I’d never really read romance novels until the summer of 1997. Oh, it isn’t that I’d never seen one, one of my aunts was an avid reader of Danielle Steele.
However
the summer of 1997 my dad had exploratory surgery. Sitting in the hospital
waiting for the surgeon to advise us as to the outcome, I needed something to
distract me other than a Tom Clancy or psych-thriller-type book.
The
hospital gift shop had Nora Roberts’ books and, while I don’t remember the
title, I never looked back. You see, even though the surgeon said the operation
was a success and the cancer had been removed, that wasn’t true.
When
my dad’s balance went and his eye-sight was affected and the headaches
relentlessly pounded, my mom relented and let me make an appointment to see an
oncologist.
Trade
paperbacks by Nora, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Jo Beverley and a myriad others
easily tucked into my purse. One was always on hand to distract me while waiting.
And
that’s how my path to writing romance started. I read, immersed myself in the
stories knowing that a happily-ever-after waited for me on the last page, while
knowing a happily-ever-after was not waiting for me in my real life.
My
dad died March 8, 1998. I was invited to join Wild Women Writers in December
1999. Originally I was going to take a personal growth program I’d developed in
the early 1980’s and turn it into a book. I dithered around with that project
for a year and then the magic happened.
I
started remembering dreams, having day dreams, hearing voices of women who
wanted me to tell their stories. They each wanted a happily-ever-after and were
positive I was the only one who could write about them. All those hours of
escaping into the pages of romance novels rushed back. I put the personal
growth book away and started writing down the visions and voices that would not
leave me alone.
Would
I be a romance author now if not for all those books I read in hospital rooms
and doctor’s offices? Read at night or when I couldn’t sleep in an effort to
push away the darkness of grief at losing my dad?
Would
I have taken the plunge if I hadn’t had these books in my hands?
I
don’t think so.
While
I’m no Nora or Susan or Jo, if one reader benefits from my books like I did
from theirs, then I’m happy.
After
working in social services for fifty or so years, one thing I know is this truth:
We never know the impact we have on
others. We never know if something we’ve said or written or done will change
someone’s life.
What
I also know is true is that when we move forward in our lives with love in our
hearts and our deeds, we do no harm. And what better caveat than that – we send
love into the world and did no harm.
© 2018 Judith Ashley
