Susanna Fraser on Serendipity

The Sergeant’s Lady, is available at Carina Press and everywhere e-books are sold. 

Serendipity

I’m a logical, rational type, and also a planner.  So when I look back at my life I’m stunned how many of the most important pieces—and the biggest blessings, to be quite honest—came about through pure serendipity.

 College

I grew up in rural Alabama, and though my family traveled a lot, it was mostly camping trips to national parks and the like, so I had hardly ever been in a big city before an 8^th grade spring break trip when I was 14.  We went to Washington DC and Philadelphia, mostly visiting museums and historical sites.

It was exactly what you’d expect a trip with eighth graders to be like.  I spent most of the trip worrying about whether my clothes were right and wishing the popular kids would let me into their circle.  Some of the boys figured out how to get the pay-per-view porn on in their hotel room one night, which was, shall we say, educational.

But there was something about Philadelphia.  I know many see it as a grungy, blighted excuse for a city, but I’ve never felt that way.  The very first day we were there, I remember walking through the streets, a little apart from the other kids—since the popular kids still hadn’t let me in—and thinking, “This feels right.  I belong here.”

Fast-forward three years.  I was 17, I’d just taken the PSAT, and my mailbox was filled with college brochures.  I’d been planning to go to Auburn, since if you were a smart college-bound kid from my high school, you went to Alabama or Auburn, period.  But those brochures kept coming, and one day one arrived from the University of Pennsylvania.  Which is in Philadelphia.  I remembered that moment in eighth grade, of thinking I belonged in Philly, and decided I had to apply.

I went to Penn and loved it.  My 14-year-old self’s instincts were right.  I did belong there.  I stuck around the city for another four years after graduation, and though now I’m in a very different city, Seattle, most of what I love about my adult life goes back to that choice to leave home and try something very different.  All because something clicked for me walking down a city street back in 1985, and I decided to trust that sense of rightness.

Marriage

In 1996 I was 25, happily living in Philadelphia but beginning to feel it was time I decided what to do with my life.  Professionally I’d been adrift since graduation, working at my alma mater to take advantage of free classes as I explored the possibility of grad school in various fields.  I still couldn’t make up my mind (I think because deep down I knew the only thing I really wanted to be was an author, but I was trying hard to find an easier path), but I’d almost decided to move to Boston.  If you were in Philly with your career stagnating and marriage prospects nonexistent, Boston seemed like the place to go—enough like home to be comfortable, different enough to be a fresh start, with plenty of options for grad school and, I hoped, new men to date.

But one day I was idly leafing through a magazine and saw an ad for a program that placed young adult volunteers with various churches and charities in the UK.  I’d spent a week in England and Scotland on vacation and loved it, and I regretted not having taken a semester to study abroad while I was at Penn.  “Boston will still be there in a year,” I thought, “but this may be your last chance to take a year off and live overseas.”

I applied, was accepted, and had a wonderful year working in England and exploring London and the countryside every chance I got.  And the day I got there, I met another American, this one from Seattle, at the international volunteer welcome conference.  The very first night, jetlagged as we were, we sat up till 2:00 AM on the stairs, talking away.  The second day I thought that I didn’t believe in love at first sight, and that this guy wasn’t my usual physical type, but that I was pretty sure I was going to marry him anyway.

I married him in Seattle almost two years to the day after we met, and we celebrated our 11^th anniversary week before last.

Publication

I wrote The Sergeant’s Lady back in 2005 and spent most of 2006 trying to sell it.  It came close but never quite made it to publication, so I set it aside and worked on other things.  Then, at the beginning of this year, I happened to visit the Risky Regencies blog—which I do often but by no means daily—on the day Angela James from Carina was visiting and discussing Carina’s interest in more historical submissions.  The Sergeant’s Lady sounded like a perfect fit, so I thought, “Why not? What can it hurt?” and sent it in.  On April 1—yes, really—Angela emailed with an offer, and after a whirlwind of editing and building an online presence, my book came out on Aug. 23.  No matter how little I believe in serendipity, it still keeps coming back to bless me.

What about you?  What unlooked-for blessings and coincidences have changed your life?  One commenter wins a $10 gift certificate - your choice of Amazon or Barnes & Noble.