Cliff Ball's Blog, page 16

January's sales numbers

Here are my sales numbers for the month of January. Thanks to being on Kindle Nation Daily at the beginning of January, I surpassed my goals for the month. I sold 197 copies altogether of my three novels, and I was only expecting to sell maybe 100. Here are the stats from Amazon and B&N:

The Usurper, my thriller novel for $2.99 as an ebook, $9.99 as paperback

Kindle US: 104

Kindle UK: 4

B&N Nook: 13

Paperback: 1

Out of Time: a time travel novella for $.99 as e-book, $6.99 for paperback

Kindle US: 28

Kindle UK: 14

B&N Nook: 4

Paperback: 1

Shattered Earth, a science fiction novel $2.99 as ebook, $12.99 as paperback

Kindle US: 19

Kindle UK: 2

B&N Nook: 6

Paperback: 1

So far, this brings the grand total of novels sold to 800. My goal is to have 1000 sold by the end of March.

$.99 sale for my novels

For the rest of the month of January, my three novels will be on sale for $.99. Out of Time is always $.99, but I'm also adding Shattered Earth and The Usurper to that. Below the descriptions, please check out where to buy them.

The Usurper a thriller

Ever wonder what would happen if our worst fears were realized, and we elected someone who was willing to destroy the USA no matter the cost to him, his fellow Americans, or the rest of the world? The Usurper is that novel.

Gary Jackson is raised to hate. Hate the United States, and everything it has ever stood for. His mission is to destroy the country from within, allying himself with the worst of America's enemies, and one very powerful and malevolent billionaire, to accomplish the deed. Once elected to the highest position in the land, Gary puts his lifelong goals to work, and puts the USA onto the path of ultimate destruction. He stops at nothing to rid the USA of his political and spiritual enemies. Once his goals are met, he sets his eyes on the ultimate prize, control of the rest of the world. Will anyone stop this man before it's too late?



Shattered Earth science fiction

Advanced humans, called Terrans, leave Earth when its threatened by a massive meteor. The remaining humans on Earth fall back into primitiveness. The advanced humans, and a group of aliens, the Ragnor, involve Earth in an interstellar war. Thousands of years later, the humans of Earth decide to do something about this. Interstellar politics will never be the same again once Earth is done with their revenge.

 

 

 

Out of Time – a time travel novella

A scientist discovers time is actually fluid; past, present, and future all exist at the same time. What he doesn't know, is if the current timeline can change when something is changed in the past. The US government wants him to find out. The theme being to make right what once went wrong. The time travelers meet all sorts of 20th century icons, from the Titanic to Anne Frank to Roswell to the Apollo 13. However, someone is trying to stop them, and the future may never be the same again.

 

 

Where to buy all three for $.99: Nook and Kindle, UK Kindle (74p).  Feel free to share, tweet, post on Facebook. Thanks!

Chapter 1-Out of Time-SampleSunday

This is the first half of Chapter 1 in my time travel novella, Out of Time. It's $.99 for the ebook, and $6.99 for the paperback. Plus check out the Chapter 4 excerpt of The Usurper: http://cliff1974.wordpress.com/2010/12/18/sample-sunday-chapter-4-of-the-usurper/

They had to escape from this period in time. The people they were visiting in the 1600's definitely thought they were witches, and the spawn of the devil.

Historians warned the school teacher about visiting Salem, Massachusetts, during the Salem Witch Trials, especially with a dozen twelve year olds in her care. The teacher had Doctor John Hawking and Captain Erickson with the class, but, the villagers were chasing after them, and there was no way to get to the shuttle without significantly changing history. All Mrs. Hanson wanted was to show her class, through the Interactive History program, what made these particular Puritans so paranoid, and what happens to people when they were accused of witchcraft. Well, they certainly got more than they bargained for.

Hawking was loudly complaining, "This is utterly stupid. We should have had a military backup when we go to time periods such as these. With all the threats to us from the Puritans, and the Native Americans, neither of which tolerate strangers on their lands. I'm going to file a protest with the President, and insist we get some military assistance."

"What about interfering with time by bringing advanced weapons, armor, and everything involved with a military operation?" asked Erickson.

"We have the technology to make our weapons appear to be muskets, so why not? We can then have the soldiers wear whatever uniforms from whatever time we're in, and that will solve that!" insisted Hawking.

