SLOW BUT SURE IN GOD’S TIMING

SLOW BUT SURE IN GOD’S TIMING
By Darlene Franklin

Until lately, I could fit what I knew about publication into the rolling ball at the end of the pen that I used to write when riding the bus.

Write novellas for Barbour to break in? I didn’t even know about the anthologies until after they published my book Romanian Rhapsody in 2005. After three contracts with Barbour, I wrote my first novella in Snowbound Colorado Christmas, September 2008.

Eventually I found my way to contests. Maybe some editor would read my prize-winning prose and award me a contract!

No such luck. I won or finaled in about half the contests I entered. None of the wins led to a contract.

To make matters more confusing, all of my wins have been for nonfiction; all my published books (so far) are fiction. I do have a decent track record selling personal experience stories, devotions, and teaching articles.

Nonetheless, I’m glad I entered the contests. I first won with an article entitled “Beautiful Feet.” I entered it in the “published author, prose category” at the 2001 Colorado Christian Writers Conference.

That win gave an incredible boost of confidence. For the first time, I believed in myself and the possibility that I would become a professional author.

My most recent contest entry—back cover blurb for a novel—didn’t win. However, I won where it counts. Heartsong Presents: Mysteries! has released the book in question, Gunfight at Grace Gulch. And the tease supplied by the losing back cover blurb intrigues everyone who picks up the book.

Read it below and tell me what you think.

GUNFIGHT AT GRACE GULCH

A century-old feud refuses to die.
The feud between the Graces and the Gaynors is still going strong more than a century after its inception in the 1891 Oklahoma land run.
Newspaper editor Penn Hardy is murdered during the reenactment of the most famous gunfight in the history of Grace Gulch, Oklahoma. Cici Wilde, owner of a vintage clothing store, feels compelled to investigate when police suspect people close to her. She soon discovers her talent for sleuthing equals her flare for wearing period clothing.
Theater director Audie Howe never expected the reenactment to end in a real murder. He cares too much for the future of the Magda Grace Mallory Theater—and the charming Cici Wilde—to let her face danger alone.
Cici and Audie take a dangerous gamble to nail the killer—and lay their lives on the line.

Stop by Darlene’s website at http://www.darlenehfranklin.com/

and visit her blog at http://www.darlenefranklinwrites.blogspot.com/.