got hooked on all the W.E.B. Griffin Marine Corps stories. I shied away from police books because my experience at the time was different than what was often portrayed.
I started seriously working on a novel in June of 1989 when I knew I had to be at home when my son was born. I finished the first, horrible novel about a DEA agent about nine months later and rewrote it eight times. Not surprisingly it never really improved but I learned quite a bit about pacing and structure. I have instructions to my family that should I be in an accident they should destroy the manuscript instantly. It was rejected soundly by virtually every New York literary agent and I received just a mild amount of encouragement. Fortunately that was all I needed. I immediately went to work on a novel based around some personal experiences.
A few years later, I finished Snitch, a novel about a guy infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan. Once again I started sending out queries and accumulating rejections. I had a system to have a manuscript packed up and ready to go as soon as a rejection from another agent came back. That’s how confident I was that I’d be rejected. After years of rejection I landed an agent after two rewrites just for him. It came close but never was sold. I have a few of the rejection letters from the publishers.
In June of 2003, after almost exactly 13 years of writing and maybe forty rejections from literary agents on other books, Peter Rubie called me. I had not submitted it to him; he had seen it from a mutual friend. He made me feel confident from the first minute that it would sell. A couple of weeks later I had the two-book deal from Putnam. After I handed in Shock Wave but before Walking Money was released, Putnam offered me the second two-book contract. What really amazes me is that I have the same editor, Neil Nyren, as the guys I read on surveillance: Clancy and Griffin.
I have to say, the whole experience is everything I hoped it would be. I write every day and always have some fiction cooking.
James O. Born, a Special Agent with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), is a veteran of nearly 20 years in law enforcement. His second book, Shock Wave, will be published in April.
Don't miss Mystery Ink's interview with Jim Born.
