Welcome Author Gerri Brousseau

Please welcome, Gerri Brousseau, a friend and fellow member of the CTRWA, author of A PIRATE’S RANSOM and the newly released ACCORDING TO LEGEND. Take it away, Gerri!

Thank you, Paula, for inviting me to the Scribes today. I’m thrilled to be here and to meet your readers.

PJ: Please tell us about your current release.

Gerri: ACCORDING TO LEGEND is a time-travel story with a prophecy, a quest, a love triangle and a quirky wolf. The premise of the story is according to legend, when the spirit of the tribal princess is born again and she holds the enchanted stone in her hands, the lovers will be reunited … even through time.

PJ: It sounds like a great read! What inspired you to write this book?

Gerri: ACCORDING TO LEGEND came to me one night in a very vivid dream. When I woke up I started to write madly so as not to forget a single detail. The more I wrote, the more the story seemed to pour out of me. Don’t you love it when that happens?

PJ: I do! I had the same experience with HEAVEN IS FOR HEROES. What kind of research did you have to do for LEGEND?

Gerri: ACCORDING TO LEGEND takes place up at Kent Falls. Of course, I changed the name of the area and falls in the book. I researched the local tribe and actually spent a lovely afternoon whittling at the central fire pit at the reservation talking to the real Tribal Princess. It was quite a journey and I’m glad I took the time to make it.

PJ: That sounds awesome. I love the research part of being a writer. How do you combat the doubt monster?

Gerri: I must confess that I have had my fair share of bouts with that evil fellow, but I find the best thing to do is to keep writing. I wonder if he will ever leave me alone. Somehow I doubt it, but much to his credit, all his constant complaining causes me to edit and in the long run he makes me a better writer. Still, he’s not my favorite individual.

PJ: Mine either! What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

Gerri: I don’t know if it’s all that interesting or that much of a quirk, but I like to read my work aloud. You would be surprised at how quickly you hear your errors when you do this.

PJ: That is so true! I sometimes forget to do that during the revision stage. Thanks for the reminder. If you had to be something other than a writer, what would you be?

Gerri: A chef. Cooking is my second passion in life and I really enjoy creating a meal that gets rave reviews from my family.

PJ: You sound like my husband. He would definitely be a chef in another life. Is there anything you’d like to share with readers that they might not know about you?

Gerri: Let’s see … they already know I’m a retired skydiver, that I’m a new grandmother, and that I have two pugs. But, I wonder if they know that I have played piano since I was 7 years old. It’s been a while now, but they say it’s like riding a bike … you never forget.

PJ: I had no idea! That is so cool. I bet you’d pick it right back up! Thanks so much for being here and sharing your time with us. If anyone has any questions for Gerri, or comments about her books, her writing tips or her pugs, please feel free to do so.

Here’s a short excerpt from ACCORDING TO LEGEND:
“According to the legend, the enchantment of the stone was originally activated by the depth of their love. It is said that their love created a very powerful magic. According to legend, the power of the stone would be set in motion once more when the spirit of the Indian Princess was born again and she held the stone in her hand. Then, the spirit of the lovers would awaken and they would be reunited, even through time.” She sighed. “It is believed that only the true Tribal Princess would have the ability to seek out and find the other half of this stone and access its full enchantment.”

For more information on Gerri and her writing, please visit her website at www.gerribrousseau.com and if you would like to read ACCORDING TO LEGEND, it’s available at Amazon for Kindle.

The Unlocked Secret of the Niche Market.

So what is Niche Marketing? Wickepedia says, “A niche market is the subset of the market on which a specific product is focusing.” Really, Wickie? Who wrote that? Is that the best you’ve got? Of course they go on to explain further with words like demographics, market shares, and some other marketing terms and examples that didn’t do much to help me figure out how to define where my books might land on the book shelves.

The first question a professional marketer asks is, “Who is your target audience?” Truly understanding this question is probably the number one best marketing tool a writer can have. We’d all like to say, “everyone, of course.” And while that may be sort of true that many different demographics might enjoy your book, it’s more likely and infinitely easier to reach a smaller group of readers specifically interested in your genre, subject matter, and characters. Think “low lying fruit.”

Targeting “your” readers may be easier if your book falls into a specific genre. If you’ve written a cozy mystery about a librarian who is a quilter turned amateur sleuth, you might consider marketing your book to librarians and quilters, a pretty small “niche” market that might be easier than trying to reach “everyone.” This is why agents and editors want to know what “genre” you are writing. So they can determine the marketability of your book based on their experience with that particular readership and their understanding of where the market is currently trending. Women 30-55 years old are the greatest book-buying demographic that marketers are competing for. Publishing houses are trying to meet that supply. So sending a query for your “Sci-fi/ Historical, Inspirational/ Regency might be a tough sell.

The problem for many authors is that our stories don’t always fall into one genre. Diana Gabaldon had difficulty getting OUTLANDER published at first because she couldn’t clearly define it as a romance, a historical, a science fiction/fantasy, or a time travel novel. Of course it’s all of those, but it was so fabulously written that some smarty-pants publisher decided that they would take a chance and market the book to readers across multiple genres, essentially including “everyone,” and the series took off.

