It started with a Kindle and Louise Hay

I read mysteries, mostly.  Sometimes I'll read a non-mystery book recommended by a friend, but if I'm searching out a book to read for escape and enjoyment, it will always be a murder mystery.  I think it's the puzzle that attracts me, but why murder?  I don't know.  I like to watch true crime on TV and I like a novel where the characters seem real to me, as if their stories could one day be told on Dateline or 48 Hours Mysteries.

So it was totally out of character for me, the summer day in 2011 when I first got my Kindle, that the first book I purchased on it was Louise Hay's You Can Heal Your Life.  It's a self help book, so even if I didn't consciously think so, maybe I needed help.  The book had loads of great reviews but the deciding factor was that it was only $0.99 that day.  I not only downloaded it, I read through it twice over the next couple of weeks, doing all the excercises to one extent or another.

That book changed my life.  I know it sounds trite, but it did.  Louise Hay led me to Wayne Dyer's Excuses Begone.  I started to look at myself differently, and to look at my life differently, and it started me on the road to publishing my first two mystery novels, written over ten years ago, rewritten, revised and polished several times, and waiting patiently for the "some day" that a publisher would accept them and they would be published.  That "some day" was no longer beyond my control.  Louise and Wayne gave me the push that I needed, and Amazon's Kindle gave me the ability to make my novels available to readers.

When the reviews started coming in, I knew I was on the right path.  I might never make a lot of money, nor be interviewed on TV, nor have a novel on the New York Times bestseller list, but I am hearing from readers who enjoy my novels and are looking forward to the next one.  That gives me a reason to keep writing, and getting back to writing has added an exciting new dimension to my life.

Thanks, Louise!  Thanks, Wayne!  Thanks, Amazon!  Thanks, Smashwords!  And above all, thank you, readers!