Lilah Suzanne's Blog, page 10
September 21, 2017
Now Available: “Fortitude Smashed” by Taylor Brooke
“Handcuffed by fate, this cop-and-robber duo will steal hearts; a strong start to a promising series.” — Kirkus Reviews
After scientists stumbled across an anomalous human hormone present during moments of emotional intimacy, further research created the ability to harness the direction of living energy and pinpoint when two lines will merge. Personalized chips are now implanted beneath the thumbnails of every infant, where glowing numbers count down to the moment they will meet their soul mate. Fate is now a calculation.
But loving someone isn’t.
When Shannon Wurther, the youngest detective in Southern California, finds himself face-to-face with Aiden Maar, the reckless art thief Shannon’s precinct has been chasing for months, they are both stunned. Their Camellia Clocks have timed out, and the men are left with a choice—love one another or defy fate.
Price: $17.99 print / $6.99 multi-format ebook
Release Date: September 21, 2017
Details: Trade paperback, 6"x9"
Pages/Words: 346 // 92,000
ISBN: 978-1-945053-36-8 print // 978-1-945053-42-9 ebook
Fortitude Smashed is available from your favorite book retailers, including: the IP Web Store, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo, Smashwords, Book Depository, and Indiebound.
International: Order the print edition by November 21, 2017 from your favorite book retailer and receive free multi-format eBook by submitting a copy of your receipt to contact@interludepress.com.
About the author:
After fleshing out a multitude of fantastical creatures as a special effects makeup professional, Taylor turned her imagination back to her true love—books. When she’s not nestled in a blanket typing away on her laptop, she can be found haunting the local bookstore with a cup of tea, planning her next adventure, and fawning over baby animals. She is the author of the science fiction adventure trilogy, The Isolation Series (Limitless Publishing).
Connect with Taylor at taylorbrookewrites.org, on Twitter @taysalion, and on Facebook at facebook.com/taylorbrookewrites.
Cover art by C.B. Messer.
September 12, 2017
SAY IT IN A SONG:
WRITING LESSONS FROM COUNTRY MUSIC
This post originally appeared as a guest column at Bayou Book Junkie
When I started writing a book series about country musicians in Nashville, I did not expect to gain a new appreciation for the genre—the music, the artistry, the emotional pull of a country tune—that enriched the stories and the lives of my characters. But it wasn’t just the characters and their world that bled into my own reality; I also learned surprising things about craft and how to tell a tight, emotional story without a lot of fluff and filler. Country music is chock-full of storytelling songs, that is, lyrics that act as a narrative. A country song can tell a full, rich story in three minutes, and there is a lot any author can learn from that.
“Harper Valley PTA” (written by Tom C. Hall and famously performed by both Jeannie C. Riley and Dolly Parton) starts off with: “I want to tell you a story…” and then we’re told of a widowed mother shamed by the local small-town PTA for her short skirts and scandalous behavior, how this effects her daughter and how Ms. Johnson then lays the smack-down on the Harper Valley PTA hypocrites. An entire story arc of hook, rising action, climax, and resolution in a mere three hundred and twenty four words. Similarly, “A Boy Named Sue” tells a tale of abandonment, ridicule, and revenge. In “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” we’re told about the time a soul-snatching Satan was thwarted by some killer fiddle playing. So how is it that a song can fit a story within such a limited space? And how does that storytelling style translate to novel writing?
Keep it simple: The age old advice is still kicking around for a reason. As a story unfolds, it’s tempting to pile on the ideas. We fall in love with new minor characters, new themes emerge, backstories get more complex, one idea spawns another spawns another spawns another… But doing too much can detract from the story. Country music songs illustrate how to pick one story thread and keep with it, instead of allowing the narrative to spiral out in infinite directions. In “Harper Valley PTA” we stick with Ms. Johnson’s journey; despite the title it’s not about the members of the PTA, or even her daughter, it’s really about her.
Utilize metaphors and symbolism: Sometimes a story calls for lengthy descriptions and background exposition, but often times, using metaphors and symbolism can say a lot by saying something else. “A Boy Named Sue” tell us explicitly: “My daddy left home when I was three, didn’t leave much to ma and me.” and then uses imagery to flesh this out in only a few words: “Just this old guitar and an empty bottle of booze.” We can infer quite a bit about a man who left his wife and child, with only an old guitar and empty booze bottle to remember him by without spending too much time dwelling on it.
Stick to a central theme: If plot is what the story is about, theme is what your story means. “The Devil Went Down To Georgia” uses a deal with the devil motif, concerning itself with the morals and virtues of our fiddle-playing hero Johnny: By staying true to himself and his values, he defeats the devil and retains his soul. Keeping a story’s central theme in mind gives it complexity without adding more baggage to the plot.
Watch filler words: We all have our favorites that we constantly use without realizing it. I overuse “just” and in a recent editing pass it felt like I had to remove a character “hopping down” from something every other scene she was in. If you’re writing a story that needs to be told in the length of a single song, you’re going to watch those filler words. Similarly, in writing a book it’s important to pay attention the words that (just) don’t need to be there.
