Life after Five Star, by Susan Oleksiw

 On January 19, 2016, I posted a piece entitled The End of the Five Star Mystery Line. Over fifteen hundred people read it, and even now I get comments about it. Well, it's almost two years later, and I was wondering how my fellow Stars have fared over the previous months. So I asked. And they responded. I hope reading their replies will be inspiring (and edifying) for everyone.

Two things struck me. First, the writers have been busy and productive, finding ways to continue a beloved series or begin a new one.  Second, several mentioned how much they enjoyed being part of the Five Star family, and staying in touch with other Five Star authors. I hope that will continue also. The publishing world is indeed chaotic, but we seem to have survived the upheaval. I have trimmed the responses for the sake of space.

From Marilyn Clay

Since my final Five Star novel was published in 2012, I sold two
novels to Mayfair Mysteries (a now defunct publisher) titled: BETSY
ROSS: ACCIDENTAL SPY and STALKING A KILLER. Then, The Regency Plume
Press imprint published a new Regency Romance novel of mine titled:
THE WRONG MISS FAIRFAX. In addition, I started the Juliette Abbott Regency-set Mystery Series: MURDER AT MORLAND MANOR, MURDER IN MAYFAIR, and MURDER AT MARGATE. All titles are available everywhere online in both trade
paperback and E-book formats. I am currently writing Book 4 in my Juliette Abbott Regency-set
Mystery series, MURDER AT MEDLEY PARK, scheduled for release in
mid-2018.

From Nancy Cohen

I am indie publishing my Bad Hair Day mysteries under my Orange Grove Press imprint. So far I’ve done HAUNTED HAIR NIGHTS, a novella, and HAIR BRAINED, #14 in the series. HAIR BRAINED was published in Sept. 2017 and is available in ebook formats at Kindle, Nook, Kobo, iBooks, and Google Play. The trade paperback edition is available via CreateSpace and IngramSpark. I’ve already finished TRIMMED TO DEATH, the next book in this series. I’m also reissuing all my backlist titles in romance and mystery, and hope to expand my WRITING THE COZY MYSTERY instructional guide. Three of my Bad Hair Day mysteries are in audiobook, and I’m scheduled to start the fourth one with my narrator in January.

From Jen J. Danna

I'm still publishing with Kensington and the second book of the FBI K-9s series (BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE) has just come out, with the third, STORM RISING, due out next fall. I'm self publishing the next book in what was Five Star's Abbott and Lowell Forensic Mysteries series, LAMENT THE COMMON BONES, on November 21 in trade paperback and ebook. I'm also reformatting all the previous Five Star hardcovers of Abbott and Lowell to release in trade paperback through CreateSpace. Then, as the ebook rights revert to me, I'll be releasing those too, starting next year. I've also got some new projects on the horizon, but that will become clearer next year.

From Alice Duncan

I’ve been publishing my most popular series (which means it isn’t awfully popular) with ePublishingWorks. They make you pay, but they’re the first publisher I’ve ever had who has actually made money for me. So it works for me. I’ve self-pubbed the rest of my backlist for Kindle and Nook via Smashwords.

From Lisa Lieberman

I had finished the second book in my series when Five Star pulled the plug on their mystery line. I LOVE this series and was not willing to let it go. I approached several agents, but none of them were optimistic. I decided to publish it myself, using the same cover designer and formatting team that Five Star used (Encircle). This enabled me to keep my brand. I set myself up as a publisher (DBA as Passport Press), sent out proper ARCS to various review outlets, and succeeded in getting reviewed by LIBRARY JOURNAL. I've been experimenting with various promotional activities but I'm launched and well into writing book three.  

From Carole Price

VINEYARD PREY, third in my Shakespeare in the Vineyard series, was released October 21 by Black Opal Books. Currently, I'm working on a new cozy series not yet named.

From Jacqueline Seewald

From 2007 to 2016, Five Star published seven of my novels in hardcover editions, some of which were also published in large print. Perfect Crime published the 4th novel in my Kim Reynolds mystery series, the first three having been published by Five Star. I recently wrote a sequel to another novel that was originally published by Five Star to excellent reviews--DEATH LEGACY. The sequel, DEATH PROMISE, will be published in April 2018 by Encircle, a publisher that is eager to work with former Five Star/Gale/Cengage authors. THE BURNING by J. P. Seewald is available for pre-order, publication date: November 8, 2017. I hope to interest new readers and keep the fans of my prior Five Star novels.

