Can you imagine someone hunting you in the Alaska wilderness?
When the daughter of a US senator disappears from the center of Kodiak, Alaska, in the middle of the day, FBI agent Nick Morgan arrives to assist police detective Maureen Horner and Alaska State Trooper Dan Patterson with the investigation. Soon, the officers realize that other young people have vanished from the area as well, and they can find no evidence or eyewitnesses to explain the disappearances.
Meanwhile, bored pilot Steve Larson spends his evenings sitting on the back deck of his floatplane air charter service while he recovers from a debilitating illness. He watches a plane land after dark and sees two men escort a seemingly incapacitated woman to the plane and push her into the rear seat. When the same thing happens a few days later, Steve wonders if he’s imagining things or if these men are kidnapping people. He calls marine biologist and amateur detective Jane Marcus and asks her to sit with him the next time the plane arrives. Jane agrees with Steve: these men are drugging and transporting people against their will. But where are they taking them, and why?
Jane’s curiosity leads her into a nightmare worse than anything she could imagine. As law enforcement officers work to find who’s behind the kidnappings and where the abductors have taken the victims, Jane fights to survive the monsters chasing her in the ultimate hunt.
Experience Mystery and Adventure in the Wildest Place on Earth! The Ultimate Hunt
by Mary Ann Poll, America’s Lady of Supernatural Thrillers
Seated in the center of historic San Antonio, the Sheraton Gunter Hotel is an impressive sight to behold: twelve-stories tall, beautiful tan brick, and a flare of elegance often found in old properties.
The Sheraton Gunter Hotel is a blend of old and new, modern amenities and timeless elegance, trendy cuisine at its restaurant and bar, Bar 414, and historical significance. On January 9, 2007, the US National Register of Historic Places listed The Sheraton Gunter Hotel as a property of historical importance.
Since the 1830s, the Gunter Hotel has almost always been a hotel under different management and names. It earned extreme notoriety in 1965 at no fault of its own.
Since 1837, just a year after the fall of the Alamo, a hotel, in some form or other, sat on current Sheraton Gunter Hotel Land. The first hotel was called The Settlement Inn and known as the Frontier Inn by some.
The Inn stood at the corner of El Paso and El Rincon Streets (changed to Houston and St. Mary’s Street some years later).
In 1851, the Settlement/Frontier Inn was purchased for $500 and demolished. Irish immigrant brothers William, John, and James Vance had a different venture in mind.
The Vance brothers erected a two-story building where the Inn once stood and rented it out to the US Army for the next decade. During that period, the property operated as the local Headquarters for the Army.
Texas seceded from the United States when the Civil War erupted and joined the Confederates like many other Southern states. The Union (or US Army) left, and the Confederates took their place.
When the Civil War ended, the Vance family lost possession when the Federal troops occupied the city. The Federal troops used the building until 1872 when the Vance family regained ownership.
The building reopened as the Vance House (or Vance Hotel)
San Antonio hit its stride by the turn of the twentieth century because of the railroad and tourism.
In the early 1900s, a group of investors formed the San Antonio Hotel Company. There were thirteen men in total, including rancher Jot Gunter, whose name would later be the hotel’s.
The Vance family relinquished ownership in 1907 when the newly formed San Antonio Hotel Company made its purchase.
The investors had a plan to tear down the hotel and replace it with a “palatial structure that would meet the demands of the state’s most progressive city.”
(Unfortunately, Joe Gunter did not live to see the day when his dream became a reality. He died soon after the purchase, but his co-investors decided to name the hotel in his honor.)
Upon completion in 1909, The Gunter was a gorgeous juxtaposition of luxury and modern amenities. Eight stories tall and 301 rooms in total—The Gunter Hotel blended steel, concrete, and tan brick to create a hotel that was one of the finest in the country. Also, The Gunter Hotel was the tallest building in San Antonio for many years to come.
By 1979, Josef Seiterle bought The Gunter Hotel and invested $20 million in its restoration. The Gunter found a new home with the Sheraton hotel chain ten years later. However, the Gunter underwent various new ownerships for the next ten years.
In 1999, after an $8 million renovation, it once more became a member of the Sheraton hotel family and remains so today.
While The Sheraton Gunter today is one of the most stayed in hotels in San Antonio, it is also a building where ghosts also reside.
