Writing a book is hard. Getting a book traditionally published is even harder. I finished my first book in 2009. After years of spinning my wheels, getting rejection after rejection after rejection, I realized I needed help. When one of my favorite authors, Victoria Thompson, updated her bio at the back of one of her Gaslight Mystery Books (I highly recommend these if you haven’t read them), to reflect that she was an adjunct professor at Seton Hill University (SHU), in Greensburg, PA in their Writing Popular Fiction Program, I knew what I needed to do. Seton Hill’s low-residency program was amazing. I was able to continue working full-time and attend school. The program is designed to help individuals teach, but also to write. There are tons of wonderful things about the program and if I get started talking about them, I won’t stop, but one of the things the program does well is help prepare aspiring writers for life as an author. Near the end of the program we developed our portfolio which included multiple author bios (short, longer, etc), social media posts and short-term and long-term plans for our future. Recently, while chatting with a friend and fellow graduate, I realized that it’s been five years since I graduated (where does the time go) and I am still using the bios and other things from my portfolio.
However, after five years, I decided to look back at my plans. If you know me, you know that I’[m a planner. I have lots of plans. A lot of my short-term plans from SHU involved completing my manuscript, revisions, sending out queries every week and writing short stories. I have been blessed. I finished my manuscripts. I created a website (well, I didn’t create it, but thanks to Patricia Lillie I have one) and I have been active on social media. I blog regularly and have had blogs on CrimeReads, Wicked Cozy Authors, Writers Who Kill, and Between the Chapters (Kensington Books). I have written articles that have appeared in magazines and have been featured in Mystery Scene Magazine, Crime Scene, and even The Strand Magazine. Thanks to my habit of sending out queries regularly, I was able to get an agent, a publisher and now I have ten published books. I’m really happy with that.
I’ve learned a lot over the past five years and maybe I’ll post some of my learnings in future blogs. The only thing that remains undone from my graduate school long-term plan is the publication of short stories. If I’m honest with myself, I suck at writing short stories. Perhaps one day I’ll master them, but for now, I’m content to keep writing and focus my energy on trying to become a better writer.