by Janis Patterson
I'll admit it. I have a short attention
span. I'm all too ready to be distracted by something new and
different. Which, incidentally, is why I don't particularly like
series – either writing or reading. I want something new.
I never realized that this failing of
mine extended to my own books. Several years ago I was fortunate
enough to have two romantic/gothic/mysteries published by the
incredible Vinspire Publishing. I was delighted to be with them, as
both books are really rather special stories to me. Although they are
more than half mysteries, they were brought out under my Janis Susan
May name instead of the Janis Patterson I now use for mysteries.
Both are set in the mid-to-late 1960s.
DARK MUSIC is about a romance writers' conference (yes, there were
such things before RWA was begun in 1980) set in a Canadian resort
hotel. Then there's a freak blizzard trapping the conferees,
including the heroine and her ex-husband; then someone starts to
murder the romance writers one by one. It was a fun book.
The second book is ECHOES IN THE DARK,
about a photographer with a broken leg who gets taken – reluctantly
– by her ex-husband to an aged resort hotel in the Arkansas
wilderness to join an archaeological dig he is spearheading. (And
before you ask, when I wrote these two books I was in the throes of a
painful breakup of a long-time romance that had gone sour. Writing
was cheaper than analysis.) The heroine also has a head injury and is
prone to hallucinations. When she sees a ghost that isn't an
hallucination, her troubles really start.
These are both good books. I like them
and enjoyed writing them. I didn't realize how I had pretty much
forgotten about them. Recently Vinspire has started bundling their
books and asked what we were doing to PR them. I was ashamed to admit
even to myself that I had done nothing in the longest time. I had put
so much time and energy on writing new books (isn't that what we're
supposed to do?) and on getting my backlist and a new one or two
published and released during my 30 June-30 October publishing blitz
that these two little gems had simply faded into the background, a
spot they really didn't deserve.
So now I'm really doing a lot of
publicity for them, but it's making me think about how my - or anyone's - career
should be prioritized. I only have so much time. I have to write. I
have to publish. I have a family and a life and other obligations.
What has to give?
What indeed.
UPDATE : My publishing blitz is going
right on schedule. This fortnight's offering is THE EGYPTIAN FILE, a
new, never-before-published romantic adventure (with a large dollop
of mystery, too) set in contemporary Egypt. What secrets does THE
EGYPTIAN FILE hold? Will my heroine survive to find out? Well, of
course she does, but for a while it's touch and go. And what about
that handsome cab driver? Who is he, really?
