Sergei Kourdakov, a former KGB agent and Soviet naval intelligence officer, defected from the USSR at the age of twenty. A year later we met at my Federal Government office in Washington DC. We were watched and followed. “Even you could be spy,” Sergei whispered. My book, A Rose for Sergei, is the true story of our time together.

Monday, April 8, 2013

What Are You Waiting For?


Once I finally committed to writing A Rose for Sergei, the actual sitting down at the computer and getting started on the book was difficult.  Not that I wasn’t used to working and composing letters daily, I started working full time at age 17 for the Federal Government (in 1969).  It was second nature to me – the jump from manual typewriter to electric typewriter to computers came easily.  I knew where to start the first chapter of my book thanks to my co-worker Suzanna.  However, it had already been forty years, a long time to keep a story in my heart.  So I thought, what did one more day, week, or month make?  I was postponing revisiting the heartbreak.

Now I look back with thanks.  It was my lovely daughter, Laura, who asked me almost daily, “Mom, have you started writing your book yet?”  Laura is an editor, wife and mother, smart and talented. She knows about writing.  She also knew I had been procrastinating.  “What are you waiting for?” she kept asking me.  She was pretty relentless, though in the most loving, encouraging way that only a daughter can be.  I was running out of excuses.  “The writing will get easier once you get started,” she added.  And she was right, the writing did get easier.

Laura also persuaded me to start my blog – A Rose for Sergei.  Afterwards she wondered what sort of strange outfit I was wearing in the photographs with Sergei Kourdakov.  She thought I was wearing a child’s romper!  I am actually wearing Hot Pants in the photographs.  They were very fashionable in Washington DC at the time.  I only have a few photographs of Sergei; I didn’t know we wouldn’t have more time together. 


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