Madhuri Pavamani's Blog, page 27
November 21, 2014
So You Want To Be A Writer?
Charles Bukowski, 1920 - 1994
if it doesn���t come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don���t do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don���t do it.
if you have to sit for hours
staring at your computer screen
or hunched over your
typewriter
searching for words,
don���t do it.
if you���re doing it for money or
fame,
don���t do it.
if you���re doing it because you want
women in your bed,
don���t do it.
if you have to sit there and
rewrite it again and again,
don���t do it.
if it���s hard work just thinking about doing it,
don���t do it.
if you���re trying to write like somebody
else,
forget about it.
if you have to wait for it to roar out of
you,
then wait patiently.
if it never does roar out of you,
do something else.
if you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all,
you���re not ready.
don���t be like so many writers,
don���t be like so many thousands of
people who call themselves writers,
don���t be dull and boring and
pretentious, don���t be consumed with self-
love.
the libraries of the world have
yawned themselves to
sleep
over your kind.
don���t add to that.
don���t do it.
unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket,
unless being still would
drive you to madness or
suicide or murder,
don���t do it.
unless the sun inside you is
burning your gut,
don���t do it.
when it is truly time,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by
itself and it will keep on doing it
until you die or it dies in you.
there is no other way.
and there never was.
November 20, 2014
Book III: A Snippet
It’s been a hot second since I posted a Book III snippet but I knew as soon as I wrote this interaction between Ryker and Jools that it would be perfect to share. It gives some hints as to the growth of their characters and relationship, but little more���and trust me, you want to see what’s gone down with these two.
Anyway, check it out – hope you enjoy.
Shuddering at the sight of such wanton carnage, the beach littered with dead and dying Magicals, Jools��� insides turned as their cries reached her ears. She pulled an arrow through her bow and began methodically putting each and every one of them out of their misery, thus alleviating her own. Slowly her warriors returned to camp and sat silently as she continued her mercy killings, tears rolling down her cheeks.
Finally, a hand pressed to the small of her back and Ryker stepped in beside her. She did not look at him, she simply continued her acts of euthanasia. He did not stop her, for he understood her need to be proactive, to make some sense of all of the insanity. And when the last arrow found the last Magical and there were no more screams to fill the night sky, Ryker turned to her and smiled.
���Nice work, Clayworth.���
Jools surveyed the beach below, closed her eyes, and let the quiet of the night soak into her bones.
���Thanks, Morrison,��� she almost-smiled at him.
Kindle Daily Deal – THE LIGHT WHO SHINES – On Sale for $1.99
I read and reviewed The Light Who Shines a while back for my blog – you might remember that I enjoyed the book…and I really enjoyed Jack. He’s all kinds of sexy and I highly recommend snagging a copy of this book today while it’s on sale for just $1.99 as a Kindle Daily Deal.
I stand by what I said when I first read this book: everyone needs a little Jack in their lives.
Anyway, for those of you who need a bit more enticing, here’s some additional info on the book. Check it out, buy the book, and help Lilo reach #1 on Amazon’s charts.
The Light Who Shines
by Lilo Abernathy
Genre: Urban Fantasy / Paranormal Romance / Mystery
Amazon Rating: 4.7 Stars
Regular Price: $4.99
Sale Price: $1.99 (One day only)
Kindle Daily Deal Sale Date: Thursday, November 20th, 2014
When Supernatural Investigation Bureau agent Bluebell Kildare (a.k.a. Blue) arrives at the scene of the crime, it���s obvious the grotesquely damaged body of the deceased teenage boy was caused by far more than a simple hit and run; and she vows to catch the killer. Using her innate sixth sense, Blue uncovers a powerful magical artifact nearby. She soon discovers it acts as a key to an ancient Grimoire that was instrumental in the creation of the Vampire breed and still holds the power to unravel the boundaries between Earth and the Plane of Fire.
Blue and her clever wolf Varg follow a trail that starts at the Cock and Bull Tap and leads all through the town of Crimson Hollow. Between being sidelined by a stalker who sticks to the shadows and chasing a suspect who vanishes in thin air, the case is getting complicated. If that isn���t enough, Dark Vampire activity hits a record high, and hate crimes are increasing. However, it���s Blue���s growing feelings for Jack Tanner, her sexy Daylight Vampire boss, that just might undo her.
