Friday, May 30, 2014

Let's face it: there aren't enough tech-savvy heroines in sci-fi

There are plenty of girls, but too often they're cast in supporting roles. The dorky genius helper girl. The impossibly hot doctor girl who got her PhD at 22 and wears four-inch heels in the lab. The badass hacker girl who's smart-mouthed and "strong" but has no depth.

Where are the sci-fi stories about brainy young women? I know they're out there, but their numbers pale in comparison to the tales of gallant, irreverent men with nominally smart girlfriends. And those girlfriends are usually flat as a pancake.

I must confess that my Jane Colt character doesn't entirely break into the STEM - that's Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math - fields, since her chosen career is in the arts. I do hint at her braininess (she pilots complex starships, analyzes music, and has no trouble handling the mountain-loads of data her office job dumps on her, albeit she does so grudgingly), but there wasn't really a place in Artificial Absolutes or Synthetic Illusions to showcase her inherent nerdiness (which she, in her insecurity, covers up with a cavalier attitude and, at times, feigned cluelessness).

So when fellow sci-fi author Paige Daniels, who wrote the "Non-Compliance" cyberpunk trilogy, proposed putting together an anthology featuring girls and gadgets, I jumped at the idea. I know I've already talked about this a few times over on my website and on social media, but I realized I haven't written about it on this blog, and I want this announcement to reach the far corners of the Internet, so here I go again!

The anthology will be a collection of young adult sci-fi tales called Brave New Girls, and we're running a Kickstarter this summer to raise money to indie publish it. All revenues will be donated to a scholarship fund through the Society of Women Engineers. We'll each be contributing a story, but the anthology would be no fun if it were all us! We're currently looking for submissions...

Meanwhile, I'm going to take this opportunity to delve into Jane's nerdy past. The story I'm contributing will feature her as an ambitious teenager who's not afraid to turn to tech when she needs to.

This is my first foray into the business side of publishing, but I like to think I've been at this whole book thing long enough to know what I'm doing. Paige and I are both project managers by day, so naturally, we have a detailed plan all laid out to get it all done. Project plan and budget? Check. Website up and running? Check. Online announcements? Check, but we'll keep going at it, since the Internet is a crowded place where one has to shout to be heard.

Next up: the Kickstarter campaign! We're currently working on creating the video, and we've got the donor rewards all planned out, with levels starting at $5 from Interstellar Resident to Hacker Extraordinaire to Alien Benefactor... and a bunch in between. And then there's the Multiverse Deity, for the level that practically funds the whole thing. If anyone wants to step up and claim that title, I will write a sci-fi short story about him/her or a person of his/her choice. I'm not kidding.

So stay tuned... it's going to be a fun ride!

Monday, May 26, 2014

So who is the Firedragon?

If you're reading this, chances are you've seen one or more of my online posts about my recently released YA dystopian fantasy novella, The Firedragon, a precursor to the "Flynn Nightsider" series. You may even know that it's about a teen girl living in a dark future in which monsters have overrun the earth and those with magic oppress those without.

But here's a question I haven't really addressed: just who is Aurelia Sun, nicknamed the Firedragon?

She's a challenge, for sure. Both for me to write and for some readers to accept. When I first conceived the character, a girl with amazing combat skills trained to fight monsters since she could walk, I knew I was walking toward a trap. Characters like her are a staple in sci-fi and fantasy, and more often than not, they're flat stereotypes. They'll get a clever quip here and there meant to showcase their "personalities", but for the most part they lack any depth. Take away the super warrior skills and who are you left with? A boring shell.

I knew if I was to maneuver around the trap, I'd have to see her as a person and not a plot device. A flawed girl with thoughts and emotions of her own. Her basic backstory wasn't hard to construct - she's an orphan raised by the state and trained to be a weapon against supernatural threats - but how would that affect her personality?

For one thing, she wouldn't be very nice. Actually, not nice at all. She never experienced affection growing up, never learned the value of friendship, never found any value in treating others with kindness. Her world revolved around one rule: kill or be killed.

And because she was exceptionally good at what she was trained to do, rewarded and praised for her fighting prowess, she would be arrogant. Having been told that she's the best and proved it before powerful judges multiple times, she would naturally think herself better than her peers.

So many readers probably won't find her very likable at first glance. I've had plenty of people tell me that she's tough and awesome, but also plenty whisper that they didn't really like her. That's okay. Her peers don't really like her either, and she knows it (she doesn't like them either).

