jacques couvillon

Hi. My name is Jacques and I was born on a farm in Cow Island, Louisiana. My parents are Andrew and Julia Couvillon, a farmer and school teacher respectively. I am the youngest of eight children; Sandy, Kay, Mike, John, Joe, Ray and Jude. What can I tell you? My parents are Catholic and we didn't have cable.

I always knew that I wanted to write but I was scared. I thought people would laugh at me or that I was wasting my time or that I might fail. So I took what many people consider the secure route. I majored in business in college and after moved to Atlanta to begin a career in retail management. After a few years, I decided that I needed more security and so I attained a masters in business from the University of Connecticut. Upon graduating, I moved to Chicago to start what I thought was the beginning of my secure life long career; marketing uniforms.

I thought life was good. Not great, but good. I had a decent job, great friends, an apartment with a washer and dryer and one of the six black Jettas parked on my street. But something was missing and I didn't know what. And then one day while driving to work and preparing for a peformance review, I asked myself where I wanted to be in five years. My response was, "Not marketing uniforms!"

For the next couple of years, I searched for my passion. All I knew was that I didn't want to work for the uniform company and I wanted to live in another country. And then one day while researching grants and scholarships, I came across an opportunity to go to Africa and write a book.

I didn't apply for the grant because I was too old. But for some reason a light bulb went off and I realized that I wanted to be a writer. I'd always wanted to be a writer but I'd always been scared. At the time, I realized that in a couple of years I'd be thirty and that it was time for me to stop being scared and to pursue my passion. I knew it would be hard, but I also knew that going to a job I didn't like and living a life that was just "okay" was also hard.

Another year passed though and I still hadn't made a serious move towards becoming a writer. I was holding on to my old life like a security blanket. But then one day, I let it go.

It was during the holidays and to celebrate, my company's HR department set up a karaoke machine in the lunch room. My boss paid me $5 to get up and sing. I didn't really like the meatloaf I was eating at the time and thought I could buy something else with the $5. So I got up and sang the one song I knew. Friends in Low Places by Garth Brooks.

The crowd went crazy. People threw money at me and stood up and cheered me on. I felt alive for the first time in a long while. And it hit me that there was something else out there waiting for me. So two hours later I quit my job without a clue of what I was going to do. That night I decided to move to New York and study writing.

I got to New York in 2000. Over the next several years, I worked as a punching bag for a crazy person, a caterer, a front desk clerk at a hotel, a tie sales man, a secretary and a nanny or should I say a manny. I cashed in my 401K, searched phone booths for spare change, and sold old suits to a friend to make ends meet. Internet companies went under, 9-11 happened and my friends from graduate school got laid off left and right. Those first six years were extremely hard for me and every day I questioned if I'd made a mistake by leaving that security blanket in Chicago.

But then one day I received an email from my agent telling me that Bloomsbury wanted to publish The Chicken Dance. I realized that the hardest six years of my life added up to the biggest payoff of my life. Even if the book had never been published, I've come to realize that I've learned so much by taking this chance. I encourage everyone who has a dream or a passion to pursue it. I'm not saying to do it the way I did it. But at least research it. The results may not be what you expected, but at least you'll know. And you'll learn things you never thought possible.