Sheneska Jackson

Inspired by a lecture given by author Terry McMillan (Waiting to Exhale), Sheneska Jackson bought the Packard on credit. “I’d get up at 3 a.m., drag myself to the computer and get cranking until 7,” she recalls. “Then I’d be out the door for work at 7:30.” She finished a first draft in six weeks and sent it to an agent, who called her with good news only two days after submitting it to Simon & Schuster. “She told me to sit down,” says Jackson. “Then she said, ‘How does $200,000 sound?’” &mdashPeople Magazine

Read a 1998 interview with Sheneska Jackson in Mosaic Magazine (download .pdf file).