But despite her prickly exterior, she does have a heart. She might not care about many people, but when she does care, she cares a lot. Enough to do some pretty extreme things to keep them safe.

And despite her arrogance, she actually thinks very little about herself. She sees herself as a protector and a champion for something bigger than herself. While she does bask in praise when it's given, she knows that ultimately it's not about her, it's about the larger world.

Care to meet her? The Firedragon is only $0.99, and everything my publisher and I get after the online retailers take their cut is being donated to the San Diego animal shelter.

Download the e-book here:

Amazon
Barnes & Noble

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Who's afraid of diversity in books?

This gritty cyberpunk novel stars a
woman of Central American descent
My theory is: writers are. And marketers, of course, but everyone knows that.

Well, let's start with them, since their reasoning is obvious. Marketers know that we live in a Western country where Straight White Able-Bodied Male is considered neutral. So anything else, except maybe a book a Straight White Able-Bodied Female, is considered "niche." Marketers are afraid of diversity in books because they worry about limiting their audience and therefore the amount of money they can make. 

A modern-day retelling of Cinderella with your usual white beauty in the lead is considered mainstream because in our society, white is normal. A retelling with a black or Hispanic or Asian beauty is suddenly an "issues" book. And Lord help you if you decide to have her dance with Princess Charming. Your market suddenly shrinks from The Whole Universe of Fairytale Lovers - a.k.a. Pretty Much Everyone - to People Interested in Issues Books. So... Frou-Frou Lefty Liberals.

Or so the thinking goes. Luckily times are a-changing, and we, the people, can vote with our wallets.

Now, here's another issue: what if we, the people, want to but have nothing to vote for? What if we go to the bookstores with our handy little credit cards, aiming to go totally colorblind on our purchases so long as the premise sounds interesting, but find that all the stories we're actually interested in star the usual milky suspects?

This being 2014, I like to think that a publisher wouldn't not publish a book because it starred a minority if the premise was good. Would Harry Potter be any less magical if Harry - or even Ron or Hermione - was of Indian descent? Would the Hunger Games be any less suspenseful if Katniss were bisexual and Gale were Gail? Would Percy Jackson be any less adventurous if Grover happened to be black? I guess not, since they cast a black actor as the character in the movie version and no one complained (well, they complained, but not about that).

So perhaps the issue starts with the source: the writers. 

The first piece of advice any newbie writer gets, after "stop before you hurt yourself," is "write what you know." Sound advice, so long as it's not applied too literally. Now, take a look at the population of writers, especially bestselling ones, and... Wellp, I think you know where I'm going with this.

My sword-wielding Asian teen.
A stereotype? Whatever.
I think there's an underlying nervousness with writers, especially new ones, when it comes to writing diverse characters. For those trying to break in, the fear might come from the thought that their book won't be marketable unless they cast a Jennifer Lawrence lookalike as the lead. Even for those already established, I think there's a worry that they'll do or say something that offends someone somewhere. And in the world of hypersensitive Internet opinions, it's a valid fear. Would someone accuse you of writing a racial stereotype because you envisioned your character as an Asian martial artist, even though you thought of her as a martial artist first? [I use this example because I just know I'm going to get flack somewhere down the line for making my character Aurelia a double-sword-wielding fighter of Chinese descent.] 

So, to avoid the perceived future accusations of racism, many writers default to the norm... Straight White People. Can't offend them! [Well, you can, but only if they're real kooks.]


Part of the problem also lies in the fact that we are surrounded by Straight White People in media, and so we've subconsciously absorbed the credo: This is normal. Anything else is an "issue."


This historical mystery stars
a biracial girl, with a Chinese boy
as the romantic lead. Oh my!
Some writers try to add color to their books by adding minority supporting cast members to their stories, but this kind of tokenism doesn't help much; in fact, it can harm. Because it says, "Minorities can't be the lead. But they can be decorative." Argh.

The fact is that we live in a diverse world, and no one should have to feel invisible or shunted into the category of "niche." It's hard to change the ways of marketers, since they're working toward a Corporate-Ordered Bottom Line, so let's change the market.

If books starring minorities - and not just "cultural" books like Amy Tan's repertoire - start flying off the shelves, the marketers will get the hint. Unlike the noisemakers who fret about anything different from themselves, they don't care about politics - they just want to sell stuff. I would know... I am one.

And to help that along, writers have to give readers more options. It's not fair to ask readers to buy books just because they star a minority. Books are about good stories first.

So, are you afraid of diversity in books? No? Prove it.

