Josh Lanyon's Blog, page 78

Happy Labor Day!

I'm on my way out of town, but I wanted to pause long enough to thank everyone who bought The Haunted Heart and In Plain Sight. As of this morning The Haunted Heart was #1 in most of its categories on Amazon. In Plain Sight is in the Top Ten. Both titles are moving up the chart at All Romance Ebooks.

I can't tell you how much I appreciate your loyalty over these past couple of years while I worked to get over burn out and get myself back up to speed. This was a week for amazing book releases in our genre, so to have touched that #1 spot, however briefly, is a big deal.

Thank you.

And now let's enjoy the fruits of our labor with a good, long weekend!

The Haunted Heart Playlist

Welllll, it looks like tomorrow just might be the day.

The revised edition of The Haunted Heart: Winter is complete and ready to be uploaded. The final version is nearly 10,000 words longer than the original. It's still pretty much the same story, only better (I hope) than the version you read for free on Wattpad.

In honor of that new release, I'm sharing the official Haunted Heart Playlist. Well, it's not official official until I can get onto iTunes and make it official with a link and everything, but these are the songs anyway. (And thank you to the Goodreads gang for helping me come up with them!)







Somewhere in Between - Lifehouse
Is It Any Wonder - Keane
Stay - Shakespeare's Sister
Home - Phillip Phillips
Shadow of the Day - Linkin Park
Creole Love Call - Duke Ellington
Believe - K's Choice
First Time - Lifehouse
Black Velvet - Alannah Myles
I Will Wait for You - Mumford & Sons
So the Wind Won't Blow it All Away - John Mills

Adrian Bisson on the DANGEROUS GROUND series

You may recall that in March of this year I ran a contest to select the narrator for the Dangerous Ground audio books. I had so many really good auditions that I honestly couldn't choose between them. Okay, I did sort of lean in a particular direction, but the narrator I liked best didn't appear to have the library of work that some of the other narrators did, so I thought I would leave it up to readers to choose. The DG books have some very dedicated readers, and it made sense to let readers have the final say.

Well, you all got out there and voted -- and lo and behold! My guy won. By a LANDSLIDE. I was genuinely thrilled both with your participation and with the fact that my instinct had been correct.

That winning narrator was Adrian Bisson, and I'm telling you now -- as we reach the halfway mark through the series -- you're going to be very happy with the job Adrian has done on these books.

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to do two interviews with him -- much as we're doing with Chris Patton for the Adrien English novels -- an interview at midway point and an interview at the end of the series.

So here we go with Adrian Bisson following his completion of Old Poison.

 How did you get started in narrating/producing audio books? How many audio books have you narrated?
I'm fairly new to the audio book scene, and I'm excited and enthusiastic about doing something I love. Before getting involved in audio book production, I spent three years teaching English in Seoul, South Korea. While I was there I met a voice actor who was involved in making educational materials, and talking to him really piqued my interest. I started in Korea by recording some spots for VoiceBunny.com and did some volunteer narration for Librivox.org as well. When I returned to Indiana last year, I was interested in trying my hand at writing fiction, which has always been another dream of mine. While I was researching the market for Kindle self-publishing, I encountered acx.com and discovered the opportunities that exist for creating audio books. Reading has always been something I'm passionate about, and I love reading aloud and bringing the stories to life with my voice. Armed and Dangerous was one of my very first auditions, and I feel so lucky that I found this project. The winning the narration contest was a huge confidence boost as a rookie and I feel a connection to the fans who voted for me and a duty to deliver the very best performance I can!

I currently have one other audio book completed and released, Monarch by Michelle Davidson Argyle. It's a romantic spy thriller, and it's a great title to listen to while you're waiting for Armed and Dangerous! Just search for Adrian Bisson on Amazon or Audible.
 How much acting is involved in narrating a story?
For me, it's all about acting. My approach is to breathe as much life into the characters as I can, to try to get into their heads and portray their emotions and reactions like real people. I try to give every character a distinct voice and attitude, and understand their motivations so that I can bring that out with my voice.

Team Taylor or Team Will?
I identify more with Will, but I can see why he finds Taylor irresistible. Will's serious, sensible, stable. Taylor is exciting, brash, and unpredictable. I think they make a good couple, but I worry about their future. The drama of a wild relationship with a loose-cannon is enticing, but I wonder if Will will eventually get burnt out on the stress of rescuing Taylor from himself. And I have my doubts about whether Taylor won't get antsy once the newness of his daring conquest has worn off. If things go south, I'd be on Will's side.

