After more than 20 years of chasing his dream, newspaper reporter, Jim Seckler, has finally cracked the market to become a published novelist.
Seckler's novel, Sweet Slice of Fear, is now available at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com and at his publisher, Publication Consultant's, Web site (www.publicationconsultants.com).
After attending San Clemente High School, the author began his career in drafting. For 17 years, he worked at numerous electronic and mechanical manufacturing companies in California, Washington, Oregon and New Mexico before returning to college to pursue his dream of being a novelist. He earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Oregon.
He has since worked at newspapers in California and Arizona.
While living in Seattle, Seckler bought several acres of wooded land about an hour west of Seattle, where he hoped to someday live. It was during his weekends there that he got the idea for Sweet Slice of Fear.
In the story, three orphaned sisters, each burdened with fears, find themselves fleeing from an abusive, revenge-seeking foster mother.
The girls, evading authorities and their past, land on the doorstep of a confirmed bachelor who lives with his two German shepherds in rural Washington state.
The man decides to adopt the girls, battling the court system and the girl's wariness.
But the psychotic foster mother and a tragic ending await the sisters when their horrifying past finally catches up with them.
Seckler said working as a criminal court reporter has provided him with a bounty of plots and characters over the years, as well as extraordinary experiences.
He has covered well-known murder trials, hearings on the Warren Jeffs' polygamist case, and he has interviewed the likes of Joe Montana, Janet Napolitano, Jan Brewer, Terry Goddard, and U. S. Rep. Trent Franks.
In addition to more than a dozen short stories, Seckler has written six novels, an autobiographical tale about growing up in San Clemente while working at a manufacturing plant, and a horror story about two female serial killers.
But, it was the "getting published" part of being a novelist that eluded him, with rejection after rejection, for more than 20 years. That was until he met another author at a Kingman, Ariz. book store.
The man, a writer from Bisbee, Ariz., travelled the state selling his own books. He explained to Seckler that getting published is only half the battle; marketing his work was even harder.
Inspired by this, Seckler redoubled his efforts and kept in touch with the writer, who eventually referred him to one of his publishers, Publication Consultants, in Alaska. The company rejected Seckler's serial killers story, but accepted Sweet Slice of Fear.
"I had sworn I would never use any kind of self-publishing or vanity presses," said Seckler, "so I was thrilled and relieved when a real publisher actually wanted my work."
Seckler, a husband and father, said writing is his passion but it is not always as easy in practice as it may sound.
"Putting together a good sentence is not the easiest thing to do," Seckler said. "And stringing sentences into paragraphs, and paragraphs into a book, is extremely difficult."
But, he added, if you stick with it, work hard, network and make contacts at writer's clubs and conferences, maybe your own Sweet Slice of Fear can become the "sweet smell of success."
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