In the Trunk by Lucy Burdette (aka Roberta Isleib)

 When the subject of trunk novels came up, I thought I’d have nothing to say. But then I remembered the first book I ever wrote, FINAL ROUND. As it was told, Cassie Burdette, a lady golfer whose personal baggage limited her professional success, had the bad luck to get involved with the murder of a superstar golfer. On the basis of that manuscript, I landed an agent and she sold a 5-book golf lovers mystery series to Berkley Prime Crime. But FINAL ROUND was rejected because Cassie was serving as a caddie, carrying the bag for a man on the PGA tour. They wanted her to be shown as a golfer, not a caddie, in the first book of the series.

            “But she has issues,” I explained, “that prevent her from playing at that level.”

            The publisher didn’t care.

            So FINAL ROUND went in the trunk.

            While I was waiting to hear news of a sale, I wrote an installment in the series in which Cassie falls for a gorgeous professional golfer in the Dominican Republic. Tropical setting, voodoo, a dangerous romance: What was not to like? But my new editor determined that foreign settings weren’t selling. Into the trunk it went.

            After eight mysteries, I attempted a non-mystery “breakout” book, featuring a jilted real estate agent and the detective from my advice column mysteries. My agent felt it wasn’t representative of my strongest work. Thunk, went the manuscript into the trunk.

            Next I started a book about a psychologist who was tricked into co-leading a happiness group and finally found happiness herself. I got involved in writing something else and didn’t finish it. Thud: on the pile—in the trunk.

            And then came the book I fondly call “the homeless baby thriller.” But three-quarters of the way through, I got distracted by writing a proposal for the Key West food critic mystery series. So the thriller is gathering dust with the other trunk inhabitants.

            Oh, and don’t let me forget the children’s book about a zany Australian shepherd who gets in trouble with all the neighbors. Trunkward bound after a clumsy first draft.

            So though I’m thrilled to be celebrating the publication of my tenth book in ten years (DEATH IN FOUR COURSES, the second in the Key West food critic mystery series), I’ve actually written 16! I’ve decided there’s very good news in all of this because I learned more about writing with each book and had great fun along the way. And all but the first two are still interesting ideas that I’d love to go back to one day, if life ever slows down.

            Someone told me once that he’d pitched a golf mystery to an editor who told him that writing about golf would kill his career.  But honestly, I don’t have a moment of regret. And here I give you the opening of my first ever novel—fresh from the trunk:

FINAL ROUND by Roberta Isleib

            The first streaks of sun lit up the golf course like a carpet of emeralds.  I rolled my neck in slow circles, easing out kinks left over from a long drive and a series of lumpy mattresses.  A palpable hum of excitement and hopefulness hung over the practice range, which teemed with golfers grooming their swings for today’s tournament.

            Despite the pastoral backdrop, I knew the tension that permeated these early minutes would surge over the next few days.  For professional golfers, competition was more than just a game.  Take the first tee, where a crowd of fans narrowed the hole to a chute with living, breathing walls.  And suppose the only image that flashed through your mind was shanking the ball off the toe onto some spectator’s bald head.  Or worse yet, making no contact at all.  Or maybe the guy you needed to take apart that day was your best buddy off the course.  Even so, you had to grind away without a thought about how he felt.  No question about it, competition could be murder.  

            I’d worked hard to get here.  Except I never imagined I’d make my appearance carrying someone’s bag, not using the clubs myself.  And there were things I missed about playing.  Like the feeling of striking a shot so pure, so perfect, you knew it was your best.  Or say you were playing an opponent who had the game to kill you, but you’d clawed a path to two holes up anyway.  Or maybe you were coming down the home stretch all square and your hands felt like concrete blocks, but you needed to chip close to give yourself a chance for bird.  And you knocked it stiff.

            Yeah, I missed it.  Gods knows, I grew up in a family that could make eating mashed potatoes into a contest.  Even our dog was competitive:  you had to fight him for a place in the front seat of the car.  But right now, my job as Mike’s caddie was to stay in the background.  Kind of a Hillary Clinton to her Bill, only without the humiliating Monica Lewinsky part.

Cassie’s first published adventure on the LPGA tour, SixStrokes Under, is now available as an ebook.

And I can’t wait for September and the debut of DEATH IN FOUR COURSES. Publishers Weekly called it a "yummy sequel...Anyone who's ever overpaid for a pretentious restaurant meal will relish this witty cozy." Hooray!

In the meantime, please follow me on Twitter @LucyBurdette or “Like” me on Facebook or pre-order the book!

Roberta Isleib: This Writer's Crazy Journey

Let me say first: it’s hard to follow Sheila’s great blog post! Love the postcard from Pat Conroy...But here is something about my writer’s journey…

Oh how I envy those folks who say they have always known they wanted to be writers! Imagine how I could have shaped my college and graduate training, the teachers I might have studied under, the classes I might have taken. I only knew I was crazy about books and reading-and that has never changed, starting with my early run through every Nancy Drew ever written.

After wandering through several career false starts, I ended up training and working as a clinical psychologist-wonderfully interesting and productive work. Then I fell in love with a guy who was a golfer. As I got more interested in the sport, I began a furious campaign to learn to play and spent lots of time (and money) trying to master it. I couldn't get over how nervous I felt on the first tee, especially in a competition. How did professional golfers survive and even thrive with this kind of stress?

I’ve never been able to explain it exactly, but writing became a way to make something useful out of my golf obsession. Over time, the idea of a character called Cassie Burdette, neurotic professional golfer wannabe, began to take shape (write what you know and all that!) In 1998, I hatched the idea of writing a mystery about a woman caddie on the men's golf tour and her pal, a sports psychologist. With Tiger Woods mania incinerating the PGA Tour, I was sure the story idea would be a natural. Besides, this was fun! Any time I spent on the golf course or attending tournaments or even reading golf magazines was, you guessed it, research. Over the course of a five-book series I was able to talk Cassie into starting psychotherapy so that both her golf game and her taste in men improved.

And along the way, Cassie and I had some amazing adventures. I spent most of my first (admittedly modest) advance paying to compete in a real professional-amateur LPGA tournament so I could absorb the correct ambience for book two. And I played golf at Pinehurst, Palm Springs, and in the Dominican Republic—all tax-deductible without stretching the IRS code. I met and corresponded with professional golfers, and many fans—mystery fans, golf fans, and best of all, fans of both. These people worried about Cassie: how can she drink that much before a tournament? How can she eat like that and stay in shape? Lose the boyfriend—he’s a bum! Over coffee, my friends were more likely to ask what was new with Cassie, than with me.

Once the golf gig was over, I wrote a second mystery series starring clinical psychologist Dr. Rebecca Butterman, that tailgated on my own career. I loved showing the world of psychotherapy from an insider's perspective and using Rebecca's special training and talent to solve mysteries. And now I'm busy writing the first book in a third series featuring a food critic in Key West, which will debut in January 2012. How can I go wrong with the research for that??

I still shake my head in wonder when I think about how my life has changed over the past ten years. Maybe I would have learned more about the theory and practice of writing if I'd known I was headed this way back in college. But on the other hand, maybe the timing of my life experience was exactly right. 

How about you? Are you surprised about the turns your life has taken? (I'm delighted to offer two copies of PREACHING TO THE CORPSE, which takes place at Christmas, in exchange for your comments.)