P.J. Fox's Blog, page 29

Just In Time For Halloween

This collection of novellas represents some of my best (and scariest) work.  I’m really excited for it to come out, and just in time for Halloween!  Stay tuned for a exact release date, but know that it’s coming, and soon.  There’s a lot here for existing fans of my work, and for new fans as well; particularly those fans, who prefer straight-up horror without too much of a romantic element.  The blurb appears below.

In this brilliant collection of five separate novellas, P.J. Fox takes you into the heart of a Hell that only she could imagine…

Each of the five stories in I, Demon each examines a different kind of demon and, with it, a different form of evil. A Thousand and One Nights tells the tale of a girl forgotten, and of the evil that lurks all around us. That, sometimes, appears right under our noses. But that we, in our rush to cross one more thing off that never ending to do list, ignore. Or never perceive at all. Vampire Winter is about more than possession; it’s the story of how a man turns into a monster. The Prisoner reminds us that depravity needs no supernatural element. Paranoia tells the story of a boy who cried wolf just one too many times…so that when a real wolf came knocking on his door in the dead of night, no one believed him. And finally, The Assassin illustrates that sometimes the worst evil is the most mundane. A “good” man is often more evil than a stone cold killer ever could be. When, at least, we have the courage to see the world as it is—rather than as we’d choose to imagine.

Enter, if you dare….

 

How Much Sex Is Too Much?

It’s an increasingly blurry line, between romance and erotica.  The “rules” about sex in books are changing, have changed, much like the rules for books themselves.  Expectations about length, genre, and even readership are less and less dictated by publishers’ beliefs and more and more by readers’ actual desires.  Which is a good thing; with greater accessibility to readers has come greater accessibility for authors.

Nevertheless, the problem remains: how much sex?

I’ve stated before that I don’t write erotica.  Or at least don’t think of myself as writing erotica.  And those of my readers who skip pages and pages of my books, looking for the “interesting” bits would probably agree that my books contain too much plot to qualify.  But the project I’m writing now has a lot of sex.  Is about sex–or at least, relationships–in the attenuated sense.  Still, I thought of it as romance.  If a dark and twisted romance.  And then a colleague asked, is this erotica?

I don’t know, I said; I don’t know if there’s enough sex.

And I don’t!  That’s the funny part.  What’s the ratio of sex to plot, for an erotic novel?  How much sex is too much sex for a romance novel, and too little for an erotic novel?  Is there truly such a thing as an erotic romance?  Aren’t all romances, by their very nature, erotic?

Or is it the type of sex, which is dispositive?

Does writing about whips and chains place one squarely within the realm of erotica, simply because whips and chains aren’t part of the Harlequin catalogue?  Does the traditional romance involve a traditional happily ever after?  Conversely, how much plot is erotica supposed to have?  Do readers of erotica even want plot?

Thoughts, world?

When Your Book Doesn’t Sell

There’s no easy answer to the question: why isn’t my book selling?

And there’s no easy way to overcome the depression.

So much of so-called “writing” advice is really sales advice: how to sell books, and who to sell them to, and what to do if your books aren’t selling.  But there’s almost no advice on how to cope with the psychological aspects of rejection.  The truth is, there’s no way to predict sales–and no way to hedge your bets, either.  Lots of terrible books sell.  Or, rather, “terrible” by some lights.  And lots of wonderful books don’t sell.  Some books become overnight bestsellers; some, like The Da Vinci Code, wait on the shelves for years before they’re discovered.  It’s a strange alchemy.

All you can do is write a good book.  Write a good book, and hope that it sells.  But the hard truth is that you may write a wonderful book and it may never sell.  It may never be discovered.  The advice I give in (the forthcoming) Self Publishing Is For Losers: The Evil Toad Press Guide to Self Publishing is to keep writing.  This book might not be “the book,” but your next one might be.  Even so, there’s another side to this advice–which is that you need to reevaluate why you’re writing in the first place.  Are you doing this specifically to make money, or are you doing this to tell a story?  There are lots of (entirely legitimate) ways to make a living writing or, alternately, in a writing-related field.  Everything from freelance journalism to editing.  But novels are a different beast entirely.  You’re putting yourself out there in a very literal way, letting people look inside your head as you furnish, for their consumption, a totally unsolicited (and possibly unwanted) story.

