One of the questions I get as people are writing their Moments is, “Can it be an Almost Made It Moment?” I had the pleasure of meeting author Suzanne Adair in person in her lovely homestate and so I am not surprised to find both a sense of modesty and grace, and a unique hand with words in this Moment. Perhaps we are talking about “peaks” instead of something as final as “making it” in this forum. But reading between the lines of Suzanne’s post…nah, I’m back to why I started this place. She’s definitely made it.

Have I “made it?” I don’t know, Jenny, but I’ve certainly had some peak moments—at least as many as I’ve had books released. They always show up out of the blue.

The first one happened in between the releases of my first and second books. I’d made author appearances for several months. Sales of that first book, Paper Woman, had reached the inevitable slow-down, and release of book two was still several months off. I visited a local bookstore for a multi-published author’s booksigning. The place was packed. Then, out of the throng, I heard a woman say, “Oh, look, there’s Suzanne Adair!” Wow, someone in that crowd actually recognized me from just one book published? Turns out that the lady was in a book club. She invited me to speak at one of their meetings. Fun!

The most recent moment came last December. One of my Facebook friends tagged me on a photo she’d taken from the balcony of her rental bungalow on St. John’s Island in the Caribbean. “Look what I found in the book collection here!” she said. I realized that the book she held was a first edition of Paper Woman. “Quick! Grab it!” I commented back. It went home to Florida with her. Three chapters of Paper Woman take place in the Caribbean. Makes sense that the book was entertaining vacationers in the Caribbean. Fun!

When will my next moment show up? Maybe soon. My fifth book, A Hostage to Heritage, has just been released. Fun!

Thanks for the opportunity to share.

Award-winning novelist Suzanne Adair is a Florida native who lives in a two hundred-year-old city at the edge of the North Carolina Piedmont, named for an English explorer who was beheaded. Her suspense and thrillers transport readers to the Southern theater of the Revolutionary War, where she brings historic towns, battles, and people to life. She fuels her creativity with Revolutionary War reenacting and visits to historic sites. When she’s not writing, she enjoys cooking, dancing, hiking, and spending time with her family. A Hostage to Heritage, her second Michael Stoddard American Revolution thriller, was released April 2013.

How does a writer decide whether to self-publish or pursue traditional these days? This may be the #1 question I get at writers workshops. I love this Moment because Dorothy Hayes did both–and figured out in a very visceral way which path was right for her. Once she did, she went after it with everything she had…including time. Three cheers, Dot. May your Moments keep on coming, and thanks for making Suspense Your Disbelief one of yours.

Thanks, Jenny for asking about my Made It Moment.

I had to self-publish my first book, Animal Instinct. That was way back in 2006, before the publishing world upheaval, and the onslaught of e-book publishing opportunities. But I did have a Made It Moment when animal rights organizations I had respected for decades wrote glowing reviews of my book and posted them on their websites. This amazed and humbled me. They are still there.

I had, however, a crisis of faith.

Should I write another book if I can’t get it published?

I soon realized that I didn’t have a choice. I had to write. Since a kid, I had to write things down; as a reporter for five years, I honed my craft. As a staff writer for a national animal protection organization, I not only got paid to write, but paid to write about the animals I loved and respected.

I decided, however, that writing in the ever popular mystery genre would up my publishing chances. Two years later, Murder at the P&Z was finished and I discovered that Mainly Murder Press focused on New England writers and accepted unagented submissions.  I didn’t have an agent, and I lived in Stamford, CT. This was perfect.

But submissions weren’t being accepted for the time being. So, for almost a year, I continued to send out query letters only to receive very respectful rejections. It wasn’t looking good. But I was determined not to self-publish again.

During the summer, I attended a writers’ workshop as a member of Sisters In Crime. I was advised to switch the first and second chapters. Then Mainly Murder Press announced that it would accept submissions in August. I emailed the first 50 pages of my manuscript on August 1.

