Sara Jayne Townsend's Blog, page 40

Homage to Women in Horror – Part 1

(Cross-posted on the WriteClub blog)

This month is Women In Horror month. As a woman of horror I want to support this worthy cause. I'm going to start by pointing you towards this website, dedicated to Women In Horror Month.

"Women don't write horror". This is a battle I feel I've been fighting my whole life. It's as frustrating and erroneous an assumption as the notion that all SF fans are 16-year-old boys who like pictures of women in chain mail bikinis, with unfeasibly large breasts, because they can't get anywhere near a real-life woman.

The media does nothing to disabuse the general public of this notion. Cult SF and horror magazines sport covers featuring pictures of mostly-naked women with the aforementioned unfeasibly large breasts. Books aimed at women sport pink covers with curly lettering and pictures of lipstick, shoes and shopping bags. Gifts aimed at women (and we are bombarded by such ads at Christmas) suggest that your mum or aunty or sister or girlfriend wants a make-up kit or bottle of perfume. Never have I seen an advert that says she wants the new Resident Evil game on the PS3 (which is what I want next birthday).

I would like to point out that women horror writers are hardly a modern phenomenon. One of the first horror novels to be published was not only written by a woman, it was written by a teenager. Mary Shelley was 17 when she penned FRANKENSTEIN.

In support of Women In Horror month, next week I will be paying homage to some contemporary women of horror. If you are one such woman and you want a mention and a link to your blog this month, please let me know.

Let's hear it for Horror Women!

Homage to Women Of Horror – Part 1

(Cross-posted on the WriteClub blog)

This month is Women In Horror month. As a woman of horror I want to support this worthy cause. I'm going to start by pointing you towards this website, dedicated to Women In Horror Month.

"Women don't write horror". This is a battle I feel I've been fighting my whole life. It's as frustrating and erroneous an assumption as the notion that all SF fans are 16-year-old boys who like pictures of women in chain mail bikinis, with unfeasibly large breasts, because they can't get anywhere near a real-life woman.

The media does nothing to disabuse the general public of this notion. Cult SF and horror magazines sport covers featuring pictures of mostly-naked women with the aforementioned unfeasibly large breasts. Books aimed at women sport pink covers with curly lettering and pictures of lipstick, shoes and shopping bags. Gifts aimed at women (and we are bombarded by such ads at Christmas) suggest that your mum or aunty or sister or girlfriend wants a make-up kit or bottle of perfume. Never have I seen an advert that says she wants the new Resident Evil game on the PS3 (which is what I want next birthday).

I would like to point out that women horror writers are hardly a modern phenomenon. One of the first horror novels to be published was not only written by a woman, it was written by a teenager. Mary Shelley was 17 when she penned FRANKENSTEIN.

In support of Women In Horror month, next week I will be paying homage to some contemporary women of horror. If you are one such woman and you want a mention and a link to your blog this month, please let me know.

Let's hear it for Horror Women!

Monday's Friend: Luke Walker

Today I am pleased to welcome horror writer Luke Walker to my blog.

Waiting On A Story

By Luke Walker

A question I see a lot of writers asked (and asking for that matter) ties in with the 'where do you get your ideas' question. It's a variation of 'how long do you wait on an idea'. Often, this comes out as 'which one do you write first'. My answer is always the same. It doesn't really matter as long as the stories are written in the end. I started work on my book THE RED GIRL in June 2010 and finished the first draft in about two months. That's about half the time it usually takes me to write the first draft. Even while writing that draft, I knew why it was going so quickly. I'd had a rough idea of the plot for quite a while plus I'd had the characters with me for years. I came to THE RED GIRL more prepared for a book than ever before which is why it took so little time to get that first draft down.

I could have written THE RED GIRL back when I first had the idea for the plot (around 2003-2004, I think), but it would have been a terrible book. The characters featured in the second book I wrote which was a couple of years before the plot came to me, and while I loved the characters, the book was terrible. There was no plot, no direction, no real narrative. Worse than all of those issues, it was boring. Unfortunately, it took me a little while to realise that and to admit it was the best I could do at the time. Writing THE RED GIRL soon after it wouldn't have been right because even though I didn't know exactly how my story would go, I had a feeling it could be a good book. It could be one of the best things I'd ever done.

