Elaine Flinn writes:
Overnight success??
Well, I guess you could say I am. It did take me twenty years, but at my age, time flies faster each day, so yeah – I'll go with "overnight."
Dealing in Murder, however, was my fourth book. I've got three "practice" books hiding away in shame in the garage. I hear them every now and then moaning and groaning – jealous that I can now call myself a writer and they hadn't played a part in my new found career.
Those twenty years, by the way, were often interrupted by life, family, children and selling antiques, so I can't really claim to have suffered too much for my craft. While I had my share of rejection letters, they were as sporadic as my pursuit to published nirvana. It finally hit me one day as I wrote up a sales tag to a rather obnoxious and odious woman for a to-die-for Biedermeier chest I knew she only wanted because I'd sold a similar one to her best friend and she couldn't stand not to have one too, that I was wasting my "golden years" not doing what I wanted. And that was, naturally, to write.
But, could I actually make the grade? Could I face tearing open another round of rejection letters from agents whose eyes bled at the end of the day reading query letters?
I decided to give it one more try. I signed up for the Maui Writers Conference & Retreat in 2000. I was lucky to have as my instructor, Craig Leslie, the celebrated and award-winning Pacific Northwest writer and Pulitzer nominee. At the end of the course, I asked Craig if I should keep writing or take up gardening. He told me to hire a gardener. Filled with renewed tenacity, I left Maui with a hot-shot New York agent and I just knew I was on my way. I was. To nowhere. A long story, but nothing some of you haven't already heard or experienced.
I finally found my way to a three book contract, an astonishing four nominations for my first book – which I still find hard to believe – and now I can look in the mirror and say, "Hey, kiddo! You're real. You are a writer."
Miracles happen occasionally.
Elaine Flinn was an antique dealer in San Francisco for many years before taking up writing full-time. Her first book, Dealing in Murder, was nominated for four prominent awards, including the Gumshoe. Her third book, Deadly Collection, will be released this fall.
