Welcome to Help From My Friends Friday. I smiled when I read today’s guest post. I don’t know an author alive (or dead) who hasn’t been rejected and/or lost a publisher. And here’s another thing. Sometimes when you least expect, an author who’s determined and knows what she wants, discovers momentum. Please say hello to Author Kait Carson. ~ Donnell
The Long and Winding Road
By Kait Carson
This past Monday I felt like a writer.
Author Kait Carson
Now, don’t misunderstand, I’ve been writing and publishing since 2006 when I found the Trues. You remember them, right? True Romance, True Confessions, True Experience, True Story. My office walls are full of color copies of the magazine covers that feature my tales. It was tall cotton to have your title on the cover. Then they folded. A reliable, fun to write, paying market, gone. Lost to the age of pixels. A moment of silence, please. I still miss them and their $0.03/word pay scale.
Confessions weren’t the only string to my bow. I had a day job as a paralegal, and at night I’d sit at my keyboard and kill people. Amazing how easily that confession flowed from my fingers. The best part of killing people is solving the crime. Since I write amateur sleuth stories, the second-best part is having my sleuth solve the crime before the boys in blue, or brown, or green, or whatever catch the killer. That was the start of the Hayden Kent series. Traditional mysteries with a thriller edge set in the Fabulous Florida Keys.
Between the novels and the Trues, I discovered Woman’s World. You’ve seen them at the checkout. Catchy covers that feature both uber successful dieters AND photos of desserts so delectable you can gain five pounds just by looking. The magazines are fun, upbeat, and geared toward real-life woman often of a “certain” age. I read them for a while before I realized they were also a paying market for mystery and romance shorts.
The stories featured compressed word counts one thousand for romance, eight hundred for mystery. Not quite flash fiction, but way shorter than my pay by the word Trues stories. Never one to back down from a challenge, I dug right in. In 2009, I sold my first mini-mystery. Back in those days, it was snail mail. The rejection letters were sweet and encouraging. I should know, I have a file of them. Took me until 2017 to sell a second mystery. Not for lack of trying. By 2017, the submission process had moved online, and the word counts had further compressed to eight hundred and five hundred per feature. It took this novelist a bit of time to adjust. I’m chuffed to announce that The Brooch Burglar appeared in the November 25th issue of Woman’s World. I’m still trying to break into the romance feature. Hopefully, it won’t take another seven years.
UPDATE: On November 26th I received an email from Woman’s World offering me a contract for a Christmas mystery. The story, tentative title Reindeer Robin Rocks will appear in the December 23rd issue of the magazine, on sale December 13th. Maybe I AM a writer.
I haven’t been idle at the keyboard. COVID took my job in 2020. That’s when I devoted myself to writing full time. It’s been a journey, and a learning curve. Life is different when you’re living your dream. Writing full time is mine. I’ve just completed the first of a new series. This one, darker than the Kent series, is set in the North Maine woods. As a counter-point to cold and frosty nights, I’m hard at work on the fourth of the Hayden Kent series. That was a surprise because the series had been planned as a three-book arc. Sometimes, characters won’t leave you alone. Hayden had a big mouth, and she wore me down. We’ll see if she’s satisfied now. Doubtful.
There’s also a secret series, titled, appropriately, Southernmost Secrets. I’ve loved cozy mysteries since I read Lilian Jackson Braun’s Cat Who series, but never captured the genre. Pirates on Parade, set in and around Key West, is my aspirational passion project. Watching it evolve is fun and challenging. I’m not in a hurry.
About the Author: Kait Carson writes the Hayden Kent Mysteries set in the Fabulous Florida Keys and is at work on a new mystery set in her adopted state of Maine. Her short fiction has been nationally published in True Romance, True Confessions, True Story, True Experience, and Woman’s World magazines. Her short story, Gutted, Filleted, and Fried, appeared in the Falchion Finalist nominated Seventh Guppy Anthology Hook, Line, and Sinker. She is a former President of the Guppy Chapter of Sisters in Crime, a member of Sisters in Crime, Guppies, and of Sisters in Crime New England. Visit her website at www.kaitcarson.com. While you’re there, sign up for her newsletter and receive a yummy, authentic key lime pie recipe.
About Kait’s Latest Release:
A family scuba vacation. A dropped bit of equipment. Has the famous Blue Hole of Belize claimed another life?
Hayden Kent has more riding on the answer to the mystery than curiosity. She believes the diver faked his death. As a paralegal and newly minted claims investigator, it’s her job to decide if her company pays out the thirty-million-dollar policy. When her trip to Belize uncovers evidence of fraud, she returns to her beloved Florida Keys and digs deeper into the dead man’s affairs. Her boss’s advice to follow the money sends her to the Cayman Islands where privacy is king, and secrets can be deadly. Hayden’s inquiries put her in the cross-hairs of a killer who will stop at nothing to claim the thirty million. Can she prove the dead man lives before she ends up as shark bait?
Death Dive is the third book in the Hayden Kent mystery series. If you like fast-paced suspense that grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go, then you’ll love this series. Underwater, no one hears you scream. www.kaitcarson.com.
Hi Donnell, Happy Thanksgiving and thank you for inviting me.
My pleasure, Kait. I’m so excited and can’t wait to read your issue(s) in Woman’s World. P.S. I’ve ordered Death Dive. I know n-o-t-h-i-n-g about scuba diving. Perhaps that could be another blog? Well done, Kait.
I’ll show up when asked! Scuba diving is such a wonderful sport. I’m happy to talk about it.
Congratulations on the sales, Kait! Of course, I’ve known you were a writer for YEARS
Thanks, Annette!
Wow! I look forward to reading your story in Women’s World. I’ve tried, but never been accepted. However, I did get a few true confessions published, and miss their pay/per/word!
Fun post.