It worked out well for her, but most of us aren’t so lucky. In most cases, if your book falls outside of a specific proven market, agents and editors don’t want to touch it. Most of my rejection letters a few years back were because my manuscripts didn’t “fit the market.”

Now that I’m self-publishing, I see their dilemma. When I put my books up on Amazon, BN, and Smashwords, I have to pick categories that best describe them so that they are listed where my target audience would find them (good old search engine optimization-SEO). The frustrating part is that the choices are limited to the old model of publishing and haven’t caught up with new trends. “Teen/YA fiction” refers to books with protagonists ages 14-17 and are a subcategory of “children’s fiction”. But the books coming out these days for teens are arguably for a much more mature audience, and the demographic isn’t so clear-cut. Ideally, they should be much more delineated. There should be choices that would target older teens and adults who enjoy reading about that all-important transition from teen life to adult experiences. I had no idea when I chose my categories that some sites would lump my books into “Children’s fiction” because I labeled it a YA. They aren’t likely to find a readership there!

So what’s a writer to do? Well, you can choose to write for a particular market, ie; cozy mystery, romantic suspense, thriller, or romantic comedy. This is a very viable approach and is the most likely road to becoming traditionally published if you do your research and watch what’s selling and who’s selling it, and target your agent/editor query appropriately. But if you consistently find your stories falling into “genre no-man’s land,” you can join the new age of genre-bending authors who have literally created new markets by taking risks and writing what they want to write, self-publishing, and then finding their readers by focusing on certain niche markets and using that SEO to their advantage.

Whether traditional or indie-published, when it comes time to market your books and find your readership, look at who your target audience really is. Be creative and look at it from all angles and try different approaches. If you aren’t reaching readers by promoting the book to one segment of the population, try another. My book ON THIN ICE could be marketed to ice skaters, teens who become pregnant, sufferers of eating disorders, or teens experiencing the grief of losing a parent. Over time, I can market this book to several different niche markets, keeping it relevant as long as I can keep reaching new readers and targeting new niche audiences who might not otherwise have found the book. That’s why SEO is so important. And why creating whole new genres may be the best way for your target audience to find you.

For instance, I’ve been promoting HEAVEN IS FOR HEROES as a “Contemporary YA Romance.” But the story deals with the tragedies of war, overcoming loss, and the determination of one seventeen year old girl to find the truth—pretty mature themes that 14-17 year-old readers wouldn’t necessarily be looking to read about. Because of the protagonist’s age, the book falls into the YA market, but our hero is a nineteen-year-old Marine Veteran struggling with a difficult recovery, which changes the demographic for this story. Because the focus of the book is a tenuous teen romance with the underlying plot of a family’s search for peace in time of war, HIFH will appeal to adult readers as well as older young adults, but listed as a YA, it may never reach those adults who might enjoy the book.

The hero’s age and the subject matter make it fit more appropriately into the New Adult genre—a relatively new niche market targeting 19-23 year-old readers previously forced to read “teen” novels or jump right into “adult” romances. This segment of readers wants more than the typical high school experience, but they may not be ready for the white-picket-fence-via-total-abandonment-to-love-and-sex that rules the adult romance world. They are looking for relatable characters faced with real life issues that they themselves might be facing; such as leaving home, going off to college, or dealing with friends coming back from war.

Filled with moments of poignant reality, hard lessons, and the angst and sexual tension of first love, HIFH combines family drama and the relationship between childhood sweethearts, Jordie Dunn and Alex Cooper, who must overcome some pretty “grown-up” obstacles to find their way to a hopefully ever after ending.In Savage Cinderella, Brinn is eighteen and Justin is twenty-three. Add the subject matter and this book clearly falls into the New Adult category rather than YA. I might have tried marketing my books as Mainstream fiction and put them up against books from authors like Nicolas Sparks and Jodi Piccoult, but that would again put me in a very large pool with some very big fish, and without publisher backing, it’s tough to swim in that pond. Literary fiction is an even tougher sell than genre fiction.

With many of today’s YA books fitting more appropriately into the New Adult category, this niche market is catching on. Entangled Publishing, St. Martin’s Press and I believe even Harlequin Teen are adding New Adult titles to their acquisitions. Publishers are finally willing to recognize that yes, college students do read for pleasure in their limited time, and that they want more of what the New YA market has to offer. There are loads of twenty-something’s looking for books that go beyond the teen dramas focused on high school but who still want stories that deal with all of those wonderful (and hideous) firsts. Many of my readers fit into this category. If I had to guess, my average reader is between 19 and 33. That’s a pretty big demographic, but by listing my books as YA, I’m potentially focusing on the wrong group of readers. I don’t want to misrepresent the books by having them listed in the “Contemporary Romance” section either, since they definitely have a younger voice and reader expectation is important to consider.

Re-branding my work might take a bit of time and effort, but if it means reaching my target audience, I owe it to my books…and my readers to give it a shot.

Have you thought about who your target audience is, and what niche markets you might be missing?

Sex in Science Fiction by Tam Linsey

Happy Friday everyone! Casey here. Today my guest is science fiction romance author Tam Linsey. Tam and I met in a class to learn how to create a WordPress Blog and we’ve been buddies ever since!

