Welcome to my Second Acts Series!

I’m happy to welcome award-winning author Lynn Slaughter. Today, Lynn shares her incredible journey from professional dancer to award-winning author and her new release, Missed Cue.

Here’s Lynn!

I spent decades as a professional modern dancer and dance educator. I was passionate about my work, and if you asked me who I was, right after the words “wife and mother,” out would come “dancer.”

I felt fortunate to dance into my fifties. In fact, when I turned fifty, I performed an autobiographical concert, “Flying at Fifty,” with my husband and other dancers in our company, to celebrate.

Eventually, however, age and injury caught up with me, and I retired after my first hip replacement.

I was grieving for the loss of dance in my life when I got an idea for a story about a young aspiring ballet dancer determined to unravel secrets her friends and parents were keeping. In retrospect, I think working on this project was a way to cope with my grief. That story ended up becoming my first young adult novel, WHILE I DANCED.

Who knew I could write a novel? Definitely not me! While I was still dancing, I moonlighted as a freelancer writing articles, mainly for regional parenting magazines. But although I’d been a voracious reader of fiction, I’d never thought I had the fiction gene. But here I was, suddenly hooked on writing fiction. I ended up returning to school to earn my MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University.

While I was in grad school, I had a terrible bout of imposter syndrome. It seemed as though every writer in the program, except for me, had known they were destined to become writers the minute they could hold a pencil. From early childhood on, they’d penned stories, poems, and plays.

That wasn’t my story at all. From the get-go, music made me want to move, and my lifelong passion had been dance. But thanks to some amazing faculty mentors at Seton Hill, I got lots of help developing my craft as a writer and just as important, I got encouragement and support.

Since finishing my MFA, I’ve kept going as a writer. MISSED CUE, which came out from Melange Books this month, is my fifth published novel, and I’m currently working on my next one.

As a dancer, I treasured those times on stage when I’d be “in the zone,” totally immersed in the movement and the moment. Now, I get to experience those times as a writer.

I’m amazed to have found a second act in my life which has been so rewarding and meaningful, especially doing something I’d never imagined I could do. One of my favorite quotes is:

“It’s better to look back on life and say, “I can’t believe I did that.” than to look back and say: “I wish I did that.” – Unknown

Blurb

While dealing with her own messy personal life, homicide detective Caitlin O’Connor investigates the most complicated case of her career, the suspicious onstage death of a revered ballerina.

Author Bio and Links

Lynn Slaughter is addicted to the arts, chocolate, and her husband’s cooking. After a long career as a professional dancer and dance educator, Lynn earned her MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. Her first mystery for adults, MISSED CUE, came out this month from Melange Books. She is also the author of four award-winning young adult romantic mysteries: DEADLY SETUP, LEISHA’S SONG, IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN YOU, AND WHILE I DANCED. Lynn lives in Louisville, Kentucky, where she’s at work on her next novel, serves on the board of Louisville Literary Arts, and is an active member and former president of Derby Rotten Scoundrels, the Ohio River Valley chapter of Sisters in Crime.

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