Sara Jayne Townsend's Blog, page 45

Two Sleeps Until FantasyCon

(Cross posted on the WriteClub blog)

I've been rather quieter than I would prefer to be on this blog, because other life stuff keeps getting in the way. This is due in no small part to my being manically busy in the day job at present. In the middle of a horrendous week, the only thing that's keeping me going is the knowledge that it ends with FantasyCon.

FantasyCon was the first Con I started going to, and as such it holds a special place in my heart. Contrary to the title it's not just for fantasy writers. FantasyCon is the official convention of the British Fantasy Society, which embraces horror, science fiction and fantasy and all of their sub-genres. And indeed, it was through joining the BFS, through my love of horror, that led me to discover FantasyCon in the first place.

It's also the Con where I run into the most people I know outside of the Convention world, as a significant proportion of the writers' group go. This year's FantasyCon is at Brighton, and the weather forecast is unseasonably balmy this weekend, with temperatures forecast for the high 20s. So if we want a break from the panels, the schmoozing and the boozing, a walk by the sea front in the fresh air will be an attractive option.

The Con is offering a reading programme, which is rather being hijacked by the T Party, since no fewer than eight of us are reading over the course of the weekend. My reading is at 3:30pm on Friday, and I will be giving my audience a sneak preview of my forthcoming anthology SOUL SCREAMS, reading a story from the collection. At least, I hope there will be an audience. If you're at FantasyCon this weekend, please stop by Room 134 at 3:30 on Friday to offer some moral support!

This is the last Con I'm booked for this year, which is all the more reason to relish it. Next years' Con schedule is uncertain at this stage – not on the part of the Cons, as they're all confirmed and taking bookings. But I have yet to make up my mind which ones to go to. If only I had the funds – and the leave allocation – to go to all of them…

I'm counting down the hours now until I depart for Brighton, but in the meantime I have a great deal of work to do for the day job, not to mention the Con-related things such as practising my reading and that all important decision of What To Pack. If you're attending FantasyCon I hope to see you there – if you're not, I'll give a full low down next week!

Two Sleeps Till FantasyCon

(Cross posted on the WriteClub blog)

I've been rather quieter than I would prefer to be on this blog, because other life stuff keeps getting in the way. This is due in no small part to my being manically busy in the day job at present. In the middle of a horrendous week, the only thing that's keeping me going is the knowledge that it ends with FantasyCon.

FantasyCon was the first Con I started going to, and as such it holds a special place in my heart. Contrary to the title it's not just for fantasy writers. FantasyCon is the official convention of the British Fantasy Society, which embraces horror, science fiction and fantasy and all of their sub-genres. And indeed, it was through joining the BFS, through my love of horror, that led me to discover FantasyCon in the first place.

It's also the Con where I run into the most people I know outside of the Convention world, as a significant proportion of the writers' group go. This year's FantasyCon is at Brighton, and the weather forecast is unseasonably balmy this weekend, with temperatures forecast for the high 20s. So if we want a break from the panels, the schmoozing and the boozing, a walk by the sea front in the fresh air will be an attractive option.

The Con is offering a reading programme, which is rather being hijacked by the T Party, since no fewer than eight of us are reading over the course of the weekend. My reading is at 3:30pm on Friday, and I will be giving my audience a sneak preview of my forthcoming anthology SOUL SCREAMS, reading a story from the collection. At least, I hope there will be an audience. If you're at FantasyCon this weekend, please stop by Room 134 at 3:30 on Friday to offer some moral support!

This is the last Con I'm booked for this year, which is all the more reason to relish it. Next years' Con schedule is uncertain at this stage – not on the part of the Cons, as they're all confirmed and taking bookings. But I have yet to make up my mind which ones to go to. If only I had the funds – and the leave allocation – to go to all of them…

I'm counting down the hours now until I depart for Brighton, but in the meantime I have a great deal of work to do for the day job, not to mention the Con-related things such as practising my reading and that all important decision of What To Pack. If you're attending FantasyCon I hope to see you there – if you're not, I'll give a full low down next week!

