By
Debra H. Goldstein
Imagine my mother “accidentally”
leaving a copy of the May/June 2017 issue of Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine on the table, as if she had been
reading it, when she set up for her weekly card game. By strategically placing it, she guaranteed her
friends saw her daughter’s name on the magazine’s cover. When they pointed to
it, she waved a hand and said, “Oh, that.
Debra’s had several short stories, plus a book, published this year. It’s
difficult to get published in Alfred Hitchcock, but they took her on her first
try.”
What she failed to share with them
is that AHMM including The Night They
Burned Ms. Dixie’s Place almost didn’t happen because of my own fears.
Although I enjoyed the challenges of
being a litigator, judge, community volunteer, wife, and parent, fear kept me
from following my passion of writing. I often talked about my desire to tell
stories, but I wrote nothing except boring briefs, opinions, and legal articles
until a friend challenged me to use her condo for a weekend to find my writing
voice. The unsaid part of the offer was
if you don’t find a way to express yourself on paper, don’t talk about it
anymore.
During that weekend, I wrote
eighty-five pages and realized I had the beginning, middle and end of a book in
my head. Fear gave way to confidence. 2012 IPPY award winning Maze in Blue, a mystery set on the
University of Michigan’s campus in the 1970’s, contains five of the eighty-five
pages. Since then, I wrote another book, Should Have Played Poker (Five Star 2016) and had twenty-four short stories
published in periodicals and anthologies, but the one in Alfred Hitchcock almost didn’t come to be.
I was afraid I couldn’t write
anything good enough to meet its standards.
Thanks to reading craft books, dissecting the stories of great writers,
and taking classes, I knew my technical skills were improving, but AHMM stories
have heart and fire. My early tries lacked the sparks necessary to engage a
reader. They had too much tell rather than show. Slowly, I learned to trust the
reader to go on an imaginary journey with me instead of supplying every
detail.
Once I did that, my characters and
settings became more realistic and enjoyable.
I started submitting to markets ranging from online periodicals to
literary magazines to open anthology cattle calls. Acceptances became more frequent. If something was rejected, I edited and
submitted it elsewhere. For some stories the process had to be repeated several
times before it found a home (and being honest, a few will forever reside in my
computer).
Even though writers I respected
encouraged me to send a story to Alfred
Hitchcock or Ellery Queen, I
didn’t. I couldn’t. I read both
magazines and analyzed the different styles and voices each published, but fear
paralyzed me from taking a chance. My rationalization was my stories were too
simple, too comical, too one-dimensional, too crappy, but then I wrote a story with
different layers and concepts entwined within it. It was special. I knew someone would publish
it, but who? There was only one way to know if AHMM or EQMM would take it.
Submit it. The voice seemed more suited to AHMM, so I sent the story off aware turnaround
time for acceptance or rejection might be nine months. I steeled myself to
receive bad news, so you can imagine my surprise when I received an acceptance
e-mail.
In retrospect, what is the worst
that could have happened? A rejection. That wouldn’t have stopped me from
improving the story and submitting it elsewhere. My writing has a long way to
go, but I’ve learned that overcoming the obstacle of fear is perhaps the
greatest gift I can give myself --- and it gave my mother something to brag
about.
____________________________________________________________
Judge Debra H. Goldstein is the author of Should Have
Played Poker: a Carrie Martin and the Mah Jongg Players Mystery (Five
Star - 2016) and 2012 IPPY Award winning Maze in Blue. She also
writes short stories and non-fiction. Debra serves on numerous boards,
including Sisters in Crime (national) and the Guppy Chapter, and is an MWA
member. Her Social Media links: http://www.debrahgoldstein.com http://www.debrahgoldstein.com/blog https://www.facebook.com/DebraHGoldsteinAuthor/
@DebraHGoldstein
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