It’s Friday, so I’ve got company here on the Shelves. Today, I’ve got a guest post from Erica Lucke Dean, author of To Katie with Love, about Chick Lit. I don’t read a lot of Chick Lit, but I am a big fan of people reading what they like and I am not one to put down a genre just because I don’t read it. I too often hear people put down chick lit and I like to ask chick lit authors if they get the respect they deserve…Even better, we’ve got a giveaway and other goodies, so be sure to read through to the end!

 

 

My name is Erica, and I write chick lit.

My name is Erica, and I write chick lit.

It sounds like I’m introducing myself at a secret group meeting of similar genre writers, sequestered away in dark basements where we sip on full-caf vanilla lattes and chain-scarf chocolate bonbons while we trade stories about our cats, and console each other about our sad, unfulfilled lives, doesn’t it?

Okay, so maybe the part about the chocolate is true. I do dig the chocolate. But the rest? Pffft! Are you kidding me?

I don’t skulk around in dark hoodies, hiding my face like some sort of fugitive of fiction. Not me! I’m dressed in pink from head to toe, dancing around with a bouquet of fresh daisies clutched to my chest, ready for the “he loves me, he loves me not,” moment to present itself. And let’s face it… of course, he loves me.

And why wouldn’t he? My life has a soundtrack. It’s not unusual to find me skipping from room to room to the perky beat, as bubble hearts float up from my head. I’m not kidding! Even as I type, I’m salivating at the perfect man, cooking me breakfast—to be served in bed—while flashing his impossibly perfect abs for me to gaze at while I eat.

So, maybe that’s not true either. I’m just a regular chick who likes to write about stuff that will make people laugh, maybe make a few hearts go pitter patter along the way, and then leave you with an all-around good feeling at the end. And really, what’s wrong with that? I’m no Stephen King, no Jackie Collins, no JK Rowling, but I’m perfectly happy to be me… a chick lit writer.

When did people get so judgmental about genres anyway? Why does chick lit deserve less respect than say, drama or mystery? It’s that whole “commercial” aspect isn’t it? The minute you tack on commercial before the word fiction, you run into the whole, “You’re not a serious writer. You just wrote that because people will buy it,” crap.

And to my detractors, yes, I wrote it because people will buy it. Isn’t that the point? What good does it do to write a book if no one wants to buy it? But that’s certainly not the only reason. I have characters in my head screaming at me to get their stories out, and they could care less if anyone buys it. They just want someone to read it.

And sure, I could have easily written a sweeping epic of family drama that critics would hail as the next Gatsby, but where’s the fun in that? Not to knock Fitzgerald, he totally rocked, but sweeping epics are not my thing. I’m writing for the women of the world who simply want a fun romp to bring a smile to their lips. Life is meant to be laughed at—enjoyed—and chick lit does that. So as long as someone still wants to read it, I’ll keep writing. With… um…my little stash of  chocolate bonbons at my side. Because, yeah…

I’m still a chick who digs chocolate.

Today, I’ve got a great guest post and some terrific pictures from Julie Ann Walker, author of Rev It Up. You know that I don’t really read romance, but I was intrigued by the pitch for Julie Ann’s book and interested in the way she talked about travel. (Regular readers here know how much I love to travel!) Today, Julie Ann shares some of her pictures with us, as well as a copy of her new book! Be sure to enter the giveaway…

 

The Traveling Writer

(Not to be confused with a Travel Writer <- Though that job sounds fun, too!)

A big howdy and how are ya to all you romantic suspense fans out there! Julie Ann Walker here, author of the bestselling Black Knights Inc. series. I’m pleased as punch to be at Alive on the Shelves talking about planes, trains, and automobiles… A.K.A : How travel inspires my writing and some of my favorite places in the whole wide world!

Now, for those of you who’ve read my books, you know that even though my series is based in Chicago, I like to take my characters globetrotting when I can. And maybe that’s because, as St. Augustine so succinctly put it, “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.” I live my life by the tenet, so why shouldn’t my heroes and heroines? LOL! Plus, there’s that whole foreign-lands-add-to-the-atmosphere-of-intrigue-adventure -and-sexiness thing that pretty much defines the romantic suspense genre. And what better way to write about a place than to experience it first-hand?

