My Publishing Journey, Part III: The Soul Stone

Jamie Marchant Posted on by

This is the third in my multi-part series on my publishing experience. Click to read Part I and Part II.

In the midst of my unsuccessful attempts to market The Goddess’s Choice, I finished my second novel, The Soul Stone, which is a sequel to the first, and was then faced with what to do with it. I knew I did not want to publish it with the same press. Besides doing nothing to help in marketing, they had done a lousy job editing it and had used such a small font and narrow margins that it was not a pleasure to read.  I also had a hard time getting Reliquary Press to pay the royalties they owed me. My contract with them stated that they were to be paid quarterly, but I never got a check unless I repeatedly asked about them. Since the checks were so small, I stopped hassling about it, and Reliquary Press still owes me money. In the five years they held the contract for The Goddess’s Choice, they paid me less than $20.

But since The Soul Stone was a sequel, I believe that no publisher would want it.  Despite my distaste at the time for self-published works, I thought self-publishing would be my only choice. My husband was adamantly against doing so. To stop him begging me more than anything else, I submitted it to a few small presses (ones that didn’t ask for a synopsis) and was quickly accepted by two of them. It seemed that publishers would take a sequel. However, the presses that had accepted it did not look any better than Reliquary, so I turned them down and did more research into small presses, hoping to find one that better supported their authors. I came up with a list of publishers I thought would be good, queried again, and was accepted by Black Rose Writing. In addition to a cooler name, Black Rose had a much larger staff than Reliquary, including a publicist. My husband was again leering of the contract because it did not spell out in any specific detail what they would do to market it. I ignored him and signed.

At first, it seemed Black Rose was going to be so much than Reliquary Press. They edited my book better and printed in a more reader friendly way. They sent me a lot of information on marketing and had a publicist who helped me write press releases and submit to prominent review sites, but they didn’t do any actual marketing for me, and The Soul Stone sold even more poorly than The Goddess’s Choice. They paid me my royalties on time, but the amounts were minuscule.

I now had two published novels, but nobody was reading them.

Next time I discover cons.

Guest Author, S.M. Henley and Things that Go Bump in the Night

Jamie Marchant Posted on by

Welcome today’s guest, S.M. Henley, a fantastic author for those that enjoy the darker side of things.

Sue was brought up in an English seaside town singing to Echo and the Bunnymen and worshiping  Siouxsie Sioux. She now lives in rural Alberta, Canada, with more pets than people. Where everyone is friendly, winters are long, cheese is bright orange, and the occasional moose wanders through her yard.

Sue’s books stand as testament to the Gothic overtones of English suburbia, the world just beyond the veil, and the humor of Rick Mayall.

The Urban Fantasy is darker than average. It’s gritty, character driven stuff, fast action plots notwithstanding. It dips a toe into Dystopia, splashes blood freely, and features various creatures from the supernatural world as well as some pretty cool humans.

Her Horror is darker. Paranormal elements intertwine with psychologically driven plots. Characters run from flawed to freaky. Settings are realistic. Atmospheres are claustrophobic. Blood is optional.

Interview

  1. Tell us something about how you write? i.e. are you a plotter or a pantser? Do you have any weird or necessary writing habits or rituals?

 

I’m a plotter in as much as I have an outline that I mostly stick to, but I do a shed-load of idea doodling beforehand which range from some scribbles, lists, and whole first drafts of scenes. I usually have the first and last scene drafted before I put the outline together. In terms of structure I tend to use a hybrid of the roller coaster beat structure for my UF. It has the fast-pacing I like. I’ve created a template which is basically a table with each plot element on the left, then space on the right for me to start adding the key moments or plot points for a particular story. Once I have the key moments written down, I add short bullet-pointed scenes. When those are all done, I switch to Scrivener, transfer each scene to a cork board card and flesh out the bullet points to create a paragraph of detail. Then I arrange those into chapters, ensure I’m still hitting all the plot points and beats, then I’m good to go. I always write serially unless I really get stuck, then I may switch to an easier scene just to get the writing gods on my side again. I’ve just finished plotting the whole of a 5 book series in this way. No rituals. Beverage of choice is coffee. I write in the morning, and not every day or to a quota. I find I need to give my creative brain a rest for up to a few weeks at a time or my writing style falls flat. When not writing, I’ll do some editing, work on some new plots, do some research, or even some marketing!

2. What gives you inspiration for your book?

I’m one of those very lucky people who finds inspiration everywhere. In fact, sometimes I’m so inundated with ideas that it can be challenging for me to to sift through them to pursue the best ones. I will literally have the first lines of stories – or even complete opening scenes – spontaneously pop into my head. If I watch a TV show, read a news report, or read about a person from history, a whole storyline gets triggered. For the Written by Birds novels I was inspired by stories about the real-life darker side of Turin, Italy, that I heard about years back on a TV show. I filed it away ready for an opportunity to get creative. I combined that with an unrelated historical account of a monk killing his Abbot in Southern England in the middle ages. Those two things, effectively gave birth to the first book, Scratching in the Dirt. I also find a UK periodical The Fortean Times a font of inspiration – it documents real accounts of the weird and wonderful. I can’t get through one of those magazines without a zillion story-lines jumping out at me! I have an upcoming full-length novel which was inspired by one 50 word report from that magazine. Another technique I use is to use a deck of Tarot cards to help me get some inspiration for settings, characters, and  especially dialogue. Has nothing to do with their traditional purpose, I just find them great as a jumping off point if nothing else is working. [Jamie’s note: I love the tarot card idea.]

