M. Pierce's Blog, page 4

Will the real M. Pierce please stand up

In November of last year, Claire of Claire’s Book Corner e-mailed me a set of interview questions. “I’ll get to these as soon as I can,” I said, and I proceeded to sit on the questions until now. Every few weeks I’d send an apologetic email to Claire. “I haven’t forgotten these questions!” “I’m so sorry, I’m in the throes of book 2!” “I’ll answer these soon! Tomorrow!” “I mean the next day!” “Now I’m revising, just gimme a few more days!” Anyway, Claire was very understanding of the delay, and I was very embarrassed and penitent, and because of this I decided to give her a really in-depth interview. I spent over an hour answering her questions, which you can read here at Claire’s Book Corner or just below. Sorry Claire!

 

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Hi M. thank you for joining me today.  I know that Night Owl is based loosely on real life events but for those people out there who haven’t yet come across Night Owl can you please tell us what it is about and how it came to be?

 

Sure thing Claire. For starters, here’s the blurb my fine editors wrote for Night Owl, which nicely sums up the novel: “From bestselling ebook author M. Pierce comes the first novel in a provocative erotic trilogy where an anonymous online writing partnership turns into an uncontrollable, passionate obsession.”

 

So there’s that. Passion, obsession, writing. And I don’t use the word obsession lightly. In a recent blog post, my agent took exception to the constant use of the phrase “I’m obsessed with.” She said: “If you want to understand obsession, read The End of the Affair.” I agree wholeheartedly with this. In Night Owl, there is legitimate obsession – maybe even unhealthy obsession – that forms between Matt and Hannah.

 

As the blurb above notes, Matt and Hannah meet as writing partners on the internet. Matt is determined to keep their relationship “anonymous” and somewhat “professional,” but he fails at that… catastrophically. What ensues is a passionate romance that takes both characters through a lot of pain and a lot of pleasure. And I mean a lot.

 

How did Night Owl come to be? I had a situation in my life, someone I wanted and couldn’t have for reasons not worth discussing here. I wish I could tell the story. It would be a relief. Anyway, I put pen to paper (or mouse pointer to Word page) and exorcized my feelings into a full length novel. That’s what everyone does… right?

 

Night Owl has a lot of sex in it and a lot of dirty talking from Matt.  The reader experiences it from the very first page.  Was writing the sex scenes embarrassing or a turn on?  Is it difficult to keep coming up with different words to be used during a sex scene?

 

Writing sex scenes is a turn-on for me, for sure. I could be cool and say I write sex in a state of clinical calm – but that would be a lie. Robert Frost said: “No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.” In other words, if the writer doesn’t feel something, the reader is not liable to feel it either. So I would add to Frost’s statement: “No arousal in the writer, no arousal in the reader.”

 

I may not write smut for the rest of my life – I have other types of writing I’d like to explore – but I thoroughly enjoy the fast pace and filthy fun of books like Night Owl. I suppose one of my new pet peeves is romance that’s billed as “erotic” and contains no explicit sex. I don’t narrowly define eroticism – almost any act can be written as “erotic” – but in terms of marketing, when readers see the word “erotic,” they typically think, “Okay, this book is going to be more sexually graphic than the average romance.” And readers have a right to know what they’re buying and getting into. So, yes, there’s lots of sex in Night Owl, and I call Night Owl a “contemporary erotic romance.”

 

If there’s anything embarrassing about writing sex, it’s Matt. He’s off the chain. Sometimes I just shake my head at the things he does/says/thinks.

 

Re: coming up with diction variety during sex, yes, this is a challenge. A couple readers balked at my use of the words “member,” “organ,” and even “sex” in reference to Matt’s dick. That made me chuckle. If I used “cock” or “dick” or “hardness” every time, we’d have a very bland and repetitive novel indeed. The same goes for females. “Breasts,” “tits,” “cunt,” “pussy” – these words can only be used so often. Thrust, buck, etc. The same words circle around and around. The trick is to disperse them, to write about sex and the body in a way that’s familiar but also fresh, surprising and maybe even offending, erotic because it’s bold. I’ve been called on the carpet for my infamous “pig” scene in Night Owl. Well, you won’t find that scene in any other novel, and as some clever readers have recognized, Matt is “into shaming.” I aim to please (and tease and shock), and I do that, at least.

