About the Author

Anyone who’s ever dreamed of spotting their book on a Barnes&Noble shelf should be inspired by my story. If it happened to me, it can happen to you.

After my husband’s funeral, my brother, Jim,  suggested I write about our marriage  and a list I kept  for twenty years. The list was 110 pages of thoughtful, funny things my husband, Marsh, did and said over our years together. So I spent my first two months as a widow doing just that—writing, remembering, crying into my elbow.

Two weeks after sending the piece to Jim, who showed it to a friend, who gave it to his wife, who recommended it to an editor, a magazine bought my article and ran it as an eight-page feature, complete with photos. And I was published for the first time.

Wait, the story gets better.

A few months later, a NYC literary agent called me at my home in Mexico and said he would like to represent me if I were to expand the article into a book.  Via email, he showed me how to write a book proposal; I wrote and he edited.  Then he shopped it around and found interest: Hachette, HarperCollins, and St. Martin’s Press were especially keen. HarperCollins won it at auction. Over the next few weeks, my agent, MY AGENT, also sold my book, MY BOOK, to publishers in Italy, Germany, Japan, Taiwan, and Portugal.

REMEMBER THE SWEET THINGS, the name of both the book and the twenty-year list, has not lived up to expectations, and we’re all disappointed, blaming a tough market and a troubled industry. But lack of commercial success can’t take away from the rush that this beginner’s luck story has given me. Or from the pride of accomplishment I feel for having paid tribute to a nice-guy husband and our lovely little life.