FEATURED AUTHOR SUCCESS-STORY

As a child, I wanted to grow up and be somebody, to make some sort of my own mark as an artist in the world. Then reality showed up on my doorstep, and informed me that my mark was to be a wife and a mother. But now, at long last, the artist has made her mark as well. And before it's over, a million or more people will see what began in my head nine years ago.

On an ordinary Wednesday morning, I found myself standing in my shower wondering what I should wear to Jane's funeral. Now that's weird. There wasn't any Jane that I knew of . . .

One night, I keyed in the first few sentences on the computer. In the first paragraph, Jane shows up. "Dear-old-anything-but-plain Jane," says the narrator, Ida Mae. By the end of the first chapter Jane has announced her reason for coming to visit. She is going to die, and she needs to say goodbye to her best friend, Ida Mae, and the life she left behind many years before.

Nobody is more surprised by this announcement than I am.

After that, Jane and Ida Mae consumed my life.

The words literally flowed. After the fourth or fifth chapter, I lay in bed one night and completely wrote the last chapter. I knew exactly what was going to happen, and how. It was joyful!

And then came the hard part. Book written, I began the quest to find an agent and publisher. I submitted to a lot of different places, getting no interest, and no response. And then, a publisher did express interest. Only the book wasn't ready to go, and I couldn't see its faults and weaknesses. It had to be edited. I had heard about Susan Mary Malone's editorial work — she had a good reputation.

Susan was very enthusiastic about the book, but saw its problems. She attended to the technical aspects, but most importantly, she pointed out what was missing — specifically, a chapter on Ida Mae's feelings after Jane left. Once Susan showed me that, it was like a lightning bolt and I knew! Of course! In this day and age, you can't afford to send out a book that hasn't been edited. My day job is as a publisher, and I don't have time to rewrite a book for someone. That it's been edited is essential.

You simply must invest in a really good editor — it's like investing in your invention. You may have the most wonderful invention in the world, but then you must pay people in order to turn it into a marketable product — that's what I hired Susan for. She gave such clear direction, and the missing parts were easy to write.

Susan saved me on this. The book wouldn't be published without her work.

And now, Hallmark has made a film of it with Meredith Baxter Birney, Leslie Ann Warren, and Timothy Bottoms. Re-titled The Glass Seagull, it will air in April '09.

This has all been so incredible. You never know where the path will take you as you keep stepping ahead, keep doing the next right thing. How could I ever have known nine years ago that this would lead to the very pinnacle of my life experience!

Visit Ginnie at www.ginniebivona.com or read some of her new works on her blog at www.ginniebivona.blogspot.com