After several weeks of heart-stopping communications, I got the email that said: “I’m delighted to tell you…” Let’s just say, I was screaming around the house. It only took me seventeen years to get here!

That was the original Made It Moment with this book.

When I realized, however, that a book dealer for the Malice Domestic Conference this May will stock Murder at the P&Z for mystery fans to purchase, and that the Wilton Library invited me to speak and will stock my books, and my local library is also interested—it seems as though the Made It Moments keep-on-coming.

I take deep breaths and enjoy all the special moments, along the way – like this one.

Dorothy Hayes, a graduate of Western Connecticut State University, taught Language Arts, was a staff writer for the Wilton Bulletin, and The Hour and received an honorary award for her in-depth series on Vietnam Veterans from the Society of Professional Journalists. She also worked as a staff writer for a national animal protection corporation, and wrote Animal Instinct published in 2006. She writes for Women of Mystery and Criminal Element and is a member of Sisters-in-Crime.

Am I the only child of the 70′s and 80′s who grew up scrounging the library shelves for their horror offerings? The Shining, The Omen, Audrey Rose, Burnt Offerings…these books caused my parents paroxysms of worry as to my reading habits, and me a bizarre sort of absorption and joy.

Today’s Moment-er has written a novel that sounds part Bad Seed, part Exorcist, and so I am instantly intrigued. (Especially because we share the same favorite author!) But what excites me the most is that Tony Hubbard seeks to go beyond the constraints of genre and do what all we readers and writers most want.

To tell a good story.

I’d say you’ve made it, Tony.

My debut novel, A Demon Lies Within centers around the demonic possession of a nine-year-old boy named Joshua. As such, the book falls in the genre of horror fiction. In a literature world currently dominated by young adult titles, or else those classified as mystery, thriller and suspense, horror novels may not be at the forefront of a readers’ mind or at the top of their ‘to be read’ list.

To appeal to a more mainstream audience, the book had to provide readers something they could strongly latch on to, to entice them above and beyond the horrific elements included to play to my genre-specific built in audience.

I strove to accomplish this by creating a story whose foundation was built on the strength of the characters, giving them qualities readers could identify with, while having a strong enough story to keep readers turning the pages beyond the point they might’ve planned on stopping.

Fortunately, there have been readers who normally wouldn’t seek out horror fiction give A Demon Lies Within an opportunity to entertain them.

Receiving positive feedback from those who normally don’t read horror, specifically about how they liked the characters; wanting to learn more about what was going to happen to them; and also how the strength of the story kept them turning page after page, even through scenes of horror they normally wouldn’t read, was vindication that A Demon Lies Within would be received by a larger audience.

Having readers who enjoy all genres of books saying they can’t wait to read my next novel and wondering about the status of the second book has made me feel I’ve made it.

Being identified as a writer who gives audiences a great story, no matter the genre I write, confirms that I have.

 

Tony Hubbard grew up like most boys in Massachusetts during the 1980’s, wanting to emulate basketball star Larry Bird and one day play for the Boston Celtics. Quickly realizing that a future as a professional athlete was something he would not achieve, he did the next best thing – became a sportswriter. Tony covered high school, collegiate and professional sports, and most notably,the death of Boston Celtics’ star Reggie Lewis for The Patriot Ledger.

Growing up and reading the works of Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King, he one day aspired to publish a novel in the horror genre. After leaving his professional writing career behind to make a move into the production and advertising side of the publishing business, Tony makes a return with his debut novel. Eighteen years in the making, A Demon Lies Within, releases November 2012 from Two Harbors Press.

It is with extraordinary pleasure that I feature this Moment from the road. Not only because I’ve been blogging-lite lately, trying to balance life-out-of-a-car, and this is one of a small handful of posts I’ve gotten to do. But also because as writers we wouldn’t really have the chance to Make It if we didn’t find kindred spirits along the way, and Judy Walters is one of mine.