3.Of all the characters you have created, which is your favorite and why?

I have a soft spot for Billy Nadig. He is introduced in Book 1 but in Book 2, Taking to the Sky, he really comes into his own. Each book in the trilogy is written with a mixed point of view, but there is always one main character focus, and in Taking, that is Billy. He’s introduced as a technomancer, someone who has mastered the art of combining technology with magic, so he combines computer code with natural magic to control, influence, or just watch events that are happening elsewhere. He uses gadgets like cellphones and computers (“if it has a computer chip, it’s Billy’s”), electricity and radio waves, etc. But it’s not his skills that endear him to me, it’s his arc. None of the main characters are straight up good or bad, but with Billy we see a complete transformation. Without spoilers, he literally transforms into a non-human, but it’s more how he grows as a character that I find fascinating. He transitions from a neglected and dirt-poor immigrant to rent boy, from East London lad to playboy millionaire, from best friend to hero, and finally lover. I think I’m so fond of him because of all the characters in the Written by Birds trilogy, his story developed totally spontaneously, I just wrote it down. Billy is also funny, has serious problems with not blurting out inappropriate sexual innuendo, and a soft side that makes you just want to give him a hug. I loved writing his buddy scenes with the soul of the necromancer, Joshua, and the Swedish mercenary, Soren Huxford. I think Billy and Soren together are hilarious. A beta reader summed it up by telling me she hated Billy in Book 1 – she thought he was a chav (British slang for “antisocial youth” but the Urban Dictionary will give you a much better definition lol) – then gradually he grew on her, until finally she was rooting for him. And even though I don’t write romance, he was the only character I really wanted to experience true love.

4. What else would you like readers to know about you or your work?

As Urban Fantasy becomes a more diverse genre, I think it’s important for authors to clearly communicate their style. It can be tricky for the reader to choose something they will enjoy as most books tend to skew towards either romantic paranormal or gritty realism. I tend to write the latter – old-style UF. There may be the odd romantic subplot, but it’s never PNR; and though sexual themes emerge quite often, any actually action generally takes place off-page if at all.  I like to include those elements that first marked the genre I fell in love with: gritty realistic themes; violence that sometimes (usually) ends in blood; a contemporary urban setting mixed with a supernatural world; some proper scary monsters which may at times even inch over into Horror territory. My stories also contain a good bit of mystery and a substantial kick of adventure. Above all, I want darker themes bubbling under the surface. I also write a variety of diverse characters who tend to have personalities that incorporate multiple shades of grey, from the supernaturals to the humans. We all have a lightside and a shadowside, and that’s something I like to explore (takes me back to my Tarot days). In my books, sometimes the demons are the heroes, the humans do really bad things, and the angels aren’t altogether pure of heart. All that aside, I also throw in some humour to break up the darker themes. If you like the tone of the darker episodes of Supernatural, BTVS, and Angel, you’re in the right ball park. Not the ones that made you cry, but the ones that made you slightly uncomfortable or even not want to close your eyes at bedtime.

5. Do you have a day job in addition to being a writer?  If so, what do you do during the day?

I’ve had a variety of different jobs. I was trained as a business analyst and did that professionally for years in the UK. I then opened my first small business as a Tarot reader and teacher of psychic development. It’s an interest I’ve had since a teen, and something I still do on occasion. Most recently, though, I owned my own pet services business, looking after everything from cats to alpacas. I closed that last year, and I’m now working for a not-for-profit supporting small business entrepreneurs, while I write around that work. I find my current work extremely rewarding. At the moment we have a program which supports high-school entrepreneurs run their own businesses over the summer. I am continually amazed by the talent in our young people and get so mad listening to the constant disrespect targeted at the millennial demographic. These guys are focused, determined, and making their mark on the world. I get very passionate this program!

6. Tell us a little about your plans for the future.  Do you have any other books in the works?

Now that the first trilogy is complete, I’ve started work on my next series called Skye Quest. It is set in the same world as Written by Birds, i. e. in a contemporary urban fantasy world that has just averted the demon apocalypse. There is the same mix of gritty realistic scenarios, that just happen to have vampires, shifters, demons, and angels – as well as the odd human thrown in for good measure. These 5 novels are all set in Vegas and have one main character, a supernatural escort called Sowilo Skye. She is on a quest to free her daughter who is trapped in the Otherworld. Of course, “stuff” keeps getting in her way, like the spirit of a dead playboy, a human TV ghost hunter who’s inadvertently raised a demon during a video shoot, and a zombie go-go dancer. She’s also got a dead husband trapped in a mirror, and the main big bad is a seriously horrible demon who delights in throwing her off her game, usually with dire consequences. I’m really looking forward to this series. There is more mythology in this one, as some of the storylines are based on the legends of the mourama and the enchanted mouras of Galician folktales. The first of this series will be out by the end of this summer and is called Sowilo Skye and the Dead Playboy. I also have my first psychological horror coming out soon. The novel is called Weary and is set in the middle of a backwoods town in northern Alberta. It’s a disturbing but accessible paranormal thriller. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to write without at least a little bit of the supernatural.

7. If you could be transported to any fictional world, which would it be? Why?

It has to be the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I’d probably hang out with Xander a lot and take secret pictures of Spike to sell on the internet for oodles of cash. I’d also reveal Caleb’s eye-removing plans to him ahead of time, so we could figure out a defense. Poor Xander, now that was dark scene. I’d also insist on singing in Once More With Feeling, so that even Sarah Michelle Gellar would sound good when compared to my caterwauling. It would be great fun!

