Freelance and Fiction - The Freelance and Fiction Blog

Make Your Fiction Unforgettable!

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 20:32:13 -0800

The best books are hard to put down and equally hard to forget once you’ve finished them. If you use the elements of detail, dialogue, and consistent point of view, you can make your fiction unforgettable!

Details Can...

Imply Backstory. The backstory of your characters is way too important to let it appear in a boring infodump. Details can imply a lot of backstory without taking away from the momentum of the story.

Bring Readers Into The World Of Your Story. Details are the way readers see, feel, hear, taste, and smell the world of your characters. Use enough details to build a believable and concrete setting.

Set the Mood Of A Scene. The right details can change the mood of a scene. A springtime day described as “fresh and damp” will feel different from one described as “smelling like mud”. The details you choose should do double-duty: they should describe and give readers a clue as to how they should be feeling about the scene.

Dialogue Can…

Reveal Character. How your characters speak to each other (and to themselves) can show a lot about their inner realities. Whether your character is cautious or careless, educated or illiterate, their state of mind can be revealed through dialogue.

Dialogue Can Convey Backstory. Cleverly written dialogue can give readers some of the backstory you want them to know while still sounding natural! It’s much more exciting to hear about events from your characters’ own mouths than to get a huge chunk of narrative backstory.

Dialogue Can Move Plot Forward. Having your characters make and break promises, argue, and lie to each other is one of the best ways you can complicate their lives and keep readers interested! See how much you can move the plot forward using your characters’ words and what they do and don’t say to each other.

Consistent Point of View Can…

Help Readers Feel Connected To Your Characters. By showing readers what your viewpoint character wants and not letting the thoughts or emotions of other characters intrude, you ensure that readers will relate most strongly to your protagonists. Use as many viewpoint characters as you want – tons of fantastic novels feature multiple main characters – but don’t hop from one viewpoint to another within the same scene unless it’s absolutely unavoidable.

Crank Up Tension. Limiting what readers know will make them want to find out what your mysterious secondary characters are all about. It can create an aura of dread if your characters are in danger, a mood of curiosity if they are speculating about the colorful neighbors, or any number of emotions. Holding back some of the motivations and maybe even the true nature of your non-viewpoint characters can add the spice of suspense to your book.

What are your favorite ways to make your fiction unforgettable? I'd love to see your ideas!

Blog Tour: Close Encounters With Fiction... And A Trivia Challenge

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:15:25 -0800

Today we wrap up the amazing blog tour! It's been so exciting to see so many authors participating. Below are instructions for entering the trivia challenge

Prizes up for grabs in the Blog Tour Sweepstakes include:

Carry on the Flame: 1 signed paperback, 1 ebook
Twin-Bred: 1 signed paperback; 1 ebook
Raven: 2 ebooks
Sunset: 1 signed paperback, 1 ebook
The Fool's Journey: 1 signed paperback, 1 ebook

How to Enter:

Enter your answers to the trivia challenge in the comments section, numbered 1-10. I will check them and the first person to get all the answers right will win a signed author copy of The Last Way Station!

Close Encounters with Fiction ... and a Trivia Challenge

Close Encounters with Fiction ... Plus, a Trivia Challenge

Almost every author has had one life-altering encounter with a work of fiction that left him or her as obsessed, and driven, as electrical lineman Roy Neary becomes, after his run-in with a UFO, in Steven Spielberg's, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Now, a handful of indie authors have agreed to "go public" about the close encounters that most shaped their literary careers.

Today's five authors include: Nuayma Jeggels, author of the fantasy novel, Raven; Arshad Ahsanuddin, author of, Sunset, the first book in his gay vampire sci-fi series, "Pact Arcanum;" Kristina Jackson, author of the paranormal novel, The Fool's Journey; Karen A. Wyle, author of the hard sci-fi novel, Twin-Bred and Jodine Turner, fantasy author of Carry on the Flame: Destiny's Call. All are featured authors in "The Last Way Station Mega Book Tour," a new concept in virtual book touring that showcases up-and-coming indie authors and features them in tag-team guest blog appearances, like this one.

The tour, named in honor of founder and sponsor, Jon Reisfeld's book, "The Last Way Station,", is sponsoring a Sweepstakes that will award a Kindle Fire to its grand-prize winner and a series of ebook bundles to runners up. Click here to learn more about today's featured authors and the other indie writers on the tour and Click here to enter your name in the Sweepstakes!

The Books That Most Inspired Our Authors


The Lord of the Rings	The Sandman	Sparrow	Discworld	The Mists of Avalon

For Author Nuayma Jeggels, the Novel that "Started Everything" was …
The Lord of the Rings

Nuayma Jeggels

I have to be honest. It’s so difficult to point out a single novel that had the greatest lasting impact on my writing career. There are so many books that just …gained a place in my heart, with nearly no effort. But if I want to speak about my really short career, I would have to go with the novel that started everything, and that would be, The Lord of the Rings.

