Guest post: "What the hell am I going to do now?" by mystery author Margaret Fenton

In 2007, my big bucket-list dream came true.  I was at Killer Nashville (a great conference by the way) and I had written this mystery called Little Lamb Lost.  I loved my protagonist; a sharp, witty social worker named Claire Conover who gets to work one summer day and a little client of hers is dead.   He’s nearly three, and his mother Ashley has worked so hard to get sober and get her life together and get custody of him again.  When the police arrest her for his murder, Claire can’t believe it, so she investigates.

            Sounds great, right?  Killer Nashville offered the opportunity to talk to an agent or an editor for extra money, and I chose the agent and pitched to her.  She HATED it.  That’s right, in capital letters hated it.  Couldn’t see who in the world would publish it, it was so bad.

            I went to the bar and ordered the largest gin and tonic you can imagine. I’m halfway through it when Don Bruns comes over to me and asked how it went.  Slightly buzzed, I explained not well.  He found the rep from Oceanview Publishing and brought her to the bar so I could pitch to her.  Boy, that was sloppy, but she wanted to see it.  I got home and mailed her a copy and within a couple of months I had a contract.  And a fantasy.  Now I had a publishing house, and an editor, and they were going to publish my series and help the books get better and better and help me get a lot of readers.

            Nope.

            I wrote the second book and sent it off.  Somewhere in space and time, Oceanview decided they were only going to publish thrillers.  Can you make it a thriller?  I tried, but I don’t write thrillers. Little Girl Gone is solidly in the category of an amateur sleuth mystery. They passed on it.  That was tough, because I still love these characters and I love this book.  And the question was, what the hell am I going to do now?  The fantasy was dead.

            I sat on this book for a long time.  Like years, while struggling with the question of what to do.  Find an agent?  My stomach churned at the thought.  I was published already, dammit, and the days of query letters were supposed to be over. I could do it myself, I thought.  Become a self-published author with all the baggage and assumptions that go along with that.  Back and forth, back and forth.

            Then I decided I would do it myself.  Author J.A. Konrath brags on this company that can do the formatting for you and I hired them.  They are just as wonderful as he said.  My sweet brother designed the cover for me and it’s just what I wanted.  I’ve hired a publicist now, and that’s the best decision ever.

            So what’s different?  I’ve been told that I’m a hybrid author.  I like that term.  I’m lucky enough to have the resources to do this and not have to worry about earning the money back, because I don’t think I ever will.  I care about recruiting readers, not earning a living.  Like I said, I’m really lucky.  I miss having a team at the publisher, but I still have a team.  I just pay them now instead.  The worst part of being self-published is the conferences and bookstores that want nothing to do with you, although Books a Million is taking steps to change this.  I didn’t get on a panel at Bouchercon this year, and there was no place to really pitch my books.  I’m glad I had a publisher for the first book, and wouldn’t change that for the world.  It’s an Amazon bestseller, by the way.

            So what’s next? I’m writing the third book in the series.  Little White Lies.  I have control over everything:  the meat of the book, the cover, and the formatting.  That’s really nice.  There are readers out there that have yet to discover Claire and crew and I look forward to hearing from them.  You can reach me through my website at www.margaretfenton.com.

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Title: Little Girl Gone

Genre: Mystery

Author: Margaret Fenton

Website: www.margaretfenton.com

Find out more on Amazon

About the Book:

When Little Girl Gone opens, it’s September in Birmingham, Alabama, and Claire Conover is steeling herself. September—with its oppressive, unwelcome heat, back-to-school newness worn off, and skyrocketing reports of abuse and neglect—is a time of year Claire has come to dread.  As the crime rate increases, so increases the work load for Claire and the Jefferson County Department of Human Services Child Welfare Division. Seems this year is no exception.

 

When she takes into custody a 13-year-old girl found sleeping behind a grocery store, Claire is swept up in a case that turns out to be far more complicated, and far more dangerous, than initially meets the eye. Struggling to piece together the young girl’s identity, Claire finds herself with few answers and no shortage of questions.  Is the young girl a runaway?  An abuse victim?  Or something else?   But things go from bad to worse when the young girl’s mother is found murdered—and then the girl disappears.  Claire soon discovers that the mother was involved in an illegal gambling industry in Birmingham.  But even with this clue, the case becomes more complicated.  Could the young girl have pulled the trigger?  Is that even possible?  And where could she have run?  Did she run at all? In the midst of all the questions, only one thing is certain: Claire has to find the answers, and the girl, fast.

