Loren Rhoads's Blog, page 21

5 Questions for Tyler Hayes

[image error]I met Tyler Hayes in March at FogCon, when we were on a panel together. The subject was “Things I Wish I Knew when I was a Debut Author.” After he described his first novel, I was excited to hear more about it.

Tyler Hayes is a science fiction and fantasy writer from Northern California. He writes stories he hopes will show people that not only are they not alone in this terrifying world, but we might just make things better. His fiction has appeared in anthologies from Alliteration Ink, Graveside Tales, and Aetherwatch.

Tyler is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He is represented by Lisa Abellera of Kimberley Cameron and Associates.

Tyler would also love to play Sentinels of the Multiverse with you, if you’re interested.

His synopsis of The Imaginary Corpse:

A dinosaur detective in the land of unwanted ideas battles trauma, anxiety, and the first serial killer of imaginary friends.

Most ideas fade away when we’re done with them. Some we love enough to become Real. But what about the ones we love, and walk away from?

Tippy the triceratops was once a little girl’s imaginary friend, a dinosaur detective who could help her make sense of the world. When her father died, Tippy fell into the Stillreal, the underbelly of the Imagination, where discarded ideas go when they’re too Real to disappear. Now, he passes time doing detective work for other unwanted ideas – until Tippy runs into The Man in the Coat, a nightmare monster who can do the impossible: kill an idea permanently. Now Tippy must overcome his own trauma and solve the case, before there’s nothing left but imaginary corpses.

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Did something in the real world inspire The Imaginary Corpse?

Tippy is actually modeled after one of my childhood stuffed animals. He was a part of a running Let’s Pretend game my father and I played that we called Stuffed Animal Detectives. Tippy wasn’t the main character by any stretch, but by far his role in my life has been the most enduring. I actually still have the original Tippy — you can see pictures of him on my website.

The other major thing informing the book is trauma. I’ve got PTSD and an anxiety disorder, and in therapy, I’ve been confronting what everyday experiences have been, in essence, poisoned by my trauma, no longer fun or enjoyable because my mind links them with pain. I mixed that concept up with the concept of imaginary friends, and I thought, what happens to ideas that we cherish, but become inextricably linked with trauma and tragedy? What if the Velveteen Rabbit were loved until he became Real, just like the famous quote from the book, but then got abandoned because his owner couldn’t stand to look at him anymore?

That brought me to the idea for the Stillreal. I thought, if I’m going to talk about creatures of the imagination, why not talk about Tippy and the Stuffed Animal Detective Agency? The mix of stuffed animals of different types and shapes and aesthetics helped inform the sort of mixed-genre approach to the Stillreal. From there, it was just riding out the brainstorm to the end. 

What is your favorite scene in the book?

Fairly late in the book, there’s a segment where Tippy and his cohort of unwanted ideas have to explain the concept of the Stillreal to a new arrival, someone they’ve narrowly saved from being a victim of the serial killer who’s been hunting ideas. The new denizen of the Stillreal is, of course, having an absolute pedal-to-the-metal freakout about this, and it falls to Tippy and company to try to explain and help her calm down before she hurts herself or someone else.

I love this scene because it cuts to the heart of what the book is about: it’s not high-action, but it’s dynamic; it’s about emotions and trauma, but also about friendship and healing. At root, the solution to the problem is to be kind.

What was your writing process like as you wrote the book?

Would you believe this is the first book I ever outlined?

The skeleton of The Imaginary Corpse started during a business conference. I didn’t feel like I was getting much out of the meeting, so I started idly noodling at writing ideas. After an eight-hour day of noodling and pretending to listen to breakout sessions, I had mapped out what would become the backbone of the novel: Tippy, the Stillreal, the idea of a serial killer plot, Friends warping how Ideas look the longer they’re around each other, etc.

This book was also the first time I used what has become my standard methodology for writing my novels: brainstorm until it feels ready to go, scene map to be sure I don’t have high-level plot holes, rough draft to make it so the book exists, and then tuck in with the editing saws. That, plus how excited I was about the idea, made it possibly the easiest-flowing book I have ever written.

The hardest part was revisions, even more so than on other projects.  As a beta-reader said, this setting is full of darlings — every single character and place is something I was excited to get to write. I don’t subscribe to the theory that you have to kill your darlings as a matter of necessity, but with this book it was inevitable. Any time I had to admit a scene or a character or a setting was superfluous, it was like pulling teeth to admit they had to go.

What was the best thing that happened during your promotion of The Imaginary Corpse?

Seeing how many readers have stated, openly on social media, that The Imaginary Corpse made them cry and also made them feel comforted. That was exactly the feeling I was going for with the book — not that it was never dark or tough or painful, but that it was a safe place to have those kinds of emotions and a place where empathy is rewarded. In this world of all worlds, I feel like that makes the book a success.

What do you have planned next?