What should I say? I think that the series speaks for itself: The world building, the vivid characters, the heroic deeds —everything. Why did it have such a profound affect on me? I think it has to do with Tolkien’s attention to detail and the quality of his writing. But most of all, The Lord of the Rings inspired my own creativity, giving me the idea for my main character, Shardaie.

The Lord of the Rings has touched the imaginations of millions of readers across the world. Isn’t that wonderful?

Close Encounters Trivia Challenge

Take our authors' trivia challenge and see how well you score. Two questions come from each of their favorite works of fiction. (Answers will be provided on the day that our book giveaway winners are announced.)

1. The main character of the Sandman comic book is Dream, one of a group of anthropomorphic conceptual manifestations called the Endless. How many Endless are there?

2. Saga of the Swamp Thing by Alan Moore detailed the story of a human scientist whose personality was impressed upon a plant elemental. What was this scientist’s name?

3. Who wrote the novel, The Mists of Avalon?

4. What famous legend was portrayed in the novel The Mists of Avalon?

5. How many Rings of Power were there all together, in The Lord of the Rings?

6. What was the effect of the drink that Merry and Pippin consumed at Treebeard’s house?

7. In The Sparrow, how did Emilio Sandoz and Anne Edwards meet?

8. What was the nature of the first message Earth identified (in The Sparrow) as originating in the vicinity of Alpha Centauri?

9. In Discworld, what can't happen to the Hedgehog in the song?

10. Who was the first Troll officer in the Guards?

Author Arshad Ahsanuddin Took a Permanent Break from "Super-Hero Comics"when He Picked Up
The Sandman

Arshad Ahsanuddin

I started collecting comic books seriously in junior high school. They were mostly fun and lighthearted reads, typically super-hero comics. Then one day, I came across a new title called, Sandman, by Neil Gaiman. It was STRANGE, different in mindset from the other comic books that were being produced at the time. The mystical/occult storyline, replete with original mythology, hooked my interest, and I followed the series loyally to the end.

Sandman completely changed my understanding of comic books. It broadened my outlook on the limitations of the medium and sent my interests branching out into other mystical titles that subsequently exploded onto the comic book scene. These included major players from the pre-Sandman era (most notably Alan Moore’s work in Saga of the Swamp Thing, and his post-Sandman classics Watchmen and V for Vendetta).

The revival of interest in contemporary and paranormal fantasy eventually led DC comics to establish a separate imprint called Vertigo, when the company finally realized the “gold mine” it had in its hands. I credit this shift in my tastes toward well-written and thought-provoking fantasy comics as a key element in my later decision to write in that genre.

Sci-Fi Author Karen A. Wyle Rates “No Book Higher” Than
The Sparrow

Karen A. Wyle

In general, I dislike naming a single favorite in any category, including books. Nonetheless, I am only slightly uncomfortable in declaring that Mary Doria Russell's, The Sparrow, is my favorite novel. I majored in English and American Literature (lo these many years ago), so I have read quite a few “classics.” I rank none higher.

The Sparrow is not the first science fiction novel to exemplify how perfectly suited the genre is for examining deeply human issues. Using wonderfully lovable and articulate characters and a fascinating setting, it explores themes of interpersonal and cross-cultural communication, the struggle to understand one's own beliefs and feelings, and unintended consequences. It inspired me to address similar themes when I finally began writing my own fiction.

Ms. Russell, in defiance of much omnipresent advice for authors, has not confined herself to one genre. She also has produced marvelous works of historical fiction, including, A Thread of Grace, and, most recently, Doc. I take comfort from her example as I edit my second novel, which I do not regard as science fiction. (It takes place in an afterlife of my own devising, and one I that do not expect any starship to discover.)

A Boy’s Loud, Spontaneous Laugh Caught Author Kristina Jackson’s Attention and Led Her to the Book that Caused It:
Discworld

Kristina Jackson

There is, without a doubt, one series of books that has inspired me, enthralled me and had me laughing out loud in the bath: Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. I am sitting here pondering precisly what it is about the Discworld series that has had such a lasting impact on my writing career? Perhaps, if I share a memory with you it all may become clearer.

It was summer. The sun beat down and swallows screamed overhead. My best friend and I were lying in a hammock in her parentâ€™s garden, sipping Lemonade out of those glasses with curly straws entwined and attached up the sides. Her brother, a serious, studious boy suddenly, burst out laughing. Not just a guffaw, but a good belly laugh. It was enough to topple us out of the hammock and onto the soft ground below, spilling our lemonade. In his hands he held a Terry Pratchett book. Later on, he loaned me one, and both my Dad and I became hooked.

It is that memory that still burns like a beacon. I want to write to make people react strongly, in ways they normally would not.

Fantasy Author Jodine Turner’s Favorite Book, The Mists of Avalon May Have Magical Powers:
It Not Only Focused Her Writing; It Found Her a Husband!

Jodine Turner

When I first read the classic fantasy novel, The Mists of Avalon, I was enchanted with the story’s setting in Glastonbury, England, the ancient, 'Isle of Avalon.' I visited Glastonbury several times, and eventually moved there for 13 months in order to immerse myself in the energy, and do research, as all of my novels take place in Glastonbury. I actually met and married my husband there!

