Life without writing....

What would my life be like if I never started writing...

I often wonder about this. If my daughter hadn’t prompted me to reach for my dreams on a dreary ride home in the middle of November 2007.

Would I have continued the Pampered Chef endeavor and became a better cook? Somehow, I doubt that.  I have always hated the kitchen and with the pickiness factor that my children possess, I don’t think this idea would have stuck, even with some of the cool recipes I accumulated.

Would I have still been a slave to night time drama series on television, probably.  I was always a soap opera girl and I doubt that would have changed. I still indulge from time to time, but not wholeheartedly like I used to.

I might have joined the PTA and become more active in that realm and sometimes I feel bad that I haven’t been more involved in the town or school activities.  However, even with the balance of a day job, writing and publishing, I have carved out time to be at almost every game, every dance lesson, every recital, every belt test, every guitar lesson that my kids have been involved in.  I made sure of that, especially since most of the time I’m home, I am writing.

Would I have continued reading – hell yes. I was always an avid reader.  However, I know I would not have discovered the authors that I have had the pleasure of meeting and reading through this writing endeavor. I have found some extraordinary talent from N.Y. Times best selling authors to those within the folds of the mid-list, small press and self-published authors.  I am relatively certain I probably never would have come across these folks in my old life. Jonathan Maberry, Cat Connor, A.S.King, Heather Brewer, Poppet, Amanda Hocking, Hugh Howey, Ty Drago, Kay Hooper, Robert Browne, and so many others, including my publishing partner JasonHalstead.  I also wouldn’t have had the chance to help writers hone their craft and see their stories on the virtual shelves, like Bob Stewart, Ashlynne Laynne, and Ellis Hoff to name a few, nor would I have had the pleasure of working with some outstanding cover artists, including Willsin Rowe and Jawine Westland.

So, while life without writing would have been busy, it would not be as rich as it is today. And a bonus, I get to share my crazy stories with the world.

Thanks for sharing the dream with me!

Until next time...

Ciao

JET

Check out my latest book...Tigress - book 2 in the Night Hawk series.

Naomi's immortality is nullified, making her vulnerable to the ones who consider her their conquest. If she wasn't already walking over the hot coals of misfortune she would be obsessed with the next ambush. The shadow vaccine is hell in a syringe, the antidote turning Naomi’s blood into a lethal elixir, rendering her toxic to all vampires, including Damian.

Archangel Michael reveals a long buried secret of her heritage and cautions Naomi against personally triggering the apocalypse. If Lucifer discovers just how unique she is, death at his hands will become her most appealing escape.

Welcome 2012

Happy New Year everyone!

2012.  Wow.  Time sure does fly. 

Usually I have a list of resolutions when the new year rolls around, but this year, I resolve not to have a list of items that in a month or so will just wither away to nothing.

Goals are a completely different thing all together and I do have set goals for 2012.

They're simple. In 2012, I want to finish and publish three novels this year and have at least that many authors signed and their books released through Novel Concept Publishing. 

I'd like to see my sales continue to bring in steady income like they have for the past two months. 

Personally, my goal this year is to spend more time with my family and not every free second on the computer doing marketing and promotion and other writing related things - okay, that falls into more of a resolution category, but it is a goal. 

Balance is key and this year my goal is to find it.

So now that I've shared my goals, let's hear what your goals and resolutions are.  Come on, don't be shy...

JET

Manic Monday with Nancy Fulda

Welcome to another Manic Monday. Today I have the pleasure of having Nancy Fulda chatting about the connotations associated with the words we choose as writers.

Nancy Fulda learned to read under the auspices of the little boy across the street. She was three at the time; he was not much older. Since then, her writing has earned a Phobos Award, the Vera Hinckley Mayhew Award, and the Jim Baen Memorial Award.

Nancy has published stories in some of the most prestigious magazines in speculative fiction, including Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine and Jim Baen's Universe. Her nonfiction has appeared in venues such as Clarkesworld and Strange Horizons. She lives in Germany with her husband and three children.


A Demon by Any Other Name by Nancy Fulda

Words are funny things. They can be pernicious and slippery, especially when they are the building block of your trade and there's no way to predict whether your readers will interpret them the same way you do. I've seen the verb 'leer' applied to lecherous old men and innocently flirtatious teenage girls; clearly its meaning fluctuates with each writer.

Worse, some words are burdened by history. The word 'priest', for example, carries centuries of connotations, not all of them flattering. The word 'demon' will never completely escape its satanic origins, and will for that reason evoke powerful antipathy in some readers. Vampires, fairies, werewolves, sorcery; they are the bread and butter of mainstream fantasy fiction, and yet speculative fiction writers are shackled by the very words that give our stories life. I cannot write about deities without first separating the gods inhabiting my fictional world from the God reverenced in ours. I must also distance myself from the thousands of fictional gods encountered by my readers in thousands of novels available in bookstores around the world. In short, before I can communicate meaningful ideas through a historically-burdened word, I must first tear down large portions of what the reader thinks it means.

Software developers would describe these words as 'overloaded', which is a fancy way of saying they can take on multiple meanings depending on context. If my fictional rendition of the word closely parallels one of the meanings my reader is familiar with, I'm on reliable ground. One or two well-chosen details can guide the reader to the proper context, and the story can proceed apace.

If my fictional creatures don't fit conveniently into a mold -- if for example my vampires are a little bit like Stephanie Meyers and a little bit like Anne Rice's -- then I have wandered into enemy territory, and each wrong step may trigger a communication landmine.

What's an author to do?

Sometimes it's best to just grit your teeth and bear it. The emotional atmosphere provided by overloaded words can be extremely effective. Sometimes, however, it's best to let the reader build new connotations from scratch.

I first noticed this technique applied in Lois McMaster Bujold's Chalion series. In it, her gods are called 'gods' and her demons are called 'demons' -- no surprise there. Her priests, however, are called 'divines'.

Being an avid Bujold fan, I had read Curse of Chalion at least three times before I realized what she had done. Once I caught on, I stared at the page for three full minutes, admiring her genius.

Bujold's divines are priests in every objective sense of the word. They act as messengers between their gods and the populace. They receive divine inspiration and lead holy rites. But if Bujold had actually used the word 'priest', I would have initially imagined either stoic, elaborately robed priests of a Catholic flavor or sword-and-sorcery style mace-weilders ready to do battle, neither of which matches the tone of Bujold's book. A master author like Bujold could have filed away at my preconceptions, of course. But since, in addition to being a good rollicking adventure, Curse of Chalion is also a theological treatise, Bujold's purposes were far better suited by building off a clean foundation.

Bujold used a similar technique in her Sharing Knife books, in which a creature that could easily have been described as a demon was called a malice instead. Other authors do it, too. Peter Brett's demons are called corelings. Amanda Hocking's Trylle are a cross between elves and trolls. The list goes on, but my key point is that instead of creating a fictional terminology, each of these authors appropriated real words (or orthographically similar approximations thereof).

Don't get me wrong. Fictional languages a la Tolkien are beautiful and well-respected in fantasy. Please do not interpret this as a diatribe against Klingon, Pravic, or any other invented lingua. But sometimes, you need to dissociate yourself from a word's history without constructing an entire culture or making your readers feel like they need a dictionary just to keep the characters' roles straight. In these situations, co-opting an existing word offers your readers a memorable substitute for the historically-burdened one. The objective meaning of the word transfers easily; the connotations stay behind.

To find out more about Nancy, please visit her at her website: http://www.nancyfulda.com/. In the meantime, here’s a quick look at her book DEAD MEN DON’T CRY:

Joseph Rannen is dead, and no one besides Morgan Kimball seems to believe he wasn't a traitor. With greedy Earth warships hovering overhead, Kimball has twelve hours to produce evidence that his friend and mentor was murdered, preferably without jeopardizing the colony's safety.

