Author Katherine Nouri Hughes on Her First Novel Javascript must be enabled to use this site. Please enable Javascript in your browser and try again. × Search search POPULAR SEARCHES SUGGESTED LINKS Join AARP for just $9 per year when you sign up for a 5-year term. Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. Leaving AARP.org Website You are now leaving AARP.org and going to a website that is not operated by AARP. A different privacy policy and terms of service will apply. Close

Author s Short-Term Challenge Becomes a Life-Changing Saga

Katherine Nouri Hughes reflects on her 20-year journey to complete her first novel

Bryan Derballa Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. When one of my old professors suggested I write a novel about Nurbanu, an influential and largely unknown woman in the 16th-century Ottoman Empire, I had some major qualms. For one, I'd never written fiction. But the outline of her story — of being abducted at age 12 and put into the sultan's harem and, against all odds, becoming an intellectual and political powerhouse as wife of the sultan — really captivated me, and I decided to take the challenge on. When we're young, we have the advantage of thinking we're going to live forever. When we're older, we have the advantage of knowing we won't. — KATHERINE NOURI HUGHES After reading for a year and visiting all the places Nurbanu had lived, I took two more years to write a first draft and fine-tune it into something ready to show a publisher. When a good one thought it had potential, I was thrilled. And when the editors gave me “suggestions” — aka instructions — for rewriting the draft, I followed them. So I was shocked when they passed on the revised version. That process — of submitting a draft, rewriting it according to the publisher's advice and having it turned down — repeated itself six times. By then, I was on Medicare. Flowers & Gifts 25% off sitewide and 30% off select items See more Flowers & Gifts offers > When we're young, we have the advantage of thinking we're going to live forever. When we're older, we have the advantage of knowing we won't. And reaching our goals can take more than time. It can require changing ourselves. From fearful to steady. From headlong to measured. From measured to headlong, for that matter. Whatever is called for. At last I see that changing not only does not threaten who I am. It is essential to being who I am. Katherine Nouri Hughes, 70, author of The Mapmaker's Daughter, is a novelist and speechwriter living in New York City. More on entertainment AARP NEWSLETTERS %{ newsLetterPromoText }% %{ description }% Subscribe AARP VALUE & MEMBER BENEFITS See more Health & Wellness offers > See more Flights & Vacation Packages offers > See more Finances offers > See more Health & Wellness offers > SAVE MONEY WITH THESE LIMITED-TIME OFFERS