So without further ado, I give you some of my absolute favorite places on this big, blue marble we call Earth!

Favorite Manmade Monument: (The Great Wall of China)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Favorite View: (Big Island, Hawaii)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Favorite Hike: (The Grand Canyon, Arizona)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Favorite Shopping: (Florence, Italy)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Favorite Food: (The paella in Barcelona, Spain)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Favorite Romantic Spot: (Paris, France)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Favorite Place to Watch the World Go By: (Venice, Italy)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Favorite Wine: (Port wine served in Lisbon, Portugal)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Favorite Historical Spot: (Rome, Italy)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Favorite Nighttime Walk: (Budapest, Hungary)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to Alive on the Shelves for having me on today. It was lovely!

THRILL RIDE BY JULIE ANN WALKER – IN STORES APRIL 2013

He’s Gone Rogue…
Ex-navy SEAL Rock Babineaux is as Cajun as they come—spicy, sexy, and more than a bit wicked. But would he actually betray his country? Even his best friends on the special-ops Black Knights team aren’t sure they can trust him. Now the target of a massive manhunt, Rock knows the only way to protect the team—especially his partner, Vanessa—is to run…

She Won’t Back Down…
Rock might think he can outmaneuver them all, but he hasn’t counted on how stubborn Vanessa Cordero can be. And she refuses to cut him loose. Sure, her partner has his secrets, but there’s no one in the world she’d rather have by her side in a tight spot. Which is good because she and Rock are about to get very tight…

Julie Ann Walker is the New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author of the Black Knights Inc. romantic suspense series. She is prone to spouting movie quotes and song lyrics. She’ll never say no to sharing a glass of wine or going for a long walk. She prefers impromptu travel over the scheduled kind, and she takes her coffee with milk. You can find her on her bicycle along the lake shore in Chicago or blasting away at her keyboard, trying to wrangle her capricious imagination into submission. Look for the first four books in her fast-paced series: Hell On Wheels (August 2012) In Rides Trouble (September 2012) Rev It Up (October 2012) and Thrill Ride (April 2013). For more information, please visit www.julieannwalker.com or follow her on Facebook www.facebook.com/jawalkerauthor and/or Twitter  @JAWalkerAuthor.

 

One of the most interesting things about sci-fi and fantasy novels is the idea of world building – creating a whole new universe for your characters. You need names and places and rules, rules for your characters to live by and you have to be able to stick to them. So much power! And so much responsibility.

Today, I’ve got a guest post from Adi, author of Tantra, talking about world building. Now, you know I like to take it easy on Fridays and let the authors do the talking, so here we go…

 

The Art of World Building

By Adi

When I decided to create a brand new world (or in the case of Tantra, a slightly modified version of the existing one), at first it seemed rather exciting. I was the de facto God. Sure, vampires could exist, and maybe pigs could fly, and people could transport themselves across continents with a single click.

But at some point I realized every single world, no matter how mundane or fantastic, needs to have its own laws of physics and rules. For fantasy authors, this involves extensive plotting and mapping, much of which never even shows up in the final book. Readers these days are quick to point out inconsistencies, and those inconsistencies can break down the entire illusion an author like me is trying to create.

To allow the reader to believe in a world, you must explain how it works, its limitations, and how your characters will interact with it. This is especially true of the hero. In classic superhero stories, the powers of the superhero are well defined. The antagonist only becomes truly interesting when he or she is able to circumvent those powers, or mitigate them. The reader believes the hero is in trouble only if he or she knows the hero’s limitations, and the resulting difficult choices.

When writing Tantra, a critical challenge was not only how to create a new world, but how to connect it seamlessly to a philosophy and religion that are several thousand years old. I had to answer questions like do vampires have souls? How are human beings connected by the threads of maya, karma and dharma? How would one summon an ancient weapon? How does sound integrate with action in a world of illusion?

As plot grew more complex, more questions came up. Tantra’s main character, the vampire hunter Anu, studies an ability called “the shift,” which can be learned by anyone. But then how old is the ability? How does it medically work? Why can’t someone learn it on their own? Some of these questions get answered in this book, while I intentionally left others for sequels or off-the-page author questions. This is another lesson for writers: you need to manage the information flow to the reader properly, thinking more about engagement, action, and plot, rather than giving a social studies lecture on your brave new world.

