Let’s welcome Julia Madeleine to the blog! I discovered her via Goodreads and can’t wait to read her book.

Welcome to the blog, Julia! Your cover looks amazing, by the way. Could you tell us a little bit about No One to Hear You Scream?
No One To Hear You Scream is like The Ghosts Of Belfast meets Cape Fear. It’s the story of Rory Madden, a former Belfast gang member living in exile in the states where he builds his dream house on the edge of Keuka Lake in upstate New York, only to lose it to foreclosure when he can’t make his mortgage payments after getting popped in a drug raid. Six months after he’s released from pre-trial custody, he goes on a drug-induced rampage to get even with everyone he thinks is responsible, including the nice family who’s bought his house. When their teenage daughter falls for him, together they plot the murder of her parents.

What led you to write this book?
In 2008, my family and I bought a country house in foreclosure on a 30-acre wooded property out in the middle of nowhere.  Shortly after moving in we found ourselves on the receiving end of the former owner’s wrath, still angry over losing his house. We were targeted with vandalism, and when it began to escalate, we called the police to report it. The police were the ones who told us they believed it was the former owner. Apparently he was well know to them. That night I had a dream—a nightmare—where a guy was standing at the end of my driveway with a shotgun and he wanted me out of the house. From this image my character, Rory Madden, was born. And I constructed the story around him.

A year later we sold the house and moved back to the city, where I can honestly say I feel a lot safer, being within screaming distance of my neighbours.

I liked how the description mentioned “the dark side of the American dream”. How does your book challenge the American dream?
The American (or North American, since I’m Canadian) dream is that ideal we strive for; a good life filled with success, abundance, health, and love and happiness. And most of the time this includes buying a house. But sometimes things happen to throw that dream off kilter, like an unexpected predator in the midst. That’s what happens in my novel when a family buys the house of their dreams only to discover the previous owner is a violent criminal who wants in back.

Do you see any intersections between themes in No One to Hear You Scream and any of your other books?
I think all my writing leans toward noir with a dark feel. I do love to blur the lines a bit between the villain and the good guy because I think that we are not all bad or all good all of the time, so I enjoy playing with the reader’s emotions a bit in making the bad guy sympathetic as I’ve done in this novel.

What is your best writing advice?
Many years ago I received a brutal rejection letter from a literary agent who couldn’t seem to say enough bad things about my manuscript. She then gave me a list of books on the craft of writing that she promised would put my writing light years ahead. Naturally my initial reaction was to be offended, but rather than get my ego up, I decided that maybe she might know a thing or two and perhaps I should shut up and listen to her advise to see if there was any truth in it. So I bought every book on that list. As it turns out, I consider this one of the pivotal points of my writing career. Everything she said was completely accurate and I’ve benefited enormously from reading those books. That is the best writing advice that I can pass on, read every book on the craft of writing that you can get your hands on. 

Thanks so much for stopping by, Julia!

Bio
Julia Madeleine is a thriller writer and tattoo artist living on the outskirts of Toronto. Her third novel, The Truth About Scarlet Rose, will be available December 2011.

Julia Madeleine can be found on Twitter @Julia_Madeleine and here: www.facebook.com/MadJulia.

No One to Hear You Scream is available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
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It seems we've all survived Zombie Week! Enjoy my interview with Kim Paffenroth - his writing advice is so good, I'm going to put it in my "quotes" file. Have a safe, happy Halloween!

Welcome to the blog, Kim! Could you tell us a little bit about History is Dead: A Zombie Anthology?
It’s an anthology I edited a couple years ago, in which I asked contributors to set their stories before the Twentieth Century. So we ended up with lots of stories with zombies in unusual settings and living humans employing quite different tactics than we see when they’re fighting the undead in a contemporary setting.

What led you to write this book?
I wanted to see how people imagined fighting zombies in a world with much less firepower and mobility. I also wanted to see zombies as a more primal monster and not just a product of the late Twentieth Century. The results were a great range of stories, both in their particulars, and in their tone (some are hilarious, some are truly tragic).

You’re a professor of religious studies. How does your knowledge of the Bible and theology affect your writing?
I try to restrain myself from having a “message” as it were – but at the same time, I know I have a particular perspective, and it’s good for me to express it (subtly and not overtly). So I don’t want to be known as the “Christian zombie guy,” but I know that my outlook should come through in subtle ways, so people can have a deeper aesthetic experience of my work. 

Why do you think zombies are so popular right now? Are there any underrated horror themes you’d like to see become more popular?
Zombies are a potent mix – primal fears that everyone has always had about death, dying, and the dead; expressed in a monster that embodies some uniquely modern fears of alienation, lack of individuality, being “lost in the crowd,” of not having meaning or purpose in one’s life; exacerbated by a contemporary fear of bio-terrorism, plagues, and genetic manipulation.

