FINDING THE WRITE STUFF

By Michele Ross

Many people dream of becoming writers. Many more feel sure they know the perfect idea for a bestseller — once they get around to writing it. Still others argue they could be authors if only -- pick one: a) family; b) work; c) other commitments — didn’t take up so much time. Here are several metro Atlanta seniors who didn’t let any reasons—or excuses—keep them from achieving their dreams of writing books.

Lynn Cullen

Fans and critics may praise the works of best-selling historical novelist Lynn Cullen of Decatur, but she gives credit for her writing to her Aunt Ruth in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

When Lynn was 9 years old, she and her family took a trip to the countryside near Eden, Ohio, where her Aunt Ruth had been born. Observant even then, Lynn noticed the one-room schoolhouse, corn fields, prickly grasshoppers and lots of cows. Back in Indiana, Aunt Ruth gave Lynn a piece of paper and said, “Write about what you saw.”

Other children might have made a dull list, but Lynn created a story about a girl living in rural Ohio in the 1920s. At the time, Lynn couldn’t have realized what she had done (or the wisdom of her aunt), but as she says now, “It was the true beginning of my vocation for writing historical novels.”

Today, the 65-year-old Cullen is the author of such historical novels as “Twain’s End,” “Mrs. Poe,” “Reign of Madness,” “The Sisters of Summit Avenue,” and “I am Rembrandt’s Daughter.”

But she is not a late bloomer. Even while her three daughters were small, and while Lynn was working in a pediatric office and later at Emory University, she wrote a total of 15 books for children, working early, late, and around everyone else’s schedules.

Once her daughters were in college, she turned to historical fiction. She enriches her books by doing thorough, diligent research and learning about everything from food to fashion to the sense and smells of a time and culture. She visits each location she writes about. The results are novels that are lively, informative, and intriguing, whether readers are learning about the darker side of Mark Twain or the secrets behind the Betty Crocker empire.

Tori Whitaker

Novelist Tori Whitaker embodies perseverance, hard work and no excuses.

Her debut novel, “Millicent Glenn’s Last Wish” was published in 2020, when she was in her 60s and still working full time as chief marketing officer for a national law firm.

“I knew in my 20s that I wanted to write a book one day,” she said. “By the time I was in my early forties and my youngest had left for college, I thought I had better get started now or never! Looking back, I had no idea how hard it was to write a novel that could get published.”

Two novels she wrote did not get published, yet she kept writing. “My debut book is actually the third full manuscript I wrote in my free time over the course of 20 years. My writing routine has always been to do the research, drafting and revising during evenings and weekends, and most importantly, on vacation (staycation) time— where I spend 10 to 14 hours a day knocking out chapters.”

She thinks now that being a mature author has its advantages.

“I understand now that I wasn’t ready to be an author at age 30 or 40. I hadn’t read enough novels, I hadn’t studied the craft of writing fiction enough. I hadn’t lived enough.”

It helped, too, that her husband had great faith in her. “When my third effort, a book that took me five years to write, was out on submission to find a publisher, I recall saying to my husband, “If this one doesn’t go, I’m done. He replied, “You can’t quit writing, you love it too much!”

Fortunately for her, and for readers, the book sold.

Tori and her husband live outside of Atlanta, where she is hard at work on another book.

“In the final stretch,” she said, “my goal to be published allowed me to set an example for my grandchildren. If you work hard enough, get help from the right people, keep learning and never give up, you can achieve your dreams. You’re never too old.”

Her books have caught the attention of critics as well as readers. “Mrs. Poe” was named a Book of the Week by People Magazine, and Oprah, and a Great Read by NPR in 2013. “Twain’s End” was named a Book All Georgians Should Read by the Georgia Center for the Book. Cullen has most recently received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Georgia Writers Association. Her novels have been translated into 17 languages.

The only downside she sees to being a mature writer is an awareness of the passage of time and “that our lives are ‘limited time offers,’” she said.

“I have so much more that I want to achieve with my writing in this lifetime,” she said. “Time is indeed our most precious commodity.”

She’s now hard at work on a novel about Dorothy Horstmann, a key player in the understanding of the poliovirus in the race for the polio vaccine. She started writing the novel on Dec. 31, 2019, the day scientists in China announced the appearance of a novel coronavirus, although she wouldn’t realize “that spooky coincidence” until nearly a year into the writing.