During my daily excursions to the Chalice Well, one of Glastonburyâ€™s sacred sites, I experienced waking visions that stirred my soul. I studied the local folklore and legend. Glastonbury taught me to explore the realms of mystery and magic, worlds seen and unseen. The worlds that lay parallel to our everyday existence. I tapped into these realms of legend and archetype, especially Celtic lore, to weave the dark and edgy magical fantasy aspect present throughout my novels. Using all of my experiences, I began to write my Goddess of the Stars and the Sea series about priestesses who had lived in Glastonbury throughout the ages and up through today.

Glastonbury remains one of my favorite spots. The Chalice Well Gardens, the beacon-like hill called 'the Tor' - all the sacred sites 'The Mists of Avalon' first introduced me to â€“ touched me deeply and continue to inspire the content of my magical fantasy, visionary fiction, paranormal-romance novels.

Thank you, Rachel, for allowing us to share our author's literary “close encounters” with your readers! - Jon Reisfeld

Ahsanuddin, author of, Sunset, the first book in his gay vampire sci-fi series, "Pact Arcanum;" Kristina Jackson, author of the paranormal novel, The Fool's Journey; Karen A. Wyle, author of the hard sci-fi novel, Twin-Bred and Jodine Turner, fantasy author of Carry on the Flame: Destiny's Call. All are featured authors in "The Last Way Station Mega Book Tour," a new concept in virtual book touring that showcases up-and-coming indie authors and features them in tag-team guest blog appearances, like this one.

The Books That Most Inspired Our Authors


The Lord of the Rings	The Sandman	Sparrow	Discworld	The Mists of Avalon

For Author Nuayma Jeggels, the Novel that "Started Everything" was …
The Lord of the Rings

Nuayma Jeggels

The Lord of the Rings has touched the imaginations of millions of readers across the world. Isn’t that wonderful?

Close Encounters Trivia Challenge

1. The main character of the Sandman comic book is Dream, one of a group of anthropomorphic conceptual manifestations called the Endless. How many Endless are there?

2. Saga of the Swamp Thing by Alan Moore detailed the story of a human scientist whose personality was impressed upon a plant elemental. What was this scientist’s name?

3. Who wrote the novel, The Mists of Avalon?

4. What famous legend was portrayed in the novel The Mists of Avalon?

5. How many Rings of Power were there all together, in The Lord of the Rings?

6. What was the effect of the drink that Merry and Pippin consumed at Treebeard’s house?

7. In The Sparrow, how did Emilio Sandoz and Anne Edwards meet?

8. What was the nature of the first message Earth identified (in The Sparrow) as originating in the vicinity of Alpha Centauri?

9. In Discworld, what can't happen to the Hedgehog in the song?

10. Who was the first Troll officer in the Guards?

Author Arshad Ahsanuddin Took a Permanent Break from "Super-Hero Comics"when He Picked Up
The Sandman

Arshad Ahsanuddin

Sci-Fi Author Karen A. Wyle Rates “No Book Higher” Than
The Sparrow

Karen A. Wyle

A Boy’s Loud, Spontaneous Laugh Caught Author Kristina Jackson’s Attention and Led Her to the Book that Caused It:
Discworld

Kristina Jackson

It is that memory that still burns like a beacon. I want to write to make people react strongly, in ways they normally would not.

Fantasy Author Jodine Turner’s Favorite Book, The Mists of Avalon May Have Magical Powers:
It Not Only Focused Her Writing; It Found Her a Husband!

Jodine Turner

Thank you, Rachel, for allowing us to share our author's literary “close encounters” with your readers! - Jon Reisfeld

Guest Post: Bookish Pet Peeves

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:06:43 -0800

I hope you enjoy this peek into the mind of Lori Strongin! She's been a loyal reader of Freelance and Fiction for a while now and is about to release her urban fantasy YA novel, Bite Me.

Bookish Pet Peeves
by Lori Strongin

I’m a writer. By definition, that means I read. A LOT. I love sinking into a really good plot that doesn’t slow down long enough to even let me take a breath. I eagerly await the moment an author whisks me away from the world I know and sink me into theirs, whether it’s in a magic wood, floating high above the earth in a zeppelin, or to a country far away. I want to fall in love with the characters—care if they live or die, fight with them as they reach for their dreams, mourn with them when everything seems lost.

That said, there are a couple of things that will make me want to throw a book across a room.

(In all fairness, I only did that once. It was Moby Dick. If you’re one of the unlucky few who were forced to read this thing, then I think you understand where I was coming from.)

Info Dumping

We’ve all heard the adage, Show Don’t Tell. Well, that goes double for character backstory, scene descriptions, and world building that’s just been dumped into the text rather than woven into the story. I’ve read way too many books where there’s more “Here’s my life story in a nutshell” than actual current events, plotwise.

