Write Club

Homage to Women of Horror - Part 2

2012-02-22T06:32:00.001-06:00

Continuing my tribute to Women in Horror Month, today I am following on by mentioning some of the women of horror I have met, and who have inspired me, over the years:

Sally Spedding: I first met Sally at the Winchester Writers' Conference a few years ago. Part of your delegate ticket when you register is the opportunity for three one-to-ones, two of which can be with agents or editors. I picked Sally for my third non-agent/editor one-to-one because she was another writer who crossed the genres of crime and horror. I sent her the first chapter of DEATH SCENE. When I sat down for my fifteen minutes with her, she told me it was the best thing she'd read all weekend and I'd really made her day by sending it to her. Well, she made my week - nay, my year - by telling me so, and we've stayed in touch ever since.

Sarah Pinborough: Sarah is a versatile writer who writes in many genres, including YA, sf, horror and crime - or combining all of the above. I can particularly recommend her "Dog-Faced Gods" trilogy. Set in a near-future dystopian London, the main character is a paranormal investigator looking into a series of crimes. It becomes clear that there is something supernatural involved. I feel like I've known Sarah for ages, because I run into her at every convention I go to. But I think we first met at the World Horror Con in Brighton, less than two years ago.

Lisa Tuttle: Many years ago, in my first job as book shop assistant, an anthology of horror stories written by women came into the shop. Published by Women's Press, it was called THE SKIN OF THE SOUL and Lisa Tuttle gave the introduction, making the argument that horror had been erroneously considered a man's domain for far too long and it was high time to acknowledge all the fine women horror writers out there. I've been a fan of Lisa's ever since. I got to tell her how inspiring I found that anthology at World Horror Con in Brighton - and it seems I wasn't the only woman to do so, as she makes reference to it in a blog post on her livejournal blog.

Next, a shout-out to some Women of Horror I've connected with online, but haven't met in person:

Rita Vetere: Rita's WHISPERING BONES is a thrillingly scary horror tale.

Diane Dooley: Diane is also honouring Women of Horror on her blog this month, so go check it out.

Fiona Dodwell: Fiona is another Writer of Damn Scary Books.

Sealey Andrews: Sealey is also honouring Women in Horror Month on her 'Girl in the Soapdish' blog.

Jenna M Pitman: Jenna's horror fiction can be found everywhere, it seems, going by her list of publishing credits.

Last but by no means least, I want to give a shout-out to the lovely ladies who are my co-bloggers here. They are all fabulous writers, and you should go read their books:

Sonya Clark
Nerine Dorman
Pamela Turner

Seeing as how February has an extra day this year, next Wednesday will be the third and final part of my homage to women of horror, so be sure to come back next week.

Story Published

2012-02-21T15:56:00.000-06:00

For the longest time, I worried I would never see another publication. It's not for lack of writing. I have partials and completed manuscripts, plus a file folder of ideas. The problem was finding beta readers and critique partners to help me polish my works in progress and get them ready for submission.

I'm excited to announce my short story "It's in Your Blood" is included in the anthology Bites - Ten Tales of Vampires. Originally titled "Initiation," and posted for free on Scribd and my blog, "It's in Your Blood" is a new version of the story. (The original story is removed from the aforementioned sites.)

In other writing news, this afternoon I sent a screenplay to a CP who is a professional screenwriter and juror for the Humanitas prize. He offered to critique my screenplay before he starts reading the Humanitas entries. Since his time is valuable, I appreciate his willingness to look over my work.

If you'd like to learn more about Bites - Ten Tales of Vampires, you can find information on Amazon or Smashwords .

I'm stoked about writing opportunities this year. Can't say how it'll turn out, but so far things are looking good.

Homage to Women of Horror - Part 1

2012-02-15T13:04:00.002-06:00

This month is Women In Horror month. As a woman of horror I want to support this worthy cause. I'm going to start by pointing you towards this website, dedicated to Women In Horror Month.

"Women don't write horror". This is a battle I feel I've been fighting my whole life. It's as frustrating and erroneous an assumption as the notion that all SF fans are 16-year-old boys who like pictures of women in chain mail bikinis, with unfeasibly large breasts, because they can't get anywhere near a real-life woman.

The media does nothing to disabuse the general public of this notion. Cult SF and horror magazines sport covers featuring pictures of mostly-naked women with the aforementioned unfeasibly large breasts. Books aimed at women sport pink covers with curly lettering and pictures of lipstick, shoes and shopping bags. Gifts aimed at women (and we are bombarded by such ads at Christmas) suggest that your mum or aunty or sister or girlfriend wants a make-up kit or bottle of perfume. Never have I seen an advert that says she wants the new Resident Evil game on the PS3 (which is what I want next birthday).

I would like to point out that women horror writers are hardly a modern phenomenon. One of the first horror novels to be published was not only written by a woman, it was written by a teenager. Mary Shelley was 17 when she penned FRANKENSTEIN.

In support of Women In Horror month, next week I will be paying homage to some contemporary women of horror. If you are one such woman and you want a mention and a link to your blog this month, please let me know.

Let's hear it for Horror Women!

2012: The Year of the Critiques

2012-02-14T21:10:00.000-06:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

After about a year of indecision, I finally joined Sisters in Crime last month. I also joined their critique group, the Guppies, and my local chapter this past Saturday. In my short time with them, I've learned information that will help my writing.

Part of my concern was how did SinC react to e-books? Did they embrace or eschew them? So far, all indications seem to be acceptance. Traditional publishing avenues aren't ignored, either, so there's a nice balance of information and opinions.

I'm currently on the third (fourth?) draft of my vampire Victorian paranormal m/m mystery, The Ripper's Daughter. Once I have a solid draft ready, I hope to send it to my Guppies group for critique. 2012 is going to be the year of critiquing, I see. I really want to submit work this year so I'm making a conscious effort to finish revising these stories and getting them out. (Fingers crossed...)

Other than that, I have some news I'm waiting to tell. Should be very soon so hopefully I can post it next week. Bounce. Bounce. Bounce.