The Ghosts of The Sheraton Gunter Hotel
Like many haunted locations in San Antonio, people staying at The Sheraton Gunter Hotel have seen the spirits of the fallen Alamo defenders. There are reports of dips in temperature, the kind where your hair stands up on end and a chill courses up your spine.
Others report the sensation of being watched, of glancing over your shoulder with the expectation that someone is there—but they never are. Sometimes the sense dissipates, and in others, it persists for a much more extended period. Then, that feeling begins anew.
These are everyday paranormal phenomena experienced at The Sheraton Gunter Hotel. But there are more.
Two flappers are said to haunt the halls of The Sheraton Gunter Hotel. Or, instead, they’re believed to be flappers from the 1920s. Others suggest that they were prostitutes of the same period.
The first spirit, given the name Ingrid, is often seen wearing a long white dress while she strolls the hotel’s upper floors. The second, alternatively, is nicknamed Peggy.
It seems these two ghostly figures do not like each other. Though the women are said to haunt opposing sections of the hotel, guests have reported hearing them argue. No one knows why they quarrel.
Whatever the case may be, it’s plain to see their fighting causes a lot of the paranormal activity at The Sheraton Gunter. Guests have taken photos with their ghostly forms caught on film, as though they too want to be part of the fun.
There are sounds, and evidence, of furniture moving in guest rooms as well as in the public areas of the hotel when no one is around.
Blues player, and one of the most notable celebrities to stay at The Sheraton Gunter, Robert Johnson, is said to haunt this hotel.
Johnson’s talent scout, H.C. Speir, had arranged for a recording session at the hotel on November 23, 1936, in Room 414. In a strange twist of fate, it would be only one of two recording sessions that Robert Johnson would ever have.
(An interesting note: Johnson was one of the most important (and influential) blues musicians of his day. He was so talented, many people thought Johnson made a bargain with the devil to earn all the success he had amassed in such a short time.)
In 1938, at the age of twenty-seven, Johnson was found dead near Greenwood, Mississippi. The cause of his death was unknown then and is still up for speculation today. Some believe the jealous husband of a woman he flirted with at a country dance club he’d played in for some weeks poisoned Johnson.
At The Sheraton Gunter Hotel, rumor is that Johnson’s spirit still lingers in Room 414, where he once held his first recording session. In 2009, musician John Mellencamp arrived at The Gunter to record a new album. He’d felt drawn to the hotel, Mellencamp once said, and Room 414 in particular.
Today, The Sheraton Gunter’s new bar is honored with the name Room 414, in reference to the room where Johnson stayed. If the ghost of Robert Johnson is at The Sheraton Gunter, it’s probably in Room 414.
In February of 1965, San Antonio’s most notorious mystery took place in Room 636.
Albert Knox checked in on February 6. He was a blonde man, said to be quite handsome and exceptionally charming.
For two days, guests of The Gunter saw Albert Knox come and go with a tall woman.
On February 8, one of the hotel’s housekeepers brought some items to Knox’s hotel room. The housekeeper pushed open the door, only to stop dead in her tracks. Albert Knox stood at the foot of the bed with a bloody bundle in his arms. Blood splattered every inch of the guest room. In the face of the housekeeper’s horrified expression, Knox lifted one finger to his mouth. “Shhh.”
The housekeeper’s mouth started to scream, and Knox dashed past her and out of the room. It took forty minutes for management to receive a report of the incident. By that time, Albert Knox had disappeared.
The room provided little evidence to explain what happened there. A lipstick-smeared cigarette, brown paper bags, luggage from the San Antonio Trunk and Gift Company. The purchase suitcase was by check from John J. McCarthy . . . who happened to be the stepfather of thirty-seven-year-old Walter Emerick, who had disappeared on one of his “drinking bents.”
The police were sure someone was murdered in Room 636 and scoured the city for the woman’s body. They checked construction sites and even sections of streets with newly laid cement. They found nothing.
On February 9, a blond man walked into The St. Anthony Hotel, just one block away from The Gunter. He came with no luggage. And when he requested to book a room, he made it known that he wanted Room 636. That particular room was not available, and after some arguing, he settled for Room 536. He checked in under the name Roger Ashley.
The front desk attendants became suspicious, and after tipping the San Antonio Police that the murderer might have just checked in to their hotel, the detectives rushed over.
