Q. Kelly's Blog, page 12
November 11, 2012
"Celeste" Update
This blog post follows up on this one: http://www.qkellybooks.com/2011/10/saying-goodbye-but-not-really-i-hope.html.
So, a few days ago, "Celeste" turned 18. (FYI, I'll just call Celeste "C" from now on because he's unsure these days if he's transgender or not; in any case, he no longer wants to identify as female and be called "she." I told him that it's becoming more accepted nowadays for people to be gender ambiguous and to dress any damn way they want. Labels aren't quite as important these days in society. Just do what feels right.)
Anyway, the day before C's eighteenth birthday, he sent me a message on Facebook wanting to meet up (with my wife too, of course). We hadn't seen him since he left our home more than a year ago, although we'd had very sporadic online contact. I set up a time to meet C on his birthday, and that night, my wife and I were on our way.
It was a great night. We hugged, slipped right back into conversation and it was like we were never apart. We'd had enough time to look past the "bad" stuff, at least for one night. C, that very day, had moved into independent living and out of the group home, so my wife and I drove him home. WOWZA! Such a nice, roomy apartment. He has a roommate, but they have their own rooms (two rooms apiece), their own refrigerators, plus a huge shared dining room and a huge living room--and don't even get me started on the bathroom. GIANT! It really is so nice. C asked if he could still call us "Mom" (he'd never de-listed us as his parents on Facebook, and we never de-listed him as our child), and we said yes.
Tell you something... it's awesome being a mom again. So nice.
We were supposed to see C again yesterday, but he overslept. He's going a bit crazy with his freedom now in independent living. Wish him luck! ;-)
So, it's baby steps for now. Who knows, this reconciliation attempt may be a colossal failure. But for now, I'm hopeful. There's hope.
So, a few days ago, "Celeste" turned 18. (FYI, I'll just call Celeste "C" from now on because he's unsure these days if he's transgender or not; in any case, he no longer wants to identify as female and be called "she." I told him that it's becoming more accepted nowadays for people to be gender ambiguous and to dress any damn way they want. Labels aren't quite as important these days in society. Just do what feels right.)
Anyway, the day before C's eighteenth birthday, he sent me a message on Facebook wanting to meet up (with my wife too, of course). We hadn't seen him since he left our home more than a year ago, although we'd had very sporadic online contact. I set up a time to meet C on his birthday, and that night, my wife and I were on our way.
It was a great night. We hugged, slipped right back into conversation and it was like we were never apart. We'd had enough time to look past the "bad" stuff, at least for one night. C, that very day, had moved into independent living and out of the group home, so my wife and I drove him home. WOWZA! Such a nice, roomy apartment. He has a roommate, but they have their own rooms (two rooms apiece), their own refrigerators, plus a huge shared dining room and a huge living room--and don't even get me started on the bathroom. GIANT! It really is so nice. C asked if he could still call us "Mom" (he'd never de-listed us as his parents on Facebook, and we never de-listed him as our child), and we said yes.
Tell you something... it's awesome being a mom again. So nice.
We were supposed to see C again yesterday, but he overslept. He's going a bit crazy with his freedom now in independent living. Wish him luck! ;-)
So, it's baby steps for now. Who knows, this reconciliation attempt may be a colossal failure. But for now, I'm hopeful. There's hope.
November 10, 2012
Two Links
I saw this post from Nathan Bransford and had to share. It's so true--writers and nonwriters alike, please get help! ("Writers and Suicide")
http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2012/11/writers-and-suicide.html
Nathan also has an interesting post on two types of third-person POV: http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2012/11/third-person-omniscient-vs-third-person.html
http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2012/11/writers-and-suicide.html
Nathan also has an interesting post on two types of third-person POV: http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2012/11/third-person-omniscient-vs-third-person.html
November 8, 2012
"Love's Spell" Is Out!
My newest novella, "Love's Spell," is out! It's 24,000 words. It should be in print soon.
Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A3HYQXW
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/252917
Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/loves-spell-q-kelly/1113761087?ean=2940015924893
I have the blurb and two excerpts below, but before I get to that, I want to talk really quickly about not believing in something vs. believing in possibilities. I've copied and pasted part of my dedication here: I dedicate this novella to my wife, Melanie, to our cats, Dopey and Flirt, and to our dog, Chester. Dopey died during the writing of this novella, which is ironic in a way because the character of Mrs. Purr was already in full force as a combination of Dopey and Flirt. In Mrs. Purr, part of Dopey will always live on. Part of Flirt, too. I don’t believe in abracadabra magic, but there is no denying that after Dopey died, Flirt (who is a year younger than Dopey) started taking on many of Dopey’s behaviors—behaviors Flirt had never done. Who knows, maybe magic does exist.
This novella will always remain super extra special to me for the above reason.
OK! Blurb time:
Ava Van Dorn doesn’t believe in magic, but she believes in possibilities. So, she figures trying a love spell her grandmother left her won’t hurt. Worst case: her life will stay the same. Best case: her fellow second-grade teacher James Friedlander will fall in love with her, and they’ll live happily ever after.Except…oops!Ava accidentally places the spell on her principal, Libby Lubbock. Libby is wrestling with her own issues in the love department, namely the fact that she’s deciding whether to give her ex a second chance after the ex cheated. Libby is beginning to think she’s the type who is better off single.The spell can be undone, but it requires Ava and Libby getting to know each other better. Lots better. Libby agrees to the undo because no way does she want to fall in love with Ava if she can help it. However, perhaps the last paragraph in a letter Ava's grandmother wrote is right: “Why all these crazy steps? My great-great grandmother, the witch, strongly believed that things happen for a reason. This time with the ‘wrong person’ will help determine if the wrong person might be the right person, after all.”Can Libby and Ava cast a love spell that has nothing to do with abracadabra magic and everything to do with the magic of true love?
Excerpt One (from Chapter One):
“I have a surprise,” I said. “Hope it cheers you up.”James beamed. “You’re the best.”Now for the spell. It was quite simple. All I had to do at this point was recite the words: I want this person to fall in love with me, o gods, please have this person fall in love with me forever and ever. I could say the words out loud or mentally. Didn’t matter. Then I had to touch the person of my desire in the next minute—before I touched anyone else. Before anyone else touched me.I proffered my surprise, a package of Reese’s Cups. “Ta-da!” I stepped forth and ran through the words in my head: I want this person to fall in love with me, o gods, please have this person fall in love with me forever and ever.CLICK CLACK! Tight, smart high heels sounded behind me, and the principal, Libby Lubbock, swept into the classroom.“Perfect! You’re both here,” Libby said. “We need to talk about Louise Avery and set up a meeting.” Libby’s arm brushed my arm, a slight brush of her skin against mine. My brain whirred. Blared. Big time. Libby gliding past me, our arms touching, the…My legs wobbled. No. Oh no. Not Libby.I rushed over to James and jammed the candy into his hand. I didn’t care if the touch was obvious. Please, please! Spell gods, whoever you are, I’m touching James now! This man, not Libby, is the person I want to fall in love with me. Listen! Listen!
Excerpt Two (from Chapter Nine)
“Oh.” My tongue tasted like gall. My thoughts tasted like gall. I could say an “I’m sorry,” but it would be of no use. And I wasn’t sure what I was sorry for. Rotten timing? Me being an ass? Ellen asking Libby for a second chance? Libby telling me about Ellen now instead of in the morning—and therefore denying me one grand night before Libby reached into my chest and seized my beating heart?“Well, thank you,” I said. “Thanks for letting me know. I sure do appreciate it.”Sarcasm. Lots of sarcasm. And pain.“Ava,” Libby implored.“Why did you let us do what we did Friday night?” I asked accusingly.“Ellen and I are not dating. Not technically. And…” Libby clenched her teeth. “Geez, Ava. I don’t know. I’m not perfect. I haven’t had sex in more than a year, and I like you. You know that. I’ve liked you a long time. It took all I had to…to not let things progress like they would have Friday night. I thought you were kind of experimenting. Questioning your sexuality. Aren’t you? Look, no offense, but I’m not a science project.”I scoffed, mostly to cover up the fact that tiny tears stung my eyes. “Didn’t you hear what I said earlier? You and the spell helped me realize some things.”“I appreciate that. I do, really. However, maybe a week from now, or a month from now, or a year from now, you’ll realize otherwise. I’m thirty-seven. I’m too old for these kinds of risks. These kinds of games.”My tiny tears enlarged. Time for another pity-party hoedown. Noise makers, red hats, pony rides, cake, ice cream, scary-ass clowns. Maybe I was questioning my sexuality, maybe I wasn’t. Bottom line, I liked Libby. I liked that one beautiful, smart woman. Did other stuff really matter?Yes. Apparently. “Know what’s sad?” I muttered.“What?”“Friday night was the best sexual encounter of my life.”Libby blinked. “Really?”“I can’t, I can’t…I can’t come with someone else. I’ve never been able to. I can’t lose myself. I always have to focus. Like, I’m doing this now, what should I do next, step A, step B, step C, that kind of stuff. But I never tried the…what we did Friday. I came with you. I lost myself in what you were doing. My brain didn’t get in the way. That’s huge to me. You have no idea.”Libby nodded slowly, my confession no doubt scaring her shitless. The good ol’ TMFI—too much freaking information. “Well…good. I’m glad, Ava. I’m glad you got that.”
Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A3HYQXW
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/252917
Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/loves-spell-q-kelly/1113761087?ean=2940015924893
I have the blurb and two excerpts below, but before I get to that, I want to talk really quickly about not believing in something vs. believing in possibilities. I've copied and pasted part of my dedication here: I dedicate this novella to my wife, Melanie, to our cats, Dopey and Flirt, and to our dog, Chester. Dopey died during the writing of this novella, which is ironic in a way because the character of Mrs. Purr was already in full force as a combination of Dopey and Flirt. In Mrs. Purr, part of Dopey will always live on. Part of Flirt, too. I don’t believe in abracadabra magic, but there is no denying that after Dopey died, Flirt (who is a year younger than Dopey) started taking on many of Dopey’s behaviors—behaviors Flirt had never done. Who knows, maybe magic does exist.This novella will always remain super extra special to me for the above reason.
OK! Blurb time:
Ava Van Dorn doesn’t believe in magic, but she believes in possibilities. So, she figures trying a love spell her grandmother left her won’t hurt. Worst case: her life will stay the same. Best case: her fellow second-grade teacher James Friedlander will fall in love with her, and they’ll live happily ever after.Except…oops!Ava accidentally places the spell on her principal, Libby Lubbock. Libby is wrestling with her own issues in the love department, namely the fact that she’s deciding whether to give her ex a second chance after the ex cheated. Libby is beginning to think she’s the type who is better off single.The spell can be undone, but it requires Ava and Libby getting to know each other better. Lots better. Libby agrees to the undo because no way does she want to fall in love with Ava if she can help it. However, perhaps the last paragraph in a letter Ava's grandmother wrote is right: “Why all these crazy steps? My great-great grandmother, the witch, strongly believed that things happen for a reason. This time with the ‘wrong person’ will help determine if the wrong person might be the right person, after all.”Can Libby and Ava cast a love spell that has nothing to do with abracadabra magic and everything to do with the magic of true love?
Excerpt One (from Chapter One):
“I have a surprise,” I said. “Hope it cheers you up.”James beamed. “You’re the best.”Now for the spell. It was quite simple. All I had to do at this point was recite the words: I want this person to fall in love with me, o gods, please have this person fall in love with me forever and ever. I could say the words out loud or mentally. Didn’t matter. Then I had to touch the person of my desire in the next minute—before I touched anyone else. Before anyone else touched me.I proffered my surprise, a package of Reese’s Cups. “Ta-da!” I stepped forth and ran through the words in my head: I want this person to fall in love with me, o gods, please have this person fall in love with me forever and ever.CLICK CLACK! Tight, smart high heels sounded behind me, and the principal, Libby Lubbock, swept into the classroom.“Perfect! You’re both here,” Libby said. “We need to talk about Louise Avery and set up a meeting.” Libby’s arm brushed my arm, a slight brush of her skin against mine. My brain whirred. Blared. Big time. Libby gliding past me, our arms touching, the…My legs wobbled. No. Oh no. Not Libby.I rushed over to James and jammed the candy into his hand. I didn’t care if the touch was obvious. Please, please! Spell gods, whoever you are, I’m touching James now! This man, not Libby, is the person I want to fall in love with me. Listen! Listen!
Excerpt Two (from Chapter Nine)
“Oh.” My tongue tasted like gall. My thoughts tasted like gall. I could say an “I’m sorry,” but it would be of no use. And I wasn’t sure what I was sorry for. Rotten timing? Me being an ass? Ellen asking Libby for a second chance? Libby telling me about Ellen now instead of in the morning—and therefore denying me one grand night before Libby reached into my chest and seized my beating heart?“Well, thank you,” I said. “Thanks for letting me know. I sure do appreciate it.”Sarcasm. Lots of sarcasm. And pain.“Ava,” Libby implored.“Why did you let us do what we did Friday night?” I asked accusingly.“Ellen and I are not dating. Not technically. And…” Libby clenched her teeth. “Geez, Ava. I don’t know. I’m not perfect. I haven’t had sex in more than a year, and I like you. You know that. I’ve liked you a long time. It took all I had to…to not let things progress like they would have Friday night. I thought you were kind of experimenting. Questioning your sexuality. Aren’t you? Look, no offense, but I’m not a science project.”I scoffed, mostly to cover up the fact that tiny tears stung my eyes. “Didn’t you hear what I said earlier? You and the spell helped me realize some things.”“I appreciate that. I do, really. However, maybe a week from now, or a month from now, or a year from now, you’ll realize otherwise. I’m thirty-seven. I’m too old for these kinds of risks. These kinds of games.”My tiny tears enlarged. Time for another pity-party hoedown. Noise makers, red hats, pony rides, cake, ice cream, scary-ass clowns. Maybe I was questioning my sexuality, maybe I wasn’t. Bottom line, I liked Libby. I liked that one beautiful, smart woman. Did other stuff really matter?Yes. Apparently. “Know what’s sad?” I muttered.“What?”“Friday night was the best sexual encounter of my life.”Libby blinked. “Really?”“I can’t, I can’t…I can’t come with someone else. I’ve never been able to. I can’t lose myself. I always have to focus. Like, I’m doing this now, what should I do next, step A, step B, step C, that kind of stuff. But I never tried the…what we did Friday. I came with you. I lost myself in what you were doing. My brain didn’t get in the way. That’s huge to me. You have no idea.”Libby nodded slowly, my confession no doubt scaring her shitless. The good ol’ TMFI—too much freaking information. “Well…good. I’m glad, Ava. I’m glad you got that.”