Which is part of what makes rejection so hurtful.  Listen, I’ve gotten plenty of bad reviews and they’re not fun.  These people aren’t trying to attack me.  They don’t know me; they don’t care about me.  I’m someone who, if I exist for them at all, exist as a theoretical construct.  Surely, there must be someone behind the computer.  Yeah.  But what they’re rejecting, even if they don’t mean it to be me, is me.  This story is me.  It’s me, my story, and they hate it!  The Price of Desire got terrible reviews, and considering that it’s–in the abstract sense, at least–largely autobiographical that was tough to take.  It’s no fun, having a heroine based on yourself derided as stupid, vapid and useless.

Some days I sell five hundred books; some days I sell two.  The easy answer is “write for yourself, not other people” or “just write another book,” but it’s hard to “write for yourself” when you have a family to support and “just write another book” becomes almost impossible when you’re too depressed over your own failure to function.  And yes, publishing a book and then selling five copies over three months is a failure.

No one wants to hear that.  No one wants to use the word “failure,” except in reference to other people.  Or they take the easy way out and say candy ass things like, “success is in the definition.”  As though there’s a writer in the world who’d legitimately be proud of selling no books.  Or, somehow even worse, one book–to their grandmother.  And yes, it’s all very warm and comforting to say, “success is having published a book!”  And that’s true, certainly.  But when you feel like you’re staring down your lifelong dream, and watching it slowly evaporate, it’s also not enough.

“Oh, I published a book, that should be my success” is really just another way of saying, “I’m going to reframe my failure so it doesn’t bother me.”

It’s okay to be discouraged.  Yes, sometimes people fail.  I’ve failed.  I’ve been fired from jobs, I’ve had friends turn on me.  Sometimes because I picked the wrong friend and sometimes because they did.  I’ve let people down.  There’s nothing shameful about failure.  Failure is a part of life.  But as Zig Ziglar said, failure is an event, not a person.  So when you fail, you have a choice: to become comfortable with your failure, defining and redefining it until you can live with it, or to chose not to live with it.  To acknowledge that you’ve failed and move on.

So what if you haven’t written a bestseller?  Keep writing.  Your book may find its audience two years from now, like Dan Brown’s did.  Or it may never find its audience.  Your success with this book is not the measure of your success with all books.  J.K. Rowling has written a couple of busters, too.  Most authors have.  Um, Duma Key wasn’t Stephen King’s best work–and his first novel wasn’t that successful, either.

There’s no courage in hindsight.  King’s struggles, alone in his trailer with the power turned off, or Rowling’s, writing while on the dole, seem courageous now.  Because, you know, millions.  But reimagining their histories into such sunny fantasies overlooks the fact that they despaired.  That people made fun of them.  Called them stupid, useless and lazy.  That they came close to giving up, many times.

The courage comes in keeping going when you can’t see the end of the road.

Each book, each day at the office, isn’t the end of the road.  As, say, an IT professional you know this.  But if you’re an author, you’ve probably spent your whole life dreaming of the day you finally got published.  A day that seemed as unimaginable as the world on the other side of the wardrobe while you were submitting to agents, wrangling with editors, and making corrections by the light of your computer screen after everyone else in the house had gone to bed.  So yeah, when you finally reach that point of finally publishing and fireworks don’t go off, it’s bound to be disappointing.

But the fact that your first day at the office sucked doesn’t mean that now, therefore, your dream is dead.

In a sense, even when your first book does sell well, you’re still in for a letdown.  My books did fairly okay right off the bat, although it took them awhile to really catch on (and they’ve had their ups and downs since then), but I was still depressed.  I’ve heard other women talk about similar feelings post-wedding, or post-baby.  This sense of…now what?  The dream has been achieved, the goal has been met, and yet nobody cares.  The attendant at the gas station is still rude.  The electric bill is still due.  The earth is still turning.  Now what?

That “now what” turns out to be, go live the rest of your life can be incredibly discouraging–and also, quite frankly, impossible to handle.  Because for writers in particular there’s really no guidance about “now what.”  There are no websites like “The Nest” for post-debut writers, no guides for what to do after you get published.  There’s just…now go be a writer, and figure out how.  On your own.  While simultaneously juggling all your own shit and all your relatives’ expectations.  And all those intrusive comments from friends about, hey, what is your financial situation exactly?

The first step to overcoming this problem is recognizing that it is a problem.  There simply aren’t enough writers who stick with it for there to be much in the way of mentorship.  Most of us fail to be bestsellers within our first week of publication and give up.  Or our publishers drop us.  Or we realize that we only had one book in us to begin with.  Or, quite frankly, there wasn’t enough help available–no one to go to for advice, and no safety net.

