Have You Suffered the End of Book Blues?

It’s my pleasure to welcome romantic suspense author, Christy Reece, to Over Coffee.

Christy says she grew up spending long summers reading and watching for the bookmobile—I can relate to that as we always lived in the rurals and the bookmobile was a big thing to a family of readers. Like Christy, my head was always filled with characters and story lines. I could daydream of my stories for hours in the summer and then tell stories to my siblings later that evening. My brothers did the same. I thought that was perfectly normal, growing up.

Christy’s topic is how you feel when you finish a book. As a reader, a good book has me longing to go back to the world created by the author. As a writer, typing the end, while satisfying does leave me at odds as to what to do with myself. I’ve spent so much time with this *world* and it's very real characters; I don’t want to really leave it. Christy calls it the end of the book blues. Very apt description, in my opinion.

Welcome to Over Coffee, Christy.

Hi Sia and everyone! I’m thrilled to be a guest at Over Coffee and look forward to visiting with my fellow writers and readers. Also, I have three books to give away!

Since I recently turned in the third book for my new trilogy, I thought I’d talk about a phenomenon that always happens to me once I hit that send key. I’ll stare mindlessly into space for a while, relieved that it’s finally done. Then reality slams into me and I find myself asking the question, “What now?”

Yes, I’ve got the end of book blues.

Writing is so often a solitary endeavor. Just you and your imagination sitting in front of a computer screen creating stories, characters, and worlds. You’re having conversations in your head with people who exist only to you and your job is to make them come alive to others. Some people might see this as odd behavior. For most writers, it’s just a normal workday. This profession is scary and exciting, intense and frustrating. So wonderfully kooky. But when it’s time to let those characters and their story go, I always get hit with some sort of sadness.

I was so excited to finish this book. After sleepless nights, tossing and turning with storylines and bits of conversation flowing through my head, consuming tons of chocolate, caffeine, and alcohol, I wanted nothing more than to finish this monster that I so loved. To get it over with and get on to something else.

Even though I adored the storyline, my characters still surprised and excited me and I can’t wait to get it in the hands of eager readers, I couldn’t wait to get it out the door. That’s the way of these things. A labor of love, but I wanted to get the labor over with as quickly and painlessly as possible.

I absolutely loved how my story came out. My characters had all the endearing quirks and strong traits that I wanted them to have. The story is emotional, thrilling and breathtaking in places. And as usual, there were points during the writing that I had no idea what my characters would do—one of my absolute favorite things when I’m writing.

But now it’s gone and I’m sad. As much as I wanted to finish it, a part of me didn’t want to let it go. Perhaps it’s the writer’s version of the empty nest syndrome.

It’s not like I don’t have plenty to do, believe me. Everything I put off while I was on deadline is still here, waiting on me. My house is full of spider webs. Delightfully convenient for Halloween—no decorating necessary! Now it’s back to looking like a dirty house. My fur-kids desperately need a bath and some extra TLC for being so patient with me. And my husband, bless him, would probably like to hear me say something other than the words, “Can’t. I’m on deadline.”

Well, now I can do all the things I put off, but I don’t want to.

The end of book blues is nothing new for me, but I still get caught completely by surprise each time. A rush to the finish line and then when I get there, it’s all so anti-climatic.

I could read…oh man, am I behind in my reading. My TBR stack could rival the Sears Tower in height. I could work on some new things for my website. I could start another book.

Yes, all of those things need to be done and quite honestly, I love doing them, but for some reason I don’t want to. Know what I really want to do? I want to go back to my story I just finished and play with it some more. Am I crazy? Don’t answer that!

It’s not like I won’t get several more opportunities to play with it. Revisions will come, along with copy edits and page proofs. But it’s just so pretty and shiny and I think I can make it shinier and I really really want to play with it.

Some of the anxiety comes from what my editor and agent will think of it. Will they love it as I do? It’s funny (not really) but I thought after I became published, submitting my manuscripts would be easier. The angst is still there; it’s just a different kind of angst.

Update: Both editor and agent read and loved the manuscript. Yay! One more hurdle out of the way. And I spoke with my editor regarding revisions and she just wants a couple of changes. Double yay!

But when those things are done and it’s out the door again, will I still want to play with it? I know by the time I go through copyedits and page proofs, I’ll be thrilled to be completely finished. But another book will come along, with another deadline and then another end of book blues.

Writers as a whole are a group of individuals with different beliefs, attitudes, strengths, weaknesses and goals. We’re a mass of human frailties and strengths, just like our characters. However, we also share specific characteristics and emotions within our group. One of the reasons I love being within a community of writers is that, as crazy and individualistic as I like to be, I love that we share some of the same experiences. In other words, I want my writer friends to say, “I know how you feel. That happened to me too. Here’s what I did.”

So have you experienced the end of book blues? When you finish a book, can you let it go and get back to a normal life or do you have trouble getting back into the swing of things? Do you have a plan of action when you finish a book? If you have suggestions, please feel free to share!

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Growing up in a tiny community in Alabama boasting only one stop sign and a gas station gave Christy ample opportunity to create daring adventures in her head. When she wasn't thinking of her story characters, Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys kept her entertained and out of trouble. Later came the chills of Stephen King and the thrills of John Grisham, but the romance genre always held a strong place in her heart.

After leaving her career with a major insurance company, the characters in her head came alive again and Christy decided to write her own stories. And now, she and her characters couldn't be happier.

