ABOUT ME
Hello! My name is Kathleen E. Binder. As you may or may not know, I
am a self-published historical romance writer residing in the dwindling
majestic pines of South Jersey.  I was born in Newark, New Jersey and
attended 12 years of Catholic school. From age five, I used to put myself
to sleep by writing fantastical stories in my head to escape the dread of
having to go back to school in the morning. In hindsight, this personal fear
of nuns and of failure were the first building blocks of a writing career as I
learned perfectionism would save me from an embarrassing tongue-
lashing. To this day I am grateful to have honed a work ethic of
discipline, which is definitely needed as a writer, and to have been given a
remarkable grammatical background. Unable to afford college and thus
become a medical doctor, I attended a one year adult vocational program
to become a medical assistant. It was during this year that I learned
shorthand and typing, and thus, another layer was unwittingly added to
the foundation my soul was building for me to become a writer.

After working one year as a medical secretary, a car accident led me in an
entirely different direction - legal secretary.  Having gotten married,
having worked to put my husband through college, and having built a
home, I remained in law until October of l979 when I left my job to write
my first book JUSTINA.  I may never have become a writer had my
sister-in-law, Maria Binder, not given me a copy of THE FLAME AND
THE FLOWER by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss the year before.  What Ms.
Woodiwiss had written on those pages was what I had carried in my
mind during all those years of escaping from the real world! So, I bought
an electric  typewriter, a supply of paper and a desk, and I began writing
on the first Monday of October 1979 and finished my first draft in
January of l980, at which time  my husband read the manuscript, loved it,
and I sent it off to Avon Publishers! My manuscript and rejection letter
arrived two weeks later.  I was devastated! I then decided to  pass my
manuscript around to over 60 people for their objective opinions, and
after being told by all that they loved my work,  I proceeded to contact
every publisher in the business. Rejection after rejection followed.  I was
fortunate to receive one ray of hope when Denise Marcil, a literary agent
in New York City, agreed to read the manuscript. She suggested I edit my
work, which I did, and she then accepted me as a client, but after a year,
she also was unable to sell my work.   To say I was beyond devastated is
an understatement. I had quit a secure job to pursue a dream and now felt
like a fool full of embarrassment,  anger and  hopelessness. So sure was I
that JUSTINA would get commercially published that, while waiting for
the good news, I even wrote drafts of a second novel WHISPERED
PROMISES and a third novel  THE ROSANNA WALTZ , so I would be
ready to deliver when summoned to answer the call!

I had failed miserably according to the “outside world”, yet something
“inside” would not allow me to give up. One night in May 1982 before
falling asleep, a lightning flash thought came to mind, and I asked my
husband “Do you think we can do this ourselves?”  His answer was
“Yes”, and we were off! Within a month, I hired a local typesetter  
looking for work, while my husband found an affordable
printer/bookbinder in New Jersey. We all worked feverishly, and by
August 1982, my husband and I were on our way to East Brunswick, N.
J.  in a borrowed white truck in the pouring rain to pick up l,000 copies
of JUSTINA!  

Twenty years ago this area very much resembled a close knit family, and
I received help from anyone and everyone to promote and sell my book -
small stores, newspapers, libraries, cable TV, and local book clubs that
read about my plight. Because of this generosity of Spirit, my first
edition of JUSTINA sold out within months of publication, and the
receipt of over 500 fan letters from across the United States and as far
away as Canada, the Virgin Islands and England convinced me that I was
not a failure after all. I published a 2nd edition of JUSTINA in 1984, and
I sold all that I wished to, retaining a small inventory for future personal
use, which are the books I sell now.   

However, as you may well know what goes up must come down, and
that is what happened. Starting in 1987 I lost a nephew, my father, and
an uncle within 18 months. Then in 1990, my world fell apart, and all
hopes of a writing career disappeared when I had no choice but to divorce
my husband after he left me for another woman. Romance was dead and
buried as far as I was concerned. In a fit of blind hopelessness and
devastation, I threw away my third manuscript, thinking I would never
write again.  Why I did not destroy WHISPERED PROMISES is beyond
me, but I will be forever grateful to God for keeping me sane enough
during those moments of doubt to NOT make the same mistake I did
with THE ROSANNA WALTZ.

Following a nine year odyssey of rediscovering my SELF and attempting
to put the shattered pieces of my destroyed life together again, the spark
of WHISPERED PROMISES slowly grew into a flicker of light and then
a flame when in 1999  I first saw Frank, the male model on my book
cover.  My first thought was “There’s Schuyler!” I just let my
imagination go, and the floodgates of inspiration opened once again and
filled my soul with ideas and joy I thought were long gone.  However, a
change of job venue for Frank occurred, and I no longer got to observe
that handsome face and muscular body for one year. In November of
2000, my Mother died, and I was lost. But sadness became hope when
Frank returned to his former job, and on Valentine’s Day 2001 I handed
him a letter telling him he belonged on the cover of romance novels, and to
assure him I was sincere, I enclosed a copy of JUSTINA. Over the next
few months, we talked on occasion, and we became friends.  He was an
anchor, who kept me grounded, because I now had to be disciplined and
finish the book I told him I was writing!  When I mentioned it would be
A DREAM COME TRUE to appear on my cover with him, he said he
would do it. On October 1, 2002, my wonderful beautician, Jack Casella,
took me early in the morning on his day off and did my hair. I found my
outfit, flowers & backdrop curtains in local stores and decorated my
garage accordingly. Frank supplied his magnificent physique and
handsome looks. My 35mm camera was set on 10 second delay, and 72
shots later, I found that one special picture.  The cover I had seen in my
mind’s eye for many months before had become a reality!  Seven
rewrites, struggles with learning how to use a computer word processor,
and lots of faith in MY SELF later, on November 20, 2002, 2,000 copies
of WHISPERED PROMISES were delivered to my home. Considering I
had invited over 200 people to attend my book signing on November 24,
2002  (the 2nd anniversary of my Mother’s death), you might say I was
cutting it close!  

I LOVE writing and self-publishing because I no longer have to  please
faceless people in  publishing houses.  This is MY JOY - MY
PASSION!  If I never sell another copy of any book I have written or
will write, it does not matter to me!  I do what I do because I cannot
NOT do what I do! I write to entertain, to teach, and to give my readers
an experience that I hope will be  relived in their minds long after reading
my work!   However, we writers often need fuel to keep the fires
burning, and that fuel for me is receiving fan mail from people who love
my work.   I answer every letter and truly enjoy meeting with my fans.  
Please don’t ever feel shy about writing to me if you liked my books! I
assure you, I do not edit or critique my fan mail, so please don’t be self-
conscious about writing to a writer!
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4/10/04


KATHLEEN E. BINDER