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DEEP POINT OF VIEW

The Four Pillars of Better Writing

Deep POV

Ever received feedback that a reader didn’t quite connect with your character? That your story didn’t grab them? Perhaps you’ve even felt that way about your own book. What went wrong?

You followed all the rules. You polished your language. You showed, and didn’t tell. You used plenty of pronouns for a deep POV. You even had your character save Blake Snyder’s cat. What more can you possibly do?

Now, readers often don’t have a clue what makes good writing stand out. That’s how it should be. They can’t pinpoint what might be wrong with a scene, but they will know if the writing is flawed.

The best thing a writer can do for their manuscript is to edit using the four pillars of better writing.

1. Show don’t tell.

Sure, you’ve worked your ass off to show, but did you catch all the ‘tells’? Showing isn’t about a step-by-step description or about describing the environment. The best way to catch your tells is by reading your book from the last page to the first, focusing on each sentence out of context.

2. Nix filter words.

Certain words tell your reader how your character perceives the world. Your goal, however, should be to let the reader experience the world as your character does, not to hear about it second-hand. YOU are the story teller, not your character.

3. Active settings.

This is my weakest spot. The idea is to describe the scene how your character would see, hear, feel, smell, live it. What is important to your character? A florist might marvel at a bouquet of flowers. A warrior might envy an arsenal of shiny swords.

4. Voice
This is what your book is all about. The je ne sais quoi every agent and editor is after. Let it shine.

Consider this:

“She’d never felt so tired in her life. Even her sight was letting her down. The plant in the corner looked blurred. Dark blotches marred her perception of the plush carpet. She wondered if she’d make it into bed. She took off her shoes, her top, her pants, considered taking off her underwear, too, but decided against it. Instead, she climbed into bed. Two minutes later she was asleep.”

I hope no one considers this good writing. Let’s discuss the flaws one by one.

She’d never FELT so tired. “Felt” is a filter word. You’re telling the reader how the character felt, rather than showing the fatigue. How does your character experience her tiredness? Perhaps her limbs ache. She has a headache. Her thoughts are sluggish. Three excellent ways of SHOWING how she feels.

“The door slammed shut behind her. She rolled her aching head. Each step pushed her limbs closer to the point of failure. Even her sight was letting her down. The plant in the corner looked blurred. Dark blotches marred her perception of the plush carpet.”

Let’s stop right here. “Even her sight was letting her down” is a fine sentence, except it tells rather than shows. You know it is telling because the following two sentences basically SHOW the same thing.

Sadly, they don’t show her vision problems very well, though. First, “looked” is a filter word. Next, “marred her perception” are unlikely words thought by someone who’s dead on their feet. And finally, “plush” is a wonderful adjective, but it’s not a visual one, and therefore does not convince as evidence she can’t see well.

Is there a way to combine SHOWING with a more active setting? Why, for example, would the character pick out the plant in the corner of their own bedroom? They wouldn’t.

However, if they have a headache, they might notice the ticking of a clock on the wall. Or the ceiling lights might be too bright. Or the fumes from the open window might roil their stomach.

But let’s not lull the reader to sleep with too many descriptions.

So how about this?

“The door slammed shut behind her. She rolled her aching head. Each step pushed her limbs closer to the point of failure. She kicked off her shoes, let the plush carpet massage her tired feet. The ticks of the old grandfather clock hammered inside her skull. She wondered if she’d make it into bed. She took off her top, her pants, considered taking off her underwear, too, but decided against it.”

Whoa. What was that? “Wondered” is a filter. So is “considered.” Let’s cut them.

“Decided” is a typical “telling word,” together with “managed,” “tried,” “reach” and many others, by the way. No, these sentences require a rewrite.

“The door slammed shut behind her. She rolled her aching head. Each step pushed her limbs closer to the point of failure. She kicked off her shoes, let the plush carpet massage her tired feet. The ticks of the old grandfather clock hammered inside her skull. She slipped off her top. Her pants protested at first. But a wiggle of her ass and a hard yank freed her legs. She climbed into bed. Two minutes later she was asleep.”

Did you catch it? The last two sentences are telling, dull, and illogical. How can she tell us she was asleep if she was, well, asleep?

Darn. And we thought we’d done it.

“The door slammed shut behind her. She rolled her aching head. Each step pushed her limbs closer to the point of failure. She kicked off her shoes, let the plush carpet massage her tired feet. The ticks of the old grandfather clock hammered inside her skull. She slipped off her top. Her pants protested at first. But a wiggle of her ass and a hard yank freed her legs. The bed welcomed her like a lover, while her freshly laundered sheets released the scent that had lulled her to sleep when her mother was still alive.”

Better. Just one question. Why is she tired in the first place? We’re missing voice. Perhaps some internal thought and a hook would finish off the scene with a flourish.

“The door slammed shut behind her, and she rolled her aching head. Each step pushed her limbs closer to the point of failure. She kicked off her shoes, let the plush carpet massage her tired feet. Henry was a sweet boy, with the energy of a rollercoaster, but the next time her brother asked her to babysit, she’d hire a professional. Someone who was used to the delightful shrieks and the adorable mood swings of a six-year-old.

The ticks of the old grandfather clock hammered inside her skull. She slipped off her top. Her pants protested, but a wiggle of her ass and a hard yank freed her legs. Finally. The bed welcomed her like a lover. One by one, her muscles relaxed. She shut her eyes, soaking in the lavender scent from her freshly laundered sheets. Tomorrow, she’d battle the sexy but cunning Damon for the Dragon’s Cup.

After Henry, fending off the wizard’s dirty tricks was going to be child’s play.”

Getting this right is something I struggle with every day. But it’s a fight worth fighting. The difference these techniques make to your writing are tremendous, no matter your level.

