Stacy Green’s Moment is going to surprise you. Because it isn’t about writing at all. Or rather, it is, but with the most indirect of links. Stacy’s Moment has to do with fear. Of braving the unknown…in this case, a lifelong phobia that latched on stronger with the advent of parenthood. Fully aware of the preciousness of life, it became hard for Stacy to live as fully as she wanted to. Then came her Moment.

What is writing but a leap into the unknown? Stacy’s leap was physical. And it allowed her writing to fly.

(For those who wish to read more Stacy Green, here’s her 2012 Made It Moment.)

In my latest thriller, ALL GOOD DEEDS (Lucy Kendall #1), my heroine has an immense fear of death. It’s this fear that causes her to risk her life for justice. She dances around the torment that keeps her up at night. Lucy’s fear of dying is my most personal contribution to her. I still have nights where I wake up with the blinding realization that one day, I will die. The End. Fade to Black. But that’s not the entire story.

All my life, I’ve had a terrible fear of flying. Statistics didn’t matter. The countless number of flights my friends took didn’t matter. I still believed I would be on the plane that crashed, and the fear worsened when I became a parent. What if I left my daughter without a mother?

This fear has kept me from writing conferences since I began seriously writing in 2011. I learned my craft from books, online classes, webinars, social media groups, etc. All of my interaction with other writers has been limited to online or within driving distance. And when you’ve got a kid who spends half her life swimming, Saturdays are taken up with meets instead of monthly Sisters in Crime meetings.

Until now, I’ve done all right. Releasing my fourth book and finishing my Delta Crossroads Trilogy has resulted in many new readers, and I’m ambling down the path to success. But I really wanted to take the next step. In my heart I knew I wouldn’t have a chance at the next level of writing if I didn’t.

I’d missed the deadline for Writer’s Police Academy in January because it was in North Carolina, and I was a chicken. Two months ago, as I sat reading the itinerary for the umpteenth time, I knew this was the one conference I needed to go to. Three days with law enforcement and EMS telling writers how their jobs and lives really work, helping us to get things right! Three days with other mystery and thriller writers! Most of my publishing friends were romance authors, with the exception of a few, and I really wanted to talk shop. Plus, Lisa Gardner, one of my all-time favorite authors, was giving a presentation.

I can’t really say what made me do it But I emailed Lee Lofland, the man behind WPA, and sure enough, there was a cancellation. I had a spot if I wanted it. I didn’t stop to think. I paid the dues and booked my airfare. I was going.

And I felt okay. Surreal, but okay. As the September 4th flight approached, I grew more worried about navigating the airports on my own or making some technical error that would cause me to miss part of the conference. I was excited to go, and I mostly believed I’d survive the flight.

That didn’t stop my blood pressure from rising. Even thought I felt pretty good, a doctor’s visit on another matter revealed my blood pressure to be 142/90. Way too high for me. I hoped it was simply stress, but how could it be since I felt okay? Could I really be that physiologically affected when I wasn’t pacing the halls in anticipation?

At 6:30 in the morning on September 4th, I took my very first flight. Alone. I wasn’t scared. Nervous, but as I walked through the gate, there was no rising panic. That came when I stepped onto the American Airlines jet and realized exactly how narrow they are. A brief moment of claustrophobia nearly overwhelmed me, but I powered on. With the help of a very kind couple, I found my seat and chatted until take off. Conversation kept me out of my very imaginative head, and then it was done.

By noon, I was in Greensboro and looking at an entirely new phase of my career. I felt professional, in control, and most of all, brave. I faced my very greatest fear on my own (and don’t misunderstand, my husband was amazingly supportive. He just couldn’t go with me) and came out so much better for it. I found that aside from the occasional queasiness, I really loved flying. And more importantly, the experience at Writer’s Police Academy truly changed my life. I learned so much and made so many contacts with law enforcement officials who really do want to help. Even better, I met Lisa Gardner and Alafair Burke and both were extremely sweet and happy to talk to fans. And the networking with other writers! There were so many, writing all different types of mystery. Arriving in Greensboro, I only knew a handful of attendees via social media, but once I conquered flying, I had no problem diving in and chatting to anyone and everyone. I even introduced myself to Lisa Gardner in the restroom! We’ll call that a fangirl moment. Thank God I’d washed my hands.

