“How can I get started in novel writing?” Someone recently asked me this question, and my mind swam with a myriad of thoughts and questions. Such an elementary question forced me to stomp on my mental brakes and flash back about thirty years to the days when I filled notebooks with all sorts of strange tales with my childlike, loopy handwriting. What the questioner really wanted to know was, How can I publish novels? But the answer to that question—and what a big question it is—is only part of the journey. So let’s start at the beginning. Before anyone should seriously pursue novel publication in any formal sense, I believe he or she should first ask the following five questions: 1. Do I love fiction? To be a great writer of fiction, you must first be a great lover of it. I firmly believe that. You’ll need extraordinary perseverance not…
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It is nose-numbing winter near Flint, Michigan. There’s a reason why it’s been called one of the murder capitals of the world. More murders are committed there than even Baghdad. I zip up, push my way through double doors, and leave the elementary school behind, carefully guiding my booted feet down ice-slick steps. The subzero wind chafes my cheeks and stings my eyes until they swim. If had looked at myself in a mirror, rosy cheeks would have glowed back at me. But I don’t seek a mirror. I’m not really sure what I’m looking for. Or where I’m going. Maybe I’m not really going anywhere. Wait. Yes, I am. I turn right and head toward . . . Snow. Dunes of it everywhere. All across the playground. Remnants of the latest storm. I come up short. Staining the snow at my feet pools red Kool-Aid. Lot of it. Something tells…
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When I look back at my childhood and evaluate what ignited the first spark of interest in writing mystery/suspense fiction, Hardy Boys books come to mind. In fact, for quite a while, those hardcover books were practically an obsession for me. They are so closely connected to the biggest joys of my childhood that I can’t even look at one without a lump forming in my throat. During the seventies I found them at Toys “R” Us and our Hudson’s department store for $2.50 each. I’d save up my allowance from weeding the garden and study the list of books inside the back cover, wanting to buy just the right one. I was never disappointed. I remember lying on my back at one end of our pop-up camper, engrossed in the latest caper. There I’d read for hours. Lost in another world. Trying to guess what the ending might be.…
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See Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5. #6: Once my novel is accepted, my publisher will take care of the rest. The “rest” as in . . . what exactly? The printing? Yes, you don’t need to worry about that. The editing? For the most part, though you will be involved in final edits of some kind. Perhaps even a revision. And of course you’ll have a last look before the printing. The marketing? No, not all of it. This truth was one of the biggest surprises for me. After my first novel was accepted, I was amazed by how much I was expected to do myself. Once upon a time, authors could (for the most part) write their books and not worry too much about marketing. Those days are long past, especially after this nasty economy walloped the publishing world across the side of the head. Publishers must work extra…
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