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Laura Caldwell went off the beaten path to express her creative side. The risk changed her life forever.

By Rebecca Michuda • Stuart-Rodgers Photography • Makeup by Lillian Sakamaki

She may have gotten a C in creative writing at one of the best writing schools in the country, but that didn't hold Laura Caldwell back. She went looking for her creative side one day and the bet paid off; she's now the author of seven books.

After graduating from Iowa University in Communications and with no intentions of writing, she felt empty-handed. Not sure what to do next with such a general concentration, this fiery redhead decided to follow in her father's footsteps and go to law school at Loyola University Chicago.

Although law wasn't her first choice, Laura began to enjoy it. "Law is very methodical," she says. "I wasn't super-creative at that time, so for me it was very logical."

Just before she started practicing as a trial lawyer, Laura took a trip with a few girlfriends to Rome and Greece for a last hoorah. "It was that bonding, beer drinking and soaking up the sun kind of trip," she says with a smile, clearly picturing a summer's worth of memories.

Although she didn't return to Chicago as a changed 20-something, reborn and wise, she couldn't stop thinking 'what if.' "I was fascinated with the concept," she says, "of what if you did go on a vacation and your whole life changed?"

Discovering Creativity

On the outside Laura was a dedicated lawyer and partner at a firm, yet story ideas were filling her head. She decided to step up by taking a writing class called the Writers' Loft with Jerry Cleaver. "Maybe the orderliness of law started to get to me, because I felt like I needed something creative," she says. Three years and 156 classes later, Laura finished her first novel, Burning the Map. She had no intentions of selling her book at the start of the class, but when she was done she thought she'd give it a try. "I think my parents imbued me with too much self-esteem. I thought it was great!" she says.

At this point in the mid-1990s, books like Bridget Jones' Diary or The Devil Wears Prada weren't shoving other, less "female" books off the shelves the way they are today. Agents thought her book was interesting, but knew there wasn't a market for it. So Laura's manuscript remained in her possession only.

All or Nothing

After practicing law for eight years, Laura made a decision that seemed crazy, but well-worth it in the end – she took some time off to just write. Supportive of her bold move, her partners picked up her cases. Diplomas still hung on her office walls as she closed the door to open a new one with writing.

Every morning, five days a week, she sat in her comfy pajamas, sipping decaffeinated green tea, making it her goal to write 1,000 words a day before emails or phone calls. Chick lit took a back seat as she tried suspense instead, hoping it would have a larger market.

'Did you get published yet?' her friends would ask in sympathetic tones, but the replies were negative. "There was a tiny voice inside me that kept saying, 'You'll do this. Maybe just not now,'" says Laura. "And that frustrated me. Why not now?"

During her time off, Laura went to New York to attend a writers' conference. At the bar one evening, she persuaded herself to have one more glass of wine even though her friend retired to her room. Sitting alone with her Chardonnay, she noticed a woman next to her, sitting by herself and having one more glass of wine, too. They started talking – not hard for Laura, who has a way of making you feel like you've been best friends for years upon first greeting. The woman was an editor from Red Dress Inc., looking for manuscripts to fit a new genre: chick lit. Laura told her about her first novel and the woman asked her to send a few chapters to her. "This is why I have a predisposition of having one more glass of wine," she laughs.

Six months went by and Laura was working on her second book, but no word from the editor she had met a few months back. She did receive a call from her law firm, however. They had been bought out by another firm and it was now or never for her to return to work. She thought about it, knowing that no sane lawyer would leave this behind. "It's kind of like breaking up with someone who has been nothing but good to you and all of your friends like him. You'll say, 'I'll stay with that person even though I don't feel 100 percent about it.' And that's the thing. I felt 100 percent about writing," she says. "So I just thought I'll give this thing a shot, the thing that I love."

A New Chapter Begins

In October of 2001, Laura went to Los Angeles for her friend's wedding. She had just stepped out of the shower to get ready for the rehearsal dinner when she got the call. The editor she met in New York wanted to buy her book, Burning the Map. She ran around her hotel room, not knowing what to do next. She called one of the other bridesmaids to celebrate, hoping she would be willing to have a beer with her at Venice Beach at two o'clock in the afternoon.

It was a little chilly by the ocean that day, but the sun kept them warm as they sipped on their Coors Light and toasted the future. "It was crazy because sometimes you know when your life is about to change, and that was definitely one of those moments," she says. "The whole time I had been working on my book I didn't think it was going to change my life. I didn't know if it was going to work. But at that moment I knew something major was shifting."

Within the next 18 months, Laura got an agent and sold six more books. Now, she writes mainly suspense novels, such as The Rome Affair and Look Closely, as well as her seventh novel that hit bookshelves in January 2008, The Good Liar.

Challenging your brain to do something different than your daily routine is key to being creative, says Laura, who should know. "When you hit the point that you are feeling like you're lacking something in yourself is when you have to push yourself into looking for something different – something that pulls you out of your day to day routine," Laura says. "For me, it brought out a whole new life."

In 10 years, being the next suspense writer, like John Grisham, is the goal for Laura. "I think it's possible. I'm not a big a planner," she says. "Maybe I should get better at that, but it's worked out so far."