 

I’ve read that some authors use Barbie and Ken dolls to see what positions they can get into etc in order to write the scene.  Do you do anything like that or do you just use your imagination and experience or do you research with your real life Matt or Hannah? 

 

Hahaha. Do they really? That’s news to me.

 

The day you catch me posing Barbie and Ken on my desk… pigs will fly. (Pigs again, oh my.)

 

I use my experiences and imagination to work out sexual positions. You’ll remember that Hannah does yoga (it’s mentioned at the end of Night Owl and appears in book 2 as well), so there’s also a flexibility component.

 

What was your favourite part of Night Owl to write and which is your favourite part to read?

 

This is a great question. No one’s asked me this, and I’m happy to answer it. My favorite part to write… hmmm. So difficult to pick one. I really enjoyed writing Matt and Hannah together – not necessarily sexually, just together and bantering and enjoying one another. That’s a sweet spot. So, when they do dinner in Boulder? I loved that. And again, when they’re lying in the hammock in Hannah’s backyard? Loved writing that. Just two people getting to know one another, apart from the essential drama of a novel. That easy tone can’t be sustained, those quiet moments don’t make a book, but if only they could.

 

Now, for some unknowable reason, my favorite part of Night Owl to read is when Hannah and Nate are going to “rescue Matt.” When they’re flying to New Jersey, driving to NY, all that. I just love reading the way Nate and Hannah interact, and the way Nate talks about his brother. One of my favorite “themes” in fiction is family. The family dynamic with Nate and Matt feels very authentic to me. I’ve reread those passages quite a few times.

 

I hope this isn’t giving away any spoilers, but the epilogue in Night Owl is pretty big and ties in with your previous suggestions that book 2 would be paranormal.  I know that has changed now, so how are you going to work the epilogue into a Contemporary Erotic Romance book?

 

Well, by now it’s no big secret that Matt is not dead. But… something has happened, of course, to make the world suspect his death. The novel proceeds from there, and yes, it’s strictly contemporary.

 

I’ll be quite frank here. Before I got an agent and a team to help me appreciate the market and reader expectations (and the importance of keeping the trilogy to one genre), I had every intention of resurrecting Matt as a vampire. I am totally serious here. He was to be saved and turned, and to come into a new “life” with only partial memory of the former, and so he would slowly piece together the events leading up to his death. While being inducted into the world of the damned, he would obsess about the dark-haired woman in his dreams – Hannah, of course – until he remembered her fully, and what would he do with that knowledge? Fight to be with her. It was going to be very dramatic and epic and extremely campy. But alas, it was not to be. I have 17,000 words of that novel. Now it makes me laugh, but at the time I thought it was a fantastic idea!

 

For those who haven’t read Night Owl, Matt has a cute rabbit called Laurence.  M you also have a rabbit called Laurence.  Will we get more Laurence in book 2?

 

Oh yes. Laurence has another starring role in Last Light.

 

Like your character Matt in Night Owl you use the pen name M. Pierce.  Also like Matt you remain anonymous.  We don’t even know if you are male or female and I can’t figure it out either, I keep changing my mind. Personally I love the intrigue but I guess it can drive your fans crazy wanting to know who you are.  Why have you decided to be anonymous? Is it to keep your fans guessing thus creating more hype? Is it because Night Owl is so sexy and filthy that you don’t want people in your everyday life knowing what you write? Or another reason?

 

Good question, and so many possible answers here. No, I am not hiding my identity to build hype. Definitely not. That would be a cheap parlour trick, am I right? And maybe my mystery has had that effect – that is, it makes readers more curious than they’d normally be – but that’s not my aim. I am not trying to drive people crazy with curiosity, and I regret if I’ve caused my readers unhappiness by choosing to remain anonymous.

 

And no, I am not so ashamed of Night Owl that I want to hide my association with the book, though there is a small element of that. Many, many writers use pen names to distance their life from their fiction. It is common especially in the genres. When you write a book as raunchy as Night Owl, you don’t run down the church aisle screaming, “I WROTE A BESTSELLING BOOK ABOUT TIT WANKING.” That said, there are people in my “real life” who know I wrote the book, and they are happy for me and accepting of my experiment with the form that is “erotic romance.”