November 5, 2012
Kathleen Wheeler Is "Changing Shape"
My newest author interview is with Kathleen Wheeler. She penned "Changing Shape," a lesfic novel that has proved a good seller. She's also become a friend of mine, and over a few days, we had an e-mail interview about her writing and such. Below are the highlights! (And, yeah, that's Kat in the pic.)
****
Hey Kathleen! When I was reading your author bio on Amazon, this part struck me: "She also thinks 'normal' is an insult and 'weirdo' can definitely be a compliment." I gotta say I agree! Side note: I tell my wife all the time that she is weird, and she goes "Thaaank you!" Anyway, let's jump off this line--why do you think normal is an insult, and are you a weirdo? How so?
I find it insulting to be labeled 'normal' because normal is so boring, so homogeneous, so… NORMAL. Of course being normal has certain advantages in our society, but to me, calling someone 'normal' is almost like saying there's nothing interesting or different about them. It completely discounts what makes them special or unique or interesting or fascinating. My theory is that everyone with a head is a case - and I don't mean that like everyone's a head-case (despite the fact that a LOT of people are); what I mean when I say this is that we all have our own thoughts and perspectives and interests and ideas and talents and all the other things that make us human. A label like 'normal' or most other labels, actually, tends to disregard these things and we become something less because of it, something average rather than extraordinary. I hate that about labels - that people expect certain things out of you because it's what you're 'supposed' to be. I'm so much more than normal or average.
Am I a weirdo - Gosh I hope so! If you're defining 'weirdo' as an odd or eccentric person then, absolutely! Not so much on the psychopath definition, but eccentric- yep that's me. According to sociologists, I'm already considered somewhat 'deviant' because of my homosexuality- that's certainly not something 'normal' people are. But I'm more than just a 'lesbian' too. If being a 'weirdo' means that you do things that most other people don't or can't or wouldn't do then I'm fairly certain I fit that category- I mean, most people in general don't know how to do or wouldn’t do most of the things I grew up calling 'normal' let alone a lot of the things I've grown into.
Even though 'weirdo' does have its negative connotations in 'normal' society, it certainly doesn't discount the things that make me unique or at least one in only a few (relatively speaking). I think we should make 'weirdo' the new 'normal' and celebrate each other rather than diminishing ourselves with something so mundane and dismissive as 'normal.' Of course, that's the danger with labels, isn't it? Everything can be twisted into something less positive and if everyone was considered a weirdo it would become less special too...
I knew there was a reason we got along so well! :D You have a book out ("Changing Shape"). What makes this book "weirdo" (or different)? Tell us a little about it (or a lot about it!).
Yes, my novel 'Changing Shape' can be considered a bit 'weirdo.' For starters, it's not strictly lesbian (but it's MOSTLY lesbian and you have to label it something!); one of the main characters is 'fluid' (another person who doesn't like the idea of labels because of the expectations and limits they cause) and she has a sex scene with a man. Some people find this scene to be distasteful, but it is part of her truth and what's happening inside her mind and heart as this scene is taking place is important to her development as a woman who's finding herself. In fact, that scene has less to do with the sex that happens in it than almost anything else about it, but some people get hung up on the sex and miss why it was important and what actually is happening in that scene. Ah well. I stayed true to Elizabeth and that's who my duty as a writer was really to, I think. She was using sex as a painkiller and he just happened to be an easy prescription, but in the end she learned something very fundamental about herself and the true nature of her heart.
Also, it's about a woman's struggle with cancer and the emotional and psychological ups and downs that surround that; that's mostly from her daughter Elizabeth's perspective but the reader (I hope) also gets a sense of Patty as well. And of course, I also get Hailey's perspective in there too. It's a really heavy thing [cancer] and it's not something you read about very often. It's something that's incredibly painful and very very real for too many people- but it's not really all that talked about, and certainly not with a lot of detail. Even with all of the advancements modern medicine has made it's still one of the biggest real life 'monsters' to fear. It's something I find incredibly important not to simply sweep under the rug and ignore.
I think that it's also weirdo in a sense that not all the endings are happy. I find that most (not all) lesbian books (at least the few hundred I've read anyway) are all flowers and rainbows and smiles and joy, with a little glancing struggle tossed in to make the happiness seem a little sweeter or harder won. In 'Changing Shape', it's not all daisies and serenades, and very little is truly easy. There's certainly catharsis that happens, and all of the main characters morph into their 'butterfly' forms (if you will), but it's definitely not all happy. But that's life, right? Life is hard and ugly and wonderful all at the same time. We don't get to pick and choose our moments, it's happening real time and there's no do-overs. But then, that's the point, isn't it? We don't always get it right the first time and if we're lucky we learn and do better next time? And honor those we love when we can because we do and not simply because we should...I realize that most people read to escape the harsh reality of life, but sometimes it's good to read something a little more real that's going to be uplifting in a different and maybe more thought provoking way. I think I accomplished that with this book; I hope I did anyway.
How did you do the research for the cancer? Did it come from personal experience? I ask because I was going to write a story once with a main character who had cancer. In the end, however, I felt that even with all the book research in the world, I couldn't do the little nitty-gritty things justice without having had some sort of personal experience.
Ok - that's a big question! Did this come from personal experience - thankfully, no. BUT- and this is a BIG but- some people very dear to me went through something very similar. (You can read about that in the book's dedication.) I wasn't able to be there for them the way I wanted to (I lived far away) and writing 'Changing Shape' was a way for me to process it all and honor them.
I picked this cancer specifically because it's one of the worst and actually more common blood cancers there is (20 to 40% chance of survival for 5 years, etc), it has one of the most aggressive treatments, and it's not something you ever hear about, unlike breast cancer (for example). Also, my [ex]partner was an active participant in the LLS Team in Training and I got to meet some wonderful people through my support of her efforts there, both family members and survivors. You wanna talk about some wonderful people embracing life! It was inspiring, truly.
So research- oh gosh, well I spent pretty much every available waking moment for a solid 2 weeks gathering and absorbing all the information I could on AML (Acute Myelogenous Leukemia). I know that doesn't sound like a lot of time for something so serious, but I'm a weirdo like that...I went online to the various resources there and gathered all the AML specific info I could, read a LOT of the forums and Q and A about it to get patient perspectives and doctor input as well as family perspectives, reached out to LLS.org and the Cancer Society (which unfortunately wasn't as helpful as I'd hoped it would be). It was really eye opening and depressing, but I did it. Luckily, I have a friend who's a doctor and she was able to fill in a lot of the blanks for me and helped keep me in reality as far as the medical stuff was concerned, and believe me, I had a LOT of questions.
The one thing that I saw across the board was how cancer affects those around the patient. Don't get me wrong, it's hell for the patient, and I think I got to the heart of that with Patty without getting too 'jargony' or grotesque, but the friends and family go through something too and it's really heartbreaking at times. This was something that I already knew, but to see it there in black and white was just....well...awful.
I tried to keep too many medical specifics out of my book, simply because there's so much involved and I didn't want the cancer to be the only thing I talked about, while maintaining the fact that it's very much present- that was especially difficult, actually. For me 'Changing Shape' is way more about what they all go through both individually and together in the various moments. I tried to put myself in their shoes and see things from their points of view and express that over the arc of the disease. So while cancer is sort of the spine of my story, I didn't want to ignore the rest of the body. I have (and I hope that other people have this too) the ability to empathize pretty deeply with people and that is a skill that came in very handy for this. The feedback that I've gotten on it (aside from a few people who didn't like 'the scene') has all been very positive. It's made more than a few people cry...and more still felt the need to 'approach' me and talk with me about it and tell me how touched they were and things like that- which makes me feel very good. So far (fingers crossed) no one has felt upset or angry about it - at least not that I know of- at least not about that part of it.
As for authenticity, I believe I accomplished that - I mean, everyone's experience with any given thing is different and subjective...I put as much heart into it as I could and I think I succeeded in what I set out to do. It was absolutely imperative to me, especially not having first hand experience, to get the emotions in this story right, while keeping everyone true to themselves on a fundamental level. I lamented and cried and laughed and struggled right along with them.
OK, enough of the depressing stuff! What's the fun stuff in this book?
Nice- Yea, there's definitely some good, happy, feel good stuff going on in this book as well- and some laugh out loud moments (I laugh anyway). Like I said - I didn't want the cancer to be the whole focus- and it wasn't at all. So without (hopefully) giving too much away:
First and foremost on the 'fun' side of things, there's the romance between Elizabeth and Hailey. Here are two women, both really successful in their respective careers, but maybe not so much in their personal lives and they're thrown together in this 'situation' with Patty. Over the course of the weeks and months that pass they grow close and fall in love, but they're both protective of their hearts (for different reasons) and with everything else that's going on...See, there's a spark in the moment they meet, but what happens between them builds slowly- so that when things do finally happen it's a "YES!! FINALLY!! WOOT WOOT!" kind of moment. That was really fun to write- although I'm sure there are some readers out there who want it to have happened sooner in the story so there could be more juicy lady sex (despite the graphic nature of the sex scenes I'm not an erotica writer, sorry). It didn't feel right to me to rush it, so it happens slowly. I think when things start to really climb for them it's sweet and endearing and believable. It's something that neither just jump into; but rather, it becomes something they can no longer deny, something more enduring.
There's also a whole gallery of other characters that add moments that are sexy, funny, poignant, enlightening, fun and so forth. One of my favorite supporting characters is actually Charlie. He's the one Elizabeth has sex with in 'the scene.' He's a great guy, supportive, smart, generally happy and he helps Elizabeth the most out of all the supporting cast. I also really like Peter - Hailey's 'brother from a better mother.' He's like the older brother I never had and he adds some sparkle to the scenes he's in. I'm not one of those lesbians who hates men- I love men, actually- I just don't want to procreate/recreate with them. Some of my best friends are guys and I think Charlie and Peter definitely exemplify what a good man can be. That makes me feel good, anyway. I tried to have all the male characters be good examples of men. There are a lot more good guys out there than bad guys I think and I've been through some shit and still think that...Maybe that says something for the good guys I know. I also have a son, and I'm pretty sure he's going to become a good man. I'm working at it anyway...the world is full of men and the women who don't mind them- even when you're labeled a lesbian. In addition to the guys, there's Zoe and Shelly and Bobbi, as well as a few others that have more minor roles. They all serve to make their small town somewhere I'd like to live.
And Patty- even though she's going through hell with the cancer, she's able to see humor and take things with a grain of salt, turning her very real pain into a sarcastic quip or funny remark that lightens the mood and lets you know she's still in there even if she is becoming a shell.
I'm with you on guy friends. They go light on the drama. One of my closest friends is a guy -- the biggest weirdo freak (yeah, even more so than me) out there. I love him to death. Back to writing: what's next on the writing horizon for you?
Well I'm working on my second book - the current working title is 'Blindsided.' I may end up completely gutting and revamping it, but I'm still intrigued enough with it as is that it may remain...The premise in a super nutshell is 'a woman recovering from a car crash in which her partner was killed meets and falls in love with a woman who is reconciling her true self with the expectations of her family. I still have some serious research to do and I'm getting to the point in the story where that's needed, so the writing of it will go on hold until I can wrap my head around the things I need to. I think it'll be good if I can just get it done. At least in this one everyone we get to know and love will live through the end...I think <evil laughter> Regardless all that, 'Changing Shape' taught me a LOT about writing (stuff I'm still learning, too) and I'm sure that once it's ready to publish this new one will be something I'm even more proud of.
What did "Changing Shape" teach you about writing?
Mostly that it's really very hard work! And that readers are an interesting lot. It takes a lot of thought and preparation and dedication and attention to detail to write a good solid and satisfying book. There are a lot of nuances that one needs to be aware of and things that need to be worked out in order for it to work: dynamic and interesting characters who are well developed, an interesting location, a solid timeline, plots and subplots and the interplay between the players, the catalyst, the defining moments, etc- all coalesce into something that is [hopefully] going to accomplish the goal that was set for it. On top of that, you have to be a good writer and an even better editor.
That's something else that I learned. I mean, I already knew that of course, but it's especially true when you publish fiction. When you write fiction you are presenting something of yourself to the world. In essence, you are saying, 'Here I am, buy me.' In order to remain successful, [I think] you have to present something that is not only entertaining, moving and well thought out, but also polished to a certain degree. That's why I took some of the early feedback about editing and used it to fix my book- even though it was pretty damned polished already; I don't want to present something less than excellent to the world. Of course, I'm only one person and editing yourself is insanely difficult. And I admit that I don't remember all the grammar rules, even if I do know most of them and pride myself on that fact. Of course I've much to learn and I am- believe me the same mistakes won't be made in the next one. But that's how we grow as writers or as craftspeople. Because that's what it is, really- a craft. And if you can craft something that moves people, then you've made art.
The hardest thing I've learned, I think, is that there comes a point when you just have to let it fly. You can't edit it to death or you'd never publish. You can't catch all the mistakes and if there are 2 or 3 left in there, it's okay. That was actually a hard lesson for me, because believe it or not, I'm a perfectionist at heart. I'm fully aware that perfection is impossible, but that doesn't stop me from pursuing it. Even if my handbook [brain] is faulty.
You're in what I call "camp three" as far as indies go. Camp one consists of people like me (who have been published with publishers and rejected contracts because the terms were unfavorable), camp two consists of people who submitted to publishers and got rejected (and who have never been with a publisher). Camp three is...you know what? I'll shut up here and let you explain camp three and why you went indie!