Geek Excitement: Resident Evil 6

2012-02-08T03:08:00.004-06:00

This week's post is not about writing, but if you will indulge me I want to burble on about one of my other obsessions - computer games. More specifically, one particular game.

If you've been following my blog Imaginary Friends, you will know I have something of an obsession with playing 'Resident Evil 4'.

We have 'Resident Evil 5' as well, but in my view it's just not as good. Sure, the graphics are better - RE4 is only available on the Nintendo Wii, and it was never really designed to be a superior graphics machine. But I prefer the Wii controls to the PS3 controls. I am a hopeless shot. The Wii controls are gentler on those who are crap shots.

But the game itself just has more atmosphere than its sequel. In RE4, Leon spends a lot of time runing around alone (apart from occasional cut scene interactions with NPCs, and of course the interactions with the very annoying Ashley) in a lonely and creepy part of rural Spain, being attacked by zombies and other unnatural beasties, on a dark rainy night. RE5, set in the daytime under the baking sun of Africa, just doesn't have the same atmosphere.

And then, of course, the game has Leon. Leon is hot. I have a solid faction of female friends who all drool over Leon. The main character in RE5 is Chris Redfield, who doesn't have the same lust factor.

'Resident Evil' as a series has been around for years. Not being familiar with the game before RE4, I can't say anything about what earlier games were like, but I gather that the same characters have been popping up periodically throughout the series - Chris and his sister Claire; Leon; Krauser; Jill Valentine; Ada Wong. Each game progresses the plot along, with points from the previous series occasionally referred to. The films follow through with this. I hear rumour there's a new film in development - live action this time - that will feature all of the series' characters. Including Leon. Can't wait for that one.

Anyway, more exciting than that is the news that 'Resident Evil 6' is being released later this year. It's on the PS3, not the Wii, so I will have to get a handle on the awkward controls. But the graphics will be great. And, more relevant, this game features Leon. In full PS3 CGI glory. Woohoo!

For a taster, here's the trailer:

A Conglomeration

2012-02-07T18:06:00.000-06:00

First, I'm happy to hear the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Proposition 8 unconstitutional. The battle isn't over but any victory helps.

Also, many of you are probably aware of the RWA/RWI debacle. I won't get into it here but the gist is the Romance Writers Ink chapter of the RWA decided no same-sex entries in their More Than Magic (MTM) contest this year. They apparently did not have a problem with same-sex entries before, since many GBLT books not only finaled but won in previous years. Supposedly, the reasoning was the members "felt uncomfortable" with such entries, hence the ban.

Well, to say the information went viral is an understatement. Members of the Rainbow Romance Writers (the GBLT chapter of RWA) protested and other writers, blogs, etc. picked up the rallying cry for the RWA and RWI to stop this discriminatory practice. Sadly, the RWI canceled their contest.

I hope the RWA does the right thing. Many of my favorite writers identify as GBLT. And lest you think this applies only to romance writers, let me also list a few who are noted among the literary: James Baldwin, Tony Kushner, Edward Albee, and Audre Lorde, among others.

On another note, I'm hoping to share some news soon. Also, here's my writing update, with a nod to Sara, who posted hers last week. (And I did say this was a conglomeration) :-) Anyhoo, working on the 3rd revision of The Ripper's Daughter. I used Lynn Viehl's The Novel Notebook to plot my story and it's really helped keep my story focused so these rewrites are going much better than the angel UFs, which I often had to restart from scratch. Either that or I've finally found my genre. LOL

Speaking of angel UF, The Zaphkiel Project is currently with beta readers/CPs. So things are moving along a bit faster than last year. I really want to submit two books this year, hence my drive. (Besides, I can't let everyone else have all the fun, right?)

Writing Update - February 2012

2012-02-01T06:44:00.003-06:00

I thought it was about time for a roundup of current news in my writing world.

Firstly, the big news is that I have been asked to contribute to an anthology on the subject of siblings - one of whom must have a dark secret - that is to be part of Hersham Press's pentanth series, to be published in September 2012.

The other four writers involved are Richard Farren Barber, Stuart Hughes, Sam Stone and Simon Kurt Unsworth.

This is tremendously exciting for me, as it's the first time I've been approached to write something that's not been vetted or auditioned first. The fact that there's an assumption I can write something good enough to compete with these other marvellous writers is singularly thrilling and terrifying.

However, one obstacle at least has been overcome. I've got an idea for my story, and I'm already 3,000 words in to the first draft. So I have plenty of time to polish it up to publishable standard. She says confidently...

And what of other writing projects? Work on my short story collection SOUL SCREAMS continues apace, though its release date has been put back a little. We are now expecting the e-book and the print version to be released in June. I will reiterate this will available in print as well as electronic format. So all of you who keep saying you don't like e-books and prefer 'proper' books have no excuses with this one. A paper version will be available.

On top of all this, I still have my two WIP novels on the go - the second Shara book, and the new horror novel.

So already 2012 is proving to be a very busy year, and it's only just started!

In Praise of Dragons

2012-01-31T15:39:00.000-06:00

This is the Year of the Dragon. While my Chinese astrology sign is the sheep/goat, I have an affinity for dragons, so I'm excited about what 2012 has to bring (besides Mayan doom prophecies and a Venus Transit).

I love dragons. To me, they're powerful creatures who are guardians and protectors. Seven dragons share my office in various guises from a small glass statue to a wall-mounted dragon holding a dagger. I even have books on drawing dragons and dragon mythology. But I've yet to write a dragon-centric story. No doubt there's one lurking somewhere in my subconscious. When I do write that work-in-progress, I'll let you know. :-)

To celebrate the Year of the Dragon (and my love of animation), I found this PiLi puppet video via a fellow author. The stop motion animation is extraordinary and I love the puppet designs. (Note: To me, animation is an art form and I have a high degree of respect for it.) For those who don't know, PiLi is a puppet show from Taiwan made by Pili International Multimedia.

Please enjoy!

Writing Lesson #16: How To Be a Publicity Tart

2012-01-25T06:48:00.002-06:00

Listening to old-school writers - those whose first book was published forty years ago - I get the impression that the publishing industry is very different these days to what it was. In the old days, once you sold your book, all you had to do was write the next one. The publishing company took care of all the marketing, all the promotion, all the sales. The book jackets didn't always have author pics, there was no Internet, and you could live a lifetime never knowing what your favourite author looked like.