While Blue searches for clues to nail the perpetrator, it seems someone else is conducting a search of their own. Who will find whom first?
Danger lurks in every corner, and Blue needs all her focus in this increasingly dangerous game or she risks ending up the next victim.
PRIMARY CHARACTER PROFILES
Bluebell Kildare: Blue is a Supernatural Homicide Detective and a gifted empath who has a pure spirit and a will of steel. She was orphaned at a young age and has had a tough life so far. Yet, she continually picks herself up by the boot straps and fights to do what is right, regardless of the cost. Just how high will the cost be?
Jack Tanner: He���s Blue���s sexy boss, the head of the Supernatural Homicide Unit in Crimson Hollow. Jack is very old and powerful Daylight Vampire with many layers. He is driven a little crazy by his desire to protect Blue in the face of her independence. Can he keep his cool when Blue needs him most?
Varg: He is a great grey wolf who comes out of nowhere and decides to be Blue���s companion. He seems to have some mysterious magical abilities and uses them to guard Blue���s life. Can he keep her safe?
Maud: She is Blue���s dear friend and mother figure. Maud used to visit Blue in the orphanage and read to her as a child. She can���t cook but she makes awesome Southern beverages. What color is her hair today? Is it blue, fuchsia, scarlet, or peach sherbet?
Alexis: She is Blue���s comrade and neighbor, as well as the sassy owner of a store called Herbal Enchantments. She is gifted in earth magic and if she isn���t busy feeding her friends, she���s telling them what to do. Does she have her hands on her hips right now, or is she waving her finger at Blue?
The Villain: Can he get any more evil? No. He is about as evil as they come . . .
AUTHOR BIO
Lilo Abernathy is a somewhat eccentric, deep-thinking, warm-hearted young woman of at least 43 years. She started out as a restaurant chain hostess and worked her way up to the exciting world of global mergers and acquisitions. She has enjoyed an on again/off again relationship with formal education and has been affectionately referred to as information hound. In the evenings, she fills her writing breaks by scanning the internet for answers to provocative questions, such as: ���What causes diamonds to be formed in different colors?���
One thing that never changes is Lilo���s ongoing love affair with books. A born bibliophile, by age ten she finished all the children���s books in the house and started devouring the adult section. By age 15, she was working her way through grocery store book aisles and libraries. Just as Picasso had his blue period, Lilo had her own periods of readership���urban fantasy, paranormal romance, Gothic novels, etc. Now she���s planning on creating a bookshelf for you to enjoy.
SOCIAL NETWORKS
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/lilojabernathy
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lilo_Abernathy
Goodreads:https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7789942.Lilo_Abernathy
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/liloabernathy/
SITE AND BLOG
Website: https://sites.google.com/site/lilojabernathy/home
Blog: http://lilojabernathy.blogspot.com/
November 19, 2014
Sneak a Peek at the Shadowshaper Cover
Yea! for brown-skinned heroines looking all badass on book covers. Shadowshaper sounds amazing.
Originally posted on thenerdsofcolor:
Ladies and gentlemen: the cover and jacket for my first Young Adult novel, Shadowshaper, which comes out in July from Scholastic���s Arthur A. Levine Books. Behold the gloryyyyyyyyyy after the break.
View original 17 more words
Supporting Diversity – The Series: I NEED DIVERSE MAIN CHARACTERS
I Need Diverse Main Characters
by Guinevere Thomas
Let me be upfront. I freaking hate cliques. In high school, it used to pit the nerds/geeks/dorks vs the jocks. The cheerleaders/popular girls vs the goths. And one that hit close to home, the artsy folk vs the folk that didnt do shit.
The lunchroom was always a segregated mess of social acceptance, where one met a status quo of conforming, or disappeared. Unfortunately this type of thinking seems to follow us way beyond high school.
We create cliques at work, social events, and even amongst our peers. It even affects us when, even in our progressive state, *gasp* we go to find “diverse” books.
What do I mean, you ask?