Believe me, I have whole spreadsheets on my characters’ backgrounds, likes, dislikes, shoe sizes, etc. But that doesn’t mean anyone cares about that kind of stuff, or makes it relevant to the story. I as the author need to know those little details because they shape the life of the character. But there are few readers who care about when my heroine lost her first tooth or my hero ate a banana and got hives.

Also, books aren’t like Twitter. I don’t care what a character had for breakfast. Unless there’s poison in their Cheerios. Then we’ll talk.

Lust at First Sight (also known as Insta-Love)

Unless we’re talking erotica here (which we’re not), I really don’t want to read about “burning loins” the first time the main characters meet. Not to say your leading man or lady can’t find their future love interest good looking, or even downright hurt-me-sexy, but wanting to jump into bed ten seconds after saying Hello cheats the reader out of falling in love with the characters as they fall for each other. It’s all about the journey, not the destination for me, or the teasing rather than the pleasing, as some say.

Assuming the Reader is Stupid

Anyone notice that in only the first and second Harry Potter books did Rowling give a brief reminder of where Harry was, why he was there, and what he looked like? That’s smart writing. Just enough info to remind the reader about pertinent details in the protagonist’s life, including their current predicament, but no more than a few sentences before launching back into the plot. The latter five books didn’t do that because the character and overarching plot had been so well established in those first two books, that rehashing it in Books 3-7 would have been a waste of page space and slowed the pacing down. Plus, it shows that Rowling trusted her readers to keep up, rather than pandering and talking down to them like many other writers do.

Likewise, I don’t need an author to remind me every few pages that the heroine has blonde hair and a bosom men have died for. I got it the first time. Unless the characters suddenly go Goth and dye their hair black and purple, it’s really not necessary to keep hammering those details into my skull every few paragraphs.

So readers, please don’t judge all books by the ones that commit the literary crimes I’ve mentioned. And authors, I task you to give us readers strong, realistic characters who leap off the page with unique voices and compelling stories.

Connect With Lori Strongin On Her Website: http://loristrongin.com/

Author Lori T. Strongin has been lucky enough to study under many wonderful writing mentors and is passionate about giving some of that knowledge back to other writers.

A writer of high fantasy, urban fantasy, sci-fi, horror, romance, and commercial fiction, Lori is knowledgeable about the ins and outs of publishing industry and has helped many writers on their paths to publication.

Book Review: The Last Way Station by Jon Reisfeld

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 11:14:41 -0800

   I was lucky enough to receive a review copy of Jon Reisfeld’s novel The Last Way Station: Hitler’s Final Journey! The premise of the book is simple: after committing suicide, Hitler finds himself in a strange afterlife where he is forced to see the pain he caused through his victims’ eyes.

    There are a lot of ideas in this slim book. Reisfeld takes on the question of evil. What is the most basic root of evil? What allows one human to commit the atrocities for which Hitler is infamous?

    I found some of the characterization to be a bit light. Hitler and the supernatural caseworker seemed more like sketches than fully realized characters. However, I was willing to overlook that slight drawback due to the strength of the plot. Who doesn’t want to see Hitler get his just desserts? Fortunately, Reisfeld doesn’t rely on fire and brimstone and over the top revenge fantasies a la Inglourious Basterds – instead, he digs into the heart of what justice and humanity are all about.

    One of the strongest sections is the story-within-a-story centered on Jacob, a Jewish man struggling to save his family. In stripped down prose, Reisfeld creates some chapters that run the gamut from hopeful to heartbreaking. I would recommend this book on the strength of this section alone!

    Thank you so much for sharing this novel with the world, Jon! I greatly appreciate the opportunity to read and review your novel and feature it in the Mega Book Tour.

Book Giveaway Details!

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:02:13 -0800

Here's a quick list of the books being offered in the book tour!

The Last Way Station by Jon Reisfeld (signed print copy of the book and an ebook)

Covert Dreams by Michael Meyer

The Ghost In Me by Shaunda Wenger

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment after the Mega Book Tour post asking one of the authors a question!

Last Way Station Mega Book Tour Authors Read from Their Books

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 08:09:35 -0800

Welcome to a special author reading experience, where you will be treated to not one, but five, indie authors reading excerpts from their books. Listen to the books that intrigue you. Then, ask the authors questions, by name, in the comments section below, and they'll answer you.

Jon Reisfeld, Shaunda Kennedy Wenger, Kitty Sutton, Kelsey Miller and Michael Meyer are five of dozens of up-and-coming "indie" authors featured in "The Last Way Station Mega Book Tour," a new concept in virtual book touring that involves multiple authors at individual book-tour stops. The tour, named in honor of founder and sponsor, Jon Reisfeld's book, The Last Way Station, is also hosting a Sweepstakes with a Grand Prize of a Kindle Fire and secondary prizes consisting of ebook bundles. Click here to learn more about the featured authors here and the other authors on the tour and to complete your free entry in the Sweepstakes!

