JENN McKINLAY: I was lucky enough to have Cheryl Hollon on my panel at Left Coast Crime in 2016 and then at Bouchercon in Toronto our paths crossed again when I couldn't find my way to the signing room and she led me there (see yesterday's post about directions), so I am just delighted to host her here on Jungle Red today. Take it away, Cheryl.
CHERYL HOLLON: Your
individual road to publication can be a difficult journey filled with detours,
obstructions, and unknown obstacles. How do you tell if you’re making progress?
By looking back of course. That’s when you can see that a corner has been
turned. For me, establishing a firm habit of writing everyday was the turning
point from aspiring writer to published author.
Strangely,
it wasn’t the quality of the words or the tightness of the plot that pushed me
to a higher level of competence. It was taking a workman’s approach to the
physical act of writing every single day without excuses, without fail. I am
deep into the revision phase for the fifth book in the Webb’s Glass Shop
Mystery series, I feel like a professional going about the ordinary business of
crafting another compelling tale.
That
feeling is the sensation you are looking for – how you achieve that is a
personal journey of discovery. Some writers submitted short stories until one
was published. Yay! Validation achieved. Others have completed a novel-length
manuscript and submitted it to agents as proof. The key was that afterwards,
they felt like career writers.
The
journey is unique to each writer. Continually strive for improvement and see how
it affects your next steps. The funny part is that you can’t tell if you’ve
turned a corner until you can look back and see it. When I look back after
securing an agent and a publisher, I turned that corner the moment I started
writing everyday – just like a job – every single day.
Have
you turned a corner? Look back – what do you see?
When a famous glass artist is murdered at his own exhibit, deadly secrets
are put on display, and it’s up to glass shop owner Savannah Webb to see
through a killer’s cover.
Celebrated
glass artist Dennis Lansing is returning to St. Petersburg, Florida, for an
exhibit at the world-renowned Salvador Dali Museum. His unique style of
embedding document images in his art is at the vanguard of contemporary
glasswork. But as Savannah’s first boyfriend and a former apprentice to her
father, Dennis’s return home has her reflecting on the past—a trip down memory
lane that takes a dark turn when Dennis is found murdered at the museum with an
old reference letter from her father in his pocket. A search through her
father’s records sheds new light on Dennis’s history, but it seems his present
life wasn’t so transparent either. Now, with a gallery of suspects to consider,
it’s up to Savannah to figure out who fits the mold of a murderer.
Meet
the author:
Cheryl
Hollon writes full time after she left an engineering career designing and
building military flight simulators in amazing countries such as England,
Wales, Australia, Singapore, Taiwan and India. Fulfilling the dream of a
lifetime, she combines her love of writing with a passion for creating glass
art. In the small glass studio behind the house, Cheryl and her husband George
design, create, and produce fused glass, stained glass and painted glass
artworks.
You
can visit Cheryl and her books at
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I blog on the 24th of each month at http://www.killercharacters.com/