Judy and I walked and trudged and crawled down the writers’ road for many years together. We watched each other get close, and we watched each other’s hearts break a tiny bit when close wasn’t good enough. Through it all, I read Judy’s stories of women whose hearts broke for entirely different reasons, and I was caught up in every single one. People are going to want to read these, I thought. They’re going to be changed by them.

Now Judy’s first novel is available, and I have only one more thing to say before I let Judy take over.

I am so glad she’s finally gotten her Moment!

Thank you, Jenny, for being kind enough to host me on your Made-It-Moment site.

I’ve had a bunch of Made-It-Moments already. I’m sure that sounds strange, as someone whose debut novel is just coming out, but for me, anytime someone says she loved the book, I feel I’ve made it. As an author, my goal is at once simple and complicated. Simple because I just want my readers to enjoy my stories, to find something in them that feels satisfying. Complicated because it’s not easy to do this. It takes months or years of honing and practicing and editing and revising. Months and years more to secure an agent you click with, and go through even more editing and revising before you try to find a publisher. And then more months, in my case, when my agent and I decided to move to an ebook version.

Since I decided to publish Child of Mine, a number of people have already read and liked or loved it. My agent, for one. Other writers. Beta readers. Last month, my publicist put it up on GoodReads, and a number of people there read and enjoyed it. More checked off that it was something they planned to read in the future.

A friend read it. She loved it. She sent it to another friend. She loved it too. It never gets old, hearing people tell you they enjoy your work, that you made them think or laugh or cry or…whatever you made them feel. So I’ve made it just by making a few people happy. I hope to make it some more.

Judy Walters worked as an editor in nonfiction publishing for many years before becoming a Stay-at-Home Mother to her two daughters. Child of Mine, her debut novel, is the story of an infertile midwife. it can be found on Kindle, Nook, and other etailer sites. She loves to hear from readers and can be reached at judymwalters@gmail.com.

We’ve featured around 275 Moments in this forum, so you will understand why it comes as a surprise for me to say that I have never read anything like this one. Colby Marshall got to do something with her first book that I don’t think anyone else has. To say much more would give the surprise away, so I am going to turn things over to Colby. But I’m also going to add this. May we all get the chance to give such joy as writers. If we do, we will all have truly Made It.

I’ve dreamed of that moment when I would sign a copy of my own book for someone since I was a little girl. I wrote a “newspaper” for my mother on loose-leaf notebook paper using a number two pencil with articles about the family dog and my sister and her best friend’s school science project. Years went by, and it seemed like the dream was far away. That is until one day recently, when I found myself sitting inside the Cheesecake Factory in Birmingham, Alabama, waiting to hand-deliver StairwayPress.com’s 10,000th book sold—a book that happened to be written by me.

The lucky fan arrived, unaware I’d brought a special surprise just for her from my publisher. I had with me a check for a thousand dollars. I whipped out my book during dessert, and I wrote, “Here’s to many more cheesecakes together,” absolutely clueless what to write in such a milestone of a novel. Our waiter took my book as his cue to bring out the obnoxiously large fake check to use for pictures, and as the fan said, “Oh my gosh!” over and over again, I handed her the real check for the money. She was beside herself, and I was beside myself, too, when I heard that with this money, she plans to take her grandkids to Disneyworld.

As I rode back to my hotel that evening, I couldn’t help but giggle out loud. What other job in the world could I have where I would get to do something that much fun? I’d just gotten to make someone’s day and send a few kids to Disneyworld all because one reader had supported me and paid $14.95 for my work. I laughed some more, and maybe even shed a happy tear as I realized not only had I done that, but I’d gotten to sign my book, too.

Writer by day, ballroom dancer and choreographer by night, Colby Marshall is a contributing columnist for a local magazine and a proud member of International Thriller Writers as well as Sisters in Crime. She’s active in local theatres as an actress and choreographer. She lives in Georgia with her family where she is hard at work on her new thriller.

