Mike Befeler's Blog, page 21

My Writing Journey (continued again)

After the publication of my first novel, Retirement Homes Are Murder, I retired to focus on writing. Previously while still working, I had written my manuscripts using a concept I adapted from Julia Cameron’s The Artist Way. Julia recommends writing three hand written pages the first thing every morning (Morning Pages) as a way to get the creative juices flowing. This can be anything: a shopping list, a journal or whatever is on your mind. I adapted this concept as a way of writing three pages of a manuscript every morning. I’d review where I left off and write three hand written pages to continue the story. Then when I came home from work, I’d do an editing pass and enter the three pages into the computer. This produced two type-written pages. If you do the arithmetic, after 150 days, I’d have a rough draft for a 300-page novel.

 

Once I retired, I started writing directly into the computer. Being a morning person, I’d write all morning and then exercise and eat lunch. This was the program I followed during a very productive writing period from 2007 into 2015. During my Morning Pages days and my productive retirement days, I completed over 30 manuscripts, of which 17 have now been published.

My Writing Journey (continued)

After selling my first short story, I bridged into novel length material. I began my Paul Jacobson Geezer-lit Mystery Series, and in 2005 submitted the first novel in the series, Retirement Homes Are Murder, to a contest for the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Conference. I didn’t reach the finals, but I received a lot of constructive feedback from the people who read my submission. I madly rewrote and by the time of the conference, I had a much improved manuscript. At the conference, I had an opportunity to pitch to two agents and two publishers. Deni Dietz of Five Star asked me to email her the manuscript. Two months later, I received a contract and Retirement Homes Are Murder was published in January of 2007.

Reviewing My Writing Journey

I’ve been thinking about my writing journey lately. It all began in 2001 when I was 56-years-old. One evening I was sitting in my easy chair in the living room and reviewed things that I had enjoyed doing during my life. It included building model airplanes when I was a kid, writing and painting. The common denominator: they were all creative. It was that evening that I decided to prepare myself to retire into writing. First step: I signed up for a fiction writing course at the University of Colorado (we lived in Boulder, CO, at the time). I had learned that anyone older than 55 could sign up for courses for free with the instructor’s permission. I took two semesters of fiction writing to jump start my new ambition. In these courses we wrote short stories and critiqued each others’ work. As a result, I began sending short stores off to magazines and anthologies, I’m happy to report that on my 112th submission I sold a story titled, “New Trust a Poison Dart Frog,” in an anthology “Who Died in Here?” that was a collections of short stories with a death or a murder taking place . . . in the bathroom.

Good News

I will divulge more information shortly, but the good news is that my publisher has scheduled the first of my Omnipodge Trilogy mystery novels for release in the spring of next year. The first one is titled Old Detectives Home, and all three books in the trilogy take place in the fictional California coastal town of Omnipodge.

Imagine a retirement home populated with residents such as an aging Hercule Poirot and a dementia-suffering Sherlock Holmes and run by staff including Art Doyle, Dash Hammett and Dot Sayers. In this light-hearted spoof of the mystery genre, every character is either a real person from the mystery writing world or a character from a mystery novel. On anything but a dark and stormy night, a dead body is found. The staff managers find themselves unable to control the unruly old detectives. Mix in clues and red herrings galore as the cast of suspects investigate each other to figure out who done it. 

Fans of Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie and more, hold on to your rockers  as the top detectives of all time reunite at The Old Detectives Home to solve their most difficult whodunit—but first without killing each other. 

Making Progress

This week will be six weeks since my knee surgery due to an infection. I’m hoping to be off IV antibiotics and be only taking oral antibiotics soon. We’ll see what the doctors say. A knee infection may not seem like a big deal but it has led to surgery and lots of medicine. Eons ago people would die from such infections. I’m grateful that we now have ways of treating these infections.

Thank You Fountain Valley Rotary Club

I gave an in-person author presentation earlier this week to the Fountain Valley, CA,  Rotary Club. After all the pandemic time and then my knee infection, it was enjoyable to speak with people live rather than through Zoom. My current talk is titled “Lessons Learned During the Pandemic.” It features the variety of experiences both positive and negative I had over the last two years. It’s good to be back.

Family

I have gained an increased appreciation for my family during the last month of dealing with an infected knee. Our daughter lives a mile away, and she has been helping my wife and me while I’m not a hundred percent. Our oldest son who lives thirty miles away, came down the first two weekends after I was released from the hospital to assist me. Our second son who lives in Iowa is here this week helping with some needed house repairs and errands. And now that I’m driving again, I’m picking up our six-year-old grandson at school each weekday afternoon. Seeing him come running out of school and telling me the things he’s doing keeps a smile on my face.

Gratitude

While recuperating from an infected knee, I’ve had a chance to evaluate my priorities and plans. There’s nothing like a medical emergency to make you appreciate being healthy. I’ve taken some baby steps so far: short walks, driving, light exercises. I’m looking forward to getting back to other activities such as pickleball and golf. In the meantime, I’m extremely grateful that the rest of my family is healthy and safe. 

Assessing After a Medical Scare

After spending time in two hospitals and now home recuperating, I’ve been thinking a lot about what’s important to me, The sustaining force has been support from my family. I’m fortunate to have my wife with me, my daughter living close by and a son within driving distance. With an infected knee, I realize that a medical problem can happen at any time. Going forward  my focus will be on family. I’ll continue to be involved in writing activity and look forward to playing pickleball again. During the recuperation I’ve learned to pace myself: do some activity, rest, do some more activity, rest. I’ll be taking it one step at a time.

Dealing with a Medical Emergency

I have not posted lately because I’m dealing with a knee infection. I’ve been in two hospitals and am now home with antibiotic treatment. It just goes to show you can be blindsided with a medical condition. I had knee replacement surgery two years ago, and I woke up one morning with pain, swelling, a hot knee and inability to bend my knee. I ended up going in for surgery to clean out the knee and will be on antibiotics for six weeks. It certainly made me appreciate the good health I had recently experienced and the support of my family and friends.