Contemporary Authors

Lynnette Casey contacts her favorite author Sage McNeal.

The Forbidden and The Feisty

 

         She set the book under in a cubby underneath the desk and slid off her seat.  At only 5’2” the tall stool left her a nearly a foot off the floor.  Evan, who was over 6 feet, looked almost as if he towered over the computer monitor in front of him.  Evan was always silent and solemn and today was no different. He didn’t say a word to her as she pushed the cart out of the room and down to the reference section. The wheels of the thirty-year old cart creaked and shook as she tried to maneuver it up a ramp and around a corner.  She was thankful she that even though she was as old as the cart that she didn’t creak near as badly.

    

        With a smile, Lynette found the shelf where the new set of Contemporary Authors was to be shelved.  She began pulling one book at a time off the cart and lining them up in order next to the previous year’s editions.  Bored, Lynette flipped through the Contemporary Author book beginning with Mac and Mc.  She found McNeal, Sage, and began reading with interest.

 

       Sage McNeal was born 1981 in Nashville, Tennessee.  His legal name is Jared Morgan Woods.  Sage McNeal is his Nom De plume. He graduated from Sacred Heart High School in 2000 and attended Capitol Community College, but he later dropped out and joined the Air Force in 2002.  His first book Torn Tapestry was published in 2005, which hit the New York Times Best Seller list and stayed number one for six weeks.  He followed that success with his second thriller Tsunami Tiger in 2006 and his third thriller Thor’s Thunder in 2008.  He lives with his wife Cherry Bradley-Woods in Richmond, Virginia. 

 

       Lynette paused at the end of the brief entry and looked up thoughtfully.  Now that she knew his actual name, she might be able to some how get a letter or email to him.  She snapped the book shut with a smile.  As she shelved that volume with the rest, she thought about what she might say.  She wanted to know where he got all of his ideas from and if he’d been on any real life adventures of his own.  His descriptions were so vivid and his characters so engaging!  There was something in the way he wrote that captured her imagination.  There was some sense of familiarity in the worlds that he created.  Lynette was an aspiring writer herself and longed for some sort of success. Perhaps Sage could give her some sage advice on getting published.  Maybe he would take her under his wing and mentor her.  Of course the fact that he had a wife was more than a little disappointing, but hey, she was married too.  What did it matter?  It wasn’t as if they were ever going to meet or anything.  More than likely her fan letter would go unnoticed.  Still, Lynette felt she had to try. 

    

       Later that day, Lynette got on the computer at the library and began her search.  It didn’t take long to pull up an email address for one Jared Morgan Woods.  She logged into her own email and pasted in the address of one _ [email protected]" into the To line.  Her heart beat wildly in her chest as she tried to think of how not to sound like a stalker. 

      Dear Sage she started and then deleted.  Dear Jared she typed.  Still too informal she thought. Dear Jared Morgan Woods she settled on.  She paused and then wrote: I hope you don’t mind me emailing you, but I wanted to let you know how much I enjoy your books.  I am a writer too and was hoping you could share some of your experiences with me about how you found a publisher, etc.  I have had a couple of poems published in my school journal, but nothing huge yet.  I have a couple of manuscripts, but I am not sure how to go about the process.  They say to write what you know about, but nothing has happened to me yet.  Do you write about things that happened to you?  Where do you come up with your ideas if they aren’t based on real-life?  Thank you for your wonderful books.  Keep ‘em comin!  ~Lynette Casey

    

      She drew in a deep breath and reread the composition several times before hitting send.  She closed her eyes and prayed to no one in particular that he got it and didn’t delete it immediately.  Lynette logged out of her email account and returned to the library homepage.  She’d contacted a couple of authors before.  He favorite romance author Constance Cooper had taken the time to respond to her hand written letter several years ago.  She also had success with an author of books for young adults, Janet Ivy.  Ivy had been kind enough to thank her for her support.  The list of authors that hadn’t replied was long indeed though.  Her favorite female thriller writer never replied, nor did her favorite fantasy writer.  Lynette liked all genres of books and dabbled a bit in each genre in her own writing.  She was hoping to get advice from authors in all genres, but it seemed as if the larger the audience, the smaller the chance of getting through was. 

 

      Lynette went home that night to her husband and ate dinner.  She never mentioned her email to Sage McNeal.  Chase didn’t seem to care much about her books or her writing.  He was a banker through and through.  Stocks, bond, mortgages and estate planning were his main interests.  At dinner he raddled on about Wall Street and Economics.  Lynette engaged him in some friendly banter about recent politics, but that was about it.  She mentioned something about one of her graduate classes, but he didn’t even seem to hear her.  He was off in his own little world and so was Lynette really. Later that night, Lynette was happy to cuddle up next to him and quietly watch TV together"even if he spent most of his time on the couch with his eyes closed. 

     As the slipped into bed that night Lynette couldn’t help but wish for a more exciting life.  She glanced over at her husband and realized most women would be so lucky to find someone so financially and emotionally stable, but no, she was restless.  Lynette turned over and tried to sleep, but she couldn’t.  She wondered if she’d ever find the adventure she dreamed of a child.  It felt as if adventure didn’t exist except on the pages of a book.  She’d traveled now and again and taken vacations, but nothing out of the ordinary had ever really occurred.  There were never any dead bodies and she never got shot at. 

    

     To say Lynette had an overactive imagination was an understatement.  She had spent her childhood climbing trees, riding bikes, and choreographing fight scenes.  Indiana Jones had been her hero.  She loved Romancing the Stone as well.  Eventually she grew to love Temperance Brennan, Stephanie Plum and Meredith Gentry after she discovered them lurking on the library shelves.  Lynette loved reading anything she could get her hands on, but she enjoyed certain authors more than others.  Sage McNeal blended all her favorite genres into one wild ride though and she longed to create her own unique niche as he had.  Every time she sat down to write though, she second guessed herself.  Nothing felt new to her.  There was nothing unique left to say.  There was no plot twist unheard of and nothing editors hadn’t read before.  What could she possibly have to offer any of these well-worn worlds? 

     The next day she eagerly checked her email.  Nothing.  Well, a forward from her aunt about kittens and another forward from her mother about saving the whales was all that was there awaiting her attention.  There was an update from a yahoo group she’d joined and notice about activity on her facebook account.  Whoohoo.  Later that day she received emails about her homework and a project she was working on with some other students.

     A week went by and Lynette assumed that he email had been lost in cyberspace or deleted or just plain ignored.  She continued her schedule of classes and work and housework.  Life kept rolling onward in its usual fashion.  It wasn’t until she checked her email out of sheer boredom that Sunday night that heart skipped a beat.  There was the reply she’d been waiting for from Sage McNeal.