Another troublesome factor for writers comes in when thinking of tangential books and sequels. You often make choices about your world which work very well for the first book, but start to limit or even foil your vision for the follow-up novels. Television soap operas made this into a comical art: sure, we said twenty episodes ago that Jane’s sister is dead, but she’s not now. It was a conspiracy! She looks nothing like she used to? Oh, she had plastic surgery. And Greg? He touched some space alien stone, and now he can fly and move things with his mind.

Authors do not seem to have the same leeway. Even in the realm of fantasy, while we revel in freedom, the art of building a new world is in many ways a discipline.

How do you do it? Documentation, documentation, documentation.

Good authors maintain extensive notes. Literary giants like Tolkien even created their own maps to keep everything tracked and in good order. For Tantra, I started with in-depth character descriptions: what do they eat? What do they wear? How do they feel about the rules of the world around them? How much do they even know about it? What misconceptions do they have? Then I moved on to connecting my world’s underpinnings, sketching it all out on a giant glass pane with red markers to track concept movement. A particularly challenge was tracking memories and the resulting karma through multiple rebirths, vampire risings, and childhood trauma.

It was hard and, after a while, even a bit boring. I got into this gig wanting to express words, not make flow-charts, diagrams, and family trees. But now that the book is out and the readers are responding to it, I know the time investment was well worth it. Because sometimes all it takes is a well-placed question by a fan to bring your wonderfully constructed world crashing down, not only for you and the fan, but for everyone.

Click through for more about Tantra and Adi.

(more…)

If it’s Friday, there must be a guest post! Today, I’ve got Elizabeth Corrigan, author of Oracle of Philadelphia:

Carrie works at a diner in South Philadelphia, dispensing advice to humans and angels wise enough to seek her counsel. But there are some problems that even the best advice can’t solve. Her latest supplicant, Sebastian, is unique among those who have sought her aid. He sold his soul to a demon in exchange for his sister’s life, but his heart remains pure.

Carrie has lived for millennia with the knowledge that her immortality is due to the suffering of others, and she cannot bear to see another good man damned when it is within her power to prevent it.

In order to renegotiate his contract, Carrie must travel into the depths of hell and parley with the demons that control its pathways. As the cost of her journey rises, Carrie must determine how much she is willing to sacrifice to save one good soul.

Now, how about a little bit from the author? Elizabeth shares with us the most important decision of her writing day…

Important Decisions

Elizabeth Corrigan

When I sit down to write each day, I must make a very serious choice: Do I stay home or go to Starbucks?

Obviously the ideal would be to go to a small indie coffee shop where I could support a local business and fair trade coffee, but sadly there is no such locale within easy walking distance of my apartment. Perhaps if I had my urbanite sister’s concept of what constitutes “within walking distance,” I could make my way up to the library coffee shop. Unfortunately, the one time I ventured in there, the cupcake I ordered made last year’s Tastykakes look fresh, and my not-particularly-large mocha options were “dark” or “cinnamon.” Since my preferred flavor is “white,” I was unimpressed by their exotic selections. So you can see how Starbucks is my preferred option.

There are a number of distinct advantages to going to Starbucks over staying home. First, I at least get some nominal exercise, which cannot be underestimated, considering that I am prodigiously lazy and often “forget” to order my mocha with skim milk. And of course, I cannot underestimate the bonus to writing I get by achieving the pretentious writer stereotype. I look around at all the other people in the coffee shop and think how impressed they would be that they’re sitting next to a novelist. Granted, I never actually talk to any of these people, and mostly they would rather I not be sitting there at all so that they could use my chair to keep their bags on. But I can at least imagine that when I make a million dollars, the local Starbucks can advertise that I wrote there when.

There are, of course, down sides to Starbucks, not the least of which is the very people I go there to impress. There are only six tables and a few stools, most of which are usually occupied by others who are trying, like me, to achieve the coffee shop aesthetic. Meanwhile, I am subjected to a variety of eclectic musical selections that Starbucks feels will be of interest to savvy coffee drinkers like myself, which can range anywhere from “Huh, I’ll have to see who sings this” to “Oh, dear caffeine gods, make it stop.”

