"The End"
Finishing the first draft of my conspiracy thriller!
It only took 25 years, but I finally just typed, “The End” on my first thriller novel’s first draft. To be fair, I did not work on it the entire 25 years. The novel, called “Death Wounds,” used to be a screenplay, which I wrote back in the early two thousands, while working as a TV news reporter at Fox 10 - KSAZ in Phoenix, Arizona. I have spent the past seven months converting it into a novel.
The story is based on one I covered as a young reporter at WCTV 6 in Valdosta, Georgia (a Tallahassee tv station). The screenplay made it to the top 5 of the New York International Latino Film Festival. It was even requested by a representative of Spike Lee’s production company, '“40 Acres and a Mule.” But I never sent it. This fact drives my husband nuts. “Such a lost opportunity,” he always laments. Perhaps. But I wasn’t ready back then. I was 23 years younger. I had not yet had my children or lived on any catamarans. I was still in the broadcast news trenches, covering some of the most heinous crimes imaginable. My fiction writing was my private therapy and I hoarded it like Gollum with his ring.
But I am moving into a new era now. My first daughter has already gone off to college. Our second is hot on her heels (in fact, I am writing this from Cambridge, England where she will tour the University today). As I watch them and their 13 year old brother figuring out who they are and stepping into their own power, I am keenly aware of the messages I am sending them off into the world with. I’d like to believe I have grown as a writer since Death Wounds’ screenplay days. The fact that I am even telling you all this means I have definitely grown as a human.
Transforming the screenplay’s external visuals and action scenes into characters’ innermost thoughts and feelings that the novel requires has been a painful process. I have been forced to stretch my creative muscles and press on when I felt like quitting. It has been a grind, a chore, a thorn in my side. And I have loved it!
I am grateful for my family who have helped me stay the course. They have listened to me reading all 75,000 words of it out loud because that is how I work best. They have talked me down from the ledge when I was fully convinced that it was all a heaping pile of garbage. They have loved me through this process.
But, apparently, my family isn’t enough. If I am truly going to move from writing for my own enjoyment to actually publishing my works of fiction, then I need a crew. Many authors call this group their “Insiders” or “Beta readers,” but I figure since I live on a boat, I should call them my “Crew.”
If you have read this far, I suspect you might be one of those that might like to join the crew. I created this “Rosa Linda’s Thrillers” section here on Substack as the crew’s gathering place. This is where I will share my fiction work and my process. This is where I will recruit my beta readers. If this interests you, please sign up for the updates for this section. You can do that by first subscribing here:
And then going to your account settings and selecting, “Rosa Linda’s Thrillers.”
That will ensure that you get an email (or app notification if you choose) whenever I post something in this section.
Can’t wait to see where this new, fiction author journey will take me. Thank you for all your support!
