Writing With Jennifer Estep

Writers usually are pantsers or plotters.There is no right or wrong way only the way that works for you, the writer. 


My guest urban fantasy author, Jennifer Estep. She writes both an adult Elemental Assassin series and  Mythos Academy series for young adults.


Jennifer talks about how she writes her stories.

Greetings and salutations! First of all, I want to say thanks to Sia for having me on the blog again today. Thanks so much, Sia!

So today I thought I would talk a little about my writing process since that always seems to be a popular question with readers, authors, and everyone else. How do you go about taking the characters and stories in your head, getting them down on paper (or in the computer), and turning them into a cohesive book? Everyone’s process is a little different. Some people like to plot out what will happen in every single chapter. Other folks just take an idea and run with it. There’s no right or wrong way to write a book. All that really matters at the end of the day is getting the words down and finishing that first rough draft.

I have to admit that I’m a total panster when it comes to writing. I don’t do detailed outlines, character descriptions, storyboards, or anything like that. I just think about my heroine, her magic, and how she can use it to defeat the bad guys. Once I have that in mind, along with some of the major turning points of the story, I just sit down and start writing.

Sometimes, it works out well, and the story just flows. Other times … not so much. It’s not pretty, but it’s the method that works for me. I find that if I outline a story too much that I sort of get impatient and even a little bored writing it, since I know what’s going to happen next. I guess part of me likes my characters to surprise me a little bit as I write them.

When I do start writing that first rough draft, I try to write at least 2,000 to 3,000 words a day (or more) until I have a rough draft of about 50,000 or 60,000 words or so. I find that working on the draft every day helps me keep the story flowing and the words pouring out. Then, when I’m finished with the rough draft, I let the story sit for a few weeks before going back to it, reading through, and seeing what changes might need to be made and what needs to be added to the story.

Then, I start my second draft, where I layer in more emotion, description, and dialogue. With my second draft, I usually aim to have about 90,000 words by the time I finish it. Then, I let that draft sit for a few weeks before going back to it and layering in even more emotion, description, and dialogue. I usually do this a couple of times until I have a draft of about 95,000 words or so and the book is the best that I can make it.

So there you have it – a little bit about my writing process.

• What about you guys? What’s your writing process like? Are you a plotter or a panster? What books are you enjoying right now?

Spider's Revenge Available 9/27/11 

Old habits die hard for assassins.

And I plan on murdering someone before the night is through.

Killing used to be my regular gig, after all. Gin Blanco, aka the Spider, assassin-for-hire. And I was very, very good at it. Now, I’m ready to make the one hit that truly matters: Mab Monroe, the dangerous Fire elemental who murdered my family when I was thirteen.

Oh, I don’t think the mission will be easy, but turns out it’s a bit more problematic than expected. The bitch knows I’m coming for her. So now I’m up against the army of lethal bounty hunters Mab hired to track me down. She also put a price on my baby sister’s head. Keeping Bria safe is my first priority. Taking Mab out is a close second. 

Good thing I’ve got my powerful Ice and Stone magic—and my irresistible lover, Owen Grayson—to watch my back. This battle has been years in the making, and there’s a good chance I won’t survive. But if I’m going down, then Mab’s coming with me . . . no matter what I have to do to make that happen. Excerpt

Buy: AMAZON, BARNES and NOBLE, BOOKS a MILLION,

USA Today bestselling author Jennifer Estep writes the Elemental Assassin urban fantasy series for Pocket Books. The books focus on Gin Blanco, an assas­sin code­named the Spi­der who can con­trol the ele­ments of Ice and Stone. When she’s not busy killing peo­ple and right­ing wrongs, Gin runs a bar­be­cue restau­rant called the Pork Pit in the fic­tional South­ern metrop­o­lis of Ash­land. The city is also home to giants, dwarves, vam­pires, and ele­men­tals – Air, Fire, Ice, and Stone.

Books in the series are Spider’s Bite, Web of Lies, Venom, and Tangled Threads. Spider’s Revenge, the fifth book in the series, will be released on Sept. 27.

Jennifer also writes the Mythos Academy young adult urban fantasy series for Kensington. Touch of Frost, the first book in the series, was released in August. First Frost, a prequel e-story to the series, is available as a 99-cent download. Kiss of Frost, the second book, will be released on Nov. 29.

For more information, excerpts, and more, visit Jennifer’s website at http://www.jenniferestep.com/.