If I work at home, on the other hand, I get to pick the soundtrack. I have a special playlist for each book that features my theme songs for each character—“Hero” by Chad Kroeger for Carrie in Oracle of Philadelphia, “Flagpole Sitta” by Harvey Danger for Bedlam—and assorted other songs, many of which are actually mentioned in the book, that remind me of scenes. At home I can also save myself the cost of frou-frou latte drinks and instead imbibe Diet Coke in quantities likely not encouraged by the FDA. My apartment also has the advantage and disadvantage of cats, who act intermittently as lap-warmers and random keystroke operators.

But of course the real question is where do I write better? The jury on that is not yet out. I shall continue to experiment until a conclusion is drawn. So long as no one expects me to write without caffeine.

This is a little delayed – got the guest post at the last minute and it ended up stuck in my spam filter. I hate when that happens! However, we’ve got it today, a little piece about inspiration. Good timing, because I was walking today in a place that really inspires me!

Inspiration

by David Seaburn

I think that writing itself is my chief inspiration. I think that we create meaning through the use of language in all its forms, writing being the one that I have adopted as my own best way of meaning-making. I was first trained in theology and then in family therapy and psychology. Each discipline taught me that stories are the way we make sense of our world and of our lives. As a psychotherapist for over thirty five years, I listened to thousands of stories told by people who were struggling with the most important issues one can face in life—trust, love, relationships, change, hope, fear, depression, loss. They taught me how to be a good story-listener which, in turn, has helped me be a good and faithful writer, one who tries to shine some light on the human experience.

I get excited when I finally sit down and write the first page of a new novel. I am excited because I know that for the next fourteen to eighteen months I will have time to struggle alone with issues that are critically important to me, and I hope to those who read my books.  My latest novel, Chimney Bluffs, is a good example. I had read an online news article about a couple in England who had committed suicide by jumping from a cliff after the death of their young son. What caught my attention most and made me curious about their decision was that they carried two sacks with them; one had their son; the other had his toys. I couldn’t shake the story from my mind. I wondered for weeks about how the couple had come to their decision. I also wondered what would have happened if one of the parents had survived the jump and had to deal with the aftermath of the son’s death. I decided to write Chimney Bluffs to wrestle with those two questions. Loss is a defining experience in anyone’s life, made more so when it is tragic in nature. In addition, I am interested in the meaning people attribute to their experience of loss and how that influences the decisions they make. Finally, I believe that relationships have the potential to transform even the worst experiences into opportunities for healing and hope.

In the case of Kate and Mitch Duncan, the protagonist couple in my novel, each has a reason for agreeing to suicide but the reasons differ entirely. Mitch feels it will bring the family together again in the afterlife. Kate doesn’t believe in an afterlife; she feels her son’s death is her fault, and for that reason, she deserves to die. In the story, Kate is the survivor. She is found by Clancy Brisco, a park ranger, and his assistant, Bobby, each of whom is dealing with losses of a different kind. These three wounded people eventually form an unlikely friendship that enables each of them to find enough hope to go on with their lives.

When I start writing a novel, I have a sturdy skeleton for the story and semi-well-developed character profiles. I then create life situations which will push these characters to deal (or not deal, as the case may be) with the issues that form the central theme of the book, in this case, loss. Having said this, I must admit that I don’t know where exactly the story will go, and I never know at the beginning how it will end. (I often don’t have a clear picture of the ending until I am in the last quarter of the book.) This purposeful not-knowing gives writing an energy and serendipity that is personally inspiring. I feel like I am not just the creator, but the created, changing through the writing process as much as my characters change.

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For more about David and Chimney Bluffs, check out his website: http://www.davidbseaburn.com/. You can read the first chapter there!

I know it’s not Friday, but I’ve got a bit of a double-whammy for you today! First, I’ve got a guest post from Alison Moton, author of Inceptio. Once you read Alison’s post about alternate realities, be sure to click through for one-chapter Sneak Peek that you can download! That should make for some great reading, right in the middle of the week.