Today’s guest, Jane Risdon, has been published before, but as she embarks on the long and awesome process of novel-writing, I wanted to give readers a chance to hear both her voices: the one in fiction, and the one just beginning to experience that Moment.

I know it’s coming.

I suppose I’ve enjoyed many ‘Made It Moments’ during my lifetime.  Most have been directed and facilitated by me on behalf of others – artistes – whom I’ve managed in the Music Industry.  Although I’ve been instrumental in bringing about success for others, including Number One hits in China and SE Asia, Top Twenty hits in the USA, Movie and Television Soundtracks, including The Jersey Girl, Power Rangers, Baywatch and Sinbad, I have yet to experience my own full blown ‘Made It Moment’.

Having always wanted to write and always finding excuses not to, I found myself free from all the time constraints and excuses about two years ago.  I decided to stop dreaming of writing and just get on with it.

An old friend who used to be my husband’s Fan Club Secretary was also a Pop/Rock journalist at the time, and she had turned her hand to writing. I guess I thought if she could do it, then so could I.  Mind you, she has umpteen books published and is award- winning too.  Aim high I always say!

To cut a long story short, she read my stories and encouraged me. The result has been a series of Short Stories and Flash Fiction pieces, which I’ve received great feed-back about.  Three stories have been published in ‘real’ books and others via Kindle.  I am writing four novels, including one co-written with my friend who invited me to write with her.  I am thrilled she has belief in me and so I guess to date this might be considered my ‘Made It Moment’. I feel very honoured and privileged to be writing with such an accomplished and successful writer, and I really am hopeful that this is just the first of many more personal ‘Made It Moments’.

An excerpt from Ms. Birdsong Investigates:

Amelia Payne closed her dressing-room door and leaned against it.  Her head was fit to bust as the blood pounded her temples.  She held on to the handle steadying herself, her legs felt as if they were floating from under her.  Think, think, she told herself trying to take deep breaths and centre herself.  Think.

After a while her breathing calmed a little and her temples didn’t thump as much and she moved to her sofa and sat down heavily.  She felt totally drained.  She closed her eyes and leaned against the back of the sofa, the soft fabric soothing against her skin.

Eventually she leaned over the arm and grabbed her handbag from the floor. Opening it with shaking hands she took two tablets from the bottle inside.  Then she moved into her bathroom and filled a glass with water and swallowed the pills.  She checked her watch: Linden wouldn’t be home for a while yet.

She splashed her face and wrists with cold water, leaning heavily on the basin, taking deeper breaths.  Amelia closed her swollen eyes.  When she felt strong enough she opened them and gazed at herself in the mirror – Christ, she looked a mess.  Her mascara was all but gone, so was her lipstick, and her hair looked as if she had been making passionate love all night.  She smiled wryly at her image in-spite of everything.

Moving back into her dressing-room she locked the door and removed her clothes. Her trouser suit was covered in grass and mud streaks.  She put them inside the wash basket,  removed her mud-caked shoes and lay them on the bathroom floor.  She ran a bath and automatically added her favourite bubble bath.  Sitting on the edge of the bath still shaking, she managed to put her hair up in a cloth cap then lowered herself into the hot water, sinking right up to her neck. Amelia closed her eyes waiting for the pills to kick in: her mind longing for numbness.

After years on the road and in recording studios, Jane realised a life-long ambition two years ago when she began writing. Jane was thrilled to have two stories included in an Anthology, ‘Telling Tales,’ written in aid of The Norfolk Hospice, and another in an Anthology in aid of Women’s Aid, Breakthrough and Women for Women, ‘I Am Woman’ Anthology Volume One.

She is also working on a novel with a co-author about their exploits in the 1960’s Music Business, which they hope will be ready for publication during the early part of 2013.

Launch. There’s that word.