A member of Romance Writers' of America, and International Thriller Writers, Christy lives in Alabama with her husband, two incredibly cute canines and one very shy turtle.

Christy’s first sale was a romantic suspense trilogy to Ballantine in 2007. The books, RESCUE ME, RETURN TO ME and RUN TO ME were back-to-back releases Spring 2009. Another back-to-back trilogy, NO CHANCE, SECOND CHANCE and LAST CHANCE will be released early spring 2010. The backdrop of both trilogies is an organization called Last Chance Rescue. An elite group of mercenaries who do whatever it takes, no matter the cost, to rescue the innocent.

For more information about Christy and her books, visit her website at http://christyreece.com

You can find excerpts of her books and and blurbs on the tough men and women she writes about. There is information, blurbs, and excerpts on her next trilogy due out this coming Spring.

Running With A Gang Of Rogues

My guest today is Pat Bertram, author of Daughter Am I.

What fascinated me from the beginning, about Daughter Am I, was Pat's use of retired gangsters, and the fact they still longed for adventure in the autumn of their lives. In their time, they were men to be reckoned with. Even now, being up in years, their spirit is willing, they have experience and they have taken Mary under their wing. Their sense of loyalty to Mary's Gramps, the need to protect her and help her in her quest.


It cracked me up that Pat had a characters who were in their 80's, failing in health but with such feisty attitudes. Like Happy, who shakes so bad he probably couldn't shoot the broadside of a barn. Not to mention, in their efforts to help, they give Mary a whole new education about life.


I talked to Pat a bit about her story:


Pat, you’ve published three books do you have a favorite?

All of my books have a place in my heart for different reasons.
I entered More Deaths Than One in a contest on Gather.com, and because of it, I made many good friends, one of whom is Sia. A Spark of Heavenly Fire was the novel where I first realized I’d learned how to write. And Daughter Am I is the novel I had the most fun with.

What made Daughter Am I ‘the most fun’?

Oh, gangsters, a quest for the truth, buried treasure, romance -- all of that was great, but the most fun came from creating the characters. I knew from the start there would be seven rogues who accompanied Mary on her quest to discover the truth about her grandparents -- I wanted to play up the idea of Snow White and the seven old fogies.

I have to admit, the idea of Snow White and the seven fogies, cracked me up. I have a fondness for rogues, regardless of their ages. Tell me a little about your ‘old’ rogues.

In the beginning, like Mary, I only saw the characters’ decrepit bodies:

• Gun-toting Happy whose hands shake so badly he can’t aim his weapon
• Vain Lila Lorraine, who can no longer see well enough to apply her make-up properly
• Clownish Spaghetti who lives to play the piano in a bar he once owned
• Ex-wrestler Crunchy who is losing faith in his own ability
• Self-educated con man Teach
• Dying hit man Iron Sam who is on a quest of his own
• Dapper Kid Rags, whose forgery business is being lost to computers

You said ‘in the beginning’ Mary only saw them as old geezers, if you will. When did that change?

As the story progressed, and the truth of the characters came out -- Happy as a wheelman for the mob, Lila Lorraine as a dance-hall girl, Spaghetti’s bar as a mob hangout, Crunchy as muscle for the mob -- I began to see all they lost, and so did Mary.

At one point she says:

• “It’s odd—I never used to be aware of old people as real persons. I’m not stupid. I know they weren’t born old, but it didn’t occur to me that heroes and villains, killers and great lovers could be hidden in those feeble bodies.”

A wise observation and one most of us forget. On the outside, the bodies may be old, but in my experience, most older people have a story and rarely lose the that sense of adventure—it might be toned down by the limitations of their bodies, but it’s still there inside.

So what made them real to you?

It’s in the dichotomy of the gangsters’ feeble exteriors and their youthful, adventurous inner selves that the characters became real. At first I only had gimmicks. Happy’s morose pronouncements. Kid Rags bowler hat, bow tie, and hip flask. Lila Lorraine’s unconscious patting of her hair. But gradually the characters became more than their gimmicks, and that’s where the fun began.

So you have a group of aging former gangsters with the desire to relive their youth?

When you have a story of a young woman and a crew of feisty gangsters in their eighties, you can play on the age theme or you can play on the legal and moral issues. I chose to focus on the legal and moral issues because they seemed to have the most emotional impact.

Tell me about Mary. How does she grow and change in this tale?

Mary started out so innocent, wanting only to learn about the grandparents she never knew, but ended up aiding and abetting criminal behavior. What was she supposed to do, though? She couldn’t let Happy carry his revolver around. With his shaky hands, the gun could go off at any moment, so Mary confiscated the gun and concealed the illegal weapon in her handbag. When Lila Lorraine accidentally left her blood pressure medicine behind, Mary unsuccessfully tried to get the drugs by legal means. The elders, determined that their adventure would not be cut short, break into a pharmacy and steal the biggest bottle of the medicine they can find.

• “We used a glass cutter,” Happy said, then added quickly, “but don’t worry -- we didn’t steal the cutter. We bought it at a discount store that’s open until midnight.”

Oh my word, lol! What a gang.

What can you do with such unrepentant rogues? Do what Mary and I did -- strap on your seatbelt and go for the ride of your life.

What a fun ride it is, though. Pat, thank you for taking the time to talk with me about creating your fun story. What an adventure you take Mary and your readers on.

