Beholden To None and other Jamie Tremain News

 April 2 2021

As I sit doing another edit on Jamie Tremain’s Beholden To None, my mind continues to trip me up by wandering!

It’s Good Friday, a day of very deep meaning to me. But like Good Friday of last year, the shadow of COVID-19 is still very much with us

Here in Ontario, we are fighting a third, more vicious wave, of COVID and at midnight we will go back into province-wide shutdown. It’s beyond discouraging, and to say its wearying is an understatement. But then I’m not a front line worker and when I fuss over wearing a mask for more than an hour, that reminder shuts me up.

My intent here is not to rehash current medical views, or how we are coping. Plenty of that online to go around. Only that it’s so pervasive in every area of our life. Even writing.

Pam and I are two members of our Genre5 Authors group and we sorely miss our regular get togethers with our friends and fellow writers, Gloria Ferris, Donna Warner and Donna Houghton.  So we’ve resorted to video meetings. We enjoyed one get together last year, in the spacious and luscious backyard of one member.

Not long after COVID became the norm last year, Gloria suggested an exercise to keep us busy, and connected. Why don’t we try writing a story together. Stellar idea! And over the past year we’ve made that our focus. Five writers – one story! Collaboration to the max.  It’s an interesting crime suspense tale we’re weaving. As yet untitled, we’re working together to craft an entertaining tale of theft, betrayal, and quirky characters. So that’s one project.

Project number deux has been an emotional one for Jamie Tremain. When we first published The Silk Shroud in 2017, we were enjoying a great relationship with our publisher. The editor we had taught us so much and we were on our way to having our Dorothy Dennehy Mystery series grow. We managed to get Lightning Strike into the light of the world, but since then it’s not been a fun journey.  The publisher changed hands and things have not been the same.

We submitted Beholden To None to the publisher in July of last year. Despite numerous attempts to communicate with the publisher and get the legal paperwork started, nothing happened. So, with much sadness we have terminated our relationship with them and are getting our book rights back.

What now you may ask?

Anyone who is an author will probably agree that writing the book is the easy part. Marketing it to an agent or publisher can take the joy from the creative process in pretty short order.  And it is time consuming.

So, it looks more and more as if we will try the self-published route. I know Pam has her concerns and is slowly warming to the idea, but I’m feeling excited about the prospect of having more control over our work. It will be a learning curve, but I’ve been assured it’s not that difficult. However......

I’ve also been busy hosting Zoom meetings for a group of fellow published authors. From that has evolved a new Facebook group (Private and for published authors only) – Author Survival Network – which is growing by the day. The Zoom meetings will move to include this new group, which I hope will become a supportive network of fellow published authors. Over the years, we’ve learned so much from other authors, and I hope this new group can bring skills, and experience along with support and encouragement to all of us. We truly can help each other succeed.

If you are a published author, you are more than welcome to join us and can find our private FB group - Author Survival Network at www.facebook.com/groups/authorsurvivalnetwork/

Alternatively, if you're not a FB fan, you can find the sister group at a groups.io site, also called  Author Survival Network This is also a private, for published authors only, group.

Both groups will offer you a place to connect with other published authors and is another venue to promote your work

The days tend to run into each other and I’m grateful that all things writing related give my day a focus. There is no end to webinars and podcasts. Providing book reviews is also on my slate.

And Jamie Tremain is still interested in interviewing authors, or others who have a professional connection to the writing world. If you haven’t been interviewed by us in the past, but would like to be please let us know.    jamietremainJT@yahoo.com

We also have a new series in the works, which we may have mentioned before. The first, Grant's Crossing - Death on the Alder is almost ready for (indie) publication, and it's follow-up, Grant's Crossing - Grave Mistake is a work in progress. Never let it be said Jamie Tremain is idle!

Perhaps now that I’ve put down my thoughts – my distracting thoughts ­– I can now return to final edits on Beholden To None.  Yes even though we submitted it to the publisher in its final version, there is no such thing as perfect. There are always small things to tweak and polish. Am I wrong?  :-)

But wait, now it’s lunch time – back to the edits after sustenance!

Cheers and stay safe – these days will pass and better ones will come.

Happy and Blessed Easter to those who celebrate.

Liz