First, the guest post. Next, a little about our author. Finally, the sneak peek. Happy reading!

 

Alternating reality

What if English King Harold had won the Battle of Hastings in 1066? Or if Julius Caesar had taken notice of the warning that assassins wanted to murder him on the Ides of March? Or if George Washington hadn’t crossed the Delaware River on Christmas night in 1776? The course of our history would have been so different, we might not even be here.

Sometimes, little things like a missed appointment, a delivery not made or an interrupted meeting can trigger changes that produce an alternate timeline. In the film Sliding Doors, when the train door shuts and Gwyneth Paltrow’s character splits into two, one version of the character rides away on the train to an alternative life, the other is left standing on the platform.

Change in a personal story can have a national impact – the so-called ‘butterfly effect’. In my book, INCEPTIO, Roma Nova has battled its way from a small colony of traditional Romans in the late fourth century to become a high tech, 21^st century financial mini-state which retained and developed Roman Republican values, but with a twist. These few hundred people trekking north sixteen centuries before has altered the rest of the world. The thriller story of INCEPTIO takes place against this background.

Historical novel writers reach into the past not only by researching a period in meticulous detail, but also by imagining what the characters see, smell, eat and touch in their everyday world. If you set your story in a different country, you can visit the places the characters would live in, smell the sea, touch the plants, walk under the hot blue sky, or freeze in a biting wind.

But if you invent that place, then your task is doubled. You have to get the geography and history of your imagined country right as well as the social, economic and political development; this sounds dry, but every living person is a product of their local conditions.

The key is plausibility. Take a character working in law enforcement. Readers can accept cops being gentle or tough, enthusiastic, intellectual or world-weary. Law enforcers come from all genders, classes, races and ages and stand in different places along the personal morality ruler. But whether corrupt or clean, they must act like a recognisable form of cop. They catch criminals, arrest and charge them and operate within a judicial system. Legal practicalities can differ significantly from those we know, but they must be consistent with that society while remaining plausible for the reader. But a flashing blue light or an oscillating siren on a police car is a universal symbol that instantly connects readers back to their own world.

Almost every story written hinges on implausibility – a set-up or a problem the writer has purposefully created. Readers will engage with it and follow as long as the writer keeps their trust. One way to do this is to infuse, but not flood, the story with corroborative detail so that it verifies and reinforces the original setting the writer has introduced.  Even though my book is an alternate history thriller set in the 21st century, the Roma Novan characters still say things like ‘I wouldn’t be in your sandals  (not shoes) when he finds out.’  And there are honey-coated biscuits (honey was important for the ancient Romans) not chocolate digestives in the squad room.

However unfamiliar the time and place, the characters should display normal behaviour. Human beings of all ages and cultures have similar emotional needs, hurts and joys. Often they’re expressed differently, sometimes in an alienating or (to us) peculiar way. But a romantic relationship, whether as painful as in The Remains of the Day or as instant as Colonel Brandon when he sees Marianne in Sense and Sensibility or the careful but intense relationship of Eve Dallas and Roarke in J D Robb’s Death series set in 2057 New York, binds us into their stories.

Blending the recognisable with the unusual in an alternative version of reality is tricky, but fun for the writer. But for the reader, it stretches out an invitation to visit a place they never dreamed existed. And how easy is that to resist?

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About the Author: 

Alison Morton grew up in West Kent and worked as a civil servant in the City of London, dealt in coins and antique jewellery, head-hunted chief executives, served as a Territorial Army officer and owned a translation company. She completed a BA in French, German and Economics and thirty years later an MA in History. She now lives in France with her husband.

A ‘Roman nut’ since age 11, she has visited sites throughout Europe including the alma mater, Rome. But it was the mosaics at Ampurias (Spain) that triggered her wondering what a Roman society would be like if run by women…

A wordsmith much of her life – playwright (aged 7), article writer, local magazine editor and qualified translator – she came to novel writing in reaction to a particularly dire film: ‘I could do better than that,’ she whispered in the darkened cinema.

‘So why don’t you?’ came spouse’s reply.

Three months later, she had completed the first draft of INCEPTIO.

