Starting this story at the start: I am born.
Which came as a surprise to my parents. They thought they were done having kids after my older sister and brother. Surprise! I’m told my first phrase was “I do it my ownself.”
I learned to read early out of self-defense, because everyone kept secrets from me by spelling. Once I started reading, my older sister, Cathy, would sneak me into areas of the Helen M. Plum Memorial Library that were considered beyond my kiddie ability and she would check out more advanced books for me.
Charles Dickens has a lot to do with my becoming a writer. He used the word unctuous to describe Uriah Heep. Unctuous. Doesn’t it make you shiver? Me, too. And, boy, realizing words were so powerful ignited my desire to sink my hands into them, pour them over my head and let them stream all around me.
I have promised my mother…
…that I would tell you all that the families and childhoods and traumas of my characters are not self-portraits. That’s true. I had a great childhood. Sure, there was youthful angst, but I only ran away from home twice. Once, Mom didn’t realize I’d gone, so maybe that shouldn’t count.
The other time, I took the two girls who lived next door along with, and it was a righteous cause. Tuna fish — my sister was trying to feed me tuna fish! The two neighbor girls and I were striking out for Hollywood, having packed dolls, doll clothes and one pair of underwear each in my red wagon.
Alas, the Dairy Queen came before the train station and our capital was seriously depleted before we were found. Otherwise I surely would have been the only Oscar-winning screenplay writer under ten. Instead, I followed the normal education track through high school in my hometown.
Then I went to Northwestern University, where I got a BA in three years in English Composition and added a Masters in Journalism in the fourth year. (If you’re wondering why the masters, check out the want ads and see exactly how many jobs ask for someone with a degree in English Composition.)
I wanted to write novels, but practicality demanded something a little steadier. Especially because, while I wanted to write novels, I didn’t actually write any.
I became a sports writer. It’s great training for a writer — dialogue, character, motivation, conflict, goals — they’re all there several times over in each event. Plus, I didn’t have to get up early. After being a sports writer for the Rockford (Ill.) Register Star and assistant sports editor at the Charlotte (N.C.) Observer, I moved to the Washington Post. That’s when I really started writing. And it all has to do with dried wallpaper paste. I’d bought a house with 50 years of wallpaper-paint-wallpaper-paint-wallpaper-paint layers. Sometimes four, five layers of wallpaper, always topped with paint. On every wall in the entire house. The only way to get it off was to chip at it with a wide-bladed putty knife. Chip after chip after chip.
Under the influence of the chipping and the desiccated wallpaper paste, I started having a story idea.
From a kind librarian I heard about a talk by a writer Kathleen Gilles Seidel who introduced me to the Washington, D.C., chapter of the Romance Writers of America, and I started to truly learn about writing. The wallpaper dust story is still in the closet, but the first romance I wrote came out in 1990 and was selected as a finalist for RWA’s RITA Award. Having HOOPS available again as an e-book has been a delight.
After serving as an assignment editor and copy chief for the Post’s sports department, I went part-time to write novels. Several years later, I switched to editing for the Post’s news service.
In 2007, I sold my house (finally free of wallpaper), left the Washington Post and moved to Northern Kentucky. And, yes, there was wallpaper in the new house, too. But it was a mere one layer and it’s gone now (though plenty of other projects remain if anyone’s volunteering.)
Even without wallpaper dust, the story ideas keep coming, and the move has let me write full-time.
I’m writing two mystery series — Caught Dead in Wyoming and Secret Sleuth — with touches and humor and romance, the somewhat edgier Innocence series, as well as continuing to write contemporary romance. I’ve also published non-fiction books, Word Watch: A Writer’s Guide to the Slippery, Sneaky, and Otherwise Tricky for all interested in word usage, and Survival Kit for Writers Who Don’t Write Right, for fellow writers. And there’s this historical fiction series in the back of my head…
So maybe the ideas didn’t come from dried wallpaper dust. Maybe they came from dog hair. There’s been lots of that wherever I’ve lived.
Yup, that’s got to be the answer.
Now, how do I end this thing? It’s an ongoing story. I’m hoping for a happy ending eventually, but I’ve got plenty of pages left to turn … ah, so there’s only one more thing to say:
I am writing.
Kalli
Chief Helper & Confidante
- A TV Journalist Who’s Trying to Avoid Being Caught Dead in Wyoming with Patricia McLinn – Alexandra Amor podcast
- A Buffet of Writing Advice with Patricia McLinn
- The AuthorView: Patricia McLinn on moving, rescue collies, and The Games
- Patricia McLinn: The Lure of the West Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
- Lemons and Lemonade
I’ve appeared on other book talk podcasts and videos, including as a guest on the Boone County Public Library’s podcast featuring innovators and creators in northern Kentucky. You can view these podcasts on my YouTube Podcasts on Writing channel.