From Sheri Cobb South

I’m continuing with the John Pickett mystery series under the Sonatina Press imprint. (Which is actually, well, me.) Because the books are no longer with Five Star, they’re in a more affordable trade paperback edition instead of hardcover, and they’re available in all electronic formats, rather than Kindle only. The first of these, FOR DEADER OR WORSE (aka John Pickett Mystery #6) was released last spring, and Book 7, MYSTERY LOVES COMPANY, will be out in January.  Print rights to Book 3, FAMILY PLOT, just reverted back to me, so it will soon be available in paperback, too. I’m also releasing the John Pickett series in audio. Finally, I’m having new covers—featuring custom artwork!--designed for my Regency romance THE WEAVER TAKES A WIFE and its sequels. And they’re gorgeous!

From Patricia Stoltey

I just happened to have an old manuscript that fit Five Star's Frontier Fiction line so I polished it up and sent it in. WISHING CASWELL DEAD will be released December 20, 2017. It's set in 1830s Illinois in the fictitious Village of Sangamon. My current WIP is a suspense standalone. One of these days I'll be submitting it to agents and editors to see if I can find a new home for contemporary crime. I'm too lazy to indie publish.

From Maggie Toussaint

Right away I scrambled and found a new publisher, Camel Press. They picked up my ongoing Dreamwalker Mystery Series, with a two-book contract with an option for the next book. DADGUMMIT, book 4 in the series came out in August, and CONFOUND IT is due out June 2018. I’m very grateful to them for their belief in my storytelling and look forward to a continuing association with them. As a way to expand my readership, I’ve embarked on writing anthology novellas to fill in the space between yearly book releases. This effort has put me in contact with like-minded authors and I’m reaping benefits in backlist sales.

From Leslie Wheeler

Encircle will publish my new mystery RATTLESNAKE HILL, the first in a new series set in a Berkshire hilltown.

And what about me? I wrote and rewrote and rewrote again the first in a new series, and today I sign and return the contract. Midnight Ink will publish three books in a series set in the Pioneer Valley, featuring Felicity O'Brien.  The first, BELOW THE TREE LINE, is scheduled for fall 2018.

Six Months Later by Susan Oleksiw

Just six months ago, in January, those of us who publish with Five Star/Gale, Cengage got the news that our publisher would no longer accept manuscripts for its mystery line. The news hit a lot of us very hard. Some writers watched their first novel turn into the last one. Others waited for their book to show up at a conference, only to learn the pub date had been pushed back. The bad news took many forms, but in the end it was the same for all of us who write mysteries.

In an earlier posting (found here) I wrote at length about how the abrupt ending of the mystery line affected me. It meant basically the end of the Anita Ray novels and the Mellingham books because publishers are unlikely to pick up another publisher’s series. But as I mentioned then, I had one more book in the pipeline with Five Star, another one ready to go, two paperback editions with Harlequin waiting in the wings, and a story just accepted by Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.

So where am I six months later? The last Anita Ray mystery novel, When Krishna Calls, will be out in August 2016, along with a short story from AHMM (the October issue available in August). The same magazine accepted two more stories, one featuring Anita Ray. I’ve sent another story to Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. The paperbacks of the second and third Anita Ray novels haven’t appeared yet, but they will.

I was about to send the seventh Joe Silva/Mellingham mystery to Five Star when I got the news. After much thought (and professional editing and a cover design), I published the novel myself. Come About for Murder is doing well, and I’m pleased. None of this breaks new ground. For that I have to turn to my effort to create a new series.

In a few short stories I’ve explored life in a rural area I’ve named West Woodbury, a small town in the poorest county in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. AHMM has accepted a story set in this world, and I self-published one (Love Takes a Detour) some time ago. The stories come easily, most of the time, but creating a new series character is proving to be harder. I’m not interested as much in her because I know she’s going to survive every encounter. The ones I’m interested in are the characters who may not, or who will come out of the experience so changed that no one will recognize them anymore.

Still, this is the new series that has captured my attention and my imagination. Six months after Five Star shut down its mystery line I’ve written two novels and am rewriting the second one, to bring it more into line with current tastes (that means more action, according to my ever-supportive agent, Paula Munier).

