I’ve been trying to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight (responsibly and gradually) with the help of an app that helps me to log the calories that I consume.  The app has one feature that annoys me: It awards me badges for any little milestone that I achieve.

If you have 10 friends, you get a social butterfly badge

Congratulations Tracy! You successfully lost 10 Pounds! (I didn’t. My finger slipped when I logged my initial weight. When I corrected it, it seemed like I lost 10 pounds) You successfully maintained your diet for 2 weeks!

I understand that dieting is difficult and that people need motivators, but really? A badge for logging in 14 days in a row?

The badge phenomena isn’t limited to weight loss apps either. My Kobo reader app started giving me badges as well. Suddenly, I can receive an award for finishing a book. I also can get awards for the number of words that I write, both in NaNoWrimo and on several websites where I place articles. Even my X-Box gives me merit badges for doing certain things in game.

Part of me wonders where all these badges come from. Is this an extension of the mentality bred by the soccer trophy phenomena in which everyone gets an award just for playing? Or is it all in fun? Like a Pokemon/ “gotta catch em all” situation? Did it come from the Girl and Boy scouts? Is getting the Inverted Comma award a substitute for earning your merit badge for knot tying? Or are we just catering to the special, unique snowflakes of the world?

Maybe I’m being a virtual old codger, but I find these badges (that I didn’t ask for) annoying.  Do I really need a gold star just for showing up? All these badges make even getting awards of any kind seem humdrum and routine. Whenever everything is special, nothing is.

Today I had the chance to interview Catherine Lundoff, the author of the new Werewolf novel Silver Moon.

Becca Thornton just found out she’s going to celebrate turning 50 by turning into a werewolf. And she’s not the only one. Wolf’s Point has its own Pack, all women of a “certain age,” and they want to claim her for their own. Then there’s the werewolf hunters, come to town with a cure for lycanthropy. Add to that her newfound feelings for the Pack’s Beta, and Becca Thornton is in for a wild ride.

Tell me about your new release, Silver Moon. Where did you get the idea?

Silver Moon is about a woman named Becca Thornton who, much to her surprise, turns into a werewolf just as she enters menopause. It’s about dealing with growing older in a society that doesn’t value middle-aged and old women, and about becoming who you really want to be and about falling in love with someone you really don’t expect to feel that way about. And it’s about werewolves. Lots of werewolves.

I think I started to consider the idea for the book when I first saw the movie Ginger Snaps, then subsequently read Suzy McKee Charnas’ story “Boobs.” Both deal with young women who are attacked by werewolves during their menses, though they are very different works apart from that. At any rate, they got me thinking more about female werewolves, as well as the dearth of older female protagonists in sf/f/h. It seemed to me that if lycanthropy could be associated with one phase of a woman’s life (menses), then why not another (menopause)? Then editor JoSelle Vanderhooft asked me to write something for an anthology of lesbian werewolf novellas and I decided that this was a good opportunity to play with that idea. After that, the characters just refused to let go, which in turn led to one novel and another in progress.

You’ve done a lot different things, from archaeology to owning a bookstore. How have your experiences worked their way into your work?

In some cases, the relationship is pretty direct. I’ve written a few short stories set in bookstores as well as at least one about an archaeologist. At one point, I also worked at a bar that boasted the largest collection of Elvis memorabilia outside Memphis and had an annual Elvis’ birthday celebration. That inspired a story about Elvis impersonators. Apart from that, I try not to write directly about work, at least not while I’m at that particular job. But I think that any place where you spend significant periods of time every week is going to influence how you think, as well as how you structure your writing time. It’s easier or more difficult for me to write, depending on what I’m doing as a day job and what kind of mental energy I need to put into it. For the last twelve years, I’ve been working in IT and that seems to inspire me to write unfinished murder mysteries, but that’s another story.

I also see that you write nonfiction. How do the two differ?

