HANK
PHILLIPPI RYAN: We are standing and cheering and applauding like mad! We love
it when our dear friends have a mad success! Yay for Liz Milliron—who we know as
Mary Sutton—whose second book, HEAVEN HAS NO RAGE, is now on the shelves!
And
she has, with her own special style of optimism, figured out the good news
about being a writer. PERFECT for a Friday morning! Welcome, darling Mary/Liz! And hurray!
Top 10 Reasons I
Think Writing Is the Best Job Ever!
Thanks
so much Reds for having me back! I visit every morning for my JRW “fix” so
being here is a true honor.
There
are any number of memes out there that are variants on a theme. “Be a writer,
they said. It’ll be fun, they said.” But now that my second book, Heaven Has No Rage, is out in the wild,
I can say this with confidence.
Being
a writer is the best job I’ve had (okay, aside from wife and mother).
Oh
sure. There are days when I wonder, “Why did I do this?” Usually it’s those
days when I’m pummeling my brain trying to come up with yet another character
name that fits impossibly strict limits – must not start with J, S, A, T, B; be
three-syllables; cannot end with Y; and cannot be a famous person. (Do it. I
dare you.)
But
other days, well, I truly believe sitting with a cup of tea, putting words on a
screen, and getting paid to do it
really should be illegal because no person should have this much fun.
So
here are my Top 10 Reasons I Think
Writing Is the Best Job Ever.
10.
Staying in your pajamas and not showering until 10am is not “being lazy.” This
is your new work uniform.
9.
Chocolate, wine, and caffeine are major food groups.
8.
Staring off into space is no longer “being lazy” or “tuning out.” You’re
resolving plot problems.
7.
Research is so much more fun than it was in college. (The downside is that my
Google search history is sure to have put my name on some kind of watchlist.
No, seriously, I’m a writer, see I have books and everything!)
6.
You have a built-in excuse to avoid dreadfully dull social engagements. “I’d
love to come watch your fourth-cousin-twice-removed’s slideshow of his root
canal surgery, but I can’t. I’m on deadline.”
5.
Similar to #6, you have a built-in excuse for memory lapses. “Oh, were we
supposed to meet Great Aunt Mabel for her black-berry jam making marathon? It
slipped my mind. Sorry, I’m on deadline.” (Note: Be careful with this one.
Failure to be at your oldest child’s first violin solo concert will probably
cost you valuable support when you really do
need to be left alone. Exercise caution.)
4.
Killing someone in fiction is just as therapeutic, and a whole lot less expensive,
than psychotherapy.
3.
Eavesdropping is no longer a social faux pas. It’s research!
2.
Taking that trip to England (or France, or Italy, or Ireland) may now qualify
as research if you plan to write a book set there.
1.
And the best thing about being a writer – you get to hang out with some of the
coolest people on the planet: other writers and readers!
HANK: Love this so much! Reds and readers, what are the real best reasons about why you love what YOU do?
State
Trooper Jim Duncan's quiet overnight shift turns deadly when fire destroys a
ski lodge at a local resort and the first responders find a man's body inside.
What starts as a suspicious accident quickly becomes sinister when the autopsy
proves the victim is not the man who rented the cabin. Jim’s left with
three questions. Who is John Doe? Why was he at the ski lodge? And who hated
him enough to kill him?
Assistant
Public Defender Sally Castle, still reeling after the events of several months
ago, tries to bury her feelings of guilt and fear in her work. When an
anonymous note from a secret admirer arrives at the courthouse, she brushes it
off as an empty threat. As the missives, each one darker than the last,
continue to arrive at her office as well as her home, Sally’s forced to review
all the possibilities. Is the letter-writer a person from her legal past? Or is
the threat closer to home?
As
the questions multiply, Jim and Sally are thrown into a race to find a murderer
as well as a stalker...before Sally ends up facing more than an unwanted pen
pal.
Liz Milliron is the author of The Laurel Highlands Mysteries series about a
Pennsylvania State Trooper and a Fayette County assistant public defender in
the scenic Laurel Highlands. The first in the series, Root of All Evil, was released in August, 2018. Liz’s short fiction
has appeared in multiple anthologies, including Murder Most Historical and the
Anthony-award-winning Blood on the Bayou. She is a past president of the
Pittsburgh chapter of Sisters in Crime, as well as a member of Pennwriters and
International Thriller Writers. She lives outside Pittsburgh with her husband,
two teens, and a retired-racer greyhound.
