Connecting with fellow authors creates a powerful sense of community. Through our blogs and comments, tips and ideas are shared, and our networks expand as we learn about each writer’s journey–what compels us to write.
I’m always intrigued by the “About” section on authors’ sites because glimpses of motivation are often revealed.
T. W. (Tim) Dittmer, author of The Valley Walker, offers a great example:
So, why am I doing this? Why go through all the trouble of writing a book, self-publishing it and setting up a blog, if not for sales?
That’s a very good question.
I suppose I could try to weave some tale about the burning desire, the urge that drove me to near insanity until I just HAD to put my thoughts into words. Or I could tell you some epic story about the tragic events that led me to write. I’d rather just tell you the truth.
And the truth of it is, I just want to tell a story… hopefully the kind of story that makes a reader think… makes them smile or makes them cry… maybe jerks them around a little bit and makes them go “Huh?”.
Good, right? So many of us write to satisfy an urge, to put thoughts into words. Compelled to tell a story.
When I learned about The Valley Walker (through mutual friend Joy Neal Kidney) I was intrigued, remembering a grad school professor who lectured future writers about the criticality of being well-read across all genres. He commanded, “Read everything, even books outside your own writing interests.”
At the time I thought his advice was pedantic and annoying. Who has the time for that? But the older I get, the more I understand. Venturing out of my hub, my comfy nook in the library, is important because expanded awareness awaits. My esteemed professor knew the best writing class isn’t found in a classroom. It’s found when we peek over the fence to see what we can learn in unfamiliar territory.
The Valley Walker was that territory for me; an atypical read–a sci-fi story and a military thriller rolled into one.
Wowza.
I was hooked on the very first page, greeted by heaps of intrigue.
One of my favorite reviews said it best:
“It is neither horror nor paranormal nor straightforward thriller but a shifting combination of all three, with an element of war story too. It is a book that is hard to classify. A slightly challenging read. it’s absorbing, original and thought-provoking.”
The synopsis:
“Yeah, though I walk through the valley… “
Special Investigator Teri Altro is a hard-case member of the Drug Interdiction Task Force. Cold and aloof, there is no room in her life for personal entanglements. No one is allowed to call her by her first name. No form of physical contact is acceptable. Altro is a driven woman, and people who work with her learn to keep up or stay out of her way. She carries a gun in her shoulder bag.
When Altro first notices the man staring at her, he doesn’t seem like anything special… just some guy in the drugstore. But when three men walk in the door to assassinate her, he kills them all with fluid ease, so quickly that she doesn’t even have time to pull her own gun. The confrontation is so eerily violent that it leaves Altro wondering just who… or what… the man is.
Over the next four days she learns the man is John Walker Michaels, a man known to the Hmong of Laos as the Valley Walker, a man the army has classified as a deserter. He is an openly emotional man who draws her out of her shell and into the world of Hmong mysticism. At the end of this time… even after talking to him, learning his history and meeting his family… Altro can only shake her head when asked about him.
She had touched him and felt his warmth. She knew he was real.
Or was he?
On the other side of writing my debut novel, Slivers, I’ve got an itch to keep writing fiction. I found myself absorbing lessons in building tension, crafting scenes with intense dialogue and action as I read Tim’s book. Like a masterclass…
Excellent writers, like Tim, excel at ramping up the tension, creating high-stakes moments, page after page. Tim did that throughout The Valley Walker with an undercurrent of mysticism so well-drawn. I was there, sweat on my brow as I read.
Looking for a great book that’ll keep you on your toes? I highly recommend The Valley Walker. A story that belongs on screen as a film. Just as our mutual friend, Joy Neal Kidney said in her review. I couldn’t agree more!
Vicki 💝
https://twdittmer.wordpress.com
Amazon.com: The Valley Walker eBook : Dittmer, T. W.: Books
Hi – I’m Victoria, Vicki, Dr. Vicki. I hold a doctorate in Adult Education and I’m a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), and author of Surviving Sue and Slivers.
Check out this link to learn more about Surviving Sue – a memoir about resilience and love. Check out this link to order Slivers in paperback, a ghost story with surprising twists. Click here for the e-Book.
Check out my interview with publisher, Rick Kaempfer from Eckhartz Press.
P.S. Are you on Substack? If so, I’d love to connect with you there: Vicki Atkinson, Ed.D | Substack
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