For me, it’s like using a different part of my brain. For example, I find that I need to outline my nonfiction to get my thoughts organized but when I write fiction, I’m more of a pantser.  When I first started writing, I wrote for a couple of small newspapers, everything from a regular column to writing features. Since then, I’ve written articles for a several magazines and websites and for Women in Science Fiction and Fantasy: An Encyclopedia. I think that learning to write nonfiction for publication is excellent practice for any fiction writer. Articles tend to be a specific word length on a specific topic and are often written to deadline. You may also have to query for assignments. All of these are useful skills to have, regardless of whether or not you choose to concentrate on nonfiction.

Your bio says that you quit law school after selling your first story. Were the two incidents related?

Oh yes! Law school was not a good fit for me, especially at that time in my life. The short version is that utter misery made me telekinetic: I’d walk into the kitchen and dishes would slide off the counter on the other side of the room, apparently driven to ceramic suicide by my levels of angst. Right before I started law school, I began writing a nonfiction book (something my wife suggested to me as a way to keep me out of trouble ☺) and was enjoying that far more than law school. Around that same time, I read a short story I didn’t like and decided I could write something better. I wrote the story, sold it about six weeks later and quit law school at the end of the semester to give writing a try. It turned out to be a much better fit.

I see that you are a member of several professional organizations. Can you tell my readers a little about the usefulness of professional organizations?

Yep, I’m in SFWA, Broad Universe, Outer Alliance and GCLS, as well as Romance Writers of America (RWA). I think different organizations provide different opportunities and services for writers. SFWA, RWA and GCLS are professional writer’s organizations, and provide such services as marketing and informational publications, legal information for writers, events, awards and online communities. Broad Universe and Outer Alliance are advocacy organizations that also include readers, librarians and other publishing professionals as well as writers. They publicize members’ work, organize readings, host parties, host vendor tables and maintain email groups for discussion. These and organizations like them are excellent resources for writers. Take a look at what different organizations provide and decide what they can do for you and what you can do to participate. Volunteering is a great opportunity to meet new writers and readers and it makes these organizations more effective.

What are you working on next?

I’m working on a sequel to Silver Moon, as well as a couple of other novels in progress and some short stories for various anthologies. I’m the kind of writer who always needs to have several projects going at the same time. Keeps life interesting and keeps me engaged.

What are the themes you work into your writing?

I’ve been gradually shifting writing genres from erotica to fantasy so I think my answer to that question is different from how I might have answered a few years back. Then I would have said that I wrote about sex and death, as both universal and individual experiences. Now I think I write more about transformation and perception, mostly in terms of how my protagonists perceive changes they are experiencing. The extent to which going through menopause might feel like turning into a werewolf for some women would be my most recent and obvious example, but I’ve also been working with other kinds of transformations: changing genders and bodies, coming out, aging. I think that how we handle change is critical to how we function as human beings, which is why I think it’s become more of a theme in my fiction.

Where are you appearing next?

I’ll be doing a series of readings to launch Silver Moon: Women & Children First Bookstore in Chicago on 5/19; Outwords Cafe and Bookstore in Milwaukee on 5/22; then a launch at the Outer Alliance party and a reading at WisCon in Madison. After that, it’s back to Minneapolis for the GCLS Conference to be followed by a release reading at Magers & Quinn Booksellers in Minneapolis on 6/21. I’ll also be at several local Twin Cities conventions and at Worldcon in Chicago over Labor Day weekend. It’s going to be a very full year!

Where can readers find you?

My website is at www.catherinelundoff.com, and I blog (x-posted) at LJ and Dreamwidth as catherineldf. I’m also out on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ as myself, Catherine Lundoff.

Is there anything I’ve forgotten?

Not that I can think of. Thank you so much for interviewing me! I really appreciate you taking the time.