So you're now half way through the Dangerous Ground series. What has been the most difficult or challenging aspect of narrating the stories up to the point of Old Poison?
The most difficult aspect was probably settling on a voice for David Bradley. I'm not sure why, but I fretted and worried and second-guessed a lot about that one. Most of the other characters were easy to find a voice for, but David Bradley is still a bit of a mystery that I'm sure will be fleshed out as I get further along.

What character was the most fun to narrate? Why?
I have to say, I love doing the villains! I can be wicked, menacing, relentless, and a more than a little crazy. Both of the lead villains from Dangerous Ground and Old Poison were very satisfying to act out.


Which character was the most difficult to narrate? Why?
Lieutenant David Bradley and Agent Denise Varga were both a little hard to get a handle on. I'm not sure exactly why.

Was there a particular scene you think you read especially well? Or that you particularly enjoyed reading?
It's really hard to pick out one particular scene. My favorite scenes are the discussions between Will and Taylor as they navigate the shifting meaning and boundaries of their relationship. They're so well-written, emotionally true, and full of pathos, and I love having such strong and developed characters to portray.

How awkward is it to read erotic scenes aloud?

When I auditioned for this project, I really didn't know exactly what I was getting into. When I reached Chapter 4 of Dangerous Ground, I found out! There I was, in the walk-in closet where I record, acting out a steamy sex scene between two guys. It was a little awkward at first, I'd never done anything quite like it before. My aunt had volunteered to be my proof-listener, so I couldn't help wondering what she would think when she got the audio later that day. Well, she said it was great and everyone has been very supportive and encouraging. I'm a professional and I know a hot scene when I read one. These scenes are well-written and red hot. I think that listeners will fully enjoy listening to me give it all I've got!
 
What’s the most satisfying or rewarding part of narrating/producing an audio book?
I'll be incredibly satisfied when the project is done and the fans have the chance to listen and enjoy. I love the idea of bringing your stories into a new medium to be experienced in a new way, and I find it really rewarding to be part of this project. All the fans who voted for me in the narrator contest deserve the best audio book possible, and I aim to deliver it. If I see people buying the audio book, recommending it to friends, and leaving good reviews and feedback, that'll be the the best reward.


Do you ever find yourself wishing the author hadn’t taken the story in a particular direction? Or is narrating a much more detached process?
I'm detached from the direction of the story, my job is to become the characters, and express the experience of things as they happen. This is Josh Lanyon's story, and I'm just along for the ride. I happen to really like how these first two novellas have played out and I'm eager to see what's next!

Where can readers/listeners find out more about you and your work?
I really ought to make my own webpage and blog! It's on my to-do list.

My Audible narrator page is where you can pick up my first audio book, Monarch! I am also on Facebook and Twitter. I love narrating books, and I'm really hoping to build a fan base and put out a book every month or so after Armed and Dangerous is complete, so keep an eye out! Armed and Dangerous is a labor of love and I'm taking time to get it just right, but it'll be here soon!

Author, Author! Z.A. MAXFIELD

I first met Z.A. Maxfield back in 2007. I was very new to social media and the web and I had just started to blog very tentatively over on Live Journal. I didn't fully (or at all) get how these things worked, so I was mostly babbling to myself, but somehow I began to collect a circle of LJ friends, and we had some really wonderful discussions about books and writing and life in general. One of those friends was Z.A. Maxfield who stood out from the first with her witty, literate, and thoughtful comments. That woman ought to be published, I privately thought. And Lo! It came to pass. Z.A. is now one of the first names to pop up when readers ask for suggestions for smart, funny, and poignant M/M romance.

Next Tuesday, August 20th, Z.A. has her first release with InterMix, the digital imprint of Penguin.  My Cowboy Heart is very possibly the first M/M romance title by an indie author to be  published by a mainstream publisher, and that's exciting news for our little genre. There are a lot of reasons to hope this book is successful, not least is because ZAM has worked hard and earned this moment. Anyway, I preordered the book the minute it was live on Amazon, and I'm thinking YOU should too!

Sha-ZAM!

So we first met on Live Journal, wasn't it? What were you doing there? Is it true you were on parole? But seriously, how did you go from lurking on LJ to published author?
You might find this amusing. I discovered Live Journal because I was looking for YOU Josh Lanyon. I only actually joined LJ because I wanted to comment on your Just Joshin' blog.

At that time I had been writing for a while, although I wasn’t yet contracted for publication. I had three novels completed, and I had just gotten to the point of submitting one to some independent publisher’s slush pile. It seemed logical to choose a publisher from the ones who published authors I had been reading.

