Monday, November 1, 2010

Happy to Join Y'all

Today is the first day I'm getting to join y'all. I am so happy to be asked to become a part of this gathering of fantastic mystery authors. Since I'm new, I'll tell you a little about myself and hope I'll get to know lots about all of you.

I'm fortunate enough to live in south Louisiana surrounded by greenery and slow-moving bayous and a large gathering of family members and other loved ones. If you read the October issue of the magazine called The Writer, you may have spied my article called "Forget Her Writing Dream? Not an Option." In the article I describe, as I do in many of my talks, the long, tenuous journey I made to reach that dream I'd taken hold of as a youth--that of becoming a writer. By the time I sold a novel, my five children were all grown with their own families.

I didn't start trying to write novels for most of those years inbetween, but I learned so much about persistence and not letting your dream drop by the wayside. I had become a widow with five young children and really wanted to write--but my kids were silly and wanted to eat and wear shoes and such nonsense and did not want to wait around while I read lots of novels and then tried to learn to write them. I completed a degree in education in our local college and began teaching.

Some time later I said, "Oh, I have a little time now. I'll become a writer." But the main things I'd read were college textbooks and before that, the backs of cereal boxes. I didn't have much time to read and write, so I wrote smaller pieces. Along the way I eventually sold essays and poems and had one-act plays produced.

But now I've sold three books in a series. Deadly Ink nominated the first one, RELATIVE DANGER, for its David award for Best Mystery of the Year. That book is available in various formats, including Kindle. N.Y. Times bestselling author Heather Graham said of the second book, KILLER COUSINS, "Killer Cousins is great! In the a la mode of Miss Marple and onward!" The third book, DEADLY REUNION, comes out next summer.

Since this is my first time here, I'll cut it a little short so maybe you'll want to hear from me again. I hope to hear from many of you. Thanks again for letting me be here.

9 comments:

Jean Henry Mead said...

Welcome to Murderous Musings, June. It's great to have you with us. I didn't have a chance to formally introduce you, but I'm sure we'll all get to know you better over the coming months.

June Shaw said...

Thanks, Jean. I'm sure glad you asked me to be with all of you.

Jean Henry Mead said...

June,
I thought your first post wasn't until next Saturday. My next post is on Friday so I'll do a double intro for both you and Earl Staggs.

June Shaw said...

Jean, I wrote to Chester and told him I'd goofed. I had put the date for next Saturday with my post, but it came out yesterday. All I can say is that it probably won't be the last time I goof at this. Sorry. Thanks for taking up the slack. I'll be on a cruise then but will look y'all up afterward.

Jean Henry Mead said...

Don't worry about it, June. It takes a little time to get the hang of it.

Jaden Terrell said...

Welcome, June.

That feature where you pick a later date for publishing often nabs me too. I figure sooner or later I'll get the hang of it--and so will you.

Great to meet you.

June Shaw said...

Hey, Beth, nice to meet you, too. Yes, I hope to figure it out.

Unknown said...

Welcome, June!

So nice to have you aboard. I look forward to your posts.

If you would, please identify your posts, something like "by June Shaw" at the beginning. I somehow linked my FB page to Murderous Musings, so each post shows up on my FB page, and I'd hate to steal credit for something someone else posted. Thanks.

June Shaw said...

I'll try to remember that, Ben. Thaanks for any help or suggestion.