I'M A GAMBLER

By Barbara Longley

I buy lottery tickets every week. I know my chances of winning are astronomically slim, hovering right there next to nil, but I buy them anyway. It’s a gamble, and I guess I’m a little hooked. I don’t spend a lot—a couple bucks a week at the most. I don’t see it as a problem. Still, this week it struck me. I am a gambler. What does this have to do with writing?

Buying lottery tickets requires a modicum of optimism, or desperation, depending on the day and the circumstances. Writing requires the same. It’s a gamble. Here’s how it works. You write a book, enter it into a few contests, experience the thrill of a final and…HOOKED. That little bit of positive reinforcement spurs you on, you want another taste. You want the prize—a CONTRACT! You work at writing. It begins to consume bug chunks of your time. Writing is not a major component of your life. You start hanging with other writers who all have the same prize in mind. They are hooked. You are hooked.

Yep, I know. To succeed, to beat the odds in this game, you have to keep playing. It’s hard work. Expect bruises, because you’re going to get knocked around. Even after you win that prize, that first contract, the gamble isn’t over. The bar has just been raised, but you’re HOOKED, so you keep at it. The prize was that first contract. Now you have it, the prize changes. You’re aiming for the NYT bestsellers list, right? It’s like you used to play the slot machines, and now you’ve moved to the blackjack table. Next it’s the high stakes poker games. 

I’m not talking talent here. You have it, and, as you already know, those other writerly types you’re hanging with? They’re talented too. I’m talking about luck, timing, and a willingness to take the risks. It’s a gamble, but I’m hooked. How about you?

The Re-Read

First, thank you to all the veterans out there. Been there done that, and I know how much work and sacrifice it takes to help protect our country. So thanks again.

I'm shamelessly reposting this topic that I posted the other day. One, because it's relevant, and two, because I somehow forgot this was my day to post, even though I have it jotted down and listed on my own website! Gah. But here's a topic dear to my heart. Reading your books, over and over again.
People--who don't read--think I'm crazy for having such a huge amount of books. It's not a collection, I tell them. Because it's not. My library does not just gather dust. I've read every book I own on those shelves more than once. More than twice. There are some I revisit more than others, like old friends, years after their release. I remember plots and characters, but going back is opening up those pages of joy all over again. The memory is there but fuzzy, so refreshing it gives me that happy buzz.

Some reads I need when I'm feeling blue, others when I need to just laugh, and others when I'd like something to steam up my windows. Series books make great re-reads because I can see familiar characters and lead-ins to their romances, one at a time. I don't have to wait months or years to know how the next hero saves the day. Not when I already own the book.

You'd think the advent of the Kindle or Nook would have changed my library and reading standards. But no. To me, a good story is a good story, no matter its medium. So I'm good reading on an electronic device or holding actual pages in my hand. I admit I like to keep a series in the same family type as I bought the first book, all ebooks, all mass market, hard back or trade, not some of each. But I'll also take what I can get. In this day and age, price matters, sad to say.

Right now I'm lamenting the fact that most of my library is back on the East Coast, alone and lonely, with no one to turn their pages. I won't be reunited with my books until next summer, when I go back to drag them out West. But hey, they're still there. And being so far apart from them guarantees me "fresh" reads when I set up my new library out here.

Some of my favorite rereads...
Shelly Laurenston's Pride series and dragon books
Jayne Ann Krentz's Arcane series and futuristics and contemporaries...you get the idea
Jose Litton's books, (wish the heck she'd write more)
Anything written by Sabrina Jeffries
Feehan's Carpathian series
Jill Gregory's Thunder books (set in Wolf River, MT)
David Eddings Belgariad

Happy Reading. :)

Marie
www.marieharte.com
Grayson's Gamble, coming to Loose Id Nov 22nd

You know what they say about redheads…

Yep, I get that all the time. I’m the only redhead in my family and I have dyed my hair everything from blond to black to blue (don’t ask). While I never thought I was scarred it wasn’t until I’d written quite a few novels and novellas that I realised I’d never written anyone with red hair.

Not even a secondary character.

Natural red hair exists in about 2% of the population (higher in Scotland and Ireland). I’m sure blond or brunette writer don’t worry about the hair color of their heroine. So when I started DARK VOW and I was wondering what the heroine, Jaines, should look like I thought it was high time to embrace having red hair and write about a redhead. 

Being fantasy I could ignore the stats on redheads and I went for broke. Red hair is ordinary and nothing special in Westly County—Jaines even has lilac eyes, which are again common. Jaines wouldn’t stand out in a crowd. (Imagine growing up with Ranga jokes and being called blue—it’s an Aussie thing)

Of course now I’ve populated the Westly County with redheads every time I write a story there I have to keep this in mind. So eventually I’m going to have to write a hero who isn’t tall dark and handsome…he’ll have to have red hair. Gulp.