___

Catherine Lundoff is the award-winning author of the collections Night’s Kiss (Lethe Press, 2009) and Crave (Lethe Press, 2007) as well as A Day at the Inn, A Night at the Palace and Other Stories (Lethe Press, 2011). Silver Moon (Lethe Press, 2012) is her first novel. She is also the editor of the acclaimed anthology Haunted Hearths and Sapphic Shades: Lesbian Ghost Stories (Lethe Press, 2008) and the co-editor, with JoSelle Vanderhooft, of Hellebore and Rue: Tales of Queer Women and Magic (Lethe Press, 2011). She periodically teaches writing classes at The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis and elsewhere. www.catherinelundoff.com

In this episode, I’m a bit confused by the numbering system for the Roadshow Podcast. We’ve been doing this for 12 months. Does that make this Vol. 2, Ep. 12?  That’s what we’re going with.

Today we’ve got the third installment of Selina Rosen’s short serial The African Frog, followed by Julia Mandala’s short story Redneck Wizard from the chapbook Dracula’s Lawyer.  Finally, Kathi Turski reads us an essay on Menopause Barbie.

In the words of Ruth Hulburt Hamilton:

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?

She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking! . . .

Oh, I’ve grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue

(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

Dishes are waiting and bills are past due . . .

Oh, cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,

But children grow up, as I’ve learned to my sorrow.

So quiet down, cobwebs.  Dust go to sleep.

I’m rocking my baby.  Babies don’t keep.

I’m terribly sorry that this blog post is a few days late. Some family health challenges  have had me away from the computer.

Today’s blog is by T.W. Fendley. She is the author of Zero Time.

As Zero Time nears, only Keihla Benton can save two worlds from the powers of Darkness. But first she must unlock the secrets of Machu Picchu and her own past.

When Philadelphia science writer Keihla Benton joins an archeological team at Machu Picchu, she learns the Andean prophesies about 2012 have special meaning for her. Only she can end the cycle of Darkness that endangers Earth at the end of the Mayan calendar. As she uncovers secrets from the past, which threaten her life and those she loves, Keihla struggles to keep the powerful Great Crystal from the Lord of Darkness and his consort.

Xmucane leads an expedition to Earth to overcome a genetic flaw that threatens the people of Omeyocan with extinction, but she soon finds herself involved in a very personal battle that pits mother against daughter and sister against sister. With the help of the time-traveling Great Serpent Quetzalcoatl, she leaves the Southern Temples to arrive in present-day Machu Picchu as the expedition’s time-window closes.

Xmucane and Keihla work together as Earth and Omeyocan near alignment with the galaxy’s dark heart for the first time in 26,000 years. They must seize the last chance to restore the cycle of Light to Earth and return to the Pleiades with a cure, no matter what the cost to their hearts.

__

Researching a book like ZERO TIME takes a lot of time, but for someone like me, that’s part of the thrill of writing. It gives me a reason to spend hours, days…heck, let’s be honest, YEARS…delving into the history and mythology of ancient cultures, studying where science and metaphysics intersect, and using geeky tools to picture the astronomy and astrology that shape the ancient and future worlds.

Today I thought I’d share five techniques I use that may help with your research:

One – Check out your topic online. These days, doing a Google search is a no-brainer, but it still bears mentioning. When I start a new project, I like to know what’s already out there. It’s unlikely anyone would write the same book I would, even if the premise somehow matched. No, it’s more about finding a starting place–what are the most reliable and/or popular sources of information? Are the books I’ll need available at the library or do I need to buy them? Are there any relevant courses or conferences offered locally, and if so, when? Some of the resources I used are listed on my website:ZERO TIME: Behind the Story. Since that time, I’ve discovered the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies Inc. (FAMSI)–amazing stuff!

Two – Read. A lot! Once the initial sources have been identified, I start reading. Often I’ll find leads to other sources in each book, magazine or online article I read. A historian friend of mine, Brad R. Cook, suggests to “start specific then broaden – always approach from multiple angles – try to find source material.” That’s a good approach, though sometimes I find myself doing the opposite: getting an overview, then narrowing down the focus. Is there an unanswered question that could be the basis for my story? How could I adapt the facts in a unique way, perhaps by introducing another topic? I already knew I wanted to write about the ancient American cultures when I ran across a description of the sex-chromosome drive (SRY) in Matt Ridley’s book, GENOME. I thought, What if people had this SRY disorder that causes 97 percent of the offspring to be female? Suddenly my characters became travelers from the Pleiades whose motivation for traveling to Earth was to save their race from extinction.

