Hartless Murderers, Luck, and Persistence

So I have a couple of great writer's groups I belong to. One is an online group who sees each other once a year in person, but are there always to lend a helping hand, give advice, critique, and give a swift kick in the rump as needed.



My other group is local, in-person, and has been my rock since just after I started writing in 2004. We'd all taken a class at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis--an intro to writing mysteries taught by Ellen Hart. A couple of the best writers in the class got ahold of me and two others and asked us if we wanted to form a writing group after class was finished. Sounded good to me and to everyone else, so we planned, plotted, met, drew up "house rules," and generally established the group. We decided we needed a name, and after some vigorous debate, settled on The Hartless Murderers... with the "Hart" part in honor of our beloved teacher.



We'd decided almost from the start that once we were published (yup, we all believed it could happen, somehow!) we would tour together like the wildly successful and looney Minnesota Crime Wave, who travels to various events around the midwest and gives talks on their books and writing, and whatever else they feel like talking about.



So the years passed. A couple members took a break, and we brought an additional body aboard. A live one, that is! We all hit one or many breaking points along the line, and the others stepped up to the plate and cajoled, forced, threatened, and dragged the person who was in trouble through the wastelands of "I am NOT a writer! I suck!" to the other side.



Then one of us landed a book contract. Then another. Then I hit a three book deal. Then our matriarch (she'd KILL me if she read that), our eldest member, scored a contract last winter. Pretty soon, out of three of us, we'd sold seven books in six years. Our dreams were becoming reality.



Ther next step was to make the group gig thing happen. So our studious members put together a postcard and started contacting different venues for appearances. I made a tablecloth emblazoned with HARTLESS MURDERERS. And we gathered this past Thursday in, of all places, the public library in Luck, Wisconsin. Yup, you read that right. Luck. Our luck came together and we debuted our entertaining chops in Luck. It helped that the librarian was one of my best childhood friends, and I have a contingent of family and friends in that area that blessed us by showing up. And we went on to give a kick a** presentation. We made folks laugh, they asked great questions, and best of all, they bought books. So we are on our way. It's exciting and somewhat daunting to actually follow your dreams. But none of us gave up, even when we so badly wanted to. We persisted, and we are gonna continue having a great time as we follow this strange, luck and sweat-filled writing path.







So who or what has been your inspiration when the going gets tough? Do you have a writing group you look to for support and guidance? Do you do it all on your own? What role has luck played in your own publishing and writing adventures?