There are a few reasons I went indie rather than trying to get published. I mean, I joke that I didn't want to face all the rejection, but the truth is that I wanted to retain complete control over my content. I wanted to, at the end of the day, be able to say, 'I did that.' ME. I'm a weirdo like that, I guess. I'm fiercely independent and I don't want a bunch of people 'massaging' my content to suit their own purposes, and then taking a portion of my profit when it's all said and done. Of course there are very real benefits to getting published and working with a larger entity- brand recognition and a 'built in' audience being the main things.
I also didn't want to HAVE to write another one. Reader expectation for a second novel is enough pressure for me; I don't need a potential lawsuit and all the trappings of that horsepuckey to deal with too. I honestly believe that in the end, I'll be successful and the people who love my work will continue to buy it and that my audience will grow. I understand that that will take time and that that timeframe will be stretched out because I'm just one person and not a marketing machine with a recognizable brand- but it allows me the freedom to write what I want, how I want to write it and to me that's worth something.
I think one of the big challenges indie authors face is the audience and their perceptions of being indie. There’s this stigma to being indie- that it should be cheap or that it isn’t really all that good and I want more people to recognize the merit of our work rather than simply disregarding indie as a group who couldn't hack it in the 'real publishing world.' In many cases, that's simply not what happened at all. I'm indie because I wanted to be. Plain and simple.
What steps are you taking to improve as an author?
Well as a start I'm brushing up on my grammar. I don't want to go into details, but let's just say I'm revisiting some schoolin' on that front. It's all good stuff to know and refresh. I'm also looking for a good manual on self editing. I've had a couple good recommendations on that front- now I just need to buy one! I'm human; I forget things I should know (school was a really long time ago). Sometimes a reminder is good.
I'm also trying to improve my typing skills...I sometimes miss longhand - even though it starts to hurt and takes longer and then you have to go back and type it all up anyway. Anyone who chats with me knows I have a problem with capitalization, for example - it's really just the 'shift' key I have a hard time with I think. My hands also just automatically add apostrophes where my brain knows there aren't any or periods where there should be commas because those buttons are close together- then I'll end up with capitalization where there shouldn't be because of autocorrect and I might not see it because I've been looking at it too long...that type of thing. It's a pain to go back and fix all that type of stuff- stupid stuff that I KNOW. So I'm trying to be more conscientious about that...although I'm still a miserable failure in chats. I am trying though- at least with my writing. Eventually, I'll have myself trained better.
One thing about the process that I will say I've changed- and perhaps the pendulum of my behavior will finally settle somewhere in between- is HOW I write...I used to edit as I go (literally every line was meticulously crafted) and I realized that that was stifling my creativity; it's little wonder why I didn't finish much when I was doing it that way! It became frustrating. Now I try to just get the story told and THEN go back and refine it and polish it and change it if need be. Just get the thing out there first. That's been my biggest change.
Your book is in KDP Select right now. Any plans to distribute it through other channels soon?
Absolutely - I need to go back over my contract with KDP just to make sure I do everything correctly, but as soon as I'm 'allowed' to I definitely plan to distribute to all the other major outlets in the various eBook formats. The paperback is already out there in a few different places, but I think the eBook is really where it's at in this day and age. As much market share as the Kindle has in the ereader arena, it's not the only one out there and they don't really play nice with each other as far as the formats go- I want everyone who wants to to be able to buy and read my book in the format that they prefer. Of course, that's going to take some time to accomplish, but I'll be posting those announcements on my blog as they happen and also through my other social media outlets (Facebook and Twitter, etc). When I know, you'll know.
Find Kat online!
Blog – www.katwheelerbooks.blogspot.com
Facebook- www.facebook.com/katwheelerbooks www.facebook.com/changingshapenovel
Twitter - @katwheelerbooks
Changing Shape’s Amazon page - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009BBGT86
Kat’s Amazon Page – www.amazon.com/author/katwheelerbooks
****
Hey Kathleen! When I was reading your author bio on Amazon, this part struck me: "She also thinks 'normal' is an insult and 'weirdo' can definitely be a compliment." I gotta say I agree! Side note: I tell my wife all the time that she is weird, and she goes "Thaaank you!" Anyway, let's jump off this line--why do you think normal is an insult, and are you a weirdo? How so?
I find it insulting to be labeled 'normal' because normal is so boring, so homogeneous, so… NORMAL. Of course being normal has certain advantages in our society, but to me, calling someone 'normal' is almost like saying there's nothing interesting or different about them. It completely discounts what makes them special or unique or interesting or fascinating. My theory is that everyone with a head is a case - and I don't mean that like everyone's a head-case (despite the fact that a LOT of people are); what I mean when I say this is that we all have our own thoughts and perspectives and interests and ideas and talents and all the other things that make us human. A label like 'normal' or most other labels, actually, tends to disregard these things and we become something less because of it, something average rather than extraordinary. I hate that about labels - that people expect certain things out of you because it's what you're 'supposed' to be. I'm so much more than normal or average.Am I a weirdo - Gosh I hope so! If you're defining 'weirdo' as an odd or eccentric person then, absolutely! Not so much on the psychopath definition, but eccentric- yep that's me. According to sociologists, I'm already considered somewhat 'deviant' because of my homosexuality- that's certainly not something 'normal' people are. But I'm more than just a 'lesbian' too. If being a 'weirdo' means that you do things that most other people don't or can't or wouldn't do then I'm fairly certain I fit that category- I mean, most people in general don't know how to do or wouldn’t do most of the things I grew up calling 'normal' let alone a lot of the things I've grown into.
Even though 'weirdo' does have its negative connotations in 'normal' society, it certainly doesn't discount the things that make me unique or at least one in only a few (relatively speaking). I think we should make 'weirdo' the new 'normal' and celebrate each other rather than diminishing ourselves with something so mundane and dismissive as 'normal.' Of course, that's the danger with labels, isn't it? Everything can be twisted into something less positive and if everyone was considered a weirdo it would become less special too...
I knew there was a reason we got along so well! :D You have a book out ("Changing Shape"). What makes this book "weirdo" (or different)? Tell us a little about it (or a lot about it!).
Yes, my novel 'Changing Shape' can be considered a bit 'weirdo.' For starters, it's not strictly lesbian (but it's MOSTLY lesbian and you have to label it something!); one of the main characters is 'fluid' (another person who doesn't like the idea of labels because of the expectations and limits they cause) and she has a sex scene with a man. Some people find this scene to be distasteful, but it is part of her truth and what's happening inside her mind and heart as this scene is taking place is important to her development as a woman who's finding herself. In fact, that scene has less to do with the sex that happens in it than almost anything else about it, but some people get hung up on the sex and miss why it was important and what actually is happening in that scene. Ah well. I stayed true to Elizabeth and that's who my duty as a writer was really to, I think. She was using sex as a painkiller and he just happened to be an easy prescription, but in the end she learned something very fundamental about herself and the true nature of her heart.Also, it's about a woman's struggle with cancer and the emotional and psychological ups and downs that surround that; that's mostly from her daughter Elizabeth's perspective but the reader (I hope) also gets a sense of Patty as well. And of course, I also get Hailey's perspective in there too. It's a really heavy thing [cancer] and it's not something you read about very often. It's something that's incredibly painful and very very real for too many people- but it's not really all that talked about, and certainly not with a lot of detail. Even with all of the advancements modern medicine has made it's still one of the biggest real life 'monsters' to fear. It's something I find incredibly important not to simply sweep under the rug and ignore.
I think that it's also weirdo in a sense that not all the endings are happy. I find that most (not all) lesbian books (at least the few hundred I've read anyway) are all flowers and rainbows and smiles and joy, with a little glancing struggle tossed in to make the happiness seem a little sweeter or harder won. In 'Changing Shape', it's not all daisies and serenades, and very little is truly easy. There's certainly catharsis that happens, and all of the main characters morph into their 'butterfly' forms (if you will), but it's definitely not all happy. But that's life, right? Life is hard and ugly and wonderful all at the same time. We don't get to pick and choose our moments, it's happening real time and there's no do-overs. But then, that's the point, isn't it? We don't always get it right the first time and if we're lucky we learn and do better next time? And honor those we love when we can because we do and not simply because we should...I realize that most people read to escape the harsh reality of life, but sometimes it's good to read something a little more real that's going to be uplifting in a different and maybe more thought provoking way. I think I accomplished that with this book; I hope I did anyway.
How did you do the research for the cancer? Did it come from personal experience? I ask because I was going to write a story once with a main character who had cancer. In the end, however, I felt that even with all the book research in the world, I couldn't do the little nitty-gritty things justice without having had some sort of personal experience.
Ok - that's a big question! Did this come from personal experience - thankfully, no. BUT- and this is a BIG but- some people very dear to me went through something very similar. (You can read about that in the book's dedication.) I wasn't able to be there for them the way I wanted to (I lived far away) and writing 'Changing Shape' was a way for me to process it all and honor them.
I picked this cancer specifically because it's one of the worst and actually more common blood cancers there is (20 to 40% chance of survival for 5 years, etc), it has one of the most aggressive treatments, and it's not something you ever hear about, unlike breast cancer (for example). Also, my [ex]partner was an active participant in the LLS Team in Training and I got to meet some wonderful people through my support of her efforts there, both family members and survivors. You wanna talk about some wonderful people embracing life! It was inspiring, truly.
So research- oh gosh, well I spent pretty much every available waking moment for a solid 2 weeks gathering and absorbing all the information I could on AML (Acute Myelogenous Leukemia). I know that doesn't sound like a lot of time for something so serious, but I'm a weirdo like that...I went online to the various resources there and gathered all the AML specific info I could, read a LOT of the forums and Q and A about it to get patient perspectives and doctor input as well as family perspectives, reached out to LLS.org and the Cancer Society (which unfortunately wasn't as helpful as I'd hoped it would be). It was really eye opening and depressing, but I did it. Luckily, I have a friend who's a doctor and she was able to fill in a lot of the blanks for me and helped keep me in reality as far as the medical stuff was concerned, and believe me, I had a LOT of questions.
The one thing that I saw across the board was how cancer affects those around the patient. Don't get me wrong, it's hell for the patient, and I think I got to the heart of that with Patty without getting too 'jargony' or grotesque, but the friends and family go through something too and it's really heartbreaking at times. This was something that I already knew, but to see it there in black and white was just....well...awful.
I tried to keep too many medical specifics out of my book, simply because there's so much involved and I didn't want the cancer to be the only thing I talked about, while maintaining the fact that it's very much present- that was especially difficult, actually. For me 'Changing Shape' is way more about what they all go through both individually and together in the various moments. I tried to put myself in their shoes and see things from their points of view and express that over the arc of the disease. So while cancer is sort of the spine of my story, I didn't want to ignore the rest of the body. I have (and I hope that other people have this too) the ability to empathize pretty deeply with people and that is a skill that came in very handy for this. The feedback that I've gotten on it (aside from a few people who didn't like 'the scene') has all been very positive. It's made more than a few people cry...and more still felt the need to 'approach' me and talk with me about it and tell me how touched they were and things like that- which makes me feel very good. So far (fingers crossed) no one has felt upset or angry about it - at least not that I know of- at least not about that part of it.
As for authenticity, I believe I accomplished that - I mean, everyone's experience with any given thing is different and subjective...I put as much heart into it as I could and I think I succeeded in what I set out to do. It was absolutely imperative to me, especially not having first hand experience, to get the emotions in this story right, while keeping everyone true to themselves on a fundamental level. I lamented and cried and laughed and struggled right along with them.
OK, enough of the depressing stuff! What's the fun stuff in this book?
Nice- Yea, there's definitely some good, happy, feel good stuff going on in this book as well- and some laugh out loud moments (I laugh anyway). Like I said - I didn't want the cancer to be the whole focus- and it wasn't at all. So without (hopefully) giving too much away:
First and foremost on the 'fun' side of things, there's the romance between Elizabeth and Hailey. Here are two women, both really successful in their respective careers, but maybe not so much in their personal lives and they're thrown together in this 'situation' with Patty. Over the course of the weeks and months that pass they grow close and fall in love, but they're both protective of their hearts (for different reasons) and with everything else that's going on...See, there's a spark in the moment they meet, but what happens between them builds slowly- so that when things do finally happen it's a "YES!! FINALLY!! WOOT WOOT!" kind of moment. That was really fun to write- although I'm sure there are some readers out there who want it to have happened sooner in the story so there could be more juicy lady sex (despite the graphic nature of the sex scenes I'm not an erotica writer, sorry). It didn't feel right to me to rush it, so it happens slowly. I think when things start to really climb for them it's sweet and endearing and believable. It's something that neither just jump into; but rather, it becomes something they can no longer deny, something more enduring.
There's also a whole gallery of other characters that add moments that are sexy, funny, poignant, enlightening, fun and so forth. One of my favorite supporting characters is actually Charlie. He's the one Elizabeth has sex with in 'the scene.' He's a great guy, supportive, smart, generally happy and he helps Elizabeth the most out of all the supporting cast. I also really like Peter - Hailey's 'brother from a better mother.' He's like the older brother I never had and he adds some sparkle to the scenes he's in. I'm not one of those lesbians who hates men- I love men, actually- I just don't want to procreate/recreate with them. Some of my best friends are guys and I think Charlie and Peter definitely exemplify what a good man can be. That makes me feel good, anyway. I tried to have all the male characters be good examples of men. There are a lot more good guys out there than bad guys I think and I've been through some shit and still think that...Maybe that says something for the good guys I know. I also have a son, and I'm pretty sure he's going to become a good man. I'm working at it anyway...the world is full of men and the women who don't mind them- even when you're labeled a lesbian. In addition to the guys, there's Zoe and Shelly and Bobbi, as well as a few others that have more minor roles. They all serve to make their small town somewhere I'd like to live.
And Patty- even though she's going through hell with the cancer, she's able to see humor and take things with a grain of salt, turning her very real pain into a sarcastic quip or funny remark that lightens the mood and lets you know she's still in there even if she is becoming a shell.
