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 April Star |
About the author A mystery writer, I decided, can be better defined as a paid and legal hit man. They drum up a killer, set their prey, and kill off the innocent and (more often than not) the not so innocent. It’s also a very creative and healthy way of “letting off steam.” At least for me it is. I have been writing ever since I discovered the magic of the pencil and alphabet. I have traveled through every genre before finding my Utopia with romantic suspense and cozy mysteries. My first poem was published when I was twelve-years-old—on the front page of the school newspaper. I can still recall the thrill and feelings of artistic achievement in seeing my name in print. It hooked me. Since then I have gone on to publish (for money as well as fame) with such magazines as Woman’s Day, Woman’s World, St. Anthony Messenger and Our Sunday Visitor. I have also had a number of Op-Ed pieces published in such newspapers as The Hartford Courant, Miami Herald, and Detroit Free Press. Ten years ago I decided the time had come to take the plunge into novel writing. My first novel was a paranormal romance which still beckons for me to rewrite. I submitted it to so many contests, editors, agents—but apparently no one is very interested in a young woman who dies and comes back to the love of her life in the form of an emerald-eyed seagull. My next four novels were in the mystery genre. I had discovered my niche. The first suspense/thriller I wrote was The Dolphin Triangle. A novel I still believes deserves the status of Number One New York Times bestseller. It placed a number of times in various writing competitions and received encouraging comments from agents and editors at writing conferences. I know what it needs—I just need the time to “fix” the 100,000 + word manuscript. It’s Check-Out Time was to be the first in a cozy mystery series centered on the life and times, murder and mayhem, of full time rv’ing. Since it’s creation, in 1999, it has placed in the Kiss of Death Daphne contest for excellence in mystery/suspense writing and I have bumped it to number three in my intended series. Tropical Warnings, is book one and the book two is Resort To Murder. My experience in writing a mystery series set in various campgrounds throughout the United States and Canada comes from traveling in an RV for over sixteen years and then working and managing a camping resort in South Florida for over ten years. I have enough character sketches and settings to fill the next 117 novels I have outlined, started, or made notes on. I estimate this to take the completion of my writing career somewhere around the year 2075. I am employed as a community association manager by day and a crazed writer by night. I also write a monthly column for the local paper titled Unity In The Community. My columns as well as excerpts from the above mentioned books can be found on my website: www.authoraprilstar.com. “April Star” being my pseudonym because I didn’t feel book covers came large or long enough for: JoMarie Grinkiewicz. I am a graduate of The Institute of Children’s Literature and the Writer’s Digest Novel Writing course. Periodically I take advantage of the online classes in synopsis writing, forensics, death investigation, as well as a number of courses on criminal profiling. I’m an active member of The Authors Guild of America, Romance Writer’s of America, Mystery Writer’s of America, and Sisters In Crime. I have attended countless writing conferences through the years and have sweated with the best in those nerve-wracking agent/editor appointments. I am also a participant and member of Lethal Ladies, an online critique group with the Kiss of Death chapter of RWA. I set aside two days per week for nothing but research. I take out my notebook from my work-in-progress and anything highlighted in red I know needs researching. I find this fascinating and sometimes get caught up so much in my discoveries on facts that I have to remind myself to move on to the next item. One thing about the Internet and search engines is the true definition of World Wide Web. I can’t help but wonder what painstaking measures the earlier great authors had to go through in digging up their research. In short, I am a passionate, dedicated, devoted and obsessed writer. I write every day—just as I would brush my hair or teeth every day—always the writing first. READ MY SHORT STORY BELOW... Book Titles Available | | The BANYON NETWORK | Betty Byers | Whitlow Synopsis | INNER-VIEWS WITH CELEBRITIES | ECLECTIC REVIEWS | BOOK REVIEWER'S CORNER | The NEWS | SHORT STORIES CORNER | | Return Home | GREAT LINKS | WHAT'S NEW? | CONTACT US | |
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