8. You’re in a tavern, and a dwarf challenges you to a duel. What do you do? What you do the same thing if the challenger were an ogre? Why or why not?

I would whip out my cards and read his fortune. Of course, the fortune would be good, and it would only come into effect if he spared my life. With the ogre, I’d give him a teddy bear; they may be big and tough, but inside they have soft-gooey centres. [Jamie’s note: LOL! This is a great solution that I never would have thought of.]

Where can we find you online? 

Blog: https://smhenley.com/blog/
Website: https://smhenley.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/smhauthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SM_Henley
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/S.M.-Henley/e/B06XH15DLM/
My books are available at all ebook retailers. To find out more go to: https://smhenley.com/books/written-by-birds/

Taking to the Sky

Billy’s life is just sex, tech, and magic. So how will he cope when things get serious? End-of-the-world serious.

For rich technomancer Billy Nadig, life’s a game: he lives in a cool East London penthouse, has a bedroom stocked with blond-haired lovelies, and an unhealthy obsession with women’s shoes. But when Billy is told he’s a Sleeper, awoken by Heaven to stop his best friend—a half-vampire girl—make a decision which could destroy the world, even he realizes its time to get serious.

Billy’s agonizing transformation couldn’t come at a worse time: demons are rising, evil angels take center stage, and a blond-haired mercenary continues to dog his every step. Saving the Earth will take both hard fighting and hard choices, maybe even the ultimate sacrifice—to kill his best friend. But if she dies, who will save Billy?

Taking to the Sky is the second in the Written by Birds trilogy and is an adult urban fantasy novel set on the streets of modern-day London, Las Vegas, and Boston. It treads lightly in the darkness, with not a small amount of blood and gritty humor. Just ask the birds…

Excerpt

Billy was still sitting there when he noticed the young man loitering by the garbage bin just off to his right. Actually, more like fourteen or fifteen, he seemed to be looking for discarded food, and had found some sort of Chinese concoction in a takeout box. He was peering at it cautiously as though expecting something to jump out at him. Sensible thinking, bruv.

The boy didn’t seem to find what he was looking for and dumped the carton back in the garbage before reaching down further, up to his armpit in discarded newspapers, food wrappers, used tissues, and condoms (Billy assumed).

This time, the boy seemed to come up trumps. He grinned and pulled out—a rat. A full grown brown rat which was very much alive and wiggling, dangling by his tail from the tips of the boy’s fingers.

Billy lurched backward, even from his safe distance away. He didn’t have any particular phobias, but rodents generally were a sticking point, and rats especially.

He continued to watch in fascination.

The boy held the rat above his head and looked deep into its eyes. The animal twisted its whole body away from the gaze as far as it could, bucking almost perpendicular to the fingers that held it tight, a position its little body could not maintain for long before gravity pulled it down.

As the rat fell back, the boy opened his mouth and bit its head right off.

Billy’s own mouth dropped open. He stared in silent but fascinated horror as the boy threw the still twitching remains into the garbage bin and picked the severed head back out of his mouth. He examined it closely, stuck in a dirty finger to gouge out what remained of the neck, and sucked enthusiastically through the hole he had made. Even at the distance, it sounded to Billy like chunky soup being sucked through a wide straw, stuck pieces suddenly releasing with a satisfying slurp.

“Bloody hell!” Billy couldn’t help himself.

The boy looked up at him and shrugged, then added the remains of the rat’s head, now just empty bone housed in a furry brown skin bag, to the discarded body in the garbage and shuffled over.

Billy instinctively moved back around to the driver’s door of the Jeep, not wanting to get too close to this rat-eating teen.

“Whatchadoin?” the boy asked.

“Errm, nothing much.” Self-preservation made Billy feel he should be noncommittal, but he couldn’t stop himself adding, “Nice supper?”

“Eh! I like ‘em younger. Not so tough.” He was still chewing. Okay then!

“You gonna finish that coffee?” the boy asked.

“Probably not now, no.” Billy was feeling decidedly queasy and held it out. “Do you want it?”

“Yeah. Thanks.” He took the remains of the proffered coffee, smelled it, and sipped at it cautiously, as though it might be quite distasteful. Oh, the irony.

It met with his approval and he nodded a little. “Later.” He briefly flashed deep red eyes in Billy’s direction, then turned and wandered back down onto the beach, kicking sand and picking at his teeth with his black-filled fingernails.

Jamie’s Note:

After reading the above, I was intrigued and went straight to Amazon to get the first book in the series. This is the first time this has happened since I started publishing these interviews. If you find S. M. Henley as fascinating as I did,  you will be pleased to learn that Scratching in the Dirt is free. You can get it here:

Character as Action

Jamie Marchant Posted on by

Today, I want to talk about developing character by focusing on the character’s actions or what the character does.

It is far better to let the reader know the character’s thoughts, emotions, and personality by what s/he does than by simply telling the reader. In other words, the old adage, “show, don’t tell.” If you tell the reader that your character is ghoulish, it has little emotional impact. It also isn’t very precise. What exactly do you mean by ghoulish? Much better to show the character acting ghoulishly. Read the following passages from The Ghost in Exile:

Warily, The Ghost followed Zotico down the corridor to the high priest’s office. It was large, the walls covered with instruments of war—swords, shields, battle axes, and plaques ornamented with what looked suspiciously like human ears. The ears were new. Zotico caught The Ghost looking at them and swept his hand over a plaque that contained five ears nailed side by side. “Do you like the new decor? Sacrifices, all of them. I had them moved from our private sanctuary so I could better remember the devotion demanded by the god I serve.”