I'm with you on guy friends. They go light on the drama. One of my closest friends is a guy -- the biggest weirdo freak (yeah, even more so than me) out there. I love him to death. Back to writing: what's next on the writing horizon for you?
Well I'm working on my second book - the current working title is 'Blindsided.' I may end up completely gutting and revamping it, but I'm still intrigued enough with it as is that it may remain...The premise in a super nutshell is 'a woman recovering from a car crash in which her partner was killed meets and falls in love with a woman who is reconciling her true self with the expectations of her family. I still have some serious research to do and I'm getting to the point in the story where that's needed, so the writing of it will go on hold until I can wrap my head around the things I need to. I think it'll be good if I can just get it done. At least in this one everyone we get to know and love will live through the end...I think <evil laughter> Regardless all that, 'Changing Shape' taught me a LOT about writing (stuff I'm still learning, too) and I'm sure that once it's ready to publish this new one will be something I'm even more proud of.
What did "Changing Shape" teach you about writing?
Mostly that it's really very hard work! And that readers are an interesting lot. It takes a lot of thought and preparation and dedication and attention to detail to write a good solid and satisfying book. There are a lot of nuances that one needs to be aware of and things that need to be worked out in order for it to work: dynamic and interesting characters who are well developed, an interesting location, a solid timeline, plots and subplots and the interplay between the players, the catalyst, the defining moments, etc- all coalesce into something that is [hopefully] going to accomplish the goal that was set for it. On top of that, you have to be a good writer and an even better editor.
That's something else that I learned. I mean, I already knew that of course, but it's especially true when you publish fiction. When you write fiction you are presenting something of yourself to the world. In essence, you are saying, 'Here I am, buy me.' In order to remain successful, [I think] you have to present something that is not only entertaining, moving and well thought out, but also polished to a certain degree. That's why I took some of the early feedback about editing and used it to fix my book- even though it was pretty damned polished already; I don't want to present something less than excellent to the world. Of course, I'm only one person and editing yourself is insanely difficult. And I admit that I don't remember all the grammar rules, even if I do know most of them and pride myself on that fact. Of course I've much to learn and I am- believe me the same mistakes won't be made in the next one. But that's how we grow as writers or as craftspeople. Because that's what it is, really- a craft. And if you can craft something that moves people, then you've made art.
The hardest thing I've learned, I think, is that there comes a point when you just have to let it fly. You can't edit it to death or you'd never publish. You can't catch all the mistakes and if there are 2 or 3 left in there, it's okay. That was actually a hard lesson for me, because believe it or not, I'm a perfectionist at heart. I'm fully aware that perfection is impossible, but that doesn't stop me from pursuing it. Even if my handbook [brain] is faulty.
You're in what I call "camp three" as far as indies go. Camp one consists of people like me (who have been published with publishers and rejected contracts because the terms were unfavorable), camp two consists of people who submitted to publishers and got rejected (and who have never been with a publisher). Camp three is...you know what? I'll shut up here and let you explain camp three and why you went indie!
There are a few reasons I went indie rather than trying to get published. I mean, I joke that I didn't want to face all the rejection, but the truth is that I wanted to retain complete control over my content. I wanted to, at the end of the day, be able to say, 'I did that.' ME. I'm a weirdo like that, I guess. I'm fiercely independent and I don't want a bunch of people 'massaging' my content to suit their own purposes, and then taking a portion of my profit when it's all said and done. Of course there are very real benefits to getting published and working with a larger entity- brand recognition and a 'built in' audience being the main things.
I also didn't want to HAVE to write another one. Reader expectation for a second novel is enough pressure for me; I don't need a potential lawsuit and all the trappings of that horsepuckey to deal with too. I honestly believe that in the end, I'll be successful and the people who love my work will continue to buy it and that my audience will grow. I understand that that will take time and that that timeframe will be stretched out because I'm just one person and not a marketing machine with a recognizable brand- but it allows me the freedom to write what I want, how I want to write it and to me that's worth something.
I think one of the big challenges indie authors face is the audience and their perceptions of being indie. There’s this stigma to being indie- that it should be cheap or that it isn’t really all that good and I want more people to recognize the merit of our work rather than simply disregarding indie as a group who couldn't hack it in the 'real publishing world.' In many cases, that's simply not what happened at all. I'm indie because I wanted to be. Plain and simple.
What steps are you taking to improve as an author?
Well as a start I'm brushing up on my grammar. I don't want to go into details, but let's just say I'm revisiting some schoolin' on that front. It's all good stuff to know and refresh. I'm also looking for a good manual on self editing. I've had a couple good recommendations on that front- now I just need to buy one! I'm human; I forget things I should know (school was a really long time ago). Sometimes a reminder is good.
I'm also trying to improve my typing skills...I sometimes miss longhand - even though it starts to hurt and takes longer and then you have to go back and type it all up anyway. Anyone who chats with me knows I have a problem with capitalization, for example - it's really just the 'shift' key I have a hard time with I think. My hands also just automatically add apostrophes where my brain knows there aren't any or periods where there should be commas because those buttons are close together- then I'll end up with capitalization where there shouldn't be because of autocorrect and I might not see it because I've been looking at it too long...that type of thing. It's a pain to go back and fix all that type of stuff- stupid stuff that I KNOW. So I'm trying to be more conscientious about that...although I'm still a miserable failure in chats. I am trying though- at least with my writing. Eventually, I'll have myself trained better.
One thing about the process that I will say I've changed- and perhaps the pendulum of my behavior will finally settle somewhere in between- is HOW I write...I used to edit as I go (literally every line was meticulously crafted) and I realized that that was stifling my creativity; it's little wonder why I didn't finish much when I was doing it that way! It became frustrating. Now I try to just get the story told and THEN go back and refine it and polish it and change it if need be. Just get the thing out there first. That's been my biggest change.
Your book is in KDP Select right now. Any plans to distribute it through other channels soon?
Absolutely - I need to go back over my contract with KDP just to make sure I do everything correctly, but as soon as I'm 'allowed' to I definitely plan to distribute to all the other major outlets in the various eBook formats. The paperback is already out there in a few different places, but I think the eBook is really where it's at in this day and age. As much market share as the Kindle has in the ereader arena, it's not the only one out there and they don't really play nice with each other as far as the formats go- I want everyone who wants to to be able to buy and read my book in the format that they prefer. Of course, that's going to take some time to accomplish, but I'll be posting those announcements on my blog as they happen and also through my other social media outlets (Facebook and Twitter, etc). When I know, you'll know.
Find Kat online!
Blog – www.katwheelerbooks.blogspot.com
Facebook- www.facebook.com/katwheelerbooks www.facebook.com/changingshapenovel
Twitter - @katwheelerbooks
Changing Shape’s Amazon page - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009BBGT86
Kat’s Amazon Page – www.amazon.com/author/katwheelerbooks
November 1, 2012
A Buncha Stuff
This blog post will be a bit of everything! :) So, here we go.
Beeswax 1: I am hoping to release my second novella, "Love's Spell," in the next two weeks (blurb and rough draft excerpt here). This is a call for celebration for me because this is the first totally new work I've released since my writer's block drought. ("The Girl Prince and Her Princess," while it got a nearly total overhaul, is based on an earlier story I wrote.)
Beeswax 2: I'm hard at work (about 1/4 finished) on a sequel to the award-winning "Strange Bedfellows." The sequel is tentatively titled "Strange Bedfellows Too" and is mainly the story of Victoria and her new love. Believe it or not, this pairing may be even stranger than the pairing of Frances and Elena! Speaking of Frances and Elena, they will be in "SB Too," but their roles will be more like Victoria's in the first book--basically subplot status.
I am looking for beta readers for "SB Too," especially betas who HAVE NOT read "Strange Bedfellows." I hope to get two of these at least. Reasons are (1) While I plan to run an author's note at the beginning of the story explaining that I recommend readers read "Strange Bedfellows" before reading the sequel, I do need input on how strongly worded/emphatic the note should be. Who knows, I may be totally off base and the sequel stands just fine on its own. In that case, the note can be relatively loosey goosey. (2) I would like input on how to make the story more "friendly" for these people who didn't read "Strange Bedfellows."
But, yeah, I think to fully appreciate "Strange Bedfellows Too," you're better off reading "Strange Bedfellows" as well. I won't be going into detail on history/back story that's in the first book.
Beeswax 3: Kindlegraphs has changed to Authorgraphs, and anyone with any device can get them. Actually, you don't need an e-book reader! Here's my page: http://www.authorgraph.com/authors/Q__Kelly
From an e-mail from Evan Jacobs:
* Readers no longer need a Twitter account to request an Authorgraph (they can simply use an email and password)
* The website has been completely redesigned
* Readers can submit an Authorgraph request via the widget on your blog or website
Beeswax 1: I am hoping to release my second novella, "Love's Spell," in the next two weeks (blurb and rough draft excerpt here). This is a call for celebration for me because this is the first totally new work I've released since my writer's block drought. ("The Girl Prince and Her Princess," while it got a nearly total overhaul, is based on an earlier story I wrote.)
Beeswax 2: I'm hard at work (about 1/4 finished) on a sequel to the award-winning "Strange Bedfellows." The sequel is tentatively titled "Strange Bedfellows Too" and is mainly the story of Victoria and her new love. Believe it or not, this pairing may be even stranger than the pairing of Frances and Elena! Speaking of Frances and Elena, they will be in "SB Too," but their roles will be more like Victoria's in the first book--basically subplot status.I am looking for beta readers for "SB Too," especially betas who HAVE NOT read "Strange Bedfellows." I hope to get two of these at least. Reasons are (1) While I plan to run an author's note at the beginning of the story explaining that I recommend readers read "Strange Bedfellows" before reading the sequel, I do need input on how strongly worded/emphatic the note should be. Who knows, I may be totally off base and the sequel stands just fine on its own. In that case, the note can be relatively loosey goosey. (2) I would like input on how to make the story more "friendly" for these people who didn't read "Strange Bedfellows."
But, yeah, I think to fully appreciate "Strange Bedfellows Too," you're better off reading "Strange Bedfellows" as well. I won't be going into detail on history/back story that's in the first book.
Beeswax 3: Kindlegraphs has changed to Authorgraphs, and anyone with any device can get them. Actually, you don't need an e-book reader! Here's my page: http://www.authorgraph.com/authors/Q__Kelly
From an e-mail from Evan Jacobs:
* Readers no longer need a Twitter account to request an Authorgraph (they can simply use an email and password)
* The website has been completely redesigned
* Readers can submit an Authorgraph request via the widget on your blog or website
October 18, 2012
BDSM, Hair, Ghosts, Sweet Romances -- Kissa Starling Does Them All!
What looks like a great novella is being released today! (The timing just happened right; I didn't plan it this way, but YAY :-) ) It's Celtic Destinies: Book One- Clarissa by Kissa Starling. Kissa is a versatile writer; she writes short stories and novellas and is finishing up a novel. But more than that, she writes sweet romances AND erotica. She writes about fetishes, BDSM, you name it. I've said this a lot of times--I am in awe of erotica writers. I think I could do pretty much any type of writing, but with erotica, I would need (pardon the pun--or nah, just revel in the pun) some sort of master/mentor. It isn't something I can read a few books on and whip out. Goodness knows I've tried!
OK, enough about me. Let's get to the interview with Kissa!
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Easy first question...share a little about yourself!
A little about me- I live in Georgia with my husband and many pets. I love old movies, board games and almost anything outside.
Including the stink bugs?
Hahaha, well, maybe not those and the mosquitoes!
Georgia... I have to ask this. Are you a Braves fan? I love 'em!
I love the Braves. I remember when they won that national title so many years ago. I hopped on a bus in Marietta which took me to MARTA. There were thousands of people and every time the doors would open people would jump on. I got so close to the parade but ended up going back home and watching it on television. I wondered how many of those people were fly by fans.
I grew up watching them on TBS (used to call TBS "The Braves Station"). These days, the Braves don't define TBS. Kinda sad, I think. Childhood's gone! But we're not here to talk about that! Oh, and I know you're not feeling well today, so should I attribute any wackiness to that or to you just being yourself?
I'm always myself. Consider me wacky all the time.
I’m really excited to discuss a book you have coming out today. Can you talk a little about that?Celtic Destiny was released at Lyrical Press, Inc. as a sweet romance about an ex stripper from Atlanta who moved to Scotland to be a governess. While there she encountered a ghost couple who needed reuniting and found she was their miracle oracle. Finding her own love was an added plus.
I got the rights back to this story, and it will now be published at Red Rose Publishing. I added about 10K words to it and made it an erotic romance. I've also changed the title a bit since I plan to write two more in the series: Celtic Destinies: Book One- Clarissa.
Celtic Destiny, K. Starling
redrosepublishing.com
Mainstream Romance:ISBN:978-1-4543-0225-4Buy link: http://redrosepublishing.com/books/product_info.php?products_id=1239
OK, first I have to say your ideas sound awesome! Just to be sure we're on the same page, what genre (other than erotica) is this in? Like, say, lesfic or het fic?
This one is het fic. and paranormal. I write in many different genres. Whatever strikes my mood is what I usually write.
Do you usually write novellas?
No, I usually write short stories. I am writing more novellas recently though. I am working on finishing my first full length novel. I got way too comfortable with short stories and doubt that I'll ever give them up, but I do want to expand my creativity.
Oh that's great. I just got finished with another author, and we talked a lot about short stories. How they're different from novels, how some people think short stories "don't count" and such.
I'll ask you one question I asked her. I'm curious to see how the answers stack up!
Anyway, get ready for a nerdy-author question! Some readers (authors, too) have wildly varying word count/length expectations for short stories. For example, I recently released a fairy tale novella that is 23,000 words. Some readers are calling it a short story! [image error]In my head, short stories are 10,000 words and less (the ones in my three collections range from about 1,000 words to 5,000 words--the collections as wholes are from 17,000 words to 21,000). What do you think is the highest a story can go in terms of word count and still be a short story? I've noticed a new term, "novelette," popping up for these stories between 10,000 words to 20,000 words.Hmm, good question! I think that this is usually up to the publisher and I've seen it differ widely among just the ones I work with. I think of anything 9K or under as a 'short'. Heck, some of my short stories are only a thousand words. Novella I think goes anywhere from 10K to around 40K When you get up to 50K or higher I think of that as a full length. I can't imagine what you call stories that are 100K or longer!
