CLIPPED in CONFERENCE by Cj Fosdick
Thirty years ago I attended my first Writer’s Conference in Rochester, MN. It was a weekend mecca for hopeful writers flocking together to learn from two famous Minnesota authors.
Frederick Manfred and Jon Hassler are both deceased now but their writing was alive in 1986, and they actually read and evaluated the excerpts that were turned in. Mine was one of them. I had already won a short story contest and been published in a few magazines and anthologies, but I was a novel novice. I was also a novice coffee drinker, nervous enough to slosh the WC agenda.
Tall and formidable, the 6 ft. 9 in. Manfred pulled my excerpt first and read his comments in the margin. “Condense…use simple liquid words…polysyllabics diffuse meaning.” My wings were clipped. Jon Hassler’s critique restored flight. The college professor/novelist announced one graphic piece reminded him of Giants in the Earth, an acclaimed novel by Minnesota’s most famous Norwegian immigrant, Ole Rolvaag. “Powerful stuff,” Hassler announced, “from C.J. Fosdick.”
Subsequently, that first novel was rejected, and its thin-skinned author iced it for decades in a garage freezer. Life, meanwhile, continued with occasional freelance work sandwiched in time slots between four children and thirty animals, including 20 horses. Horse shows, training and rescuing animals clipped my writing agenda.
Five years ago, I visited a friend in Las Vegas and attended another Writer Conference while there. WC’s had drastically changed, along with the Publishing Industry. Only 5% of published manuscripts were first novels in 1986. With the internet and eBooks, new novelists were storming the castle gates of traditional publishing. Pitching a novel at Conferences was then a new substitute for query letters that often ended up in slush piles. Like speed dating, a writer had 10 minutes to convince an agent or publisher they were traditionally “publishable.”
I tested the climate by joining three National Writing Groups and attended numerous Writer Conferences all over the U.S. and one in London after a bucket-list tour. But it was at a Kansas City Conference with Women Writing the West that I won a Laura award for a short story. The judge suggested it begged to become a novel. I managed to dine beside the publisher of an acclaimed small press that evening.“Send me the finished novel,” Rhonda Penders suggested. Motivated fingers pounded laptop keys, and a year later my first published novel was released by The Wild Rose Press.
I’m still flying high. With an empty nest…and barn, I’ve had two other stories published, one in a British anthology and an audible in the candy heart series of WRP. I’m also working on my third novel in the Accidental Series, and write humor for a local Woman’s magazine. The freezer novel Jon Hassler deemed “publishable” is still in the hanger, but my debut novel, along with its sequel is flying high. Both were named Golden Quill finalists and “Stranger” is also a RONE finalist. Both are also on sale in June for the first time at .99.
Blurb for THE ACCIDENTAL STRANGER:
Jessica Brewster is being watched…and things go missing from the remote Wyoming home she shares with her toddler. In a freak accident, she shoots the bearded thief stalking her before she recognizes the mesmerizing green eyes that belong to the only man she ever loved.
Has Mitch bridged time to find her? In a race to save his life and change hers forever, she takes him into her home and heart. But his memory loss and puzzling clues curry doubt and expose mystery and danger. Is he truly her son’s father or an irresistible stranger in her arms?
Excerpt:
I screamed as the gun exploded in my hand and fell to the ground. The bear moving toward Scout dropped, and I raced to scoop up my son before he toppled into the cold stream. Cradling my whimpering child, I ventured closer and could see at once that it was no bear I shot. A man in a bearskin poncho lay on his side. A mass of dark matted hair covered the side of his face that wasn’t blooming with blood, running down his cheek, pooling in his ear and staining his thick beard.
“Is he, is he dead?” I whispered.
Chuck fumbled for a pulse and we all started when the man groaned and his eyes fluttered open.
Green! His eyes were green. The fear in them registered with me as he searched our faces. When his eyes met mine, his jaw twitched. A flash of memories washed over me and my heart began to thump wildly. I set Scout down when my knees began to buckle and I thought I was going to be sick. My legs crumpled beneath me as I sagged in the snow and my bare fingers reached out to staunch the warm dripping blood.
So red against the white snow. His eyes, so…green. Every shade in a spectrum of emotion raced through my memory; joy, frustration, anger…love. I knew only one man who owned those eyes. He had come back to me. I shot the only man I ever loved.
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JUNE SALE: Both Golden Quill eBooks selling for .99 this month only.
Cj Fosdick Buy Links
Amazon ~ Barnes and Noble ~ The Wild Rose Press ~ iBooks
Cj Fosdick Buy Links
Amazon ~ Barnes and Noble ~ The Wild Rose Press ~ iBooks
5 things to know about Cj Fosdick:
1. Favorite author: Diana Gabaldon. (Meeting my inspiration at 2 Writer Conferences was magical).
2. Favorite Movie: Never saw a historical I didn’t like—in theater or on TV! Last of the Mohicans, Dances With Wolves, Pride and Prejudice, Gone With the Wind, and TV series like The Thorn Birds, Outlander, Poldark top my list. There is always a memorable take-away from beautifully filmed, character-driven epics with great scenery, actors and scores. Themes and series always pull me in.
3. Favorite Music: Movie scores, anything by Enya or light classical. Music without lyrics always tunes up the muse when I’m in a writing zone or need to chill.
4. City or Country: City girl found her writing sanctuary on 12 country acres, surrounded by woods and wildlife! The move also enabled her other big dream--30 wonderful years of horses--in and out of the saddle, showing and teaching every summer.
5. Favorite Aspect of Writing: For me, it is the armchair time travel. When I am in a “zone” I AM the redheaded heroine. My “boots on the ground” research has also doubled as a bucket list vacation. I also LOVE presenting my “Novel Journey” power point to book clubs, etc. at my home. We usually have tea and one of the sweet recipes my heroine makes-or craves-in the books.
Author Bio:
As a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, now living on a country hilltop in Rochester, Minnesota, Cj nourished two major dreams: Riding and Writing. Thirty years training and teaching children to ride her horses satisfied the first—with time squeezed out to write fiction and non-fiction published in magazines, newspapers and anthologies. It was a jump-start to a novel agenda that produced Cj’s first books. The Accidental Wife and The Accidental Stranger became serial award-winners out of the gate. With an empty nest after 4 children and an empty horse barn, Cj lives with her computer wrangler hub, a white schnauzer and a long list of incubating novels and stories that tap into her favorite genres: Romance, Suspense, Historicals and Time Travel. Follow her adventures in a monthly newsletter, facebook, twitter, and cjfosdick.com
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