Xondra Day's Blog, page 16

Author Interview with Julia Knight

Thanks Julia for allowing me to interview you.

V- What was you journey into publication like, and where do you get your inspiration?

J- A learning curve! I was only really playing around, with my friends reading my MS. One of them kept pushing for me to take it seriously, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I was very lucky – I sold that book 8 months later.

Inspiration comes from everywhere – other books, films, people I know. Even dreams on occasion. It all sort of melts together in my head and comes out twisted.

V- What's your most current release and what can we expect to see from you in the near future?

J- Ten Ruby Trick is my latest release: It's a fantasy pirate caper with a splosh of romance. Pirates of the Caribbean with added creepy wizards. Here's the blurb:
'Privateer Van Gast thrills in capturing treasure; delights in pulling off elaborate scams; and has an outrageous reputation with the ladies. But there is only one woman for him: fellow privateer Josie—seductive, brave and unpredictable. He's hoping to make their relationship permanent, until he raids the wrong ship. Now slavers are stalking him, his crew is verging on mutiny and Josie has disappeared.

When she reappears with a new mark wanting Van Gast's help running the ten ruby trick con, he senses trouble. It seems like Josie has joined up with mage-bound slavers to turn him over to their Master. Van Gast is about to take the biggest risk of all—and find out the true meaning of trust and betrayal.'


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As for what's coming up, I haven't signed the contract yet so I can't say specifics. Let's just say I see Vikings in my near future :D

V- What words of wisdom do you have for writers just starting their journey?

J- Perseverance. Keep going, keep trying new things, always reach for more.

V- Self-publishing has come up so often lately in the media both online and off, what's your views?

J- I think if you go into it right, with the right reasons and you're prepared to work REALLY hard at promo etc, pay to get editing and a decent cover, sure, why not. I doubt I'll go that route, but it's been successful for some, and that's great. Whatever gets people reading is great.

V- If I were to look at the current books you're reading, which titles would I find?

J- Currently reading The White Raven by Robert Low (historical Vikings, third in the series. I love the marriage of realism, evocation of the time and the lyrical prose. Note it is definitely not for the squeamish!). I tend to flit between historical, SF, fantasy and literary. Next up is Diane Dooley's Blue Galaxy.

V- What's the one thing in the world that you cannot live without?

J- My laptop. My handwriting is so hideous, I have to type my stories!

V- If you could have one wish, what would it be and why?

J- I wish I started writing earlier – I didn't even begin to dabble till I was well into my thirties.

V- Where do you see yourself ten years from now?

J- Hunched over my PC writing.

V- Again, thanks for doing this interview.

Julia can be reached on the Internet at the following places:

Website

Twitter: @Knight_Julia


More Cover Love!

I absolutely love this cover! The artist did a wonderful job. She totally got what I wanted for the cover and this is a perfect picture of how I visualized the character. Thank you, Dara England!

This title will release in July from Evernight Publishing.

It's Time for Another Giveaway!

To help promote my last release, The Blood Between with Evernight Publishing, I'm giving away a copy! If would would like enter, leave a comment. If you would rather purchase it, you can find it at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, BookStrand, Smashwords All Romance, and of course the Evernight Publishing site.


Description: New to the big city, Kyle is having a hard time fitting in. He has a job, and a roof over his head, but something is missing. One night, after an experience he'd rather leave forgotten, he meets a mysterious man named Luca. Kyle doesn't know it, but they've met before. Soon after, Kyle is thrown headlong into a world of darkness, death, and a secret Luca is struggling to keep.

Will Luca reveal what draws him to Kyle, and more importantly, will Kyle believe him?

I will pick a winner at random next Sunday which is June 29, 2011.

More Cover Love

I received this beauty in my email today for my upcoming summer release, Star Treatment. The artist is the talented, Emmy Ellis. The publisher is Total-E-Bound.



I'm also delighted to share with you all the blurb and this lovely postcard by the same artist.


Author Interview with Emma Shortt

Welcome Emma, to Write Outside the Box, and thank you for taking the time to do this interview.

V- Can you tell us about your journey to publication and where you draw your inspiration from?

