Jennifer Colt writes:
I'm not a success, yet -- it's been a long haul nonetheless. I wrote my first novel on a typewriter I'd schlepped to L.A. from Dallas in a '72 Chevy named Dick. That book was a romance called Windy City, set in (you may have guessed this already) Chicago. I never suspected how bad it was until I woke up one morning and found my visiting sister rolling around the apartment floor, laughing. And she was only on page 21.
Didn't send it to anyone. Didn't read it again, although I do have it in storage somewhere. I tried writing for the entertainment industry -- won some contests, got agonizingly close to being produced...you've heard it all before. Meanwhile, I was working in children's programming, just itching to write something wherein I could use bad language and portray sex.
Finally got my chance to do that with Playboy Enterprises. However, interspersed with the steamy stuff was my particular brand of humor -- e.g., a dominatrix Ghost of Christmas Past flown into a bedroom window on wires. They shot that episode as written (the most expensive of the season), then fired me because "men don't think sex is funny."
Hello?
Was then a writer-for-hire at Dimension Films, doing direct-to-video horror flicks. It went something like this: "There's no money for actors, special effects, or gags, and we're shooting in Romania...Go!"
After doing four scripts with them, I had money in the bank. I spent a few months reading and recovering from my "Hollywood" experiences, then sat down to write The Butcher of Beverly Hills. Was a finalist in a contest (always an effing bridesmaid!). Got roundly rejected by agents, so I self-published. Sat down and wrote The Mangler of Malibu Canyon. Same sad story, same self-publisher. Sat down and wrote The Vampire of Venice Beach, at which point I think they realized I wasn't going to stop writing, so they might as well give me a deal.
There was even a bit of a bidding war for the series, which was pretty gratifying for this always-a-bridesmaid gal ("Oh, no! Don't fight over me!"). My incredible agent Jenny Bent sold the first three novels to Broadway Books, and I've since written another.
We'll see how it goes from here.
Jennifer Colt has worked as a children's programmer, a video salesperson, a horror script writer, a temp. But she has always dreamed of being a novelist. Her first novel, which was originally self-published, will be released by Broadway this July.