Monday, May 19, 2014

Publishers Marketplace's Little Code

For those of you who aren't familiar with it, Publishers Marketplace is an online hub for publishing professionals - agents, publishers, editors, etc. And one of the many services offered is the "Deals" section, which is just what it sounds like: a place for people to report deals. Now, it's locked behind a login screen and meant for paying members only (and a subscription costs about $20/month), but every so often you'll see deals quoted on peoples' websites, blogs, and social media platforms, mostly when they're whooping for joy because someone bought their story. 

I've seen a few of these little posts around, and they always seem so polite... "Agent A sold Novel B by Author C to Publisher D in a pretty little deal." Well, actually they'd say something like "nice" or "good," rather than "pretty little" (although maybe that should be a new one!). 

But they aren't just being nice to each other. That's actually code for how big the advance is. And here's the key, in case you're curious:

Nice deal = $1 - $49,000
Very nice deal = $50,000 - $99,000
Good deal = $100,000 - $250,000
Significant deal = $251,000 - $499,000
Major deal = $500,000 + 

See, I'm not making it up!


Just a little tidbit for fellow industry stalkers...

Monday, May 12, 2014

SPOTLIGHT: Felinity (A Kristell Inklings Anthology of Flash Fiction

Today I'm spotlighting Felinity: A Kristell Inklings Anthology of Flash Fiction. These stories were collected by Sammy HK Smith of Kristell Ink, an imprint of Grimbold Books.


Description:

Felinity, noun, plural fel-in-ities. 1. The quality of being cat-like. 2. A divine being, a cat.

Grimbold Books is proud to present our first Kristell Inkling, a collection of feline inspired flash fiction stories written by authors from all around the world. 

This collection celebrates what we regard as the most important factor when writing: write foremost for pleasure. The stories showcased in this book are full of laughter, grit, odd contraptions and a lot of fur, with a loud purring nod to our beloved genres of science fiction and fantasy. 

From A.F.E Smith’s unique twist on Schrödinger’s cat, to Joel Cornah’s world-jumping old queen, from Clare Neilson’s steampunk creation to Tina Closser’s dragon fighting dreaming kitty, these alternate feline worlds are bound to delight sci fi/fantasy readers and cat lovers alike.

Sample illustrations:






Sample Story. Previously published on the KI website and opening story of the collection:

Winner of the Flash Fiction competition

Nein Lives
A.F.E. Smith

My name is Nein. I have had other names, but Nein will do for now.

I sit with my attendant whilst he wrestles with the nature of reality. He thinks he owns me. I let him keep thinking that.

“Nein, Nein,” he mutters, taking his glasses off and polishing them with vigour. “I am convinced they are looking at this in the wrong way. How can this superposition represent what truly happens in the world?”

He is talking to me. I get up and stretch, then step delicately onto the desk. To start with his touch is absent-minded, but my claws kneading his sleeve recall him to a full sense of his obligations.

I knew a man like you once before, I tell him as he runs his fingers down my spine in the way I like. He longed to know how birds and trees and tortoises came to be. How they could change to fit their surroundings. I showed him a mouse, and then he understood. The mouse was uniquely adapted to run away, and I was uniquely adapted to catch it.

He frowns at me. He often frowns when I speak. All my attendants have been the same: so focused on the weighty questions in their minds that they fail to understand what is before their eyes. Perhaps that is what it means to be human.

Did I ever tell you about the man with the apple tree? I ask, butting my head into the palm of his hand. He used to sit in its dappled shade every day, thinking about the laws that keep all of us moving along our preordained paths. I would stretch out on the branch above him and enjoy the heat of summer. But when he started forgetting to provide me with fish scraps, I decided enough was enough. I knocked an apple down onto his head, and understanding with it.

He is looking blank. I will try once more.

A long time ago, in China, an alchemist was seeking immortality. He mixed this ingredient and that, to no avail. Just as he was about to give up, I knocked a candle into his mixing dish. The explosion took off his eyebrows, but he was ecstatic. He had sought to live forever, but instead he had found a way to bring others death.

I wait for any sign of comprehension, but my attendant’s mind is still off in its narrow little orbit. Disgruntled, I turn to groom myself. Of course, that is one discovery I would not choose to make again. My fur was singed just here, above the tail, and it has never been the same since.
“Down, now,” he says, with fine disregard for the sorrow of that memory, and I allow him to lower me to the floor. “I must make sense of this tonight.”

Ah, poor Schrödinger. Just like the others, he needs my help. One day, soon, I will walk into a box and really make him think.

