One of the reasons I enjoy publishing my weekly blog is that I get to learn about authors and their different roads to publication. Each story is unique and many are memorable. That is true of today's guest in My Writing Corner, Miriam Matthews. In fact it is so different, let's just let her tell you about her background.
Tell us about your road to publication.
I’ve always wanted to write stories and finally got down to business a few years back when my husband was transferred to a remote post in western Alaska. I was teaching in Anchorage at the time and had my evenings free to write. The first book I wrote was a masterful 430,000-word epic novel called Dangerous Skies! And sooooo bad I am embarrassed to even look at the manuscript. Double spaced and typed out with one-inch borders, just like we were supposed to do in the dark ages of publishing, it took up a bank box. Like all aspiring authors, I sent it off to a renowned editor whose name I found on the publishing house website. It cost $42.56 to send the darn thing. Then the waiting started… and lasted… and lasted… A year later I received a very sweet rejection letter noting that I “might want to attend some writing and publishing classes to polish my style”. So began the process of finding a critique group, attending classes and writing conferences to learn the craft. Fast forward seven years - the entire publishing field had changed and so had my writing skills, as well as my employment. I’d retired and joined my husband at his assignment just north of San Francisco. I had given up on writing and done everything you shouldn’t do in life: retired from a high-pressure administrative job, sold my home of almost 20 years, left all of my friends and writing support group to move from my beloved Alaska to, of all places, California. BIG change!
We were billeted in a two-bedroom apartment in Coast Guard housing where I knew no one and hadn’t driven a freeway in years. Talk about a recipe for depression! I was no longer the Director of anything. I had seven college degrees and nothing to do with them. My husband was working all hours of the day and night depending on his missions, often away from home. That first year, I caught up on five years of Charmed re-runs and usually got dressed in time to meet my hubby and the MPs for lunch at the local greasy spoon. Not a lifestyle I’d recommend!
One lunch, the base Fire Chief was late in joining us because he was dealing with a fire alarm that had gone off in one of the older buildings at MOTCO – Marine Ocean Terminal Concord – the military munitions storage base. He was a little frustrated and said the ghost was at it again. So ensued an interesting conversation about the haunting of the base that had an infamous history beginning back in 1944. I was captivated and that part of my brain I’d put to sleep with a single rejection letter years before, surfaced and started nagging at me. It started a chain reaction. I joined a gym and started working out. I got out of my pjs before noon and began writing. I researched the disaster at Port Chicago which was the largest single loss of African American enlisted sailors in the explosion of 1944. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Chicago_disaster ).
I’d already attended the annual July 17th memorial and listened to the families of the deceased sailors. I actually met one man who’d been there and survived. He was one of the Port Chicago 50 – the group of sailors who were tried and found guilty of treason because they refused to go back to work without munitions training and safety inspections of the equipment. My 60s/70s radical nature reared its ugly head and I just had to write a story. So began The Ghost of Port Chicago, a historical romance between an African American sailor and a white daughter of the base captain. She is killed during the explosion while working at the local base theater and is now a ghost haunting the base. He survives the explosion. Old and in declining health, he is dying in a nursing home in Oakland. She needs help to bring closure to their relationship and move on or she will remain the Ghost of Port Chicago forever. She pesters the workers at the base until she finds the help she needs.
When I published the novel and gave my mother-in-law a copy to read, she just had to have more. So, I wrote the sequel, On the Side Of Angels, continuing the story with characters introduced in the first book. That was the beginning! Now I have seven books out with another two coming out in early 2024.
What do you enjoy about being an author?
Almost all of my books address social inequities, people with life-interfering disabilities, or individuals righting some wrong. I love showing how people can overcome, persevere, or grow through their adventures and challenges. I was born with Non-dominant Dyslexia which put me on a path to understanding brain-based differences. Some say disabilities, but I always say abilities or gifts. If there is one thing I have learned in life, is that there is no normal. Everyone is unique and individual. I like highlighting this in my novels. I love demonstrating that everyone has skills and abilities to offer in particular situations. If you visit my website at www.miriammatthews.com, you can read about my life adventures. In my bio you can see what approaching life with an open mind and a heart for adventure can do for everyone, even a person who may be perceived as “learning disabled” or “different”.
What do you find is the most challenging part of being an author?
EDITING! Since I am mostly an Indie author, I live in fear of publishing with errors in my books. I rarely find my own errors since I have almost perfect recall, something I developed as a kid to compensate for not being able to read well out loud. My grandmother would read to me, and I memorized what she said. When I write, I just end up reading what I thought I wrote and not the words on the paper. My compensation is a couple people who read my manuscripts and mark the mistakes for me to correct. That produces a manuscript that is generally 99% error free.
What is your book that you will feature today and how did you come up with the idea to write it?
Let's get a blurb:
Crystal Traynor has constructed her world to fit her chronic OCD episodes and need for isolation and security. When her twin sister, Brystal, is murdered in Ireland, Crystal must leave her carefully insulated world to go and identify her sister’s remains, and bring her twin home.
When Inspector Ethan MacEnery sees the dead woman in the county morgue walk through his door, he almost loses his mind! Expecting the victim’s sister, he is totally unprepared for the identical version of the victim herself. Already captivated by what little he knows of Miss Brystal Traynor’s life , Ethan is shocked to meet Crystal, the identical, but totally different sister of the flamboyant, artistic Brystal. Drawn to this brilliant, yet peculiar woman, Ethan quickly volunteers to help Crystal deal with her sister's personal possessions.