I’m currently finishing up revisions on a potential sequel to The Imaginary Corpse. I’ve also got beta-readers looking at a contemporary fantasy about professional wrestling that I wrote while The Imaginary Corpse was going through edits. I’ve started plotting and world-building for a novel that I’m pitching as Six Wakes meets Critical Role, a sort of love letter to Dungeons & Dragons that is, like Corpse and the pro wrestling novel, intended as a standalone with series potential. I haven’t planned past that, but I have a few more ideas brewing. I’m excited to see what happens next.

You can follow Tyler’s work and upcoming appearances at tyler-hayes.com

Pick up your own copy of The Imaginary Corpse on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2HmBBkJ

5 Questions for Ellie Sharrow

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My relationship with Ellie Sharrow goes a long way back.  She taught the only Creative Writing classes in my high school.  I took her class, did independent study with her, and was lucky enough to “student teach” one of her writing classes under her supervision.  She was the first adult who told me that I could become not just a writer, but an actual author.

So I was thrilled to hear that her first novel was published last year. One of the central characters is a creative writing teacher in a small town high school. I’ll let her describe it to you:

A loner misses his deceased father; an urban transplant experiences the racism of low expectations; a middle sister burns with an unlikely crush; a daughter survives years of sexual abuse; a bullied and neglected boy just wants to do something. All have access to weapons as well as the concern of adults who step up in unusual ways.

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Ellie’s bio is subversive, too:

Retired from the best job in the world, I am a grandmother and a sustainer of my NPR station.  I am a liberal who acquired a CPL (Concealed Pistol License) in the process of researching my book. It’s never too late to learn something new.                                  

Here’s our interview:

Did something in the real world inspire Subversives?

My own long teaching career was a peaceful one. The rise of school shootings, beginning with Columbine, occurred as I retired. I was horrified, of course, and then appalled as schools, including those in my small city, needed to prepare for carnage that, hopefully, would never occur. But no one could ever be sure of that, so the places where young people had felt the most safe were “hardened” with increased security and limited access and security cameras, metal detectors and active shooter drills. These measures make children feel very unsafe, ironically. My own experience told me that while these precautions might assure parents that something was being done, old-fashioned low-tech measures are more effective at identifying students most likely to bring their rage to the classroom along with their backpack.  

I have always known that good teaching is a subversive activity, developing non-cognitive life skills of empathy, critical thinking, confidence, and responsibility, which are far more valuable than memorization of facts and acquisition of employment skills.  Relationships nurturing this growth occur in the classroom and the hallways and also out in a community, where caring adults interact with youngsters. 

What is your favorite scene in the book?

Once a week John and Joey go to the gun range after school to learn how to shoot. This would appear to be inappropriate for the prevention of gun violence, but look at it from a different angle. John really misses his dead father, who had been a regular at the gun range and whose collection of handguns is a part of his legacy. The range is where John feels close to his dad and Chuck, the range owner, steps up to fill the void in the teen’s life. Joey is younger than John. Gloria, his negligent mom, signed her permission for Joey to be taught to shoot when she learns that the instructor would be her own sixth grade teacher, whom she thought would be a good influence on her bullied boy to “man up.” 

Joey’s mom had run off. Gloria was gone for weeks, abandoning her son to look after himself. My favorite scene is her return, showing up at the gun range to claim her child and take him home. When he resists, she grabs him to pull him into the car. Mr. Knott, firearm in hand, confronts her. 

“Stop right there.”

John witnesses the moment of high drama thinking, wow, this would be a cool scene to read for Author’s Day. 

What was your writing process like as you wrote the book?

I used a lot of post-it notes.

Deciding the time span for the story was important to its structure. A semester-long creative writing class was the hub, a device that allows the five students and their teacher to interact. The final semester of senior year, with a framework of school events culminating with Commencement, was my decision. Fitting the characters and events into the framework was my challenge. 

What was the best thing that happened during your promotion of the book?

Reconnecting with old friends has been the best part. I have also been amused by the number of readers who are certain that they appear in the book. It is true that I described real settings. The bakery, for example, and the gun shop are very familiar from the real world. And a few distinctive characters (and real subversives) are easily recognized. But, of course, this story is fiction.

What do you have planned next?

“Death in the Dog Park” is the working title of my current project. Of course, I am using another familiar setting. Taking my own two dogs to the dog park twice a day, which is only doable when one is retired, has taught me that we learn the names and backstories of the dogs long before we know the same about their owners, if ever. Comedy happens there, and drama, between the dogs and also between their owners. The dog owners share info about themselves, like seat mates on a long airplane ride, in the intimacy of strangers. Chuck, the gun guy, returns in my research. A retired detective and police chief, he brainstormed the crime for me, and then suggested I take his ideas and “turn them into poetry.” 

I reviewed Subversives on Goodreads.

You can pick up a copy in paperback or ebook from Amazon: https://amzn.to/2KYCsZN

 

Recovering from the Silicon Valley Comic Con

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Wow. I’ve never worked a 3-day stint in a dealers room before and I’d never been to a comic con, so last weekend was a real education.