This whodunit mystery set on a distant colony planet was a finalist for the Writers of the Future Award. It is also included in the collection DEAD MEN DON'T CRY: 11 STORIES BY NANCY FULDA.




Thanks for swinging in today. Don’t forget I’m dishing it up with Sibel Hodge on Friday.

Until Then,
Ciao.
JET

Gut-Level Research by Toni Dwiggins

Welcome to another Manic Monday and a guest post from Toni Dwiggins. Toni is neither a geologist nor a nuke worker.

She’s always worked with words: script typist at a motion picture studio, research clerk at university libraries, proofreader for a textbook company, copy-editor for that company, and finally textbook writer for same company. From there, she went freelance.

She’s done magazine work, both fiction and non. She’s author of a US history text and contributed to texts in the sciences, including earth science. She’s done tech-writing for the Silicon Valley computer industry. Her techie experience hatched an idea that became her first novel, about an attempt to sabotage the nation’s telephone system (INTERRUPT, published by TOR Books).

Her latest book BADWATER is now available on Amazon, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, Barnes and Noble and Smashwords.

Without further adieu – here’s Toni…

GUT-LEVEL RESEARCH

So there’s this crime fiction writer who gets involved with a real-life hitman, and the hitman recounts his true visceral experiences as story material for the writer. The writer comes to want to live it himself, and nearly does.

It was movie, a Russian flick called GHOST, and it got me thinking about what makes a story feel gut-level real.

So I decided to run an experiment. I chose two scenes I’d written, from two different books: one inspired by a real-life experience, one totally made up. Both scenes were intended to give the reader a few shivers—or least keep the pages turning.

I showed the scenes to a friend who’d not read either book (some friend!;) and asked which one she thought came from something I’d experienced in real life.

Scene #1 (from BADWATER, the first in my Forensic Geology series): the bad guy is in a slot canyon in Death Valley, having just watched the chaos his act of sabotage caused, and now he’s getting the hell away from the scene before he gets caught. He’s already jumpy and suddenly there comes a low-pitched roaring sound, from upcanyon. He’s desert-wise and knows it could be a flash flood coming, caused by summer storms in the watershed above. And there’s no way to escape—the canyon walls are vertical and he can’t outrun a flood. The sound intensifies. And then around the upcanyon bend comes something totally unexpected: a black twisting whirlwind of soil and pebbles. It seems alive, snaking its way down the twisting slot canyon without touching the walls. It screams. The bad guy presses himself against the canyon wall and the whirlwind just grazes him as it passes. A flood would have drowned him. This thing spooks the hell out of him.

Scene #2 (from VOLCANO WATCH, second in the series, to be released within a couple of months): the protagonist (of both books) Cassie Oldfield is returning to her hometown, which has just been evacuated under the threat of an eruption. She’s returning in search of her partner, who she believes is stranded there. She’s returning on skis, coming in cross country via a steep canyon. (I like canyons) There’s a sudden low-pitched roaring sound (I like scary sounds) and, in wonder and terror, she sees a slab of snow detach from the canyon wall and descend upon her. Avalanche. It catches her, tumbles her, envelopes her. Buried with only a small air pocket, she must dig her way out. But the snow is like ice. She thinks she’ll die. And then mother nature throws her a rope: there’s an earthquake, cracking the icy snow roof enough that she can escape. Of course, she escapes into more trouble….

My friend says, without hesitation, #2 came from your real-life experience. Hey, I say, I’ve never experienced a volcanic eruption. She qualifies; but you’re a skier and you’ve skied the back country in heavy snow. Hey, I say, I’ve never been buried in an avalanche. She qualifies; yeah but I saw you take a nasty fall in deep powder and you were, technically, buried. Well yes, about half an inch deep.

Scene #1, I tell her, came from a real-life experience. Me in a slot canyon in Death Valley, alone, mindful of the warnings about sudden flash floods. And then the noise, and the devilish black whirlwind. My friend stares. That’s just too weird to be real. I shrug. It happened.

For scene #2, I got on the net and googled ‘avalanche’ and read about other people’s harrowing true-life experiences.

So my take-away is this: experience something exciting/crazy/spooky in real life and it would be a crime not to use it in a story. Need something exciting/crazy/spooky in a story that I haven’t experienced—do the research.

As long as it doesn’t involve impersonating a hitman.

* * * *


And just to give you all a peek into her new book – here’s the blurb for BADWATER:

Forensic geologists Cassie Oldfield and Walter Shaws embark on a perilous hunt--tracking a terrorist who has stolen radioactive material that is hotter than the desert in August. He threatens to release it in America's most fragile national park, Death Valley.

But first he must stop the geologists who are closing in.

As the hunt turns dangerous, Cassie and Walter will need grit along with their field skills to survive this case. For they are up against more than pure human malice. The unstable atom--in the hands of an unstable man--is governed by Murphy's Law. Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.

And it does.


To find out more about Toni, visit her at her website.

Friday I’ve got George Everyman on tap, so swing in and enjoy!

Until then,

Ciao.

JET

Manic Monday with Amy Corwin

Today’s Manic Monday guest is Award-winning author Amy Corwin. She manages a dual career as a writer and an enterprise systems administrator in the computer industry. She writes Regencies, paranormals, and mysteries, although to be truthful, most of her books include a bit of murder and mayhem since she discovered that killing off at least one character is a highly effective way to make the remaining ones tow the plot line.


Please give Amy a warm welcome…

First, I owe big thanks to Jane for allowing me a spot on her blog. It’s very kind of her as it’s not everyone who will allow another writer to babble on the way we tend to do. So…THANKS!

We live in a remarkable period. For the first time in history, everyone who “has a book in them” can release their creativity and get it published! Through the Internet, we have the ability to share ideas, thoughts, and dreams with others and connect to people all around the globe! I’m so glad to be writing now, because it hasn’t always been so easy. My own journey has been full of fits and starts. Just for the fun of it, I thought I’d share my experiences.

A Writer’s Journey

Back in the dark ages when the earth’s crust was just beginning to cool, I thought it would be pretty nifty to be a writer. In fact, when I was six years old, I wrote my first book about a germ and his journey through a little girl’s tummy. Bizarre, yes, but a lot of fun. Particularly since I illustrated it and bound it with my own loving hands. It had cloth-over-cardboard covers, and I even sewed the pages to a spine. Quite the quality production.

After that, there were a few short stories I wrote, including one with a sort of “Twilight Zone” theme about a man who tried to pull off insurance fraud and ended up just cheating himself. By the seventh grade, I learned how to type on an old Underwood typewriter, and I really got to work. For those who were not privileged to grow up in pre-computer days (about a week after the earth’s crust hardened) this process consisted in typing each individual page, ripping it up and typing the entire page over when I made a mistake. Or trying to correct it with various methods such as white-out. A great deal of fun, to be sure.

When I finally got my first real manuscript more-or-less finished, I took two sheets of fresh paper and insert a sheet of carbon paper between them. Then I very, very carefully typed the finished product so that I would have one copy to submit to publishers and a carbon copy to keep. Just in case.

After going through this process a few times and getting a loan to pay for white-out, I finally got a romance ready to submit. I was twenty-one at the time and completely clueless. I sent it to a publisher and…low and behold…they sent back a rejection along with a box of books! And in the rejection, they said, “We liked your writing, but it didn’t entirely fit our line. If you could rewrite along the lines of the enclosed books, we would be happy to see your manuscript again.”

Folks, this is where a smarter person would have dug in and done just that. Silly me threw away the manuscript in frustration, read the books (*free books!) and piddled around for about…fifteen years with another career!

Finally, I found a group of friends who were all working at writing. They were wonderful! We critiqued each other’s work and provided much needed moral support. One by one, each of my friends got agents and got fantastic contracts for their manuscripts. Sad to say, I was the last one to get an agent, but after slaving away over a hot computer keyboard for more years than I care to mention, I got an agent. Time passed. Got another agent. Sold a manuscript! Yippee!

