Mojo Queen event and giveaway

My new urban fantasy Mojo Queen will be released Monday, May 2. Here's the blurb:

Hoodoo and high magic are on a collision course. 

Roxanne Mathis isn't like everyone else. Not only can she see auras and spectral entities, she can mix herbs and roots for spells to do good or ill. She can even light a candle without the benefit of a match. But when she’s hired to exorcise a demon from a young girl, she discovers the limits of her powers.  

With her vampire cousin at her side and a sexy sorcerer chasing her on the rebound, Roxie sets out to send that evil entity back to where she came from.  

Nothing is as it seems and Roxie’s in over her head. It’s not going to be enough for her to just be a paranormal investigator and old school root worker – to defeat this demon, she’s going to have to be the Mojo Queen.

And here's an excerpt that is part of the first scene between main character Roxie Mathis and the character I wound up thinking of as Blake the Sexy Sorcerer:


I sat in the chair opposite the loveseat, placing the candles on the coffee table. Glanced at him to make sure I still had his attention, which of course I did. One side of his mouth still curled up in a smirk, eyebrow quirked. I sat back, let myself sink into the comfy chair and relax as much as possible. First the candle on the left. Focusing on the wick, I visualized a tiny flame erupting from it--concentrating my will, pouring energy into my intention. I could feel myself sliding further into exhaustion as energy curled inside me, but after a long, agonizing moment the candle came to life. I let out a breath before I could stop myself, avoiding his gaze. I didn’t want him to know how much this was taking out of me, but I had a bad feeling it was obvious. I turned my attention to the other candle and though it took even longer this time, it too lit. I felt almost as bad as I had this afternoon.

Blake reached for a backpack on the floor I had not seen in the darkness. He opened it, fished something out, and tossed it to me. I didn’t so much catch it as let it fall in my lap. A chocolate candy bar.

It was my turn to quirk an eyebrow. Waving the bar at him I said, “What, is this to ward off dementors?”

The smirk became a genuine smile again briefly. “Something like that. You need to eat.”

I gave him a skeptical look.

“You know you’re using energy with that.” He gestured at the candles. “The energy needs to be replenished.”

I rolled my eyes but tore open the wrapper. The chocolate tasted, well, damn, like mainlining something illegal. Maybe he had a point. I was halfway through the bar when he spoke again, as if there had been no pause.

“Especially since you don’t really know what you’re doing yet.” Even in the low candlelight I had no trouble seeing the wicked amusement in his dark eyes.

I managed to finish chewing without choking, tossed the remainder of the candy bar on the coffee table and sat up straighter. “Why don’t you tell me why you’re here? Or better yet, tell me where I can find your demon lover? So I can send her back to Hell.”

“Well, actually, that’s exactly why I’m here, Roxanne.” Like we were discussing insurance or something. “I want you to find my demon lover.”

Gob-smacked, all I could manage was, “Huh?”

“And I want you to send her back to Hell.”

**

You can also read the first scene here at my blog.

I've set up a Facebook event to mark the release and I'll be giving away one copy to a random attendee. All you have to do is click "attending" and you'll have a chance to win Mojo Queen in the ebook format of your choice (pdf, epub, mobi/Kindle).

Writing Lesson #9: Fix It In the Rewrite

Anyone watching writers on TV might get the impression that the first draft comes out perfect. There's never any indication of the endless rewriting that occurs in real life.

I don’t let anyone read my first draft. It comes out in a barely coherent form. With the lessons learned from previous novels, by the time I finished SUFFER THE CHILDREN, and started on the amateur sleuth novel, my priority was to get to the end of the first draft by whatever means necessary.

That tends to mean leaving huge plot holes and scenes that don’t make sense alone, resisting the urge to fiddle with them until Draft 2. If I am struggling with a particular scene, but I know how the next one goes, I might actually skip it completely, leaving a note to myself in the manuscript that says something like, “Character X has to learn about the affair here”, or whatever.

Therefore, when I get to the end of the first draft, what I tend to have is a horribly deformed mass, ugly and clunky with huge chunks missing. So I make a start on Draft 2 fairly swiftly, using my notes to try and fix what’s wrong. By the end of Draft 2 or maybe Draft 3 – depending on how much there is to fix – I will generally be ready for outside opinions. So I submit it to the writing group. By this point I am aware there are still things wrong, but I can no longer be objective about what they are – I’m too close to the manuscript. This is why my system of saving each chapter of each draft in a separate document serves me well. I find it easier to go back and fiddle with chapters this way.

