About Virginia Hume
I've come to fiction writing after a long series of professional adventures, but rather than bore you with my C.V., a little game: Guess which of the following jobs I have not held in in my career:
a) “Children’s Hostess” at a Vermont summer resort
b) Actress in a film* that appeared on ShowtimeTM
c) Spokeswoman for a national political party
d) Co-editor of an underground newspaper**
e) Dog groomer
f) Speechwriter for publisher of a major daily newspaper
g) Podcast co-host
h) Creator of a “Great Beach Books” website
i) Cocktail waitress***
j) Freelance portrait photographer
k) College essay consultant
And the answer is … e) dog groomer. (As anyone who has actually seen my dog could tell you).
Suffice it to say: I spent the first few years of my career in marketing before I was bitten by the political bug, after which I spent a couple of decades in politics and public affairs communications. They say truth is stranger than fiction. At some point, I decided politics had gotten a little too strange, and I turned to fiction.
My debut novel, Haven Point (St. Martin’s Press) will be released on June 8, 2021. I graduated from Vanderbilt University with a Bachelor’s Degree in History. I live in Chevy Chase, Maryland with my husband, Drew Onufer, our two daughters, and the aforementioned undergroomed Bichon, Chester. I'm hard at work on my second novel.
*Below the Beltway, written and produced by Jim Wareck. I played “Minion One.” (Not that kind of minion. I was a minion at a lobbying firm). I said the following line: “Secretary Peters is on Line One!” I have an IMDB page and everything.
**When in high school at Holton-Arms, two friends and I wrote and edited the “Holton Armpit.” While “underground newspaper” evokes images of scathing editorials about problems with school administration and the like, the Armpit was a bit more of a gossip rag. (Think grocery store checkout line.)
***Actual quote from bartender: “Thank God you’re good at apologizing, because you might be the worst cocktail waitress ever.”