You Know You’re a Mystery Writer When…
[Missi Svoboda won the paperback copy of A TINE TO LIVE, A TINE TO DIE from Edith's A Second Life post last week. Missi, contact Edith, and congratulations!]
By Sherry Harris
You know you’re a mystery writer…
When:
Half of your friends have aliases but they haven’t committed a crime.
You have perfectly normal conversations about the best way to kill someone in a crowded restaurant.
Your husband is nervous when you say the Poison Lady is going to be at a conference you’re attending.
Julie with Sgt. Patrick Towle right before our police ride along.
You know how to sink a body and make sure it stays that way.
You have an anonymous source.
You’ve been on a police ride along.
Your friend’s husband, who’s a police officer, answers your questions after he decides you aren’t really planning to commit a crime.
You hear an interesting crime story and you start analyzing to see if it would work in your manuscript.
You can’t wait to:
See your cover.
Hold an arc.
Hold the book.
Sign your first book.
Make the first sale that isn’t to your mother or some other close relative.
You try to:
My first panel at Left Coast Crime with Martha Cooley, Lori Rader-Day, Carlene O’Neil and Holly West.
Be funny and interesting when you’re on a panel at a conference.
Be witty and ask insightful questions when you moderate a panel.
Figure out how many appearances you should make and if you should have a launch party.
Promote but not over promote your book on social media sites.
You force yourself out of bed in the middle of the night because something has come to you and you want to remember it in the morning.
You wake up in the morning wondering what the heck you thought of in the middle of the night that you were sure was brilliant and you’d remember it without forcing yourself out of bed in the middle of the night.
You have to cover the word count on your computer so you don’t check every few minutes to see if you’ve reached your goal.
Liz in book jail on our recent retreat.
Your friends put you in book jail and yell at you if they see you’re online when you should be writing.
Your friends give you word counts, deadlines, and encourage you.
Anyone have something to add to the list?
Filed under: Sherry's posts Tagged: anonymous source, ARC, book cover, book jail, Carlene O'Neil, Holly West, Lori Rader-Day, Martha Cooley, Poison Lady, police ride alongs, word count, You know you are mystery writer when