My Made It Moment – one of what I hope will be many – isn’t really about professional success. It’s about realizing that I’m a lot stronger and braver than I gave myself credit for, and (forgive the cliché), I really can do anything I put my mind to. My imagination has come alive with the idea for a new police procedural series featuring one my most loved characters, Cage Foster, and I’ve been pounding away on the second book in the Lucy Kendall series. I want to write all the time! It’s been a while since I’ve felt that way, and I know it’s because I faced that nasty fear.

Taking that trip has taken my dedication to a whole new level, and I am so excited for the next year.

What are your greatest fears? Do have a fear you’ve conquered?

PS. I had a blood pressure check this week. 117/78. Guess the unknown is truly scary after all.

Born in Indiana and raised in Iowa, Stacy Green earned degrees in journalism and sociology from Drake University. After a successful advertising career, Stacy became a proud stay-at-home mom to her miracle child. Now a full-time author, Stacy juggles her time between her demanding characters and supportive family. She loves reading, cooking, and the occasional gardening excursion. Stacy lives in Marion, Iowa with her husband Rob, their daughter Grace, and the family’s three obnoxious but lovable canine children.

Ack!! We’ve all been here on this writing road, right…? In a position of frustration and uncertainty? The release date of Brandon’s hardcover has been postponed. He will share with us going forward how this leg of his journey goes as he waits for the release. In this age of tumult in publishing, I think we all understand the vagaries of this industry. Or we don’t understand them–but we understand that lack of understanding. What I can promise you is that Brandon’s ongoing story will probably turn out to have more to offer emerging writers out there, while established authors can nod and reflect with him, than if it’d been perfectly smooth. While everyone can also discover a great book the moment it’s available! Good luck, Brandon. Suspense Your Disbelief is rooting for you.

There’s little more exciting than a release day, and I am so happy to help Brandon Daily celebrate his right here on the blog. Especially because Brandon’s Moment has to do with the same links to the past that his debut novel does. What inspires us to sit down and craft a tale? What keeps us sitting before a computer, hour after hour alone, with the end uncertain at best? Brandon remembers the moment the writing bug bit him, and it led in winding, wandering ways to his Moment today.

When I was young, maybe eleven or twelve, I was riding home in the backseat of my parents’ car. We were coming home from a camping trip in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. My nose was close to the window and I remember staring out at the darkening sky, looking out to the silhouette of hills and trees. In my mind, I could see a lonely man out there making a campfire—in the light of the fire, he was burying a body. That fictional man was so real to me—I felt I could actually see him, that I knew him somehow. Until then, stories were what other people made up. Not me. But that vision kept playing itself again and again in my mind, and I always wanted to find out who he really was.

I kept that character stored away in my mind, a secret. But it wasn’t until college that I started creatively writing. The more I wrote, the more comfortable I felt with narrative structure, and I began playing around with different forms, different genres. When my first story was accepted for publication in a literary journal, I remember the excitement, the pride . . . and the fear—other people would read my thoughts, know my mind—judge me. But it was such an amazing feeling, and I kept writing and kept submitting my work.

After more of my short stories were accepted for publication, I looked back on the beginnings of a novel I had started years before; it was a story about three men within the Appalachian wilderness, violent men forced to confront themselves and their beliefs. One of the characters in that novel, The Rider, was patterned off the man I’d seen all those years ago in my mind. It had been a big idea, complex and deep—one that had scared me off. But there was something personal there, and I felt like I needed to finish it, not for others, not to be published; instead, I did it for me. I needed to release that shadow man out into the world.

Now, looking over the final edited copy of the book (A Murder Country), which is set to release September 9, I stop and read a paragraph, then another. I am so proud of the story; it is the amalgamation of all my thoughts and dreams and work. I look at The Rider in the book and see in him that shadow man from years ago, but now he is full and he is flesh: the product of my imagination from when I was that young boy driving in a car with his parents, imaging the world in a strange and new way.

Brandon Daily was born and raised in southern California. In 2012, he and his wife moved to central Georgia, where he now teaches high school English and Literature. He holds an M.A. in American Literature and has worked as an adjunct professor and freelance editor.