DAUGHTER AM I Blurb

• When twenty-five-year-old Mary learns she inherited a farm from her recently murdered grandparents--grandparents her father claimed had died before she was born--she becomes obsessed with finding out who they were and why someone wanted them dead. Along the way she accumulates a crew of feisty octogenarians--former gangsters and friends of her grandfather. She meets and falls in love with Tim Olson, whose grand-father shared a deadly secret with her great-grandfather. Now Mary and Tim must stay one step ahead of the killer who is desperate to dig up that secret."

A delightful treasure-hunting tale of finding one's self in a most unlikely way." -- Publisher's Weekly

• Writers: Do you tend to steer away from age in writing your rogues? At what point do your characters become real to you?
• Readers: What makes a story fun for you to read?

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Pat Bertram is a native of Colorado and a lifelong resident. When the traditional publishers stopped publishing her favorite type of book -- character and story driven novels that can't easily be slotted into a genre -- she decided to write her own.

Pat's books, More Deaths Than One, A Spark Of Heavenly Fire, and Daughter Am I are available for order through the Second Wind Website http://www.secondwindpublishing.com/in ebook and paperback forms.

Paperbacks are also available from Amazon and in Kindle format as well.

You can visit Pat on her Website as well as read an excerpt of Daughter Am I.

"These Are A Few Of My Favourite Things..."

My guest is Victorian Gothic author, Leanna Renee Hieber. I had the opportunity to meet the irrepressible Leanna at a RWA writers' conference in September.

Leanna is a sassy redhead and a lot of fun and she also knows the value of *presence* She did a fun and informative workshop on Direct Your Book--Using Theatrical Techniques. The gist of the workshop was to remember that while you're an author, you also are a Cinematographer, Director, Actor, and Marketing Director. Each plays a vital role in our writing. The workshop was great for visualizing your work and your characters.

Leanna has a unique way of looking at things in life and how they play into the writing process.

• Leanna, tell us a little about you:

Hello friends! I'm an award winning author, actress, playwright and author of the Strangely Beautiful series of Gothic Victorian Fantasy novels, beginning with The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker.

• I'm glad you were able to visit with us a bit today.

I'm so thrilled to be here Over Coffee with all of you!

• Gothics used to be quite popular and then segued into mostly paranormals (with ghosts, other worldly creatures etc) and true atmospheric Gothics fell by the wayside. What drew you to Gothics and the Victorian period in particular?

I've just loved Ghost stories as long as I can remember, and the Gothic style just calls to me like a siren, it's just like a second skin. I think it's the drama of them (being an actress and playwright, it's fitting).

As for why the Victorian era, another childhood obsession that I can only chalk up to a past life.The conflict and the strained romance of the time just adds so much delicious tension!

• You've given your Gothics a modern twist with fantasy/para, but would you still classify them with the old Gothics? How are they similar? Different?

Absolutely, I'd say I'm in the 'old school' Gothic style, but inspired healthily by Fantasy novels.

• I know of several who love and write dark Gothics but aren't seeing a lot of results. Your books seem to fit a niche and I'm seeing a resurgence of interest in Dark Gothics again.

I do think there's great timing for [Gothic] series right now, however I couldn't have known that when I started the book nine years ago.

• A case of writing what you love to read. I'm glad you persevered! It's a good book. What are some of your favorite things and do you use them in your writing?

I thought I'd make a list of all my favourite things because these are all things that have come up in interviews and when I look at this list, I realize it's a very important list to understanding me as a writer. I feel like singing a little Sound of Music here...

Except we don't have sound, Leanna, but I admit the song has been running through my head.

A (nearly comprehensive) list of Leanna's favourite things:

• British Accents
• British Actors-
• Greek Mythology (and Mythologies in general)
• Ghost Stories
• Writing (since I could hold a pen and finish a sentence, it’s my favourite thing to do with my time)
• Helpless romanticism
• Brooding, brilliant, magical men who seemed wicked but weren’t (Just like Anne of Green Gables says, she wants someone who isn’t wicked but has the possibility of being wicked. I’m so Anne... )
• Fantasy novels (Especially Harry Potter)
• Gothic novels/literature
• Jane Austen
• Theatre (everything about it)
• Gothic things (like architecture, music, clothes and all things under said title)
• Dr. Who
• Edgar Allan Poe
• Alan Rickman (the best actor in the known world)
• London- The Victorian Era and everything therein – (I have no idea why as a child I was flouncing around in doubled skirts and makeshift corsets, speaking in a British Accent in rural Ohio. I credit a past life because I don’t know how else to explain my long time love affair with the 19th century, or why London felt uncannily home when I went there.)
• Birds
• Pine forests (moonlit, please)
• Red wine or a dirty martini
• String music
• cheese
• Soulful singer/songwriters- Making things up that were utterly impossible and/or utterly non-traditional.
• Ghostbusters
• The Muppets (Particularly The Muppet Christmas Carol)
• A Garden-style graveyard
• Stained Glass (Particularly Louis Comfort Tiffany)
• Central Park
• Fine Art (particularly the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood)
• The BBC (Yes. I am an anglophile)
• My beloved pet rabbit rescued from a testing facility, named Persebunny

Save for the anachronistic things, many of this said list make their way into the Strangely Beautiful series in one way or another.

