(soft acoustic music) (soft acoustic music continues) - Hello, and welcome to "The Bookmark."

I'm Christine Brown, your host.

Today my guest is Margie Seaman, author of "Someday Belongs to Us."

Margie, thank you so much for being here with me.

- Well, thank you very much for having me.

- I always like to call out a first on the show, and this is our first romance, so congratulations on being the first one of those.

This is, I'm very excited.

I always like talking about something new.

It keeps the show fresh, so.

Can you introduce the book to us and tell us what it's about?

- This is "Someday Belongs to Us," and it's going to be the first of a trilogy.

So I'm deep into the second one already.

It's a story of a woman romance writer.

She's 72 years old.

She writes under the name Desiree Desire.

And the reason I chose that name is because when I started this, it was gonna be just a really kind of a cheesy romance, kind of a take off or, you know, a satire on a romance.

But as I got into my characters, I had to change it and make it a little more serious.

But Kate has been very successful.

She's had over 30 bestsellers.

Everything is wonderful.

But in her personal life, no, she's never made that love connection.

She was married, that didn't work, and she's been alone.

But it's okay, because she has her family, she has her job, and she has a wonderful granddaughter that she's very close to.

So, her life, as she sees it, is very happy, although there are times, because her favorite song is called "Lonely Wine," and she likes to play that and kind of drink her wine and feel sorry for herself.

So that's her character.

She's a very nice woman, very active.

She's writing a new series about a pirate, and it's gonna be her passion series, but she has no idea what pirates are like.

So she's reached total writer's block.

She's run into a stone wall.

She's running around asking, "Where can I find any information on pirates?

I don't want them to be the blood thirsty, you know, type that we read about in the paper or the book."

So she does all of her research, and she still can't find out the type of pirate she wants.

So she implores the universe to please send her a pirate.

Well, knowing the universe, it does strange things.

And one night during a really intense electrical storm, a huge lightning bolt went off right by her bedroom window, and she sat up and she looked around and there was a pirate in her room.

Not just a pirate.

He was just one of those absolutely drop dead gorgeous pirates.

Now, when I was writing this, I thought, what is her reaction going to be?

I mean, you're alone in your house, you're 72 years old, and you see a man standing in your room.

Well, she just rationalized that she was dreaming.

He was a figment of her imagination.

So she greeted him, and she saw he was a little concerned about where he was.

So, bringing it all together, he agrees, after they have conversation, to stay and help her write the books.

So they start their series, and it's a tremendous hit.

And as they get to the third book, she decides that she's going to have him get married in that book.

And he decides, uh-uh, I'm young.

I still wanna go out, and I wanna meet all these people that we save on the other ships and so forth.

So they had a falling out, and he left, and she could not write the third book.

So she goes on a cruise with her granddaughter.

And the book is really based on cruises that I take.

I love to cruise.

And I've cruised to the Panama Canal twice.

So, this book takes place on a cruise to the Panama Canal, and it has all the stops and all the different ports, and it's kind of a little bit of history, a little bit of romance, and a lot of fun.

So, Edward does come back to her, but on the cruise ship, she also finds two other eligible men who happen to be sitting at the dinner table.

And then from that point on, it just gets crazy.

So it's like I said, it's humorous, it's heartwarming, it's fun.

But it could no longer be cheesy, because after I met 'em, I liked my characters, and I wanted them to be, you know, people that everyone would like to have as friends.

- Sure, yeah.

And I think if I can compliment you, it came across really well.

All the characters were fun, and I wanted to spend more time with them, so.

- [Margie] Oh, well, thank you.

- I look forward to the second book, so I can.

- [Margie] Thank you.

- Well, this is your first novel, and I do wanna talk more about that, but I wanna rewind a little bit, because this isn't your first experienced piece of writing.

You've written many things before.

Can you talk about your writing experience before the book?

- Yes.

My experience was basically in writing training programs.

I was in retailing for 40 years.

That was my career.

And you probably don't remember a store named Foley's.

- Oh, I do.

- Oh, do you?

Okay, good for you.

Well, I was with Foley's for 40 years, and I was in charge of the training for the various stores, and I had to write training programs.

I also wrote, well, I'll get to that in a minute, but the training program writing is different because it's mostly bullet points.

You're training adults, and adults do not read.

So you have to have it bullet pointed so that they can get the information quickly.

It has to be in logical sequence, and there can't be any surprises.

