The Turning Point – Have You Reached It? - Guest Post & Giveaway

I'm happy to welcome Cheryl Hollon to Cozy Up With Kathy today. Cheryl writes the Webb's Glass Shop Mystery series. Etched in Tears is the fourth book in the series and will be released next week.

 

The Turning Point – Have You Reached It?

The road to publication can be a difficult journey filled with detours, obstructions and an endless supply of unknown obstacles. It’s an individual journey and uniquely different for each writer. For me, establishing the fixed habit of writing every single day was the turning point from writer-in-waiting to about-to-be-published author.

Strangely, it wasn’t the quality of the words that pushed me to a higher level of professionalism. It was taking that nearly obsessive approach to the physical act of writing every day. As I am deep in revisions for the fifth book in the Webb’s Glass Shop Mystery series, I feel like a professional going about the practical business of crafting another story.

That is the situation you are looking for – how you achieve that feeling is a personal journey of discovery. Some writers I know achieved that level by first submitting short stories until one was accepted and published. Yes! Validation achieved. Others have considered the completion of a novel-length manuscript as proof of professional credentials. The key in these cases was that afterwards, they felt like a career writer.

The journey will take different paths and will be unique to each writer. Look for that turning point and see how it affects your next steps. The funny part is that you can’t tell if you’ve turned that corner until you can look back and see it. When I look back after securing an agent, a publisher, a two three-book contracts from Kensington Publishing. Now that I can hold those books in my hand, I see that I turned that corner when I started writing everyday – just like a job – every single day.

Where are you on your writing journey?

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Etched in Tears: A Webb’s Glass Shop Mystery

By Cheryl Hollon

When a famous glass artist is murdered at his own exhibit, deadly secrets are put on display, and it’s up to glass shop owner Savannah Webb to see through a killer’s cover.

Celebrated glass artist Dennis Lansing is returning to St. Petersburg, Florida, for an exhibit at the world-renowned Salvador Dali Museum. His unique style of embedding document images in his art is at the vanguard of contemporary glasswork. But as Savannah’s first boyfriend and a former apprentice to her father, Dennis’s return home has her reflecting on the past—a trip down memory lane that takes a dark turn when Dennis is found murdered at the museum with an old reference letter from her father in his pocket. A search through her father’s records sheds new light on Dennis’s history, but it seems his present life wasn’t so transparent either. Now, with a gallery of suspects to consider, it’s up to Savannah to figure out who fits the mold of a murderer.

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About the author:

Cheryl Hollon writes full time after she left an engineering career designing and building military flight simulators in amazing countries such as England, Wales, Australia, Singapore, Taiwan and India. Fulfilling the dream of a lifetime, she combines her love of writing with a passion for creating glass art. In the small glass studio behind the house, Cheryl and her husband George design, create, and produce fused glass, stained glass and painted glass artworks.

Visit and sign up for my newsletter at my website:  http://www.cherylhollon.com

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