Saddle Up by Kay DiBianca - Jennifer Heeren

Courage is a theme in many stories. In the Bible, Moses encourages Joshua to “be strong and courageous” as he leads the Israelites into the promised land. Moses must have known how easy it would be for them to get side-tracked by fear, and he wanted Joshua to focus on getting the job done.

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee tells the story of one man’s courage when pitted against an entire town. Corrie ten Boom’s The Hiding Place recounts the courage of a family fighting the evils of Naziism.

I used a scenario in my second cozy mystery novel, Dead Man’s Watch, to illustrate an example of courage. One of the protagonists, Cece Goldman, expresses a fear of horses. As the story progresses, Cece agrees to get on a horse only if someone is holding the lead line. Later, she takes a riding lesson. Step by step, she moves toward overcoming her fear.

But even after taking those steps forward, Cece declares she doesn’t have the courage to be a good rider. A minister responds that courage is not the absence of fear, but “courage is stepping up to do something you’re afraid of.”

As writers, we deal with fear all the time. We’re afraid people won’t like the book we wrote. We worry that it will be lost in a sea of other, similar works and few people will ever read it. We fret about our book sales, our reviews, our lack of marketing skills, and just about anything else we can come up with that will stop us from working.

Writers need courage. Not the close-your-eyes-and-jump kind, but a rational understanding that fear is part of the landscape, and we have to maneuver through it to attain our goals. There are practical things we can do to overcome our fears.

Concerns about the quality of your writing? Read other books in the genre and get a feeling for their pace and language. Study the craft of writing. There are dozens of excellent craft books, and there is much wisdom freely available on blogs, websites, and podcasts.

Worried about marketing your book? Pick one aspect of marketing and focus on it. Maybe a blog tour for your book, or advertising on one of the many book promo sites.

Looking for more newsletter subscribers? BookSweeps and BookFunnel are excellent ways to attract new readers and newsletter subscribers.

And remember, most authors have the same fears. As a matter of fact, people in all walks of life experience these concerns. Consider John Wayne’s advice: “Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway.”

Saddle up, brave one.

SAVING ONE LIFE IS LIKE SAVING THE WHOLE WORLD

Half-sisters Kathryn Frasier and Cece Goldman stumble into another mystery in this second book in the Watch series. When a former acquaintance of Kathryn’s is accused of murder, she and Cece go on a mission to prove his innocence by finding the real killer. But things are never what they seem in this tangled web, and Kathryn’s spunky determination to solve the mystery pushes her closer and closer to a deadly climax.

Join the adventure as these two young women commit themselves to live up to the quote from the Jerusalem Talmud: “Whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.”

You can find the book at: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

Kay DiBianca is a former software developer and IT manager who loves to create literary puzzles in the mystery genre for thoughtful readers to solve. Her debut novel, The Watch on the Fencepost, won a 2019 Illumination Award for General Fiction and a 2019 Eric Hoffer Award for Mystery. Her second novel, Dead Man’s Watch, was released in 2020.

An avid runner, Kay can often be found at a nearby track, on the treadmill, or at a large park near her home. Kay and her husband, Frank, live, run, and write in Memphis, Tennessee.

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