P.J. Schnyder's Blog, page 26

Guest Post: Clarissa Yip

Have You Met My Sun-addicted Muse?

It's November! Yes, I'm sure most of you are working on NaNo and ready to churn out a best seller! But does your muse want to play? Is he/she rooting for you to pull those 50k words out with no problem? Maybe my muse is the fickle one driving me insane…

I sit down. Flick the switch. The screen turns on. I'm ready to crank out 5k words in one day, write a best seller that is going to leave readers breathless and wanting more. A blank document sits in front of me. Hands posed over the keyboard and…now what? Then my ADD comes along and I find a million excuses not to write and a million other things that seem to need my attention. Does that sound like you?

My muse has a tendency to go on vacation whenever she wants since I do live in one of the most tropical places in this world. Hawaii. I'm surrounded by beaches, lagoons, lots of awesome food, and of course, sun, sun, sun. Jealous? Don't be. I'm too busy hiding in the dark in my bat cave while my muse is out tanning. She'll run across the street to the golf course and to the lagoons to watch the sunsets, while I'm sitting here posed over the computer with a blank doc open, waiting for her to return. It's quite pathetic really. But once I start writing and the flow starts to work, I wouldn't care where she goes as long as she comes back and helps me draw my characters out of their hiding spots. (And I hope she remembers to wear sunscreen!)

But I'll admit, I fight with my muse a lot. (Yes, writers are crazy people.) I could be sitting there having a conversation with myself, and it's actually with my muse and people will stare. (I don't do it that often, but if I did, I may start to question my sanity.) She hasn't let me down yet, but at times I struggle with conflict, with plot, characters, and ideas. When I needed her the most, she has pulled through for me.

[image error]My new coming-soon-to Decadent Publishing holiday release, Snowy Encounters, was definitely a challenge. The first anthology I've done with my wonderful critique partners at Passionate Critters (http://www.passionatecritters.org), I've put my muse on the spot. She'd struggled along side with me. Snowy Encounters, a contemporary romance based around the town of Five Oaks, as the other stories in the anthology, has a carefully plotted integration of characters that had kept my muse in high tantrum mode. (All right, I was ready to throw one and my muse had come through to comfort me, because she and my CP's are awesome.) And it definitely didn't help when I was trying to write about snow and avalanches while my muse was too busy dancing under the sun and sipping her umbrella drinks! But she did it. She came back and made the story work.

[image error]Definitely check out this magical holiday anthology, A Passionate Christmas Series, coming to Decadent Publishing. From contemporary to paranormal romance, this anthology has a taste of everything for every reader. We have a great mix of characters, from On-probation Angels, Assassin Witches, Paranormal Investigators, and even the normal city girl on the run. (?My muse only likes contemporary so far, if you haven't noticed.) Check it out and see what our muses had forced us to do! Evil beings…

Is your muse as crazy as mine? Do share. I'm sure my muse would love to make new friends…

Blurb:

In the town of Five Oaks, where mysterious happenings occur, one will never know what they'll find….

Successful Event Planner, Maddy Glover, dreads returning to her hometown for the holidays ever since her divorce. First time in three years, Maddy finds herself caught at the end of an avalanche, only to have her ex-husband come to her rescue like a white knight in rugged wheels.

Ambitious and desirable bachelor, Cole Harmon lives to rebuild the town, more so to forget the woman who didn't believe he had enough to offer. Until Maddy shows up in her cute city-slicker attire, not appropriate for their little town. In need of a decorator for the holidays, Cole hires his ex-wife to help, only to be thrown into dark memories and snowy encounters that will melt the cold between them. Will their love resurface or will Maddy walk away once again?

Clarissa Yip

http://clarissayip.com

Snowy Encounters coming to Decadent Publishing, December 2010

One Unexpected Night coming to Cobblestone Press, December 2010

The Bachelor's Return coming to Lyrical Press, April 2011

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component based authoring

I was recently asked a question about writing and the idea of hopping around in the story line, writing what scene comes to mind.