 

Let me come to my point here. I am remaining anonymous because that is what I want. I love my readers – love them so much that I pour out my life in my books – for them. What happens between a reader and a writer is sacred, and I believe that. However. There is, these days especially, a huge emphasis on writers being “available” to their readers. And yes, I am available to my readers – first in my books, second in social media. I try to reply to emails, though I get a high volume of email and this consumes a massive amount of time, as well as Twitter messages and messages on Facebook and Goodreads. I am not aloof. At this time, I reply to almost every blog comment. However, however. There is no way one author can humanly interface with all of his or her readers. There is just no way. The outpouring of support becomes overwhelming, and at some point all we can do is be grateful, reply as we can, and keep writing books.

 

This is what I do for my readers. I write books. You may already know this, but writing a good book is a huge and agonizing struggle, at least for me. I wring out my heart, even when I’m writing “erotic romance.” I lay myself down in every book, on every page, for my readers. That is what I give them. I give them everything I have, all my energy, all the skill I can summon with words, hours, weeks, months of my time. I craft worlds, characters, conversations. I fight to make it real. And I give readers these stories so that they can escape their lives, so that we can go on an imaginative journey together. I give them feelings. I give them my innermost thoughts, my private fantasies. Is this not enough? (Lmao… I suddenly feel like Russell Crowe in Gladiator: “Are you not entertained!?”) Should I also produce myself? Am I required to give people my whole life – my private life? Should they know about how I look, or what I wear, or who I love? My face, my name? Should I open myself in that way to the world, when the world doesn’t open itself in that way to me – and am I obligated to do that simply because I wrote a book? I think not. I think it verges on cruel to ask me for that, after all that I’ve given in the writing of a book.

 

From stalking researching you I’ve read that you have written since you could write but you haven’t published before.  Why did you suddenly decide to write a Contemporary Erotic Romance book and publish it? 

 

Hahaha. Stalking. Well, I wrote a few novels before Night Owl, sort of memoir style novels and one speculative fiction, and a piece of literary fiction. They weren’t very good, but I was still learning the form. Then I had an event in my life that prompted me to write Night Owl, and I found the writing fun and a tremendous relief – especially considering the weightier stuff I’d been trying to write. When I finished Night Owl and considered it alongside my other novels, I realized it “succeeded” as a novel in ways that the others never would. How odd. Now, why did I suddenly decide to publish it? I’ve been trying to publish since I was in high school. I try to publish anything I produce. The same goes for those very bad novels I described, and any number of short stories.

 

Night Owl could very loosely be likened to Fifty Shades in that it has a kinky control freak, wealthy and handsome fucked up hero in Matt and a normal everyday heroine like Hannah.  Really Night Owl is nothing like Fifty Shades and sorry to kiss your ass here but the writing is so much better.  Does it annoy you that E. L. James has had such success whilst other authors who have been seriously writing for years struggle?

 

No, no, the success of Fifty Shades does not annoy me at all! My hat is off to Ms. James and to Vintage. Whatever people want to say about the Fifty Shades franchise, those books have opened doors for everyone writing erotic romance. We are all riding her wave. We shouldn’t spit in it. At least, not too much.

 

Re: struggling writers, struggling for years, who is to say James didn’t struggle? Fifty Shades began as fanfiction. She wrote it for fun, probably never believing it would become a global phenomenon. Well, good on her. Struggling writers should keep struggling. I struggled for over a decade to make my way to a book deal. I don’t resent that time. I don’t resent any writer’s journey, whether it’s a masterpiece after years of toil or overnight success after no training or trials whatsoever. Conversely, though I know this is difficult, I don’t think a struggling writer should resent successful writers. Unless that resentment feeds your desire to hit the page, you’d be better served (in my humble opinion) continuing to journey toward your dream with an optimistic mind-set. And optimism is no guarantee of success, but as a writer, you stand a small chance if you try, and you stand no chance if you don’t. I say take the small chance.

 

I work in a job where I know what it is like to have your work critiqued.  It hurts when somebody says negative things about something that you have put hours of love and hard work into creating.  So why do you read negative reviews of Night Owl? Does it matter if a few people don’t like it? Do they offer anything valid in their review that can help you become a better writer?