The Last Way Station

On April 30, 1945, Adolf Hitler, one of the most notorious mass-murderers in history, retired to his room in his bunker, 25 feet beneath the old Reich Chancery garden. Above him, the Red Army was encircling Berlin as his dream of a thousand-year Aryan empire lay in ruins. Hitler placed a glass cyanide capsule between his teeth and pointed a loaded service pistol at his right temple. Then, smugly believing he had both evaded capture and escaped all accountability for his crimes, he bit down and pulled the trigger. He was wrong! The Last Way Station begins moments after Hitler’s successful suicide, when the Führer finds himself mysteriously transported to a numbingly cold, solitary holding cell in the afterworld. There, he meets his caseworker, a supernatural being tasked with helping him face, and work through, his sins. The caseworker explains that Hitler will remain in solitary confinement indefinitely, as he prepares his soul for eventual return to the material world. The method, Hitler learns, involves seeking enlightenment through physically embodying his victims and then personally reliving the atrocities committed against them in his name. This speculative, historical fantasy narrative explores Hitler’s psychology, the psychology of evil and asks, ‘What, if anything, constitutes fitting punishment for the ‘super evil?’'

Author Jon Reisfeld

A graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, Jon Reisfeld has worked, most of his adult life, as a writer and marketer. He has more than 25 years combined experience in journalism, corporate communications, advertising and marketing.

At 23, Jon became the first writer ever to have a story start on the cover of Baltimore Magazine. (It was a piece about teenage suicide.) He later founded and published Housecalls, a Baltimore-based health-and-fitness magazine. In the mid 90s, Jon served as Director of Marketing and Communications for Duron Paints and Wallcoverings. He ran the half-billion dollar regional paint company's 12-person in-house advertising agency for several years before returning to his private marketing consulting practice.

Jon's eclectic interests run the gamut from cosmology, chaos theory, technology and sci-fi to social issues, politics, the economy, anthropology, marketing and writing. He began writing fiction in his 40s and enjoys reading, walking, cycling, attending the theatre and "most" new movie openings.

His next major fiction project will be a sci-fi trilogy set on earth and spanning "several hundred years" of human history.

The Ghost in Me (Young Adult/Paranormal)

Myri Monaco has problems she doesn't know how to deal with: a crush on her best friend's boyfriend, a mother who's dating her science teacher, and a "punishment" for a science project that lands her in auditions for the school play (the last place she wants to be). But most girls don't have a ghost living at home who is willing to "trade places" whenever she's needed. Will ghostly possession be an easy solution when problems collide? Or, will Myri lose everything to a ghost wanting to fulfill her own desires?

Author Shaunda Kennedy Wenger

Prior to starting her own publishing company in 2011 with the release of her new titles, The Ghost in Me and Little Red Riding Hood: Into the Forest Again, Shaunda published five books in the educational market and one with Ballantine Books at Random House. The Book Lover's Cookbook, Recipes Inspired by Celebrated Works of Literature and the Passages That Feature Them was a 2003 featured holiday gift pick on National Public Radio (NPR). Her poems, short stories, and articles have been published with Babybug, Cricket, The Mailbox Company, The Writer, and Spirit Goat. When she is not writing, she is teaching, spending time with her family and friends, or chasing after the latest escapades of extreme donuts. She can be visited online at her blog, www.shaundawenger.blogspot.com.

Wheezer and the Painted Frog (Historical Fiction)

Who killed Usti Yansa? Find out September 15, 2011, in Wheezer and the Painted Frog, Kitty Sutton's debut novel about the aftermath of the infamous Trail of Tears. Healthy little boys shouldn't grow weak and die when they have shelter, food and the care of their families, yet Sasa's little brother, the last of her family, sickens, mumbling the mysterious 'I didn't do it right, I didn't do enough. Why didn't it work?' Left alone, mourning and trying to survive in a new place with new ways, Sasa seeks answers with the help of her new friend, Wheezer. The Jack Russell Terrier seems too wise, too fierce and too loyal to be just a dog. Did the Creator send Wheezer to Sasa and if so, how can a dog, albeit a smart one, help to solve a murder? From the time Europeans landed in North America, the People were forced out of the land they had known for generations. By the nineteenth century, the United States had pushed them into the remote and undeveloped area known as Indian Territory and promised them food and protection that never came. Plagued by the loss of their ability to farm and hunt, the lack of food and shelter, the disease brought by the White Man, every tribe suffered losses so great only the memories of the survivors could document the dead. This story, taking place among the Cherokee after the Trail of Tears, is a story for all the People.

Kitty Sutton

Kitty Sutton was born Kathleen Kelley to a Cherokee/Irish family. Both sides of her family were from performing families in Kansas City, Missouri and Kitty was trained from an early age in dance, vocal, art and musical instruments. Her father was a Naval band leader. During the Great Depression, her mother helped to support her family by tap dancing in the speakeasys even though she was just a child; she was very tall for her age but made up like an adult. Kitty had music and art on all sides of her family which ultimately helped to feed her imaginative mind and desire to succeed.