I call 'em long-ass stories! [image error]Sagas, probably. Here's another one.
Do you ever get an attitude of "short stories don't really count" from people? One of my friends said recently that she wants to try writing but would start with a novel (I had suggested she start with a short story). She said that she doesn't feel short stories really count. I wonder if high school teachers used more short stories if that would change attitudes some. But anyway, I'm trying not to get off track here! If you get these attitudes, how do you address the issue?
I don't know if I get the 'they don't count' so much as I do the 'wish they were longer'. I get that one constantly from readers, publishers and reviewers. There is a place in publishing for short stories. They aren't meant to be longer. If they were they'd be novels.
I get that a lot too-- the "I wish they were longer." Probably a good thing, right? So, what made you decide to expand "Celtic Destiny"?
Well, Celtic Destiny was already a novella, haha at least in my terms. It was around 15K when published as a sweet story. Red Rose Publishing contracted it as a reprint. I got to thinking that all of my sweet romance readers had already bought this so I doubted they wanted to read it again. I also knew that none of my erotic romance readers bought it because of the 'sweet' label. Hence, my idea to change it a bit. I expanded it necessarily to add the sex scenes, but once I got started a lot changed and the characters demanded a longer story. I haven't finished official edits yet but I'm at around 33K right now. I added so much about secondary characters that a few of them want their own story. That is how the trilogy idea came up. So now Celtic Destinies is the series name and Book One- Clarissa will define the first story.
I'm sure you get this question a lot, so shoo me away if you don't want to answer it yet again, but how do you write all these sex scenes and keep them fresh and exciting?
Also, great series idea!I am really getting into series lately. I love reading them and that has spurred me into writing them. It is so much fun to stay with the same characters for a little longer and learn more about them. As far as the sex scenes go, I have a great imagination! I often get in various, um, positions, to make sure they are really possible. There are some BDSM scenes that I research before writing. While I do have several fetishes I enjoy, I don't engage in all of them that I write about.
I think it's kind of funny how readers sometimes think all the sex stuff an author writes about MUST be from her own experience. Authors write characters who are, say, actresses or presidents, and readers don't assume the author used to be president or an actress. Anyway! I'm not sure how to approach this-- do you want to get personal or not?You are welcome to ask anything. Doesn't mean I'll answer it.
I just never want to make you uncomfortable that's all. I know some erotica authors talk about their personal lives and others don't.
OK, so question-- you brought up you enjoy several fetishes so now I'm curious what they are!I don't talk a lot about personal things but this is okay. Ahhh, fetishes. I love anything to do with hair. That is a big one for me. Earlier when I said I loved anything outside, I didn't mean only swimming and walking. Reading erotica is a huge one as well. I probably would never have thought to write erotica if I didn't read it myself.
For you, what is the hardest (and easiest) part about writing erotica? And, do you write a lot of sweet romances? Or are you done with them, at least for now?Sweet romances--I love them! Like short stories they have their place. When I am in the mood for sweet and sappy that is what I write. I'm not done with them. I definitely write a lot more erotic romances than sweet. Sweet doesn't sell well at all, especially from an erotic author, but like said, I will continue to write them as the ideas come.
The hardest part of any writing for me is the distractions. I am easily distracted. When I am deep into a project and a submission call comes through, I think I could write something for that. I've reached a point in my career where publishers and editors sometimes come to me asking for stories. That is a pleasant surprise and one that I welcome. (but I still read all of the submission calls I can find!) Sometimes I wish there were two of me, but my husband says he couldn't take it! haha
So is the bulk of your work indie work?
No, I'm not an indie author as of yet. I did help edit one anthology, Sapphic Planet, that ended up being self-published but the initial plan was to go with a traditional publisher. I'm not so great with the techie side of publishing. I would love to learn more about creating book covers. I paint and draw and would love to someday do my own covers. The formatting, editing and getting the book into hands of readers- I'll leave most of that to my publishers.
Do you write full time?I do write full time. I had another day job, also full time but quit that back in May. Two full time jobs was a lot. Now I am writing full time and working part time when I need a break. Stepping away from writing for a few hours is the best way to get the MOJO going. I'd love to travel and write one day in the near future.
This is probably another question you get a lot, but how do people (such as your family) react when you tell them you write erotica? Or do they know? I know one erotica author who is embarrassed to have her granny read her stories!I wouldn't say I'm embarrassed but I am cautious. I live in the Bible belt. My husband knew from the start and I told my son soon after I started, only because he was old enough to know. I've since told my mother and brother, but I don't go into details with any of them. I tell them about new contracts and exciting news, but I don't think they understand the impact of my news as much as my writing friends do. I told my brother I wrote about fetishes and his response was, "What's that website?" haha I love them to death and appreciate their support.
Yeah, I don't blame you for being cautious. I think it's a shame that sex is still so hush-hush and taboo. Do you think erotica is becoming more mainstream?
50 Shades of Grey has definitely changed the mainstream. I can't believe the people who are reading it. I'm ecstatic, don't get me wrong, but there are people reading that book who I didn't think even had sex! haha I can only hope that erotica, and lesbian erotica especially, will one day be more widely accepted.
Oh, I think most everyone has a secret sex life, if only in their head. The brain--a powerful sex organ, indeed! What would you say are the qualities of well-written erotica? I admire what you do. I tried writing erotica once (after reading a few books on how to write it, too). Couldn't get far!Well-written erotica can't be beat. Like any other story it takes the reader to another time and place, allowing them to become one with the characters. Unlike other genres, erotica allows the reader to bring thoughts, feelings and even ideas back with them. I'm working on a couples erotica story right now that will open up communication and allow couples to reveal fantasies without worry.
I think pretty much any story well written (erotica or not) allows readers to bring thoughts, feelings and even ideas back with them! A big thing is, the reader has to be aroused at least a little, right? I'm really interested in that couples story. There seems to be such fear about honest communication in couples.
You are right, there are thoughts and ideas to be kept with oneself in every genre but erotica is different I think. Very few fiction books allow you to bring back a new sexual position or read scenes in a bubble bath with your significant other. Yes, erotica should definitely arouse- not only the reader but the author too.
What's your favorite erotica story you've written --and what's your favorite by another author? Any advice for wannabe erotica writers?
My favorite erotica story is Angel's Wish. It is the first one I wrote. I love the characters in that one. My favorite by another author would have to be Anne Rice's Beauty series. I have an extensive erotica library and love to re-read books.
My advice for writers of any genre is don't give up. If you stop writing it will never happen. As long as you persevere there is a chance. Hang out with authors you admire. Find a mentor. Read what you like. Reviewing books is another great way to figure out what is hot in the industry.
I'd love readers to drop by my blog and read my serialized story, Fantasy Inker. I'm posting 500 words every Wednesday in October with the conclusion coming on Halloween day. This one is lesbian erotica and tattoos. What could be better? http://www.kissastarling.com/blog
Count me in! Another question: How do you find out about new fetishes, positions and the like? I mean, you do hands-on research, obviously, but HOW do you know to research these things? Hope that question makes sense!
I have many friends in the lifestyle and they are all into different things. I believe every fetish has its place and as long as it is between two consenting adults then it is okay. I do a lot of online research and I visit dungeons as well.
Maybe more than two consenting adults too? Three, four, sky's the limit!
Very true. Poly seems to be making its way into the mainstream also. I never used to hear about it and lately I hear about it almost daily.
I wrote a poly book. It hasn't sold too well, but maybe it will later, who knows! It also has parts of sci fi and historical fic (Anne Boleyn, one of the queens of Henry VIII is one of the three), so that may've hurt it too.I was going to ask what you wrote. You wrote a poly book with no sex in it?
There is sex, but it isn't an erotica book. I am not sure I can ever write erotica well, which is why I am in such awe of you! Speaking of "Third," which has time travel, let's talk a little about a time travel story you wrote.
Angel's Wish
BLURB: Angel is nothing more than a two-bit mechanic. She dreams of vintage pin-up girls and old cars. Nothing else excites her. She takes a cat nap one day at work and wakes up in the 1950’s. Old cars are now new and classy women are abundant and sweet. Can she find hers before she’s yanked back to her own time? Lust, love, or luck- she’s bound to find one of the three when she wishes upon the star on a tree!
BUY LINK: http://shop.renebooks.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=STARLING%2D01
I love everything about the 50's. I am a huge fan of old cars, the fashion of the era and even the movies and industrial age movement. I probably had more fun researching than writing for a while! The challenge was I wanted everything to be 'right'. I researched the cars, what movie would have been playing at the theatre, what clothing a boyish girl would wear and even how the state home for the elderly was run. Cars are a huge thing in this story since Angel is a mechanic. The idea began with thoughts of a pin up calendar, which moved to a daydreaming mechanic. Love this character so much!
Excerpt:“What time of year is it?”
“Why December, Mum, I mean, Ma’am. Very near to Christmas. In fact the family will be getting the house ready soon.”
“Thank you, Mary. Come stand in front of me.” I removed her maid’s garment. Her breasts were small and perky. Her areolas were light pink and smooth to the touch. The cleft between her legs was thick with dark curls. Her curves were heavy and her ass was well rounded. Just my type. I couldn’t stand those twiggy women.
“I need a switch. Go behind the house and find me a sturdy twig about two feet long.”
“But mum, there is snow out there, I get ever so cold. What if someone sees me outside?”I smiled at her and grabbed her by the hair. There was just enough to hold onto. I pulled her to me and placed my face in front of hers. I tried to keep in mind that she was a novice; she had a lot to learn. I was just the woman to teach ****
Thanks so much for the chat! I love ‘visiting’ with people online. To learn more about me and my writing visit http://www.kissastarling.com.
October 15, 2012
Lynn Lawler's Books Incorporate the Paranormal and the Spiritual
The next author in my author interview series (go here or click on the "My Interviews With Other Authors" tab at the top) is Lynn Lawler. I don't know about you, but in my corner of the world, today is rainy and dreary. Perfect for reading! So, let's dive right in! :) First question is pretty simple: Tell us a little about yourself, Lynn! I'm the author of "Rachel's Journey Home," a book about a troubled woman who is faced with a mysterious happening that forces her to deal with experiences that are suddenly foreign to her. I've always had the writer gene inside of me. I loved to write while I was growing up. In college I had an editorial published for The Detroit News. That was exciting. I've had some tough trials that I had to go through. I guess these have made me a stronger woman and author. I incorporate many of these trials in my stories. I'm finding that they make good drama. Nowadays I'm a much more calm person and am happy to say have come to terms with who I am. It took a lot to get to this point.
OK, so you've made me curious. What "mysterious happening" is this, or is that too much of a spoiler? Maybe just a tease? OOOOOOOOOOO. That is an important part of the story. But a tease. Let's see.
Yeah, you can't just throw that out there and not give a little more! :)I agree. What I can say is that she finds out one day it was like she walked into the life of another reality. Then she has to deal with the outcome. It was all her choice though.
The blurb pretty much indicates that, I think--sort of a body/spirit switch, right? (I think it's safe to say this much because the blurb on Amazon implies as much.)
Yes. You got it. I was just daydreaming one night and came up with the idea and wrote about what it would have been like for me. That's a great concept. I love TV shows/movies that deal with it. "Drop Dead Diva" and "Freaky Friday" for example. How did you expand on the idea? It just came to me. I had been toying with the story in my head for some time. I also put myself into her shoes.
So you mean you didn't need to expand on it? It all came to you in one big piece? Wow! Lucky you. I usually have to mull over various scenarios for several days and throw ideas around with people.I pretty much came up with the idea on my own. Although I did some research on the Internet.
What kind of research?On anything that there could be a question on later. I like to be as accurate as possible.
Such as...? Do you mean the physics of soul switching? That kind of stuff?You got it. I did do research on that. Then I incorporated what would happen to me if I were in Rachel's shoes. I also put in a few of my experiences and made them hers.
So is Rachel loosely based on you? Yes. Many of what Rachel was feeling is how I've felt during my life.
OK, what kind of feelings? Good question. When confronted we use a lot of energy to contain our emotions. Both Rachel and I are empaths and are constantly trying to keep our emotions intact. We are thrown off center very easily. It's hard to speak when heavy emotions are going through me. This is true for Rachel. Fear and anger come up a lot.
I imagine that finding yourself in a new body would certainly lead to fear and anger! How does Rachel deal with that? What's the central conflict in the story? Is it a romance or...ya know? She goes wild. Then after awhile she shuts down. Then she gets desperate and seeks assistance. The central conflict in the story is for her accepting herself who she is and that she asked for the soul switch as a way of spiritual awakening. Rachel does thrive on drama so I would say yes to the romance part.
Oh, she asked for it? Interesting. So many questions I have, but I guess I should just read the book!
I'd like to ask this one question, though--did Rachel specifically ask to switch with the person she did?Yes she did. We all ask for our experiences here on earth. Good and not so good. That is a really cool premise. One I wish I'd thought of myself!
Now I see you also have another book, "Jackie's Awakening." Is that lesbian fiction like the Rachel book? Yes it is. Care to expand? :) This is a chance to hook some readers!Yes. She does some wild and crazy stuff. She too has a spiritual awakening that takes her into another dimension of her life. Like Rachel, she too fights it. She dives deep and then realizes that this is who she is now. She has a new understanding on how things work. Nothing is secret anymore.
OK, that sounds great, too. What has your journey to publication been like? It has been fun. After I wrote the books, I had an editor go over it. Then when I approved of the manuscript, it gets published into Kindle. It's so exciting to see your name for your book on Amazon.The process took about a year from the beginning of editing to the print.
So are you an indie? And by a year, do you mean a year for both books or each individually?A year for each book. Even though I am GLBT, I don't have a specific label for my stories.
Yeah, I understand what you mean about labels. However, (and perhaps unfortunately), they're necessary to help retailers categorize books and make them easier for readers to find. It's easy to label a lot of books, not so much others! So why don't you have a specific label? I think for Rachel it would be easy to label. I would have to say that Rachel is definitely paranormal. I'm writing another GLBT book that is pure fantasy. So here are two labels.
