Friday’s FishbowlLA items included an interview with Claire Bidwell Smith, a psychotherapist who quit her job to dedicate herself to writing a book—which she completed in ten weeks, blogging all the way. “I suddenly just knew that it was time to write this book I’d been talking about writing for so long,” she says of the decision. “I realized that it was never going to be the right time, that all those things I was waiting for to fall in place—finishing grad school, having enough money, etc.—might not ever just fall into place and that if I really wanted to write this book I just had to do it. It felt like jumping backwards off a cliff.”
Smith is currently seeking representation, a mission that frustrates many aspiring writers but which she’s facing in the best of spirits. “I wrote the book,” she reflects. “I accomplished what I set out to do and now it’s kind of out of my hands.”