E- I wrote my first book when I was about fifteen. It was called Crimson Wars and was this awful vampire epic, Anne Rice inspired! All done by paper and pen as there were no computers in those days, at least not for me. I've still got the scribes bump from all those hours hunched over the paper. I wish I still had the manuscript, I imagine it was truly awful.
After that I kinda let it slide until I hit my mid twenties and was seized by the desire to write again. I gave up my hugely pressured job, took, what I thought at the time was, an easier one, and starting writing. Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials was a huge inspiration, as was Nicola Cornick's amazing regency romances. From that day, when I would have been about twenty four, it took be five years to get published, and six for my first book to come out. I certainly didn't spend all those years writing non-stop. The 'easy' job became just as pressured as the first, and it's only the last year that I've managed to trick by body into accepting five hours a night sleep! Before that it was work, look after children, fit an hour in and so on. They were a hard few years as well, I won't lie. The rejections, the constant re-drafts. There's nothing quite as depressing as coming home to find a rejection envelope on the doormat!

V- What's the best advice you can offer a newbie writing hoping to publish?

E- To read as much as you can in the genre you hope to write in. Generally I find the genre that you like the most is the one you're suited to write in. So read, read, read and read some more, and then start writing! It's a good idea to read up on your craft as well and/or join a critique group such as Litopia. Then steel yourself for the fact that your first novel will, usually, be rubbish. It takes most authors a good three of four goes before they write anything of publishable quality.

V- Tell us about your newest release.

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E- The Kiss came about after a visit to the Louvre. I fell completely in love with Antonio Canova's statue of Cupid reviving Psyche with a kiss. Everything about the piece is just unbelievably beautiful. I spent hours just staring at it—much to the annoyance of various tourists I'm sure! But it just pulled something inside of me, and I spent some time plotting how best to steal it. I left Paris minus the piece, the Louvre's security is really good, and started thinking instead about how I could capture the essence of this amazing image Canova created. Soon after a story came to me, the idea of love locked in stone, and throughout the whole process of writing The Kiss I was working towards the ending with Canova's image in mind.
When Evernight sent me my cover I swear I nearly had an orgasm. I'd fantasized about a cover with the statue on and Dara England did it for me! I'm totally and utterly in love with it.

V- You also work as an editor. What's your biggest pet peeves as an editor?

E-Telling me not showing me. There's nothing worse than page after page of back story or description. Honestly most of it isn't necessary and is usually the mark of a newbie. Take that 'tell' and convert it to some 'show', don't tell me she went to the shop, show me she did it.
Oh, and really, really long, ponderous works that cause me extreme pain to read. I once got sent a manuscript that was like about six hundred pages long and it took the author five chapters to explain the family tree to me. I was like, noooooo.

V- If you could return to one moment in time, which would it be?

E- When my children, Vix and Bear, were born. I was so wrapped up in the moment when giving birth, you know with the pain, and the goo, and the pain… that I don't think I took the time to just pause and think, Oh my God, look what I just made.
I'd love to go back and look into their little eyes and think, wow, wait till you see the stuff we're gonna get up to!

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V- If you had one wish, what would it be?

E-To make my living from writing. If I could wake up each morning and know that my day was going to be about the stories I would be one happy woman.

V- What's the one thing that most people don't know about you?

E- What a question! You want me to spill my secrets huh? Okay, let's see…I am a total geek. No, hold on, everyone knows that. But it is true that I am full on geek. At the moment I spend my days crunching math, I have a total geek laugh and forget when I've got pens in my hair. I've been in the supermarket more than once, after forgetting what I came in for because I've been busy creating an equation to explain the total amounts of fruit on sale, and reached up to scratch my head, pulling out several pens in the process.

V- In ten years where do you hope to be in life?

E- A best-selling author with piles of money and an endless supply of cake? Oh, alright, I'll take being able to write for a living and enough cash in the bank to pay the bills.

V- What can we expect to see from you in the near future?

E-I have a duo of books, Paying her Debt and Getting her Greek which I hope will be out this summer. They're contemporary romances with two rather hot Greek men (my fiancé is Greek, I'm totally biased). I'm also hoping to get the next, and final two books in my Fae series, Catching Fae and Fallen Fae, finished and out there. And then I plan to spend the last few months of the year finishing off my dystopian YA novel, Immune, and sending it out on the submission circuit.

V- Sounds great! Emma, once again thanks for taking the time to answer these questions.
You can fine Emma on the net at the following places:

Website
Blog

You can view her latest book trailer for The Kiss here:  The Kiss Trailer

Author Talk: Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy

Many thanks to Lee Ann for taking the time to chat with us about her book, Love Tattoo.