What do you struggle with?

If you’re interested in finding out more, I’d recommend starting with Mary Buckham’s awesome Writing Active Setting – The Boxset.

GENRES, SUBGENRES AND SUBSUBGENRES

Or: Why You Should Embrace Pigeonholes

Book genres

Agents and Publishers are keen to pigeonhole writers into ever more restrictive book genres. What used to be Sci-Fi/Fantasy became Fantasy became Paranormal became Urban Fantasy became Dark Urban Fantasy became Dark Urban Fantasy with Romantic Elements.

Uhm. Seriously?

Authors spend valuable time figuring out the category their work falls in. Most of the time, their books are wedged firmly between two subgenres. Which do they choose? But choose they must, because agents and editors demand ever more specific classifications. Do readers really care? Not so much. Artificial distinctions won’t overtly affect whether or not anyone reads your book. I’m an avid reader, yet I don’t care if you write Dark Urban Fantasy with Romantic Elements or a lighter variety of vampire fiction. If you have an effective blurb, a great cover and a descriptive title, readers will find you. Right?

Well, maybe. There is one very specific way in which authors directly benefit from pigeonholing themselves.

While your specific genre might not mean a lot on the face of it, let’s examine this back-to-front, starting with the reader.

Case study: Ms. Gertrude Sample

A reader, let’s call her Gertrude, likes Kim Harrison and Jaye Wells. Gertrude’s friend Barney might surmise she likes Urban Fantasy with witches. If Barney were to recommend a book to her, he’d pick another series featuring witches. Makes sense, doesn’t it? However, only a limited number of books with this particular element exist, and Gertrude is hungry for more reading material.

If Gertrude likes Kim Harrison, perhaps she also digs Patricia Briggs. It’s then reasonable to assume she likes witches, vampires, werewolves and hopefully shifters generally. Barney’s list of recommendations grows.

Once Gertrude has exhausted this list, what next? Perhaps she also has an interest in other supernatural/preternatural creatures from lore, e.g. succubi, satyrs, fae, and so on. Fantastic. That’s another twenty or thirty titles to add to Barney’s list.

Three months later, Gertrude’s back for more. Instead of rolling his eyes at his demanding reader friend, Barney mines more remote subgenres. How about demons and angels? Or Urban Fantasy with worlds and beings hitherto unheard of? Oh, and how important is the romance angle in Gertrude’s decision-making process anyhow?

Finally, after a lot of reading, Gertrude reaches the huge crop of books generically referred to as Urban Fantasy. But she had to read hundreds and hundreds of books along the way.

At what point might Barney recommend my books to Gertrude? My first book Divide and Conquer features no creatures from lore. Instead, I built a new world with new conflicts and new preternatural elements. It specifically appeals to readers who like fun reads, with major plot twists, a hidden world separate from everyday Seattle, and a healthy but not overwhelming splash of romance. Shoot! There is no category for that. Perhaps I should make up my own. I will promote it as Multiworld Urban Fantasy with Romantic Elements. Catchy, eh? But how is Gertrude going to find me? She will have to work her way through a frak-ing long index before she stumbles on Multiworld Urban Fantasies with Romantic Elements on Barney’s list. So in the year 2026, then?

Okay. Perhaps it doesn’t need to be quite that precise. Let’s just call it Urban Fantasy with Original Worlds. Still, it’ll take a long time before I can count Gertrude as one of my readers.

Case study: Ms. Shaniqua Sample

Now, Gertrude’s estranged sister Shaniqua loves Amanda Bonilla. She loves the love triangle, the idea of hidden worlds and beings that have been around a long time. Since Divide and Conquer has some of these elements (a hidden world, romantic elements, beings with unusual powers), Shaniqua should discover my book pretty quickly. Even without Barney’s help. Because we have both built original worlds.

My second book, Guarded, features werewolves, vampires, demons, and one spunky satyr detective learning about her place in a world she’d rather not live in. Even though it features creatures from lore, the book is not concerned with their agendas. No vampire politics, werewolf hierarchy issues. Yet I would comfortably place it alongside Kim Harrison and Patricia Briggs. No doubt Gertrude will pounce soon. Shaniqua? Nope. Not a chance.

Not unless Shaniqua and Gertrude bury the family hatchet and reconnect over a cup of tea and a good ol’ yap about books, during which Gertrude recommends Guarded to Shaniqua.

Aha!

Categories help you find your ideal audience quickly. Hopefully, your Getrudes will leave positive reviews on Amazon and Goodreads and tell their non-cyber friends and estranged sisters about your book. Before you know it, Shaniqua and her friends will have found you through word-of-mouth, no matter if they normally read your specific genres or not. (Incidentally, if readers who can’t stand your specific genre won’t read your book, they can’t leave negative reviews either.)

What this comes down to

Even though as readers we might casually declare our love for Urban Fantasy, we have preferences. We have books or authors we are drawn to like the lines of a triangle. If new authors provide their readers with a suitable comparison, they might find each other more quickly, and the word-of-mouth campaign can start. But advertise yourself as an “Urban Fantasy” author, and you’ll be at the bottom of a very long list, both for Gertrude and for Shaniqua.

This is why I embrace classifications. In fact, I’d go even further. As a reader, I follow voice more than genre. I love Darynda Jones and Jennifer Rardin, and can comfortably settle down with one of Mary Buckham’s offerings. I very much enjoy the less sassy and more suspenseful offerings of Kim Harrison or Keri Arthur, too. In a book Venn diagram, Divide and Conquer falls between Darynda Jones for voice and Kim Harrison for suspense and Amanda Bonilla for content.

How would you categorize your favorite genres? Are you led more by genre or by word of mouth?

