FR. TOM FISH : June 2023

Wednesday, June 7, 2023

You Always Hope the Brakes Work

Hi everybody, Julie Mackenzie here....

First, let me say a big thank you to Tom for letting me take over his blog for a recap of my publishing experience so far.

"Take all the time you like, my dear."

It has all been most challenging and I don't mean the writing part. That was easy in comparison. It was going over the manuscript countless times to make sure I made sense, the characters made sense and Tom was at his best. I had a good editor, mostly for content, reading the books purely for enjoyment, but with the keen eye of the critic. I didn't worry and won't about the grammar, spelling or punctuation.

Why?

Because I'm a perfectionist and fastidious to a fault, and... I had such an amazing foundation with the head-pounding repetition and high standards expected in parochial school. Who can forget the daily recitation of prepositions after recess while in the fifth grade? (That was the year I sneaked into the rectory's back yard) We diagramed sentences, too. When I'm in doubt as to the right verb or some rule of grammar, I mentally reach for the sentence diagrams and I get my answer. So, hats (or wimples) off to those ladies in fluttering robes and beads who made me the writer I am today, at times flamboyant in my occasional word creations and sentences that might have begged a big red question mark from them.

I didn't want to pursue what many other writers go after, and that is the agent who, if interested, will present your work to a publisher and so on. All it took was one writer's conference at which I heard an agent confess that he had a writer whose work he was still shopping around after two years. I think the entire traditional publishing route is very serendipitous, chancy, time consuming and I decided to just go it on my own. Also, I have started so darn late in life. I won't have the crop of 50 plus books of Stephen

King and other authors like David Baldacci, Brad Thor, Lee Child, and Fannie Flagg who have amassed an amazing number published.

And, finally, a big challenge for me was having those I depended on for covers and formatting get back to me with the finished product. The interior layout is now being done by a fellow writer from Great Britain who goes above and beyond, with a designer creating attractive covers. I read over 50 novels a year and I see how they are laid out, the stunning touches, and I've enjoyed spreading my wings a little, introducing poetry, for instance.

C.J. Box, an outstanding writer of western mysteries, shares the great outdoors, and you feel like he's inviting you there, setting the scene with introductory drawings and quotes. Writers are creators, transferring what is in their imagination to receptive readers who are always ready to cross that threshold prompted by an irresistible invitation.