"Well, let's worry about that when we get back."

After leading the witch hunters through the forest for over an hour, the time travelers managed to finally lose them. The school kids thought this was really cool, while their teacher was frantic. Erickson led them all back to the holographically disguised shuttle, which was disguised to look like a small house. Once they all got back inside, Erickson piloted the shuttle back to the USS Einstein, which was waiting in orbit. On the ship, Mrs. Hanson and her class went to the room that was a temporary classroom, while Hawking and Erickson went to the bridge. On the bridge, Erickson was asked by Yeager, "How did it go, Captain?"

"It didn't go very well. One of the villagers got it into their head that we were more than just strangers, so we were accused of witchcraft. Mrs. Hanson tried to argue that we weren't witches, which made them even angrier. So, within minutes we had the whole angry-mob-with-fire-and-pitchforks coming after us. After our little disappearance, we might as well be witches to them. Remind me never to let any historian, or school teachers, convince us to let them travel to Salem of the 1690's. Now, we can return home to see what other adventures we have in store for us."

The USS Einstein traveled forward to 2157, so that the sixth graders could do their e-book reports on what happened in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. After Hawking, and the others, returned from the first missions through time, the government decided that there would be a no-interference policy for the past, a sort of Grandfather Paradox Policy. The idea was, through the previous experience, that if anyone interfered in anything significant to the timeline, that when you returned to your period of time, you may not exist because your ancestors may not have survived a certain period in the time you tried to fix. Hawking said this was all theory, and he didn't know if the person would disappear from history if they returned to the present, but, he didn't want to find out.

Contaminating the timeline without meaning to could be a real possibility with the Interactive History program the Department of Education had thought up recently. Too many American children knew far too little about their history, so with the use of a time traveling starship, they could learn from first-hand experience. Hawking disagreed with this, but, convinced Congress to pass a Grandfather Paradox Act, making sure nobody would interfere in the natural flow of history. Sure, Hawking was becoming rich and famous because of this, school districts, historians, and others paid him to take them back in time, but he still cared about not contaminating the timeline.

Hawking was also worried about when those rogue time travelers from the beginning of his first trips through time were supposed to interfere with the original missions, but, he had no idea when in the future they were from. Another worry was the fact that the Time Tripper had been built without his knowledge; what other things had he done that the government had gone behind his back to do their own version? He would never know. Now, government contracts were going to the lowest bidder for the next generation of time traveling starship.

These new ships, with Commander Robinsons' help, could go faster than the speed of light, if they needed to use the suns' gravity to jump through time, which didn't happen very often, since they almost always found fluid time access points. Robinson had also experimented with using black holes to travel through time, which wasn't quite working out the way he thought the experiments would. All the black hole experiment did was make the ship stay stuck in the event horizon, going nowhere, so now Robinson would have to invent a whole new way to get the ship unstuck from a black holes' event horizon.

Hawking made sure he held the patents to his time device, which required the new stardrives to work; he wanted no one to go behind his back to build another timeship without his knowledge. President Williamson assured the scientist that anything having to do with the secrets of time travel was now solely Hawkings' responsibility; there were no longer secret government labs, or secret time traveling missions. Doctor Hawking still wanted to know what kind of missions the Time Tripper had been on previous to Hawking taking control of it to go back to Roswell in 1947, but, all Williamson would say was that it was classified higher than the security clearance that Doctor Hawking had been given by the powers that be.

Hawking had been asked by some Smithsonian Institute historians if he could take them to observe moments like the Boston Massacre, the signing of the Constitution, the War of 1812, and the British burning the White House, the various battles of the Civil War, and other significant happenings in American history. They wanted to record everything for posterity, on video, so that the Smithsonian Museum could accurately portray everything instead of guessing on a few moments in history.

He was a bit overwhelmed with all the requests for his time, and the attention he was receiving, so he finally hired a secretary, and an agent, so that he wouldn't have to deal with everything so directly. How he ended up as the go-to guy for trips through time, he wasn't sure; all he wanted to do originally was to figure out how to time travel. Since he enjoyed history, it really didn't bother him all that much to go back in time, to show everyone how history had happened. What bothered him was what would happen if someone messed up the timeline, like he, and the others, did the first time they went through time, would they be able to fix it again? So, he started reflecting on how he went through this whole time travel scheme the first time.