Some writers have to write from beginning to end, in order, because that's the way their minds work. Other writers find it easier to write a scene somewhere in their plot, because that's the mood they're in or that's what's fresh and clear in their mind's eye.

I can go either way. Mostly, I write from beginning to end in a progression. But occasionally, a scene speaks so very clearly to me that I write it out to capture it.

Some problems can come up when writing a scene out of order. It might have inconsistencies with the rest of the plot line. Hints or themes in the plot might be introduced out of order. As earlier scenes are written, they could trigger changes in the later scene that has already been put to paper.

That's where component based authoring comes in for me. It's a technique I use to organize my writing over the course of an entire manuscript. In component based authoring, I break my story up into components, as the name implies. This is very easy to do with software like Scrivener or Liquid Story Binder, but you can do it manually using any word processing software and just being organized with how you organize your files too. I break my components by scene.

In Liquid Story Binder, I'll have a separate file for each scene. I keep metadata for each scene, such as character point of view and 2 to 3 word description of what's going on in the scene. I'll also have what Liquid Story Binder calls a Builder, basically a virtual document manger, that sort of acts as a container for all of my scenes. With it, I can reorder the scenes, organize them into chapters and build the overall manuscript easily and publish it out as a single file for review or submission.

This sort of organization takes time. So how does it help me? -> High Level Overview

I can look, at a glance, at the whole story and see what scenes are in the hero's or heroine's POV. I can recognize if there's imbalance. In my outline, which I keep up to date as I'm writing, I can color code for heat levels. If there's not enough heat, I can tweak scenes to add more. Similarly, I can color code for plot points. If I need to add more hints for a particular story arc, I can easily see where I've got hints to decide where to build more.

Because my components are scene by scene, I can go looking for a scene easily to make changes. I don't have to swim through my whole manuscript to find it. I also have manageable writing session goals, because I usually sit down with a scene in my head and set the goal to write that particular scene in that session.

Granted, software like Liquid Story Binder helps because I can take all those components and publish them out to a single manuscript to send for submission. It'd be harder otherwise.

Ultimately, it comes down to a scene. Personally, I write the scene speaking to me, now, because that's where my heart and my head space are.

PJ interviews Vivi Dumas

Vivi Dumas is a fellow author at Decadent Publishing, writing paranormal romance with an ethnic flavor. She's also got a little Louisiana magic thrown in for spice.

I've loved going back and forth with her on Twitter and FaceBook and look forward to hanging out with her in person in the near future. She's a saucy lady, beautiful and fun!

Without further ado, here's my interview with her:

What sort of research on BDSM did you do for "Salvation"?

For "Salvation", my research was quick and dirty. When I wrote the story, I actually didn't realize that the submission called asked for a BDSM component. I searched a few internet sites and asked a few people some questions. Rewrote my initially story and added a little BDSM component. I would call "Salvation" BDSM light.

Since then, I've been doing some more research on the topic, one because I find it fascinating and two to incorporate into other stories. I (actually a friend of mine) found a class that's offered in D.C. to learn more about the lifestyle and how to utilize the tools of the trade if you will. I will be taking a trip to the club to take the class sometime soon in the future (for research purposes *wink, wink*). We've uncovered the local hangout for people in the lifestyle and some social network sites for those who are interested in practicing.

I'm still not sure if this is something that could ever fit into my lifestyle, but I find the power dynamics interesting.

* I find the power dynamics interesting too. I'm not sure I could find the strength to submit but the idea of being a top isn't a turn on for me. There's a lot of attraction in a man who can give and take at just the right times.

Many say it's the submissive who holds the real power. The safe word, calling a stop to everything, is the submissive's to call out. What do you think about the balance of power between a top and a bottom?

I think the balance of power between the top and the bottom is a strange dynamic. On the surface it would seem the dominant would have the power, but I think it's the opposite. I have to view this from my personal perspective, which can be skewed since I've never practiced this lifestyle. For me, I believe the submissive holds the power in several ways. One, being able to give yourself over completely to someone and trust them requires a huge amount of strength. This for me would be the most difficult part. I have a hard time trusting people. Secondly, when you hold the safe word, you do hold the power in the scene. You control how far the action goes and what you will allow to happen. So yes. I think the submissive holds the power in this relationship.

