Winston Churchill is credited with saying “Never, never, never give up.”  Even though attempting to be a published author isn’t the same as surviving the Nazis’ bombings, Churchill’s mantra has echoed in my head for decades and has helped me keep my spirits afloat through pages and years of rejection letters, or worse, the echo of silence.

While I often say that I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was seven, it wasn’t until I received my MFA in my 40’s that I felt worthy enough to officially try. Did I need the MFA to write? No, but I did need it for courage, community, and a push—I had to write to justify the graduate school expense. Also, craft, as we know, can be taught, and I did have a lot to learn. I still do.

But, two, three, four years out of graduate school, and I still hadn’t published my original novel. No agent had an interest in me, and I grew tired of rewriting it over and over and over to make it better. (Was I actually making it better, anyway?) 
Then, by chance, I took a seminar given by Steve Berry, successful thriller writer. He shared that his first seven novels were still in a drawer. “Keep writing,” he said to the class.

His comment gave me permission to start a new story. That novel didn’t sell either. 
I wrote a third one. It also didn’t sell.

So, I wrote a fourth. Then a fifth. 
With the sixth, I thought I had a winner. Who isn’t intrigued by the Lizzie Borden saga? Nope. Struck out again.

All six novels are still in a “drawer,” so to speak.

Another turning point came when I gave up my search for a literary agent. I’m not anti-agent, at all, but coming up with a different mindset was freeing. The first glimmer of this idea came from a zoom conference that had representation from the three main avenues to publication: self-published, traditionally published with an agent, and traditionally published without an agent.  The latter had had an agent, for years, who never sold his book. He finally struck out on his own and landed a contract with a small press.

I also attended a conference where multiple writers spoke of agents who had found editors who were interested in publishing their work, but the editorial board of the publishing houses voted the works down. 
I thought of my years of struggling to find an agent to only have another round of disappointment heaped on if the agent never sold my work. “Why let two hundred and fifty people dictate my writing career?” I said to myself.  I know there are more than two hundred and fifty agents, but it seemed for my genre, I kept running into the same ones online and at conferences. Going beyond the agent process mentally opened me up to new possibilities. 
My friend and fellow writer, Cheryl, always says that until we actually land a book contract, we write in the dark. Even though we have feedback in our writers’ groups, we never know if what we’re really doing just needs a tweak here or there, because, commercially, agents and editors dismiss us. We have no true validation of our work.

One day, I also asked Cheryl for creative advice. “Should I rewrite my fifth or sixth novel, or start the Midcoast Maine Mystery series?” I had pages of notes for the 3M series, as I call it.

“Start fresh,” she said. “Start that series.” 
As she said the words, a raven sat on a branch outside of my window. 
“Ok,” I said, “and my protagonist’s name is Raven.”

Raven Oueltte was born in my seventh novel, Blaze Orange. The book was set up to fit into a series mold, not to compromise myself or to write to the market, but to recognize that if I wanted to be a true mystery writer, I could follow a character-driven plot formula with all the ideas that I had been gathering. Yes, Maine is a character too. There’s a reason so many mystery writers live here. 
Finally, my story worked! Level Best Books will publish Blaze Orange, the first in a series, in January.  I couldn’t be more elated.  Fourteen years and seven novels later. While I always say to never give up, and I hadn’t, it still all feels like a dream.

If you have a dream, whatever it is, keep at it—keep learning, and listening to feedback, and trying again, and again, and again. Unless it’s becoming a ski jumper in the next Olympics, chances are it’s never too late for you either.

​Allison Keeton lives in Maine with her muse, Tom, and their two dogs. 

She has twice been accepted into Rutger University’s invitation-only writers’ conference and is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. Additionally, she received an MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University.

Besides writing mysteries, she has written numerous business articles and published a book on job hunting called Ace that Interview. She also writes a creative non-fiction blog, Largest Ball of Twine.

