A great deal has been happening in my author life lately. As many of you know, I participated in JANO, a writing competition held within my mystery writing group, Sleuths' Ink Mystery Writers. The goal was to write 50,000 words during the month of January. When I last mentioned the competition, I purposely omitted my word count because it's supposed to be confidential until after the JANO party, which is held in February.
The party was last weekend, so now I can tell you how I did. I wrote 97,350 words during the month of January. That is a vast number of words for a thirty-one-day period. That's enough words to win 1st Place in the competition this year. This is my first year to win the big prize, and I'm proud as a peacock. I will probably never come close to that number again.
I also came home with the haiku award. The object was to write a haiku about our JANO project. Since I had more than one, I chose the one that no one knew a thing about. That way, it didn't automatically trigger something in anyone's brain that traced to me. I kept most everything about that project top secret.
It's a Christmas cozy mystery novel about a teacher who enters a baking contest during her hometown's Christmas festival, which ends in murder. She actually becomes the main suspect and has to prove her innocence before the real killer can be found.
The other novel I finished was Christy's Cursed Legacy, which is Book 2 in the Ozarks Legacy Series. This book continues where Sally's Secret Legacy leaves off, but this time, it's Christy's story. She began as a minor character in Sally's story, but she quickly demanded more attention and development.
I kept track of my daily word count on a paper calendar. I didn't calculate my running total during the last week of the month until the very last day of the competition. Just before I went to bed that night, I did that math and was astounded at what my calculations revealed. I added my numbers three times. It was with great pride I emailed my final total. It was extremely difficult not to shout my word count from the rooftop.
I finished two novel rough drafts, wrote two short stories, some nonfiction, and a few blog posts. I also cranked out some poetry, which isn't half bad. Don't get me wrong, the novels are super rough, and they aren't near ready to another human being to read.
Now begins the arduous editing and revision process. I have set the lofty goal for myself of having both books finished and published by the end of the year. That means, my nose is staying to that grindstone for the foreseeable future. I'll give you progress updates every now and then, but I'm keeping most of the plots to myself.
In other news, I won 1st Place in the Ozarks Romance Authors quarterly contest last week. The story was inspired by an actual meet cute I experienced a few years ago. I met an international bestselling author in the hallway of a fancy hotel at a writers' conference. He called out to me, stating he was pretty sure I was a writer since my T-shirt proclaimed me as such. We introduced ourselves and visited briefly.
I met him again a few months ago and learned that he doesn't remember me or our conversation at all. Why would he? Our encounter was brief, and I'm not particularly special. However, I was inspired to write a short romance based upon that meeting. I can't think of a better meet cute than two writers walking toward each other on thick pastel pink carpet with expensive art adorning the walls at a writers' conference.
Now for the most exciting news: I completed my paperwork to be a speaker at the Ozarks Creative Writers Conference (OCW) this year! I am the Thursday speaker, and I'll be sharing my journey in becoming an author. I will be talking about how my dream developed, how life kicked me in the tail resulting in a twenty-year hiatus, and how I came back to my senses and began my quest again.
Speaking at the OCW is a huge honor and great opportunity for me. Not many people know my name, and even fewer know my story. I am thrilled to be sharing. I hope to inspire my fellow authors and make the people who invited me proud.
I truly feel that 2025 could be my best year yet as an author. It's a dream over forty years in the making.
Thank you for reading Ozarks Maven! If you’ve enjoyed my little seeds of wisdom and joy, please join me again next week for more Ozarks Maven.
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