As a lover of fantasy, sci-fi, speculative fiction, but also realistic fiction, I look for diversity in book spaces all the time. It always puzzles me when I can’t find��everything��I’m looking for in one place.
When I search and engage interracial spaces, I don’t always find a ton of intersectionality, or even diversity outside the love of two main characters of different races mingling. When I search and engage socio-economic diverse spaces, I don’t often get the pleasure of seeing much racial diversity, despite my own upbringing being just comfortably above the poverty line.
When I see queer, Ima be real: not all are inclusive to asexuality, trans, PoC, or basically anything that isn’t a cis (though queer) white boy.
I recognize the need for these spaces. As a Black woman, there are so few safe spaces for me within even my own communities. I’m dark skinned, now naturally coifed, and a feminist. I’m also Cuban, and while that allows me the access to both Latino and Black spaces, I’ve found that my image is always a victim of erasure. Since I don’t meet the status quo, much like in the high school lunchroom, I disappear.
When my sister and I started Twinja Book Reviews, part of our reasons were selfish (not that it should be seen as selfish to want to see yourself).
We not only wanted to see what other bloggers were interested in, we wanted to read more books with darker hued heroines. It wasn’t to exclude anyone, we’d just been readers nearly our entire lives, and never saw darker skinned heroines, or a ton of Afro-Latinos depicted in fiction.
It wasn’t until my sister Libertad, read “The Fold” by An Na, that we had an epiphany moment. It was a story about identity and self esteem, and was the first book either of us had ever read, that did not have any white main characters. Even though we’re not Korean-American, it was one of the first books that set us on the path to break out of our preferred narrative.
And then that settled it. I NEEDED DIVERSE��MAIN��CHARACTERS.
I’ve always been into interracial themes, especially depicting Black women. It’s never been because I don’t appreciate Black Love. But as a Black woman, I’m taught that no person will ever want, cherish or desire me in the same way they do other races. But even though I still go glee over a book with an interracial couple on the cover, I need there to be more than just a white guy and a black girl falling in love for a book to be diverse.
I’ve gotten the opportunity to educate myself about all different types of diversity. I used to get excited when a supporting character was queer, or South Asian, or had a limp. There’s just a small problem with being a supporting character. As long as a character has a disability, is a PoC, is Muslim, lives below the poverty line, or isn’t a size two, and is a supporting character, they will always live to��support��a “default” character’s story.
They will not be or come to realize that they deserve to be heroes and sheroes to their own stories.
And it’s ok if you’re queer and tired of reading about straight people. Or disabled, and sick of reading about abled. Or hell, Buddhist and just want to see more religious diversity. Shit, I do too.
But we have to throw away this idea that “I’ll read PoC, but I don’t do Queer/The main character is cis-gender, straight, abled white boy, but ‘Do I have a sidekick for you!’.”
Inclusion has mutated with time. It has become the cool kid’s table that doesn’t reject anybody. It has become Intersectionality. It has become a vast amount of narratives, that shouldn’t have to earn the right to be featured as main characters, but were born with the right in the first place.
Diverse main characters don’t have to be subject to “grouping” into childish high school cliques. We’re all in this together. You just can’t have diversity without EVERYTHING.
So even if that dude that gave you side eye is straight mean mugging you, invite him over.
Picture provided by��http://imgarcade.com/
Inclusion should mean never having to ask, to know you’re included.
Please consider assisting our efforts to diversify everyone���s bookshelf by donating to We Need Diverse Books’ fundraising campaign
#SupportWNDB
Guinevere Zoyana Thomas is one half of the ever so silent and deadly “Twinjas” @Twinja Book Reviews. When she isn’t perfecting back handsprings, or working on her red belt in Tang Soo Do, she’s going H.A.M. editing her diverse time-travel YA novel under the pseudonym “GL Tomas.” ��Check out her blog tour company “Diverse Book Tours”, a virtual tour company that brings diverse books.
Want all the time access to diverse and multicultural stories/books?��
Check out @��Twinja Book Reviews��to discover authors, readers and blog posts dedicated to including diversity in YA, Fantasy, Sci-Fi and NA novels.