I always wondered why aliens never got more scary than in the original Alien movie. They seem more comical or a more vague threat to me now, whereas the original was a movie that truly scared me to death. I think something more should be done with them.

What is your best writing advice?
Read a lot. Even if you don’t end up writing something, your time’s been well spent. 

Thanks so much for stopping by, Kim!
Entirely my pleasure, thanks!

Bio
Please write a short bio that includes any other writing or upcoming books. Any length from a few sentences to an average paragraph is fine.

Kim Paffenroth is Professor of Religious Studies at Iona College. He is the author of several books on the Bible and theology. His books in the horror genre include Gospel of the Living Dead: George Romero’s Visions of Hell on Earth (Baylor, 2006), which won the Bram Stoker Award; the Dying to Live series (Permuted Press, 2007-2011); and Valley of the Dead (Permuted Press, 2010). He lives in upstate New York with his wife and two children. 

Kim Paffenroth can be found on Facebook, Twitter, and his blog at http://gotld.blogspot.com. (That’s the acronym for GOSPEL OF THE LIVING DEAD!)

History is Dead: A Zombie Anthology is available at Amazon, B&N, and any other online book retailer; it can be specially ordered at “regular,” brick and mortar bookstores.
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It's still Zombie Week here at the blog! If you took my advice from the last post, you're probably hunkered down in some cellar or dark corner of your home. And you're probably wishing you had something to read. Jonathan Maberry, author of quality zombie and horror fiction, kindly agreed to stop by and share some insight about his new book, Dead of Night.

Freelance and Fiction: Welcome to the blog, Jonathan! Could you tell us a little bit about Dead of Night?
JONATHAN MABERRY: Dead of Night is a new take on the zombie apocalypse, starting with the absolute beginning of the outbreak in a small Pennsylvania town. We see the first kill, the first encounter with the cops, the first reporters on scene to cover it.  The main characters are a female redneck cop named Dez Fox and her partner, JT Hammond; and Dez’s ex-boyfriend, Billy Trout, a reporter who risks his life to discover the truth behind the outbreak. We also get a pretty plausible scientific explanation for how a zombie apocalypse could happen.  So plausible, in fact, that it absolutely creeped me out while I was writing it.

Freelance and Fiction: In Dead of Night, your zombie wasn’t an average Joe before being infected – he was a serial killer. Why did you choose this unique angle?
JONATHAN: That’s how the story started.  I had an idea about a prison doctor who creates a formula would keep an executed serial killer’s consciousness alive while even after his body has been buried. I thought of how horrible it would be to be in your coffin, unable to die but aware of your own body rotting.  Once I had that, the rest of the story just rolled out.  But the killer in the story, Homer Gibbon, became a much more important character, as did the prison doctor. 

Freelance and Fiction: How would you define horror to someone who’d never heard of the genre?
JONATHAN: Horror is a step into the dark with your eyes closed.  When it is at its best, horror takes the reader only half of the distance toward something frightening, but it allows the reader to go the last mile himself.  The point of horror is to engage the reader’s imagination, to coax them into participating in the process of defining what that horror looks like. 

Most good horror is cathartic.  We explore what makes us afraid as a way of understanding it.  When we understand it there is the potential for control and even resolution is possible.  Horror is seldom about monsters and more often it explores how monsters can be defeated.

Freelance and Fiction: Why do you think horror sometimes gets a bad rap? When does horror become art?
JONATHAN: Horror took a big hit during the seventies and eighties largely because of the advent of slasher films.  Those movies were marketing as ‘horror’ –which they aren’t.  Those films were written by screenwriters who have no idea what makes horror work. They’re self-indulgently misogynistic and they used shock instead of suspense.  But, since far more people go to the average movie than read the average book, the mass market perception was that ‘horror’ equaled ‘gratuitous violence and gore’.  That killed horror as big-market sales.  And it’s the reason that authors like Stephen King, Dean R. Koontz, Peter Straub and Anne Rice chose not to use the word ‘horror’ on the covers of their books.

At the same time, there have always been writers who have ignored the word ‘horror’ and simply concentrated on superb storytelling.  Consider books like Shirley Jackson’s psychologically complex The Haunting of Hill House; Robert Bloch’s riveting exploration of psychopathic behavior in Psycho; Robert McCammon’s Mystery Walk, an elegant journey into the shadows of backwoods America; Peter Straub’s recherché deconstruction of mannered New English society in Ghost Story; Stephen King’s ‘Salem’s Lot, a novel that virtually created the model of the small town American gothic storytelling while at the same time reviving the vampire as a frightening fictional monster; and the ornate beauty of Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire.

Freelance and Fiction: Do you have any favorite authors we should be reading? Who are your influences?
JONATHAN: I read constantly and my tastes are all over the place.  As a result I have favorites in lots of different genres.  My long-time favorites are Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, Ed McBain and John D. MacDonald.  But there are soooo many authors whose works I love.  I’ll read anything James Lee Burke writes.  My current favorite horror writers include Christopher Golden, Peter Straub, Nancy Holder, Graham Masterton, and the late L.A. Banks.

Freelance and Fiction: When you think about the future of horror, what do you envision?
JONATHAN: I’m seeing a movement toward mining folklore for ‘new’ monsters and elements of horror.  The mainstream/Hollywood models for vampires, ghosts and werewolves have gotten pretty tired, and they don’t bear much resemblance to the monsters in folklore.  Take vampires, for example—there are hundreds of different kinds of variations on this monster, most of which haven’t been used in modern storytelling.  I think that’s where the most exciting new horror is going to come from.

Freelance and Fiction: What is your best advice on writing?
JONATHAN: Learn the business.  Learn that publishing is a business.  Being good at the craft of writing will only take you so far.  That’s a fact of life in publishing.  Learning how the business works can give a writer a solid chance to get their stories into the hands of readers.

And, one more thing: be relentless.  Don’t let anything stop you from achieving your dreams.

Freelance and Fiction: Thanks so much for stopping by, Jonathan!
JONATHAN: My pleasure!

Bio
Jonathan Maberry is a NY Times bestselling author, multiple Bram Stoker Award winner, and Marvel Comics writer.  His novels include the Pine Deep Trilogy  (Ghost Road Blues, Dead Man’s Song and Bad Moon Rising); the Joe Ledger thriller series (Patient Zero, The Dragon Factory, The King of Plagues, and Assassin’s Code); the Benny Imura Young Adult dystopian series (Rot & Ruin, Dust & Decay, and Flesh & Bone); the Scribe Award-winning film adaptation of The Wolfman and the standalone horror thriller –Dead of Night.  His nonfiction books include the international bestseller Zombie CSU, The Cryptopedia, They Bite, Vampire Universe and Wanted Undead of Alive.  He has sold over 1200 feature articles, thousands of columns, two plays, greeting cards, technical manuals, how-to books, and many short stories.  His comics for Marvel include Marvel Universe vs the Wolverine, Marvel Universe vs the Punisher, DoomWar, Black Panther and Captain America: Hail Hydra.  He is the founder of the Writers Coffeehouse and co-founder of The Liars Club; and is a frequent keynote speaker and guest of honor at conferences including BackSpace, Dragon*Con, ZombCon, PennWriters, The Write Stuff, Central Coast Writers, Necon, Killer Con, Liberty States, and many others.  In 2004 Jonathan was inducted into the International Martial Arts Hall of Fame, due in part to his extensive writing on martial arts and self-defense.  In October he’ll be featured as an expert in a History Channel documentary on zombies. Visit him online at www.jonathanmaberry.com, www.twitter.com/jonathanmaberry and www.facebook.com/jonathanmaberry 

Dead of Night is available in bookstores everywhere; also available for all e-readers and on audio. Check it out at Barnes & Noble and MacMillan!

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It's finally Zombie Week! I'm really excited about sharing the interviews I've collected. Each author featured this week has written a book full of shambling, decaying, cerebral cortex-craving monsters, so hunker down behind a locked door, grab a rifle (or a crossbow, if you're a Walking Dead fan), and hang on to your brain.

Welcome to the blog, J. L.! Could you tell us a little bit about Zombie Apocalypse: Redemption?
Thank you for the opportunity.

Why do you think zombies are so scary?
Anything unknown is scary.  It takes you out of the realm of what is normal and comfortable.  The fact that they are cannibals goes against what a lot of what society deems is proper. While the living dead is nothing new, vampires and Frankenstein’s monster has been around for centuries. Zombies are relative newcomers to the scene circa 1960’s.  It is the thing which makes you sleep with a light on, check under your bed before and closet before turning in for the night, and all those creepy, crawling things which make your skin crawl.

What sets your zombie novel apart from other books featuring the same monster?
While this is a man against zombie survival story line, it’s the addition of a couple of zombie point of views which makes this novel stand out.  It takes the reader from first infection, death, and beyond, and into the lives of those battling the epidemic.  The reason why zombies eat brains is divulged. <Wicked evil laughter>

Do you have any favorite authors we should be reading? Who are your influences?
I have several favorites, but who stands out most in my mind having the ability to twist common everyday circumstances into the horrific has to be Stephen King. I think every horror reader has read or seen a movie/novel by this author. Max Brooks stands at the forefront with his “World War Z” and “Zombie Survival Guide.” You would be hard pressed to find one zombie aficionado who hasn’t read him. 

How do you create a mood of horror?
Taking a reader to the edge of belief and leaving reasonable doubt is an art form.  You tease. You manipulate reality. You add, in the reader’s mind, the element of wait a minute, this could really happen. Readers relating to the characters, the scene set up, the expectation and anticipation. I almost never take the reader where they want to go all play a part in writing suspense and horror.  The gold medal is in the details and the shock value.