Nowadays, things are different. Writers are expected to play a much more proactive part in promotion. A lot of the small independent publishers don't have PR departments. Even if your publisher does have marketing people in-house, they are going to expect you to put yourself about. Signing sessions, panel appearances, public interviews. Whatever it takes.

I often think that this state of affairs is pretty ironic, given that the act of writing means shutting yourself away, alone, for months at a time, and subsequently writers are, by nature, generally introverts. But the world has changed. At the very least, a writer is expected to have a web presence. I have met one or two that don't, but they tend to be the veteran brand of writer I mentioned earlier - those that had already established a name and and a readership well before the Internet revolution took hold.

For the rest of us, we need a website. And a blog. And a Twitter account. And a Facebook page. Whatever it takes to get our name Out There.

After all, the book being published is only the beginning. It has to sell. And how is it going to sell, unless people know about it? if the e-book revolution is making it easier to get your book published, it's also contributing to a very crowded market place. There are literally millions of books out there. How can you make the casual Amazon browser land on yours and want to buy it?

And this is where it's necessary to become a publicity tart. The Internet makes it easy to reach out to the world, and the more hits you have on the web, the more people will hear about your book.

So where should the aspiring publicity tart start? Get a website, if you haven't got one already. If you're completely ignorant of HTML code, like me, go with something like Weebly, which offers a user-friendly template with drag and drop features. Sign up, choose your template, decide which elements you want on your site, and off you go.

Start a blog. "But why would anyone want to read about my boring life?" I hear you say. It's human nature to be interested in other people's lives. That's why reality shows do so well. Just because something is boring and mundane to you, doesn't mean it's boring to everyone. I find my daily commute into London crashingly dull. But those who don't live in London are often interested in the little glimpses of London life that I experience on the train every day, and sometimes blog about.

Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads and Librarything are all sites that offer you a way of reaching out to lots of people, all of whom could be potential readers, if they like the sound of your book. If you haven't got an Amazon author profile, set one of those up too. It costs nothing, and you can link all of your books to your account. So if your intrepid reader reads your latest book and enjoys it, she can visit your Amazon page to see what else you've written. And that gives her easy access to buying the rest.

Guest blogging is a very good way of promoting your own work whilst supporting other writers, too. If someone does a guest post on your blog, their fans will follow them to your blog. If you guest on someone else's blog, their existing followers will read your post, and they might decide to check our your blog, too. Everyone wins.

I would recommend getting some decent photos done. Remember what I was saying earlier about going years without ever knowing what your favourite author looks like? Those days are over. You could spend a fortune going to a professional studio, and in some ways this could be money well spent, as these studios include hair and make up artists in the price and you know you're going to look great in your pictures. But you don't have to spend loads of money. I went to a friend who's a semi-pro photographer. He charged me a reasonable fee, I did my own hair and make-up and went to his house with a couple of changes of clothing, and I came away with a good set of usable portrait shots. In fact, all of the images that I use online came from the same photo shoot. Once you have them done, you can use them over again, so every time you do an online interview and the interviewer asks for an author picture, you don't have to fret about not having a decent pic to use.

All of this might sound very exhausting. It's worth remembering that most social networking sites allow you to link to other social networking sites. So your post on Twitter will appear on Facebook, and on Amazon too. Your new blog post will appear on your Goodreads page and on your Facebook profile, and anywhere else you care to link it, too, so it reaches everyone at once without having to multiple post.

Does all this work actually make a difference? It's hard to say. Getting yourself 'Out There' is a very long, very slow process. It's now coming up to two years since the first novel was published, and I'm not exactly hitting the best-seller lists. Sales are decidedly modest, to say the least. But the average monthly sales for SUFFER THE CHILDREN in 2011 were roughly double what they were in 2010, so I think the hard work has made just a little bit of difference.

To check on my 'publicity tart' status, I periodically Google my name, just to see what comes up. There's quite a lot out there, actually. Not just the blog and the website, but every guest post and online interview I've ever done is still out there in Cyberspace, and comes back as a hit whenever someone does a search on my name.

Like it or not, publicity is part of the game for authors these days. Don't be afraid of it. Embrace your inner tart and put her to work. If only one reader decided to buy your book because she happened upon whilst surfing the internet, all the effort is worth it.

What's In A Name?

2012-01-18T10:32:00.002-06:00

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet", Juliet says to Romeo, arguing against the notion that he has the name of a rival family.

I have to disagree with her on this point. Names are important. It's why I still insist on being Ms Townsend, even after getting married, and why I don't write under a pseudonym. I've been Sara Jayne Townsend for 42 years, and I'm not about to change now. I've played about with hyphenating the two names, and had a very brief spell, aged about 13, when I decided I preferred 'Sarah' to 'Sara'. But ultimately this is my name, and it might not be very special or significant, at least to anyone else, but it's mine, and it's part of what makes me who I am. With a different name, I'd feel like a different person.

The same can be said for character names. They must be chosen very carefully. I'm writing in the 'real' world, on the whole, so perhaps have an easier job than SF and fantasy writers, who have to make up names. But even so, much thought goes into character names. It's why a book of baby names lives on my shelf of writing reference books, in spite of the fact I am well known as a person with no interest whatsoever in having children.

Sometimes characters seem to name themselves, but the names that attach themselves to the characters conjure up connotations and aspects of how that character is developing in my mind. The young protagonist of SUFFER THE CHILDREN, Leanne, seemed to name herself without a great deal of thought from me. It's a name that to me conjures up connotations of a tough but vulnerable person. It's a fairly modern name, so it suited a young person. The character Carrie, on the ther hand, I purposefully named after a Stephen King novel, because I wanted to pay homage to a writer who has provided a great deal of inspiration to me for most of my writing life.

As for naming the boys, I have to say that when I write men - and I am of the opinion I'm not terribly good at writing men - I do tend to write about my ideal men, as I'm sure a lot of writers do. However, my concept of the ideal man is sensitive, intelligent, introverted and geeky, which pretty much describes Simon in SUFFER THE CHILDREN. The aggressive Alpha male is not a turn on for me. Give me a geek any day.