Tweet with us @ Twinja Book Reviews
Twinja Book Reviews on Facebook
Want tips on writing and incorporating diversity in your self published novel?
Visit us @��Our Journey to the road of self publishing Multicultural Novels
*This series is in no way affiliated with the official We Need Diverse Books campaign
#SupportWNDB – The Series: I NEED DIVERSE MAIN CHARACTERS
I Need Diverse Main Characters
by Guinevere Thomas
Let me be upfront. I freaking hate cliques. In high school, it used to pit the nerds/geeks/dorks vs the jocks. The cheerleaders/popular girls vs the goths. And one that hit close to home, the artsy folk vs the folk that didnt do shit.
The lunchroom was always a segregated mess of social acceptance, where one met a status quo of conforming, or disappeared. Unfortunately this type of thinking seems to follow us way beyond high school.
We create cliques at work, social events, and even amongst our peers. It even affects us when, even in our progressive state, *gasp* we go to find “diverse” books.
What do I mean, you ask?
As a lover of fantasy, sci-fi, speculative fiction, but also realistic fiction, I look for diversity in book spaces all the time. It always puzzles me when I can’t find��everything��I’m looking for in one place.
When I search and engage interracial spaces, I don’t always find a ton of intersectionality, or even diversity outside the love of two main characters of different races mingling. When I search and engage socio-economic diverse spaces, I don’t often get the pleasure of seeing much racial diversity, despite my own upbringing being just comfortably above the poverty line.
When I see queer, Ima be real: not all are inclusive to asexuality, trans, PoC, or basically anything that isn’t a cis (though queer) white boy.
I recognize the need for these spaces. As a Black woman, there are so few safe spaces for me within even my own communities. I’m dark skinned, now naturally coifed, and a feminist. I’m also Cuban, and while that allows me the access to both Latino and Black spaces, I’ve found that my image is always a victim of erasure. Since I don’t meet the status quo, much like in the high school lunchroom, I disappear.
When my sister and I started Twinja Book Reviews, part of our reasons were selfish (not that it should be seen as selfish to want to see yourself).
We not only wanted to see what other bloggers were interested in, we wanted to read more books with darker hued heroines. It wasn’t to exclude anyone, we’d just been readers nearly our entire lives, and never saw darker skinned heroines, or a ton of Afro-Latinos depicted in fiction.
It wasn’t until my sister Libertad, read “The Fold” by An Na, that we had an epiphany moment. It was a story about identity and self esteem, and was the first book either of us had ever read, that did not have any white main characters. Even though we’re not Korean-American, it was one of the first books that set us on the path to break out of our preferred narrative.
And then that settled it. I NEEDED DIVERSE��MAIN��CHARACTERS.
I’ve always been into interracial themes, especially depicting Black women. It’s never been because I don’t appreciate Black Love. But as a Black woman, I’m taught that no person will ever want, cherish or desire me in the same way they do other races. But even though I still go glee over a book with an interracial couple on the cover, I need there to be more than just a white guy and a black girl falling in love for a book to be diverse.
I’ve gotten the opportunity to educate myself about all different types of diversity. I used to get excited when a supporting character was queer, or South Asian, or had a limp. There’s just a small problem with being a supporting character. As long as a character has a disability, is a PoC, is Muslim, lives below the poverty line, or isn’t a size two, and is a supporting character, they will always live to��support��a “default” character’s story.
They will not be or come to realize that they deserve to be heroes and sheroes to their own stories.
And it’s ok if you’re queer and tired of reading about straight people. Or disabled, and sick of reading about abled. Or hell, Buddhist and just want to see more religious diversity. Shit, I do too.
But we have to throw away this idea that “I’ll read PoC, but I don’t do Queer/The main character is cis-gender, straight, abled white boy, but ‘Do I have a sidekick for you!’.”
Inclusion has mutated with time. It has become the cool kid’s table that doesn’t reject anybody. It has become Intersectionality. It has become a vast amount of narratives, that shouldn’t have to earn the right to be featured as main characters, but were born with the right in the first place.
Diverse main characters don’t have to be subject to “grouping” into childish high school cliques. We’re all in this together. You just can’t have diversity without EVERYTHING.
