86-Year-Old Georgetown Author Turns the Page on Storytelling Legacy
In 1999, Dorothy Featherling was working at a physics research center when a Reader’s Digest article caught her eye. The story asked a simple question: If you could do anything in life without worrying about finances, education, or training, what would you do? Immediately, she thought, “I’d write books.” She dismissed the notion, thinking it was something other people did. “I had loved to read all my life, but I never thought about writing books.”
Dorothy couldn’t shake the idea of writing books. So one day, she shut her office door during her lunch break, hung up a “Do Not Disturb” sign, and started typing. “I didn’t have any idea what I was doing, but most women writers at that time wrote romances so I thought, okay, I’ll write a romance.” Over a series of lunch breaks, she managed to write two-thirds of a novel—her first foray into the publishing world that would lead to 50 books over two decades. Now, at 86 years old, she marvels at her unexpected author journey. “Thinking about the last 26 years, it doesn’t seem possible. It’s kind of amazing, honestly.”
PLOT TWISTS
Her journey to publication wasn’t quick, or easy. After completing early manuscripts, she joined local writing groups, attended conferences, and eventually served as president of the San Gabriel Writers League. But when her first experience with a literary agent didn’t pan out, she paused her writing career and launched a home staging business. When the business became too physically demanding after several years, she returned to writing with a new sense of urgency. “I had several finished books, but nothing published. I realized I wanted to see my name on a book before I died.”
She turned to Amazon’s self-publishing platform, now KDP, published her first book in 2013, and hasn’t stopped since. Her work spans various genres: cozy mysteries, romantic suspense, historical fiction, inspirational nonfiction, and thrillers. Many of her books contain a thread of faith—subtle, not preachy, but always rooted in hope.
She never expected to write nonfiction—until a phone call changed her mind. A local historian from a small Texas town had read a couple of her mysteries and called to tell her about a cold case from 1930 centered on the murder of a man named Ben Miller. The man encouraged her to turn it into a novel, but at first, Dorothy told him nonfiction wasn’t in her wheelhouse. But the idea wouldn’t leave her alone. Eventually, she wrote Who Killed Ben Miller? followed by Death of a Juror, another true Texas tale involving a controversial murder mistrial in 1931.
Now, she switches between genres depending on what inspires her. She is currently working on the next thriller in her Covert series—this one involving a deadly virus and a global terrorist plot in which “the villain wants to wipe out the world with a virus that would make COVID-19 look like a picnic.”
THE WRITE STUFF
Despite her prolific output, Dorothy says the hardest part of being an author isn’t the actual writing—it’s the marketing. “Back in the Murder, She Wrote days, publishers flew authors all over the country for book tours and signings. Now, even traditionally published writers do most of the work themselves. They have to get the word out about their books and plan their own author events.” She used to travel around Georgetown and surrounding communities for book signings, but these days, she’s had to scale back due to health issues.
Still, her motivation hasn’t changed. “The most rewarding thing is when someone tells me they stayed up until 3am reading my book. If I can write something that brings a smile to someone’s face when they close the book or gives them a few hours of escape from their lives, I will have done a good thing. I still believe that.”
With her 50th book out—the last in an inspirational nonfiction series, The BE-Attitudes: Commands from God—and new ideas constantly flooding her mind, Dorothy has no plans to slow down. “I’m kind of like the Energizer Bunny,” she laughs. “As long as I can still type and get ideas for books, I’ll keep writing.”
For more information about Dorothy Featherling and her books, visit her Amazon author page.