Author interview no.386 with writer Edward R Yatscoff

Welcome to the three hundred and eighty-sixth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with author Edward R Yatscoff. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello, Edward. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.

Edward: I live in Beaumont, Alberta, just outside of the provincial capital Edmonton.  I’ve always loved to read.  I taught my three children to read at an early age and back then found children’s chapter books lacking in many ways.  Just from my boyhood in the Niagara Peninsula in Ontario I knew I had better stories.  I jotted down incidents, situations, and people from back then.  Next was stringing them together in a story.  Same as my firefighting stories from throughout my career from firefighter to captain.

Morgen: I love that – Toni Morrison is quoted as saying “If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?

Edward: I suppose juvenile has taken the majority of my time.  Jumping into other genres right now would be crazy as I have enough on the go.

Morgen: I know that feeling but I can’t seem to stick to one genre unless ‘dark’ counts. What have you had published to-date? Do you write under a pseudonym?

Edward: No pseudonym, although I considered it.  There used to be a stigma attached to multi-genre writers criticized on one or the other or not being able to do both good enough, but I don’t think that exists any longer.  To date, I’ve written 5 juvenile / middle grade eBooks and am working on a 3rd firefighter novel Final Response.  Another juvenile VooDoo Boy is in the works.  Presently, 5 books are available online.  I have published YA short stories and travel articles, winning competitions in both categories.

Morgen: Back in November I interviewed Kurt Kamm who has written firefighting novels. Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?

Edward: A writer needs rejections if only to put him / her in their place.  It makes them realize their work is not the thing of beauty their spouses and friends told them it was.  I’ve posted many of my rejections–good and bad–on my website yatscoffbooks.com. If you read them you’ll know why I went to eBooks.

Morgen: You mentioned winning competitions, could you elaborate a little?

Edward: Won a trip for Deep Sea Fishing 101 in a travel competition in Sun Newspaper chain in Canada, placed honorable mention for a fiction piece in Polar Expressions Publishing, was included in 1997 Canadian Library YA Book of the Year (Thistledown Press).

Morgen: Well done. Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?

Edward: Actually I’ve had a few agents for short periods: one couldn’t sell anything, another was a scam in Florida, and one in NYC was anal about editing.  One died.  I’m baffled at what they want and ultimately what they choose: “…character is too complex for the age group”  “…your protagonist is too simple, a cardboard cut-out…”(same character).  I believe getting an agent and getting published is simply luck and timing.  It’s like art on the wall: I love it and have the money to buy it.  But you may hate it and would as soon burn it.

Morgen: It sounds like you were so unlucky and yes, I feel the same about art. You mentioned some of your books are available as eBooks, how involved were you in that process? Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?

Edward: All my novels are, and will be, available online.  I did all the required extensive formatting and my oldest son, an industrial designer, put together the cover art from my photos.  I read both formats, but when I travel it’s mainly eBooks to save space.  You can leave a paperback overnight beside the pool and it’ll be there in the morning.  Haven’t tried that yet with a Kindle.

Morgen: I guess it depends where you go, but I have a month-old Kindle Touch so wouldn’t like to try it. How much of the marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?

Edward: My youngest son in South Korea started me off with a website and getting involved in promotions on Goodreads.  The promotion was a free book Old Flames with a promise of an online review.  Very few readers took the time to review it.  Right now, and until June, I have a .99 cent juvenile promotion to introduce my readers to that genre.  I could probably do more but find I’d rather put my energy into writing right now.  I do Tweet  @ERYatscoff and post stuff on my blog if it’s to do with writing.  I have several short stories and some photos posted there, too.  I’ve also contributed columns to Storytime Standouts which is about young readers.  My 18-month-old granddaughter is very interested in books and I’m finding it interesting how she grows into it.

Morgen: It’s all a time juggle isn’t it. They say money can’t buy you happiness but it certainly can’t buy time and most of us could do with more hours in our days. Do you have a favourite of your books or characters? If any of your books were made into films, who would you have as the leading actors?

Edward: I loved writing Archie’s Gold a juvenile about Archie Crane, a tough shoeshine boy working the mean streets.  It’s a suspense / mystery and has many characters from my childhood in the setting of my hometown in Welland, Ontario.  Selling it was a huge let down as Tundra Books in Toronto gave me a verbal promise it would be listed on their 2007 fall list, then 2008 spring list, then, 2008 fall list, etc. then dropped without telling me as I waited patiently.  This, after they said they were “…high on it” and would likely be entered for several awards.  It proves that a verbal contract is only as good as the paper it’s written on. In my firefighter novels Dennis Quaid would play Captain Gerry Ormond.

Morgen: Dennis Quaid was in one of my favourite films, one that many have never heard of: Frequency. Did you have any say in the title / covers of your books? How important do you think they are?

Edward: Covers are important.  I believe they should try and evoke some imaging from at least some area of the book.  Yes, I do have complete control over mine.  My 3rd FF eBook began as Fire and Ice, until I searched the title on Amazon.  There are hundreds of books with the same, or variations of that title.  I scrapped that one and my writers group figured Too Late For Spring would be good because of it’s fitting name.  Then my wife said it sounded like a gardening book.  I thought about it and agreed.  Now it’s Final Response but I’m still not quite sold on it.  If anyone reads the synopsis on my website I’d welcome any ideas.

Morgen: What are you working on at the moment / next?

Edward: Final Response my 3rd firefighter novel is in final editing.  Spring and summer are coming and I hit the outdoors pretty good: fishing, boating, camping, etc. so hopefully it’ll be out by fall. Voodoo Boy is a new juvenile / middle grade about nasty citizens, dark secrets, and a clever boy manipulating a bully to get revenge on them.  I’ve got three chapters done on that one.  In my writers group The Blob…In My Shoes a juvenile, is running the gauntlet and should be available by Christmas.  This story underwent several wholesale changes including switching to as first person on the advice of a prominent publishing house who later changed their mind after I did all the work.

Morgen: Oh dear. I guess it makes you think about point of view. I converted the first 102 pages of a script I did for Script Frenzy April 2010 to the start (37 pages) of a lad lit novel – that was certainly an interesting exercise. Do you manage to write every day?

Edward: Fall, winter, and spring, are my best writing times for original projects.  Editing is done all year in bits and pieces.  I take great pains in editing.  I find it strange how after my fifth or sixth draft and then passing it through my writer’s group there are still minor mistakes.  Some kind of phantom must plague my work.

Morgen: I find that too unless I leave something for a while and then there are things my brain passes off as something else so I always have at least one first reader or editor. Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?

Edward: I’ve never had writers block.  Give me a topic and I’ll write you a flash fiction right now.

Morgen: I’m the same and am just finishing Story a Day May today and will have written 31 stories in 31 days. The majority are flash fiction and the prompts were much harder than last year but it’s spurred me on to keep going with a new 5PM Fiction slot on this blog. Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?

Edward: I work very hard in establishing the first chapter.  It puts me on the road toward a finish that I never envisioned, surprising me.  The process of creativity is fascinating.  Characters and events shape my story and lead me on.  I know many writers use software: click to add suspense, click to speed things up, etc. and I like to think I can tell one when I read it.

Morgen: I’ve not heard of that. My goodness, I’m not sure I’d like that. The fun of writing is the writing. You’ve just mentioned characters, do you have a method for creating yours, their names and what do you think makes them believable?

Edward: My characters are always unsure of themselves, even my firefighter captain who is caught out of his element more than a few times.  When in uniform he’s a lion, when out of it he can be sometimes very ordinary, but he reluctantly comes up big.  My boys are the same, basically unassuming, but determination, smarts, and grit drive them on through their problems.  They are picked on and sometimes brutalized with no backup, or magic wand, or talking creature to turn to.  They don’t have any kind of special power.  It’s old fashioned I know, but kids have to live in this world and sort through their own lives, usually on their own for better or worse.

Morgen: I think it’s a great idea to keep it real. Every story has to be believable, fantasy or otherwise. Do you write any non-fiction or poetry?

Edward: I’m not thrilled with poetry although Haiku is great.  Non-fiction is travel articles.

Morgen: Ah yes. I say I don’t ‘get’ poetry but do like Haiku, and Fibonacci because they’re quite simple but show mine to a poet and they’d probably tear it to shreds. Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?

Edward: Like Malcolm Gladwell says in TIPPING POINT: he reckons 10,000 hours in a discipline is the point where many begin to achieve success.  I’ve done at least that.  As time goes on I do require less editing.

Morgen: I’d say I spend about 10 hours a day on blog-related issues on my computer each day (far too much, I know, mostly emails) so times that by 14 months and I’m about half-way. It sounds like you’re writing what you know, do you have to do much research?

Edward: Some for my firefighter novels on the Red Mafiya and guns.  After 30 years in the fire service, I reached a confidence and competency in command and control operations and squelching most of my fears.  In one of my upcoming juveniles The Far Bank which is set in my hometown along the Welland Canal, I had to find some measurements on the canal and the size of the boats plying the Great Lakes.

Morgen: That sounds like fun research. I’ve set most of my longer pieces around where I live. It makes it easier to picture places although the internet is a great boon to writers today. What point of view do you find most to your liking: first person or third person?

Edward: I like 1st person for my juveniles and third person ‘close’ for my adult novels.  I like reading one-sided angles as I’d rather not know what the bad guys are plotting until they make their move.

Morgen: Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?

Edward: I think one fiction piece from many years ago.  It had a storyline of a moon mission and aliens up there caught accidently on a photo and the furore it caused on earth when one astronaut never came back.  There’s been a movie lately on something similar, Apollo 18 I think.

Morgen: There are supposed to only be seven basic plots so I think you can be forgiven for writing something already done. West Side Story was a Romeo & Juliet remake. What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life? Has anything surprised you?