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Marian & Indy

To start with, the cosplay was a whole lot more fun than I anticipated.  In addition to being a big Star Wars geek, I love My Hero Academia and any sort of clever mashup, so the Jedi Belle and Samurai Vader, as well as the Jack & Sally/Danny & Sandy couple were a blast. Watching for the next costume to come along made the time pass.

Mostly we sold copies of Tales for the Camp Fire because my tablemates were amazing at handing out copies of the new bookmark to anyone who would take them. I am such an introvert that I had a hard time flinging myself across the table at strangers, but I did manage to step up from time to time and timidly ask if I could give people a bookmark.

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Isn’t that beautiful? EM Markoff killed the design.

To be honest, I am shy enough that if people at another dealer’s table try to talk to me when I’m shopping, I avoid them. I just want to look in peace, then chat if I find something I’m curious about. Despite my hesitance to engage, I did notice that people passing our table didn’t see the Camp Fire book among the others on our rack.  Once we’d captured their attention with a bookmark, a surprising number plunked down their cash for a copy.

So I’m working on my selling persona.  It was hard just to say hi and make eye contact with everyone who walked by the table, but I am very proud of that book, which made it easy to sell if people were tempted.

[image error]My tablemates suggested we put together a 3-book sampler of each of our novels, both in paperback and on a super cute kitty thumb drive.  We sold a number of those, too.  It’s interesting that people were more likely to take a risk on a bundle of books rather than buy them individually. The bundles were totally worth doing.

I wasn’t going to take 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die to a comic con, figuring that it wouldn’t be the right audience for them, but I sold out all I brought — and could’ve sold a couple more.  Those books are really heavy to carry around, though.  I think the lesson is that there are some people who love cemeteries everywhere I go.

I was surprised the Haunted Mansion Project books I brought didn’t sell better, but I think I should have had an “out-of-print” sticker on them. I thought, since some of the guests have a ghost hunter show, I would’ve caught more people interested in ghost stories.  The next show, in October, might be a better place for them.

[image error]One of the best experiments of the weekend was talking to people about my novels.  I tried different ways of talking to people about The Dangerous Type: it was inspired by the darker elements of Star Wars. It has a badass heroine. It focuses on a bisexual poly relationship. Humans are a minority in the galaxy.  Different elements caught different people’s attention.

I think our table looked kind of busy to catch people’s eyes, so I would reorganize it next time. I would limit myself to the four books that fit on the rack and not worry about the chapbooks.  The giveaway magnets that were so popular at the Bay Area Book Festival didn’t really interest people this time, so I wouldn’t bring them again.  They are really heavy for me to carry, anyway.

The mailing list signup sheet was totally worth doing, though. I’m so glad I brought that along.

I think I’d like to make more professional price stickers than my scribbled washi tape prices. I coveted LS’s nice-looking “display copy” stickers, so I’m going to make those, too.  And someone brought a bookmark to our table that had a blank space for their booth number on the bottom of it. That seems like a great idea, too.  I handed out postcards to people who seemed interested in my books but not ready to commit — and several of them came back to the table later to buy after they’d toured the whole room — but I felt like I was relying on their memories to find me again.  I could’ve made it easier for them.

I might try to sell some of my photos next time, since we had the upright space for them. And I might want to throw a cloth over the back stock, to simplify how the table looked.

All in all, though, I am really pleased with how the weekend went.  Staying over in San Jose, even though the room was expensive, was the right choice, rather than trying to drive the hour back and forth.  I wish I’d sold more books, but considering that I had no idea what I was doing, I sold enough to have made the experiment worthwhile.

At the moment, I’m not committed to many more book-selling events in the foreseeable future, beyond Sinister Creature Con in October and the Bay Area Book Festival next year.  It was great to hang out with EM Markoff and LS Johnson for a weekend, though. I hope they’ll let me share their table again someday.

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5 Questions for E.J. Stevens

[image error]I “met” E.J. Stevens through the Occult Detective Quarterly Facebook page when she was looking for reviews of her audiobook for Frostbite: An Ivy Granger Psychic Detective Prequel Story.

E.J. Stevens is the award-winning author of the Ivy Granger, Psychic Detective urban fantasy series, the Spirit Guide young adult paranormal mystery series, the Hunters’ Guild urban fantasy series, and the Whitechapel Paranormal Society Victorian horror series. She is known for filling pages with quirky characters, magnificent monsters, and kick-butt heroines. Her novels are available worldwide in multiple languages.

Her newest book is Craven Street (Whitechapel Paranormal Society #0.5):

[image error]In this spellbinding novella, E.J. Stevens weaves a tale of murder, necromancy, and demonic possession that brings together characters from her Whitechapel Paranormal Society Victorian horror series and award-winning Ivy Granger, Psychic Detective urban fantasy series on the fog-shrouded cobblestones of Craven Street.