About the authors:

A.F.E SMITH is an academic editor who lives in the south east of England with her husband, her young son, and thousands of books. When she’s not writing speculative fiction of various kinds, she enjoys the usual things: watching films, eating snacks, solving complex mathematical equations. She has never owned a cat, mainly because she knows she’d end up a pawn in its bid for world domination.

C.N LESLEY lives in Alberta with her husband and cats. Her three daughters live close by. When she isn’t writing, Elizabeth likes to read and to paint watercolors. She is also a keen gardener, despite the very short summers and now has a mature shade garden. Once a worker in the communications sector, mostly concentrating on local news and events, she now writes full time.

RACHAEL BROWN is a fourteen-year-old student from Norfolk. Her interests include art, animation, gaming, history, reading, seventies rock music, drama, and of course writing. She is intensely passionate about English and writing, and thinks it is a real pleasure to be included in this anthology, especially since her stories (whether short or long) tend to be rather bizarre and odd with a zany feel.

PAIGE CLOSSER attends school in small town in the American Midwest. She loves to read Percy Jackson novels and make loom band charms. When she’s not busy with those pursuits, or practicing violin, she likes to think of stories. The story in this book may or may not be based on her two cats.

CHRISTIE RAMPERSAD is a medical student who began her writing in poetry, with selected works appearing in Danse Macabre and Pens on Fire. Now, as she transitions to fiction, she is thrilled that Nine Lives Later has placed joint- third in the Kristell Ink Feline Flash Fiction Competition and found a home in this anthology.

DAVE CROSBY is an affable gentleman, as much as any American can be “affable” (or “gentle”, for that matter), living in a Heaven-forsaken area of California known as Fresno. He has a humanities heart and mind, living in an ex-banker’s body, so he has made a living with bankerly number-crunching all his life, but has lived with reading, writing and music. He published a short story in 2013, Rain Over Ghaidhealtachd, set in Ancient Scotland, in the anthology Magic Creatures from Celtic Mists, has written another tale set within a moonlit night in Jamaica, Last Touch, and hopes to publish his first novel next year, an exciting thriller set in San Francisco, called Bringing Home the Good War. He thinks kindly of his two sons, Glen and Ted, who have given him much inspiration in his work, especially the novel.

JESSICA FROST is a medical student with a love for literature. For her, writing is a much-needed break away from science and studying! She can be found on Twitter: @MissInkweaver

CLAIRE NEILSON was always very good at stories in school, but her spelling was awful. She thanks the gods and goddesses of word processors for the little red lines of spelling correction. Now age 30 she lives in Manchester and spends her days baking for a living and reading for leisure.

BRIAN TALGO was born in the Deep South of the US in 1954, and later spent his formative years in Westchester County, a northern suburb of New York City. As a young man he wandered restlessly about the US for several years, working mainly as a carpenter and stonemason, until he eventually got in touch with his inner Viking and relocated to Norway in 1981. After many years abroad he has grown comfortable with his expat status.
Currently working with international admissions at the University of Oslo, Brian writes and indulges in other creative endeavors in his spare time. He presently lives on the outskirts of Oslo, together with his wife, son, two insubordinate cats, and a miniature forest of plants. A daughter has wisely flown the coop.
Website: sonsrevenge.blogspot.no
IAN RICHARDSON lives by the sea, on the East Coast of Scotland, with his cat, Purry Murray.
The first story Ian ever wrote was published, but he hasn’t been able to keep up that 100% record. However, several short stories, articles and micro fictions have escaped the red pen recently and his steampunk serial was e-published in 2013.
ROB BAYLISS lives with his wife, two children and dog in Somerset. A keen scholar of history and lover of fantasy, only recently has he discovered the joyful escapism of sitting down to write a story.

LANCE CROSS writes short stories when he gets stuck writing his novel, so he writes more short stories than he should.
When he’s not writing, he spends too much time telling his cat he’s “sooooo cute”, and trying to keep him away from the computer keyboard, as he knows what buttons to push to delete stuff. Lance really shouldn’t let him jump on the
desk in the first place, but as mentioned, he’s sooooo cute.

JOSHUA CORNAH is a 22 year old café assistant at a local coffee shop who loves to draw, for himself and others. In his free time, he’s an illustrator and cartoonist, and the influences for his drawings come from Japanese anime, manga, and Nintendo video games. He is also very polite.

