Across the Beer Bar with D.L. Jackson
Welcome to my beer bar D.L. what can I pour you to start? Give me a shot of Tequila. LOL. Not much of a beer drinker and you're more likely to get me to part with my secrets with that.
well....obviously you have not read any of the previous interviews.*WHACKS BAR*Brewery.Beer.Here---drink some water or try a beer. Those are your choices.You know what's IN proper tequila, right? *shudders*
Tell us about your journey to publication. Easy? Fraught? Well, I've always wanted to be an author. In high school I had notebooks full of stories, but when I graduated, I joined the Army and I stopped writing to serve my country and raise a family. I didn't pick it back up again until seven years ago. It was difficult. I didn't realize the differences between creative writing and writing for business applications. I was horrible with the head hopping, telling, data dumping and modifiers. If there was a "Thou shall not" writing commandment, I think I broke it. My first novel was a 110k monstrosity. I cringe just thinking about it. Sometimes I pick it up and think I can do something with it, but end up laughing instead. It's my first mile marker on my road toward success. I think I'll leave it be.I kind of bogged down after I wrote that book, then I joined this online critique group, I'd heard about on Ms. Snark. It's called Critique Circle. That's where I met my three IPs, indispensible peers, Barbara Elsborg, Arlene Webb and Laurie Green. Two of them also write for Decadent. Arlene taught me a lot about wordiness. I'm lucky I don't have brain damage for all the times I got smacked upside the head. She's truly Queen of the Chops. That woman knows how to trim to make something lean and mean. *Stop rolling your eyes, Arlene.*Barbara taught me to write the sex scenes, and convinced me to get a little dirtier, break out of my sweet romance shell. She is one of the best at writing these scenes. She can make dirty debauchery look good. She also taught me to write character driven stories. I don't know how many times she's come back to me and asked me, what are they thinking? I see action, but I don't have a clue what they are feeling right now. She's also blonde, gorgeous and has big bosoms. *Okay, I said it, Barbara. Please let go of my arm.*Laurie, well, she's the science fiction geek and Double Golden Heart finalist, soon to be triple—I believe. Anyway, she challenged my science, made me think about it, how to back it up and incorporate it into fiction and still make the impossible, believable. However, she still can't convince me travel outside the galaxy isn't possible. *Sorry, you knew it was going to come back to that. I still say if they had cell phones in Salem in the 1700s you've have been tried as a witch. Fantasy is just that until it's proven fact.* Anyway, she also hates modifiers. You can never slip one past her—okay, once I did, but she said only because it worked. Picky, picky. LOLWith science fiction romance, sometimes you have to explain the science, so your readers can understand your world and do it without coming across as data dump. Laurie helped me to do this well.Without my IP's I probably wouldn't be here. They got me through some rough stuff, learned some tough lessons along with me. It was amazing to start this journey with them. When we first met, none of us had published material. Barbara published first. Then I sold a short story. Then Arlene. Laurie went a different route, seeking an agent and publication into one of the bigger New York houses. She's well on her way there.As for your question. It's been a roller coaster ride. An up and down journey I wouldn't trade for anything. My mistakes taught me that I'm not perfect and can always do something better. My writing can always be cleaner.My motto is: Your First Draft is Always Shit. I think Hemmingway said that--it's the only thing he's written that I like.
And your first book was what? Slipping the Past. It's a futuristic/dystopian erotic romance that had futuristic enforcers called reapers for their abilities to take souls.BLURB:Some love affairs last a lifetime…others never end.
Fifty years into the future, if you're one of the damned, you don't run for your life, you run to save your soul. Jocelyn Miller is wanted for crimes she committed before she was born. Homeless, blind and out in the elements on one of the coldest nights of the year, her desperation results in a bad decision. When Jocelyn and her brother Nate rob a convenience store, Jocelyn comes face to face with her worst nightmare and greatest love, a reaper named Gabriel.
