Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Carol A Guy. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Carol A thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
I fell in love with the mystery book genre when I read my first Agatha Christie novel at the age of 16. As I read several more of her books, I knew that a writing career was in my future. Of course, at that young age, I had a lot to learn about crafting a story. I joined my high school newspaper, which gave me some experience, but fiction was my first love, so I read as many books as possible and learned about different styles of writing and how plots were constructed. At one point, several years after graduation, I took a creative writing course, which helped somewhat, but I learned early on that the desire to tell a story comes from somewhere deep inside and can’t be taught.
Carol A, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I grew up in a small Ohio town. I got married, had children, and tried my hand at writing some short stories while the kids were growing up. Unfortunately, none of those stories got published. After 19 years of marriage, I found myself divorced and holding down a full-time job. In spite of that, the desire to write was still burning inside of me, so I wrote in my spare time. My efforts finally paid off when I got an article published in “The Ladies’ Home Journal.” The subject was sexual harassment, always a hot topic. Next, a short mystery story I wrote was published in a small independent magazine. Those two successes gave me the courage to continue writing. Shortly after that, I made a move to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where I landed a job as a newspaper correspondent for the daily paper and, later, a full-time job as a reporter for the Myrtle Beach Journal, the city’s weekly paper. That was like a dream come true…to actually get paid a salary to write! But all good things must come to an end, as they say. The Journal initiated some cutbacks and I was laid off. After that I found another job and took a little break from writing. Later, I moved away from the beach and ended up back in Ohio, where I worked in the home health department at a Columbus hospital, My boss, Carol Lindley, became the subject of my first published book (true crime) when she was murdered by her 17 year old grandson. That book, “A Picture Perfect Kid” launched my full time writing career.
Is there a mission driving your creative journey?
I write series books. My latest is the Crescent Falls series, published by Extasy Books. My goal is to keep developing the characters so that my readers will want to learn what’s happening next in their lives. Since they’re mystery novels, with romance included, I will need to come up with challenging plotlines with lots of twists and turns and, of course, surprise endings. The books in this series are: Jolly Dead St. Nicholas, Be Mine, Dead Valentine, Worth More Dead, Dig Two Graves and The Silent Victims.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
The writing business is tough and there’s lots of competition. Marketing is essential to an author’s success. There are many outlets now –social media, various groups, blogs, review sites, etc. There are companies who will market your book for a fee. But many authors who are with smaller, independent publishers, or are self publishing on Kindle Direct, have to create their own buzz. I guess what I’d like to suggest is that prospective readers give the small presses a chance. There are some great books available from those authors.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://goodmysteries.webs.com/
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/carolaguy
- Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/carol-a-guy-68479639
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Cozyauthor2022
- Other: Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/Carol-A-Guy/e/B002DEXRNI
Image Credits
Latrisha Waters Martine Jardin