Friday The 13th
By Joan Donaldson-Yarmey
Friday the 13th. Ah, that dreaded
unlucky day when everyone treads carefully, avoiding ladders and black cats.
All I can say about the day is that so far in my life I've been lucky--
nothing bad has ever happened to me on a Friday the 13th (knock on wood).
Neither has anything good. So today should be like any other day. What
does this have to do with writing? you ask. Well, sometimes in order to find
the right publisher, a great deal of luck is involved.
I took a few writing courses
and began my published, writing career (as opposed to my unpublished
writing career) with a short story titled A Hawk's Reluctant Flight, in a small magazine called Western People. With that as my resume, I had travel and historical
articles accepted by other magazines, one of which didn't pay
anything to the author. Then I took another writing course and one of the
speakers was Grant Kennedy owner of Lone Pine Publishing in Edmonton, Alberta.
At the time Alberta was divided into
tourist zones and I had been thinking about doing a book on what there was to
see and do in each zone. I sent a query letter to Lone Pine Publishing and the
senior editor responded with a phone call. We set up a time for me to go to the
city and meet with her and Grant Kennedy.
I
outlined my idea and Grant said yes it was a good one but he thought that the
books should be more on the people and culture of each zone. He liked his idea
and I liked mine so we decided we couldn't work together. As I stood to leave I
said. "Well, at least as I research the zones I will see all the backroads
of Alberta." He replied. "I've always want to do a book on the
backroads of Alberta." I sat back down and that was how I began my
backroads series. Over the next ten years I travelled through and wrote two
books on Alberta, four books on British Columbia, and one on the Yukon and
Alaska.
My
favourite books to read have always been mystery novels and after much
thought I decided to write one. Since one of the mantras of writing is to write what you know I made my main
character a travel writer. She was headed to southern Alberta to do research
for a magazine and was drawn into the mystery of a skeleton found in a
septic tank. When I was finished I sent it out to a few publishers. One wrote
back that they liked it but my travel background was coming out and I had too
much travel information in it. I was asked to remove some. So I did and resent
my manuscript. Again, I was asked to cut back on the travel info. Again I did.
The third time I was told that this was a mystery and I should stick with the
mystery and leave out the travel stuff. I wrote back and said that the main
character is a travel writer and is working on an article. She is not going to
drop that and concentrate on solving the murder. So needless to say we parted ways.
I sent out the manuscript again and another publisher said
they were interested in publishing it. They had one stipulation and that was
that I should add in more travel information.
I sent the second novel of what I was calling my Travelling
Detective Series to the same publisher. After about a five month wait I
received a letter that told me the publishing house had been bought out by
another one and that my manuscript and all my information had been sent to
them. I waited a few months the emailed
the new publisher to find out what was happening. A couple of days later I
received an email stating that they had no record of my manuscript. My heart
sunk. But a few days after that I received an email from another editor at the
publishing house stating that they had found my manuscript and they wanted to
publish it.
However, in the time between that email and the publishing date for my
novel, the publishing house was sold again. The new owner was going to honour
my contracts, but in the future wasn't going to publish mysteries. I knew there
was no use sending my third manuscript to that publisher and after checking
around I sent it to Books We Love. They immediately accepted it and e-published
it. After two years of talking with my old publisher I was able to get the
rights to my first two novels of the series and now all three are published
with Books We Love Ltd.
So on Friday the 13th that is my post of the luck that has brought me to
where I am today in my writing and publishing career. And being an optimist, I
am off to buy a lottery ticket on Lotto Max which is worth $10,000,000. Wish me
luck.
Books of The Travelling Detective
Series:
Illegally Dead
The Only shadow In The House
Whistler's Murder
Fascinating history. Especially where you got your start. My very first published story was a Veterans Day piece about my uncle in WW II England. Have a soft spot for that magazine. Jude
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