FEARLESS FRIDAY
Let's welcome back Judy Penz Sheluk. Her author journey is ongoing, and what a journey it's been. Enjoy the tale!
It was a Friday in the winter of 2003 when I was
called into the office of the VP of Sales, a representative from HR sitting
smugly by his side. I knew what was coming: Rumors had been running rampant regarding
a massive company downsizing and restructuring, the result of ever declining
sales of high-end office furniture following 9/11. I faced a future of looking
for another job in the corporate world or finally following my dream of
becoming a writer.
Common sense dictated the former. I had twenty-plus
years of business experience, primarily in management roles, and always in
finance. My writing credits, on the other hand, included a few unsold short
stories crafted in creative writing workshops, and exactly one acceptance: a
column in Antiques & Collectibles
Showcase about my husband’s collection of antique clocks, for which I was
paid $75 and three copies of the magazine.
Payment for that article arrived on the very day I’d
been given my pink slip. Some might have found it ironic, laughable, even. I
viewed it as an omen. The time to follow my dream had come.
By 2012, I’d managed to carve out a successful second
career as a freelance journalist and magazine editor. And yet, something was
missing.
I found the answer at Bloody Words, a now defunct
mystery conference held in Toronto in June 2012. I went as a reader and a fan,
and left knowing that I wanted to write a novel. I already had a world created
for it, based on a short story written in yet another creative writing class.
How hard could it be?
Plenty hard, as it turned out. But I persevered and
in 2013, after a dozen drafts and several hundred hours, I was ready to start
the submission process for The Hanged
Man’s Noose. I thought a decade of publication credits would smooth the
way.
They didn’t, but I persevered, and in July 2014 I
signed a contract with Barking Rain Press for Noose. By November, I’d had two short stories published in two
different anthologies, World Enough &
Crime and The Whole She-Bang 2.
My writing journey hasn’t always been easy, but even
in my darkest hours it’s never felt like work. And I never could have or would
have done any of it if I hadn’t taken a chance back in 2003.
And so, in February 2018, I took another chance, this
time by setting up my own imprint, Superior Shores
Press, and yet another by deciding to publish a multi-author collection of short
mystery stories. The Best Laid Plans: 21
Stories of Mystery & Suspense, was released in June 2019 to excellent
reviews. With that done, and A Fool’s
Journey, book 3 in my Marketville mystery series set to release on Aug. 21,
I was ready to take a well-deserved vacation. Fate had other plans.
In July 2019, Barking Rain Press emailed its authors,
illustrators, proofreaders, and editors with news that it would be closing.
Authors would be paid any royalties owed, but we were on our own for recreating
filed and cover art. And so, that month, I set about doing the work involved to
get Skeletons in the Attic and A Hole in One re-released under the
Superior Shores Press umbrella by the first week of August.
I don’t know what lies ahead, none of us do. But I
hope I continue to be fearless, even when I’m scared.
Bio: Judy Penz Sheluk is the author of the Glass
Dolphin Mystery and Marketville Mystery series, and the editor of The Best Laid Plans: 21 Stories of Mystery
& Suspense. Her short stories can be found in several collections. Judy
is also a member of Sisters in Crime, International Thriller Writers, the Short
Mystery Fiction Society, and Crime Writers of Canada, where she serves as Vice
Chair on the Board of Directors. Find her at judypenzsheluk.com.
New Release (A Fool’s Journey): In March 2000, twenty-year old
Brandon Colbeck left home to find himself on a self-proclaimed “fool’s
journey.” No one—not friends or family—have seen or heard from him since, until
a phone call from a man claiming to be Brandon brings everything back to the
forefront. Calamity (Callie) Barnstable and her team at Past & Present
Investigations have been hired to find out what happened to Brandon, and, if
still alive, where he might be. As Callie follows a trail of buried secrets and
decades-old deceptions only one thing is certain: whatever the outcome, there
is no such thing as closure.
Anthology Release (The
Best Laid Plans: 21 Stories of Mystery & Suspense): Whether it’s at a
subway station in Norway, a ski resort in Vermont, a McMansion in the suburbs,
or a trendy art gallery in Toronto, the twenty-one authors represented in this
superb collection of mystery and suspense interpret the overarching theme of
“the best laid plans” in their own inimitable style. And like many best laid
plans, they come with no guarantees.
Stories by Tom Barlow, Susan Daly, Lisa de Nikolits, P.A. De
Voe, Peter DiChellis, Lesley A. Diehl, Mary Dutta, C.C. Guthrie, William
Kamowski, V.S. Kemanis, Lisa Lieberman, Edward Lodi, Rosemary McCracken, LD
Masterson, Edith Maxwell, Judy Penz Sheluk, KM Rockwood, Peggy Rothschild,
Johanna Beate Stumpf, Vicki Weisfeld, and Chris Wheatley.
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