Close your eyes and try to remember the last time you heard an accent. Was it spoken by a friend, a colleague, someone in line at the store, or maybe a telemarketer? What were the first assumptions that came to mind when you heard those accented phrases or words? Whatever you thought, your perception or judgment was likely shaped by both personal experience and the media.

In entertainment, accents are used to establish a character in seconds. Think Gloria Pritchett’s passionate Columbian lilt in Modern Family, Kamala Nandiwadal’s Indian inflection in Never Have I Ever, or (Nintendo) Mario’s Italian cadence. Accents hint at a character’s background without the use of words or action scenes, reflecting society’s diversity. But accents aren’t simple tools to play with as their portrayal leads to social categorization (the natural cognitive process by which we place individuals into social groups) and prompts conversations on authenticity, diversity, and stereotyping.
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A ”new comer” in the “accent realm” is Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS), a speech disorder I explore in Threads of Deception, my novel about a criminal attorney who switches career paths after a bomb destroyed her firm and left her with a French-sounding speech disorder. But FAS is more than an amusing plot twist, it challenges our notion of linguistic identity and what it means to sound foreign or native.

Accents aren’t just flavors—they shape perceptions of intelligence and what it means to be American. Did you know that Americans speak roughly 30 major dialects of English and that there are more than 350 languages spoken in the United States? Consequently, the US hosts a large number of accents, reflecting the country’s history and beautiful tapestry of cultures.
But, some accents, like the General American accent and the Queen’s English, have always had a superior status, gifting its speakers with assumed authority, intellect, or prestige, while others suffer from opposite assumptions. This bias places Claire Fontaine, the California-born-and-raised protagonist of Threads of Deception, under a constant microscope, her competence and presence being questioned. Though portrayed humorously, similarly to Adrian Monk’s obsessive-compulsive disorder and phobias in the series Monk, the concept of accent discrimination is an important matter which requires attention.

The same is true with speech disorders. Individuals with conditions like lisp, stutter, or dysarthria often face additional layers of judgment based on how they speak. Just as with accents, society often attaches unfair assumptions about intelligence, capability, or even personality to those with speech impediments. This reality stresses the need for accurate and sensitive representation in media, as it directly impacts the perceptions and treatment of individuals dealing with such challenges.

Research has shown that media representation of accents shape how we view them and the people who speak with them. When accents become punchlines or stereotypes, it's not just harmless fun— such practice can fuel prejudice and keep harmful stereotypes alive. That is why storytellers need to handle accents with care and abandon the clichés in favor of authentic and nuanced representations. Speech impediments should be subject to the same considerations.

Through our stories, we can challenge stereotypes, champion inclusivity, and celebrate the wonderful diversity of our world. By including characters with accents or speech disorders authentically and respectfully, we not only enrich our narratives but also contribute to a more compassionate and understanding society.

Elle Jauffret is a French-born American lawyer, former criminal attorney for the California Attorney General’s office, and culinary enthusiast. She holds a Master of Laws from Université Côte d’Azur Law School (France) and a Juris Doctorate from the George Washington University Law School (USA). She is an avid consumer of mystery and adventure stories in all forms, especially escape rooms. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters In Crime, and International Thriller Writers. She lives in Southern California with her family. You can find her at https://ellejauffret.com or on social media @ellejauffret.

Autumn Embers, the third book in my Batavia-on-Hudson mystery series, is a story about family, friendship and identity. When I stopped to write this essay, I realized that identity is a theme I return to over and over.
 
So much of my writing has to do with characters attempting to fit in, trying to feel comfortable, getting to know themselves. Be it in a new community, in a profession, in a relationship, or even in their own skin. They are testing their potential, overcoming their personal blocks.
 
The Batavia-on-Hudson series started with Winter Witness where Bianca St. Denis is working to be accepted as a member of her new community, a small village in the Catskill Mountains, and learning how to live as a new young(ish) widow. It’s a new identity for her and she’s not sure she is ready to embrace it. Many of the other characters are also flailing: the local troublemaker teenager who can’t seem to shed the bad boy image no matter how hard he tries, the new young doctor in town who doesn’t measure up to Old Doc, the quiet Japanese man who lives alone in the hills above the village. They are all searching to know themselves and where they fit. 
 
