Blog post
Continuing our visit with Barbara Ellen Brink
Read Barbara's continuation on her journey to fulfilling her dream of becoming an established writer.
(And let me add here, I can personally relate to her experiences below, especially learning about the indie publication process.)
Which brings me to 2010 when I decided life was too short to continue putting out postage, sweat, and tears with no returns. When I did hear back, it took months. Once I got a rejection postcard after an entire year of waiting. I had dozens of short stories and articles, and 3 or 4 novels written by this time, but after literally hundreds of submissions to publishers and agents and no contract, I felt the time had come to change up the game.
The indie market was beginning to explode. It was open and accessible. Figuring things out was definitely a struggle. Technology is often my nemesis, but thankfully my husband is a computer genius in most things and helps me out when he can. Things are simpler now since all the self-publishing places have templates and lots of helps, but back then it was still a battle to get your book formatted correctly for each and every platform. They were all different with different instructions. I just wanted to write. But being an indie author meant I had to wear all the hats. Graphic designer. Formatting. Editor. Promoter. And all of these things took time away from the actual writing.
I now have fifteen published novels:
The Fredrickson Winery Novels: Entangled, Crushed, and Savor, are set in Napa Valley and are a mixture of family drama, mystery, and sweet romance.
The Second Chances Series: Running Home, Alias Raven Black, and Trial by Fire, are Christian romantic suspense with a little sass and kick rather than sugary sweetness. Ivy and Raven start out as enemies but by the third book they are friends and fighting the bad guys side by side.
The Amish Bloodsuckers Trilogy: Chosen, Shunned, and Reckoning, are a young adult coming of age series with humor and vampire slaying fun. The adults are wise and respected, and the teenagers take their destiny to save the Amish community very seriously. It’s actually a big bite of fun!
Split Sense is a stand-alone Christian suspense/thriller. This book won the Grace Award in speculative fiction. I like to call it a medical thriller because it deals with a pharmaceutical company that secretly experimented on homeless pregnant women and now some of the children seem to have special abilities and someone is trying to cover it up by permanently silencing those in the know.
The series I’m working on now is the Double Barrel Mysteries. It’s my longest series to date, with five published novels. Roadkill, Much Ado About Murder, Midsummer Madness, Christmas in Port Scuttlebutt, and A Man Can Die but Once. The fifth book was just released this past December. These are clean mysteries with sweet romance and a touch of humor.
I think this is my favorite series so far. The characters keep surprising me and some of them are quite funny. Quirky characters abound in Port Scuttlebutt and it does seem to have a slightly higher murder rate than most tiny villages, but that’s par for the course in cozy mysteries, right? Blake or “Gun” as his fellow police officers called him before quitting the force after being shot in the line of duty, is still an investigator at heart. His wife, Shelby, is a dinner theatre actress who speaks Shakespeare as a second language. When murder happens, she falls happily into the role of sleuth and acts her way right into trouble. Between the two of them, they soon open up their own P.I. business. Using a combination of their special skills, and with a little help from friends, they solve murders and mysteries while still finding time for romantic banter and fun.
Looking back on my writing journey, I don’t think I would change anything. I like being independent and not having to work under the stress of deadlines. I’m an introvert and feel most comfortable in my office typing away with just my dog to keep me company. It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme, but it works for me.
I write to entertain, certainly, but also to glorify God in that I write my stories, whether they are purposely “Christian fiction” or not, with a God-centered worldview. We aren’t just randomly put on this earth to live and die. God has a purpose for each of us and his plans never fail. I like to show the hope we have in Christ rather than the dark hopeless world many choose to write about these days. I believe you can still write an entertaining and realistic murder mystery or thriller without making all the characters depressed, alcoholic, and on the cusp of suicide.
This has been a very long and trying year for most of us. Add to that, the anger and vitriol on social media and you’ve got an explosive situation. I don’t think I’m over simplifying things to say that if we all took a nice long break from the internet and read a good book or two, the heart palpitations, jaw clenching, and facial tics would probably disappear. I’m not saying it has to be my books, but it’s a good place to start.
Happy reading and God Bless!
Writing is a labor of love. Add to this all that must be done to publish an indie. Someday perhaps indie writing will become standardized and user friendly. Wouldn't that be wonderful?!
ReplyDeleteI understand from MaryJo recouping the cost of publishing is also a challenge. I hope your books sell well! They definitely look fun and interesting. Thank you for telling about your stories -- yours and your books.
Self-publishing through KDP with Amazon is not expensive in itself because essentially you are a self-publisher. Learning the process, as Barbara talked about, can be rough on those of us who aren't inclined toward technology and its jargon.
DeleteI chose to have my books available in e-book format for the entire retail market, so I have an independent publisher for that. They are a small firm, very easy to deal with, and their cost has been very fair. But the cannot work for nothing.
An aspiring write can spend a lot of money with professional editing, agents, and marketing, etc.
I'm late to the party, but I agree that the Double Barrel Mysteries are a good place to start! As MaryJo mentioned, I chose to take a break from the Internet in 2016.
ReplyDeleteI tried Facebook, at the urging of my sister and a friend, and hated it for two weeks. Unfortunately, Facebook refuses to accept -- after more than a decade -- that I really, really, really DO want to close my account, so it's still open, though I did succeed in deleting all content. I never had accounts with Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok or Twitter, and I never will. I'm told all the time that I cannot market my photography without social media accounts. Guess what? I can. I probably would sell more if I re-activated my Facebook account and signed up for Instagram, but I'm not going to.
Personally, I think social media is about as anti-social as it gets. And that's at its best.
Back to books: I love the Double Barrel Mysteries. I whole-heartedly recommend them.
You and are are totally - excuse the pun - on the same page about Facebook. As you know I don't do any of those forums either, and in spite of losing out on some book sales, I'm sure, do not regret it at all.
DeleteSo many people tell me they Should close their face book accounts BUT.... we simply do not want to give up the convenience Facebook, Twitter, etc., provides, in spite of the lack of privacy, shadiness, unethical practices, etc.
Facebook's Mark's what'shisname admitted publicly not too long ago if you had a social media account you shouldn't expect any privacy.