So I wrote training materials for years and years.

When I retired, don't ask me how or why, but I ended up as a website designer.

So in designing websites, you write content text.

And again, that's different.

You can't have the flowery speech and all the environmental things.

It has to be strictly right to the point.

So that kinda gave me a little change of mindset when I started writing a novel.

But I did have a lot.

Oh, and I also write a travel blog.

So I go around Texas, and this should be of interest, my sister-in-law goes with me.

So that doesn't sound bad.

I mean, you know, I'm not a spring chick.

I'm 87.

So here we have an 85-year-old woman.

We haven't been for a while.

So here we have an 85-year-old woman, driving a woman that is 93 around all these different places in Texas.

But we went everywhere.

We covered all the state.

And I wrote the travel blog, it's called "The Graytripper."

And I'm sure everyone that watches PBS is familiar with the "The Daytripper."

So, where Chet goes out and, you know, uses, he's zip lining and diving, everything, we go to flower gardens and different things that people can do.

But hopefully it's to let senior citizens know that there's so many wonderful things in this state, and they need to get out and go explore and learn just what our state is like.

- That's wonderful.

It seems like as you describe your writing, it kind of evolved to be a little more maybe flowery, or you can get more descriptive, 'cause you go from the really technical, I imagine on the travel blog, you are wanting to be more descriptive and describe your locations, which probably served you well when you transitioned over to the novel.

- Yes, yes.

I didn't have to really do the emotion part.

I had to do the environmental part.

But, and it's been, like I said, it's been a gradual process, and everyone said, "Why did you wait until you were 84 to start a book?"

Well, I'm lazy.

That's basically why.

I mean, I had always wanted to be a writer.

And even when I was younger, my teachers always said, "You should, you know, write."

I went to college late.

I didn't graduate until I was 54.

And not because I was slow, but because I waited and started college late.

But, and even my professor said, "You should write."

I said, "I'm gonna do that.

I sure am.

I'm gonna do that next year."

Well, what happens?

Next year is coming, you look, and you think, wait a minute, there's a little problem here.

I don't think I have that many next years.

So I decided I better sit down.

And Loren Steffy, who I think you know and have interviewed, Loren is my client, I do his website.

So, he was really the one that pushed me, because we were talking and he made a comment about an app that he particularly didn't like.

And he said, "I hated with the passion of a thousand burning sons."

I thought, well, now, that's just a little bit overboard.

And I told him, I said, "Loren," I said, "that just sounds like a really bad romance novel."

So he just said, "Write it."

Well, he kind of threw down the gauntlet.

So I had to start writing.

So I started writing.

I got about 10,000 words and I thought, my gosh, I got a book going.

So after that, then I just kept going and kept, yeah.

- Momentum from that point.

- Momentum, that's right.

So it was very, 'cause I've never read a, well, I've read one romance novel in my life.

- Really?

- Oh yeah.

I'm not a romance person.

- Oh wow.

- I read mysteries, Mary Higgins Clark, years ago, Janet Evanovich, James Patterson, John, all, I mean, I've read everything, but not a romance novel.

- That's very interesting, because you, I could not tell.

I mean, you- - Well, I'm glad.

- It fits in the genre perfectly well.

I mean- - Oh, well, good.

Thank you.

- I thought it was that, wow, I'm surprised actually, 'cause it, I would've never guessed that.

Was it difficult to get into the writing?

Was it hard to do, or did you find once you got going, it wasn't?

- Once I got going, yes.

Everything getting started, you have, it's just like when you go, or you start a new book.

You have to get a few pages in.

There are very few books that will grab you right on the first page.

And the same way with writing a book, you have to get a few pages in.

But then as I started writing, it was really strange, because I knew my characters, I knew Kate and I knew Edward.

I mean, Edward is so beautiful.

And I knew all the other people.

So at night, I'm not a really good sleeper at night, like most people, a lot of people, you know, stay awake are night owls.

And if I was awake in the middle of the night, I start getting these ideas, and I said, they were telling me what they wanted to do.

And there was one scene that I truly loved in the book, and I won't say what it is, but that came to me at 4:00 AM one morning.

And I thought, wow, you know, that's gotta be in the book.

But it just kind of takes over and it's like a snowball.

Once you get the story started, then it just keeps rolling and rolling.

And you just have to type as fast as you can to keep up with the way the story's moving.