STEVEN J GUSCOTT or Steven, Steve, Steve-o, Stevie, Stevie Gee, Moral Steve, Uncle Steven...the list goes on . . . but the name he has chosen for writing is Steven J. Guscott. Like some of the other names, there’s a random story behind it, and obviously his middle name starts with a J, but he’s not going to bore you with that story just now. What he will bore you with is telling you how much he loves creating fantasy/sci fi stories. He’s twenty six and lives in Scotland, and nearly three years ago he discovered an unhealthy obsession with writing. He’s written a few stories in this time, and has quite a number still to write. If you want to learn more about Steven and his writing journey, he’s kept a record in the form of a blog that can be found at:
www.stevenjguscott.co.uk

VICTORIA ROBINSON lives a safe and comfortable existence in home county suburbia, where shadows lurk not in dark, smoking alleys but behind neatly trimmed hedges and carefully erected fences.

DAVID COHEN lives in the university town of Dunedin, a gateway to New Zealand’s Lord-of-the-Rings-set Southern landscapes. His background is in the high-technology electronic industries, but considers writing the most fun you can have sitting down with a pen and paper, so is pursuing that – as well as other interests such as photography, object- making and volunteer work for Habitat for Humanity. He cites Annie Proulx, Spike Milligan, Arthur C. Clarke, Patrick Süskind, and Terry Pratchett as current influences, but that will almost certainly change.

HONOR THOMPSON spends most of her time with her head in a book and a pen in her hand. She looks to her friends and family for inspiration, and as such all her writing characters hold a special place in her heart. Without her grandparents, she wouldn’t be where she is today, for they taught her that nothing is impossible; you just have to believe.

SOPHIE TALLIS is a Bristol born gal who grew up in a sleepy village dreaming of dragons and wild adventures. She hasn’t grown up much, and sincerely hopes she never does. She lives in the Cotswolds with her family, two enormous white wolves, and a load of wild ducks that basically run the place; she has just added two Alaskan Malamutes into the mix! Sophie is a full-time teacher and has been dulling young minds . . . ahem . . . inspiring young minds for the past fifteen years. She is a painter, artist and illustrator, and has a BA (Hons) Degree in Fine Art, photography and sculpture. But her first passion has always been writing stories and poetry. Her first novel, an epic fantasy for children and adults, was published in September 2012 to great reviews and high sales, and she’s currently working on the sequels, due out later in 2014 and 2015, as well as a host of other projects.

WILL MACMILLAN-JONES is a fifty-something lover of blues, rock and jazz. He presently lives in Wales, a beautiful verdant land of myth with a rich cultural heritage. He does his best to support this heritage by drinking local beers and shouting loud encouragement at the TV whenever Wales is playing international rugby.
He has just fulfilled a lifetime ambition by filling an entire wall of his study with bookcases, and then (over)filling the bookcases. When not drinking beer and watching rugby, he remembers to write the occasional horror book or to add to his comic fantasy series, The Banned Underground. Links to all his work can be found on his website:
www.willmacmillanjones.com

JANE DOUGHTERY is a product of the Irish diaspora. She was brought up in Yorkshire, educated at Manchester and London, then moved to Paris to work in the wine trade. She now lives in Bordeaux with her family, a Spanish greyhound, and a posse of cats. Her first published work is a YA fantasy series, The Green Woman. She also writes poetry and has been published in Poetry Nook Magazine and The Bamboo Hut.

As a Role Player, MIKE HARGREAVES’ main outlet for creative writing is in the plotting out of tabletop gaming scenarios for the RPG players in his social circle. The rest of the time he’s fighting to keep a healthy ratio between ideas
and completed projects. It’s a fight he keeps losing.

When she isn’t busy with her nine-to-five job as an electrical engineer, TINA CLOSSER helps her husband with a small hobby farm, complete with a mini horse, donkey, cows, and sheep. In between farm duties and running the kids to gymnastics, she likes to write.

KIERAN MATHERS is a freelance writer based in Sheffield, UK, and is very much inspired by A Song of Ice and FireThe Farseer Trilogy and other great works of fantasy. While not hunched over a keyboard creating worlds in his head, he goes cycling in the Yorkshire Dales and writes poetry.
EVELINN ENOKSEN lives in Norway with her husband and children. She finds inspiration in everything, and has always been interested in art and writing. She says there are few things more fun in life than being able to create.

SELINA CARR is a writer, collector and lover of folk and fairy tales. She is inspired by, and drawn to, the deceptive simplicity of these sometimes poignant—and often gruesome—stories. Much of her writing is heavily influenced by her life-long relationship with the tales penned by the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, Charles Perrault and Oscar Wilde.

