Best-selling author's success story (Bernard Cornwell)

[supernova]

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Today, his 48 novels — most of them historical fiction and many international best-sellers — are published in a dozen languages. His popular Sharpe series has been adapted into a hit BBC series, "Sharpe's Peril," starring Sean Bean.

But ask the Chatham resident about success, and he'll tell you his came from two things: serendipity and sheer desperation.

"Writing my first manuscript took me about six or seven months, and I wasn't sure anything would come of it. But I was determined at that point to make my career as a writer — at the time, it seemed like the only way I could possibly stay with Judy," Cornwell says.

"If someone hadn't shot cupid's arrow into my life, I might not have become a writer."

http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091211/LIFE/912110305

Bernard Cornwell is the author of the bestselling Sharpe series of books about the Napoleonic Wars starring upstart British officer RIchard Sharpe. Some really nice writing tips on the right side bar, too.