I met today’s guest author, Cavanaugh Lee, when we were “Ladies of the Write” co-panelists at the Chicago Tribune Printer’s Row Litfest. The Atlanta Journal Constitution calls her first novel, Save as Draft, “a swift, almost irresistible read…tailor-made for the big Hollywood romantic comedy treatment.” And she’s as delightful in person as she in her post below. – Meg
I never planned on being a writer.
I planned on being an actress. So, I did a lot of high school plays and then studied Theater at U.C.L.A. After I graduated, I threw myself head-long into the world of Hollywood. Translation: waiting tables by night and auditioning by day. Oh, and did I mention not being able to eat food in order to stay “on camera” thin (not that a struggling actress has any money to spend on dinner anyway)? I’m not sure why I went into acting – I was probably just looking for the answer to, you know, “life and all.”
When I failed at acting, I planned on being an attorney. So, I enrolled in law school at UNC Chapel Hill, studied hard, and ultimately got a job as a federal prosecutor in Savannah, Georgia which, by the way, is one of the coolest “day” jobs ever. I took my current job as a prosecutor because I was still looking for the answers – this time, the legal ones.
Somewhere along the way while I was working hard in the legal world I fell into writing by accident. What was the accident? I fell in love, became engaged, and became unengaged. I was so upset about the sudden demise of my relationship (and faced with the obvious reality that I was no success story in the love department), I started writing… and writing… and writing…
I wrote a journal about how my ex-fiance and I got together and then broke up. I re-lived it all over again via the pages on my computer screen so I could understand where we had gone so wrong. I laughed, cried, pondered, analyzed, and after about four months I had a novel.
Well, okay, it wasn’t that simple (is it ever?). I had to balance a day job with writing at night. Prior to being a federal prosecutor, I worked at a big law firm in Atlanta. Fortunately, my writing the book coincided with the downturn in the legal economy, and so there were many new lawyers (me included) with absolutely nothing to do. I could easily work from 9 to 5 and head straight home to write. Bored stiff from staring at a computer screen of legal documents during the day and still nursing a broken heart, I raced to my apartment eager with anticipation as to what I’d discover in my “journal” next. Indeed, I was by and by looking for answers.
When I finished the “journal” which somehow morphed into a novel, I called it “Save as Draft.” The title represented all the questions I never had the guts to ask my ex and all the answers I was too scared to hear. So, it came as no surprise that when I finished my book, I still had more questions, even more than I had before. Oh well, I guess that means I have to write another book, right?
So, it’s like I said, I never planned on being a writer. It just hit me. And it was borne from a yearning to answer some very hard questions about life and love and relationships and friendship.
Through it all, I discovered my reason for writing: to answer questions.
We should write because we are curious. It is that curiosity, exposed within the human frailties and vulnerabilities and, yes, deficiencies, that propels a reader to keep on reading.
After having written a chick lit book (yes, it has been called that, and I wholeheartedly accept that descriptor) and somehow managing to get it published, I was suddenly faced with the obvious dilemma:
What do I write next?
Since I wrote the first time about with what I was struggling (a failed engagement), I should write the second book about the same thing: what is making me curious now? Even though the literary world sometimes wants to pigeon-hole us into niches, we should write what we want to write otherwise our readers (who are attuned to dishonesty) will be unsatisfied with us. Well, that is where I’m at. I’m wondering what I am curious about. I’m obviously curious about many things but I’m trying to figure out what I’m the most curious about… And, much like my writing venture, I have no plan. I’m hoping it’ll just hit me. Whatever it is, that will be my next novel.
On her deathbed, Gertrude Stein was asked by her life-long love, Alice B. Toklas:
“Gertrude, what is the answer to life??”
To which Gertrude responded:
“My dear girl, what is the question?”
Well, that question is the answer indeed. And it may very well be the inspiration for your next book! I sure hope it is – once again – for mine. – Cavanaugh