Three – Travel if you can; Google Street View it and use tour guidebooks if you can’t. Even with all the resources so readily available to armchair explorers, it’s still hard to get the sensory feel of a place without physically being there. You can get temperature information for any location pretty easily with a Google search, but that doesn’t tell you how your lungs feel in the Andes’ thin, high-altitude air. I spent a lot of time trying to find how a plant called broom smells. I finally had to make up the scent because I could never find it described, even though I had a splendid picture showing the fiery red blooms covering the Urubamba River Gorge. Alas, travel isn’t always feasible when you need the information. In addition to online sources, I relied on three guidebooks that included lots of photos and maps. Google’s Street View can give you many details of what things look like now. Without a time machine, though, it isn’t possible to physically view the night sky at Machu Picchu three thousand years ago. Butwww.astronomy.com‘s Star Dome and Star Atlas help you picture it more accurately. And for other sky events, past or future, NASA even offers an eclipse calendar. Details give your work the authority it needs to come alive for your reader.

Four – Attend conferences and take courses. If you’re dealing with a topic totally new to you, it helps to hear other people talk about it. For instance, if you’re using foreign names of cities or people, how are they pronounced? Do scholars “in the field” agree with how the topic is portrayed in the media or popular culture? With the 2012 “end of the Maya calendar,” there’s a huge schism between what New Age folks promote and what many Maya scholars say. At some point, you have to decide where you fit in the scheme of things. That may not be easy. While researching my debut novel, I joined the Pre-Columbian Society of Washington DC (where I lived for a while). I visited museums like Dumbarton Oaks and took classes at the Smithsonian on archeology and archeoastronomy. I’m now on FAMSI’s AZTLAN listserve that provides ongoing information from Mesoamerican field researchers, including upcoming conferences. I’m also actively learning about metaphysics, guided by groups such as Edgar Cayce’s Association for Research and Enlightenment, The Monroe Institute and the International Remote Viewing Association.

Five – Follow your heart. This is undoubtedly the most important part. If you follow your heart, you’ll have fun–and the journey is at least as important as the end result! Your passion will lead to original interpretations, ones that only you could create. This also involves getting out and trying some new things. If you’re writing about snow boarding, horseback riding, fencing, etc., try it out or at least become an avid spectator for a day or two. You’ll be a better writer because of it. Watch a TV documentary on your topic from Nova, Discover, the Smithsonian, National Geographic or the History channel. Sure it’s fun, but it’s also research. Search for clips on You Tube; get a trial Netflix subscription to see if they have documentaries you missed. Check TED for anything of interest. Look at coffee table and travel picture books at the library and book stores. You’ll be amazed at what’s out there waiting to be discovered…by you.

__

T.W. Fendley writes historical fantasy and science fiction with a Mesoamerican twist for adults and young adults. Her debut historical fantasy novel, ZERO TIME, was voted Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Novel in the 2011 P&E Readers Poll. Her short stories took second place in the 2011 Writers’ Digest Horror Competition and won the 9th NASFiC 2007 contest. Teresa belongs to the St. Louis Writer’s Guild, the Missouri Writers’ Guild, SCBWI and Broad Universe. www.twfendley.com

The ZERO TIME 2012 Virtual Book Tour Party is here!

Today’s Blog comes via Gail Z. Martin.

Gail is the author of The Chronicles of The Necromancer series and The Fallen Kings Cycle. Her newest book is The Sworn. She also hosts GhostInTheMachinePodcast.com and blogs at DisquietingVisions.com. For details, visit www.ChroniclesoftheNecromancer.com

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At Lunacon, I was on a panel called “The Magical Middle Class” where the topic was secondary characters (or as gamers refer to them, Non-Player Characters—NPC) in fiction who possess magic but don’t have awesome jobs.  It got me thinking about how important background characters are, and how poor our fiction would be without them.

