Julia Madeleine's Blog, page 11

Final Vector by Allan Leverone Lands Tomorrow!

Thriller writer Allan Leverone's debut novel Final Vector is coming in for a landing Friday February 11th. And Allan has been good enough to give us all a sneak peek at his book right here. Judging from the excerpt, it looks like this book is going to be keeping a lot of folks up late at night turning the pages. A little less sleep is worth it though. Who needs sleep when you've got books like this one? Here is Allan Leverone, the man who's going to be responsible for all those people sleepin...

Do You Need An Alternate Identity?

So what's up with established, and even brand new authors using a pseudonym? I know there are certain circumstances where an alias would be appropriate, like if a man is writing romance books for Harlequin or some other famous writer is churning out those "trashy", as they're known, novels like porn that some women eat for breakfast. I get why an author wouldn't want to pen his own name under those circumstances. Or perhaps in a case of ghost writing someone's biography. Or maybe if your real name is too close to another author's name that it creates confusion. I can understand that. Perhaps you've got a really bad name. There are people who go through life with horrible names, names that rhyme with something unpleasant or are just comical.

When I was in nursery school (wasn't called daycare way back then) I had two teachers and their names were Mrs. Pickles and Mrs. Mustard. True story. Those were their names. You can believe it or not. How the hell they ended up starting a nursery school together I think it must have been fate. Now, for a crime fiction writer both of those last names lack a certain credence I think necessary for a reader to take seriously.  So a nom de plume would be in order. I met a guy recently whose last name was Bozo. He pronounced it "Bah-so". I'm sorry, you can pronounce it any way you want, but it's Bozo. That's how it was spelled, that's how I wrote it down, and that's how I announced it to those within earshot once he left (couldn't help myself). Now if he was an author, particularly of crime fiction, Bozo would need to turn in the big red shoes and get a serious name, as a marketing strategy strictly speaking. Preferably something tough sounding.  Like Stone or Steel. I've heard of a fellow going through life with the name Dick Seaman. Why the hell wouldn't he just go with Richard? Seems like the best option but maybe he didn't get enough attention as a child and is trying to make up for it. Who knows? These things happen.
I once bought a car from Al Palladini's Pinetree Lincoln Mercury in Woodbridge Ontario because I liked his commercials..."Any Palladini is a pal of mine".  That was his slogan. Had his last name had the word cock or dick in it, I don't know how I would have felt about it.  I wonder how successful a car dealership by the famous race car driver Dick Trickle, would have been? I met a guy once with the name Pen Guin. He was Chinese. Ironically, I first saw him in a photograph and he was dressed in a tux. Now that's pure comedy right there.
          I can understand why some actors do the whole stage name thing, especially if they had a name like my little Chinese aforementioned friend. And I can see how a musician might want to have a handle a little more in line with their persona. Like 50 Cent, Queen Latifah, or Sticky Fingaz. That's just par for the industry they're in. I think Prince went a bit too far when he renamed himself a symbol. And then he was just referred to as "the Artist Formerly Known as Prince". Because even someone with a trace of a brain cell in their head knows that a symbol is not a name. Apparently Prince didn't get the memo because he was raised by illiterate aliens. Probably it was a marketing ploy. Only him and his equally pint-sized lace-pants-wearing friends would know. Oh, was that me making fun of a man's size? I guess it was.
Strippers of course need to all call themselves Candi with one "i" or Destiny because that's just being practical. Who wants to see a woman named Nancy taking off her clothes? I know I sure don't. But, why for instance, would Joyce Carol Oates who has a huge audience choose to publish under another name? Or Stephen King. His name alone on a book cover is an automatic best-seller so why invent Richard Bachman, Stephen King? Why Stephen King? And then later he releases a book titled "The Bachman Books" by Stephen King. JCO did the same thing when her publishers released "Joyce Carol Oates writing as Rosamond Smith". Seems to defeat the whole purpose doesn't it? Although what that original purpose was, I couldn't say. I'm sure they had their reasons. Maybe being too famous has it's difficulties. But if you're going to hide yourself behind an alias, and then go and announce it, especially at the same time as you're writing under your own name (I've seen this done), it seems entirely pointless. Or maybe this is just me missing something.  
From now on I think  I'll call myself.... Snooki. Hey, it worked for her. Put her squarely on the NYT's best-seller list. I'll need some new hair though, mine's a little too Julia Madeleine-ish.

Rejection, You Are A Sadistic Master!