I began blogging at my husband’s behest in 2009. I was far from the first, but blogs weren’t quite as ubiquitous then as they are now, and my husband, a tech guy, wanted me to jump into the pool while there was still water left in it.

I was wary, though. After all, who was I to write a blog? After a whole decade of writing novels and querying agents and trying to get published, I still hadn’t broken in. I wasn’t a writer…I was a failed writer.

I solved my problem in two ways. If I invited other authors to contribute posts, then I wouldn’t have to put myself out there. And if I sought in those posts some source of wisdom, perhaps I could glean nuggets that would help me along my own journey.

Thus was born the Made It Moments forum. Over 275 authors have to date answered the question, “How did I know I’d made it?”

The funny thing is that every single one of these posts is utterly unique, and every single one says the exact same thing.

“I haven’t.”

Over the past week, a lot of wonderful friends and writers and readers I’ve come to know–in no small part due to blogging; thanks, husband, you were right–have written to say things like, “Congrats on your Made It Moment!”

You see, after that decade-long struggle, and then another four years thrown in, my debut novel was published just last Tuesday. After fifteen almost-offers, and more no’s than I can bear to count, my eighth novel finally found its way to the brilliant editor who could help me become the writer I always wanted to be.

But like all the authors who have been kind enough to appear on my blog, I don’t feel I’ve made it. I haven’t even gotten close enough to write a post about how I haven’t really made it.

What have I done? I’ve launched. Like birds leaving the nest and six year olds starting school and marathoners getting to the starting line, I now have something that I can bring to you, that I can try to do myself.

What about you? Have you launched anything lately, or do you hope to? Please tell me about it. Please join me in my hopeful march to the Made It Moment.

Back for Part II of a Double Feature, is Richard Godwin, wisest man on the web. Richard’s post the other day

contained insight about the two different publishing paths today. While this post delves into another pretty hot topic–can we say, 50 Shades or Why Erotica is So Hot? Best yet, one lucky commenter will win a beautifully wrapped copy of Richard’s earlier crime novel, Mr. Glamour. So dive on in, share your thoughts, and be entered to win!

I blame Paris Tongue, that fiery blonde seducer, the gigolo who meets his lovers in the Secret Hour. He knows all about making it. His success is the cause of the chagrin of many husbands, although it is never his indiscretion that is in question. It seems we are riding the crest of a wave at the moment where erotica is concerned.

When I was contracted by Italian publisher Atlantis to write a Noir erotica novella for their Lite Editions I penned “The Secret Hour”. It centres on a character named Paris Tongue who is proving as popular with the readers as he is with the ladies in my prose.  Now I am sure if you asked my seductive protagonist if he thinks he has made it he would dismiss the notion, since such conceit would deprive him of his appeal, as he seeks new conquests. He would say each women needs to be treated as if she is the only one, and while confidence is key to his character, he would never assume a lady’s virtue was easy picking. He would also waive any contractual obligations to his lovers.  How did he come about?

“He was the bastard child of a killer, and he had survived by trading on his looks and sexual knowing. He’d inherited money from a wealthy uncle at an early age when his exotic fragile mother had fled with an Arab prince to settle in Dubai where after several miscarriages she bled to death one day on an ottoman.”

The premise of Lite Editions is that each novella focuses on a city. “The Secret Hour” is set in London. It describes many of the most beautiful and luxurious parts of London, such as Mayfair and Piccadilly, the locations where Paris carries out his seductions:

“They shopped at Burlington Arcade, ordered there by Lord George Cavendish, on what had been the side garden of his house, reputedly to stop passers by throwing oyster shells over his wall. Paris bought Viola a cashmere cape from Ana Konder….”

The atmosphere of the city imbues Paris’s sexual encounters.

I have now written the sequel, “The Edge Of Desire”, which is set in Paris, suitably, since my hero takes his name from the city. And while the first episode of his sexual adventures sees him seduce the wife of a gangster who is stalking them, the second sees him discover something about himself as he profits from his looks. Paris is about to travel the world, and each city he visits acts as a backdrop to his sexual exploits. Cities all have their own atmospheres, their own sexual natures.