Sex in Science Fiction

By Tam Linsey

In an interview by Scott Westerfield, Samuel Delany says, “The [science fiction] hero, though he may be a renegade, is a guy who doesn’t feel. Anything. Ever.” (Think Spock from Star Trek.) And according to Wikipedia, other than exploring alien methods of reproduction, “Sex is often linked to disgust in SF and horror, and plots based on sexual relationships have mainly been avoided in genre fantasy narratives.”

In the 60′s and 70′s, more science fiction authors broke into exploration of sexual themes, but it seems to me that most of these books dwell on the concept of sexuality (or, in many cases, homosexuality) rather than on relationships. Exploring a relationship requires delving deeply into a character’s point of view, and hardcore science fiction fans would rather read about the intricate physics involved in a starship warp-drive than get into a character’s head. Some readers insist characters in real science fiction only exist to further an idea or concept.

Anyone who has read a science fiction romance knows that’s no longer true.

Women are reading science fiction, and while we are drawn to science fiction theories, we also want characters who feel. We want characters who love. We want characters who experience the fullness of life, including sex. However, I will qualify my statement by saying sex scenes should belong in the story, not be thrown in for sensationalism.

There were multiple reasons I chose to include sex scenes in Botanicaust. First of all, the hero, Levi, comes from a repressed, fundamentalist society, where sex must only occur within the bounds of marriage. He struggles with his own carnal desires (he fathered his child out of wedlock, albeit with a woman he loved, and married after the fact.) And he struggles with other aspects of his religion. What better way to test his character than to pair him with a heroine from not only a more promiscuous society, but a society his people consider an abomination?

And the heroine, Tula, who is genetically engineered to have photosynthetic skin, is deeply affected by sunlight which creates alkaloids (drugs) in her body. Let’s just say these drugs tend to make her frisky. She’s confused about her first sexual encounter with Levi because she doesn’t know if it might be love, or merely the drugs. Of course, she must have sex again to find out.

Botanicaust is a science fiction romance. Although purists in either genre might complain, I attempted to satisfy readers in both camps, and that includes sex scenes. How do you define a successful blend of science fiction and romance? Can science fiction include sex?

The only crop left … is human

After genetically altered weeds devastate Earth’s croplands, much of humanity turns to cannibalism to survive. Dr. Tula Macoby believes photosynthetic skin can save the human race, and her people single-mindedly embark on a mission to convert the cannibals roaming what’s left of Earth. But when Levi, a peaceful stranger, refuses alteration, Tula doesn’t think the only options should be conversion or death.

Levi Kraybill, a devout member of the Old Order, left his Holdout farmland to seek a cure for his terminally ill son. Genetic manipulation is a sin, but Levi will do almost anything for the life of his child. When he’s captured, he’s sure he’s damned, and his only escape will be death.

Tula’s superiors schedule Levi’s euthanization, and she risks everything to set the innocent man free. Now she and Levi are outlaws with her people, and she’s an abomination with his. Can they find sanctuary in a cannibal wasteland?

Buy now at Amazon, Kobo, Smashwords, iTunes, All Romance Ebooks, or in paperback at Createspace

Tam Linsey lives in Alaska with her husband and two children. In spite of the rigors of the High North, she grows, hunts, or fishes for much of her family’s food. During the long Alaskan winters she writes speculative fiction.

Excerpt:

Tula sat on the desert floor clutching her knees against her chest, face slack and eyes glazed. She babbled the whole time he worked. He assumed she was offering directions, but since he couldn’t understand, he didn’t pay attention. He draped the blanket over himself like a cape and held out the robe toward her, leaves and branches rattling in the stiff breeze. Her eyes widened and she skittered backward. “No, no.”

“Tula, we have to hide.”

She shook her head vehemently. The duster sped closer. Had he and Tula been spotted?

“Tula. Hide!” He tried to put the robe over her. She cried out and scurried away, moaning.

What was wrong with her? The flyer was nearly upon them. He pounced on her and dragged her to a beat-up stand of amarantox. Pushing her backward to the ground, he settled on top of her to hold her still. Her struggles didn’t make covering them with the blanket and robe easy. “Tula, stay still,” he said against her cheek.

She sobbed and relaxed her limbs, but her whole body trembled violently. Panting against his shoulder, she moaned his name.

“Shhhh. Tula.”

They waited. How long until the search party came their way? Beneath the blanket the air grew stuffy. The smell of evergreen filled the space, and he became embarrassingly aware of how close they were. Pressed against her skin so intimately, they might as well be making love, he couldn’t help his arousal.

Save me from temptation…

The drone of the duster drew nearer.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured. His hips ached to press tighter against her. Her hands crept up his sides, gripping the small of his back. Lips against his shoulder.

Stiffening, he said, “God, Tula, no.”

The fabric over them rustled in a breeze, halting his protest. The humming flyer passed directly over their position.

Seemingly unconcerned, her tongue caressed the skin at the edge of his collarbone in lazy circles. What was wrong with her?

“Tula, we mustn’t.” The same words he’d spoken to Sarah so many times.

The whirr of the craft faded, but he resisted the urge to move. They could still be nearby.

She pulled his head toward her, lips against lips. The hint of wintergreen filled his mouth.