Dear Julia,
Thank you for sending me No One to Hear You Scream. Sorry it has taken me so long to get back to you. This is a really interesting novel. I enjoyed the general feel of the work—especially with the dark secrets and impending doom that occupy much of its beginning. The story is well crafted and seems to thrive off of the reoccurring question of darkness and insanity within each character. You have really created an intriguing center for a story with the Jameson family.
With that said, however, something about the pacing and the structure of the novel made it hard for me to really engage in the story. The transition of the narrative from each character's story to the next certainly helps to build suspense, but it also got in the way of some much needed action and character development. Unfortunately, I wasn't taken by this enough to pursue it here, and I am going to have to pass. I wish you the best of luck with it.
Best,
Tim
Oh, Rejection, you are a sadistic master, tormenting me, and mistreating me even though I am your loyal pet. Why do you abuse me so? You treat me like I am less than nothing, making me live on my knees, groveling at your Ralph Lauren alligator shoes as you beat me into submission, trying to break me. And me begging for more. And you, neglecting me. 
Forgive me for that misplaced comma, and the greatest sin of all that would cause you to turn away from me, that type-o on the very first page of my manuscript even though I swear I'd spell checked it and read and re-read it like ten thousand times (a day) to make sure it was perfect for you...And while I have hated you and feared you and dreaded your knock on my door, your name in my in-box, you're polite but cold "thanks but not for me" speeches, like a killing blow to the fragile dark and twisted dream of you and I together that I'd been nurturing in my warped little brain, I also have to tell you that I've grown to love you. There I've said it. It's true. I love you. It took a long time I must confess, years in fact. It took much forsaking on your part, and me like a some depraved stalker pleading for you to acknowledge me favourably, and at the same time cursing your bloody name, kicking and screaming like some psycho. Plotting your beautiful demise. Yes, your demise. Plotting. That's what I'm good at, not that you'd know or care. Don't mistake my sweetness for weakness, Rejection, I could kill you with a look or a stroke of my pen, erase you from the page as if you never were. Delete you from my screen with one click of a button. Easily. Oh, don't be so surprised at the level of abhorrence I've had for you or my subversive desires. 
But I digress. I have come to love you and here is why: You have made me better, Rejection. You have shaped me, pushed me, knocked me down, whipped me into submission like you wanted to, left me sobbing and bleeding in the gutter, screaming out for you, driven me half mad with your demands. But, you have forced me to get up again, dust off my knees and carry on. Over and over. Oh, I have resisted as you well know! I'm not a lemming after all, and I have not gone willingly. You'd never have found my cyanide-laden corpse among the dead in Jonestown. But it's true. You have forced me to grow. You have influenced me. Helped me smooth out those rough edges, polish those words I arrange together so lovingly on the page until they shine with a blinding light. You have made me dig deep into the blood and guts of my characters, extracting their slimy quivering hearts, and twisting them until they bleed deliciously all over the page. DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!!! (okay so that was Charlton Heston from Planet Of The Apes, but you get the picture). And I love you for it. I completely love you for it. Thank you for treating me so bad, it was exactly what I needed. You have been an amazing teacher. Brutal but amazing all the same.
I do have one question though, what's up with signing "best"? Is that like a New York thing? But I like it. Really. I swear I do. It's good. 


coming May 2011

The Best Rejection Letter I Ever Received

     Several years ago when I was looking for an agent, sending out countless query letters, and getting rejection after rejection, one agent's very blunt letter really changed the course of my writing career.
     Rejection in itself can be tough, but getting one that verges on insult, is down right heartbreaking for a young writer's delicate ego. Every rejection letter I've ever received I have saved. I don't know how many I have but it's got to be several dozen. Some agents were actually nice enough not to just give me their standard letter they send out to all writers they turn down, but to actually take the time to give me their opinions of my work. I always appreciate these little tidbits of information and I've even made changes in my manuscripts over the years directly as a result of this advise. But this particular letter I'm talking about that I received from a top New York literary agent was more direct than most, and at first, a little hard to take. Here is exactly how it read:

"The writing is too amateurish for today's market. Please get these two books; they are my bibles: Stein on Writing by Sol SteinSelf-Editing For Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King They will put you light years ahead in sophistication."