Think of your favorite horror movie, there’s that music in the background, in writing you play it up with the words you choose. Even though you might predict this or that person is going to die, it’s how they die or do not die which creates the sense of horror.

What is your best advice on writing?
My best advice in writing is practice the art.  Yes, writing is an art form which creates pictures in the reader’s mind.  Like any art form writing is no different. It’s a skill and creative talent married together for the enjoyment of the reader. I guarantee that no artist ever got it all perfect the first time. You never know it all.

Don’t copy another author’s style. I can give twenty students in a creative writing class a writing prompt. It’s what they do with that prompt is the exciting part of teaching a class like this. You hear a lot about unique voice when writing novels. Your ability of writing a story which is uniquely yours is the challenge. If this is what you are destined to accomplish in your lifetime, don’t let anyone dissuade you.

Thanks so much for stopping by, J. L.!
Thank you for the invite.  It is truly my honor.

Bio
I write under several pen names: J. L. Murphey/Jolee Morriss/GrandmaJAM, depending on what I am writing. I live in Georgia, USA with my husband and two cats. I am the mother of four and grandmother to eight.  I have been a nonfiction author/freelance journalist for over thirty years. I have been acknowledged in more novels than I can count and believe in helping other authors to the best of my ability. 

I am an indie author of fiction by choice and not from the lack of offers of representation or publishers. My writing is a way of exorcizing demons from my closet, and let me tell you, it was full of them.  

J. L. Murphey can be found on http://jomurphey.blogspot.com, Facebook, and GoodReads. You can follow her on Twitter, too!

Zombie Apocalypse: Redemption is available at Smashwords, CreateSpace, and Amazon.
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Today's guest is Steve Madden, author of the sci-fi novel Ascension.

Welcome to the blog, Steve! Could you tell us a little bit about Ascension?
Thanks for having me, Rachel.  It’s an honor.

Ascension was an idea I had years ago.  The first scene I can remember visualizing was this girl who has been driven to the brink of insanity.  After fighting to prove she wasn’t crazy, she’s on the verge of giving in when she notices a tear, a sort of corner of reality where the two planes don’t quite meet.  She begins tearing away at it like it’s wallpaper, until there’s a big enough hole for her to step through into true reality.  Though that didn’t exactly make it in the book, there’s a very similar scene.

What led you to write this book?
I had just finished writing my first full book, a fantasy, and was experimenting with some of my other ideas.  I wrote three chapters of Ascension, but promptly stopped the first time I watched The Matrix.  There were enough similarities between my book and that movie, I ended up shelving Ascension for years.  Only when I became desperate for something new to bring to my weekly Writer’s Group, did I dust off those three chapters.  The response was very positive, which motivated me to renew my writing on it and retool it in a different direction.  I’m glad I slacked off that week and didn’t have anything new to bring.

How did you show the shifting realities of Kharma’s life without letting the plot become too confusing?
I knew from the beginning there was a potential to lose the reader.  I tried very hard to stay inside of Kharma’s head, especially in the beginning of the book, so they were seeing things through her POV.  I wanted the reader to be just as confused as she is, but not more so.  It was a bit of a struggle, but I think it worked out.  I’ve had a number of readers tell me they were surprised how easy it was to follow the twisting, winding plot and that they found Kharma asked the same questions they did, which gives me confidence I did an all right job.

Also, I tend toward a more simple writing style in general.  When I first started out, I tried really hard to describe everything in great detail and use as many fancy words as possible.  After all, I was trying to prove I was a writer, right?  But I found I didn’t much care for over-writing when I was reading, so I made the decision to tone it back.  I’ve been much happier with my writing since then.  I prefer complex characters and plots to a complex writing style.

Who are you influenced by? Any new or underrated authors we should be reading?
My favorite writer at this time is George R.R. Martin.  I’ve been singing his praises for years and I love the fact the Game of Thrones series on HBO has inspired a new generation of people to check out his books.

In a very literal sense, I have to say I’m most influenced by my mother, Mickee Madden.  She had some books published back when I was in high school and, for better or worse, seeing her struggles with the industry really helped to shape my path forward.  I decided early on I would never strive to be a published author, that I would only write for the sheer joy of it.  Of course, as I got older, I started to realize there were others out there who might enjoy the fruit of my labors.  She was the one who first mentioned self-publishing to me, but I jumped on it and pestered her to try it out, as well.  Now, we give each other advice and help inspire the other to keep going on.

As far as a new, upcoming author, I really enjoyed Ted Krever’s Mindbenders.  It’s an excellent book and I look forward to the sequel and anything else Mr. Krever has coming out.

What is your best writing advice?
Not to be terribly predictable, but my best advice is…write!  It seems like a no-brainer, but it really is the backbone of being able to produce a finished product.  It’s easy to run into a scene you just can’t get right and let it grind you to a full-stop.  My method has always been to muscle through those difficult scenes and go back to them in the editing phase.  Meanwhile, my brain keeps working on how to better write the scene and by the time I come back to it, I more often than not have the solution.

I also recommend writers to try National Novel Writing Monthly.  This will be my third year trying NaNoWriMo, which is a sort of personal contest to produce 50,000 words for a brand new story during the month of November.  It’s a wonderful challenge (one which I’ve personally never beaten) and it’s a great way to get started on one of those books percolating in your head you just haven’t gotten around to getting out.

Thanks so much for stopping by, Steve!
Thank you, Rachel!.  This is a great service you’re providing.  It’s much appreciated.

Bio
Steve Madden works as a full-time Para-transit Driver/Dispatcher and a full-time husband/father.  He loves all genres, but has a fondness for SF/Fantasy.  He has one other book, The Four-Year-Old Guardian, currently available and hopes to have his next, Unseen Things I: The Shadow Walker, out this Fall.

Steve Madden can be found on his blog at http://travellerzero.wordpress.com/ and on Twitter @travellerzero.

Ascension is available at Smashwords and Amazon.

If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe via email or Networked Blogs. You can even follow me on Twitter!
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Yet another author discovered through Goodreads! Seriously, if you're even a casual reader you need to join that site. Tara L. Masih is our guest of honor today.

Welcome to the blog, Tara! Could you tell us a little bit about Where the Dog Star Never Glows?
Sure, though it’s a bit odd describing my own work. It’s a collection of 17 short stories, most of which are of standard length, but some are flash fiction. The stories are set in different countries and in different states, with both male and female narrators. My writing is very invested in the natural world, so each story uses landscape and flora and fauna as some sort of foil to the character’s dilemma. A few stories are set in the past (I love historical fiction), one is a ghost story, and many focus on realistic depictions of relationships between lovers and family members. But I often stress that each story is very different, so it’s hard to describe the collection as a whole.

What led you to write this collection of stories?
I didn’t set out to write a collection. The stories span about two decades of writing. I simply imagined stories—stories that I felt I had to get down on paper or to explore in writing. Finally, I realized I actually had enough to put into a collection. It’s not a huge, thick book, but a nice size. Many of the stories can be read in one sitting, and while I’ve read the whole book in a few hours, I’ve heard readers prefer to take their time and read one story before bedtime. Or they tell me they need time off in between stories because some of them are intense and hit home in a personal way. When I hear that, I know I’ve succeeded in some way.

Water plays a pivotal part in some of your stories. Why do you think water makes such a powerful symbol?
I grew up on Long Island, part of New York State. We are surrounded by water on all four sides, so water becomes something you both take for granted and something that becomes an important part of your psyche, as life on the shores of LI is all water-based. We learn to swim in the Long Island Sound or in pools, we socialize at the beaches and on the docks, we smell the salt water, hear the sea gulls, comb for driftwood, seashells and seaglass. Even when you move away from it, it’s still there…and since everyone begins in a watery world, and it’s essential to all life, it’s something all readers can relate to, even if they live in a dry, inland climate.

What was the biggest challenge you faced when writing this collection, and how did you overcome it?
Since I didn’t really set out to write a collection, I can’t really answer this literally. But the big challenge is always in finding a publisher for a story collection. You always hear, We like this, but want a novel to go with it. If you don’t have a novel, that can be really discouraging. So, I decided to try small presses, and found Press 53.

What is your best advice on writing?
You have to be ready to take rejection at every level. Beginning writers think that the rejection comes just at the start of submission. Well, it continues. Even after you get accepted, you have to deal with being rejected by potential book blurbers. Then you deal with rejections from reviewers, then contests you enter, and bookstores that won’t give you readings—it’s endless. And you just have to believe in your writing and really appreciate the acceptances, in any form, when they do come.

Does your work as an editor help your writing?
Yes. I freelance edit, and many of the early books I worked on reprinted classic stories. This was the best way to learn, reading the same stories by the masters over and over. Also, as a line editor, learning all the grammar and punctuation rules enables me to edit my own writing. This is always a plus when looking for a publisher. Even though we editors still need another eye on our work, it saves publishers time and money if they have less to do.

Thanks so much for stopping by, Tara!
Thank you, Rachel, for asking me to be part of your wonderful blog. Sites like yours are so important to us indie authors.

Bio
Tara L. Masih is editor of The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction (a ForeWord Book of the Year) and author of Where the Dog Star Never Glows (a National Best Books Award finalist). She has published fiction, poetry, and essays in numerous anthologies and literary magazines (including Confrontation, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Natural Bridge, The Pedestal, Night Train, and The Caribbean Writer), and several limited edition illustrated chapbooks featuring her flash fiction have been published by The Feral Press. Awards for her work include first place in The Ledge Magazine’s fiction contest and Pushcart Prize, Best New American Voices, and Best of the Web nominations.

