Barbara Hinske never expected to be able to quit her full-time job as an attorney and pursue a writing career. But her initial novel, Coming to Rosemont, has mushroomed into a bestselling series.
“Look what we’ve done—and we’ve had a blast doing it!” reads the inscription to me in her seventh Rosemont novel Restoring What Was Lost, which was published in the fall of 2020. “I’m so grateful. Feel a big hug.”
Ironically, @BarbaraHinske thought she was done with her debut novel when she reached out to me that first time. She just needed a copy edit, she figured. However, the novel hadn’t been professionally line-edited, and my copy editor wanted nothing to do with it. So, I took a look. Among other things, I identified a minor character who needed to play a much more substantial role. That one comment triggered an equally substantial rewrite, but it was worth it since that novel launched Barb’s first series.
Publishing her first novel proved to be the beginning of Barb’s writing success and the cornerstone of her writing career. She’s written and self-published two murder mysteries and a Christmas novella that Hallmark made into a TV movie. But wait, there’s more! She’s also finished and self-published Guiding Emily, a novel about a young woman who loses her sight and the black lab puppy named Garth who becomes her guide dog. That novel is just the first in a new series, with book #2 already in line for publication.
I could keep going because every time I turn around Barb has another project, like her novella, based on her Rosemont series, for a 2021 Christmas anthology and another novella due to be published next year in an anthology by women fiction writers. But you get the picture. Can you carve out a writing career? Sure, if you’re as diligent and determined as Barb both on the writing and the marketing fronts.
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