So all three of these books are GBLT? Meaning all four letters, GBLT, and not just lesbian?The last book is lesbian in the sense that it is about women. The first two are GLBT as they have men.
So, transgender too? There aren't a lot of transgender books (and I know there's a need for more) so I just want to be sure I understand this.No transgender. I've thought about making a future minor character transgender.
OK, so it's GBL... no T? I meant that I currently don't have a transgender theme in my books. so they would be GBL
Gotcha now.
What is your writing process like?It's so fun. I make an outline and then allow the juices to flow as I'm writing. I feel like I'm in a zone. I feel my characters. They become my friends. It was so fun writing Jackie. I just ran with her. She has many aspects of me in her. It felt powerful creating her. Did/do you have a so-called "full-time job" while you wrote/write? Writing is my only career. Although I did have a full-time job when I started Rachel.
What kind of author are you/would like to be? By that I mean when people say: "Have you heard of Lynn Lawler? She's _______." What would the blank say? A lesbian fantasy writer.
OK. But there are other lesbian fantasy writers out there. What would make you exceptional and different? I incorporate paranormal into my stories as well as spiritual ideas. All of my characters are on a spiritual journey.
Why did you want to become an author?I have always loved to write. As a child I read a lot of books and was curious about how the authors did it. I made up my mind at age 10 that someday I was going to publish a book. the reason why it took so long was that on a spiritual level I needed to experience some setbacks and other experiences to add character to my stories. I feel free when I write.
Yeah, I know that life experience and mistakes help people become better in pretty much anything--writing, painting, surgery, what have you! :) I wish you much success! What can we expect from you next year? I'm currently on two writing projects. One I'm expecting to come out next year sometime. They are both lesbian fiction with oddities.
Great! Thanks for taking the time for this interview.
FIND LYNN ONLINE:
www.rachelsjourneyhome.com
www.jackiesawakening.comhttp://lynnlawler2.blogspot.com/
October 11, 2012
Nann Dunne: A "Door Shaker" Indeed! ;-)
Howdy folks! I have an ongoing series of my interviews with other authors (to see them, go here or click on the "My Interviews With Other Authors" tab at the top). I'm lucky to have landed an interview with Nann Dunne. She's a woman who has accomplished a trifecta: novels, short stories and nonfiction. I knew immediately, especially since one of her books is titled "Dunne with Editing," that I had the chance to make a possibly great word pun for the interview title. I tossed around ideas (she's dunne a lot, she's dunne great, etc.), but you know what? In this case, I think a pun on her name would be a disservice (although Nann and I did discuss some really great--meaning cringe-worthy--elephant jokes). Let's get right to the interview before I feel the urge to whip out some of these jokes. ;-) And you'll figure out the meaning behind the title I did choose.
(My comments below are in bold; Nann's are in plain text. All pictures courtesy of Nann.)
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Tell us a little about yourself. (And about the "us," I'm only one person, although the voices in my head say otherwise! But the "us" is me, the readers, the space aliens, the stink bugs, all these fun critters.)
Because of Just About Write, a writing ezine that I published online for eight years, a lot of people already know me, but I’ll toss the info out there again for the aliens. Forget about the stink bugs – kill them all! (Said in my best Xena impersonation.) Weren’t they awful this year? UGH!
I started writing in the late 90s in the Xenaverse and graduated from there to an honest-to-goodness publisher. I’ve been writing pretty regularly ever since. I currently have six fiction books published and several short stories in anthologies and one nonfiction book, Dunne With Editing, A Last Look At Your Manuscript. I self-published the editing book and my newest book (currently available only as an ebook) called Door Shaker And Other Stories, a collection of my short stories.
I also work regularly as an editor for Blue Feather Books and occasionally for Regal Crest Enterprises. I was an editor in the business world, and altogether, I’ve been an editor for more than thirty years. I learned that business editing was a LOT different from fiction editing. After my first three books were published, I decided I wanted my books to be as polished as I could make them. So I delayed my writing for three years and studied fiction editing. I devoured everything online I could find that I considered useful. Since then, I’ve edited for several different publishers and also have done some freelance editing.
I have to say that the little author in my head went SQUEE! when she heard that you do short stories. I adore short stories. Here's a blog entry I did on them. So, anyway, tell us about this new collection you have coming up. I notice the word "lesbian" isn't in the title, so is this a gen fic work, so to speak?Putting “lesbian” in the title never occurred to me. Do any books do that? But there aren’t any terribly explicit sex scenes in the stories, so I think anyone can enjoy them unless they’re prejudiced against lesbians. The people in the stories are as normal as the rest of society, so maybe a few people might be won over. Just don’t hold your breath. <g>The collection is already available on Amazon as an ebook. I signed the 90-day exclusion plan with Amazon, so I have to wait three months before I can sell it anywhere else or have a print book done. Not the best situation, but when a gorilla tells you how to feed him, you don’t argue.
The collection offers six short stories, all by me. Two were printed previously in anthologies, but this is the first publishing of the others. All the stories except one feature a girl-to-girl first meeting, and I try to squeeze a little humor into each one.
I put the word "lesbian" in my two lesbian short-story collections ("The Old Woman and Other Lesbian Stories" and "Cupid Pulls a Prank and Other Lesbian Tales"). I figured that'd help the target audience find the collections. Now, my gen fic collection ("Miss Lucy Parker and Other Short Stories") obviously doesn't have the word "lesbian" in the title! ;-) So, anyway, do you have a favorite in that collection, Nann? Any one story you're particularly proud of? How did you decide which order to put the stories in?One of the reasons I studied fiction editing for so long was so I could be proud of any work I put before the reading public. I decided if I didn’t feel proud of a story (or book), I wouldn’t publish it—or write it, for that matter. When I was putting the stories in order for the book, I figured I would put my favorite story third or fourth, my next favorite as the first story, and my third favorite last. Each of my stories shows a varying aspect of life: loneliness in two different age groups; the fruits of compassion; reconciliation; unexpected love; salvation of endangered lesbians. After two days of consideration, I couldn’t decide which I liked best or even which I liked least. So I put the title story last and put the others in willy-nilly order.
I hear you. Deciding on order IS difficult! Your answer above is one of the reasons I love doing these interviews—finding out methods authors use that are vastly different from mine. I try not to let favorites (of mine) factor into short-story order. I ask opinions from people who have read the stories and use their answers plus my own input to decide the order in which the stories are “strong.” The strongest story is the lead. The second-strongest may go second or last, depending. The order from there may vary depending on other factors, but I tend to write shorts both in third person and first person points of view. So I also like to alternate 3p/1p (or 1p/3p) whenever possible.
Anyway, enough about order! What do you like (and dislike) about writing short stories? And let's not pick on just shorts. What do you like and dislike about writing novels?I prefer writing novels. The challenge of coming up with a story that can stretch the length of a book intrigues me. And I have to admit, I relish the god-like aspects of creating fascinating people and being able to steer them through the ups and downs that happen. I dislike that it takes so much time to finish the story into a publishable manuscript!
I’ve written my short stories in the moments during writing a novel when things need to percolate for awhile or when I’m between novels. I like that you can knock one out in a day or two or three. The fastest one I did was an overnighter that took about eight hours to write and edit. I don’t like having to leave the characters I’ve brought to life. Sometimes, I wish I had saved them for a novel. I might find a spot for one or two of them yet.
I hope you find a place in a novel for these special characters! :) I know what you mean. I am in the same boat. You're right that writing short stories does provide a nice break and a nice variety between writing novels. That is what I do sometimes as well.
Do you ever get an attitude of "short stories don't really count" from people? One of my friends said recently that she wants to try writing but would start with a novel (I had suggested she start with a short story). She said that she doesn't feel short stories really count. I wonder if high school teachers used more short stories if that would change attitudes some. But anyway, I'm trying not to get off track here! If you get these attitudes, how do you address the issue?I’ve had no personal experience with that. I do know that a few years back (before Amazon, et al.), when magazines stopped offering short stories, or went out of business altogether, selling short stories was a tough task and writing them lost a lot of its luster.
Now I tell people that short stories have undergone a resurgence. Authors are selling them as stand-alones on Amazon for the Kindle, and some say they’re doing well with that. Some novel writers are writing short stories to sell at reduced prices or give away in hopes that people will like their writing and buy their novels. I’m not sure whether that would work in the lesbian genre, but I’m giving it some thought.
I agree with this 100 percent. It's great that short stories are coming back! Two of my collections are among my consistent top sellers. Anyway, get ready for a nerdy-author question! Some readers (authors, too) have wildly varying word count/length expectations for short stories. For example, I recently released a fairy tale novella that is 23,000 words. Some readers are calling it a short story! :-) In my head, short stories are 10,000 words and less (the ones in my three collections range from about 1,000 words to 5,000 words--the collections as wholes are from 17,000 words to 21,000). What do you think is the highest a story can go in terms of word count and still be a short story? I've noticed a new term, "novelette," popping up for these stories between 10,000 words to 20,000 words.This question has been bandied up, down, and around the writing universe, especially since the popularity of ebooks, and not everyone agrees. Not even all publishers agree. I think, as you do, that short stories are under 10,000 words. Mine tend to be around 5,000 words. I don’t see any difference between novellas and novelettes (both words mean “little novels” and it disturbs me that WRITERS don’t realize that).
I think novels are 60,000 words or more, and I’d get plenty of argument about that. I DO expect a lot more plot development and character development to happen in a novel than happens in a novella or short story. Again, that’s what I think, but no one put me in charge of the writing world this week, so I guess it will have to remain a matter of opinion.
I think a novel can be 50,000 words or more, but I am biased because a few of my novels are about 55,000 words. ;-) One thing I like about the advent of e-books is that a story can be told in the exact word count it needs to be told. Only 45,000 words? No problem. No need to add an unnecessary subplot. That word count will be just fine. Have a novella of 23,000 words? No problem either! You don't need to wait to write two more novellas before publishing the first one.Some shorter forms of stories I've read have been absolute gems. I've read others that I felt suffered from lack of plot or character development or from trying to squeeze too much action into too small a vessel. In my opinion, if a story seems crammed with characters or action, it should be developed into a longer story. I dislike reading a story that I felt was too truncated. I ask myself, "Why didn't the author take the time to do this story justice?"
We've talked a little previously on our writing processes and how they're similar. So, what's your writing process? Is it different for short stories and novels? How about for your non-fiction work?
First off, I’m not an outliner. For both novels and short stories, I get a vague idea for a story and a setting, and I hunt through my mind for a main character. Sometimes it works the other way around: a character leaps into my mind and pesters me until I find a setting for her. Next, I make notes of what incidents I want to happen in the story. Then I start writing. I sometimes decide on subplots when I make the notes; other times, I decide on them as I write. While I’m writing, I ask myself what conflicts can happen to broaden the plot and/or grow the main character. What can happen here to make the story more exciting? I constantly ask, “What if?”
When I sit down to write, I reread enough of the story to get “back into it.” During that reread, I edit and revise where necessary. I also edit and revise as I write. While doing this, I take care to add tastes, sights, touches, smells, and sounds wherever I can to fill out the story and bring the reader closer into it. About halfway through the story, the ending comes to me. After that, I aim the rest of the story toward that ending and wrap up all the loose ends. By the time I’ve finished my story—always editing and revising as I go—the story is close to being ready to publish. I have several friends, who are also editors, who beta read for me and help me finalize the manuscript.
My newest book, Door Shaker And Other Stories, is a collection of my short stories. It was already written, so I chose the order for the stories, formatted it, put a cover together, and self-published it.
I’ve written only one nonfiction book, Dunne With Editing: A Last Look At Your Manuscript, and I handled it entirely differently. The book advises authors to check to make sure their stories are as polished as possible before they submit them anywhere. The way my book is structured called for using an outline. I made a list of all the points I felt needed to be addressed. I explained each point in depth and gave examples to illustrate my meaning. I put all those points in the book, formatted it, made a cover for it, and self-published it.
You do your fair share of editing. I'm curious: what are the most common mistakes you see?
I don’t get to see the worst mistakes, for instance weak stories or poor structure. Those manuscripts are discarded in the prepublication process before I see them. Of the wide variety of possible mistakes, I see the following most often:
1. Too many participial phrases. This is laughingly called “ing disease.” New writers often make this mistake. These phrases weaken the writing, and should be held to two or three per page. More than that tend to “clang” in the reader’s mind and make the writing seem to be tumbling along.
2. Too many POV changes in one scene. Another mistake of new writers. Try to keep to one POV per scene. If the author must change to another POV within one scene, leave an empty space to warn the reader.
3. Weak beginnings. Potential readers often pick up a book and read the first two or three paragraphs. Authors should make an effort to immediately raise questions in the readers' minds, pique their curiosity, give them a reason to want to keep reading. Openings should be revised or rewritten to achieve this.
4. Info dumps. Many authors fall into the trap of trying to give the reader too much information at one time, for instance giving a character’s whole back story or describing every detail of a setting. Information should be spread out over the story, not “dumped” on the reader all at once.
5. Not enough conflict/angst. Don’t make everything too perfect. Conflict and angst will make readers want to see what happens next and drive them to turn the page. Writers should use this knowledge to their advantage.
6. Using “then” too often. Writers should use “and” most of the time. Readers understand when clauses or phrases are sequential; they don’t need to be beaten over the head with it.
How has your experience in self-publishing been?
I’ve really enjoyed it. I like being in control of the whole publishing process. I have several advantages over many authors: 1) I’ve been an editor for many years, so my work is well edited. I think that’s an important point. If you expect to put more than one book out there, you better make sure your book is well edited. If not, readers aren’t likely to buy any more. 2) I’ve worked with graphics programs for many years, so I’m able to make my own covers. 3) I learned how to format books.
Without those three advantages, making money with self-publishing could be difficult. I firmly believe, if you can’t do your own editing and formatting, make your own covers, or afford to hire someone to do them for you, you’re better off to go with standard publishers. They’ll polish your writing, format the book, and provide a cover for you at no charge. Regardless of which way you go, be prepared to do your own book promotion!