The second step is to reach out.  Ask for help.  Tell people how you’re feeling.  They don’t have to be fellow writers.  Getting up every morning and being a pediatric oncologist is no joke.  And neither, quite frankly, is digging a ditch.  One of my siblings works in retail and one is a chef, and they both have really soul-sucking stories of torment, as far as how other people treat them.  Think writing is hard?  Try waiting on people who think you’re less than human.  People don’t have to share your job, or specific life experience, to share your struggle.  Or to listen, or to help you when you need help.

And yes–for me, at least–the final step is to keep writing.  Tell the stories you need to tell.  Recognize that your first book isn’t your only book and that that sense of wonder you felt when you dreamed of finally being a published author hasn’t really gone anywhere.  It’s still there, buried down deep beneath layers of expectation.  About how things are “supposed” to be.  You can recapture that magic again.  By writing.

And remember: your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.

Writing in the Age of Distraction

Originally posted on Evil Toad Press:

All modern writers face the persistent distraction of the media culture, through social media, email, and every other facet of the digital age.  How do the pros keep themselves on track?  Most of the time, there’s no real secret: it always comes down to hard work, determination, and will power.  But occasionally, giving in to that urge to connect–much like allowing yourself a rewarding

“It doesn’t matter what social media you’re plugged into, or what’s going on,” counters Neil Gaiman. “At the end of the day, it’s still always going to be you and a blank sheet of paper, or you and a blank screen. My process as a creator is always the same. You write the thing you want to read. And you go on from there.”

…

“I have 2 million Twitter followers,” he says, “ but those 2 million followers are not going to do…

View original 288 more words

How To Succeed As An Author

The following is an excerpt from Self Publishing Is For Losers: The Evil Toad Press Guide To Self Publishing.

Chapter Nineteen

Selling Yourself

And I don’t mean on the street corner.

Although realistically, being in business for yourself can feel a lot like that sometimes. It’s scary. You’re in a very vulnerable position, trying to convince the world that you’ve got something they want. And others, in return, aren’t always very respectful of you or what you’re trying to accomplish. But as Bruce Lee observed, “the successful warrior is the average man, with laser-like focus.” In other words, you have to make succeeding at this dream your everything. Eat writing. Dream writing. Think about writing while you’re walking your dog. Don’t ever let your goal out of your sight, even for a moment.

The first step toward achieving this—and, resultantly, achieving success—is selling yourself to yourself. Be your own first and most important convert. Practice telling yourself, and the world, that you are a writer.

Everyone else will treat you exactly as well as you treat you. Professionally, and in every other arena of your life. You set the standard for others to follow. You and no one else. If you don’t take yourself seriously, then nobody else will, either. If you’re not generous with your time and talents, then you can’t expect generosity from others in return. Taking responsibility for yourself, and your life, means putting the energy into the world that you wish to receive back from the world. It means deciding what you stand for, and then standing for those things all the time.

If you take yourself seriously as a writer, then so will other people.

Taking yourself seriously does not mean posturing, or being a bloviating blowhard.

It means, first, acting courteous with other writers, because you’re a professional and so are they. Speak to them pleasantly. Congratulate them on their successes. Help them publicize their books, by doing thoughtful things like re-tweeting their tweets or giving them a little free publicity on your website. Recognize that these aren’t your competitors, they’re your colleagues. There’s enough success to go around, and your chances for success are greatly optimized if you’re well liked by those around you.

Second, don’t insult people on Twitter. This might seem like a no-brainer, but its not. I’ve had other writers ask me for advice, and then criticize me when my advice wasn’t what they wanted to hear. I’ve also seen this happen to other writers. Frequently, actually. And, let me tell you, I didn’t like junior high the first time around. Can the attitude, and never say anything to someone online that you wouldn’t say to their face.

Whatever rules for polite conduct would apply in a boardroom, or at a business lunch, should apply to all interactions. The impressions you make online are just as valid, and just as lasting, as the impressions you make in person. Things like, well there’s a character limit are no excuse. You can be polite, or rude, in 140 characters—or in five paragraphs.

No, writing isn’t a popularity contest, but you should do your best to give people a reason to want to see you succeed. The fact that you want to sell a lot of books isn’t enough. People are not going to be inclined to help you, if you make them feel bad about themselves. Whereas a little generosity can go a long way. People, when they think well of you, are much more likely to do things like tell other people about your book. Or give you a guest post on their popular blog. Or give you advice about how they’ve achieved success.

Conversely, alienate people and you’re going to end up reinventing the wheel over and over again because you have no one to ask for advice and no one to commiserate with when things go wrong.

Third, do not insult people via email.