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V- First off, I liked Love Tattoo, and I found the interaction between the characters quite interesting. Where did you get the inspiration to write this story? And please, tell us about each of the main characters.
L- I like paranormal things and I've always thought vampires were, well, sexy. So I was thinking about writing a novel with a vampire hero anyway and was driving down a dark, two lane highway one night. I noticed that almost all of the other traffic was big trucks and I thought, well, hey, a vampire could be a truck driver. The rest just kind of fell into place after that, especially after Cara's voice showed up in my head as a sassy Texas gal to tell the story.
 
V- The story is mainly set in Memphis and you appear to know the setting quite well. Are you native to that area?

L- I wish! Memphis is one of my favorite cities on earth. I first visited as a kid and I keep going back because I love the entire atmosphere. It's a very cool place with a distinct personality. I do have a few relatives who call - or did – that area home, though.

V- I found your writing style almost lyrical. How would you describe your writing style and voice?

L- I think I have a lot of influences and they all come together into one style. I grew up listening to my Granny tell stories. She had the cadences of an Irish accent without really having one, the lilt and the unconscious alliteration but her dad was English, born in Derbyshire, so she had that too. I'm sure that influenced my style and writing voice to some extent. I had another writer once tell me that he liked my style and he called it "blue jeans prose". I don't know if it really describes my work but I like it.

V- I know you have the next book in this series coming out. Was it planned when you were writing the first one, or did the idea for it come later?
 
L- Actually, no, I thought when I finished Love Tattoo that was it for Will and Cara but my editor at Evernight liked Cara's voice. She suggested that there might be more and at first I didn't think so. Then I let my mind play with the idea and I started writing Love Scars very soon.
 
Coming soon   V- We'd love it if you provided us with a brief excerpt from Love Tattoo.   L- Sure!   'Darkness softens all the rough edges, erases any ugliness, and creates a mood that evokes imagination. Nighttime Memphis delivers magicand so when we boarded that vintage trolley car, I didn't mind somuch that we were elbow to elbow with John Q. Public and his broodbecause I sensed that our ride would be spectacular. With the moonswollen to almost full, silver light bathed the city with an enchantedcharm. I loved it all but most of all, I adored the views of Old ManRiver. The Mississippi impresses at any time with such wide waterand so much power. That river pulses with energy but except for afew stray glances from one of the bridges in passing, I never saw itunder moonlight until that night.
With the Memphis Bridge lit up like Christmas time, that lunarlight cloaked the water with luminous radiance. A few cloudsscudded across the face of the moon and the stars sparkled lookinglike gemstones flung out by a careless child, spilled like toys. Thebright lights of the city detracted a little from the overall effect but itremained magnificent. I peered out from the trolley window, myfingers laced through Will's, with wonder and awe.He caught my admiration and it pleased him.
"You find it beautiful, don't you, Cara?" he asked in a voiceas silken and soft as the night that surrounded us beyond the windowsof the trolley car.
"I do."
Then he quoted Byron, moving me to the very bottom layer ofmy soul. Although I chose song over literature, once the classicpoets rivaled pop stars for my attention. As a teenager, I mooned overShakespeare, Byron, Marlowe, Milton, Tennyson, and John Donne sohis quotation impressed me even as it pleased me.
"Most glorious night!" Will intoned. "Thou wert not sent forslumber."
"Lord Byron." I returned and he nodded, his lips curlingupward in approval. "Aren't the stars lovely?" '
V- What's up next for you?
L- Love Scars, sequel or next in the series after Love Tattoo should be out sometime in June. I have a contemporary romance, Love Never Fails that was due out from Rebel Ink Press in September but the publisher would like to release it sooner so we're debating between early June and August. Then I have a romantic suspense due out from Champagne Books in July.
There is a third book, Love Knots that will continue Will and Cara's story that I haven't submitted yet and then I have a new WIP too.

V- Sounds good. Again, thanks for taking the time to do this chat.





Cover Art for Menage on the Prairie

I'm always thrilled to share new cover art. I got it this evening in my email for my upcoming June release with Siren-Bookstrand. I'm so pleased with it! The artist(Jinger Heaston) nailed the characters.

Coming June 2011

Author Interview with Fionn Jameson

Hi Fionn, and thank you for taking the time to do this interview.