Character interview from The Usurper

Syria Evans asked authors to submit interview questions for their characters. I chose Gary Jackson, and he gave the following interview (re-posted from Syriasays.com)

Syria Says: How did you first meet your writer?

Gary: He was very persistent, I'll give him that. He popped up in all sorts of places, and I kept refusing to be interviewed, but I don't remember the very first time I met him. I do clearly remember that he finally cornered me on Air Force One, and since we were 30,000 feet in the air, he wouldn't take no for an answer. I briefly considered having the Secret Service throw him off the plane.

Syria Says: Did you ever think that your life would end up being in a book?

Gary: Of course not. Everything about me is supposed to be classified.

Syria Says: What are your favorite scenes in your book: action, dialog, romance?

Gary: My favorite scenes are when people cower in fear of me, and I get to throw my weight around. I love my power.

Syria Says: Did you have a hard time convincing your author to write any particular scenes for you?

Gary: I had a hard time convincing him to show me in a good light. For some reason, he wrote me as this totally evil and cold bad guy. I'm just misunderstood is all..

Syria Says: Do you infiltrate your writer's dreams?

Gary: Only to haunt him for turning me into such a bad guy. Wherever he sleeps, I will always be there.

Syria Says: What do you like to do when you are not being actively read somewhere?

Gary: I like plotting to take over the rest of the world.

Syria Says: Are you currently engaged in a relationship?

Gary: Yes, I'm married.

Syria Says: Are you happy with the genre your writer has placed you in? A political thriller?



Gary: Sure. At least it isn't a non-fiction novel, because I don't think anyone would seriously believe that all the stuff I did would happen in real life.

Syria Says: If you could rewrite anything in your book, what would it be?

Gary: I would re-write everything. I mean, the author portrayed me as an evil, cold, and power hungry bad guy, when I'm just misunderstood. I'm not that bad.



Syria Says: Do you like the way the book ended?

Gary: No, not really, but if you ask the protagonist, I'm sure he wouldn't like it either.



Syria Says: Would you be interested in a sequel if your writer was so inclined?

Gary: I don't think he would be so inclined. I'm sure I could convince a different writer to write a sequel that will tell my side of the story that doesn't make me look so bad.

Syria Says: Do you believe that you are suitable portrayed in electronic books or would you rather be in paperback only?

Gary: I'd rather not be portrayed in any kind of format, but, if you insist on an answer, I'll say electronic books. Who reads paperbacks these days?

Syria Says: Did you have any input into the book cover design?

Gary: No, of course not. Why would I get that kind of input?

Syria Says: What is the lamest characteristic your writer has attributed to you?

Gary: Lamest? Hmmm…. I was never such a cute little boy. I was properly trained from childhood to be who I am today, not the little wimp that I was portrayed as.

Syria Says: If you could give yourself a superpower, what would you choose?

Gary: Young lady, what a silly question. Does Lex Luthor have a superpower? I didn't think so.

My interview on Two Ends of the Pen

Here is the interview Deb Martin of Two Ends of the Pen did with me:

Briefly describe your journey in writing your first book.

My very first novel that I actually finished writing was the novella Out of Time, a time travel adventure story. I wrote it off and on for about 10 years, started from a couple pages long to where it's at now, about 30k words.

Did you query agents or traditional publishers before publishing on Amazon? No. Back in the late 90's when I was seriously thinking about publishing any of my writing, I decided I'd rather publish my own stuff. I looked into vanity press, but, that was way too expensive at the time, and I didn't know enough about self-publishing like I do now with Createspace. In 2008, when I had money, I published Out of Time first through iUniverse with the basic package they had. I uploaded it to Kindle myself, mostly just to see what would happen, since at the time, I thought e-books might be a fad. Little did I know!

What factors influenced your decision to self-publish?

I prefer having control over my destiny, as it were. I figured self-publishing was faster, and preferable to receiving rejection letters six months later, with the generic reasons why they wouldn't publish. I just happen to like doing everything myself, at least I can see tangible results.

Will you try to garner a traditional publishing contract for any future books? Probably not. Besides, I think traditional media is going the way of the dinosaurs.



