Women Writers, Women's Books: Judy Penz Sheluk: From Pink Slip to Published Author

 Women Writers, Women's Books: Judy Penz Sheluk: From Pink Slip to Published Author

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Guest Post: Judy Penz Sheluk on "Writing The Book Inside Your Head"

Back in August, Judy gave us all some advice on “Becoming A Professional Writer.” She is back today on the topic of “Writing The Book Inside Your Head.”

Judy Penz Sheluk: Writing The Book Inside Your Head

This past summer, I was invited to speak at a local creative writing group. The invitation came with the hope that I’d give the members some insight into writing and getting published. I was happy to accept. My blog is largely devoted to the writing life, and I’ve been very honest about my own journey, from hope to heartbreak to happiness. Besides, there’s always the off chance that someone in the group will purchase a book from me.As is the case with most groups, there was one member (herein fictitiously named Grace) who overshadowed the rest with questions, comments and running dialogue. I like to categorize these people as “Well, enough about me. Here’s more about me.” Here’s how it went:

Grace: I’m writing a novel about my uncle during the Second World War. He escaped POW camp by being taken in by nuns and living in a convent.

Me: That sounds interesting. How far have you gotten with it?

[Other members shift in their seats and study their hands.]

Grace: I’ve written the first chapter.

Another member (let’s call him Bob): Grace has been writing and rewriting that first chapter for six months.

Grace (defensive): The first chapter has to be perfect, or no agent or publisher will read on.

Me: That’s true. But you need to have a finished novel before you can start querying agents and publishers.

Grace: But I have the entire book written in my head.

[More seat shifting. Clearly this group has heard it all before.]

Me (trying to be tactful): Here’s the thing, Grace. No one can read the book inside your head. You have to just write it.

That stopped Grace, but only for a moment. Her next worry was whether or not to use her uncle’s real name, or make one up.

Me: Is this a biography?

Grace: No, I’m using things that happened in his life, but he’s dead now, so I have to make most of it up.

Me: So it’s going to be a work of fiction?

Grace: Yes, but I’ll be including some real facts.

Bob: We’ve all told her to change his name. You always see that at the front of a novel. That the names and places are from the author’s imagination.

Me: I have to agree with Bob. It’s better to make up a name. You can always credit your uncle in the acknowledgements. Besides, real incidents and people influence authors all the time.

Grace: I don’t think I can write the book without using his real name. That’s the name I’ve been using all along.

Me: In the book that’s been written inside your head.

Grace nodded.

Thankfully our time was up.

Did Grace buy one of my books? Of course not. But two other members did, and one came to my local bookstore signing the following Saturday and bought a book there. You just never know…as for Grace, I’m pretty sure she’s still writing that book inside her head.

Do you have a writing group story you’d like to share?

Synopsis for Skeletons in the Attic

What goes on behind closed doors doesn’t always stay there…

Calamity (Callie) Barnstable isn’t surprised to learn she’s the sole beneficiary of her late father’s estate, though she is shocked to discover she has inherited a house in the town of Marketville—a house she didn’t know existed. However, there are conditions attached to Callie’s inheritance: she must move to Marketville, live in the house, and solve her mother’s murder.

Callie’s not keen on dredging up a thirty-year-old mystery, but if she doesn’t do it, there’s a scheming psychic named Misty Rivers who is more than happy to expose the Barnstable family secrets. Determined to thwart Misty and fulfill her father’s wishes, Callie accepts the challenge. But is she ready to face the skeletons hidden in the attic?

Judy Penz Sheluk ©2016

Amazon International bestselling author Judy Penz Sheluk’s crime fiction includes The Hanged Man’s Noose, Skeletons in the Attic, and several short stories. Find her at www.judypenzsheluk.com  and on Facebook: https://business.facebook.com/JudyPenzSheluk

Find Skeletons in the Attic in print at all the usual suspects, and on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited on Amazon: http://www.imajinbooks.com/skeletons-in-the-attic

Guest Post: Judy Penz Sheluk: Becoming a Professional Writer

Please welcome back Judy Penz Sheluk today….

