Baby Boomer Jude Urbanski Launches New Career

Jude has written nearly all her life in some fashion, but only with retirement a few years ago, has she been able to indulge her passion. Since then, Jude has produced a non-fiction book (in both print and eBook format), magazine and newspaper articles, and two inspirational romance novels in eBook format. She has been a columnist for four years with Maximum Living magazine and currently has her third novel with a publisher for review.

Jude, you've published a co-authored non-fiction book, short stories and articles. How long did it take you to get a full-length fiction contract?

In 2005, I scoured long and hard for a publisher of the true story my daughter and I had written about our family’s journey through her traumatic brain injury. The way I hooked that publisher surprised, to say the least. I had called because they had left the submission guidelines off their web site. One thing lead to another and the publisher asked for a proposal! The book was published in 2006.

I began to write fiction after that first book, but did not receive a contract until January, 2011. A lot of rejections filled that time. It was a time of honing my craft, taking classes, going to conferences. And rewriting. And rewriting.

Was there a specific 'what if' moment to spark this story?

The Chronicles of Chanute Crossing series focuses on spinning tragedy into triumph, which is an evergreen and universal phenomenon, I believe. The stories start in the post-Vietnam era, which will always remain in my memory for several reasons. The other ‘what if’ moment relates to the fact my mother wrote sweet, love stories in the 1930s with this same setting (that ‘center of the universe’ in Tennessee where we both were born). So it was fun to take off from this vantage point, too.

Do you have a full or part time day job? If so, how do you balance your writing time with family and work?

Ane, I’m “retired” but nearly as busy as when I worked, just don’t get paid!  One would think it would be a cinch compared to young motherhood and, while it isn’t as all-consuming, a balancing act is still required. I volunteer at church, in the community, still do an occasional day of paid work, and have a huge family, including a good husband, to love and cherish. All of which takes considerable time.

I write usually in the mornings and whenever Conrad, my husband, is gone! Sometimes I just quit and run those ‘errands’ with him.

Did anything unusual or funny happen while researching or writing this book?

Not so much unusual or funny, but I sure enjoyed visiting the setting in Tennessee and meeting and befriending folks. I even lapsed into southern dialect at times! On one visit, we tried to reach “Bald Rock” (a mountain in the story), but became so concerned about our car getting stuck we abandoned the adventure.

Are you a plotter, a pantster, or somewhere in between?

I started out as a plotter and an outliner. I don’t have the oomph or daring to be a pure pantster, so accept I am somewhere in between. My characters sometimes take over and give me word upon word, which is pure joy for a writer. Once in a while, I must place them back on the page where they belong and let them know I am the author.

Have you discovered some secret that has helped your process for writing?

Oh, Ane, would that I had! I’d certainly share, but my notion is this is different for each of us. The music I play, the little rubber frog (FROG=forever relying on God) I keep close by, the candle I burn and the pin-covered baseball hat I wear all help, but none are magic.

That said, relationships with other writers help tremendously in our solitary world.

What are your thoughts on critique partners? 

The best writing tools in our toolbox. The partnerships take time to develop, but are worth the effort. I’ve also found it best to critique with writers of like genres.

Do you ever pound your computer over writer's block? If so, how did you overcome it?

Certainly figuratively! I let things ‘stew’ and do something else for a while. Or use someone for a brainstorming session.

What's the most difficult part of writing for you?

I’d say creating conflict takes me the most time to thoroughly develop. I’m a pacifist kind of gal (hangover from the 60s maybe) and I have a hard time taking my beautiful characters through hardship. I also write women’s fiction, combined with inspirational romance, where the journey traveled becomes a slower-moving conflict.

What's your strength in writing?

From contests entries, I’ve been told ‘voice’ and character development are strengths. I feel that honing our craft is an ongoing process and all areas can always be strengthened.

Did this book give you any problems? If not, how did you avoid them?

My first two novels have been eBooks, but will be in print next year. Marketing has been more challenging than with a print book. Not everyone, especially older readers, is on board with an electronic reader or even a computer. It has taken more creativity, but has also been fun to be part of the cutting edge of electronic publishing. Through Kindlegraph, eBooks can also be autographed.

Where do you write: In a cave, a coffeehouse, or a cozy attic nook?

In a condo! We have a great room and this is where I write. At one end of our big, dining table. I have an extra book table to my side, holding my most important items. Everyone knows all the action happens in a great room and sometimes that is distracting. The magical feature though is I look out patio doors at a beautiful and secluded yard where woodland creatures, flowers, and tall cedars speak to me.

When I really need a break or want to exercise, I take the nearby ‘river walk’ for a time of regrouping.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve heard?

We not only write, we must rewrite.

Do you have any parting words of advice?

Write because you want to and know being published doesn’t necessarily validate you as a writer. Know it takes discipline and perseverance to accomplish goals.

 Nurtured in Purple, Book Two in The Chronicles of Chanute Crossing, continues the now-married love story of Seth Orbin and Kate Davidson of Joy Restored, Book One, but nemesis' Willard Wittenberg and Elizabeth Koger come center stage still pursuing personal vendettas against Seth and Kate. 

Seth again faces potential loss of wife and child with Kate's life-threatening pregnancy complication, while Willard maneuvers to ruin Seth's business. Willard and Elizabeth, once lovers, engage and marry, but her flame for Seth has never died. Married life proves ragged. Late-blooming love comes to Ninville Cornelius and Margie Craig and new characters of Ruby Moody, alcoholic wife of a deceased Vietnam vet, and her small son Bobo are introduced. 

Can Seth and Kate, modeling God's grace and forgiveness, bring hope and light to Willard and Elizabeth and Ruby and Bobo, all so needy of God's redeeming love?

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Fiction After 50? By Ron Benrey, Guest Blogger

Ron Benrey has been a writer all his life (his first job was Electronics Editor at Popular Science Monthly) and he subsequently held speechwriting and corporate communications positions at several large corporations. Ron has coauthored nine romantic suspense novels with his wife, Janet. The first was published when they were past 50. He has also written two novellas under his own byline, more than a thousand magazine articles, and ten non-fiction books. The latest “Know Your Rights — A Survival Guide for Non-Lawyers” — will be published by Sterling Publishing early in 2011. Ron hold degrees in electrical engineering, management, and law. He is a member of the Bar of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Ron and Janet live in North Carolina.

Why Are There So Many 50+ Novelists?

I’d scarcely arrived at the first writers conference I attended (I won’t tell you how many years ago that was) when I was struck by a curious fact. The majority of the participants who wanted to write novels were over age 50. Me included.

At the time, there seemed to be two “obvious” reasons for the large number of “authors of a certain age” who are writing their first novels:

The first is that late blooming novelists have distinct advantages compared to younger writers: more time to write, more room to write, (possibly) more financial resources, (possibly) a more cooperative spouse, and fewer personal responsibilities that have to come first.

The second reason is that late bloomers, by living longer lives, have accumulated more life experiences and more stories worth telling. Consequently, they are better positioned to “write about what they know.”

However, I soon realized that these explanations are incomplete. After all, many under-50 novelists find the time to write compelling original fiction without destroying their families, wrecking their marriages, losing their day jobs, or short-circuiting their other day-to-day responsibilities.

And as for life experiences — well, countless young novelists have survived novel-worthy experiences that make older people cringe. Moreover, “write what you know” is not a Commandment; many novelists (younger and older) others have written successfully about topics they researched rather than lived.

More curious than ever, I began to ask late-blooming novelists why they waited so long to start writing fiction. Here’s what I learned from my admittedly unscientific survey:

It happened one day. Many late bloomers told me that after decades of reading novels they abruptly decided that they wanted to write one. As one author explained, “I didn’t really think about it — I didn’t go through a long analysis of the possibilities — it just happened. I cranked up my word processor, started writing fiction, and discovered to my astonishment that I was determined to write a complete novel. Frankly, I wish I’d begun years earlier, but everything seem to click into place when I turned 50.”

Dealing with a steep learning curve. Other late bloomers reported that they wanted to write fiction years earlier, but that it took them decades to develop solid authorial voices — and to learn essential fiction writing skills — before each could tackle something as ambitious as a full-length novel. Many in this group had day jobs that required them to do lots of non-fiction writing — e.g. journalists, lawyers, corporate communicators, and technical writers.

As one of these authors noted,” I’d thought of myself as a part-time writer and had long been proud of my non-fiction skills. But I needed many years to “transmute” those writing skills into an ability to produce decent fiction.”

Time to amass sufficient confidence. A surprising number of older authors said that they tried to write fiction when younger, but the activity “didn’t feel right” to them. One late bloomer told me, “I didn’t see myself as a novelist when I was in my 20s, 30s, and 40s, nor did I have the required confidence. And then one day reached the point where I gave myself permission to write a novel. The next thing I knew I was writing one.”

I had to learn to like fiction. Several novelists of a certain age — most of them men — confessed that they disliked fiction “for most of their lives.” They didn’t think about writing novels until long after they discovered how much they enjoyed reading fiction. 

One acknowledged,: “When the fiction bug bit, most of my friends and relatives thought I was nuts. They considered me the most unlikely person in the whole world to write a novel. I gloated when I sent them signed copies of my first novel. And guess what? — I still haven’t read “Moby Dick” or anything by Charles Dickens or Jane Austen.”

Interestingly, many late-blooming novelists tell me that their decision to start writing was abrupt, and seemingly unprovoked. One author described a “switch being flipped in her brain,” and also admitted that she “can’t explain why the urge to write fiction suddenly became so strong. All at once, I knew that it was something I had to do.”

Another curious phenomenon: Few late bloomers I talk to say that they took writing courses or workshops before they began to write fiction.. Most jumped right in: they started to write a novel — and then honed their developing skills by reading how-to books, going to writers conferences, and taking local fiction-writing courses. This explains why so many first-time participants I meet at writers conferences have finished several chapters of their first novel. A few have written complete manuscripts.

Why the write-first-learn-later attitude. I think it’s because most starting-out writers assume that it’s easy to write publishable fiction — until they actually give it a serious go. Fifteen years ago, I certainly assumed that I’d be able to sit down and write fiction merely by harnessing my determination to write a novel.

Naturally I wasted lots of time and effort — key resources that are in short supply for late-blooming novelists. Writing fiction is a mixture of art and craft: it takes time to know what you don’t know. Trial-and-error education worked in my case, but looking back I’ve decided that I paid too much “tuition” for my lessons.

Happily, writing fiction later in life is a grand tradition. Tony Hillerman wrote bestsellers in his ‘80s. Raymond Chandler wrote his first mystery novel at age 51. Agatha Christie wrote into her 70s — and James Michener into his 80s. And we all know the story of Helen Hooven Santmyer, whose first novel “And Ladies of the Club” was published (and became a bestseller) when she was 88. She needed more than 50 years to write it.

Few contemporary late-bloomers want to wait as long as Helen did to see their fiction in print (or on an ebook-reader screen). That’s why Janet and I recently launched Fiction After 50 a blog devoted to providing the resources and support that writers of a certain age need to become a successful late-blooming novelists. Our goal is to shrink the time it takes to master the skills required to write publishable fiction. (By the way, you don’t have to be over 50 to visit FA50.)

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