They say we are what we eat and I think we are also what we love. I'm so interested in the way that creativity meets our great loves in life, and to discuss that with writers and readers.

• Writers: What are your favourite things and does your list make it into what you're writing?


• Readers: Do you look for aspects of your list in what you read?

I hope you'll check out The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker. I've just announced the title and cover of the Strangely Beautiful sequel, The Darkly Luminous Fight for Persephone Parker, which will release April 27th, 2010.

Come find me on Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/sbfbfan
Twitter: www.twitter.com/leannarenee
Blog: http://www.leannareneebooks.blogspot.com/
Website: http://www.leannareneehieber.com/

Blessings to you!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


Award-Winning author, actress and playwright Leanna Renee Hieber grew up in rural Ohio where her childhood memories are full of inventing elaborate ghost stories. Graduating with a BFA in Theatre from Miami University, a focus study in the Victorian Era and a scholarship to study in London helped set the course for her books. The dramatic, historic, spiritual and paranormal are the primary forces in her lyrical, eerie, atmospheric fiction.

While performing in the regional theatre circuit, her one-act plays such as Favorite Lady, were published, produced, won awards and continue to be produced in colleges and festivals around the country. She has adapted works of 19th Century literature for the professional stage.

She hit the fantasy fiction scene with her novella Dark Nest which won the 2009 Prism Award for excellence in Futuristic, Fantasy and Paranormal Romance. The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker is the first in her Strangely Beautiful series of ghostly, Gothic Victorian Fantasy novels published by Dorchester Publishing.

Writing What You Want To Read

I want to welcome Blaze author, Karen Foley, to Over Coffee. Karen is a deeprooted New Englander, who has written the third of the mini-series Dressed to Thrill.


Her topic is timely, since we've heard ad-nauseum, "Write what you know." Karen's philosophy is, "write what you want to read." She is also an advocate of being willing to step out of your comfort zone, as a writer, and try something new.



Growing up, my English teachers would always say, “Write what you know,” which nearly became a major impediment to my writing career. After all, what did I really know? I’d spent most of my teenage years devouring historical romances and knew that when I finally grew up, that’s what I wanted to write. So instead of writing what I knew, I decided to write what I wanted to read.


I joined the Romance Writers of America and over the next several years, I wrote five historical romances. I’m a big fan of RWA-sponsored contests, and between 2003 and 2006, I think I entered more than sixty contests. It was late in 2005, when I noticed a trend developing; whenever I entered a contest where Brenda Chin, senior editor for Harlequin Blaze, was the final judge, my entry finaled or won. At one point, she even included a personal note with my score sheet, saying she loved my voice and my characters. Unfortunately, she wasn’t acquiring historical romances.


While I’m not an advocate of chasing market trends, I do believe that occasionally stepping out of your comfort zone can help you grow as a writer. I’d never written a sensual contemporary romance before, and had never read a Harlequin Blaze novel. But the fact that Brenda Chin apparently liked my writing style was incentive enough for me to give it a try.


I devoured Blaze novels at the rate of 3-4 books per week. I even developed a spreadsheet to analyze the different aspects of these books, like what constituted the sexy premise, how explicit was the language, and how many sex scenes were included in each novel? What I found really surprised me. There was no “formula” to writing a Blaze novel. There were no prerequisite number of love scenes, and each story was as unique as the author who penned it. They ran the gamut from light and funny, to dark and edgy, with everything in between. They included paranormals and time travel romances, bad-boy alpha heroes and boy-next-door beta heroes.


I already had the outline of a story taking shape in my head, and when I felt I had a good handle on what constituted a Blaze novel, I scribbled down a one-page synopsis and handed it to Brenda during one of her workshops at the 2006 RWA conference (this was a solicited request for ideas; I promise I did not waylay her in the ladies room!). Three days after the conference, I had a call from Harlequin, requesting the full manuscript. I wrote that first book in a fast and furious ten weeks, and received my first book contract three months later.


It’s been exactly three years since I first submitted that manuscript to Brenda, and it’s hard to believe that my fourth Blaze book is out on bookstore shelves right now. Hold on to the Nights is book #3 in the Dressed to Thrill continuity series. (A continuity is where several authors work together on separate books linked by a common premise, and sometimes by common characters, and the books come out together, one after the other, since they are linked.)


Samantha Hunter invited me to participate in this series, along with Tawny Weber and Lisa Renee Jones. We came up with the premise of an online costume shop that ships out the wrong costumes to heroines, and how these costume mix-ups change the heroines’ lives and enable them to be more than they thought they could be. It was such a fun series to write, and I really loved getting to know the other authors.

• I had a chance to ask Karen a few questions:
  
  Tawny's heroine was a bit of a sexy footloose geek and Sam's was is an overly responsible big sister who lived in the shadow of her younger, sexier sister. What's the deal with your heroine?
  
  

My heroine, Lara Whitfield, is a huge fan of actor Graeme Hamilton, and writes erotic fan fiction based on the television character he portrays. But only she knows that her stories are based on personal experience; she was once married to the Hollywood hunk, before he became a celebrity. The marriage was annulled just days later…or so she thought. When her lawyers tell her that the marriage was never legally dissolved, she decides to attend a celebrity fan festival for Graeme…dressed in a Princess Leia slave girl costume! She thinks she’s incognito, but Graeme instantly recognizes her.

• Which scene in your novel did you love writing and why?
  