Once the writing group have pulled the manuscript to pieces, I will make a start on the major overhaul that will become the next draft (3 or 4, by this stage). After that, it’s another major rewrite, to fix any new major problems that have been unearthed in the overhaul. Hopefully, by the time I get to Draft 5, I have reached a ‘minor amendments and polishing’ stage.

The Final Draft is normally Draft 7 or 8. Ultimately, you can carry on rewriting something forever more. This is the first lesson about rewrites. There comes a point when you have to say, “It’s done.” When I arrive at that stage, that’s the point at which I put the whole manuscript into one document and tidy up the page numbers, formatting and word count.

With DEATH SCENE, I think I arrived at this stage at Draft 6, and just over two years after I started the first draft – a marked improvement on the ten years it took me to complete SUFFER THE CHILDREN. However, it's undergone several rewrites since being accepted for publication, and the version that will eventually be published will be very different from the version that I decided was the final one.

Because this is the other lesson about rewrites. No matter how many times you rewrite, and how good your manuscript is, when it gets picked up by a publisher, there will always be more edits.

(Mis)Adventures at ConGlomeration

This past weekend I attended ConGlomeration, a local sci-fi/fantasy convention. Although not an official "guest," I was listed in the programming booklet under "Also Attending ConGlomeration" with a nice little write up and link to my site. 

ConGlomeration opened Friday April 22. The first workshop I attended was "Steampunk Tutorial Part 1." Christopher Boll showed us how to take ordinary objects and give them a Steampunk spin. We learned about creating a character, including that person's occupation, likes and dislikes, etc. Other discussions included cyberpunk and diesel punk and how steampunk can span different eras (up to about the 1930s).

Now it was time for "A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words.” The premise of this workshop was to swap stories and artwork. Artists and writers were paired off. The author would give the artist a piece of writing the artist would use to draw a picture. Meantime, the author would write a story based on a picture the artist had created.

I partnered with Christine Griffin, a portrait artist who’s done covers for Loose ID and Cobblestone Press. She let me choose a print from the art exhibit.

Copyright & Credit: Christine Griffin & Fantasy Flight Games

This was the piece I selected. Later I discovered it was for “A Game of Thrones” by Fantasy Flight Games. Anyway, I loved it so much, I bought it.

After explaining I didn’t have anything written, either, she asked if I wouldn’t mind a portrait. I wrote a quick description of Xariel and Karla from Death Sword. Then I remembered I had a sample chapter of Death Sword on my IPod. I let her read it to get an idea of the characters and she decided to draw Xariel.

Friday ended on another high note when I got a chance to meet artist Melissa Gay. Melissa has done covers for Apex Publications, including Lavie Tidhar’s Hebrew Punk. So yeah, I went all fan girl on her.  :-)

Day’s panels finished, I headed home to start brainstorming ideas for my artist/author swap story. I’ve been tossing around the idea of writing a story about a Valkyrie and her wolf. So it was a matter of dipping into a little Nordic mythology to come up with a work about a page or two long.

Unfortunately I couldn’t stay up too late because the next day’s panel began at 10AM.

Even worse, I missed the first panel on Saturday. But I made the 11AM one, another steampunk workshop. Yes folks, this weekend was steampunk and writing.

After lunch found me awaiting my turn at the “Author Reading” panel. I was one of about a half dozen authors reading that afternoon and followed the guest of honor, Peter David. Luckily, no one fled the room after I started reading the first chapter of Death Sword.

However, what works fine in rehearsal doesn’t always cooperate during the performance. My IPod locked up. What? I was reading an E-book. Might as well read it from a digital device. Although I was able to continue, I went two minutes over my allotted time. (Sorry, Marsha!)

Overall, though, the reading was fun. Even if there was a techno glitch, no one really seemed to mind. (Maybe it’ll make people remember me.) Oh, wait. That might not be a good thing...

The last panel for me that day was “Going Digital.” I had been invited to be on it but somewhere along the line communication got mixed up and I ended up in the audience. (Shrug.) Nevertheless, I participated, giving my perspective and asking questions. It actually ended up being a lively exchange about where digital publishing is now and where it’s going.

Panels finished, I headed home to work on my story. After all, I had a Sunday noon deadline. 

I finished the story Sunday morning and headed to the con. Apparently part of my brain – the one that controls memory – decided to go on vacation. I was almost there and realized I’d forgotten my badge.

Yep. Another head-desk moment. Not only that, it was ten minutes to noon (the start of the panel) and I had to drive back 11 miles. Time to hit the interstate.  I silently thanked the DOT for raising the speed limit.

I arrived for the second part of “A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words” at 12:06PM. I was late but I wasn’t too late. Luckily, the audience seemed to like the story. If you like, you can read it here. (You'll have to scroll down.)

