“And you found an agent who liked your book?”
Travis laughed again. “No, the exact opposite. I got rejections from every agent I contacted. That’s not unusual. It wasn’t a great feeling being rejected, especially after failing to find a job in journalism. I wondered if I might be making one career mistake after another. But I liked the book I’d written and I believed in it. I’d heard a lot about authors independently publishing their books and making great careers for themselves. There have been big changes in the publishing industry since ebooks arrived, and after I did a little research, I thought, why not give it a go? And so, that’s what I did.”
“Good for you. That must have taken a lot of guts.”
“I don’t know about that. I just wanted to see what might happen. And at first, nothing much happened at all. It took a couple of months for the book to start selling, mostly thanks to word of mouth by readers who somehow discovered it while looking for new books to read. As I still hadn’t found a job in journalism, I decided to start writing another book in my free time. When I finished it and was happy with it, I published it.The second book sold a little faster than the first one, which was encouraging. Not enough to make a living, but enough to cover the expenses of paying for an editor and a cover designer and all that stuff, and with enough left over to buy a few cups of coffee. By this point, I had yetanotheridea for book number three, so I kept going.”
Courtney smiled. “And how did the Maura Shaw mysteries come about?”
“After I finished writing book five, I realised I didn’t want to write any more of the of thriller-type books I’d written so far. I started playing around with new stories, new characters, new plots, new settings, and kept coming back to this idea I’d had for a cozy mystery series. Even now, I don’t know how I ended up writing about a historian in her sixties who runs around solving murders as an amateur sleuth in her spare time, but once Maura Shaw got inside my head, I couldn’t get her back out again.”
“She’s a wonderful character, Travis. After reading only the first few chapters of the first novel, I can understand why readers love her.”
“I never would’ve imagined she’d be the sort of character I’d want to write, and I never imagined cozy mysteries would be the genre where I’d find success. Because the Maura Shaw character kept popping up in my head, along with endless numbers of mad story ideas for her to get stuck into, I eventually just started writing about her. And once I started typing, I literally couldn’t keep up with the book as it unfolded in my head.”
“That sounds sort of crazy.”
“It feels sort of crazy, too,” Travis laughed. He gave her a guarded look, then added, “The first Maura Shaw book, the one you’re reading now, only took six weeks to write.”
Courtney’s eyes almost popped out of her head. “Six weeks? Are you kidding?”
“Nope. Like I said, once I started writing about Maura Shaw, I couldn’t keep up. I didn’t want to stop, either. Towards the end of writing that book, there were days where I forgot to eat because I was so caught up in the story.”
“That sounds amazing. But six weeks? I can’t take that in.”
Travis laughed. “Not many people know that little detail. I worried that if anyone knew how quickly the book poured out of me, they might judge it less kindly. Promise you’ll keep that fact about the six-week writing binge to yourself?”
“I promise. I signed your non-disclosure agreement, didn’t I? Consider this a work-related conversation.”
He laughed again. “Anyway, as soon as I published the first Maura Shaw book, it found readers who loved it. Within a few months, it was selling fast and readers were talking about it on social media and it just took off. I couldn’t believe how well it did. A couple of weeks before I published the second book in the series, I was contacted by a publisher who wanted to work with me. They offered me a contract that almost made me fall off my chair. It was too good to turn down and they could get my paperbacks into bookshops that were much harder for me to reach on my own. And so, I signed with the publisher and the Maura Shaw series grew bigger than I ever dreamt it would.”
“It must be a great feeling, having all this success after so many tough times when you couldn’t find a job after university?”
“It’s a relief knowing I can do something right, put it that way,” Travis laughed. “And it’s a relief being able to pay my bills. I’m pretty comfortable now, but there were plenty of hairy times after I graduated when I thought I’d end up broke and stuck living with my parents for the rest of my life.”
Travis laughed, and although Courtney joined him, her own laughter was more thoughtful. “It’s good to know there are real-world dream-come-true stories out there that happen to real people.”
She meant it too. Travis had turned bad luck and failure into a huge success and turned his life around. If he could do it, she could do it too.
Shewasdoing it, she reminded herself. Or at least, she was trying to.
Perhaps Travis saw the faraway look on her face because he studied her for a moment before giving an easy shrug.
“I never thought of it that way, but that’s a nice way to describe it.” He gave another shrug and glanced away before adding, “Anyway, that’s the story of how I ended up becoming an author. My journalism career plans were derailed and I couldn’t get them back on track again, and to cheer myself up while doing a job I hated, I turned to a hobby I’d always enjoyed, just looking for some escapism. That turned out to be the best move I could’ve made, and it eventually led me to where I am now.”
“It’s a fantastic story, Travis, and it’s really inspirational.”
“Things have worked out far better than I ever imagined they would. My writing supports me and makes me good money, and I love writing the books, too. I love knowing there are readers out there who look forward to my new novels coming out, and that I’m giving them the same escapism and entertainment I wanted for myself when I first started writing. That’s a good feeling, knowing I’m providing something valuable to people.”
“So valuable that you’ve had to hire staff in order to help you with all the work it’s generated,” Courtney observed. “And for that, I’m very grateful.”
He laughed. “I never imagined the popularity of the books would mean I’d need help to interact with the fans. That’s probably the most startling part of it for me, seeing how much the readersloveMaura Shaw. No one is more surprised about it than I am.” Travis shrugged and laughed again. “But what’s life without a few surprises to keep you on your toes?”
“Tell me about it,” Courtney said with a wry smile, and patted her baby bump.
Travis laughed at her quip. They sat for another moment on the bench, sipping the last of their water. Feeling better now, and aware of how long they’d sat chatting—and how long she’d spent asking about his writing career—Courtney got to her feet.
“Thanks for the cold drink, Travis. I needed it. I’m happy to get moving again if you are?”