So even if that dude that gave you side eye is straight mean mugging you, invite him over.
Picture provided by��http://imgarcade.com/
Inclusion should mean never having to ask, to know you’re included.
Please consider assisting our efforts to diversify everyone���s bookshelf by donating to We Need Diverse Books’ fundraising campaign
#SupportWNDB
Guinevere Zoyana Thomas is one half of the ever so silent and deadly “Twinjas” @Twinja Book Reviews. When she isn’t perfecting back handsprings, or working on her red belt in Tang Soo Do, she’s going H.A.M. editing her diverse time-travel YA novel under the pseudonym “GL Tomas.” ��Check out her blog tour company “Diverse Book Tours”, a virtual tour company that brings diverse books.
Want all the time access to diverse and multicultural stories/books?��
Check out @��Twinja Book Reviews��to discover authors, readers and blog posts dedicated to including diversity in YA, Fantasy, Sci-Fi and NA novels.
Tweet with us @ Twinja Book Reviews
Twinja Book Reviews on Facebook
Want tips on writing and incorporating diversity in your self published novel?
Visit us @��Our Journey to the road of self publishing Multicultural Novels
#SupportWNDB – The Series: I Need Diverse Main Characters
I Need Diverse Main Characters
by Guinevere Thomas
Let me be upfront. I freaking hate cliques. In high school, it used to pit the nerds/geeks/dorks vs the jocks. The cheerleaders/popular girls vs the goths. And one that hit close to home, the artsy folk vs the folk that didnt do shit.
The lunchroom was always a segregated mess of social acceptance, where one met a status quo of conforming, or disappeared. Unfortunately this type of thinking seems to follow us way beyond high school.
We create cliques at work, social events, and even amongst our peers. It even affects us when, even in our progressive state, *gasp* we go to find “diverse” books.
What do I mean, you ask?
As a lover of fantasy, sci-fi, speculative fiction, but also realistic fiction, I look for diversity in book spaces all the time. It always puzzles me when I can’t find��everything��I’m looking for in one place.
When I search and engage interracial spaces, I don’t always find a ton of intersectionality, or even diversity outside the love of two main characters of different races mingling. When I search and engage socio-economic diverse spaces, I don’t often get the pleasure of seeing much racial diversity, despite my own upbringing being just comfortably above the poverty line.
When I see queer, Ima be real: not all are inclusive to asexuality, trans, PoC, or basically anything that isn’t a cis (though queer) white boy.
I recognize the need for these spaces. As a Black woman, there are so few safe spaces for me within even my own communities. I’m dark skinned, now naturally coifed, and a feminist. I’m also Cuban, and while that allows me the access to both Latino and Black spaces, I’ve found that my image is always a victim of erasure. Since I don’t meet the status quo, much like in the high school lunchroom, I disappear.
When my sister and I started Twinja Book Reviews, part of our reasons were selfish (not that it should be seen as selfish to want to see yourself).
We not only wanted to see what other bloggers were interested in, we wanted to read more books with darker hued heroines. It wasn’t to exclude anyone, we’d just been readers nearly our entire lives, and never saw darker skinned heroines, or a ton of Afro-Latinos depicted in fiction.
It wasn’t until my sister Libertad, read “The Fold” by An Na, that we had an epiphany moment. It was a story about identity and self esteem, and was the first book either of us had ever read, that did not have any white main characters. Even though we’re not Korean-American, it was one of the first books that set us on the path to break out of our preferred narrative.
And then that settled it. I NEEDED DIVERSE��MAIN��CHARACTERS.
I’ve always been into interracial themes, especially depicting Black women. It’s never been because I don’t appreciate Black Love. But as a Black woman, I’m taught that no person will ever want, cherish or desire me in the same way they do other races. But even though I still go glee over a book with an interracial couple on the cover, I need there to be more than just a white guy and a black girl falling in love for a book to be diverse.
I’ve gotten the opportunity to educate myself about all different types of diversity. I used to get excited when a supporting character was queer, or South Asian, or had a limp. There’s just a small problem with being a supporting character. As long as a character has a disability, is a PoC, is Muslim, lives below the poverty line, or isn’t a size two, and is a supporting character, they will always live to��support��a “default” character’s story.