  

There’s a love scene that takes place at a little inn in Scotland, where they spent their wedding night five years earlier. Being at the inn resurrects all kinds of memories for both of them and makes them realize that they’re still completely in love with each other. The sex is amazing, but the new emotional intensity brings it to a whole new level. Then there’s the scene in the bathtub…

• Hmmm, Scotland, amazing sex, a bathtub scene...Okay, I'm hooked already. So what’s next from you?
  

My next Blaze release is in July 2010, as part of a 3-story anthology with Rhonda Nelson and Jill Shalvis, called Born on the Fourth of July. Each story will feature a military hero. My story, Packing Heat, is about a Marine sniper who just wants to come home from Iraq and be a regular guy, especially if means spending time with the sexy schoolteacher who has been sending him care packages for the past six months.

After that, I have two more Blaze books coming out in 2011, each featuring a military hero. The first one involves a bad-ass special ops soldier who has a thing about women in combat; he doesn’t like it. But when a female civilian ends up assigned to the remote outpost where he is stationed, he finds he can’t concentrate on anything but her. The second book involves a female soldier who rescues the man she loves during an ambush and is hailed as a hero, and how this impacts their relationship. Both books are still in progress, and no titles have been selected. While both books definitely have a serious side, there is also a lot of sexy fun in both of these stories, and I think readers will really enjoy these heroes!

Karen, I know you're in the middle of some edits and such for Harlequin, so I really appreciate you taking time to not only be here, Over Coffee, but answer some questions.

• Writers: How do you feel about stepping out of your comfort zone, as a writer, and trying something new?

• Readers: Do you like it when authors try something new?
  

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Growing up, she could always be found curled up with a book. When she wasn't reading, she was writing, trying to capture on paper the endless stories that filled her imagination. Nothing gives her more pleasure than creating a story with memorable characters, a seemingly insurmountable conflict and of course, a happy ending.

After graduating from the University of New Hampshire, Karen married her high school sweetheart and moved to Europe, where she worked for the U.S. Department of Defense. During those five wonderful years, she and her husband skied the Swiss and Italian Alps, hiked through the Scottish Highlands, explored Etruscan ruins, searched for Celtic ring forts, and traipsed through every 13th and 14th century castle she could find. Although living overseas was a wonderful experience, she was eager to get back to the States and start a family.


Karen continues to work for the Department of Defense and says that supporting America's men and women in uniform provides her with lots of inspiration for her military-themed romances.

Karen lives in Massachusetts with her husband, two daughters, a big, black dog and a Maine Coon cat. She loves her small town, but if the opportunity to travel presents itself, she's never one to turn it down! She enjoys hearing from her readers, so feel free to drop her a line at karenefoley@comcast.net.

What I love About Coffee Get-Togethers

My guest Over Coffee is debut author, Marilyn Brant. Winner of the 2007 Golden Heart Award for Best Novel with Strong Romantic Elements.

• Marilyn tags herself as an introvert, a Mom with an unhealthy attachment to Carbs, requires excellent cookies, likes dangerous things like chocolate martinis, neighborhood relationship intrigues and '80s Music. Best of all, she won my heart, when she told me she loves chatting over coffee with friends.
  

Thank you, Sia, for inviting me here! It’s a pleasure to be a guest on Over Coffee today. :-)

It’s particularly exciting to get to take part in a coffee-talk gathering online because, in real life, this is one of my very favorite things to do. I have a few friends I love to meet for coffee. Some I’m able to get together with frequently, others only once in a while, but in all cases I usually leave our morning coffee dates feeling buoyant and primed to tackle my infinite writing projects at home.


What makes it even more special is that I’m a true introvert. Unlike my VERY extraverted mother (!!), I’m not typically energized by social gatherings. (And, oh, I have stories I could tell about the endless stream of social events I was dragged to as a kid…wanna hear about wild double weddings, anyone?) Parties and conferences and things like that take a lot of concentration for me, largely because I can’t stop my writer self from collecting details and feeling a bit pummeled by observations. This was true before I ever actually became a novelist, by the way. Once I started writing, I was relieved to finally have a place to put all of those observations I’d been accumulating for years and tucking into my mental anthology of human behaviors--LOL!


So, what I love about the coffee get-togethers with my friends is that I actually feel like an extravert for those precious few hours. Because we know each other well, we dispense with small talk rather quickly. We’re then able to delve right into some very meaty conversations and get to the heart of a deep philosophical and/or emotional discussion after little more than half a cup of hazelnut mocha and a few bites of a chocolate-chip cookie. (We go to a shop with EXCELLENT cookies. I consider this a requirement.) And I’ve come to rely on these meetings as a helpful—perhaps even essential—part of my writing process.

• Here’s why: I write women’s fiction. I’m passionately interested in women’s stories and our shared experiences. When my friends are telling me about their in-laws, their children, their wacky adult siblings…or they’re recollecting tales of old boyfriends or the qualities they love best in their husbands…I’m listening. I’m checking their stories with my own. Comparing them in the sense of discovering the emotions and reactions we have in common. They know this and, because they’re absolutely awesome, they enthusiastically help me make those connections.
  

Recently, one friend said, “So, okay, you’re a writer. Have you ever read any novels about a woman who’d lied to her entire family about having to go out of town at the end of November just so she wouldn’t have to suffer through another Thanksgiving dinner of being asked why she was still single?”

