Alex Hughes's Blog, page 16

Joy and Completion

The last few months have been crazy, as I’ve finalized revisions for both Sharp, book two of the Mindspace Investigations Series, and Payoff, the novella set in between books one and two. I’ve also done copyedits, page proofs, etc. – which has been incredibly awesome. But tiring!

Finally, as December draws to a close, I’m free enough to think about blogging, promotions, family and friends, and the joys of the holidays.

Sam and I went to exchange presents with my side of the family last weekend. I’ve taken up knitting (it helps me think), and so I gave away a ton of scarves and socks and other knitted goods. Sam picked out some hilarious gag gifts for my geeky family – including Star Trek socks and some Tribble slippers that make the cooing sound from the show. My mom got a Spock-type Live Long and Prosper oven mitt, and Sam got a set of headphones each with half an arrow sticking out of them. They look like he has an arrow through his head! (I’ll try to get a picture.) So, all in all, an incredibly fun time.

Now if I can only get my Christmas cards out…

5 Ways to Build Suspense in Your Manuscript

What is suspense? Suspense is dramatic tension, the anticipation of things to come and questions to be answered. If you do it well, your reader will eagerly stay up well past his bedtime to read one more chapter. If you lose it, the reader will close the book and may never come back.

You don’t need to write thrillers to build suspense. Great romances show you how a couple belongs together – and then keeps them apart for hundreds of pages while you’re on the edge of your seat to see them get together. Great horror shows you enough of the monster to be afraid, and then makes you anticipate the fear more and more as time goes on. And great mysteries make you crazy to know who did it and why. Suspense is an important tool for any genre and any book.

So how do you work suspense into your manuscript? Here’s five ways.

1. Ask a Question

The simplest and most basic form of suspense, this is the building block from which good stories are made. Ask a question of the reader in the beginning of your story, and then answer it by the end. On the simpler end, this may be, “Where is Nemo?” We watch the movie to find out. The writers make the story deeper and more interesting by adding other question-layers on top of the first. “Can our fish hero overcome his overprotective parenting style?” is another important question for the story, and seeing him grow over the course of the movie keeps us watching. And, of course, we wonder if he’ll survive the sharks, the currents, etc. etc. along the way. Just as the overall story should have an important question that gets answered, so should every individual part of the story (the sharks, etc.).

Asking questions and answering them at a steady pace keeps the story moving forward and the reader happy. Too many unanswered questions at a time and the reader feels frustrated. Too few—or none—and the reader doesn’t have a reason to keep reading. Ideally, keep one to three story questions unanswered at any given time—until you answer all of them with a neat bow at the end.

2. Give Incomplete Information, or Give the Character a Secret

Instead of telling us a character’s entire past at once, leak out information slowly. We’ll get to know them over time like we would a real person. For this to be a method of suspense, though, you’ll need to identify what the reader doesn’t know early. You’ll need to hint, and then continue to hint and fill in information as you go—giving just enough information to keep the reader interested.

For example… Keep Reading at SavvyAuthors

The Next Big Thing – Hannah Jayne’s page

The amazing Hannah Jayne  just had a Catastrophic Computer Failure yesterday (our hearts go out to her) so until she can reassemble the pieces of her life in data form, I’m posting her blog stop on my blog.

__________________

Questions and Answers for The Next Big Thing - Hannah Jayne

 

Q: What is your working title of your book?

Under A Spell

Q: Where did the idea come from for the book?

The heroine in my series, Sophie Lawson, carries around a lot of grief from being bullied all through high school. With the proliferation of bullies in the news lately, I thought Sophie needed to go back to high school and deal with her past. I mean, she can slay demons – what’s a few mean girls?

Q: What genre does your book fall under?

Urban Fantasy

Q: Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

We actually have some casting under way for a web edition! The actresses are amazing – they are Katherine Celio and Katie

You can watch the two promos here: www.udasf.com

Q: What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Vampires, dragons, murders — it’s just another day at the demon-infested office for normal girl Sophie Lawson.

Q: Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Under A Spell will be published by Kensington Books; it’s book 5 in the Underworld Detection Agency Chronicles

Q: How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

I’ll let you know when I finish…

Q: What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

It’s kind of a slant on the urban-fantasy genre; Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Stephanie Plum

Q: Who or what inspired you to write this book?

The fact that I’m just a little left of center inspires all my work.

Q: What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

There may be murderers and werewolves and chocolate pinwheels but at it’s heart, The Underworld Detection Agency Chronicles are just about a girl looking for her place in the world.

 

I was awesomely tagged by the incredible Alex Hughes: http://www.ahugheswriter.com/next-big-thing.html

 

I’m tagging: Marina Adair http://www.marinaadair.com/

Sharon Hamilton: http://sharonhamiltonauthor.blogspot.com/

Elisabeth Barrett: http://www.elisabethbarrett.com/

Lori J. Gordon: http://www.ljgordon.com/

Kathy DiSanto: http://kathydisanto.com/

Next Big Thing

I’ve been invited to participate in a “blog chain letter” where we talk about our current WIP (work in progress) and add links to other authors so we can hop over and meet them.

Here’s the questions:

Q: What is your working title of your book?

Sharp, the second book in the Mindspace Investigations series.

Q: Where did the idea come from for the book?

