This week, please welcome Lindsay Downs as she shares her personal journey on becoming a writer.

LINDSAY DOWNS' JOURNEY

My earliest memories of being enthralled with the written word dates back to my early childhood. I remember sitting on the floor with a copy of Sir Walter Scott’s Lady of the Lake spread in front of me. Little did I realize, care or understand the book was what is called a 1st edition.

Very little of what I read, correction- was forced to read, in school ever had the impact that that book had on me. The way Scott laid out the words on the page was, in such a beautiful way that it seemed to me a small child, mystical.

Now, let’s jump ahead quite a few years to 2006. The job I had at the time allowed for me to rekindle, after many years, my love of reading. Somehow I got hooked on reading books about vampires and before I knew it romantic stories about these people of the night.

I won’t bore you with all the titles or authors but I did find one thing they all had in common. Each book, even by different authors, read the same. That was when I thought, maybe I can do this.

I joined a local writers group and within a month was at my first conference in 2006. What I saw, heard and experienced over that weekend profoundly changed my thinking. When I came home the passion I’d found reading Lady of the Lake was back.

Follow up:

This time, when I wrote, it was from the heart. I became so enmeshed in my characters to the point where, as I typed the story out, I could feel myself become them. The pain they felt, the love they experienced.

The first book I started and finished was a romance about two people who met during the World War II. What surprised me even more, at conference in 2007, I pitched the story and it sold. What I didn’t realize until much later, this book wasn’t so much a romance but more along the lines of romantic suspense.

The thing was, this story had two elements in it that I enjoyed writing- suspense/mystery and the the Army. Combining the two would take a few more years when, by accident I stumbled on my two current main protagonists: Emily Dahill and Dakota. Depending on the story, I tend to feature one or the other but using Dakota for not only and added point of view in the story but at times for a little comic relief.

Over the years I attempted to write in different genres, from straight romance to romantic paranormal (vampires) before being led to mystery and suspense. This genre I didn’t find but it found me and I’m glad for the fact it did.

Writing, no matter the genre, is always for me at least a continuous journey of discovery. This is a journey that I’ve fallen in love with, will continue to pursue and even branch out into different genres to test myself.

In conclusion, never give up and always leave yourself open to new and exciting changes in your writing.

Please support Lindsay by purchasing her latest novel A Body in the Attic from Astraea Press.

Synopsis:

A missing soldier. A break in. A former, now soldier, model tells of an aborted assault. A passageway hiding more than years of dust and cobwebs. Rooms where there are none. The reappearance of the mysterious ‘brown-haired man’. What, if anything, ties these random facts together.

With precision and dedication Emily and Dakota start to unravel some of the questions. Only when an FBI agent steps up do the facts start to merge into what appears to be a terrorist conspiracy.

A body found halfway across the country is the final clue in answering all of the question, but one.

Will Emily be able to save a life before it’s too late?

Astraea Press | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Additional Information on Lindsay Downs:

• Website: www.lindsaydowns.com
• Blog: www.murdersandmysteries.wordpress.com
• Author Bio: www.amazon.com/Lindsay-Downs

**Read about other writers' journeys (see A Writer's Journey index)**