Much maligned by their male counterparts within the S.P.R.B., the women of the Whitechapel Paranormal Society are on their own to face a sinister dark mastermind as dismembered bodies are set across London’s East End like figures on a game board. Can they predict the killer’s next move—a bloody, ritualistic murder that might tip the scales and give demons dominion over all of London—before he strikes again?

Did something in the real world inspire Craven Street?

I grew up loving the Sherlock Holmes stories, but wishing that the supernatural elements, such as the hound in The Hound of the Baskervilles, proved to be truly paranormal. I also wished to see more female and non-binary characters solving crimes, finding happiness, and saving the world.

Set against the backdrop of pre- and post-Ripper Victorian London, the Whitechapel Paranormal Society series answers the question of how cases such as the Thames Torso Murders, Tottenham Court Road Mystery, Whitechapel Murders, Goswell Road Mystery, and the Vanishing Girls of West Ham might have been solved if put in the capable hands of a team of female special agents.

When I read an article about the bones unearthed at 36 Craven Street, believed to be the remnants of an illegal anatomy school, I knew that I’d found the perfect creepy mystery to weave together with the Barnes Mystery and the earliest Thames Torso Murders.

What is your favorite scene in the book?

I love every interaction between Cora and her team, but my favorite scene is in the first section, “Flight from the Rookery,” when Flan arrives at the bolt-hole where Cora is taking refuge from a horde of demon-possessed Whitechapel residents. The combination of danger, romantic tension, self-sacrifice, and supernatural mayhem is at a fever pitch and yet their banter always makes me laugh. It’s one of those scenes that holds all the elements I adore about this series. These are intelligent, heroic women with genuine emotions, and I will never stop cheering for their happiness.

What was your writing process like as you wrote the book?

My basic process was the same that I’ve used for all of my novels and novellas. I did preliminary research and came up with a pitch and book description. Next, I wrote the first chapter, last chapter, and an outline with the major story beats. I find it helpful to have the last chapter written in advance so that I know exactly where I’m taking my characters and to have a clear goal for where the story will end. Finally, I wrote the remaining chapters, working chronologically.

I should note that the repeated emergencies and interruptions that have occurred, and continue to arise, during the writing of this series has made more than one friend comment that these books might be cursed. I’m not sure if it’s truly something malevolent or mere coincidence, but I’ve never had so many broken bones, family emergencies, or exploding home appliances. At last count, I’ve also cracked 13 teeth and have had at least 3 laptops burst into flames.

What was the best thing that happened during your promotion of the book?

I was shocked to receive a bit of hate mail for including LGBTQA+ characters in Craven Street, but there was a rainbow-hued silver lining. For every negative email, I’ve received dozens of messages from readers thanking me for including lesbian and non-binary characters.

What do you have planned next?

I’m currently working on the next Ivy Granger, Psychic Detective novel Blood Rite, the next Whitechapel Paranormal Society book Eeper Weeper, and we’re going into production on the Craven Street audiobook. We also have two more Ivy Granger translations releasing later this summer.

Pick up your own copy of Craven Street from Amazon: https://amzn.to/2JQV7WW

Check out all of E.J.’s books: https://amzn.to/2JNVbXA

Learn more at EJStevensAuthor.com, IvyGranger.com, WhitechapelParanormal.com, and connect at @EJStevensAuthor.

Silicon Valley Comic Con – tomorrow!

[image error]Tomorrow (Friday, August 16) I’ll be down at the Silicon Valley Comic Con in San Jose, California, selling books in Artists Alley at Booth 21A.

I’ll have discounted copies of Lost Angels (the sequel will be out in October), as well as a deal on the Templar trilogy, a handful of the out-of-print Haunted Mansion Project: Year 2, and copies of my science fiction chapbook Ashes & Rust. There will also be copies of Tales for the Camp Fire for sale.

I’ll be sharing the booth with EM Markoff and LS Johnson, who will be selling their own scary books. The three of us can cut you a deal on a set of books that will allow you to get a taste for all our work.  We would love to set you up with a 3-book paperback set or a super cute ebook key.

The comic con goes on all weekend at the San Jose Convention Center on 150 West San Carlos.

Details are here: https://www.svcomiccon.com/ Among the guests are Arnold Schwartzenegger, Morena Baccarin, and Jason Momoa.

 

 

5 Questions for Dana Fredsti

[image error]Dana Fredsti and I go way back. She wrote about Forest Lawn and her love for zombie movies in Death’s Garden, my first book about cemeteries.  She wrote about surfing, ghost hunting, and working at a big cat rescue for Morbid Curiosity magazine. Her amazing and very funny zombie story closes out Tales for the Camp Fire: An Anthology Benefitting Wild Fire Relief.

We’ve read together, traveled to conventions together, take long walks on the beach together, and every so often we meet up to write.  You could say that Dana is my role model.