You can’t both expect people to treat you like a professional, and act like you’re in junior high. Deciding that you’re going to be a writer now is not a way to get out of having to do things like learn proper grammar, or make an effort to learn to communicate effectively via the written word. And as obvious as this point should be, it’s not! Anyone who holds themselves out as a writer should be interested in effective communication. Which is what writing is, after all, at its core.

When people send me rude, insulting, or mistake-riddled emails, the impression they create is of someone who doesn’t care. Which leaves me perplexed about why, exactly, they’re trying to be writers in the first place? For your manuscript to do its job, every word has to be perfect. A romance needs to communicate that yearning for the lovers to finally unite; horror needs to communicate those “I’m afraid to use the bathroom now” willies. Writing is, ultimately, about creating an intimate relationship with another person—your reader. Anyone who’s too genuinely disinterested in others to even care if their emails, say, are hurtful should consider why they’re writing in the first place.

I personally am repelled by the mercenary attitude I see from so many would-be bestsellers: that nothing matters but them, that the quality of their book doesn’t even matter, that what their readers think doesn’t matter, that other industry professionals are completely irrelevant and they’re just in this to make a quick buck. This is, apart from a terrible attitude to have about your own life, not the way to succeed. People either adopt this attitude, or let themselves off the hook about having this attitude, because they believe that it’s helping them somehow. That “successful” is just shorthand for “narcissistic, bloviating jackwagon.” Which it isn’t. Which is why everyone from Dale Carnegie to Stephen R. Covey emphasizes the importance of treating other people with dignity and respect.

There’s a vital link between success and character. As Mr. Covey explains, “we are the creative force of our live, and through our own decisions rather than our conditions, if we carefully learn to do certain things, we can accomplish those goals.” By “certain things,” he’s referring not to pulling all nighters or stomping on the little guy to get to the top, but on living a life that already reflects your success. Your success as a human being. Remember, yours should be an abundance mentality: every day should begin with an affirmative recognition of the fact that your success flows from you.

Fourth, don’t lambaste people, because they post unwelcome reviews.

An author I used to read did this to me, years ago. I wrote a review that she didn’t like. In particular, she took issue with my characterization of one of her characters and absolutely lit into me via email. My review was a professional review, for a reputable publication. I wasn’t attacking this woman personally, I was just doing my job. Her reply left a very sour taste in my mouth, and I stopped reading her books. Not out of spite, but because I just didn’t want to feel a connection with someone who’d behaved so wildly inappropriately. She hadn’t treated me like a fellow human being.

Fifth, don’t ask other authors invasive questions. Don’t bully them for answers to those questions. For example, don’t ask someone you barely know, over and over again, how many books they’ve sold. If they’re welcoming this discussion, for example on Twitter or via a blog, then that’s one thing. But “this random person is messaging me out of the blue to grill me about my tax return” is a common tale among writers.

Even so, try to be conscientious about maintaining a sense of humor. Because, sixth, this is not the time to go on the warpath. Don’t criticize your fans and don’t criticize other authors—however famous or infamous they may be.

Some writers erroneously believe that putting others down makes them look smart. If I had a dollar for every time I heard some completely unknown writer heaping invective on Stephenie Meyer for her supposedly terrible prose, then I could send my son to Harvard.

This does not make me think, wow, this other writer is super brilliant. Rather, it makes me think, wow, this other writer is super insecure. The need to attack others is a mark of insecurity. Moreover, in this particular case, it’s also a mark of ignorance. Stephenie Meyer is more successful than you. She’s doing something right. Rather than attacking her, you should be doing your best to learn from her. Tens of millions of people the world over love her characters. She has, using those same words that so many people are fond of criticizing, created characters that are that loveable. Ergo, her prose is not terrible.

Don’t try to prove how awesome you are by tearing everybody else down; prove how awesome you are by writing an awesome book, and then sharing it with the world.

Finally, don’t brag.

As Henry Ford said, “a business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.” If you need to brag about the size of your wallet, then do so to the mirror. Or, better yet, if your wallet is really that cumbersome to you, then consider donating a goodly portion of its contents to charity. There are children with cancer who don’t give a fig about your earnings, and nobody ever saw a hearse being trailed by a Brinks truck. And I, for one, am sick of people taking to Twitter to brag about things that don’t actually matter.

Yes, money is great. I grew up without any; I should know. But, speaking as someone who didn’t get a visit from Santa until she was seventeen and who now drives a BMW, I can tell you that it’s not the be-all and end-all. Money can make your life easier, but it can’t make you happier. And it can’t replace the true wealth of meaningful human relationships.

