Robin Burcell writes:
My goal was to have my foot firmly planted in the publishing world, before I had children, the better to concentrate on my writing -- or so I thought. I remembered this goal in earnest about the time I was pregnant with my first child in 1990. So, with some catching up to do, about a year later, I finished my first manuscript, a historical romance, and was certain the publishers would snap it up and I could quit my day job, because it had great sex scenes and they were going to pay me a million dollars.
That 180,000 word tome is still under my bed.
After numerous rejections of the above manuscript, the birth of my first child, and several false starts on other books, I set about writing a time-travel romance with a mystery in it. It took me about 18 months to write (working full-time and raising a new baby) and I sold it three years later -- far short of that million dollars. Even so, I told my husband that we could now have that second child, because I had my foot in the door of the publishing world.
This being real life, things went slightly awry just about the time my first book hit the shelves in 1995. That second child I insisted on having came with a bonus sibling. Twins. I can laugh about it now -- especially that vision I had of nursing them both while blithely writing romances on my laptop in the comfy armchair. Needless to say, romance was the farthest thing from my mind, real or imaginary, and all thoughts of writing that second book were lost amidst the endless nights and constant cries of babies who never seemed to sleep or eat at the same time.
Turns out the only way I was going to get any rest was to go back to my full-time job as a cop, far easier dealing with the bad guys on the street then trying to take care of two squalling (though beautiful) infants. In 1997, after a two year hiatus from writing, it occurred to me that murder and mayhem seemed to be far more appealing at that particular time in my life. I try not to determine why this was -- some things we shouldn’t try to examine too closely -- but my choice seemed to work for me, and I finished my first police procedural mystery, Every Move She Makes, after two years of writing.
I’m happy to report that things have settled down in my household, and it takes me about a year to write a book. I’ve decided that no matter where my foot might be planted, I’m not having any more kids -- I’d end up with triplets, I’m sure.
Robin Burcell has been a police officer for over 20 years. She is also the author of four award-winning mystery novels, the most recent of which is Cold Case.
