Cate Masters's Blog, page 69

On book titles and insecurities

Jennifer Egan visited Carlisle a few weeks ago, and read the first chapter of her Pulitzer-winner, A Visit From the Goon Squad. I was thrilled she came to town. I don't know how Dickinson manages to book such amazing authors as her and Margaret Atwood, among others. And to make the events free to the public (exactly what I can afford!).


Afterward, during the brief Q&A session (extremely regimented, actually - only five questions allowed), someone asked how she came up with the title. Great question. It's not exactly a grabber of a title, except for its oddness.


Ms. Egan expained she had come up with the title before the story. Each story that she began, she wondered, is this, finally, A Visit From the Goon Squad? At some point while writing it, a line of dialogue made her realize that her WIP was, indeed, the long awaited A Visit From the Goon Squad.


After publication, the story didn't sell well at first. She kicked herself for giving the book that title. But then, of course, it was nominated for a Pulitzer, boosting sales, and then awarded the Pulitzer, and the rest is bestseller history.


It surprised me that Ms. Egan suffered from such insecurities, being such an established author. Another surprise was the basis for the story - sparked from a real-life incident in which a woman left her purse, with wallet in full view, on the sink in a public rest room while she used the toilet. Crazy, but true. But I found it reassuring that a well-known author did this, as I've done it myself and felt like I'm pilfering, or my muse hasn't quite done her job well enough.


Funny story, though - Ms. Egan told how her own wallet had been stolen more times than she could recall, and had received a call from the credit card representative soon after her card was stolen. Ms. Egan shared more information with the woman only to learn that she was, in fact, the thief herself.


I purchased a copy of A Visit From the Goon Squad after the reading, and the student used one of those handheld credit card machines, sliding the imprinter over the carbon slip again and again. The numbers grew illegible, but I didn't argue. The next day, a woman called to ask me for my credit card number, and I was tempted to ask whether she was really an employee of Dickinson College, or someone who collected credit card numbers for her own gain. But as I'd left my  phone number with the girl, I gave her the number again. I'll be watching my account statements, though. :)

Lucky 7 Meme

I was tagged twice for this last week - thanks to Arlene Webb and DL Jackson -  but couldn't respond till now.

Here's how it works:
Each author is requested to
*go to page 77 of your current WIP
*go to line 7
*copy down the next 7 lines, sentences or paragraphs as written and post them
on your blog or website
*tag 7 other authors

I don't have a page 77 yet for my current WIP, so I'll  share seven lines from A Midwest Summer Night's Dream, which releases Friday (yay!):


“An old friend of mine is here.” The voice sounded familiar, but Jeb couldn’t place it. He lifted his whiskey glass and relished its burn going down. On a slow blink, he focused on the next table over, where a friendly face from Tipton smiled back at him.Maggie sat with an elderly gent. By the looks of it, his hand was working under her skirts. She looked as thrilled as a polecat finding a rotten piece of meat.  You might surmise, correctly, that Maggie's not the heroine. :)  She is, however, a key character in the story. But you'll have to read it to find out more!
So now, onto the more difficult part of the task - choosing seven authors to carry on the meme (or not, as they choose!). Some Six Sentence Sunday wonder writers: Jessica Subject Melissa MacKinnonSiobhan MuirMonica Enderle PierceDianne HartsockZee Monodee Vivien Dean

SSS: Bodie clues Lily in

Such a crazy week, it got away from me and I didn't sign up for Six Sentence Sunday, but here's my contribution anyway.

From Dancing With the Devil, my dark paranormal that made it to #38 on the Amazon bestseller list for romance! Woot!


“Seriously, you’re an angel.” On a Harley. Or maybe just a Springsteen fan like her who loved the idea of it.“You can Google me. I show up as Bodiel, Ruling Angel of the Sixth Heaven. I prefer Bodie.”
Check out all the amazing authors of Six Sentence Sunday. Have a great week!

Mystery blurb fest today!

Do you love a good mystery? Come over to TBR for some great blurbs from mystery writers!


If you write mystery stories, I hope you'll share yours.

Coming up on April 28 - the Western Blurb Fest! Stay tuned. :)

April is National Poetry Month

Poetry was my first literary love, I have to admit.  Some people seem to think that poetry's only for the high-minded, those who only read literary fiction. But really, poems are just another means of expressing your innermost thoughts. In grade school, my friends and I wrote poems, shared poems, and collaborated on poems. Yes, most of it was laughable, but at the time, it provided a deep connection between us. More than that, it became the basis for a lifelong love of writing, for me. Playing with words and ideas, putting them together with their own particular cadence and rhythm, was a creative breakthrough. Not surprisingly, we were all also crazy about music. I used to pore over song lyrics, much of which was poetry in its own right.

If you doubt the power of poetry, watch Maya Angelou recite Still I Rise. It will change not only your mind, but it will change you.




