At the Romantic Times Booklovers Convention in Chicago, as I walked down the aisles of authors hawking their books, I saw a woman, standing behind her table, looking very approachable and charming. Then I saw who it was. Sue Grafton. No way! THE Sue Grafton! A is for Alibi? Yeah, that Sue Grafton!

I went up, turned fanboy for a minute, then asked if I could do a completely UNAUTHORIZED interview with her. She agreed, not nervous at all.

I asked her how she overcame her own artistic angst, which is the question I ask most people.

She smiled and said her dad taught her how to be tough and in the book business, well, you will learn that you are tougher than you think.

And that is the truth. To be a writer, you have to be in-the-dirt-blood-on-you-face tough. In my heart of hearts, I am a sissy-boy whiner, but I’ve overcome so much just by sticking with it and keeping an open mind.

Which leads me to what Sue Grafton said next.

She said that she had to bend during the bad times, bend so she wouldn’t break. Flexibility is also key because the game changes at every turn and we’ll all have our dark moments of the soul. We have to learn to weather them and adjust our sails to stay afloat.

Above all, she said to keep working and don’t take short cuts. Writing is a demanding task and yeah, no short cuts.

So, no short cuts, writing quality work, and maybe someday, some big, nervous guy can interview you.

A huge thank you to Sue Grafton! She is such a warrior!

Find out more about Sue and check out her books on her website.

Sailing photo courtesy of Erki, Wikimedia Commons