 Writing has always been a dream. My first novel was written when I was ten. It was about two runaways who lived in Africa and survived an earthquake as well as an elephant stampede. Alas, I never did find out what happened to them. The binder that contained their very lives was destroyed in the sprinklers one hot summer day, and although I was slightly distraught at their destruction, the delights of summer prevented any extended ruminations.
As an adult, the mighty dollar conned me away from creative writing and I began writing—everything from marketing brochures to extensive online help systems—for the dot-com industry in Silicon Valley. When the tech industry came to a screeching halt, I got a job selling loans and my soul while I took part, first hand, in the mortgage bubble of the twenty-first century.
Being soulless got old after five years, so I quit and began writing short stories, none of which were published… yet. I tried some creative nonfiction and had better luck. Two essays have been published so far.
I started the painful creation of my second novel, Beholding Beauty, which has had better luck than the first one. For one thing, it was finished, and secondly, I have begun to submit it to agents. No one is biting. In the end, I may just leave it in the sprinklers.
In the meantime, I have started my next novel, Ships At A Distance. It is coming along much faster and easier than the first two.
Through it all I have continued to generate an income through corporate writing. Currently, I am an editor for PageMill Publishing, which produces highly specialized litigation newsletters.
I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area where all of my fiction takes place. In my work, I describe real places I know and love in honor of one of my favorite “local” authors, Steinbeck. I know it sounds presumptuous, but wouldn’t it be great for people decades from now to read my stuff and be able to actually visit the places in my stories in the same way that I visit Cannery Row in Monterey? I always loved that about Steinbeck so I humbly follow his lead.
Contact me at serena@serenajcavanaugh.com
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