My wife and I recently visited the Okefenokee Swamp, and the experience ended up inspiring my newest release. I’m not sure how many of you here are writers, but finishing this book left me more drained than anything I’ve taken on in quite some time. At one point, I even told a friend it might be my last.
But the truth is, I still love writing. That part has never left me. It’s everything surrounding it, the noise, the pressure, the constant stream of people trying to sell you something to make your work “better” or more visible, that wears you down.
As a former Marine, the best way I can describe it is this. I feel like I’ve just completed a ten-mile trek through that same swamp, exhausted and tested, but still moving forward. Maybe that’s what this journey really is. Not just finishing a book, but proving to yourself that you can make it through the swamp and come out the other side with something that matters.
I’m putting this out there in the hope that some of you might join me on the journey. My editor says this is the best thing she’s read all year, but then again, she said that in February, and I am paying her.
In the end, the reason we do this is simple. We hope someone picks up the book, reads it, and says, wow, that was a good mystery. That, for a little while, we helped them forget the chaos of the world and gave them something worth their time.
Oh, and by the way, I write mysteries. One of them leans toward cozy, but none of my books are filled with profanity. I don’t speak that way, so I don’t write that way. My inspiring eighth-grade Latin teacher always said profanity was a crutch for weak language skills.
I know, we are all adults. But I am an old-fashioned guy.
But the truth is, I still love writing. That part has never left me. It’s everything surrounding it, the noise, the pressure, the constant stream of people trying to sell you something to make your work “better” or more visible, that wears you down.
As a former Marine, the best way I can describe it is this. I feel like I’ve just completed a ten-mile trek through that same swamp, exhausted and tested, but still moving forward. Maybe that’s what this journey really is. Not just finishing a book, but proving to yourself that you can make it through the swamp and come out the other side with something that matters.
I’m putting this out there in the hope that some of you might join me on the journey. My editor says this is the best thing she’s read all year, but then again, she said that in February, and I am paying her.
In the end, the reason we do this is simple. We hope someone picks up the book, reads it, and says, wow, that was a good mystery. That, for a little while, we helped them forget the chaos of the world and gave them something worth their time.
Oh, and by the way, I write mysteries. One of them leans toward cozy, but none of my books are filled with profanity. I don’t speak that way, so I don’t write that way. My inspiring eighth-grade Latin teacher always said profanity was a crutch for weak language skills.
I know, we are all adults. But I am an old-fashioned guy.
THE WEIGHT OF BLUE
J. Thomas Witcher