Sara Jayne Townsend's Blog, page 34

Crisis of Confidence

(Cross-posted on the WriteClub blog)

In the last three years, I’ve had three books published.  I had two unpublished novels doing the rounds when Lyrical Press picked up SUFFER THE CHILDREN, and so DEATH SCENE was already finished when my editor asked me if I had anything else she could take a look at.  And the short stories in SOUL SCREAMS were also written – it was just a case of compiling them.

Since I finished writing DEATH SCENE in 2004 I’ve started four novels.  None of them I’ve managed to finish.  The original sequel to DEATH SCENE was an homage to Agatha Christie’s TEN LITTLE INDIANS, but halfway through the first draft I decided it wasn’t working and I shelved it.  Then I started work on my urban fantasy novel.  I did manage to finish draft 1, but after giving the first half of it to beta readers, I decided that one wasn’t working either and I never finished the second draft.

Then I started working on another Shara Summers book – this one with Shara investigating the case of the defenestrated rock star.  I have managed to get to the end of draft 2, and then I sent it out to beta readers.  Once more the message I’m getting back is that there is so much wrong with this book I should scrap it and start over with a new idea.

I’m also working on a new horror novel.  I am about a third of the way through draft 2 of this one. To be fair, I have not let anyone else read it yet, so I have had no third party comments. But as far as I’m concerned, it still needs a lot of work. So much so that I’m getting discouraged.

Now I’m getting quite depressed. What if my writing really is rubbish and I’m never going to write anything again of publishable quality? What if I’m deluding myself that I can write at all? It’s not as if my published books are selling in huge quantities. I’ve had some very nice comments from a few readers who have really enjoyed one or more of my books, and they’ve all had a handful of good reviews. But the vast majority of readers out there either don’t know about my books or don’t think they’re worth bothering with.

It’s times like this that I think no one who’s sane would choose to be a writer and put themselves through this heartache, and life would be a whole lot simpler if I could not be a writer anymore. The problem is, it’s not that simple. Writing is not something you can turn off when you get bored with it. And I also know that this the ‘down’ phase of the ups and downs of the writer’s life, and it will pass in time.

That doesn’t make me feel any better right now, though, when I just want to finish the damn book. Any damn book…

Monday’s Friend: Lee Mather

Today I am pleased to welcome Lee Mather to my blog. I connected with Lee through social media some while ago, before he joined the Lyrical Press family. The writing world can be very small sometimes.

The Music Of First Kiss, Last Breath

By Lee Mather

I’m not the sort of person who gets bored easily. I read a lot. I watch too much film and television if I’m honest, and I have a passion for a whole host of music. I’ve been the same since I was a kid, both fascinated and inspired by such creative works.

I think it started out as escapism, when I discovered the unbridled joy you could get in losing yourself in a good book, or being swept away by a pulsating film, or ‘feeling’ a great song for the first time. Books, and film and music became important to me as I grew up.

As I aged, I realised that these interests and the worth I placed on them could be both creative and destructive forces in my life. I became aware that these influences could bring people together but they could also drive people apart.

I remember one occasion when my class at primary school were asked to vote on our favourite songs. To a person, the other children voted for The Key, The Secret, by Urban Cookie Collective which was riding high in the charts at the time (a nice bit of UK Old Skool nostalgia as it happens!). Brought up on a diet of Motown and being a stubborn little chap, I stood my ground and voted for Tracks Of My Tears, by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. I recall the episode ending with fisticuffs in the playground after an afternoon of jibes.

Having said that, I think, more often than not, I’ve been drawn to people with similar interests. Some of my closest relationships have been based, certainly in their infancy, on a love of some collective passion. It’s a great feeling being able to share your thoughts and opinions on the things you love.

College and university were times in my life when I relied on my interests to meet new people. I was in an environment when I didn’t know anyone and I was forced to make new friends. Moreover, I was immersed in an entirely new culture. I could go to concerts, get served alcohol, go out to clubs. I was no longer confined to the suburbs of Stockport. The world was my oyster and many a burgeoning relationship was formed on the back of a “Are you a fan of the Stone Roses?” or something along those lines.

