Hooray, I’m A Debut Author: What’s Next? with guest Angela Crook

By Liz – so excited to welcome Angela Crook to the blog! Julie and I had the pleasure of meeting and hanging out with Angela at Left Coast Crime earlier this year, where she was celebrating the launch of her debut thriller, Hurt Mountain. She’s here talking about that journey. Take it away, Angela!

So, you did it. You wrote the book. You got the agent. You got the book deal. A year or two later, you get to hold your book in your hands and watch in near panic as reviews, proof that strangers are reading your work, come rolling in. You have the party. You make the social media announcements and all hail your literary brilliance. Great. Wonderful. All your dreams are about to come true. You’re going to be a star. Your book will become a movie and people will finally call you the black Stephen King. Then this awful thing called reality creeps in as you hear these words, “So, what’s next?” 

Shortly after my debut novel, Hurt Mountain, was released, I had the pleasure of spending a little time with friend and international best-selling author extraordinaire Catriona McPherson. As she got up to leave, she said, “You’re already working on your next one, right?” To which I nodded and smiled, of course. Meanwhile, my brain was screaming, Next? Already? 

Yes! That is the question. What’s next? The thing is, all those days and nights that I spent dreaming of becoming a published author, soaring to the heights where all my literary heroes lived, I never considered this would be a question at all. I had written books before, three of them as a matter of fact, published as an indie author. I think they’re pretty good too. Check them out, if you’re so inclined: Fat Chance, Chasing Navah, and Maria’s Song. All available on Amazon for your reading pleasure. So, why did this question send me into a full-on panic? 

After all, the climb to get to this point, my first traditionally published novel, had been a brutal slog that I may have never made without the help of some of the best crime writers out there today, like Kellye Garrett, Amina Aktar, and Yasmin Angoe, whom I had the great pleasure to meet through the Crime Writers of Color group. By the way, if you are a writer of color, I highly recommend connecting with this group. The support you will receive here may be the thing that will help you keep pushing! 

The more I tried to answer that question, the more stuck I became until days, then weeks, then months went by without any words being written while I tortured myself with what ifs. What if my agent dumps me? What if my publisher hates my next book? What if I am a, gasp, one-book wonder (Wonder may be a stretch)? 

These were the thoughts that sent me skittering away from my computer in horror. I needed help— something, someone to grab me by the shoulders and shake the self-doubt and fear right out of my head and back onto the page. Enter Mr. Stephen King, appropriate since he was the one who started me down this path in the first place. I grabbed On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft from the shelf, the writing bible in my eyes, and began to read like I hadn’t already read it at least three times before. It was a great reminder of some things I already knew, but maybe wasn’t practicing as much as I should. Read. Writers have to read. Reading is practice for the craft. I believe that as much as Mr. Stephen King. But even more, I needed to remember to show up. Every day, whether the inspiration was near or far. Show up and often the words would too. 

And as I read, I felt the fear start to leak away, first in drips and drops, then in gushes, until finally that fear morphed into the excitement of a brand-new idea, bringing with it a reminder that ideas are as plentiful as the midges that drift in from beautiful Lake Erie to lay siege to the city at least once a year. 

My debut novel, Hurt Mountain, is a beautifully dark story of tragedy, redemption, love, and of course family; All my stories seem to revert back to family in time. 

So, what’s next? More of the same, I hope. As I type this, I’ve plucked my next idea from that vast idea cloud in the sky, and I’m in my writing-with-the-door- closed era, but I can’t wait to see where this story goes. 

Readers: How do you prepare to take on something scary? One commentor (US only) will be randomly selected to receive a copy of Hurt Mountain. To be entered in the giveaway, please heart this post and include your email address. 

Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, Angela Crook lives in Shaker Hts., with her son, and 3 crazy kitties. She served eleven years in the United States Air Force. She is a proud member of a writer’s group of three other up-and-comers (the Literary Llamas) who meet once a month to critique, encourage, and revel in the pursuit of literary greatness. She has three self-published novels, “Fat Chance,” “Chasing Navah,” and “Maria’s Song,” and a short story, “Bitter,” featured in the anthology, “Cleveland Noir,” available August 1, 2023, and her first traditionally published novel, “Hurt Mountain.,” with a released March 1, 2024. Angela can be found on Twitter at @navah74 Facebook at @AngelaCrookAuthor IG Angela__Crook.