Fame & Fortune: Author Carol
Higgins Clark
Follows mom's lead in career and investments |
| |
|
Bankrate: Your mother was once
a Pan Am stewardess. Did you inherit her love of travel?
Carol Higgins Clark: (Laughs)
Everyone teases me about my research. When I was inventing Regan
Reilly, I thought I would set my first book partially in Oxford,
England, because I'd gone to school there and Oxford seemed like
a great setting for a mystery. Then my mother and I took the QE2
back from London to New York and I thought it would be fun to set
part of it on a cruise ship, and that book became "Decked."
Then my second book turned out to be about a murder at a pantyhose
convention, because I had gone to one with a friend who had a pantyhose
business. Since "Decked" was my first one, I thought this
one should be "Snagged." Then in the third one Regan goes
to Aspen and gets involved in a mystery. I've just always had fun
exploring new places and using them in a book. I guess I do have
the travel bug. I've done a lot of talks on these cruises where
they ask you if you'd like to go on a segment of a world cruise
for two weeks. I've done that several times and that's always fun.
I end up places that I might not have gone to on my own.
Bankrate:
When did you realize you were going to be able to make a living as a novelist?
Carol Higgins Clark: It's
funny. I didn't really think about how much money I was going to
make, it was, "Can I do this? Can I get this book done?"
And then it came out and got a good review and hit the best-seller
list in paperback the following year, and I remember when I got
my first big royalty check, I was floored. It was such a thrill,
oh my God! Then it's always a challenge when you sit down to write
the next one. It's never as if you're on Easy Street, that's for
sure.
Bankrate: Did you celebrate
with a splurge? Carol Higgins Clark:
You know what? It was just nice to be able to put that money in the bank. Not
that I didn't spend money, because when you're pursuing an acting career and you
haven't made it yet, it's not like there's ever a lot of cash around. Just having
it there and being able to write checks and not worry -- that was just a great
feeling. Bankrate: What was the
most valuable thing you picked up from your mother? Carol
Higgins Clark: I think her example, really all my life since my father
died, that she was a hard worker and she always had a good sense of humor. You
just knew everything was going to be OK somehow. And also she found great joy
in writing. I think that's important for whatever we do. If we do something we
love, I think everything can fall into place if you work hard with it. She never
got really discouraged or anything. | 