There are a lot of magical middle classers in the Harry Potter series.  Mr. Weasley is a perfect example.  He has magic powerful enough to be among the Order of the Phoenix, yet he has a job as a mid-level government bureaucrat.  Think about the series, and you find a number of people with jobs as shop keepers, bus drivers, and even Hagrid, the grounds keeper, who have very ordinary jobs despite magic that would make them extraordinary in our world.

In any book, but especially in a series, those background characters add life and texture when they’re done well.  They may never have a heroic role, but they make the world feel more real.  They are, as Mr. Rogers put it, “The people that you meet each day.”

Often, these characters serve as a source of information, an unlikely intelligence network, or an unofficial Greek chorus.  They’re the bartender, the cop or night guard, the janitor, the barrista, the waiter, the neighbor.  They’re the casual acquaintances, the people you see often enough to have a conversation with, and yet don’t know quite well enough to invite them to dinner.  Yet their conversations and interactions can reveal a lot about characterization, and can provide important, even essential clues to action.

So the next time you’re reading, pay attention to the NPCs.  They’re not the hero or the villain, but they are an essential support team, and play a role far more important than is often acknowledged.  Hooray for the magical middle class!

A thousand apologies for posting this blog late today!  I’m discovering that with a child, everything takes twice as long as it did before.  (On a side note, baby swings are awesome!)

Today’s guest post is by Karina Fabian. Karina is the author of Live and Let Fly, a Dragon P.I. Mystery.

For a dragon detective with a magic-slinging nun as a partner, saving the worlds
gets routine. So, when the US government hires Vern and Sister Grace to recover
stolen secrets for creating a new Interdimensional Gap–secrets the US would like to
keep to itself, thank you—Vern sees a chance to play Dragon-Oh-Seven.

No human spy, however, ever went up against a Norse goddess determined to
exploit those secrets to rescue her husband. Sigyn will move heaven and earth to get
Loki—and use the best and worst of our world against anyone who tries to stop her.

It’s super-spy spoofing at its best with exotic locations (Idaho–exotic?), maniacal
middle-managers, secret agent men, teen rock stars in trouble, man-eating animatronics, evil overlords and more!

–

I never expected to write humor. My few forays into the world of stand-up comedy couldn’t even count as laughable failures. Stoney-silence-Lord-help-me-recover failures, sure. However, with my DragonEye, PI books and stories, I discovered that on paper, I can actually make people laugh. In fact, one of the most common comments I got about the first DragonEye book, Magic, Mensa and Mayhem was “I should not have been reading it while (eating/drinking/in the library/in public where people turned to stare)”. With praise like that, how I could I not write another?

Caption: Yes, I confess, I find it deeply satisfying to know I made someone snort milk out his nose.

I don’t think there’s a formula for humor—if there were, I’d be on the stage. I’m a ham—but I do think there are some guidelines you can follow when writing humor. They are simple to state, but not always simple to follow.

#1 Make yourself laugh. I say this for two reasons. Unless you are an incredibly abnormal person, others will laugh at what you think is funny, too—at least if you present it right. Regardless, the joy of writing is that it is enjoyable. Writers first and foremost are telling stories to themselves. You deserve to laugh at what you write. (Although if you are using the library computer, keep it down the quiet chuckles. Thank you.)

#2 It should be funny to others, too. Get your stuff critiqued, and ask them to mark where the jokes fall flat—or read it aloud to some people and get their reaction. (Preferably people in your target audience rather than your Mom who loves everything, your kids who know they’ll get ice cream if you’re happy, or your wacky friend who laughs at Hallmark commercials.) If a joke falls flat, then you need to decide: did the set-up fail? Was the punch line not punchy enough? Or is the joke one of those that just isn’t as funny outside our own head or mood?