 

In the simplest terms, I read all my reviews, good and bad, because I said I do. (Last page of Night Owl – “I read all my reviews and I greatly appreciate the feedback.”) Do they offer anything valid, the bad ones? Not usually – but sometimes. A careful, intelligent, and objective critique is rare. The “bad reviews” are usually quite vitriolic, written by readers who view my work as disgusting porn. They have a right to their opinions! Of course, they tend to assume I support everything my characters do (“M. Pierce is sending women back to the dark ages!” “M. Pierce likes pigs!” “M. Pierce supports unsafe sex!”) and that’s a little confounding as a logical leap, but again, the review space is a forum for readers to air their feelings. That is their privilege as readers. Yes, it often hurts – but that’s alright. I know my writing won’t be for everyone, and others will enjoy it immensely. When you publish a book, you are handing readers the nails and hammer, and a few of them are going to hang you up and laugh at you – in front of everyone. You have to know that going into it.

 

You recently announced that you will be publishing the Night Owl trilogy with St Martin’s Press. Congratulations I am really very happy for you.  How do you see this changing the writing/publishing process?  Does this mean other people will influence how the story is told?

 

Thank you! I’m thrilled about the book deal.

 

A traditional publication model means a few things for my writing and the publication of my books. My editors will set my books’ prices, control most promotions, make sure my books are professionally proofed, design my covers, help me distribute my books way more widely than I ever could, set the dates and times of publication, and of course help me edit the story to bring readers the most satisfying final product possible. So yes, you could say other people will influence the story! I invite them.

 

You seem to have experienced quite a lot writing Night Owl.  Do you have any advice for writers out there?

 

Oh, too much advice. And at the same time, no advice. Haha. The fact is, I know from my own experience that nothing could stop me from writing. Come hell or high water, criticism or alcoholism, wads of rejection, money troubles, college, work obligations, whatever the issue… I was writing. I wrote even without hope of publication. I would never have stopped because I couldn’t stop. So, no writer like that needs advice from me! Their “advice” is that driving, disease-like impulse to write, and I so respect my fellow writers for living with that horrible compulsion.

 

OK last question.  If you could take another character from any other book and write them into Night Owl, who would you choose?

 

I’d like to write… Jim Burden from My Ántonia into Night Owl. Hahaha. A grown up Jim, of course. A modern-day Jim. It would be fantastic. He’d be very learned and sensitive and thoughtful, and I think he’d make a great friend for Matt and Hannah.

 

M. it has been an absolute pleasure talking with you, thank you.  I look forward to continuing Matt and Hannah’s story in book 2 which will hopefully be released this summer.  So until next time I wish you all the success in the world with your writing, you deserve it. Oh can you please give Laurence a cuddle from me too?

 

The pleasure was all mine! And I surely will give Laurence a pat for you. He’ll instantly fall in love and start writing novels to immortalize his species-challenged fixation. I can see it now… Love Knows No Bounds by L. BUN.

Cover reveal + giveaway!

 

Pre-order for Nook, iBooks, Kobo, and more, just 2.99!

I'm so proud to unveil the new e-book cover for Night Owl, created by the talented Kerri Resnick. Stay tuned for the new trade paperback cover reveal -- a different design, also created by Kerri -- here and on all participating book blogs. If you're interested in getting signed up to participate in Night Owl Trilogy promos and reveals, please contact Lisa at TrulySchmexyPR@gmail.com.

I owe a HUGE thanks to Lisa of True Story Book Blog for helping me arrange this last-minute reveal, and to Aestas of Aestas Book Blog for letting me know the cover was online around midnight, and for staying up past 1:00 a.m. to announce it on Facebook and post the cover reveal on her awesome blog.

Anyway, without further ado, here's the reveal giveaway! And it's open internationally. Thanks for ALL your support, especially your optimism about this lovely new cover, and I hope you've taken the time to "like" those book blogs on FB.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

* The signed paperback prize will be the new SMP edition of Night Owl and may have a different cover than the cover depicted here. The e-books will be sent on February 11th and the paperback prize will be sent in July when the new edition is available.

This is what it feels like

Every day:

Great expectations.

 

10 minutes later:

Sudden onset narcolepsy.
(An adequate representation of how I sleep.)

 

My highest recommendations

I had a nice email this morning from a reader and book blogger. In it, she asked if I had a list of books that I think “everyone should read.”