You can also find Jennifer:  FACEBOOK, GOODREADS, TWITTER

Writing Fantasy And The Little Man Behind The Curtain

My guest is Urban Fantasy author, Allison Pang. I'm fascinated by how different authors write in their genre. I asked Allison to tell us a bit about writing fantasy.

I'm so proud of her and getting her book published. We're showing the cover and excerpt here but we aren't yet allowed to share an excerpt.

Allison's a special friend, in many ways, because we both started out our blogs about the same time. We were both learning the ropes of the blogophere, while writing our stories, juggling life as wives, mothers, working for a living, and somewhere in there breathing (housework? There's housework?).

Oh, and lets not forget the fact we both probably pay the paychecks of several chocolate factory workers.

Hey, Sia – thanks so much for having me on your blog! Sia was one of my first blog followers when I first started this foray into publishing over two years ago. It’s an honor to finally be able to post here, and posting about one of my favorite topics – Writing fantasy!

Familiarity breeds contempt.

It’s an old adage, but when I think about writing or reading fantasy, I suspect that a great deal of the reason I enjoy it is because of that very sentiment. Most of us read books to escape – whether it’s romance or mystery, high fantasy or even contemporary –we want to get involved in a story that isn’t tied down to our own mundane day-to-day slog.

For the most part, people want to believe that their lives have meaning, and fantasy stories in particular tend to fill that void. After all, the trope of the plainly raised peasant lad (or lass) rising above his means, complete with wondrous powers or blistering sword skills to become king/slay the dragon/get the girl/save the world can be pretty appealing. Why else do we see that same story told again and again in movies and books? Everything from Harry Potter to Robin Hood retains an inner sense to that ideal, even though the details may vary wildly.

As stories go, fantasy is certainly more appealing than sitting in traffic or suffering through boring meetings to pay the mortgage, anyway. And of course, everyone’s concept of fantasy is a little different. Whether it’s elves or police officers or Scottish Highlanders, fantasy is whatever transports you to that other world and makes you happy. (And really, why not combine the best of both worlds and have elven police officers? Wearing kilts?)

The key to writing good fantasy is world-building, particularly if you’re writing high fantasy (which is the typical Tolkien-esque type story, set in a mythical land and full of strange gods, peoples, climates, etc). In some ways, building your own world with its own rules can be pretty freeing. Research may not be involved at all, at least as far as accuracy goes. As a writer, I can borrow from whatever bits of fairy tales or mythological cycles as I like and make up the rest. I don’t have to worry about people calling me on it like I might if I were writing a Regency or Historical romance. In a sense, I become a goddess over my very own world - one that is subject to my whims and desires.

At least until after the first book is written.

Once people become familiar with your world, you have to stick with the rules you come up with or readers may become disillusioned. If you can’t keep things straight, then readers have no reason to believe in your words or your story.

My first book, A Brush of Darkness (February 2011, Pocket), is what’s known as an urban fantasy – which is fantasy that is mostly set in a contemporary setting. In some ways, I find it much harder to write than the “pure” fantasy. I have to balance the realism of everyday life in a city with the incorporation of fantasy elements – unicorns who live in underwear drawers, urban elves, pixies, succubi and incubi and yes, vampires (but only mentioned in passing.) I borrow very loosely from Scottish and Celtic mythology for my world mythos, but I don’t limit myself to just that. If I run across something interesting, I have no qualms about trying to fit it in, as long as my rules don’t get broken – and as long as people buy what I’m selling.

On the other hand, I’m restricted by every day facts that I can’t break. If I declare that Abby, my main character, can’t go to Best Buy at 6 PM on a Saturday night because they’re closed, I’m going to get called out on that. (And rightfully so.) And that’s an obvious example, but it still applies to things that people do or see everyday – as a result I find myself having to research more common details than fantastical ones.

Since I’m a pantster, much of my world unfolds as I write it. There are times I’ve written myself into a corner – particularly with the second book (which I’m finishing up now.) For example, one of the characters (Melanie) has a magic violin that allows her to open Doors to the otherworld (known as the CrossRoads). I set it up so that she had certain limitations that had to be met and as a result there was a scene I wanted to do in Book 2 and I can’t. Or at least, I can’t do it the way I wanted to initially. So that requires a little more work on my part (and sometimes a large amount of chocolate), but eventually I managed to make it happen. I tend to wing it more than I probably should, but that’s just my style.

For something like high fantasy, world-building becomes a great deal more complicated. For the epic novel I’m working on (in my spare time), I actually do keep notes – tribes of people, religious affiliations, customs, maps, political alliances, wars, trade routes, flora, fauna, cities – all of the details that might come into play - and that’s not even taking into account things of a more magical nature that “break” contemporary rules. I don’t suspect I’ll even reference many of these things directly, but knowing my world as intimately as I can allows me to “flavor” it with a sense of realism that will hopefully allow a reader to become completely immersed.