* Believe it or not, I first learned this concept by watching CSI.

The things we do for beauty. The heroine in Soul Catcher is willing to deal with the Devil for beauty. Can you tell us a little more of what beauty means to Angel?

Angel has been taught from an early age to use her beauty for leverage. Her mother, who has a lot of issues with men, raised Angel to use her looks to get ahead. Everything good in Angel's life came from her utilizing her looks to get it. The people Angel surrounded herself with used her. When she lost her looks in the accident, the rest of her superficial life collapsed around her. Angel never knew she had any other value until she lost the one thing that she thought was her only redeeming quality.

I think a lot of women feel that way sometimes. I will admit I grew up kind of in the same boat as Angel, I was no supermodel, but appearance was always important in my family. When I got injured in the Army and picked up a lot of weight, it was hard for me. Luckily, intelligence was also important so I didn't feel that my looks were all I had, but I struggled not being the kind of person I thought was attractive and lost some of my confidence.

It takes a strong sense of self-worth to be able to overcome the negativity seeped into your mind from childhood, especially when it was planted by people you believe love you. That's why I hope today we are out there promoting self-esteem and self-worth to our daughters, nieces, and other females that we know. Beauty comes in all forms.

You took writing classes at a local college and Soul Catcher was your project for your beginner writing class. How important do you feel classes and workshops are to the aspiring writer?

For me, the classes were important. There is a craft to writing. It isn't enough to just have a good story to tell. You need the correct tools to tell the story well, especially if you plan to submit it to people in the publishing industry.

I'm a learner by nature. I always want to know more. I'm also a perfectionist (bad personality trait in this business). So, if someone has information to make me better at what I do, I'll always seize the opportunity. But please note that learning doesn't always have to be formal. I've also learned a lot from my fellow writers I've met, my critique partners, my beta readers, and from the editors I've worked with. All it takes sometimes is a willingness to listen and an open mind.

Can you give us a teaser from Soul Catcher?

The growls and snarls inched closer. Angel's feet pounded the dirt, kicking up red dust all around her. The barren trees provided little sanctuary. Her heart and mind raced as she tried to think of her next move. The skies darkened above and thunder rumbled through the thick air. The air smelled of dampness.

How long had she been running? It seemed hours. Other than Noel, the other cadets were long gone ahead of her. Being human sucked when it came to supernatural warfare, but she refused to give up. Every day the class waited, watched, wondering when she was going to quit. Two of the others had already dropped out, and they were demons.

Noel passed Angel on the left, ducking through the low branches of the charred trees, cackling as he passed. Angel picked up her speed, her calves cramping and an ache developing in her side. She wanted to stop. Stopping meant quitting. Quitting was not an option. The hellish howls closed in on her.

Angel glanced over her shoulder and caught sight of one of the ugly beasts. It's long, rounded snout protruded from an enlarged head. Red eyes peered through the charred trees, scanning the landscape. A ridge of ivory spikes ran down the monster's back extending from each vertebra. The dog-like fiend pounded through the forest on powerful, muscular legs, which carried its compact body. Out running them wasn't going to work. She had to come up with another plan. Scanning the terrain in front of her, the only place to go was up. The trees disappeared into the grey clouds. If she could climb high enough, maybe she could wait them out. Or maybe they would go find another victim.

She lunged for the closest branch, leveraged her foot on the tree trunk, and boosted herself off the ground. It took all her strength to hoist her weight into the tree. As she reached for the second branch, three hounds pounced on the trunk, clawing at her dangling foot. The dark-haired one's razor sharp teeth nipped Angel's ankle. Stretching for the next limb, she stared down just in time to see the dagger like claws of the reddish colored beast rip into her calf.

Scurrying up the tree, she climbed higher until she was out of reach of the animals. Angel perched on one of the higher limbs, praying it could hold her weight. She clung to the trunk and observed the creatures clawing the burnt bark off the tree. Slowly, deliberately, a hound dug its sharp claws into the tree, using them like spikes, and began to maneuver its way to her.