Monday's Friend: Mary Ann Loesch

I'm pleased to welcome Mary Ann Loesch, newcomer to the Lyrical family, to the blog today.

Location, Location, Location! Just How Important Is It in A Novel?

By Mary Ann Loesch

I'm so happy to be blogging on Sara's site today! It's such a cool place to begin with, and I can't wait to read her book, Death Scene. The cover alone is enticing and appeals to my geeky theatre nature! Of course, that just goes to show how important a visual image can be and brings me to what I want to discuss today: the importance of location in a novel.

I'm a Texas girl. Nope. I don't have a cowboy hat or boots (they hurt my feet, actually), but I do have a bit of twang. I like to think I'm more urban than country which is why I love the city of Austin! Of all the great cities in my state, I think Austin is the one that could be called the melting pot. Our city motto is "Keep Austin Weird" and with the many sights and sounds this place has to offer, I think weirdness is achieved on a daily basis. We've got bats downtown that have become a major tourist attraction and a thriving arts district. Two of the biggest music and multimedia festivals in the world, SxSW and Austin City Limits Festival, call us their home base. The University of Texas beckons to thousands of new students every year. And then of course, there's Sixth Street…

Considering my love of Austin, it only makes sense that my urban fantasy, NEPHILIM, would be set here. What better place for Nathan Ink, an angel living on earth as a tattoo artist, to set up his shop called Hell's Leak? Located on infamous Sixth Street, Hell's Leak can only be seen by those sinful enough to be drawn to it. The thieves, the murderers, the sorority girls with big hair—if they are bad enough, Nathan will hear their sin and lure them into his shop. Of course, once inside, they have no choice but to sit in Nathan's chair and receive a special tattoo that will show them the error of their ways. See, Nathan doesn't just tattoo your skin. He brands your soul…

Of course, there is much more to the novel, NEPHILIM, and I hope you'll take the time to check it out. I've included the book synopsis below. Maybe you'll even fall in love with my city and come for a visit. Lots of people do! Interested in getting a tattoo? This is the place to come!

Just be careful about which tattoo shop you go into!

If you want to learn more about me, check out my website at http://www.maryannloesch.com.

Nephilim Blurb

When sin stains your soul, he tattoos your skin…



Tattoo artist Nathan Ink is more than he seems. An angel living in secret on earth, he forces his clients to face their flaws by tattooing images of their sins on their bodies, but this glimpse into the soul often results in his clients' deaths. Although Nathan avoids the other angels, when they ask him to keep an eye on Faye, a nephilim being stalked by another of her kind, he reluctantly agrees.

The angels have kept Faye in the dark about her stalker, but to keep her close to Nathan, they've tasked her with investigating the high mortality rate of Nathan's clients. Despite her distaste for his methods, she finds herself fighting a growing attraction to Nathan, and discovering he's not a rogue after all forces her to question her own mission. When Faye learns her stalker is another nephilim who intends to use her to breed a new race of hellish beings, teaming up with Nathan may be the only way to prevent a genocide.

Contains strong language and violence.

More Guest Bloggery

I've done guest posts on two blogs this week I'd like to tell you about.

On Monday I was on horror writer Fiona Dodwell's blog talking about horror and 'The Evil Within'. Tak a look here.

Later on in the week I was the first guest blogger on Annie Seaton's new feature "Friday Friends" (I think I inspired her). On her blog I talk about that favourite topic of mine, e-books versus print books. Take a look at the post here.

I've got other guest posts lined up for October, so keep checking back to keep up with the publicity train!

"Write What You Know"

(Cross-posted on the WriteClub blog)

Sooner or later, the novice writer is given these words of advice:  "write what you know". To a certain degree, it's sound advice. If you can get inside the head of a character, they are more believable. A scenario reads as more 'real' if it appears the author is writing like they know what they're talking about.