A swiftly paced, suspenseful, and shocking story, Little Girl Gone earns Margaret Fenton a solid spot among today’s best mystery writers.  Masterful plotting, extraordinary character development, and a pulse racer of a plot combine to create an extraordinary mystery resplendent with twists, turns, and surprises.  An unforgettable story informed by Fenton’s near decade of experience as a social worker, Little Girl Gone also shines a light on the plight of at risk children and the dedication of those tireless and compassionate workers who serve them.  A stellar entry into what Booklist hailed “a promising new series,” Little Girl Gone is mesmerizing.

The Writing Life with Mystery Author Joseph B. Atkins

Joseph B. Atkins is a native North Carolinian who worked on tobacco farms and in textile mills in his youth, served with the U.S. Army in Vietnam, and studied philosophy in Munich, Germany. A veteran journalist, he worked at several newspapers in the South and as a congressional correspondent in Washington, D.C., before becoming a professor of journalism at the University of Mississippi. Atkins is author of Covering for the Bosses, a book about the Southern labor movement and journalists’ failure to tell its story. His fiction has appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and Hardboiled, and his novella, Crossed Roads, was a finalist in the Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Awards in New Orleans.

What’s inside the mind of a crime novel author?

I think of my novel as more than a crime novel, but that’s a genre that fits as much as anything else. You write because you have a story to tell and characters you’d like to introduce to the world. I had written an earlier, unpublished novel that included several characters who are very important in this now-published novel. It’s so wonderful to be able to have other people get to know them like I have. I encountered a reader recently who must have not only read but studied the novel, and he probed me about little details, the whys and the wherefores. I told him, “You’re a writer’s dream.”

What is so great about being an author?

I answered this in part in the last question, but I’ll add that it’s a special moment when you’ve crafted a scene or shaped a character and somehow know it’s right, that you’ve written something that, as someone once said, “needed to have been written.” An author wants to be able to add to the human experience, to leave something worthy using whatever skills or gifts he or she may have. That’s what we all want, whether we write for a living or make chairs.

When do you hate it?

I don’t know that I ever hate it, but making yourself sit down and actually get started is often the toughest. You find a thousand excuses to get back up out of your chair and do this, tidy that, and so on. That’s why I record the time I start and when I finish each day. It’s like punching the clock. Once it’s punched, you’re on the boss’s time!

What is a regular writing day like for you?

When I’m into a writing project, I want to write everyday. Mornings are best. I’m freshest and have the most energy. I’ll write a couple hours, or more on a good day, then come back in the afternoon to do some editing, fixing this or that. I have written many evenings with a glass of bourbon nearby. The next morning, however, I’m usually having to undo the damage I did the night before!

Do you think authors have big egos? Do you?

Gosh, you’ve got to have some ego to withstand the slings and arrows of editors, publishers, and rejection slips! Yes, I happen to think I’m a damned good writer, and, of course, I want others to agree and I’m disappointed if they don’t! I’ve been knocked down on the floor countless times and had to pick myself up, dust myself off, and go at it again. It seems I’ve had to fight and scrap every step of the way, and it takes a certain amount of ego not to give up and to keep at it.

How do you handle negative reviews?

I try to learn from them if there’s something there to learn. I’ve had some excellent reviews, and I’ve had some that cut deep. One reviewer of a past book of mine wrote as if she’d simply wished I’d have written another book. I dismissed that review without a thought or worry. I wrote the book I wanted, had, to write. Let her write the book she wants written!

How do you handle positive reviews?

Who doesn’t love to read nice things about yourself? Of course, don’t let it go to your head. Hemingway once wrote that the writer “grows in public stature as he sheds his loneliness and often his work deteriorates.” Praise can be damning after a while, so enjoy it but don’t marry it and end up being miserable.

What is the usual response when you tell a new acquaintance that you’re an author?

I don’t bring it up or talk about it usually unless someone asks. I don’t go around saying, “I’m a writer.” Let others discover that, and when they do, they’re generally interested to know more. Many, perhaps most, people want to be a writer—what’s the cliché? “We all have a book in us”? (I believe we actually do)—it’s just that most don’t want to do what sportswriter Red Smith once said you have to do, “Sit down in front of your typewriter and open a vein.”

What do you do on those days you don’t feel like writing? Do you force it or take a break?

