First Novel at 70? You’ve got to be Kidding!

Who says you’re too old to start? Michael Saver began journaling to work through his own life and ended up with a 320-page murder mystery, proof that a first book can arrive at any age. His five hard-won lessons on finding your voice, silencing your inner critic, and treating the whole thing like a marathon are exactly the encouragement any hesitant writer needs.

You’re way too old to be doing this!

Or so I told myself. When I began this journey, it was more for personal therapy than to fulfill any long-held ambition to be an author. In the second half of my seventh decade, I wanted to explore my life experience and the inner questions that would help me finally to live in a more undivided way: no more closets – what you see would always be what you get.

And so I began to journal about my experiences growing up LGBTQ+ in Canada in the early 1970s, and in a very strange place – one of the Lost Villages displaced and flooded to create the St. Lawrence Seaway. A fascinating story began to emerge – a combination of my own history of a search for identity, reflecting on the trauma of displacement, and a wondering about how it might have been different.  What materialized was a story that I came to believe could be shared with others.

Along the way of transforming my self-reflective journaling into a 320-page murder mystery, I also learned a few things. This rapidly aging canine could indeed learn some new tricks. Here are five of them that I offer to you as encouragement for your author’s journey:

First, begin not with the determination to be Louise Penny, Margaret Atwood, or John Grisham, but to be you, to exercise your voice and agency, to tell your story. Whether fiction or non-fiction, thriller, romance, or self-help. It seems to me that as more “product” is available, there is actually less of value in mass market books, music, or media. We hear the same stories repeatedly. There is a bland sameness. We need different stories, your story, whatever that may be.  

Second, believe this: there are people who will want to read your book. Have the courage to put yourself out there. Trust that you can find an audience. And you don’t have to be a New York Times bestseller to make a difference in the life of a reader. It is true that some readers are drawn to the known authors and their characters; familiarity is cozy. But there are a lot of readers looking for that new narrative that comes from the unique experience that underlies your writing. Let your voice be the one they discover and excitedly share with their network!

Third, have an honest conversation with your inner critics, and ask them to give you a little space. Help them to recognize that editors are your friends. Whether suggestions come from loved ones and supporters with whom you share your first drafts, or from the professional editors you or your publishers engage – welcome every bit of feedback, every question asked, every piece of advice offered. Ultimately, it is up to you how you want to tell your story, but even when you don’t take suggestions or proposed edits, they are gifts that help you to know why you have chosen to tell the story in a particular way.

Fourth, here is a piece of advice offered to me by the team at Friesen Press. Becoming an author and publishing a book is a marathon, not a sprint. The internal pressure that prompts the desire to complete a draft, or to have a print copy in hand, or to have a successful launch is beneficial if it assists you in harnessing your desire and utilizing your discipline to keep going toward those goals. It ceases to be helpful if it simply produces anxiety and self-doubt. It’s a question of both the vigour/rigour and the patience of the creative process – both/and.

Finally, reviews are genuinely helpful in spreading the good news about your book. And they are the opinion of a single reader. As with an editor, a reviewer’s reflections are enormously informative in helping you to know how your work is being received. But they need to be specific. Rating scales (e.g., 2 out of 5 stars) without the reasons for the rating are useless. All they tell you is that your book wasn’t to someone’s taste, and the reviewer didn’t have the interest or guts to say why. Similarly, reviews that simply repeat the plot synopsis do nothing for authors or readers.

This is why organizations like Reader Views are so important for readers and authors alike. They guarantee honest reviews that are backed up with evidence from a close reading of the book. There is nothing more heartening and motivating than knowing that a reader really understood and appreciated what you were trying to do!

We all need and love a good story, and whether you are 7, 17, 37, or 70 – there’s an audience out there for yours! And if you’d like to read mine, the details are below! I hope your journey will be as thrilling as mine has been!

About the Author

Michael Saver grew up in the “real” town that inspired the fictional Lost Village in his novel, and the story is based on some of his own experiences growing up there. The book was also inspired by Michael’s twenty-five years as a Courage & Renewal facilitator, which involves creating space for people to come to a deep and clarified knowledge of their own identities, as the young characters seek to do in his book. Like his protagonists, he’s also an aficionado of 1970s music, especially glam rock. These days, Michael lives in the “real town” of Toronto, Ontario, Canada with his husband Tony. Lost Village is his first novel.

Connect with Michael Saver and learn more about his work at: https://www.michaelsaver.com/

LOST VILLAGE

A pair of brutal murders shatters the uneasy peace of the tiny town of Conawalki, Ontario, threatening to rip the community apart. For years, the residents have struggled to rebuild their lives and their community’s identity after the town was uprooted and moved in the late 1950s to make way for the St. Lawrence Seaway. Now, as shocking secrets begin to surface, it becomes clear that Conawalki is more than just a town in search of an identity; it’s a place built on hidden truths and unspoken fears.

At the heart of the turmoil are the “Three Smart Boys”-Mark, Seb, and Flix-teenage friends and bandmates navigating their own identity crisis. As they chase their dreams and grapple with the town’s unraveling mysteries, they become entangled in a web of murder, blackmail, betrayal, and a brush with death that will change them forever.

In a town where the past refuses to stay buried, the boys must uncover who they really are before the deception that blankets their community like a looming shadow destroys everything they hold dear.