My first submission got rejected by one publisher, but then I sent a different manuscript to Loose Id and they accepted it. After I had undergone some edits at Loose Id, I tightened up the other manuscript, and it was accepted at Aspen Mountain Press. The rest, as they say, is history.


Do you believe the sins of the father shall be visited upon the sons?
I hope not, and I hope a mothers’ sins won’t be visiting anyone – especially my kids -- either.


You have a book coming out with Penguin's InterMix imprint. Congratulations! My Cowboy Heart is InterMix's first tentative toe dipping into the turbulent, roiling waters of M/M Romance. I'm excited for you. Are you mostly excited or mostly scared? What do you think this book means for your writing career?
I can’t help but be both excited and scared. For my writing career, it’s very nice to be a Penguin Author. Yet I wonder, as quirky as I am, if I’m the best person to do a gay cowboy novel for the mainstream romance market.

I have to admit, I love, love, loved seeing my book there on their Penguin page: http://www.us.penguingroup.com/pages/intermix/

But I could make a case for fifty authors that I know personally who might be a better fit for a mainstream book line.

I wasn’t going to turn them down, was I?

It was great fun, but I'm not a comfortable trailblazer. I usually leave that to others. I suppose this only means that my friends, writers who deserve to be trailblazers in their own right, have a much better chance of getting their work out there too.


Is it true you set the fire?
I did not, but I worried an awful lot someone might come to that conclusion, because I’d only two weeks before ordered escape ladders for my upstairs bedrooms. (I did that because of a news article about a family unable to escape a house that burned down on Christmas Eve.)


What was the most interesting or surprising thing you learned while researching My Cowboy Heart?

I had to research how long a dog has to be immobilized after an amputation. I wondered how hard my characters would have to work to keep a dog from a fairly active breed contained while she healed. It turns out they’re up on the remaining legs fairly quickly and they heal fast. 


Boxers or briefs? No, seriously. Why should this question be reserved for male authors? Why shouldn't everyone have to answer?

Neither, which -- not to give anyone granny panty nightmares -- should also not be a great surprise.


Are you a fulltime writer?

Yes. My full time job is writing, but it hardly counts because I went from full time stay-at-home mother to full time writer, so it wasn’t as if I had to write enough to cover my missing salary.


What's the last piece of music you listened to? Did you sing along?
Verdi’s Aida, and no. :D


Which of your children is your favorite? KIDDING!!! How did you and the Mister meet?

I met my husband at the Rocky Horror Picture show on Halloween, 1982. I was with a couple of friends, and he sat two seats to my right. After a bit of flirty conversation I invited him to fill the empty seat between us. We haven’t stopped talking since.

 What are you working on now?
Right now I’m working on a series called The Brothers Grime, about a crime scene clean up company owned by three men, Jack, Eddie, and Gabe. Each man gets his own story. The first was Grime and Punishment, about Jack. The second is Eddie’s story, Grime Doesn’t Pay, and the third, Partners in Grime, is about Gabe.


What do you love most about writing? What do you like least?
I love that moment when it all works, when you’re writing with the figurative wind at your back and ideas you’ve seeded into chapter two become really meaningful in chapter 22. I love when everything hits the fan and you know exactly what to do to fix things.

I don’t think I like anything least. I find it difficult emerging from the cave of my imagination to promote the work because it seems like that requires a different set of muscles entirely. I’ll bet you know what I mean by that. I thought writing was going to be all lonely and it turns out, I spend half my time writing emails. I love the people I write to, and I really need the community, but it takes my head out of the game.

Switching back and forth from writer to social animal is what I like least because it's difficult for me.


Have you ever broken a bone? Have you ever broken anyone else's bones?
Nope to both. Which… I’m an old gal, so I’m really grateful. *Goes to find some wood to knock on.*


What do you think is the most important thing to remember when creating fully realized main characters?
Great characters are flawed. They believe lies about themselves. They ache for wanting things they’ll never get. A fully realized character -- to me -- is consistent, but never consistently good, or consistently bad.


Is there any genre you'd like to tackle but you're kinda sorta afraid?
I want to write mysteries. I have always wanted to write mysteries. I fear I lack the complexity of mind. *sobs*. The almost-mystery books I’ve written are mostly only suspenseful, and not mysterious. I keep thinking I have one in the works, but then… Nope. Not yet. Maybe someday soon.


Tell us something surprising. Anything. Go on. Surprise us!
I’m pregnant with my second set of twins. That was a lie. But admit it, you were surprised for a second, weren’t you?