They will not be or come to realize that they deserve to be heroes and sheroes to their own stories.
And it’s ok if you’re queer and tired of reading about straight people. Or disabled, and sick of reading about abled. Or hell, Buddhist and just want to see more religious diversity. Shit, I do too.
But we have to throw away this idea that “I’ll read PoC, but I don’t do Queer/The main character is cis-gender, straight, abled white boy, but ‘Do I have a sidekick for you!’.”
Inclusion has mutated with time. It has become the cool kid’s table that doesn’t reject anybody. It has become Intersectionality. It has become a vast amount of narratives, that shouldn’t have to earn the right to be featured as main characters, but were born with the right in the first place.
Diverse main characters don’t have to be subject to “grouping” into childish high school cliques. We’re all in this together. You just can’t have diversity without EVERYTHING.
So even if that dude that gave you side eye is straight mean mugging you, invite him over.
Picture provided by��http://imgarcade.com/
Inclusion should mean never having to ask, to know you’re included.
Please consider assisting our efforts to diversify everyone���s bookshelf by donating to We Need Diverse Books’ fundraising campaign
#SupportWNDB
Guinevere Zoyana Thomas is one half of the ever so silent and deadly “Twinjas” @Twinja Book Reviews. When she isn’t perfecting back handsprings, or working on her red belt in Tang Soo Do, she’s going H.A.M. editing her diverse time-travel YA novel under the pseudonym “GL Tomas.” ��Check out her blog tour company “Diverse Book Tours”, a virtual tour company that brings diverse books.
Want all the time access to diverse and multicultural stories/books?��
Check out @��Twinja Book Reviews��to discover authors, readers and blog posts dedicated to including diversity in YA, Fantasy, Sci-Fi and NA novels.
Tweet with us @ Twinja Book Reviews
Twinja Book Reviews on Facebook
Want tips on writing and incorporating diversity in your self published novel?
Visit us @��Our Journey to the road of self publishing Multicultural Novels
November 18, 2014
That One Time I Interviewed Musician Sally Jaye
For those of you who don’t know, I grew up down south in Snellville, Georgia, which is as small as it sounds. At least it was when I lived there. Funny thing is that for such a small town, we’ve got quite a few crazy-talented folks and we all went to high school together.
One of these fabulous individuals is singer/songwriter Sally Jaye, who you might know because I keep pushing her group, Ladies Gun Club. I kind of love them. Listen to their remake of the Talking Heads “Road to Nowhere” and tell me you’re not a little intrigued.
Anyway, I caught up to Sally a couple of weeks ago and asked her if she would mind sitting down and letting me pick her brain for a bit – and of course, babble about all kinds of other shit because that’s what tends to happen when old friends get to chatting after being apart for several years – and lucky me, and lucky y’all, she said yes.
Sally Jaye looking all fierce and sexy. Those eyes are to die for…
First off, tell us a little about who you are and what makes you tick. ��
I���m an artist/songwriter with a head full of ideas and ways to express myself looking for ways to slow down the pace of life a little so I can gradually execute some of these ideas. Things that currently make me tick – my two babies (three years-old and one), preparing good food for my family (although I���m a pretty sucky cook), punk rock music (my most recent musical obsession), sitting on my front porch at night, and then there���s my hilarious and brilliant husband���
We haven���t chatted since high school (wow!), so fill me in as quickly as you can on your journey in the music industry.��
It���s been long time! But I have some great memories�� of us in high school that are attached to music���in particular, I remember a lot of driving around in your red car (Corolla?), listening to Michael Jackson, the Bad record.
Long story short, a couple of years after high school, I found myself interested in songwriting after hearing Nanci Griffith���s live record, One Fair Summer Evening. I have been through a lot of musical phases, but old country music has always stolen my heart, and that���s the genre where I feel most at home. So now I���m just hoping to always make music when I feel like it…and hope I feel like it.
Every artist has a process, a way from getting all the ideas banging around inside of your head out to the public. As much as I would like to be all organized and whatnot, my process is rather willy-nilly and very free-flowing. What���s yours like? And how different it is for a musician as compared to a writer? Do you write your music and lyrics? Which comes first, the lyrics or the music?��
That���s a great question, and I���m always interested in what other artists have to say about this.
