There’s a Book in There Somewhere
By Catherine Kitcho, Coastal Dunes Branch
It was 1998, the year of El Nino, and my year of adversity.
At that time, I had a multimillion-dollar consulting business that I had co-founded. My father was in a nursing home, in rapid decline. One Monday in April, my mother called to discuss life support. The next day, April 14th, my co-founder announced at 5:00 p.m. that she was dissolving our company. I had to find a lawyer on a Tuesday night in Silicon Valley, which, as it turns out, is not that hard to do. I was in shock, and out of a job.
I was scheduled to go to the Palm Springs writers’ conference later that week, where I had sent in a screenplay and paid for a critique. I was going to cancel, but my husband urged me to go. El Nino was going strong, it was hailing and raining, and he said, “Maybe the sun will be shining down there.” Now, I didn’t think it was such a terrific idea for a severely stressed person to go to a writer’s conference and get critiqued on top of everything else, but I decided to go anyway.
On Friday morning, I went to city hall to get a new business license in my own name. I then drove to the San Jose airport and checked in. The ticket agent checked my ID and said, “Are you sure this is you? I don’t know, this picture looks different.” I said, “Yeah, that’s me. I’m having a bad week.” When I arrived at the hotel in Palm Springs, the clerk said, “We have your reservation, but we don’t have a room.” Clearly I was in the Twilight Zone. Then he said, “Well, tell you what. We have a suite. How about that? No extra charge.” My suite had a Jacuzzi and a wet bar. Okay then.
At the conference, I was in a daze, repeating my sad story to anyone who would listen. Fellow writers are great. They all said the same thing: “There must be a book in there somewhere.”
I got to my critique session looking like hell. I spoke first: “Steve, before we begin, I just want to set the stage here. On Monday, my mother called me about life support issues. On Tuesday, I lost my company. I’m just a little numb right now, so just give it to me straight – is this screenplay worth working on or should I just throw it out the window?” He was a sweetheart; he said, “You poor thing. But actually, I wanted to tell you that it was the best one submitted to the conference.” Now, I don’t recommend that you try this approach….
The following Monday, I had to sell back the furniture from the newly rented office space. El Nino was still going on. I sat on the floor, cell phone in hand, while the furniture people carried out piece after piece. I called the dean of a local university and made a pitch to teach a business course based on a book that I was writing (basically, a lie.) He said yes. I now had six months to have my book ready for spring semester. I realized I must have just lost my mind completely.
I started a publishing company and began outlining the book. In June, my father died. When I returned home from the funeral, I just did it. I found a cover designer, a book printer and an editor. By November, it was sent to the printer. High Tech Product Launch was becoming a reality. My first real book! I dedicated it to my father.
I received a shipment of books on January 8th, 1999. I will never forget the moment that I ripped open the box, and saw my name on the cover. I was an author! I made it through the year of adversity, and yes, there was a book in there somewhere. It wasn’t a book about what happened to me that year, but everything that happened led to my first book. Success!