Edward: My favorite is writing juvenile / middle grade.  Squeezing my brain has wrung out a lot of old memories, some good, some bad.  Least favorite is not getting even 5% of readers to write a review after offering Old Flames for free back in November.  The emergence and strength of eBooks has surprised me.  I was prepared to continue on, getting rejections, hopeful as ever until the Tundra Books thing I’ve mentioned.  That was the last straw.

Morgen: They say what knocks us down makes us stronger and a successful writer is one who didn’t give up and you being here today proves that you’re not. What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Edward: First and foremost is to write it, get it on paper.  Then secondly, editing.  Join a writers group or form a writers group.  You need honest feedback.  A writers group instils discipline to get something written for the next meeting.  If you play guitar by your lonesome in the basement you may think you’re Eric Clapton (so do friends and relatives), but you’re not.  You’ve got to take it out and work with other musicians to truly be proficient.  Everyone wants to be a writer, but few really put the time into proper editing, and that’s the knock on eBooks.  A bad review might stay online forever.  Self-editing is not that difficult, there’s plenty of advice online about it, including my quick methods.  Don’t ever show your 1st draft to anyone, it’s too raw and crappy, and invites cruel remarks which may damage your ego and encourage you to quit altogether.  A joke I came across with editing meanings:

A secretary got an expensive PEN as a birthday gift from her boss.  She sent her boss a ‘Thank You’ note via SMS. The wife read the text and angrily shows her husband the message:

“Your penis wonderful, I enjoyed using it last night. Thanks.”  Spaces are essential. The devil is in the details.

“Books aren’t written – they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn’t quite done it.” ― Michael Crichton

Morgen: I love that. I have a couple of edits to go on most of mine then. (And I used to be a secretary, never received a pen as a gift) If you could invite three people from any era to dinner, who would you choose and what would you cook (or hide the takeaway containers)?

Edward: Tarzan because like all of us, “Tarzan no like grammar.”  My grandfather, George, who was a big shot in town: smoked big cigars and drove fancy cars.  During prohibition he was a rum-rummer in the Detroit area which probably developed his mean streak.  I’d serve rum soaked chicken.  Ho-Chi Minh is an overlooked world leader, rarely mentioned when pivotal historical figures are discussed.  My wife and spent last winter in SE Asia and the trip turned out to be a huge cultural and historical trip.  Uncle Ho had the temerity to go up against the mighty U.S. military and he persevered.  What on earth possessed him to think he could do that?  I think Gloria’s apple pie would do for him.  Toss up here: Ferdinand Magellan, Captain Cook, or Sir Francis Drake.  All circumnavigated the globe at a time of myths and fear of the unknown.  I think a spread of Canadian bacon, Shanghai noodles (my recipe), a bowl of Humus or Poi, Kim-Chee, and Tandoori Chicken.

Morgen: Maybe two dinner parties then. You’ve just quoted Michael Crichton but is there a word, phrase or another quote you like?

Edward: “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” – Martin Luther King 1963

In this day and age these people are here but you have to look for them.  Too bad political leaders don’t subscribe to this.

Morgen: Are you involved in anything else writing-related other than actual writing or marketing of your writing?

Edward: My writers group.  They’ve provided me with discipline, honest advice, competent editing, and are a real outlet for creativity and writing humor.  Do we take ourselves seriously?  Yes and no.  Our skins are thick enough to bear a monthly whipping.  Sometimes I do smaller home renos for winter escape money.

Morgen: I run or belong to four groups and they’re great. I can’t imagine quitting them regardless of what happens career-wise. What do you do when you’re not writing? Any hobbies or party tricks?

Edward: I read a lot.  I like to break up my thriller / suspense / mystery reading with a good non-fiction or historical fiction.  I fish for trout and walleye, float my boat down the beautiful North Saskatchewan River.  In the winter, I work out and swim once a week at the local community center.  Since retiring I spent at least a month in warmer climes.  Any books I read I post on Goodreads and another book review site eBook reviews R’us where anyone can also post reviews.

Morgen: I know Goodreads but the other is a new one to me. Are there any writing-related websites and/or books that you find useful?

Edward: I usually pop into Goodreads or Linked-In at their specific eBook / writing / reading areas.

Morgen: LinkedIn is great (and probably where we first met). What do you think the future holds for a writer?

Edward: A brave new world.  More power and control for writers.  Hopefully, we’ll see a few gatekeepers with minimum standards at online sites to, at the very least, sift through poorly-edited manuscripts.  Many, many famous writers had rejections but stuck with submitting because they had no other option.  These days with eBooks, how many rejections will an author tolerate before going online?  This begs the question of where the next famous writers will come from.  The answer is surely, from eBooks.  Agents and publishers will, more and more, peruse eBook sites to discover talent, even though they’ll only get half the rights (hardcopies) and be forced to put more money into marketing new authors, which is becoming less and less these days.  The Chapters Indigo chain in Canada now gives new authors 45 days to sell and cultivate a following–the time period from initially ordering the book, making actual shelf time even less.

Morgen: I still think reviews will be the making of some books – an author can only have so many friends. Where can we find out about you and your work?

Edward: My website www.yatscoffbooks.com I’ve posted short stories there, too.

Morgen: Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

Edward: I have one juvenile eBook Out on a Limb available for .99 cents, a special promotion for a limited time.  I’m trying to get more readers interested in my juvenile stories, hoping they’ll eventually check out the others.  What I can’t understand is so many eBook authors undervaluing their work by continually offering their longer stories for .99 cents.  It brings all books down.  Readers will come to expect all eBooks to be cheap, putting more expensive ones in an unfavorable light.

Morgen: I think a balance is best; .99 for something short but longer works for slightly higher. I don’t agree with some authors charging almost as much for an eBook as a paperback when the manufacturing costs are vastly different. Is there anything you’d like to ask me?

Edward: Your site is so full, how do you find the time to do all you online?  You can’t be working full-time.  The little bit I do takes plenty of time as it is, but I’m retired from full-time work.  There’s no advertising on your site.  How do you make some coin?

Morgen: I was working part-time but left mid-March and boy, has the time flown. I don’t make a penny (or a cent) out of my blog (and vigorously want to avoid third-party advertising that devalue (in my opinion) some sites) but see it as a marketing tool for me as a ‘brand’ and for my eBooks (when I finally get the novels online!). I enjoy it so I don’t mind. Thank you, Edward. It’s been great speaking with you.

Edward has circled the globe counter-clockwise on the hippie trail, worked as a paperboy, grocery clerk, sales rep, iron worker, framer, painter, mink ranch hand, assembly line rubber plant worker, cherry picker, framer, freelance astronaut (no offers), boilermaker apprentice, various sales jobs, delivery driver, and career firefighter and officer.  Now, he’s retired leaving Edmonton Fire Rescue as a station captain after 32 years. He lives in Beaumont, AB. with his Gloria. He writes, travels extensively, does a bit of fishing and boating, drinks demon rum, manages a writers group, does occasional renos, repairs everything he has that’s wearing down or breaking, and manages to escape winter at least for a month every year.

If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the questions. You complete them, I tweak them where appropriate (if necessary to reflect the blog ‘clean and light’ rating) and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything… and follow me on Twitter where each new posting is automatically announced. You can also read / download my eBooks and free eShorts at Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore, Kobo and Amazon, with more to follow. I have a new forum and you can follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, like me on Facebook, connect with me on LinkedIn, find me on Tumblr, complete my website’s Contact me page or plain and simple, email me.  I also now have a new blog creation service especially for, but not limited to, writers.

Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them)  on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are weekly episodes, usually released Monday mornings UK time, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.

 

Author interview no.379 with writer Robert Spiller

Welcome to the three hundred and seventy-ninth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with multi-genre author Robert Spiller. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello, Robert. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.

Robert: I am a former Mathematics teacher (university, high school, middle school), who recently retired after 35 years to write full time.  I live in beautiful Colorado Springs, Colorado.

When my second marriage evaporated, I went on a three-week bike ride and brought along 5 spiral notebooks.  What I wrote on this emotional excursion turned into my first novel, a science fiction piece entitled The Children of Yei.  The novel won second prize at a Writing Conference but I couldn’t give that epitome of fine literature away.  It wasn’t until I started writing mysteries: The Witch of Agnesi, A Calculated Demise, Irrational Numbers, Radical Equations (to be released in print copy later this month) that I became published.

Morgen: A novel in three weeks, wow. That’s better than NaNoWriMo. In the introduction I called you “multi-genre”, what genres do you write?

Robert: I write an amateur sleuth mystery series with a female Mathematics teacher who solves murders in a small Colorado town.  I have written two sci-fi novels, two historic Young Adult novels, and am currently working on a horror piece that gives me nightmares.

Morgen: Ooh great, then it’ll give us nightmares… or you may not mean it like that. What have you had published to-date?

Robert: The Witch of Agnesi – 2006, A Calculated Demise – 2007, Irrational Numbers – 2008 and Radical Equations – print release Feb 2012

The first three were with Medallion Press, Radical Equations is through Courtney Literary.

Morgen: (they’re brilliant covers) Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?

Robert: I just recently threw away over a hundred rejections that I promised myself I would keep until I died.  Obviously, I didn’t keep that promise.  When I was trying to sell the first Bonnie Pinkwater mystery, The Witch of Agnesi, I sent out so many queries and packets that once I received 12 rejections in one day.  As for how I deal with rejections, I really don’t let it get to me (I just assume they don’t understand my genius).

Morgen: Absolutely. It’s just the right thing for the wrong person, and you kept going. I only have 20-something rejections but I’ve made myself that same promise because I think any author who has had a bumpy road can see how far they’ve come… plus they get to stick their tongue out at rejectors (I don’t suppose that’s even a word but hey, if we can’t make them up, who can?) when they are successful. Have you won or been shortlisted in any competitions?

Robert: My first novel, The Children of Yei won second prize in the Paul Gillette Writing Contest at the Pikes Peak Writing Conference.

