First Time Novelist at 63 – Belva Plain

Grandma wrote bestsellers

Have you ever felt you were too old to start that novel you’ve always wanted to write?

Belva Plain was 63 years old when her first novel, a romantic epic titled Evergreen, was published in 1978 by Dell. What’s more, her debut novel stayed on the NYT best-seller list for 41 weeks in hardcover, and another 20 weeks in paperback, and was later made into a mini-series.

She was called “The grandmother who wrote best sellers.”

Like drugstore chocolate

Belva went on to write over 20 books that made the NY Times Bestsellers list. At her death in 2010, there were over 30 million copies of her novels in print in 22 languages. Many critics panned her work as overly sentimental and thin on character development. Critic Monique Polak said reading her stories was pure escapism, “like eating a box of drugstore chocolate. You know it’s not the finest quality but you can’t stop.”

In addressing this criticism, Belva told The Post that “entertainment is a very valid need.” Obviously she was able to tap into the psyche of thousands of readers and give them what they wanted.

A committed writer

Long on discipline, the woman who didn’t begin her literary career until she was a grandmother wrote five hours a day, four days a week, which resulted in a novel every two years. What fascinates me is that she didn’t even own a computer—she wrote longhand on a yellow legal pad or in notebooks.

Belva was an only child who wrote poetry at a teen. She earned a degree in history from Barnard College. While her husband worked on an ophthalmology degree, she paid the bills by writing short romance stories for magazines such as McCall’s, Cosmopolitan and Ladies’ Home Journal, but took a pause in her writing career to raise three children.She often seemed dismayed that she hadn’t started novel writing earlier in life when she was a young mother, suggesting it wasn’t so much that she didn’t have time, but rather she didn’t make time. Nonetheless, she was constantly jotting character sketches and scraps of overheard dialogue, which is a big part of writing a novel.

When she picked her pen back up, she wrote five hours a day, four days a week. The end result? A novel every two years.

Belva continued writing through her 70s and well into her 90s. She was 95 years old when she passed away.

So don’t ever think that you’re too old to write.

Linda K. Sienkiewicz is the author of In the Context of Love, an adult novel about one woman’s need to tell her story without shame.

Angelica Schirrick had always suspected there was something deeply disturbing about her family, but the truth was more than she bargained for.

2017 Sarton Women’s Fiction Finalist
2016 Eric Hoffer Book Award Finalist
2016 Readers’ Favorite Finalist
2016 USA Book News Best Book Finalist
Great Midwest Book Fest Honorable Mention.

“…at once a love story, a cautionary tale, and an inspirational journey.” ~ Bonnie Jo Campbell, author of National Book Award Finalist, American Salvage, and critically acclaimed Once Upon a River,and Mothers, Tell Your Daughters