I tell myself the challenge has been good for me because it has made me give up a secure place and try something new. I should have known this was coming after all the time I spent writing about sailing in the seventh Joe Silva and the short story coming out in August (“Variable Winds”). Taking the safe way is called, by sailors, “hugging the shore.” To really sail, to find out what you and your boat can do, you have to leave the safety of the coastline behind and set out into the vast ocean, where the only markers are the wind and sun and your own ability to chart a course and find your way.

I’ve heard from a few of my fellow Stars, but I’d like to hear from more. What has happened in your writing life since getting the news? Successes? Discoveries? If you have something to share, I hope you will.

Interview with Author/Editor Denise Dietz/Mary Ellen Dennis

Interview with Author/Editor Denise Dietz/Mary Ellen Dennis
By Jacqueline Seewald


DeniseDietz is a much published author who also happens to be the acquisitions editor for Tekno Books, the book packager for Five Star/Gale. Denise recently had a new historical romance come out from Five Star/Gale entitled HEAVEN’S THUNDER: A COLORADO SAGA. You can check it out at http://www.maryellendennis.com/

You can also find ordering information on Amazon as well as Barnes and Noble online and Borders.

Hi, Denise, thanks so much for joining us today at the Author Expressions blog. First, let me congratulate you on the excellent review HEAVEN’S THUNDER received from PUBLISHERS WEEKLY.

Question: Could you tell us a little about the main characters in your new novel and also about the plot line?

I think the best way to describe Heaven’s Thunder is to quote some of the cover copy:

Mary Ellen Dennis’s spellbinding new saga encompasses the Cripple Creek Gold Rush, the union rebellions of Mother Jones, and the birth of silent movies.

Fools Gold Smith, born in the “cribs” of a mining town, raised in an elite parlor house, idolized as silent-film heroine “Flower Smith,” is the central figure in this precisely detailed chronicle. Equally memorable is John “Cat” McDonald, an outlaw’s offspring, a rodeo star, and silent-film hero “John Chinook.” Then there is Kate Lytton, wealthy, pampered granddaughter of a Denver entrepreneur, who becomes embroiled in the 1913 Ludlow coal strike. Their interwoven stories make for a compelling novel, rich with a vibrant sense of time and place.

From life on cattle ranches to the drawing rooms of the wealthy, from the bedrooms of bawdy houses to the wooden platforms of the Ludlow Tent Colony, the author paints not only rooms but intimate portraits of the husbands, wives, sons and daughters who walked their space. From parlor girl, pauper and prospector, to patriarch, plutocrat and profligate, the characters are very much alive. Filled with the essences of its setting, blending love, hate, passion, greed, self-sacrifice, human frailty and strength, Heaven’s Thunder is an authentic tapestry of its time.

Question: Do you envision this novel as a stand alone or part of a romantic series?

For now, it’s a stand alone. It took me 10 years to write my saga and 12 years to market it. The Big Pub House editors said they loved the evocative writing but, “Nobody likes sagas.” When I mentioned Lonesome Dove, The Thorn Birds, John Jakes’ North and South (Heaven’s Thunder has been compared to all three), Barbara Bradford and Anya Seton (plus a dozen other bestselling generational saga authors), NY said, “Those are the exceptions.” I said, “Why can’t I be an exception?” and was told, “Because nobody likes sagas.”

Question: What inspired this novel? How did it come about?

Widowed at age 35, I moved to Colorado Springs. I chose Colorado because of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, even though I don’t agree with her “philosophy” and didn’t know anyone who lived in Colorado. I then began researching my adopted state and learned that two actors had drowned in the Colorado River while filming a silent movie.

Wow, I thought, wouldn’t that make a good book?

My second thought: Of course, I won’t kill off my hero and heroine.

My third thought: Silent films were shot in Colorado???

I gave my characters a backstory, starting with their parents and their births. I do that for all my books, before I start writing them, but Fools Gold Smith and Cat McDonald really tugged at my heartstrings, and I knew I had to tell their stories from the very beginning—before they began their careers as silent film stars “Flower Smith” and “John Chinook.”

The “very beginning” was the 1893 Cripple Creek gold rush.

Question: Can you tell us about some of your other published novels?