But if you start writing young, this advice can seem a bit daunting. At 16, you don't know much (even if, at the time, you think you know everything).

I do have a tendency to write about what I know, but it's largely down to a very literal nature and being too lazy to do research. When I started writing stories as a child, I was writing about myself – literally. I enjoyed writing stories about the wonderful – and extremely fictional – adventures of myself and my best friend Helen and our respective younger sisters. I guess I thought my real life was far too ordinary, so I made up something far more exciting.

When I got to about ten or eleven, I started writing stories about fictional characters. But they were still largely about me – they were always girls the same age as me, with the same character traits. At the time this seemed a perfectly natural thing to do. I had no experience of how someone who wasn't me might react in a given situation, so all I could do was write about the character in the same way I would react to the situation.

As a writer, you have to learn how to put yourself in someone else's head. You might react in a certain way, but someone with a different background, with different personality traits, might not. That was a lesson I found difficult to learn, as a young writer. One of the most frequent criticisms I received about my writing when I was in my teens and early twenties was that my male characters came across as flat and unbelievable. Even now, I sometimes have trouble writing men. Well, having never been one, I find them hard to understand sometimes. But I digress…

"Write what you know" is an important lesson. But part of that lesson is learning to understand what you don't know, so you can write about it effectively. Reading other writers can often help, especially reading in genres you might not necessarily be drawn to. Talking to people is a valuable source of information. I see parties as more than just social occasions these days. Sometimes I get chatting to someone I've just met and find out they work in a career that might actually be a useful source of information. If it turns out they are a police officer or coroner or even undertaker, for example, chances are I'll try and get their email address before I leave the party.

I still get nervous about straying outside my comfort zone as a writer, but sometimes it's necessary to stretch one's writing. When I wrote SUFFER THE CHILDREN I had to get inside the head of a young woman who'd been brought up by a neglectful mother addicted to drink and drugs, on a grotty council estate, repeatedly abused by a variety of men who passed through her mother's life. This was all daunting stuff, way beyond my own sphere of experience. But most people who've read the book and fed back on it have told me that Leanne is a believable character. I worked hard to make her so. Research helps, talking to the right people is even more helpful, and of course the writer's imagination can help fill in the gaps.

"Write what you know" is good advice. But "know what you write about" is even better advice.

Monday's Friend: Rachel Brimble

Today I am pleased to welcome romance writer Rachel Brimble to my blog.

What I've Learned Along The Way

By Rachel Brimble

I am so happy to be here on Sara-Jayne's blog today promoting my latest book, PAYING THE PIPER, on its actual release day, yay!!



This book is my sixth novel so I thought a great topic to share with you would be what I have learned about being a writer and reader since I started writing seriously for publication in 2005.

People are fascinating by writing and you can guarantee if someone meets you for the first time and you say you are a novelist, the questions will come thick and fast. The most common one? Where do you get your ideas? Second – Are your book based on you or your experiences? Third – Are there sex scenes?

What this says about the human psyche, I have no idea but the questions need answering so I'm going to try…

1) Where do you get your ideas?

The short answer is everywhere BUT that is not very satisfactory to the reader or new interest asking the question. My books tend to start with a voice in my head (hey, no writer claimed to be normal). He or she will either be sad or angry or frustration and clearly wanting to tell me something. So for the next few weeks, I strain to hear them and what it is they want to say.

More often than not, it is a problem that they are facing or something they want. Once I have that, I have the basis for my story. After that, it is up to me to figure out a plot around the problem or goal – and most importantly if they are living in 2011 or somewhere in the past!

2) Are your books based on you or your experiences?

Slightly – if that makes sense.

I would say there is something of me in all my characters – whether it be their principals or their reaction to certain situations but none of them represent me in their entirety.