Portray human experiences. If a story speaks to a universal human experience, then you can count on a built-in reader response. Perhaps not everyone has been publicly shamed by a small town PTA, but we can all relate to not fitting in. We haven’t all been abandoned by a cruel father, but certainly can understand the feeling of left behind or unwanted. And maybe we haven’t actually had to battle the devil via fiddle showdown to save our mortal souls, but certainly we’ve all wrestled with moral dilemmas a time or two.
Of course I’m not a songwriter, despite creating county music singer-songwriter characters. I got help from an actual songwriter for the songs I created in the books, and it takes me quite a bit a longer than a few dozen stanzas to weave a cohesive tale. But I do think trying my hand at songwriting and immersing myself in the word of someone who does has made me a better writer. If nothing else, it helped me to think about what I’m saying, how I’m saying, and how long it takes me to get there.
September 9, 2017
REVIEW: Blended Notes by Lilah Suzanne
REVIEW: Blended Notes by Lilah Suzanne (August 17, 2017); 275 pages. Available from Interlude Press here.
Nico and Grady are back at the center of the narrative in the third book of the Spotlight series, and they’re getting maaaaarried. If you haven’t read Broken Records or Burning Tracks, you can still read Blended Notes and understand everything going on, but why would you skip those other two books? Broken started us off with Nico, a stylist to the stars, meeting Grady, a star country singer, and, well, hitting it off. Burning moved the focus to Nico’s business partner Gwen and her life with her wife Flora, and added focus on famous country singer Clementine, who reminds me a bit of a young Lucinda Williams (at least I picture her that way, smart and feisty and full of everything). Blended swings back to Nico and Grady, but Clementine is there, and Flora and Gwen are there, along with their wee son Cayo, who’s there with all of his drool and joy.
(I should make a special note here: Cayo’s in it, but it’s not a fawning, baby-focused thing in which even his diapers are cute. He’s there for realness.)
Lest you think Blended Notes is only about the fantasy of getting married, there is much more to be had (I’ve written about this before: not all gay folk, or folk in general, burn only for a straight-style wedding and marriage or care much about it, except for the significant financial and legal equality it delivers in many parts of the world; in short, a wedding alone is not enough to sustain an interesting narrative in my opinion). (And I recognize that this, on the heels of my “a baby is not all cuteness” thing probably makes me seem like the bitterest old lesbian ever, but I swear that’s not it. I like both weddings and babies, but I also recognize there’s more in a person’s life, or at least there should be, and those two elements are usually cheap and easy story devices to lend motive and pathos to characters. But that isn’t the case here.) The wedding here is neither central (I mean, who wants to read about picking out napkins for more than a paragraph?) nor is it the point. It’s there, but only as an impetus for other things to happen. Also going on: Grady comes out about his love for Nico (well, “him”) in a song, his record company censors him, and he must make the decision about whether to sing from inside or outside the closet, and Nico must figure out how to support him.
The writing is well-paced as usual–and perhaps in this book, even better than before. It might have something to do with the tension created when wedding plans and homophobic record labels and snooping press all begin to make things go awry and one’s never sure whether the wedding–or Nico and Grady’s relationship–will go forward or not. Grady sees Nico sneaking around with some guy, and then Nico wants to cancel the wedding, and it just canit be what it seems to be, right? (One more page, one more page, I kept saying, which is how I found myself still reading at 2:30 AM more than once.)
All in all, it’s a really satisfying way to wrap up a series of books which follows the lives of some very likeable, interesting characters. I, for one, am particularly partial to Clementine, Grady’s compatriot country singer–she’s been by turns vain, compassionate, weird, complex and interesting in this and past books, and I want to be her friend. On the whole, these characters are not, by any means, perfect, but they are all people you root for despite that (or maybe because of it).
September 7, 2017
Now Available: “The Rules and Regulations for Mediating Myths & Magic” by F.T. Lukens
“Creatures, comedy, and coming out: check.” — Kirkus Reviews
Desperate to pay for college, Bridger Whitt is willing to overlook the peculiarities of his new job—entering via the roof, the weird stacks of old books and even older scrolls, the seemingly incorporeal voices he hears from time to time—but it’s pretty hard to ignore being pulled under Lake Michigan by… mermaids? Worse yet, this happens in front of his new crush, Leo, the dreamy football star who just moved to town.
Fantastic.
When he discovers his eccentric employer Pavel Chudinov is an intermediary between the human world and its myths, Bridger is plunged into a world of pixies, werewolves, and Sasquatch. The realm of myths and magic is growing increasingly unstable, and it is up to Bridger to ascertain the cause of the chaos, eliminate the problem, and help his boss keep the real world from finding the world of myths.
Price: $16.99 print / $6.99 multi-format ebook
Details: Trade paperback, 5.25"x8”
Pages/Words: 304 // 72,500
ISBN: 978-1-945053-24-5 print // 978-1-945053-38-2 ebook
International: Order the print edition by November 7, 2017 from your favorite book retailer and receive free multi-format eBook by submitting a copy of your receipt to contact@interludepress.com.
