When White-Collar Husbands Go To Jail...

Caught your eye, didn't it? No, I don't have a white-collar husband. His collar is definitely blue. Mine is more white. And, he's not going to jail. Not many plumbers fall into the "I cheated clients out of millions of dollars" in fraud category. So, why am I blogging about this? Because, a month ago on the AOL news board, this title appeared: When White-Collar Husbands Go To Jail...

I confess, the story - written by Lauren Greenfield, in Marie Claire magazine, fascinated me, and I'm always looking for story ideas, and so I read all the stories, stopping at the one story about Karen Weinrub.

Here's the paragraph that hooked me:

"Weinreb, a former editor, began writing a novel to help make sense of it all. The Summer Kitchen, about a Bedford woman whose privileged life comes undone when her husband is arrested for fraud, is loosely based on her experience. The main character locates a secret safe full of cash behind a plastered wall -- her sole source of funds after her husband is incarcerated. Weinreb had no such hidden stash, she insists, but is tight-lipped about how she got by financially while her husband was in jail."

They say, "Write what you know?" (I'm really not sure who 'they' are, but they're right). Ms. Weinreb probably unleashed a lot of reality in her novel.

Here's the bit, in the article, that stopped me next:

"But, she [Weinreb] says, writing the novel helped her reclaim her confidence and autonomy. She defiantly squirreled away the six-figure advance in her own personal bank account. "I'll never place my financial well-being in another's hands again," she declares, adding that she's already at work on a second novel. "

Gulp... six-figures? Me, I'm full-figured, but that's my body.

Six figures?

I have that dream... a six figured book deal (Oh, come on, quit laughing!) I really do. Of course, I haven't written it on my dry erase board. Nope, right now that board says:

1. Publish 2 - 3 books a year.

2. Get asked to be in a continuity.

3. Get invited (without soliciting) to speak at an out-of-state conference.

4. Win the RITA.

Makes ya think, doesn't it, ladies and gentlemen?