Celebrate National Poetry Month! If you're new to poetry, try the Poem In Your Pocket. See if that poem doesn't change the way you look at the world around you. :)

Story Elements: Dancing with the Devil

I love sharing the background of my stories. It usually takes me anywhere from many months to several years to finish a story. I always have about a dozen in the WIP queue, and work on them as time permits. Research is sometimes a holdup. I love it a little too much.
For my dark paranormals, research involves everything from The Underworld to Greek mythology to goddesses to angels.
Dancing with the Devil was no different. The myth of Persephone and Hades has always intrigued me. The gods and goddesses were a strange and incestuous bunch (Persephone was Hades' niece, in fact). I wasn't about to touch that aspect of it. 
But that aside, Hades is, after all, the devil. The ultimate bad guy. The guy you can never trust, never be friends with, never turn your back on. Yet somehow, he managed to make Persephone fall in love with him. After their marriage, her mother Demeter protested and basically earned Persephone a Get Out of Hell card for at least part of the year. Persephone ultimately chose to return to Hades.
Why? Did Hades have some redeeming qualities? He wasn't a faithful husband. He spent a little too much time with the nymph Minthe. Persephone took notice, and violently murdered Minthe. Maybe a little of her husband rubbed off on the goddess, eh?
Much of the story is set in The Underworld. Not many have visited and returned to describe the setting, but there are plenty of resources to make up for that. 
Hades refers to both the ruler of The Underworld and Hell itself. For the most part, it refers to the ruler in Dancing With the Devil.  Tartarus is the least desirable of the realms, where the damned souls reside, and where Hades keeps his main castle in my story.
As far as the realm being broken into sections, well, that was something I imagined. Each section has its own archduke, chosen by Hades. For Section Six, Zeveriah is archduke, and has fallen into Hades' favor with his financial expertise. Hades is about to appoint Zeveriah as CFO. As an extra perk, he's throwing in his granddaughter Lily.
Carrying on in the tradition of Hades and Persephone, the two arrange the marriages of their offspring with prominent figures in The Underworld. Persephone's daughter Illiana, however, chose to buck that tradition and instead married an angel, Zacharel. Their daughter Lily was kidnapped as an infant and placed into the care of a woman who turned out to be a double agent - friendly to the angels, she secretly worked for The Underworld, and helped set up Lily on her 21st birthday. 
When she steps into the waiting limousine, Lily has no clue she's taken the first step toward fulfilling her role as The Destined One.
It's funny how elements come together in a story. When I first began Dancing With the Devil, Lily's a pole dancer. Not your stereotypical exotic dancer, she just loves to dance. So it seemed natural to include a scene in which Persephone and Hades arrange a performance during Lily's visit. As a starting point, I researched belly dancing and stumbled across information on slave dances, which I'd never heard of, but which fit the story perfectly.
Slaves dance performances tell a story in and of themselves. They might be a woman's personal story, or it might be a traditional dance which relays a part of the culture.
In Dancing With the Devil, the performance depicts the origin of The Destined One, and shows how the woman will fulfill her role. Lily's enamored of the dancing itself, and asks to learn the method. I'd never understood much about it, but apparently using the finger cymbals, or zills, is extremely difficult to master.
Not for Lily, of course. :)
Angels provided another reason for research. I dusted off my copy of A Dictionary of Angels and searched through it for what might be an appropriate angel. The one who caught my eye was Bodiel.
As The Ruling Angel of the Sixth Heaven, Bodiel would seem to be in a position of direct opposition to the archduke of Hades Section Six, Zeveriah. A good excuse to make them foes since the beginning of existence.
Bodiel's also part of the Sixth Order of Angel, known as Thrones. The array of angels is astounding, in fact - one for every month, every day, and every hour of the day. And more beyond that. But that's all for another story. :)
Literally, Bodiel means "The Enlightenment of the Source of the Whole of Existence." For my story, he focuses on enlightening Lily. He understands the risk in becoming personally involved, yet it doesn't stop him. Besides being a warrior angel, he also rides a motorcycle. True hero material.
My research files for this story go on for many, many more pages. I'll wrap it up with Lilith, who's somewhat of a mystery. Apparently much of what was formerly recorded about Lilith was stricken from history. Some referred to her as the first goddess, and the first wife of Adam - in fact, created alongside Adam rather than Eve, who came later to replace Lilith. It seems Lilith was somewhat of a party girl, and liked to keep her options open rather than commit to one guy. She "mated" with the archangel Samael (who became the original fallen angel, or Satan). So some referred to her as a demoness, and she may or may not have been the serpent who tempted Eve with the apple in the Garden of Eden.
It seems to be the general concensus that Lilith was banished. So she became the go-to goddess for desperate Veronica, who's in love with Zeveriah, who's determined to make Lily fall in love with him. But he also is addicted to relieving the pain of waiting for Lily by, ahem, spending time with Veronica.
As I've mentioned before, Dancing with the Devil is a much higher heat level than I normally write. I think I mentioned I stopped writing it a few times because of it. But then I realized the sex was not gratuitous. In Dancing With the Devil, it's more of a power struggle than anything. It made perfect sense, so I stopped trying to limit my characters and let them tell their story.
The most important element of all.

Mystery Blurb Fest coming up

Do you write mysteries? Or love to read them? Then you won't want to miss the Mystery Blurb Fest at TBR this weekend! Mystery writers, come post your blurbs! Mystery authors, get ready to add to your TBR list.

Blogging away today

I hope you'll visit me at Laurie's Paranormal Thoughts and Reviews today! It's one of many interviews to come, just as a warning. :)

Have a wonderful Easter!

Our celebrations began today, early by a day because we're heading East tomorrow to visit our New Jersey family. Yay! It's been too long since we traveled home.

I think we're also celebrating that we're all finally, finally over the virus we've been passing back and forth for weeks. It's good to be healthy again.

Hope you enjoy a lovely holiday with your family!

Two beautiful new covers!

This week, I received these book covers - both gorgeous!


Though the covers are both beautiful, the stories couldn't be more different. Death Is A Bitch is a dark paranormal which Decadent Publishing will release soon, and A Midwest Summer Night's Dream is a Western historical with a Shakespearean twist, which Book Strand will release April 19.



Here's the book video for A Midwest Summer Night's Dream: