Flashback to my first published novel
By Jeff Salter
Looking back over my use of the 4F1H “free” weeks, I see that I’ve given scant attention to my first published novel, “The Overnighter’s Secrets.” It was actually my seventh completed novel, but the first to receive a contract, from the lovely Stephanie Taylor at Clean Reads (formerly Astraea Press). Yep, I had six other complete orphans raring to go before my seventh novel finally found a home.
Written (and revised) during roughly the middle six months of 2011, T.O.S. had a contract by the end of that year, went through months of extensive editing, and saw its release in May of 2012. By the end of 2012, T.O.S. was also in paperback… and was subsequently brought to life also as an audio book.
Long before Shane acquired the overnighter, a silent movie actress kept secrets there. Is Beth’s terrifying ordeal simply because she unwittingly possesses the overnighter’s secrets? “The Overnighter’s Secrets.” Suspense novel, only $2.99 in digital formats; paperback also available (varied prices); audio version also available (price varies). Clean Reads, 2012.
http://tinyurl.com/TOS-JLS
Over three years ago, I blogged about the origins of this story, how it brought me into contact with the granddaughter of the silent movie actress who’d owned the material I was examining, etc. That blog is here, if you’re interested:
https://fourfoxesonehound.wordpress.com/2013/01/10/promoting-the-overnighters-secrets/
In the sequence of my actual writing: though it was published before any of these others, this seventh novel followed three in the Somerset Series (including Called to Arms Again and Hid Wounded Reb), the two screwball comedies in the series Amanda Moore or Less (Curing the Uncommon Man-Cold and Scratching the Seven-Month Itch), and my first foray into first person fiction (Rescued by That New Guy in Town). After T.O.S was well along in the editing process, I finally began re-working those first six manuscripts and five have since been released!
One of the ironies of T.O.S. is that it was the novel I did not have time (or, initially, the interest) to write. I was very busy with overhauling and revising and submitting those other six books… as well as dabbling on other new stories. I explain this further in my Author’s Notes to T.O.S., but if not for the gentle persuasion and infectious energy of my friend Dean Spradlin, it’s possible I would not have done anything with this story about the overnighter’s secrets.
Question:
Have you ever had a project that sort of sneaked up on you and you tried to brush it away because your time was too strained or your interest focused elsewhere?
[JLS # 282]
Angela Schroeder
Patricia Kiyono
Elaine Cantrell
Jeff Salter
Joselyn
Tonette Joyce
Four Foxes, One Hound 
It’s not that I didn’t have time (though, geez, I have less now than ever), but I never intended to write a series about pirates. I wrote on pirate book and then began world building on what I had planned as a series in a totally different genre – paranormal romance. My heart has always belonged to the macabre, the spooky, and the mysterious. But as I was beginning a rough draft, I had writing peers want more pirates, most especially a secondary character from that first book. Halfway through writing his story, I fell in love…with him. Crazy, I know. I became obsessed with the pirate world I had created. The pirates didn’t sneak up on me, they ambushed me. LOL! Now I’m seven books into the series with three to go. AND I’ve started my paranormal series, too.
Great post, Jeff.
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I wondered how/why you’d embraced those lusty pirates. Did not realize they had CAPTURED you! Awesome, Jenn. Yes, it’s cool when the Muse works her magic on us and pulls (or pushes) us toward the material she wants us to write.
thanks for sharing your story.
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I’ve never had a project sneak up on me. Mostly it feels like they are a mob, scrambling around me, demanding my attention… or maybe that’s my kids.
I just finished reading Curing the Uncommon Man Cold. I expected Jason to flee at any moment, pants or not. 🙂
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Thanks for reading my screwball novel, Joselyn. Now tell us —how does your husband behave when he’s ill? Is he a spartan who carries on? Or does he wimp out like Jason did?
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He hangs in there pretty well, although he does take it easier than I do. Where he would go to bed at 7 or 8 in the evening with a cold, I would run 8 miles instead of 10. He does also have more sinus and ear trouble than I do, so if I had that I would be more miserable too.
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sounds like he’s a pretty good soldier. So I guess you don’t need Christine’s Scare Cure
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The answer to your question is:Constantly. It looks like life may be changing here,but even so,I have to figure out my time better than it has been going.Stories try to finish themselves while I work, shower, sleep.And nothing but these posts have gotten finished in a long time.
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same here — other than my weekly sprints and preparing this blog.
However, in the past few days, I have gotten nice progress on a new story — a murder mystery.
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I can’t say I’ve ever had a project sneak up on me – but I may eat my words in the next few months. I’ve been banging my head against the wall on a project I need to finish by the end of June, and all of a sudden I’m diving into another one. I have Overnighter’s Secrets and actually read the first two chapters – someday I will finish it. I’ll have to confess that until that book came out I’d never heard of a suitcase referred to as an overnighter, so it wasn’t until I started reading that I understood what the story was about!
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hope you enjoy my story when you get a chance to finish it.
Be sure to read the Author’s Notes and other material in the back. There’s also a photo of silent movie actress Lizette Thorne, when she was in her prime.
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