Synopsis:
Rosalie Hart returns to the sleepy town of Cardigan on Maryland’s Eastern Shore in this delightful traditional cozy mystery series filled with to-die-for recipes and small-town charm.
Rosalie Hart has finally opened the café of her dreams. Decked out with ochre-tinted walls and stocked with delicious organic fare, the Day Lily Café is everything Rosalie could have hoped for. But not five minutes into the grand opening, Doris Bird, a dear and trusted friend, cashes in on a favor—to help clear her little sister Lori of a first-degree murder charge.
With the help of her best friend and head waiter Glenn, Rosalie is on the case. But it’s not going to be easy. Unlikable and provocative, murder victim Carl James Fiddler seems to have insulted nearly everyone in town, and the suspect list grows daily. When Rosalie’s daughter Annie gets caught in the crossfire, the search for the killer becomes personal in this charming cozy perfect for fans of Dianne Mott Davidson and Joanne Fluke.
Wendy Sand Eckel is the author of Murder at Barclay Meadow, the first in the Rosalie Hart mystery series set on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. A member of the Mystery Writers of America, she has degrees in criminology and social work and a passion for words and their nuanced meanings. Death at the Day Lily Café, the second in this series, will be released by Minotaur Books July 26, 2016.
A
few lessons learned on the road to getting published
Now
that the first two novels in my Rosalie Hart mystery series have been
published, Murder
at Barclay Meadow
and Death
at the Day Lily Café,
I realize I have learned a few lessons from all those scraped knees
and left hooks to my self esteem it took to get there.
Don’t
let rejection distract you from the goal line.
It
takes sheer stubbornness and a little bit of knuckleheadness to keep
the faith that you will one day be published. It took years before
Murder
at Barclay Meadow was
ready for prime time.
I
attended conference, writer workshops, joined a critique group, and
read everything I could get my hands on regarding how to get
published. But I hadn’t
learned the first lesson.
Write
a really good book.
You
can pitch and cajole all you want, but sometimes you just have to
accept that you need to give the book another go. At every pitch
event, workshop, you name it, everyone had an opinion on what I
should change, what was wrong, how I needed a hook. At first my
hackles would flare up. It’s
good enough, I thought. And then I started to take in what they were
saying.
Once I found my agent, we spent six months editing and tweaking and
polishing what I thought was a finished product before he shopped it
to publishers. And when we found a home at Minotaur, I worked with my
editor for another six months to get the book in tip top shape. And
that included cutting 11,000 words. Which leads to the next.
Listen
to your critics.
Unless
they hate you for some other personal vendetta, there are pearls of
wisdom in the most unlikely places. People often say, what was that
like for you to have to edit so much? Didn’t
you get defensive? And the answer is, no. I can honestly say their
advice was spot on and every pass made it better. I’ve
learned a lot about myself through this process. About my character
and tenacity. But the biggest lesson is . . .
Listen.
Listening
is a practiced skill. But the rewards are immense. Listening requires
being in the moment, opening up to learning, breathing, and staying
quiet. I recently read an article that said the best negotiating tool
is silence. Stillness brings good things. And allowing myself to open
up to suggestions has made me smarter and a much better writer.
That
was the first book.
While
Murder
at Barclay Meadow
was at the presses, it was time to write the second in the series,
Death
at the Day Lily Café.
After three months of hard work I was able to deliver what I thought
was a pretty good first draft.
“The
mystery doesn’t
work,” my
editor said. “Everything
else is great. Oh, and I need the rewrite in two months.”
Two
months? And I have to rewrite the entire mystery???
At
a book event in Arlington, VA, I shard the spotlight with Ellen
Crosby, a lovely woman who is the author of the very successful
Virginia wine country cozy mystery series. When the topic of writing
the second book came up, she looked at me with a kind smile. She had
already written seven in her series. “The
first book can take you as long as you want. The second is like
getting shot out of a cannon.”
Survive
the Cannon Launch.
To
quote ET, “It’s
reality, Greg.”
As
much as I got to massage and rewrite the first book at my leisure,
that ship had sailed. I had a deadline and I was frozen in fear of
failure.
Listening
to NPR one day in my car, I was lucky to hear John Grisham discuss
his writing process. After turning up the volume, I listened closely.
Apparently Mr. Grisham rises early and goes to his desk immediately.
He writes for six hours each day. With his habits and diligence he
can knock out a novel every six months. He spends the next six months
promoting. And on January 1, he is back at his desk.
At
that same event in Arlington, Ellen Crosby answered a similar
question about writing habits. Apparently she gets up before her
family each morning and has a word count minimum. Once she hits that
number, she goes about her day.
Wow,
I thought. Cannon launching. I could never do that. When it is time
for me to write, I’m
like a dog who needs to circle several times before settling in. I
need my house to be clean, my bills to be paid, all surfaces clear to
avoid distraction. Once I’m
in the zone I’m
good to go. But sometimes that doesn’t
kick in until 7:00 PM. Which leads to the next lesson.
Know
thyself.
And
go with it. Don’t
fight the process and don’t
feel guilty for not being John Grisham. One of the perks of being a
writer is I get to go to work in my slippers. If I write until 1:00
AM, then I have put in a full day’s
work.
And
yes, all ye hermits, don’t
forget the book promotion. Once you’re
lucky enough to get published, you have to replace the slippers with
pumps and a broad perky smile. Don’t
get me wrong, I like meeting people, it’s
the self promotion that makes me uncomfortable. I could sell you a
used car, but how do you sell yourself?
When
I asked my friends to attend yet another event, I started to quote a
line from Gladiator. “The
time for honoring yourself will soon be at an end.”
I
hoped that would put them at ease. Or maybe the purpose was to put me
at ease.
Surprisingly,
no one grew tedious with my marketing efforts. They were excited for
me and beyond supportive. I guess when you work this hard and have
something worth sharing, it’s
okay to ask people to give it a look. Humility is lovely. But it
doesn’t
mean you can’t
sell books.
So
when I asked my editor what it takes to get a third book deal, she
said, sell this one. And then I can be back in my slippers? I have
learned to embrace my inner John Grisham from January through June.
Now it’s
time to work on the second half of the year. And so . . .
Have
fun with the book promotion. And your readers will too.
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