I also like that self-published work can be available forever, which gives an author a chance to build up a fan base.
You have book three in a series coming out soon, right? What is that about?This is a historical romance/adventure series: In book one, The War Between the Hearts, Sarah-Bren Coulter—a woman disguised as a soldier—is healed by Faith Pruitt in the midst of the American Civil War. They’re separated by betrayal and accidentally reunited after the war ends. In book two, The Clash Between the Minds,endangerment from the Ku Klux Klan of that period leads Faith to question the wisdom of her and Sarah’s commitment to each other and includes all the angst that uncertainty causes in both women. In book three, currently being written, called The Peace Between the Souls, Sarah-Bren and Faith have to work through a number of expected and unexpected difficulties in an attempt to settle major problems that have beleaguered them and their extended family for years.
I might keep this series going, though I haven’t decided that for certain yet. I have a couple of other stories banging on the inside of my skull that are begging to be written.
Do you have any advice for new writers?
Learn as much about fiction writing as you can, either before or after you write your book. Discover the difference between being an outliner and being a pantser, and don’t be intimidated by either group—follow whichever method works best for you, as long as you keep to the basic story structure. (You can learn about story structure online for free.) Get knowledgeable people to read your story who are willing to tell you the truth even if it hurts. You can learn a lot from negative criticism that is honestly given.
Like any other skill, writing improves with the old advice—practice, practice, practice, and in the case of stories, revise, revise, revise. Don’t be in a rush. Take the time to polish your story until it shines as bright as it can. When you can’t think of one more way to improve it, put on your body armor and submit it to a publisher (or self-publish it). If it’s rejected, take to heart any suggestions you might be given in the rejection letter. Revise some more and resubmit. Authors with thick skin and determination learn to improve their craft. The faint-hearted wilt by the wayside.
That’s great advice, Nann. I hope people take it. I can’t count how many times new authors have come to me for advice, decide it is too much work or that I don’t know what I’m talking about, and don’t follow through (here’s an advice post of mine that I hope comes off as more funny than negative).
I’d love to keep this going (goodness knows I have a fountain of questions gushing out of my hands), but I know you’re busy so I’ll let ya go now. But come back anytime! I have plenty more noodle-pickin’ questions for a second round if/when you’re up to it. Thanks for giving me this chance to get to know you better, and I am sure the readers, stink bugs and space aliens appreciate it too!Q. Kelly, thanks for the interview! Getting my brain organized enough to answer these questions was fun, even helpful. I hope my answers give some fun and help to your readers.
FIND NANN ONLINE!
For fiction: www.nanndunne.com
For nonfiction: www.nanndunnebooks.com
For her blog: www.justaboutwrite.com/blog
(My comments below are in bold; Nann's are in plain text. All pictures courtesy of Nann.)
******
Tell us a little about yourself. (And about the "us," I'm only one person, although the voices in my head say otherwise! But the "us" is me, the readers, the space aliens, the stink bugs, all these fun critters.)Because of Just About Write, a writing ezine that I published online for eight years, a lot of people already know me, but I’ll toss the info out there again for the aliens. Forget about the stink bugs – kill them all! (Said in my best Xena impersonation.) Weren’t they awful this year? UGH!
I started writing in the late 90s in the Xenaverse and graduated from there to an honest-to-goodness publisher. I’ve been writing pretty regularly ever since. I currently have six fiction books published and several short stories in anthologies and one nonfiction book, Dunne With Editing, A Last Look At Your Manuscript. I self-published the editing book and my newest book (currently available only as an ebook) called Door Shaker And Other Stories, a collection of my short stories.
I also work regularly as an editor for Blue Feather Books and occasionally for Regal Crest Enterprises. I was an editor in the business world, and altogether, I’ve been an editor for more than thirty years. I learned that business editing was a LOT different from fiction editing. After my first three books were published, I decided I wanted my books to be as polished as I could make them. So I delayed my writing for three years and studied fiction editing. I devoured everything online I could find that I considered useful. Since then, I’ve edited for several different publishers and also have done some freelance editing.
I have to say that the little author in my head went SQUEE! when she heard that you do short stories. I adore short stories. Here's a blog entry I did on them. So, anyway, tell us about this new collection you have coming up. I notice the word "lesbian" isn't in the title, so is this a gen fic work, so to speak?Putting “lesbian” in the title never occurred to me. Do any books do that? But there aren’t any terribly explicit sex scenes in the stories, so I think anyone can enjoy them unless they’re prejudiced against lesbians. The people in the stories are as normal as the rest of society, so maybe a few people might be won over. Just don’t hold your breath. <g>The collection is already available on Amazon as an ebook. I signed the 90-day exclusion plan with Amazon, so I have to wait three months before I can sell it anywhere else or have a print book done. Not the best situation, but when a gorilla tells you how to feed him, you don’t argue.The collection offers six short stories, all by me. Two were printed previously in anthologies, but this is the first publishing of the others. All the stories except one feature a girl-to-girl first meeting, and I try to squeeze a little humor into each one.
I put the word "lesbian" in my two lesbian short-story collections ("The Old Woman and Other Lesbian Stories" and "Cupid Pulls a Prank and Other Lesbian Tales"). I figured that'd help the target audience find the collections. Now, my gen fic collection ("Miss Lucy Parker and Other Short Stories") obviously doesn't have the word "lesbian" in the title! ;-) So, anyway, do you have a favorite in that collection, Nann? Any one story you're particularly proud of? How did you decide which order to put the stories in?One of the reasons I studied fiction editing for so long was so I could be proud of any work I put before the reading public. I decided if I didn’t feel proud of a story (or book), I wouldn’t publish it—or write it, for that matter. When I was putting the stories in order for the book, I figured I would put my favorite story third or fourth, my next favorite as the first story, and my third favorite last. Each of my stories shows a varying aspect of life: loneliness in two different age groups; the fruits of compassion; reconciliation; unexpected love; salvation of endangered lesbians. After two days of consideration, I couldn’t decide which I liked best or even which I liked least. So I put the title story last and put the others in willy-nilly order.
I hear you. Deciding on order IS difficult! Your answer above is one of the reasons I love doing these interviews—finding out methods authors use that are vastly different from mine. I try not to let favorites (of mine) factor into short-story order. I ask opinions from people who have read the stories and use their answers plus my own input to decide the order in which the stories are “strong.” The strongest story is the lead. The second-strongest may go second or last, depending. The order from there may vary depending on other factors, but I tend to write shorts both in third person and first person points of view. So I also like to alternate 3p/1p (or 1p/3p) whenever possible.
Anyway, enough about order! What do you like (and dislike) about writing short stories? And let's not pick on just shorts. What do you like and dislike about writing novels?I prefer writing novels. The challenge of coming up with a story that can stretch the length of a book intrigues me. And I have to admit, I relish the god-like aspects of creating fascinating people and being able to steer them through the ups and downs that happen. I dislike that it takes so much time to finish the story into a publishable manuscript!
I’ve written my short stories in the moments during writing a novel when things need to percolate for awhile or when I’m between novels. I like that you can knock one out in a day or two or three. The fastest one I did was an overnighter that took about eight hours to write and edit. I don’t like having to leave the characters I’ve brought to life. Sometimes, I wish I had saved them for a novel. I might find a spot for one or two of them yet.
I hope you find a place in a novel for these special characters! :) I know what you mean. I am in the same boat. You're right that writing short stories does provide a nice break and a nice variety between writing novels. That is what I do sometimes as well.
Do you ever get an attitude of "short stories don't really count" from people? One of my friends said recently that she wants to try writing but would start with a novel (I had suggested she start with a short story). She said that she doesn't feel short stories really count. I wonder if high school teachers used more short stories if that would change attitudes some. But anyway, I'm trying not to get off track here! If you get these attitudes, how do you address the issue?I’ve had no personal experience with that. I do know that a few years back (before Amazon, et al.), when magazines stopped offering short stories, or went out of business altogether, selling short stories was a tough task and writing them lost a lot of its luster.
Now I tell people that short stories have undergone a resurgence. Authors are selling them as stand-alones on Amazon for the Kindle, and some say they’re doing well with that. Some novel writers are writing short stories to sell at reduced prices or give away in hopes that people will like their writing and buy their novels. I’m not sure whether that would work in the lesbian genre, but I’m giving it some thought.
I agree with this 100 percent. It's great that short stories are coming back! Two of my collections are among my consistent top sellers. Anyway, get ready for a nerdy-author question! Some readers (authors, too) have wildly varying word count/length expectations for short stories. For example, I recently released a fairy tale novella that is 23,000 words. Some readers are calling it a short story! :-) In my head, short stories are 10,000 words and less (the ones in my three collections range from about 1,000 words to 5,000 words--the collections as wholes are from 17,000 words to 21,000). What do you think is the highest a story can go in terms of word count and still be a short story? I've noticed a new term, "novelette," popping up for these stories between 10,000 words to 20,000 words.This question has been bandied up, down, and around the writing universe, especially since the popularity of ebooks, and not everyone agrees. Not even all publishers agree. I think, as you do, that short stories are under 10,000 words. Mine tend to be around 5,000 words. I don’t see any difference between novellas and novelettes (both words mean “little novels” and it disturbs me that WRITERS don’t realize that).
I think novels are 60,000 words or more, and I’d get plenty of argument about that. I DO expect a lot more plot development and character development to happen in a novel than happens in a novella or short story. Again, that’s what I think, but no one put me in charge of the writing world this week, so I guess it will have to remain a matter of opinion.
I think a novel can be 50,000 words or more, but I am biased because a few of my novels are about 55,000 words. ;-) One thing I like about the advent of e-books is that a story can be told in the exact word count it needs to be told. Only 45,000 words? No problem. No need to add an unnecessary subplot. That word count will be just fine. Have a novella of 23,000 words? No problem either! You don't need to wait to write two more novellas before publishing the first one.Some shorter forms of stories I've read have been absolute gems. I've read others that I felt suffered from lack of plot or character development or from trying to squeeze too much action into too small a vessel. In my opinion, if a story seems crammed with characters or action, it should be developed into a longer story. I dislike reading a story that I felt was too truncated. I ask myself, "Why didn't the author take the time to do this story justice?"
We've talked a little previously on our writing processes and how they're similar. So, what's your writing process? Is it different for short stories and novels? How about for your non-fiction work?
First off, I’m not an outliner. For both novels and short stories, I get a vague idea for a story and a setting, and I hunt through my mind for a main character. Sometimes it works the other way around: a character leaps into my mind and pesters me until I find a setting for her. Next, I make notes of what incidents I want to happen in the story. Then I start writing. I sometimes decide on subplots when I make the notes; other times, I decide on them as I write. While I’m writing, I ask myself what conflicts can happen to broaden the plot and/or grow the main character. What can happen here to make the story more exciting? I constantly ask, “What if?”
When I sit down to write, I reread enough of the story to get “back into it.” During that reread, I edit and revise where necessary. I also edit and revise as I write. While doing this, I take care to add tastes, sights, touches, smells, and sounds wherever I can to fill out the story and bring the reader closer into it. About halfway through the story, the ending comes to me. After that, I aim the rest of the story toward that ending and wrap up all the loose ends. By the time I’ve finished my story—always editing and revising as I go—the story is close to being ready to publish. I have several friends, who are also editors, who beta read for me and help me finalize the manuscript.
My newest book, Door Shaker And Other Stories, is a collection of my short stories. It was already written, so I chose the order for the stories, formatted it, put a cover together, and self-published it.
I’ve written only one nonfiction book, Dunne With Editing: A Last Look At Your Manuscript, and I handled it entirely differently. The book advises authors to check to make sure their stories are as polished as possible before they submit them anywhere. The way my book is structured called for using an outline. I made a list of all the points I felt needed to be addressed. I explained each point in depth and gave examples to illustrate my meaning. I put all those points in the book, formatted it, made a cover for it, and self-published it.
You do your fair share of editing. I'm curious: what are the most common mistakes you see?
I don’t get to see the worst mistakes, for instance weak stories or poor structure. Those manuscripts are discarded in the prepublication process before I see them. Of the wide variety of possible mistakes, I see the following most often:
1. Too many participial phrases. This is laughingly called “ing disease.” New writers often make this mistake. These phrases weaken the writing, and should be held to two or three per page. More than that tend to “clang” in the reader’s mind and make the writing seem to be tumbling along.
2. Too many POV changes in one scene. Another mistake of new writers. Try to keep to one POV per scene. If the author must change to another POV within one scene, leave an empty space to warn the reader.
3. Weak beginnings. Potential readers often pick up a book and read the first two or three paragraphs. Authors should make an effort to immediately raise questions in the readers' minds, pique their curiosity, give them a reason to want to keep reading. Openings should be revised or rewritten to achieve this.
4. Info dumps. Many authors fall into the trap of trying to give the reader too much information at one time, for instance giving a character’s whole back story or describing every detail of a setting. Information should be spread out over the story, not “dumped” on the reader all at once.
5. Not enough conflict/angst. Don’t make everything too perfect. Conflict and angst will make readers want to see what happens next and drive them to turn the page. Writers should use this knowledge to their advantage.
6. Using “then” too often. Writers should use “and” most of the time. Readers understand when clauses or phrases are sequential; they don’t need to be beaten over the head with it.
How has your experience in self-publishing been?
I’ve really enjoyed it. I like being in control of the whole publishing process. I have several advantages over many authors: 1) I’ve been an editor for many years, so my work is well edited. I think that’s an important point. If you expect to put more than one book out there, you better make sure your book is well edited. If not, readers aren’t likely to buy any more. 2) I’ve worked with graphics programs for many years, so I’m able to make my own covers. 3) I learned how to format books.
Without those three advantages, making money with self-publishing could be difficult. I firmly believe, if you can’t do your own editing and formatting, make your own covers, or afford to hire someone to do them for you, you’re better off to go with standard publishers. They’ll polish your writing, format the book, and provide a cover for you at no charge. Regardless of which way you go, be prepared to do your own book promotion!
