Welcome to this year’s A to Z April Challenge Blog. As I did last year, this year’s blog will focus on aspects of writing. Last year, I wrote about the various literary devices, and how I used them in my writing. This year, I intend to focus on other areas of the craft, including finding ideas, creating a voice, writing the story, editing and re-editing, marketing, and all the other minutia of growing as an author.
The one thing I’ve learned in my career is that the writing part is actually the easiest, the marketing is by far the hardest, and like the writing environment itself, I’m constantly changing and evolving. When I first decided I wanted to be a writer, there were no computers. I typed my poems and short stories on a manual typewriter, eventually moving up to an electric one, and then later an old Commodore 64 with a dot matrix printer. Needless to say, I never finished anything particularly terrific back then, although I did write children’s stries for our local newspaper.
Life got in the way of my goal to be a published author. I went to university, graduated, got married, started a family and enjoyed the luxury of being a stay-at-home mom for ten years, where I read voraciously in what little spare time I had, never giving up on the idea of being a writer myself. Once the children were all in school, , worked as a teacher, primarily focused on English and literacy.
In the last ten years of my teaching career, I decided to try my hand at writing again and was selected to write and create educational material for the Ministry of Educaction. I loved it and when it was over, I decided to try my hand at writing fiction. By now we had computers and the Internet. I retired in 2010 and found a website for weekly flash fiction. From that, I decided to try my hand at writing a book. I found a call for romance suspense novels and wrote my first book. I sent it in. It didn’t make the cut. Was I discouraged? Damn right, but then a friend convinced me to submit to a new publisher. I did. They rejected the first manuscript but were willing to look at it again if I revised it. I made the changes they wanted and published Fire Angel in April of 2013.
My original idea for the book came from a series of unexplained and unsolved arson cases in our area. To this day, the police have never charged anyone with the crime that saw farmers lose not only their barns and outbuildings but several heads of catttle.
In my story, I envisioned a pyromaniac with a grudge and two people who’d never quite been a couple in the past, but both with their own baggage. When they meet again, those sparks fly, but there’s someone out there using fire as a weapon and it’s up to them to find him and stop him before someone else dies. I submitted the book, edited it according to instructions, and while the book did well for me, it wasn’t the story I’d wanted it to be. Why? Becauser the published only allowed for two points of view–the hero and the heroine. Added to that, there needed to be more romance than suspense.
Long story short, after several nasty experiences with traditional publishers, I was able to cut my ties and get my rights back. That’s when I decided to only publish my work myself. I found a cover artist and she designed a new cover for the book.
Having written and published several books since 2013, I revised the manuscript of Fire Angel, and made it part of a set with a common theme. This time, as I’d originally intended, I included the Fire Angel’s point of view, giving his reasoning, and allowing the reader a peek inside his deranged mind. I added more suspects, just to make it harder for the reader to identify the villain, a bit more detail to the arsons themselves, and gave the book a far more detailed and satisfying ending. While there was more suspense than romance, I found the story to be so much better than the original one, with a definite psychological component that truly showed how people can be shaped and twisted by their environment. But, when all is said and done, love can overcome any obstacle.
During the month of April, I will be blogging daily to give you more insight into my life as an author. Hope you’ll come along for the journey.
You can check out other bloggers and their themes here: https://tinyurl.com/mv4nhbmj
Preheat your oven to 375°F (190°C). Grease a muffin tin.
In a large bowl, mix together all the meatloaf ingredients until well combined.
Press the meatloaf mixture into the muffin tin cups, filling each to the top.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the meatloaf is cooked through and the tops are browned.
While the meatloaf bakes, boil the potatoes in salted water until tender, about 15-20 minutes.
Drain the potatoes and mash them with milk, butter, salt, and pepper until smooth and creamy.
Once the meatloaf cupcakes are done, let them cool slightly and then remove them from the tin.
Pipe or spoon the mashed potato “frosting” on top of each meatloaf cupcake.
Garnish with fresh chives or parsley before serving.
Living the Dream 