I’m at BEA this week for the first time and have been checking in on the ArmchairBEA part of it. If you haven’t signed up yet, do so! The first question was introductions and a question about literature.
My introduction is from my author bio which pretty much says it all:
USA Today Bestselling and Award-winning novelist Bette Lee Crosby brings the wit and wisdom of her Southern Mama to works of fiction–the result is a delightful blend of humor, mystery and romance along with a cast of quirky charters who will steal your heart away.
Born in Detroit and raised in a plethora of states scattered across the South and Northeast, Crosby originally studied art and began her career as a packaging designer. When asked to write a few lines of copy for the back of a pantyhose package, she discovered a love for words that was irrepressible. After years of writing for business, she turned to works of fiction and never looked back. “Storytelling is in my blood,” Crosby laughingly admits, “My mom was not a writer, but she was a captivating storyteller, so I find myself using bits and pieces of her voice in most everything I write.”
Crosby’s work was first recognized in 2006 when she received The National League of American Pen Women Award for a then unpublished manuscript. Since that, she has gone on to win several more awards, including another NLAPW award, Royal Palm Literary Awards, the FPA President’s Book Award Gold Medal and Reviewer’s Choice Award and Reader’s View Southeast Fiction Literary Award.
Her published works to date are: Jubilee’s Journey (2013), What Matters Most (2013), The Twelfth Child (2012), Cupid’s Christmas (2012), Cracks in the Sidewalk (2011), Spare Change (2011), and Life in the Land of IS (2012). Life in the Land of IS is a memoir written for Lani Deauville, a woman the Guinness Book of Records lists as the world’s longest living quadriplegic.
This is my second career and it’s almost as lucrative as my first if not more enjoyable. I shouldn’t have waited so long to start!
I asked my BFFs on Facebook about literature and here was the answer from Linda:
When I think of literature I think of ADVENTURE, because no matter the genre, literature is always ADVENTUROUS for me ! I learned to immerse myself in whatever I’m reading when I was a small child … Let’s face it! We didn’t have DVDs and video games to entertain us – and I was the only girl around at most of my parent’s social gatherings , sooooo I learned to drag along a book to read.
My taste in literature seems to vary as much as the Midwest weather ! I enjoy murder and mayhem as much as a mushy love story, however, after spending so many years in college and teaching school, I do NOT enjoy many non fiction books with the exception of an occasional biography.
I have to agree about nonfiction. I have actually read a few posts where people have classified even nonfiction titles as literature and I don’t really see how that works. Then again, unless it is about parenting special needs children, I do not read a whole lot of nonfiction, unless maybe it is creative nonfiction but even that is hit or miss.
Lisa @Just Another Rabid Reader