Looking back, my journey was pretty much the same as every other writer’s journey, although if I’d had a little more sense when I got that first rejection, I might had been published a heck of a lot sooner. But maybe, just maybe, my work was published when it was ready to be published. Maybe I needed those intervening years to live and learn.

And that’s the thought I want to leave you with: maybe things when they need to happen and not before.


My Latest Historical Mystery: A Rose Before Dying

Only Sir Edward had the motive, the opportunity, and a garden full of the identical roses sent to each victim before their death.

The first victim was Sir Edward’s ex-mistress, a woman who threw him over for a younger man. After receiving a mysterious rose, she dies while alone with Sir Edward. Then a second rose is delivered and a deadly game commences, where roses are the only clues to save the next victim.

However, Charles Vance, Earl of Castlemoor, refuses to believe his uncle, Sir Edward, could commit the murders, even when the renowned head of the Second Sons Inquiry Agency warns him there may be some truth behind the rumors. “The roses are Sir Edward’s attempt to cast suspicion elsewhere.” “Misdirection.” Or so the whispers say.

Convinced he can prove his uncle’s innocence, Vance enlists the aide of notable rosarian, Ariadne Wellfleet, little realizing his actions will involve the Wellfleet household in the killer’s game.

Before the week is out, another rose is delivered.

And someone else is missing.


You can find out more about Amy at the following places:
Her Website
Her Blog
Her Facebook Page
Twitter


Kiki Howell dishes it up with me on Friday!
Until Then,
Ciao
JET

Dishing it up with Allison Pang

Hi all!


I’m thrilled to have Urban Fantasy author Allison Pang on my blog today. Her book A BRUSH OF DARKNESS came out this week and she was kind enough to carve out some time to hang with us. Here’s a little intro to Allison:

A marine biologist in a former life, Allison Pang turned to a life of crime to finance her wild spending habits and need to collect Faberge eggs. A cat thief of notable repute, she spends her days sleeping and nights scaling walls and wooing dancing boys....Well, at least the marine biology part is true. But she was taloned by a hawk once. She also loves Hello Kitty, sparkly shoes, and gorgeous violinists. She spends her days in Northern Virginia working as a cube grunt and her nights waiting on her kids and cats, punctuated by the occasional husbandly serenade. Sometimes she even manages to write. Mostly she just makes it up as she goes.

JET: I had the pleasure of reading A BRUSH OF DARKNESS  under its original title way back when and I’m looking forward to reading the final version when it arrives at my doorstep. For those not familiar with this fabulous story, it is a unique blend of human nature and the world of faeries and incubus and unicorns, but I’ll let Allison tell you folks a little about the book…

Allison: It’s the story of Abby Sinclair, who is pretty much a normal girl, essentially tossed into this mystical world that overlaps our own. Everything she does has political repercussions, but directions are hard to come by and she finds herself struggling to figure out how to manage. When her Faery boss goes missing, Abby is forced to try to find her, joined by a perverted unicorn and a sexy incubus, who may or may not be setting her up.

JET: What made you choose Urban Fantasy as a genre?

Allison: I had originally written A BRUSH OF DARKNESS  as a Paranormal Romance, which has many of the same elements as an Urban Fantasy. My editor decided it would read better as a UF, so I rewrote a chunk of the book to fit that. The main difference is that there tends to be more world building in a UF, and the romance (if there is one) isn’t technically required. (Whereas a paranormal romance is really all about the romance.)

JET: What’s been your most challenging hurdle on the road to publication?

Allison: Just learning to trust my own instincts when it comes to my writing. When I first started out I was constantly being swayed by whoever’s opinion I was getting and that was detrimental, since everyone had a different idea of what I “should” have been doing.

JET: What was your favorite moment in the journey?

Allison: Finding out my book was going to auction.

JET: Which authors had the most influence over you growing up?

Allison: Honestly, there are many, but some of the classics like Peter S. Beagle’s The Last Unicorn have always stuck with me. The lyrical prose in particular just struck a chord that never really went away.

JET: When did you know you wanted to take the plunge into the writing world?

Allison: I don’t know really. I’d been writing a little project with a friend for fun a few years ago, and that was my first foray back into writing in nearly 15 years. Somewhere in that process I decided to investigate what was involved with getting published and wrote A Brush of Darkness as a sort of “starter novel”…only it actually sold!

JET: What’s the craziest thing you’ve done in the name of book research? Most interesting fact you uncovered?

Allison: Sadly, nothing. I really didn’t do much research on this particular book – just drew on the knowledge I already had.

JET: Any advice for the novices out there?

Allison: Just to keep writing. Nothing will make you better at the craft of writing than to actually do it. (And I speak of personal experience. Sometimes it’s easier to hide behind a ton of workshops and “how to” books than it is to actually put the words on the page.)

JET: All right - now that I’ve hammered you with the big questions, let’s tackle my favorite (and geeky) quick ten. . . starting with Paper or Plastic?

Allison: Paper

JET: Steak or Tofu?

Allison: Gah. Depends, honestly. I was vegetarian for a long while. I’ve got back to eating meat some, but it depends on how its cooked. I don’t mind the tofu, though.

JET: Beach or Mountains?

Allison: Beach

JET: Country or Rock-n-Roll?

Allison: Rock

JET: Classics or Modern?

Allison: Classics

JET: Silent Film Classics or Cheesy B Rated Horror?

Allison: Cheesy Horror

JET: Zombies or Demons?

Allison: Demons

JET: Paper or Digital?

Allison: Digital

JET: Salty or Sweet?

Allison: Both?

JET: Coffee or Tea?

Allison: Tea

JET: Thank you for indulging me. Before we wrap this up, can you tell us what you're working on now? What's next?

Allison: The second book in the BoD series was just turned in, so now I’m gearing up to get started on the third. I’ve also got a few other things in the works – an epic fantasy and a YA Steampunk, but they’re not quite ready for primetime.

Thank you so much for taking the time to chat on my blog. Folks, you can find out more about Allison Pang and her work on her website: http://www.heartofthedreaming.com/

Next week is the first Friday in February and I'll be highlighting some new releases from my Backspace friends.  Stop by to see what's coming to the bookshelves near you!

Until then,
Ciao.
JET

Dishing it up with Karen Dionne.

Happy New Years Eve! I’m jazzed to have Karen Dionne on my blog today.

Karen Dionne is the internationally published author of Freezing Point, a science thriller nominated by RT Book Reviews as Best First Mystery of 2008. A second environmental thriller, Boiling Point, is forthcoming December 28, 2010. Karen is cofounder of the online writers community Backspace (www.bksp.org), and organizes the Backspace Writers Conferences held in New York City every year. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and the International Thriller Writers, where she serves on the Board of Directors as Vice President, Technology, and as Managing Editor of ITW's monthly publication, The Big Thrill.



JET: Thanks for hanging with us for a bit. Your second novel, Boiling Point came out this week, can you tell us a little about the book?

Karen: Boiling Point is an environmental thriller in which two microbiologists on field assignment in Northern Patagonia, Chile discover what appears to be a simple case of illegal dumping. But deliberately ruining the earth is never simple, and before they know it, they’re caught up in a race to save not only the planet, but their own lives.

I got the idea for Boiling Point when I read an article, “10 Wacky Ways to Save the Planet,” about using geoengineering to counteract the effects of global warming. One of the suggestions the article put forth involves seeding the atmosphere with sulfur dioxide particles to mimic the cooling effects of a volcanic eruption.

The idea that someone would take it upon themselves to deliberately and permanently alter earth’s atmosphere struck me as an act of hubris worthy of the most megalomaniacal thriller villain. I’d recently seen an incredible photo of the Chaitén volcano eruption: billowing red and purple clouds shot through with lightning against a black sky that was absolutely amazing, so that became the setting for the book.

