Writing fiction is a journey with no foreseeable end in sight. You tell yourself at the beginning that this is a craft you will never master, that you will always be learning. But like every writer I know, I accept, even embrace it.
My journey began over 15 years ago. I enrolled in a writing class at a local college where I tentatively put pen to paper. With my new found confidence I attended a “Of Dark & Stormy Nights” writer’s conference sponsored by the Midwest chapter of Mystery Writers of America. I had my short story critiqued by an author/member of the chapter. He told me I had a ‘way with words’. Yes, girl you can write. But cautioned, the road is not an easy one. Nevertheless I have been hooked on murder ever since.
I began by writing short stories. One story in particular, “On Patrol”, was published in a western fiction magazine. The editor asked for more stories about the hero, Garrett Lyons. As lover of Chicago History and architecture, I decided to expand the Lyons’ character from the short story into a full-length novel – a novel about Chicago’s efforts at rebuilding and rebirth after the Great Fire, which resulted in its “Golden Age of Architecture” and included of course, love – revenge and murder. The result is “What Price Honor”.
Follow