PROMOTION ETIQUETTE FOR NEW AUTHORS

Using Your Author Platform The Smart Way

Promotion
Published a book? Well done. You started months ago building a twitter base of followers, collecting facebook likes, feverishly writing blog posts. Now is the time to unleash your creation upon the world. You send facebook updates, participate in blog tours, plaster your book details onto Twitter, and organize giveaways on Goodreads.

But why is this so hard? You should be laughing all the way to the bank, but the sales aren’t as copious as you’d hoped. What are you doing wrong?

Clearly, there could be any number of reasons. Perhaps your book doesn’t strike a nerve. Maybe that’s the way things go for new authors.

Or maybe you’re sabotaging yourself.

What is this thing we call promotion?

Promotion isn’t about selling. Selling is what Amazon and Barnes & Noble do. Promotion is about communication. Dialogue. A two-way exchange of communication.

So stop shouting already! You’re annoying people. Hasn’t your momma taught you manners?

If you shout, no one is going to hear you. Try talking to people. Starting with why a reader should buy your book. Because you’re loud? Because you’ve written it? Uh-uh. Not gonna happen.

The crucial issue in promotion is that it takes the participation of two parties. This applies not just to writers, by the way.

I helped a couple of authors increase their fan base, and ultimately sales, with what I learned in my one-year marketing course combined with a dash of good old common sense. There’s no telling what you can achieve by following the same simple rules.

So, what do you do?

First of all, have you picked the correct partner to engage? Buying 20,000 followers on Twitter means nothing if they aren’t readers. Does your blog address readers or fellow authors? If you mainly feature writing advice, don’t panic. Writers are avid readers, so all is not lost. But don’t forget which side of their personality you’re appealing to.

Of course you need a platform. A stable base where people can find out about you, about your book, about what makes you tick. Which social media outlet is best? Your Twitter profile is not that place. Facebook? Better. Amazon and Goodreads author pages? Great. But the best platform is your website. Let me try it this way. Your website is the link, or the interface, between your readers’ individual space shuttles and the mothership (i.e. the seller of your book). Occasionally you might redirect the link to a cargo ship, like a review site or your Facebook page, but only as a means to ultimately guide the shuttles safely to the mothership’s hangar bays.

So, how have you set up your interface? Is it easy to learn more about you? Are your posts attractive to the right sort of reader? Are your Amazon/B&N links, Facebook like button, newsletter sign-up and follow fields at the top of the page, or does the reader have to wade through lines and lines of old blog posts and affiliated websites?

Next come the channels of communication. Twitter is a rubbish way to sell anything. But it’s fantastically suited for informing. Inform your followers of the release of your book. Let them know about this fantastic post you’ve written or your guest appearance on someone’s website. Facebook, in turn, is a great place for genuinely engaging with readers. Have fun with them. Find out about them. Listen to them. You must know your readers to understand how to communicate with them. Too many writers regard this as a waste of time. It’s not. The key is to invite readers to join you, not to damage their eardrums by yelling them into compliance.

A word of warning. You might gain Facebook likes, but the rate of engagement will be low until you’ve “made it.” Yes, until you’ve joined the big-ish leagues, people won’t give two cents about you. Engaging takes time, and people’s engagement is focused on the big names. Of course it is. Wouldn’t you rather be sitting with the Heathers than with the weirdo new guy? But your effort will not be in vain. Because at some point, your likes will reach a number where you become interesting. The book(s) will take off. This is not the time to act like a spoiled brat and reject those that used to ignore you. No, this is when all your earlier efforts pay off. This is when your early followers start their word-of-mouth campaign. After all, they’ve been with you from the start.

How about the frequency of your promotion activities? Well, at what point do phone calls stop being fun and begin being the acts of a stalker? You’ve written a book? Great. Pick the correct time, ideally after work and toward the weekend, and send your followers a tweet. Perhaps another one a week later. But let’s be honest, everyone’s Twitter feed is filled to the brim with book reviews and self-promos. Be different. Shake things up. Share some cool lines from your book, and someone might be intrigued enough to investigate. Tweet about a cool blog post, and someone might follow the link, like your views and your writing, and check out your book.

Want to find out more?
Here a few websites I’ve found useful.
Your Writer Platform
Writer’s Digest
The Book Designer

In other words…

It’s not rocket science. Promotion is tough, and you’re probably doing many things right. Just…don’t sabotage your efforts. Okay?

I mean, if you’re an author, you’re also a reader. What tweets do you react to? What makes you buy books? Share with us. We can all do with a little help.

THE STIGMA OF WRITING INTIMACY

Writing sex scenes – Why all the fuss?

Guarded
Collage for Guarded, its raunchy nature obvious

As I embarked on a new project, I’ve had to confront a few demons. Not all of them mine. How far should I go in incorporating sex scenes to be faithful to my vision of where the story needs to go? Will sexing-up my novel turn me into a pariah, destined to be shunned by friends and relatives? I’ve written about sex before, but my next novel is planned to be a step more graphic. Yet even turning up the heat factor by one setting poses problems.

Doing research on erotic romance, and on the authors who write it, I came across an interesting survey.

The Fussy Librarian survey

Demographics

In May 2014, the Fussy Librarian, an ebook recommendation website, asked 103 authors of erotic romance novels a bunch of questions. Some of the results were predictable, notably their gender (94% female, predominant age group: 24-54 years, 89% heterosexual). The husbands/wives/partners of most of the authors questioned here, and in 69% of cases their mothers, are fully aware of what’s going on on their computers. Their fathers? Well, daddys and daughters. Only 53% of authors had shared their chosen genre with their fathers.

I get that. But did their parents actually read any of their erotic novels? A surprising 42% did.