Morgen: Oh well done. I bet you were thrilled. Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?

Robert: I have had a few agents, but at the moment am unrepresented by a literary agent.  I would love to find someone to help me find a home for my Historic YA mysteries.

Morgen: Let’s hope one’s reading you now. I’ve had three (British) tell me they’re after more historical so it is a genre that’s being sought after. Are your books available as eBooks? Were you involved in that process at all? Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?

Robert: All of my books are available as e-books: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords.  In fact the most recent, Radical Equations was published as an e-book in December but will only be available in print later in February 2012.  A good friend gave me a Kindle for a retirement gift and so I’m reading more and more e-books.

Morgen: I’ve had a Kindle since January and I love it, although I’ll still read both formats. How much of the marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?

Robert: I am working with a wonderful promoter, Deb Courtney, who has given me a marketing plan that requires me to do a list of tasks for each reiteration of the plan.  I have done signings, speaking engagements, readings, interviews, taught classes at conferences, visited schools.  I am actively involved with Goodreads (I have two giveaways running), have a blog: http://spillerwrites.blogspot.com, a website: http://rspiller.com, use Twitter, Facebook, and am a member of a whole slew of author sites.

Morgen: You’re certainly doing all the right things by the sound of it – you just have to keep plugging away. Do you have a favourite of your books or characters? If any of your books were made into films, who would you have as the leading actor/s?

Robert: Truth is I have thought of this a bunch.  I always picture one particular actress playing Bonnie – Bette Midler.  Annette Benning also works.  My current favourite book is Radical Equations – but I’ve always liked whatever I’m working on.  My favourite character besides my sleuth Bonnie Pinkwater is Rhiannon Griffith, Bonnie’s Wiccan sidekick. She’s the perfect female foil for Bonnie’s analytic nature: smart, compassionate, generous, and she doesn’t take guff from Bonnie.

Morgen: Bette Midler is great. I like Annette Benning but Bette, in my opinion anyway, has more of a stage presence… she’s cheeky. What are you working on at the moment / next?

Robert: Two books really.  The next Bonnie Pinkwater mystery, Napier’s Bones.  And a horror novel set in the aftermath of World War II.

Morgen: They all sound quite in depth, do you have to do much research?

Robert: Each Bonnie Pinkwater mystery features a historic mathematician, so I research their lives.  Each is used in some fashion to give Bonnie that AHA moment necessary to solving the murders.  The Witch of Agnesi featured Marie Agnesi, A Calculated Demise featured Hypatia of Alexandria, who herself was murdered, Irrational Numbers featured Sonya Kovalevskaya, and Radical Equations features Leonhard Euler.  So along with a satisfying mystery the reader gets to learn about these fascinating people.

Morgen: I have to say I’ve not heard of them (history isn’t my strong point) but I know there are people out there who will know so you do especially have to get your facts right because they’ll be eager enough to tell you. If you could invite three people from any era to dinner, who would you choose and what would you cook (or hide the takeaway containers)?

Robert: 1.  Hypatia of Alexandria (we would have cheese, bread and seasoned olive oil).  She was the daughter of the last librarian of the great library.  She was an advocate of reason and many people believe her murder was orchestrated by a man who later became pope.

2. Ghandi (we would fast)

3. Tecumseh, the great Native American chief.  Back when the North America had more Indians than white folks he almost succeeded in driving us out.  We would dine on pemmican (whatever the heck that is).

Morgen: Um… Google tells me it’s an indigenous sausage. http://www.natureskills.com/wild-foods/recipe-pemmican Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?

Robert: I’ve always been partial to ‘Remember the Snodens of Yesteryear’ from Catch 22.  I also like ‘Don’t Panic.’ from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe series.

Morgen: Brain the size of a planet and all they ask me to do is pick up pieces of paper. Actually Douglas Adams said one of my favourite quotes… something like ‘I love deadlines – the sound as they woosh by’. Are you involved in anything else writing-related other than actual writing or marketing of your writing?

Robert: I am currently using my blog (http://spillerwrites.blogspot.com) to develop a class on Setting.  I teach writing classes in Humor, and the Care and Feeding of Critique Groups.

Morgen: I like the sound of those, especially the latter (because I belong to four). What do you think the future holds for a writer?

Robert: I believe more and more writers will go the self-publishing route, as it becomes increasingly easier to put work out yourself.  I’ve heard the argument that this will precipitate a decline in quality, but I have faith that people will read what is exceptional and tell their friends.  Plus there are more and more avenues of review that readers could access (Goodreads, etc) to learn what is good and what is drek.

Morgen: Exactly, that’s what I think; that the reviews will out. Where can we find out about you and your work?

Robert: First of all a reader could check my website: http://rspiller.com.  All my work is available in e-book and print form on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, and can be ordered through most bookstores.

Morgen: Brilliant, thank you Robert.

If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the questions. You complete them, I tweak them where appropriate (if necessary to reflect the blog ‘clean and light’ rating) and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything… and follow me on Twitter where each new posting is automatically announced. You can also read / download my eBooks and free eShorts at Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore, Kobo and Amazon, with more to follow. I have a new forum and you can follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, like me on Facebook, connect with me on LinkedIn, find me on Tumblr, complete my website’s Contact me page or plain and simple, email me.  I also now have a new blog creation service especially for, but not limited to, writers.

Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them)  on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are weekly episodes, usually released Monday mornings UK time, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.

 

Author interview no.376 with YA fantasy writer L Filloon

Welcome to the three hundred and seventy-sixth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with YA fantasy / paranormal author L Filloon. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

M: Hello. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.

L: Hi!  I’m currently living in Las Vegas, Nevada and have been here for the last 17 years.  I’ve been writing since I can remember, but didn’t really get serous until much later in life.  As a child I would make up short stories, write poetry and then play them out… a theatre for one!  I still have some of those stories and poetry and it’s bittersweet to read the thoughts and fantasies of the younger me.  When I left the hotel business due to cutbacks I decided to sit and finally put some endings to the many unfinished works from years past.  The Binding is my first completed published work.  It’s now available as eBook on Amazon.com.

M: “a theatre for one” I love that. What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?

L: Typically I write urban young adult fantasy / paranormal.  I do have a work in progress for middle-grade readers about a boy name Thomas Kane.  It’s very exciting and I can’t wait to get back to it.  Currently, I am working on the second book to The Binding (not yet titled).

M: Tell us about ‘The Binding’ (wonderful cover, by the way).

L: I’m so excited about the release!  It’s been a crazy road of promotions, marketing, reviews, interviews and social media interactions with readers and other writers.  I am having so much fun sharing the book, along with receiving feedback and reactions from readers have been just amazing!

The Binding is set in modern day with a fantasy twist.  Lily Michaels was born and raised in San Diego.  She’s never been further than the surrounding cities until the night she was attacked, by no other than her brother who disappeared four years ago.  It was the attack that brought Tharin Lunar crashing into her world, literally.  Since then, she discovers that, of course, her brother still lives, but is trying to kill her; she’s a Halfling elf who is not only the rightful heir to the throne of the Willow Clan, but is betroth to Tharin, the young Sidhe prince who saved her.  From the moment of their meetings Lily and Tharin have been staying one step ahead of assassins, warlocks, ogres and trolls.  Not to mention trying to stay balanced from their own roller coaster feelings for one another.

It is fun, it is fast pace action and adventure, and just beneath the surface of this story is a tale of first love.  It is absolutely wonderful!

M: Fast pace is so important (and hard to do). It sounds great. You mentioned a follow up…

L: My next release will be the follow-up to The Binding.  It is currently untitled but it continues the story of Lily and Tharin.

M: Readers love series… agents have told me they love series. Do you listen to music while writing? If so what?

L: Actually, it’s not so much that I am listening to music, or the television, it’s about not being distracted by silence.  For me, if there is not something going on in the background in my household, something is amiss.  I am then bound to stop writing, or even thinking of my next sentence, get up and search the house for the reason why it’s so quite.

When I do listen, however, Adele and Sam Cooke are favourites to listen to, but I usually like the old school, like The Drifters, Gladys Knight and the Pips, The Manhattans.  I also like to listen to old souls; Phil Collins, Joss Stone, Aerosmith and many more.  These classics have old souls that ease my own.

M: Are you a morning person or night person?

L: Definitely night.  I seem to be able to write in the late hours that eventually turn into dusk.  The house is quiet except for whatever is on TV.  The refrigerator is fully loaded with Dr. Pepper and Haagen Daz strawberry ice cream.  I can hear the snoring of my husband and cats…all in tune with what’s on the TV.  It’s perfect time for writing!

M: I’m the opposite (and live up to my name). I’d rather get up early (although recently it’s been both). Going off track a little (not like me at all), say your publisher has offered to fly you anywhere in the world to do research on an upcoming book, where would you most likely want to go?

L: Ireland!  I have been dreaming of going to Ireland since I first saw a picture of it in a book during my senior year in high school.  I still remember the moment and the feeling I had when I saw that picture.  It was a traveling book that belong to our ASB secretary (Associated Student Body), Mrs. Barrett.  She left it on her desk opened to a picture of a green, I mean the purest of green, rolling hillside that spread across two pages of the book.  The sky was a crisp crystal blue and I remember feeling as if I could reach through the pages and be pulled in to find myself rolling down that grassy hill in the cool sunshine!  I have been in love with the knowledge that someday I will visit that green place.  A place called Eire.

M: I live in the next country along and I’ve never been! I’ve only ever been to Scotland once (Edinburgh mostly, and loved it) the year before last. So after The Binding’s follow-up, what then?