It’s Friday and that means that, as usual, I’m letting someone else do the work for me! Today, I’ve got a guest post from Will Milar, author of Infernal Machines (A Vintage Horror Novel). With horror novels, I am always interested in why someone chooses to write horror, what drew them to the genre and made them decide that was the best way to tell their story. That’s what I asked Will Milar, and let’s see what he has to say…

Title: What Drew Author Will Millar to the Blood-Soaked Halls of Horror

Thanks for having me here today, and for allowing the opportunity to promote my latest book, Infernal Machines.

You pose some interesting questions, and I imagine that the answers are different for anybody who writes Horror. I think you have to ask yourself what it is you’re ultimately trying to say. I believe that at the heart of any good work of fiction, the writer is trying to tell the truth even when he’s lying like crazy. So, if you’re writing a story about murderers and monsters, there’s going to be some bloodshed. I don’t revel in the gore, but I don’t shy away from it, either.

How do you know when something is too much?

I feel like something becomes too much only when the gory details begin to bog the plot down. If the violence gets too gratuitous, it can sometimes throw off the timing of the story. It doesn’t matter if you’re writing about monsters or space travel or Victorian Era architecture, there’s always a risk of being over-descriptive, and I always try to err on the “less is more” side of the fence.

Also, when it comes to scaring folks, some of the most effective tricks come from pulling away from what’s going on, and letting the reader’s imagination fill in the worst of the details. That’s a stylistic decision more than anything else, and there are occasions where I break that rule and go into hyper-graphic mode. Again, it has to fit the story’s need, though.

Are there lines you just won’t cross?

This is kind of a tough question to answer honestly. There are lines that I haven’t had to cross yet, for which I’m grateful. Again, I believe in “truth-telling” in fiction more than anything. There are certain themes I’ve avoided introducing so far, but who’s to say what will happen in the future?

I’d like to think that if I have to handle some subject matter that borders on being “icky” then I’ll do it in a way that rings true, and won’t come off as weak writing. If some people regard what I write as being lurid or gratuitous, then I guess that’s the risk any Horror writer faces.

Do you sometimes write something and think, “I can’t do that!” and then decide that you can?

This happens to me all the time. I’m currently in the rough stages of my next novel, and I constantly have to remind myself to “Turn off the filter,” so to speak. There’s a process of refinement as you go through each step, and in the earlier phases I try to throw just about every crazy idea that pops into my brain onto the page, thinking all the while that there’s no way it will make it into the final draft. And yet, sometimes the ones that seem totally messed up, when taken into context with the rest of the story, just seem to work.

With Infernal Machines I ran into this a lot in the second half of the story. It takes a couple of very hard turns, that when I started writing it, I had no idea were going to happen. Again, it’s all about telling the truth, though. Any writer will tell you, we don’t always get a say in how things play out. In a way, we’re kind of like journalists reporting on events that play out in our heads. Something else is putting the stuff there, and I don’t think anybody really knows what it is.

Anyway, thanks a lot for having me here today. I hope you and your readers enjoy Infernal Machines.

Cheers – Will

 

About Will Millar

Will Millar was raised in Commack, a quiet and unassuming town close to the northern shore of Long Island. As a kid, his primary passions were horror and hell-raising. As he tended to cultivate the latter to a greater extent than the former, by the time he was 17 years old, the whole town decided they’d had quite enough of his antics, and would he please just take his act on the road, thank you very much.

He enlisted in the Marine Corps, where his penchant for fire, explosions and general mayhem were tolerated, if not somewhat approved. At this point, Will also discovered the writers of the Beat Generation and began to write more consistently, submitting his less profane poems to underground ‘zines and belting out the more terrible stuff to unsuspecting audiences at various open mike nights throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Throughout the last 15 years, Will has worked as a writer in various mediums, though horror continues to remain his favorite. He sometimes contributes articles to Cracked.com, and his short stories are available in several different anthologies. Infernal Machines is his first novel.

At the present, Will lives in Phoenix AZ. He is a father of four, owns two dogs and has a wonderfully understanding girlfriend, all of whom somehow manage to put up with all of his crap.

