PEOPLE OF INTEREST
BY WARREN J. SONNE
PHOTO BY ROBERT P. DUDLEY
Eleven years ago, with the support of her husband,
48
Richard, Bette Lee Crosby walked away from a 6-
figure salary at her own OTK Advertising Agency
in Somerset County, N.J., to follow her dream of writing
the great American novel. That dream was recently realized
with the publishing of her novel “Girl Child.”
Crosby’s story is really about change, but her interest
in telling stories was passed on to her from her mother
during her childhood years in West Virginia. “My mom
only made it through sixth grade, but she was a great
storyteller,” Crosby says. “She had a remarkable way of
describing her characters, much the way I develop the
characters in my novels, from the inside out. I don’t overdo
their physical traits; rather I like to describe their
hopes, passions, and dreams.”
While studying Art at Temple University’s Tyler School
of Fine Art Crosby realized that she would rather paint
stories with words, rather than with brushes and oils.
She changed directions and moved into the challenging
world of advertising, marketing and sales promotion as
an advertising account executive for A&S Department
stores and then the advertising agency Humphrey,
Browning & McDougall. In the mid-80s, she joined
Goebel, the distributor of world-famous M. I. Hummel
figurines, as the vice president of marketing for the
United States.
It’s easy to see how Crosby, possessed of a bubbly personality,
would be a success in the marketing world. “I
was once working for a packaging designer for a pantyhose
product and I asked the company’s sales person for
a written description to go on the package. I was told
“make it up,” so I did and that was the beginning of my
writing career.”
Having had her fill of making up slogans and ad campaigns,
Crosby decided to let her vivid imagination
sweep her into the world of storytelling. “I like to write
about my private personal experiences and those that
have been told to me by friends. ‘Girl Child’ was based
upon a story that a friend shared with me. He told me
about his elderly aunt who had been swindled by an
unscrupulous neighbor. That got me started and my
imagination took over from there. My friend didn’t even
recognize the story when he read it.”
Crosby’s first books have not published, but she finally
had a breakthrough when “Publish America” decided to
print “Girl Child” in June 2007. The book has since won
the First Place Award for Published Fiction, National
League of American Pen Women, Florida Biennial.
Locally, in March she did a book signing at the Borders
Book Store in the Treasure Square Mall and in April she
spoke at the Vero Beach Book Center.
Married now to Richard for the past 21, she has five
granddaughters and a grandson. “I also have a chubby
little Bichon Frise who jumps into my lap the moment I
sit down at the computer. There she stays until I shut
down the computer and it says, “goodbye” – then she
jumps down.”
The
Novelist