(My jaw did drop, yes!) ;-D

This Probably Means Something…

I had a dream last night.
 
I was traveling across country (which I don’t do much anymore) and my flight was delayed and I had to spend the night in the airport. Except that the airport was sort of a combination of an airport and a museum (too many episodes of Sister Wendy, I know). It had a lot of natural science and natural history exhibits (which I love) with those enormous stuffed animal displays and giant windows offering incredible views of the stars and planets.
 
When I woke in the morning I was running through the museum to catch my plane and as I looked out the windows the scenery was so incredible that I had to stop and stare. And then I thought…I want to remember this forever. I should take a photo. If only I had my camera! And then I realized my phone was a camera too! So I reached for my iPhone and it fell apart in my hand.
 
I tried and tried, but I couldn’t seem to figure out how to put it back together. So I went looking for someone to help me fix my phone. Everyone kept trying, but when I would take the phone back it would fall apart again. It had all these cardboard pieces and washers and nuts and plastic inserts that just didn’t make any sense to me.
 
(Ya think, Josh?)
 
OH. And I ran into Ginn Hale and Nicole Kimberling who were (this part still gets me laughing when I remember) traveling with a theatrical troop of little people who were putting on performances of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. They were all in costume. Including Ginn and Nicole.  Lots of red velvet and breeches.
 
Anyway, they couldn’t fix my phone either.
 
So I finally I was left standing at the window staring at this breathtaking scenery with my broken phone in hand, trying to memorize everything I was seeing.
 

Max Miller on THE DARKLING THRUSH and THE GHOST WORE YELLOW SOCKS

Tell us a little bit about your background. How did you get started in narrating/producing audio books? How many audio books have you narrated?
I have been performing since I started in boy's choirs when I was 6. In college I studied classical voice which ended up leading me to NYC where I fell into musical theater. After several Broadway and off-Broadway shows I decided that it was time to follow my true passion, animation. So a year ago I moved to Los Angeles to become a voice actor for cartoons. I had a friend, Pat Fraley, tell me about audiobook narration and how the long form acting it requires can really go a long way to improving every aspect of voice acting so I decided to give it a shot. In the last year I've done about a dozen audiobooks, two of which have been for you. 
How much acting is involved in narrating a story?
It's all acting. Anyone can read, not everyone can bring characters to life and tell a story. If it were just reading, then we'd gladly listen to Siri read audiobooks. 
What was the most difficult or challenging aspect of narrating THE DARKLING THRUSH?
Definitely creating a mood. I have a young voice and sometimes it's a little difficult to create the darker characters or scenes without making my voice sound like I'm pushing too hard. 
What character was the most fun to narrate? Why?
Irania Briggs. I enjoy reading female characters (paging Dr. Freud), especially when they are sexy and seductive…..all things I am not. And while she doesn't involve herself in romantic seduction in this book, I still feel like she oozes it. 
What character was the most difficult to narrate? Why?
Septimus Marx. The voice I heard in his head was something I couldn't produce so it was always frustrating to have to listen to myself reading the role. 
Was there a particular scene you think you read especially well? Or that you particularly enjoyed reading?
I enjoyed reading the final battle scenes. They were just so well written I was able to breeze through them and my mind was totally engaged. 
You also narrated one of my most popular standalone titles, THE GHOST WORE YELLOW SOCKS. What was the most difficult or challenging aspect of narrating that title?
I would say keeping all of the characters straight. The house was just full of interesting people and I wanted to make each one distinct but that meant I created a lot of work for myself. Well worth it I hope. 
What character was the most fun to narrate? Why?
Ms. McQueen. Mainly because I saw her as a female Harvey Fierstein and who doesn't love Harvey. Though I tried not to go overboard on the voice.   What character was the most difficult to narrate? Why?
Nick Reno. Nick should be rather butch and manly and I've never really considered myself to be too much of either of those things so it was an acting challenge and a vocal challenge. 
Was there a particular scene you think you read especially well? Or that you particularly enjoyed reading?
I really enjoyed, and thought I read well, the early scenes where the entire household is milling around after Perry comes downstairs freaking out about the dead man in the bathtub. I enjoyed jumping from one character to another and creating that sense of chaos. 
How awkward is it to read erotic scenes aloud?
I find it very awkward because I don't see myself as having a sexy voice whatsoever. That said, I make them into a bit of a game, seeing how sexy I can be, and it's rather fun. 
What’s the most satisfying or rewarding part of narrating/producing an audio book?
Getting to see the title go live on Audible.com and knowing that anyone, anywhere could be listening to my voice in their car. 
Do you ever find yourself wishing the author (naturally not me!!!) hadn’t taken the story in a particular direction? Or is narrating a much more detached process?
It really depends on the book and how well written it is. If it's well written, as yours are, then I tend to get attached to the characters and care what happens to them. Sometimes, I read real drivel and couldn't care less if the characters live or die.  Brutal, but there it is. 
  Where can readers/listeners find out more about you and your work?
 