Lately, I���ve been trying to figure out a process.
My children are only three and one, so I have a very full mom schedule. Before I had kids, my process was very free and ���willy-nilly,��� like yours. Sometimes I would just drive for hours with the stereo on to feel inspired, and sometimes I would hole up in my little apartment, most of the space taken up by my huge, old piano in my living room, and go back and forth listening to music and writing my own music all hours of the night. It was terrible for my neighbors.
Now, I have to set aside time to play and write, which is a challenge for me. When the kids go to bed, I���m usually pretty exhausted and not feeling particularly inspired, but I���ve always felt that when you have something to say, it will come out, and when you don���t, take in everything you can in the world around you to fill up the well. I���m listening to a lot of music right now that I���ve somehow missed in my life. For me, the music and lyrics come at the same time. A song that you feel confident about, usually happens very quickly. It���s when I have to labor over them that they lose their soul. But I am trying to be more open to keeping unfinished ideas around and working on them.
I know you���ve always been in the arts, what with your mom and all of the theatre we did as kids, but when did you know you wanted to focus on singing? How has that journey been? Do you feel like you���re still learning things every day?��
I hope I never stop learning. There is no age limit on being artistic, so there���s no reason to stop learning. I don���t really consider myself a vocalist, because that���s a different skill set. I feel like I���m a songwriter who writes songs to suit my voice. And sometimes my voice suits what other artists do, but not usually.
How would you categorize your music? What genre? Do you even like to categorize it?��
I would put my solo music and the music I write with Sarah Roberts in Ladies Gun Club, in the Americana genre. But most everything I���ve been influenced by goes back to classic country artists, bluegrass, folk, and old rock n roll.
Do you have a diehard fan base? How hard were they to build? And how hard are they to maintain? In this day and age, are you finding that even the music industry must use social media to promote music?��
I think I have some diehards, only because when I take time off and come back with something, they are always the ones still paying attention. I could not appreciate them more. They help me by sharing my music with others, and as I���m sure you are finding out, word of mouth is the most meaningful way to get your work out there.
What are you currently working on?��
Right now, I���m in the middle of finishing up the new Ladies Gun Club record. That���s due out in early 2015, and it���s full of weirdness! I am also releasing the first part of a two-part EP collection on��Dec. 2nd. That is a solo project I recorded in Asheville, NC with producer, Josh Day.
I got pregnant in the middle of making this record, so part one is more soft and sensitive, and part two is more yelling���haha! I had to get some things out, before I stepped into the mom world.
Do you have a favorite album? Song?��
So hard to answer. But if I had to pick one album I���ve listened to more than any other in my life, it would be the Trio record with Dolly Parton, Emmy-Lou Harris, and Linda Rondstadt. It always blows me away.
Writing is a very solitary process, but aspects of getting a book published involve others. I���ve met several people along the way who have become major parts of my support system. Is it the same in the music industry? Describe your own support system ��� who has helped you along the way to getting your music out there?��
The most help I���ve had is the people that have listened and shared my music with others. The people who have come to shows, and sometimes been the only one in the room. And Entropy Collective, who manage me and Ladies Gun Club. They are like family to me. And the other songwriters I have known or not known who have inspired me.
I���ve got to ask – how amazing is it to perform live?��
It is amazing and terrifying.
What is your favorite aspect of singing? Your least favorite?��
My favorite part about singing is how it makes me feel. That���s all.
Favorite album? Favorite instrument? Favorite singer? Favorite genre? Coffee or tea? Dresses or jeans? Heels or flats?��
Trio, drums, Emmylou Harris, Traditional Country, both, jeans every day except dresses in the summer, flats.
If you could have dinner with five people, who would they be?��
If I picked famous people, I���d clam up with nerves and blow it, so I���d go with some close friends, drink wine, and stay out late.
3 words to describe yourself.��
open, clumsy, loud
Name 3 books you love and the perfect songs to go with them.
This is a great question, and I am ashamed to say I currently can���t answer this question. (But I���d love to hear your answers!) I���m waiting for my babies to get a little older so I can start finding time to read again. But Flannery O���Connor has always inspired me musically.
