A JOURNEY OF FIFTEEN YEARS #IWSG

It's time for another Insecure Writer's Support Group blog posting. IWSG was created by the awesome ninja captain Alex J. Cavanaugh, and you can find a list of all the other members of the group here ( Insecure Writer’s Support Group! )

 His awesome co-hosts today are Tamara Narayan, Tonja Drecker, Ellen @ The Cynical Sailor, Lauren @ Pensuasion, Stephen Tremp, and Julie Flanders!

 

Question(s) for today's #IWSG posting: What was your very first piece of writing as an aspiring writer? Where is it now? Collecting dust or has it been published?

 

After I retired from my "real job" at the end of 2009, I followed through on my 1998 goal to write and publish a mystery series. Back in the 20th century, I had little idea how to write a full novel. But, considering the countless number of mystery novels I had read over the years, my goal didn't feel daunting.

 

The first chapter of the first draft of my first Pepper Bibeau mystery saw the light of day in 1998. Over the next decade and a half, I delved into the mechanics of researching and writing a full novel, finding an editor, composing query letters, and most importantly, accepting rejection of my work. I did fairly well with the first three. The rejection thing was and is a bit harder to master.

 

This first novel went through a large number of drafts. The cover experienced several title changes, also, from SHADOW of A WOMAN: 

 

 

to SOMETHING ABOUT URSULA and QUESTIONABLE CLAIMS, and then to

 

 

 

and finally, FOR EVERY ACTION There Are Consequences:

 

 

 

Along the way, my insecurities waxed and waned. But they never fully morphed into confidence. Had I held the courage of my convictions, I may not have followed the advice of so many "experts" in the field, changing, altering, and editing the story along the way.

My original idea survived, however. After multiple (to the nth power) query submissions with varying degrees of "thank you, ma'am" rejections, I self-published my novel through CreateSpace. For me, for my goals, this was the perfect avenue of publication.

 

Now my insecurities are more in the form of marketing!!!