They hurried to Room 536. Banging on the door, the police tried to apprehend Walter Emerick (aka Roger Ashley) for the crimes. As they struggled to open the door, they heard a single gunshot. Ashley was dead, and there were no concrete answers to the mystery.
Many people claim to have witnessed the murder replay in the years since. Staff and guests both have reported such paranormal phenomena–one guest even saw a ghostly woman who held her hands out and stared at the guest with a gaze that appeared almost soulless.
Housekeeping staff has reported that new employees often quit after being assigned to clean the room. Others have said the image of a blonde woman inexplicably appears in photographs. Strange sounds of hammering have also been reported coming from the unoccupied Room 636.
Book signings are a cherished tradition that brings authors and readers together in a unique and intimate setting. These events offer an incredible opportunity for authors to connect with their audience, share their stories, and create lasting memories.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to stop by and say hi at my two recent book signings in Anchorage at Barnes and Noble and Mosquito Books. Both events turned out great and exceeded my wildest expectations. For everyone who attended, your presence and kind words put me at ease, making the experience all the more memorable. Through the support and encouragement of readers like you, I find the inspiration to continue sharing my stories.
I was also thrilled at my Barnes and Noble signing to meet experts from the Anchorage Police Department and to discuss some of the true crimes I wrote about in my latest book, Murder and Mystery in the Last Frontier. I even met a woman who once dated one of the killers I’ve profiled.
May proved to be a good month for me. I sold three boxes of books to stores in Kodiak. For those interested in purchasing my books from a store, they are currently available in Kodiak at The Islander Bookshop, Cost Savers, Norman’s Fine Gifts, and Big Ray’s. In Anchorage, you can find my books at Barnes and Noble and Mosquito Books, while Black Birch Books in Wasilla also carries them. These partnerships with local establishments strengthen the bond between authors, readers, and independent businesses.
Book signings allow authors to connect with readers on a personal level, creating lasting memories and fostering a sense of community. The support and encouragement I received at my signings in Anchorage at Barnes and Noble and Mosquito Books have been invaluable in expanding the reach of my books. Additionally, the availability of my books in various stores, both in Kodiak and Anchorage, as well as online platforms, ensures that readers can easily access and purchase my work. Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this journey, and I look forward to continuing to share my stories with you.
Was the Mafia involved in the 1972 disappearance of the plane carrying Congressmen Hale Boggs and Nick Begich, or was it just a simple case of bad weather? Who murdered the postmistress in Ruby? How did Alaska State Troopers use cutting-edge science to find Sophie Sergie’s killer? How does crime differ from one part of Alaska to another?
Alaska has always had a high rate of violent crime. From the gold rush to the building of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline to the heyday of king crab fishing, the state’s rich resources have attracted eager workers and criminals alike. Travel through time and space with true-crime writer Robin Barefield as she tells you about murder and mystery in Alaska from the early 1900s to the present day and from Juneau, Kiana, Nome, Anchorage, Kodiak, and places in between.
Learn about serial killers Ed Krause, Richard Bunday, Gary Zieger, Robert Hansen, and Israel Keyes, Why did Michael Silka suddenly start killing the residents of remote Manley Hot Springs, and what reason did Louis Hastings have for murdering his neighbors in McCarthy? Why was no one ever caught and convicted for the gruesome massacre on the fishing boat Investor?
Alaska is vast and beautiful, but it can also be deadly. Take a road trip and learn about Alaska’s past and present through its violent crime. Get a glimpse of murder and mystery in the Last Frontier.
Alaska State Trooper Sergeant Dan Patterson flies to a remote area of Kodiak Island to investigate the massacre of eight people at a small lodge, and he encounters the worst murder scene he has ever investigated. How did someone kill eight individuals in the middle of the wilderness and then disappear?
Patterson takes a hard look at those closest to the lodge owners. Did Brian or Deb Bartlett murder their parents and the six guests at the lodge? Was the killer the neighbor who lived a few miles away or someone else in this sparsely populated bay?
Each time Patterson picks up a lead, new evidence shifts the course of the investigation. Meanwhile, the killer strikes again, murdering one of Patterson’s main suspects, and Patterson knows he must stop the monster before more people die.
