Take me home, Country Roads

 

Almost Heaven. West Virginia.

Okay, not exactly West Virginia, but I’m happy to announce that a week from today I’ll be on en route to Virginia in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains where I am so lucky to have received a three-week writing fellowship to the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

My first residency at VCCA was in 1982 when I was a mere child. Okay, I was actually twenty-eight and I had just published my first novel--a YA titled Over the Hill at Fourteen. It was inspired by the 1980 ad with a fourteen year old Brooke Shields asking the question--What comes between me and my Calvins?

The answer--Nothing.

If you’re old enough, you might remember that the ad created quite a stir. NAL asked me to write a novel about a fourteen year old fashion model inspired by Brooke Shields.

The novel was a big success. It came at exactly the right time. And as they say, timing is everything.

Until it’s not. Over the course of my career, I have been in and out of vogue. (Maybe more out, than in.) Back in the aughts, while all my friends were getting big book deals and appearing on Oprah and Good Morning America, I was busy spinning my wheels. Yes, I was writing and writing, but somehow I did not sync up with the times.

And so, no. I have never had that kind of big break-out, life-altering success.

Perhaps I never will.

Why am I telling you this? Because despite the fact that I have found peace with my life under the radar, I have never given up on the dream of life-changing literary success. Even at this advanced stage of life. And so, returning to the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts is deeply meaningful to me.

Creative Friends--your journey is your journey and it’s yours alone. It will have surprising twists and turns. There will be detours along with periods of great stagnation. There will be departures and arrivals and sometimes and reunions, returns.

Here are your instructions: Put your dance shoes on. Pen to paper. Get the guitar out. Have faith that you are on the right path. Keep your eyes wide open and enjoy the forever-changing view.

Love,

Jamie