A shiver raced to his toes as the world spun out from under him, like after drinking too much apple wine. The soft warmth of a woman seemed like a dream, smooth skin beneath his fingertips, a subtle sigh of sweet air against his cheek. His body took over, and suddenly the duster didn’t matter. The hard, dry earth beneath them didn’t matter. The only thing in his world right now was the willing woman beneath him.

Her legs parted, encouraging his hips between them. He could hardly breathe beneath the blanket. Tasting her lips again, his head spun with drunken desire.

Her fingers bit into the flesh of his buttocks, pulling him deeper, closer, as her heels locked his thighs in place above her.

No turning back. Waves of mind-numbing pleasure crashed around him and he let go, primal need claiming him. The release was exquisite, lasting forever and over too soon. Palms planted against the baked earth, he lifted, allowing a cool rush of air to flutter beneath the blanket. She was so beautiful, the light turning her skin green. Green?

His head swam as he raised his face to the horizon. What had just happened, here? She was Blattvolk. A temptress of the devil. And they were supposed to be hiding from the search party. “What have you done to me?”

She didn’t speak, just traced his lips with her index finger. His vision wavered again. Drugs. She’d drugged him. This must be a trap.

Wow! <fanning face> Thanks for being our guest today Tam. So romance fans, who’s read a sci-fi romance? And sci-fans, do you enjoy romance with your science fiction?

WIND OVER MARSHDALE is blowing your way! Welcome Tracy Krauss

Katy Lee here with my fellow John 3:16 Author Network member and fellow Romantic-Suspense author, Tracy Krauss. Tracy has a new book out that just screams, “Read me!” Whenever I find a book or author that I enjoy, I like to share the find with you. So today, I have invited Tracy Krauss to tell us a little bit about herself. Sit back and relax and grab a mini buffalo burger to celebrate her latest release, WIND OVER MARSHDALE

Tell us, Tracy, how do you battle the doubt monster?  We define the Doubt Monster as: the nagging feeling while writing, that your prose is terrible, you plot is silly, your characters are insipid and no-one in their right mind would read this drivel, let alone buy it.

I ignore this beast. I’ve found that editors are a wonderful substitute.

Ha-Ha! They are a beast all their own, for sure. But we need them. And talk about a beast …these burgers are great! And apparently good for you.

So, have you thought about writing something that is completely different for you?  Perhaps writing in a new genre or just taking a story someplace that you haven’t done before.

Sure. I am a huge Science fiction fan and I’ve often thought about writing something more speculative since it is my favourite genre to read. I’m not sure if I’m imaginative enough or have enough technological savvy to pull it off, though. Maybe because I love reading it so much, I feel as if I couldn’t do the genre justice… Besides romantic suspense novels, I do write comedy stage plays, so I suppose I’m already stretching myself in two very different directions as it is.

Comedy stage plays? Wow! Talk about pressure to be funny! That’s great that you have the gift to make people laugh.

But what would you do if you couldn’t be a writer any longer?

I’ve already had a taste of what this is like. A few years ago I underwent eye surgery for a congenital eye disorder and I was blind for about two months with another three months recovering where I couldn’t read anything or use a computer. Once I was able, I installed a disability app which allowed me to view things in a huge format – about three words per screen, but I found this too difficult, so I just didn’t write for five months. If this ever happened again, I would get ‘dragonspeak’ or some kind of voice activated software. It was just too hard.

I’ve heard great things about the voice software. Glad you are healed, though.

They say that every author has a partially completed, quite-possibly-terrible half a story shoved in a drawer somewhere.  What is yours?  What is it about?  What makes it terrible?  Would you ever consider picking it up and finishing it?

I don’t know if it’s terrible, but I just lost interest in it. It’s called ‘Spirit’s Call’ and it’s about a modern native woman who is grappling with her identity, including her interest in native spirituality. I actually used some of the same themes in my latest release WIND OVER MARSHDALE, so I’m not sure I want to write another story about this. If I ever feel fresh inspiration to finish it, I might, but right now I’ve got too many other things on the go that actually interest me.

It’s hard to keep that interest up to keep going. You definitely have to care about the story or your lack of caring will come through on the page. I think that would be worse than forcing the book just to get it done. So good for you for recognizing that.

How do you come up with your shtick?   By shtick I mean your voice. That thing that identifies the story as belonging to only you …something that says these are the type of stories that are your brand.

I think it’s what some people call ‘edgy Christian’ or ‘edgy inspirational’. My work definitely has a redemptive slant, and I write from a Christian worldview, but I don’t shy away from topics that some might consider taboo. I write what I think is relevant in today’s post-modern society.  As well, I certainly do not want my characters to come across as wishy-washy. You know the kind – Mr. or Miss Perfect.  I prefer what I call ‘authentic’ characters that make mistakes; that sometimes think lustful thoughts; that don’t always pray or do the right thing. This to me is much more believable. It’s honest. This isn’t always easy to pitch to typical Christian markets. I have found that there is a market for this type of writing, though, and it is growing.

And I love that the market for this kind of inspirational is growing. I think more people will give a Christian book a try if they can relate to it.

Now, what’s the most dangerous or risky thing that you’ve done?