Did you design your cover art? If not, would you care to share your graphic designer's information?

My first two novels I published through iUniverse and Virtualbookworm, so I used what they gave me. Once I went to Createspace, I created my own covers. I did have help from another author who tweaked them for me though.

How did you feel when you got your first sale? Are you pleased with sales so far?

My very first sale was from a short story I wrote in high school back in the early 90's that won in a contest that I wrote through Creative Writing class. I was thrilled with that, until my mom decided to use the money to create a frame for the check stub, and a little blurb about it that she mentioned to our newspaper. Anyway, in the here and now, I'm pleased with my sales so far, they could be more, but I just have to keep working at being seen.

What kinds of social media [twitter, facebook, webpage, blog, writing forums] are you involved with trying to garner attention for your book(s)?

I'm on places like Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Goodreads, Shelfari, Linkedin, I have a blog and a website, forums such as Kindleboards, Nookboards, Mobilereads, eBookgab, and trying to promote on the Amazon message boards.

Author website: http://cliffball.webs.com

Author blog: http://cliff1974.wordpress.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/cliff_ball

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cliff.ball.author

Besides Amazon, are there any other sites where your books are for sale? Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Apple, Sony, Createspace, Diesel eBooks, Kobo, Borders for my e-books.



What's next for you?

I'm actually trying to bring up my GPA by getting a 2nd BA so I can get an MA in Creative Writing from the University of North Texas, at least that's the plan. I'm also trying to write an alternate history novel where the US establishes a moon base in 1979 when a different President is elected in 1976, and then he has the US set a goal of a Mars Base by 1989. The Russians see this, so they decide to create an interstellar starship so they can one-up the Americans. All sorts of real life events get in the way, like the Revolution in Iran, but that gets squashed by US Special Forces rescuing the hostages. The President in 1981 gets assassinated by those who take revenge for the failed Revolution. Al Qaeda comes along later, and blows up a cargo ship to the moon, tries to blow up the sealed habitat on Mars, and then blows up the space station in Earth orbit in the 2000's, and so the US President orders Osama bin Laden to be taken out, and that's the last of Al Qaeda. Eventually, US and Russia join forces to explore the galaxy, where they find the long lost Russian interstellar starship.

Wacky Wednesday Interview

Check out the interview I did for the Excuse Me, Miss site:

Author Cliff Ball:

Cliff Ball is 36, single, a Christian. He has a BA in English, currently pursuing a 2nd BA to increase his GPA to get an MA in Creative Writing. Cliff has independently published three novels, and works for himself as a freelance proofreader/editor.

If you won a million dollars, what would your first 5 purchases consist of?

Well, after I pay off my bills, I think my first five purchases would be: a brand new Ford Mustang, a new car for my parents, hair implants! (ha ha), a new house, and artificial grass for that new house.

What kind of candy represents your character? And why?

I don't know. I really like eating M&M's, so I guess you could say there's nothing fancy and uppity about me, I'm to the point.

Favorite sport? Favorite flavor of ice cream? Favorite synonym for the word "cool"?

My favorite sport is NASCAR. I grew up watching it because my parents are big racing fans, I turned into one, and it's not all about going in circles. Just like Football isn't about running back and forth across a 100 yard long field, and baseball isn't completely about hitting a ball with a stick, there's more to it. My favorite flavor of ice cream is Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough from Blue Bell. I always use cool, awesome is the only other word I can think of, but saying awesome always sounded really lame to me.

Would you rather bungee jump, swim with sharks, climb all the steps to the top of the Empire State Building, or forget to put your pants on for work one day?

Well, since I work from home, accidentally forgetting to put on my pants is something I would rather do than the other choices.



Who is your favorite author of all time?

Well, I have a couple of favorite authors. Currently, my favorite author is Harry Turtledove. I enjoy his alternate history novels, and he writes a good tale based on a small incident in history that ends up changing all of history.

If you were to write an autobiography, what would the title be?

Tall Tales from the life of Cliff Ball



If you could marry any celebrity, who would it be?

I can never make up my mind with these two, so I'll say either Alyssa Milano or Jennifer Love Hewitt.



If you could describe "life" in one word, what would it be?

Interesting.

Now… check out my novels at the tabs above!