Brandon’s short fiction has been published in several online and print magazines, and his one act play “South of Salvation” was performed and won first prize in the CAST Players One Act Play Festival in 2012.

A Murder Country (Knox Robinson, 2014) is his first novel, and tells the story of three violent men living in the late nineteenth century; each man is seeking an understanding of his life and his place within the larger realm of the world. The novel is inspired by Brandon’s fascination with the tension between nature and man as well as the power and fragility of belief and conviction within humans.

Brandon is currently working on his second novel and several more short stories.

This October, I will be teaching at a retreat in bucolic, pastoral Vermont along with two other faculty members of New York Writers Workshop. The topic? When Life Becomes a Story. Today’s Momenter, who shared an earlier Moment exactly three years ago, could be a case in point. Richard Brawer’s first novel was triggered when he heard an historical anecdote and recalled a connection to his own family. But his Moment as an author? I’ll leave that for you to read.

First let me say if one’s main consideration as having “made it” as a writer is money received, I have not yet made it. However, money was not my primary criteria. To me, getting rave reviews from both reviewers and readers is when I considered myself as having arrived as a writer.

I have always been an avid reader of mysteries, suspense novels and historical fiction. In 1994 I tried my hand at writing. By 2004 I had written four mysteries. Two were published by small presses and two remained unpublished. I was not setting the world on fire, but I was not ready to give up yet.

In 2004 I read an article in the newspaper that The Passaic County Historical Society was giving lectures and tours of the historic silk district of Paterson, NJ. My grandparents immigrated to Paterson, NJ in the late nineteenth century. Paterson was America’s first industrial city inspired by Alexander Hamilton and became the center of the silk industry in the United States until the depression.

I was born in Paterson but my family moved away when I was eleven. I had heard many stories about my grandparents but knew nothing about the history of Paterson’s silk industry. I decided to attend the lectures to see what it was like during the period when my grandparents came to America.

The lecturer talked about how the silk bosses treated their immigrant laborers as a commodity to be used up and thrown away; about how the laborers fought back with strikes; and the women of the period who fought for suffrage, child welfare and reproductive freedom.

The tours were of old mills that had been preserved as a museum and The American Labor Museum which is a house in Haledon, the town next to Paterson that was used as a gathering for unionists.

Those lectures and the tour were so fascinating a plot developed in my mind. A domineering silk industrialist clashes with his progressive suffragist wife and his radical unionist brother.

After a lot more research in The Paterson Evening News on microfilm in the Paterson library, and reading autobiographies of some of people in the era I began writing.

The result was “Silk Legacy.”

I tried to get an agent interested, but couldn’t land one. Nor could I find a publisher that was interested in publishing historical fiction. So I self published the book in 2006.

Reviewers labeled this book a “Tumultuous Love Story”, “A Slice of American History” “An Epic Family Saga.”, “A Tribulation of Yesteryear” “Vivid Enticing Characters” “An Absorbing Page Turner of a Novel” “Realistic Dialogue” “The fictional family is made up of flesh-and-blood characters. They laugh, love, argue, fight, and have adulterous affairs.” “Remarkable storytelling” “Brawer is a deft storyteller with a knack for plot twists”.
However the following are my favorite:

I was a volunteer docent at the American Labor Museum for 5 years. Everyone there always bragged that you wrote such a great book about the strike. It was always recommended for students of American history as a “must read” because it was a good way to engage and absorb them into the nitty gritty of the silk strike of 1913 without it being in the usual text book format.” –Dorothy D. G.

“I loved this book. The characters are so real. It is by far the best novel I have read on the Silk Strike of 1913.” –Angelica Santomauro. (Ms. Santomauro is the director of The American Labor Museum in Haledon, NJ and is an authority on the labor movement in Paterson during the silk era.)

What more could a writer ask for than positive reviews from the experts especially one that recommends your book to students?

That was the point I felt I had made it as a writer. I went back to writing crime stories and my next book was The Nano Experiment.

With Silk Legacy as an example of my writing I was able to find a good mid-sized publisher for The Nano Experiment. But the writer’s road is never a smooth one. Just as the book came out I received bad news from the publisher. Sadly one of the partners died and the other was not able to go on without her life-long friend. All the rights were returned to me and I posted the book on Amazon KDP.