Then I traveled to Chaitén volcano for research. I stayed in the town at the base of the volcano, even though Chaitén town was evacuated and without electricity or running water, since it was ruined by a lahar during the initial eruption – a fast-moving flow of mud and ash that choked the river and buried the town. I also hiked to within one mile of the new lava dome, where I saw steam vents, heard explosions coming from the caldera, and felt a small earthquake. It was an amazing and awe-inspiring trip which definitely informs the novel.

JET: What’s been your most challenging hurdle on the road to publication?

Karen: I think the most challenging aspect of publishing has been learning to accept that the whole process takes so long. When you’re with a major publisher as I am, each step, from getting feedback from your editor, to seeing the cover art, to getting copyedits, then page proofs, ARCs, and finally your author’s copies and seeing the book in the bookstores, takes months. For both books, from the day the novel sold to the day the novel hit the shelves was nearly two years. I’m not naturally a patient person!

JET: What was your favorite moment in the journey?

Karen: Oh, without a doubt, it was getting the news that we had an offer from Berkley for my first novel, Freezing Point. I happened to be in a bookstore when my agent called – how perfect is that? My editor’s purchasing Boiling Point was also exciting, there’s nothing like that first time.

JET: What’s the craziest thing you’ve done in the name of book research? Most interesting fact you uncovered?

Karen: The craziest thing I’ve done for research was definitely traveling 7,000 miles to check out an active volcano. At the time I got the idea for the book, I didn’t know anything about volcanoes or Chile, and I don’t speak ten words of Spanish. I had only a few weeks to clear my desk and set up the trip, and I remember thinking the night before I left, “Am I nuts? Who do I think I am, a character in a novel?” But it all worked out fine.

As for the most interesting fact – before I researched the book, I didn’t realize that in the Southern Hemisphere, the moon is upside down. How cool is that?

JET: Any advice for the novices out there?

Karen: I have two. First, it’s important that writers who are still struggling to break in understand that writers are not in competition with one another. The more books that are sold, the stronger the industry becomes, and we all reap the benefits. Every time a reader buys a book by a bestselling thriller author, they’re also helping me, because they’re helping to create a market for the kind of books I write. So don’t ever be jealous of another author’s success. There’s room at the table for both of you.

The second is: Write the right book. It takes a year or more to write a novel. Don’t settle for a good story idea, or an excellent story idea, or even a great one. Write an AMAZING novel – the kind that generates multiple agent offers, and has publishers falling all over themselves in their rush to purchase. It’s not as impossible as it sounds; at the Backspace forums, I see first-time authors hit this sweet spot over and over again. If none of your novel ideas have that blow-’em-out-of-the-water wow factor, don’t write one until it does. Stretch. Reach. Don’t settle.

JET: Great advice! 

All right - now that I’ve hammered you with the big questions, let’s tackle my favorite (and geeky) quick ten. . . starting with:

JET: Paper or Plastic?

Karen: Paper! My next novel, Breaking Point, is set in an area of slack winds and currents between California and Hawaii called the North Pacific Garbage Dump where literally tons of plastic debris have been accumulating for decades. Once you begin to understand the scope of the problem, you can’t ever look at a piece of plastic the same way.

JET: Steak or Tofu?

Karen: Steak! Medium rare. Yum! Tofu, not so much.

JET: Beach or Mountains?

Karen: Beach, then mountains, then desert, then anywhere. If I could live forever, eventually, I’d live every place on earth.

JET: Country or Rock-n-Roll?

Karen: Rock. I’m a child of the 60s.

JET: Leather or Lace?

Karen: Leather.

JET: Angels or Demons?

Karen: I always root for the good guys.

JET: Paper or Digital?

Karen: Paper. I have an e-reader, but still find myself reaching first for a print book.

JET: Silent Film Classics or Cheesy B Rated Horror?

Karen: Silent Film Classics.

JET: Spring or Fall?

Karen: Fall.

JET: Coffee or Tea?

Karen: Coffee!

JET: Thank you for indulging me. Before we wrap this up, can you tell us what you're working on now? What's next?

Karen: While I’m waiting to hear from my editor about that third Point book (and waiting, and waiting – see my answer to publishing’s greatest challenges), I’m working on the first book in a science thriller trilogy for young adults. My adult novels all feature scientists as the main characters, and the protagonists in the young adult series are the children of scientists, so it’s a natural progression for me. I’m really enjoying the new story. Writing in a teenager’s voice is fun!

Thank you so much for taking the time to chat on my blog. Folks, you can find out more about Karen Dionne and her work at her website: http://www.karendionne.net/.

 Next week, I'll be highlighting the January releases for my Backspace brethren. 

Until then, have a safe and happy New Year's Eve! 

Ciao.
JET

Friday follies. . .

I know, I'm late. 

Well, I've got a few excuses for that, really, honestly. 

OK, maybe not, but it was worth the try. 

Seriously though, I've been knee deep in creating video trailers for both my November releases and that in itself takes quite a bit of time - but it's so much fun.  The only downside - my shoulder's been acting up something fierce and after creating the videos - I had no energy to write the blog. 

And today got away from me between the doctor and the day job, I didn't have a moment until now. 

I found out what's wrong.  Tendinitis.  Painful bitch of a thing too.  And the prescription anti-inflammatory warnings were scary as hell - but laughable.  Check this out:

Stop taking this medicine and seek emergency help immediately if you experience:
Shortness of breath, fast or irregular breathing, fever, joint pain, fast pulse, light-headedness or fainting, swelling of face, hives & itching.   

OK - those seem reasonable to me.  However the next paragraph gave me pause. . .

Stop taking this medicine and notify your doctor as soon as possible if you experience:
Skin rash, swelling of feet or lower legs, visual disturbances, itching, stomach or intestinal bleeding, weight gain, headache. 

Visual disturbances - WTF is that?  Does that entail seeing ghosts?  Fashion faux pas?  What?

OK now I'm a bit nervous and I read other common side effects.  I won't give you the whole list - but here are some of the more eyebrow raising highlights:
Swelling of face or lips,  blurred vision, confusion, and hallucinations.

Whoa. Now I'm confused.  Is that a side effect of the medicine - or just the sheer bizarreness of the side effect list?  

Not only those lovely "common" side effects but more serious ones like Congestive heart failure and gastric or intestinal ulcers are also on the list.  

I was much better off thinking of this as my 'happy pill' - the one that takes the edge off the pain and allows me to function in a semi-normal capacity.   

It's supposed to help but dayem, with the list of ailments accompanying it, one has to wonder if the pain relief is really worth the risk of these things.   I've taken some heavy duty anti-inflammatory before, but I don't remember the litany of side effects attached.  

Despite the growing concern for the side effects, the pain in my shoulder dictated my choice.  I took the medicine and (knock on wood) haven't experienced any yet.  I took as directed, with food - so I'll have to remember that because getting an ulcer on top of the tendinitis would be a bitch. 

Anyhow, that's my round about excuse for not getting this post up first thing in the morning. 

Forgive me.  Or not. 

Next week, I have the pleasure of having Jonathan Maberry on my blog, so swing in and make him feel welcomed! 

That's all I got. 
Ciao.
JET
 

Dishing it up with horror writer John Everson. . .

Hi folks, welcome to the Friday the Thirteenth edition of my blog. Today I have the pleasure of talking with horror writer John Everson about his books, his journey and a little trivia in the form of the quick ten. Enjoy the ride . . .


JET: Your new book - Siren just came out at the end of July. Can you tell us a little about the book and why readers should add this to their must have collection?

