I’d like to welcome Stephen D. Rogers, one of the most prolific writers that I’ve ever met. His name has been familiar to me for quite awhile, due to our mutual affiliation with Mystery Writers of America, however, I recently had the pleasure of getting to know Stephen much better as we both have books published by Mainly Murder Press.
Stephen’s new release Shot To Death contains 31 stories of murder and mayhem, set in New England. He is also the author of more than 600 shorter pieces.
Stephen, what were you doing 25 years ago?
STEPHEN: Twenty-five years ago I was writing, but then when wasn’t I?
Twenty-five years ago, I was working at a direct mail company, standing at a burster-decollator eight to sixteen hours a day, scribbling story ideas on scrap paper while waiting for enough sheets to come out of the machine and collect for me to jog.
(“To jog” means to hold a stack of loose papers on a vibrating board until the sheets line up. This is done so that the sheets don’t jam the inserters, the machines that are the next stop on the junk-mail assembly line.)
Not only did this job allow me to stockpile hundreds of creative ideas, it taught me two key concepts that were applicable to writing. First, the job taught me that submissions were a numbers game. Second, the job taught me that rejections weren’t personal. According to management, the companies that produced and paid for these mailings were thrilled with a three-percent return.
The other ninety-seven percent that never replied? That was just the cost of doing business.
Find out more about Shot To Death and Stephen’s other projects on his web site.
Check out Shot To Death on Amazon and at Mainly Murder Press.