And what happened after that? We might have to leave that for another Moment.

 

Richard Brawer writes mystery, suspense and historical fiction novels. When not writing, he spends his time sailing and exploring local history. He has two married daughters and lives in New Jersey with his wife.

I can’t imagine a writer out there who won’t relate to Wendy Tyson’s Made It Moment. Readers, too. For that matter…humans.

Who doesn’t understand what a hair-raising drive, family antsy, through the snow is like when you’re late? The work/life tightrope, our best attempts not seeming good enough, then finally realizing the reason we’re doing all of this…In other words, life. Wendy’s Moment is a mini novel, with a triumphant arc, on its own. And her debut novel, named one of 10 Best Mysteries of 2014 for Book Clubs, is well worth checking out as well.

My “Made It Moment” happened on a dreary February night in New Jersey.  It was a Friday, and I had a panel signing scheduled at a North Jersey bookstore that evening.  I’d rushed home from the day job, grabbed two of my boys (ten-years-old twins) and my husband, and we all set off for Sparta.  I thought I’d left enough travel time.  I was wrong.  The sky was overcast, and while it wasn’t snowing (like almost every other night last winter), Mother Nature provided a steady, icy drizzle—just enough rain to make driving in the congested northeast a treat.  What should have been a two-hour trip took nearly four hours.

Somewhere along I-15, with traffic at a standstill and police and ambulance lights flashing in the distance, I called the bookstore in a panic.  “I’m still coming,” I said, and apologized profusely.  They were gracious.  I know things happen, but I was a fledgling author and the last thing I wanted to do was make a bad first impression on a bookstore owner.  Nevertheless, we could only be Zen about the situation.  So with two antsy boys in the back and an annoyed husband next to me, I waited.

We finally arrived at the bookstore about forty minutes after the panel had started signing.  The events coordinator showed me to my spot between two other (much more local) authors.  I noticed a lone woman standing in front of the table, a copy of KILLER IMAGE in her hand.  “She waited for you,” the coordinator whispered.  “She’s been here the whole time.”  Indeed, as soon as I sat, the woman put the book in front of me.  I signed it and a few minutes later, she left.

Every day since getting the news that Henery Press wanted to buy the Campbell series has been a Made It Moment of sorts.  I’ve had the opportunity to speak at conferences and festivals, do a theater talkback alongside a famous cast for the play DEATHTRAP, and meet established authors.  I feel very blessed.  But that moment in Sparta, New Jersey, when one reader waited for me was the most memorable.  Like many authors, perhaps, I write in part to connect with people.  It’s a way to share this human condition.  I’m grateful to that woman—to all my readers—for providing the chance to connect and for the reminder that writing is about so much more than sales figures.

Wendy Tyson is a corporate lawyer and former therapist whose background has inspired her mysteries and thrillers. She’s the author of three crime novels. Her latest, DEADLY ASSETS, the second Allison Campbell mystery, was released on July 22. The first Campbell novel, KILLER IMAGE, was named by Examiner.com as one of the ten best mysteries for book clubs in 2014. Wendy lives near Philadelphia with her husband, three sons and two muses, dogs Molly and Driggs.

I’m willing to go out on a limb and say that Andra Watkins had her Moment in a place no one else ever has. She also gets the crown for strangest-place-to-hold-a-signing. Through it all, Andra’s prose tells us something about how a story can reach readers, one at a time. And maybe even something about why we write at all.

The Natchez Trace. Northwestern Alabama. I forced my bloody feet to carry me through Tasmanian-devil-like dustbowls. When I licked my lips, I tasted grit from the dawn of the universe. For the twentieth time, I dragged my body from whence the wind battered it, back to the grassy shoulder.

And I kept walking. I still had five miles to cover in my 26th consecutive fifteen-mile day.

A minivan swerved toward me. A victim of the whimsy of the wind. Like me.

Or so I thought.

Until it stopped, plowed through the shoulder and skidded to a halt two feet from me.

The window scrolled from tinted to open in slow motion, while I leaned into the gale and waited to see whether the inhabitants of the minivan were friend or foe.

I waited to stare down the muzzle of a gun. Instead, I greeted a different weapon. A green book. White letters. My name.

