This week's wonderful Indie Chick is Lin Welch.

This is Lizzie Ford's inspirational ... This week my featured Indie Chick is ...

This week's wonderful Indie Chick is Lin Welch.

WhenI published the first two Whisperings paranormal mystery novels, I created anicon to use on Facebook and Twitter. The picture is of Whisperings lead character,Tiff Banks. It seemed a good way to advertise my product at the time. But nomatter how often I say she is not me, I am not a tall, slim, blond young woman,many obviously don't believe me. Response to the avatar has amused me over theyears. You wouldn't believe thecomments, compliments, and odd comments I thinkwere meant as compliments. Many of them were a hoot. I knew I'd eventually haveto come out of the identity closet and say, hey, look here, this is me, not thelong-haired cutie.ThenCheryl Shireman asked me to contribute to the Indie Chicks anthology and alsoasked for a photo. This is the perfect opportunity to set the record straight.If you want to know who Linda Welch reallyis, read on. . . .
NEVER TOO LATE
I'mgoing to tell you something I don't think you know.Ihaven't been a "chick" for many a year. I'm a couple of months shy of 61. Ihave been married to the same man for 39 years. We have two sons and fourgrandchildren. And you thought I was a tall, slim young thing, didn't you. I am what is called a late bloomer and I'mwriting this for other old biddies who had a dream and let it pass them by, orthink they are too busy, or it's too late to fulfill their dream. I don't meanjust writing, but any dreamed-of achievement you hide in your heart.Iwas born in a country cottage in England. My father was a restless man, so we oftenmoved and never had much money. I remember days when only Dad had meat on hisplate at dinner, but we never went hungry. We had vegetables and fruit from thegarden, eggs from the chickens. Times were hard, but we children never knewthat. We were loved. When Mum and Dad met during World War II, Mum was aprivately educated "well-bred" lady. I doubt I will ever meet anyone as smartas my mother. At 88 years, she is still as sharp as a tack. Dad was acountryman to the bone. He had many artistic talents he didn't pursue untillater in life. When he did, he excelled at them. I like to think some of theirintelligence and talent rubbed off on me.Somuch has changed, in my life, in the world. I hold memories of my childhood close.I won't let them fade. One day, I will write about them.Ihad a good basic education, first at a village school, then an all-girls school,but I left at 15 (at that time the legal age in England) and worked first as atelephone operator before I went into office occupations. I did not seeauthorship in my future.ButI have always daydreamed. Often, I recreated the same daydream multiple times, constantlyelaborating. I did not realize I wrotebooks in my head.Ibegan writing words on paper in my mid-forties, but it was a hobby. Somewherealong the way, I thought, Could I publishthis? and then I'd like to publish.But I talked myself out of it. Authors were young men and women who decidedthey wanted to write at a young age and worked to improve their skill theirentire life. They went to college and university, they had degrees in writing,creative writing or journalism. I was inexperienced; I didn't have theirdedication or education. Anyway, I had a husband to support, children to raiseand part-time jobs to supplement the family income. I didn't have time to writeand send queries, synopsis or sample chapters to agents. In2008 I discovered the Lulu publishing platform and took the plunge. I publishedthe space opera Mindbender and science fiction Galen's Gate. I subsequentlyunpublished them, with every intention of revising and republishing. Somecopies are still floating around out there somewhere. However, Tiff Banks, who had been swimming aroundin this murky thing I call a brain for several years, chose to come out and play.She took over my life. She became my second skin.WhenI think back to why I did not publish until in my fifties, I realize it hadnothing to do with inexperience or lack of education. I was not ready. I had tomarry a dashing young American airman, leave my homeland, raise two sons, spoilfour grandchildren, live and work with Americans and become entrenched in theway of life. I was not ready to write Along Came a Demon until I came to themountains of Utah, stood looking over my mountain valley, and knew, "this is it. This is where Tifflives. She knows the bitter cold and snow of winter, the harsh heat of summer.She knows her city and the people inside-out. This is Tiff's world, and now, Iknow who she is." Thenthe hard work began. My education was strictly "King's English." I wrote formalletters, contracts and legal documents at work. I had to take the starch out ofmy writing. Research didn't help. It seemed that each time I read an article orblog about word usage, in particular overuse and what to avoid, the next book Iread was a best-selling novel by a best-selling author who broke those rules. Andhaving decided to barge into my life, Tiff was very positive about how shetalks. She's a born and bred American, a slightly snarky, slang-wielding galwho speaks to the reader on a personal level, individual to individual. I hadto use a style that practically screamed "you can't do that!" in my ear everyother sentence. Ipublished the first Whisperings novelfor another reason: Nobody seemed to believe in my writing. Not friends,relatives, friendly acquaintances. I think they supposed a 58-year-old with noeducation in the literary field, who suddenly came out of the woodwork and decidedto publish, must be a "vanity publisher" who wanted to force poorly-writtenbooks on readers. When I said I wrote fiction, I got blank looks, followed by,"that's nice. Now, as I was saying. . ." Nobody wanted to read my work, not even my sweethusband. But he enjoyed urban fantasy and I thought he'd like Tiff Banks. So in a way, I alsopublished for him.Ipublished Along Came a Demon inNovember 2008. It was supposed to be a stand-alone novella, but readers wantedmore and Tiff obliged. Along Came a Demonbecame book one of the Whisperings series of paranormal mysteries. I publishedthe sequel, The Demon Hunters, in November2009. In 2010 I added material to AlongCame a Demon to make it a full-length book and at the same time made smallchanges to The Demon Hunters toreflect those in Along Came a Demon.I published book three, Dead DemonWalking, in March 2011. Being a wordsmith, I should be able to express myjoy each time a reader tells me they love my books, but it truly is beyond mypowers of description. Now, when someone asks me what I do for a living, insteadof telling them I am a part-time administrative assistant and adding(hesitantly) "I also write fiction," I say I am an author. When I fill out aform that asks for my occupation, I proudly write "author" in the little box.MaryWesley published Jumping the Queue atage 70 and went on to write ten best sellers until she died twenty years later.HarriettDoerr was 74 when she published TheStones of Ibarra.LauraIngalls Wilder published her Little Houseon the Prairie series when she was in her 50s.MaryLawson was 55 when Crow Lake waspublished.FloraThompson is famous for her semi-autobiography Lark Rise to Candleford, published when she was 63.Ageis irrelevant. You are never too old. For anything.
This is one story from Indie Chicks: 25 Women 25 Personal Storiesavailable on Amazonand Barnes& Noble. To read all of the stories, buy your copy today.
Also included are sneak peeks into 25 novels!
My novel, Along Came a Demon, book one of the Whisperings paranormal mysteryseries, is one of the novels featured.
All proceeds go to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.