AGAINST THE ODDS. Nancy Cole Silverman on writing through tough times

HALLIE EPHRON: One of the things we can all agree (rare and precious right now) on, is what a lousy year it's been. On so many fronts. Nancy Cole Silverman had a double whammy. 

The good news is she has a fantastic new book, THE HOUSE OF THE SETTING SON, a fitting capstone to her Misty Dawn mystery series.

NANCY COLE SILVERMAN; For me, 2020 started off as a challenging year. After completing book 2 of the Misty Dawn Mysteries, and the eighth book in as many years, my husband and I took a much-needed vacation, an Egyptian river cruise, from which I returned with a case of what I call, Corona-lite. While my doctor wasn’t able to test for the virus, as testing was still not easily obtained, I didn’t need a test to tell me I was sicker than I had ever been and down for six weeks. On top of that, I received an email from my publisher informing me they were canceling my contract for the third and final book in the Misty Dawn series.

Ouch!

Coronavirus sucks. Social distancing makes me cranky. And an unfinished series was driving me from my death bed back to my computer—if for no other reason than because my characters were haunting me, and wouldn’t let me die in peace.

But how was I going to publish the last book in the Misty Dawn trilogy by myself? I felt as though I was facing an uphill battle against odds I had no idea about or even counted. First off, let me say that I adored my publisher, and I will be forever thankful they plucked me from a pile of unpublished authors and gave me a platform from which to launch both The Carol Childs and Misty Dawn Mysteries. I hold no ill feelings. After a career in broadcasting, I had worked for enough radio stations in my life to know things happen. And when they do, just like the song says, it’s best to—Pick Yourself Up...and start all over again.

And so I did. I can’t say it was easy. Having a publisher gives a writer a certain sense of worth, and to suddenly find myself sans publisher did play mind games with me. But I pushed through. Fortunately, I had enough positive reviews like one from Steve Steinbeck with Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, who said he found my work “charmingly entertaining,” and wondered if I was channeling the creator of the Topper TV series.

I was channeling something that’s for sure because the series felt like it was writing itself, which was one of the reasons I felt compelled to complete it.

Often, there’s a sense of relief when a writer comes to the end of a book and can write those two sweet little words; The End. Usually, by this time, the writer has developed both a love/hate relationship with their work and their characters, and while they’ve become old friends, it's time to say goodbye.

I had completed the series. I had made a commitment to my characters and my readers, made a lot of new friends, and grown as a writer. As I said, it’s been a tough year, and there were times when I was blurry-eyed from the virus, and in doubt about what I was doing. But I did it, and I think it’s some of my best work.

As for what’s next? If it’s one thing I’ve learned, writers write. I’m already at work on a new manuscript. The story’s picked me, and soon I’ll be on the search for an agent and a publisher. I hope you’ll follow.

How about you? What hurdles have you overcome that required your full commitment?

THE HOUSE OF THE SETTING SUN: When Misty Dawn, the former “Hollywood Psychic to the Stars,” receives a phone call in the middle of the night, she knows it can’t be good news. Dorine Witherspoon, an actress and former client is in town for the opening of her touring musical and tells Misty the show’s leading lady, Cassie Marx, has disappeared, and the understudy had to go on for her on Opening Night! Misty immediately suspects foul play and when she and Wilson, Misty’s psychic shade, arrive at the theater the next morning, they discover LAPD’s Detective Cesar Romero meeting with the cast and crew. Events on both sides of the veil take a dark turn when Romero asks Misty off the case, and Wilson appears out of his depth with ghosts who want nothing to do with him. Death, close calls, and forces on both sides of the veil threaten to undo Misty and destroy her relationship with Wilson unless she can find Cassie and restore order to the show.

NANCY COLE SILVERMAN spent nearly twenty-five in Los Angeles Talk Radio. She began her career on the talent side as one for the first female voices on the air, and later on the business side, where she retired as one of two female general managers in the nation’s second-largest radio market. Leaving her successful radio career behind in 2010, Nancy began to write fiction, and her crime-focused novels and short stories have attracted readers throughout America. Her Carol Childs Mysteries series (Henery Press) feature a single-mom whose "day job" as a reporter at a busy Los Angeles radio station often leads to long nights as a crime-solver. Her most recent series features Misty Dawn, an aging Hollywood Psychic to the Stars, who supplements her day to day activities as a consultant to LAPD and the FBI. Nancy lives in Los Angeles with her husband and a thoroughly pampered standard poodle

“Silverman’s storytelling in charmingly entertaining.” - Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine