Meet Our Greyhaus Authors - Jean Love-Cush

Greyhaus Literary Agency is much more than simply Scott Eagan. The heart and soul of the agency really is the group of writers who work hard at what they do. Some are published and some are working hard to move on. In an effort to see that, I have asked the authors to come here and blog every now and then. In the future, some will be talking about their upcoming books and some will simply be letting us know what is going on in their lives and their careers.

Up first is Greyhaus's latest author, Jean Love-Cush. I met Jean at the Chicago Spring Fling conference this year in 2012. She pitched, I loved her story and now we are out to get this and future projects available to the readers.

Ask her questions, share your stories!

WHY I WRITE

Whoever said writing was easy—lied. It is single-handedly the most difficult thing that I absolutely must do.  Even if I tried, and trust me I have, I couldn’t imagine a life without creating stories for others to enjoy.  I started writing my first book when I was in 6^th grade. Even then I could identify a good story—and boy oh boy was my mother’s life a doozie.  I never finished her biography but what I held on to from that experience was my unfettered desire to write.

Sure, I tried to suppress it; who wouldn’t, considering most writers never earn enough money to live off? But my aspirations for fortune never pulled me too far away from writing.  I majored in print journalism at Temple University, and when I felt like I still didn’t have enough education, I earned my law degree three years later. In both journalism and the law, I still wrote.  Sometimes it was even creative writing. It takes a pretty creative writer to come up with a winning argument when all the facts of a case seem to be against your client.   After practicing law for some time, I reached a place emotionally where I had to make a decision.  Either I was going to dig my heels in, be a good lawyer and make a comfortable living or nix it all and pursue what has always called me.  It was an easy decision, really. Of course, it didn’t hurt that my husband made enough to provide for our family. I had the green light to pursue my heart’s desire.

So, each morning, when the kids go off to school and my hubby heads to the office, I go to my computer.  More times than I’d like to admit, I find myself checking my emails, surfing the web, filing my nails, anything but writing. Then something happens.  My fingers start typing, ideas start flowing and the characters are living in the words I’ve put together. In those moments, there is no other place I’d rather be, nothing else I want to do.

Several years later, here I am still writing with no end in sight to this crazy dream of mine that one day my picture would be among those great writers on the walls of every Barnes and Noble that still exists.  I sure hope I get my big break before the word bookstore becomes retro or worse archaic.

Either way, I will write because it is something far greater than me. The written word is powerful.  It has the ability to transport the reader to new universes. It can make you laugh and cry in a single page.  It can impact the world.  To me, writing is the difference between truly living and settling for something far easier but less fulfilling. I write because I am a writer.

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Jean Cush writes women’s issue fiction. She lives in the Chicago area with her husband, Charles, their two daughters, Sydney and Haley and their dog, Sparkles.