London features heavily in my second novel, “Mr. Glamour”, which was published in paperback this April. It has its share of erotic scenes and is packed with beautiful women in exotic settings. While I am known for writing crime and horror fiction, I do enjoy other styles. And so a gigolo who signs nothing has enabled this author to sign a mini-series.

Richard Godwin is the author of crime novels Mr. Glamour and Apostle Rising and is a widely published crime and horror writer. Mr. Glamour is his second novel and was published in paperback in April 2012. It is available online at Amazon and at all good retailers. Mr.Glamour is Hannibal Lecter in Gucci. The novel is about a glamorous world obsessed with designer labels with a predator in its midst and has received great reviews.

This Made It Moment raises several questions that have, from time to time, occupied corners of my mind. Lesser: How *do* writing teams collaborate without throwing their coffee cups (virtual or real) at each other? Greater: What does history do with its cultural atrocities? How do we ever put them down? And of particular interest to me right now: How do we find what we’re meant to do, the path we’re supposed to be walking?

Victoria’s Made It Moment concerns all three, and that is no small feat. I hope you enjoy it.

Getting published is a long and winding up-hill road strewn with difficulties, disappointments and “made it” moments of varying magnitudes.  Were there a Beaufort/Richter scale for writing success then a Pulitzer or Palme d’Or would be a 12, while completing your tax return would rate a 1.  Meeting Donald Schwarz was a life event impossible to rate on any scale.  The ultimately film noir convergence of a darkly comedic curmudgeon and a sarcastically cynical 6ft. “shiksa showgirl” was bound to produce something “not quite ready for prime time” but nonetheless fascinating.

Interrogation Tango was Don’s obsession even before we met.  I originally read it as a slim screenplay (under a different title).  The idea was great, the dialogue intense, but all of the characters had the same voice, Don’s.  He had projected parts of himself onto both Georg Elser and Arthur Nebe, and the Burger Brau Keller bombing was the sort of audacious act he himself aspired to, he simply didn’t have a cause.

“Mathematics is detective work with an imaginary perp…” was one of Don’s favorite lines.  Our challenge was to make the characters come alive without forgetting that Elser, Adolph Hitler and Arthur Nebe were certainly not figments of anyone’s imagination.  We had three key questions to answer in order to develop a realistic yet entertaining story that respected but was not totally confined by fact:

What sort of an individual could have done what Elser did?

What sort of men comprised the “Middle Management” of the Third Reich?

In what ways is history deliberately distorted and/or abridged by the last left standing?

Peter Riva of International Transactions told us “Congratulations you now have an intelligent and engaging tale on your hands.”  October 19^th 2010 is when I knew we would get published… now hurry up and wait!

Victoria King-Voreadi’s favorite game was always “What if”. She studied dramatic arts in Los Angeles, then after a mediocre play Robert De Niro gave her some advice: “Kid, in L.A. you’re just another tall blonde who wants to be in show business. Go to Europe, get some culture and figure out what you really want from this industry.” Greece seemed a logical place – home of the muses, birthplace of arts, sciences and philosophy. She wrote funding grants for EEU Media Programmes, scripts, travel articles, edited and translated manuscripts. In 1994 she met Donald Schwarz. Just like every oyster needs an irritating grain of sand in order to form a pearl, Donald and Victoria have been irritating the hell out of each other for years. She asks: “Is our book Interrogation Tango a pearl?”

Having just been lucky enough to get to see the revival of Annie on Broadway (Christmas gift; thanks, mom!) I have a third figure from history in my head. If you’re wondering who the first and second figures are, well, you’ll meet them in a moment in Lois Winston’s returning guest post.

But first let me give you FDR’s quote: “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

Lois has faced some huge writing and publishing mountains. And if she feared them…well, she got over it, with wonderful results for her readers. Lois, as we enter this new year, I wish you everything good in it.