Officially, Dana Fredsti is an ex B-movie actress with a background in theatrical combat (a skill she utilized in Army of Darkness as a sword-fighting Deadite and fight captain). Through seven-plus years of volunteering at EFBC/FCC, Dana’s been kissed by tigers and had her thumb sucked by an ocelot with nursing issues. She’s the author of the Ashley Parker series, touted as Buffy meets The Walking Dead, the dark fantasy series Spawn of Lilith, and the science fiction series Time Shards, which she is co-writing with her husband and fellow author David Fitzgerald. They live in San Francisco with a horde of felines and their dog Pogeen.

Her newest book is Blood Ink:

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Having killed her last producer, stuntwoman Lee Striga’s next film shoot takes her to the voodoo-soaked bayous and haunted back alleys of New Orleans, where sinister supernatural figures stalk the streets. In a dark corner of the French Quarter, an arcane tattoo artist is using his clients in rituals that will open an inter-dimensional gateway for a demon god from beyond the stars.

Did something in the real world inspire Blood Ink?

Every book I write is inspired to some degree by real life, whether it be places, people, things, random conversations I happen to overhear (anyone else notice how loud a lot of people are when talking on their phones or with friends in public places?), or things that happen to me. My mom’s death certainly played a big part in the emotions that inform the ending. A trip to New Orleans and the affinity I felt for it, even though we were only there for five days, made it easy to decide to set much of the story there. And my checkered past as a specialty player (sword fighter) and low-budget movie actress are what made me decide to make my protagonist Lee a stuntwoman/actress in the first place.

What is your favorite scene in the book?

Oooh, this is a tough one. I love the final confrontation between Lee and Ashurra (the sorta kinda Lovecraftian horror from beyond the stars) because it actually made me cry when I wrote it. I think it packs a big emotional punch aside from being pretty horrific. But I also really like a scene in the French Quarter when Lee encounters a creepy-ass evil known as Nalusa Faluya (long black being), a flesh-eating critter out of old Choctow legends. I’d run across a short blurb about it when researching online, trying to find the right monster for this particular bit, and I admit I ran with it.

What was your writing process like as you wrote the book?

Oh, wow…  it was all over the maps. I was healing up from two hip replacement surgeries and also dealing with a walloping helping of grief from my mother’s passing in 2016, and I wasn’t sure what the hell I was doing. Instead of writing the book linearly, I jumped all over the map, wrote scenes as they occurred to me, and then had to put them all together in a way that made sense. The weirdest thing is I didn’t stress at all during the writing process. I just… figured it’d be done when it was done. I had this unshakable certainty that it would work. And I love the finished novel.

What was the best thing that happened during your promotion of the book?

I sprung for a BookBub deal for Spawn of Lilith (the first book in the series) leading up to the release of Blood Ink, and that’s the best money I’ve ever spent for promotion. Spawn of Lilith was No. 1 on Amazon for Horror, Vampire horror, and…  I THINK Urban Fantasy … for three days, so now I can say I’m a #1 Best-Selling Author.  I also kinda sorta learned how to do promo on Instagram, putting together some giveaways with items that tied in to the Lilith series. I met three awesome candlemakers, all three of whom created candles to go with the giveaways, and it was fun pushing myself to figure out how to do more by way of creative promotion.

What do you have planned next?

I’m currently working on the third Lilith novel (no official title yet), as well as co-writing the third Time Shards novel with my co-author David Fitzgerald. It’s a little disconcerting jumping back and forth between the two worlds!

I interviewed Dana and David about Time Shards here: https://lorenrhoads.com/2018/02/01/5-questions-with-dana-fredsti-and-david-fitzgerald/

Check out all of Dana’s books on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2xTn23b

Or pick up Blood Ink here: https://amzn.to/30y0pNF 

I think Blood Ink stands alone, but don’t miss the first book, Spawn of Lilith: https://amzn.to/30sk8OT

You can sign up for her newsletter here: http://danafredsti.com/

On the Radio this weekend

[image error]This Sunday (8/11) I’ll be back on the “Lilycat on Stuff” radio show on http://FCCFREERADIO.com/ from 12-2 pm San Francisco time. You can listen live or check out the podcast later.

I’ll be talking about and reading from Tales for the Camp Fire: A Charity Anthology Benefiting Wildfire Relief.

I’ve written about this before, but:  Last November, a terrible wildfire burned for 17 days in Northern California. Some of the power company’s equipment failed in a windstorm and threw sparks that burned out of control. The town of Paradise, California was leveled. The smoke from the fire was so bad that it could be seen from space. It drifted 200 miles from Butte County in the Sierra Nevada Mountains to settle in the Bay Area, where I live. For a week, we had the worst air quality in the world. So even if we didn’t lose anything directly in the fire, we were still affected by it.

The local chapter of the Horror Writers Association decided to help the survivors. Ben Monroe suggested we put together an anthology that we could sell to raise money for survivors. I donated four month’s time to edit. Tomes & Coffee volunteered to publish it. The cover art was donated by Petersen Games. All the stories—even the one by Clark Ashton Smith—are donations.

