Happy December, writers! Join our monthly Insecure Writers Support Group blog hop, where we vent and lift up. It’s a wonderful community started by author Alex Cavanaugh.
Today’s co-hosts are some of my favorites: Tara Tyler, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Pat Garcia, Liza, and Natalie Aguirre!
December 3 question – As a writer, what was one of the coolest/best gifts you ever received?
Gifts of support have made the greatest impact on me:
🎄The Insecure Writers Support Group! IWSG is a big factor in keeping me in the writing game, and it’s been a blessing getting to know cool writers like you. A special shout out to Ronel Janse van Vuuren (today’s co-host who invited me to discuss domestic violence on her blog), Natalie Aguirre (also a co-host today, thanks, Natalie!) Louise Barbour (wonderful post), and Alex Cavanaugh for spreading the word about my new release.
🎄My self-publishing team. I’m grateful for pub sisters like Nicki Elson (Bev), my critique partner extraordinaire. I also met editor Jessica Royer Ocken and book designer Coreen Montagna through the small publisher who released my first four novels. Working with a professional editor has definitely sharpened my writing skills.
🎄The gift of readers. That old adage, “You don’t know what you got till it’s gone”? Sadly, I’m living it! Sales for my new release, Low Water, have been deplorable. I’ve heard book sales are down for many authors, but JEEZ. I guess it doesn’t help that it’s been four years since I last published. Or maybe a book about recovering from trauma isn’t commercially appealing. But I have felt fortunate whenever readers have devoted their precious time to try one of my novels through the years.
What are the coolest gifts you’ve received?
Synopsis:
On our cattle ranch, when an animal was in distress or injured, I was put in charge of nursing it back to health. Never mind that I was just a kid and hated the sight of blood, but I had to muster up the courage to apply home remedies. My survival rate was pretty good. It seemed like a foregone conclusion that I would progress to nursing – humans. After one year into nurses training, I bolted. Bed pans and chronic diseases pushed me in different direction; a career of dealing with drug addicts, murder, suicide, fatalities, and biker gangs. In 1983 I graduated with honors as a paramedic and worked in the City of Edmonton’s Emergency Services.
For the next twenty years, I came face to face with scenes most people would rather not think about. I loved it. Having experienced life in the most deadly and gut wrenching events, and work alongside the police service, I gained the fodder for creating intense novels. My first novel, The Guardian’s Wildchild, was published by Omnific Publishing in 2011. The setting is on a naval ship, under the command of a surely man who is under suspicion of treason. When a battered woman is brought to his ship for execution, he has no idea that she is about to turn his disciplined life into chaos – and that she is no ordinary woman. The Guardian’s Wildchild has a rating of 4.1 at Amazon.
Jennifer Lane Books 