So I sat on the idea. I let it simmer and I wrote other books. A couple of them were rubbish, a couple weren't too bad and I may return to them at some point to see what I can do with them now I actually know what I'm doing. All through those books, I thought about the story of THE RED GIRL and I thought about the characters. Before writing the first word, I knew who the characters would be. They'd stuck with me from my second book; they'd grown a bit older which was only fair. As we got into 2010, I started thinking more often about those characters and where they'd be now. They'd have mortgages and they might be married. They might have kids; they might be getting a bit porky and be worried about it. They might have lost parents and they'd very probably have moved out of their hometown. And I was pretty sure they were being haunted.

That's where THE RED GIRL came from – a plot idea I had in my early twenties which I sat on until I thought I could do it justice, and characters I first encountered in their last year of school now a bit older. Put the two together and here we are. One horror story about getting older and the secrets we can't leave behind.

All of this is a long way of saying it doesn't matter too much to me how long a writer keeps hold of an idea or their characters. As long as the stories get written, that is.

..

Luke Walker has been writing horror and fantasy fiction for most of his life. His debut horror novel THE RED GIRL is available now from Musa Publishing. A number of his short stories have been published online at Dark Fire Fiction and in the emag Penumbra. He is thirty-four and lives in England, with his wife, two cats and not enough zombie films.

Book link: http://www.musapublishing.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=160

Blog link: http://getthegirlkillthebaddies.blogspot.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/lukewalkerbooks

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LukeWalkerWriter?sk=wall

My Life in Books: The Bears' House

Another Marilyn Sachs book, this story is narrated by nine-year-old Fran Ellen, the eldest child in quite a large family. The family's father is absent, and it seems their mother isn't coping well with his departure. It's implied that she's an alcoholic, but Fran Ellen isn't really old enough to understand this, she just knows that Mum spends a lot of time in bed. She does understand, however, that if anyone comes to the house and finds out their mother isn't doing a very good job looking after her kids they will all be taken away and put into foster care. Fran Ellen is so afraid that she and her siblings will be split up when this happens, she does her best to look after the family herself, so no one will discover what kind of state their mother is in.

Fran Ellen has a particular fondness for her baby sister Flora, who she feeds Kool-Aid out of a baby bottle. Flora gets increasingly sick as the book progresses, a fact that worries Fran Ellen but she's afraid to go to the doctor. Her only solace is the wonderful dolls' house at her school, in which a family of bears reside. The teacher lets the children play with the bears' house as a reward for good work or good behaviour. When Fran Ellen plays with it, she transports herself into the house, where the caring bear family love her and offer a security her real life family cannot.

The teacher declares that at the end of the school year, she will give the bears' house to the most deserving student. Fran Ellen doesn't think for a moment that it will be her, as there are so many prettier, cleverer and more popular pupils in the class. And yet she is the one the teacher chooses to give the house to. When the teacher gives Fran Ellen and the bears' house a lift home, she discovers the appalling neglect Fran Ellen and her siblings endure, and Fran Ellen knows that life as she knows it is over.

Part of the attraction of this book for me was the wonderful dolls' house the bears live in, and I did wish I could be Fran Ellen so I could play with it. But even at the age I was when I read this book (about nine, I think), I recognised that Fran Ellen was having a really hard time at home. This is a very depressing story, about neglect and alcoholism from a child's point of view, and from Fran Ellen's perspective it doesn't end happily. The book ends with her and her siblings being taken into care and sent to separate foster homes.

It had an impact on me, and I think when I wrote SUFFER THE CHILDREN, years later, I was channelling Fran Ellen through Leanne, another character who suffers neglect and who goes out of her way to avoid attracting the attention of the authorities, out of fear of losing the only home she knows.

When I decided to include this book in this blog series I had to look it up on Amazon, because I couldn't remember who wrote it. I discovered then that Marilyn Sachs wrote a sequel to THE BEARS' HOUSE, called FRAN ELLEN'S HOUSE, in which Fran Ellen and her siblings are reunited after being separated in foster care, and she tries to restore the fractured relationship they now have to the closeness they had when they all lived together with their alcoholic mother. I think I will need to read this book. I always regretted leaving Fran Ellen in such a sad place at the end of THE BEARS' HOUSE, and I would like to know if she found happiness.