It found it amazing how people from a variety of different backgrounds – geography, class, ethnicity, sexuality – could be brought together by a special song, or a good book, or a great film.

It’s not surprising that my influences spill over into my writing. There are glimpses of me in most things I write – whether this is stylistic, or the way I develop plots, or even pieces of the story itself. Some of this, as you would expect, is driven by the authors that have inspired me most, but music and film also creep into my writing on many an occasion.

This isn’t a new thing. How many of your favourite writers reference a musical artist or a film director in their writing? For example, John Avijde Lindqvist is a big fan of The Smiths, something reflected in the title and central theme of his bestselling vampire book, Let The Right One In (a title taken from Morrisey’s song Let The Right One Slip In) and Joe Hill’s love of cinema is clearly apparent in his excellent collection of shorts, Twentieth Century Ghosts. The title story features Stephen Spielberg, and there is another short, Bobby Conroy Comes Back From The Dead, based on the set of what we are led to believe is George Romero’s “Dawn Of The Dead”.

October sees the release of my novella, FIRST KISS, LAST BREATH from Lyrical Press and some of my musical influences have sneaked in there.



Set in 1996, FIRST KISS, LAST BREATH is an urban fantasy about a teenage artist who believes he may have brought a demon into the world through his painting. At the heart of the plot is the relationship between the lead character, Andy, and a girl he meets, Nor. One of the things they bond over is music.

There was a certain nostalgia in writing a coming of age story and I purposely set it in a period when I was a teenager. I wanted to tap into the uncertainties of forming new relationships at that age. I wanted to show the thrill and the fear of chasing a kiss from that girl. I wanted my description of the concert in the story to match the feelings of euphoria I experienced, huddled in the dark with a few thousand people, singing and dancing together with a beer in our hands.

So in this blog, I wanted to divulge the musical influences that feature in FIRST KISS, LAST BREATH and also explain myself a little.

Here are some links to the songs, and why they are in there:

Somewhere Beyond The Sea – Frank Sinatra. I love this song, one of my favourites from the rat pack era. I felt it was a perfect fit for the music collection of Andy’s grandfather.

Octopus’s Garden – The Beatles. I got into The Beatles at University. Mum was always a fan. There was an old record shop in Broomhill in Sheffield that stank of musk and was crammed with students every day. I bought the Red and Blue albums there.

Made of Stone – The Stone Roses. My uncle bought me the eponymous first album when I was fifteen. I remember lying on my bed, revising for my GCSEs, with the album playing in the background. It barely registered until the final song, but when the revolving drumbeat of “I Am the Resurrection” kicked in I stopped working immediately and listened to the song again and again on repeat. This was the beginning of my love affair with “Indie” music that is still going strong today.

Supersonic, Live Forever and The Masterplan by Oasis. The band was massive in the UK when I was at college. I made sure I possessed every song they released back then. I even had bootleg copies of rare radio interviews Oasis gave. The concert at Maine Road that is referenced in First Kiss, Last Breath was one of the highlights of my final year at college.

Rebel, Rebel by David Bowie. David Bowie had to feature. Enough said.

———————————————–

Find out more about Lee and his writing at www.leemather.org.uk

Or follow Lee on Twitter, where he yaps about the things he loves.

“First Kiss, Last Breath” is available from October 8th from Lyrical Press.

“Bloody Parchment“, featuring Lee’s story, “Masks”, is available now from Amazon.

“Fading Light“, featuring Lee’s story, “Wrath”, is available now from Angelic Knight Press.

———————————————–

Lee Mather is a 34 year old writer from Manchester, England. His short, “The Green Man” was published as a standalone in December 2010 by Damnation Books, and he has stories featuring in the anthologies, “Corrupts Absolutely?”, “Fading Light” and “Bloody Parchment: Hidden Things, Lost Things”.  Lee is a member of the Horror Writer’s Association.

My Life in Books: Dune

I went through a science fiction phase in my teenage years,triggered by my obsession with Star Wars.  When I picked up Frank Herbert’s classic, I think I was 15 – the same age as the hero, Paul Atreides.  Which was probably one of the reasons I liked it so much.

