Mapless Travel and Twisted Paths
In the early 1990s I started sending poems to literary journals. There was no internet. No writing community I could find. No mentor, no workshop, no author friend who had done this before me and could tell me what I was doing wrong or right.
Just me, reading constantly, writing like a runaway train, sending work out into the void and waiting.
It was lonely. It was scary. It was desperate and compulsive and I wouldn't trade it for anything — because it built everything that came after.
The Twisted Paths
The journey from those first poems to fourteen published thrillers was not a straight line. Not even close.
Early on I wrote a standalone thriller called Dead Sevens. A small publisher, Shadowline Press, offered me a contract. I said no. I was going for bigger fish. I kicked myself for years.
But Dead Sevens never disappeared. It waited. And eventually it became Specimen — published in 2024, Amazon Kindle #1 Bestseller, and most recently a Silver Award winner in the Reader Views Reviewers Choice Awards.
There was also an offer from Penguin — but not the one I'd spent a year hoping for. An editor held Chasing Escudos for twelve months before coming back with an audiobook contract through their newly launched Penguin Audio imprint. It was 1993. I was crestfallen (a year!). I wanted to hold a physical book in my hands — my book, with my name on the cover. I said no. I couldn't have known what Penguin would become. I couldn't have known what audiobooks would become. That maritime thriller was never published. I still carry a little of that pain, too.
And then on March 11th, 2000 — living in Albuquerque, having queried only the second publisher I'd ever approached — I got my first yes. Knee Deep. My first published book. I remember exactly how it felt: “Could this be real?”
Every twisted path led somewhere I couldn't have planned.
The Book I Wrote for Every Writer Who Ever Felt Alone
Nobody helped me navigate those early years, and only now do I know why.
No roadmap, no mentor. Because I learned exactly what it costs to walk that path alone, it became my mission to be the guide I never had.
The ME Factor: Your Secret Weapon For Author Visibility is a framework for bringing your real, unique self back into your writing life and leveraging what makes you different as your greatest advantage. Find your why…and use it.
The ME Factor just won a 2026 BookFest First Place award. So to every author who ever felt their real self wasn't enough — this award is for you.
The Story Impact Podcast is now distributed through Podbean to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and iHeartRadio. I'm receiving guest proposals from publicists — which tells me the show is finding its audience. Recent episodes feature Steve Guglich and Jim & Kathy Ocean.
Speaking Engagements
I can’t wait to join so many other writers at the annual Sacramento Book Festival on April 19th, where I’ll get to spend the day with writers and readers!
On May 4th I'll be speaking to the Horror Writers of America on Audience Insights and Reader Personas — how to find your readers and understand what they truly want. It's one of my favorite topics and I'm honored to bring it to this community.
The Most Creative Fun I’ve Ever Had
Story Impact Magazine Issue 2 — the Travel Issue — is out now, and I have to be honest: creating this magazine is some of the most fulfilling work I've ever done. Fifty-four pages of memorable travel memoirs, industry insights, and inspiration from authors whose voices are shaping the industry. Each issue I get to lift up writers who are doing extraordinary work. That, more than anything, is what Story Impact was built for.
Next month I'll have more to share. In the meantime — thank you for being on this journey with me. The mapless kind. The only kind worth taking.
Get The ME Factor: https://a.co/d/0arldhjU
Connect with me: https://linktr.ee/authortowles
Stay tuned...and keep shining!
Lisa