Dorothy Parker

The current WIP takes place in New York circa 1922 - the beginning of the party. The bootleggers had worked out the kinks and liquor was pouring into Gotham like a pitcher held above a parched mouth. Skirts had begun to rise, Harlem had begun its renaissance and jazz floated through the air, the music of a decade of excess.

The characters of the 1920s are larger than life - Rudolph Valentino, Fanny Brice, assorted gangsters and, of course, the Algonquin Round Table.

Dorothy Parker of the aforementioned Vicious Circle was the kind of writer I'd like to be - witty, smart, funny. I could do without the suicide attempts and the buckets of bath tub gin.

When the words just won't come, I tell myself, "You can lead a horticulture but you can't make her think." Please don't take my fondness for the quote as a description of my moral code. It's just that ninety years later Dottie Parker inspires.

The Journey

At the age of thirteen, I decided to be a writer. And then I grew up and took a few detours - through banking and event planning and raising money for worthy causes (I'm still on that path). And for for a few years somewhere in the middle of all that, I got paid to write for a weekly magazine.

I've written magazine articles about houses and martinis and bizarre foods. I've penned a piece on the history of fashion in Kansas City (don't believe me? visit: http://www.nellydon.com/ )

Now I've written two novels. The first is on submission; the second is with my agent.

I know how lucky I am to have come this far. I've read so many blogs from wonderful writers who are still querying. Most days I believe. I believe that an editor is going to read my work, throw their hands up in undiluted joy and yell out their office door, "This is it! I've found her - J.K. Rowlings and Suzanne Collins and Gerogette Heyer all rolled into one!" Okay - I don't believe that - but I do believe.

This my journey - my daily search for inspiration, for hope when I know I've just written twenty pages of drivel, and the nerve to delete twenty pages of drivel and start fresh. Thanks for joining me.