My most popular mystery series stars diet guru Ellie Bernstein (in the first book, diet club members are getting killed off at goal weight), but I’ve always wanted to write romances. I started with a paranormal time-travel, HALLIE’S COMET, published by Five Star in 2004 (it’s now up at Kindle). In 2007 I reinvented myself as historical romance author Mary Ellen Dennis, whereupon Five Star published THE LANDLORD’S BLACK-EYED DAUGHTER, inspired by Alfred Noyes’ The Highwayman. “Landlord” received starred reviews and was chosen as one of Booklist’s Top 10 Romances of the year. I sold the paperback rights to Sourcebooks and the novel will be reissued this August, along with an 1875 circus historical: THE GREATEST LOVE ON EARTH.

Question: What made you start writing?

In the third grade I wrote a story called “The Pencil Who Grew Up To Be a Stub.” We were supposed to write a one-page story with an ink pen. I wrote a 5-page, first-person story with a pencil (my protagonist) and received a failing grade. In high school I wrote and illustrated a children’s book, HERBERT THE GIANT, about a giant who lived in a town of nearsighted people. No one knew he was a giant until a peddler who sold glasses came to town. Publishers told me they liked the concept but “the words were too big.”

Undeterred, I wrote short fiction and penned my first [adult] book when I was a lecturer for Weight Watchers. As people were weighing in, I thought: Wouldn’t it be funny if there was some maniac running around murdering skinny people? With that thought, THROW DARTS A CHEESECAKE, the first in my 4-book “diet club” mystery series was born. I don’t always write in my head, but I once overheard someone say that Miss America had to be very intelligent (as well as beautiful). After a silent snort/chortle, I began writing a story—in my head—called THE LAST GREAT AMERICAN BEAUTY PAGEANT about a male beauty contest (with a twist). This was 15 years before the first TV reality show. The horror/suspense story is now at Kindle for 99-cents.

Question: As acquiring editor for Tekno Books, what advice would you offer to those newbies who have novels they would like to submit for consideration?

It sounds like a cliché, but telling rather than showing will land you in the rejection pile fairly quickly. If a writer tells me about a character, I feel no emotional connection. Another no-no: Please don’t make your heroine TSTL (Too Stupid To Live) by having her check out a noise in a dark basement without, at the very least, a rottweiler by her side. Be careful about overusing a word. Check your manuscripts for “just” and “well” and “that.” Tied with overuse of a word would be dialogue tags like “You’re so funny,” he laughed. You can’t laugh and talk at the same time. Try it. Nor can you talk while you are grinning or (my favorite) exploding: “I swear I didn’t do it!” she exploded. I get an image of Wile Coyote landing at the bottom of a steep cliff. Speaking of animals, I don’t like animal tags: growled, brayed, chirped, crowed, etc, and be careful of eyes. I like them to stay on one’s face, not drop to the ground (where they could get stepped on) or sweep the room. And if your character tosses her head, make sure somebody is there to catch it.
I like to give new writers the best piece of advice I’ve ever received. I wrote a scene set in an opulent NYC apartment for my women’s fiction novel, Soap Bubbles (published by Five Star Expressions, now at Kindle). I described the living room in detail, including the eclectic collection of paintings on the wall. It was written from the POV of my soap opera star protagonist. An author I admired read the chapter and complimented me on my narrative; said she felt like she was there. Then she said, “But how does Delly FEEL when she looks at the room?” I rewrote the scene, keeping all my details. Except, when Delly looks at the wall she wishes she could step into a painting. Here’s the rewrite:
"Delly stepped into an enormous living room and blinked at the brightness. The walls and ceilings were pure yellow, the floor a highly-glossed parquet. An eclectic mixture of paintings crowded the walls. Delly recognized Andy Warhol, Peter Max and Renoir. Her gaze lingered on the Renoir, and she wished she could step into the painting. In a Renoir there were no cameras panning for a close-up, no directors screaming for another take, no rejection. Renoir’s flowers have no smell, but they don’t die. Renoir’s people have no smell, but they live forever. Once she had believed that actors lived forever."
Note that I managed to get some of her backstory into one paragraph. This is also an example of what I was talking about before: showing vs. telling. I could have said: “Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe print reminded her of her last acting role,” and that wouldn’t be wrong. But it doesn’t really tell you how Delly FEELS. Can you see the difference?

Denise, thanks so much for being our guest today. You’re a fine writer and editor and we’re honored.

Those of you who have comments and/or questions, please know that they are welcome. So feel free to join the conversation!