I said, “Got a call from your mother yesterday, huh?”

“Oh, my, God, yes!” she shot back. “I love her, but if she asks me about dating one more time—argh!!”

And so it begins, the fun and frequently funny back and forth banter between friends. The commiserations we share when we've had a crazy work week, an eye-rolling sibling moment or a feverish child. The innate understanding that each of us will pull together whatever knowledge, resources or background we can to help each other gain perspective on whatever might be perplexing one of us. It’s become such a powerful form of preventive medicine in my life that I look forward to it for my own mental health and, also, as a way to keep the pulse of my characters strong and true.

More than once, I’ve been the one to open our coffee conversation with something like:

• “Okay, I’ve got this one character. She’s 43. Divorced. Ambivalent about relationships. But then she meets a younger guy and, strangely, they hit it off. What are her hopes? Her fears?”

And a friend will say, “She’ll worry about needing a boob job.”

“Or a tummy tuck,” another friend will chime in.

“But mostly she’ll be concerned about her teenage son and his reaction to the new relationship…”

And, with that, they’ll set me on the road to making sure I create a character who feels real to them. One who’s almost as multifaceted and three-dimensional as they are. I’m so grateful to them for that. Not only do their insights improve my writing, but they enrich my life and my understanding of the people in it. I’d give up my computer before I’d give up my coffee dates!

• What about all of you? When you get together with your friends—over coffee, dinner, dessert or drinks—what do you tend to talk about? Work-related stuff? Kids and spouses? Sports, hobbies or pop culture?

• Have these discussions ever made you think about your writing, job, or your family any differently? Looking forward to hearing your thoughts! :-)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Marilyn Brant has been a classroom teacher, a library staff member, a freelance writer and a national book reviewer. She lives in the Chicago suburbs with her husband and son, surrounded by towers of books that often threaten to topple over and crush her. A proud member of the Jane Austen Society of North America, Marilyn’s debut novel featuring "Jane" won the Romance Writers of America’s prestigious Golden Heart® Award. When not working on her next book, she enjoys traveling, listening to music and finding new desserts to taste test.
Readers can visit her website at http://www.marilynbrant.com/

In Marilyn Brant’s smart, wildly inventive debut, one woman in search of herself receives advice from the ultimate expert in matters of the heart…

It begins one day in sophomore English class, just as Ellie Barnett’s teacher is assigning Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. From nowhere comes a quiet “tsk” of displeasure. The target: Sam Blaine, the cute bad boy who’s teasing Ellie mercilessly, just as he has since kindergarten. Entirely unbidden, as Jane might say, the author’s ghost has taken up residence in Ellie’s mind, and seems determined to stay there.

Jane’s wise and witty advice guides Ellie through the hell of adolescence and beyond, serving as the voice she trusts, usually far more than her own. Years and boyfriends come and go—sometimes a little too quickly, sometimes not nearly fast enough. But Jane’s counsel is constant, and on the subject of Sam, quite insistent. Stay away, Jane demands. He is your Mr. Wickham.

Still, everyone has something to learn about love—perhaps even Jane herself. And lately, the voice in Ellie’s head is being drowned out by another, urging her to look beyond everything she thought she knew and seek out her very own, very unexpected, happy ending...

"Marilyn Brant's debut novel is proof that Jane Austen never goes out of style. This is a warm, witty and charmingly original story of a modern woman coming of age and finding her own happy ending--with a little help from the ultimate authority--Jane Austen herself."~Susan Wiggs

Struggling With Validation

~Readers who loved the sly fun, humor, and romance, of Ripping the Bodice will be blown away by the sensuality and lushness of Champagne.~



My guest is Erotic Romance author, Inara LaVey.

I admit I have some interesting friends, and have met many fascinating authors Over Coffee, but not many with multiple personalities. When I asked Dana Fredsti if she’d like to be a guest Over Coffee, I wasn’t expecting her equally sexy alter ego to jump into the fray and demand her turn on my blog. Inara is saucy, sly, chocked full of humor. She can also be a demanding wench. I like that about her. :-)

Inara’s topic is one that many writers, published and unpublished, struggle with—validation. What does it take to make a writer feel validated? Is it when you finish a novel or two? When you start getting partial or full requests? Snag a good agent who believes in you? Getting a contract? Selling X number of books? All are forms of validation.

I have a friend, who has finished at least six novels that I know of, and she said, not long ago, “So when does the validation come? Am I wasting my time? Do I need the huge advance check and the mansion?”

We all struggle with validation on some level or another. We'll let Dana and Inara discuss their struggles:

The last two years have been busy for me as a writer. Both of me. See, I write under two different names: Inara LaVey for my spicy romances and my real name (Dana Fredsti) for almost everything else (I say ‘almost’ because, for several reasons I won’t go into here, I also co-wrote a non-fiction book called Secret Seductions under the one time pen name Roxanne Colville). My co-author and long time friend Cynthia Gentry also brought me in to co-write another non-fiction book, What Women Really Want In Bed, for which I got my first substantial advance. It was a ‘nice’ advance, as they say in the publishing biz. Certainly more than I’d gotten in the past.

What else? I promoted my mystery Murder for Hire: The Peruvian Pigeon with blog tours, book signings at stores and libraries, and a fun Northwest coastal Thelma and Louise type tour with fellow mystery writer Jess Lourey (Murder by the Month series). I published two short stories and two novels for Ravenous Romance (my latest RR novel, Champagne, was released this month, woot!) and I’m currently working on my third, as well as the sequel to Murder for Hire.