L: There is a middle grade series that I was working on after the completion of The Binding.  It’s called Thomas Kane and…(not ready for public view).  It’s a wonderful story and it’s still under wraps.  However, it’s a fun adventure for young Thomas and his friends Sam, Emma and Lisme.  It’s a five-book series and I’m anxious to get back to working on it.  However, I have been pleasantly surprise to receive so many emails asking for the follow up to The Binding.  So, until the yet to be titled follow up is completed, Thomas Kane will have to sit patiently until I call upon him and his friends to take me off to another adventure!

M: That’s great! I had a lovely email recently from a young lady (<13) asking for a follow-up to my short story April’s Fool and I’d not thought of going any further but it’s one of my favourites so I will do something. Do you have a favourite quote or saying?

L: I have learned so much since publishing The Binding.  Some good, some not so good.  And when the not so good happens it can be pretty daunting.  However, I’ve learned to roll with the punches and keep moving forward.  You just can’t please everyone and in the end, you have to write YOUR story.  Although The Binding was published in December of 2011, it’s still in its infancy in regards to promotion and marketing.  I have been fortunate so far with solid reviews and good feedback that sometimes is not in the positive.  I haven’t received any harsh reviews, yet, but when they come I will continue to remind myself of an old Japanese proverb.  Even monkeys fall out of trees.

M: You definitely do have to keep an open mind. I’d received a 4* on Goodreads for Feeding The Father then a 1* from a woman saying she was glad it was free and that it had put her off reading anything else of mine, which is obviously a shame but I found it quite funny (and even clicked the ‘like’ button) that my writing could make someone feel so strongly. But she read it. I write to be read, and because there’s nothing more I’d rather be doing. How do we find you online?

L: I do have a blog at www.lfilloon.blogspot.com, which I’m terrible about keeping current, but I do my best.  I currently do not have a website, but its in the works.  However, you can reach me at my blog or on Facebook.

M: Thank you.

I then invited an extract of her writing and this is an excerpt from THARIN…

“It’s only a scratch, why did she collapse?” asks Tolan.  I shake my head unsure.

“I don’t know,” I reply.  “She passed out at the sight of you, rather than from any wound that I can see.”

“Well, that’s not very flattering…considering, I’m better looking than you are,” Tolan says, searching her face.  “She is beautiful.  She doesn’t seem to have her height, but she has her mother’s coloring. She’s definitely Senestra’s daughter.  Her brother being here further confirms it.”

“Thanks to you, he didn’t kill her.  I suppose Velesi owes you a debt, brother.”  There is this feeling of a connection with her.  That feeling suddenly pisses me off.  I don’t want anything more to do with her except for what’s needed for Velesi.

“And you, you also owe me a debt,” says Tolan breaking into my thoughts.  After a moment he quietly adds, “You know that Kalis was never meant to be in your future.”

I lift the girl up and feel a pang of guilt in my handling of her earlier.  Upon closer inspection, I can see her pale skin, clear and flawless.  I look at the pink scratch under her eye. It fills me with surprising rage.  It’s just a cut, why am I so outraged?  Is it because of the thought of Lucas attempting to kill his own sister, who was unarmed and innocent?  Innocent?  I think about that for a moment.  Maybe, but she’s still Lucas’ sister.

L. Filloon has been writing since she was a young girl growing up in Oahu, Hawaii.  She’s kept journals of her writing from a young age and has only shared them with her eldest daughter Tia.  It wasn’t until two years ago she decided to take her writing more seriously and began writing about young adult fantasy stories.  Although she has files full of stories from young warriors in Ancient China, to young adults paranormal of angels and demons, to the fantasy realms of elves, ogres and trolls her first published work is The Binding now out on Amazan.com.

Ms. Filloon currently lives in Las Vegas, Nevada.  When she’s not writing, she’s spending time with her soul mate Anthony, daughter Tia, son Michael and staying in touch with her daughter Andrea in Phoenix, Arizona via texting or on FaceBook.  Her two cats Cobie and Ralphie are the bane of her existence.  She keeps threatening to toss them to the Silver Wolves of Velesi, but they rub themselves against her with soft meows and they are safe… for another day. And she’s mentioned this interview on her blog.

If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the questions. You complete them, I tweak them where appropriate (if necessary to reflect the blog ‘clean and light’ rating) and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything… and follow me on Twitter where each new posting is automatically announced. You can also read / download my eBooks and free eShorts at Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore, Kobo and Amazon, with more to follow. I have a new forum and you can follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, like me on Facebook, connect with me on LinkedIn, find me on Tumblr, complete my website’s Contact me page or plain and simple, email me.  I also now have a new blog creation service especially for, but not limited to, writers.

Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them)  on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are weekly episodes, usually released Monday mornings UK time, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.

 

Author Spotlight no.86 – Kathryn Jones

Complementing my daily blog interviews, today’s Author Spotlight, the eighty-sixth, is of Christian and cozy mystery author Kathryn Jones.

Kathryn has been a published writer since 1987. She has published various newspaper stories, magazine articles, essays and short stories for teens and adults.  She is the author of: “A River of Stones”, a young adult fiction novel dealing with divorce published in 2002, and “Conquering your Goliaths—A Parable of the Five Stones”, a Christian novel published in January of 2012. Her newest creation, a “Conquering your Goliaths—Guidebook”, was published in February of 2012.

And now from the author herself:

I used to believe in writer’s block. It was a good excuse for not writing; kind of like the excuse I gave (and still give) for neglecting to mop my floors. I hate to mop floors because it takes so much time, and I used to have writer’s block because it took so much time to come up with something to write about. No more.

For the last few years I have decided there’s no such thing as writer’s block. Instead, I have many great ways to get my writing moving. Here are three of my favorites:

• I have a binder filled with magazine pictures that I find interesting in one way or another. Most of them are ads. The great thing about ads is the words used to define the picture, words that help me to get started on my writing. The picture helps too because I can visualize a scene associated with it. One of my favorite pictures is of a man and a woman at the spa. Both have cucumbers on their eyes and a drink on a small end table to quench their thirst. They both seem content, but I can’t help wonder if the man is as content as he seems. Is it macho for a man to go to a spa, even with his wife? Would he really put cucumbers on his eyes? Thoughts like these get me writing.
• A book is a good resource for ideas. Just open the book to any page and point to a sentence without looking at it. These are the first few words of your short story or novel. Just now I picked one up. It read: “Mama kept glancing at Mary Toy and finally dabbed at her face with a lace handkerchief” (Cold Sassy Tree, Page 53). The idea here is not to actually use the line you point to in your final draft; it’s to get you thinking about your own story.
• When was the last time you rode the bus? When was the last time you wrote about what others said while traveling, how the city looked from the bus windows, and who got on and off the bus? This is a great exercise to get your writing moving. The last time I did this exercise, I came away with two story ideas—the first I wrote almost entirely on the bus. It was about a young girl’s conversation with a homeless man and her offering of her coat to keep him warm during the bitter winter.

Not believing in writer’s block is only half the battle in writing your next piece. The other half must be filled with options to get you writing again. Something all writers want.

Thank you Kathryn. I run a fortnightly writing workshop and we often use magazine pictures. If you know how to get ideas you should be able to never run out of stories.

You can find more about Kathryn and her writing via her website: http://www.ariverofstones.com.

The blog interviews will return as normal tomorrow with sci-fi and fantasy paranormal author Caron Rider – the three hundred and seventy-fifth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me.

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything… and follow me on Twitter where each new posting is automatically announced. You can also read / download my eBooks and free eShorts at Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore, Kobo and Amazon, with more to follow. I have a new forum and you can follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, like me on Facebook, connect with me on LinkedIn, find me on Tumblr, complete my website’s Contact me page or plain and simple, email me.  I also now have a new blog creation service especially for, but not limited to, writers.

Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them)  on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are weekly episodes, usually released Monday mornings UK time, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.

 

Author interview no.373 with writer Jackie Anton

Welcome to the three hundred and seventy-third of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with children’s author and romance novelist Jackie (J.M.) Anton. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello, Jackie. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.

Jackie: Thank you for this interview opportunity. My writing began as a civics assignment in junior high, what is now called middle school. That was one of the most frightening events in my life. Shaking like a leaf in a windstorm, I gripped the lectern to keep from falling over. Following that trauma, my writing became a very private past time for many years. Ohio has been my home for most of my life.

Morgen: I’m pleased your nerves didn’t put you off when it could easily have done. What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?

Jackie: Most of my works that will be published are family-friendly chapter books. The Backyard Horse Tales series was intended for readers ages 8 to 12. However, after meeting adult fans ranging in age to 93 at a recent book-signing event, I now promote the series as reading level 8 to adult. A change of pace and genre are the adult romance novels.

Morgen: Both very popular genres. What have you had published to-date? Do you write under a pseudonym?

Jackie: Backyard Horse Tales / Sox 2nd edition was released March 2012. Sox’s story like the entire series is narrated from the horse’s point of view. The first four chapters of the third book in the series was published on Feb.6, 2012 in response to fans asking for Love’s tale. “Don’t Call Me Love” can be purchased or sampled at http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/jackieanton. I do write the adult novels under the pen name J.M. Anton.

Morgen: I love it when fans ask for things (like asking for short stories to keep going). Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?

Jackie: I guess anyone who writes has had rejections. My first one was in 2005. It was the catalyst for my returning to college, after a nearly thirty-year absence, to bone up on English composition and creative writing classes.

Morgen: That’s dedication for you. Have you won or been shortlisted in any competitions?

Jackie: Not yet, but my editor has urged me to enter several. Sox’s tale has been gathering some great early reviews, so I think that I will enter a few this year.

Morgen: Oh great, do let me know how you get on – we can put an update at the end. Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?

Jackie: No I don’t have one, though I have interviewed several. Agents are probably very useful for approaching traditional publishers.

Morgen: I would say so but it’s more difficult to get an agent than a publisher, certainly in the UK, so a lot of people are going their own way, like eBooking. Are your books available as eBooks? Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?