Geek Excitement: Resident Evil 6

(Cross-posted on the WriteClub blog)

If you've been following this blog a while, you will know I have something of an obsession with playing 'Resident Evil 4′.

We have 'Resident Evil 5′ as well, but in my view it's just not as good. Sure, the graphics are better – RE4 is only available on the Nintendo Wii, and it was never really designed to be a superior graphics machine. But I prefer the Wii controls to the PS3 controls. I am a hopeless shot. The Wii controls are gentler on those who are crap shots.

But the game itself just has more atmosphere than its sequel. In RE4, Leon spends a lot of time runing around alone (apart from occasional cut scene interactions with NPCs, and of course the interactions with the very annoying Ashley) in a lonely and creepy part of rural Spain, being attacked by zombies and other unnatural beasties, on a dark rainy night. RE5, set in the daytime under the baking sun of Africa, just doesn't have the same atmosphere.

And then, of course, the game has Leon. Leon is hot. I have a solid faction of female friends who all drool over Leon. The main character in RE5 is Chris Redfield, who doesn't have the same lust factor.

'Resident Evil' as a series has been around for years. Not being familiar with the game before RE4, I can't say anything about what earlier games were like, but I gather that the same characters have been popping up periodically throughout the series – Chris and his sister Claire; Leon; Krauser; Jill Valentine; Ada Wong. Each game progresses the plot along, with points from the previous series occasionally referred to. The films follow through with this. I hear rumour there's a new film in development – live action this time – that will feature all of the series' characters. Including Leon. Can't wait for that one.

Anyway, more exciting than that is the news that 'Resident Evil 6′ is being released later this year. It's on the PS3, not the Wii, so I will have to get a handle on the awkward controls. But the graphics will be great. And, more relevant, this game features Leon. In full PS3 CGI glory. Woohoo!

For a taster, here's the trailer: Resident Evil 6 official trailer.

Writing Update – February 2012

(Cross-posted on the WriteClub blog)

I thought it was about time for a roundup of current news in my writing world.

Firstly, the big news is that I have been asked to contribute to an anthology on the subject of siblings – one of whom must have a dark secret – that is to be part of Hersham Press's pentanth series, to be published in September 2012.

The other four writers involved are Richard Farren Barber, Stuart Hughes, Sam Stone and Simon Kurt Unsworth.

This is tremendously exciting for me, as it's the first time I've been approached to write something that's not been vetted or auditioned first. The fact that there's an assumption I can write something good enough to compete with these other marvellous writers is singularly thrilling and terrifying.

However, one obstacle at least has been overcome. I've got an idea for my story, and I'm already 3,000 words in to the first draft. So I have plenty of time to polish it up to publishable standard. She says confidently…

And what of other writing projects? Work on my short story collection SOUL SCREAMS continues apace, though its release date has been put back a little. We are now expecting the e-book and the print version to be released in June. I will reiterate this will available in print as well as electronic format. So all of you who keep saying you don't like e-books and prefer 'proper' books have no excuses with this one. A paper version will be available.

On top of all this, I still have my two WIP novels on the go – the second Shara book, and the new horror novel.

So already 2012 is proving to be a very busy year, and it's only just started!

Monday's Friend: Gaie Sebold

Today I am delighted to welcome friend and fellow T Party writer Gaie Sebold to the blog. Gaie's first novel, Babylon Steel, was published earlier this year.

Writing Sexy – Babylon Steel and Getting it On

By Gaie Sebold

Sex work, however fantastical the setting, was not something I ever expected to be writing about. Let's face it, I was more than a little freaked when I realised I did want to write about it. Taking actual sex scenes to my critique group – people I knew! People whose faces I was going to have to look at, knowing they'd read those scenes! – Yeah. Scary. Of course it did occur to me that, with any luck, eventually quite a lot of total strangers (gulp) were going to read those scenes, and I'd have to either get used to the idea, or write a different book.