My immediate impression is that the world building was overwhelmingly complex, but impressive.  I enjoyed the book and got to the end, and began to work through the series.  I think I got as far as GOD EMPEROR OF DUNE before it all got way too complex and I gave up.

The cover featured here was on the book that I read, but I had trouble finding it.  There have been many editions of it published since then.  There also seems to be a vast number of additional books in the series published since I gave up on it.  I have never met anyone that stuck with the whole series – most people who started reading this series appear to give up with the same book I did, or on CHILDREN OF DUNE, which I think was the one before.

The first film of the book, with Kyle MacLaughlin, came out not long after I read it, and when I went to see it, I was rather glad I’d read the book first – as a teen, I felt the film would be pretty incomprehensibe to anyone not familiar with Frank Herbert’s universe.  I did quite like Kyle MacLaughlin’s portrayal of Paul, though (he was too old to play a 15-year-old, but since he had to age several years in the course of the film, I was prepared to overlook that), and I thought the Baron – the Floating Fat Man – was suitably disgusting.

I think this book is one of those timeless classics, that should be read by anyone with even a passing interest in science fiction, no matter how old or young they are.

‘Siblings’ Anthology Now Available

(Cross-posted on the WriteClub blog)

I am pleased to announce that the ‘Siblings’ anthology, part of Hersham Horror Books’ Pentanth series, is now available.

This book features five stories on the subject of siblings with dark secrets.  The other four authors, in addition to myself, are Richard Farren Barber, Simon Kurt Unsworth, Sam Stone and Stuart Hughes.

The book will be officially launched at this year’s FantasyCon.  We have a signing table there at 12 noon on Saturday 29 September.

‘Siblings’ is now available to buy from Amazon, in Kindle and paperback format.

Take a look at Hersham Horror Press’s website for more info about present and future publications.

Monday’s Friend: L.K. Below (2)

Today I’m pleased to welcome back L.K. Below to the blog.  L.K. is counting down the days until her latest release, and she’s talking today about how she feels about coming to the end of a series.

28 Days until the release of This Blackened Night, The Order: Book 3!

By L.K. Below

Every author has a set of characters more dear to their hearts than any others. In most cases, this stems from these characters being among the first ever created. I won’t claim Lori and Terrence were my very first, but they did come close. Their first book, Stalking Shade, which released in 2011, was originally written in 2007. And rewritten. And rewritten.

And now it feels like a dear friend is moving away. With the release of This Blackened Night on September 24th, 2012, the trilogy will come to an end. Lori might be a prickly character, not easy for anyone but Terrence to love, but I had a lot of fun with her. When I wrote this third book late last year, I dragged my feet to see it finished for the same reason. I didn’t want to let the pair of them go. A not-so-secret part of me is hoping for an overwhelming response from readers asking me to continue so I have an excuse to revisit my favorite characters.

For now, I’m counting down the days until the third book releases. Maybe you’ll fall in love with Lori and Terrence every bit as fiercely as I have. Lori might be stubborn in pushing people away, but Terrence is the most persistent character I’ve ever written. Good thing, too.

Join me in celebrating the release of the third book a bit early with this short, sweet teaser excerpt:

This Blackened Night by L.K. Below

With murders cropping up all around, who should she trust?

After months of searching, Lori finally scrounges up a clue as to the whereabouts of the missing leader of her secret organization. But her vision isn’t encouraging–it points to her vampire companion Terrence as the culprit.

Terrence is adamant that he isn’t at fault. Even though she knows she might be walking into a trap, she follows his lead to a shabby island port. When her informants start turning up dead with puncture wounds in their necks, Lori wonders just how well she knows Terrence. And why does he act different during the search than in their hotel room?

Lori doesn’t know who to trust anymore. She only hopes that she won’t be the next victim.

Six Sweet Sentences from the book:

He met her gaze. “My lead’s run out.”

Lori’s jaw snapped shut. “What did you say?”

“This is as far as I know. From here on out, we search.”

* * * *

Learn more about the series as a whole on the Lyrical Press, Inc. website: http://bit.ly/TheOrderSeries.

Read a longer excerpt from This Blackened Night at http://bit.ly/ThisBlackenedNight.