Have you avoided certain hair colors for your hero and heroine? Or as a reader how important is hair color?

DARK VOW, Novemeber 14, Carina Press

Jaines Cord plans to kill the man who murdered her husband, even though killing a Bounty Hunter is said to be impossible. One bullet took away her livelihood, her home and her love. One bullet made by her. Fired from the gun she completed for the Arcane Bounty Hunter.

Obsidian wears the scars of disobeying the powerful Arcane Union. He barely escaped with his life and now lives quietly, in a town the lawmen forgot. When Jaines arrives asking too many questions, he's faced with a decision. Help her or run…again. Obsidian knows that if he flees he'll always be looking over his shoulder. His name is one of the first on the Bounty Hunter's death list.

Yet when Obsidian is offered an opportunity to stop the stone taking over his body in exchange for retrieving the gun, he asks Jaines for her help. Now Jaines must choose: a dead man's vengeance or a living man's hope?

The unheroic hero

And so it came to pass that a load of edits for my follow up to Ten Ruby Trick landed in my email and I was knee deep in them. And lo! I forgot I was supposed to do a blog post. Meep!

Luckily, something came to the rescue just in time. I’m a member of a few fantasy forums, and this particular one had a discussion about heroes and grittiness, among other things.

Or rather, protagonists who aren’t heroes. The trend in straight, non romantical fantasy, seems to be for antier and antier “heroes” (or it seems so perhaps, especially this side of the pond). Or main characters, or just protagonists. To follow in the footsteps of someone unlikeable, perhaps irretrievably so. And it made me wonder, just what is it that makes a character likeable? And how far to the unlikeable do we each like our characters?

Thomas Covenant was too far for me. The only redeeming thing was he wasn’t written to make what he did look at all likeable or heroic. He just happened to be the main character.

Other times, the bad guy has so much charisma (or all the best lines) that he’s fascinating to watch—such as Hannibal Lector. It worked for me in Silence of the Lambs, but not in the films where we saw more of him. Because he was only in small doses, his awfulness didn’t overwhelm me.

So for you (when and if you read non romantic fantasy), what makes a hero heroic, and would you read a protagonist that wasn’t, and wasn’t even trying to be?

Julia Knight writes fantasy and historical adventure with dollops of romance, and her next release, The Viking's Sacrifice is coming in January from Carina. You can find out more about her here.

Food. Glorious Food!

I love the strange and adventurous foods in fantasy novels.

Jayne Castle (aka Jayne Ann Krentz) has an amusing trick with her light SF Harmony novels. The foods are similar to those from Earth, but slightly different. So the characters drink coff-tea and eat pear-berries.

Fairytales make a big deal about food with Snow White eating a poisoned apple, Goldilocks stealing breakfast and various draughts of forgetfulness, immortality or love sickness causing no end of trouble.

When I was writing my Steampunk novella, "Wanted: One Scoundrel", I couldn't resist adding a Steampunk touch to the suffragette afternoon tea. Fog cakes have a dab of dry ice in their centre so they "fog" as the automated butler hands them round.

Do you have a favourite fantasy food?

***

We Wish You a Steampunk Christmas

Changed forever after tragedy, a woman must draw strength from her husband’s love. A man learns that love isn’t always what you expect. A thief steals the heart of a vengeful professor. And an American inventor finds love Down Under. Enjoy Victorian Christmas with a clockwork twist in these four steampunk novellas.

Anthology includes:

Crime Wave in a Corset by Stacy Gail
This Winter Heart by PG Forte
Wanted: One Scoundrel by Jenny Schwartz
Far From Broken by JK Coi

Stories also available for purchase separately.

117,000 words

The stories in this anthology are fabulous (yes, I’ve had a sneak peek–gorgeous!) and so are the authors. To keep up with the fun and laughter and sheer silliness of our pre-release celebrations, join us on the A Clockwork Christmas Facebook page.

The anthology releases December 5 from Carina Press.

The Unseen World

Last weekend at World Fantasy Convention 2011 in San Diego, I attended a panel on "The Not-So-Fair Folk," in which the dark side of fae folklore was explored. The importance of keeping mum about the fae was mentioned more than once, making the panel itself feel just a bit dangerous, as if talking about it just might land us all in trouble.

Like the fae themselves, the darker tales are often hidden among the seeming light. In Disney's Sleeping Beauty, the fairies are portrayed as benign and somewhat daft—except for Maleficent, who appears uninvited at the christening of newborn Princess Aurora to "gift" her with a curse after being denied the proper respect. As a child, I was always much more interested in Maleficent than anyone else in the story. Why was she so different? Why didn't they invite her? What was her history?