Zotico sweeping his hands over the severed ears of people he has killed in ritual sacrifice as if they were a trophy conveys to the reader Zotico’s ghoulishness far more effectively than simply using the word.

While portraying character through action is important at throughout your work, it is especially important to do so in moments when a character changes. When a character grows or changes, the reader needs to see it through what the character does. Brigitta begins The Ghost in Exile as a victim. In the following passage we see her beginning to change through her actions with the dagger.

She had to be insane to trust her life to a hired killer. Frigg protect me! No, not Frigg. I’ve prayed to her time and time again, and the goddess has never helped me. But if I can’t rely on her, what can I do? She looked at the dagger she was still holding, then glanced at the sword Sigurd wore. The goddess had allowed her to be used by savages for two years, but Brigitta herself had used Sigurd’s sword to kill her master. Since the goddess couldn’t, or wouldn’t protect her, she needed to learn to protect herself. She tightened her grip on the dagger and held it up. “Will you teach me how to use this?”

Her examining the dagger, tightening her grip on it, holding it up, and asking for instruction in its use shows her becoming empowered to act for herself rather than being acted on by others. Simply saying she decided to protect herself doesn’t convey this change as effectively as her actions with the dagger do.

While using the image and the character’s voice tell us much about a character, we really get to know a character by seeing what s/he does. It bring in another old cliche, which is nonetheless true, “actions speak louder than words.” When a person’s actions are at odds with his/her words, we believe the actions, not the words. The same is true in character creation.

Welcome to the Apocalypse Book Tour & Giveaway

Jamie Marchant Posted on by
Welcome to the Apocalypse
Book 1- Pandora
by D L Richardson
Genre: Apocalyptic Sci-Fi
The Apocalypse Games is a state of the art virtual game designed to
entertain doomsday preppers, gamers, and cosplayers. But not everyone
who enters is there to play the game the way the creators intended.
Some players don’t belong at all and some enter the game to escape reality.

Whatever the reason, over 100 people hook up to the mainframe computer with
one goal: survive twenty-four hours of an apocalypse. Instead of game
over at the end, they’re plugged straight into a new game. Then
another. It’s clear to the players the computer has malfunctioned.
What isn’t clear is why.
Welcome to the Apocalypse
Book 2- CyberNexis
Getting out of the game used to be all that mattered. Now all that matters is
getting back in.

THEN…
The Apocalypse Games is a state of the art virtual game designed to
entertain doomsday preppers, gamers, and cosplayers. But not everyone
who entered was there to play the game the way the creators intended.
Some players didn’t belong at all and some entered the game to escape
reality. Whatever the reason, over 100 people were hooked up to the
mainframe computer with one goal: survive twenty-four hours of an
apocalypse. Instead of game over at the end, they were plugged
straight into a new game. Then another. It was clear to the players
the computer has malfunctioned. What wasn’t clear was why.
NOW…
the players find themselves in an offsite facility far from their
original location, unsure why or how CyberNexis moved them. Getting
out of the game used to be all that mattered. But not anymore. The
world has changed and CyberNexis is keeping a secret that needs to be
exposed.
D L Richardson likes many things. Reality isn’t one of them. D L
Richardson is the creator of ‘Welcome to the Apocalypse’ series as
well as the author of YA fantasy and horror novellas which can be
likened to ‘Goosebumps for adults’.

The author’s world is her dog, her husband, coffee, and her writing. Not
always in that order. You won’t find the usual tropes in D L
Richardson’s books. You will find unique stories, engaging
characters, and thought-provoking situations.

CHAPTER ONE

Jack Minnow grabbed a brochure off the rack and his eyes scanned the back page.

“It says here that rule breakers are ten times more likely to survive an apocalypse. They’re adaptable and they rely on cunning and instinct.”

Jack was five-foot-eight, and the woman behind the counter, called an operator, was easily six-feet tall. Looking at her was like looking at a marble statue atop a pedestal. All white – her hair, her tight-fitting jump suit, her face, neck, and hands, painted to resemble a computer generated character. He allowed himself to imagine that the stage make-up covered places he couldn’t see.

She smiled at him. “It also says that rule breakers are ten times more likely to die within the first hour. They’re reckless and often act without thinking.”

She pushed a plastic tray towards him, the kind handed out at airports to slip under x-ray machines. Jack dropped his wallet, phone, and car keys into the tray.

“So it’s a win/win day for a guy with a superhero complex,” he said.

Superman, his mother had called him after he’d brought home a stray dog for the fifth time. “Can’t help but save things,” she’d told the dog ranger. Even as a boy, Jack knew what happened to the mutts who were handed over to the ranger, but he still brought dogs home for one last night of fun. His superhero complex was the reason he’d entered The Apocalypse Games. Save everyone. Save the world. Nobody dies. Not for real anyway.

The operator removed the tray and he stood there waiting for a voucher. None came. A warning flared up into his brain. What did he really know about this operation?

“Seriously, about those odds,” he said. “Exactly how much testing has gone into the program? I mean this is opening day. There must be kinks to iron out.”

“We use the same technology as they do at NASA,” she said. “The nutrient tubes and mist emitters feeding into the simulation pods are the same as those used in space travel. The structural integrity of the pods was tested by NASA engineers only last week.” She tilted her head to the side. “We’ll take good care of you, Mr Minnow. I’ll see to it personally.”

He didn’t know her name, or anything else about her, but he felt he could trust her. He had to trust her; he was placing his life in her hands.

