Phyllis Rose realized her dream and blossomed into a published novelist.

“I always wanted to write and have written essays and poetry,” said Rose, 71. She was gazing out a window at Eastern Maine Medical Center while her mother was undergoing surgery in 1997, and – awed by the ice floe – she “got paper and just started writing” a long poem.

“But I always knew I had a book in me,” said Rose. “I felt like I was full of books.”

It wasn’t until someone told her she couldn’t possibly write a book, however, that she actually sat down at the typewriter and gave it a try.

“I thought ‘Them’s fightin’ words,'” she said, with a laugh full of determination. “I started writing, and it just came out of me. I don’t really know where it came from, but I knew I had always wanted to write about girls because I didn’t have any girls.” Rose has two sons and three stepsons.

“My husband used to say, ‘We have 30 feet of boys between us,'” she said. “I used to write at night when Mom [for whom she was caring] and my husband went to bed. He said he would lie awake and listen to me type.”

Her inspiration for the book came from an unlikely place. One day while flipping through a bridal magazine, “just because they are so beautiful,” the photograph of a woman in a long, straight gown covered in lace caught her eye. That woman became her leading female character. A love story was born.

“The Rose Garden,” published in 2003, tells the tale of a young woman who meets Mr. Right at a design show. She is a clothing designer while he designs and sells jewelry. It’s a match made in heaven. The downside? They live on different continents. It’s a story of how love can conquer all.

“I wrote about the kind of life I’d like to have lived if I’d had the opportunity,” said Rose. “The title has nothing to do with my name. It has to do with these walk-through rose gardens I had always heard about.”

All was not roses for the author, however. In the span of a year and a half she lost her mother, husband and a brother. Then she had foot surgery. Rose credits the book with keeping her going.

“I got kind of depressed for a while but I thought, ‘I’ve got to finish the book,'” she said. “I wanted to see how it would end. [Writing it] is just like seeing a movie in your head and then writing it down. A friend asked me, ‘Do you hear voices, too?’ I said I should hope not. But the characters became like family to me.”

As with most families, her fictional one gave her support when she needed it.

“I think [the book] has given me faith in myself,” said Rose. “I found out that anything I wanted to do I could do if I applied myself.”

Getting published for a first time author isn’t easy, but Rose was undeterred. She used the Internet to investigate publishing houses. After a few query letters to various publishers, Publish America requested three chapters of her book to look at. She quickly sent them off hoping for the best. A few weeks later she received the news that her manuscript would indeed become a book. It was a highlight of Rose’s life.

“Oh, it was unbelievable,” she said. “It’s like when someone gives you a big present. It was just incredible. Everyone was so excited.”

Her next step is working with her publisher to get the book in local stores. It is available now at Amazon.com, and PublishAmerica.com.

Carol Higgins is director of communications at Eastern Agency on Aging. For information on EAA, call 941-2865, log on www.eaaa.org, or email us at info@eaaa.org.