From Now Until the End of Time

Patricia Davids here.
No mention of the people and things that have shaped and inspired me as a writer would be complete without mentioning Dave. My own true love. My husband has been gone a year now. It doesn't seem possible. It isn't fair. It isn't right, but it is. I still miss him every day and every night.

Fifteen years ago, when I first told him I wanted to write a novel, he said, "I think you'd be good at that." His off-hand acceptance of my until-that-moment-secret-dream was just like him. He didn't believe in hoopla. He firmly believed that if I set my mind to do something, I could do it. He had faith in me. What an awesome gift that is.

He read my first ever chapter and said, "This is good." I was ecstatic. He read my second chapter and said, "Well, this is filler." I was crushed, but he was right. There was more to writing a book than I realized. His honest comment sent me on a search for information and education. That led me to WARA.

I never finished that first book. It was too bad to save. Dave never forgave me for that. He liked that first chapter and he wanted to know how the story ended. He never read a single one of my books. Oh, he tried once, but he preferred stories with vampires, assassins, blood and gore, but he proudly told people that his wife was a romance writer. I can remember how surprised and proud I was when I overheard him bragging on me to his out-of-state cousin.

It wasn't all love and kisses. He didn't like the way deadlines stressed me. He thought editors who made me do rewrites were jerks. More than once he offered to call them and tell them what he thought. I unplugged the phone. He tolerated but didn't like it when I went to conferences or out-of-town book signings. Yet he understood how much I wanted to succeed. Every now and then, he'd walk past me when I was sitting in my office playing freecell or surfing, he'd scowl at me and say, "Shouldn't you be writing?"

Yes, Dear, I should be writing. I'm going to get back to it right after I post this blog. I love you, honey. From now until the end of time.