Let me stress that:  No one got paid for this anthology, so we could maximize the amount of money we could donate in support of fire relief. All of the book’s profits are going to the North Valley Community Foundation, which is a clearinghouse in Butte County that applies funds to the greatest needs.

Come get a taste on the radio this weekend, then pick up a copy of the book at: https://amzn.to/2Z0mkw8.

 

5 Questions for Vylar Kaftan

[image error]I met Vylar in March at FogCon, when we were on a panel together. The subject was “Things I Wish I Knew when I was a Debut Author.” We ran into each other again in the Burbank airport on the way to the Nebula Weekend and shared a cab to the hotel. I asked if I could interview her about her brand-new book. She was kind enough to say yes.

Vylar Kaftan won a Nebula for her alternate history novella “The Weight of the Sunrise.” She’s published about 40 short stories in Asimov’s, Clarkesworld, and other places. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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Her new book is called Her Silhouette, Drawn in Water:

All Bee has ever known is darkness.

She doesn’t remember the crime she committed that landed her in the cold, twisting caverns of the prison planet Colel-Cab with only fellow prisoner Chela for company. Chela says that they’re telepaths and mass-murderers; that they belong here, too dangerous to ever be free. Bee has no reason to doubt her—until she hears the voice of another telepath, one who has answers, and can open her eyes to an entirely different truth.

Did something in the real world inspire Her Silhouette, Drawn in Water?

I was watching a documentary about solitary confinement and how it completely messes up a person’s ability to relate to the real world again. Anything longer than a few weeks and permanent mental changes can take place; years of solitary confinement are completely inhumane. Not that the US listens to anything Amnesty advises. Anyway, that inspired me to think about long-term solitary confinement as a political tactic to control prisoners who “otherwise couldn’t be controlled.” That plus some stuff specifically on women’s prisons inspired Her Silhouette, Drawn in Water.

What is your favorite scene in the book?

My favorite scene? Probably the one where the giant robot is shooting at them. Why? Because when I wrote the scene originally, it didn’t work. I needed a reason for the first shot to miss them. Thus was born Gregor. Gregor is a stalagmite. He likes sitting around, humming to himself, and thinking about things. Alas, poor Gregor. He gave his life that my protagonist may live. Nay, he was in fact created for the entire purpose of saving my protagonist. Raise a glass to Gregor tonight, who shall hum and think no more.

What was your writing process like as you wrote the book?

Frenzied bursts of writing, sobbing with frustration, numb stupidity as the words fail to come, dancing with delight through the house… I think this is everyone’s process really, perhaps with more dancing.

What was the best thing that happened during your promotion of the book?

All the great reviews coming in! That was amazing. It was so cool to see how many people really got what I was doing here and mentioned how much they want to see a sequel. That felt terrific for me.

What do you have planned next?

As I write this in late June, I’ll be at Readercon in Boston, then reading at SF in SF (San Francisco), both in July. I’m currently deciding what to work on next.

You can follow Vylar’s work at vylarkaftan.net.

Pick up a copy of Her Silhouette, Drawn in Water from Amazon: https://amzn.to/2LMjebZ or from Tor.com https://publishing.tor.com/hersilhouettedrawninwater-vylarkaftan/9781250221148/.

5 Questions for Heidi Hanley

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Heidi Hanley is another of my sisters in Broad Universe, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting, encouraging, honoring, and celebrating women writers and editors in science fiction, fantasy, horror and other speculative genres.

For Heidi, reading and writing are like breathing. On her 50th birthday, she got serious about turning her passion for writing into a goal to publish. The result is The Prophecy: Book One of the Kingdom of Uisneach series. The story taps into the core of her Irish heritage, evoking the spirit of ancient myth and legend. The Runes of Evalon, the second book in the trilogy, came out on July 26th.

Heidi lives in New Hampshire beside the Connecticut River with her husband and a Scottish terrier. By day, she serves as a Hospice chaplain. In the wee hours of the morning, she’s writing.  When not working, you will find her reading, sneaking away to Maine, or in the garden with the birds and faeries.

She describes The Prophecy:

For centuries, fairy tales have entertained, comforted, and inspired us. They have offered opportunities for adventure and provided hope for a “happily ever after” life. But real life isn’t always as simple as fairy tales would have us believe. Sometimes the Prince doesn’t wake the sleeping princess, or if he does, they discover that they are a poor match. Sometimes the “Great Adventure” requires a great deal of sacrifice and nearly kills the hero along the way. Sometimes a happy ending is a fairy tale.

Briana Brennan, aka Mouse, has a recurring dream that starts her biological clock ticking. Also ticking is the clock of destiny, started by a visit from a forest crone at the hour of her birth. While Briana is worrying that she won’t find the man of her dreams, a kingdom is worried that they’ll never see their Savior and the kingdom will be lost. Destiny has a surprise for them both.