- That's very encouraging, I think, for people who maybe want to do this, but just go and get started, and eventually it'll catch, yeah.

- Well, I felt very, well, very happy for this person, kind of flattered too.

A friend that is a Facebook friend only, you know how you have these friends you've never met in person, they're Facebook friends, and we'd been a Facebook friends through a mutual acquaintance, and she told me at my launch, book launch, that she wanted to write.

And I said, "Do it."

So she sent me a message, we keep in contact fairly frequently, and she sent me a message.

She said, "I want you to know, I've gotten almost 30,000 words written."

And she said, it's only because you did it.

And I saw it could be, you know, accomplished.

And that made me feel so good to think that somebody had really taken this and realized that just when you get older, you don't have to stop.

You can keep going.

- Right, right.

It's never too late to start try to try, to try something different.

- No, it's not at all.

- To branch out, yeah.

That's a wonderful message, I think, that we can all take in for not just writing, but probably for anything.

- For anything.

It doesn't have to be writing a book.

It can be anything.

You learn to play the piano, do anything.

But, you know, the recliner is kinda comfortable, and it's awfully easy to get in that recliner and just stay there.

But, you know, you've got days that are still here, and nobody knows how many days we have, so why not just take 'em and use 'em as best you can.

- Absolutely.

I think that's wonderful advice for everyone.

I was gonna ask you about, you kind of answered this question, but the cruise is a major focal point.

And you said you do take a lot of cruises.

Why did you choose to set your book on a cruise?

What is it about a cruise ship, I guess, that's inspirational or gives you interesting story ideas?

- Cruising, because it does offer you so many different plot twists.

So many things happen.

You're going to so many different parts.

You do have, I don't know if you've cruised, but you go to the main dining room for dinner, and you have your tablemates usually.

Now, some people prefer, you know, single dining, or just at your time dining.

But I always go with, we have a group, every time I've cruised, I have made so many friends from our dinner companions, and I'm still corresponding with people from Scotland and people from Norway.

And these are people that I have met on cruises.

So I like that the availability of different characters and the availability of different plot twists.

Plus it gives me a chance to show some of the history of the areas that we go to.

Because within the book, there are also chapters that you get to read the book that Kate and Edward have come up with, and they are all very historically correct.

I mean, I did a lot of research to make sure that the information that I put in the books was actual information.

Even the navigation systems were actual.

So it gives me a chance to bring in a lot of different aspects, and it gives me a chance to go over the history and go over some of the interesting things in our past.

And I like, I love just, I would love to write a book about Texas history.

I wish I could.

But I think it just offers a variety.

Plus, it was fun.

- You brought up something I wanted to mention, is that our main character, Kate, is a novelist herself.

- [Margie] Yes, yes.

- So we get to see, you certainly took on a daunting book.

You wrote two books almost.

You wrote a book within a book, so.

- [Margie] Two for the price of one.

- You really went, you swung for the fences for this first one.

How, yeah, what was that like trying to write as another person too?

Like, how did you, I mean, I guess you just, it flowed out, or how did that work?

- It did.

I don't know why.

You're saying write, and I don't think of myself as a writer.

I think of myself as a storyteller, because I don't have the flowery prose that some people use.

Do you remember, I don't know if you, have you ever heard of Reader's Digest?

Reader's Digest years ago used to come out, and it would say "towards more picturesque speech."

And they would take a sentence, and they would have just a plain sentence, and they would say, "Here's how you could say it."

Well, by the time they, you know, built it up and elaborated, changed things and added a description, you couldn't even recognize, it was so beautiful.

And I thought, oh, if I could just write like that.

But I can't.

I have to really concentrate to get the type of description that is needed for a book.

So, but I can tell stories.

So I like having characters, I like making up characters, and I like plots, and improbable situations and funny situations.

It has to have humor.

- Oh, absolutely.

- It has to.

- [Christine] And it keeps it going.

It keeps it- - Yeah, it keeps it going.

- I also wanted to ask you something you just mentioned too about the research, because as you say, we're on this cruise, and we're taking stops at these different ports.

And you do give a little history about the cities, or about the Panama Canal and how that works.

And how much research did you do?

How much was this of you remembering visiting these places when you were there?

- A combination, but probably 75% research and 25% remembering.

Because when I was there, I was there during current times, and I wanted to know more about what it was like when Spain and France had colonized the Caribbean, and to how the people lived, because that also figures into the second book.

So I wanted to learn that.