* * * *

If L.K. Below gets far too attached to her characters, well, that’s because they’re interesting people. Read two of her favorites in her urban fantasy series, The Order. Join her online at www.lbelow.net to learn more. Want to keep up to date with her tour stops? Follow her on Twitter (http://twitter.com/LBelowtheauthor) or Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/LK-BelowLindsay-Below/355586159614)

Stressed

(Cross-posted on the WriteClub blog)

Generally I don’t post when I’m stressed. When I’m stressed I get grumpy, and I don’t want my blog posts to turn into long whinges. However, I am doing so today for reasons I hope will become clear later.

I’ve had a couple of holidays this summer, which were not stressful in themselves, but coming back to work after time away always makes me regret going away in the first place – the work piles up when I’m gone, and suddenly there isn’t enough time to do everything.

I seem to have been struck by a series of ailments over the last few weeks – nothing serious or long lasting, but it has meant I’ve spent altogether too much time sitting in hospital waiting rooms.

We are in the process of buying and selling property, which is a long, drawn out and stressful process. I’m not going to say too much about this at this stage, because English property law being what it is, nothing is set before exchange, anything can go wrong – and frequently does – before that stage, and so it’s best not to assume it’s actually going to happen until the keys are in your hand. However, the process involves dealing with estate agents and solicitors, which is stressful enough without all the other stuff going on.

Most crucially, though, I am still wrestling with the WIP. I am mired in the “my writing is rubbish” stage, believing the whole thing needs dismantling and putting back together, and I am not sure where to start.

However, I am starting to think that life stress is connected to writing stress and vice versa. When the writing is going well I am in a much better frame of mind and can pretty much handle whatever life throws at me. When it’s not going well, suddenly all kinds of other hassle creeps in – notably, things that wouldn’t be bothering me quite so much if the writing was going well. I started today with an early morning writing session that didn’t go at all well – I spent much of that hour staring at the page thinking what I had written was complete rubbish. Hence, I didn’t have a good day at work, either. When I start the day with a good writing session, the day job is much easier to handle.

So the only stress in my life I should actually be focusing on is my troublesome WIP. If I can kick that into submission, everything else should be a breeze. Even the house move…

Monday’s Friend: Piper Denna

Today I’m pleased to welcome erotic romance writer Piper Denna to my blog.  We’re doing something a little different today, as Piper is presenting her guest post in the form of an interview between the ‘bad girl’ of her latest book – Gritty Gossip Girl – and a reporter from fictional tabloid The Scoop.

So without further ado, I’m going to hand you over to Shar-y Jones and Gritty Gossip Girl.

Hello, this is Shar-y Jones with The Scoop. As most of the free world knows, Gritty Gossip Girl blogged during her cruise on the newly-launched FMS Aphrodite, sharing all sorts of juicy, sordid, unauthorized details about the trip. Her blog feed was picked up by our site, TSZ (The Scoop Zone), and by the end of the cruise, people around the world were glued to their mobile devices, just waiting to see what she’d share next. On condition of anonymity, Gritty Gossip Girl has agreed to an interview—and only one—with us.

The Scoop Zone: Let’s start with the question on everyone’s minds. Leaking information from a cruise where the passengers and staff so highly value confidentiality smacks of a vendetta. What do you have against the proprietors of Fantasies, Inc: The Grants?

Gritty Gossip Girl: It wasn’t a vendetta. I was doing a job.

TSZ: Who hired you to do it?

GGG: **rolls eyes** I was reporting solely to draw followers for my blog. Why does everyone assume I had help?

TSZ: Looking back at your posts, it seems they were written with a bias against Brett Grant. Why?

GGG: He’s not the great guy everybody thinks. Someone I know says he stole Victoria from a happy relationship—

TSZ: You mean with British movie star Rafe Wyndham?

GGG: No, no. Not him.

TSZ: So is this other person the one who helped you get your blog posts online from a cruise where guests had no open internet access?

GGG: **huffs and crosses arms over chest** I already told you, I acted alone.

TSZ: If you insist.

GGG: Can we please move on? I’ve got research to do for… tomorrow’s post.

TSZ: If you could be anybody on the FCS Aphrodite, who would it be?

