E.M. Tippetts's Blog, page 14

Someone Else's Fairytale

This newset book, Someone Else's Fairytale, is about a college student who catches the eye of the hottest actor in Hollywood, and she hasn't even bothered to see most of his movies. The idea occurred to me when I was thinking about various random good things that have happened to me that I hadn't ever wished for. Then I decided to take that idea to an extreme and came up with this very funny premise. Can you imagine having, say, Robert Pattinson show up on your doorstep to feed you ice cream when you haven't bothered to watch Twilight?

For the setting, well that was obvious. It had to be Albuquerque, the city that is basically a small town. Many actors have grown up there, from big names like Neil Patrick Harris to small bit parts like the kid crying in the hallway of Titanic. Even though the number of Hollywood success stories is probably typical of that size population, the fact that it is so close knit means that people know who in Hollywood is from Albuquerque. Their former classmates are still around with their amusing stories of how said famous people were in grade school.

My next thought, once I had the premise and setting, was: What if you're someone who has a reason to avoid media exposure? With this thought, I came up with my protagonist, Chloe Winters. She's got the same last name as a prominent Albuquerque dentist, because she is his daughter, just not by his wife. Hence the Winters family aren't thrilled that she exists. Besides that, the police recognize her name and she's got some unusual scars that she never talks about. When she gets her picture in the paper for talking to Mr. Hollywood, her property gets hit with vandalism.

And that's the set up for Someone Else's Fairytale. I had way too much fun writing this one, because even though a lot of fairytale conventions are out of date, they still captivate us. My contention, there's no reason to give up on fairytales. We just need to be honest about what makes a true Happily Ever After.

Until Jan 8, 2012, you can download this novel for free on Smashwords.

Things are about to get ugly

...on Smashwords, at least. While I love putting in the effort to format my ebooks to include graphical chapter headings and scene breaks, Smashwords does not like this and will not put such books in their premium catalog, so I'm going to have to uglify those files. It won't happen for a couple of days, and anyone who's bought an uglified copy who wants a pretty one, just email me and I can send it to you. This also means that the versions that will appear in iBookstore and Kobo will be boring old plain text. Oh well.

A big thanks to everyone who's downloaded Someone Else's Fairytale for free on Smashwords and helped get the word out. I'm starting from square one, here, with my writing career. Because I wasn't able to get a book published within two years of my first one, I am as good as a newbie to readers, so everyone passing the word along and downloading copies has been great, keep it up! Some kind individuals have also gone to buy the book on Amazon and Barnes and Noble even though they don't have to. I really appreciate that. Though no one should worry too much about the sales I'm "losing" by making the book free. In order to make any real money as an author, I need to move FAR more copies than have been downloaded free. So please, get the word out. Download it for your friends (or if you hated the book, your enemies!) Email copies to anyone you think might be interested. This is what we call extremely low budget publicity, and while it isn't the only kind I will be relying on, every new pair of eyes on that book helps me.

Another big thank you to those of you who have posted reviews. I don't know if you've noticed, but each one has bumped the book up a few thousand slots on the sales list. They make a huge difference, especially in these early days, so please accept a virtual hug from me (or a handshake if that makes you uncomfortable.)

Amazon and Barnes and Noble will soon have copies of the ebook up with some typos fixed and some formatting oddities cleared up - Smashwords will get this makeover when I uglify the manuscripts. In the meantime, know that once you download off Smashwords, you can get every updated edition of the book that I upload after your purchase date.

Hope everyone's having a wonderful holiday season!

Someone Else's Fairytale free on Smashwords

Okay, here is the link to get your free copy of Someone Else's Fairytale on Smashwords. You can get most formats here, including those for Kindle, Nook, and Kobo. This site does its own conversions of files, so there may be some formatting oddities - I haven't had the chance to check through every version, but please do let me know of problems and I'll get them fixed.