Kitty married a wonderful Cherokee artist from Oklahoma, in fact the very area that she writes about in her Wheezer series of novels. After raising her family, Kitty came to Branson, Missouri and performed in her own one woman show there for twelve years. To honor her father, she performed under the name Kitty Kelley. She has three music albums and several original songs to her credit and is best known for her comical, feel good song called, It Ain't Over Till The Fat Lady Sings. Kitty has been writing for many years and in 2011 Inknbeans published her historical Native American murder mystery. First in a line of stories featuring Wheezer, a Jack Russell Terrier and his Cherokee friend, Sasa, it is called, Wheezer And The Painted Frog. Kitty lives in the southwestern corner of Missouri near Branson with her husband of 40 years and her three Jack Russell Terriers, one of which is the real and wonderful Wheezer.

Retribution (Paranormal)

Not all Vampires drink blood… As the reluctant wolf heir to the Lyall Family, Faolan is no stranger to killing Vampires. But even he is unprepared for the two Changelings who attack him one day during his patrol. The two young Vampires make no move to seriously harm Faolan, and despite his confusion at their odd behavior he manages to get away. Shortly thereafter he is attacked by a mysterious Vampire. However, instead of killing Faolan, she coerces him into joining her quest to kill the elusive vampyre, Hunter. But can Faolan trust her? And why is he forced from his wolf form whenever he fights this Vampire? Faolan will have to work quickly to discover her secrets before both of them are killed…

Kelsey Miller

Kelsey Miller began Retribution when she was fourteen. Now, four years later, she has finally finished. In the fall she will begin a journey of her own as a college freshman, where she hopes to continue writing. Retribution is her first novel.

Covert Dreams (Suspense/Thriller)

Is the mysterious disappearance of an American in today's Saudi Arabia somehow linked to a terrible murder in Munich back in 1984? Is B.J. living a nightmare, or is it reality? How can he dream the same dream night after night and know intimate details of Munich, a city in which he has never been? How can he speak German in his dream, a language he does not know? Why does everybody think he is losing it? Is he going crazy?

How can a woman suddenly disappear in the Saudi Arabian heat, along with every trace of her very existence? Why is there absolutely nothing, not one single detail in any records anywhere, to prove that she is indeed a living person and that her spouse is not crazy for thinking so? Why do both the American government officials and the Saudi Arabian authorities insist that she has never even existed?

What is real, and what is not? Who is really who, and why? What is behind the murder, the kidnappings, and the nightmares all leading up to what end? The mounting suspense moves from Munich, to London, to Rome, and to the burning sands of Saudi Arabia. What is the horrifying link between these two alternating stories? Do you love mysteries? Do you love thrillers? Do you love suspense? If so, then take on COVERT DREAMS.

Michael Meyer

Mike Meyer recently retired from a 40-year career as a professor of writing, amassing numerous teaching awards along the way from both his students and his colleagues. He lives in the Southern California wine country with his wife, Kitty, and their two other cats.

My Top 10... Movies!

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 14:16:11 -0800

So I decided to do a top ten movie list. :) Why? Because I love lists. I love seeing other bloggers' lists and I love making my own and remembering all the good things I've seen/read/heard. And movies are all about storytelling, right? Enjoying these fantastic films has made me think about how the directors and writers maintain tension, reveal character, and convey information without succumbing to the dreaded info-dump trap. I hope you'll enjoy the list and share your own list of top 10 (or 5 or 15 or 50) movies!

These movies aren't all from 2011, but as of 2011, they are my favorite films. They're also in no particular order, because how could I possibly choose between them? They are each perfect in their own way.

Disclaimer: I haven't taken the time to point out potentially offensive material in the movies listed. There are plenty of other websites offering that kind of guidance.

10. The Proposition
An extremely gut-punchy movie about three outlaw brothers in Australia. One is caught, one gets away, and the third is asked to kill the escaped brother - or the younger brother dies. Gripping.

9. Fight Club
Need I say anything about this one? I love this movie. So many quotable lines. So much to think about. So many memorable moments.

8. Let the Right One In
Beautiful movie about a friendship between a bullied boy and the girl who moves in next door... a girl who turns out to be a vampire.

7. Jane Eyre
A film that perfectly captured the mood of the book. Gorgeous scene-setting and convincing performances.

6. The Shining
The first time I watched this movie, I thought, "This isn't scary at all. What's the big fuss?" Something nagged me about it, though, so I read quite a bit of criticism on it. I loved it on the second viewing.

5. Brick
I really enjoyed this noir film about an intelligent high school student searching for the truth about his murdered girlfriend. I recommend to people it all the time!

4. Wall-E
What can I say? Wall-E is simply magic. The little world he's lovingly built from trash, the instant recognition of community when Eve shows up - the first half alone puts this on my top 10 list.

3. Primer
Time travel gets realistic... and ugly. Indie film that blows away many big-budget movies with smarts and style to spare.

2. Memento
The most twisty movie I've ever seen. The end completely recasts the movie you thought you were watching.

1. Pulp Fiction
See, this list did have something to do with books, after all! I loved the eccentric style and impossible-to-predict storylines.