#3 Not everyone will get all your jokes. Some people adore puns. Some find them annoying. Some people think the Three Stooges is the height of comedy while others wince with every eye poke. Kids will have different ideas of humor from adults, and sometimes humor doesn’t cross socio-economic boundaries. So what does this mean for you as a writer?

* Know your target audience and write for what they’ll enjoy. For example, in Live and Let Fly, which is
a spy spoof, I’m thinking the Austin Powers audience along with the Terry Pratchett/Discworld readers
who would enjoy my DragonEye world. As a result, I have some slapstick and even a nod to the sharks
with frickin’ lasers, but I declined the sex jokes (which I don’t find esp. funny, anyway), and I have a lot
of character-based humor, puns, twisting clichés, and the like.

* Have a variety. To reach a broader audience, have more than one kind of humor. Sometimes, get
your audience to burst out laughing (in public is cool); other times, give them a mild chuckle. I usually
have puns, physical humor, sarcasm (hard to avoid with a dragon as the narrator), and twists of cliché. I
include in jokes that I know not everyone will get. In fact, I had a couple of discussions with my editors
about these, as they missed the joke as well, but I knew a part of my target audience (here spy genre
aficionados) would get them.

#4 Don’t cross the line. I grew up in the 70s and 80s, and I saw a lot of movies that I’m now
embarrassed to admit to having found funny. However, that is my past and it did influence my humor.
Sometimes, a scene will make me chortle because it triggers that 10-year-old watching some horrid
movie I won’t even name because with my luck, a movie producer will read this blog and think, “There’s
one we haven’t remade!” I do not want to be responsible for that! Sometimes, too, I’ll be feeling
especially snarky about something (usually political) and will satirize it, but I end up with more bite than
laugh. Fortunately for me, I have a wonderful husband who shares my humor but also knows when to
rein me in.

My dear, do remove that paragraph before Barlow brings in “the jacket.”

#5 Don’t write a novel that’s just about the jokes. Remember Piers Anthony’s Xanth series? They were loaded with puns; I think there had to be at least a pun a page and I suspect the goal was a pun a paragraph. I loved the books, but some of them seemed to be nothing but a pun fest; while I enjoyed the hyucks, I never cared about the characters or the trials that made up the plot, and those bored me quickly despite the jokes.

Really good novels have characters you love (or love to hate), stories that keep you reading to find out what’s next, and a roller coaster of highs and lows.

I write a lot of different styles and genres, from devotionals to serious science fiction and fantasy. Even my DragonEye, PI short stories can get a little dark. But I have such fun when the story calls out for puns and humorous twists.

That brings us back to the original point: have fun with your fiction, whether serious of comedic.

–

If there’s such a thing as ADD of the imagination, Karina Fabian has it—in spades.
Craft books, devotionals, serious science fiction, comedic horror and chilling fantasy—
she follows her interests and the characters that tell her their stories.

Even before she could write, Karina strung tall tales about everything from making
human pyramids in Kindergarten to visiting alien worlds. Her first attempt at novel
writing was in fourth grade; she completed her first novel in college. However, her first
published work was an anthology of Christian science fiction, Leaps of Faith, an EPPIE
finalist for best anthology in 2006. Her next anthology, Infinite Space, Infinite God,
featured Catholic characters and themes and won the EPPIE for science fiction. The
second Infinite Space, Infinite God anthology came out in 2010.

Watching the comedy improve show, Whose Line Is It, Anyway, inspired her noir-style
dragon detective, Vern. Vern and his partner, Sister Grace, have solved mysteries and
saved the Faerie and Mundane worlds numerous numerous times in the DragonEye,
PI stories and novels. Their serial story, World Gathering, won a Mensa Owl; and the
novel, Magic, Mensa and Mayhem (Fabian’s first published novel), won the INDIE for
best fantasy in 2010.

At a friend’s request, Karina wrote a funny story about a zombie exterminator, which
grew into the Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator novels. The first, Neeta Lyffe, Zombie
Exterminator, won the 2011 Global E-Book award for best horror.