So why am I lecturing you on all this?

Because in business, as in life, your reputation is your biggest asset. And every time you interact with another human being, you’re either building up or chipping away at that reputation. Regardless of your chosen career path, your goal should be wake up every morning and do your damn best to make sure that your reputation is one of honesty, integrity, and decency. That you’re known for being pleasant, courteous, and polite. That you don’t steal others’ ideas, or try to undermine them. That you’re the kind of person, whom others want to help succeed.

How you treat other people, especially people who aren’t in a position to directly benefit you at the current moment, defines your character. And your character, or what portions of your character you choose to exhibit, is part of your professional reputation. The most successful people in any field are invariably also the most well liked. Not because we live in a world that chooses personality over talent, but because of all the talented people out there, the ones who distinguish themselves from the other, equally talented people are the ones who do so by being class acts. People like to work with people whom they like. Whom they admire, and respect. However talented you are, however wonderful your writing is, no one is going to give you the time of day if you’re also an A-1 bully.

And why should they, when there are so many other, equally—or more—talented writers out there, whom they actually want to see succeed?

Much of the time, aspiring writers put the cart before the horse in terms of ordering expensive business cards, and doing all kinds of other things to promote themselves, before they’ve really spent any time thinking about what it is they’re trying to promote. If they ever do. And business cards are great, but they can’t do a whole lot for you if every time you talk to people you end up alienating them.

I think one reason that so many writers come cross as hideously unpleasant individuals is because they’re insecure. Particularly if they’re self published. They aren’t quite certain, in their own minds, that they’re legitimate and so they’re not really certain of how to convince anyone else that they are. And so they’re at best aloof, and at worst downright rude.

One means of overcoming this is to practice explaining why you’re self published, using positive terms and avoiding self deprecation. Remember that you are already successful, by choosing to pursue your own goals and dreams when so many in this world do not. You have courage; you’re a trailblazer. And your success flows from you. People can’t steal your success, by asking the “wrong” questions; they can’t make you feel bad about yourself, unless you let them. Your success is determined, not by how other people see you, but by how you see yourself.

Thus, your focus should be, not on trying to control how others see you but on changing how you see yourself.

You have to believe that your choices are legitimate, before anyone else will.

People will ask you: how are you published? Why are you self published? Isn’t that kind of a dumb choice? If they’ve heard things, positive or negative, about self publishing then they’ll probably share those too. They don’t mean anything by it; not everyone is a trained negotiator and no one should ever be held responsible for the failings of your ego.

Don’t snap at them because they said something that upset you. Chances are, their intention wasn’t to upset you. And even if it was, then so what? You’ve just learned something about them, and how valuable their viewpoint really is. Prepare, beforehand, for these questions by coming up with decent answers. Practice having these conversations with a spouse, or with a friend, who can role play the “difficult customer.” Then you won’t be caught flat-footed, won’t accidentally say something hateful because you’re flustered—and, most importantly, won’t miss an opportunity to promote your work by talking positively about it!

The most important thing you can do, in these conversations, is frame your decision in positive terms.

You didn’t self publish because Random House didn’t want your book; rather, you weren’t interested in selling your book to Random House. Even if the truth is that you submitted 82,000 different query letters to varying agents and publishing houses, and they all told you to take a hike, it’s okay to leave that part out. You don’t owe anyone the blow-by-blow account of all your failures. It’s just as honest, and a lot more sensible, to focus on your successes. And to stress that, for you, self publishing wasn’t a choice, or the only choice. It was, for reasons you can then go on to describe, if the other person is interested in learning more, the right choice for you—regardless of the other choices available.

Don’t see people’s questions as an attack on your choices but, rather, as an opportunity to educate them. Don’t lecture them, of course, but do answer questions firmly and politely. Realize that people are probably only trying to show an interest. But people are imperfect, and often awkward. Just like me, and just like you. The firmer you are in your own convictions, and the better able you are to articulate them, the less threatened their curiosity—or even outright disbelief—will make you feel and the more you’ll be able to remember this. And act accordingly.

Offers of Representation

It’s amazing how, since The Demon of Darkling Reach hit #1 in the UK (however briefly), the offers of representation have been pouring in.  More than one literary agency has rushed, a year–or more–after the fact, to assure me that they had meant to offer me representation.  That they’d loved my project from the beginning, but it had somehow “fallen through the cracks.”  And would I be interested in representation now?

To them I say:

Because, you know, it was the same book a year ago.