Tara Masih can be found on TaraMasih.com, Goodreads, and Facebook.

Where the Dog Star Never Glows is available at Barnes and Noble and at Untreed Read.
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I've mentioned it before, but I have to say it again: I love mythology. From Orpheus to Loki to Isis, I enjoy them all. Today's special guest, Jerry Hanel, has written a book with elements of Egyptian mythology, and it's one I'll definitely be reading in the future!

Welcome to the blog, Jerry!
Thanks for having me.

Could you tell us a little bit about Thaloc Has a Body?
Thaloc has a Body is the second book in the Brodie Wade series of paranormal thrillers. In this book, Brodie must encounter the paranormal force that he calls The Truth. It can take the form of anything or anyone, and taunts him with clues in cryptic riddles and languages that he must decipher. 

Since no one else can see The Truth, Brodie has been institutionalized three times as being schizophrenic. While the medicines and doctors haven't taken away this spiritual manifestation, they have taught Brodie how to hide his psychosis from the outside world... at least enough to get by on most days. But when he encounters a scene where the manifestations are strong and violent, things can get interesting.

In this book, there have been a series of unsettling murders that Detective Phil Dawson can't wrap his head around. Three murders in three days committed by three different people. The only problem is that one of the accused murderers has been dead for six weeks already. Not having all of the facts is driving him nuts, so he calls on his friend, Brodie Wade, to help him discover the items that he can't see with his own two eyes.

They discover an ancient Egyptian force that calls itself Thaloc. There actually is a beast in Egyptian lore called Thaloc, and I tried to stay as close to that legend as I could, with the little I could scrape up on the beast. He's a very tiny aspect of Egyptian lore, so there isn't a ton of information on him. In a way, that was very frustrating. But then again, it gave me huge latitude to fit the legend to my own plot.

What led you to write this series?
I started writing a story about a gruff police detective who had a bizarre case for Death Has a Name. It was intended to be a single book. And it was a straight-forward who-dunnit with a slight paranormal twist at the end. In order to give this twist, I introduced a strange, awkward, lanky psychic named Brodie. I liked the character so much, I scrapped the original story and started over. This character was so wild and had so many different aspects that I didn't feel that I could do him justice in just one simple scenario. So, I sat down and sketched out three quick stories that will show his progression from awkward certifiable schizophrenic to his final blossoming moment in society.

How did you make Detective Wade psychic without making his job too easy?
The Truth doesn't just say "Hey! There's a body over here!" It speaks in riddles and rhymes that he has to solve. Just like there are certain truths in our world that need some prior knowledge to fully understand, it is true in the spirit realm as well. If you look at something from what you already know, it may mislead you. But if you look at the same result using a different set of starting facts, all of the riddles and questions make perfect sense.

I know it is a hard concept to grasp for some people. Imagine with me if you will, every action taken and word said leaves a faint impression on the space around you. Now, for violent or emotionally charged events, the impression is stronger, burning itself deep into the space around you. This impression is so strong, that it fights the bounds of the spirit realm and bleeds into our reality. The fresher a scene is, the more violent and uncontrollable these impressions can be for those that can see them, physically harming them if they do not stop and listen with every ounce of attention they have.

What are some vital ingredients in a good mystery?
Well, you don't need a dead body, but it helps. (* laugh *) You need a big question that can't be easily answered (how did the person die? or how did the murderer get away without being noticed?) You then need this question to be big enough to have several possible answers. Toss in a few clues that can help define more than one of those answers (but when looked at from the TRUE answer, they still make perfect sense) This will also keep the main character searching for the solution to the bizarre clues, and keep the tension for the reader ... bake a 350 for three months while writing, editing, and polishing, and there you have it.

What do you enjoy most about Thaloc Has a Body?
I can summarize that in two words: Jamie Stanford. She was briefly mentioned in Death Has a Name, but takes a prominent role in the second book. She becomes Brodie's love interest, and plays a very large part in the plot as it unfolds. That relationship is Brodie's undoing in this book, and keeps him just distracted enough that even the clues that he would normally understand in a flash slip right by him until things get crazy.

What is your best advice on writing?
Just keep at it. I know that sounds very trite, but it really is the best advice I've ever received. The more you do it, the better you get. The better you get, the easier it becomes. And the easier it becomes the more you can do. It's an interesting cycle, but one that -- if you stick to it -- will pay off in the end. It's just one very long, laborious, intense circle from end-to-end. Just keep walking that cycle.

If you need encouragement (and we all do!) join a critique group in your area and surround yourself with other writers. You'll learn more from them in two weeks than you will in two years of trying to do things on your own. Contrary to popular opinion, writing is not a solitary vocation. It requires twice as much interaction with the outside world than with your characters.