Jackie: I think in today’s market you have to have an e-book offering as well as a print version your books. I purchased my first e-reading device last November, mostly to see what books looked like in that medium. I have read and reviewed several e-books, but I love the feel of a real book. I am much more comfortable with the good old page-turners, and it is much easier to turn back a page or even to a previous chapter with physical books.

Morgen: Most people have said that. Only a handful have said they prefer an ereader or would never try eBooks. How much of the marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?

Jackie: I market as much as possible, and still continue to write.

Morgen: A balancing act, I’m sure. Do you have a favourite of your books or characters? If any of your books were made into films, who would you have as the leading actor/s?

Jackie: Sox tale would probably make a wonderful animated film.

Morgen: I can just imagine the horse on your cover coming to life. Did you have any say in the title / covers of your books? How important do you think they are?

Jackie: Yes I do have the final say in both the title and the covers. That is the biggest drawback to traditional publishing, not having a say in what happens to your work.

Morgen: What are you working on at the moment / next?

Jackie: The 2011 NaNoWriMo winning entry, “The Universal Search for Mr. Right ” is in final edit. It will be an e-book in late April, and print by July of 2012.

Expect “Backyard Horse Tale 2 Frosty and the Nightstalker” in the fall, and the completed version of “Don’t Call Me Love” in time for the Christmas season. Excerpts of my pending works as well as release dates may be found on my blog http://jackieanton.com.

Morgen: You certainly sound very busy. Do you manage to write every day? Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?

Jackie: I try to write a minimum of 500 words a day. If I hit a snag on something, I just work on one of my other projects, edit, or go ride my horse and forget about it for a while.

Morgen: Good plan. I’d only just realised recently that 300 words a day is a 100,000 word novel which is astounding when you come to think of it. Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?

Jackie: A little of both, I guess. When I get an idea I jot it down then develop the characters. I may work out the plot and a time line ahead or during my edit and revision process while I am developing the story. It really depends on the storyline and genre.

Morgen: You mention characters, do you have a method for creating your characters?

Jackie: Most of my characters are based on composites of family, friends, strange experiences and events.

Morgen: So they’d have to be nice to you. Do you write any non-fiction, poetry or short stories?

Jackie: Horse club newsletters, coming events fall under non-fiction. There are a few short stories waiting to see the light of day.

Morgen: I love short stories and I think it’s great practice to write different lengths; it makes you think about de-waffling novels (as I’ve had to do). I can better tell where I’m going wrong these days so I can chop before I start going off somewhere where I know is only going to be chopped later. Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?

Jackie: The more writing I do the less revision and self-editing is required, before sending the work off to an editor.

Morgen: Exactly. It’s just practice, isn’t it. Do you have to do much research?

Jackie: I do a lot of research. Works with historical content take considerably more time than modern time lines that I either have personal experience with, or can research quickly online.

Morgen: Aren’t we lucky, being writers today with all this information to hand. What point of view do you find most to your liking: first person or third person?

Jackie: I use first person for Backyard Horse Tales, but mostly third person on other works.

Morgen: Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?

Jackie: Notebooks full of them!

Morgen: Oh dear. What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life? Has anything surprised you?

Jackie: It is fun developing stories, and seeing characters develop. Time away from family and friends has to be the downside to my writing endeavour.

Morgen: It’s the same for me; the creating is definitely the best bit. Time, though not from family and friends (because the latter are mostly writers too) is definitely my bugbear. What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Jackie: Keep at it.

Morgen: Absolutely, a successful writer is one who didn’t give up. What do you do when you’re not writing?

Jackie: My husband and I ride our horses on most days. I still draw and paint some, work in the vegetable or flower garden. Visit with our grandchildren.

Morgen: Are there any writing-related websites and/or books that you find useful?

Jackie: One of the most helpful links for aspiring authors is http://www.livewritethrive.com. I’ve subscribed to this site and find it very helpful in keeping me focused.

Morgen: I don’t know that one, thank you. Are you on any forums or networking sites? If so, how valuable do you find them?

Jackie: I have spent a lot of time on getting acquainted with the LibraryThing, and recently participated in their review give away in exchange for member readers reviews. It was well worth doing.

http://www.librarything.com/profile/BackyardHorse My facebook page has been very helpful in reaching other equine enthusiasts.  http://www.facebook.com/jackie.anton2  Linkedin writing, and equine groups have been very helpful. I love the National Novel Writing Month group, and the New Authors Need Marketing Ideas group. The list of groups is available at this link.

Morgen: LibraryThing is another new one to me. What do you think the future holds for a writer?

Jackie: That is a tough question. I think e-books are going to be with us for the foreseeable future. However, my grandchildren ages 10 and 12 still read books, they put them on their birthday and Christmas lists every year. They have even purchased books at the local bookstore using their own money! When they visited us at Thanksgiving, after traveling two days from Houston, Texas, they arrived with iPads! There wasn’t enough space in the family vehicle for the number of books that were crammed into that e-reader.

Morgen: That’s why I love them both, knowing I have hundreds of books if I go anywhere, and now I have a Kindle Touch it reads it to me (whilst I’m checking emails). Where can we find out about you and your work?

Jackie:  Backyard Horse Tales / Sox 2nd edition can be purchased from the book website www.backyardhorsetales.com or from amazon.com, and other online retailers.

Morgen: Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

Jackie: Sox’s second edition will officially kick off at a well-attended local event. I will be signing books, and participating in door prizes at the Annual Valley Tack Shop Midnight Sale, in Valley City, Ohio, and will be my second year participating in this event. I’ll update you on the results, and other scheduled events still in the planning stages.

Morgen: Oh yes, please do. Thank you, Jackie.

I then invited Jackie to include an excerpt of her writing and this is from Frosty and the Nightstalker…

One more night would be spent in these mountains before we could return to our home in the lush Wallowa Valley. Nights were already cold up here, and we had tracked through an early snowfall during the day’s hunt. Back at our camp we added several mountain sheep to our hunter’s growing tally. Travois and pack animals would be overloaded with dear, elk, a couple of moose, and a brown bear that decided to help himself to a deer that was hung from a tree to drain. Like us the bear was preparing for a long winter. Eating as much as he could before hibernating, he had the misfortune to try stealing the hunter’s deer. Now, instead of hibernating in a cave that brown bear would help fill the larder of the Nimi’ipuu. Nimi’ipuu is the people’s name for themselves. In English they are called the Nez Perce. Most of the people live in small bands that are usually extended family units. Our band lives near the Snake River.

Guards were assigned to keep watch over us, and protect our precious winter stores. Old or injured predators unable to catch their own game sometimes would try to sneak up close to camp looking for the right opportunity. Mountain lions, bears, and, occasionally, wolves would follow the hunting parties.

An accomplished equestrian, with a life time of experience: as trainer, exhibitor, 4-H and youth club coach, as well as a horse show judge, the author brings many years of experience working with horses and young riders to her “Backyard Horse Tales.” Sox the second edition expands the story of the mutual love between Sox and Emma. You will love the new ending just make sure you have a box of tissues handy.

***** UPDATE: Since I interviewed Jackie she emailed me with this update… “Backyard Horse Tales: Sox 2nd Edition” is entered in two award competitions. Finalists will be listed July 1, and winners announced September 1. This week Readers Favorite Awards & Reviews sent me two five star reviews for Sox’s Tale. I’ve also been given a five star review from my blog host of May 15th and her eight year old daughter. She is the youngest reader to participate in a review to date. For the run of this tour which ends May 23rd, the first five people who buy Sox 2nd edition will get a free copy of BYHT 2 “Frosty and the Nightstalker” when it is available this fall. Print purchasers will be mailed a print copy. E-book purchases will receive a free e-book of BYHT 2. My e-mail address and other contacts ore listed on the book’s web site www.backyardhorsetales.com where your followers can purchase the print version. Amazon, B&N, and Apple are a few of the sites that have the e-book. *****

If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the questions. You complete them, I tweak them where appropriate (if necessary to reflect the blog ‘clean and light’ rating) and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything… and follow me on Twitter where each new posting is automatically announced. You can also read / download my eBooks and free eShorts at Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore, Kobo and Amazon, with more to follow. I have a new forum and you can follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, like me on Facebook, connect with me on LinkedIn, find me on Tumblr, complete my website’s Contact me page or plain and simple, email me.  I also now have a new blog creation service especially for, but not limited to, writers.

Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them)  on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are weekly episodes, usually released Monday mornings UK time, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.

 

Guest post: Just Part of the Family by Sandra Humphrey

Tonight’s guest blog post, on the topic of characters is brought to you by middle-grade and YA author Sandra Humphrey.

Just Part of the Family

I’ve been working on a young adult novel that takes place at a summer camp for girls with emotional problems in northern Minnesota, and I find it more than a little disconcerting that some of my characters have recently moved in with me.

This morning I found the camp director, Mrs. A, at my breakfast table shoveling sugar into her herbal tea, and last night I found her rummaging through my fridge, looking for avocados for her guacamole dip.

And it’s not just Mrs. A who has moved in. Leslie (my Protagonist) and some of her camper friends are also showing up unexpectedly. I found Trisha (a young black girl who longs to have her own garden amidst the chaos of the inner city) wandering around my backyard last week. She wasn’t being a nuisance or anything. She was just out there smelling the flowers.

Then there’s anorexic Jennifer. She hasn’t actually moved in yet, but I see her in some of the young girls I mentor at our church. They talk about their control issues at home and how food is the only thing in their lives that they feel they have any control over. Jennifer doesn’t say anything at these meetings, she just nods in agreement.

And, of course, there’s Rachel, “the cutter”. There were so many Rachels at the state mental hospital who insisted that they had to cut “to feel better”. They shared with me how they could deal more easily with their physical pain than with their psychological pain, and how the physical pain gave them a temporary respite from their psychological pain.

