The Writer's Journey

The writer's journey is a long one. Full of fast starts and lots of waiting. Marked by great excitement, mixed with terrible lows, each author finds her own way. Or finds another career. Invariably the hardest part is not the writing.

The time between finishing a book and seeing it published can usually be measured in years, not months. Echelon Press Publishing LLC is one of the few publishers that can make that turn around a little quicker – still the wait is long for the authors.

The co-authors, writing as Evelyn David, are now officially starting the promotion tour for a book we finished last summer. Lots of water has passed under the bridge since then. We'll let you in on a secret – we have to reread our own book before we stand up before a crowd and talk about it in detail. Oh, we remember the plot and the characters, but all the scenes? No. Why? Because many scenes were deleted before we turned in the final version. But in our memories, there is no difference between the words we wrote and the finished product.

To be fair, with Murder Takes the Cake we have fewer scenes littering the cutting room floor. Understanding how hard it was to edit the first book, we were more disciplined about our plotting in the second book. We write much "tighter" now.

Just as an author's writing changes with time and experience, the writing changes the author. You learn to see the world around you in terms of events that can be mined for plots and people who'd make great characters. You listen for a phrase that can be recycled for one of your series characters. The "world is a stage" and believe me, the author sitting at the table next to you is taking notes.

The Writer's Journey Journal is a new collection of writers' essays on, as editor Tony Burton calls, "… the craft and business of writing fiction." Published by Wolfmont Press, The Writer's Journey Journal is also a journal. Pages are left for you to write about your own journey. Evelyn David, along with the following authors, contributed to the book: Carolyn Hart, Bill Crider, Radine Trees Nehring, John M. Floyd, Austin S. Camacho, Robert W. Walker, L. Diane Wolfe, Beth Groundwater, Carola Dunn, Dorothy Francis, Chris Roerden, and Tony Burton.

The Writer's Journey Journal is available at Wolfmont Press's website

Evelyn David
www.evelyndavid.com