Photograph by George Sakkestad
Saratogan Catherine Burr often edited the manuscript for her upcoming novel, 'Silicon Secrets,' while lying in her backyard hammock.
Author gathers up her notes, napkins--then writes a novel
Saratoga's Burr tells 'Silicon Secrets'
By Shari Kaplan
From notes scrawled on wrinkly cocktail napkins to a complete manuscript due to be published this summer, Saratogan Catherine Burr's first novel, Silicon Secrets, has come a long way in two years.
She'd already collaborated with her sister, Beverly Rose Hopper, in 1996 on a humorous little paperback titled Motherhood Is Not For Wimps, but that same motherhood is the reason Burr didn't feel the time was right to delve into the fiction-writing realm. Now that her sons,Tim and Daniel, have embarked on their college careers--Tim at UC-Davis and Daniel at Monterey Bay State University--Burr has embarked on a new career of her own.
"Literally, when I dropped Daniel off at college, I couldn't wait to get home to start writing," Burr recalls. And as soon as she sat down at her computer that day, that's exactly what she did. There was a lot of material to sift through, however--including those cocktail napkins.
"I'm a Silicon Valley executive's wife, and for many years I've seen and heard so much at various parties and events. I always thought that no one would believe what really goes on; the Silicon Valley lifestyle is really unique," the Saratoga High School graduate relates.
Burr says she frequently got story ideas at these functions, which she jotted down on notepads, scratch paper and even napkins. At other times, ideas popped into her head while she was driving in her car; at those times, she spoke them into her cellular phone, which has a digital sound recording feature.
"People probably thought I was talking on the phone while driving, but really I was just making notes!" she says, chuckling.
When Burr began her novel, she says she wasn't sure how to begin, but she got help from her sister as well as from the Romance Writers of America, an organization to which Burr belongs. She's never written a romance novel, but the group offers helpful writing workshops and resources in general, she says. For months she also wrote detailed character and plot analyses of every movie she watched and book she read.
After she had 29 pages of manuscript, Burr submitted her work to Wisconsin-based Gardenia Press, which specializes in publishing new authors and in giving individual attention to all writers who make submissions. After advice from her editor, Burr reworked her original submission and then found herself with 83 pages, which her editor predicted could be bestseller material.
Silicon Secrets, as Burr likes to describe it, tells the tale of what happens when destiny brings together two lost souls, each searching for love and freedom, until their secrets threaten to tear them apart. Its main characters are Lucky, a European immigrant lured by the monetary temptations of California's Silicon Valley and the idea of burying his past; Heather, a free-spirited, pretty, beach-loving artist whose life becomes intertwined with Lucky's; and J.J., a corporate executive and seductress with the ability to derail Lucky's life emotionally and financially.
"When you read my book, there are many places you'll recognize," Burr reveals with a smile. "I did a lot of writing at our beach house in Santa Cruz, and the [fictional] town of Sea Breeze is kind of Santa Cruz. I toyed with the idea of using real place names, but somehow that takes something away from them and limits it."
Burr says she uses the laid-back atmosphere of Sea Breeze as a contrast to the fast-paced lifestyle of the main cities of Silicon Valley, which appear under other names in her novel. The book became 370 pages in its final form.
Already at work on her next novel, Burr says it's tough breaking into the fiction world, but encourages would-be writers to do what she did: "You have to persevere; you can never give up!"
For information about preordering 'Silicon Secrets,' visit Burr's website at www.catherineburr.com or call Gardenia Press (toll-free) at 866.861.9443.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