On my website, www.TheMaxMiller.com. I have, not only information about my audiobooks but also clips of my animation that I've created and those that I've worked on for others, info on upcoming concerts I have, yada yada yada.
 
 

Happy 4th of July!

I'll be spending the day hosting our annual family BBQ. Hot dogs, hamburgers, corn on the cob and root beer floats in the evening. Probably not what the Founding Fathers envisioned, but it's one of our favorite traditions. Traditions are good. And so is having the luxury of being able to celebrate them in safety and peace.

AUTHOR, AUTHOR! Harper Fox

 Didn't you start out as a poet? How did you end up wearing that viking helmet and quaffing meade?
Well, it's so embarrassing - I was meant to reincarnate as Charlotte Brontë but the karmic angel only had time for initials that day and... Well, here I am - Conan the Barbarian. Seriously (as far as I'm capable of serious), I did start out as a poet, yes, and I remain very proud of the work I had published in some tiny but reputable Northumbrian magazines which have since plunged into nonexistence for want of funds, thus adding to the poignancy of the whole situation. But I've always been an ordinary poet, or a poet of the ordinary, and I don't have separate sections of my brain assigned to poetry and prose. No, it all seems to come out of the same murky well, and in many ways Brothers Of The Wild North Sea is a poetic novel. Robust, hairy and sexy, but poetic, if poetry is the compression/channelling of much meaning and emotion into clear and lucid language and the ability to bring that far-flung shore right to your door. :-D Seriously seriously, I just like mead. And how I look in horns.

What do you tell literary pals who smile pityingly at you when you admit to writing romance? Or do you admit it?
I *do* admit it! I do, I do. My first admissions were overcompensating challenges: "I write ebook porn! Wanna make something of it?" Then I switched to defensive mode: "Yes, they're *categorised* as romances, but if you take the time to read them you may find they transcend their genre in sensitivity and substance." Now, through sheer exhaustion, I tell the truth. "I write erotic romances between men, mostly for the US ebook market." I do in fact have that archetypal literary pal, who to give her credit never smiled pityingly, but for whom I proved a bitter disappointment simply because a woman of my gifts is meant to starve in a garret, not catch a lucky niche wave in a genre she loves and do pretty well out of it!

What was the most interesting or surprising thing you learned while researching Brothers of the Wild North Sea?
God, I wish I could say it was a fascinating sidelight on religion or archaeology, but in fact it was underwear. I won't go into details - what, you think I'm gonna blow all my best bits right here?! - and you'll have to read the book to find out, but let's just say that Caius and Fen have something in common in that department.

Is it true your new home is haunted?
At the risk of sounding completely unhinged, I'm afraid so. Yes. Absolutely. The radio-monitor incident was horribly true in every detail. Mrs H and I avoided the subject with each other for months then had one of *those* conversations: "What? You feel like you're being watched from behind when you sit in that chair too? You too catch someone moving from the corner of your eye in the yard? You feel that chilly, heavy sensation in the front room?" Now, granted, we're both hysterical Lit grads scoring fifteen out of ten on the susceptibility scale, but it's getting a little odd. The lady who lived here before us did so happily for a very long time, but she had fourteen Alsatians and - well, let's just say "created her own atmosphere". It's okay. We're airing the place.

 Boxers or briefs? No, seriously. Why should this question be reserved for male authors? Why shouldn't everyone have to answer?
Why indeed? If I'm putting myself out there as a female author of M/M lit, I damn well should have to answer this question, and the answer is... BOTH! Oh, yes, both. When you have to write as many sex scenes as I do just to feed the kiddies and keep the missus in mink coats (*joke!!!* on both counts!) you need plenty of beneath-the-trouser variety just to keep things sparky. Or... Oh! Were you asking for my personal preference? Boxers, definitely. Cojones as big as mine need room to breathe. (Josh, if I've gone too far, please just censor that last bit.)

