Tuesday, May 21, 2024

3T Writing Tidbit

Plotting. There are all kinds of books out there to help you, from the overarching to the chapter-by-chapter, to the minutia of the scene.

But they all involve one thing: change. Someone starts in one situation. Then something happens: that is, something changes.

Here are a few quick sentences that encapsulate different ways the story engine (change) can start.

  • Find precious/unusual object
  • Mistaken for someone else
  • Quest/journey
  • Stresser happens: death, move, separation, job change, sickness, windfall, marriage
  • Be wronged (vengeance plot)
  • Try to be something they're not
  • Fall in love with a wildly inappropriate person

Published since 2009, over the years I've accumulated various items of writing wisdom. The Third Tuesday Writing Tidbit showcases these items in no particular order. Click here to see all 3T Tidbits.

Tuesday, May 14, 2024

2T Repeat Performance - questions for guest authors

I've done a number of blog tours over the years, posting on different sites. Now I'm bringing them to you!

Originally published October 11, 2012 for See Jane Publish

Q1. Tell us about your publishing journey.

Laying awake in bed as a kid, I got through the long, dark nights by telling myself stories. My mother liked cafe curtains and my room faced the street and people could see in, so I shivered under the covers and gave all my stories happy endings. Later I got full curtains and turned to romance. Soon I started writing the stories down. Many many years later I started selling them.

I think my journey mirrors that of many authors. For years I wrote a lot and worked on craft—taking classes and entering contests and submitting and getting rejected—but I didn’t get serious about selling until 2006. In 2008 I threw everything I did well, humor, sex, romance, action and vampires into Biting Nixie, a novel that I think sings, and sent it to The Editor. The Editor (or Agent or Publisher) is the one you want to sell to with your whole heart, and to get her interested you pull out all the stops including the 32 foot Bombard (pipe organ stop that shakes whole buildings). The Editor bought four of my books and started me on my career.

The journey isn’t over. I still get rejections, and editors and houses change. But I keep learning, and most of all I keep writing because that’s what I do to make myself whole.
 
Q2: What's the funniest thing to happen to you along your road to publication and what was the most exciting?

Funniest: Getting The Email and thinking Yay! At long last, I know enough about Writing to Get Published, then finding out I knew nothing about Editing, Selling Thy Book, Developing an Internet Presence, What Makes a Good Cover, Writing a Tag Line, Giving a Pitch, Writing a Blurb, Book Signings, Attending Conferences…I still grin at how much there was to learn. ☺ And of course, I’m still studying craft each day to be a better writer.

Most exciting: Hearing Donald Maass speak. He gave a workshop on the breakout novel, full of solid, useful information, delivered with such power that I’ll never forget it.
 
Q3: What has been the most challenging thing related to publishing you've had to deal with on your journey?

Selling. To reach readers you have to sell. If you go the traditional route you have to sell to an editor or agent or publisher. If you indie publish you sell directly to the reader. But either way your goal is to reach your readers and that means putting your book and yourself out there. I’m a self-effacing introvert (I enjoy people and have many good friends; it’s just that I get my energy from ideas instead of parties), so getting out there without shredding myself has been, um, interesting.
 
Q4: Who is your favorite author, and what are you currently reading?

Author, as in singular? Eek. How can I choose from Conan Doyle, Elizabeth Peters, Lara Adrian, Dorothy Dunnett, Rex Stout, Sherrilyn Kenyon, J.D. Robb, Charles Stross, Janet Evanovich or Jim Butcher? Right now I’m rereading David & Leigh Eddings’ Belgarath the Sorcerer, reading Janet Evanovich’s second Lizzie & Diesel book, and I’m on the library’s waiting list for the latest Richard Castle ☺
 
Q5: What's coming up next for you?

Does December 21, 2012 ring any bells? That date features in Black Diamond Jinn (A Hot SF/Fantasy Novella). “The Mayan Doom is real. Government witch Amaia Jones has the spreadsheet to prove it.”

And I’m thrilled to announce that summer of 2013 will see the release of Beauty Bites, the next book in my Biting Love series! Briefly—When top ad man Ric Holiday says no to designing a campaign for the quaint city of Meiers Corners, Scandinavian smorgasbord of a woman Dr. Synnove Byornsson is sent to change his mind. Ric won’t go near the place because of an evil master vampire who put a price on Ric’s head. But Synnove is gorgeous and sexy—and won’t take Ric’s no for an answer. What’s a vampire to do when a woman like a bright summer’s day comes along, and he’s desperate for sunshine?

Mary Hughes is a computer consultant, professional musician, and author. At various points in her life she has taught Taekwondo, worked in the insurance industry, and studied religion. She is intensely interested in the origins of the universe. She has a wonderful husband (though happily-ever-after takes a lot of hard work) and two great kids. But she thinks that with all the advances in modern medicine, childbirth should be a lot less messy.

Visit Mary at http://MaryHughesBooks.com.

Biting Oz (Biting Love Book 5)

Real vampires do musicals.

Gunter Marie “Junior” Stieg is stuck selling sausage for her folks in small-town Meiers Corners. Until one day she’s offered a way out—the chance to play pit orchestra for a musical headed for Broadway: Oz, Wonderful Oz.

But someone is threatening the show’s young star. To save the production, Junior must join forces with the star’s dark, secretive bodyguard, whose sapphire eyes and lyrical Welsh accent thrill her. And whose hard, muscular body sets fire to her passions.

Fierce as a warrior, enigmatic as a druid, Glynn Rhys-Jenkins has searched eight hundred years for a home. Junior’s get-out-of-Dodge attitude burns him, but everything else about her inflames him, from her petite body and sharp mind to what she can do with her hip-length braid.

Then a sensuous, insidious evil threatens not only the show, but the very foundations of Meiers Corners. To fight it, Junior and Glynn must face the truth about themselves—and the true meaning of love and home.

Warning: Cue the music, click your heels together, make a wish and get ready for one steamy vampire romance. Contains biting, multiple climaxes, embarrassing innuendos, ka-click/ka-ching violence, sausage wars and—shudder—pistachio fluff.

 

 

Black Diamond Jinn (A Hot SF/Fantasy Novella)

Have sex, avert doom, save the world.

 

The Mayan Doom is real. Government witch Amaia Jones has the spreadsheet to prove it.

Amaia is a research wizard living uncomfortably in the shadow of her famous Venus-magic parents. Then she discovers the world is ending. Tonight. Her bulldog of a boss not only refuses to believe her, he won't give her the secret to calling the one force powerful enough to help—the jinn. Amaia turns to her mental guardian angel, Rafe, the darkly handsome presence who has comforted her since her parents died.

Rafe has a secret of his own. He's a black diamond jinni, the deadliest and most powerful of his kind. An enemy is ruthlessly using blood sacrifice to stoke Y12 public panic. But Rafe can't get into the human realm to stop the Doom unless Amaia calls him, and she is threatened by his scorching sensuality.

Amaia's guardian angel is a stunning jinni and suddenly her job is far more complicated. Jinn take their pound of flesh in exchange for magical help, but the only flesh Rafe wants is hers, taut with delight. Sounds great, except Venus magic is what killed her parents' love. But with four hours to go on humanity's darkest night, the only alternative to surrendering her flesh may be surrendering her life.

This title contains explicit sexual language and may not be suitable for all readers.