Grab your copy of Massacre at Bear Creek Lodge, now
Happy Holidays. This post is long overdue, and I apologize. I try to do too many things, and some fall by the wayside. I began writing my blog post several years ago, long before I started a newsletter, a podcast, or any of the many other writing projects I tackle. My wildlife posts aren’t long, but they require time to research and write. I know people see them, but I don’t receive much feedback, so I often feel I’m writing in a vacuum. On the other hand, people do respond to my newsletters and podcast. I sell books through my newsletter and podcast, so I tend to concentrate my effort on those two projects. I do not intend to walk away from my blog, though. I want to post every other week, but I think once a month might be a more attainable goal. In any case, I am sorry I have been absent lately.
I hope that you are safe and healthy. It has been a rough two years, and I know we are all ready for things to return to normal (whatever normal is). I know many places in the U.S. had an unseasonably warm fall, but ours here on Kodiak Island was bitterly cold and stormy. It warmed up a few days ago, but we’ve had to deal with one storm after another.
Due to all the nasty weather, I’ve stayed indoors and spent as much time as possible writing. My fifth novel is in the hands of my publisher, and I am now concentrating on my next book. It will be a true-crime book containing several of the Alaska murder and mystery pieces I’ve written for my newsletter. I have decided to group the stories by regions of the state to take the reader on a tour of Alaska. This tour allows me to showcase differences in geography, average temperatures, cultures, and environments around the state. I can also stress distinctions between police-response times from one region to another. Authorities usually respond to a crime in a matter of minutes in Anchorage or Fairbanks, but in a small, remote village, troopers might not arrive for a day or two after the crime occurs.
Although I’ve already written the stories for my true-crime book, I still need to spend a great deal of time editing each story. Then, I will send the text to an editor. I hope to release this book sometime in 2022, but the process always takes longer than I think it should. For a break from the tediousness of editing, I hope to start writing my next novel while working on the true-crime book. I have a rough outline of the story in my head, but I haven’t put it together yet.
My podcast and newsletter audiences are growing at a steady pace. I started a Patreon group called The Last Frontier Club, and it is a way for people to support my podcast and newsletter. In return, I do one or two short podcasts every month that only my patrons can access. I appreciate my patrons and use their contributions to pay for my podcast and author websites, the charges for digging through newspaper archives online, advertising, and the many other memberships a writer and podcaster must join — such as Headliner, Vimeo, Canva, etc.
As you might guess, my New Year’s Resolution is to write more blog posts (and eat less). I promise to be back soon with my next wildlife post, and I will keep you updated with the progress of my latest novel as it moves through the publishing process.
I wish you a wonderful 2022, and I hope by this time next year, we all feel safe in public without wearing a mask.
What is “normal” these days? To me, “normal” feels like a train wreck occurring in front of me. I stand helpless, my eyes glued to the track while I watch the two engines barrel toward each other, brakes screaming. Chaos abounds in our government, our healthcare, our citizenry, and everywhere in our daily lives.
I attempted to watch the first U.S. presidential debate, but I had to turn off the television after only a few minutes. These are the people who are supposed to lead us out of the darkness. They are the ones who should formulate a comprehensive response to this pandemic to lessen its impact both physically and economically. Instead, they fought like children for ninety minutes, leaving me, and I’m sure many others, bewildered, confused, and frightened. Will our country survive this dark time in our history?
I am lucky to live in the wilderness, and I haven’t been to town since early March, so I’ve missed day-to-day issues of masks and social distancing. Instead, I’ve watched from afar, moving from fascinated to concerned to alarmed.
My selfish new normal might mean no vacation this winter, and I don’t mind. This summer, my husband, Mike, finished building my office/workshop, and I love it. It is a great place to write and research new ideas for posts and newsletters. Mike even enclosed a small, closet-like space and sound-proofed it to make me a podcast studio. This is the video of my she-shed, as we laughingly call it. https://vimeo.com/426004653.
Many of our guests canceled their reservations this summer, and most have rebooked for next year or the following year. Losing half of our season was tough, but I spent the extra time to work on my Kodiak wildlife book. I found an excellent editor, and we labored over every detail of formatting, sentence structure, and clarity. I knew editing this book would require a great deal of work, and it did, but I now have a clean manuscript. Next, I will work on photo placement, and then I will put the project on a thumb drive and mail it to my publisher. I hope to have the published book by early 2021. I am excited!