Will you sign our copy of your book? We’re descendants of William Clark, and we believe Meriwether Lewis was murdered, and we came all the way out here in this windstorm to get your autograph, because we heard you were out here walking the Trace.

My Made It Moment blew in on the coattails of a windstorm, the instant after I wondered whether I could go on. Because sometimes, Life has a perverse sense of humor. It goes out of its way to buffet and batter our dreams, only to show us why they matter.

Andra Watkins is the first living person to walk the 444-mile Natchez Trace as the pioneers did prior to the rise of steam power in the 1820’s. From March 1, 2014 to April 3, 2014, she walked fifteen miles a day. Six days a week. One rest day per week. She spent each night in the modern-day equivalent of stands, places much like Grinder’s Stand, where Meriwether Lewis died from two gunshot wounds on October 11, 1809. In addition to celebrating the release of To Live Forever: An Afterlife Journey of Meriwether Lewis, the walk inspired her upcoming memoir of the adventure, Not Without My Father, coming in Fall 2014. Andra lives in Charleston, South Carolina with her husband.

One of the cool kids. How many writers, I wonder, felt like we were never that? Recently I got to meet on the road a woman–except for me she will always be a girl–I grew up with. She said something about me still being funny and articulate, just like she remembered me. And I thought, THAT’S how you remember me? Cause it’s not how I remember myself.

Kristi Belcamino details quite a few moments below, and I’d like to point to another one for her, which is that Kristi’s debut novel has just released! Celebrate with us by reading BLESSED ARE THE DEAD (some title, huh?) and get to know a new writer right at the start. Kristi…welcome to the cool kids.

When you are a writer, your idols are, well, other writers.

So, my Made it Moment was when the doors to this magical kingdom of writers—specifically the most warm and welcoming community out there, that of mystery writers—opened wide for me.

Now, I’ve had plenty of brushes with fame in my time—as a reporter I met Edward James Olmos, Dennis Hopper, Jerry Seinfeld, Clint Eastwood, and Reggie Jackson. In addition, I’ve shaken President Clinton’s hand, had Eddie Van Halen bump into me at a party, and lived with the musician Beck and his family in L.A.. But the people who really make me swoon with fangirlishness are other writers!

I knew I had somewhat made it when I began hobnobbing with the kick butt writers I liked to read. (Ask my Facebook friends how much I freak out if S.E. Hinton replies to one of my tweets —she’s done so four times and I’ve about lost my mind EVERY TIME.)

Here are a few of those moments:

• A famous mystery writer (who for now shall remain unnamed until he outs himself) called me and spent an hour giving me advice on the writing world.
• My favorite writer in the galaxy, Lisa Unger, followed ME on Twitter. I fangirled big time over that!
• I had a writerly party this year and had to stop and do a major double take when I realized the people walking around eating my biscotti and drinking my booze were once upon a time just names on the covers of the books on my shelf. And now they are my FRIENDS?! What????
• Knowing that my two favorite authors in the entire UNIVERSE have my debut mystery novel in their hands. (I heard one has it on her nightstand —faint!) Even if they NEVER read the book or read it and don’t like it, the fact that two of the authors I admire most in the world actually have my book IN THEIR HANDS is COMPLETELY MIND BOGGLING.

So, my Made it Moment (s) are realizing that these rock star writers are in some cases my peers and in a few, very lucky case, my friends.

I’ve realized that I can’t control how my book sells — at this point all of that is out of my hands—but no matter what happens with sales, getting a book deal has granted me entrance into one of the most welcoming, warmest, and most supportive bunch of people out there. I will always be grateful to these other writers, who have opened their arms to me and made me feel like I’m one of the cool kids.

Kristi Belcamino is a writer, artist and crime reporter who also bakes a tasty biscotti. Her first novel, “Blessed are the Dead,” (HarperCollins June 2014) is inspired by her dealings with a serial killer during her life as a Bay Area crime reporter. As an award-winning crime reporter at newspapers in California, she flew over Big Sur in an FA-18 jet with the Blue Angels, raced a Dodge Viper at Laguna Seca, and watched autopsies.

Rita Plush describes something below that I think almost any emerging writer can relate to wanting to do. Only Rita Plush did it. Worked up her nerve and…really did it. With surprising effects–ones I would never have anticipated, especially in the particular scenario you’re just about to read. And it became Rita’s path to making it. What do you think? Would you have the nerve? And in the end–what do we really have to lose, when the gain just might be a Moment?

