In many ways, I am a true nerd. I’m a bookworm, I collect quotes as a hobby, I listen to John Denver music when no one else is around, I still watch The Golden Girls reruns, and…I’m an author groupie.

This past April, I had the ultimate groupie nerd experience—I met my favorite author of all time, Jane Hamilton. I first read Ms. Hamilton back in late 1996. I was in the hospital recovering from surgery when friend brought me a book to help pass the time. It was Jane Hamilton’s debut novel, The Book of Ruth. As hokey as it sounds, that book changed my life. 

For years I’d dabbled around with short stories, essays, and a few rocky starts to a novel. I knew very little about the craft of writing at that point, and nothing I’d written was any good. (And I’m not saying that with false modesty. My early stuff was really, really bad.) But then I read The Book of Ruth—a beautiful, funny, darkly touching novel that went on to become an Oprah Book Club selection—and had a light bulb moment. I wanted to write like that. Not to copy Jane Hamilton, but to become as skilled as Jane Hamilton. And so I vowed, I didn’t care how hard it would be, or how long it took. I would learn to do that, what she had done in Ruth. The odds were stacked against me but I didn’t care. (I work best when I’m underestimated.) Even Jane Hamilton wasn’t always THE Jane Hamilton, right? Once upon a time, she was just a young wife and mother alone with her story on an apple orchard in Wisconsin.

Financially, an MFA program wasn’t an option, so I would have to cobble together my creative writing education. And cobble I did. First, I joined a weekly critique group at an area bookstore. I studied every respected writing manual I could get my hands on. I took classes and workshops (The University of Iowa Summer Writing Festival, some of the best money I ever spent.) I sought out other local writers whose work I admired and got their feedback on my stories, no matter how harsh. Bring it on, I said. I’m here to learn and I’m not going to learn a thing by getting patted on the head.

And, I read. Books, books and more books. I was reading, studying, and writing–constantly. At last it paid off when I published my first novel back in 2006. And it only took me ten years from when I read the opening page of Ruth.

So, you see why Jane Hamilton is the Buddha of all authors for me. I’ve read every novel she’s ever written and hoped and prayed for over a decade that one of her book tours would bring her to Des Moines. I’ve attended many author events over the years and always whined to my friends, I wish Jane Hamilton would come, I wish Jane Hamilton would come…

Finally, on a balmy April night, she did. Even better, she didn’t disappoint. She was warm, funny, smart and not one bit frightened of me when it was my turn to get books signed. I was positively giddy to tell her in person how much The Book of Ruth means to me. (When truly excited about something, I generally don’t get hung up on things like dignity or self-respect.) It was a carpe diem moment I wasn’t going to squander. She couldn’t have been more gracious. Inside my copy of Ruth, she wrote: You are wonderful. Then she gave me a hug. Seriously, I nearly fainted.

The books on my shelves are like friends, and Ruth is my literary equivalent of a BFF. She came at just the right time in my life when I needed her most, and inspired me to work and fight for something I really wanted.

Like all good friends should.

Carpe diem!

 Best book I’ve read in the last six months: Olive Kitteridge, by Eliabeth Strout (It won the Pulitzer for a reason!)

Book on writing every author should own: Bird by Bird, by Annie Lamott

Words to live by: “I write for the same reason I breathe, because I have to.”  –Isaac Asner