Here's the Aching Truth Nobody Tells You About Writing in Your Later Years
Forget the ache-y, break-y heart, it's the everything else
When you signed up for this newsletter, I promised to share with you what it’s like to write fiction later in life, after a career doing other kinds of writing.
Well, here’s one nobody ever talks about, and sadly there’s really no solution, just adjustment. And that’s the simple fact that, when you’re younger, you can keep your butt in the chair longer.
When you get to be my age, all kinds of unpleasant things happen.
While you young whippersnappers might be paying attention to the guidelines about standing up and moving around every 25 minutes — and yes, I believe it’s a good thing to do — you can do it out of choice. When I do it, it’s because I have to because I’m starting to stiffen up and get uncomfortable.
And then there are the aches and pains. There’s the shoulder that starts twinging when I type for too long, and the sciatic nerve that starts shouting imprecations at me when I sit too long. . . and that’s just for starters.
(We won’t even talk about how much more often I have to go to the bathroom now than when I was younger. . .)
All of which makes what I do accomplish feel like a much bigger deal than it probably is.
And speaking of accomplishments. . . Despite the above-mentioned challenges, I’ve finished my latest editing pass through the first book in my series, so I’m closer to having it ready for beta readers. Stay tuned!
What I’m Reading
The Spy in the Ointment by Donald Westlake
Copyright date on this book is 1966, so I'm wondering how I never read it until now! It's a little dated, though appropriate for the time it was written (words like Negro, the kind of casual, oblivious misogyny of the time), but overall a funny, well written foray into the worlds of activist pacifism and terrorism.
Not that terrorism is funny, you understand, but. . . well, read it and you'll see what I'm talking about.
The Secret Detective Agency by Helena Dixon
This is the first in a series, and definitely my favorite of Helena Dixon’s work.
Jane Treen is a secret government agent, and spies on her team have been showing up dead. It’s very unsettling. Especially after her boss sends her to work with Arthur Cilentro, who’s introverted, asthmatic, and finicky.
Throw in some double agents, a whole lot of misdirection, and it’s amazing they manage to figure it all out. And then Jane’s boss comes up with a terrible idea. . .
An Irish Bookshop Murder by Lucy Connelly
Another worthy first-in-series.
Twin sisters Mercy and Lizzie McCarthy have inherited a house and bookstore from a grandfather in Ireland they didn’t know existed. And that’s not even the strangest part of this story!
Both of them fall in love with the small Irish village they’ve found themselves in, but if they can’t figure out who murdered their next-door neighbor, their sojourn there will be tarnished.
Notable Quotes
I thought I detected a faint burning smell. It might have been the sizzling heat Dolly was directing at Johnny, or possibly my hopes of being the object of his unrequited love going up in smoke.
- Knee High by the Fourth of July by Jess Lowry
The writing in Jess Lowry’s Murder by Month book series is always amusing. I love the idea of being able to smell the burning of a sensual gaze, or the proverbial hopes going up in smoke.
I never meant to marry. In my opinion, a woman born in the last half of the nineteenth century of the Christian era suffered from enough disadvantages without willfully embracing another. That is not to say that I did not occasionally indulge in daydreams of romantic encounters; for I was as sensible as any other female of the visible attractions of the opposite sex. But I never expected to meet a man who was my match, and I had no more desire to dominate a spouse than to be ruled by him. Marriage, in my view, should be a balanced stalemate between equal adversaries.
- The Mummy Case by Elizabeth Peters
As you know, I love Peters’ Amelia Peabody series. Amelia may be my favorite protagonist of all time. Always opinionated, her views are certainly not typical of the society she lived in — or probably any other, for that matter.
Buy Me a Chai
Some of the links I include in this email may be Amazon affiliate links. What does that mean? It means you pay the same — or in some cases a little less — if you click and purchase, and I get a small commission. It’s not a lot, but it helps me buy a few chai lattes here and there. . . If you’d rather support your local independent bookstore than the company Bezos built, please use this link: https://bookshop.org/lists/mystery-susanna-sullivan.
Or, if you’d like to support me without upgrading to a paid subscription, you can Buy Me a Chai right now. Thanks!
Wise Words
I obviously need to choose harder puzzles, because once again my lovely readers were 100% correct in their solution. Here’s the quote:
But, just because I had deep-_____ worries about what it meant did not mean that I was in a position to say no. My worries came to fruition. You won’t hear me say, ‘I told you so,’ though.”
- Networking Nightmare by Craig W Turner
Your choices to fill in the blank were seated or seeded.
The correct answer is seated.
According to Merriam-Webster:
Deep-seated is the correct term. Deep-seated means "firmly established," as in "deep-seated resentment," but it also has an earlier literal meaning of "situated far below the surface." It is from that meaning the figurative use of the word developed. It is sometimes mistaken as deep-seeded.
I’ll have a new set of choices for you next week.