You must be kidding. I have actually done way too many dangerous and risky things, but not by choice. I am naturally rather passive. I prefer sitting on the couch. Really. However, God in His sense of humour put me with a man who loves adventure – and unfortunately for me I often get dragged along. Let’s see … stranded on the tundra in a polar bear denning area for the night; chased by a stampeding herd of wild buffalo – on foot; caught in ten foot waves out of sight of land in sub-zero water in a tiny aluminum boat with no life jacket; canoe nearly tipped over by whales – again no life jacket… I always tease him that someday I’m going to write a book called ‘Life With Gerald’, and believe me, it might not be pretty! We’ve moved umpteen times in our married life, many of the places north of the 60^th parallel in the far north. (Not some namby-pamby idea of ‘north’ – I’m talking the real deal, as in ARCTIC!) It has given me lots of fodder for writing and it has made me very resilient.

Yowza! You COULD write a book, even if it is a book filled with little research tidbits for us writers who are too afraid to “go there” for their books.

And speaking of writing a book … Tell us about your latest book!  

WIND OVER MARSHDALE is my fourth novel and the first that I’ve published with Astraea Press. My other three novels, AND THE BEAT GOES ON, MY MOTHER THE MAN-EATER, and PLAY IT AGAIN, were all published by Strategic Book Publishing. I enjoyed working with SBP, but my agent found a contract for this latest book with Astraea and I have had a very good experience with them so far. WIND OVER MARSHDALE is about a small prairie town that looks peaceful and quaint on the outside, but underneath there are all kind of issues, especially with racism, sexual promiscuity, and the occult. Thomas Lone Wolf is a Cree man on a mission to build a heritage site near the town based on some ancient archaeological evidence. He and his children aren’t prepared for the level of prejudice they begin to face. Rachel Bosworth is the new Kindergarten teacher, fresh from the big city and running away from a hurtful past. Con McKinley is a local farmer, who also happens to be single and good looking. A love triangle of sorts develops, with the two men unwitting participants. As well, eccentric twin sisters bombard the town; one with her legalistic religious views and the other as a practicing witch. The local pastor has little effect trying to keep his parishioners in line since he is involved in some unsavoury business of his own. The lives of these and many other unusual characters weave together into a surprising climax.  Beneath it all is a thread linking everyone’s problems to the spirit realm; an ancient curse from the past that must be dealt with once and for all.

Like I said, it just screams, “Read me!”

Tracy, tell our readers how they can find you after today?

Website: http://www.tracykrauss.com

Blog: http://www.tracykraussexpressionexpress.com

FB: http://tinyurl.com/Tracy-Krauss-Author-Fanpage

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/TracyKrausswrtr

Amazon: http://www.kraussamazon.com

Purchase links:

Publisher : Astraea press http://astraeapress.com/#ecwid:category=662245&mode=product&product=12328252

Amazon – http://www.amazon.com/Wind-Over-Marshdale-ebook/dp/B008ARYQPA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339803471&sr=8-1&keywords=wind+over+marshdale

Barnes and Noble – http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wind-over-marshdale-tracy-krauss/1111512160?ean=2940014767682

Marshdale. Just a small farming community where nothing special happens.  A perfect place to start over… or get lost. There is definitely more to this prairie town than meets the eye. Once the meeting place of aboriginal tribes for miles around, some say the land itself was cursed because of the people’s sin. But its history goes farther back than even indigenous oral history can trace and there is still a direct descendant who has been handed the truth, like it or not. Exactly what ties does the land have to the medicine of the ancients? Is it cursed, or is it all superstition?

Wind Over Marshdale is the story of the struggles within a small prairie town when hidden evil and ancient medicine resurface. Caught in the crossfire, new teacher Rachel Bosworth finds herself in love with two men at once. First, there is Thomas Lone Wolf, a Cree man whose blood lines run back to the days of ancient medicine but who has chosen to live as a Christian and faces prejudice from every side as he tries to expose the truth. Then there is Con McKinley, local farmer who has to face some demons of his own. Add to the mix a wayward minister seeking anonymity in the obscurity of the town; eccentric twin sisters – one heavily involved in the occult and the other a fundamentalist zealot; and a host of other ‘characters’ whose lives weave together unexpectedly for the final climax. This suspenseful story is one of human frailty – prejudice, cowardice, jealousy, and greed – magnified by powerful spiritual forces that have remained hidden for centuries, only to be broken in triumph by grace.

Link to an excerpt: http://tracykrauss.yolasite.com/wind-over-marshdale-first-chapters.php

QUESTION: Readers, Tracy is here today to answer any of your questions and comments. So give her some love! And how were your burgers????

Sex and Zero-G

Happy Friday everyone! Casey here!

One of fun parts of writing is research. Normally, I don’t do very much research other than getting a feel for a geographic location (thank you, Google Earth) or learning more about a specific process (tattooing) or a particular bit of history (like naming conventions for Chinese males).

I love history and learning about new cultures, places or people. But when it comes to writing, I tend to steer clear, otherwise I would never finish anything. And I don’t want to be overwhelmed with too many facts or details.

However, when the subject was vampires in space or more specifically, the undead on Mars, I couldn’t wait to dig in. In a few short weeks, my next book, The Undead Space Initiative is coming out. Before I wrote the book, I did some research on space travel and conditions on Mars. I visited NASA‘s website and Google Mars (yes, can you believe it? There is a such a thing!)