So I had to do a lot of research.

And then I wanted to learn about the navigation, 'cause it has always fascinated me how people could set out into an ocean 6,000 miles across without any kind of the current navigation, no GPS whatsoever, and all they were looking at were stars, which was wonderful, as long as you don't have clouds.

So I could never, I couldn't figure it out, and I had to do a lot of research on that.

And that was a very intensive research, so.

- A lot of your characters are also Texan, which I think, as a Texan, kind of grounded me into the story, 'cause I certainly, there was a character who went to A&M and a character went to UT, and there's a little friction there, as we all know, is fun and a longstanding tradition.

I think that was a nice grounding piece to have familiar characters if you're from the area.

- Well, my family came to Texas in 1841, and came to Bastrop, settled in Bastrop.

So I'm very strong Texan all the way, and everything has to be, and San Angelo, I was just out in San Angelo doing a blog not too long ago, and so I wanted to bring in San Angelo.

I love that area.

I love the Hill Country, Dripping Springs, and all that area.

In fact, there's not a place in this state that I have been to that I have not loved.

So I had to have Texas as a background.

- It's not a requirement to be a Texan to read this book, but I think- - [Margie] No, oh no, no.

- It added some familiarity if you are.

So how do you craft your characters?

Are they based on people you know?

Are there, do you take little pieces from lots of different people or- - It's interesting.

Well, first of all, you haven't asked me the most important question.

How on earth does a 72-year-old woman start falling in love with, or why does a 38-year-old man fall in love with a 72-year-old woman?

That was the biggest thing I had to come up.

But Kate, I wanted Kate to be older.

We don't see many books written with older people as love objects.

So I wanted her to be the type of person that I think most people can be, and most people are.

So everyone says, "Is she you?"

No.

She might be a me wannabe, but no, I'm not like Kate.

She's, well, in a way, I mean, she's very attached to her family.

Now, Ellie is a composite of my four granddaughters.

Each one of them think that they are Ellie.

So I'm not gonna tell 'em that it's a composite.

But, so Ellie is patterned after the relationship that I have with my granddaughters.

Edward, what can I say about Edward?

Edward might be my midnight dreams.

So I had to bring him out to the line.

But he could, he had to be an honorable pirate.

He could not be, you know, a throat cutting pirate, so.

- [Christine] He's kind of a Robin Hood-esque figure.

- Yeah.

David is actually one of my friend's husbands, so, and she just gave him to me and said, "Use him," you know, "whatever."

So, no, he looks like one of my friend's husbands, and he is the kind of man that I've had as professors.

So he just kind of evolved.

So I guess, yes, they are people that I have known in the past, or people that I would like to know.

So it's just, I don't know, they just all started coming out.

They just started, like I said, adopting their own personalities.

- Yeah, but it's a piece of somebody you may know, but then something else grows out.

- There's something else, right, because of the situation.

- Sure.

- So it's... - What authors inspire you?

What were there things that inspired you to write this book?

- Well, not romance novels.

Like I said, I read one romance.

It belonged to my 90-year-old ex-mother-in-law who lived with me 'cause she had Alzheimer's, and she read that book, she gave it to me and said, "You might enjoy it."

By the time I got to the 30th page, I mean, my eyeballs were spinning, and I, whew, okay.

So, but other authors, yes, I read constantly, and I have read all my life.

My family is all big readers.

And I started out on Agatha Christie.

My mother was an Agatha Christie aficionado.

She loved everything.

Do I have any favorites?

It depends on what I'm reading.

Because sometimes I want what I call, you know how you get the lemon to cleanse your palate between the different, I want the book that is the lemon to cleanse my palate.

So that's gonna be something light.

That's gonna be Janet Evanovich.

It's gonna be Stuart Woods, things that are funny, not anything that you really have to concentrate and think.

And on the other times, I read books that my one grandson, he's at Rice, he's getting his PhD in English, he likes for me to read CS Lewis.

He sent me "Great Expectations," oh, "Crime and Punishment," and then asked me to do a report on it.

And I thought, wait a minute.

So, anything.

I read all kinds of, I don't have a real favorite.

I do, like I said, I like Janet Evanovich, and I do like John Grisham, and I like mostly mysteries.

- That's not a fair, I hate being asked that question, 'cause if you love reading, you may, it's impossible to pick.

- You can't pick.

- No.

- No, and it depends on your mood.