For you Kindle owners, to get the book onto your Kindle, after you've downloaded it from Smashwords, you email the file to your Kindle or transfer it with a USB cable - feel free to shoot me an email if you need help.

This book will be free for the rest of the month, until January 8 (subject to change if Amazon and Barnes and Noble decide to discount the price to free - still working to make that happen, but am learning that they sometimes refuse to do this).

And, of course, you can always email me for your free copy and let me know which format you want.

Someone Else's Fairytale is up, but not yet free

The kindle version of Someone Else's Fairytale is for sale on Amazon, but still has a price. I'm working to get rid of that so that it can be free to download until January 8. Some kind individual has already bought it (I owe you $.99, get in touch). You certainly can go buy it if you want to, but do know that it will soon be available at no charge.

I'll post links and all that fun stuff once the price has been eliminated.

Paint Me True is out in Nook format!

Sorry this took so long, but I've got Paint Me True out in Nook format, finally. This took a while because I made the mistake of waiting for Smashwords to distribute the ebook through Barnes and Noble, and so far Smashwords has not done this. So last night, Trevor helped me get the book formatted so that it would look pretty on a Nook, and we got it up on Barnes and Noble.

Paint Me True will cost $.99 until Thursday, when the price will go up by a dollar and my next book, Someone Else's Fairytale, is released. For that one, I will endeavor to get the Kindle and Nook formats out at the same time.

Thanks for following this blog!

Life Lessons from Art

I met Erica Strange while I was in the hospital and eight months pregnant, which means I hadn't had a night's sleep in months. And no, Erica Strange is not a real person. She's a character in a television show called Being Erica, which is produced in Toronto by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. By sheer luck, I caught a rerun of the pilot. I don't remember what time of the day or night it was. These things run together when you don't sleep.

Erica is thirty two and full of regrets. Her career never took of, or more to the point, she doesn't really have career. Or a love life. Too old to be finding herself and too young for a midlife crisis, she's resigned to the idea that she's a disappointment to her family, friends, and most notably, herself. The story kicks off when a man, known only as Dr. Tom, gives her a business card for time travel therapy. This is the point when I stopped channel surfing. I'm a science fiction junkie (as would make sense given I began my writing career in science fiction) though I felt trepidation. I'd never heard of this show and time travel stories can be brilliant, but are often convoluted and downright dumb.

Still, I watched Erica go on her first therapy session, in which she traveled back to her high school days to relive her school dance. The first time around she got roaring drunk and everyone mocked her. This time around she avoided getting drunk, but managed to lose her dress after a friend puked on it, and had to run out into the middle of the dance naked to get help for said friend who had passed out. Needless to say, everyone mocked her.

And the therapy session was a success.
The purpose of time travel therapy in Being Erica is not to go and change the past to erase bad experiences. It is to face old fears and regrets and deal with them. Erica doesn't return at the end of the episode to a new life. She goes back to her old life, but as a new person, one who can better confront situations that were once her undoing. At this point in the show, I was sitting bolt upright.  Unfortunately, I haven't been able to watch all the seasons, but I watch any that are broadcast here in the UK. People in the US should know that you can get all the episodes for free over Netflix, and that I am insanely jealous of all of you whether you have done so or not (you really should, though).
Time travel stories, when done right, are a powerful metaphor. We may not actually be able to redo past events, but don't we all do it in our minds? How often do we think of the perfect comeback to an insult days later, or relive a conversation with an attractive person that didn't go exactly as we'd hoped? But as much as we might regret a missed opportunity, this kind of self examination allows us to strike off in a new direction the next time we find ourselves at that same old crossroads. 
I write for the same reason I read, to broaden life experience without the disastrous consequences. Through my characters I try on different masks, attempt to see life in a different way, and learn from mistakes that I don't have to make in the real world. We all do this, whether we write it down or not. This is why I am a big believer in flawed characters and happy endings. I don't like to write or read about perfect characters. They have nothing to teach me because they've got nothing to learn, and happy endings are essential because they're hard. Sad endings are easy - I do those all the time in real life. It's called screwing up, letting people down, embarrassing myself, and there are a variety of other names for the experience. Keeping it all together? That's what I need practice at.