John: Siren is the story of Evan, a guy who lives on the California coast who’s really at the end of his rope – he is an aquaphobe who literally can’t go near the water – and a year before he watched his son drown in the ocean because that fear paralyzed him. He walks the beach every night wrestling with his grief when he hears the beautiful sound of music from the rocks ahead… and then sees a gorgeous naked woman dive into the water. He’s entranced by her and returns to the spot again and again until he finds her once more, and so begins a deadly affair; because when Evan realizes that he wants to break things off with his new lust…well… a woman scorned is one thing. A Siren scorned is mythologically bad.

JET: Was writing horror a conscious choice or was it just a natural affinity? Why do you think that is?

John: I grew up a voracious reader, and was always really skilled with words. My love of reading definitely set my course for life, I think. I loved the way my favorite writers could tell a story and absolutely suck you into it so deep that your own world disappeared. And I wanted to be able to do that to other people! In school, I could “essay test” my way out of anything. I knew that somehow my future career had to be in writing and I worked as soon as I could on my high school, college and community newspapers. I earned a journalism degree in college from the University of Illinois and did a lot of basic reporting for newspapers and magazines as well as feature interviews with stars like Jay Leno and Gwen Stefani. It was clear early on that enjoyed doing those “fun” pieces a lot more than the news stuff. I just wasn’t cut out to be an investigative reporter – I was more interested in creative writing. I started placing short fiction in various small magazines in my 20s, and ten years later, my first novel, Covenant, was released from Delirium Books. Four years after that, it was picked up and released in mass market paperback by Leisure Books, along with the sequel, Sacrifice. Along the way, I also had three short fiction collections published – Cage of Bones & Other Deadly Obsessions, Vigilantes of Love and Needles & Sins.

JET: Have you ever seen a dead body? How has that influenced your writing?

John: I have only seen dead bodies at wakes… but I have seen several, and still remember the first – my great-great uncle, back when I was about five years old. I think the first sight of a dead person remains with you all your life, because it’s such a horrible reality. That’s the first concrete evidence that you have to face that saying “someday, you too will be lying out cold on a slab, never to move, never again to eat a juicy cheeseburger, never to feel the sun warming your face again.” I don’t know that seeing dead people at wakes has had a direct influence on my writing, but it certainly informs that “morbid” side from which all horror springs.

JET: What’s been your most challenging hurdle on the road to publication?

John: Finding an editor who liked my work? Seriously, that’s what it’s all about… if you can find an editor or two that really like your style, then you can publish, and hopefully build a reputation with readers. But first you have to convince someone to publish you and give you the backing and the shot. And then you have to repeat that again to move to the next level… and the next. I was lucky to have Delirium Books and Necro Publications both champion my work in the small press, and that translated ultimately to a 5-book deal with Leisure Books for mass market distribution.

JET: What was your favorite moment in the journey?

John: There are two key moments. When Covenant won the Bram Stoker Award, I was there to receive it, though I honestly didn’t think I’d win when I made the trip to Los Angeles. I was going just to “make connections.” And I did get to meet my idol Richard Matheson that trip. I also got to chat again with Clive Barker, who I’d interviewed for my newspaper many years before. David Morrell and Chuck Palahniuk were also there. It was a surreal weekend.

The second moment was when Covenant was released by Leisure Books in paperback, and I walked into bookstore after bookstore around the country and found it in the front of stores, its little lighthouse beaming out of countless promotional racks. That was cool, to be able to walk into a store almost anywhere, point to a rack of books and say “yeah, that’s mine, I’m John.” The way book distribution and the economy have both spiraled into the toilet over the past two years… I may never get the chance to do that again, actually! But it was cool while the moment lasted.

JET: Which authors had the most influence over you growing up?

John: Richard Matheson was a huge influence on me. Which is why meeting him the weekend I won a Stoker award was such an amazing thing. I grew up reading a ton of science fiction, and he wrote a lot of crossover science fiction / dark twist horror stories. He wrote a lot for “The Twilight Zone” TV show; the creepy weird plots with good twist endings which were the trademark of that show really influenced me in my writing. I remember reading his story “Born of Man and Woman” in an anthology over and over again when I was a kid. It was sort of a sci-fi / alien / monster story, really brief, but really powerful. One of the first fiction stories I ever finished writing was a completely transparent homage to that tale.

JET: When did you know you wanted to take the plunge into the writing world?

John: Well… when I was in 3rd grade I was writing fan-fiction based on Isaac Asimov’s galactic empire series so… I guess I have always known, really!

JET: What’s the craziest thing you’ve done in the name of book research? Most interesting fact you uncovered?

John: When I was in Seattle a few years ago, I decided to go to a strip club and interview some of the dancers because I was thinking of writing a novel about a man who lost his wife to the lure of a weird dark sex club. I wanted to make sure I understood how strippers were paid – what the business model was for their craft behind the scenes and how they thought of their customers. So… there I was, with the strobe lights all over, a beer in hand, and this half nude girl sitting next to me, and instead of trying to slip her a $20 bill for a lapdance, I’m having a serious conversation and asking her “so now, you’re telling me that if you’re 15 minutes late to work, they dock you $100???” There was no sexual overtone at all to our talk about working in the sex trade!

JET: Of all the novels and stories you’ve written - which one is your favorite? Why?

John: I can’t list just one, because I like many of them for different reasons. Nothing stands hands-down above the others. In my short fiction, I love “Pumpkin Head” because I think it’s the best erotic horror piece I’ve done, and it’s been a fan favorite for years. But I think “Bloodroses” may be one of my most starkly powerful pieces. And I really feel strongly about “Letting Go,” because it’s a really personal story for me, and it was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award a couple years ago. As far as the novels, I like Covenant because it was my first novel, and in so many ways, made everything else in the past six years possible. At the same time, I don’t necessarily think it’s necessarily my best work. I like Sacrifice because in some ways, it takes what I learned with Covenant and does it so much better… and it has two of my favorite characters that I’ve written as antagonists – the sexy serial killer Ariana and the teenage “witch” Alex. I love my 3rd novel The 13th because it’s just ridiculously over-the-top… a complete homage to grindhouse and ‘70s Euro-horror, with the whole “rituals in the basement” thing taken to the extreme. And then there’s Siren, the latest… which to me in some ways is the most personal of my first four books, because part of the backstory deals with the fears that every parent has for their children. So I love the books all for very different reasons.

JET: Any advice for the novices out there?

John: Write. Write some more – you’ll improve your craft the more you do. But most of all, write for yourself. Publishers come and go. Fans come and go. If you tell the stories that YOU want to hear… in the end, all of the change around you becomes irrelevant. If you entertain yourself, it doesn’t really matter how broad or restrictive your audience becomes. You’ll have pleased the one audience member that really matters in the end. If you tell a story that you really in your heart are born to tell, and you tell it to the best of your ability… that’s the best reward there is, whether you have 1 reader, or 1 million.

JET: All right - now that I’ve hammered you with the big questions, let’s tackle my favorite (and geeky) quick ten. . . starting with Paper or Plastic?

John: Paper. It burns faster.

JET: Steak or Tofu?

John: Steak. It’s really good as long as you don’t burn it.

JET: Beach or Mountains?

John: Beach. It’s a great place to get burned. (do you sense a theme here?)

JET: LOL - yes I sensed a theme back on Steak and Tofu . . . Country or Rock-n-Roll?

John: Rock ‘n’ Roll. With a blisteringly hot guitar solo.

JET: Classics or Modern?

John: Modern. Antiques are for old people. And they burn up really quick.

JET: Vamps or Wolves?

John: Vamps. I’m allergic to dogs. And Vamps burn better.

JET: Zombies or Demons?

John: Demons. Please see my novels Covenant, Sacrifice, The 13th……… Plus… demons are always around fire, so they have the best barbeques.

JET: Horror or Comedy?

John: Horror. I like my adrenaline at fever pitch.

JET: Salty or Sweet?

John: Salty. Like the ocean. Where the sun is. Where you can burn………

JET: Coffee or Tea?