Sometimes it’s good to step back and refuel. I think a writer needs to write every day, but some days things just aren’t going to click and if you force it you’re not going to accomplish much. Stepping back from your desk can be a good thing. Often you’ll come back with a vengeance that next day (or next week).

Any writing quirks?

I like to be organized, to treat it like it’s a day job, and I’ve got my tasks to accomplish. I keep a writing journal, jotting down faithfully the date, when I start, and when I finish. I also keep a calendar on the wall next to my desk, and I mark in a red-colored square how many hours I wrote on that particular day. When I get to the end of the month, I can look at that calendar and see how diligent I’ve been those last 30 days. Lots of red, I feel good. Not lots of red, I feel bad.

What would you do if people around you didn’t take your writing seriously or see it as

a hobby?

Any writer wants readers, wants appreciation, respect. All of us humans want those last two. Still, you’ve got to be in touch with your inner self, your soul, know yourself, and take yourself seriously. If you do, others sooner or later pick up on that and follow suit.

Some authors seem to have a love-hate relationship to writing. Can you relate? 

Writers love to gripe and grown. I read once that it’s better to have written than to write. If you are a writer, you don’t really have much of a choice. You have to write. Not writing is not an option. It’s your work, your mission, your ministry, your calling or whatever you want to call it. And like with everything else, you’ll love it but maybe not everything about it.

Do you think success as an author must be linked to money?

I’m of the European mindset that art cannot be reduced to the bottom line. Is that un-American? The musician, photographer, and author Tav Falco, an Arkansan now living in Vienna, Austria, told me recently that one thing he loves about Europe is that “money and profits are not the defining criteria” of art, whether that art is music, painting or writing. I’m not eschewing the importance of money. Wish I had more! However, I don’t obsess about it either.

What had writing taught you?

Humility! In all seriousness, you’ve got to work at this thing. It takes a lot of spit and polish. We all need editors—we’re too much in the thick of things often to see the trees for the forest—and we can’t let rejection or just plain bad luck or simple unfairness sidetrack us or keep us down. I know when something’s worthy when I send it off. I just have that feeling. It’s something I’ve learned. In earlier times, I would send off a story, thinking with a little luck, maybe this will slip through. No way. I would never do that now. I don’t send anything off now unless I know I’ve done everything I possibly could to make this story the best I can make it. I can’t take it any further. Let another pair of eyes now see it and tell me how it can be even better.

Leave us with some words of wisdom.

Gosh, I’ve shared so much wisdom already! What can I add? Well, I’ll add this. After the writing’s done, and lo and behold, you got that little gem published, guess what? Your work is not done. Now fight for that baby you’ve given birth to. Fight to make it survive and thrive in this cruel world. I’ve published three books thus far, and I fought like a mother bear for all three of them, wrestling with publishers to do their best by them, with bookstores, newspapers, magazines, and other venues to get the word out and let people know. I’ve reached into my rolodexes and phone lists and made use of contacts, friends, connections, mild acquaintances to get them on board if I can, trying not to be a pest, but also not wanting to miss out on an opportunity to do something good for my baby!

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Title: Casey’s Last Chance

Genre: crime novel

Author: Joseph B. Atkins

Website: https://www.facebook.com/caseyslastchancebyjosephatkins

Publisher: Sartoris Literary Group

Purchase on Amazon

About the Book:

Casey's Last Chance takes the reader into a treacherous, race-torn South that’s ready to explode with civil rights workers challenging an organized resistance itching for combat. The central character, Casey Eubanks, is a small-time North Carolina hustler on the run after an argument with his girlfriend Orella leaves his cousin dead. A crony steers him to a big operator in Memphis, Max Duren, a shadowy former Nazi with a wide financial network. Duren hires Casey to do a hit on labor organizer Ala Gadomska, who is stirring up trouble at one of Duren’s mills. Things go wrong, and Casey’s on the run again, this time from Duren’s goons as well as the cops. Enter Martin Wolfe, a freelance reporter investigating Duren’s operation. He tries to solicit Casey to help him and FBI agent Hardy Beecher bring Duren down. Casey dumps Wolfe, steals his car, and returns home to Orella. A bloody shootout with a Duren goon, however, convinces Casey to join Wolfe and Beecher. It’s Casey’s last chance. The three take off back across the South to execute a plan to destroy Duren. Everything works until the explosive end, when no one can escape unscathed.