So if you're here looking for flights of fancy in which everyone's gorgeous and it all works out easily, I'm afraid you've come to the wrong writer. My heroines make mistakes. My heroes aren't always well toned. I aspire to make them look and act like normal people, because those are the kinds of people who interest me.

This month only, Paint Me True is available for the promotional price of $.99 in the Amazon Kindle store.

Dealing with Regrets

I met Erica Strange while I was in the hospital, eight months pregnant, which means I hadn't had a night's sleep in months. And no, Erica Strange is not a real person. She's a character in a television show called Being Erica, which is produced in Toronto by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. By sheer luck, I caught a rerun of the pilot. I don't remember what time of the day or night it was. These things run together when you don't sleep.

Erica is thirty two and full of regrets. Her career never took of, or more to the point, she doesn't really have career. Or a love life. Too old to be finding herself and too young for a midlife crisis, she's resigned to the idea that she's a disappointment to her family, friends, and most notably, herself. The story kicks off when a man, known only as Dr. Tom, gives her a business card for time travel therapy. This is the point when I stopped channel surfing. I'm a science fiction junkie (as would make sense given I began my writing career in science fiction) though I felt trepidation. I'd never heard of this show and time travel stories can be brilliant, but are often convoluted and downright dumb.

Still, I watched Erica go on her first therapy session, in which she traveled back to her high school days to relive her school dance. The first time around she got roaring drunk and everyone mocked her. This time around she avoided getting drunk, but managed to lose her dress after a friend puked on it, and had to run out into the middle of the dance naked to get help for said friend who had passed out. Needless to say, everyone mocked her.

And the therapy session was a success.
The purpose of time travel therapy in Being Erica is not to go and change the past to erase bad experiences. It is to face old fears and regrets and deal with them. Erica doesn't return at the end of the episode to a new life. She goes back to her old life, but as a new person, one who can better confront situations that were once her undoing. At this point in the show, I was sitting bolt upright.  Unfortunately, I haven't been able to watch all the seasons, but I watch any that are broadcast here in the UK. People in the US should know that you can get all the episodes for free over Netflix, and that I am insanely jealous of all of you whether you have done so or not (you really should, though).
Time travel stories, when done right, are a powerful metaphor. We may not actually be able to redo past events, but don't we all do it in our minds? How often do we think of the perfect comeback to an insult days later, or relive a conversation with an attractive person that didn't go exactly as we'd hoped? But as much as we might regret a missed opportunity, this kind of self examination allows us to strike off in a new direction the next time we find ourselves at that same old crossroads. 
I write for the same reason I read, to broaden life experience without the disastrous consequences. Through my characters I try on different masks, attempt to see life in a different way, and learn from mistakes that I don't have to make in the real world. We all do this, whether we write it down or not. This is why I am a big believer in flawed characters and happy endings. I don't like to write or read about perfect characters. They have nothing to teach me because they've got nothing to learn, and happy endings are essential because they're hard. Sad endings are easy - I do those all the time in real life. It's called screwing up, letting people down, embarrassing myself, and there are a variety of other names for the experience. Keeping it all together? That's what I need practice at.

So if you're here looking for flights of fancy in which everyone's gorgeous and it all works out easily, I'm afraid you've come to the wrong writer. My heroines make mistakes. My heroes aren't always well toned. I aspire to make them look and act like normal people, because those are the kinds of people who interest me.

This month only, Paint Me True is available for the promotional price of $.99 in the Amazon Kindle store.