Meet the authors

So, who are these people who write erotica? Turns out, they are people like you and me. The average age they lost their virginity and the number of times they have sex in a month match the average American (as per a survey carried out by the Kinsey Institute). And 45% of our authors had sex on a first date. At this point, it should be noted that in a Singles in America survey, 2012, the average among all singles, male and female is 44%, but an earlier 2004 ABC News survey discovered only 17% of women had sex on a first date. Still, the 44% mentioned in the Singles in America survey presumably had sex with a partner, right?

Secret layers?

Are erotic romance authors kinkier than the average American? It would certainly appear so. According to the Kinsey Institute, less than 20% of Americans had participated in BDSM (bondage, discipline, sadism, masochism), but a whopping 41% of our authors had given it a go. Most of them (84%) had had sex outdoors (average according to an ABC news poll in 2004 was 54%). Sex in the office, anyone? 41% of our authors screamed ‘yes,’ compared to only 7% according to the ABC News poll.

Erotic romance authors also appear to have had more sexual partners than the average American, although the rate of infidelity among those surveyed was notably lower.

What does it all mean?

These are stats. They’re interesting, for sure, but what can we glean from the numbers? Perhaps I’m completely off-base, but we should not forget who we’re talking about. These erotic romance authors write about sex every day. They make money treating intimacy like the natural and desirable thing it is. When they admit to having attempted BDSM or sex in unusual places, I can see no reason they should feel shy about admitting it in a survey (especially not if it’s just a few ticks on a piece of paper). Ask the average person, not everyone is going to be so forthright. Even if they’re promised anonymity.

My guess is the number among erotic romance authors may indeed be slightly higher, although not as high as the figures suggest. Either way, these authors take their writing seriously. They will not giggle at the mention of sex and are bound to be curious about the techniques and locations they write about.

Why did I share these stats with you?

I have the highest respect for authors of erotic novels. My tastes don’t run into the exotic, but I respect authors who push boundaries. My next book, Guarded, is my raunchiest book yet. A mere three sex scenes, but more graphic than anything I’ve attempted before. And already the panic has set in. Should I get a super-secret pen name so none of my friends will know that the intimate details I describe were conjured in my brain? The other day I mentioned the steamier nature of the book to a friend of mine, who assured me that if I went ahead, she would never be able to look at me the same way.

I fear she won’t be alone. Telling my parents? When pigs fly.

Is this the year 2014? I’m tempted to bury my book forever, yet a tiny, rebellious part of me is tired of this hypocrisy. If my characters engage in sex, is this somehow equal to posting a video of me in the act on the Internet? Am I suddenly a bad person? By the same logic, what does it say about me if my character kills one of her enemies? The hang-up is my friend’s, but it’s a hang-up that will affect me all the same.

Does anyone have advice for a writer who wishes to nudge the envelope just a tad? How did you cope with the stigma?

Thank you.

THE WRITE PATH with Holly Hunt

THe Write Path

Holly Hunt

In this series, my guests talk to me about their books. Today I welcome author Holly Hunt, who will be discussing Tyrant or Tarsit with me.

So let me hand over my mic. The next voice you’ll hear will be Holly’s.

1. What is your book about?

Holly Hunt

Tyrant of Tarsit is a story wherein a woman – a regular, everyday woman – is dragged into a plot involving the invasion of a kingdom, the suppression of magic and the chaos of treason. Mayhem and a 200-year romance feature heavily in this short novella. There’s something for everyone.

2. What do you think attracts readers to your main characters?

I like to think that readers like my characters because they can see a little bit of themselves in them. From the dark and brooding hero to the woman not afraid to give everything a go, to the people who make up the worlds of all my stories. Everyone gets a chance to be a someone.

3. What message do you hope the reader takes away from your book?

I have only ever set out to write one story with a message, and that doorstop of a book was so twisted no one else could understand it! Tarsit has, I believe, two things that can be taken away from it. The first is that you should treat every setback as an opportunity. The other is that some people are never as black-and-white as they seem. In both cases, it will take a little bit of examination to see the truth of the matter.

4. What do you think was it about your book that made it so easy to convince your editor to publish it?

The cute romance between Lauren and Malcolm, the Spy’s bitter betrayal, the action… I think they have a lot to do with it. Juicy, ey?

5. Comparing the ideas you had before writing the book with the finished product, would you change anything if you could travel back in time?

I think I would have made the book longer, and taken the time to properly explain its place in the universe first introduced in Scale & Feather (even though Tarsit mainly takes place about 600 years before Feather – There are more stories from that universe coming, when I get back to it, I promise!) Tarsit and Arnhid are the first of the Southern States, which isn’t really explained in the novella.

Thanks for having me!

web/blog: http://rhythempoets.wordpress.com/
twitter: @hollyhuntauthor
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Holly-Hunt/111905542194012
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Tyrant-Of-Tarsit-Dark-Heroes-ebook/dp/B00C4NU46G

HEROINES KICK UP A FUSS

Heroines in Fiction

Divide and Conquer

And still the debate over whether woman have achieved emancipation in fiction rages on. Well, it kind of depends.

What I love about the Urban Fantasy genre is that it doesn’t matter if the main character is male or female. Jim Butcher’s character Harry Dresden is just as entertaining as Darynda Jones’ Charley Davidson. Most series I read have female leads, but even among those books lies a whole lot of gray, from the tough-on-the outside Damsel to the softly spoken Buttkicker.

In television, the first truly independent woman who could hold her own and accepted-but-didn’t-need help from tall strangers was Buffy Summers. She was kind, insecure, certainly not in love with her own powers, but always ready with the stake when a fanged foe came a-knocking.