     Well! My instinct was to be offended. How dare she say my writing is amateurish! But then I immediately decided to push my ego aside for just a moment and look at this advise objectively, see if there really was any value in what they were saying. And I thought, obviously this person must know something about what they are talking about. After all you don't get to be a successful NY literary agent without knowing a thing or two. Maybe there is something here for me to learn. So, a little resentfully I thought, fine. I'll get your stupid books and see if they benefit me or not. One of the books Self-Editing For Fiction Writers, I actually had sitting on my book shelf and I had never even read it. My dad who is a big supporter of my writing, had bought it for me. 
      I've always taken myself seriously as a writer and believed that I knew how to write. But I think that belief can sometimes be a roadblock in a writer's life; thinking we've got it all figured out. What we know and what we think we know can often be two different animals. Not only does it take honest expert criticism to open up a writer's eyes to their own short comings, but it takes our own willingness to be open to such criticism and, more importantly, our desire to improve...in my opinion. 
     Once I cracked open Self-Editing For Fiction Writers, I couldn't believe the wealth of knowledge I had at my finger tips the whole time and had just ignored it. I guess because as a creative person, reading about craft and technique has always seemed a little dry to me, like reading text books or instruction manuals, something I try to avoid whenever possible, often at my own peril. I've read other books over the years on writing, but mostly just skimmed them. So, on the advise of this agent, I bought Stein On Writing and read it cover to cover, highlighting passages that I thought most valuable. I also bought it as an audio book and downloaded it to my iPhone so I could listen to it in my car and when I worked out, trying to absorb every word and piece of advise. Then I picked up other books that I'd been given over the years (mostly by my dad) and began to read them seriously. And I was stunned to learn what I had been missing.
      Now, years later, I feel I've benefited enormously as a writer from reading these books on technique, the very books I'd turned my nose up at. A short time afterward I sent a letter to that agent who said my writing was amateurish, and thanked her. It was the single best piece of advise I ever received and in the form of a rejection letter of all things. Sometimes the hardest things to hear about ourselves is the exact stuff we need to evaluate and learn from. It's only when we choose to be objective, in my opinion, that growth occurs. I can truthfully say that my writing is now light years ahead of what it used to be, just like that agent said it would be if I read them. But I also know that there is always more to learn. As long as I stay humble, keep myself open to it, I will never stop learning, growing and improving. That to me, is very exciting.

Best Ten of Ten

Here is my personal list of the best books I read in 2010:

1. Prince Of Thieves by Chuck Hogan. Originally published in 2004 it was released under the name The Town to coincide with the movie by the same name starring Ben Affleck. I really loved this book. Loved the writing. It was raw and powerful and Hogan did an awesome job of creating a likable "bad guy"(I love those likable bad guys). I really enjoyed the concept of the book, the doomed love story between the reluctant bad guy who dreams of a better life and the girl he can never have. The movie was good, although did deviate quite a bit from the book but still well done.

2. A Kind Of Intimacy by Jenn Ashworth. This is a chilling story told in first person about a young woman's break with reality. The main character Annie, is so believable and so twisted in her thinking that you can't help but allow her to get under your skin. The story is laced with humour which helps alleviate the darkness. Heartbreaking and very creepy.

3. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. This was a creepy dark little book that I couldn't put down. The main character is so flawed, I thought it was almost risky to make her that dysfunctional. I was boarder-line not liking her at times, but in the end I felt only compassion. Definitely intense and macabre.

4. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. I was tempted to buy this book a number of times when I saw it in the book store but each time I set it down again and it was because of the concept of the narrator being a dead girl. It just seemed a little too much belief suspending to me. But finally I broke down and bought it and am I ever glad I did. Loved the book and I loved the movie just as much. Parts of it brought me to tears. Beautifully written with complex memorable characters.

5. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.  A haunting story, a bit rambling at times, but compelling none the less.

6. Out by Natsuo Kirino A women's murder club. Loved it. A brilliant and fascinating page turner.

7. Lullabies For Little Criminals by Heather O'Neil. A beautifully written novel and heartbreaking story. I really liked this book but found it at times a bit too much, bordering on depressing. But I love the way O'Neil writes.

8. The Barrens, Rosamond Smith Joyce Carol Oates wrote a series of thrillers under the name Rosamond Smith. Intense and disturbing little page turner.

9. Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain A compelling read, although the movie was a bit different, far more intense. And of course Joan Crawford is brilliant in the movie.

10. Never Look Away by Linwood Barclay This is a fast-paced page turner that kept me on the edge of my seat. Barclay is the master of suspense.

Here is the new book cover. No One To Hear You Scream is ...

Here is the new book cover. No One To Hear You Scream is coming May 2011!