Back in the summer of 2004, after reading that Joyce Carol Oates was giving an author talk at a local library, I decided to print out the first chapter of my novel, Lily Steps Out (Penumbra Publishing 2012), enclose it in a SASE and bring it to the reading.

She’ll say NO? She’ll say NO. Nothing ventured. Nothing gained.

Off the library I went and sat through her talk, clutching my offering with sweaty hands and a pounding heart, and all the while instructing myself, DO IT! DO IT!.

Full disclosure, I was starting to chicken-out. Her presentation over, I queued up to buy her book and ask her, beg if necessary, to read my chapter. My turn came. She autographed my book. I mustered all my courage.

“Ms. Oates,” I said, “I’m a writer too and I’ve written a novel. It would mean so much to me if you would read the first chapter.”

“Oh, I can’t,” she said. “People ask me all the time. I just don’t have the time.”

“Ms. Oates,” I said. “You’re like a movie star to me.” (This is true.) “I’ve read almost all of your novels and your collections of short stories more than once.”

I could sense the impatience of the crowd behind me waiting their turn. Move it lady, someone muttered behind me, but lady didn’t move. Lady stood there citing short stories Oates had written years and years before, until finally, I heard, “Send it to me at Princeton.” Words from heaven. I flew home, called the college, got her address and ran to the post office.

About a month or so later I received this typewritten postcard:

Sept. 17. 2004
ONTARIO REVIEW PRESS
9 Honey Brook Drive
Princeton, New Jersey 08540

Dear Rita Plush,

Your story is very engagingly written. The voice is shrewd, sharp, funny, and yet tender. Perhaps the theme of the “Middle-aged housewife who becomes impatient with her life” is somewhat familiar, so it’s difficult to make such material distinction. Still this is promising, and might well make a readable and marketable novel. Good luck!

Joyce Carol Oates

I couldn’t believe it! But there it was, from her brilliant fingertips —Joyce Carol Oates, the esteemed, prolific—she has her own Book of the Month Club, and why shouldn’t she? the woman writes a book a month—the most fabulous of the fabulous, whose books I loved, whose short stories I swooned over—Joyce Carol Oates liked my chapter. She thought it PROMISING! If something could be worn out by looking at it, that postcard would be dust today.

When I knew my book was to be published, I scanned the post card onto a letter asking Ms. Oates if I could use the quote on the cover. A few weeks later I received the reply, “Of course you can. Good luck!”

And there it reads on the cover of Lily Steps Out:

“…engagingly written. The voice is shrewd, sharp, funny, and yet tender.”

My Made It Moment… brought to me by Joyce Carol Oates.

Rita Plush is an author, teacher and lecturer on the decorative arts. She is the facilitator of the Self-published Authors’ Roundtable that meets every month at the Manhasset Library in Manhasset, LI. Rita presented her talk, “Writing & Publishing in the Modern Age, or So You’ve Written a Book; Now What?” at the Limmud Conference of Jewish Learning in February, 2014. During her thirty-five years as an interior designer, Rita was the coordinator of the Interior Design/Decorating Certificate Program at Queensborough Community College and taught several courses in the program.

In many ways, writing is a leap into the abyss, and a study in audacity. I mean, come on. What allows little old us to think that by dint of sheer slashes and dots on a page, we can entice a reader to enter a world we have completely made up? Yet it happens. Time and time again, a little bit of magic in our everyday life. The ability to do this thing is a mystery–at least to me–but what certain writers have the ability to drill down to is how we find the faith to try and do it. To think that we can write a book. Cathi Stoler knows exactly what led her to dare such a feat, and it became her Made It Moment.

My “Made It Moment” came sitting at desk in an adult education course at Marymount Manhattan College in New York City. The course, entitled “How To Overcome Your Fear of Writing Your Novel”, had gotten my attention when I read the description in the school’s brochure and I convinced myself now was the right time to pursue a dream I’d had for many years.

I’d been a voracious reader since I was a very little girl and had read every Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys story I could get my hands on. As I grew older, I graduated to Ian Fleming, Sue Grafton, Joy Fielding, James Patterson, Michael Connolly and many other mystery/suspense writers, always wondering if maybe I could write a book of my own.