Of course they want to represent me now.  Now that I’ve proved myself capable of selling a few books, they want to cash in on my success.  And I think there are authors out there who’d be so thrilled with offers of traditional literary representation that they’d agree.  Which is unfortunate, because what I’ve proved here is that I didn’t need an agent in the first place.  I got to this point without one; what can an agent offer me now?  I’m an attorney; I’ve negotiated my own contracts just fine.  And clearly, I’ve sold books just fine.

Moreover, I’m not interested in working with people who don’t believe in me.  It really was the same book; if you saw that query letter, and were too lazy to get back to me, then you and I don’t have a compatible work ethic.  And if you saw that manuscript, and thought “this has no commercial potential,” then you have bad business sense.  And if you’re the kind of person who lurks in the background, never taking any risks, but only attaching yourself to people who’ve already achieved success, then you’re a gold digger.

Don’t get me wrong–the interest is flattering.  But it’s not interest in me.  It was just me a year ago, two years ago, trying to get someone to take an interest.  Back when people had nothing to judge me on, except the strength of my writing.  But it’s like Toby Keith sings, how do you like me now?  It’s your loss for not believing in me, back when I needed someone to believe in me.  And I would tell the same thing to any other aspiring authors out there: take your life, and your success, into your own hands.  Don’t be like the fool in the Kafka story, Before the Law.  You are your own gatekeeper.  Don’t let people who don’t know you and don’t care about you hold you back, thinking you somehow need to earn something from them before you can press forward.  The only person–the only person–who can determine that is you.

And yes, sometimes that means people get left in the dust.  It’s their loss.  They didn’t feel beholden to you back when even ten minutes of their sustained interest could have made a real difference in your life; don’t feel beholden to them now, that they’re sniffing around looking for opportunities.  For them.

The ironic part is that had I gone the traditional route, I wouldn’t have the catalogue now that I do.  I have four books out currently and, if all goes according to plan, will have three more out by the end of this fall.  After which point I’ll hopefully publish my mystery project in the winter, and then start writing The Black Prince.  Had I gone the traditional route, I might have The Demon of Darkling Reach.  You wouldn’t have seen The White Queen yet, or maybe even at all.  And who knows what changes I would have been forced to make, thus transforming it into a completely different book–a clone of some other book that had achieved some minor success, because traditional publishing has very rigid ideas about “what sells.”  Unless and until, of course, some maverick comes along and–somehow–manages to publish something different.  Then that, in of itself, starts a new genre of spin-offs.  Case in point being The Da Vinci Code.  Religious thrillers were not a thing ten years ago.

So my traditional publishing fan club, who now wants the goose, are the same people who would have killed the goose.  Who some of them, despite protestations of having “missed” me in the pile, actually did write back to me and tell me that my work wasn’t salable.  That I wouldn’t, indeed, sell a single copy, that my manuscript was junk.

Nothing succeeds like success is one takeaway, here, but I think the better takeaway is that you never lose by taking the risk of being yourself.

Coming Soon To A Bookstore Near You…

In the chute right now we have:

I, Demon

In this brilliant collection of five separate novellas, P.J. Fox takes you into the heart of a Hell that only she could imagine…

 Each of the five stories in I, Demon each examines a different kind of demon and, with it, a different form of evil. A Thousand and One Nights tells the tale of a girl forgotten, and of the evil that lurks all around us. That, sometimes, appears right under our noses. But that we, in our rush to cross one more thing off that never ending to do list, ignore. Or never perceive at all. Vampire Winter is about more than possession; it’s the story of how a man turns into a monster. The Prisoner reminds us that depravity needs no supernatural element. Paranoia tells the story of a boy who cried wolf just one too many times…so that when a real wolf came knocking on his door in the dead of night, no one believed him. And finally, The Assassin illustrates that sometimes the worst evil is the most mundane. A “good” man is often more evil than a stone cold killer ever could be. When, at least, we have the courage to see the world as it is—rather than as we’d choose to imagine.

 Enter, if you dare….

A Dictionary of Fools

Here is the second volume in The House of Light and Shadow, the magnificent cycle of novels that begins with The Price of Desire and tells the story of Kisten Mara Sant, the naval commander and prince who must face life in exile.

When he was given governorship of Tarsonis, the war-torn mining outpost on the edge of nowhere, Kisten was given a virtual death sentence. Tensions have been mounting since his arrival, and his new home now rests on the brink of disaster. The Brotherhood, the Tarsoni group opposed to Alliance rule, is fomenting rebellion. A rebellion that plans the death of every Alliance-born man, woman and child on the planet. An insidious infection that reaches from the lowest of the low to the highest echelons of power. Kisten himself risks losing his governorship, his life, and the life of his young wife. A girl-turned-woman, who continues to wrestle with her own demons. He must act, before it’s too late—all while hiding a secret that, if discovered, could tear him and Aria apart.