Once I'd been through the critique group, and no-one had laughed or gone bright red or nominated me for the Bad Sex Award, I felt a little calmer about the idea. But they were, after all, writers; they were approaching the manuscript from a professional viewpoint. Oddly, I didn't really worry about my agent and my editors reading those scenes in anything like the same way; that's an entirely professional relationship from the off, and if they felt anything was wrong with the scenes, it would be because they didn't work, and they'd have told me why. (Also, I should imagine they've all read much more extravagant sex scenes than anything I'm likely to write).

After them, though, once the book was out, came friends and co-workers who weren't in the writing or publishing business. Also, in many cases, people who were not necessarily fans of fantasy (whether or not they were fans of erotica, I didn't ask. I mean, you don't, do you?).

I tried to prepare the ground. "You do realise it's set in a brothel? It has naughty bits?"

"Oh, yes, don't worry!" Light laughter and handwaving ensues.

And then they actually read it.

Now generally the reaction has been pretty good, and only in a few cases have 'those' bits been the first thing people mention. However, I suppose I should have been prepared for the; "How did you do the research?" question, with occasional added smirks and nudging. I have been tempted to say; "I went to Soho and stood on a corner," but so far, I've restrained myself to "I read a lot of stuff". I do wonder if anyone asked Arthur Golden the same question, in the same tone, about Memoirs of a Geisha. I'd bet substantial money that they didn't.

On the other hand, "Why has your lizard-type-guy got two penises?" was another question, and the answer, "Because lizards do, look it up," had the edifying result of sending the questioner off to Wikipedia forthwith, so he can now bandy 'hemipenes' about with the best of them. If you'll excuse the expression.

Funnily enough, no-one asks how I did the research on what it feels like to cut someone open with a sword and have their guts spill all over your boots. Does that say something about who they think I am? In which case why haven't I been arrested yet?

I suspect, in fact, it's simply that, as a society, we still find sex far more disturbing and taboo than violence. This strikes me as extremely odd, when you consider that sex is all over the place. Sexy bodies, along with the heavy hint that 'If you buy this product you may get more sex'; are used to sell everything from cars to lipstick to fizzy drinks. Pornography makes more money than the legitimate film industry, by quite a large margin. And, you know, babies. Lots of them. Mostly conceived by the traditional method. There's a lot of sex out there; at least as much as there is violence. Obviously I am not the first person to point this out, and the comparative treatment of the two is not something on which I intend to Proclaim; I doubt I could say anything which has not been said earlier, and better, than I could. And since I do write quite graphically about both sex and violence, to state that one should be written about and the other not, or written about in a somehow more restrained way, would be hypocritical in the extreme. I do find it interesting, however.

Because I did want to write not just about sex, but about social attitudes to sex. The book is intended as entertainment and a good story, not just a moral treatise (may the All save us from fiction as tract), but there were things I wanted to say, if only by having a female central character who is unashamedly, indeed happily, sexual; and sexual for herself, not just for other people. Babylon isn't, of course, the first such character and I certainly doubt will be the last; but writing her was a liberating experience for me, and I hope reading about her will prove an enjoyable one for others, and maybe a little thought provoking too.

Of course, even when I'm a little old lady, if anyone is still reading BABYLON STEEL, I have no doubt at all that some old boy in the nursing home will nudge me with his elbow, almost knocking me off my walker, and ask me, with a denturish grin, how I did the research.

Gaie Sebold was born in the US but has lived in the UK for most of her life. She has a job with a charity, a partner (writer David Gullen), the standard cat apparently issued to most fantasy writers, a neglected garden and a lot of hats. Her poetry and short stories have appeared in Black Gate, Legend, City Slab, Andromeda Spaceways, Aeon and others. Her first novel, Babylon Steel, has just been published by Solaris. Her website is at www.gaiesebold.com.



BABYLON STEEL

Babylon Steel, ex-sword-for-hire, ex-other things, runs the best brothel in Scalentine; city of many portals, two moons, and a wide variety of races, were-creatures, and religions, not to mention the occasional insane warlock. She's not having a good week. The Vessels of Purity are protesting against brothels, women in the trade are being attacked, it's tax time, and there's not enough money to pay the bill. So when the mysterious Darask Fain offers her a job finding a missing girl, Babylon decides to take it. But the missing girl is not what she seems, and neither is Darask Fain. In the meantime twomoon is approaching, and more than just a few night's takings are at risk when Babylon's hidden past reaches out to grab her by the throat.

