Forty One Strange Years of Writing

It’s almost impossible to sum up and to make sense of over forty-one years of writing, 
of making up stories, of being rejected and accepted by publishers, of my stories being loved or not loved, of being published 
over and over, of being a storyteller. Truth is, wanting to tell stories is in the blood. I think a writer is born to write just like a surgeon is born to be a doctor, a singer to sing, a teacher to teach or an artist to paint.

If we’re lucky in life we find what our secret talent, our real life’s job, should be and – if we’re truly fortunate – we become it. Successful or not, we live our lives in that truth.

When I first began writing, oh, around 1971, I was fulfilling a promise to myself. Raised poor in a large loving family, I’d always expected to become someone, to have a
worthwhile, useful life – not to squander it. A life is too precious. My parents told me I 
could do, and be, anything I wanted. All I had to do was work hard and never give up. Get an
 education and try to fulfill my dreams. Early on, I wanted to be an artist, then, as an impressionable teenager, a singer, and finally, when I’d grown into a woman,
 my heart led me to my true profession: a writer of short stories and novels.

So, four decades ago, as my infant son lay gurgling in his crib, and I was dealing
 with feelings of lonely restlessness, I borrowed an electric typewriter and began my first 
novel with unsteady fingers, carbon paper and a carton of Wite-Out. I wasn’t sure what
 genre I wanted to write in. I’d grown up reading and loving science fiction and scary tales. But my first attempt, for some reason, was a standard historical romance (so popular at the
 time) that went on forever. It ended up a huge manuscript and no publisher I sent it to (and
 I sent it to so many that I lost count) wanted it – still, most said it showed promise; my writing
 showed promise.

I kept writing. It took twelve years to get that first novel published because life got in the way. Getting divorced, finding a job, getting remarried and writing a second novel that wouldn’t let me rest until I’d finished it, ate up the precious days as I sent the first manuscript around via snail-mail to publishers. In those days it could take years to get a publisher to bite; nothing like the lightning speed of today with computers, emails, and eBooks.

The second book was more of a nostalgic look back at my childhood: poignant stories of my six brothers and sisters, my hard working parents and my caring maternal grandmother and grandfather. I told of my experiences as an artistic flower-child and the times, the 1950’s to 1970’s I’d grown up in. I tentatively called it 707 Suncrest, after one of our earliest addresses.

But something in the book, when I’d finished, just didn’t sit right. It was missing…something. Then a kind editor suggested I add a touch of the supernatural to it. She said my writing’s spooky ambiance leaned that direction anyway. By then Stephen King was becoming a literary force and since I’d always loved eerie stories about ghosts, night monsters and supernatural occurrences, I listened to that editor and transformed the novel into a horror tale by adding something menacing in the woods. I renamed it Evil Stalks the Night.

 

The editor loved it and it became my first published novel in 1984. Thus, my
life-long odyssey began. My historical romance was my second sale to the same publisher. My writing and my life have gone through so many changes since that time. I kept
 living, loving and losing, and I kept writing,no matter how many rejections I got along
 the way. I’ve written and published romantic time-travel, suspense, a few romances and 
murder mysteries, though my heart has always been with the subgenres of horror (with
a touch of realism and heart).

I have so many stories about the journey that I’ve produced a slew of backstory and
 writing essays in the last few years chronicling my adventures, my failures, my triumphs. 
I talk about the idiosyncrasies of the traditional publishing industry and the many editors
 and people who helped or hindered me get the next fourteen novels, two novellas and
 twelve short stories published and out into the world.

Six months ago I tried self publishing for the first time ever with my sixteenth novel, a science fiction/horror called Dinosaur Lake, to Amazon Kindle, and it’s selling like hotcakes; 
I then published my seventeenth, a vampire story, Human No Longer, and just two weeks ago, then my eighteenth, a murder 
mystery called Scraps of Paper. In a week or two ACX will be releasing my first (of eight and more to come) audio book of Egyptian Heart, a romantic time-travel novel.  I’m still on that strange journey, still gathering tales, and perhaps I’ll take you
 further along with me in future installments.

***

Kathryn Meyer Griffith’s books can all be found on Amazon.

Her essays and other information can be found here on GoodReads, Facebook, Authors Den, Myspace, and Bebo.

 

Tags: audio books, featured, getting published, kathryn meyer griffith, prolific authors

Category: Being a Writer, Contemporary Women Writers, Women Writing Horror