Aside from a lifetime’s worth of experience reading Sci-Fi novels, I also turned to a book byMary Roach – Packing for Mars. I had a blast reading this book.

I learned many fun and fascinating facts such as:

• NASA hired veterinarians to create the first meals for astronauts (and how they couldn’t understand why people didn’t want to eat food shaped like kibble).
• There are studies out there, where you can be paid to not leave bed for a year at a time (literally – you can’t get off the bed – you must sleep, eat and do everything else in the bed). The purpose of this is to understand the long-term effects of zero-G.
• A great deal of scientific know how and design went into making an actual toilet in space. The book goes into ridiculous detail so I will spare you.
• Japanese astronauts are locked into small rooms with each and made to fold paper cranes for hours on end (to study personality and other behavioral dynamics).

There is so much more, but you’ll have to read it yourself to find out the rest.

Now, in case you’re wondering, and because I did bring it up in the title of this blog – can you have sex in space?

The books touches on the subject with a bit of thinly veiled frustration. While there have been no officially documented studies sanctioned by any space faring government, there are plenty of rumors in the space community, that it is possible. I came up with my own conclusions for purposes of storytelling.

So, what does any of this research have to do with my book?

Everything and nothing.

I’m a big believer in verisimilitude or the appearance of reality. Ms. Roach’s book helped solidify my belief that the undead, like vampires, zombies and revenants would do very well in space and on Mars.Here’s why:

They are dead.

They don’t need to breathe, eat or use the toilet.

Their bodies can stand extreme temperatures and they won’t get cancer from gamma ray bursts.

Quite simply, they are perfect recruits for settling Mars.

And while it was fun to learn about space toilets, and kibble, none of those things appear in my book. None of my characters break out into spontaneous bouts of paper crane folding either.

I did use facts as best I could. Yes, there are clouds in the Martian sky, dust storms that last for days, and scientists believe there is water in the Martian permafrost. But there are plenty of other things in the book that are my own invention.

And no, I won’t say what they are! You’ll have to read the story to find out how vampires travel in space and learn to live on Mars.

While we’re on the subject of research and sex – if you have a moment – please stop by and visit my blog today - 60 Inches of Glory where I talk about one of my favorite tools for research (and get your mind out of the gutter!).

How much research do you like to do before writing? And how do you use those facts? Or does the thought of research cause you to break out in hives?

Falling Skies

Welcome to Tuesday’s Secrets of 7 Scribes. PJ, here. Have any of you seen the television series, FALLING SKIES?  Great cast, neat effects, and well written. It’s also research for my current WIP. This TNT sleeper series is a post-apocalyptic story of what happens after the world is invaded by aliens. Survivors band together in small militia groups and fight the invaders and their creepy multi-legged “Skitters” and hope to regain control of the world or will die trying.

The story follows one such group, made up of your average cross-section of Americans, including a former Army Captain (played by Will Patton), who the group has dubbed their leader, a woman doctor (played by the lovely and talented Moon Bloodgood—love that name), who can basically do field surgery under very unsterile conditions and not seem to worry about infection, and an ordinary history teacher, played by a handsome in a scruffy kind of “anti-Carter” way, Noah Wiley, who is the humble moral-compass of a hero for the show. Folks walk around armed, grubby, scavenging for food and supplies, and trying to protect their children from being taken over by the aliens who control them with a harness that is attached to their spinal columns, that if removed, will cause death…in most cases. One teen survives and is left with some extraordinary abilities, but we’re all waiting to see if the aliens will find a way to control him once again. If alien monsters aren’t enough, our survivors need to worry about enemies in their own camp. Have I piqued your interest?

I’m not usually a big fan of “aliens take over the Earth” type movies, but this one grabbed me last season and I anxiously awaited its return this summer. You see, I was already percolating the idea of writing a dystopian story. THE CHRONICLES OF LILY CARMICHAEL came to me all mapped out in trilogy form. I knew where book one began and ended, what would happen in book two, and how the saga would come together in book three. Writing a trilogy, let alone a dystopian, was a first for me, so I decided to do some research before diving in. After reading the Hunger Games, The Giver, How I Live Now, and a few other dystopian tales, I had an idea of what types of details I wanted to include. But I had trouble seeing the logistics of what a post-apocalyptic world might actually look like. FALLING SKIES has filled in some of those blanks for me. How people live with no electricity, how they work together to find and prepare food, and what the landscape might look like once no one is maintaining roads or neighborhoods. It’s amazing to think about how fast everything would be reclaimed by nature. My back yard is evidence of this if we don’t weed-whack for a while.

In addition to FALLING SKIES, I’ve taken to watching episodes of DOOMSDAY PREPPERS. I’m fascinated by all of the theories that people have regarding the fall of our society and what they plan to do about it. Whether financial collapse, natural disasters, or zombie apocalypse, some folks seem to be remarkably equipped. They have enough food and water stored up to last years. Most have weapons amassed. One woman was so touched by her husband’s gift of a massive shipping container that they planned to bury in their yard to store supplies, that she was brought to tears. These people are serious about surviving whatever future awaits them.