Tremors quivered through Angel's body, almost causing her to lose her grip and fall. Thunder clapped and lightning flashed. Ominous clouds gathered overhead, growing darker as the hound drew nearer. The animal swiped at Angel's bleeding leg, barely missing as she jerked it onto the branch she sat on. Electricity hummed in the air. Angel felt the energy gathering about her, a strange, eerie sensation floating on top of her skin.

The hound's red eyes glowed as it stretched towards Angel, drooling from its mouth and snarling. Angel stood on the limb, grabbing for the one above her. As she pulled on the branch, it snapped in her hand. She wrapped her arms around the trunk to keep from falling. The beast snagged her ankle, jerking its head, trying to yank her from her perch. Lightning flashed through the sky, hitting its target—Angel.

Angel closed her eyes as the bolt of electricity hit. The pain she expected never came. Her body absorbed the energy and channeled it to the beast attached to her ankle. The smell of burning fur wafted to Angel's nostrils. The hound fell to the ground with a thud. The two other monsters sniffed its cohort and growled up at her. Angel redirected the remaining energy to the creatures below with deadly accuracy.

PJ's Speed Round:

Sex hotter in an elevator or in a car?

Elevator – the element of someone seeing you is hot. Did I just say that out loud?

In the shower or in a hot tub?

I'm a shower girl.

Blindfold or handcuffs?

Decisions…decisions… Can I say both???

Lotion or massage oil?

Massage oil

Candle light or moonlight?

Depends on my mood and where we are. Sometimes all you have is moonlight. When the urge hits just go with it. *wicked smile*

Vivi has offered a free e-copy of Soul Catcher for one wonderful reader. Just leave us a comment and tell us if you've ever taken a writing class or participated in a writing group.

Evie's Gift…coming soon for the Holidays!

Oh yes, I have a new short story coming out with Decadent Publishing. *happy dance*

Evie's Gift is steampunk, set in a different world and completely separate from the Terra's Guardians series.

I even have cover candy for you.

Once we all survive NaNoWriMo, I'll be having a promotional event and contest for the holidays so keep checking back.

Con going and Promo

PhilCon is just a few weeks away and I still need to get my promo stuff together.

Now, of course I appreciate everyone helping me with promo from my publisher to my friends, but the responsibility of promoting me ultimately rests with me. As with any business, the rewards are directly proportional to the effort put into it.

In prep for PhilCon, what do I plan to do for promotion?

Promo handouts

These could be bookmarks, pens, or any number of items. They should have my name and website printed on them, and hopefully info on the book I'm currently promoting if there's space.

Personally, I plan to have postcards with the print release image of Heart's Sentinel and the blurb. I'll probably sign these as well.

*note: since I'm ordering these anyway, I'm ordering enough to hand out to independent book stores in an effort to get them to carry Heart's Sentinel

I'm also considering doing bookmarks, but there's a certain strategy to bookmarks in order for them to work. Seriously, just stuffing them into a bag or handing them out to random passersby is the surest way to have your money tossed in the trash.

Check out this link on when Bookmarks do work and don't: http://www.diyauthorpromo.com/do-bookmarks-work-author-promo.htm

Business Cards

Business cards are essential for networking. I'll blog later on what I choose to include on my business cards, but feel free to leverage the power of Google in the meantime.

Here, I want to talk about how I use them.

Don't just leave your biz cards on a table somewhere. Be active, take initiative. As an author, you're not just there to play with your friends, you're there to market yourself.

Introduce yourself to people, strike up conversations and be social. As you hit it off with various people, give them your card so they can keep in touch. With your card, they can look you up online, follow up on your books and buy some of them. If you've made a great impression on them as a person, they're more likely to want to go find out more about you. That's when your business card has the most power.

Collect business cards from other people too. Personally, I'm awful at remembering names. When I receive a biz card from someone, I write a little note to myself on the back to remind myself what con I met them at and a memorable snippet from our conversation to jog my memory.

Remember, you are networking with publishers, editors, agents, other authors… and every one of them is also a reader. Every contact is important and should be approached with respect and the awesomeness that is the real you.

