FROM 'THERE' TO 'HERE'

WHEN WE LEAST EXPECT IT...

After my divorce I didn’t date. Several years went by and during those years I was ridiculously content. I kept my car running, [thanks to a mechanic], I also kept the furnace, hot water heater and kitchen appliances in my townhouse functioning too, [thanks to Sears’ trained technicians].

Perhaps I was too settled and too content. I was writing and publishing for Oil Week’s - Drillsite and contributing regularly to *the hunter forum. And, as I mentioned before The Forum’s Editor Audrey Newcomen openly discussed her retirement and passing the monthly company publication torch to me as her replacement.

Then February 1990 the editor of Drillsite Magazine who had also become a close friend, introduced me to the friend of a man she had been dating for several months. The ‘friend’ [Keith] seemed nice. He had come to Alberta to ski, which seemed odd to me as he lived in Colorado and skiing in Colorado was part of the same mountain chain in Alberta. No matter, because I hadn’t been dating since my divorce, I really wasn’t paying much attention. Besides Keith lived in Colorado and would return to Colorado. So, over four days with one lunch, one dinner, a day skiing and a brunch. I didn’t expect to see this man again… Wrong!

Let’s just say that after many years of being on my own and focused on either, my work, my writing or my kids – while ‘absolutely not’ dating anyone – my peers at Canadian Hunter, my family and my kids were astounded by the flurry of the next six months. So was I…

There were dozens of daily phone calls – at a time when there were no calling plans, which made long distance calling expensive. And, either I few to Colorado or Keith flew to Alberta. Though the frequent flyer miles added up each month, so did those travel costs. By August - half serious and half joking - we had decided we needed to either stop seeing each other or get married…

[We met in early February 1990 and were married by late October 1990. In 2025, we will celebrate our 35^th wedding anniversary…]

After moving to Fort Collins, Colorado – naturally one of my first priorities was checking out the local newspaper [Fort Collins Coloradoan] – that just happened to be owned by USA TODAY. **Getting your foot-in-the-door [an old salesman’s strategy] is slightly easier if you volunteer or seek publishing opportunities either freelance or part time.

As I had eleven years before with the Whitecourt Star [only the toddler was now 15 & her new baby brother was 12] —without an appointment I introduced myself to the Coloradoan Lifestyle editor. But this time I was able to hand her a brown 10x12 envelope containing several photocopy samples of my actual published work as my resume. One week later I was in her office. The paper had no staff openings, but she did need weekend edition feature material. For the next year I had two to three assignments each month.

Meanwhile Keith and I were learning as we went merging my furniture with his and merging my two offspring with his three. Reid the oldest [then 22] was actually out on his own. Paul was set to restart college that fall, David was a high school senior, my daughter Gail was a junior and my son Patrick was entering grade seven. Those last four months of 1990 – like the previous whirlwind seven months – were a blur, organized day by day [only] because I managed to keep a journal. Then that daily journal of our first two years together became the foundation for my Denver Post multipart feature every Sunday - and premise of my first book - years later, 2003.

Just so you know that I haven’t just been ‘killing’ people on paper. There was a time when everything I wrote was based on actual facts…like journalists are supposed to do. And I kept my brother busy with some serious work of his own. Wayne was a pilot and fulltime Inspector with Transport Canada and still managed to illustrate each chapter heading in both the 1st Edition of “Blended” as well as the updated 2nd Edition, 2015.

What I’ll leave you with here - for those who made it this far - is yet another ‘pearl’ of wisdom that applies especially to anyone pursuing some form of the ‘arts’.

Life Lesson…If you’re goal is a novel, then be patient…Be patient with yourself and the process – because it’s not you it is ‘them’. All of ‘Then…

In the newspaper-magazine world [also podcasts, blogs & Substack] results for our efforts are often seen, daily. However, in traditional book publishing almost nothing happens quickly. Writing is more often than not like the process of erosion – it – evolves over – time… Then too - heading out down that independent-road isn’t the quick, easy answer one might expect either. Each of my mystery-suspense novels with research, multiple edits and rewrites - takes me 8 to 14 months from first draft to published.

Then there’s marketing! Marketing - and marketing - and marketing…

Yes, you have access to millions of people on the World-Wide-Web - but so does everyone else. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or YouTube are crowded spaces. It’s like wearing a red dress or bright tie to a party only to see everyone else in a red dress or bright tie too. I don’t know the volume of submissions to Barnes & Noble Press or Smashwords self-publishing, but Amazon’s system now releases about 4,000 new book titles each day!

Granted, about 10% are a single memoir history for younger generations of family and another 25% are single book releases by those who just wanted to try writing a book. Regardless, your work must still compete - so your resolve needs to be firmly rooted…

Thanking people/readers is SO important. I thank readers for their support of my books regularly. [If only they would leave more reader reviews on Amazon, that too would be lovely – but few are comfortable doing that.] When someone follows me on Twitter/”X” I follow back and send them a message: Thank you for the follow…

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To hold the first [physical], copy of your first published book in your hands is almost akin to holding your newborn child for the first time. Since I have been blessed to have done both – the creative high for both is truly a special gift…

My sincere wish is that some of what I learned over my years and some of this rambling helps your creative direction…