The indie author game is both incredibly rewarding and insanely exhausting. I know you���ve been quite successful in the music industry and have been doing your thing for some time. Any tips for aspiring songwriters/singers you would like to share?��
To songwriters I would say write what you know, and then do whatever you want. The choices will change all the time, and what���s important to you will change. And if you start to get hung up on something (business, art, or life), think of one of my favorite lyrics of all times, ���Most things I worry about, never happen anyway������ – Tom Petty (I take that line in the most positive way.)
Anything else you���d like to say ��� now���s your chance. Go for it.
Thanks for this. It���s great catching up with you, and I���m thrilled for you and your book series! I pretty much idolized you in high school!
Anyone interested in my work can check out part one of my new record, Too Many Heartaches, Pt. 1 released on��Dec. 2nd, and part two in early 2015. The new Ladies Gun Club record will also be out in early 2015, and this one is full of surprises. Also look for the feature film, Too Late, written/directed by Dennis Hauck, starring recent two-time Oscar nominee, John Hawkes, and a bunch of other actors you���ll recognize like Dichen Lachman, Crystal Reed, Natalie Zea, and the incredible David Yow, lead singer of The Jesus Lizard. I���m acting and playing music in this film. It���s a unique project in that the whole film was shot in five shots on real film, with no editing at all. Pretty crazy.
Want to catch up to Sally, you can find her on Facebook, Twitter or her website:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sally-Jaye/143262472320?ref=hl
Twitter – @sally_jaye
November 17, 2014
#SupportWNDB – The Series: DIVERSITY IN FICTION
DIVERSITY IN FICTION��
by Rose Montague
Some of you may know I have a handicapped son.����He was born three months premature and has cerebral palsy.����He uses a walker and a wheelchair to get around.����Most people generally react to him in three ways.����There are those that stare at him and give the impression that they think he is a freak.����There are those that tend to ignore him completely, pretending he doesn’t exist. Then there are those that treat him like a normal person, with feelings like all of us.����He may have a different set of struggles and worries than some of us but I think for the most part he is a lot like most of us, doing his best with what life has dealt him.
I think fiction writers generally write in similar categories.����In some of the fictional stories I see there is no diversity, no handicapped people, nobody with a different sexual orientation, and no people of color.����It is almost as if the writer has decided they just don’t want to deal with these things in their book so they just build a world without diversity. It is their way of ignoring what is in the real world and transferring that to their imaginary world. Unfortunately, I believe most of our writers today fall into this category.
Then there are those that go to great pains in highlighting those that are different, sometimes to the point that it escapes the boundaries of the story itself and becomes just an attention grabber.����Life is not a circus to highlight these differences. Being different does not make somebody a freak and believe me, they don’t want to be treated like they are part of a freak show. They don’t want to be treated that way in a book either.
Some writers treat these differences as normal, just like our world of diversity is normal.����In life we are going to interact with people that are not like us.����That is just something that is to be expected.
These writers don’t pretend there are no differences and they don’t make a big deal about it when they write about people that are different.����I would like to think that both as a person and as a writer, I fall into this category.
One thing I have also discovered as I have met and talked to both readers and writers alike is that people want to relate to the characters you write about. Some readers look for books that have characters like them.����Nobody wants to feel alone in their differences but they don’t want to be treated like freaks either. This is why I support diversity in fiction.
In��JADE,��two of my main characters have a lesbian relationship.����I tried to treat this as a normal, loving, and developing relationship that will continue to grow in my second book which should release in the next few months.����I hope you will support diversity both in the way you write as well as the choices you make in what you read.
Please consider assisting our efforts to diversify everyone’s bookshelf by donating to��We Need Diverse Books’ fundraising campaign
#SupportWNDB
Rose has always been a big reader and her dream of becoming a published author became a reality when Jade was published in November, 2013. ��Book Two (Jane) is expected to be published early 2015. ��She has worked both in a library as well as several bookstores. Rose lives in Elon, NC and is currently working on the final book in the trilogy which will be called Jill and the first book of a new series called Norma Jean’s School of Witchery.
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