Please comment with your top 10 movies (of this year or past years)!

If you enjoyed this post, please share it!

Results of Poll!

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 09:41:04 -0800

According to the poll, the majority of you want a week of steampunk! I will be haunting Goodreads and choosing authors to interview. If you have a favorite steampunk book or author, contact me. If I get enough responses, I will write a "Readers' Choice" post featuring your faves.

Thanks to everyone who voted!

Author POV: Mark Matthews

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 08:47:12 -0800

Let’s welcome Mark Matthews to the blog! Mark and I met through Twitter and I've been enjoying reading his blog! I highly recommend it for the humorous and thoughtful posts on everything from running marathons to favorite television shows (more on that later!).

Welcome to the blog, Mark! Could you tell us a little bit about The Jade Rabbit?
Sure. Thanks for having me, Rachel.

The Jade Rabbit is the story of a woman adopted from China who is now the director of a runaway shelter for youth in Detroit. The stress of her job and the trauma of the families she deals with, as well as lingering issues from her own abandonment, all get played out in a torturous marathon training program. She develops a relationship with a girl at the shelter known as “the ghost of moonlight” and risks everything in order to save this child. Stories of ghosts who haunt the basement, angry parents who try to intimidate her, board members who threaten to fire her, and her inability to conceive her own child, all culminate in her psyche and get played out during an incredible marathon run through the streets of Detroit.

While the novel is a piece of fiction, the setting is 100% real. I worked for years in a runaway shelter near Detroit that used to serve as a nunnery, and this is the setting for The Jade Rabbit. I’ve also run the Detroit Marathon five times.

The title of the novel comes from a Chinese folktale of a rabbit who sacrifices itself to serves others, and is thus made immortal.

What led you to write this book?
Well, I certainly followed the adages of “write what you know” and “write the book only you could write” with this novel. The unique blending of Chinese adoption, social work, and marathoning are all part of my life experience.

I wanted to write something that demonstrated the power of running and marathoning. To run a marathon is not just a physical thing, it’s a cathartic release of all of your emotional and spiritual energy. It gets squeezed out of your spine like toothpaste, and it’s never just about the strength to run. As the character in the book says, “It boil the truths out of you.” In order to do this, I needed a complex, strong character who also had a nagging fragility about her. In Janice, I developed a strong, nurturing character who plays out some of her baggage in her social work job, (as all us social workers do to some degree). I also wanted to make the climax depend upon her experience in the marathon. Psychological issues can be dealt with by beating the body down, and when we take ourselves to our physical limits, we can blast through emotional, mental, and psychological barriers, as well.

Ultimately, the theme of the novel is the universal ties of family, and how sharing blood is only a small bit of what connects us. We are all mothers and fathers, doesn’t matter if we ever conceived, and the dandelion seeds that are blown our way and land nearby are ours to nurture (to paraphrase the novel).

It was a bit of a risk taking on the perspective of a woman and a Chinese adoptee, especially in telling from the first person. However, I am real clear that this is just one woman’s experience, not some universal statement.

Your blog headline reads, “Writing, Running, and the Human Experience”. I think sometimes I’d be thinking of book ideas while I ran, and other times I’d be running from all the problems of my current book! How do you find writing and running intersecting in your life?
About forty-five minutes in to any run my writing mojo is released. If this mojo was ever sold at the local dope house, there would certainly be an epidemic. The difference is, with running, you have to earn this drug and it gets better over time instead of worse. This is what makes it different from heroin and other society ailments.

Running makes my ideas more grand, makes them flow. It lubricates everything so loose associations flow through my veins. I have great ideas, my characters have conversations, my plots turn incredible and I am master of the universe. ROAR!!!

But then I return home and the reality of putting this on paper hits and it doesn’t always translate. I may have unique and grand ideas that sound good at the time, but then they don’t translate to the story and I never get them on paper.

It is much like getting drunk, which I haven’t done for nearly 20 years.

One of your recent blog posts mentions the moral relativism the television series The Walking Dead often explores. (I’m a huge TWD fan!) How do you create gripping moral dilemmas in your own novels?
What a great show that just got better. That post was my most popular yet, and I’m always having the urge to write a follow up. Yes, I think characters are most appealing when they are a touch of grey. Rick in The Walking Dead may be the golden child battling evil, but it is the Shane and Darryl-like characters who have the most conflict and keep things interesting. And, oh boy, the show is about to blow up with Merl on the horizon and a most unwelcome pregnancy.

But back to my writing. In both my novels, the main characters struggle with doing what is right. Doing the next right thing is the battle of our lives, and while we may judge ourselves by our intentions, others judge us by our actions.

Stray is about a substance abuse therapist who is a very giving, dedicated, genuine man. However, he starts to feel the world of his clients seep into his personal life, gets resentful, and even blames his client’s overdose for causing his wife’s miscarriage. He struggles throughout the novel between a sense of selfishness and a dedication to helping others get sober. It is a compassionate novel but with a definite edge, and I promise an ending that could be pulled right from the recent scripts of a Walking Dead episode.