I’ve spent too much time watching the news this year, and of course, the pandemic and political climate have provided much fodder for future novel plots. Unfortunately, though, this new normal has distracted my creativity, and I’ve struggled to keep up with my writing schedule. In late November, once we close our lodge for the year, I hope to focus and increase my productivity.
I plan to write blog posts about a few more marine invertebrates, including sea cucumbers, urchins, clams, and mussels. Many of my posts originate from questions our guests ask me. When I can’t fully answer a question, I decide to research the organism and write about it. This summer, we caught several skates and way too many dogfish sharks. You will soon see a post about both skates and dogfish. I am especially curious about the dogfish and wonder what hole in the marine community they have rushed in to fill. Was this year an anomaly or the beginning of a worrisome trend? Unfortunately, the environment is also skewing toward a new normal.
A COVID vaccine might not return us to what we once considered normal, and I hope it doesn’t. I want to think we will emerge from this crisis wiser and kinder, but what I see now does not paint an optimistic portrait. If we do return to our old normal, I hope, at least, we will not take it for granted. If nothing else, we should learn that it only takes a tiny virus to destroy normal.
We find ourselves in the middle of a pandemic, but how dangerous is Covid-19? Should we stay at home? Do we need to wear masks? We listen to the biologists and politicians debate, and we weigh what they tell us. I think when trying to see the future, though, we must first turn around and look at the past. What cautionary tales does history provide us about plagues and pandemics? Let’s investigate the worst epidemics humans have endured, and maybe we’ll understand why we should take Covid-19 seriously.
I’ve thought and read a great deal about pandemics lately (hmmm, I wonder why?). What did we learn from the great influenza pandemic of 1918, or how did humans respond to the bubonic plague or smallpox?
Over my next three posts, I plan to discuss the worst plagues and pandemics the world has faced. Only one of the deadliest diseases ever to attack humans has been cured. Several of the others can now be treated, but a few infectious diseases remain elusive to us, even today with our advancements in science and medicine.
Let me begin with a plague I’m sure many of you think only belongs in the history books.
Yersinia pestis
The bacterium Yersinia pestis caused three of the deadliest pandemics in recorded history. This organism spawns the bubonic plague, septicemic plague, and pneumonic plague. The bacterium invades but does not harm fleas, and the fleas usually pass it on to small animals such as rats. Humans contract the plague either through flea bites or from exposure to the body fluids of dead animals infected with the bacteria. One to seven days after exposure to Yersinia pestis, a human develops flu-like symptoms, including fever, headaches, and vomiting. In the area where the bacteria entered the skin, painful lymph nodes swell and sometimes even break open. The plague poses a mortality rate of 30-90% if not treated. After the discovery and widespread use of penicillin in the 1940s, the death rate from the plague dropped to 10%.
The following represent three of the worst plague pandemics.
The Plague of Justinian
The Plague of Justinian hit Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, in 541 CE. Historians believe the plague crossed the Mediterranean Sea from Egypt, brought by fleas carried on rats hiding in the grain holds of ships. The plague wiped out 40 % of the population of Constantinople and then raced across Europe, Asia, North Africa, and Arabia. In one year, this plague killed an estimated 30 to 50 million people or half the world’s population.
The Black Death
From 1346 to 1353, the Black Death annihilated between 75 to 200 million people in Europe, Africa, and Asia. Between 25% to 60 % of the population of Europe died during this pandemic. Experts believe this outbreak began in Asia and again jumped continents, spread by fleas riding on rats aboard merchant ships. People referred to the plague as the black death because of the black skin spots associated with the disease.
Humans did not know what caused the plague nor how to stop the disease, but they understood it spread by proximity to infected individuals. In Venice, authorities required boats to remain isolated and away from port for forty days to ensure the sailors did not bring the disease to shore. The Italian sailors referred to this forty-day isolation as “quarantino,” from which we derived the word quarantine.
The Great Plague of London
From 1348 to 1665, the plague continued to ravage England. The Great Plague of 1665 was the last and one of the worst of the epidemics, killing 100,000 London residents in six months. The name “Bubonic” derived from the appearance of blackened swellings, or buboes, in the victim’s groin or armpits.