Panels

Cons are not just boondoggles.  Often, there are panels, seminars and workshops providing the opportunity to learn. I make sure to look over the agenda and mark the ones I want to go to because there's always more to learn.

Bonus (HUGE!), if you can speak on a panel or present a workshop at a con, do so. That could be enormous from a promotional standpoint and give you another way to connect with people. If you're going to do this, be sure to have your promo material with you. You'll be in the program, on the agenda and up there for everyone to see.

As part of my day job, I've spoken at many professional conferences and conducted advanced workshops. Being able to engage your audience and develop rapport is key. If you have the skills set, use it.

Get the Word Out

Let people know you'll be at the con! Post to FB, Twitter or your blog…post on all of them. Look for meetups. Give your readers every opportunity to find you and say Hi to you. Give yourself every opportunity to catch the interest of new potential readers.

Have Pitch/Log Line Ready

And please, be ready with a log line. Potential readers (or agents/editors/publishers) will ask – "Well, what's your book about?" And if you don't spit it out in 2 minutes or less, your mildly interested new friend will glaze over and start feeling like a victim trapped in an elevator.

I'll follow up with more detailed posts on promo material considerations, business card format decisions and other fun business strategy. For now, this post is running long and I'm going to call it a wrap.

PJ interviews Kyle Cassidy

As writers sometimes do, I noodle around on the Internet researching and looking for inspiration. I stumbled across a site: where i write: fantasy & science fiction authors in their creative spaces. Being a reader of science fiction and fantasy, I checked it out and found these fantastic photos of some of my favorite authors in their natural habitat, so to speak. Who was this great photographer?

It's amazing who you'll meet at a con if you have the guts to walk up and start a conversation. I was lucky enough to chat with photographer, Kyle Cassidy, at PhilCon '09. Not only did he shoot Where I Write, but several other projects I found fascinating. He's photographed Goths, Punks, Steampunks, Cutters, Politicians, Metalheads, Dominatrices, Scholars, Alternative Fashion and many more.

Since then, I've poked around his sites and followed his Morning Catfaces on Twitter. And now, he's agreed to let me interview him. Bwa ha ha ha ha!

Hi Kyle and thanks for agreeing to an interview with me! I first found your work when I was introduced to your project: Where I Write. I know it all started with Michael Swanwick and his Hugos, but can you tell me what it was like approaching some of the other authors and photographing their creative spaces?

It was pretty easy after that. Michael opened his rolodex and called Ben Bova and Joe Haldeman and Joe called Harry Harrison and then I called Piers Anthony and name dropped Ben Bova and Harry Harrison and I was out of the gate like a shot. The F/SF authors community is really tightly knit and most everybody knows most everybody else in town, so you call one person and they're on the phone with everybody else.

Ohio was kind of interesting as I made this great spiral through the state starting with C.C. Finlay and then going down almost to Kentucky and finishing way up in the north east photographing Cathrynne Valente's wedding — which was all wild and wonderful. Really after that most people have heard of what you're doing and then people are mostly "well, when are you getting here?" The Wired magazine piece and the Boing Boing did a lot to get the word out. So it really wasn't one of those things that you agonize over — it started with a bang and kept on going.

Was it difficult to work with the author's pets? I noticed you have a couple of them caught in motion.

Mostly not. There were a lot of pets in my previous book, Armed America, and I've got it somewhat down to a science. Which is you have your people look straight where you want them and pay no mind at all to the assistant who's dropping the animal into the shot. The assistant leaps out of the way and you take a photo. Of course some of them just WANT to be in the photo. And there were a few skittish ones that wouldn't participate. But Fred Pohl's dog, for example, just wandered into the room and jumped on the chair. That's often how it is. You're there long enough, the pets want to be where the action is.

I had the pleasure of meeting you at PhilCon 09 along with Michael Swanwick. In a later panel, I enjoyed your photos of steampunk and in fact, if one were to look up steampunk on wikipedia, one of your photos is in the article. Do you have a project planned for a collection of steampunk images or some of the other fandoms you've photographed?

