**Sharon says: Jerry’s first mystery novel, The Killing of Strangers, was just published a few days ago! He’s a fantastic writer, and I was delighted to work with him at Antioch Writer’s Workshop (Yellow Springs, Ohio) a few years ago. And now, here’s Jerry.**

It’s quite an honor to get to guest-blog on this site: I’m very familiar with most of the authors represented here, and they are a delightful bunch indeed.

My first mystery, The Killing of Strangers, saw print just three days ago–on May 4. I had enjoyed some success with writing before, but that was on the stage: my play Rickey, which chronicles the relationship between baseball greats Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson, has been in production since 1996. I had also published short fiction and scholarly articles. But I have always loved the mystery/suspense genre–specifically those world-weary loners like Ross McDonald’s Lew Archer and Lawrence Block’s Scudder and, best of all, Chandler’s Marlowe.

I got the encouragement I needed to try my own mystery at the Antioch Writer’s Workshop, where I sat in on classes with–Yes–Sharon Short.

The Killing of Strangers mixes fact and fiction, focusing on modern-day revelations about one of the 20th century’s great unsolved mysteries: what really happened just after noon on May 4, 1970, at Kent State University. Overtly, National Guardsmen fired on protesting students, killing four and wounding nine. Despite inquiries and mountains of research, though, the facts of that day remain murky: who gave the order to fire, and why? Who really torched the ROTC building? And how did the political forces at work in the country at that time play into the varying agendas of the moment? In my novel, an out-of-work security guard named Sam Haggard–a product of those times himself–is plunged into a world of intrigue and still-festering wounds as he finds himself involved with people who were there–people who may hold answers to long-buried questions.

The book required research–the kind of work that I, as a lifelong academic, had done most of my professional life. But it also required the creation of characters who could sustain a book-length narrative, and this was a new adventure for me. As Sam finds himself drawn into the case, he realizes that he has come to care very much about a woman half his age–the daughter of a notorious activist who in fact disappeared on that day at Kent. To me, the relationshp between Sam and Corrie Blake–the daughter–is what drives the story.

The Killing of Strangers was a finalist in the St. Martin’s First Mystery Competition, and then it went to two different agencies, each of which held it a year before passing on it. Thank God for Janice Phelps of Lucky Press, who read it, loved it, and accepted it for publication. The book looks beautiful, smells great (the first thing I always do with any new book is to breathe in its pages), and it seems to be getting some good
reviews. I was asked to Kent State for the annual commemoration this past week, and that was quite a moment for me.

While I have no new advice for those who are not yet published, I can certainly underline the traditional: Keep at it!! My own journey had many frustrations, and involved not a few wrong turns. But every step was worth it. I might add that it has been most instructive to me to read the fine writers who created this blog: Sharon Short and Company are the real thing–creative and caring artists who have not forgotten the meaning of community. Thanks for allowing me this opportunity to share some thoughts!

Jerry Holt