She stepped out from behind the counter, slipped her arm through his, and guided him toward a set of doors where he caught flashes of shiny surfaces and bright lights. A sign indicated the room was called The Launch Pad.

“How will you see to it personally?” he asked, dragging his gaze back to her dazzling blue eyes. “Will you be in the game with me?”

She shook her head. Pity. He was sure he’d enjoy cyber-sex.

“You’ve got a good crowd here for the opening. How many players you reckon? Eighty? Ninety?”

“There are one hundred and five players taking part in today’s auspicious event.”

Jack’s mood sank a little. “Won’t it get crowded?”

She placed her other hand on his arm. Others might have found the gesture too friendly, but not him. Attention from a beautiful woman – genuine or as part of a customary service – warmed his insides.

“There are many apocalyptic scenarios on offer,” she said. “Some players have chosen to be placed randomly, in which case we’ll load them into scenarios that other players haven’t pre-selected. It’s highly unlikely you’ll all be playing the same game.” She stopped at a machine similar in size to an ATM and ran a laminated pass across the scanner. “I understand you’ll be teaming up with two other players, Reis Anderson and Kelly Lawrence.”

“Kelly’s my sister,” said Jack, not wanting to give the woman the wrong impression. “I’m being a good brother and chaperoning her.”

The operator nodded. “Have you chosen an apocalypse to survive? Or will you opt for the random selection?”

“I don’t mind surprises, but Kelly’s…let’s just say she’s a novice at this. We’ve decided to play—”

Her fingers swiftly landed on his lips. “Don’t tell me. If I don’t know then I can’t reveal any spoilers.”

She slipped the laminated pass around his neck and continued ushering him toward The Launch Pad. At the doorway, she gently pried her arm away and her azure-blue eyes twinkled.

“I assure you, Mr Minnow. You will be in the greatest of care. Please make your way inside and enjoy your complimentary champagne. It won’t be long until you’re taken to the simulation pod.”

The doubt still niggled at him. “So when we die in the game, what happens?”

She looked off to another player signing up at the desk.

“Miss…Operator?”

At last she turned around and smiled, revealing dazzling white teeth. “You can’t die in the game.”

“But it’ll feel like it. That’s what the brochure says.”

“Yes, it will feel like death,” she said before walking briskly away.

Follow the tour HERE
for exclusive excerpts, guest posts and a giveaway!

Juliana Spink Mills Hunts with a Blade

Jamie Marchant Posted on by

My guest today is science fiction/fantasy author, Juliana Spink Mills, here to tell you about her exciting novel.

Juliana was born in England but grew up in Brazil. Now she lives in Connecticut, USA, with her husband and two kids, and writes science fiction and fantasy. She has a soft spot for stories with explosions and fight scenes, tempered with moonlight kisses. She watches way too many TV shows and loves to get lost in a good book. Her dream is to move to Narnia when she grows up. Or possibly Middle-Earth, if she’s allowed a very small dragon of her own.

Interview

  1. Tell us something about how you write? i.e. are you a plotter or a pantser? Do you have any weird or necessary writing habits or rituals?

 

Hmm, plotter or pantser…? I think I’m a little bit of both. When I first started writing, I used to obsessively plot every inch of a novel – this worked as a ‘safety net’ of sorts. I knew that as long as I stuck to my road map, I’d get to the end. Rigid outlines were a great learning tool for me. Over time, I’ve relaxed, and now I use more of a ‘connect the dots’ system, with main plot points set out before I start, but wriggle room to go ‘off road’ when and where I want.

As for writing habits, I’m pretty easy. I don’t have a desk – I prefer to spread out at the kitchen table. And I can’t work with music on; I find it distracting. [Jamie’s note: Me, too.] However, I’ve learned by necessity to tune out my kids, though I prefer to work in the mornings when they’re at school.

2. Do you think people have misconceptions about speculative fiction? Why do you think it is a worthwhile genre?

I think a lot of people steer clear of the speculative fiction section of their bookstore or library thinking they won’t be able to relate. But elves, orcs, and laser-wielding space lords aside, you’ll find the same things in science fiction and fantasy that you’ll find in other genres: adventure, action, romance, intrigue… And new readers don’t need to jump straight into the deep end with epic fantasy or hard sci fi; they can start with something like space opera, urban fantasy, or paranormal romance – look how popular Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse novels are and not just with genre fans.

Personally, I love SF/F for the sheer escapism. I love to dive into someone else’s made up world and make it my own, even for just a short while.

3. Could you tell us a bit about your most recent book?

My young adult urban fantasy novel Heart Blade is the first book in the Blade Hunt Chronicles, a series that follows a centuries-old prophecy about four legendary swords. The story is set in present day USA, where preternatural creatures like vampires, werewolves, and witches live among the unsuspecting humans, governed by a failing and corrupt Court of the Covenant.

4. Of all the characters you have created, which is your favorite and why?

I have a soft spot for my half-demon Camille. She’s a petite French Canadian succubus, and she’s surprisingly fierce and extremely levelheaded and an absolute pleasure to write. Camille lives to surprise, as everyone tends to underestimate her.

5. What is the biggest surprise that you experienced after becoming a writer?

I was surprised and delighted to find out how welcoming and supportive the writing community is – both the SF/F community and the kid lit world. I’ve made amazing friends over the years. Some are virtual friends I’ve connected with on social media or on forums I belong to and others I met at conventions and conferences. My writing pals keep me going when things get tough and cheer me on when good things happen. I couldn’t do this without them. [Jamie’s note: Other writers are the best.]