I really like photographing fans — I think it fits into the overall arc of what I see my photography doing which is capturing groups of people as they are and putting them on gallery walls. I was at a science fiction convention a few years back and saw this guy with his hair sticking out to one side and a vest with 500 buttons on it and I thought "at the mall, this person would be extraordinary, but right here, right now, he doesn't even register: this is his tribe" and I was kicking myself for not bringing a camera to document it. Which turned out fine, because I called the organizers at Worldcon and they were all about it and I photographed a lot of people there.

Steampunk not so much so. Steampunk's an aesthetic of design — I'm happy to see the things that people have done with it, but it's a costume, in the exact opposite manner of that guy with the vest and the uncombed hair — he wasn't trying to be anybody but himself whereas people in steampunk outfits are most often using that to be someone else. I've found I'm not so much interested in photographing people who are in character, at least in large groups. So I see the two as really different things — photographing fans I see as documentary, even if some of them are in costume, but I treat photographing steampunk the same way I do photographing fashion. It's not about who your are anymore, it's about what you're wearing. So really I'm less interested in photographing Lord Blatherskythe Zerpforder the Zeppelin pilot and more interested in photographing Bernard Schram the guy who loves steampunk. Photographing lots of costumes is commercial work

You recently shared a pdf set of photographs titled "Air, Earth, Air: Photographs with an iPhone", can you tell us a little more about your iphonetography and if you plan to do more projects like this one?

I've always been very influenced by DIY and making art with what's available and I so often see people complain "Oh, I don't take photos because I don't have a good camera" or they think that some new lens will solve all their problems. And a lot of times, that's actually true — your work will likely be better with better equipment, but the very first thing to approaching any type of art is an inventory of what tools you have and knowing their strengths and weaknesses. You know, if you show up to photograph a speech by a politician and you only have a wide angle lens you either need to figure out how to get Really Close to the stage, or you photograph something else, something you can get to — you photograph the crowd, or people, or you figure out if you can get to a place that the speaker is going to have to walk past — you find the thing that your tools are capable of and that's where you start.

That's what drew me to making photos with the iPhone — because it's really the lowest common denominator. So finding what I can photograph with that becomes the challenge and, hopefully, it also encourages people who can't afford a lot of equipment to work with what they have.

You have a documentary photography book called Armed America: Portraits of Gun Owners in Their Homes, awarded amazon.com's "Best 100 Books of 2007″ "Best 10 Art Books of 2007″ medals. Do you have a particular memory that stands out about the road trip across the country, meeting the people and learning their stories?

That book really changed my whole life — everything about it. I photographed something like 260 people for Armed America and walking through the doorways of 100 strangers homes must change you — nobody could have that experience and not be a different person. Most of what I learned was about me. The big lesson I think was realizing that I judge people. I'd thought I didn't, I thought "I'm the most open minded person I know, people who do this don't bother me, or people who do that, or people who do whatever." But I realized over those two years that I make judgements about people based on the way they dress or talk or what kind of car they drive, or where they live, and this process of having your stereotypes shattered over and over and over and over was eye opening and, I think, really good for the soul. There's nothing quite like being proved wrong repeatedly to get you to drop some of your preconceptions. And as a result, I think I'm now more open minded than I was, by a long shot, and probably even better is that I no longer think that I'm completely unbiased — it's easier to look in at myself and say "why do I think this about that person? Is it because they're wearing that hat? I think it is." It's a lot easier now to see the other side of an argument that I don't think I agree with.

For the aspiring photographers seeking publication, how did you get published?

I actually wrote a long blog post about that — which you can read here: http://kylecassidy.livejournal.com/561862.html

The two minute version is find publishers who do work similar to what you want to do, write an amazing query letter with lots and lots of research about your topic, send this to the publisher, who will reject you, then do it again until someone doesn't. It's like a beaver chewing down a tree. You just keep at it and you don't give up.

War Paint is my favorite project of yours to date. Could you share one of your favorite images from the project and the person's story?