Being Erica

I got addicted to the television show, Being Erica, when I was in the hospital for observation. Really, that isn't as dramatic - or interesting, even - as it sounds. I was eight months pregnant and my baby boy hadn't turned all the way. London had just weathered a snow storm and the doctors wanted me to stay on site just in case I went into labor, because I might not be able to make it there in time if I went into labor anywhere else. Add to this scenario the fact that I had to be off my medication for my lifelong and somewhat mysterious but always persistent insomnia, and you get the picture. Me, not sleeping, on a hospital cot, eyes glued to the television day and night.

By sheer luck, I caught a rerun of the pilot for Being Erica. The main character, Erica Strange, is thirty two and not happy with her life thanks to her lack of career and relationships. The story kicks off when a man, known only as Dr. Tom, gives her a business card for time travel therapy. At this point I stopped channel surfing. I'm a science fiction junkie, as would make sense given I write science fiction, though I felt trepidation. I'd never heard of this show and time travel stories can be brilliant, but are often convoluted and downright dumb. Still, I watched Erica go on her first therapy session, in which she traveled back to her high school days to relive her school dance. The first time around she got roaring drunk and everyone mocked her. This time around she avoided getting drunk, but managed to lose her dress after a friend puked on it, and had to run out into the middle of the dance naked to get help for said friend who had passed out. 
The therapy session was a success.
The purpose of time travel therapy in Being Erica is not to go and change the past to erase bad experiences. It is to face old fears and regrets and deal with them. Erica doesn't return at the end of each episode to a new life. She goes back to her old life, but as a new person, one who can better confront situations that, in the past, had been her undoing. At this point in the show, I was sitting bolt upright. When I was released from the hospital a few days later, I went on the internet to find out everything I could about its broadcast schedule. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to watch all the seasons, but I follow any that I can here in the UK.
Time travel stories, when done right, are a powerful metaphor. We may not actually be able to redo past events, but don't we all do it in our minds? How often do we think of the perfect comeback to an insult days later, or relive a conversation with an attractive person that didn't go exactly as we'd hoped? But as much as we might regret a missed opportunity, this kind of self examination allows us to strike off in a new direction the next time we find ourselves at that same old crossroads. Or, at least, that's what I tell myself.
I write for the same reason I read, to broaden life experience without the disastrous consequences. Through my characters I try on different masks, attempt to see life in a different way, and learn from mistakes that I don't have to make in the real world. We all do this, whether we write it down or not. This is why I am a big believer in flawed characters and happy endings. I don't like to write or read about perfect characters. They have nothing to teach me because they've got nothing to learn, and happy endings are important for me because they're so hard to do. It's easy for them to seem pat and too easily accomplished, or abrupt and not properly set up, or schmaltzy and insincere. One of the secrets to writing them is to understand that the events don't necessarily need to turn out all right as long as the main character does.
And I'm a big fan of flawed men as love interests (another feature of Being Erica). The convention in romance is to make the love interest a drop dead gorgeous man with a sexy career, like lifeguarding, and psychic powers so that he is able to say exactly the right thing in any given situation and sit down to talk with a woman for hours about her feelings. A writer friend of mine refers to these as "women in men suits". I find little point in reading about these bizarre archetypes because I don't understand why we need them. Men, who make up nearly half the population, as I understand it, are as human as the rest of us. (If they weren't, we'd have no reason to be attracted to them, now would we?) They have bad days and endure boring jobs and say the wrong things sometimes, but you know? If I can't make these guys attractive, then I can't even reproduce the world as it is, let alone take the reader into a world of what could be. 
I write books about flawed men and women figuring out their happy endings. Not all of them manage it. I'd love to introduce you to my characters, Eliza, Colin, Nora, and Len. They screw up, get let down, have bad hair days, and keep forging ahead just like we do, gathering what tools and experience they can along the way.

Paint Me True was released in November, 2011. It is currently $.99 in Kindle format.

Paint Me True is out, Someone Else's Fairytale is having its cover designed

Sorry to be a little behind on my marketing here. Amazon.com worked faster than I expected to get my book listed. Paint Me True  is now available in Kindle format. I'll put up a more detailed blogpost on it here in the next couple of days.