6. Tell us a little about your plans for the future.  Do you have any other books in the works?

Yes! Definitely! I’m putting the finishing touches on Night Blade, Book 2 of the Blade Hunt Chronicles, which will be out later this year. I have a couple of short stories I’m working on for anthologies, and I have a sci fi thriller in the early stages. After all that is out of the way, I’ll be ready to move onto the third Blade Hunt book, Star Blade.

7. If you could be transported to any fictional world, which would it be? Why?

Tough question! Perhaps Cinda Williams Chima’s Seven Realms – her fantasy novels are so beautiful! All valleys and soaring mountains. Or Myke Cole’s present-day world with added magic, in his Shadow Ops military fantasy trilogy – that would be an interesting reality to visit. I also love the setting for Elspeth Cooper’s Wild Hunt quartet, with its vast, sprawling lands.

Where can we find you online?

Website: https://jspinkmills.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jspinkmills

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JSpinkMills

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jspinkmills/

Amazon: http://hyperurl.co/9ufdbj

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33868453-heart-blade

Heart Blade, Book 1 of the Blade Hunt Chronicles

Teenage half-demon Del Raven wears a promise in scarred letters upon her skin. Now, pressured to make her first kill and seal her demon nature forever, she flees her pack and forges a dangerous partnership with young angel-blood Ash.

But Del isn’t the only one on the run from the demons. For seventeen years the Guild of Saint Peter has done its best to hide orphan Rose, a key player in the centuries-old Heart Blade prophecy.

The threads tangle, and soon Del, Ash and Rose find themselves in the crosshairs of an ancient war between demons and angels…and the hunt for a mythical weapon that could change the balance of power forever.

Excerpt

The SUV rocketed along the dirt track, right on the motorbike’s tail. The surrounding trees were a dark blur in the night, lit only by their headlights. Ash realized he was holding his breath, and let it out in one big exhale. Becca heard and chuckled.

“Apprentices,” she said, shaking her head. “So darn cute. Hey, don’t worry, kid. We’re in good hands. Your old man’s the best in the business. You don’t get to be Scion of the New England Chapter of sentinels for nothing.”

Ash would have protested, said he wasn’t worried, but it would have been a lie. Becca would have known; they all would. You couldn’t lie to a sentinel. Instead he gritted his teeth and tugged at his bulletproof vest. The borrowed body armor he wore was too tight across his shoulders. His whole chest felt too tight.

Becca drew closer to the stuttering motorbike, still trailing acrid clouds of smoke. The trees opened suddenly into a vista of dark fields, and Becca accelerated, throwing the car off the road. They ripped through the tall grass, stems slashing viciously at the sides of the SUV.

There was a sudden impression of approaching buildings, and then the side of the SUV hit the bike hard. The bike went down in a tumbling crash, the engine’s growl cutting out abruptly as the vampire fell head over heels to land on his back. The SUV skidded to a stop, high beams raking the black. The vampire scrambled to his feet and took off, Deacon in pursuit with his sword over his shoulder as Ash leaned over his cousin to watch.

Becca snagged her hunting rifle from the back of the car and turned to Ash and Jordan, still inside. “Well? You here to learn, or what?”

 

If you like what you’ve read, please comment below, or click the link to buy Juliana’s book.

My Publishing Journey, Part II: To Market, to Market We Go

Jamie Marchant Posted on by

Yesterday I published the first part in a multi-series on my experiences with publishing. You can read Part I here.

As I said in my previous post, The Goddess’s Choice, my first novel was published by Reliquary Press in April of 2012, and it was not selling. In October of 2012, Auburn University’s English Department (for which I work) sponsored its first writers conference, and I attended. One of the sessions was on marketing. This session gave me some ideas about what I might do to market my own book.

I am a writer and an English professor. I am also an introvert (as so many writers are). Marketing was (and still is) very much outside of my skill set and comfort zone. But I very much wanted my book to be read by people other than family and friends. If that was going to happen, people had to learn it existed.

In this session, I learned about blogs: starting my own blog and getting your book featured on the blogs of others. I attempted to start a blog, and I contacted about 1,790,983 other people’s blogs, asking to be featured for either an interview or review. Book bloggers with a large readership are inundated with such requests, but a few did accept me.

I also learned about Goodreads and Goodreads groups as well as a couple web communities that are no longer in existence. I got on Goodreads. I joined a few Fantasy fiction groups and a few groups for writers. In these groups, I found more bloggers looking to interview and review authors. I got myself on more blogs.

Making these requests to appear on blogs and answering the interview questions or writing a blog post for the bloggers who said “yes” ate at my time. I did sell a few books this way and garnered more reviews, but at such a slow rate that it took at least ten hours of my time doing this for every copy sold.

Another thing common in Goodreads groups is authors offered to trade reviews, meaning you read and review their book, and they do the same for you. I entered into quite a few such agreements, and I absolutely recommend against doing so. Most of those making these arrangements were self-published authors. (I hadn’t even heard the term “Indie” at that time.) I developed a prejudice against self-publishing that has taken me some time to get over. The vast majority of these books had no business being on the market. To begin with, they were riddled with errors. As an English professor, I may be more critical of punctuation and grammatical mistakes than most, but some of them were so bad they were unreadable. And punctuation was just the beginning of the problems with these books. Overall, they were amateurish. While doing this review swap, I read only one novel that I considered good, Serving Time by Nadine Ducca. You can read my review of it on Goodreads. I loved this novel, and my review of it is absolutely genuine.