Janice, in The Jade Rabbit, is faced with moral dilemmas in how to best serve homeless/runaway youth. There is the right thing to do, and what she thinks is the best thing to do, and they are not the same. Ultimately, she is faced with choices that can lead to sacrificing her job, which is not just her career but her calling and her identity.

What is your best writing advice?
Well, I’m in no position to give advice but I can say a few words. I love the advice of Chuck Wendig. There is so much advice out there, rehashed and over-marketed, but his is fresh and a great, funny, cutely-obscene pep talk. (I tweeted him asking to have his child once. He did answer, and never really said no, so there is hope.)

As for writing, I suppose I follow the same guides as I do for life. If I love to do it, then I’d better do it, because I don’t want to go to my grave without trying. I’m not going to die with my music still in me. As as long as I’m moving and haven’t stopped trying, I’m not defeated. I try to follow this in both running and writing. Both of them squeeze stuff out of me, and give me an alternative reality to relish in.

Excellent thoughts on needing to do what you love. Thanks so much for stopping by, Mark!
Thanks, Rachel.

The Jade Rabbit and Stray are available at Amazon.

Bio
Mark Matthews is a licensed professional counselor who has worked for many years as a therapist, but many more years as a writer. His first novel, Stray, is based on experiences working in a treatment center with an animal shelter right next door within barking distance. His second novel, The Jade Rabbit, is the story of woman, adopted from China as an infant, who now manages a runaway shelter in Detroit. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan, an avid marathoner and hockey fan, and lives near Detroit with his wife and two daughters.

Look for his next novel, Placebo, the story of a rogue psychiatrist who only prescribes placebos and a pharmaceutical representative who feeds the streets of Detroit with a new opiate drug. This novel will return to the drug houses, psychiatric treatment centers, and raw yet compassionate edge that made Stray so popular.

Mark Matthews can be found on his blog at http://markmatthewsauthor.blogspot.com/ and on Twitter @matthews_mark. Contact him at xmarkm@yahoo.com.

If you enjoyed this post, please share it or comment! You can even find me on Twitter @RachelVDiMaggio.

Finding Your Writing Niche

Sat, 19 Nov 2011 07:20:11 -0800

I'm really excited to share another great article by my friend Jeriel Ng, author of The Syndicate.

Find Your Writing Niche
By Jeriel Ng

In this day and age, the world is populated with a plethora of writers and novels, and each day, that number continues to grow. So how do we find a way to stand out from the crowd? Being unique certainly goes a long way. Finding your niche in writing can help out tremendously, as you find a certain style that caters specifically to your knowledge and talents. So how exactly do you find your niche? There are several things you can determine about yourself, and of course, discovering them will only come from experience and trying different things each time:

1)      Genre
2)      Point of View
3)      Voice

The most obvious – and perhaps the easiest to pick out – is the genre in which you want to write. Simply think about what kind of books you enjoy reading and work from there. Or perhaps you may not even want to write from your favorite genre. It’s really up to you.

To consider another case, the point of view from which you write can have a serious impact on how you write. For the most part, you would choose either first or third person. Of course, we all know the specific details each one entails. However, some people work better writing in first person, while others thrive writing in third person. To determine which one would work best for you, consider some of the following factors:

If you want a more personal, more conversational connection with your readers, if you want your readers to have a much deeper connection with your protagonist, or if you want to delve deeper into a more emotional aspect of the novel, first person works well.

If you want to impose a sense of omniscience over all your characters, if you want to be able to focus on any given character at any given moment in time, or if you want to feature a larger cast of characters, you may want to turn to third person.

And then there’s your voice. Every single writer has a unique voice. Of course, there may be those who write similarly to others, but it’s safe to say that no two writers have identical voices. Unfortunately, voice is a completely intangible aspect – there’s no absolute way to measure a writer’s voice. Fortunately, once you have figured out a voice that is unique to you, you will know. This idea involves several factors, ranging from the words and phrases you use to the way you vary your sentence lengths. Each word you use plays a crucial role in characterizing the individual you want to present to the public, and as for sentence length, the way you handle your variation will ultimately define the mood you create for your stories. For example, if you want to focus more on action, shorter, more abrupt sentences would work best. If you prefer to write more on emotions, longer sentences should be your forte. Aside from those two aspects, another thing you could test to determine your voice would be your narrator’s tone. If you are writing in first person, you would naturally create your protagonists as a separate entity from yourself. Ultimately, however, each narrator you create, whether written in first or third person, would embody the core of your likeness as a writer, and what you want to do with that is create a unique tone that is common among each narrator.

Of course, there are quite a number of other factors, but those listed above should serve as the core springboards to determining your preferred style of writing. If you really want to delve deeper, perhaps consider the way you divide your chapters, and even the form of publishing you want to use. All of these aspects will work together in shaping your identity as a writer and in helping you find the niche into which you will fit perfectly.