Connect with Will Millar

Blog | Tumblr | Facebook |

I get a lot of review requests – A LOT. Most of them, I have to decline just because I can’t spend all my time reading, even if I wanted to. But sometimes, even when I have to turn a request for a review, I find that I want to tell people about the book anyway. That’s the case with Upload by Collin Tobin — the book sounded really interesting, and a guest post is a great way to spread the word, right? So check out Collin’s guest post on writing, then click through to read a little synopsis of the story.

 

Writing It Out(side)

Family Guy has a scathing bit about writers that write outside of the home, specifically in cafes:

Writer 1: Hey, getting some writing done there, buddy?

Writer 2: Yeah! Setting up in public (cracks knuckles) so everyone can watch me type my big

screenplay!

Writer 1: Me too. All real writers need to be seen writing. Otherwise, what’s the point, right?

Writer 2: You should totally write that down!

Writer 1: Okay! Will you watch me?

 

Watching this, I at once laughed, but then also thought, Jesus, is that what I’m doing? Am I, at some subconscious level, writing outside of my house so I can look smart, learned, and authorial? I dismiss the thought immediately of course. But that still doesn’t exactly answer why I wrote about 90% of my first novel, Upload, outside of the home. Who would do such thing? There are so many inconveniences to contend with. Any of the bookstores or cafés near me are at least a fifteen minute drive each way. Also, by leaving the house, I’m increasing my risk of forgetting something crucial like my laptop power adapter or headphones. Then there are the café workers, who tend to converse with each other like construction workers shouting over a bulldozer. The coffee is about 1,000 times more expensive than at home. I run the risk of not finding a seat by a power outlet. I’m exposing myself to a chance sighting by an especially chatty friend or acquaintance. Worst of all, I might get distracted by analyzing the curious groups of people that gather around me (suspected secret rendezvous, break-ups, job interviews, and worst of all, that one guy that incessantly yaps on his cellphone at his “office”, four tables pulled together). I might even get the worst seat of all, directly behind the sandwich press, which is the equivalent of deep-throating a tailpipe. Come to think of it, I think I might have the first diagnosed case of Panini-lung.

So why don’t I stay home?

There are, of course, things that push me out of the house. For instance, the cat litter sits three feet from the desk. Close enough for me and the cat to exchange uncomfortably intimate, glazed stares. And the space itself isn’t great. The small study becomes stuffy—the air seemingly heavy with the CO2-like byproduct of concentration. You can just walk into the small room and immediately detect someone’s been thinking hard in there, just as one can enter a bedroom and know, despite being empty, that someone had been sleeping there minutes before. I also don’t like being so mentally absent while home—for my family’s sake. I’m physically there, but barely, as if plugged into life support. Can he even hear me? Not a pretty sight. What’s worse, through pictures and video, I’ve seen my profile while concentrating. I look like the most uncomprehending ape you’ve even seen. Hell, even I would be annoyed at having to look at me while writing, deep in thought.

Rarely, but on some days, writing at home can be an even greater distraction than four-table-Phil working out of his Starbuck’s sponsored data center. But still, these are not great reasons for why I tend to write in “public”. Although my public writing is not as public as say, Silvia Hartman, who is supposedly writing her entire novel live on Google docs for all the world to see. Why wouldn’t I want the general quiet of home, or to lock myself in the attic as authors have been known to do? I could write in tomb-like silence, in total concentration, working as quietly as a lepidopterist pinning butterflies.

From what I can gather, I write outside my home for the following reasons. I like physically inserting myself into the ever-revolving carousel of the same people, conversations, and life that I’m writing about. At home, I have only two choices for stimulation: return the blank stare of the wall in front of me, or turn my chair to study my neighbor’s house through the window. But away, in any café, I can look up from my writing fugue to an array of characters parading themselves before me, unsuspecting actors in an impromptu audition. I can steal the way that woman keeps refolding the same lock of hair behind her ear as she reads, I can lift from life the way that guy is openly discussing his divorce over his Bluetooth headset while staring directly into the eyes of strangers, or I can borrow the stumbling gait of the child chasing his mother out on the sidewalk. Each time I look up, focus-fuzzy, I’m surprised where I am, and every time, pleased at what I see.

Is that enough reason? I don’t know.