Available from the IP Web Store, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Target, Smashwords, Kobo, Book Depository, Indiebound and other book retailers.
About the author:
F.T. Lukens is an author of Young Adult fiction who got her start by placing second out of ten thousand entries in a fan-community writing contest. A sci-fi enthusiast, F.T. loves Star Trek and Firefly and is a longtime member of her college’s science-fiction club. She holds degrees in Psychology and English Literature and has a love of cheesy television shows, superhero movies, and writing. F.T. lives in North Carolina with her husband, three kids, and three cats. Her first two novels in the Broken Moon series, The Star Host and Ghosts & Ashes, were published by Duet Books.
Connect with F.T. at authorftlukens.wordpress.com, on Twitter @ftlukens, and on Facebook at facebook.com/ftlukens.
Cover art by C.B. Messer.
From Duet Books, the Young Adult imprint of Interlude Press.
“I knew I had to meet you. And then after I met you,
I knew I...
“I knew I had to meet you. And then after I met you,
I knew I had to get to know you more. And after I got to know
you, I knew I had to kiss you. And after I kissed you…After I kissed you, I knew that I had to find some way to
keep kissing you for the rest of my life.”
August 30, 2017
lilahsuzanne:
lilahsuzanne:
lilahsuzanne:
lilahsuzanne:
lilahs...
It’s book tour and giveaway time!
Today I’m at The Novel Approach with a country playlist from Grady’s childhood. Be sure to stop by and enter to win a copy of Blended Notes
Back from the weekend with a stop at Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words for a new release spotlight, Blended Notes excerpt, and Rafflecopter giveaway!
At Joyfully Jay there is an exclusive excerpt from Blended Notes and a short story from a younger Grady’s pov! Plus the giveaway!
V’s Reads has a Q&A, review, and an excerpt
August 28, 2017
lilahsuzanne:
lilahsuzanne:
lilahsuzanne:
lilahsuzanne:
lilahs...
It’s book tour and giveaway time!
Today I’m at The Novel Approach with a country playlist from Grady’s childhood. Be sure to stop by and enter to win a copy of Blended Notes
Back from the weekend with a stop at Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words for a new release spotlight, Blended Notes excerpt, and Rafflecopter giveaway!
At Joyfully Jay there is an exclusive excerpt from Blended Notes and a short story from a younger Grady’s pov! Plus the giveaway!
V’s Reads has a Q&A, review, and an excerpt
August 25, 2017
lilahsuzanne:
lilahsuzanne:
lilahsuzanne:
lilahsuzanne:
It’s...
It’s book tour and giveaway time!
Today I’m at The Novel Approach with a country playlist from Grady’s childhood. Be sure to stop by and enter to win a copy of Blended Notes
Back from the weekend with a stop at Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words for a new release spotlight, Blended Notes excerpt, and Rafflecopter giveaway!
At Joyfully Jay there is an exclusive excerpt from Blended Notes and a short story from a younger Grady’s pov! Plus the giveaway!
V’s Reads has a Q&A, review, and an excerpt
August 24, 2017
lilahsuzanne:
lilahsuzanne:
lilahsuzanne:
It’s book tour and...
It’s book tour and giveaway time!
Today I’m at The Novel Approach with a country playlist from Grady’s childhood. Be sure to stop by and enter to win a copy of Blended Notes
Back from the weekend with a stop at Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words for a new release spotlight, Blended Notes excerpt, and Rafflecopter giveaway!
At Joyfully Jay there is an exclusive excerpt from Blended Notes and a short story from a younger Grady’s pov! Plus the giveaway!
V’s Reads has a Q&A, review, and an excerpt
August 23, 2017
This Book Will Be Your Jam - My Review of Lilah Suzanne’s Blended Notes (Spotlight Series)
I was a big fan of the first two volumes of the series, and I returned to Nico and Grady like one reunites with old friends.
I loved the pace of the story, I ached with Grady and his pain, his grief, his hesitation about even grieving in the first place, his need to please, but most importantly, I basked in one of this character’s absolute attribute: his ability to Love.
For me, the two main themes of the book, what draws me in no matter what in Suzanne’s style, are Love–the different faces it can take–and Grief–the different faces it can take.
There is no black and white in Lilah Suzanne’s stories–everything is nuanced, and bittersweet at time, balanced in a very “real” way.
Blended Notes is a beautiful Coda to this series, but I am a little bit sorry to say goodbye to the whole gang *sigh*.
A quick shoutout to the cover’s designer for once again creating an eye-catching cover (I see what you did, @cbmesser but I won’t spoil anything ;))
You can purchase the whole series at @interludepress (over here), Amazon and other booksellers ^^
PS : If by some extraordinary chance you haven’t started this series yet (I almost envy you because that means being able to read the three opi in one go), the first volume is not only on sale but an Amazon bookseller!!!!