Thanks so much for stopping by, Jerry!
You are welcome. Thanks for having me over today.

Bio
Jerry Hanel is trained as a computer programmer in various languages. He has worked in several industries from finance to petroleum, but at night, he pulls out his computer for other purposes. He spins the world into chaos, then brings his heroes in to save the day. 

Currently he has two published works, Death Has a Name and Thaloc Has a Body, both in the Brodie Wade Series.

Jerry lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma with his beautiful wife and his dog.

Jerry Hanel can be found on:
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I love baking sweets almost as much as I love writing. I thought it would be fun to make a list of what we writers can learn from the art of baking!
I love baking sweets almost as much as I love writing. I thought it would be fun to make a list of what we writers can learn from the art of baking!

1. Read the Recipe First. Oh, the disasters my kitchen has witnessed when I’ve skipped this step. “Wait, I have to put chopped oranges in this?!” Of course, there isn’t a recipe for your book, but there are plenty of books that can guide you as you write. Read the best examples of your genre and pay attention to how those books are put together. What ingredients did the author use? What aspects can be changed to fit your own vision?

2. Measuring Scoops Matter. If you’re baking a cake and you use a tablespoon of baking soda when you should use a teaspoon, you’re going to have an overflow in the oven. It’s just as important to measure the ingredients of your story. Do you have enough character development to balance out the plot-heavy scenes? Is there enough dialogue to smooth the way between sections of action and description?

3. Baking Soda Is Not Baking Powder. Once again, baking soda is the star of our metaphor. Confusing baking soda with baking powder can cause a catastrophe – and it’s such an easy mistake to make! One word can change everything. Put in the extra time to use the perfect word for what you mean. If you don’t have the vocabulary to do that (or if you’re a word nerd), expand your knowledge by reading something challenging and learning new words as you go. I’m a huge Cormac McCarthy groupie, so I’ll take this opportunity to point out that he’s the best choice if you want to learn tons of new words!

4. Know When to Take It Out of the Oven. A tray of cookies can go from temptingly chewy to totally charred in a matter of minutes. The trick is knowing when to reach in and retrieve them. When you’re writing, you also have to know when the story has reached its end. One story may run its course in five perfect pages, while another may need five books to fulfill its promise! I don’t know if there’s a concrete rule for knowing when a story should end; I just know when I’ve written past the natural end of a story, I feel it. If your characters have achieved their greatest goal or suffered their greatest defeat (depending on whether you’re writing comedy or tragedy), it’s probably about time to wrap it up.

5. Clean As You Go. This is a rule to break when you’re writing. Sure, it helps a ton when you’re baking – if you can knock out a few whisks and bowls along the way, it will make for a smaller mess in the end. Unfortunately, it’s completely counter-productive in writing. Trying to do heavy editing as you write is an easy way to slow your progress to a standstill. Leave the imperfect passage until you’ve completed the story, then return to it with clear eyes. Of course, you could also get an editor to help you out.

I hope you’ve had as much fun reading this as I had writing it. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a batch of cupcakes calling my name!

P.S. I did make the cake in the photo. It is the best cake I've ever made, and the recipe is right here if you want to try it! Thank you, Bon Appetit, for enabling my chocolate addiction.
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I'm thrilled to share an awesome guest post with you today. Jeriel Ng, author of The Syndicate, shares his thoughts on how to keep a story exciting from the first page to the last.

Get the “Bland” Out of Your Story
by Jeriel Ng

Ever felt that your novel has been filled with a string of monotonous narrative? I have. Sure, the story is perfectly set and we’re using a multitude of ways to begin our sentences for a varied sentence structure. That’s great and all, but we simply can’t find a way to make it sound interesting. We all have our own ways of increasing the excitement, but how can we make every scene memorable? After much experimentation, you’ll soon find out that it’s actually quite simple to do so.

Most people, including myself, tend to write paragraphs of narrative, followed by a scene of dialogue, and then back to narrative. The process continues, but we find ourselves stuck trying to add some variety to our sentence content. I’ve always found that a good way to divide our narrative paragraphs is through the following aspects:

1)      Actions
2)      Environment
3)      Emotions.

The first aspect, actions, involves the most common form of narrative. These would include phrases like “John walked down the aisle” or “Cindy tripped on the floor.” While these are crucial in propelling the story forward, we can’t let our stories depend solely on them. Try adding in some environmental and emotional qualities into the mix.

For example, you can describe how the environment feels to the characters. Even though it may sound trite, always remember to include the five sensory details. Many authors tend to forget to add such details when they get too caught up in trying to move the characters into the places they want them to go. That’s why we revise to add in specific details, thus making the story come alive. With a slight caveat, however, I must warn that too many details on the surroundings may wear out their effect eventually. Ever read a novel that goes on for three pages straight describing a character’s appearance or the painstaking details of the surrounding world? Of course, if executed properly, this can have a positive effect, but if you feel it’s just not working out for you yet, something you could and should try is adding in emotion.

