CL Talmadge - Before I Was Published

I decided to be a writer when I realized, in my late teens/early twenties, that I had no other discernible skill except writing. That pretty much narrows one's career focus. Also, since the age of 13, I had been
day-dreaming about this love story between in prince in peril from his father and the woman he loves who has mysterious healing skills and
abilities. I wanted very much to write the story.

My writing career began in 1976, when I was hired as associate editor for the oldest weekly newspaper on Long Island in New York, The Suffolk County
News.

From there I went on to report and copyedit for several daily newspapers, including the Las Vegas Sun, the Orange County Register, and the Dallas
Times Herald. I then became an editor for Adweek/Southwest, an advertising-marketing weekly trade publication. While at Adweek I picked up freelance assignments for Business Week, Forbes, and the business section of The New York Times, among other media.

I left fulltime journalism in 1989 to write a nonfiction book about a method of emotional and spiritual healing resolution that I ended up self-publishing in 1999. I did odd freelance writing gigs, but was not very good at developing a network of contacts to find more steady assignments.
Two years later I became a staff writer for a broker-/dealer, a job that lasted until I was laid off in 1994.

I returned to freelance writing and added freelance pr to my resume as well-all the while still thinking about the story from my teen years, which by this time had grown to include four generations of women. I finally started writing in earnest in 1998, and a decade later have published the first three novels in what grew to be the Green Stone of Healing(R) epic
fantasy series.

I am close to completing the fourth book, and hope to publish it in 2009 while working on Book Five.