GGG: Oh, that’s easy. Victoria Grant. She’s got a very hot new–**clamps hands over mouth**

TSZ: (New what? Car? House? Dress?) **waits for answer**

GGG: Um… Hobby. Yeah. She has a new hobby.

TSZ: And what is that?

GGG: **fidgeting** I’m not allowed to talk about the Grants, or their…hobby. Can we please scratch that answer?

TSZ:  Sorry, no. Truth in reporting, and all that… If money was no object, would you go on another Aphrodite cruise, as a passenger?

GGG: Oh my God! I can’t believe you just gave away my identity like that!

TSZ: Cruise ships all have paid crew members, and Aphrodite also has volunteers, as indicated on the Fantasies, Inc website. I’ll quote their ad:

Come join our crew!

We’re searching for uninhibited personnel to fill select crew positions on our maiden voyage, and subsequent cruises. Qualified applicants needed for all types of fetishes and scenarios, both mixed- and same-gender, adults of all ages, all races. Crew staff will be eligible for cumulative discounts to be applied toward a future Fantasies, Inc. cruise.

Many of our privileged passengers have fantasies involving staff members, instead of or in addition to other erotic wishes. In return for your “services” eight hours per day, you’ll receive free passage on today’s most exclusive cruise liner, room, meals and drinks, and access to the crew-only Sweet Spot Lounge–where anything goes. Eager personnel can expect not only gratification, but tips in many forms…

Fantasy Crews make for Fantasy Cruises.

Please fill out the form below, and a discreet Human Resources Casting Expert will contact you shortly.

Thanks for your interest,

Fantasies, Inc.–Cruise Division

Where fulfillment is on your horizon

GGG: Ugh, don’t remind me. **rubs eyes** I demand you scratch that question and reword it so you’re asking, “Would you recommend an Aphrodite cruise for those who can afford it?”

TSZ: Can you afford it?

GGG: Damn it, that’s none of your business. And it’s irrelevant.

TSZ: Well, maybe you can, after what we paid you, not to mention whatever you got from a certain someone who hired you to blog secret details about the cruise…

GGG: That’s not going to last long enough to—Damn. Nobody hired me! Are you trying to ruin my life? Seriously. Remove this answer when this interview goes to press. As for what TSZ paid me, no; it’s not enough for a cruise. Barely enough for a city bus ride! Anyway, I’m not allowed on any Fantasies, Inc properties, as a condition of my agreement with the Grants. But if I had the cash to spend? No way. I’d bank the bucks, and travel as a recruit. They had at least as much fun as the passengers, from I could see.

TSZ: Do you think anyone on the cruise came away unhappy or would be unwilling to make another voyage?

GGG: Much as I hate to admit it? No. The ship’s theme song should be, like, the opposite of “I can’t get no satisfaction.” **hangs head** Kind of a bummer I can’t go back there.

TSZ: So you regret the blog posts?

GGG: **sighs** The Grants shouldn’t act so injured about them. I got them major publicity, which virally increased interest in their ship. I didn’t leak names of anybody who didn’t want me to. Nobody got hurt.

TSZ: A victimless crime?

GGG: Exactly.

TSZ: Except, it did cost you. And could have been worse, if the Grants had pressed charges against you.

GGG: **eyes brim** And I missed out on a potentially great boyfriend. Who knew a dude on a sex cruise would have such high morals?

TSZ: I guess we all do now. Thanks for the interview. If you think of a number that’d make it worthwhile for you to share a little about Victoria’s new…ahem, hobby, gimme a call, huh?

Gritty Gossip Girl and Victoria Grant are characters in Piper’s latest book, VICTORIA’S SECRET WISH, the second in the Fantasies, Inc. series.



BLURB:

Maybe three isn’t always a crowd.

“Erotica’s Sweethearts”, Brett and Victoria Grant, are launching the Fantasies, Inc. Aphrodite – a cruiseliner dedicated to carnal pleasures. Since the voyage is all about fantasies coming true, Brett is determined to see Victoria realize her own wildest dream: being pleasured by two men at once.

Victoria can hardly keep her eyes – or hands – off gold medal swimmer David Roman when he boards the Aphrodite. And when Brett propositions David, she can’t say no. But Brett doesn’t know the extent of her fantasy. She wants him as into her other guy as she is. Will his adventurous spirit stretch that far?