I’ve even run into Cynthia Winston, the villain of the piece, right in my own bathroom—usurping the bathroom mirror while she apples her makeup. Actually, Cynthia has pretty much taken over all my mirrors. She’s always there, preening and giving me her little Mona Lisa half-smile.

Although I have never invited any of my characters to move into my home and take over so much of my life, I find I’m becoming used to having them around. And I might even miss them if they were to move out.

I think what I’ve concluded from all this is that to make our characters real to our readers—characters whom they really care about—we must care about them first. They must be so real to us that we see them everywhere we go and in everything we do, and sometimes we may even find them in the most unexpected places!

Creating new characters has to be the best aspect of writing for me, especially bringing characters back which I did for one of the Story A Day May stories this week. Thank you Sandra!

Sandra McLeod Humphrey is a retired clinical psychologist, a character education consultant, and an award-winning author of eight middle-grade and young adult books.  She’s also the recipient of the National Character Education Center’s Award for Exemplary Leadership in Ethics Education (2000) and the 2005 Helen Keating Ott Award for Outstanding Contribution to Children’s Literature. You can learn more about her books by visiting her website at www.kidscandoit.com and her blog at www.kidscandoit.com/blog.

If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. If it’s writing-related then it’s highly likely I’d email back and say “yes please”.

The blog interviews return as normal tomorrow morning with multi-genre author Sean Byerley – the three hundred and sixty-sixth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me.

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything… and follow me on Twitter where each new posting is automatically announced. You can also read / download my eBooks and free eShorts at Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore, Kobo and Amazon, with more to follow. I have a new forum and you can follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, like me on Facebook, connect with me on LinkedIn, find me on Tumblr, complete my website’s Contact me page or plain and simple, email me.  I also now have a new blog creation service especially for, but not limited to, writers.

Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them)  on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are weekly episodes, usually released Monday mornings UK time, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.

 

Short Story Saturday 011: Sister Golden Hair Surprise and the Cruiser by Linda Palmer

Welcome to the Short Story Saturday review slot and the eleventh review in this series. This week’s is of 2,560-word ‘Sister Golden Hair Surprise and the Cruiser’ by romance, paranormal erotica and young adult author Linda Palmer.

Sister Golden Hair Surprise and the Cruiser

I’m a big fan of titles and whilst this didn’t grab me it certainly intrigued me, especially with the various connotations of ‘cruiser’ (or that could be a British thing).

We’re thrown into the story with first person narrative, past tense and get an immediate sense of our protagonist. Because she talks about “big brothers” I assumed her to be female and quite young. We learn 1/4 of the way through that her name is Jilly but there are hints to her gender by touches like “Why don’t you gather some wildflowers or something?” from one of her brothers, the condescending trait working to show us his character.

Jilly’s voice is excellent as she gives us her backstory, and I like the way that Adam gets a job title, just like his father.

We have conflict (between brothers and sister) early on which is important in a short story and then it keeps coming with an injury and a stranger, and her losing her bearings.

One key element of writing that (pardon the pun) isn’t in many stories, is negatives and here we had what Jill couldn’t hear, which was a nice touch and added to her urgency.

The rapport, positive or negative, between the characters is excellent – I loved Jilly’s father’s term of endearment for her, and his tugging smile is beautiful.

There were several ‘laugh out loud’ and ‘ahh’ moments for me which again shows the writing’s strength (I would list them but they are definitive plot spoilers).

I loved the ending and it tied in nicely with something mentioned early in the story.

I spotted a cliché (cried like a baby) but coming from a teenager it’s fine to use it, in fact it enhances the emotion she’s feeling at that moment (and therefore ours as a reader).

Overall, it’s a very enjoyable piece and well-written from a perspective other than that of the writer (unless it’s a semi-autobiographical memory) and is a treat for any fan of one of my favourite films, True Lies (you’ll know where I mean when you read the story).

Linda’s story is available (for free) at: All Romance eBooks.com and The Wild Horse Press.com.

Thank you, Linda, for inviting me to read your story.

Linda Varner Palmer has been writing for as long as she can remember. In 1989, she sold her first romance to Silhouette Books, writing as Linda Varner. She wrote twenty more over the next ten years, with all being translated and sold worldwide. She was an RWA Rita finalist in 1993 and 1996. After taking a break, Linda is at her computer again, writing e-books as Linda Palmer. She is focusing on teen romances with a paranormal twist and is thrilled to announce sales to e-publishers Uncial Press, Sugar and Spice Press and Wild Horse Press. Linda’s YA novel THE CINDERELLA SWAP won the Electronic Publishing Industry Coalition’s (EPIC) 2011 award in the YA category. Another YA novel, NIGHTMARE, INTERRUPTED, won the 2012 award. Visit her website: www.lvpalmer.com. My interview with Linda is scheduled for Wednesday 26th September.

Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I review stories of up to 2,500 words on this ‘Short Story Saturdays’ feature. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them) on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are weekly episodes, usually released Monday mornings UK time, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.

The blog interviews will return as normal tomorrow with Christian teacher, non-fiction author and spotlightee Deborah McCarragher – the three hundred and sixty-first of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, biographers, agents, publishers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me.

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything… and follow me on Twitter where each new posting is automatically announced. You can also read / download my eBooks and free eShorts at Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore, Kobo and Amazon, with more to follow. I have a new forum and you can follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, like me on Facebook, connect with me on LinkedIn, find me on Tumblr, complete my website’s Contact me page or plain and simple, email me.  I also now have a new blog creation service especially for, but not limited to, writers.

 

Author interview no.357 with writer VR Janis

Welcome to the three hundred and fifty-seventh of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with Anishinaabe culture and fantasy YA author V R Janis. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello, VR. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.

VR: Hello, my name is VR Janis and I live in the Black Hills of South Dakota. I am an Ojibwe tribal member and try to use my culture and language in my writing. I have written short stories, poetry and plays since I was a young girl, but I started writing my book about five years ago.

Morgen: I find short stories easy, poetry less easy and plays hard so I take my hat off to you. What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?

VR: I usually write young adult fantasy. I have considered writing language books for children in Ojibwe.

Morgen: That sounds lovely and I would imagine (although I have no clue) that not many people would be doing that so there may be a nice? What have you had published to-date? Do you write under a pseudonym?

VR: I have published Hidden Powers Book 1 of The Hidden Magic Trilogy to-date, it is an unique blending of Anishinaabe culture and fantasy. VR Janis is my pen, artist and photographer name.

Morgen: Photography and art is really handy for book covers. Have you had any rejections?

VR: I am a self-published writer so I have not had to deal with rejections. I decided early on that I want to self-publish so that I would have a great say in what happens with my books.

Morgen: That why I went eBooking although it would be lovely to see my books on the shelves. Are your books available as eBooks? Being self-published, presumably you were involved in that process. Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?

VR: Yes, my book is available on Kindle. I was involved in every aspect of my book, including loading it to eBooks. I find it funny to admit since my book is available as an eBook, but I am a paperback girl all the way. I love relaxing on the couch with a good book.

Morgen: Most authors I’ve spoken to do, myself included although being fairly new to Kindle, I’m enjoying both. How much of the marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?

VR: I have tried to use all the social networks that I can, but I can say that sometimes it is hard to keep up with everything. When I do a book signing I work with another local author and we advertise together. Marketing is one of the harder aspects of being a self-published author.

Morgen: It is and many interviewees least favourite aspect. Do you have a favourite of your books or characters? If any of your books were made into films, who would you have as the leading actors?

VR: I love the characters in the Hidden Trilogy, I can relate to most of them. If Hidden Powers were to be made into a movie I would want Tinsel Korey to play Papakoosigun (the main character).

Morgen: I’d not heard of her but then I’ve not seen Twilight so have clearly missed out. She’s a good singer too (her website has three of her tracks). I mentioned books covers earlier, presumably you choose your title / covers of your books, how important do you think they are?

VR: I made up the title myself and then made changes to it until I was happy with the end result. The same could be said of the covers. I drew and painted the cover for the book and it took many tries until I was happy with the end result. I think that the cover and title can make a book so they are very important, they are a character all to themselves.

Morgen: They certainly can be, can’t they. What are you working on at the moment / next?

VR: I am working on Hidden Magic Book Two, a whole new series, and a poetry photography book.

Morgen: One thing that I’ve heard often from agents and publishers is how popular series are; if someone gets attached to a character they want to know more about them, have them doing other things and so they become a brand in their own right in some cases and I did hear recently that readers remember characters’ names easier than the writers. Do you manage to write every day? Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?

VR: I honestly try to, but I do not. I write as much as I am able. I do not tend to have writer’s block, but I do not want to say I never had writer’s block so I do not jink myself.

Morgen: I say I don’t but I do get to a point in some stories where I don’t know what’s going to happen next. Take for example doing the Tuesday Tales, we get the prompts six weeks’ worth at a time so I start them all. If I get stuck with one I move on to another. Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?

VR: I usually start a story but I do an outline of the main thing that I want to happen in each chapter.

Morgen: That’s a good idea then you also know how many chapters it might be. You mentioned Papakoosigun  earlier, do you have a method for creating your characters, their names and what do you think makes them believable?

VR: I do not have a method for creating characters they are born to the story. The names however, come from my language and have a meaning. I think my characters are believable because I base them off of people in my life, and some of the situations they get into make me laugh.

Morgen: Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?

VR: As I write more my stories seem to advance, I do have to edit though. Who doesn’t right?

Morgen: Indeed. Even top authors must do or need editing. Do you have to do much research?

VR: For the next series I am doing I had to research sailing. I had to put it in my book and I have never been on the sea. I need to find an expert in the field.

Morgen: LinkedIn is a great place for queries like that. What point of view do you find most to your liking: first person or third person?

VR: I did one series in third person and starting another series in first person. As a reader I enjoy first person writing because I can lose myself in the story.

Morgen: As you imagine you are that person. Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?