I was playing around with a short story in the same universe (the as-yet-unpublished Rabbit Trick) and came up with a killer-for-hire who strangled his victims with an oddly-sharp ligature cord.

Q: What genre does your book fall under?

It’s in the odd space between science fiction, mystery, and urban fantasy.

Q: What actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

For the main character, I’d choose the actor who plays Holmes from BBC’s Sherlock, who does a marvelous job of being both intelligent and dislikable while keeping your attention and making you root for him. For Cherabino, perhaps the actresses who play Jo from Eureka or Starbuck from the new Battlestar Galactica (with dyed hair). I’d like someone who can do competent and testy well while still making you like her. For Michael (the new character in this book), in an ideal world I’d throw money at Grant Imahara from Mythbusters and see what happens – I like his energy for the character.

Q: What is the one-sentence synopsis of the book?

Eek. One sentence! Well, off the top of my head: As Adam goes head to head with both a brutal killer-for-hire and his past sins to save a former student, he must convince Cherabino – and the rest of the department – he’s trustworthy and capable of standing up on his own two feet.

Q: Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

It’s under contract with Roc (Penguin), scheduled to be released in April 2013.

Q: How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

Between 8 and 9 weeks.

Q: What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

People keep comparing this series to Jim Butcher, which is always a compliment.

Q: Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I love these characters from Clean and I wanted to let them continue their stories past its pages.

Q: What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

You find out in the first chapter that Adam may lose his job very soon if he can’t prove himself and/or pull out a miracle. Since his job is a large part of his support system keeping him on the wagon, this is a problem.

 

Much love to the fabulous Jill Archer for the invitation. Her post here: http://jillarcher.com/

And show some love to these other fantastic authors:

The amazing Janice Hardy:

http://blog.janicehardy.com/2012/10/ive-been-tagged-next-big-thing-blog-hop.html

The incredible Lisa Bouchard - http://lisabouchard.com/2012/10/26/the-next-big-thing/

And the fabulous Hannah Jayne – Hannah just had a Catastrophic Computer Failure yesterday (our hearts go out to her) so for now I’m hosting her post on my website –  http://www.ahugheswriter.com/next-big-thing-hannah-jayne.html. You can drop by Twitter (@Hannah_Jayne1) to give computer condolences. Haiku is always welcome.

Entering The Quiet Zone

Hello, internets: I have good news and bad news. The good news is, you will have a fantastic book in April. The bad news is, I’m about to enter revision mode (and therefore near radio silence). Be happy, for the less you hear from me now, the better your final reading joy.

Much love from – Alex

My friend’s anthology is live

Hello world,

My friend from Odyssey (and an amazing writer) is seeing her first anthology go live. The short story she has printed here is one of my favorites! Make sure to check out A.E. Decker.

More info here in the official press release: SSGT Release 9-25-12 copy

Get the anthology and her short story here: (Amazon) http://amzn.to/QzdC1p or here (Barnes & Nobles) http://bit.ly/UOwex8

Happy Dance!

The amazing Jessica S. of the World’s Largest Bookstore in Toronto has adopted me and Clean for their featured science fiction author for the next month! I am *very* excited!

Cover Reveal

We just got the covers for the second Mindspace Investigations book, Sharp, and the upcoming novella Payoff. Aren’t they fabulous?

Sharp will be out April 2013 and Payoff will be out in March!

Grandpa and the Books

I’ve been thinking about my grandfather a lot lately. I missed him – at the book party, on the trip to the bookstore, even at the signing I did recently. Grandpa was my biggest fan; he gave me my first scifi book when I was young, and he read practically everything I ever wrote, even when it was terrible. I wish he could have been there to see my dream – and his biggest wish – come true.

Grandpa came to the U.S. in high school from El Salvador and learned English from scratch. He worked hard, making it all the way through college where he met my grandmother, and moved wherever he had to in the country to find the next job to provide for his family. There were times when he and his family lived in trailers, but all four of his children went to college and got good jobs. Education was everything to him, education and hard work, and it paid off.

My dad says, when he met my grandfather for the first time, that this was “the smartest man he’d ever met.” Grandpa could do crosswords in his third language I couldn’t do in my first. And every room in his house except the kitchen had three shelves along the ceiling literally overflowing with books. He loved kids, he loved Christmas, and more than anything in the world, he loved books.

Some of my fondest memories as a child were going to see my grandparents in Texas, cooking in the kitchen, and literally being set loose on Grandpa’s collection of books. There was one shelf he said I was too young for, but everything else – literally, hundreds and hundreds of books – were fair game. It was like a wonderland. He had a printout on old-school paper that listed every book he owned, and he had to take it to bookstores. He had so many books he literally could not remember them all.

You cannot imagine how excited he was when one of his grandchildren started writing. He and my grandmother were my biggest fans, back when I was a punk kid with an impossible dream. They thought I could make it, despite all sense and all the odds. And now, many years later, it turns out they were right. The whole time, Grandma was right there, cheering.

And there was a quiet, empty spot in the back where Grandpa should have sat.

So today I slide my book next to all of his others, and remember.

Trip to the Bookstore

Look what Sam and I found at the bookstore… in the center, guess whose book that is?

Me! In a Barnes & Nobles! Like a real author

There will be much rejoicing.