Dead Man’s Leap, Book 2, is where Bianca comes to grips with her grief and learns what’s important to her. In fact, the entire community deals with a storm that causes enough damage that they all have to reassess what is important to them and their identity. They learn to cut their losses (material and emotional) and move forward with their lives.
 
It’s no surprise to me that I write on this subject. As a child, I was painfully shy and my affliction was complicated by a lifestyle of frequent house moves, including a major one out of the country. I needed to fit in again and again. And just as I thought I had it under control, we’d relocate one more time. Needless to say, these moves were very difficult for someone like me, but in the long run, I learned a great deal from these disruptions. Each time I settled in my new community, I was able to peel off a layer of my shyness—of my identity—until one day it no longer debilitated me. I had shed one version of me and replaced it with another version I preferred: someone more adventurous and more comfortable in my own skin. Each new location taught me that I could remake myself over and over.
 
I started investigating these ideas in my writing years ago. Some of my first pieces of short fiction were on the subject of my childhood as a daughter of immigrants. How I never really understood my friends. How I had to mold myself to be like them, dress like them, eat the foods they ate, and listen to the music they liked. In fact, one Friday in grammar school, after being embarrassed during recess for not knowing a pop song, I spent the entire weekend with my transistor tuned into WABC to introduce myself to all the hottest songs. By the time I returned to school on Monday morning, I knew them all, along with every word of their lyrics. This incident was the basis of my flash fiction piece entitled “Lost in America.” So, no, it’s no surprise to me that I write about identity.
 
As I said above, Book 3 - Autumn Embers, is a story about family, friendship and identity. Ian, Bianca’s son, has made a new life for himself in Japan. There, he has embraced the expatriate community and as a result, they have become like family—his chosen family. Bianca must come to terms with this painful realization, but she also learns that she has done the same thing in Batavia. She too has chosen her new family in the villagers of Batavia. Many of the expat characters in Autumn Embers are grappling with these same notions. They learn just how malleable their identities can be. In the meantime, at home in Batavia, Mike Riley, the sheriff and Bianca’s love interest, is grappling with his own issues. It looks like he may not be re-elected as sheriff and he has no idea how to not be a law enforcement officer. As if that weren’t enough, he has learned news about his partners death from years ago that calls into question who Sal really was. And Mike does this all while learning how to live his new life as a separated bachelor. He is in flux and learning the depth and complexity of his own identity.
 
My experience has shown me that my identity has many layers and many iterations. I have taken these lessons, shared them with Bianca and the others, and enjoyed watching each character evolve on the page.
 
 
This essay first appeared on the Wall-to-Wall Books Blog on October 23, 2024
https://wall-to-wall-books.blogspot.com/2024/10/autumn-embers-guest-post-by-tina.html

Tina deBellegarde’s debut novel, "Winter Witness", was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best First Novel. "Dead Man’s Leap", her second book in the Batavia-on-Hudson Mystery Series, was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best Contemporary Novel. Reviewers have called Tina “the Louise Penny of the Catskills.” Tina also writes short stories and flash fiction. Her story “Tokyo Stranger,” nominated for a Derringer Award, appears in the Mystery Writers of America anthology When a Stranger Comes to Town, edited by Michael Koryta. Tina co-chairs the Murderous March Conference and is a founding member of Sleuths and Sidekicks, where she blogs, tours virtually, and teaches writing workshops. She is a member of Writers in Kyoto and reviews books for BooksOnAsia.net. She lives in Catskill, New York with her husband Denis and their cat Shelby. She travels frequently to Japan to visit her son and daughter-in-law and to do research. Tina is currently working on a collection of interconnected short stories set in Japan. Visit her website for more: https://www.tinadebellegarde.com/