VR: No, I think my pieces will see the light of day. It just may take them a little longer to grow because I am nurturing certain ones and leaving others for a rainy day.

Morgen: What a nice image. What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life? Has anything surprised you?

VR: My least favourite aspect is dealing with the marketing of my book, it sometimes takes away from writing new books because I have to try to get people to notice the one already out there. My favourite aspect is when I have so many ideas coming that my hands hurt from trying to keep up with my brain. Everything has surprised me about this, but I have learned something new every day so the surprises are not always bad.

Morgen: They’re not, thankfully, and we learn from the ones that are. What advice would you give aspiring writers?

VR: Don’t think negative, that can kill the passion faster than anything else. When all the frustration comes and trust me it will, remember the joy you got out of getting your story on paper.

Morgen: Absolutely. For me there’s nothing like it. Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?

VR: My favourite word is respect. My favourite quote is “When you see a new trail or a footprint you do not know, follow it to the point of knowing.” – Uncheedah (Santee Sioux)

Morgen: I love that. Are you involved in anything else writing-related other than actual writing or marketing of your writing?

VR: I have a blog that I try to keep up on. janisvr.blogspot.com

Morgen: What do you do when you’re not writing? Any hobbies or party tricks?

VR: I paint, read, bead, and do artistic photography.

Morgen: Are you on any forums or networking sites? If so, how valuable do you find them?

VR: I am on twitter and I do not use this to the fullest capacity that I could. I am on Facebook and have an author page, this one is where I put most of my updates. I am on LinkedIn and am just learning about this one. I find them valuable if a little time consuming, I would rather be writing.

Morgen: Wouldn’t we all? (this would be the golden opportunity to plug my blog-building service for writers but I’ll resist) What do you think the future holds for a writer?

VR: I think the future can hold anything the writer wants it to. I think that we will find more independence and hopefully respect as self-published authors.

Morgen: I do think reviews will show how good a writer is (although mine on Goodreads are very mixed but great everywhere else, which is a shame). Where can we find out about you and your work?

VR: Facebook VR Janis, my blog at http://janisvr.blogspot.com and twitter @VR Janis.

Morgen: Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

VR: I would like to thank you for the opportunity to share my work with others. I would also like to thank everyone for reading the post.

Morgen: You’re so welcome, and I’d like to thank all the readers too – we love hearing from you.

If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the questions. You complete them, I tweak them where appropriate (if necessary to reflect the blog ‘clean and light’ rating) and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know.

You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything… and follow me on Twitter where each new posting is automatically announced. You can also read / download my eBooks and free eShorts at Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore, Kobo and Amazon, with more to follow. I have a new forum and you can follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, like me on Facebook, connect with me on LinkedIn, find me on Tumblr, complete my website’s Contact me page or plain and simple, email me.  I also now have a new blog creation service especially for writers: http://icanbuildyourwritingblog.wordpress.com.

Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them)  on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are weekly episodes, usually released Monday mornings UK time, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.

 

Short Story Saturday 009: ‘The Awakening of George Mahooney’ by Kathryn Jones

Welcome to the new Short Story Saturday review slot and the ninth review in this series. This week’s is of 1,323-word story ‘The Awakening of George Mahooney’ by Kathryn Jones.

A story of any length should have a great hook, and this piece’s (‘George Mahooney hated flies.’) certainly grabbed my attention. In just four words it tells us about the character and already we’re asking questions: why, and who is he?

The detailing is then intricate as we learn more about him and his wife. We get a feel for the characters right from the start (finding out George is a frail nonagenarian in the first paragraph) but then when the husband and wife are in the kitchen the reader (me) gets even more emotionally involved, all the way to the end.

I love inanimate objects taking on a life of their own and here we have weeds taunting George (and mine are me at the moment!).

If I had to ‘pick’ (this is a review after all), I did notice that quite a few of the sentences started with a pronoun (George, He, His, Cleo) but it’s something I’ve only recently become acutely aware of in my own writing and it’s so easily done that I’m sure if I picked up any book I’d find heaps of them. I did also spot a couple of tense slips but again, so easy to do.

Good stories often entertain and educate, and this story certainly ticks those boxes. Occasionally they should even have you scurrying to the dictionary – this one sent me to Grammar Girl as I thought ‘all right’ to be a spelling mistake but sure enough, it appears that our Englishism of ‘alright’ has been wrong all these years (like my obstinate use of ’til instead of till for until).

Stories should also contain as many of the five senses as possible and we have four of them: sight (description), sound (flies then dialogue), touch (flies and birds), smell (cinnamon – one of my favourites – and beautifully used here). Just missing is taste, although the food is so wonderfully described that I almost feel as if I have.

The writing is tight and I especially liked the phone metaphor. All in all, a moving tale, relatable however old you are.

Thank you Kathryn for inviting me to review your story.

Kathryn has been a published writer since 1987.  She has published various newspaper stories, magazine articles, essays and short stories for teens and adults.  She is the author of: “A River of Stones”, a young adult fiction novel dealing with divorce published in 2002, and “Conquering your Goliaths—A Parable of the Five Stones”, a Christian novel published in January of 2012. Her newest creation, a “Conquering your Goliaths—Guidebook”, was published in February of 2012. Kathryn graduated from the University of Utah with a B.S. in Mass Communication and a minor in Creative Writing. Her studies included work in creative writing, public relations and journalism.

Kathryn’s website is http://www.ariverofstones.com and ‘The Awakening of George Mahooney’ can be read here: http://www.ariverofstones.com/awakening.html.

If you’d like to submit your story (50 to 2,500 words) for review take a look here.

Next up is the spotlight of lecturer, novelist and co-founder of Creative Writing the Artist’s Way Sarah Jane Dobbs then the blog interviews will return as normal tomorrow with non-fiction author Ted Vestal – the three hundred and fortieth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, biographers, agents, publishers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me. You can also read / download my eBooks and free eShorts at Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore and Kobo. My eBooks are also now on Amazon, with more to follow. I have a new forum and you can follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, like me on Facebook, connect with me on LinkedIn, find me on Tumblr, complete my website’s ‘Contact me’ page or plain and simple, email me. I also have a second-person viewpoint story in charity anthology Telling Tales.

 

Author interview no.331 with writer Richard Denning

Welcome to the three hundred and thirty-first of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, biographers, agents, publishers and more. Today’s is with young adult sci-fi, historical fiction and historical fantasy writer Richard Denning. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello, Richard. Please tell us something about yourself, where you’re based, and how you came to be a writer.

Richard: I was born in Ilkeston in Derbyshire and live in Sutton Coldfield in the West Midlands of the UK. I work as a General Practitioner (family doctor) with a North Birmingham practice. I am 44 and married with two children.  As the day job is full of the gritty reality of day-to-day life (drugs, abuse, life threatening illness and disability) I find that when it comes to reading, TV, movies and hobbies I shy away from modern day reality. I have always had a strong interest in historical settings as well as horror and fantasy. My preferred reading would be say Bernard Cornwell or Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams and Tolkien. TV watching would include Dr Who, Star Trek, Blackadder, Buffy and historical mysteries like Cadfael. I enjoy board game and roleplaying games like the often maligned but entertaining Dungeons and Dragons. I have even designed and published my own board game and run the UK’s largest hobby game convention. All this goes into the pot when it comes to writing. Some writers write to right injustices, talk about the gritty real world. Not me! For me it’s another form of escapism really. A writer can make up their own reality and populate it as he sees fit.

Morgen: I have a feeling I know what you’re going to say to this but what genre do you generally write?

Richard: I am a young adult sci-fi, historical fiction and historical fantasy writer. Often friends say that I should write about the day job. But I don’t because of the reasons I gave before. If I ever did write about a doctor it is likely that something weird would happen like the practice building be haunted!

Morgen: That sounds like fun. What have you had published to-date?

Richard: I am self / indie published via my own Mercia Books rather than via a self publishing company. I have four books published thus far in three separate series with another book (maybe two) coming this year. The series are The Hourglass Institute Series (a young adult Time Travel Series) – Tomorrow’s Guardian and Yesterday’s Treasures; The Praesidium Series (Historical Fantasy in 17th century). The first book of that series is The Last Seal and is set in the great Fire of London with a fantasy twist; The Northern Crown Series (Historical Fiction in 6th and 7th century Dark Ages Britain). The First book is The Amber Treasure (my best seller at present) and the sequel Child of Loki has just been released.

Morgen: A great mixture of books you have there. Before you self-published did you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?

Richard: Many over the years. You get angry and then philosophical, your doubt your own ability and almost give up. Then, two or three years ago, I had one that was three pages long which analysed all the good things in The Last Seal (with the odd comment about improvements) and finished by almost apologizing that they only took on 1 new author a year and could not publish me. I looked at that letter and thought ‘hang on a mo. If they took the effort to write a three page letter I can’t be that bad.‘ So I decided to self publish.

Morgen: Wow. Even a tick-box reply is a rarity these days. Have you won or been shortlisted in any competitions?

Richard: Occasionally I have got to later stages of some competitions but ‘nothing to write home about’ events but again I have had some encouraging comments back.

Morgen: Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?

Richard: No I don’t. I am makings sales but at a moderate level. There are many advantages to having an agent and publisher and I would encourage writers to always try that route BUT the world is changing and self published authors do something break into the best seller lists and it is certainly possible to get a readership on your own efforts so I don’t think authors should just give up IF they cannot get an agent.

Morgen: I didn’t. Are your books available as eBooks? Were you involved in that process at all? Do you read eBooks or is it paper all the way?

Richard: I have a kindle and an Ipad and do read books that way BUT also adore physical books. It is clear that just the way that music is now mainly downloaded (rather than bought on a CD or vinyl) that a revolution is under way and to deny that transition will occur is to stick one’s head into the sand. AS a writer you MUST adapt. The story is the thing that matters NOT the format. So yes ALL my books are out as e-books and all my future ones will be. I converted them myself. I am getting a steady trickle of sales via this route.