I wouldn't dream of it, my darling! ;-)
Are you a fulltime writer?
I am. Carve those two words with pride upon my rain-lashed, mossy tombstone, if you will. Er, in due course. I get up at six in the morning and write until nine. Those are my golden hours and if I miss them I spend the rest of the day in a dismal, self-flagellating slough of despond, having failed to answer my purpose in existing. I am actually that serious about it. I find I need to have two projects on the go - one "live" book and one either in the planning stages or finished and in edits, so after paying my dues to the house and Mrs H in terms of gardening/grouting/guttering, I'll attend to project #2 in the afternoons, and evenings are mostly given over to my braindead stuff, like marketing (as anyone who's witnessed my efforts in that department will testify). So, yes - I'm fulltime in the sense of spending my whole working day  as a writer, and also in the scary sense that my writing is now the sole income for our household. Did I say scary? I mean, of course, wonderful. Okay, scary *and* wonderful. Wonderful because I am *so* bloody proud and happy to have the privilege of supporting myself and the people I love in this way, and scary because - at the moment - it's a subsistence wage, a real scrape. But it's there, and it's getting better. Josh, you told me when I set out in this game that backlist was key to income, and I was all, like, "Dude, ain't nobody got time for that sh*t!" And I was right. I didn't. I had to do my Evil Day Job for another three years while I built my backlist. So - um - actually, that means *you* were right...

What's the last piece of music you listened to? Did you sing along?
"Work" by Iggy Azalea. Ought to be ashamed, a woman of my age, but there you are - I love it. "No money, no family, sixteen in the middle of Miami" - ah, I remember how it was, other than the giant generation gap and the totally different circumstances. Not only did I sing but but I tried the hooker-heel strut up and down the greenhouse in my wellies.

How did you and the missus meet?
Ah. Short, true story - just shy of twenty nine years ago, she emerged from a dark corridor in our university building, and her blue eyes shone with their own light, and her hair was like sunshine on a wheatfield, and that was it. Love at first sight. Happens!

What are you working on now?
My "live" project is my A Midwinter Prince sequel, The Lost Prince. Doing interviews with you is obviously very stimulating, Mr L, because I didn't realise until twenty seconds ago that the thing I've been calling AMP2 for months and months even *had* a name. But I like The Lost Prince. It's simple, and as you'll see, does exactly what it says on the tin. I love Laurie and Sasha very much and seeing them through the next stage of their relationship, the tough stuff that lies beyond first romance, is pretty intense. I'm beyond the halfway point now and am about to commit myself with an **ANNOUNCEMENT** - drum roll, naked Chippendales leaping out of cake - that I'll release The Lost Prince in August. Project #2 is my next novella, pinned up on the drawing board and decorated with a million post-it notes and enough arrows to keep the Wars of the Roses in business. This will be called Serpentine, and is set in the wonderful, magical countryside of the Lizard in Cornwall. I'm tackling a period piece for the first time, a post-WWII story, and I can't wait to get cracking on it.

What do you love most about writing? What do you like least?
Most - the dreaming stage, the planning, when everything is fluid and possible and my plot and protags are vibrantly alive to me. I think most writers will know what I mean - that golden time before you have to start making stuff make sense. :-D And the least - oh, the opposite of that, when the outline is written, the deadline is set, it's six in the morning and you have to write a sex scene with a migraine and no inspiration. Doesn't happen often, thank God, but you really meet the pure hard work of writing then. In a weird, bad way it's actually good, because it reminds me that, outside of those ecstatic times of being plugged right into the creative vibe of the universe, this is a job like any other, a possession and a privilege, and I need to treat it as such.
 Have you ever broken a bone?
Yes, once. Very dramatic story. I was about seven years old and I walked through a field full of horses. Something spooked them and one of them ran me down. You know how horses are meant to do anything rather than step on a prone human body - well, mine had missed that memo, and I broke my collarbone. Now, remember this was back in the days before they had proper medicine, so I had to be kept in bed and immobilised for about three months because the bone had swung down near my lungs. I don't remember anything at all about this time except some brightly coloured building blocks, which I'm told I played with obsessively. Wouldn't read, wouldn't pay attention to my home tutor, nothing. I'd been quite bright up to this point, honest! I suppose it was just a shock response, and I did emerge, although I still gaze yearningly at Lego. But maybe I was in some kind of authorial larval stage, pupating the future, and those building blocks were symbols of brilliant plots to come! (Unlikely, yes, but I do clutch at straws from time to time in a desperate bid to explain myself to myself.)