Before Buffy, strong women, for example in anime, were stripped of nearly everything that made them female, as if femininity and violence, or even femininity and self-confidence, were mutually exclusive. Even today this sort of thinking finds great favor with certain screen writers and authors.

But heroines can be wonderfully feminine and tough at the same time. I’m not even talking about characters walking around unshaven with a chip on their shoulder, stabbing any man that looks at them funny. No, mental strength is the true key to emancipating a character. Cagney and Lacey, those eighties female cops, had that in spades. While one was married with children, the other was looking for love. Yet both did their jobs with the kind of obsession that had up to that point been considered exclusively a male domain. Sadly they were surrounded by plenty of chauvinists to provide humor for the less enlightened.

In fact, Cagney and Lacey’s partnership inspired my book Divide and Conquer. I wanted to spin a story around two women with fiercely different backgrounds being thrown together by a common fate. Lea and Nieve, my characters, do not become BFFs immediately, but they are connected by a bond that transcends normal friendship. At the same time, I did not want a Buffy/Faith scenario, where they were always at odds with one another.

Sadly, too many agents and readers still prefer a strong male to ably assist their “feisty” heroine (nothing condescending about being called “feisty,” right, ladies?). In fact, I was once asked by a beta reader to give the males of Divide and Conquer a more prominent role. When I enquired what she meant, I was told a romance is only believable if the man proves his worth by playing the central role in the ultimate battle. Otherwise he would not be an alpha male.

Seriously?

Well, I believe in the ‘alpha female.’ Luckily, most authors agree that Urban Fantasy is one genre where women can be strong and competent. Where they choose their friends and their partners according to their own ideas, and not in line with expected stereotypes. Here, women are allowed to cry, throw a hissy, kick ass if ass needs kicking, and generally emote and act like real-life human beings.

Hurrah for Urban Fantasy.

What are your feelings on the subject?

THE WRITE PATH with Jane Dougherty

THe Write Path

Jane Dougherty

In this series, my guests talk to us about their books. Today I welcome author Jane Dougherty, who will be discussing The Green Woman series, a YA dystopian series of unexpected depth, with me. Today, August 21, you can find the first book in her series FREE at http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Citadel-Green-Woman-Book-ebook/dp/B00JW86TYM.

So let me hand over my mic. The next voice you’ll hear will be Jane’s.

1. What is your book about?

Green Woman
The Dark Citadel is the first volume of The Green Woman series. There are three main volumes, all three available as of today, and so far six spin-off stories. The world of the Green Woman is a post-apocalyptic world where the human survivors huddle inside the protective crystal dome of Providence. It isn’t a futuristic story, not techy at all, and closer to allegory than an attempt at ultra-realism. In this future, after generations of post-nuclear darkness, the citizens of Providence have fallen back on the great human stand-by—religion. With no opposition, the Elders have created a theocracy, which has changed subtly from strict to downright evil. The only dissent is from the Ignorants, the underclass who believe in the old stories of a utopia, a sort of Garden of Eden, and the Green Woman, the keeper of the Memory of the world, who will make the Garden grow in its ruins. The story of The Green Woman is the story of the reawakening of humanity, a great starting over, and the fight to put evil back in its place, the Pit.

The Dark Citadel is the first episode, showing the nature of the Elders’ regime and introducing the central character—Deborah, the Green Woman’s daughter. Slowly, the green magic is wakening to rebuild the broken earth. Deborah’s mother fled Providence when Deborah was a small child, when she began to have visions of things the Elders would rather keep lost and dead. Deborah’s forced betrothal to the public executioner’s warped son is the catalyst that sends her on the hazardous journey to join her mother, who is reaching the end of her strength, and pick up the task of making those visions live again.

In the course of her journey through the arid wasteland that surrounds Providence, Deborah meets Jonah and learns about friendship, loyalty, and love. She develops from a bitter and angry schoolgirl to a young woman ready to take up her responsibilities, whatever they turn out to be.

The Green Woman is basically about the very ordinary nature of evil, and how it can be overcome by very ordinary love. There are two main types of evil that beset humanity: the flamboyant, biblical, demonic evil that we all find easy to understand and point the finger at; and the ordinary evil perpetrated by ordinary people on their fellow human beings. Deborah’s role is to show the people of Providence where these two types of evil meet, and to offer them something different.

Green Woman
2. What do you think attracts readers to your main characters?

Deborah is not an immediately appealing character. She is opinionated, careless with her friends’ feelings, and bitter. In her defence, it has to be said she has a lot to be bitter about, and if she wasn’t headstrong and opinionated she wouldn’t have had the nerve to speak out against what she considers unjust. My son told me how much he liked the character of Deborah. “She’s a real bitch,” he said, “but it’s what keeps her going.” By the end of the story she has matured enough to be more than a bitch, and to channel her anger and energy into creating something wonderful.

One beta reader worried that I would alienate readers with some of Deborah’s behaviour, but I didn’t want her to be a plaster saint. Yes, she does plough ahead regardless of the consequences for other people, but that’s because she is a driven character, not because she doesn’t care. She often feels remorse and regret, but something is always pushing her on to what she firmly believes is her destiny, even though she doesn’t know exactly what it is.

Of the other characters, my favourite has to be Jonah. He isn’t the classic hero—a strong, silent, smouldering hunk—he’s a runaway, used to living on his wits in an inhospitable world. He has no savoir faire with girls, he’s wild and unkempt and he does seems to know exactly how to ruffle Deborah’s feathers. Jonah’s great strength is his heart. It’s bigger than anything else in the story and runs as a thread through the entire series.