Moment With Mystee Interview

This is today's post from the blog Moment With Mystee. It's an interview I did with her:

As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?

Baseball player, track star, or writer. I lack athletic skills, having had asthma, so I went with writer.

What inspired you to write your first book?

One day when I was 15, during Spring Break I sat down at a typewriter and began to write a world war 3 kind of story. I never finished it, but something in me wanted to start writing a novel. So, I'm not sure what inspired it.

Do you have a specific writing style?

I don't think I do.

How has your environment/upbringing colored your writing?

I was raised in a Christian home, and I'm still a Christian, so I would say it has colored my writing.

How did you come up with the title for your book(s)?

They just pop up as an idea, and I go with it.

Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?

I find writing realistic dialog to be challenging, and everyone comments to me about how my dialog needs to be more realistic.

Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?

I like Harry Turtledove, because I like alternate history. I first came across his work when I picked up Guns of the South, and I found it intriguing how he made the history seem real. From aliens invading during WW2 to a bunch of fishermen finding "Atlantis" in the Atlantic (which is the broken off eastern half of the US) before 1492, and then turning it into an alternate version of US history. I guess I'm a nerd, because I love to read that stuff.

If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your latest book?

Nice thing about an Indie author, I can go back and change a few things that I might be unhappy with. If I get a review pointing out something that seems to pop up in other reviews, then I can also go back and fix it.

Where do you hope to take your writing in the future?

I don't have a plan, I just figured I'll go with the flow.

What advice would you give to writers just starting out?

Make sure its something you really want to do, because it can take years for you to break through, or you could be lucky and be a bestselling author within months. Don't quit your day job though.

Do you ever suffer from writer's block? If so, what do you do about it? I definitely suffer from writer's block. Most of the time, if I can't think of anything to write next, I set it aside until something pops up in my mind, and then I go from there.

How did you deal with rejection letters? I'm an indie author, I don't do rejection letters. With Kindle, Nook, Smashwords, Createspace, etc, you can completely bypass the old dinosaur media/publishers.

What, in your opinion, are the most important elements of good writing?

Grammar, punctuation, great dialog, and an engaging storyline.

How do you develop your plots and characters? Do you use any set formula?

I write down a plot, and try to flesh it out before I put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard. I develop the characters as I'm writing the story.

What tools do you feel are must-haves for writers?

Read anything you can on plot, structure, writing good characters, beginnings, middles, and endings, self-editing, and if you're in a particular genre, read a book about the genre by a famous author of that genre. Orson Scott Card, for example, has a How To Write Science Fiction & Fantasy book.

How long does it take you to write a book?

It really depends. My very first novella took me more than 5 years to get all my thoughts together, and that was only 30k words. My 2nd novel took 6 months, my 3rd took about 4 months.

Can you share a little of your current work with us?

I'm working on an alternate history where the US elects a different president in 1976, he continues with the moon landings, putting a base on the moon in 1979. Then he wants a Mars Base by 1989, but, he gets assassinated in 1981 by terrorists because he reacts completely differently to the Iran Hostage Crisis in 1979. In the meantime, the Russians want to one-up the US, so they build an interstellar starship, but that ends up with problems of its own. I try to have history follow a slightly similar path. Instead of the WTC in 1993 nearly getting blown up, a cargo ship to Mars gets blown up, as its going into space. In 2001, the space station is attacked and destroyed. Eventually, the Russians and the US team up to build an interstellar starship after taking care of the problem with the terrorists, and head out of the galaxy. They find something interesting when they're 2 light years out.

What is the last book you read? I'm pursuing a 2nd BA, so probably a textbook.

If you could be any character in fiction, whom would you be? Jack Ryan from Tom Clancy's novels. He's always put into these really interesting positions, from helping Rasmus defect with the Red October to being thrust into being the President of the United States after a plane destroys Congress during the State of the Union.

Tell us about one of your worst habit or quality?

I'm not focused enough, I get distracted easily.

How do you tackle stress and define stress?

When I'm stressed out, I get migraines. I try to de-stress out by playing a video game. I don't know if I can define stress, but, I definitely know when I'm stressed out.

What would I find in your refrigerator right now?

Coca-Cola, Ham for sandwiches, and a bunch of frozen microwavable food. (I'm a single guy, what do you expect? lol)

If you could trade places with any other person for a week, famous or not famous, living or dead, real or fictional. with whom would it be?

