WINDS OF CHANGE

Winds of change are not just blowing, but howling, in the publishing world. This is true for editors, agents, and, perhaps especially, for writers. Avalon authors have felt this first-hand with the Amazon buyout of Avalon. All of the sudden, we have a new publisher and we're not quite sure what to expect. Don't get me wrong. That's not a complaint. Many of us have already epublished books through Amazon and have been pleased with the results, so we're optimistic. Change is good, especially for the creative spirit.

In that spirit of change is good, I decided to try my hand at something a little different. My full-length novels are all mysteries. Why not write a romance? Just a short one to see how it goes? In writing More Than Words Can Say, I discovered there's not as much difference as I thought. In a mystery, at least in cozies like my Jennie Connors books, there's a natural tension because you have ordinary people caught up in an extraordinary situation, finding themselves in a place they never thought they would be. Not really that different from being in love. Love may be universal, but to the person caught in its throes, it's a unique experience. Everyone in love believes no one has ever felt like this before, and, when things go wrong, they're convinced they'll never go right again.

That's where my story picks up our heroine. Lynn Donovan is a nice person; she's young, open-heartened, impulsive, and completely captivated by a married man - a situation she certainly never expected for herself. Should she walk away? Can she? If she does, will she ever feel like this again? What about the deaf-mute postman she meets for lunch every day? Can the comfortable camaraderie they share ever ignite the sparks she's looking for? To her, these questions are as mysterious as "whodunit" is to an amateur sleuth. If you're interested in checking it out, here's the Amazon link: http://amzn.to/N0uv1S
 (It's free today through the weekend.)

So ... I discovered that writing a romance wasn't really all that different from plotting a mystery. Plots are like snowflakes - and like people - they're all different and, yet, somehow all the same. Good stories are all (to borrow a couple of phrases from William Faulkner) about "the human heart in conflict with itself" and "the only thing worth writing about." I think, if a writer keeps that in mind, they can't go wrong, no matter what type of story he or she writes, no matter how or where that story is published.

I've also written two trios of short stories that don't really fit into any genre. They're just about people that I found interesting: ordinary people, living ordinary lives, doing the best they can. It feels good to give murder a rest and write about simple decency. I published them through Amazon Kindle. If you would like to check them out, you can find them by going to my website: http://www.sandracareycody.com/  or my Amazon Author page: http://amzn.to/L4U3Jo

Happy reading, everyone. Here's to the future.