Gabriel Solaris is an Enforcer, a genetically enhanced psychic often referred to as a reaper for his ability to take souls, and he's charged with collecting Jocelyn's. When he finds Jocelyn outside the store, he's sure she's up to something illegal. Proving it isn't necessary. He holds a warrant and it's all he needs. But the closer Gabriel gets to Jocelyn, the more he begins to question his duty and why he believes her claims of innocence. When Jocelyn tells him she loved him once, Gabriel loses control and kisses her. Instead of taking her soul, he gives her a week to prove innocence in her past-life crimes, something he has no authority to grant.
I loved Cinderella Wore Combat Boots. What gave you the idea for it? My son. He's a Marine. My husband and I are both Army vets. I wanted to write a story about men and women in uniform. Since he was deployed to Afghanistan at the time, my mind was on him all the time. So, the story had to be about Marines. I figured I'd write something that served two purposes. The first was to show women in the military and break the stereotypes. The second was to help wounded vets. I wrote this story to raise money for The Wounded Warrior Project. I'm giving my profits to this worthy organization.BLURB:Sometimes Fairytales come true.
First Sergeant Cori Valentine faces a bleak future. She's turning forty in three weeks and life as she knows it is over. An injury received while on deployment has earned her an early retirement from the Marine Corps, something she's not sure she'll survive. Things get even better when interfering Marines set her up on a blind date for a party she doesn't want. The guy has to be a total toad to want to go out with her. Right?
When Madame Eve informs Retired SEAL, Sol Keller she's found his perfect match, he doesn't believe it, but takes up the challenge. One look at the First Sergeant in a sexy dress and combat boots has him wondering if fairytales really can come true. Madame Eve might be the legendary Fairy Godmother, and Cori his Cinderella. Sol intends to show the Marine beauty a Prince Charming she'll never forget, and that retirement isn't the end of her story but merely the beginning.
And Seducing Liberty is on my TBR list. Tell us about that one.I love historical stories and I wanted to flex my paranormal mind at the same time. So I mixed time travel and cloak and dagger from the American Revolution, and squeezed it into a 12k 1NightStand story. Seducing Liberty has both a contemporary setting and setting in New York in 1775. I touch on Washington's Culper spy ring, something I'd like to explore more later on down the road. Maybe in a bigger story.
Whoops empty glass! what can I pour for your next? I'll take another, but probably ought to call that my last. You don't need me dancing on your bar and taking my clothes off. Tequila does wicked things to my propriety filters.SMACK HEAD IN FRUSTRATION...people please, "Beer Bar" is in the flipping title of this interview.Here: more water for you.Because if 2 Tequilas makes you dance on the bar we obviously gotta work up your tolerance level...leave that to me.
And this latest release from something called "Carnality" series...tell us all about that.
Hmmm, speaking of propriety filters.Here's where I put all that naughty stuff Barbara taught me to work. The edge stories are short 3-5k stories that, and I quote from a recent review, "pack a gut punch of lust." Here's the link to the full review: http://yougottaread.com/review-carnal-desires-by-d-l-jacksonThe three stories I have now, the last, Carnal Denial, is releasing this Friday, are about an incubus an succubus who work out of a strip club called The Devil's Den. The same incubus and succubus are in all the stories in the Carnality series.
I admire all you Edge authors. I cannot make that format work for my muse...What are your publishing goals? Nothing has changed. My course remains forward. I still have a goal to snag an agent and a contract at a big publishing house, but every other writer out there does too. I want each and every story to be something I can be proud I wrote. Since the beginning of the year, I've published three stories and I have three under contract. I think that's the most I've had in a year and I'm not stopping there. I intend for 2012 to be a stellar year. I have several projects wrapping up and some great stuff sitting on the horizon. I also just sold another military 1NS story that promises to be as fun as its title.
Time for a nightcap. What's your poison?Better give me a soda. You don't need a ruckus in here. THROWS HANDS UP IN DISMAY....