John: Coffee…. But I do switch to Peppermint Tea in the afternoons…

JET: Thank you for indulging me, that fire theme was quite fun! Before we wrap this up, can you tell us what you're working on now? What's next?

John: I just turned in my fifth novel to Leisure Books, The Pumpkin Man, a couple weeks ago. As for what’s next… well… I have to figure that out now! I have a novelette due to my translation publisher in Poland in a few weeks which I haven’t started on, and a handful of novel ideas that I need to dig in, look at, and decide on what to pitch for my next U.S. project. Whatever it is, I’m betting there will be skulls and creep factor.

JET: I can’t wait! John, thank you so much for taking the time to chat on my blog.

Folks, you can find out more about John Everson and his work at the following places:

http://www.johneverson.com/

www.facebook.com/johneverson

www.twitter.com/johneverson

http://www.darkartsbooks.com/

Next week - swing by for my next installment of dishing it up with guest Mia Natasha talking about her debut novel Cinderella Club.

Thanks for stopping by!

Ciao

JET

My first review. . .

I have to admit, I was ill prepared for a review like this. It left me breathless, and hyper and ecstatic beyond words. I set my expectations very low so I wouldn’t be disappointed when they started rolling in. I’ve seen some good writers filleted by reviewers, and who isn’t a bit insecure in their abilities - I certainly am.


So when I took a moment yesterday morning to open my email, and I found my first review notice, I gulped, not really looking (or comprehending - I saw it but it didn’t compute) the four stars indicated in the email. I clicked the link and started reading, and it wasn’t until I was halfway through that I realized it was favorable. But the last paragraph - the last paragraph was stellar. What every writer hopes to hear from their readers and I nearly fell out of my seat.

Dear Claudia Rhyes over at Manic Readers - you made my day. Hell, you made my millennium!



This book had it all, and even though I started off not knowing if I would truly like the content, I was blown away by how honest, true, emotional, and frightening it really was. Jane E. Taylor has spun a story that is sure to catch reader’s attention and hold it until the last page. If you are looking for a story that will keep you on the edge, make your toes curl from the eroticism, and make you feel love and sorrow, then I would highly suggest Survival Games. I can’t wait to read the other two books in what is to be a wonderful trilogy. Bravo Ms. Taylor! - Manic Readers


I’m still expecting that bad review and I’m sure it will come, but until then, I’m going to ride the wave of this one, the euphoria and the validation that I don’t suck.

Survival Games will be released on July 19, 2010 in both e-book and paperback. You can pre-order the paperback on Amazon.com (or at least sign up for notification of availability). I really hope you folks will buy the book in one format or another and nearer to the release date, look for information on getting signed paperback copies!

Ciao - and here’s to a wonderful weekend!

JET.

Friday came and went and I forgot my blog . . .

Ok folks, pretend it’s Friday for just a minute. I was so intense in my quest to pound out 1k yesterday that I completely forgot about my blog. Oops. Sorry.

With that said, my first order of business is April shout outs: I’ve only got notice of two releases from my Backspace brethren and both roll out on April 6th: CLAUDE & CAMILLE: A NOVEL OF MONET by Stephanie Cowell and BETWEEN FRIENDS by Kristy Kiernan. So folks - check them out!

I expect the blogs to be short over April because I am involved in the April Backspace Marathon and have put out the 30k in 30 days goal for myself. That is very easy when I’m writing, however, I’m editing and trying to ADD that many words to two manuscripts that once comingled in a single novel. How am I doing it? I’m adding new scenes to up the ante and adding much more detail and internalizations to enhance the situation. So a thousand words a day is definitely a challenge!

Well, in the spirit of the marathon - I need to get back to work. Happy Easter everyone - hope you are enjoying this fabulous weekend!

JET

Patience, a virtue I lack . . .

I'm not very good at playing the waiting game. As a matter of fact I hate it in any aspect of my life. I'm thinking that comes from the utter control freak that resides at my core. I've learned to loosen up in a lot of aspects over the years, but impatience is not one that little pain in the ass will let go of.

There are a whole host of things I'm waiting for right now and they all have me on edge.

First, word from a publisher on my non-erotic thriller, Dark Reckoning. I'm trying to be patient - but it's like asking a child who's been waiting for the ice cream truck all day to wait at the back of the line because their mother hasn't made her way to the curb with the money yet. Especially since I’ve worked out the cover with my favorite cover artist from down under, Willsin Rowe.

I’m waiting for a couple more author blurbs for Survival Games as well as the reviews to start rolling in - although I know on the review front that these can take up to 90 days - which is why I sent them out at the beginning of the month. All of which have me really nervous. The one blurb I did receive blew me away but I’m sure I’ll get mixed reviews from the masses because of the very dark subject matter. So I wait, with my nails bit down to the stub.

I'm also waiting to find out what's next on the day job. What project are we going to tackle next? I don't like ambivalent periods and yes we're supporting a system we just implemented - which is an important task, but I'm getting anxious to start on the next creative challenge.

The last thing I’m waiting for is May 1 and the nice spring / summer weather - which don’t necessarily coincide. As I said last week - with the spring teaser, this has become a more pronounced want that I have to wait for. And with the return of the cold weather (we actually had snow flurries this morning) it just makes this that much worse.

Not one of these items is within my control and as I said before, the control freak in me is wigging out. More so this year than in the past - although spring is traditionally a restless time for me. Right now I’m feeling like a caged lion, pacing in my confines just waiting for the next chance at a great escape - or a tasty meal.

I just need to get through these last few days of March and then I’ll be knee deep in the Backspace April Marathon - which will take my mind off some of the idle restlessness. I’ve got at least 30k to add to the sequels to Dark Reckoning along with some refining editing before I can get them ready for submission and I have a few unfinished manuscripts that need attention.

I do have a few things to organize and iron out - like reaching out to bloggers to set up a blog tour for Survival Games - but unfortunately that won’t keep my restlessness at bay.

So folks . . . What do you do to keep your mind occupied when you’re impatiently waiting for something? Any words of advice, antic dotes, commiserations?

Also - anyone who has a book release in April, please shoot me a message so I can include you in my monthly shout outs!

Have a great weekend!
Ciao.

Life without my computer. . .

Before I get into my normal rambling, I’d like to give a shout out for my Backspace friends and their March releases and March is a busy month.

March 1 had three releases, Claudia Gray’s HOURGLASS, Clea Simon’s GREY MATTERS and J. T. Ellison – THE COLD ROOM. March 2nd releases include Suzanne Dunlap’s ANASTASIA’S SECRET and Jonathan Mayberry’s THE DRAGON FACTORY. We’ve also got Carrie Ryan’s THE DEAD-TOSSED SEA on March 9th and last but not least – on March 16th, Jenny Gardiner’s WINGING IT: A Memoir of Caring for a Vengeful Parrot Who’s Determined to Kill Me.

Now, onto the subject of my technology withdrawals. I did not realize how completely dependent I've become on my little netbook. It's been in the shop for a week now and I feel so lost without that mechanical extension. I floundered, confiscating my son’s little Dell for my vicarious use, surfing the net, researching Europe in the 1200’s and getting some of my muse on paper. But even so, his computer isn’t mine; it doesn’t have the same speed or operating system for that matter.

But there is a light at the end of the tunnel, my computer’s due back on Monday and I can't wait.

Anyhow, I've got a lot of catching up to do over the weekend both on the day job front as well as the writing front. You see, this weekend we have a major installation going in so my time is split between the writing and making sure things go smoothly at work.

In the meantime, I'm counting down the hours . . .

What editors want . . .

I figured since I'm knee deep in reviewing submissions for Allegory and operating as a content editor for both eXcessica and FIDO, I'd take a moment to talk about what I am looking for in a story.

