A Second Act as a Writer

Lynn Slaughter’s second act as a late-in-life novelist is at odds with most other writers who have come to the craft as seasoned adults. But that’s OK.

One of my favorite things to do is to interview authors for my website blog. Many of them are fellow members of Guppies, a lively online chapter of Sisters in Crime. I love learning about and supporting other writers and their work.

One thing that’s been reassuring to me is that I’m hardly alone in being an older mystery author. I’ve interviewed folks in their 60s, 70s, and 80s. Like me, many of them have had professional careers prior to becoming fulltime authors. They’ve worked as attorneys, judges, educators, and physicians. Admittedly, there aren’t a ton of ex-dancers like me, but there are a few of us. The wonderful mystery author Lori Robbins comes to mind.

There is one thing, however, that I don’t share with all these other authors of a certain age. Almost without exception, they report that they “always knew” they loved creative writing. Life, family responsibilities, and the choice to pursue a more “practical” and financially feasible career may have intervened, but at long last, they are pursuing their passion to write fiction.

Honestly? That wasn’t the case for me at all. While I was a voracious reader from childhood on, creating my own stories, poems, or plays was never something I was interested in or thought I had any aptitude for. Instead, from the time I could walk, my passion was dance. Music made me want to move, and with musicians and music lovers on both sides of the family, there was always music playing at my house. Not surprisingly, I ended up with a long career as a professional dancer and dance educator.

It’s not that I had no aptitude or interest in writing per se, but that was limited to nonfiction. In school, I loved writing essays and research papers. For the dance company I co-founded with my husband, I wrote grants, newsletters, and scripts for school lecture-demonstrations. In addition, while I was still dancing, I moonlighted as a freelancer, writing articles for regional parenting magazines, mainly about the challenges of parenting adolescents, my favorite age group to work with.

No one was more surprised than I was that when I couldn’t dance anymore, I was drawn to writing fiction. Grieving the loss of my identity, career, and lifelong passion, I got this idea for a story about an aspiring ballet dancer with family and friendship problems. In retrospect, I think the project was part of my effort to heal and recover from the loss of dance in my life. It became my first published novel, “While I Danced.” It also got me hooked on writing fiction and inspired me to return to school in my 60s for my MFA in writing popular fiction from Seton Hill University.

Not surprisingly, I experienced a humongous bout of imposter syndrome in my grad program. Every student I talked to had been passionate about creative writing from the time they could hold a pencil. I just didn’t fit, not only because of my age, but because that hadn’t been my childhood passion.

When we stay open to the unexpected, however, life has a way of surprising us. I never dreamed I’d discover a late-in-life passion for writing fiction. My latest book, “Missing Mom,” is my sixth published novel, and I’m currently at work on my seventh. I feel extremely fortunate to have found a second career that sends me into the zone when I’m working.

And I’m finally making peace with the fact that while perhaps my backstory as a late-in-life novelist doesn’t quite fit the mold, that’s okay. A writer is someone who writes. And in that way, I fit just fine.

Boomer reader Phil Perkins on becoming a fiction writer

Lynn Slaughter loves the arts, chocolate, and her husband’s cooking. After a long career as a professional dancer and dance educator, she earned her MFA in writing popular fiction from Seton Hill University. In addition to her adult mystery, “Missed Cue,” she is the award-winning author of five young adult romantic mysteries: “Deadly Setup,” “Leisha’s Song,” “It Should Have Been You,” “While I Danced,” and “Missing Mom.” The ridiculously proud mother of two grown sons and besotted grandmother of five, Lynn lives in Louisville, Kentucky, where she’s an active member and former president of Derby Rotten Scoundrels, the Ohio River Valley chapter of Sisters in Crime.