Following a sound in the woods, Briana finds herself traveling through a tree into the Kingdom of Uisneach. She is met by gnomes who have been waiting for her to come as the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy. She is destined to save King Brath from a cursed exile and take the kingdom back from the evil Lord Shamwa and Druid Artanin. With only a magic map to guide her, she begins a journey that requires her to make decisions at every crossroads.

Magical maps, powerful swords, dryads, fairies, evil druids, good friends, and an Abbess, all contribute something to the journey and to her growth as a woman, a warrior and a queen. She learns the challenging lessons of love, patience, sacrifice, loyalty, and commitment. The journey across Uisneach is a great adventure, but one in which she must endure heartache and physical pain, but hopefully in the end, find love and her happily ever after.

Did something in the real world inspire The Prophecy?

[image error]Sort of. I wrote The Prophecy because of the advice that I should write what I wanted to read. I wanted to turn a traditional fairy tale into an adult version, with the female doing the saving, not being saved. However, the book started out with one end goal in mind and, during a rather otherworldly experience in which I met my muse, a secondary character became a primary character and the entire book outline changed.

I fell asleep one night and the next morning, I woke to have not one book, but a trilogy entirely mapped out in my head. I wrote as fast as I could in the next few days to get the details fleshed out, but this spiritual experience with the muse really drove the idea for the Kingdom of Uisneach series.

What is your favorite scene in the book?

There are scenes that I love for their beauty and magic and there are scenes that I love for their drama or humor. If I must choose a favorite in this moment, it would be the scene where Briana wakes from a dream in which she has made the emotional commitment to her fiancé, the king. She realizes that she is going to marry him, not because the prophecy is forcing her to, but because she loves him and loves Uisneach. She wants to accept the mantle of queen to help King Brath defeat Lord Shamwa and restore magic to the kingdom. To do that, she must come clean about a few things that she has been hiding from Brath and then sever the emotional connection to Silas, who shares her soul. It took a very long time for me to get myself into that place where I could write the scene. It came with lots of angst and tears. Briana comes into her own power and embraces her future with more clarity and self-assurance.

What was your writing process like as you wrote the book?

If you mean am I a plotter or pantser, I’d say a bit of both. Initially I wrote an outline based on the hero’s journey. I am fundamentally a plotter or architect, a term I have just learned and love. However, I also have a strong connection to my characters and often let them direct my pen. I enjoy writing from this mysterious place of creativity. I believe it makes the books special.

However, I was also taught by my wonderful editor, Jill Shultz, to write chapter summaries. I won’t admit to loving that part of the process, but it does help me maintain focus, even when my characters want to run amock.

If you mean when and how I write, so much of the story came to me during sleep that I would wake up at God-awful hours of the morning with conversations or ideas in my mind that I had to get up and write. Sleep became something I only daydreamed about. I work a full-time job, so my writing was on the one day I had to myself and in the wee hours of the morning. Things calmed down a bit with book two. Although I still get up long before the birds, I’m able to get a complete night’s sleep. I also keep a notebook with me at all times, in case inspiration sashays into my consciousness.

What was the best thing that happened during your promotion of the book?

Receiving good reviews is awesome. Building a fan base and finding out that your characters mean something to someone else is a super thrill. I have been especially gratified by the positive response from male readers. I wasn’t sure how they would take to this book, but so far, I have had nothing but appreciation from that group of readers.

What do you have planned next?

Book 2, The Runes of Evalon, was released July 26th. Book 3 is being written even as we speak. Poetry also figures largely in my future. My biggest challenge in The Prophecy was to write songs from the bard. I’m not really a songwriter. However, I discovered someone who is an amazing lyricist and he inspired me to find my own style. Once I found my own voice, the practice became something I really enjoy. I am spending what I have named A Year with the Poet playing with poetry, which I post on my Facebook Author page.

You can pick up a copy of The Prophecy from Amazon: https://amzn.to/2t1tPoO.

Check out Heidi’s website at http://kingdomofuisneach.com/ or follow her on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/heidi_hanley/ or Twitter at https://twitter.com/HeidiAuthor.

5 Questions for Michelle Renee Lane

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I met Michelle Lane at a horror convention several years ago. While we were standing around at the reception for the Stoker nominees, I asked what she was working on.  She told me about this amazing book…which is coming out today from Haverhill House Publishing.  I cannot wait to read it.

Michelle R. Lane writes dark speculative fiction about women of color who battle their inner demons while falling in love with monsters. Her work includes elements of fantasy, horror, romance, and occasionally erotica. In January 2015, Michelle graduated with an MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. Her short fiction appears in the anthologies Dark Holidays, and Terror Politico: A Screaming World in Chaos. She lives in South Central Pennsylvania with her son.