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V- Tell us about your most recent release.
F- My current release which just came out is called Blood Wish. I love shifter stories, but what with the glut of werewolves and even Werebears (HAH!), I kind of wanted to offer something a little different. I'm half Korean, and I used to watch a lot of Korean TV shows and a pretty prevalent character was the Kumiho, or as the Japanese also call it, Kyuubi, aka Nine Tales. I'm not entirely sure where I got the idea for one tale equaling one wish, but I had a great deal of fun just putting a creative twist to the typical Kumiho lore.
V- Tell us about your journey to become published, and what advice would you give to writers starting out?
F- I started writing professionally when I graduated from high school. I don't think there was ever a time when I did NOT want to be a writer. I joined a few very helpful online communities, such as Romance Divas and Water Cooler, and from them, I found this small publisher called Freya's Bower. They were looking for chapter stories, and I happened to be working on a serial called Blood Martyr. It was awesome to be working with them, but I went through a period where I went through 3 editors on a single project, which made things very difficult for both myself and the publisher.
Then I had a few years when I didn't get anything published at all. I did get a fair bit written, dabbled in probably every genre known to humankind. And then I saw this intriguing small publisher making itself known on Facebook...*smile*

I've been written professional with the intent of getting published for almost ten years and my best advice is this:

DON'T. EVER. STOP. WRITING.

V- What other interests do you have?

F- I love to play online games. Ever since I missed my junior year finals playing Diablo 2 three days straight and losing my 3.8GPA, I've been completely hooked. Of course, this does tend to conflict with my writing schedule, so I like to make compromises. 1 hour of WoW and 1k of writing. I think it's working out. So far.

V- If you could have one wish, what would it be?

F- My one wish? A low-calorie margarita. Seriously.

V- What's the one thing you can't love without?

F- I cannot live without my iPhone. I know it's trite and superficial, but that thing is an omni...everything. I can do everything/anything with it. I luff it so.

V- Cats or dogs?

F- No! Don't make me choose! I love animals, regardless of what they are. Just don't ask me to pet a taruntula.

V- What are you currently reading?

F- I am currently reading Cell by Stephan King. I JUST got finished reading Nicholas by Elizabeth Amber, although I probably will never bring that book up ever again. Thankfully, I also read Patricia Gaffney's Wild at Heart which more than made up for the strangeness that is otherwise known as Nicholas. I've got Beastly by Alex Finn on my Kobo and I'm looking forward to reading Delilah Hunt's Riding the Storm.

V- In ten years, where do you expect to be?

F- Lying in bed, bag of chips next to me, watching Supernatural from the very beginning. More Dean Winchester, please!

V- What can we expect to see from you in the near future?

F- Well, I still haven't done any promoting for Blood Wish, so I'd kind of like to think it's upcoming, lol. Right now, I'm in the final stages of editing another UF called Wake the Demon which is the story of a woman with an extraordinary ability and how she copes with the everyday dangers. So, please, keep your eyes peeled out for that one!


Thank you so much for having me here, Vivian. :)

I don't rant often, but...

Just like the title to this blog says, I don't rant often, but... Anyway, I feel I need to on a specifc topic which is netiquette within the author community, specifically the e author romance/erotica community.

Rules:

-Don't be an ass. Nobody likes an ass. Trust me when I say this. That cute little snarky comment you made on FB or some other social network just makes you look like a bitch. And while you think being a bitch is the 'in' thing to be, it really isn't.
-Liars. When found out, admit that you did it, admit that you were wrong. Don't add fuel to the flames by telling more to try and get yourself out of a sticky situation(it never works).
-Trolling. Chances are if a whole bunch of people are saying you are, well, you are. Get over it and stop. If not, by all means flounce. We all love a good laugh.
-The know-it-all. You may be an expert in everything, but don't feel the need to tell us that with every post.
-The promotion king/queen. Nobody knows the importance of promotion like I do. I understand it, I really do. But bombarding people with it all day long really makes me and others not want to buy your book.

This rant has been brought to you today by one snarky author. Now, forgive me I have to go spend time with my cat.

Win a copy of Beyond Friends on Happily Ever After Reviews

If you would like to win a copy of Beyond Friends, just follow the link and leave a comment on the Happily Ever After Review blog.

http://hea-reviews.blogspot.com/2011/05/giveaway-spotlight-beyond-friends-by.html

Thanks.