In my day job, I was already a writer—an advertising copywriter with many years of experience with award winning work for well-known brands. But, I realized that writing a :30 second TV commercial was a whole lot different than writing a 70,000+ word book. I didn’t know if I had it in me or if what I’d write would be any good.

So, I got my courage up and enrolled in the course. Our instructor, Alyson Richman, a wonderful writer of historical fiction, gave us an assignment each week. She’d read the work at home and pick a few pieces to share with us at the next session and class members would critique them. When she chose the first chapter of my novel to read, I told myself this was it: if it didn’t go well–if they hated it–I’d forget about writing a mystery and stick with reading them instead.

Fortunately, my classmates liked the work very much and wanted to see more. And while I know that the class’ opinion probably shouldn’t have mattered that much, it did. It gave me the encouragement to go on and complete my first novel, and since then, several others. I look back on that class and my fellow writers, two of whom became good friends and writing group cohorts, and know I would never have gotten this far without them.

Cathi Stoler’s mysteries feature P.I. Helen McCorkendale and magazine editor, Laurel Imperiole. Her first, Telling Lies, takes on the subject of stolen Nazi art. Other books in the series include, Keeping Secrets, which delves into the subject of hidden identity and The Hard Way, a story of International diamond theft. She has also published a novella, Nick of Time, and several short stories including Magda, in Criminal Element’s Malfeasance Occasional: Girl Trouble and Out of Luck, featured in the Sisters in Crime Anthology, Murder New York Style: Fresh Slices. Her story, Fatal Flaw, published at Beat to A Pulp was a finalist for the Derringer for Best Short Story. Cathi is a member of Mystery Writers of America, as well as Sisters in Crime and posts at the womenofmystery.net blog.

You know that bar? The one we keep setting for ourselves? It’s like a horizon in some ways. As soon as we believe we’ve neared it, there it goes, slipping off into the unreached trammels of our lives again. In this Moment, author Julie Lindsey talks with pain and raw honesty about how that bar can become a noose around our necks, strangling our own sense of accomplishment. It took Julie’s son to remind her, Wizard of Oz-style, that really she had made it all along. And you know what? Julie’s son reminded me of that, too.

My made it moment came in September when my 10 year old son asked to take a copy of my new release, Deceived, to show his teacher. That book is prettier than my others. It’s a young adult suspense novel. It’s hardcover with a fancy black jacket. There’s a picture of me in the back. All the things I’d dreamed of, but none of that impressed me because I was too busy seeing all the things I hadn’t accomplished. Then, my son who has zero interest in reading the book, asked to show it to his teacher. My heart collapsed. It was a moment I’ll never forget and one I hold onto in the other, tougher times of author life. This is the moment that I realized I made it.

As an only child and dogged over-achiever, I’m driven to reach goals. All goals. When I made writing for publication a goal, I had no idea I was shooting for the impossible. I may as well have decided to move to LA and become an actress. I know that now. I didn’t then. Couple the reality with my personality and I was all set for tears and disappointment. And they came. Regularly.

In the beginning, I thought finding an agent would be when I knew I really made it. I found an agent. It wasn’t the moment I’d expected. She still had to sell my book. That made me nervous so I targeted a small press, hoping for a contract so I could learn, work with an editor and maybe gain a readership. I landed a contract with the small press soon after. Made it moment? Not really. The contract was for a novella. I wanted print. I wrote more for that press. I now have three novels in print with this press, plus three novellas. Made it? Not really. They were a small press. Meanwhile, my agent found a home for my YA and I signed a contract with Merit Press for Deceived. Made it? No. Merit Press got me invited to book events, put on panels, reviewed by the big guns. Made it? Not really. ARCs came. Made it? No. Author copies arrived! Made it? Not really. It’s on bookstore shelves! I have a theatrical-style trailer! Made it? Nah. Deceived wasn’t in most stores. Sales weren’t what I expected. Editorial reviews were lukewarm. The bar in my mind kept raising out of reach. Then, I signed a three book contract with Carina Press (a digital imprint of Harlequin) for a cozy mystery series. Made it? I didn’t know. At that point, I’d worked myself into a funk.