Another favorite of mine was the Snow Queen. She swept in with the north wind and stole away pretty boys to keep for herself. I was instantly intrigued.

When I was a little older, I discovered the White Witch in C.S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and recognized her as the same figure, as she turned the world to eternal winter and brought Edmund under her thrall from her sparkling sleigh. And then again in The Silver Chair, the Lady of the Green Kirtle came along and stole away and enchanted Prince Rilian of Narnia.

These mysterious, powerful women are all nods to the Queen of the Fae, who was prone to stealing human children and replacing them with changelings, or captivating the hearts of mortal men who followed her into the unseen kingdom of the fairies. The fear of a powerful woman seems to infuse men's psyches in the oldest of folklore of many traditions. From sirens and mermaids to veela and rusalki, all of them lure men to their hidden realms. (Which I guess pretty much speaks for itself.)

As much as I love my protagonists, I can never quite resist a strong and dangerous woman. When I started my current series, The House of Arkhangel'sk, I had no intention of writing about dark fae. It's a story about angels and demons, and the Russian imperial family. But somehow as I was developing the villainess of the story, I ended up with none other than the Fairy Queen herself. She was the perfect enchantress to lead my fallen angel astray.



I took some liberties, of course. My Fairy Queen comes from a Celtic tradition (the same that inspired C.S. Lewis—the ballad of Tam Lin; as well as Irish poet Brian Merriman's The Midnight Court), but I moved her to the icy Russian north and gave her the qualities of a Slavic veela. Her origins, however, are something I haven't explained. Queen Aeval remains a bit of a mystery. Somehow, it didn't seem appropriate to talk about where she came from. Maybe subconsciously, I, too, was afraid to delve too deeply into her realm, or at least to speak of it. You never know what she might do.

If you dare to speak of the unseen, feel free to leave me a comment about your favorite fae. I'll give away a signed ARC of Book One of The House of Arkhangel'sk, The Fallen Queen, to a commenter chosen at random.

Jane Kindred

www.janekindred.com

It's November, and For Some, the Writing Craziness Has Only Begun

November is a time when authors try to rev up their creative engines and tackle the NaNoWriMo, otherwise known as National Novel Writing Month. I tried in the past to tackle composing 50,000 words in 30 days, and I always got off to a great start, but then one of three things usually happened: I wrote myself into a corner, I lost interest in the story, or I came to the realization that the story wasn't going to fill up all that room. And all three of these problems boiled down to one undeniable truth - I can't write under pressure. 

I was that way through high school and college. Give me a term paper with a month-long deadline, and I was a happy camper. I'd start on the project that day, get it finished about a week prior to the due date, then sit back and watch all the other students scurry like ants to get theirs done at the last minute.

I like to take my time. No deadlines. No rushing. No stress headaches. Better still, if I find myself greeting that corner again, or petering out on an idea, I have the option of picking up where I left off on another book. You could say it's a wonder I have completed any books at all!

My latest release, believe it or not, was started three years ago. I felt it was a good premise, and I loved the characters, but I didn't have an ending for it in my head yet. While perusing my works-in-progress file, I came across it, reread and edited what was already there, and voila! I finally knew what I was going to do with it!

So letting it stew subconsciously all this time was a good thing for me. Guess you could say my brain works like a crock pot.
*****

Breachers: Holt and McKenna

A sensuously erotic urban fantasy, paranormal romance
by Linda Mooney
(ebook) ISBN# 978-1-4507-1947-6
Word Count: 28.1K
http://www.lindamooney.com/
Now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, All Romance eBooks, and BookStrand

They are the cause of many legends, myths, and fairy tales. And they still live among us.
 
There are creatures from a parallel world called Breachers who, for hundreds of years, have been inadvertently pulled into our world. They are the truth behind the creatures normally considered to be mythic. Once on Earth, they cannot go back, and those who cannot cope become rabid. Murderers. And when they go berserk, they must be put down.
 
Jerrod Holt always wondered why he was selected to be part of the secret governmental organization. More perplexing was why his skills as a professional bodyguard were needed.
 
He discovers his partner assigned to help him bring down a Breacher is the one woman who had caught his eye the moment he saw her at their initial group meeting. Together, he and McKenna travel to Utah to confront a killer beast, not knowing that the terror would be all too real, and too damn close to home.

Warning: Contains bloody deaths, smart ass remarks, unbearable cold, a nightmare come to life, toe loss, rabbit farming, a search for the truth, and an unconditional love that defies all boundaries.