Copyright & Credit: Christine Griffin

Christine Griffin then showed us her version of my hero Xariel from Death Sword. This is the first time I’ve ever had an artist draw one of my characters. Damn, it’s like the coolest thing to see how she  interpreted him. Chris told me she even went back and reread the sample chapter to get a better idea of the character.

So, yeah, I’m stoked. And of course I had the pieces framed to hang on my wall.  

If you get a chance to attend a con, do so. It’s a great opportunity to meet other people (i.e. artists and writers) and to be inspired. 

To learn more about the con and the artists' work, click on the following links:


ConGlomeration

Christine Griffin (artist)

Melissa Gay (artist)

Escalation, or why you really need to torture your characters

There are three lines you braid together to create a compelling plot. One is conflict, one is motivation, and the third is escalation.

Conflict: somebody wants something, and someone or something stands in their way.

Motivation: why do they want it?

Escalation: This is where you make your characters work to get what they want, and make them face just how far they will go to get it.

There's a great analogy about putting your character up a tree, and then throwing rocks at them. That's exactly how you need to think of escalation. The stakes have get to get higher and your protagonist has got to walk through the flames of Hell to reach their goal. Okay, maybe not literally, unless you're writing a paranormal and your protagonist does in fact walk through the flames of Hell. ;) The point is, you have to make it harder and harder for your protagonist to reach their goal. You have to torture them, you have to ratchet up the tension and the stakes higher and higher until your protagonist is standing on the edge of a cliff, staring into an abyss and thinking all is lost. And then you have to push them off the cliff.

I know you don't want to. Believe me, it's something I struggle with. I love my characters and I want them all to be happy and spending their days doing whatever they think of as fun. In Mojo Queen, I would have been very happy to have Daniel float through the book with a drink in one hand, always on the verge of bursting into song. (A really cheesy off-key rendition of some classic country song, maybe in a small town bar on karaoke night - like this song perhaps.) But that would have been too easy and it would have lacked the tension needed to escalate the plot. So I had to be mean to Daniel. I had to torture him. There were snakes. *shudder* But when it was over I was really proud of myself for having had the fortitude to put such a beloved character through something like that. Writing is the only place where its acceptable to hurt the ones you love. You may love your characters, but you can't just hand them a happy ending on a silver platter. For the sake of the story, they have to work for it. They have to struggle and sweat and take their lumps and have all manner of obstacles put in their way. It has to be this way because in the end it makes the payoff - the characters getting what they want - all the sweeter.

My recipe for escalation is pretty simple: Out of the frying pan, into the fire. Lather, rinse, repeat. When everything seems darkest, push them off a cliff and let them fly into Thunderdome. With a strong enough motivation leading their actions it will make perfect sense for the character to wind up there. After all, they've come this far, been through the worst the world could throw at them, and clearly they want to achieve their goal bad enough that they haven't called it quits and gone home. The stakes are high and they are in it to win it. Once you've put them through a gauntlet, you can let them.

Say it like it is

As author, I love nothing more than when a reviewer picks up one of my novels and writes a great review. Even if they found stuff they didn’t like, it’s useful for me to get feedback. Granted, I’m aware that I’m not going to please all of the readers all of the time, but reviews are vital, not only because they clue potential readers in to my writing, but also serve as a reality check.

If a dozen reviewers all hammer me for the same issue, it’s time for me to sit up and take notice. So, in many ways, reviews provide a useful barometer to authors wanting to keep tabs on themselves.

Writing regular book reviews for a website or publication is a great way to get a broad general idea of any particular genres in which you may be interested. Besides the obvious benefit of free reads, you pretty much have your finger on the pulse of some of the latest releases in the market. Granted, you may not always pick up your favourite authors, but you’ll definitely discover some new favourites—before everyone else does.

So, what goes into writing a great review? I’ve been writing reviews for the newspapers and a few blogs for a number of years now. Each reviewer will have his or her own approach to writing a review, but I’m going to share what works for me, which may serve as a useful template for you, should you consider taking up writing reviews yourself.

Once you’ve read the book, give a broad general overview of the plot. Let’s trot out Little Red Riding Hood as an example, shall we? I generally kick off my reviews by sketching the essentials of the plot.

Little Red Riding Hood regularly visits her grandmother, who lives in an isolated cottage deep within a dark and somewhat perilous forest. Despite her mother’s pleas to stay on the path, Little Red Riding Hood strays one day when she meets a wolf. Consequently she lands herself in a spot of bother.