Judy Penz Sheluk: Becoming a Professional Writer

“There was a moment when I changed from an amateur to a professional. I assumed the burden of a profession, which is to write even when you don’t want to, don’t much like what you’re writing, and aren’t writing particularly well.” Agatha Christie.

I spent the better part of my teen years and early twenties devouring Agatha Christie books, until I’d read every one, though my preference leaned heavily to stories featuring Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot. I even went so far as to read Christie’s six romance novels, penned as Mary Westmacott.

My fascination with Christie fueled my desire to write murder mysteries. But like Christie, for many years I was an amateur. Actually, amateur is overstating it. I was more of a “want-to be” writer. You know the type: the person who says they’re going to write a book “one day.”

For me, “one day” took about three decades from the time I put down Curtain, Hercule Poirot’s final mystery. In between, I worked as a Credit & Collections Manager, a Sales and Marketing Coordinator, and over the past thirteen years, a freelance writer and editor. It wasn’t my fault, you see. I was waiting for the muse to show up. I knew once the muse made an appearance I’d be ready to write that book.

Except the muse never came for a visit. Not even after I bought some shiny new writing software for my computer. [Here’s a head’s up for those of you who don’t know: you still have to WRITE the story!]

Sometime in the early 2000s, I decided to take a creative writing class taught by Barry Dempster, an award-winning Canadian author and poet. It was Barry who told me, “The muse will never come unless you let her know you’re going to be there. Make time to write every day, even if it’s only for thirty minutes, even if all you’re doing is sitting there, staring at a blank page. One day, the words will come.”

They did. Faced with ten days off of all my freelance gigs, I started writing my first book, The Hanged Man’s Noose, on Christmas Eve 2011. I wrote every day, including Christmas and New Year’s Day. By the end of that ten-day period, I had a few chapters written. It never got easy…but it did get easier, and by February 2013, I’d finished writing and revising the book. Then I tried to find an agent, and when that didn’t work out, I went to work looking for a publisher.

I knew how elusive that muse could be, and I knew I should start another book, but I couldn’t bear to write the sequel to a book I hadn’t sold. I started Skeletons in the Attic, determined to make it as different from Noose as I could: Noose is written in third person, with multiple (primarily two) POVs. Skeletons, on the other hand, is written in first person, and entirely from the POV of the protagonist, Calamity (Callie) Barnstable. But this time, the Christie quote actually applied to me. Somewhere along the line, I’d stopped waiting for the muse to show up and graduated from want-to be writer to amateur writer to professional.

Some days, the muse is slow to appear, but that doesn’t stop me any more. To quote Agatha Christie once again, “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”

Judy’s latest release is Skeletons in the Attic, the first book in the Marketville Mysteries. Here’s a brief synopsis:

What goes on behind closed doors doesn’t always stay there…

Calamity (Callie) Barnstable isn’t surprised to learn she’s the sole beneficiary of her late father’s estate, though she is shocked to discover she has inherited a house in the town of Marketville—a house she didn’t know existed. However, there are conditions attached to Callie’s inheritance: she must move to Marketville, live in the house, and solve her mother’s murder.

Callie’s not keen on dredging up a thirty-year-old mystery, but if she doesn’t do it, there’s a scheming psychic named Misty Rivers who is more than happy to expose the Barnstable family secrets. Determined to thwart Misty and fulfill her father’s wishes, Callie accepts the challenge. But is she ready to face the skeletons hidden in the attic?

Find Skeletons in the Attic: http://www.imajinbooks.com/skeletons-in-the-attic

SKELETONS IN THE ATTIC is now available for pre-order on Amazon Kindle for the special introductory price of .99 (reg. $4.99). Find it here :http://getbook.at/SkeletonsintheAttic

Judy Penz Sheluk ©2016

Judy Penz Sheluk’s debut mystery novel, The Hanged Man’s Noose, was published in July 2015. Skeletons in the Attic, the first book in her Marketville Mystery Series, was published August 2016.

Judy’s short crime fiction appears in World Enough and Crime, The Whole She-Bang 2, Flash and Bang and Live Free or Tri.

Judy is a member of Sisters in Crime, Crime Writers of Canada, International Thriller Writers and the Short Mystery Fiction Society. Find Judy on her website/blog at www.judypenzsheluk.com where she interviews other authors and blogs about her writing journey.

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