What do you think is the most important thing to remember when creating fully realized main characters?
A convincing choice between boxers and briefs. Motivation is everything, really; you can't just have the guy turn up in scarlet Calvin Kleins one day for no reason at all. Seriously? The ability to step inside an MC's skin. That's all. Does it feel right in there? Does he walk, does he talk, does he feel and function as vibrantly as you do, or are you trapped outside him, painting his picture from there? If you're inside, you can conjure his perceptions, motivations, complexities - I won't say effortlessly, because it often hurts to make that transition and it doesn't always work - but certainly with conviction. I try to write novels where the MCs exist strongly in their own right and aren't just vehicles for the story. I know it's worked if, a couple of years after the book's been published, I can reach out with my mind and be quite sure what Tom and Flynn from Driftwood or Cam and Nichol from Scrap Metal are doing right now; if the characters have quickened so that they exist for me - and hopefully for my readers - beyond the limits of the book.
 What is your most favorite dessert in all the world?
Oh, goodness, a really nice creme-de-five-star-review served up with royalty-cheque custard. :-D But I'm also a sucker for Mrs H's bread-and-butter pudding, made with Mighty White bread and big fat juicy raisins and nutmeg.

Is there any genre you'd like to tackle but you're kinda sorta afraid?
I'd like to write an out-and-out ghost story, and maybe Serpentine will be it. Maybe. I fear it because the feedback I get from readers is that they're not keen on paranormal elements in my work, and if there's one thing I value in this life, it's my readership. Hey, I have a readership! I'm faint and giddy even now at the thought. And I'm pretty scared of alienating or p*ssing off a good portion of the amazing people with whom I interact, with whom I've formed real friendships and whose opinions mean so much to me. But the idea of telling such a tale has a huge appeal for me - I was raised on MR James and Conan Doyle, and I love the little shiver down the spine, the glimpse beyond the veil, that a really good ghost story can deliver. Maybe my mission will be to convince the folks who don't like paranormals that they might just like *this* one...
 Tell us something surprising. Anything. Go on. Surprise us! I'm Aurignacian! Researching my family tree was a pretty short and depressing exercise, so I decided to skip all that recent malarkey and jump back 40,000 years or so via the National Geographic's human-genome DNA project. Yes, I - and several million other people, but it still feels kind of special - belong to the culture that produced the oldest-known example of figurative art, the Chauvet cave paintings and (debatably) the world's first musical instruments. Are you surprised yet? No? Okay, try this - you can't draw a counter-clockwise circle in the air whilst simultaneously circling your ankle clockwise.

Or *can* you?

Many thanks to my good friend and mentor Josh for hosting this interview and making you try!

I Travel On This Train Regularly!

Yes, I should be writing. Instead...rambling thoughts on audio books, ACX, and the changing face of publishing.


Just finished listening to the first fifteen minutes of In From the Cold, narrated by Alexander Masters. I’m loving what I’ve heard so far. Masters’ voice is deep and dreamy, which perfectly suits the opening pages of I Spy Something Bloody  with Mark mostly zonked out of his skull, thanks to pain killers, PTS, and exhaustion. Anyway, I think this is going to go over well with readers. Listeners. Listening readers.
 
I stumbled across a blog Neil Gaiman did about audio books back in 2011 and he made two excellent points -- excellent then and probably more excellent now. Pay attention to your audio book rights. Don't hand them over without a second thought (as we all used to do for years and years). And if you hold your audio book rights, think about doing something with them. Like ACX. Not that I haven't had my issues with ACX, but so far they seem to be the best solution to the problem of the humble rest of us affordably getting audio books produced and distributed.
 
Last week I spent a couple of days listening to auditions and picking narrators -- four of them -- for In Sunshine or In Shadow. Brick Shop Audio is producing this project (they also handle the Holmes & Moriarity books) so I’m confident it’s going to be a completely professional production from start to finish. Is anyone going to want to listen to a book of short stories? I just don’t know. It’s going to be a very expensive project and in some ways it’s the riskiest one yet. I'm excited to hear the final results though. (In case, you hadn't noticed, I am very pleased with the way that short story antho turned out.)
 
Because the narrators are also the producers, I definitely check their backlist when I’m picking narrators. I also listen to their other sample clips on ACX and I check out their website. I want to know what I’m getting. Not just as far as the voice, though the voice is paramount, but I want a feel for how this person conducts themselves. Lately -- I guess this is a sign of the publishing times -- I’ve had problems with indie contractors not meeting commitments, not coming through. So I look for a known quantity, but I’m also not afraid to take a chance on a narrator without a long backlist to their credit. I’ve found some wonderful, fresh talent that way.
 
