Friday Speak Out!: THIS IS MY LAST BOOK…BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN I’VE STOPPED WRITING

By Deborah K. Shepherd

Honestly, no one was more surprised than I was when I published my first book at 74.When I retired from a decades-long career directing non-profits, where I wrote detailed—very detailed—grants asking for funding, and even more detailed reports accounting for how the money was spent, I swore I’d never write anything longer or more complicated than a grocery list.

But then, looking for community, I signed up for a writing workshop at my local senior college, came home from the first class and announced to my husband, “I think I’m writing a novel.”

A few years after that, I was lucky enough to have said novel, So Happy Together, published by She Writes Press, and in the meantime, some of my smaller pieces were finding homes in on-line indie magazines.

I was one and done on the book front, though. In addition to the years spent writing; revising; editing; proofing; engaging both a developmental editor and a copy editor; submitting to agents; and being rejected over and over again, there was the year after acceptance intensely promoting and marketing the book first with a publicist and a social media consultant, and then the next few years selling the book on my own at indie bookstores, book fairs, and even farmers’ markets.

I didn’t need to and never intended to write a second book, let alone a memoir about my age-gap marriage to my first husband.

But then, one day…well, actually three years later, I found myself with 300 pages of a new manuscript in my hands. Some of it had been joyful to write, some of it had been gut-wrenching, but there it was. And I’m so happy that An Old Man’s Darling has found a home with Heliotrope Books. It’s out in the world right now—and I’ve just turned 79.

So, I really AM done writing books. I don’t have the impetus to start another one, nor the stamina to see it through to fruition.

But I still love writing, maybe for publication (waiting six months for an acceptance of an essay is a LOT easier than birthing a book) or maybe not. I’m finding that writing to prompts from my local writers’ group—100 words from the point of view of an animal, anyone?—or reading one of my essays at an open mic, or even just scribbling for myself when something jogs my writer’s brain---like the piece I jotted down on hearing The Beatles’ “When I’m 64” at the age of 78 and know I’ll probably never submit—still brings a sweet kind of pride and satisfaction.

So, I hope I never lose this desire to write--it feels like such a gift as I am poised to enter my 9th decade.

And, who knows, maybe I’ll even turn my grocery lists into haikus.

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Deborah K. Shepherd’s first novel, So Happy Together, was published in 2021 when she was 74. Her essays have appeared in Oldster Magazine; Fauxmoir; Motherwell Magazine; Herstry; Eat. Darling, Eat; Persimmon Tree, and more, and her Covid-themed essay was a winner in the Center for Interfaith Relations 2020 Sacred Essay Contest. A retired social worker, she spent much of her career focused on the prevention of domestic violence and sexual assault and the provision of services to survivors. The mother of two and grandmother of two, Deborah lives in Maine with one husband and one sweet, jaunty rescue dog. You can find her at deborahshepherdwrites.com.

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