Morgen: Me too. I started with Smashwords because of the daunting 70+-page formatting guide but in the end it wasn’t that bad and now have a template so it’s easy to put new things up (which I plan to do shortly). How much of the marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?

Richard: I write a marketing plan each January (for the last three years at least). I have a variety of approaches. I am active online on Facebook, twitter and Google plus. I try to contribute to some online chats. I have a blog and do guests posts occasionally. I do school visits (15 last year, one of which lead to an awesome 40 sales). I take the books to some book fairs and other events like my own UK games Expo which is mainly about games but gamers read too!

Morgen: They do, and it sounds like you’re doing all the right things. Do you have a favourite of your books or characters? If any of your books were made into films, who would you have as the leading actor/s?

Richard: This is a hard one. I usually say my favourite is the one I am currently writing. So at the moment that is the Saxon series. But probably the one that would make a seriously cool movie would be The Last Seal: Imagine a world of Gunpowder and Sorcery in 1666. Magic and demons, schoolboys, thieves and secret societies against the back drop of the great fire of London. My most favourite character here is either the cavalier Artemis (maybe Alan Rickman as he was as the sheriff in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves rather than as Snape, amazing as he was in that part) or the little thief Freya for which we would need a feisty teenage girl. The only issue here is that my daughter (a keen 15 year old actress in the making if she got her way) would love the part.

Morgen: As you’re self-published, presumably you chose your titles, did you design the covers of your books? How important do you think they are?

Richard: Yep! Because I am the publisher BUT I don’t do it all myself. I have an editor who professionally edits the books and I used Avalon Graphics to do the covers.

Morgen: I have an editor and apart from finding occasional glitches she comes up with wonderful suggestions. And I have two first readers who are vital. No-one should go it alone. What are you working on at the moment / next?

Richard: Child of Loki is my latest book, a sequel to my dark ages historical fiction set in the early years of Anglo Saxon Britain. I am also writing a children’s historical fantasy set in the same period but aimed at primary school age group which blends the historical world with the mythology of the Saxon period.

Morgen: Both popular genres. Do you manage to write every day? Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?

Richard: I do try to. It can be hard with the day job but I try and get a paragraph a day done as a minimum – more would be the aim. If I hit a dead end or block I work around it – maybe jump elsewhere in the book, start a new project, do research, do marketing etc.

Morgen: That’s the key; variety. You can’t get bored then. And 300 words a day equates to 100,000 words a year so very doable. Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?

Richard: I try to have what I call my working document which is an outline of the story and characters BUT no story survives the first draft without changing somewhere along the way. So it’s a hybrid approach. Sooner or later you find that a new idea pops up and you add that in.

Morgen: You do. Do you have a method for creating your characters, their names and what do you think makes them believable?

Richard: I try to write down major characteristics, motives, strengths and weakness so that when I put them in a situation I know how they will react. Names usually flow from the period concerned.

Morgen: Do you write any non-fiction, poetry or short stories?

Richard: I maintain a blog: http://news.richarddenning.co.uk which is about history and also some science fiction and fantasy. I sometimes write reviews on books on Goodreads and also on board game review sites.

Morgen: We mentioned editors, do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?

Richard: I think and hope it gets better but I think all authors need an editor. They work with you to spot errors (and here I am not talking about a missing comma BUT proper continuity editing which makes sure the book makes sense).

Morgen: They do, and it’s much easier by not knowing the meaning behind the story. Do you have to do much research?

Richard: Yes – a lot when writing about historical periods but that is fine as I love history and enjoy going to the places in my books if I can.

Morgen: What point of view do you find most to your liking: first person or third person? Have you ever tried second person?

Richard: No never tried 2nd person. The Amber Treasure is first person. Tomorrow’s Guardian is third person but from one viewpoint only. The Last Seal is Third person from several viewpoints. I think they each have their merits and work in that particular story.

Morgen: It does depend on the piece. I’d recommend every writer having a go at second person. It’s like Marmite: I love it but others hate it. It’s certainly an acquired taste, although I acquired it as soon as I found out about it. Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?

Richard: Oh, bits and bobs of short stories (I am not keen on short stories to read or write), outlines of novels that may go nowhere – we shall see.

Morgen: They were practice, at least. What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life? Has anything surprised you?

Richard: It is wonderful when a story comes together and readers tell you your books are good. My least favourite would be the sheer hard work of getting attention for one’s work.

Morgen: It is. Marketing has been most interviewees’ bugbear but these days it’s essential, even for already established writers. What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Richard: Read a lot both to see what is out there but also to see how good writers construct books. Reading heavily is the basic training of a writer. Then write and write and write, revise lots and keep working at it. Write the book you want to read NOT the one that others might think you should.

Morgen: Absolutely. If you don’t enjoy it then your reader likely won’t. If you could invite three people from any era to dinner, who would you choose and what would you cook (or hide the takeaway containers)?

Richard: Well I am pretty good cook if I do say so myself. At university I would throw dinner parties on Saturday nights for all my mates in halls that did not have food provided at the weekend, but unlike me did not have facilities. Probably my best food is curries – at least that is what I get asked to do a lot. I would love to meet Tolkien as his work is the basis of all fantasy fiction. Wellington is a bit of a military hero – the master of defence and the man who beat the invincible French in the Napoleonic wars. Then maybe Alexander the Great to try and bottle the energy that drove him half-way across the known world.

Morgen: I’ve been asked how I get mine from to do so much on this blog but I say it’s easy; I’m passionate (OK, obsessed) about writing so I just do it. Are you involved in anything else writing-related other than actual writing or marketing of your writing?

Richard: I have links to New Writers UK – a sort of self-help group of writers who assist each other in various ways. I am an occasional reviewer for the Historical Novel Society of self-published books and will be attending their annual conference this year to be part of a table linked to self-publishing.

Morgen: I don’t think I’ve heard of New Writers UK but it sounds great. What do you do when you’re not writing?

Richard: As I said I am a very keen player (and designer) of board games. That zeal also led to me setting up the UK’s biggest hobby game convention – UK Games Expo. Now in its 6th year it attracts 70 traders and 3,000 gamers (and family audience as well) who come to play non-electronic table-top games which are fun and allow for social activities.

Morgen: Sounds great (and a lot of hard work, I’m sure). Are there any writing-related websites and / or books that you find useful?

Richard: It is more of a case that by being active on Google Plus, twitter and Facebook that I pick up links to many sites (rather than just one or two). So the key is to branch out and link to authors and writers, chat to them and then pick up hints and tips.

Morgen: LinkedIn is great for that. Put a question or comment on and there’ll always be someone to help / reply. Are you on any forums or networking sites? If so, how valuable do you find them?

Richard: I hop in and out of http://www.goodreads.com and also http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk. I am also involved with and blog on http://englishhistoryauthors.blogspot.com – a group of historical fiction writers.

Morgen: What do you think the future holds for a writer?

Richard: The new world of ebooks and self-publishing means that the market place is full of thousands of authors. Some are good, some not so good. I hope I am in the former. But market forces will decide what happens to us all. Can we get an audience? There are lots of opportunities but also many challenges.

Morgen: I do think that the writing will speak for itself, and reviews be the judges of that. An author can only have so many friends. If a book has 100 reviews and they’re all 4-5* then it must be good (you would hope anyway!). Where can we find out about you and your work?

Richard: My website http://www.richarddenning.co.uk is the best starting point. You can read bits of my books and find out about the characters etc.

Morgen: A very handsome site. Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

Richard: My work is fast-moving and I hope exciting. It is designed to be entertaining whilst involving accessible interesting characters. A chance to gallop around history and have fun. Give them a go!

Morgen: Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

Richard: I would like to thank you for the opportunity to do this interview.

Morgen: Oh, you’re very welcome. Thank you for agreeing to take part.

I then invited Richard to include an extract of his writing…

Dismayed, Ben surveyed the devastation. The fire must have surged down Fish Street while they slept, and now, as Freya had grimly pointed out, they were too late: it had cut off their means of passage to the south. He looked back at the billowing clouds of smoke, quick to realise why the fire had progressed only halfway across the bridge before dying down: the wind had changed direction and was now blowing strongly west and north, driving the fire away from the bridge and along Thames Street, through the small alleyways and passages, such as those Ben and his friends had come through just a few minutes before. What he also saw was that the fire, in its full terrifying fury, was already surging past them.

“Oh God!” Ben shrieked, as only yards away the flames drew level to where they stood, destroying forever the shanty town of the poor and breaking with avarice into the first of the great trade halls. Ben’s throat tightened with fear and ‒ panicking now ‒ he screamed, “My God, the fire is moving too fast, we’re going to get cut off!”

A determined look sprang into Freya’s face. She seized Ben by the elbow and pulled him back along the waterfront. “Bloody demon’s not won yet. Come on, we have to move fast!”

Richard Denning works as a GP in the West Midlands. He has always been fascinated by historical settings as well as horror and fantasy. Other than writing, his main interests are games of all types. He is the designer of a board game based on the Great Fire of London and the director of UK Games Expo, the UKs biggest hobby game convention. He is married with two children. His author website is www.richarddenning.co.uk.

If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the questions. You complete them, I tweak them where appropriate (if necessary to reflect the blog ‘clean and light’ rating) and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know. You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything… and follow me on Twitter where each new posting is automatically announced. You can also read / download my eBooks and free eShorts at Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore and Kobo. My eBooks are now on Amazon, with more to follow, and I also have a quirky second-person viewpoint story in charity anthology Telling Tales.

I have a new forum at http://morgenbailey.freeforums.org and you can follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, like me on Facebook, connect with me on LinkedIn, find me on Tumblr, complete my website’s ‘Contact me’ page or plain and simple, email me.

Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them) on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are weekly episodes, usually released Monday mornings UK time, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.