David knows it’s a bad idea to get in the middle of the Grants’ marriage. He doesn’t have a kinky bone in his body – or so he thought before this trip – but the romps keep getting wilder and he keeps imagining more. And he really likes them both…as much in bed as out. If the paparazzi discover he’s involved with such a high-profile couple, his career is over. Is he willing to risk everything to continue?

WARNING: Adult sensuality and language, ménage a la two men bent on arousing their woman beyond all control, voyeurism, foot and hair fetish scenes, same sex situations, betrayal, and industrial espionage.

EXCERPT:

“Why are you nervous? Is it because you’re seeing me, or because you’re seeing a therapist?”

“Therapist.” As Britt had pointed out, seeing Serena Weiss would be less intimidating than any other therapist. After all, they’d watched from the AV room as Serena’s fantasy had been recorded. Having seen a woman go wild like that made her quite easy to approach. Aside from the therapist issue, anyway.

Serena leaned forward and took Victoria’s hands in her own. “If I might make a suggestion?”

“Mmm?”

“While you’re on this break from trying to conceive, give yourself a hall pass. Do some wild, sexy stuff. Nothing can kill the fun of sex like making it a means to a baby. Besides, one day you’ll be prego, and then a mom. And let me tell ya, that living-in-the-moment business doesn’t happen much for us mommies.”

Wild, sexy stuff. Like what? Britt’s idea of sharing her with another man on the cruise? Now she was probably blushing. “Um. Yeah. Even though I arrange all those fantasies, I’m pretty straightlaced.”

“Something tells me there’s a vixen inside you, just waiting to get out. Give her a spin. Trust me, your man will love it.”

ABOUT PIPER DENNA:

Romance is sexy. And often funny, and sometimes tangled up with suspense. Let’s face it: all sorts of things get mixed up with romance in real life.

Piper Denna’s stories are not cut-and-dried romance. She wants her characters to deal with issues female readers can relate to: independence and trust, empowerment, inhibitions, an unfaithful partner, motherhood. Sometimes her characters make mistakes and often her “bad guys” are not 100% bad. Mostly she wants to take the reader on an emotional journey to a happy ending…with a few enviable sexual encounters along the way.

When she’s not writing, she edits, raises two teens along with her husband, and has an evil day job.

She enjoys books – or movies – with a comedic twist and hopefully a love story with lots of tension, too.

Sexiest parts of a man in Piper’s opinion? The hands and eyes. Shoulders are nice too, and of course, great pecs are never amiss…

Find Piper online at the following links:

LPI page link

Amazon

Website

Facebook

Twitter

My Life in Books: Summer of Fear

By the time I picked up this book – which I think I found in a library sale, because my copy was tattered and shabby and had an old library card pocket in the front – I was a fully-fledged horror convert. I think I was 15. Less than two years earlier I’d been arguing with Rob Vukovich, my geography class neighbour, that I didn’t like horror (he thought I should write more of it).

I picked up this book because I thought the title and the cover (the one shown) both promised a creepy thrill.

Rachel is 15, and lives a comfortable life with her brother and parents, and has a boyfriend who adores her but she can’t decide if she wants to commit to him or not. When news comes to the family that her mother’s sister and brother in law have been killed, along with their housekeeper, they decide to take in the orphaned teenage daughter, Julia.

Allegedly 17, Rachel thinks from the beginning that Julia looks older than her years. Initially she feels sorry for Julia, but after a while things start happening. Rachel’s would-be boyfriend starts going out with Julia (and true to human nature, as soon as he decides to look elsewhere, Rachel decides he’s the one for her after all). The family dog gets sick and dies. The brakes fail on her mother’s car, but fortunately she emerges from the accident unscathed. Rachel starts to suspect Julia is somehow behind it all. Everyone casts off her suspicions as those of a jealous teenager, usurped by an older, more glamorous girl taking all the attention.