My first two serious adolescent crushes - the kind when you start writing their names in hearts all over the cover of your school exercise books - were, firstly Mark Hamill (I first saw Star Wars a month before my 13th birthday, and it was a revelation - up until then boys had largely been an alien species for me), and shortly afterwards, Simon Le Bon, when I first got into Duran Duran. So the names Simon and Mark have, to me, always suggested desirable men. No real surprise, then, that the hero of my first published novel is called Simon, and the hero of my current WIP horror novel is called Mark.

It's difficult, though, with names, especially when you're going with real-life ones, because sometimes people you know make the assumption that if you use their name in a book, you are basing the character on them. The horror WIP has characters called Helen, Mark and David. There are people with these names in the writing group, but I can say, in all honesty, that none of my characters are based on anyone in the writing group. If I do base characters on people in real life, I don't give them the same name as the real life person. For instance, the character of Jonathan in DEATH SCENE is based on a real person. But that person's name isn't Jonathan. And that's all I'm prepared to say on that subject.

Where do you get inspiration from for your character names?

Musing About Mysteries

2012-01-17T18:59:00.000-06:00

About a week ago, I came across some old radio episodes of Philip Marlowe. Why yes, another distraction, along with Facebook, Twitter... Kidding!

I'm totally into mysteries lately. But I'd never read the masters of the genre so I decided to remedy that. Went to the library and checked out Dashiell Hammett (Maltese Falcon), a Raymond Chandler omnibus, a Ross MacDonald omnibus, Agatha Christie (Murder on the Orient Express), and Ngaio Marsh (Light Thickens). Although it wasn't part of my library list, I happened across Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla and 12 Other Classic Tales.

I see Bouchercon will be in Cleveland this year. Now if I could just sell enough books to be able to go. :-) Killer Nashville is another con I'd like to go to this year (re: mystery cons).

Would be even better if The Ripper's Daughter had a publishing contract, too. Maybe it's not so much a paranormal mystery as paranormal suspense. But so far I haven't wanted to run over my characters with a tank carrier. And believe me, after rewrites, retooling characters' motivations & goals, and generally upending a story, I'm ready to kill off all my characters. LOL

Still writing the urban fantasies. Horror, fantasy, and mystery/suspense have always been my favorite genres. I know some people think you should only focus on one genre. I say write the stories you want to write.

Will I succeed at writing mysteries? Hell if I know. But when has that ever stopped me before?

Prep work

2012-01-16T00:00:00.001-06:00

I've been in a kind of "project limbo" for a while, with most of my writing being on my serial. I had a few ideas kicking around in my head and it looks like I've finally settled on a story. Or perhaps I should say, a story has settled on me. Of course, the one I’m going with is the one I thought I would put off until I felt more ready to handle it.

The working title is FreakTown and it's very different from anything else I've written, except for having magic as the paranormal element. It's futuristic, dystopian, romance, and has a plot straight out of noir. (Somewhere in the story someone is going to say to the main male character, "Forget it, Nate, it's FreakTown." Just because.) I've already done a lot of world-building and written just shy of ten thousand words, and the need for an actual outline has presented itself. Normally I'm a pantser but with the kind of twists and turns I want for this story, an outline is going to be necessary. Right now I'm momentarily paused on the writing so I can work out more plot details. I'm also thinking of doing some characterization exercises so I can have a better handle on my characters, especially the two main ones. By this I mean, opening up a doc and rambling about their background, what they want, what they're afraid of, strengths, weaknesses, and since I relate to music so well figuring out a playlist for each one.

This is going to be the most challenging thing I've ever written. The world-building, the complexity of the plot, the emotional depth - in just about every way, it's going to be harder. At some point, I think you have to do that. You can stay at a level that's comfortable, or you can decide it's time to level up. I can't say if every writer recognizes when it's time to challenge themselves. It wasn't some cosmic signal that told me, you're ready to take your writing to another level. Because I don't know if I am ready. But the desire is certainly there. The desire is very much there. I figure this will either result in a really good book that might actually have some success, or it will blow up in my face and I'll trunk it. Hopefully the former.

Back to the practical. I think that when you're starting a story that you know is going to be really challenging it's a good idea to give yourself a solid base to jump from. All the world-building I've done helps with that and so should the character exercises. It may not sound as romantic as the idea of a writer pouring a story out with no planning, but the truth is I'm tired of not knowing what a book is about until I've written two-thirds of it.

So I'm off to outline my twisty plot and ramble about my characters.

IT Fail

2012-01-11T13:26:00.001-06:00

My little NetBook has died. I mourn its passing. I have to come to rely on it completely in the last couple of years. Not only is it my lifeline during my early-morning Starbucks writing sessions, but I also take it on holiday with me. This year it's been to Egypt, where it witnessed the birth of my new horror WIP. It's also been to New York.

I used to do all my writing on my Dell laptop, which sits docked in my Writing Corner. When I decided to be more disciplined in my writing, my husband suggested we get a NetBook, which was much more portable than the laptop. It's fair to say it revolutionised my writing habits.

The Dell laptop is seven years old, and has been getting decidedly slower and clunkier of late. In fact, when I turn it on I have to go away and do something else for twenty minutes, because it takes that long to think about things. So my main gift this past Christmas was a shiny new laptop running Windows 7. It's lightning fast in comparison to the old one.

But, on New Years' Day, the NetBook died. Literally. In the morning it was working fine; I went back to it a few hours later and tried to wake it from its sleep mode, and couldn't. Continuous restarts failed to get me past a black screen with the words 'failed to find operating system' on it. Apparently this means the hard drive has failed. Getting it fixed is going to cost almost as much as a new machine, and even then there's no guarantee we can retrieve any of the files.

I am, on the whole, pretty good at backing up. I transfer all my writing files between the laptop and the NetBook regularly, and every so often back them up onto the desktop PC as well. However, I'm not so diligent about doing this every day. I'd made a start on editing my short stories for the collection, and hadn't copied them over anywhere. This wasn't the end of the world, as I was able to retrive my Stumar Press editor's copies from his email to me, and it just meant having to do them again. However, when I had my novel critique session for the second Shara book, I made notes as we went along on the NetBook. That I hadn't copied anywhere, and so it's lost forever. I do have the hard copies from my critiquers, but the idea of making a document with my own notes was so I would have an easy-to-access precis of what I need to fix in the next draft. Bummer.

What's most inconvenient, however, is not having the NetBook to carry to my writing sessions. That I really miss. Not wanting to expose my shiny new laptop to the hazards of Central London, I have had to resort to hauling out the old Dell again and taking that into London with me for my writing mornings. It's very heavy. And as I said before, it takes a long time to warm up.

However, I have learned my lesson with regard to backing up. This little guy in the picture was one of my stocking stuffers. I call him Robbie. He's a USB flash stick with 8GB of memory. I have copied over all my WIPs onto him, and I carry him around everywhere. Every time I write more words, I copy them over straight away.

Having just forked out quite a lot of money on a new laptop, replacing the NetBook has to wait a while. In the meantime, I have to either get used to lugging the ancient laptop around, or I need to rearrange my writing schedule to give myself more time to write at home. Because I really don't want to use the IT fail as an excuse to not write. Much as it's made me realise how much I rely on technology, that would be a poor excuse indeed.

A Perspective on Reviews

2012-01-10T18:50:00.000-06:00

Signed up for Goodreads 2012 writing challenge. 52 books. Of course, I'm sure I'll receive those constant annoying "reminders" of how far behind I am and Oh-My-God-If-I-Don't-Do-Anything-About-It-At-This-Exact-Second I'll cause the freaking Apocalypse.

Tough. I enjoy reading. Honest. But writing, revising, and promoting my book plus taking care of my family also have priority.

One goal, though, is to do more reviews, not only of books but also some movies and anime and manga. (I say "some" movies because I really don't watch a lot of them but if one inspires a review, why not?)

Speaking of reviews... OMG, what is it with the brouhaha lately over authors behaving badly and critical reviews? Geez. Look, folks, I got a "negative" review. Yeah, it stung. But I deleted the email and moved on. Right now my biggest worry is how to start the rewrite of this vampire detective paranormal mystery. The reviewer had his/her say and I'm cool with that.

Here's the thing. I got a bad review (with some positive comments). Did the world end? Nope. Did I contract a fatal disease from the review? No again. Did Congress call and tell me I can never write another book? The jury's out on that one... :-) J/K. Anyway, get my point? Life goes on as normal. I'm still going to write my angel UF, my vampire mysteries, my shifter erotica romance, my whatever-the-hell-I-choose-to-write-about. Like my writing or hate it, the worse response would be complete apathy.

This is not false bravado on my part. You see, I've been conditioned early on to deal with rejection. I mean having orange peels thrown at you and your eye nearly put out by someone snapping a rubber band in your face during the middle school years is far more stressful than having someone say, "I don't like your book." At least with the latter, there's little chance of bodily injury. Eating lunch alone, being unable to find a seat on the bus because other students wouldn't move over until the bus driver yelled at them, those are the obstacles, along with physical and psychological abuse, that shaped my past.

It's all about keeping things in perspective. Remember, as always, your mileage may vary.

Reading goals

2012-01-09T16:27:00.000-06:00

I love having a lot of books, but there are just too many dead-tree books in this house. Last year I did a major culling of the herd but I think I'll have to do it again. We've got books that were read once, placed on a shelf, and never read again. Those are the ones that need to go. I don't mind keeping keeps that are loved, that are likely to be read again.

In fact this year I'd like to re-read some of my favorites. Several times I've thought I need to re-read the Dresden Files series but I never get around to it. I've also got a lot of books in the To Be Read pile that I need to get to finally. Some of those have been sitting around for a shamefully long time.

I have a ridiculous number of books on my Kindle that were offered as freebies that I still haven't read. Some of those I might not finish. That happens with the freebies sometimes. But sometimes you discover an author and/or a series you really like, well enough to spend money on. I've had that happen, too.

Every year Goodreads has a reading challenge where you can set a goal for how many books you want to read. I did that last year but I'm not going to do it this year. This year, my reading goals are not about numbers but about putting a dent in that TBR pile and enjoying some good stories.

Do you have any reading goals for the new year?

Best Books of 2011

2012-01-04T04:55:00.002-06:00

I have talked before about how much I like Goodreads. Not only is it a good platform for writers to promote their books, it's also a good way of keeping track of all the books you read. This time last year, I set myself a challenge to read 50 books in 2011. The challenge only works, of course, if you are diligent about logging every book you read on Goodreads. This is not something I have a problem with - I am quite shameless about broadcasting my reading tastes to the world. Some folks, I suspect, will only log on Goodreads the books they want the world to know they're reading, but that's an entirely different story.

In any case, I have no shame and I am somewhat anally retentive about keeping track of my reading habits, so I find Goodreads rather handy. I read 55 books in 2011, so I exceeded my reading goal.

Because you can also rate books on Goodreads, it's fairly easy to pick out which ones you thought were the best. So I am presenting, in this post, my Top 5 Books of 2011. I will add a qualifier here, and say that these are from the perspective of books I read, not books that were published, in 2011. Some of them I have reviewed on Goodreads. Rather than repeat myself here, if this applies I have included the link in the title.

SISTER - Rosamund Lupton. A beautifully-written book about the grief of an older sister, trying to find the killer of her younger sister. Not exactly a cheerful read, but well worth a look if you're interested in the dynamics of family relationships.

NOW YOU SEE ME - SJ Bolton. This is a book I had to review for SHOTS, and it had me hooked. A gripping and genuinely spooky crime thriller that offers an interesting slant on the Jack the Ripper legend.

HEARTSTONE - C J Sansom. The quality of the writing in this series of historical crime novels blows everyone else out the water. Sansom's protagonist, hunchback lawyer Matthew Shardlake, investigates murders against the backdrop of Henry VIII's court. In this book Henry's wife is Catherine Parr, which possibly means, sadly, there won't be too many more in the series, unless Sansom plans to carry Shardlake through the aftermath of Henry's reign.

CHANGES - Jim Butcher. Harry Dresden, the only wizard in Chicago, inhabits a contemporary alternative world in which magic, vampires and faeries exist, with most humans being oblivious to this fact. Harry, a chivalrous and flawed character, can never resist coming to the rescue of a damsel in distress, and it is the voice of his character - brave; wise-cracking; resourceful - that make this such a fabulous series. Poor Harry has a hard time in this novel, and this is only one to read when you've already got the sequel in your TBR pile, because it ends on a cliff hanger.

THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE - Shirley Jackson. I've wanted to read this since I saw the film adaptation (the original 1963 version - not the 1990s remake). It's classic gothic horror at its finest. Four people gather in a haunted house, as part of an experiment to study psychic phenonema. They all bring their own psychological baggage with them, and the way they interact with each other is as much part of the atmosphere as the ghostly goings on.

So there we have my Top 5 reads of 2011, and happily it represents a cross-section of the genres I read in.

With a degree of overconfidence, I have set myself a new target for 2012 - to read 60 books. It remains to be seen if I will succeed, but my TBR pile is big enough to give me plenty to be getting on with in the foreseeable future.

Happy Anniversary

2012-01-03T17:56:00.000-06:00

Today is the first year anniversary of Death Sword's publication. The journey began in November 2008 when I wrote the first draft for National Novel Writing Month.

Death Sword is the first in a planned four-book series focusing on the angels of death. Altogether I have eight or nine angel urban fantasy/paranormal stories planned, some partially written, some finished and ready for revision, and the rest mere ideas. Many of the ideas are developed from information I come across in my research.

If you ask me where I even got the idea to write about angels and demons, I would probably shrug and admit I've no idea. Perhaps it was independent filmmaker Kenneth Anger who piqued my interest with Lucifer Rising. Or a question that seems to be a recurring theme through my stories. What I do know is I enjoy upending notions of good and evil. Maybe not necessarily in Death Sword, but the ride's not over.

You can buy Death Sword at the following:

Lyrical Press
Amazon
Barnes & Noble

My Bradbury experiment

2012-01-02T15:07:00.000-06:00

Self-publishing is something I've had mixed feelings about so I decided to try it and see what my opinion was after the fact. Basically, I still have mixed feelings about it, ha.

I think that self-publishing is something a writer can do in addition to the various types of more traditional publishing, like the Big Six large houses and small press houses, many of which are now digital. Maybe you've got the rights back on backlist titles and want to get them out there, or maybe you decided to experiment with something that might not be a good fit with a publishing house. Or maybe, like me, you just want to try it and see what it's like.

My main interest was in actually putting the book together so when I finished the first volume of my serial The Bradbury Institute I decided to put it up on Smashwords and Kindle. It's becoming increasingly popular for free serialized works to be self-published at low prices and I think it's a great way for a fan of the serial to have a copy on their ereader. I used the Smashwords style guide and had no problems with formatting. The most important thing I did, other than following the directions carefully, was to start out with a clean document. To do that you have to nuke your Word doc, meaning you use Select All to copy it, paste that into Notepad or something similar what will strip the formatting, then paste than clean version into a brand new document. Next you go back through it and add all your formatting - font, tabs, italics, the works. It's a bit tedious but not hard. Thanks to starting with a clean doc and following the directions, The Key of Darkness qualified for Smashword's premium catalog, which means it was distributed to Barnes and Noble and other outlets. To upload it to the Kindle store I followed their directions, which mostly meant using Mobipocket Creator, which was easy. The main thing with this is attention to detail - you can't skip steps and you don't want to do them out of order. If you can handle that, you can format your ebook.

Of course I did have another writer help me with editing. The only thing I would do differently is the cover, but I can't afford to hire a cover artist so that's not something I can do differently. I'm not expecting to make any money from this and I'm not sure how long I'll leave it up for sale, or if I'll offer the second volume for sale. I can't offer any thoughts on promotion because I haven't done any - between the holidays and some things going on in my personal life, I haven't had the time or the inclination. Promotion hasn't much worked for my books anyway, to be honest.

So all in all, I did enjoy the process of putting the file together but this is not something I would want to do for every book I write. I like having a publishing house behind me. There is no way I could afford to hire an editor or a cover artist and promotion and marketing is surely one of Dante's levels of Hell. But for making the volumes of my serial into ebooks, it's fun. Which is what I was going for, and that's really the first thing you want to ask yourself before you do something like this: why am I doing it and what do I hope to get out of it? I wanted to do this so that if any Bradbury readers wanted the stories on their ereaders they could get them, and I wanted to learn how to create an ebook. Mission accomplished!

If you'd like a free copy of The Key of Darkness, email me at sonya @ sonyaclark.net with "Free Bradbury" in the subject line, and let me know what format you'd like - epub, pdf, or kindle/mobi.

2011 Writing Goals in Review

2011-12-28T09:16:00.001-06:00

It seems appropriate at this time of year to review the writing goals I set a year ago, and reflect on how I did with them.

DEATH SCENE was released in 2011, and I pledged to promote it. I did what I could, but sales figures indicate that there could be some improvement in this area. Still, sales of SUFFER THE CHILDREN picked up in its second year of publication, so maybe DEATH SCENE will start to come into its own in 2012.

I also pledged to get to the end of the first draft of the sequel to DEATH SCENE. Happily, I was more successful here. DEAD COOL, as the WIP is currently titled, is in its third draft and has gone out to beta readers.

Finally, I pledged to get the UF WIP to a stage where it was ready to be critiqued. I failed dismally here. After all my beta readers unanimously felt the plot wasn't working, I've trunked this project.

However, 2011 did see the start of a new project. I'm over 20,000 words into the first draft of a new horror novel, something that wasn't even an idle thought this time last year.

On the whole, it's not been too bad a year writing-wise. So what of 2012? Well, it will see the publication of my short story collection, SOUL SCREAMS, so there is something to look forward to. And herewith I set out my goals for 2012.

1. Finish DEAD COOL and get it out on submission. If I get a contract for it, even better, but I'm trying not to tempt providence.

