This is my first attempt at blogging so please bear with me. I am hoping to be more informative and interesting as time goes on.
For years I have desired to write a novel but either the job(s), or family, or other necessities of life precluded any dedicated effort. Then earlier this year when the Covid-19 pandemic led to a full blown shut-down of society, my practice as a Private Investigator came to a screeching halt. I had already dropped the writing of a novel from my bucket list as it was now so unlikely. But for some reason in the second week of March I leafed through an old Writer’s Digest Yearbook which was filled with articles dedicated to “Novel Writing.” It laid out all the basics of a novel, had inspirational passages to motivate, and since I had absolutely nothing to do…I began writing. Working 4-5 hours a day from March 16th through May 18th, with only two non-writing days, I finished a 316 page, 76,000 word novel.
I was pretty proud of myself. So much so, that I went through several reams of three-holed paper and printed up four copies of “the book” which was so cleverly named “The Coterie.” I handed it out to friends and family to read and review. I almost forced it on one or two people. Then the reviews came in. It was a great story that moved along well, but there were many, many spelling and grammar mistakes. And nobody knew what a coterie was. Then I figured out that if nobody was drawn to the book because they didn’t understand the title – then it was a bad title. So as I examined the theme of the story and looked for simplicity, I realized that there could only be one word that summed up everything, “Motive.”
That brings me to the current predicament. I found out that writing the dang book was the easy part. Now I am looking for an agent or a publisher. I am finding out about query letters and rejection emails. And I am finding out who my friends truly are and how generous other writers are with the advice and support they offer. This seems to be an uphill battle with a catch-22 rule book. But I am told that every query letter will be an improvement over the last one sent, and even some of the rejection notices give encouragement and hope. And the most recent crucial advice received from a fellow crime novelist was for me to join several writer’s associations, which she recommended, as well as establishing a social media presence, and to create a website blog. So, here I am, and I will keep you informed of my persistence and little successes. Hopefully, in the not too distant future I will be able to tell you who is going to publish Motive and when it will hit the market.