While some reports state that Yersinia pestis is now extinct and no longer a threat, nothing could be further from the truth. In 2007, a wildlife biologist working in the Grand Canyon found a dead mountain lion. Curious about what killed the lion, he performed a necropsy on the animal. A week later, the biologist died. Yersinia pestis had infected both the mountain lion and the biologist. This death was not an isolated incident. Since 2000, the CDC has received between one and 17 reports per year of cases of the plague. Luckily, today we know to treat the plague with antibiotics, and this treatment not only helps stop the spread of the dreaded disease but also usually saves those individuals infected with it. Should Yersinia pestis become resistant to modern-day antibiotics, though, we could again face an epidemic of the plague.
In my next post, I’ll discuss smallpox, cholera, and AIDS. Until then, wear a mask, social distance, and wash your hands. From the Middle Ages to today, doctors have learned those are the only three sure actions humans can take to battle a pandemic.
Are you thinking about writing a book, or maybe you’ve already started one? A few weeks ago, Dee S. Knight wrote a guest post for my blog, and in it, she offered great advice to beginning novelists. I know she learned much of this information the hard way, just as I did. As soon as I read her bulleted points, I decided to expand on Dee’s wise words and tell you about the emotions I experience when I write a book.
My education is in biology, and I knew very little about the mechanics of writing a novel. I love to learn, though, so I read every book and magazine I could find on writing. Much of the advice was good; some was not. I am still learning how to tell a story, build compelling characters, put it all together, and polish it. Writing a novel requires fortitude and diligence.
I jokingly tell friends that all authors are delusional. When I begin writing a novel, I’m confident I’m about to tell a fantastic story, and my creation will top the best-seller list. By the midway point, my book doesn’t seem so great anymore. Toward the end, I’m optimistic I’ve written a reasonably good book, but by edit number seven, I am sick of reading this piece of junk I wrote. When My publisher sends me the completed and published novel, I hold it in my hands and wonder if it’s any good and if anyone will read it. After this rollercoaster ride of emotions, you’d think I’d never want to write another novel, but I can’t wait to tell the next story bursting to escape my brain. It’s no wonder so many famous novelists had severe mental problems or were alcoholics or drug addicts. We authors lack sanity.
Before I wrote my first novel, I read some great advice from a well-known author. I think the author was Mary Higgins Clark, and she said if you want to write books, begin by writing 15 minutes a day – every day. You might think you need great chunks of time to write, and perhaps a lack of time is your excuse for not writing a novel. Not many of us can carve out big pieces of our day to write. We have jobs, we have families, we have lives. I guarantee if you follow Ms. Clark’s advice and manage to write 15 minutes a day, soon you will find 30 minutes a day to write, and before long, you’ll manage to write an hour a day. You might not write for an hour in one sitting, but if you can write 10 minutes here, 20 minutes there, and so on, you will make progress.
Writing is like exercise. You must do it consistently to keep your mind sharp and to stay focused on your story. I hear authors talk about “writer’s block,” and I don’t know what they mean. Somedays, my brain feels so sluggish I write mush, but I write something. I can always delete it the next day if it’s terrible.
In her post, Dee encouraged beginning novelists to spend time learning the craft of storytelling. Read books on the subject or take an online class. Storytelling has rules, and sure, you can break the rules, but you should know what the rules are before you break them.
Once you complete your manuscript, you must edit it, and you cannot skip this step. You need to edit your book until you can’t stand to look at it anymore. Once I’ve read through it repeatedly, I send it to a professional editor. Yes, professional editors are expensive, but you want your masterpiece expertly polished before you send it out into the world. When the manuscript comes back from the editor, I go through it again and try to understand the changes the editor has made. I do this edit not only to make myself a better writer but also to be sure the editor hasn’t changed the voice or meaning of my book. Next, I send my novel to other authors I know will give me honest feedback. I then do one more read through and send it to my publisher. He will e-mail the galleys back to me for one or two more edits. Yes, editing is not for the faint-hearted, but skip any step in this process, and you risk releasing a book full of embarrassing errors. Even after you’ve done all the above, your novel will still have errors – I guarantee! I want to cry when I find a mistake in one of my published books, and it’s even worse when someone else points out the error to me.
If you want to write a book, and if you have a story you must tell, then I encourage you to do it. Dee is correct, though. Writing is a business, and you need to think of yourself as a professional. If you are determined to become an author, then you will succeed, but to be victorious, you must write every day. Nobody has enough time to write a novel, but if you plan to become a published author, you must find the time.