I have a multiple book contract with Ravenous, including a zombie novel (Dana and Inara both do love the zombies). One of my RR titles, Ripping the Bodice is part of the Escape to Romance package on Home Shopping Network and they’ve been selling really well. The recently released Hungry For Your Love, an anthology of zombie related romance in which I have a story, just had the print rights bought by St. Martin’s Press.

All of these things are good things and when I look at the list of what I’ve accomplished and/or been a part of, I can see I haven’t exactly been sitting back, waiting for the world to hand me my goals on a silver platter. And yet somehow I still wake up wondering when the world is going to discover I’m just a big old fake.

I’ve tried to figure out what my problem is. Why I haven’t been able to just enjoy my successes without constantly questioning my validity as a ‘real’ writer?

Logic and emotions definitely refuse to meet in the middle here. Maybe it’s because I don’t have an agent. Maybe it’s because, despite my best intentions, there are nights I sit with my laptop for the requisite two or three hours, but sometimes no real writing comes out of it. I dunno.

Maybe it’s because when I wrote Ripping the Bodice, I had epic writing sessions of three to four thousand words a day. Now the old goal of five hundred words a day seems paltry. And if you were to tell me you were writing a consistent five hundred words a day, I’d say you were doing a great job. And I’d be perfectly sincere. I’d also tell you it’s okay if some nights you just needed to take a break and watch, So You Think You Can Dance, instead of write. Everyone needs a break. I just can’t seem to cut myself the same slack. I’m constantly comparing myself to my fellow writers and always coming up short. And frankly, I’m irritating the hell out of myself. :-)

How about you? I’d love to hear about other writers and their own struggle with validation, be it from readers, authors, publishers, agents… or themselves.

By the way, if you have any suggestions to get one’s inner critic to just shut the hell up, I’d love to hear that too! Mine’s been a real whiny bitch lately and my muse is on strike until I treat her with the love and respect she says she deserves.

Blurb for Champagne:

• Jeanette Wilson is an American girl on the trip of a lifetime to the wine regions of France. Unfortunately, she's trapped with her soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend Darryl, a self-absorbed, self-aggrandizing, self-styled wine expert bent on swirling, sniffing, sipping, swishing, chewing, swallowing and occasionally spitting his way through the wineries of France. Between his endless lectures and insufferable putdowns, her insignificant other is quickly turning her dream vacation into a nightmare.
  
  But things change for Jeanette once they come to the zenith of their French road-trip, the Champagne house of Chateau Roux-Dubois. Their hosts, Amaury and Marie-Elise Roux-Dubois, turn out to be both charming and attractive, and go out of their way to extend a warm welcome to her. And they make it very clear that it is she, not Daryl, who is their special guest, particularly when the striking Marie-Elise takes Jeanette down to the wine cellar for a very personal tour, followed by an unusual French lesson from Amaury.


• 
  When she and Daryl are invited to stay and participate in the harvest festival, Jeanette finds herself caught up in a ménage a trios with the Roux-Dubois, both intent on teaching her many things…

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Inara LaVey is the erotica-writing nom de plume of a San Francisco mystery writer and former B-movie actress who has lived many of the experiences she writes about in her sensuous fiction. She has traveled throughout Europe, and worked in the uncharted wilds of Hollywood as a screenwriter, a script doctor, an award-winning documentary producer, a stunt woman (her background is in theatrical sword-fighting), and actress in more than one cult classic.

Along with her best friend, she created a mystery-oriented theatrical troupe in San Diego, which formed the basis for her Murder for Hire mysteries. She's written numerous published articles, essays and shorts, and is active in the Northern California chapter of Sisters in Crime.

She has a deep passion for all things feline, and for many years has worked with her beloved tigers, leopards, jaguars and other exotic cats at an exotic feline conservation center.

Another love is the sea; she adores living by the beach, surfing, strolling the strand and beach-combing. Her many friends know she can always be tempted by bad movies or good wine, preferably combined. When she is not hard at work writing or preparing for the coming zombie apocalypse, she can be found doting on her cats or sword fighting with her Irish lover.

• MURDER FOR HIRE: The Peruvian Pigeon (James A. Rock Inc, Yellowback Mysteries Imprint) RIPPING THE BODICE (Ravenous Romance, as Inara LaVey) www.danafredsti.com Member, Sisters in Crime (National & NorCal Chapters) Events Coordinator, SinC NorCal
  
  Vist with Inara/Dana: Zhadi's Den
  
  

Doing It Like You Mean It

"The writer’s state of mind is an effort of perception, a sustained devotion to the equal observation of things without and within."

My guest is Anthony Flacco. He's worn many professional hats in his career. Anthony writes both non-fiction true crime, has a historical crime series out with Ballantine, and screenwriter for Disney, Discovery, and NBC Studios.

Anthony is well aware of the difficulty writers face in pursuing publication. The sheer numbers of submissions we're competing against for attention. His topic covers the need of well crafted proposals and queries, as well as developing, what he calls, a writers state of mind.