As books go, urban fantasy and high fantasy are two different sorts of animals, but the mechanics are still very much the same. As a writer, I’m attempting to make the reader suspend disbelief and to take my words as accurate portrayals of the world the story takes place in.

As a reader, I’ve come to realize that for every Great and Powerful Oz on display, it really boils down to the little man behind the curtain pulling the strings. Hopefully he’ll put on a good enough show that I’ll ignore him utterly.

• How do you keep your world straight?

 

A Brush Of Darkness Blurg:

I had a naked incubus in my bedroom. With a frying pan of half-cooked bacon and a hard-on. And a unicorn bite on his ass. Christ, this was turning out to be a weird morning.


Six months ago, Abby Sinclair was struggling to pick up the pieces of her shattered life. Now, she has an enchanted iPod, a miniature unicorn living in her underwear drawer, and a magical marketplace to manage. But despite her growing knowledge of the OtherWorld, Abby isn’t at all prepared for Brystion, the dark, mysterious, and as sexy as sin incubus who shows up searching for his sister—and is convinced Abby has the key to the succubus’s whereabouts..

Abby has enough problems without having this seductive shape-shifter literally invading her dreams to get information. But when her Faery boss and some of her friends vanish as well, Abby and Brystion must form an uneasy alliance. As Abby is sucked deeper and deeper into this perilous world of faeries, angels, and daemons, she realizes her life is in as much danger as her heart—and there’s no one she can trust to save her. 

Stay tuned for January when I can share the excerpt with you here OVER COFFEE. If you love urban fantasy, you're going to love Allison's writing style and story. 

PREORDER: Amazon, Barnes & Noble,  Borders

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A marine biologist in a former life, Allison Pang turned to a life of crime to finance her wild spending habits and need to collect Faberge eggs. A cat thief of notable repute, she spends her days sleeping and nights scaling walls and wooing dancing boys….Well, at least the marine biology part is true. But she was taloned by a hawk once. She also loves Hello Kitty, sparkly shoes, and gorgeous violinists.

She spends her days in Northern Virginia working as a cube grunt and her nights waiting on her kids and cats, punctuated by the occasional husbandly serenade. Sometimes she even manages to write. Mostly she just makes it up as she goes.

  

You can find Allison: Facebook, Borrowing Heaven, Subletting Hell Blog, Website

Working Hard For Your Dreams—Cindy Gerard

Romantic suspense author, Cindy Gerard, is my guest today. She has six back to back NYT Bestsellers. Quite an accomplishment and proof dreams can come true if you're willing to work hard for it and not give up.

My first contact with Cindy was through her books many years ago when she wrote for Silhouette and I read a few of her books here and there. I’ve always liked the way she built her characters and her heroes were tough and a bit out of the norm. The first one was MARRIAGE, OUTLAW STYLE followed by THE OUTLAW JESSE JAMES.

I kinda lost track of her as I reading other things. I was on a business trip and forgot my book—aack! Nothing to read? Fate worse than death, so I looked at the limited books available and recognized her name and I picked up TAMING THE OUTLAW. Are we seeing a pattern here? Yeah, I like tough men who can take care of themselves and had a code of honor. Fast forward to 2006 and I found her name again only this time she was writing a totally different type of books, filled with danger and suspense--OVER THE LINE. I’ve just recently started her Black Ops series.

When I found Cindy on Facebook, I was thinking, hmmm, I know that name, and then I discovered she was writing even more cool books. The thing I like about reading authors from their start to the present is seeing how their writing changes and grows—matures if you will. Sitting in on some panels at RT it was an eye opener as I listened to her talk about different aspects of writing suspense. Finding something, an idea, you love to write and following through on it. It’s about daring to dream but being willing to put in the hard work to make the dream a reality. Not giving up. I can respect that.

Please welcome, Cindy Gerard, to Over Coffee.

Hi guys. It’s great to be here but since some of you might not know me, how about a little intro?

I’ve been around the romance business since 1991 when my first Loveswept was published. After 7 books I moved to Silhouette Desire and wrote around 25 books for them before I stepped onto the slippery slope of single title romantic suspense in 2005 because while I actually loved writing category romance, I found myself gravitating toward bigger stories, bigger romance – bigger everything – and there just wasn’t room in category to write those stories.