You see, when I look back at all the moments that I thought would matter, they didn’t. They came and went in a haze of “meh.” And I did that to myself. My eyes weren’t on the real point of publishing – or life – anymore, so all the milestones I ran toward seemed insignificant once I arrived.

And then, September.

My son asked to take my book to school and show his teacher. Poof. Everything else fell away. He was proud of me.

It was a much needed moment of clarity.

I’d “made it” the moment I decided to write a novel and then saw it through. I wrote a freaking NOVEL. Who does that? How many people have lots of great ideas for a novel and never begin. Or never finish? Too many. But I did it. I set a goal and I accomplished it. And my kids were watching. They saw me chase a dream. They saw my efforts pay off. Saw that anything is possible. Learned hard work and determination can take you anywhere. My kids don’t care how much money I make or what reviewers think. All they know is their mom is an author and she loves what she does. They’re proud of me. Without even trying, I taught them a priceless life lesson. Go after your dreams. They are attainable. All the other author-life hoopla is just noise. There’s always another goal lingering just out of reach, but focusing on that meant missing what I already had.

My kid taught me that.

Julie Anne Lindsey is a multi-genre author who writes the stories that keep her up at night. She’s a self-proclaimed nerd with a penchant for words and proclivity for fun. Julie lives in rural Ohio with her husband and three small children. Today, she hopes to make someone smile. One day she plans to change the world.

Murder Comes Ashore is a sequel in her new mystery series, Patience Price, Counselor at Large, from Carina Press.

Lately I’ve been reading the Moments with music. It makes sense, I suppose. Both artistic expressions, words telling a story. When you read Susan Sundwall’s words, I dare you not to cry. Not because it’s sad but because it’s beautiful. This run we’re all on, right? Each of us seeking to tell and share our story. Sure, the years do slip away, as Susan so poignantly notes–and Jimmy Buffet does too in this song. But look what we can achieve along the way!

I was in the airport waiting to board a plane with my new husband. As we happily discussed our future I, full of the ridiculous confidence of youth, said, “I will be a writer.” I wanted to assure him that I would be no slouch of a wife – I had a dream.

Then forty years went by at Mach 5 and I found myself sitting at work staring at a computer screen wondering what the devil had happened. Life happened, that’s what. Kids and critters happened, jobs and houses and in-laws happened. The dream had gone underground.

Oh, there were some tattered remnants of it along the way. Classes, contests, stinky novels under the bed. And then one day I wrote a story for a family newsletter – a Christmas story about a little sparrow. It met with such rave reviews I gave it to our pastor to read during the children’s service. It met with rave reviews.

The dream glimmered in the mist. And there I sat staring at the computer screen wondering what the Sam hill I was waiting for (for those under thirty that’s really old fashioned cussing). I decided to go seeking online. I needed to know what I was up against. Turned out the world was overflowing with writer wannabes and needy me befriended some of them.

New vistas opened up for me then. I wrote and sold to small markets. Each acceptance goaded me on. I landed a lucrative assignment for a writer’s guide. I got praise for my humerous essays and children’s stories. But the book was the thing. Yeah, you know what I’m talking about. The book you just know will strike a cord in a half million readers if only you could get it out there. I forged on – and on.

Landing a publishing contract is no small feat and if it takes ten years, like with my book, it can be discouraging. Suddenly you have great sympathy for Sisyphus. But then that bright, gasping, beautiful day comes when someone sees your book like you do, and you’re offered a contract. And ten months later you find yourself signing book after book at your launch where almost sixty people come to buy your book and congratulate you.

And when it was over, forty years dropped away at Mach 5, and the young girl inside whispered, “Hey, writer, I think you’ve made it.”

Thank you so much, Jenny, for letting me tell it!

Susan Sundwall and her husband live in a one hundred and fifty year old house on four lumpy bumpy acres lined with pine trees in Columbia County, New York. Her work has appeared in several anthologies including two stories in the popular Chicken Soup for the Soul books. Many of her poems, essays, and articles on writing have also been published. Her first mystery,The Red Shoelace Killer – A Minnie Markwood Mystery, was published in 2012. Her second book in the series is written and she has high hopes of hitting some bestseller list sometime, somewhere, in any country, and in this century.