Eventually Rachel becomes convinced that Julia is a witch. The truth eventually comes out. The third burned body in the car was not the housekeeper – it was the real Julia. It was the housekeeper who survived, and took Julia’s place. The question of whether or not she really was a witch is left open. There is an epilogue at the end of the book taking place years later, where an older Rachel, now married to the boyfriend, reflects on the fact that the things that had happened could have been a series of bizarre coincidences. It could be that the imposter (whose name was Sarah) just thought she was a witch. When her plan of seducing Rachel’s father, having first got his wife out of the way, is exposed, she disappears. Rachel is left reading newspaper headlines about an attractive couple who disappeared mysteriously while out walking, and wondering if Sarah is at work again.

There might be an argument, then, that this isn’t actually a horror book but a thriller.  If Sarah was actually capable of using magic, then that puts a supernatural slant on it, and I would argue that makes it horror.  If, however, Sarah was deluding herself and magic doesn’t really exist, and the things that occurred (cars going wrong, the dog getting sick, etc) were a series of coincidences, then there’s no supernatural element at all.

For the 15-year-old me, whether or not the magic was real was irrelevant.   I considered it a very creepy book regardless, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Future of Publishing

(Cross-posted on the WriteClub blog)

Bricks-and-mortar book shops have been having a bad time of late.  Borders was the latest big chain to file for bankruptcy.  In the UK, the only book store chain still in existence in Waterstones, and there are very few independent book shops left.

Meanwhile the popularity of e-books continues to rise. Some Internet murmurings suggest that the rise of e-books is directly responsible for the downfall of bricks-and-mortar book shops.

It could be argued, however, that the demise of the book shop is not down to e-books but online retailers like Amazon, as people switch to doing their shopping online, in the comfort of their own homes.

E-books are not going away any time soon, and the publishing industry, like it or not, has to adapt accordingly.  Readers do not expect to pay the same price for an e-book as they do for a hardback.  Some readers may prefer to buy the e-book instead of the paper book, but some readers might buy both – they might go to the signing session and buy a pristine hardback copy to keep on their shelf, and buy the e-book as well to read on their daily commute.  A few savvy publishers have started to issue the e-book version free to anyone that buys the hardback – this seems like  an excellent idea, and will encourage more readers to fork out for the hardback. I myself am reluctant to buy hardbacks, as I do most of my reading on my commute to work. If the e-book was thrown in for free, I might be more inclined to buy the two-for-one, so that I could keep the hardback pristine and shiny on my book shelf whilst reading the e-book on my way to work.

There appears to be some fear that e-books will kill off paper books. There is also a fear of piracy. My view all along has been that there is room in the industry for both, and that the best way to combat piracy is to make books freely available, in all formats and in all regions. Get rid of the DRM system, and make e-books available in a universal format that can be read on all e-readers.

A lot of people claim they are suspicious of e-books because they like the smell and feel of old paper books. Yet I’ve spoken to many such people, who, upon finding themselves in possession of an e-reader, soon come to adore it. I myself am in this category. Liking e-books doesn’t mean one has to stop buying paper books. I just find myself buying even more books these days. I still buy paper books, but I buy far more e-books because I don’t have to worry about storage space for e-books.

Another interesting factor, though, is that people who were never readers of paper books but are into gadgets, gain possession of an e-reader and soon find themselves vociferous readers. If e-readers are encouraging more people to read, that’s another big point in their favour.

E-books might be the future of publishing, but paper books have their place too. Ultimately the aim of the publishing industry is to get more people to read. Format and retail habits should be secondary – as long as people are buying books to read, does it really matter what format they are in?

Monday’s Friend: Mary Ann Loesch

Today I am pleased to welcome Mary Ann Loesch to my blog to talk about an intriguing subject – voodoo.

Marie Laveau: The Real Life Voodoo Priestess of Bayou Myth

By Mary Ann Loesch

The first time I read about Marie Laveau, the legendary voodoo priestess, I was nine or ten.

I’d found this old book in my dad’s office. It was a souvenir he’d picked up in a gift shop on our recent trip through Louisiana, and the cover fascinated me. This big snake was wrapped around a really fierce looking woman in a red kerchief. I had a fear of snakes and couldn’t understand why anyone would willingly allow themselves to have one hanging on their body.