JOEL CORNAH hailing from a small isolated village in Lancashire, is the author responsible for The Sea-Stone Sword. He was awarded a degree in Creative Writing from Liverpool John Moors University and spent seven years writing a comical newspaper for The Barrow Downs Tolkien discussion forum. Accompanying this paper was a comic strip series called The Phantom and Alien, a bizarre story of bus drivers, dead people, and a slime child bent on inconveniencing everyone around him.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/JoelKCornah

PURCHAS LINKS:

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Jen Printy

An interview with Jen Printy, author of the paranormal romance novel My Soul Immortal.

 


Hi Jen! Welcome to Zigzag Timeline. Can you tell us about your background as an author?

Hi, Mary. Thank you for having me.
Honestly, there isn’t much to tell. Before My Soul Immortal, I wrote some short stories that will never see the light of day, and started a couple novels that never grew past the 20K word count. The desire to write has always been in me, but before this book, I never had a complete story to tell.

What got you into writing?

Probably my father. His love of books was contagious, and he eventually passed it to me. My dad kept list of books he wanted to read, and would bring stacks of them with us on vacation. When he wasn’t reading he was writing in his journal. Reading and writing, along with the other arts, were a big deal in my house growing up.

What was the first idea you had for “My Soul Immortal,” and how did the story grow from there?

The plot started with thoughts about déjà vu and reincarnation. I even remember the morning the idea hit me. It quickly flowed into a pair of characters, one being immortal. But why? I wanted to think outside the box and come up with a different kind of immortal. After bouncing ideas off my husband, we came up with the idea of children of Death. Once I nailed down this idea, the plot and character fell into place quickly.

Among your characters, who's your favorite? Could you please describe him/her?

Artagan.
Artagan is a cocky, self-assured character, or at least that’s what he likes to appear to be. He has more sides to him then he shows at first. He, like Jack, has his own tragic backstory, but he chooses to deal with it in a different way, determined to joy living even if it “kills” him. His badass attitude makes him a fun character to write.

What's your favorite scene from your novel? Could you please describe it?

I have many, but my favors is a scene that popped into my head at the start of writing this book. It turned into Jack’s dream at the end of chapter 1. In the beginning, I didn’t have any of the characters’ names. It was just a young man in Victorian garb, standing under the elms.  However, despite the storm raging around him, he kept his vigil. His eyes glued to a candle in the upper-east window of an old Jacobean-style manor. The sound of church bells resound over the flurry of drumming rain, and an unseen force snuffed the candle out. At that moment, he knew the woman he loved was dead.

What's your favorite part of writing? Plotting? Describing scenes? Dialogue?

I love to paint a scene. In the end, my hope is the reader smells the sweetness honeysuckle, feels the rocks crunching under the soles of their shoes, and hears the leaves rustle while the wind dances through the trees branches.

How long does it take you to write a book? Do you have a writing process, or do you wing it?

The first draft took me about three or four months to write. However, I wrote it in third person and in past tense. I felt I wasn’t capturing Jack’s emotion in third person, so I rewrote it all into first. Then I got the bright idea the story should be in present tense. I rewrote a couple chapters, liked it, so I rewrote it again.  I do not recommend this tactic. The words tedious and mind numbing come to mind. So yes, you could safely say I winged it. I’m working on my second book, and I’m finding I’m much more structured this go around. Then again, I know a bit more of what I’m doing.

What is it about the paranormal romance genre that appeals to you?

I love a good romance, from the classics like Pride and Prejudice to today’s chick-flicks, and I love how fantasy sees the world through different “eyes,” what could be. Paranormal romance is a good blend of these two genres. s

What’s your experience with Red Adept Publishing been like?

I can’t speak highly enough of them. Through this whole process, they have been helpful and professional at every turn. I’d recommend them to anyone.

Did you ever surprise yourself when you were writing your book? Characters who took on lives of their own? Plot elements that took unexpected turns?

Oh, yes. What surprised me most is how real the characters feel to me.  I guess I didn’t expect them to start “talking” and to have minds of their own.

My Soul Immortal is the first book in a series. What can you tell us about plans for sequels?

I’m excited where this story is going. In the second book of Fated Eternals, we delve deeper into the world of the Concilium Animarum.

Thanks for stopping by!

LINKS:




Book Page on RAP: http://redadeptpublishing.com/my-soul-immortal/ (Note: The tour stops are listed here, as well as the contest.)
a Rafflecopter giveaway