In fact, I’ve been really happy with each of my narrators and with the final audio books. It’s hard to know how well the books are doing. I haven’t been able to find any “average” figures for indie audio sales. So far I’ve got nine projects out there and I’ve sold just under 3500 books in total. Is that good or bad? I have no idea. It’s relative anyway, because all that really matters is whether I am making money.
 
And, despite concerns with Amazon/Audible’s high-handed promotional pricing tactics, I seem to be. Making money, I mean. Certainly the projects are, slowly but surely, paying for themselves. Which is a huge relief -- and the reason I’ve resumed commissioning audio productions.


The other thing that softened my stance was hearing from readers for whom English is a second language. And readers who have physical challenges reading. For both these sets of readers, audio books are more than an indulgence. In some cases they're a godsend. Not that I have ever been anything less than enthusiastic about audio books. Both as an author and a reader. In fact, I've started buying more audio books than ever.
 
I've read blogs where authors chose two narrators to do a book together -- splitting up male and female parts, for example. I wonder how that would work...
 
One thing Audible has abandoned, as of the end of this month, is the dollar honorarium paid for each unit sold. So now charging $1.99 for an audio book really is asking the rights holder to take a leap of faith. I don’t disagree with discontinuing the honorarium. It more than served it’s purpose, given that ACX can’t keep up with processing all the titles coming through the pipeline now. I will be sorry to lose that extra dollar per book, though!  It was a nice little perk.


BUT they've started giving authors more promo copies, so that's pretty neat. You readers will definitely benefit from that. And so will I, I do not doubt.  
 
I read a blog by Bob Mayer where he mentioned paying about $175 per finished hour, which I suppose would make it easier to recoup costs and start making a profit. I pay between $200. and $350. depending on the narrator’s experience, the commerciality of the project, etc.  A lot of authors seem to gravitate to the split royalties option. I’ve done that once (ACX was offering a stipend to sweeten the deal) and we seem to have done all right out of it. I’m not generally comfortable with it because I hate having to be in the position of asking someone to take that kind of a risk on me. And, realistically, sharing rights to the project for the next seven years seems precarious given how much every aspect of the publishing industry has changed in the past two years since I went indie.  
 
I’ve seen a few comments from narrator/producers on blogs where they talk about royalty share and how the narrator is taking all the risk. That’s mostly true though not completely true. Obviously the narrator is investing time and talent on a project that may never pay off. But the narrator is a huge, huge part of the success of any audio book, so the author is also taking a risk. I’ve loved every one of my narrators, but I hear different things from listeners. Especially the listeners who don’t know me, don’t know my work except through the audio books, and aren’t hesitant to offend my delicate sensibilities and slam my carefully chosen narrator.  
 
I listen to a lot of audio books (and sample a lot more) and sometimes I just cannot believe the voice over choices some authors make. I don't necessarily mean the narrator him or herself (though, yeah, sometimes). I mean the crazy, tinny, or hollow background sound. How can nobody not hear that?! Is this because it's a share and this is the best for the bucks? This is where the risk comes in for the author. What if you ultimately decided you wanted a different narrator/production? What’s the process there? If you’re sharing royalties, you’re most certainly locked in for the next seven years. That’s going to be a risk for all concerned. Especially if decisions were made to cut corners.
 
I’m guessing that some narrators, the ones who’ve been doing this professionally for years and years, find the developments in voice over as unsettling as mainstream authors found developments in self-publishing. I get a sudden vision of that scene in Hard Day's Night. I fought the war for your sort! But there really is a lot of wonderful talent out there and I can't see that making audio books so much more affordable is going to be a bad thing. Assuming everyone makes their investment back.  

Six Books for Six Bucks

For this weekend only, I'm dropping the price of six of my novellas to .99 cents. That's six books for six bucks.

I've tried to get a nice assortment of stories in here: fantasy, historical, and of course mystery and romance.

The selected titles are:

A Vintage Affair
Blood Red Butterfly
The Dark Horse
The Darkling Thrush
Cards on the Table
Out of the Blue

You can purchase them at that reduced price through Smashwords, All Romance Ebooks, and Amazon Kindle. Unfortunately the turn around time at B&N is too slow -- by the time they'd have the new prices approved and posted, the sale would be over! -- but you can buy epub format through Smashwords or All Romance Ebooks.

This sale will end sometime Sunday, so do not linger or tarry. Hie yourself over to your favorite bookseller and start clicking. And if you already have the books, you can always gift them to someone else, right?

Have a terrific weekend!