ON THE EDGE OF TRUST

by Patricia Bradley 

Yesterday my eighteenth book, On the Edge of Trust, was released. It was surreal and exciting, and seeing your book in print never gets old. 

When I first started writing many years ago, I felt deep in my heart that one day I would be published, and actually, the very first thing I ever wrote was published by Woman’s World. I thought surely I would have a book out within two years. Imagine a long pause as in…. Yep ,it was 34 years from the time I started writing until I had a three-book contract. Which was unheard of for a brand-spanking-new writer.

Since 2012 I’ve written 18 books. I count the first one, Shadows of the Past, in that 18 because I had to completely rewrite it. That means in the last 13 years, I have written 18 books. That’s one a year plus some. (I’ll let you do the math – numbers are not my game.)

I was living my dream, but what did that mean in my personal life? It means that I missed a lot of lunches with friends, a lot of family time because none of my family lives close to me, so I couldn’t just drop in for an hour, and I missed traveling. I love to travel.

But it was worth it. I had a long dreamed of being a published author. But it was a long time coming. Thirty-four years. In that time I wrote two books that will never see the light a day because I shredded them and then burned the shreds. They were that bad. I did take some of the characters and put them in the later books.

I also took off eight years to work in the abstinence program in my community, going into the schools, teaching students how to make better decisions and how the decisions they made in high school would follow them for the rest of their lives. During that time, I did not have one fiction thought. Not one. I was too busy writing curriculum and workbooks and doing the actual programs. I loved it. You haven’t lived until you’ve been in Walmart and had a kid run up to you and say, Hey Dad, come meet the sex lady." And I would always respond. "I am the abstinence lady." At least that experience allowed me to talk to anyone about anything.

I went part-time in 2008, and one morning as I was doing my devotional on my sofa, suddenly in my mind's eye, a woman is sitting on the arm of the sofa. She has dark hair, blue eyes, and she turned, looked at me and said, “Someone is trying to kill me.”

I was ecstatic. God had given my mysteries back! I started to work on Shadows of the Past by taking workshops, studying craft books, and attending four retreats with the fabulous Susan, May Warren and Rachel Hauck— each year was like a crash course in writing. By the third year, I had a three-book contract with Revel.

~

While she's stalking the truth . . . someone is stalking her. Psychology professor and criminal profiler Taylor Martin prides herself on being able to solve any crime, except the one she wants most desperately to solve--the disappearance of her father twenty years ago. When she finally has a lead on his whereabouts, Taylor returns home to Logan Point, Mississippi, to investigate. But as she works to uncover the truth, someone else will do almost anything to keep her from it. 

Nick Sinclair pens mystery novels for a living, but the biggest mystery to him is how he can ever get over the death of his wife--a tragedy he believes he could have prevented. Now that his estranged brother is the only family he has left, Nick sets out to find him. But when he crosses paths with Taylor, all he seems to find is trouble.

~

Thirty-four years is a long time to wait. What if I had given up? I almost did in the 2010s because I wondered if I was wasting my time. I told God that if writing was not what he wanted me to spend my time doing, would he please take away the desire? He didn't and I kept writing. And the rest is history.

So, if there's something you've always wanted to do, don't let anyone hold you back. And if it takes a long time for it to come true, ask God if it's what He wants you to do. He will tell you.

I'll be giving away a digital copy of  Shadows of the Past because Scott Sinclair, the hero in On the Edge of Trust, figures prominently in that first book. You can learn his backstory! 

Leave me a comment and I'll enter you in a drawing for a digital copy of Shadows of the Past.

You can find links to On the Edge of Trust on my website. Click here.