Emotional details describe the characters’ emotions on the current situation at hand. If you feel that your prose needs a little more variety in a scene, you can always describe the thoughts and feelings that are running through the characters’ mind at the time. Tread lightly in this field, however, because it’s crucial to show and not tell in this situation.

Emotions can be best incorporated when writing in first person. What this does is set a conversational tone with the readers, which does wonders in capturing them into the story. With this, you can talk freely on the subject while adding a great variety to the content in your paragraphs. If you’re writing in third person, emotions can also have quite a great effect, as it creates an aura of drama and suspense within the scene. You could even have a scene dedicated specifically to a character taking a break to reflect on recent events, only to break away from that train of thought to describe a sudden change in environment or to have that character return to an action-filled scene.

After combining all three elements into your prose, you’ll find it quite simple to carry one thought to the other. Each event will flow smoothly as a result.

A huge thank you to Jeriel for this helpful article! You can find him on Twitter @JerielNg and online at www.jerielng.com.
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Today's special guest is Orsolya Mezei, author of the novel The Nation. I found her book on Goodreads and was intrigued by its risky premise.

Welcome to the blog, Orsolya! Could you tell us a little bit about The Nation?
Thank you for hosting me, Rachel!  I’m honored to have the opportunity to share The Nation with you and your readers.

The Nation is an alternate history novel where one of the assassinations on Hitler’s life is successful, and to everyone’s surprise, this causes the Allies to actually lose the war to the Nazis.  As a result, the Third Reich quickly becomes today’s modern superpower, instituting all of the power and ideologies that defined it historically.  This is also the world that the main character, Adelfried, is born into and raised.  In The Nation, Adelfried recounts his remarkable life tale and the circumstances that led to the most unprecedented twist of irony the world never knew…

What led you to write this novel?
I’ve always been fascinated by two things.  First, how every moment that passes holds the potential to play out in an infinite number of ways and given this context, what a ‘miracle’ it is that each moment passes exactly the way it does.  And second, how perspective and intention are such important components in our lives.  We all make mistakes so it is imperative to always question our actions, no matter how seemingly small, and act with integrity in everything we do.  Hopefully, this book demonstrates these concepts in an innovative way.

I’ve always been fascinated by alternative histories. How did you create a world that was recognizable, yet clearly different from reality?
Creating a different world was a very exciting process, even if it was a world I doubt most people would like to live in.  To make it recognizable, I had it take place in a European city that, on the surface, held onto its rich architectural heritage; this is consistent with essentially all European cities today, as many remain a beacon of architectural marvels.  However, the clear difference from reality in The Nation was not so much the tangible scenery but the societal mentality.  This is where the reader would most likely feel like a complete foreigner in The Nation’s world with only the ornate churches and cobblestone streets to remind him or her that one was still on familiar land.

Were you worried that readers would react negatively to Adelfried? How did you make that risk pay off?
Yes!  This was one of the most challenging aspects of writing this novel.  In order to make the story unique and inspirational, I felt that the main character, Adelfried, had to be a complex and controversial figure who had ample room for growth both in character and integrity.  However, to compel the reader to turn the page and read on, the reader had to, on some level at least, relate to him in a personal sense.  To merge these seemingly dichotomous ventures, I decided to write the novel in first person with Adelfried narrating his own unusual story (the good, the bad and the ugly) through the mature eyes of a reformed and seasoned man.

What was the biggest challenge you faced when writing The Nation, and how did you overcome it?
Aside from the complicated character development described above, the biggest challenge was keeping the part of the novel that took place in the real 1940 as accurate as possible.  Creating a fictitious world as a result of an alternate history outcome is relatively easy—one is ‘king of the castle’ and anything one wants done (or undone) in a make-believe world just takes a decision and of course, some imagination.  However, inserting characters into a very real past and staying true to actual history in a day to day setting is a meticulous and time-consuming endeavor that involves a lot of research.  Everything from clothing style to geography to societal customs and norms needs to be researched and properly addressed since they will all serve as the story’s backdrop in some shape or form.  To overcome this challenge, I did the only thing I could—burned the midnight oil with research, research and then some more research!

What is your best advice on writing?
Write about something that you are passionate about and in a way that excites you.  There is a lot of advice and information out there on how to write to sell, but it seems like they always fail to mention the obvious:  if you don’t absolutely love your story and your characters, no one else will. 

Thanks so much for stopping by, Orsolya!

Bio
Orsolya is a scientific writer and consultant who has a long history of writing with over 20 published scientific manuscripts and abstracts as well as an academic book chapter. The Nation is her first fiction novel and she is currently working on her second novel, In the Absence of God, which takes place in Ancient Greece. Orsolya is also an avid reader, with special interest in any fiction that lets the reader play in his or her infinite imagination.
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