- And the day, the season.

- That's right.

- And all kinds of things.

- The whole, yeah.

- Absolutely.

Absolutely.

- Everything.

I even watch Hallmark Christmas movies.

- What advice would you give to people who are thinking about or have thought that one day I'll write a book?

What would you tell them to maybe make one day today?

- It's like anything.

I just started an exercise program.

You think that's gonna last?

Yeah, I hope so.

But anyway, it's like everything else.

You've got all these things you want to accomplish, but it is so difficult to follow through.

So you have to sit down.

And you do need a little outside push.

Like I said, Loren gave me that little push to start writing my book.

And that's, writing a book is very personal.

I mean, you're putting yourself out there.

And it was very difficult to let anyone read the first couple of chapters, because I was waiting for them to go, oh, my gosh, you know, don't write this.

So, it's very personal, but just, you have to be willing to risk it.

So if you think you wanna do it, then put it on your calendar, set a time, go to the computer, start plotting it.

I do all my, I'm visual.

I don't really write from words.

I write from, it's like a movie that plays in my head.

So get your ideas together, organize, then sit down and start doing it.

Now, your first draft, no, but after you go through over and over, I go back now and I look at some of the pages and I think, "Did I write that?"

No, I can't believe, but it was so much, you just kind of get into a mood for writing, and you have to get in that.

And it's gonna take you at least 10,000 words to get into that.

But you have to get over that hump.

But as you go, then you have the satisfaction of seeing that you actually did it.

So I'm at the age where I'm, you know, ticking off all the boxes, and I've gotta make sure that I get everything covered.

And then, again, it's very personally rewarding.

When I got the book and I took, you know, the box that had the books in it, and I took the book out and I held it, it was like, I don't believe this.

This is not real.

This hasn't happened.

And you feel a sense of self-satisfaction.

Now, I would love for the book to be a bestseller.

Who wouldn't?

But that's very anti-climatic.

The part that really speaks to me is the fact that I did it, and I completed it.

I carried it through to completion.

So I just tell everybody, "Just put it on your calendar.

Treat it like it's a job.

And then just sit down and start writing."

And then when you get in, it's gonna take over.

It's like when you get on an exercise high, and the same thing, you wanna keep running.

It's the same thing.

Once you get started and you really get involved, you wanna keep writing.

- Well, that's wonderful.

I hope people who have that dream will take that advice and start and do it.

Because like you say, having something to hold in your hands at the end of the day that you created must be a wonderful thing.

- [Margie] Oh yeah.

Oh, it's very prominently displayed in my office, so it worked out.

- Well, I'm really enjoying talking to you, but unfortunately we are running short on time, so.

- [Margie] Oh my goodness.

- In our final two minutes, what do you want people to take away from the book?

- [Margie] From the book?

- Or from your story and the book?

- From my story, people have said, "Oh my gosh, I can't believe you're doing that at your age."

I'm not unusual.

We've got the mindset in this world that when you hit 70, you're senile.

That is so untrue, because it's less than, like, 10 or 12% of the people that get older have senility issues.

But unfortunately, there's a little ageism going on.

I want people to know that getting old is really not bad.

I mean, there are a few things I'd like to change, but it's not bad.

Enjoy it.

It's a wonderful time of life.

And if somebody can write a book when they're 85, and still have plans for two more to go, I mean, come on, that's blind optimism.

But I just want people to know that there is life as you get older, and it's not a bad life.

Sometimes it can be the best part of it.

And that's what I'm hoping people will get.

And if it does encourage, I'm so thrilled that I have one person that's finishing a book, because she saw that I did it.

So if I can get any more, I mean, that's wonderful, because then we know that people are enjoying what they call the golden years.

I think they're the gray years.

I don't know.

(group laughing) - Well, thank you so much.

This has been so wonderful.

- Well, thank you.

- I really appreciate you coming and being on the show.

- Well, thank you so much for having me.

I've enjoyed being here, and, you know, it's just been a very fun, and I have met so many phenomenal people too along the way.

- That's wonderful.

Well, we'll have you back on when you get the second one finished.

- Wonder, that'll keep you going.

- Put that in your calendar too.

- Okay.

Thank you.

- Thank you so much for joining us.

We're running outta time, but the book again was called "Someday Belongs to Us" by Margie Seaman.

We appreciate you joining us, and I will see you again soon.

(soft acoustic music) (soft acoustic music continues)