3. What message do you hope the reader takes away from your book?

When I made my first stumbling steps on what has turned out to be a very long journey, I had a single idea about this story. I was going to create a society full of all the things I hate most—religious bigotry, misogyny, repression, cruelty, conformism, ignorance—and let the people who suffer the most in this ugly regime show the way to something better. The Dark Citadel starts in a cruel and dismal dystopia, and I wanted a girl, one of Providence’s most unesteemed inhabitants, to be the first to reach out to a utopia.

If I want readers to take anything away from this story it’s that for a world to be a good place to live in it needs compassion, courage and love, and all of us, even adolescents, have to stand up for what we believe to be right.

What most reviewers have picked up on is the setting for the story. Perhaps because it is incredibly clear in my own mind, to the extent that I know the street patterns of some of the neighbourhoods and dozens of characters who don’t even get a mention in the stories. It might be their invisible presence populating the story that makes it striking to so many readers.

From Kate Wrath’s review:

‘This book is beautifully rooted in mythology, borrowing symbolism and power from a spattering of ancient stories, all twisted into a modern legend. Somehow a huge variety of things– centaurs, demons, post-nuclear potatoes– are all brought together into a picture that makes sense.’

From John Collick’s review:

‘The author has created a massive tapestry for the backdrop to The Dark Citadel – imagine a painting by Hieronymous Bosch designed by George Orwell and set in North Korea.’

Green Woman
4. What was it about your book that made it so easy to attract your editor?

I attracted a publisher very quickly through luck (whether good or bad is debatable). I found an acquiring editor who loved the story of The Dark Citadel for what makes it different from much of what is written for YA—the language, which doesn’t pull any punches, and the relative complexity of the ideas and plot. Unfortunately, she left the publisher before my book had finished the editing stages, and those differences that had attracted her seemed more like problems to her successor. I had such an unhappy experience with this publisher, like fitting a square peg into a round hole, that I was offered my rights back five months after publication.

One problem is that The Green Woman series is classed as YA. Much YA writing uses simple sentence structure and reasonably straightforward plot, partly because the category is assumed to include readers I would consider children. For me, Young Adult means a reader who has adult reading ability and is capable of understanding adult emotions, even if they might not be old enough to have had time to experience many of them. I write for anyone who falls into that category, not children. I prefer much richer language than is usual, and I don’t believe in making things easy emotionally just because thirteen-year-olds might be reading it.

5. Comparing the ideas you had before writing the book with the finished product, would you change anything if you could travel back in time?

The disastrous episode with my former publisher did have a more positive side. It introduced me to an editor who really loved what I write and who has followed me through thick and thin to critique and make suggestions on everything I’ve published so far. The second bonus was that getting my rights back and republishing allowed me to overhaul the text in the light of how the world develops in the later parts of the trilogy and the layers I added in the spin-off stories. It was as though I was discovering this world the more I wrote about it. The opportunity to go back and change details in the social order as well as the characterisations has been invaluable.

When you create a world, you have to have worked out its technology, social structure and beliefs, history and background as well as the geography of the place. The deeper the writer digs into the world, the more she will discover about it. Sometimes there will be some minor detail in the first book that doesn’t at all fit in with the society as it has developed by the end of the third book. For example, through dint of writing about them repeatedly, I got to know how the military functioned in Providence, its hierarchy of soldiers and militia. In the first book there’s a scene that I originally wrote with the militia using spears, through laziness really, because it made what happens in the scene easier to describe. By the time I had reached the second volume of the story it was obviously a cranky idea to have these thugs of policemen using spears, so when I revised The Dark Citadel I rewrote that scene and reorganised all the references to soldiers and militia to make it coherent.

Green Woman
Here are Jane’ links:

Blog: http://janedougherty.wordpress.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MJDougherty33
Amazon author pages:
http://tinyurl.com/nholyft
http://tinyurl.com/m9xhyb6

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6953978.Jane_Dougherty

THE WRITE PATH with Haley Whitehall

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The Write Path – Haley Whitehall

In this series, authors discuss their books, from what inspired them to what they hope readers take away from their work. My guest today is Haley Whitehall, author of historical fiction and romance.

Let me hand over my mic. The next voice you’ll hear will be Haley’s.

Haley Whitehall

1. What is Wild and Tender Care about?

Wild and Tender Care is my first historical western romance. It takes place in Colorado Territory in 1870. Dr. William Steere is a half-breed and is finding a hard time starting his own medical practice because of all the racial prejudice against Indians. He meets Ida Page at the Independence Day picnic and immediately has feelings for the fiery redhead. Ida is a former shady lady turned laundress. She reformed but the good Christians won’t let her forget her sordid past. Will the town let the two outcasts have their happy ending?

2. What do you think attracts readers to your main characters?

Both of my main characters have had a rough childhood and have more or less learned to be independent and look out for themselves. Underdogs always appeal to me but may not appeal to everyone.

Dr. Steere is an alpha male who is also charming and caring. Alpha males have always been a favorite with romance readers and I hope they will also like seeing his softer side. Ida is a strong-willed woman. Writers always put themselves into their characters, but she has more of my qualities than most. She has taken her tough lot in life without becoming bitter and just keeps fighting for her respect and place in society. I like a feisty heroine who makes the hero chase her.

3. What message do you hope the reader takes away from your book?

My message developed naturally as I wrote this book. I never really set out to tell a story with a specific theme or message in mind. The characters seem to find those out on their own. My message is do not give up on love. There is someone out there for everyone and the right someone will accept your past, faults and all.

4. What was it about your book that made you so determined it should be published?

I thought the message in Wild and Tender Care is one that many people need to hear. I was also tired of reading about strong alpha males who seem more like jerks than heroes in a romance novel. Dr. Steere is my kind of alpha. He is equally strong and caring. I think more romances need to show the tender side of alpha males.