Here's where you can find D.L.:http://authordljackson.comhttp://backwardmomentum.blogspot.comhttp://paranormalromantics.blogspot.com
And at the Decadent Site.
well....obviously you have not read any of the previous interviews.*WHACKS BAR*Brewery.Beer.Here---drink some water or try a beer. Those are your choices.You know what's IN proper tequila, right? *shudders* Tell us about your journey to publication. Easy? Fraught? Well, I've always wanted to be an author. In high school I had notebooks full of stories, but when I graduated, I joined the Army and I stopped writing to serve my country and raise a family. I didn't pick it back up again until seven years ago. It was difficult. I didn't realize the differences between creative writing and writing for business applications. I was horrible with the head hopping, telling, data dumping and modifiers. If there was a "Thou shall not" writing commandment, I think I broke it. My first novel was a 110k monstrosity. I cringe just thinking about it. Sometimes I pick it up and think I can do something with it, but end up laughing instead. It's my first mile marker on my road toward success. I think I'll leave it be.I kind of bogged down after I wrote that book, then I joined this online critique group, I'd heard about on Ms. Snark. It's called Critique Circle. That's where I met my three IPs, indispensible peers, Barbara Elsborg, Arlene Webb and Laurie Green. Two of them also write for Decadent. Arlene taught me a lot about wordiness. I'm lucky I don't have brain damage for all the times I got smacked upside the head. She's truly Queen of the Chops. That woman knows how to trim to make something lean and mean. *Stop rolling your eyes, Arlene.*Barbara taught me to write the sex scenes, and convinced me to get a little dirtier, break out of my sweet romance shell. She is one of the best at writing these scenes. She can make dirty debauchery look good. She also taught me to write character driven stories. I don't know how many times she's come back to me and asked me, what are they thinking? I see action, but I don't have a clue what they are feeling right now. She's also blonde, gorgeous and has big bosoms. *Okay, I said it, Barbara. Please let go of my arm.*Laurie, well, she's the science fiction geek and Double Golden Heart finalist, soon to be triple—I believe. Anyway, she challenged my science, made me think about it, how to back it up and incorporate it into fiction and still make the impossible, believable. However, she still can't convince me travel outside the galaxy isn't possible. *Sorry, you knew it was going to come back to that. I still say if they had cell phones in Salem in the 1700s you've have been tried as a witch. Fantasy is just that until it's proven fact.* Anyway, she also hates modifiers. You can never slip one past her—okay, once I did, but she said only because it worked. Picky, picky. LOLWith science fiction romance, sometimes you have to explain the science, so your readers can understand your world and do it without coming across as data dump. Laurie helped me to do this well.Without my IP's I probably wouldn't be here. They got me through some rough stuff, learned some tough lessons along with me. It was amazing to start this journey with them. When we first met, none of us had published material. Barbara published first. Then I sold a short story. Then Arlene. Laurie went a different route, seeking an agent and publication into one of the bigger New York houses. She's well on her way there.As for your question. It's been a roller coaster ride. An up and down journey I wouldn't trade for anything. My mistakes taught me that I'm not perfect and can always do something better. My writing can always be cleaner.My motto is: Your First Draft is Always Shit. I think Hemmingway said that--it's the only thing he's written that I like.
And your first book was what? Slipping the Past. It's a futuristic/dystopian erotic romance that had futuristic enforcers called reapers for their abilities to take souls.BLURB:Some love affairs last a lifetime…others never end.
Fifty years into the future, if you're one of the damned, you don't run for your life, you run to save your soul. Jocelyn Miller is wanted for crimes she committed before she was born. Homeless, blind and out in the elements on one of the coldest nights of the year, her desperation results in a bad decision. When Jocelyn and her brother Nate rob a convenience store, Jocelyn comes face to face with her worst nightmare and greatest love, a reaper named Gabriel.