I lead a very busy life between my day job, my writing, my marketing efforts and operating in an editorial capacity, so when I sit down to read a submission, I want to be swept away.

I want to forget about the ten gazillion things on my plate and get lost in the story.

I want to feel something; love, hate, fear, sorrow, joy.

I want to be moved in some fashion by what I read.

In order to do that, the writer must leave passive voice at the door. Passive voice is the kiss of death in my book. Telling the reader the story instead of letting them experience it for themselves is a cardinal sin and a lesson I learned with a little help from some very savvy and very patient writing friends.

Let me give you a hideous example of passive voice from my own archives:

This is from the very first draft of Survival Games:
They sat in solemn silence as the memorial service began. The priest had inspirational words for the family about knowing that their loved one was at peace with God. Family and friends shared stories of their experiences with Jessica and expressed how much they would miss her.

BORING! No wonder why the original version didn’t get the fan fare I hoped for. Frankly - it sucked. At the time, I didn’t know better but as I said before, I learned. Not only did I benefit from harsh critiques but I also invested in some fantastic on-line writing courses. My favorite series by far is Margie Lawson’s Deep Editing courses, I highly recommend them for the beginning writer and even those more seasoned writers that want to dig deeper.

After a long road from first draft to where I am today, I’ve learned to write with impact.

Now compare the original with the same passage in the published version:
They sat in silence and the memorial service began. The priest shared inspirational words for the family about their loved one being at peace with God, but it did nothing to fill the hollowness in his soul. He didn’t want to know Jessica was in heaven, he wanted her here to help raise their family, to watch them grow, to rejoice and celebrate year after year together. He wanted his wife and as family and friends shared stories, Daniel listened with a bitter and empty heart.
Twenty years together.
Twenty years gone in the squeal of tires and exploding gas.
Twenty years and now he was alone.

This passage engages active voice and enlists rhetorical devices, letting the reader into the character’s head, thus making it a more compelling read than the earlier version.

If something akin to my original version crossed my desk, I’d stop reading right there. Basically, if the first page is riddled with ‘was’, ‘were’, ‘is’, ‘are’, ‘to be’ and ‘had’, I won’t read any further and your story will be rejected. I know that sounds harsh, but it is what it is.

Another thing I watch for is info dumps. The key with back story is to sit and write everything you can about a character and then read it with an ultra critical eye. What does the reader REALLY need to know? Will this information propel the story forward? If the answer is yes to either of these questions, the info can stay, everything else should be nixed. Too much back story brings the momentum to a grinding halt.

The key to a fantastic read is letting your audience get into the main character’s head, into his hearts, feel what he is feeling, tasting, hearing, smelling and touching. But this can be taken too literally, too far and what ends up happening is head hopping from one point of view to another, which is another faux pas. The reader loses a sense of connection when the point of view is constantly switching.

Each passage, chapter or section should be one character’s point of view unless your book is from an omnipotent point of view, but that is another challenge all together. If you’re in Johnny’s head (POV) and he has his back to Sally, you shouldn’t show Sally’s facial expressions unless Johnny’s an alien and has eyes on the back of his head. *wink-wink*

I’m usually a little more forgiving on this unless it starts to pull me out of the story, then like passive voice and info dumps - the story will end up on the rejection pile.

The last thing I look at is dialog and the overuse of adverbs. Period pieces aside, if dialog doesn’t ring true, or sounds contrived or forced, you are dead in the water. The best advice here is to read it aloud, that flushes out the more awkward phrases and such. Also, ask yourself if you would speak like that. If the answer’s hell no - change it.

And as far as adverbs - I’m of the opinion that these are the lazy man’s alternative to writing fresh and too many will land you on the rejection pile.

I’m sure none of this is new or ground breaking for those who have been around the block, but for those new to the ring, I’m hoping this will help you step back and look at your piece with a more critical eye before submitting to any publication. The writing has to be concise and compelling no matter what the genre.

So, I wish you a sharp pen and an even sharper razor to cut the needless phrases, the passive voice and those pesky adverbs.

Good luck and God bless!
JET.

A discussion about titles. . .

Happy Friday everyone.

I’ve been looking at my next pile of books to polish up and get into the land of the published. This is my FBI thriller series that starts off with a book currently called Mirror Lake. In comparison with the other titles in the series, this is pretty docile and a little boring. So I’ve been tossing around alternative titles and have honed in on one, the only problem is, I can’t seem to let go of Mirror Lake.

You see, I started Mirror Lake back when I was a freshman in college. I never finished it back then but it’s been sitting in a drawer and festering in my mind, percolating for twenty some years. During my writing jag of 2007 and 2008, this was one of the books I revamped and finished after I pounded out the Games series.

So calling it anything else is a struggle.

But title is just as important as a captivating cover, so this is one thing I have to divorce myself from. It will always be Mirror Lake to me BUT when it comes time to publish this sucker, it’s going to get a facelift. Mirror Lake is becoming Dark Reckoning.

It fits better with the titles I have in the series:
1. Dark Reckoning (formerly Mirror Lake)
2. White Fury
3. Vengeance
4. Hunting Season
5. Georgia Reign
6. Saving Face

Seeing the list with Mirror Lake was the eye opener and that’s what prompted the re-evaluation of the title. Seeing it with the new title has more of a punch, which is the whole purpose of a title. Now all I have to do is finish polishing these up and get them on the publishing train. :)

I only have two other titles beyond this, Crystal Illusions which my MC from the above series has a cameo and my science fiction story - Dome Warriors. Not bad on the title front - but once I go through and polish them; the titles may again be reviewed and tested against the story line to make sure they carry the right weight. After all the right title and the right zippy slogan to match is what marketing is all about!

The journey . . .

Another Friday - another blog. This time I asked my friends and fan base over at Facebook what they'd like me to talk about this evening. I got some great ideas but the first post intrigued me. For the others that piped in, I'll tackle your ideas in subsequent Friday posts.

Anna Walls piped in with this gem: As a relatively new author, I'm always intrigued with how my peers made that journey. Was it planned? When did you start planning if it was? That sort of thing. What did it feel like to see your own very first book in published form?

Was this planned - no not in the least, at least not the path my life took when I got married almost twenty one years ago. In college, I had dreams of being a writer, producer and director. My major was in Communications with a concentration in radio and television broadcasting. I loved it. I mean LOVED that world. When I got out of school, I went to work at a local television station in the capacity of a film editor. What that meant in the practical world is I reformatted movies to fit into the specific timeslots and took out scenes that were not suitable for broadcast television. I also helped out in the news room at times and on occasion wrote and directed kids news spots. It was a fun job, but it paid a pittance, so when the opportunity came to switch gears into the world of finance.

In all the years I worked and raised a family, writing was always in the back of my mind, but time just wasn't there. But even during that time, my imagination stored all the ideas away into a “this might be interesting” file cabinet in my head.

The catalyst for change was in the beginning of 2007, my daughter asked the million dollar question.

If you could do anything, what would it be?

That was an easy question to answer. Write a book and get it published. And with that, my husband and kids gave the go ahead. For close to two years I wrote almost non-stop - every evening, every weekend, every vacation and I have eight manuscripts to show for that crazy brain dump. Since then I've written dozens of short stories, but my focus has been on refining those manuscripts.

I made the classic rookie mistakes with query letters, from the first batch which was really more like a typical business letter introducing myself and the stack of manuscripts I had written to the naivety of being sucked into those less than reputable publishers - luckily I got wise before I peeled off any cash.

The turn of everything happened when I met Lauren Baratz-Logsted on MySpace and she turned me onto Backspace (www.bksp.org) and the forum there. Talk about eye opening and humbling. I had a lot to learn and the folks there were exceptional at sharing knowledge and pushing me to write better, cleaner, more compelling prose.