She describes her debut novel, Invisible Chains:

Jacqueline is a young Creole slave in antebellum New Orleans.  An unusual stranger who has haunted her dreams since childhood comes to stay as a guest in her master’s house. Soon after his arrival, members of the household die mysteriously and Jacqueline is suspected of murder.  Despite her fear of the stranger, Jacqueline befriends him and he helps her escape. While running from the slave catchers, they meet conjurers, a loup-garou, and a traveling circus of supernatural freaks.  She relies on ancestral magic to guide her and finds strength to conquer her fears on her journey.

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Obviously the real world inspired Invisible Chains. Can you tell us more?

Invisible Chains is a fictionalized slave narrative set in antebellum Louisiana, so yes, real historical accounts of slavery in the United States inspired the book. Initially, I just wanted to write a vampire novel set in New Orleans during this time period, but as my narrator Jacqueline began telling her story, I realized that her story mirrored my own story in many ways. No, I didn’t live in her time or in that place. (But I love the city of New Orleans and think of it as my spiritual home.) I was never a slave. However, I do know what it’s like to be a young woman of color finding her voice and making a place for herself in the world on her own terms.

The horrors of slavery were very real. While I was researching aspects of slavery –- people, places, practices –- I was sometimes shocked by how much I didn’t know. So while I wrote the book, I hoped that I would shed some light on a history that is often overlooked, or at the very least told from the perspective of the people who benefitted from slavery as opposed to the people who suffered through it. The more I learned about the history of slavery in the United States, the more I wanted to share that history with others.

What is your favorite scene in the book?

There’s a pivotal scene in the book where Jacqueline, my narrator, must draw power from a storm and summon loa, or Vodun gods, to enhance her own magic. She draws on the wisdom and strength of female ancestors, as well as another conjurer who is helping her learn more about her magic. Someone she has grown to trust shows his true face to her. She has seen glimpses behind his mask, but he’s never aimed his violence at her. In this scene, she must overcome her fear, the hurt of betrayal, and lack of faith in her own magical abilities to protect herself against this person who wants to possess her at any cost. This scene shows Jacqueline’s strength as a conjurer and as a woman who has survived the violence of slavery. She is the embodiment of Nietzsche’s aphorism: what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

What was your writing process like as you wrote the book?

Invisible Chains is the thesis novel I wrote while earning my MFA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. The novel evolved from a short story I had written several years before applying to the program, which had a very different tone and ending. Over the course of three years, two mentors, and several critique partners who provided excellent feedback and encouragement, I stitched together this often unwieldly quilt of a narrative. I’m not a linear writer. I’m a pantser, not a plotter. There were times that I had force myself to sit down and draft a list of scenes that needed to happen in chronological order, but I rarely wrote them that way. Scenes would come to me and I would write them and then figure out where they fit later in revisions.

I absolutely do not recommend writing a first novel like this unless you are very serious about understanding how a novel fits together and learning from your mistakes. I am still learning, but with each revision, each edit, each critique, the narrative and characters became stronger and my confidence grew enough to finish telling the story. I’m proud of the time, energy, and effort I put into this book, but I’m going to approach the writing of my next novel very differently, if I can help it.

I’d also like to mention that I couldn’t have written this book alone in a vacuum. I don’t think I would have finished writing this novel without all of the people who read first, second, and third drafts, who gave me advice and brainstormed ideas with me late at night, who listened to me rant and encouraged me to keep writing when I wanted to quit. Without my mentors, critique partners, friends, and family, I’m not sure I would have had the courage and stamina to keep going.

People often say that writing is a solitary pursuit, but I certainly didn’t write this book alone. Sure, I spent a lot of time alone in front of my computer, but there was always someone there to cheer me on.

What was the best thing that happened during your promotion of the book?

One of the best things to happen so far is that one of my writing heroes — Jewelle Gomez, who wrote one of my all-time favorite vampire novels, The Golda Stories — read my book and agreed to write a blurb for the cover.

When I contacted Jewelle, I knew I was taking a risk. She had no idea who I was and she’s a busy woman. She’s a writer and activist and I was fully prepared for her to simply say no. So when she responded to my message that she’d be happy to read my book, I felt like I had won the lottery. The writer who had written a vampire novel about women of color, who inspired and gave me the courage to write my own story about similar historical events, not only agreed to read my novel, but then liked it to boot. I am beyond honored that she took the time to read my book and give me positive feedback.

What do you have planned next?

I will have a short story in the Monstrous Feminine, an anthology of female horror writers that will be released in October 2019 by Scary Dairy Press, and another story in The Dystopian States of America (A Charity Anthology Benefiting the ACLU Foundation), that will be released November 3, 2019 by Haverhill House Publishing. And I’m hoping to begin work on the sequel to Invisible Chains later this year.

Pick up a copy of Invisible Chains from Amazon: https://amzn.to/2ELIHOp

Check out Michelle’s blog: https://michellerlane.com/

Or follow her on her Amazon author page: https://amzn.to/2VYM3n3