Gabriel Solaris is an Enforcer, a genetically enhanced psychic often referred to as a reaper for his ability to take souls, and he's charged with collecting Jocelyn's. When he finds Jocelyn outside the store, he's sure she's up to something illegal. Proving it isn't necessary. He holds a warrant and it's all he needs. But the closer Gabriel gets to Jocelyn, the more he begins to question his duty and why he believes her claims of innocence. When Jocelyn tells him she loved him once, Gabriel loses control and kisses her. Instead of taking her soul, he gives her a week to prove innocence in her past-life crimes, something he has no authority to grant.
I loved Cinderella Wore Combat Boots. What gave you the idea for it? My son. He's a Marine. My husband and I are both Army vets. I wanted to write a story about men and women in uniform. Since he was deployed to Afghanistan at the time, my mind was on him all the time. So, the story had to be about Marines. I figured I'd write something that served two purposes. The first was to show women in the military and break the stereotypes. The second was to help wounded vets. I wrote this story to raise money for The Wounded Warrior Project. I'm giving my profits to this worthy organization.BLURB:Sometimes Fairytales come true.
First Sergeant Cori Valentine faces a bleak future. She's turning forty in three weeks and life as she knows it is over. An injury received while on deployment has earned her an early retirement from the Marine Corps, something she's not sure she'll survive. Things get even better when interfering Marines set her up on a blind date for a party she doesn't want. The guy has to be a total toad to want to go out with her. Right?
When Madame Eve informs Retired SEAL, Sol Keller she's found his perfect match, he doesn't believe it, but takes up the challenge. One look at the First Sergeant in a sexy dress and combat boots has him wondering if fairytales really can come true. Madame Eve might be the legendary Fairy Godmother, and Cori his Cinderella. Sol intends to show the Marine beauty a Prince Charming she'll never forget, and that retirement isn't the end of her story but merely the beginning.
And Seducing Liberty is on my TBR list. Tell us about that one.I love historical stories and I wanted to flex my paranormal mind at the same time. So I mixed time travel and cloak and dagger from the American Revolution, and squeezed it into a 12k 1NightStand story. Seducing Liberty has both a contemporary setting and setting in New York in 1775. I touch on Washington's Culper spy ring, something I'd like to explore more later on down the road. Maybe in a bigger story.
Whoops empty glass! what can I pour for your next? I'll take another, but probably ought to call that my last. You don't need me dancing on your bar and taking my clothes off. Tequila does wicked things to my propriety filters.SMACK HEAD IN FRUSTRATION...people please, "Beer Bar" is in the flipping title of this interview.Here: more water for you.Because if 2 Tequilas makes you dance on the bar we obviously gotta work up your tolerance level...leave that to me.
And this latest release from something called "Carnality" series...tell us all about that.
Hmmm, speaking of propriety filters.Here's where I put all that naughty stuff Barbara taught me to work. The edge stories are short 3-5k stories that, and I quote from a recent review, "pack a gut punch of lust." Here's the link to the full review: http://yougottaread.com/review-carnal-desires-by-d-l-jacksonThe three stories I have now, the last, Carnal Denial, is releasing this Friday, are about an incubus an succubus who work out of a strip club called The Devil's Den. The same incubus and succubus are in all the stories in the Carnality series.
I admire all you Edge authors. I cannot make that format work for my muse...What are your publishing goals? Nothing has changed. My course remains forward. I still have a goal to snag an agent and a contract at a big publishing house, but every other writer out there does too. I want each and every story to be something I can be proud I wrote. Since the beginning of the year, I've published three stories and I have three under contract. I think that's the most I've had in a year and I'm not stopping there. I intend for 2012 to be a stellar year. I have several projects wrapping up and some great stuff sitting on the horizon. I also just sold another military 1NS story that promises to be as fun as its title.
Time for a nightcap. What's your poison?Better give me a soda. You don't need a ruckus in here. THROWS HANDS UP IN DISMAY....
Here's where you can find D.L.:http://authordljackson.comhttp://backwardmomentum.blogspot.comhttp://paranormalromantics.blogspot.com
And at the Decadent Site.
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