This is a tale of love, lust, degradation, and the horror that is war.

Self Publishing Is For Losers!  

The Evil Toad Press Guide to Self Publishing

Do you dream of making a living as a writer?

Great! Because The Evil Toad Press Guide To Self Publishing is your blueprint for how to do exactly that.

There are a lot of books out there, which teach you how to format your e-book, or get the most out of this month’s popular print on demand platform. Or which promise immediate sales, using gimmicky and often dishonest tactics. But this is the only book, which lays out, step by step, how to transform your fantasies of a writer’s life into the real deal. How to actually make a meaningful living, over the long term, from the fruits of your artistic labors. From understanding the nuances of the publishing process to marketing your book—successfully, and for free—to developing a business plan that will actually work for you, rather than against you, this is the advice you need when you’re ready for the next step. When you’re ready, not just to publish a book but to embark on a new career.

Success in this—or any—field takes hard work. And it isn’t automatic. You need a good book, a solid work ethic, and the willpower to translate that solid work ethic into more good books. But if you’re ready to work hard, and to take some, at times, hard advice, then you’re ready for The Evil Toad Press Guide To Self Publishing.

From the Author:

I Look Like This Because I’m A Writer, this guide’s companion volume, teaches you how to craft a story that will captivate your readers. From generating ideas to finding your authentic voice to crafting genuine-sounding dialogue, it takes you from blank page to finished manuscript. The Evil Toad Press Guide To Self Publishing is what takes you from finished manuscript to royalty payments that can actually cover your electric bill.

As most successful writers will tell you, writing the book is the easy part.

Being in business for yourself is what’s hard. But as an author, particularly as an indie author, you are. Your books are your business; your goals for when and how to publish them, your business plan. Most of us hear the word “business” and want to go running; we aren’t, after all, writing books because we love to crunch numbers. But the truth is that even if you’re making a living off of your creativity you still have to make a living—and that means mastering the business side of life. The good news, though, is that doing so doesn’t have to be a soul-sucking exercise in pain. It can be liberating, and wonderful, and fun.

Keep reading, and I’ll prove it to you.

Thoughts, world?

New Book News!

I have a book of short stories coming out!

Well, really novellas.  The novella is, in my opinion, sort of a lost art form.  Many what were considered full length books in their time would be novellas today; Fahrenheit 451 (46,118 words), A Separate Peace (56,787 words), and The Great Gatsby (47,094 words) would all be considered novellas by today’s standards.  Whereas, putting things in perspective, The Hunger Games books all top out at well over 100,000 words–and that’s for YA.  In this time of run on books (including my own) it’s nice, and I think important, to remember that good storytelling doesn’t have to be long winded.

You can and should be able to tell a complete and compelling story in 30,000 words or less.

I’ll post release dates when I have them but, in the meantime, the introduction reads as follows…

Douglas Coupland once observed that “if human beings had genuine courage, they’d wear their costumes every day of the year, not just on Halloween.” He’s right; we all wear masks. The most frightening mask of all is the one that tells the world, I’m a normal person.

For most of us, the illusion—or delusion, if you prefer—is harmless. We go about our daily business, honestly intending to do good. And, for the most part, we do. Our masks, the masks that hide our sickest fantasies, serve a functional purpose. They’re what allow us to survive in this so-called real world. But for some of us, the mask serves a more sinister purpose: allowing us to move, unseen and undetected, like wolves among sheep.

Most people want to believe in the inherent goodness of the world. However jaded they may become, or pretend to be, at heart they hope. Predators take advantage of that hope, that willingness to believe; often with terribly destructive consequences and never with regret. With the years come experience, experience a sociopath uses to refine his (or her) mask. He plays others’ expectations as adroitly as a first chair violinist pulls notes from his instrument, manipulating them to his own ends and for his own reasons.

Their belief—their hope—is nothing to him.

Halloween is magical for precisely the same reason that horror itself is magical: because it frees us from the bounds of our normal life and, in so doing, unfetters our imaginations. By pretending to be someone, or something else, by losing ourselves, however briefly, in the realm of the magical, we confront some hidden truth of our own yearning. We become, not less, but more ourselves.

Unfortunately, though, evil isn’t relegated to the realm of the mystic.

There are demons, real demons, all around us.