All of the rest put me in a moral quandary. I didn’t want to write bad reviews in fear that the authors would retaliate by doing the same to me. But it felt wrong to give good reviews to terrible to mediocre novels. (This is why I recommend against putting yourself in this situation.) I compromised with my conscience a little. For the books that were too terrible to finish, I contacted the authors and told them I couldn’t leave a positive review, so I wasn’t going to leave one at all. The rest of the novels I gave better reviews than they deserved. Doing this bothered me, and I stopped swapping reviews after a short time.

Most of these Goodreads groups also have a special section where authors can promote their books. However, very few people ever read this section of the discussion board.

So with the advise I got on this conference, I put in hundreds of hours of my time and sold about a dozen copies of my novel.

At this point, the entire publishing thing might seem too depressing to even consider, but I promise the ending is happier than the beginning.

Stay tuned.

 

I’d love to hear your thoughts or experiences below.

My Publishing Journey, Part I: The Goddess’s Choice

Jamie Marchant Posted on by

I recently read a friend’s post on why she’d decided to pursue traditional publishing for her first novel.  (You can find it here.) After reading it, I felt inspired to discuss my own publishing journey in the hopes that what I’ve learn from trial and a lot of error might help smooth the road for other writers. Once I started writing, I found I had a lot to say, so this would be a multi-part series of posts.

I finished my first novel (with the exception of the one I wrote in high school) in 2004. The Goddess’s Choice was an epic fantasy novel 318,000 words long. I was completely naïve at the time and knew next to nothing about publishing, except that you needed an agent. I researched on how to write query letters, synopses, outlines, etc. I then researched agents and began sending my novel out. Mostly I got form rejections or heard nothing at all, but I got a few responses that said positive things about my writing and style, but told me that at 318,000 words, the novel was three times the acceptable length for a debut novel from an unknown author. One agent even requested the whole manuscript, gave me a lot of positive feedback, and told me that if I could cut it down, he’d like to see it again.

After about four years of querying, I decided I had no choice. If I wanted to get the novel published, it had to be shorter. I began what I thought would be a painful process of cutting the novel down. It turned out to be less painful than I imagined, and I managed to get it down to 178,000 words. I knew this was still 60,000 to 70,000 words longer than the preferred length, but I couldn’t cut it any further. I’m not a fast writer, so it was 2010 before I was ready to try again. The one agent who had wanted to see again no longer worked in the business, and no one else was interested.

I decided to give up on the Big Six (now the Big Five) publishers and send my novel to smaller presses who are often more flexible about what they will publish. It was accepted within a few months by Reliquary Press. I was beyond thrilled. The editor at Reliquary Press gushed over my novel. I felt validated and would have signed any contract he put in front of me. My husband is more cautious, and to stop him from bugging me, I wrote to other Reliquary authors about their experience with the press and researched contracts. Feedback from authors was positive, and the contract looked pretty standard, even a bit generous in its terms. My husband was still not sold because the contract said nothing about what the press would do to promote the book. I wasn’t about to let my long awaited chance at publishing slip through my fingers, so I signed the contract despite my husband’s reservations and waited for my book to appear.

(My husband was quite right to be cautious. There are a lot of scams out there that prey on authors’ eagerness to be published. If a publisher ever asks you to pay them anything, run. They are a scam. You do not pay publishers. They pay you.)

My novel was published on April 12, 2012. When I got my first author copies with my name on the cover and my words inside, it was a rush. I had made it. I had beaten the odds. I was published. I basked in the glory of the moment and waited for my book to sell. A few friends and family members bought it. I had a reading that I arranged myself at a local bookstore and sold a few more copies, but that was basically it. Reliquary Press did nothing to promote it. Nobody had told me that I was supposed to do anything, so although I had the books with my name on the cover, no one was reading it.

The Goddess’s Choice was my baby. I had put years of my life into writing it, revising it, cutting it, publishing it, and nobody was reading it. I knew I had written a great novel, but no one knew anything about it.

Stay tuned for what I did next, and please share your own experiences in the comments.

5 Tips for Writing Dialogue

Jamie Marchant Posted on by

Something I was reading yesterday slammed me in the face with how clumsily beginning writers are with dialogue, so here are five tips for doing it right.

 Tip #1: Know how to punctuate

Proper punctuation is so important because it is essentially invisible to the reader. They don’t notice it. Mistakes, however, will people the reader out of the story. Since little that is written for school contains dialogue, very people seem to know how to punctuate it correctly. I’m not going to go around dialogue punctuation rules here because on the site linked below, someone else has already spelled it out clearly. If you are unsure of your punctuation, please review the site. Anything the pulls your reader out of the story weakens your work and makes it that much more like they will throw it aside and pick up something new.

Proper Dialogue Punctuation

Tip #2: Avoid substitutes for “said.”

Like proper punctuation, “said” is practically invisible to the reader. Other words to indicate dialogue draw more attention to themselves. If you are going to use a tag other than “said,” make sure you have a good reason for doing so and the word you choose comments on how the dialogue was said, such as “whispered” or “shouted.” Never use tags other than “said” simply for variety. Words like “added,” “announced,” “stated,” “claimed,” etc. draw attention to themselves, and you want to the reader to play attention to your story, not your tags.

Tip #3: Tags can sometimes be left out

While you never want it to be unclear who is speaking, when you have a dialogue between two people, you can tag at the beginning and then simply starting a new paragraph to change speakers will let your reader know who is talking. However, if the dialogue goes on for awhile, you will want occasional tags so that your reader doesn’t get lost. Read the following bit of dialogue from The Ghost in Exile:

The Ghost grunted, “Do you have a job for me?”