5. Comparing the ideas you had before writing the book with the finished product, would you change anything if you could travel back in time?

There are a few passages which are still a little awkward. After several rounds of editing all the words seem to blend together and it is only after the book is published when I see the remaining flaws. I would like one more editing pass to clean it up, but really I am very pleased with this story and how it turned out.

Buy Links:
Liquid Silver Books ~ Amazon US ~ Amazon UK ~ Barnes and Noble ~ ARe

 

Haley Whitehall

 

Author Bio:
Haley Whitehall lives in Washington State where she enjoys all four seasons and the surrounding wildlife. She writes historical fiction and historical romance set in the 19th century U.S. When she is not researching or writing, she plays with her cats, watches the Western and History Channels, and goes antiquing. She is hoping to build a time machine so she can go in search of her prince charming. A good book, a cup of coffee, and a view of the mountains make her happy. Visit Haley’s website at haleywhitehall.com.

Other Historical Romance Titles:

Midnight Caller (Moonlight Romance, Book 1)
Midnight Heat (Moonlight Romance, Book 2)
Midnight Kiss (Moonlight Romance, Book 3)
Soldier in Her Lap

Where to find Haley Whitehall:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/HaleyWhitehall
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LightonHistory
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5752677.Haley_Whitehall
Blog: http://haleywhitehall.com/blog/
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Haley-Whitehall/e/B0078EO6CE/
Newsletter: https://tinyletter.com/HaleyWhitehall

HAPPILY EVER AFTER

The Difference Between Urban Fantasy And Paranormal Romance

Happily Ever After – the three words that separate Urban Fantasy from Paranormal Romance. The three words that define what a romance novel is, period.

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I don’t get it. I’m sorry, I don’t.

In addition to a Central Love Story, the Romance Writers of America stipulate that a true romance also needs:

An Emotionally Satisfying and Optimistic Ending: In a romance, the lovers who risk and struggle for each other and their relationship are rewarded with emotional justice and unconditional love.

Driving a book romance to an emotionally satisfying ending is something I strive for fervently. Yet my emotionally satisfying ending often doesn’t mesh with other people’s ideas. If the lead character in a book is not ready to commit to a relationship she knows will stifle her, and instead leaves town with the cool guy who charms the pants off her, how is that not emotionally satisfying?

Give it a couple of years, and she might change her mind. Until then, the pants-charmer treats her well, looks out for her, and makes her laugh. I find this uplifting and highly satisfying.

Romance plays an integral part in one of my books, yet I was assured it was not romance.

So why did two of my beta readers feel that way? Because “emotionally satisfying” means “happily ever after,” and my book did not represent that.

Initially I thought “HEA” was a flippant hyperbole. Alas, I was wrong. It was a concept that is to be interpreted literally.

Do readers prefer heroines to walk off with commitment-philes who want nothing more than to keep them safe? Perhaps. Because it sure seems to me that the “happy for now” concept simply isn’t enough. When the curtain falls, our couples need to walk off to their world of daffodils and moon beams.

Which begs the question. Is simply disagreeing with who is best suited for the heroine a strong enough reason to deny it the genre category “romance”?

Oh, and what is this obsession with a fairytale HEA anyway?

Psychologists have warned for years about the HEA and Prince Charming fallacies, insisting they set you and your relationships up for failure. Makes sense. Who can compete with the perfect man? Certainly no real man. Not the ones I know, in any event. In fact, if real men were perfect, they’d be quite dull.

I want conflict, in life and in fiction. I need conflict. The idea that conflicts between two people end with a final kiss frightens me. If the last few pages of a book don’t at least hint at more conflict to come, I no longer believe. Wasn’t this the argument made in The Matrix? To quote Agent Smith:

“Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world? Where none suffered, where everyone would be happy. It was a disaster. No one would accept the program. […]I believe that, as a species, human beings define their reality through suffering and misery. The perfect world was a dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from.”

Back in the non-Hollywood world, the end of conflict would spell the end of the relationship. Making a HEA a paradox. The very thing that brings about the HEA destroys the HEA.

My dominant genre is Urban Fantasy. However, I have dabbled in Paranormal Romance before and am straying close to it again. When the book is done and read, who really cares what genre it was? But that’s not even the point. The question is, is HEA a viable genre-defining concept in the 21st century? Do you even agree that the RWA’s guidelines demand a HEA, or have they been misinterpreted? Please post your comments using the “Comments” link above. I really want to hear from you.

THE READ PATH with Olga Godim

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The Read Path – Olga Godim

In this series, guest bloggers spill all about their roles as gatekeepers between authors and readers. They review books on blogs, websites, podcasts or booksellers’ webpages, influence buyers and connect with authors. My guest today is Olga Godim, a reader and author who understands and takes advantage of the vast resources offered by Goodreads.

Let me hand over my mic. The next voice you’ll hear will be Olga’s.

 

1. What type of books first captured your imagination?

This is a more complicated question than you’d think. I always liked reading. Since childhood, I liked to stay home on my sofa with a book much more than play outside with friends. I was a solitary child, a bookworm. There were too many interesting books to name one type.

My family was into modern literary fiction, so I read it too, mostly. After a while I realized that I didn’t like it a great deal. Eventually, I gravitated towards classics and from them towards mythology: ancient Greek myths, King Arthur’s legends, Indian epics Mahabharata and Ramayana, Homer.

When I was a young mother myself, with children of my own, I finally discovered fantasy. My first fantasy writer was Mercedes Lackey. I was smitten from the first moment I opened her book. It felt like coming home, finding my niche in the universe of books. Everything I had unconsciously searched for in myths and legends was there: the imaginary worlds, magic and heroes, dragons and princesses, talking horses and brave adventurers. Through Lackey’s Valdemar novels, I fell in love with the genre.