The five stories in I, Demon each examine a different kind of demon and, with it, a different form of evil. From the supernatural to the mundane, they represent both the best and the worst that human—and superhuman—nature has to offer. But they’re all chilling.

A Thousand and One Nights tells the tale of a girl whose forgotten, and of the evil that lurks all around us. That, sometimes, appears right under our noses. But that we, in our rush to cross one more thing off that never ending to do list, ignore. Or never perceive at all.

Vampire Winter is about more than possession; it’s the story of how a man turns into a monster.

The Prisoner reminds us that depravity needs no supernatural element.

Paranoia tells the story of a boy who cried wolf just one too many times…so that when a real wolf came knocking on his door in the dead of night, no one believed him.

And finally, The Assassin illustrates that sometimes the worst evil is the most mundane. A “good” man is often more evil than a stone cold killer ever could be. When, at least, we have the courage to see the world as it is—rather than as we’d choose to imagine.

Perhaps it’s true that, as Mary Wollstoncraft argues, evil doesn’t really exist. “No man chooses evil because it is evil,” she once wrote, “he only mistakes it for happiness, the good that he seeks.” But I think those of us who’ve seen into the heart of darkness know different. That men do seek evil, and find joy in doing so. That evil, for many, is an end in and of itself. As intoxicating as any drug, with as much power to corrupt.

Even for those who start out seeking good, as Tristan does in Vampire Winter, are corrupted by the left hand path. Because the left hand path is corruption. From it, and its consequences, there can be no escape. Good motives, or what we choose to believe are good motives, are no protection. Neither is ignorance, as Belle discovers in A Thousand and One Nights.

To her sorrow.

So come join with me, if you dare, on a journey into the deepest reaches of the human psyche…to Hell and beyond….

It Might Be A Trilogy…

Normally, when I reach about 120,000 words, I’m in the home stretch.  “Home stretch” for me being, depending on the story, anywhere from the last 10,000 to the last 20,000 words.  Some denouments are quick and some…aren’t.  When I reached this point in The Demon of Darkling Reach, I thought I had about 10,000 words left and turned out to have something more in the order of 18,000.

At this point, with my stand alone project, I probably have 100,000.

Originally, I was planning on splitting the story up into two parts.  As so often happens, at least with me, I wasn’t clear on what exactly my ultimate word count would be.  I’ve mentioned this before, but I was fairly certain that The Demon of Darkling Reach itself would be a stand alone novel.  What I’d expected would take up the first couple of chapters turned out to be the entire first book.  Because, of course, the characters come alive and, as they do, the story evolves–always.  Every time.

Which is a good thing, but can also be frustrating.

So this begs the question: in terms of my current project, how long should each installment be?  How long will this story end up being?  Am I looking at three 85,000-ish volumes, two 130,000-ish volumes, or three 100,000-ish volumes?  Is it more fun to read two rather long books or three normal-sized books?  If “normal” is even a word that can be applied to a book?

Writing BDSM

I’ve just finished writing for the night; I wasn’t expecting to get any writing done today at all, as Tiny Satan is still on the mend and I actually do have quite a few other things to do.  Including address “save the date” cards for an upcoming vow renewal.  Because yes, I got married young and still feel like I won the lottery every time my husband comes into the room.  But better, because finding true love is better than winning the lottery.

Tonight, I wrote a roughly 2,700 word–for lack of a better term–pre-sex scene.  The protagonists have a powerful conversation containing a number of revelations, which is important to the plot.  I’m at the highly exciting (and also nerve-racking) stage of things building up toward a denouement.

And it occurred to me, and not for the first time, that writing about whips and chains is the easy part.  The hard part–and what I believe Fifty Shades of Grey got wrong–is the emotional aspect.  Why people do what they do, in and out of the bedroom.  Wikipedia has its limits as a research tool but, more to the point, there’s a good argument to be made that non-practitioners shouldn’t write books about BDSM.  Write what you know–and avoid speculating about what you don’t.  Especially when the “don’t” is backed by what appears, writer to writer, to be a combination of loathing and disinterest.

Particularly within the construct of a more formalized relationship, such as is often seen in BDSM, there’s very little depth in the characterization.  What actually makes these relationships work, what makes them desirable, what makes them relationships is lost in a wash of whips and chains and so-called “power exchanges.”  When in truth, the emotional and psychological power, the true power in any relationship and certainly the true binding force, is completely ignored.  Subs and Doms aren’t interchangeable; and while sex is an important part of any relationship, it would be a mistake to assume that these relationships are sex-centered–simply because the sex is conducted differently.  At least on occasion.

Your thoughts?