Robert Dorn is from Missouri. When he was 17 he joined the Navy and got a tattoo while in Pearl Harbor. He got it because he wanted to be tough like all the other, older sailors a "fouled anchor" tattoo — it cost him three dollars and he might not have gotten it if he was old enough to go to the bars, but all he could do with his money before turning twenty one was get a tattoo. So he did. He talked tough and couldn't wait to get to fight the Japanese. You couldn't hold him back. And then on April 5th, 1945, off the coast of Okinawa his ship was involved in a relentless attack from mainland Japan — it was hit by three Kamikaze fighters and caught fire, everything was burning. A ten foot hole blew out the side of the ship and half of it was flooded, but it didn't go down. They made it to the harbor in Kerama Reeto and the ship was repaired. Robert Dorn survived the war and came back to Saint Louis where he's now a school bus driver. He thinks about the fact that he's alive every time he looks down at his arm. He carries a photo of his ship in his wallet.

And I understand War Paint is still ongoing. For any readers here, how can they get involved?

I'd love to get email from people who work with veterans groups or hospitals or VFW's, I'll be traveling around finishing this one up so I'm really still looking for people. WWII vets in particular.

Psst, you can email Kyle at kyle(at)kylecassidy(dot)com

Is there anything else you'd like to share?

Maybe some advice. I've found that the key to artistic success lies not just within one's own ability, but also within the sphere of influence of your peer group. Surround yourself with the most creative people you know, in whatever field — there's nothing quite like the motivation of being the only one in the room who hasn't done something cool in the past 24 hours to keep you working and striving to be better.

Interview: EvilReads

It's been a little while since I did an interview. Here's a quick but fun one over at EvilReads:

http://www.evilreads.com/blog/2010/10/21/author-interview-pj-schnyder.html

Swing by, check it out and say Hi!

Going to Print: Heart's Sentinel

Yup, it's confirmed. Heart's Sentinel is going to print. Woo!

I've loved having my stories available in eBook format for hungry readers. It's incredibly convenient to be able to pull them up on computers, iPads, eBook readers and various technology.

But I have to admit, there's something about the feel of paper under your fingertips. And honestly, it's the original dream.

To launch Heart's Sentinel into the paper publishing realm, Dara has designed a fabulous brand new cover. Isn't it fantastic?

We're working to make sure Heart's Sentinel is formatted properly for print and I'll update later as release date is determined and maybe even run a contest.

Quantity, not so much craft

October is halfway gone. *blink*

Seriously, time bolted right by me and I'm still rushing to catch my breath.

Next month is NaNoWriMo or National Novel Writing Month. I've participated for at least the past two years. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in one month, specifically the month of November.

NaNoWriMo encourages writers to get out there and get words on the page. The story shouldn't just bounce around in a person's head, they should hit the page and become tangible. Sometimes, writers get so caught up in making one scene perfect, they never finish the novel. The idea, for the month of November, is to get words.

It's a quantity thing.

Some might point out that writing is a craft. Good writing should be tight, concise and have maximum impact. The techniques taught for NaNoWriMo focus on blowing up the word count instead. It's not a bad thing, just a different focus.

The lessons I take from NaNoWriMo are:

Write. Every day. Make words.
It's easier to edit a filled page then a blank one.
Writing a novel is doable.

This year, my NaNoWriMo project will be the next installment in the Terra's Guardians series. Wish me luck!

Author Spotlights and Upcoming fun

photo by Book Matrix Media

Couple of great features coming up in the near future. Come check them out!

First, Decadent Publishing's blog has started Spotlight Sunday. My spotlight posted just yesterday and includes a little preview into the next Terra's Guardians novel. Swing by, leave a comment and say Hi.

Next up, for those who love Adam from Heart's Sentinel or are curious about my characters, we've got a character interview for you. Deanna Wadsworth's Ichabod Crane from her new book, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, will be interviewing my Adam. I'll link it here for you all when it goes up.

And of course, we can't forget Halloween. D Renee Bagby's First Chapters will be featuring 48 hours of Halloween. Every hour, one minute past the hour, a new first chapter post will drop. The first chapter of Red's Wolf will be in there. For those who want a taste of Red's Wolf, come visit for this Halloween treat.