Perhaps it’s too much research, but the whole apocalypse thing is making me a bit squirrelly. Lily’s story will have elements of the doom and gloom that would likely be a part of a post-apocalyptic world, but there is an underlying hopefulness that our planet and our species can survive. Lily is a healer after all, and she is determined to share that gift with the world that she feels is worth saving. Me–I’m pretty much a “live in the moment” kind of girl, but I do like to be prepared. I used to tell my scout troop, “Expect the best, but prepare for the worst.” I’m not sure how that applies to an apocalyptic catastrophe, but I’m leaning toward “expecting the best.” On the “prepare for the worst” side, my research has me taking a gun safety course next weekend with my husband and making sure I have enough emergency supplies in my house, but if a plague hits, as is the case in my “dystopian world,” I hope Noah Wiley remembers his ER days and comes to my rescue.

How about you? Do you use television and movies to do your research? More importantly, are you prepared for the worst, or expecting the best?

 

Julia Rachel Barrett – Ghostly Love

Happy Freakish Friday everyone! Casey Wyatt here.

Please welcome today’s guest  Julia Rachel Barrett.  If you haven’t read any of Julia’s books, you are missing out on some great reads. Click here to read my review of her book Beauty and the Feast.

 And in  the spirit of our  Spooky Week theme – please check out her ghostly love story Incorporeal.

Let’s here what Julia has to say about romance.

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Why Write? 

Perhaps the better question is, why not? I have a spotty history in the world of literature. Like so many readers, I knew I wanted to be a writer from the time I was very young, maybe five or six years old. Here’s a truism, if you love to tell stories, to make up stories in your head, you probably love to read and chances are you’d like to write.

It’s not as simple as it seems and a lot depends upon what your goals are. Do you want to sell a whole lot of books? I suspect anybody can sell bunches of books if the subject matter is prurient enough. Do you want to be a damn good writer? Takes work.

A Tale of Ghostly Love

How did I begin? I began by reading everything in sight, in every genre available to me. My early loves were poetry, mystery stories, fantasy/science fiction, and even comic books. Don’t laugh. Comic books are great for learning economy of words. The creator has to express an emotion and move a story forward in very few words. Of course comics also contain expressive action words like Pow! Bam! Smack! Crash!

I moved from poetry to short stories – which are making a comeback with the advent of e-publishing – to nonfiction articles for nursing and medical journals to literary fiction. Aside from freelance articles, finding a publisher for my works of fiction was an exercise in futility. I queried agents and publishers for too many years without results. While I was raising small children and working part time, I filed the manuscripts away and focused on my job as a hospice nurse.

Smokin’ Hot Good Read

In 2007 I found myself sidelined by a climbing injury…tore my left knee up pretty bad. For a year I either wore a titanium brace or used crutches while researching surgeons and then waiting for the surgeon I chose to fit me in for a repair. A friend took pity on me and brought me a romance novel – Kill and Tell, by Linda Howard, and I was hooked. I had always dismissed romance as ‘bodice rippers’ and it was one genre I ignored. Linda Howard told a damn good sexy story. I went on to read everything she’d written up to that point and moved on to Karen Marie Moning, then Hannah Howell and Lynsay Sands. I realized that with the life I’d lived, I had stories to tell, romantic stories, gripping, touching, loving stories, and I wrote my first romance.

Never looked back. Now I look forward to a brave new world of self-publishing. I can revise and release the series of short stories I worked so hard on years ago. In the meantime I have a full-length paranormal romance available on Kindle, Incorporeal, and I’ll soon release the sequel, In the Flesh. I have nine romances out to date with publishers in ebook and print and I’ve self-published another five books in a variety of genres and lengths.

Coming soon!

Come visit me anytime on my site – Julia’s World – http://juliarachelbarrett.net

Thanks for having me, Casey!

Any time Julia. Thanks for being our guest today. Please feel free to leave Julia a question.

Tell us, what are your writing goals? And why do you write? And for our readers, what are you looking for when you choose your next book?

I Heart Sci Fi

The Scribes would like to welcome guest blogger, Jael Wye!  Thanks for being with us today, Jael.  I’m guessing from your title, that you are going to talk about the world of Sci Fi.  Take it away…

It’s tough being a science fiction author these days.  The golden age of slimy aliens and tinfoil brassiere-clad spacebabes is long gone, at least in literary form.  Over the last decades, the undeniably kick-ass visuals in scifi movies and videogames have lured the scifi fanboys and girls away from their books.  (Kids these days, I tell ya.) 

So right now the popular audience for novels set in outer space is pretty small.  Imagine, then, the miniscule sliver of interest there is in romance novels set in outer space.

At first glance, the two genres seem completely incompatible.  Romance is focused on relationships, while scifi is focused on concepts.  Romance fans might not cotton to the notion of a hero with a light saber instead of fangs or knee-breeches, while scifi fans might fear getting girl cooties.  However, there are, in fact, several good examples of the fusion of scifi and romance out there, like the novels of Linnea Sinclair, Jane Castle (Jane Ann Krentz), and Sara Creasy.