Leo Tolstoy said, “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”

I totally disagree. My life has been a series of changes, some precipitated by me, some thrust upon me. Circumstances change, situations change, we change to adapt to these changes. The only thing that is certain in our lives is uncertainty. As Old Blue Eyes said, you can be riding high in April, shot down in May. (And when was the last time you read a blog post that mentioned both Leo Tolstoy and Frank Sinatra?)

When Jenny invited me to guest once again on Suspense Your Disbelief, she suggested I write about “walking both publishing paths.” And that got me thinking about the changes that have occurred in my life since I first decided to write a book.

Like Jenny, my path to publication was anything but instantaneous. It took me a decade –  almost to the day that I first sat down to write – to sell my first novel, Talk Gertie To Me, a humorous take on the relationship between a mother and daughter. Along the way I learned quite a bit about both writing and the world of publishing, so much so that shortly after I sold Talk Gertie To Me, the agency that reps me invited me to join them as an associate. Within the span of a few months I went from being an unpublished writer to a published author and a literary agent. Huge changes.

As any published author will tell you, selling a book is no guarantee of sales of future books. After the publication of my first book and my option book, the romantic suspense Love, Lies and a Double Shot of Deception, I made the decision not to publish any more books with that publisher. This was one of those take-a-deep-breath-and-do-what-you-know-you-need-to-do changes.

Unfortunately, the publishing industry was also changing at this time, and publishers were hot for books in genres other than the ones I wrote. “Hot” being the operative word here as erotica and erotic romance were becoming all the rage.

At the suggestion of my agent, I began to write a crafting mystery. Another change for me. The result was Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in what was to become my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries. Today is the official release date of Revenge of the Crafty Corpse, the third book in the series.

But this wasn’t the end of the changes, either for me or the publishing industry. Many authors were beginning to have success with independent publishing, both with their backlists and never-before-published works. Once upon a time the thought of self-publishing would never have occurred to me. However, I was sitting on two out-of-print backlist books and several manuscripts that had received rejections, not due to the writing but for being the wrong manuscripts at the wrong time.

So this past summer I took the indie plunge. I brought out the unpublished works under a pen name, Emma Carlyle, because I didn’t want to confuse the fan base I’d built for my mysteries. Mystery readers read to solve whodunit; romance readers read for the relationship between the hero and heroine. I also published my two backlist books, two novellas, and a non-fiction book.

One of the novellas, Elementary, My Dear Gertie, is both a sequel to Talk Gertie To Me, and a cross-over, plunging the characters from my humorous women’s fiction novel into a mystery. Crewel Intentions is a short story featuring the protagonist from my mystery series.

And finally, there’s Top Ten Reasons Your Novel Is Rejected. This is a book that came about from teaching workshops and continuing education courses. After years of students telling me I should write a book on the subject, I finally did. The book contains much of what I’ve learned from my years as both a literary agent and a published author.

As I write this, I’m in the midst of more changes, having once again made a difficult take-a-deep-breath-and-do-what-you-know-you-need-to-do decision. I’m hoping for a positive outcome, but whatever happens, the one thing that’s certain is I’m changing once again. Tolstoy was so wrong.

Award-winning author Lois Winston writes the critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries series featuring magazine crafts editor and reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack. Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in the series, received starred reviews from both Publishers Weekly and Booklist. Kirkus Reviews dubbed it, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” Death By Killer Mop Doll was released this past January. Crewel Intentions, an Anastasia Pollack Mini-Mystery is now available as an ebook, and Revenge of the Crafty Corpse is a January 2013 release.

Lois is also published in women’s fiction, romance, romantic suspense, and non-fiction under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. In addition, she’s an award-winning crafts and needlework designer and an agent with the Ashley Grayson Literary Agency. She’s also the author of the recently released Top Ten Reasons Your Novel is Rejected.