by Janine Todd

The Business of Writing

What started as a hobby (and a way to keep me off the streets) has now turned into a passion. I quickly discovered that I apparently couldn’t stop, accumulating a trilogy, a prequel, another series, and assorted future crimes.

Having traveled through several career paths—classical singer, mother, nurse — I have now returned to a creative endeavor and am deep into yet another series featuring the same characters as my first. The writing has been both cathartic and fun, and on a good day, I can write for hours. It is easy for me to put pen to paper. (Wow, I’m really dating myself here!)

Seventy years of life experience gives me plenty of material to draw from, and my imagination has stepped up to the plate and supplied the rest. I have to admit that I’ve surprised myself with some of the plots I’ve come up with. Well, we are writing mysteries, after all.

I would consider mine psychological suspense, to be exact: a collection of murders (including a particularly gruesome one in Book Two), kidnappings, long-buried crimes and secrets, and a cast of people who’ve been friends for ages, set against some very determined—and deliciously dastardly—doers of dirty deeds.

BUT.

I am of a certain age, and tech-savvy I am not. Plots and writing come easily. Word processing? Not so much. After fighting with Word for five days and dealing with a myriad of issues, I finally had three manuscripts poised to take on the publishing world.

Ah, yes. The publishing world….

Twenty-five inquiries, each requiring something different. One wanted one page (!); others wanted the entire manuscript, along with an assortment of queries, synopses, bios, etcetera. I have to say, if writing had been this difficult, I would’ve stopped before I started.

I even found myself using a ruler to make sure titles and indents were correct. Yes. A ruler.

And now, at seventy-three, I’m writing my first-ever blog—which proves, if nothing else, that apparently, I’m not finished trying new things. I did do a podcast about geriatric nursing with an elder lawyer, so I’m not totally a dinosaur.

Now, if I can only find a publisher….

About Janine Todd

Janine Todd grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, and lives in New Jersey. After earning a master’s degree from the Eastman School of Music, she changed careers and pursued a nursing degree. She now writes psychological suspense fiction. Resolution is her debut novel and the first book in the Survival trilogy.