If there are aspects of the story that are supposed to be a surprise to readers, for the love of all that is unholy PLEASE don’t give spoilers in your review. Hint at them, but don’t ruin others’ reading experience.

Once the overview is there, which should suffice to give readers a good indication whether the story is to their tastes—for instance romance readers will probably not like to read out-and-out horror—you can start going into a bit more depth.

After I’ve given an overview, I like to discuss the main characters and how I feel about them and whether the author did a good job showing character development. Once again, AVOID spoilers.

After characterisation, look at the story’s pacing. Did the author’s plot drag? Were you immediately immersed in the setting? Was there anything that annoyed you? Did any plot holes surface? Was the story typical of the genre? How did the author approach the genre? Was there anything that you really liked? Essentially, ask yourself a bunch of questions then answer them.

In closing your review, try to sum up everything that has gone before. I try to sketch the context in which a book may be enjoyed, or suggest a target market, and try to end on a positive note (well, most of the time). As a rough guide, reviews for print media should be anywhere between 300 to 600 words in length. You can apply the same rules to online reviews.

Remember also, it’s not what you say but how you say it. Try to give valid reasons why you hated something instead of just saying, “This author’s writing stinks.”

Yes, it’s fun to snark, and I admit that occasionally when I write reviews, my inner snark comes frothing out, especially when it comes to big-name authors who SHOULD know better. That being said, if you’re an author, like me, and you write reviews, tread carefully. Writing reviews, much like writing novels, is a highly subjective business, and it’s easy for people to get their goat up. If you’re clever about it, you can say a whole lot more by what people can read between the lines. And sometimes when I encounter a book that is just plain horrible, I write my review in such a way that I deliver constructive criticism. Be honest, but say what you need to say as though you were saying it to the author’s face.

Lastly, on ratings. I’ve often encountered authors who absolutely blow their tops when they get three out of five for their novels. Or fans who want to peck out reviewers’ eyes when their favourite author “only” gets three stars. In my opinion, three out of five is a good, solid rating. It means someone thought your novel was good. Not oh-my-feck-I-have-to-spaz-all-over-the-place wonderful, but they’re saying a book is a good read and that they liked it. Maybe the reviewer wasn’t quite the target market. Maybe they just didn’t love the writing enough to allocate a four- or five-star review. Three stars are good.

The golden rule remains is that the business of fiction remains a highly subjective field. Some people think Nora Roberts or Christine Feehan are paragons of literary greatness. I disagree. We’ll all have our reasons. And, guess what, we’re entitled to them. We can all agree to disagree. Granted, there are some aspects of writing that are non-negotiable, like sound grammar, but as for the rest… Not all of us will read James Joyce, okay?

Overnight Success?

The misconceptions about writers that are perpetuated in the media can be annoying. One previously-mentioned example of this is the writer in a TV show who will bang out a first draft on their Apple Mac (usually in a matter of weeks) and pass it to the editor/agent without having to rewrite a single world. And then the novel appears in print within a couple of months. You'd think scriptwriters would know a bit more about the way publishing works, wouldn't you?

Another example is the concept of an 'overnight success'. I very much doubt there's any such thing as an 'overnight success', and this applies to artist and musicians as equally as it does to writers. The reality is you work for years on your writing, music or art. You rack up countless rejections, and nobody knows or cares who you are. Then you might have a degree of success. If you're a writer you get a couple of books published. You work hard at the promotion, while still working on the writing, but still nobody knows or cares who you are.

Then twenty years and half a dozen books down the line, you may get a book published that does reasonably well. People who like that book start looking for others and discover your back-catalogue. Word gradually spreads and other people start buying and liking your books. And then suddenly the media start describing you as an 'overnight success'. Not so. You're the same writer you were a year ago, or five years ago, or maybe even ten years ago. The only difference is more people know who you are now.

I have a couple of friends in the music industry. They're both doing reasonably well there currently, but only after a good many years of hard work, of not knowing where the next gig was coming from and struggling to pay the bills.

Occasionally a first novel is published that does so astoundingly well the author becomes extremely well known in a short period of time. But such cases are the exception rather than the rule. Unfortunately, like those writers that sell so well they make vast quantities of money (JK Rowling, perhaps - and even she wasn't an overnight success), they perpetuate the myth that all writers are rich and famous.

There were a few people who said to me, once they found out about my first publishing contract, "I guess you'll be quitting work now". I just didn't have the time or the energy to explain why that won't be happening any time soon.

So, now I've got that off my chest, I'll get back to juggling the writing, promoting and editing around the day job. Maybe in 20 years' time I'll have a dozen or so published novels under my belt. Who knows, maybe even I might one day be be described as an 'overnight success'.