I like being me, I don't want to trade places with anyone.

What was the last movie you went to see?

I think it was Iron Man 2, or Toy Story 3. I know it was one of those! ha ha Now, I'd change that to "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader"

If you could be a superhero, what would you want your superpowers to be?

I'd rather be the person who runs Watchtower in the DC universe, you can order the superheroes around.

Finally, you know there's a HUGE work up on Vampires lately. So, Vampire Diaries, True Blood or Twilight and why?

Lame! How about Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She'd kick all those vampires butts, well slay them anyway, and say something sarcastic while doing it. I'd rather watch a 70+ year old black and white vampire movie starring Bela Lugosi than Twilight.

December sales numbers

I did this last month, so I figured I would do it again this month for December. This is for Smashwords itself, Nook, Kindle, and a couple of paperbacks. This is all without much in the way of paying for ads, or being on blog tours, just mostly from word of mouth across Facebook, Amazon, the Kindleboards, Nookboards, Mobilereads, and probably all the mentions I overdid with Twitter, and the occasional sponsorship such as Frugal eReader or Two Ends of the Pen, or interview on some blogs. I did pay for the Kindle Nation Daily sponsorship, and even though it was just yesterday, I did sell 50 on Kindle in that one day.

Sales for December:

2 paperbacks for The Usurper and Out of Time

Barnes and Noble's Nook

The Usurper: 11

Out of Time – 15

Shattered Earth 5



Kindle US

Out of Time – 24

Shattered Earth – 12

The Usurper – 22

Kindle UK

Out of Time – 9

Shattered Earth – 2

The Usurper – 1

Smashwords

The Usurper – 6

Out of Time – 2

Shattered Earth – 1

This equals 112 sold. That's almost double from November, and I'm trying to make it my goal to double my sales every month, or at least try to equal them. My total sales from 2008 to present currently sits at 639, 475 of that was from 2010. I'm hoping to break the 1000 sales mark by March.

The Usurper on The Kindle Nation Daily

For the start of the 2011 New Year, my novel, The Usurper, is the sponsored novel on The Kindle Nation Daily.

Kindle Nation Free Book Alert: Tom Clancy meets The Manchurian Candidate in Cliff Ball's "The Usurper" (Today's Sponsor) http://bit.ly/e6Gzkc

Ever wonder what would happen if our worst fears were realized and we elected someone who was willing to destroy the USA, even if he was destroyed himself? The Usurper is that novel. It is a fictional account of what would happen if the Soviet Union and KGB were given the chance to take down the United States from within. They use the American political system, education system, terrorism, and commit environmental disasters to achieve these goals.

The Soviet Union and the KGB refuse to let the purging of communists in the United States as awhole by Senator Joe McCarthy, and the House Un-American Activities Committee, deter them. Soviet Premier Khrushchev authorizes the KGB to embark on an ambitious, decades long plan to destroy the United States from within through the corruption of American politicians, the American education system, terrorism, and environmental disasters. Gary Jackson, the main character, is the fulfillment of the KGB plan to destroy the United States from within. They raise him from birth to hate everything about the United States, indoctrinate him, and introduce him to terrorists across the world, where the KGB dictates all terrorist attacks. When Gary is a teenager, he is sent to the United States to assimilate and begin his mission. Nothing will deter his goals of completely and utterly destroying the United States.

When the Soviet Union dissolves, he is given a choice, and he decides to continue with the mission. A terrorist organization ends up filling in the gap left by the absent KGB, and they, together with Gary, conspire to destroy everyone in the United States who doesn't agree with them.

Heroes & Villains – Part 5 – Article from Red Adept Reviews

This was posted on Red Adept Reviews site. Since I'm included in this particular post, I thought I'd share it on my blog, even though it was from a few days ago.

From the site:

For this article series, I asked authors the following questions:

Does your book contain a "Hero" and a "Villain"?

Are they based on yourself, someone you love/hate, or just from your imagination?

Is your hero perfect or flawed?

Is your villain inherently evil? Does he/she have any redeeming qualities?