I said I “wouldn’t presume to make a list of that nature, though I might make a list of my ‘highest recommendations.’” I want to share that list here and hear about your favorite books. In no particular order:

 

My Antonia by Willa Cather

Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

The Catcher in the Rye and Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger

All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren

Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee

The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald

The Sound and the Fury by Faulkner

On the Road by Jack Kerouac

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

This Boy’s Life by Tobias Wolff

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

Lolita by Nabokov

Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis

“The Dead” (a short story) by James Joyce

The Elements of Style by Strunk and White

Mrs. Mike by Benedict and Nancy Freedman

The poems of Robert Frost

The poems of Elizabeth Bishop

The poems of T.S. Eliot

The poems of Robert Creeley

The poems of Charles Bukowski

[Edit: I somehow forgot this amazing book -- Mr. Bridge by Evan S. Connell]

Epigraph

The epigraph for Last Light comes from “Barter” by Sara Teasdale.

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Barter

by SARA TEASDALE

Life has loveliness to sell,
      All beautiful and splendid things,
Blue waves whitened on a cliff,
      Soaring fire that sways and sings,
And children’s faces looking up
Holding wonder like a cup.

 

Life has loveliness to sell,
      Music like a curve of gold,
Scent of pine trees in the rain,
      Eyes that love you, arms that hold,
And for your spirit’s still delight,
Holy thoughts that star the night.

 

Spend all you have for loveliness,
      Buy it and never count the cost;
For one white singing hour of peace
      Count many a year of strife well lost,
And for a breath of ecstasy
Give all you have been, or could be.

“I’m a bird, motherfucker, I’m a bird”

I would like to point out that I have been writing 4,000 words a day for the past several days, and at least 1,500 words a day for the past month, I mean the entire past month, including Christmas, including today, including tomorrow, and that I have cabin fever. Thank you.

 

A book 2 teaser for you, my beloved readers. Now no one ...

A book 2 teaser for you, my beloved readers. Now no one can accuse me of not being in the holiday spirit. P.S. Damn straight I used the word murmur.

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Win a paperback + Christmas greeting

I signed and sent my last copy of the “indie edition” of NIGHT OWL over to Maryse for her Christmas Countdown Giveaway. There’s still time to win my book (or one of three other paperbacks) here, so don’t miss out.

I have noticed that all of the other internet-oriented authors in the universe are doing Christmas messages. I feel that I must also do this.

Hello!

Merry Christmas!

(Don’t laugh. I’m being cheerful.)

Thank you for supporting me and my books. It means everything to me. I wish you all happy holidays and an awesome year full of unrealistic resolutions destined to fail. The best kind of resolutions.

Love,

M.

 

Potent

I considered titling this post “my method,” but I’ve settled on “potent.” As you can see. But yes, this is a quick post about my writing method, which I thought might be of general interest. I know that I enjoy hearing about how/when other writers write, the mechanics and rituals, etc.

I copied this from an email I sent today.

Well, I try to be up by 11 every weekday, and to sleep no later than 2 on weekends. I have a terrific appetite for sleep. That said, I go to bed around 3 a.m. – 4 a.m. most nights/mornings. You know, a night owl. Anyway, around 11 I wake up and make my coffee, change Laurence’s water and give him treats, and then I sit in the living room dicking around on my iPad and drinking maybe a third of my mug. This is an exact science. Around that time I begin to feel very energized and potent. Hahaha. Yes, I said potent. It’s the caffeine. So then I go to my office and start writing. I usually pause around 2 to fetch a snack, which I take back to the office and eat as I work. That is “lunch.” I continue writing until about 5, by which time I have usually met my “quota” for the day — about 2k words. I then shower and do dinner. Or run then shower. Whatever I happen to be feeling. When I return to my desk, I’m either excited to continue the scene/chapter or feeling washed up/weary/burnt out/disillusioned. So, at that point I either continue to write or stop and divert myself some other way for the rest of the evening. As a general rule I never write after midnight. By that time my mind is too tired and I feel less optimistic, and that pessimism colors everything I reread or write. I also become sloppy and my prose suffers. It’s not usual for me to write with an eye on word count, but because of my deadlines I have put myself on this regime, and it’s working out quite well. Now, all that said, there are days I can’t write worth a damn and I struggle to churn out a few hundred words. Other days the mind is on fire and I forget to eat.

BANKS

I think this woman is really talented.