Of course, I read other genres as well – romance, mystery, mainstream – but since 2012, when I started regularly posting my reviews on GoodReads and later on BookLikes, my statistics show interesting figures. Here are my shelves on GoodReads as they stand today.

• Fantasy ​​– 277
• Mystery ​– 75
• Romance ​– 61
• Mainstream ​– 45

Obviously, fantasy dominates my reading list and it also dominates my writing. I’m a fantasy writer, too.

2. With so much choice, how do you find new reading material?

That’s easy. Once again, I’ll direct you to my current GoodReads statistics. My To-Read shelf contains 171 titles, and it’s not nearly complete. Sometimes, I don’t put books into it, but write them (the authors and the titles) into a special notebook. Most of my To-Read lists (both digital and paper) come from my online friends’ reviews and recommendations. Some come from book blurbs. I read them. I also love spoilers. They let me decide if I want to read the book.

Several of my favorite authors automatically go into my lists, whenever their new books come out. Those include in fantasy and sci-fi: Sharon Shinn, Patricia Briggs, Wen Spencer, Frank Tuttle, Sarah Wynde, Cassandra Rose Clarke (my latest love affair in fantasy), and Lois McMaster Bujold. I love Terry Pratchett, too, but I’m selective about his books. I prefer his City Watch sub-series to the others. In romance, Jennifer Crusie is my absolute favorite. Georgette Heyer is a wonderful romance writer, the founder of Regency romance, but unfortunately I already read everything she’s written, and she’s been dead for decades. Sometimes I re-read her just to re-live the pleasure. In cozy mystery, Carola Dunn holds my heart.

Before I joined GR, I was often stumped: what to read next? I couldn’t imagine myself without a book waiting, but it was hard to choose. Now, my list is getting unwieldy. I don’t know when I’ll be able to finish it. Probably never, which is encouraging.

And I still read classics, although not nearly as often as I did in my youth. My latest classical discovery was Christopher Morley’s Parnassus on Wheels – a delightful little book published in 1917.

3. How do you go about writing your reviews?

It depends on a book. In most cases, I start with a short blurb and then segue into what touched me most. I often disclose my take on the characters, the plot, the pacing, the dialogue. Sometimes, I include quotes in my reviews. Some books have deeper ideas, and I mention my thoughts on the subject, whether I agree or disagree. Some books are funny, and I point that out. If I’m irritated by a certain aspect, I write about that too. Not necessarily everything goes into every review. There are no rules.

I rarely write bad reviews, generally because I almost never finish books I dislike. Writing reviews for such books seems dishonest. And I really don’t want the writers, especially the new writers, to feel bad. I may not like their books, but someone else might. I don’t wish to spoil their chances. On the other hand, I’m not as reticent about classics or famous writers. If I dislike their books, I say so. They can’t be harmed by my negative reviews, so I don’t have to guard my tongue.

I want to stress one important point about my reviews: I never write them on demand, never accept books for reviews from anyone. I either buy my books or get them from the library. The only exception is NetGalley. Sometimes, when I want to read a new novel by a certain author, and it’s not yet available at the library, I look through NetGalley.

4. The publishing world is undergoing a radical change brought about, in no small measure, through readers. How has the new landscape affected you?

As a reader, it didn’t affect me at all, except I had to buy a Kindle to read books that are only available in electronic formats. As a writer though, the effects are still rippling. For one thing, there are so many books being published daily it’s hard to get my books noticed by readers. Hard to get reviews. Hard to sell books.

One fact is glaring though. With the ease of self-publishing, many authors opt to go that road, and the results aren’t always or even often good. In fact, most self-published books I read are bad. They’re raw, need serious revisions and deep editing. A few exceptions only emphasize that rule, but I’m glad those exceptions exist. One of them is Sarah Wynde. She is a great fantasy writer and she is self-published. Another is Frank Tuttle. I love his fantasy. There are a few more like them, and I mightn’t have discovered these terrific writers without the self-publishing option.

5. Out of the many books you’ve read, which two had the greatest impact on you?

It’s easier to name writers than books. The first one was Mercedes Lackey. I told you about her in the question #1. She started me on my current road of reading fantasy and writing fantasy. She opened the genre for me. I don’t read her much anymore, I found a better fit for my penchant for fantasy, but Lackey would always have a special place in my heart.

The other one is Sharon Shinn – my favorite fantasy writer. I enjoy her lyrical and magical tales, a blend of fantasy and romance. Her stories are full of light, without the darkness that’s dominated fantasy novels in the past decade. I especially like her older Samaria series. In it, she writes about angels, and her concept of angels is unique. It has nothing to do with biblical angels and everything to do with the writer’s imagination. She created a charming race of angels in her stories, angels I believe in, despite my atheism. When I read Shinn’s books, my spirit soars. I want to write like she does. This is my aspiration.

She is one of very few writers I use as a self-teaching aid. Whenever I’m blocked in my own writing, I ask myself: how would Shinn handle such a conundrum? I open one of her books at random and page through a dialog or a narrative to see what she does. It often helps.

In general, my reviews are helping me to become a better writer. When I analyze a book, I see mistakes the author made, see what is working and what isn’t, and apply what I’m learning to my own writing. But there is a side effect to this postulate. Because I see mistakes, I stopped enjoying books that are not written perfectly. I’ve become too picky in my reading, much more so than before I started writing reviews two years ago. It might be a good thing though.

Media links:

Website: ​http://olgagodim.wordpress.com
GoodReads: ​https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6471587.Olga_Godim
BookLikes: ​http://olgagodim.booklikes.com/
Wattpad: ​http://www.wattpad.com/user/olga_godim