Zotico’s eyes gleamed. “Do I ever! I’d nearly despaired of finding a capable assassin, but your fortunate arrival proves that Ares will never fail those who serve his name.”

“Who do you want dead?”

“I think it would be best explained by the one in need of Ares’s assistance, but I assure you it is your sort of kill. May I tell the client you’ll meet?”

The Ghost nodded.

Because the speakers were established in the first two lines of dialogue, I don’t need tags in the second two lines to make the speaker clear. Pages and pages of this type of dialogue becomes tedious, but sometimes leaving out a tag is good thing.

Tip #4: Indicate speaker with actions rather than tags

Rather than using tags all of the time to indicate speaker, you can include the dialogue in a paragraph where the characters does something. Examine the following dialogue, also from The Ghost in Exile:

Passing an alley, he heard a commotion. He turned to see a young woman pleading with two men. “Don’t make me go with him,” she begged. “He hurts me.” The Ghost recoiled when he heard her Massossinan accent. He hated Massossinans.

The first man slapped her across the face, and The Ghost saw the iron slave collar around the woman’s neck. Her red hair confirmed her nationality. She wore a low-cut, red bodice trimmed with black lace and an extremely short red skirt. She had to be freezing in this weather. “You’ll do as you’re told and like it, or . . .” He drew a knife and ran it across her right breast, drawing a thin line of blood.

The second man grabbed the woman. “You know you like it rough.” He too drew a knife. “Maybe I’ll slice you open when I’m through with you.”

“That will cost you extra,” the first man warned.

The second man shrugged. “I’m good for it.”

He imagined his daughter being similarly assaulted. He stepped into the alley. “Let her go.”

The man pulled the woman closer to him. “You can have a turn when I’m done with her.” He grabbed the woman’s breast, and she tried to squirm away. She looked older than he’d thought at first, nearly thirty—old for a whore. Most didn’t live that long.

The Ghost drew his sword and stepped forward. “I said let her go.”

The woman’s master stepped between The Ghost and the other man. “Mister, you have no right to interfere with lawful commerce. She’s mine, and I’ll do with her as I see fit.”

“Not tonight you won’t. Move aside.”

It must have been too dark for the man to see the menace in The Ghost’s eyes. Few men dared stand up to him after they’d gotten a good look at the coldness he held there. The slave owner, however, crossed his arms. “Go away.”

You will notice that some of the lines of dialogue are tagged, but many of them simply tell what the character did, such as “grabbed the woman” or “drew his sword.” Using action rather than tags creates a more dynamic scene. People generally don’t talk in a vacuum. They do something while they are talking.

Tip #5: Use variety (to a point)

Using different ways to indicate the speaker can keep a scene more lively, but getting too creative about tagging calls attention to it. Make sure you have good reasons for what you do in tagging, and don’t simply try to be clever. The reader will notice if you do and won’t thank you for it.

Keep the above in mind, but remember the only absolute rule in writing is “Does it work?” If it works, a piece of writing can break every rule in the book. Of course, whether or not something works is subjective, so it is better to learn the rules of good writing and only break them when you have a good reason for doing so.

Sin Eater Release Tour and Giveaway

Jamie Marchant Posted on by
Sin Eater
The Aria Knight Chronicles Book 1
By Alesha Escobar and Samantha Lafantasie
Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal
Aria Knight has an unusual set of skills: she will hold back the hounds of
Hell so you can fly toward the Pearly Gates, and she will wipe your
slate clean so that you don’t become karma’s bitch…for a price.

A Sin Eater has to make a living in today’s world somehow.
But when she’s called in the dead of night to perform her rite for a
recluse billionaire, she stumbles upon a murder scene, and the
evidence points to her.
In an attempt to clear her name and uncover the true culprit, Aria is
forced to team up with a private investigator who’s possessed by
three spirits, and a handsome wizard who would rather see all Sin
Eaters like Aria go extinct.
Aria knows her job is never easy, but now it’s become downright
deadly.
SIN EATER is the first book of the Aria Knight Chronicles by USA Today
bestselling author Samantha LaFantasie and Alesha Escobar, author of
the bestselling Gray Tower Trilogy.
**.99 on Amazon!!**
I’m a caffeine addict and chocoholic who enjoys reading and writing
engaging stories, loveable (and not-so loveable) characters, and
expressing my creativity daily. I write fantasy with intriguing
characters, action-packed scenes, and always throw in a good dash of
humor and romance.
Science Fiction and Fantasy are
my favorite genres, but I also adore the classics (Shakespeare, Dante
Alighieri, etc.) and I have a soft spot in my heart for Victorian
poetry. You can geek out with me all-day every day over these
Some of my favorite contemporary
fantasy authors are George R.R. Martin, Robert Jordan (rest in
peace), J.K. Rowling, Neil Gaiman, Jim Butcher (Dresden Files made me
love Urban Fantasy), and Ilona Andrews among others. I enjoy movies
and shows like Sleepy Hollow, Supernatural, Arrow, The Flash, The
Avengers…there are too many to name!
I want to read more comics and
graphic novels, please shoot a recommendation or two my way (I LOVE
the Hellblazer comics, by the way).
Please don’t be a stranger–I
want you to kick up your feet, sip your coffee (or tea) and join in
on my weekly rants, discussions, and updates.
Follow the tour HERE
for exclusive excerpts and a giveaway!