That is when I started planning. I set up my own website, my own blog, branched out from MySpace to the other networking sites, and then started refining my pitch. I met the editor of Allegory and volunteered to be an associate editor on the E-zine and landed my first publishing contract myself. So now it’s a balance of branding my name, writing, editing and learning more about the craft. While I’d like to have an agent and get my more mainstream books in the hands of the big markets, I can’t complain.

As for actually holding my first book in my hand, it's an amazing, surreal, joyous, unbelievable feeling that I can't begin to describe.

Now all I need to do is find balance between my writing life and my family life. Once I find that, I’ll be golden.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year.

My new year resolution is to pay a little more attention to my blogs. I've neglected them for too long. So prepare for a weekly rant from yours truly.
I received wonderful news a couple days ago, Mind Games, the second book in the Games trilogy has been picked up by eXcessica for release on November 29, 2010. A little over four months after Survival Games goes live. I'll have to work on the last of the series which is appropriately titled End Game and hopefully that can get on the docket for early 2011.

I also have a short story that is in the staff showcase over at Allegory in the January issue. Armageddon. So jump on over to www.allegoryezine.com and check out all the fabulous stories that made it into this edition. There were some stellar submissions and I had the joy of helping Ty Drago narrow down the maybe list to the final eight. It was a joy to read all the maybe's but a bear to try and pare that list down for both the best and a balance of fantasy, science fiction and horror.

Anyhow, submission period starts again in February, so we all get a breather to focus on our own writing. Once I finish polishing End Game, I'll start my focus back on the FBI series and start hunting for representation of that series. I already have 5 books (that need work) and a partial 6th in that series and I've been away from them for too long. It's time to get Special Agent Steve Williams back into hot water.

My wish for all the writers out there is for a prosperous and productive New Year!

JETaylor on writing Survival Games . . .

Now that Survival Games is going to see the light of day, I can share some of the more amusing stories relating to explaining the plot to folks like my family and my co-workers.

This was the first book I wrote when my family gave me carte-blanc to go for it and I'll tell you - after 20 years of not writing, the words sailed out. It took me less than a month to get the story on paper - of course after that it took two and a half years to refine it to what will be published - but the original book spilled out like a levy crumbling under a flood. And when I was done, I looked at what I created and had a 'holy shit' moment.

The book is dark and twisted, intense and graphic and I didn't realize I had that level of darkness in me - and the first draft of this book was much harsher than what will be in print in July - but regardless, I figured I'd better get over the WASP-bred embarrassment of creating something so controversial and steamy.

So I asked my father to read it.

Yes, my father.

Well, I'm sure I shocked the hell out of him but he didn't say much regarding how he felt about his little girl writing erotica or such a horrific tale. The one thing he did say is that it had a lot of sex - but he amended that by saying the subject matter warranted it and considering the plot line, he thought it was appropriate and not gratuitous. Overall he liked the story.

So after the slightly awkward conversation, he asked if I was done with the second book yet. He wanted to read that too - wanted to know what happened to the characters from the first book and as any writer knows, this is the best feeling in the world.

Ok - so I tested the waters with a co-worker and I'll tell you, the looks she gave me after she started the book - it was all I could do not to laugh every time I saw her. And then one day she asked a priceless question - she asked if I could teach her to dance because my main character in the book knows how to dance.

I did laugh then, because I have no rhythm what-so-ever. Two left feet and then some. And she thought there was reality based in the book. The only shred of “me” in the book is the fact that my favorite color is described. That’s where reality ends; the rest is just a figment of my imagination and a reflection of my nightmares.

I said, "Oh honey, the book is FICTION - I can't dance."

Needless to say she was both embarrassed and relieved.

The next slightly awkward moment was right after I announced to my co-workers that I got a publishing contract. It was one of those not so politically correct moments. Most of my co-workers know I’ve got an unpublished FBI agent series, but most of them didn't know about the erotica, so well, you can imagine the raised eyebrows.

My boss had announced to a group - did you know JET got a publishing contract? And of course, someone asked what type of book.

“It’s an Erotic Thriller.”

"Oh neurotic thriller? Like something by Woody Allen?"

I laughed and said "No - EROTIC thriller, like something by Jackie Collins." Bad example - but all it was all I could think of at the moment and while I turned about five shades of red - my co-worker tripled that. To lighten the shocked silence I added. “But I'm the one who’s neurotic."

So after tackling my parents and my co-workers, I feel confident I’ll be able to speak coherently and not turn sixty shades of red when I participate in a panel called "You write your mother with that pen?" at the Backspace Conference in New York City in May about incorporating sex scenes into your novels.

Anybody else have some fun stories about explaining their novels to friends and family? I’d love to hear them.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas . . .

Hello! It's snowing in CT and I figured I've neglected my blog long enough. The stew is on the stove simmering and the Christmas shopping is done, so I've got no more excuses. :)

November was a mad rush of a month - my first Nano and I didn't hit my goal. In the past 2 years I've done 4 successful Writing Marathons through Backspace hitting 50k or more in a month each pass but not this year.

This year it went by the wayside because I just didn't have the story fully baked in my head. I could sit here and blame it on the day job or sifting through the Allegory submissions or even on the edits for Survival Games or the holidays even, but every one of those reasons is just a lame excuse.

My brain was more centered on the things I need to do in the Games series, and the fixes I want to make in the FBI series. I do have 3 partial stories started and waiting for the timer to go off, but until I clean up the existing ones, I really can't seem to focus.

I did have some success with short stories though. I've written one for an eXcessica anthology and am editing my way through the second as we speak. I also have a third one due by year end and I don't know if I'll make that deadline with all the other items on my plate - but I'm sure going to try!

In the meantime, the release date for Survival Games was moved from May to July - just in time for the summer heat. :)

Well, the big fluffy flakes are falling and the fire is cranked in the wood stove, so it's time to get back to the creative side of writing.

I hope you all have a happy and healthy holiday!

BEWARE!!!

Some of you may have been following my back and forth with an Agent on my facebook page. She contacted me via that venue and asked me to attend her open house and call for submissions.

I immediately said thank you but no thank you, especially after the dead agent fiasco in August. And when I saw conflicting work history (she supposedly worked for the dead agent long before that agent opened her doors) - I wanted no part of it.

But I thought twice about just letting it go because I didn't want some writer desparate from rejections to jump at an open call for submission from an unknown and end up getting burned.

I wrote a note called Speaking to the Dead about the experience and what I learned, so those of you who are writers seeking representation, you might want to take a peek at the entry below this one.

That episode cultivated some of he best advice I've ever gotten. It was from a writer friend of mine (Keith - I adore you!) and here is his nugget of wisdom:

***
I'm sorry this happened, but it serves as a lesson to you and others: make sure you know something about the agent you're querying BEFORE you query. The fact that Googling her turns up nothing of real substance should be a warning sign. Even a new agent should have some history that shows them somehow involved in the publishing biz.

Bottom line: don't lower your sights in your desperation to get an agent.

You need somebody who can sell your book, not just somebody who likes your book. So I think you need to look for people for whom there is some indication that they are experienced enough - or at the very least somehow qualified through other expertise or connections - to represent your work. If they are so far off the grid that Googling reveals nothing, you have to wonder how effective they'd be in the very relationship-oriented business of selling books.

***

So it's not enough to be able to recognize "good writing" but they also need to know what will SELL and to know the publishing industry well enough to work the system. Enthusiasm is great - but it doesn't necessarily open doors.

I hope my Q&A session was enough to open eyes. The said agent may be legit - but with no verifyable experience - this is a very risky proposition.

If you jump the gun, you might get burned. So writer, beware!

Happy Writing and I wish you patience and prosperity!

JET

PS - After my posting of this note on Facebook as well as my last graceful thank you but no thank you - I'll wait to submit until you have verifiable sales - the agent in question blocked me and deleted my questions from the Open House forum. I guess she didn't want any hint of questioning her validity.