Next month I will release another book, Someone Else's Fairytale.


Of course you'll want details on what these books are about and minor information like that. I'm composing the blogposts now. To get updates, enter your email address in the place provided in the upper lefthand corner of this page. I only do updates when a new book is out, and do only one marketing blogpost per book, so the updates will be few and far between, not an inundation, though if you want that, enter your email at www.emilymah.com. That's where I blog about everything random that I'm doing.

Jane Austen and Happy Endings

Some people drink to deal with stress, others binge on junk food. I turn to Jane Austen. I've got both recent versions of Pride and Prejudice on DVD, the BBC version when I've got a whole day to sit and watch the story in every detail, and the Keira Knightly version for when I have only a few hours. I also indulge in Clueless, Emma, and Sense and Sensibility, and have most of her books on my Kindle. There's nothing like a happy ending to turn my mood around. That's why I go to such great lengths to write happy endings.

Which many would say bars me from writing "serious literature" - but I write science fiction too, so it should be obvious to everyone that I don't much care what the literary establishment thinks of me. I'm always amused, though, at people's attitudes towards a happy ending. Stories that end on a high note are "fluff", harmless but trivial.

Yet a happy ending isn't rewarding if the character's conflicts are trivial. Take Pride and Prejudice. Elizabeth Bennet, the heroine, isn't the prettiest girl in her family. That would be her sister, Jane. Her fortune isn't assured. She and her sisters cannot inherit from their father and Jane's all but assured engagement to a wealthy man has been abruptly cut off. By the middle of the book, Elizabeth has had two marriage proposals that would save her family, one from Mr. Collins, the man who will inherit her father's estate, and the other from Mr. Darcy, an arrogant, disagreeable fellow who is fabulously rich. Because Elizabeth wants a happy marriage, she turns them both down, which in that era means she dooms not just herself, but her entire family. Even worse, her younger sister, Lydia, runs off with a man with no money, no honor, and no intention of making her an honest woman. All of the Bennett sisters are tainted by association, their marriage prospects are gone, and they will be turned out of their home upon the death of Mr. Bennet.

These aren't "fluff" concerns, and it would have been easy for Austen to make this book a tragedy. She could have ended it just after Lydia's elopement, but it is her decision not to end the story there that makes the happy ending possible. I think life is like that too. In order to find our happy endings, we have to resolve not to say "The End" until we pass through our dark times and trials and find a way to succeed.

Austen found a way to create a happy ending for Elizabeth Bennet that was believable and satisfying. A vitriol fueled visit from Mr. Darcy's aunt to sets the wheels in motion. What appears to be a lost cause for the Bennet sisters contains the cleverly hidden elements that turn the tables on all of their ill-wishers. The sisters rise triumphant from what looked like certain doom. Pride and Prejudice's ending proves that Austen is a master storyteller, because a lesser storyteller would never have been able to turn the plot so completely and convincingly around.

Which is why I turn to Jane Austen, not to escape my life, but to learn how to change it. Happiness isn't easy. Feeling like you're on top of your troubles and in control of your life takes hard work, creativity, and endless patience. As they say, when you're walking through the valley of darkness, keep walking! To live our lives from happy ending to happy ending is a skill which I'll admit I haven't mastered yet. Until I get there, I'll practice in my writing. And every time I fail, I've got a drawer full of Jane Austen movies and books to lift my spirits and keep me going. Here's to not saying "The End" until we find our happy endings.

My book, Time and Eternity , is about twenty-five year old Alice O'Donnell, who receives something that looks an awful lot like a revelation from God that her dream will come true. In many books, this might be the beginning of endless bliss, but in real life? Yeah. It's the beginning of a tough journey in which she questions her sanity. Everything that should go right for the revelation to come true, goes wrong. Answers aren't easy and I won't tell you how it all is resolved, but promise that there's a happy ending.