My book editor, Ashleigh Evans, is a former junior high
school friend from the 1950s, who I knew as Betty Smith (this was before her career
as a performer, hence the name change). We lost touch for many years until one
afternoon in the 1970s I was watching my late husband play tennis and a man
walked up to me and asked, “Did you used to be Sue Moore?” He was Bill Smith, a
local attorney. But I remembered him as Billy, Betty’s annoying kid brother.
I had an opportunity to see Ashleigh not long after that
when she was back east and was in our area to visit Bill and his family (she
now lives in the San Francisco Bay area). Bill’s daughter, Kristen, has
followed in her aunt’s footsteps and is a talented performer who is now on
Broadway, her lifelong dream.
But I digress. Ashleigh read my first novel, How I Grew Up, and contacted me to offer
her services as copy editor, looking for errors in spelling, punctuation, and
grammar. Over the course of nine books she has become much more. She also
catches plot holes and advises me when I veer off track, so she has also become
my content editor and in a way, my partner. We exchange ideas. I’m very
fortunate because she will take the book as I write, a chapter at a time,
something very rarely done.
Recently I sent her what is the climactic chapter for my
work in progress, The Case of the Toxic
Tenor, a murder mystery. When she returned the manuscript with her
corrections/changes/comments she remarked in the email: “When you're writing exciting, fast-paced scenes like this,
do you tend to type faster and faster?!”
That made me laugh, because I certainly
do exactly that. But I do more. The world around me recedes and I am living right
there, in that moment, in that place. This particularly scene takes place in
1964 Cincinnati, in the lobby of the Netherland Hilton Hotel. I was in that
lobby a number of times when I lived there, and had a vague memory of its
elegance, and of the Palm Court Restaurant just off to one side. But this is an
intense scene and I needed more. Internet searches provided some great
photographs and helped put me there. My remarkable police procedure consultant,
retired Major Crimes Detective Lieutenant Stephen Kramer of the Cincinnati Police
Department, included detailed narration to accompany photos he sent. I was
right there in that lobby, watching the scene unfold as I wrote.
I had an absolute blast.
When I am writing I have the time
of my life. And it’s immensely rewarding when I occasionally hear from someone
who has enjoyed one of my books, whether through an Amazon review, an email, a
note, or a comment in a parking lot (something like “I borrowed one of your
books from my neighbor and I just loved it!”). I started writing in May of 2013
and it has become as essential to me as breathing (I know I’ve said that
before, but it’s true). I’m sure I’m not that unusual and many other writers
share my passion.
Sometimes people ask me how to
write. Just do it. Sit down, use your computer, use a pencil and a pad of paper
… just put the words down. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It won’t be perfect. Get the story out of
your head. You can go back later and fix things. And you will, many, many, many times. But my advice is this: don’t
read a bunch of books on “how to write a book.” Just start writing. Even if it’s
slow going at first.
Without my computer, the internet,
and some incredible people kind enough to generously share their knowledge and
expertise about subjects I know little about (Lt. Kramer is a gold mine), I
couldn’t write. I know that. And when I look at the nine books I have in print,
I’m kind of stunned.
If you have any desire to write, try
it. It’s cathartic, it’s escapist, it’s freeing, it’s gratifying and satisfying
and fulfilling. Once you get into it, you’ll feel alive in a way you never have
before. You’re creating something. Just think of the implications of that.
Using your ability to produce something entirely new. Oh, sure, I know similar
stories have been told numerous times. But
not this exact story, in these exact words.
That’s why I write.
Oh, just in case you’d like to read any of my books, the quickest
and easiest place to go is my Amazon author page. You can check out the reviews
while you’re there. And if you do read a book … a review is like gold to us
indie authors.
https://www.amazon.com/Susan-Moore-Jordan/e/B00IBZ731U/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1
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