Writing a first novel
I only taught briefly at UC extension because I had three young children and and a husband who taught at Cal. but I was able to write my scholarly books at home when the children were asleep or at school. I was very isolated though my books created quite a stir--most critics hated my psychoanalytic approach. What is hilarious is that I was just asked to write a "psychological" introduction for the New American Library edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (posted on articles). The medievalists will choke.
My divorce and re-marriage to a supportive man opened the door to writing short stories about my childhood. When an editor at the New Yorker respponded to my story about the love affair that broke up my first marriage by asking how such an intelligent woman could fall for such an obvious seducer, I wrote my first novel, Sins of the Mothers, to explain. And yes, it was exhilarating to break free of academia. Though last year I revisited my Blake for a Macmillan anthology. But now it seems I am an authority not the little woman plotzing away at home.
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