There’s one bookstore I go to near a Wal-Mart with a massive parking lot. I like taking breaks and looking out the window. It’s technically an ocean view—of cars. And if you look over there, you can see a small eddy of seagulls that have flown in from the coast to scour the nearby McDonald’s for spare fries. I rest my elbow on the table and watch the birds, circling over the dumpster, and notice that even my table rocks like a boat, side to side, upon its uneven legs. And the sky outside is clear, a sailor’s delight, a welcomed vision. I draw from these impressions, and use them to scrub away the storm clouds broiling above my own head, charged with indecision. I can do this.

 

For more on Collin, check him out here:

Today, I’ve got a 2-chapter Sneak Peek from author Bret Jordan. At the bottom of the post, you can read Chapter 1 and Chapter 7 of his book, Clockwork Dwarf. (How can you resist that title? You know you want to look.)

Here’s a bit about the story:

Gustov Stoneheart is an unlikely hero, a dwarf who’s magically torn from friends and family, thrown into a world where magic collides with steampunk. A prophecy predicts that he will bring down the human federation, and they hunt him with a passion. Hiding from them isn’t easy in the federation’s police-state, and Gustov must rethink his deep seated bigotry as orcs, elves, and his own changed kind aid him to make the prophecy come true.

 

Now, click on the links below to read a few chapters!

Chapter 1

Chapter 7

And a little about our author…

Bret Jordan at Purple Sword Publications

Social Links:
Website: http://www.bretjordan.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bret.jordan
Blog: http://bretjordan.wordpress.com/

 

It’s Friday and time to let the writers do the talking! Today, I’ve got a guest post from author Stacey Verdick Case about the thing that inspires her to keep writing.

I write, I know several other people who write, and it’s hard work. I have tremendous respect for people who do this for a living, since I know how hard it can be sometimes to squeeze out a coherent sentence. So what do you do when you feel like you can’t write anymore?

Unlikely Inspiration…

Writers have a tendency to have sloppy offices. At least the writers I know. There is an ordered chaos that makes complete sense to us. We have treasures and talisman that we like, or need, to see but there’s always one extra special piece. One piece which the writer finds the most inspiring.

In among my clutter is one scrap of paper tacked to the edge of a shelf. What’s printed on the paper spoke to me the day I decided that I couldn’t write anymore. These words pushed me, and inspired me to continue. This quote came from an unexpected place as inspiration often does, the sports section of the local paper.

The morning that this quote came into my life, I had given up writing. I melodramatically burned every manuscript page I had on hand, so I could clear the way to convert my office back into a spare bedroom. Writing had become too tough. My agent had dropped me over a stupid disagreement on my current manuscript, and other agents seemed uninterested in my work. I felt like there was nowhere for me to go.

When I took a break from my manuscript bonfire, I decided to read the sports section. I am a huge hockey fan and if there’s an article about the Minnesota Wild I’ll read it. In that day’s paper was an article about the team’s goaltender Niklas Backstrom and his career.

Of course, I read it, not expecting an epiphany. Then I read this:

“I always remember that,” Backstrom said. “Playing in the first division, being sent down, almost seeing the end of my career. I worked my way up from there. It’s different when you’ve been really down. You know how to appreciate things when they’re going well. The key is keeping your feet on the ground. When you’ve been down there, you don’t want to go back. You’ll do anything in your power to stay up.”

It was one of those times when something speaks to you so deeply that you’re stopped from reading any further. I read the quote again. Then I read it a third time and started to chuckle.

I’m pretty sure I said, “Duh!” out loud. At the very least, the word went through my head, in a mocking tone like a playground taunt. I was being stupid.

There were two ways I could go. I could get up and work harder, or I could lay down and witness the end of my career.

I typed the quote on a sheet of paper and tacked it to the edge of my shelf where I would see it every day. Among the chaos, it is a reminder of how close I came to chucking my career into the abyss, and why every day I need to work just a little bit harder.

Author Bio:

Stacy Verdick Case is the author of the Catherine O’Brien mystery series. The second book in the series A Luring Murder was released in December. She is still a huge Minnesota Wild fan, still reads the sports section and still loves to find unlikely inspiration. Visit Stacy on the web at www.StacyVerdickCase.com