Children’s Author Lives Out a Bittersweet Tale

Linda Smith prefers the timeless children’s stories she has written with happy endings, and her real-life role as wife and mother of eight.

She is somewhat reluctant to share the bittersweet tale that casts her as a tragic figure running out of time.

As she battles advanced breast cancer, Smith has achieved what her agent and publisher say is unusual success for an unpublished author. HarperCollins has bought seven of her children’s books, the first of which will be published next year.

“I would love to see them illustrated, but I’m not going to live that long, I don’t think,” she said. “Knowing that I wrote them, that’s important to me.”

Though the cancer has taken over “pretty much everywhere but my big toe,” the 40-year-old Smith said she aims to remain upbeat. “Why spend whatever time is left being so miserable, feeling so sorry for yourself?” she said. That’s not how she wants to be remembered by family and friends.

Many of her friends are fellow writers she met through the Internet. They offer one another critiques, support and other help. One of them, in fact, encouraged Smith to submit her work to an agent.

“I was completely blown away. Her writing is unbelievable,” said Steven Malk, a San Diego agent for New York publishers, who agreed to represent Smith as soon as he read her “classic” stories.

He immediately had offers from several publishers. Malk said HarperCollins paid an unprecedented advance for an unpublished author--he would not say how much--for “The Inside Tree,” a picture story book scheduled to be released next year, and “Nobody’s Business,” a story for young adults.

“The first words I read grabbed me immediately, and I knew within five minutes that Linda Smith was a name that should rank up there with the very best in children’s literature,” said HarperCollins editor Alix Reid.

Reid said Smith set the standard at HarperCollins for the most books contracted with an unpublished author.

But about the same time that Smith found success in the publishing world two years ago, she also learned she had cancer.

“We were jumping up and down with joy with all of the success,” said Russ Hendershott, her husband of 20 years. “Then it was so devastating when Linda went to the doctor and found out.”

A lump in her left breast had been misdiagnosed about two years earlier as mastitis, an infection common in breast-feeding mothers. By the time it was discovered, the cancer had spread to her liver.

Smith later began to have memory and visual problems, which her doctors at first attributed to chemotherapy. When she had a near-fatal seizure late last year, tests revealed the cancer had spread to her brain.

The couple had moved with their eight children, now ages 6 to 20, from Texas to California after Smith’s first few books were bought by HarperCollins. With the anticipated second income, they wanted to move closer to Smith’s agent and some of her fellow writers.

They lost insurance coverage when Hendershott changed jobs to move and were unable to get new insurance because of Smith’s condition. The publishing advances were soon exhausted.

The couple had to depend on Medicaid and other assistance, and because of that they believe Smith did not get timely, aggressive medical care that might have extended her life.

“I wasn’t given the kind of treatment that I should have been given,” she said.

Financially strapped, the family moved back to Texas, where the cost of living is lower and the oldest child, a daughter, attends a nearby junior college.

Smith has found another doctor and resumed chemotherapy.

“The one thing I don’t want to lose is my brain. I could be just a regular mom and burn pancakes and stuff, which I’m doing now. But not being able to read my stories or remember them, that would be terrible.”

One of the stories that she always wanted to tell, “Mrs. Biddlebox,” was written around the time the brain tumors were discovered. She wrote the ending in the hospital between bouts of vomiting.

“It is a story about this woman who has a horrible day, who sees everything awful,” Smith said. “I wanted that story told because at the end she took all of the really bad things in her day and mixed them all together and made a cake out of that.”

Hendershott is no longer working despite the financial struggle, having decided instead to care for his wife and their seven children still at home. That means an almost constant battle with Medicaid and welfare because he is considered able to work.

Still, laughter fills the family’s home in a suburban neighborhood between Fort Worth and Dallas.

“Humor erases an awful lot, and I have a great ‘delete’ button in my brain. There is no depression around here,” Smith said.

Nor is there a “poor Mom” attitude. When Smith was having problems remembering things, she became a comedic target for her youngest son, 6-year-old Alexander.

“He would walk me into the garage and say, ‘This is the kitchen, Mom. Here’s the sink where you wash your dishes,’ and he’d open up the washing machine,” she said. “He would do that all through the house and laugh.

“And that’s how I treat it, but also they all know that Mom’s going to go. We are very truthful with them.”

Kalicharan, 17, is amazed at how well his mother handles the situation.

“I don’t know if I could do that if I was in her place,” said the teenager, known as Kali. “I’m surprised she can take it so well and make jokes out of it.”

When Smith and her husband adopted the boy from India, Kali was a malnourished 17-pound 4-year-old and partially paralyzed by polio; now he is healthy and walks with only a slight limp. Kali said he is grateful: “They took me out of a place that was bad and they brought me to a loving, caring family.”

Smith’s writing friends also say she is caring and supportive.

“She’s a perfectionist [but] she doesn’t expect perfection in anyone around her. She is forgiving, loving, understanding,” said Janie Bynum, who sent Smith to Malk, her agent.

Another friend from the Internet critique group, Karma Wilson of Bonners Ferry, Idaho, credits Smith for her own success as a writer. Wilson has had four books published by Simon & Schuster, though at first her work was rejected.

“I was sure I was a horrible writer. Linda never let me give up. She kept encouraging me,” Wilson said.

Wilson in turn persuaded Smith to let her inform others of the sad news of Smith’s illness, something she had kept within her family until then.

Smith explained why she relented. “Even if this doesn’t help me ultimately, which it probably won’t, it’s going to help women not always believe what their doctors say” but instead pay attention to themselves, she said. “That’d be the ultimate gift to me, really.”