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Consuelo Saah Baehr, author of Best Friends:

When we think of a villain, we think of the murderer or the thief or the mastermind of a deadly scheme. In my novel, there is an unlikely villain: Alden starts out as a psychological meanie who punishes his wife and child by being distant and cold. He deteriorates into a dangerous psychotic who goes haywire. Alden is not a charming villain and it's hard to like any part of him. However he fulfills his dramatic purpose in the book brilliantly. If the characters have a destiny they must fulfill, they all need Alden to help them get there.

The most clearly defined hero in the novel is a little boy, Jeremy. He remains loyal and loving to a distant father (at great personal cost) and to his emotionally stunted mother and even to his captor. All of these people are from my imagination although the general plot is based on the few years I lived in a posh area where old money, old estates and their bizarre inhabitants were plentiful.

Readers will be left with mixed feelings about Alden. They will understand that his behavior is pivotal and appropriate to the plot and in that sense they will be satisfied.

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Cliff Ball, author The Usurper:

Does your book contain a "Hero" and a "Villain"?

Gary Jackson is the 'villain' in the novel, mostly because he was raised to be one from birth. However, as an adult, he is given a choice to continue with his mission, and decides to go ahead and keep doing what he was raised to do. He makes it his sole mission to destroy the US no matter what, even wanting to betray those who have helped him rise to power.

The hero is Dale Stewart. He is in the military, but, when the military is disbanded for the most part, he is forced to join the new version called the Civilian Defense Force. He follows orders without question for a while until he starts seeing stuff that is contrary to how the government is supposed to treat its citizens. He switches sides, and then supports the resistance movement.

Are they based on yourself, someone you love/hate, or just from your imagination?

Gary Jackson is based on fears of what would happen if the United States ended up with someone as a leader who wasn't what they seemed, and his colors are finally shown when he is sworn into office. Not based on anyone in particular, but he and the hero are based out of my imagination.

Is your hero perfect or flawed?

Dale isn't perfect, he just wants to survive and do what he's told at first. Later, when he sees what blind loyalty will do, he makes a decision to resist.

Is your villain inherently evil? Does he/she have any redeeming qualities?

He was raised to be evil, at least from our point of view. I gave him no redeeming qualities, because I wanted people to dislike the character.

After reading your book, how do you want readers to feel about your hero and villain? They're welcome to feel however they want towards either character. I would like them to see that something like what the villain does could be a possibility, or it might never be a possibility.

************************************************

Jasmine Giacomo, author of The Wicked Heroine:

Does your book contain a "Hero" and a "Villain"?

Yes. My villain, Onix Oolat, Hand of Power of the Cult of Dzur i'Oth, does not see himself as evil, but as a savior who is willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish his grand plans for the world. My heroine, known usually as Meena, but having many names throughout the eras of the book, is the opposite. She's crotchety, irreverent, secretive and rude to authority figures, and doesn't see herself as anything other than a cursed woman trying to balance the scales of history…by doing whatever it takes.

Are they based on yourself, someone you love/hate, or just from your imagination?

They're entirely fictional and not based on anyone. I got all my Mary-Sue-ness out of my characters during the last millennium, and real life villains don't deserve my free publicity.

Is your hero perfect or flawed?

Truly, madly, deeply flawed. Yet, as my heroine, she must struggle onward nonetheless.

Is your villain inherently evil? Does he/she have any redeeming qualities?

No. He used to be a fisherman's son, just a common lad with common desires. Once he tasted the power of magic, and he learned of his homeland's true legacy, he devoted the rest of his life–and the lives of countless innocent victims–to rising to power within the secretive cult and to restoring Shanal to the glorious seat of magical power it once was. He's been altered, shaped unknowingly, by the many magics he has stolen from others, though, and there is barely any humanity left in him. As with most irredeemable villains, Oolat has within him the seeds of his own destruction.

After reading your book, how do you want readers to feel about your hero and villain?

Meena is brusque and manipulative, but also capable of caring about the fates of others. Oolat rules by fear and desires power, and does not care for anyone else. With that slim distinction, there is a lot these two have in common…except that they are on opposite sides of a centuries-old conflict. I would want readers to find that distinction, and see that Meena strives hard to hold to her humanity when she has many reasons to discard it, while Oolat has sacrificed his in pursuit of his goals, never recognizing its true value. The choices we make when the world shreds around us are what keep us human.