Debbie Macomber

   I visited my friend Gayle while she was in respite care. Gayle is a great reader and was equipped with lots of books. 

   One choice for this stay was Debbie Macomber's "16 Lighthouse Road".  It is the first of the twelve novels in the Cedar Cove Series, which centres on an interesting group of people in a small town in Washington State.  All of the titles in this series are the street addresses of the main character of that novel. ("16 Lighthouse Road", "201 Rosewood Lane", "311 Pelican Court", etc).  Gayle loved that special touch and enjoyed reading about good ordinary people.  It was light reading for Gayle, but perfect for a stay in long-term care.

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   Debbie Macomber is a very prolific author of contemporary women's fiction.  Her books can be read by any age in any circumstance.  Many of her books have been made into T.V. movies.  She writes about family and relationships- just what women are interested in!
  I found this uplifting story on Debbie's website:

I’d been writing for five years and had four completed manuscripts yet had not sold a single word of fiction.  The rejections came so fast I swear they hit me in the back of the head on the way home from the post office.  I wondered if I’d ever be a good enough writer to sell a book.  After the sale of an article for which I’d received $350 I was able to attend my first writers’ conference.  Because of the conference, I had the opportunity to meet with an editor who had read the first fifty pages of my manuscript.  I loved this story and felt it had all the elements of a wonderful romance.  If this book didn’t sell I didn’t know that anything I wrote would.

To say the editor didn’t like my book is an understatement.  In fact she said the best thing I could do with it was throw it in the garbage.

Devastated, I decided that I should give up trying to sell adult fiction and write children’s books instead.  I attended a workshop for children’s books and the author said something that I’ll never forget.  “Your book has a home.  Your job is to find it.”  That little bit of encouragement is all I needed.  I grabbed hold of it with both hands and clung to it as I submitted the very manuscript that had been so brutally rejected.  That book, Heart Song became my first sale.  Heart Song found a home with Simon & Schuster.  That small encouragement meant everything.  I believe if I had given up, and surrendered to defeat as a writer I would have lost a piece of my soul.