Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Never Too Old

As I've mentioned previously, several years ago I started a new career as a writer.  I had no experience except in academic writing - not related in any way to the light mysteries I read for fun and and the type of entertaining books I wanted to write.

In my beginning stage, I came across a true story (undoubtedly sent my way by the Universe) that convinced me, at my age or any age, to go ahead and follow my dream.  I did and it worked out well.  Having a new chapter to write gets me going every day.

My inspiring heroine is Betty Neels. One day by accident, Betty overheard a woman in her local library complain about the lack of good romance novels. Betty, a retired nurse and a voracious reader with time on her hands, decided to fill the gap. She was fifty-nine years old when she published her first novel. That's remarkable by itself but she went on to complete 134 romance novels, often writing four a year. She wrote until her death at the age of ninety-one in 2001. Her sweet, chaste romances were popular during her lifetime and are still selling.

Betty proved we are never too old to take a chance on something new and make a success of it.  Way to go, Betty!



2 comments:

  1. I agree, Pat. We are never too old and I am proof of that. I didn't start to publish my writing until I was middle-aged. Just tonight I had another essay accepted. Each one thrills me like the first thing. I have no plans to publish a book, but I think anyone who wants to should go for it no matter their age. Good post.

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  2. THANKS, GLENDA. I'M SO THRILLED AT KNOWING YOU AND SO MANY OTHER WOMEN OVER FIFTY WHO ARE MOTIVATED, ENTHUSIASTIC, AND ACCOMPLISHING ALL KINDS OF WONDERFUL THINGS. MORE POWER TO ALL OF US!

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