Crystal finds this new world of ancient beliefs and unique people is changing her. She is astounded by the acceptance and support she feels... especially from one particular Inspector.
As it becomes clear that Brystal’s murder was more than an American gal in the wrong place at the wrong time, Crystal must overcome her personal challenges to help Ethan uncover the secrets in her sister’s beautifully cut crystal goblets.
Ethan quickly realizes Brystal’s work may hold the key to a diabolical plot that could destroy everything he holds dear… including Crystal.
What’s your next project?
I am currently working on the fourth book in my Vamp Squad series, The Roots of Betrayal. It is a series about a group of undercover, anti-terrorist operatives working for the government who also happen to be kick-ass females… and vampires! As you’ve probably figured out, I have a military background and this series is so much fun to write because I can save the world on a regular basis with my gals. My vampires are not the traditional mean and creepy blood suckers, but a mutated form of human that is infected with a super virus. The individual goes through a metamorphosis, a death- like coma, to become a superior being with extraordinary powers, and perfect hair! They all come from historical periods and different cultures, or countries and their missions are fast paced and thoroughly engaging. Of course, there has to be some romantic shenanigans as well as some very tangled relationships.
The idea for this series came about when I was in Romania. As a guest of the country, I was treated to a private tour of Bran Castle and got to sit on Dracula’s bed. The country celebrates Vlad Tepes as a hero and uniter of the people of Wallachia. They laugh at the legends of Bram Stoker and Hollywood’s many versions of Dracula. Bran Castle is not the real castle, but a tourist destination since his actual castle is in ruins. Vlad III was a short fellow, and his bed is wider than it is long since he like several woman under the covers with him at any one time. The stairways are short enough I had to stoop to climb them! Since the Romanian people see him as a hero, I thought long and hard about how I could turn the creepy vampire into a good vampire and came up with the virus idea. Teaching at the military medical school at the time, I had access to several virologists that studied all kinds of icky bugs and dangerous genetic mutating events, hence VMD; Vampticious Meticulosus Deliriotum. My invented virus even includes a CDC warning in the front of each book explaining my top-secret version of vampirism! It’s based on real science and could just be… I’ll leave the rest to your imagination!
How do you develop characters?
I often take cues from the environment to come up with characters and then elaborate. In Crystal Clear, I patterned the crystal cutter and shop owner after Sean Daly (the real owner of Dingle Crystal) and the Inspector after an officer we met in Dublin. I then expand upon their characteristics and involvement.
Several readers found personalities very similar to their own in The Ghost Of Port Chicago. Some were good and some not so. To this day I still email with the Fire Chief from MOTCO who always signs his name, Chief Ray!
On my Ireland trip, we went to Newgrange Mound Tombs. I am a ruins-freak and had to explore these incredible archeological constructs built around 5,000 BC. I stood in the middle of one and let my imagination fly. These megalithic passage tombs are older than Stonehenge, the pyramids in Egypt and most of the Mayan and Aztec sites in Central and South America (https://www.knowth.com/#:~:text=The%20Megalithic%20Passage%20Tombs%20of,Pyramids%20of%20Giza%20in%20Egypt. ) I swear I could feel the ancient people who worshiped there, watching the approach an alignment of the solstices, or burying their loved ones. One of my characters in the Vamp Squad series is an ancient faerie princess from that time! It was a violent and vicious time of wars and tribal conflicts which made perfect sense for my little red-headed faerie vamp with her own army!
What advice do you have for beginning writers?
Learn the craft before you write 430,000-word epic novel that nobody will ever read! Find a writer’s group and learn about the business. Publishing has changed incredibly and the universe we used to know is no longer. Writing is a business. That wonderful book of your heart may only be interesting to your heart!
Learn how an agent can help you BEFORE you sign anything.
Visit libraries and read books similar to what you’d like to write. Know the standards for genres. Publishing a young adult book has certain requirements and rules versus writing an erotic novel, or Christian romance!
Do your research! There is nothing like reading a book about something you know well, and the author makes up something impossible. I’ve been a scuba diver since high school, and I recently read a book about this Navy SEAL who saves a woman by strapping a tank to her back and buddy breathing as they swam under a wall about 60 feet down. Right! Sharing a regulator while dragging a non-diver down to 60 feet in the dark and swimming out of a confinement? Right…
Know the area you are writing about! Taking a long hot shower with your lover after mushing from Talkeetna to Akiachak is ridiculous to anyone who has traveled Alaska. That trail would take several days AND there is no indoor plumbing in that village!!!!
Warning: My husband and I used to talk about my plots in all kinds of places; restaurants, the office, stores, etc. DON’T DO THAT! Especially if you are discussing disposal of a body and there is an undercover detective sitting in the booth behind you sipping his coffee! It does make for an interesting interview… just saying!
Here are the Buy Links for Crystal Clear followed by Miriam’s social contact information where you can find out more about her past and upcoming books.
Amazon: Crystal Clear
Barnes and Noble: Crystal Clear
Website: https://www.miriammatthews.com/books
Social Contact Info:
Website: www.miriam matthews.com
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