With regard to experiences, I haven't used any real-life experiences as yet (yet planning to use my experience in the 2010 French floods in an upcoming novel), but certainly use my own emotions when the characters are faced with pain, betrayal, falling in love or bereavement. It's all there in my heart to create fulfilling and moving scenes on the page.

3) Are there sex scenes?

Yes, in all my books. I believe sex is an integral part of a romance and I am one of the many writers who want to show the vulnerability the heroine or hero is experiencing during and after the physical side of the growing relationship.

Other authors prefer to write sweet romances with the sex happening behind closed doors. That's not for me, I love writing sex scenes!

Rachel's latest release is PAYING THE PIPER, available from Lyrical Press (click here for buy link) from September 19th.

Here's the blurb:

Nightclub manager Grace Butler is on a mission to buy the pub where her mother's ashes are scattered but the owner wants to sell to anyone but her. And that owner happens to be her father…who has a secret she will do anything to discover.

Social worker and all around good guy Jimmy Betts needs funds to buy a house for three special kids before their care home closes. Time is running out and he's desperate for cash. He agrees to to a one-time 'job' for bad-man Karl Butler. But in a sudden turn of events, Jimmy finds himself employed by Karl's beautiful, funny and incredibly sexy daughter, Grace. Their lives couldn't be more different, yet one thread binds them: they're both trying to escape the bonds of their fathers. Maybe the only way they'll be free is by being together, instead of alone.



Rachel lives with her husband and two young daughters in a small town near Bath in the UK. She started writing short stories about eight years ago but once her children were at school, she embarked on her first novel. It was published in 2007. Since then, she's had several books published with The Wild Rose Press, Eternal Press and Lyrical Press. She recently acquired a US agent with her second Victorian historical. A member of the Romantic Novelists Association and Romance Writers of America, Rachel hopes to have a further two novels, one contemporary and one Victorian published in 2012.

When she isn't writing, you'll find Rachel with her head in a book or walking the beautiful English countryside with her family. Her dream place to live is Bourton-on-the-Water. And in the evening? Well, a well-deserved glass of wine is never, ever refused…

My Life in Books: Beatrix Potter

I confess I didn't read all of Beatrix Potter's books about the adventures of various cute animals, but they are such an iconic image of childhood universally, I now can't remember which ones I read I which ones I didn't.

I have two endearing memories from childhood involving Beatrix Potter's characters, so it's appropriate to include them in this series of posts about influential books in my life.

In my first year of infant school, my year did a production of PETER RABBIT. We performed on a real stage – at the local community theatre – with a real audience. I was five years old. I played a flower in Mr McGregor's garden. My role was to sit cross-legged on stage with a halo of flower petals made out of coloured construction paper affixed to my head. I think I had to wear green, to look like a flower stem. I recall getting to join in some of the songs (it was a musical production).

What I do remember, very clearly, is that it was my first time on stage and I loved every minute of being there. It triggered my love of theatre, and for that reason alone, PETER RABBIT was an influential book in my life.

The second Beatrix Potter-related memory is the fact that this picture of Benjamin Bunny, included with this post, hung on the wall of my bedroom when I was a child.

Later on, when I started getting into the writing more seriously, I took comfort in the fact that Beatrix Potter had PETER RABBIT rejected countless times, and indeed initially went down the self-publishing route, before finding a publisher. And yet, years later, her books are still read and loved by millions. Although, in browsing Amazon to refresh my memory in readiness for this post, I discovered that THE TALE OF BENAJAMIN BUNNY is not universally loved. One reviewer has given it a one-star review on the basis that Benjamin is beaten by his father for misbehaving, and the reviewer feels this is displaying inappropriate violence in a children's books.

Perhaps this just demonstrates that Beatrix Potter's books are not as timeless as we are led to believe, after all.

Coming Soon…

(Cross-posted from WriteClub)

I am pleased to be able to announce that my next publishing project is in the pipeline. A collection of my short stories, with the working title of SOUL SCREAMS, will be released as an e-book and POD version, with a scheduled publication date of February 2012.