Thank you, Dee, for letting me borrow your wise advice!
Happy Easter and Passover to everyone who celebrates these holidays. My wish for all the world is that a year from now, these terrible days will be only a hazy memory. Stay well!
Join the Battle of the Books contest, and you could win a $500 Amazon Gift Card! I am very excited to have my novel, Karluk Bones, included in this contest.
I am thrilled to introduce you to Romance Author Dee Knight. Four weeks ago, I wrote about Dee Knight and Jan Selbourne and their combined newsletter. Two weeks ago, Jan wrote a guest post about her award-winning books, and this week, Dee, another award winner, will take the reins.
Dee has written an excellent guest post, and she not only describes
her journey to become a successful author but also offers fantastic advice to
new and struggling authors. I like all the points she makes, but I couldn’t
agree more with her assertion that to write well and succeed as an author, you
must write every day if possible. We are all busy, so if you want to be an
author, it is unacceptable to say you have no time to write. You must find the
time, so get up an hour earlier, write during the fifteen minutes while you’re
waiting for the kids to get out of school, or key punch during your break at
work. Look for those tiny gaps in your day when you can squeeze in a few
minutes of writing.
Before I take over Dee’s post, I’ll hand it to her. Her
words are not only inspirational but also instructional.
So
many authors say they were writers as children. Indeed, some even give the
impression they were developing the great American novel before they even came
out of the womb. Sadly, that wasn’t me. Oh, I’ve always had a knack I suppose
for spinning a tale. But to write it down? No.
I
take that back. In fifth grade we were assigned the task of writing a story. I
liked mysteries, being a Nancy Drew buff, so that’s what I decided to write. It
was truly a dark and stormy night and murder was afoot. I killed off one
character by page three, and by page five, when the murderer was creeping up on
the house to off the next character, I scared myself so badly, I quickly had
the police scoop up the bad guys and happily wrote THE END. I think I decided
then that the writing life was not for me.
Even
when I worked at a county library in Virginia and my coworkers suggested I take
up writing, I smiled and said yes, maybe someday, I knew I didn’t have
the interest. So why, when in my 50s and with a couple of months’ time on my
hands I decided to write a story I’d been building on for years, I have no
idea.
Writing
the story was my husband’s idea. He was working as a consultant and had two
months left before we would be leaving town to go to the next contract. There
was no use in my looking for a job, so he told me to try writing a book.
Truthfully, it sounded fun and easy. I mean, how hard could it be? I had
the story in mind. All I had to do was type it out and fill in a few blanks. So
I set up the keyboard on a TV tray and typed while Jack was at work. In fact, I
typed from when we got up and finished breakfast until it was time to fix
dinner, and again after he went to bed until the wee hours of the morning. I
typed like that for a month, when I ended with 95,000 words and a finished romance
novel.
I
was astounded! I had written a novel, a real novel! And it was fun and
easy! I’d read articles where people said writing a book was hard. What
ninnies, I thought. Writing was a breeze, compared to teaching high school
kids, driving a tractor-trailer nationally, or brain surgery, all of which I’d
done. (Well, not brain surgery. That was a little poetic license.)
Anyway,
now that the writing was done, I was ready to take the publishing world by storm.
Except, I had no idea how to do that. I looked up publishers online and came up
with a few ideas. I sent inquiries off to five, and promptly received four
rejections. The fourth publisher was more encouraging. I like your writing
style, she wrote back. However, we are a publisher of erotic romance and
your book doesn’t have enough sex in it. If you decide to write an erotic
novel, I hope you will consider us.
Sex?
She wanted sex? Who can’t write about sex?
So I
sat down for the next month and wrote a 95,000 word sexy romance—or what I
hoped was a sexy romance. Until then, I’d never heard of erotic romance and had
no idea what made a book erotic. I must have done all right because she accepted
it and set me on the path I continued taking for the next sixteen years. In
that time, I’ve written a variety of romance sub-genre, nearly all erotic.
There have been space romps, ménage, paranormal, time travel, contemporary and
historical, and one non-erotic novel. I write using three pen names: Dee S.
Knight, Anne Krist, and Jenna Stewart.
