Forgive me for looking back to the good old days of writing words via pen or pencil on paper!
I first got the writing bug way back when things were very different. No computers, and many of us didn’t have a typewriter. One of my high school teachers required five handwritten pages on anything every Friday. We could copy something from a book as long as we noted that fact.
To make it fun, I filled my pages with a fictional story; the last line was “Continued next week!” It originally started as a joke to see how he would react. When he asked me to continue the story, he wanted to find out what had happened. Later, before the year ended, he told me that. “I should do something about my writing.” That stuck in the back of my mind. I didn’t particularly think I had the ability, but it stayed there and prickled my brain.
My first book was “Murder on Lake Haverly” and book 1 in the May West Mysteries. I loved writing that book, as it was sort of a history of myself in Real Estate. I first got my Real Estate License in 1976. Women were not wanted or welcomed in that “man’s” business. It was the “Wild, Wild West kind of business, and the guys liked it that way. They welcomed me on my first day, saying, “Good, we have a woman to cook for us!” and they had a filet of salmon on the counter, waiting for me to cook it for them.
They went hungry! And I didn’t clean the bathroom for them either.
I was thrilled with being “hired” by my first Broker! He sat in his chair chain-smoking, and his first words of wisdom and advice were, “There’s your desk, your phone, go to work! Just look at one of the contracts in the drawer and fill in the blanks as they did.”
He told me to take a different route into the office and, if I saw a FISBO (For Sale By Owner) stop, to knock on the door and ask them to list it with you. So I did! Amazingly, the guy said okay. I had no clue what to put in those millions of blank spaces. Fortunately, the man who was getting an agreement to widen the road with my seller helped me fill it out.
I told Mr. Seller that I had to run it back to the office for the Broker to check it before he could sign.
I raced back to the office and breathlessly asked Broker Sam to look it over. He screamed at me, “Get your ass back there and have him sign it!” No one ever told me that realtors don’t always get 7% commission. The broker was thrilled!
I’ll bet you think Real Estate was easy in “the old days?” It was! The contract was one legal length with many carbons in between. You had to write hard so that the last copy was legible. The selling agent presented the contract to the seller while the listing agent either helped or hindered the seller sighing.
I worked in rural areas, and I wanted to write a contract on the Cow’s back, but it didn’t happen. Came close! I once wrote one at Chuckee Cheeses with a husband, wife, and their three kids running around, along with a million other kids.
If you ask nicely, I will tell you some of the fun pranks the “guys” played on me and my “payback!”
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To read my past blogs, click on “Posts”, and you can scroll the list on my website at www.brendacolbathbooks.com
Hope your day is filled with fun and love. See you next time…