2. Get the horror WIP completed to beta reader stage.

3. Step up the promotion a notch or two, and aim to increase sales of the published novels.

So it's going to be a busy year, writing-wise, as I've got two WIPs on the go at present. But it will be good for me to focus. I need to develop more discipline when it comes to writing.

I wish you all a Happy New Year, and all the best for 2012.

What Do You Really Want?

2011-12-27T16:13:00.000-06:00

Hope everyone enjoyed your holiday. I'm taking advantage of being able to stay up late and sleep in.

Hard to believe I've been posting here for almost a year now. During that time I achieved a series of firsts: judging a contest, in which I also served as category coordinator, participating in an author reading, and sitting on my first panel. And yes, I've worked on my writing, promotion, blogging, etc. My intention is to secure two contracts in 2012.

While I can't guarantee I'll meet my goal I can say there is one way I won't achieve it. If I do nothing. And that brings me to the point of this post.

If you want something, go after it. If you want to be a writer, write. Stop making excuses. Even if it's only 100 words a day, that's better than zero.

That said, there are situations that make it difficult to write. I'm talking about people who wistfully talk about wanting to write but never make any attempt at it.

Why is this? Is it a fear people won't like their story? A worry they won't be published? Hell, I submitted a story to my editor and she gave me a "revise and resubmit" type of rejection. Am I going to cry in my beer? Hell, no. I'm polishing that damn manuscript til it gleams then resubmitting it. Should she reject it, I already have a list of publishers to send to.

I want to be a published author with more than one contract. This is my motivation, my drive to succeed. I understand my stories are too short (novellas and short novels) to attract an agent. That's okay. Maybe one day.

Look hard and long at the reasons holding you back from achieving your goal. If it's something you can change, go for it. Because you're the one who has to want it badly enough.

All best to you in 2012!

Aftermath

2011-12-21T02:54:00.002-06:00

The second Shara Summers book - entitled DEAD COOL - was critiqued by my writing group this past weekend. Much as I fantasise about writing a book to which the response of all my beta readers is, "this is amazing. Don't change a word", I know it's not going to happen. I don't think it even happens to the award-winning, rather more famous writers.

So what was the verdict on this second Shara adventure, in which she investigates the case of the defenestrated rock star? There are some logistical problems with the plot. Yes, I did already know that. Between draft 1 and draft 2 the murderer changed, throwing up some issues with the original plot - pointing to the first murderer - that now make no sense with the second murderer. I just haven't worked out how to fix them yet.

I got some comments about Shara being too emotionless and wooden to be an actress and/or main character. I got the same comments about early drafts of DEATH SCENE, which I endeavoured to fix. I guess I haven't yet, or she would not be attracting the same comments in the second book.

I am very lazy when it comes to research. This has been thrown up, too, and it's something I have to hold up my hand to. Particularly when it comes to scene setting. This book is set in London, but in some parts I don't know too well. Instead of just skirting over specific locations and street names, I'm going to have to pin the locations down a bit more - have Shara visit specific places, near specific tube stops.

However, there is one particular sub-plot of DEAD COOL that my beta readers appear not to like. When I wrote DEATH SCENE, Shara's love interest Richard was only ever going to be a brief fling. I started Book 2 assuming he was out of the picture for good. However, in writing the book it became clear that Shara had unresolved issues when it came to Richard, and in one scene she decides she wants him back. Well, she is tied up in a basement at the time, thinking she's about to die - such a situation can encourage serious self-reflection.

Anyway, in the next draft I tried to flesh out the relationship between Richard and Shara, and there is a scene at the end where she meets him to try to resolve things between them. My beta readers didn't like that scene. "Too much like a romance novel", they all said.

It has to be said, however, the beta readers present at the crit session were all men. I have not yet had any feedback from my female beta readers. I don't write romance novels. But Shara is a single young woman, and an actress, and if she is to seem like a realistic character she has to have physical relationships. My editor advised me as much, and felt that in the initial draft of DEATH SCENE there was not enough about Shara's relationships. I have been endeavouring to fix this. But the boys thought they were reading a romance novel. Possibly they are not the target audience.

I think I might need some female opinions before I start writing the romance out of the next draft. It will be interesting to see if they have a different view.

Pitching Fast-Talking Balls of Advice

2011-12-20T17:13:00.000-06:00

Looks around. Oh, right. Today's my turn to post.

Except I'm not really up to it. Had something in mind about advice writers receive and whether or not it's good or bad, depending on one's particular situation.

But since I'm here, why not go for that? Over the past year, I've thought about all the advice coming hard and fast at me and other writers as if from an out-of-control pitching machine. Either swing, miss, dodge, or get hit.

"Write what you know." We hear this one a lot. Isn't that what research is for? It's not that our experiences can't make for a story but why limit our ability to learn something new? For example, I knew nothing about steamboats when I plotted my NaNo project this year. At some point, I'd like to combine this research with river life on the Ohio River and write a book about river pirates.

"First books don't get reviewed." Aside from a few Amazon & Goodreads reviews, Death Sword has garnered only one from a book review site. And none are from sites the review coordinator submitted to. That said, I also have a review scheduled for March and am waiting to hear from another after the holidays. I decided to start looking for reviews rather than wait for them. And why shouldn't a first book get reviews? Is it any less important than the second or third book? I worked hard on this story and if anyone thinks I'm going to toss it aside, well... Yeah, right.

"You need a backlist." Okay, I tend to agree with this. But I've also heard you shouldn't promote your first book and it'll take two, three, maybe even four books before you find your readership. Duly noted. However, I'm going to promote my lonely debut while I work on other stories. Again, it's simply a matter of not abandoning the first book, even if it's not perfect. Hell, we all have to start somewhere.

You have to look at your needs and situation when considering another's advice. What might work for someone else may not work for you. It's not the advice is wrong or right. Okay, there is bad advice out there. Definitely ignore that. You know, like if someone says you should submit your manuscript written in tomato sauce on a pizza. Bad idea.

That's about enough of that. But a shout out to Creativity Cauldron for coming through with a beta for the angel UF.