I also like that self-published work can be available forever, which gives an author a chance to build up a fan base.
You have book three in a series coming out soon, right? What is that about?This is a historical romance/adventure series: In book one, The War Between the Hearts, Sarah-Bren Coulter—a woman disguised as a soldier—is healed by Faith Pruitt in the midst of the American Civil War. They’re separated by betrayal and accidentally reunited after the war ends. In book two, The Clash Between the Minds,endangerment from the Ku Klux Klan of that period leads Faith to question the wisdom of her and Sarah’s commitment to each other and includes all the angst that uncertainty causes in both women. In book three, currently being written, called The Peace Between the Souls, Sarah-Bren and Faith have to work through a number of expected and unexpected difficulties in an attempt to settle major problems that have beleaguered them and their extended family for years.
I might keep this series going, though I haven’t decided that for certain yet. I have a couple of other stories banging on the inside of my skull that are begging to be written.
Do you have any advice for new writers?
Learn as much about fiction writing as you can, either before or after you write your book. Discover the difference between being an outliner and being a pantser, and don’t be intimidated by either group—follow whichever method works best for you, as long as you keep to the basic story structure. (You can learn about story structure online for free.) Get knowledgeable people to read your story who are willing to tell you the truth even if it hurts. You can learn a lot from negative criticism that is honestly given.
Like any other skill, writing improves with the old advice—practice, practice, practice, and in the case of stories, revise, revise, revise. Don’t be in a rush. Take the time to polish your story until it shines as bright as it can. When you can’t think of one more way to improve it, put on your body armor and submit it to a publisher (or self-publish it). If it’s rejected, take to heart any suggestions you might be given in the rejection letter. Revise some more and resubmit. Authors with thick skin and determination learn to improve their craft. The faint-hearted wilt by the wayside.
That’s great advice, Nann. I hope people take it. I can’t count how many times new authors have come to me for advice, decide it is too much work or that I don’t know what I’m talking about, and don’t follow through (here’s an advice post of mine that I hope comes off as more funny than negative).
I’d love to keep this going (goodness knows I have a fountain of questions gushing out of my hands), but I know you’re busy so I’ll let ya go now. But come back anytime! I have plenty more noodle-pickin’ questions for a second round if/when you’re up to it. Thanks for giving me this chance to get to know you better, and I am sure the readers, stink bugs and space aliens appreciate it too!Q. Kelly, thanks for the interview! Getting my brain organized enough to answer these questions was fun, even helpful. I hope my answers give some fun and help to your readers.
FIND NANN ONLINE!
For fiction: www.nanndunne.com
For nonfiction: www.nanndunnebooks.com
For her blog: www.justaboutwrite.com/blog
October 10, 2012
Excerpt From "Love's Spell" In Progress
Here's a little excerpt from "Love's Spell" in progress. Note!!! This excerpt has not been betaed or edited.
First, I should post the blurb, eh? :) (This, too, is a rough draft.)
Blurb: Ava Van Dorn doesn’t believe in magic, but she figures trying a love spell her grandmother left her won’t hurt. Worst case: her life will stay the same. Best case: her fellow second-grade teacher James Friedlander will fall in love with her, and they’ll live happily ever after.
Except…oops!
The spell is accidentally placed on Ava’s principal, Libby Lubbock. Libby is wrestling with her own issues in the love department, namely the fact that she’s deciding whether to give her ex a second chance after the ex cheated. Libby is beginning to think she’s the type who is better off single.
The spell can be undone, but it requires Ava and Libby getting to know each other better. Lots better. Libby agrees to the undo because no way does she want to fall in love with Ava if she can help it. However, perhaps the last paragraph in a letter Ava's grandmother wrote is right: “Why all these crazy steps? My great-great grandmother, the witch, strongly believed that things happen for a reason. This time with the ‘wrong person’ will help determine if the wrong person might be the right person, after all.”
Can Libby and Ava cast a love spell that has nothing to do with abracadabra magic and everything to do with the magic of true love?
EXCERPT:
“Oh.” My tongue tasted like gall. My thoughts tasted like gall. I could say an “I’m sorry,” but it would be of no use. And I wasn’t sure what I was sorry for. Rotten timing? Me being an ass? Ellen asking Libby for a second chance? Libby telling me about Ellen now instead of in the morning—and therefore denying me one grand night with her before reaching into my chest and seizing my beating heart?
“Well, thank you,” I said. “Thanks for letting me know. I sure do appreciate it.”
Sarcasm. Lots of sarcasm. And pain.
“Ava,” Libby implored.
“Why did you let us do what we did Friday night?” I asked accusingly.
“Ellen and I are not dating. Not technically. And…” Libby clenched her teeth. “Geez, Ava. I don’t know. I’m not perfect. I haven’t had sex in more than a year, and I like you. You know that. I’ve liked you a long time. It took all I had to…to not let things progress like they would have Friday night. I thought you were kind of experimenting. Questioning your sexuality. Aren’t you? Look, no offense, but I’m not a science project.”
I scoffed, mostly to cover up the fact that tiny tears stung my eyes. “Didn’t you hear what I said earlier? You and the spell helped me realize some things.”
“I appreciate that. I do, really. However, maybe a week from now, or a month from now, or a year from now, you’ll realize otherwise. I’m thirty-seven. I’m too old for these kinds of risks. These kinds of games.”
My tiny tears enlarged. Time for another pity-party hoedown. Noise makers, red hats, pony rides, cake, ice cream, scary-ass clowns. Maybe I was questioning my sexuality, maybe I wasn’t. Bottom line, I liked Libby. I liked that one beautiful, smart woman. Did other stuff really matter?
Yes. Apparently.
“Know what’s sad?” I volunteered.
“What?”
“Friday night was the best sexual encounter of my life.”
Libby blinked. “Really?”
“I can’t, I can’t…I can’t come with someone else. I’ve never been able to. I can’t lose myself. I always have to focus. Like, I’m doing this now, what should I do next, step A, step B, step C, that kind of stuff. But I never tried the…what we did Friday. I came with you. I lost myself in what you were doing. My brain didn’t get in the way. That’s huge to me. You have no idea.”
Libby nodded slowly, my confession no doubt scaring her shitless. The good ol’ TMFI—too much freaking information. “Well…good. I’m glad, Ava. I’m glad you got that.”
First, I should post the blurb, eh? :) (This, too, is a rough draft.)
Blurb: Ava Van Dorn doesn’t believe in magic, but she figures trying a love spell her grandmother left her won’t hurt. Worst case: her life will stay the same. Best case: her fellow second-grade teacher James Friedlander will fall in love with her, and they’ll live happily ever after.
Except…oops!
The spell is accidentally placed on Ava’s principal, Libby Lubbock. Libby is wrestling with her own issues in the love department, namely the fact that she’s deciding whether to give her ex a second chance after the ex cheated. Libby is beginning to think she’s the type who is better off single.
The spell can be undone, but it requires Ava and Libby getting to know each other better. Lots better. Libby agrees to the undo because no way does she want to fall in love with Ava if she can help it. However, perhaps the last paragraph in a letter Ava's grandmother wrote is right: “Why all these crazy steps? My great-great grandmother, the witch, strongly believed that things happen for a reason. This time with the ‘wrong person’ will help determine if the wrong person might be the right person, after all.”
Can Libby and Ava cast a love spell that has nothing to do with abracadabra magic and everything to do with the magic of true love?
EXCERPT:
“Oh.” My tongue tasted like gall. My thoughts tasted like gall. I could say an “I’m sorry,” but it would be of no use. And I wasn’t sure what I was sorry for. Rotten timing? Me being an ass? Ellen asking Libby for a second chance? Libby telling me about Ellen now instead of in the morning—and therefore denying me one grand night with her before reaching into my chest and seizing my beating heart?
“Well, thank you,” I said. “Thanks for letting me know. I sure do appreciate it.”
Sarcasm. Lots of sarcasm. And pain.
“Ava,” Libby implored.
“Why did you let us do what we did Friday night?” I asked accusingly.
“Ellen and I are not dating. Not technically. And…” Libby clenched her teeth. “Geez, Ava. I don’t know. I’m not perfect. I haven’t had sex in more than a year, and I like you. You know that. I’ve liked you a long time. It took all I had to…to not let things progress like they would have Friday night. I thought you were kind of experimenting. Questioning your sexuality. Aren’t you? Look, no offense, but I’m not a science project.”
I scoffed, mostly to cover up the fact that tiny tears stung my eyes. “Didn’t you hear what I said earlier? You and the spell helped me realize some things.”
“I appreciate that. I do, really. However, maybe a week from now, or a month from now, or a year from now, you’ll realize otherwise. I’m thirty-seven. I’m too old for these kinds of risks. These kinds of games.”
My tiny tears enlarged. Time for another pity-party hoedown. Noise makers, red hats, pony rides, cake, ice cream, scary-ass clowns. Maybe I was questioning my sexuality, maybe I wasn’t. Bottom line, I liked Libby. I liked that one beautiful, smart woman. Did other stuff really matter?
Yes. Apparently.
“Know what’s sad?” I volunteered.
“What?”
“Friday night was the best sexual encounter of my life.”
Libby blinked. “Really?”
“I can’t, I can’t…I can’t come with someone else. I’ve never been able to. I can’t lose myself. I always have to focus. Like, I’m doing this now, what should I do next, step A, step B, step C, that kind of stuff. But I never tried the…what we did Friday. I came with you. I lost myself in what you were doing. My brain didn’t get in the way. That’s huge to me. You have no idea.”
Libby nodded slowly, my confession no doubt scaring her shitless. The good ol’ TMFI—too much freaking information. “Well…good. I’m glad, Ava. I’m glad you got that.”
October 9, 2012
Re-read My Own Works? Um.
A question that pops up once in a while is whether I re-read my own works after publication. How about a pop quiz, then? ;-)
A. No re-reading, not even if I'm stranded in the toidy with nothing to read
B. No re-reading, not even if I'm stuck at a meal with nothing to read
C. No re-reading, not even if I'm by my lonesome at the doctor's office and my books are piled and piled and piled all over (hey, maybe my doc is a hoarder--and a stalker of me!--in which case, re-reading is the least of my concerns)
D. All of the above
Yeah! That's right! The answer is E. Ha! Trick quiz. I am mean, yes. OK, the thing is, A, B and C (and therefore, D) are pretty much true. Once a book is done and published, that's it. Thar she blows! Bye bye! I don't want to re-read because I WILL find stuff to cringe over, stuff I want to change, and I may come to the inevitable conclusion that my book is somewhere between cafeteria mystery meat and sneezes that sneeze guards don't catch. I'll cry and sob and throw myself a pity party. OK, not quite, but you get the idea. I prefer to look forward rather than look back.
So where does E come in?
Basically, in the case of sequels or books I'm thinking of turning into a series. I'll re-read these out of necessity. For example, some people want me to expand or do some kind of take off "The Old Woman" short story. I'd have to re-read it. Also, I had to re-read "The Odd Couple" for its second edition after my publisher returned first-edition rights to me. I was pleased at how well "The Odd Couple" read (better than I thought it would!), but I did make a few significant changes for the second edition. Anyway, I've been tossing around the idea of a "Strange Bedfellows" sequel. So, I re-read parts of "Strange Bedfellows." Started a sequel Sunday, read on Monday what I wrote Sunday, hated it and put the idea on the back burner for now. However!!! I want to write another call girl story, so I'm thinking about starting a series featuring different pairings, one member of which is always a call girl (or prostitute, something like that). "Strange Bedfellows" would be #1 in that series, obviously. Also like "Strange Bedfellows" isn't erotica, I don't envision this series to be erotica, either. I'm trying to think of what to call the series (maybe the "Call Girl" series?) but first I better get book #2 written, eh? (I'm soooo close to finishing my novella "Love's Spell"--more on that soon.) I have a decent profile already for the non-call girl character in book #2. Now I just need to figure out the call girl character.
So, long answer short, I re-read my own works only if absolutely required!
A. No re-reading, not even if I'm stranded in the toidy with nothing to read
B. No re-reading, not even if I'm stuck at a meal with nothing to read
C. No re-reading, not even if I'm by my lonesome at the doctor's office and my books are piled and piled and piled all over (hey, maybe my doc is a hoarder--and a stalker of me!--in which case, re-reading is the least of my concerns)
D. All of the above
Yeah! That's right! The answer is E. Ha! Trick quiz. I am mean, yes. OK, the thing is, A, B and C (and therefore, D) are pretty much true. Once a book is done and published, that's it. Thar she blows! Bye bye! I don't want to re-read because I WILL find stuff to cringe over, stuff I want to change, and I may come to the inevitable conclusion that my book is somewhere between cafeteria mystery meat and sneezes that sneeze guards don't catch. I'll cry and sob and throw myself a pity party. OK, not quite, but you get the idea. I prefer to look forward rather than look back.
So where does E come in?
Basically, in the case of sequels or books I'm thinking of turning into a series. I'll re-read these out of necessity. For example, some people want me to expand or do some kind of take off "The Old Woman" short story. I'd have to re-read it. Also, I had to re-read "The Odd Couple" for its second edition after my publisher returned first-edition rights to me. I was pleased at how well "The Odd Couple" read (better than I thought it would!), but I did make a few significant changes for the second edition. Anyway, I've been tossing around the idea of a "Strange Bedfellows" sequel. So, I re-read parts of "Strange Bedfellows." Started a sequel Sunday, read on Monday what I wrote Sunday, hated it and put the idea on the back burner for now. However!!! I want to write another call girl story, so I'm thinking about starting a series featuring different pairings, one member of which is always a call girl (or prostitute, something like that). "Strange Bedfellows" would be #1 in that series, obviously. Also like "Strange Bedfellows" isn't erotica, I don't envision this series to be erotica, either. I'm trying to think of what to call the series (maybe the "Call Girl" series?) but first I better get book #2 written, eh? (I'm soooo close to finishing my novella "Love's Spell"--more on that soon.) I have a decent profile already for the non-call girl character in book #2. Now I just need to figure out the call girl character.
So, long answer short, I re-read my own works only if absolutely required!