She also writes serious science fiction. Her first SF novel, Discovery, is currently under
consideration, and she’s working on a second on, The Old Man and the Void, based
loosely on Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, but taking place in the accretion
disk of a black hole.

Karina has a strong faith, which she explored in her devotional, Why God Matters: How
to Recognize Him in Daily Life, which she wrote with her father Steve Lumbert, and
which won the 2011 Christian Small Press Publisher Award. She also writes Catholic
school calendars and has written three craft books for the Little Flowers/Blue Knights
clubs.

Fabian is married to Colonel Robert A. Fabian of the USAF. They have four children,
a dog and a cat. When not writing, teaching writing, or chatting about writing, she’s
hanging out with her kids or swinging a sword in haidong gumbdo.

Today’s podcast features two readings from the Anthology I Should Have Stayed in Oz, including Vicky Malone Kennedy’s story Silver Slippers and first time author Traci Lewis.

We also have the second part of Selina Rosen’s serialized short story, The African Frog. 

You can order the anthology I Should have Stayed in Oz from Yard Dog Press through their website, or by phone. The sister E-anthology I Didn’ t Quite Make it to Oz is also available through Amazon, Smashwords or Barnes and Noble.

Most writers do not illustrate their own work. They rely on magazine editors, art directors, and/or the publisher to select the artist who will interpret their words. More often than not, the author won’t see the art to be used with their story or on the cover of their book until after it’s been printed. And they rarely meet the illustrator. In fact, many publishers discourage communication between writer and illustrator, because they want the artist to bring an untainted vision to the project. And that’s scary for the author. But take it from an illustrator – we’re nervous, too!

In the case of a magazine cover, the cover artist usually isn’t representing any particular story in the issue. Rather, she has painted (or rendered using another media) an image that represents the theme of the magazine. Magazine covers are often done on-spec, with ample space left uncluttered for the title of the publication and the names of the featured authors. If the cover illustration “matches” your story in a magazine – it’s usually a lucky coincidence!

Interior artwork is a different story. Although an appropriately-themed illustration done in the magazine’s preferred illustration size might be bought, more likely, the artist is given a piece of writing to interpret. Art directors and editors encourage artists to select a visually exciting image from the narrative to illustrate. Easy, right? Not always. The illustration needs to represent characters and action from the story, it needs to lure the readers into the tale, and it shouldn’t give away the ending. A good illustrator is a writer’s best friend, because well-done art can entice readers to take a look at a story.

Book covers are tricky. Unless you’ve been contracted by an author who’s self-publishing, it’s unlikely the artist will communicate with the writer. Instead, you often get a summary from the art director along with the size needed: the front cover, a portion of the front cover, or a wrap around image. Wrap around images are the most challenging since the painting is really split into two. It needs to appear “complete” when a reader looks at the front or back cover.

Recently, one of my watercolors ended up being used for 2 front covers. The editor of “Scifaikuest” wanted to use a portion of the right half of the painting for her cover. The editor at Cold Moon Press liked the left half of the painting for the cover of an eShort (though she wanted the image a little pinker). I scanned the painting, split it in two, adjusted the tint of the left half – and ta-dum – 2 covers. I’d still like to see the painting reproduced as one image – a calendar page perhaps!

In the case of my book, “The Greener Forest,” the front and back cover paintings, though connected in theme and color, are 2 separate pieces of artwork. Why? I wanted the front and back covers to look like they were part of a handmade journal.

The cover for my next book, “Owl Light,” (due out from Cold Moon Press in late spring 2012) is a wrap around mixed water media painting. You can see that I’m beginning to tell a story with the artwork. The vivid colors and simplified image would also be appropriate for a children’s picture book. Picture books are the genre where an illustrator most needs to fill in the details in someone else’s story with artwork. Written for younger readers, a picture book’s text is less than 1,000 words. Usually – much less than 1,000 words. So the art is a part of the narrative.