I
have to admit, I’ve enjoyed these years of writing, though getting the books on
paper (or disk or whatever) hasn’t always been as easy as it started. At times,
beating my head against the wall would have been more fun than getting words
out. I started one book, Passionate Destiny, in February, and by October
swore that if I didn’t have it finished by Thanksgiving, I’d toss it out.
Fortunately, I completed it a week before then and sent it off. It became a Top
Pick in Romantic Times magazine. Other books—some easy and others more
difficult—have won awards from RWA (Romance Writers of America) chapter
contests. I’ve been lucky enough to win the prestigious Maggie award from Georgia
Romance Writers, and most recently, Only a Good Man Will Do, won Best Erotic
Romance of 2019 by the Las Vegas Romance Writers.
It’s
humbling to submit your work to someone else to review and judge, but
submitting to contests is something I would suggest to writers. Unless you
simply want to write for yourself or your family, you have to let others read
your work eventually. Contest judges critique the entries and make suggestions,
helping you grow.
Another
suggestion I’d make is to consider online publishing. When I started, my goal
was to get in with New York publishers, to have an agent and to see my books on
bookshelves. It was a big disappointment to learn that bookstores will not
consider print-on-demand for their books, and back then, success with an
ePublisher wasn’t considered worthy by NYC publishers. It took years for
ePublishing to get its act together and prove their editing and authors were
not only good enough but in some cases excelled over the print world. Now, I’m
happy with ePublishing and the advantages it offers—excellent cover art and
more say in the cover, excellent editing and some back and forth in what is
accepted, and faster publication.
I
would suggest for novices to publish through a publisher before giving into the
temptation of self-publishing. With opportunities like Amazon and Draft2Digital,
it’s easy to put your ideas into electronic format and sell to the world. But
working through a publisher first means you see the great advantage of working
with an editor and cover artist. Those things are very worthwhile and will help
shape the kind of work you present to readers. It’s like walking before
running. I was with publishers until very recently, and each taught me
something new.
I
haven’t written thousands of books, but I have written a few. So, if I were to
give any advice to beginning writers it would be:
Writing takes discipline. This is something I wish I’d understood early on. Set aside some time for writing a bit every day.
Write every day, and keep on writing. You think that taking a break is okay and that writing again will be easy. It isn’t. Take it from me.
Don’t second guess yourself by thinking others are better than you. They aren’t. They’re different from you, but that doesn’t make them better. Believe me and my experience, and don’t talk yourself out of writing because you think you can’t write XYZ better than another author. Be your own voice.
Learn to self-edit before submitting your work to publishers or agents or contests. One of the best ways to do this is to read your work out loud. Believe me, if I can read my sex scenes out loud and not die of embarrassment, you can read what you’ve written. It doesn’t have to be in front of anyone, just so you hear the words as they are on the page and not in your head.
Learn the craft of writing. When I wrote my first several books I had no idea what point of view was, or conflict, or internal/external goals. I just wrote. But once you know all that stuff, your books will be better.
If you can find a critique partner, it’s a good idea. But, find someone who will be honest and not just nice, someone who will support you and not knock you down, someone who respects you and your work. That isn’t easy to find, but when you do, you’ll see how invaluable such a person is. If you join a group, make sure it’s not too large or you’ll be spending all your time trying to sift through contradictory comments to find what’s right. Trust me, when it comes to critiquing someone else’s work, everyone has an opinion.
As I said earlier, enter a few contests. Not all of them cost a lot of money and the feedback is worthwhile.
Don’t give up your day job. Treat writing as a business (instead of a hobby) but don’t expect for it to pay as a business. Not right away, anyway.
Write. Always write. The only way you learn how to do it and do it well is to do it.
Develop writing habits. If you have good habits, it will help your writing. If you have bad habits, you’ll spend a lot of time redoing your work.
Thanks, Robin, for letting me share!
Thank you, Dee. I enjoy meeting authors who write in genres
other than my own. I find it difficult to write love scenes in my novels, let
alone erotic romance scenes, so maybe I should get a few pointers from you!
I agree with your advice for new authors. Authors today have
many publishing options, but they are not all good choices, and too many scam
artists prey on those eager to publish their first book. Do your homework
before you sign a contract.
In my next post, I plan to write more about Dee’s advice for authors and offer a few tips of my own. Dee has inspired me!