I'm working with a new e-publisher for this project, but their editor I know well and have worked with in the past, and I have every faith in them.  The anthology will contain previously published short stories, as well as some unpublished ones.  They are all horror-themed, but much of my earlier work dealt with psychological horror rather than supernatural horror, and characters in very dark places.  It's not going to be an uplifting read, put it that way.  Unlike my novels, my short stories rarely end happily.

I am not able to say much more about this project at this time, but I am very excited about working on it. I will release more information soon, so be sure to watch this space!

Does Crossing Genres Kill Your Career?

(Cross-posted on the WriteClub blog)

Whenever I see the latest book by any best-selling author, I am always struck by how similar the cover is to the last book, or the last half a dozen books by this person.  It would appear that publishers like series. If a first book about a particular character does well, another book featuring the same character is much more likely to be published (and, more significantly, promoted).

For this reason, large publishing houses seem rather nervous when their best-selling authors decide they want to branch out and try something a little different. They seem convinced the fans won't go for this new idea. After all, readers want more of the same.

Or do they? What I'm not clear on is whether this is actually true, or if it's a myth perpetuated by the publishing industry. Do readers go for a writer's books because they are hoping for the same thing again, or because they like this person's writing style? Michael Marshall Smith had several excellent science fiction novels published. Then he wrote a series of crime thrillers which appear under the name Michael Marshall, presumably to avoid ONLY FORWARD being picked up by people expecting another gritty crime thriller. Though if they did, they might well enjoy it anyway – it's a fabulous book.

My second novel DEATH SCENE is a mystery novel, with no supernatural elements at all. But because my first novel SUFFER THE CHILDREN was horror, I have noticed that a lot of the e-book websites that are selling DEATH SCENE have categorised it as horror. I do worry about this sometimes. Am I killing my career by writing in two separate genres? Are people going to pick up DEATH SCENE expecting supernatural beasties and be disappointed? Or are they going to pick up the second book because they enjoyed the first one, and want to see what else I've written?

Sonya Clark had a marvellous post on her blog recently about this topic. And after reading it I feel a lot better.

There are some people out there who only read crime, and some who will only read horror. The majority of people who read, however, read because they enjoy the stories. And they can be trusted to make their own judgement on what they read. If they find an author they like, they will likely explore all the genres that author writes in.

I may never be a best-selling writer. But if I find a handful of people who look forward to my next book, no matter what genre it is, then I feel I will have achieved something.

Monday's Friend: Melisse Aires

Today I am pleased to welcome writer Melisse Aires to my blog, who presents her case as to why we should read steampunk romance.

Top Ten Reasons To Try Steampunk Romance

By Melisse Aires

1 Victorian clothes are so cool.

2 It is the only genre that might pair a governess with a space captain.

3 You are a secret Browncoat.

4 The Mad Scientist might be the nerdy but hawt hero.

5 Robots and flying machines abound.

6 Fine hand-embroidered undergarments add a nice touch to love scenes.

7 Your Gallant Hero might pack a laser gun.

8 You enjoy grand adventure in your romance.

From "Back To the Future Part III" by Unversal Pictures

9 You secretly desired Dr. Emmet and Clara Brown's Hovertrain in Back to the Future III

10 A Lady can be resourceful and use her parasol, laser or hatpin in sticky situations.

I hope you will give it a whirl. My Steampunk/spacewestern releases November 1st!

The First in the Starlander Frontier series:

Starlander's Myth

from Whiskey Creek Press Torrid

Rangy, handsome Jack Starlander: His plan to live as an isolated asteroid miner is foiled by widow ladies. Story includes a gyphon shifter heroine, slavers, a shoot out, widows, small and illegal children, a strange space beast and hot steamy love! Also, bustles and corsets!

Please check my blog for upcoming steampunk fun!

Melisse Aires