My Life in Books: The Truth About Mary Rose

In browsing Amazon looking for this book, I realised I read rather a lot of Marilyn Sachs books as a child, but I didn't release at the time, because I didn't pay much attention to the author's name when I was young. I picked up a book because I liked the cover, or the blurb on the back made it sound good. I've generally remembered titles, however, which is why I'm able to locate all these books I read in childhood, 30-odd years after the fact.

Marilyn Sachs wrote a few books featuring a character called Veronica Ganz, a troublesome girl with a reputation of being a bully, growing up in the US in the 1940s. I didn't know this when I discovered THE TRUTH ABOUT MARY ROSE, which I think I found in the library when I was about 10. I don't actually remember what the cover of the book I read looked like – it certainly wasn't the one featured here, which appears to have been created for a modern re-release.

Veronica Ganz the bully is all grown up in this book, and has a respectable career as a doctor. The narrator of the story is Mary Rose, Veronica's 11-year-old daughter, named after her aunt, who died in a house fire as a child (Veronica's sister Mary Rose appears in the books about the young Veronica Ganz, portrayed as an irritating and whiny little sister, but there's no hint of her dreadful fate).

Veronica's daughter has grown up idolising the memory of her aunt, who she believes died a heroine, rescuing her younger brother Stanley from the fire. Only when the young protagonist eavesdrops on a conversation she shouldn't be listening to, when her uncle Stanley recounts what really happened that fateful night does she learn the truth, and her illusions are brutally shattered.

I identified with Mary Rose when I read this book because like her I had a habit of creeping out of bed late at night, so I could listen to the conversations adults have when they think all the children are asleep. Like Mary Rose, I learned some painful truths this way.

It's been over 30 years since I read this book but it's stayed with me all this time. It deals with some pretty heavy issues – after all, the main plot of the story revolves around a child dying in a house fire. The concept of having childhood illusions shattered as one grows up is a major theme, too. And of course there is a lesson to be learned also – if you illicitly eavescrop on private conversations, you might hear things you wish you hadn't.

I still wonder sometimes where Marilyn Sachs got the idea of a child who creeps out of bed to eavesdrop on the adult conversations. Did she do this herself as a child, or know someone else who did? I'm willing to bet I wasn't the only kid who did this.

Of course, being nosy is a common trait amongst writers – listening to other people's conversations is the best way to get an insight into human nature. Being nosy is a useful trait for amateur sleuths, too, so I decided to give my amateur sleuth, Shara Summers, the same bad habit as a child. She, however, has less guilt about it than I do.

Anyone else out there willing to admit that they were this nosy as a child?

Writing Processes – Part 16: How to Be A Publicity Tart

(Cross-posted on the WriteClub blog)

Listening to old-school writers – those whose first book was published forty years ago – I get the impression that the publishing industry is very different these days to what it was. In the old days, once you sold your book, all you had to do was write the next one. The publishing company took care of all the marketing, all the promotion, all the sales. The book jackets didn't always have author pics, there was no Internet, and you could live a lifetime never knowing what your favourite author looked like.

Nowadays, things are different. Writers are expected to play a much more proactive part in promotion. A lot of the small independent publishers don't have PR departments. Even if your publisher does have marketing people in-house, they are going to expect you to put yourself about. Signing sessions, panel appearances, public interviews. Whatever it takes.

I often think that this state of affairs is pretty ironic, given that the act of writing means shutting yourself away, alone, for months at a time, and subsequently writers are, by nature, generally introverts. But the world has changed. At the very least, a writer is expected to have a web presence. I have met one or two that don't, but they tend to be the veteran brand of writer I mentioned earlier – those that had already established a name and and a readership well before the Internet revolution took hold.

For the rest of us, we need a website. And a blog. And a Twitter account. And a Facebook page. Whatever it takes to get our name Out There.

After all, the book being published is only the beginning. It has to sell. And how is it going to sell, unless people know about it? if the e-book revolution is making it easier to get your book published, it's also contributing to a very crowded market place. There are literally millions of books out there. How can you make the casual Amazon browser land on yours and want to buy it?