Appropriate Music

2011-12-14T06:42:00.002-06:00

Most writers seem to listen to music of some kind when they write. I prefer silence. I think this probably stems back to my teenage years. I spent a lot of time then holed up in my room, either doing homework or writing, and for both I needed quiet to concentrate.

However, when I have my early-morning writing sessions in Starbucks there is usually music playing. Generally, if it's not very interesting music, I tune it out. If it's music I know and like, I find myself listening to it, which makes it harder to concentrate on the writing.

At the moment when I sit in Starbucks I'm getting bombarded by Xmas songs. All well and good, but I'm writing a horror novel. Festive cheer is hardly encouraging the right mood.

Last week, sitting in Starbucks, I was working on a particularly difficult funeral scene, for one of the young victims of my supernatural monster. There are some key conversations that have to happen at the funeral to demonstrate the strain on the relationships between the main characters. I'm finding these scenes hard enough to write at the best of times. With cheesy Christmas pop songs going on in the background, it was even harder.

But then 'Hallelujah' came on. This has become a Xmas song simply because it was released by the X Factor winner a few years ago and hence was guaranteed to become the Xmas Number One. Whoever decided 'Hallelujah' was an appropriate choice for a Xmas song clearly hasn't listened to the lyrics. It's a beautiful song, but very depressing. And violent. However, it seemed aptly fitting for my downbeat funeral scene, and proved to be an inspiring song to write to.

If you're not familiar with the song, I include the Bon Jovi version here. This is admittedly not the best version - there are many - but this one's not bad, and I do enjoy looking at Jon Bon...

Thank You

2011-12-13T15:32:00.000-06:00

Writing is a lonely business. No, I’m not the first person to say this and I won’t be the last. But there are people who stand by us, and this post is a thank you to those who’ve supported me during my writing journey this year.

My husband, who always encourages me when I get depressed over weak sales or no reviews. I’ve tried to follow his adage that soldiers (he’s a retired Vietnam Veteran) don’t give up. Not easy but it helps keep me focused.

Kate Lynd, fellow writer and cheerleader. She promotes my book and even allowed me to share in a book signing at the library. Some people talk about supporting an author. She walks the proverbial walk.

Michele Lee, reviewer. Not counting the few Amazon or Goodreads reviews, Michele is the first one to give me a review on a book review site, Monster Librarian. Much appreciated.

BIAM_Writathon and Creativity Cauldron, two of the most supportive writing groups I belong to. Not saying my other writing groups aren’t, but it is these two who have gone the extra mile, hence their mention here.

Nerine Dorman and Renee Rocco, my editor and publisher, respectively, at Lyrical Press. Nerine keeps me on track whenever I derail. And she doesn’t let me get lazy with my writing. Renee has not only been supportive of Death Sword, she answers any questions this newly published author has.

Sonya Clark and Sara-Jayne Townsend, fellow Write Club bloggers, who allowed me to play in their sandbox and for also being supportive.

And finally, thank you to my readers. I sincerely hope you’ve enjoyed my angel-centric urban fantasy. And I hope you stay with me on this writing journey.

Note: As a bonus for reading this, I’d like to share a video I taped at the aforementioned signing. Warning, it’s me reading the first chapter of Death Sword. But hell, if you want a good laugh, have at it. *grin*

Writing a sequel

2011-12-12T14:51:00.000-06:00

When I reached the end of Mojo Queen I had some vague ideas about a sequel and kind of wanted to turn it into a series, but I wasn't sure how to do that. I still don't, but I'm writing this post anyway.

First, a disclaimer: I really don't know what I’m doing and you'd be better off taking advice from someone who does. Because honestly, the more I write, the more I am convinced I really, seriously don't have a clue what I'm doing. But Carrie Clevenger asked me on Twitter about my thoughts on this whole sequel business a while back, so here we go.

In your first book, you establish a world and even more importantly, you establish your main characters. Who are they, what are they about, what do they want, what are they willing to do to get it? Not only did you ask those questions but in the course of your plot you answered them. But that first book didn't tell you their whole story, otherwise you wouldn't be writing that sequel, now would you?

One of the things we do to explore what our characters are made of is something I call escalation. This is basically when you throw your character into the frying pan and have them struggle their way out. And then once they're out of the frying pan, you throw them into the fire. If you're writing a short story you do this once. If you're writing a full length novel, you and your characters might as well get used to being crispy. I think escalation works whether you're writing a stand-alone, the first in a series, or a sequel. What might change from book to book is the nature of the fire.

In Mojo Queen the nature of the fire Roxie was fighting was external. She was contracted to help in a case of demon possession. It wasn't a personal issue. It got personal as she and Blake developed an attraction for each other, but even with that budding relationship it was still just a case for Roxie.

In Red House, the second Mojo book, things are different. Roxie is still hired to work a case, a haunted house this time, but her perspective is different. Roxie has lost her home in a catastrophic flood and her entire life feels adrift and unmoored. Hurt badly by her inability to save her own home, she is determined to save her clients' home, even if she has to go deeper into hoodoo and magic than she ever has before. Because, ahem, this time it's personal.

This time it's more than just plot escalation that's necessary, it's character escalation. By changing the nature of the fire - from an outer conflict to a more inner conflict - the stakes have been raised considerably. Roxie's heart is on the line as she struggles to figure out where she and Blake stand with each other, her sense of self-worth is on the line as she struggles with her abilities with magic, her sense of stability is on the line as she faces having lost her home. With Maple Hill, the haunted house of the title, acting as a stand-in for her own home and other things, everything has become personal for Roxie.

The most important thing about a sequel is getting deeper into your main character. This is their story, after all, and each book is part of their story arc. Part of their journey, if you will. The farther along they get in their journey, the more difficult things should get. The rewards should also be greater too - don't forget that part.

So -> Escalation. Raising the stakes. Getting deeper into your main character's heart and soul. That's really all I've got as far as sequels/series go. I know it's not much but if this is something you're tackling I hope it'll help at least a little. (Further disclaimer: I really had no idea what I was doing with Red House until about two-thirds of the way through. One day I was just, ah, so that's what this is about. I can't outline to save my life.)