The book was simply called Marie Laveau and it was all about this woman who was able to weave spells and make magical charms. There were crazy stories taking place deep in the Louisiana bayou where Marie danced around half naked with men and women to the beat of drums. People would come to her for love potions, gris gris bags, or because they wanted to curse their enemies.

And then there was the snake!

According to this book, she could talk to it and make it do her bidding. It never did say exactly what she had the snake do, but as a kid, I imagined she would send it to people she didn’t like and have it squeeze them to death while they slept. The snake even had a properly creepy name–Zombi.

I was hooked.

However, voodoo in our Episcopalian household was not a topic of deep discussion. So it would be years before I really had the chance to sit down and sort fact from fiction when it came to the infamous, Marie Laveau.

In researching voodoo for my young adult novel, Bayou Myth, it was impossible to ignore the influence that Marie had on the religion in New Orleans. Because of her and the methods she used, voodoo is still a subject that fascinates people today. The hard part about researching her is that it’s tough to separate fact from fiction.

Was there a real Marie Laveau? Yes. In fact, there were probably two women who went by that name–a mother and a daughter. When the mother became too old to keep up with the thriving practice of believers she’d created, it is believed that the daughter took over. This explains why lots of stories indicate that she never seemed to age.

Pretty clever trick, if you ask me!

The first Marie (and maybe even the second one) worked as a hair dresser for rich ladies which gave her access to a lot of gossip. With her clever mind, it wouldn’t be too difficult to create potions or charms that she could then give to the society women to ease their troubles. After all, it wasn’t just the African American population that flocked to her–the white population was equally fascinated and afraid of her supposed powers.

Marie also had around eleven children. Eleven! When I read that, it made me think: what happened to those children? Did they grow up and start families? Did anyone in that part of the family tree also display a talent for voodoo?

And that’s how my heroine in Bayou Myth was born.

Joan Renault is a teenage voodoo queen in the making, a descendent of Marie Laveau. Obviously, this is a fictional tale, but wherever possible I did try to blend in elements of the real Marie. In the end, I hope I’ve created a fictional character that is as interesting as I believe the real Marie Laveau to have been.

Voodoo is another strong element in the tale, but it should be noted that even though Marie Laveau is probably the most famous voodoo priestess associated with it, she is not the founder of the religion. It actually existed in Haiti long before it ever became practiced in the United States. It is a religion that is a blend of Haitian and Catholic beliefs and is still led by many voodoo priestesses today.

Have I caught your interest? I hope so! Here is the synopsis of Bayou Myth:

As a sixteen year old voodoo queen in the making, Joan Renault just wants to be like all the other girls in the small town of Monte Parish, Louisiana—obsessed with boys and swamped with social lives. If the other kids would quit calling her “hoodoo hag,” she might have a small shot at normality. It would also help if Joan’s weekend outings with her secret crush, Dave, weren’t always being interrupted by her dead Grandmere, the legendary Marie Laveau. After all, it’s hard to make out with your best friend when your grandmother is watching! But when you come from a long line of voodoo priestesses with dried gator heads decorating the wall of their huts, normal doesn’t come easily.

When Joan witnesses the brutal sacrifice of a child to a tree Druid, she learns her Grandmere’s scandalous past has come back to haunt those living in the present. Hera, a vengeful voodoo priestess, is determined to use the residual energy of Pandora’s Box to revive a sleeping voodoo god and declare war on the descendants of Marie Laveau, especially Joan. Suddenly, Greek myths are being re-enacted all over town, and Joan has her hands full trying to sort it all out. With the approach of Samedi’s Day—the voodoo day of resurrection—Joan must learn to accept her destiny in order to stop the approaching threat to her family and friends.

Mary Ann Loesch is an award winning fiction writer from Texas. Her urban fantasy, Nephilim, was published in July 2011 by Lyrical Press Inc. An avid blogger for All Things Writing and Loesch’s Muse, Mary Ann has also contributed stories in the horror anthology, ALL THINGS DARK AND DASTARDLY. Her latest book, BAYOU MYTH, was released in June 2012. While she loves dirty martinis and cuddling with her dachshund, she loves fan mail even more! Contact her through her website at www.maryannloesch.com.

Buy BAYOU MYTH from Amazon or Barnes and Noble.