Fortunately, I came up with a series, my agent shopped it around and it sold. The over arching concept for the Bodyguards came about after 9/11. I read so many stories about returning military veterans and I wondered what these super alpha males did when they came back home after living by their wits and being fueled by adrenaline. I found out, via researching the web and contacts with former Spec. Ops guys, that a lot of them go into securities work. From that, the Bodyguards were eventually born.

I loved writing that series and hated leaving my Garrett clan but Black Ops, Inc, has proven to be yet another love of my life and I’ve had a blast writing about those shadow warriors and their women.

On a personal level, my dh and I live in Iowa on a mini farm with our Brittany Spaniel, Margaret, our two cats, Buddy and Sly and Tom’s quarter horses – too many too name :o) We have one amazing son and an equally amazing daughter-in-law who, fortunately live within 2 hours of us so we get to see our 4 adorable, brilliant, huggable grandchildren on a pretty regular basis. (Yes, I’m biased) I write full time now and feel privileged to be making a living doing so.

I wasn’t always a writer, though. I’ve been a clerk in a county treasurer’s office, a bookkeeper in a lumberyard, a sales clerk/alterationist at a men’s clothing store and my longest career was with the Department of Human Services working with state and federal assistance programs. During the course of my years with DHS, I was a caseworker, a policy specialist and one of 8 trainers in the state. Needless to say, it was a busy, grueling, often rewarding career and many times frustrating career.

It wasn’t easy to make the decision to switch to full time writer, but I’ve been very blessed with good fortune and am so glad I made the move several years ago. Having said that, though, writing is still a tough job and one that takes much discipline and dedication if a writer is going to succeed – especially in today’s economic climate and shifting publishing perimeters.

There’s always room for wonderful books, though, so to anyone out there who is trying to get published, my advice is to stick with it. Yes, it’s hard sometimes. I know. Been there. Done that. Have the stack of rejection letters to prove it. It took a long time for me to make my first sale. And it’s a struggle to keep selling because the competition is tough. But, I’m living proof that someone with no college degree and no writing credentials can not only sell, but can make a living loving what they do. And if you’ll indulge me for just a second here – I’m also proof that that same high school educated writer can hold her own. Case in point: I’ve got a string of 6, back to back NYT best-sellers going. Still have to pinch myself over that. Talk about dreams coming true :o)

• 
  
  What about you all? What are your dreams? Are you readers? Writers? Both?
• If you have any questions you’d like to ask me about writing in general, about my books – whatever, I’d love to hear from you.
  
  In the meantime, thanks for having me and please know that I love to hear from my readers. I’m receiving buckets of mail these days and sometimes I’m a little slow answering but I do answer all of my mail.

Let's give away a copy of Risk No Secrets to someone who comments.

RISK NO SECRETS, is on sale May 18th from Pocket Books.

A RED-HOT ATTRACTION . . .
Twelve years of chasing bad guys didn’t erase beautiful Sophie Baylor from Wyatt Savage’s memory. If he had another chance, he’d never let her leave. So when she tracks him down from El Salvador and begs for help, he doesn’t ask questions—he just goes.

STARTS WITH A TERRIFYING THREAT . . .
Sophie is grateful her daughter survived a kidnapping attempt, but she won’t forgive herself until the girl who was mistakenly abducted is safe. Wyatt is the only man brave enough to take on the mysterious terrorists behind the crime—and the one irresistible man she wishes she had never let go.

. . . AND UNLEASHES AN UNFORGETTABLE ADVENTURE.
Sophie knows Central America’s steamy jungles and sticky politics better than anyone. Yet she refuses to hide in fear. Then she becomes the enemy’s number one target. Wyatt lost her once, and he won’t lose her again—even if he has to fight, kill, or die to save her.
Excerpt

Booktrailer and Video Interview about Risk No Secrets
Buy this book: Amazon.com Borders.com B&N.com Simon and Schuster

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New York Times and USA Today Bestseller Cindy Gerard has forty plus titles in print. In addition to 6 RITA nominations and 2 Rita wins, Cindy has numerous RT nominations and various awards to her credit. Each book of her single title romantic suspense series, Black Ops Inc, has appeared on the New York Times Bestseller top 20 list. Cindy writes sexy, heart-pounding romantic suspense and has had her work twice featured in COSMOPOLITAN Magazine as Red Hot Reads.

For more information about Cindy and her books (including her back list) , you can visit her website at http://www.cindygerard.com/ or her blog at http://www.ridingwiththetopdown.blogspot.com/, or her facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Cindy-Gerard-New-York-Times-Best.