Still, there’s no getting around the fact that writing romances set in space is not for the faint of heart or the empty of pocket.  I do it because I love it, and I think (hope) there are a few others out there among the seven billion people on this planet (or others) who will also love it if given the chance.

That’s not to say I’m eager to sacrifice a potential paycheck on the altar of my art.  No, I have faith that the future holds endless possibilities for drawing some decent royalties.  Right now scifi is going through a down period of popular interest, but, like Spock in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, it will eventually resurrect itself and continue to boldly go etc. etc. 

So, I write what I love, and I wait for the golden moment to become the JK Rowling of scifi/romance novels.  Meanwhile, I buck myself up with the knowledge that people will get bored with the freakin’ earls and vampires eventually, right?

Here’s my question of the day—what is your favorite scifi romance?  I vote for Mulder/Scully, though Han Solo/Princess Leia was also pretty hot.

 

 

 

Thanks Jael!

 

Do Your Worst — The Bulwer-Lytton Awards

Hello, all.  Susannah here.  Are you ready to be . . . BAD?

It was a dark and stormy night . . .

The word famous novelist hard at work on his next bestseller!

You might recognize this as the phrase with which Snoopy always begins his novels.  What you might not know is that these are the opening words of a real 1830 novel, Paul Clifford, by Edward George Bulwer-Lytton.  

Every year the English Department of San Jose State University sponsors the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, a “whimsical literary competition that challenges entrants to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels.”  The winners of this year’s competion have been announced, and let me tell you, there are some clunkers.  Wonderful, clever, awful clunkers.  Here’s the winner of the romance category: 

As the dark and mysterious stranger approached, Angela bit her lip anxiously, hoping with every nerve, cell, and fiber of her being that this would be the one man who would understand—who would take her away from all this—and who would not just squeeze her boob and make a loud honking noise, as all the others had.  -Ali Kawashima, Greensboro, NC 

Are you snorting coffee out your nose yet?  You can read more of this brilliant dreck, and enjoy all the winning entries, here.

We spend so much time trying to make our writing better — paring down adverbs, making sure we show-don’t-tell, reining in dialogue to keep it tight and to the point.  But I think it’s important to send the Inner Editor out for a Cosmo once in a while and allow ourselves to write something Bad.  Outrageously Bad, even. 

You probably know about the Writer’s Prime Directive:  ”Kill your darlings.”  What author William Faulkner meant by that is that when we edit we must put our egos aside and attack our writing dispassionately, rooting out all the excess verbiage, no matter how much we love what we have written.  Well, today, I am giving you permission to create some Darlings.  They probably won’t survive to the end of your story, like the expendable red-shirted guys in the original Star Trek show.   But you’ll have some fun, just the same.

Go ahead.  Do your worst!  Brownie points will be awarded if you’re brave enough to post a Darling here!

Here’s mine:  Upon the one hundredth rejection of her manuscript, Rochelle’s unuttered dreams sputtered, then exploded into an infinite number of prismatic shards, rainbow-brilliant in the light of day, not unlike the time a lit M-80 somehow penetrated the disco ball at Millard Fillmore High School’s junior prom during the playing of “Stairway to Heaven,” or the accidental demise of a certain type of vampire in an outdoor science class when a Mentos, Diet Coke, and wooden stake experiment went horribly, fatally wrong.  

I Like it Rough

Hey, everyone. Welcome to our blog!

I’m Casey Wyatt, Friday’s Scribe. I write Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance. I’ve always loved stories with magic and otherworldly elements. Growing up, I was a geek fan girl of Fantasy and Sci-Fi books. I still enjoy them. I’ve since expanded to include Romance, Urban Fantasy, manga, anime (okay, I know anime’s not a written genre, but it’s a great art form), and anything with zombies!

As a writer, I love to write steamy romantic encounters, dark scenes, and subject my characters to emotional or physical chaos.

So, about the title of this blog – I like it rough. Yes, I do. That first, rough draft.

The only draft where, creatively, I’m allowed to do whatever I want. No criticism, no doubt, and no English teacher rules allowed. No self-editing along the way. And it’s not easy to do. At least not for me. In my day job, when I write,  I’m the creator and editor at the same time. Totally efficient for business writing.

Not great when writing a novel.  Embrace this reality. There’s no such thing as a perfect first draft.  Accept this fact too - there is no such thing as a perfect manuscript either. Trust me. Believe these truths and you’ll feel a lot better.

On that happy day, when the first draft is done, for a brief shining moment, I marvel at my creation. It’s an awesome sight to behold. I savor the “I finished it” high. Ah, such sweet victory.

Then it’s back to reality. The internal critic/editor runs wild.  Here’s where I fix the typos, delete things that don’t make sense, plug the plot holes, and correct the wonky grammar (commas and I have a love/hate relationship). After that it’s off to my trusted beta readers and critique partners. And then a final round of polishing (only the changes I agree with).

I’m a firm believer (this is also from hard-won experience) in letting the book go. It will never be perfect, so please, I’m begging you – do not revise your book over and over. That is just a rat hole. An excuse not to move on. As NY Times bestseller, Jessica Anderson likes to say: “you’re re-arranging the furniture”.

Send your book out into the world and move on to the next one. If you don’t continue writing new material, you’ll never grow your skills.

Viva the first draft. Scribe on!