Illustrators want to do a good job. They want to please the editor, writer, and readers. They use their talent and imagination to add another dimension to someone else’s words. If you’re given a chance to communicate with your illustrator – make suggestions, mention dislikes, and remember that she is a professional who’s doing her best to make your story even better by adding intriguing visual images.

Vonnie Winslow Crist is the author of “The Greener Forest,” a collection of fantasy short stories in which the world of Faerie collides with our workaday world: http://coldmoonpress.com/quickbuy.html Visit her at http://vonniewinslowcrist.com or http://vonniewinslowcrist.wordpress.com

Today’s Guest Blog comes from Michelle Murrain.  Michelle is a poet and the author of two science fiction novels. She lives in Okland, CA.  You can find her on the web at http://murrain.net

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For the first time, I have significant portions of a new novel in the point of view of non-human aliens. I’ve written a couple of stories in alien POV in the past. Writing from the POV of a non-human alien is more complex and challenging than one might think. First of all, of course, we have absolutely no idea what’s really in the head of any non-human (we have a hard enough time knowing what’s in the heads of our fellow human beings!) There is no real way we can actually truly write an alien POV. But there are some principles that I’m working with that might help us out.

Also, this is somewhat different than most fantasy characters who are elves and dwarves and such. These are generally portrayed in a very human way, even though they might have some different characteristics.

Body type: The body type of an alien is bound to be an important factor in how they view the universe. Are they large and strong in comparison to other species, or are they small and weak? What do they eat, and how do they eat it? What do they breathe, and where do they live (on land, in the air, under the ground, in water, etc.)? How do they reproduce, and do they have sex? What are their immature stages like? What are their primary senses? Do they have specific abilities that we do not?

The aliens in my current novel live on the surface, breathe oxygen (although they need quite a bit less than we do) they are large and strong, insectoid (with an endoskeleton as well as an exoskeleton,) have no fixed gender, and reproduce with five, not two individuals. They eat their food still living and moving around. They have no senses of smell or taste (they didn’t need to evolve them,) but have very keen eyesight. They can’t really do things we can’t, except that they are bigger and stronger than we are.

Emotions: It’s likely that non-human aliens would have a different set of emotions than we do. Can we imagine what that might be like? What might their primary emotions be like, and how might they be expressed? What if anger was expressed completely differently than we express anger? What if an emotion doesn’t exist?

Culture: Of course, the culture is somewhat a product of the evolution of a species. Do they have religions, and what might those look like? What might they worship, if anything? A species without gender won’t have gender dynamics, or gender inequalities, but they might have other kinds. Are there other things that divide them? Geography? Appearance? Size? Strength?

Language: If their bodies are significantly different, they probably would have different language capabilities, either better, or worse than humans. What if they can’t pronounce things that we can? Or they have a much wider range of frequencies to use? Shouldn’t this affect how we portray their POV?

The Individual: We need to understand and incorporate where the individual whose POV you are writing is situated. Where does the individual in the POV fit in the culture? Are they high up in a hieararchy, or low down? Do they fit in a certain role, and what is it? How do they see themselves vis a vie the culture? One of my characters is a priest somewhat low down in a hierarchy that is revered – so there is an odd kind of relationship to the culture at large. And this character is somewhat of a heretic as well.

One of the more interesting things about this process is that, of course, we want characters that our readers can relate to. Sometimes, an alien POV might seem so alien that it’s impossible for our readers to connect with – and that’s generally not the outcome we want. We want our readers to feel as if they understand, in some ways, this alien, and their POV. For this particular book the majority of the points of view are human, and the alien characters are more counterpoints to what’s happening with the humans. I do want the readers to understand something about the aliens by providing an alien POV, but only one of the alien characters is one that I really want my readers to feel an affinity towards. This makes it a little bit easier. I have another novel idea with a significant alien POV, one that is central to the story – that one is going to be harder to pull off.

If you haven’t yet written an alien POV, its worth just trying it out, just for fun. It will shake you out of your normal character development, and will stretch what you can accomplish in writing.