And this is where it's necessary to become a publicity tart. The Internet makes it easy to reach out to the world, and the more hits you have on the web, the more people will hear about your book.

So where should the aspiring publicity tart start? Get a website, if you haven't got one already. If you're completely ignorant of HTML code, like me, go with something like Weebly, which offers a user-friendly template with drag and drop features. Sign up, choose your template, decide which elements you want on your site, and off you go.

Start a blog. "But why would anyone want to read about my boring life?" I hear you say. It's human nature to be interested in other people's lives. That's why reality shows do so well. Just because something is boring and mundane to you, doesn't mean it's boring to everyone. I find my daily commute into London crashingly dull. But those who don't live in London are often interested in the little glimpses of London life that I experience on the train every day, and sometimes blog about.

Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads and Librarything are all sites that offer you a way of reaching out to lots of people, all of whom could be potential readers, if they like the sound of your book. If you haven't got an Amazon author profile, set one of those up too. It costs nothing, and you can link all of your books to your account. So if your intrepid reader reads your latest book and enjoys it, she can visit your Amazon page to see what else you've written. And that gives her easy access to buying the rest.

Guest blogging is a very good way of promoting your own work whilst supporting other writers, too. If someone does a guest post on your blog, their fans will follow them to your blog. If you guest on someone else's blog, their existing followers will read your post, and they might decide to check our your blog, too. Everyone wins.

I would recommend getting some decent photos done. Remember what I was saying earlier about going years without ever knowing what your favourite author looks like? Those days are over. You could spend a fortune going to a professional studio, and in some ways this could be money well spent, as these studios include hair and make up artists in the price and you know you're going to look great in your pictures. But you don't have to spend loads of money. I went to a friend who's a semi-pro photographer. He charged me a reasonable fee, I did my own hair and make-up and went to his house with a couple of changes of clothing, and I came away with a good set of usable portrait shots. In fact, all of the images that I use online came from the same photo shoot. Once you have them done, you can use them over again, so every time you do an online interview and the interviewer asks for an author picture, you don't have to fret about not having a decent pic to use.

All of this might sound very exhausting. It's worth remembering that most social networking sites allow you to link to other social networking sites. So your post on Twitter will appear on Facebook, and on Amazon too. Your new blog post will appear on your Goodreads page and on your Facebook profile, and anywhere else you care to link it, too, so it reaches everyone at once without having to multiple post.

Does all this work actually make a difference? It's hard to say. Getting yourself 'Out There' is a very long, very slow process. It's now coming up to two years since the first novel was published, and I'm not exactly hitting the best-seller lists. Sales are decidedly modest, to say the least. But the average monthly sales for SUFFER THE CHILDREN in 2011 were roughly double what they were in 2010, so I think the hard work has made just a little bit of difference.

To check on my 'publicity tart' status, I periodically Google my name, just to see what comes up. There's quite a lot out there, actually. Not just the blog and the website, but every guest post and online interview I've ever done is still out there in Cyberspace, and comes back as a hit whenever someone does a search on my name.

Like it or not, publicity is part of the game for authors these days. Don't be afraid of it. Embrace your inner tart and put her to work. If only one reader decided to buy your book because she happened upon whilst surfing the internet, all the effort is worth it.

Monday's Friend: Barbara Kellyn

Today I am pleased to be interviewing romance writer Barbara Kellyn on my blog, whose latest novel MORNING MAN will be released later this year by Lyrical Press.

Welcome, Barbara!

SJT: When did you first know you were destined to be a writer?

BK: I've always been a creative person. When I was growing up, I used both drawing and writing in my storytelling and at one time, aspired to be either an author of picture books or work in advertising so I could combine both talents. By the time I got to college to follow my chosen career path in advertising, I realized that it was the written word that best expressed my ideas.

SJT: Who would you cite as your influences?

BK: Certainly, my family has been my greatest influence as they have always nurtured and encouraged my creativity side. I wouldn't say I have a favourite writer, but I admire anyone who can tell a great story, whether in a book, on stage or on screen. If you look at my shelves, you'll see that the greatest number of books I own are by Jennifer Crusie, who to me, perfected contemporary romantic comedy. I'd love to follow in her footsteps.

SJT: What do you like to do when you're not writing?

BK: I'm a single mom as well as a business owner, so most of my non-writing hours are either spent hanging out with my kids or working. For fun and "me time" I enjoy going for a brisk walk, cooking, or going out to try new restaurants. Other than writing, I find that listening to the music I love is also very harmonizing (pardon the pun) and I am uplifted by live concert experiences. All in all, I think my life is pretty well balanced.

SJT: What advice would you pass on to beginner writers that you wish someone had told you when you were first starting out?

BK: To be a writer, you'll have to rely on both your right brain (emotion, expression) and left brain (logic, sequencing) in order to be successful. When you start out, you think you'll be able to just sit down and the story will pour out of you. It will, but in all likelihood, it won't be fit for consumption until you go back and analyze every word. You must ensure the story hits all the right posts; it has a suitable amount of tension; it builds into a climax; and that the characters and dialogue ring true. That's hard and "unnatural" work for most right-brain types; I know it is for me.

SJT: Your first novel, THE COMPANY SHE KEEPS, is set in an advertising agency. Have you drawn on any real-life work experiences in the workplace to embellish this novel?



BK: As I mentioned, advertising was my chosen career path and it's the field I continue to work in over twenty years later. I have been part of my fair share of highly creative, colorful and certainly, dysfunctional workplaces and let me tell you, there's plenty of inspiration in each one of them. There is no shortage of zany incidents and quirky characters in such environments and I'm fortunate to have experienced so much that I've been able to amalgamate it into fodder for fun-to-read fiction.

SJT: You claim to be a pop culture junkie. What's your favourite trashy TV show?

BK: Hey, one girl's trashy is another girl's treasure! I have quite a few TV guilty pleasures. I've been watching The Young & The Restless faithfully since junior high. I get a kick out of TLC's reality shows like Sister Wives, Say Yes to the Dress and Extreme Couponing. But I have to admit, this year I got addicted to Swamp People, about gator hunters in the Louisiana Bayou. I dare anyone to watch it once and not get completely hooked.

SJT: What can you tell us about your forthcoming release, MORNING MAN?

BK: I'm so excited about MORNING MAN! It's about a morning show duo at a fledgling radio station. Their sizzling on-air chemistry sparks smoldering attraction outside the studio – even though our heroine has sworn off falling for the radio jocks she works with after a string of failed relationships. On top of this, because our duo's undeniable sexual tension is driving listeners to tune in, the station manager makes them pledge to stay out of bed until after the summer ratings period ends.

SJT: When it comes to starting a new writing project, would you describe yourself as a meticulous planner, or a 'seat-of-the-pantser'?

BK: I'd say I am a little of both. THE COMPANY SHE KEEPS was a personal challenge sparked by NaNoWriMo, which notoriously champions pantsing over planning: a 30-day deadline, a 50,000-word goal, a blank screen and…. go! It was an amazing accomplishment, but took a year of refining afterwards to get it fit for submission.

On the other hand, MORNING MAN was a little more planned because I was more educated about the process. I started with a rough plot outline and main character sketches, but even that was loosely organized so I still had some flexibility as the story evolved in my head. However, that book went much smoother: I went from first written word to edited manuscript in a phenomenal six weeks! Everything just clicked. Because of that, my latest work in progress has followed more in MORNING MAN's footsteps. The pre-planning seems to work for me, but the story development stays more compelling when I allow myself the freedom to "pants" it. Nothing beats being surprised and delighted by my characters as we go along.

Thank you, Barbara,for being my guest today!

Barbara Kellyn writes the kind of stories that she loves to read: contemporary romantic comedies fraught with amusing complications and taut sexual tension between a likeable heroine worth rooting for and an alluring hero worth the trouble of falling fo.

A lifelong storyteller in one form or another, Barbara is an accomplished, award-winning writer. She also enthusiastically admits to being a pop culture junkie (you definitely want her on your celebrity quiz team), with a weakness for tabloid TV, timeless chick flicks, sexy soaps and any smartly-written show, book, movie or Tweet that makes her laugh out loud.

Barbara thanks her lucky stars that she is living out the kind of blissful existence that her characters can only dream about getting to before the last page. To learn more, visit her website at www.barbarakellyn.com.