It was just over six years ago when my partner of fifteen years left independent publishing in Hollywood to open her own literary management company (Sharlene Martin of Martin Literary Management). She was already an entrepreneur who had crafted a successful and nationally recognized business on her own, and by the time that she went forward with literary management her expertise had been fortified by her years of watching me engage in those same struggles known by all of us who write for commercial publication--especially with regard to the securing and maintaining of effective representation. She decided to specialize in nonfiction books because they are what she most likes to read. For her, the result was a rapid rise to success and power in the nonfiction book world. For me, there has been a backdoor benefit that I never could have anticipated beyond collecting jokes about sleeping with your agent or having a representative who returns my calls.

That unexpected benefit rose from my work as editorial consultant for her company, which I originally took on in the inevitable need to help her run her business in the afternoons while I did my own writing throughout the night.

• My prior one-way experience of the literary marketplace expanded exponentially once I crossed to the other side of the desk and began to read and evaluate incoming submissions, edit book proposals and book manuscripts to put them into sellable form, and—most gratifying of all—converse with my partner every day on issues of writing and the publication game.
  
  That’s how an afternoon job that I never applied for became the most important one of my writing life outside of the writing itself. It stabilized my psyche in ways I could not have predicted, to the point that in a perfect world I would love to be able to rent my seat at the editorial desk to any one of you, perhaps charging by the hour or by the day (you know, just to keep the lights turned on), and thereby provide you with the same invaluable bird’s-eye view on the profession while you watch the tsunami of hopeful manuscripts wash across the transom. I’m pretty sure that the experience would change a lot of things for you as it certainly has for me, all for the better.
  
  
  You would find that the chance to watch and sometimes assist other writers who struggle with the same issues that you do is revelatory in its power to take the sting out of the blows that you often endure in the marketplace, since they turn out to be the same ones suffered by virtually everyone striving for authorship. (And I include the wildly successful ones who rake in royalties of seven figures.) Are there exceptions? Maybe. And they are about as relevant to the rest of us as the knowledge of who won this week’s Lotto—loose factoids.
  
  
  The revelation’s power arrives in two separate forms. The first is common to all who struggle to get published, since it involves the process. The second is typical of every writer—and this part includes those rich ones with the big waterfront mansions—because it involves living the writer’s life and maintaining a writer’s state of mind.
• 
  
  Regarding the first, the real and relevant truths about the struggle for a contract with major publishing houses is this: those publishing house slights, those yawning chasms of silence that loom up right where a response to your submission ought to be, were never the personal affronts that they seemed, not to me and not to you. The onslaught of material is daunting in the extreme.

For sad example, in the past I confess to having written to publishing house editors to ask if they would be willing to read and evaluate my work—and was genuinely disappointed by their indifference. If I had a rationale at all in wasting my time that way, other than that of seeking a toe-hold anywhere I could find one, it would have been something to the effect that I hoped for my work to be strong enough to grab them in the first few lines, they might be willing to invest their time and energy on my behalf out of sheer excitement over the stuff on the page.

It’s painful to admit to that now, because during the intervening years I have witnessed countless such requests coming in over the transom and I can’t help but appreciate the vast quantity of time and work that each would involve. Impossible. But the world is full of people who will ask for it anyway.

• The result is that as a writer, I still look for feedback all the time—but never inside of the profession. Writers’ groups and literate friends are there to do what busy professionals simply cannot.

When you stop by to rent your time in the editorial seat, you will likely find that the amount of work and creative energy that you see being wasted by many prospective authors will knock you backward. The sight of it will permanently change the way that you go about things. Conversely, the stunning work of serious contenders who bear a passion to tell their stories will keep the high water mark clear before your eyes. Perhaps not all of us feel driven to seek the highest level of quality in our work—ordinarily—but you can bet that an awareness of the avalanche of competing manuscripts will amp up your energy for excellence.

And yet in our enthusiasm for a new book idea and our desire for a major contract, it’s easy to forget that ideas—good ideas, even great ideas—are like that shared anatomical trait on our collective nether regions. It takes so much more, more, more than that in the outrageously competitive world of nonfiction books.

• From the editor’s side of the desk you observe how many intelligent and often supremely well-educated writers will try to cut corners on their queries, their proposals, their drafts. Even the most brilliant among them will frequently reduce their rationalizations for sloppy work to the same handful of familiar excuses that my ears burn to consider:
  
  “But I’m so busy (or) I can’t afford the cost of doing it right (or) Hey--if you appreciate my work, you won’t need a well-crafted query letter and a fully completed book proposal. You’ll cut me some slack and give me a boost. Why? Well, naturally, because I’m meeeeeeee…”

If that sounds laughable, it only emphasizes the extremes to which any of us can wander if we look for easy ways to publication. We ignore the broad statistics of more than a quarter million titles coming to the market each year, forgetting that each and every one of them represents a single find among a daunting pile of rejected works.

• The second big reveal from this side of the desk:

I am now immune to the delusion that any amount of literary success can relieve a whittle or a jot from a writer’s responsibility to maintain the writer’s state of mind.

The challenge is difficult enough when you are balancing jobs and family along with your writing sessions, all the more so when you are juggling the endless temptations and demands of a life of privilege. No serious writer is ever free of the fear of wasting our fleeting moments on earth by neglecting opportunities to keep our thoughts primed and our discipline tight toward capturing those fleeting flashes that drove us to write in the first place. The writer’s state of mind is an effort of perception, a sustained devotion to the equal observation of things without and within. My time behind the editor’s desk has left indelible memories of those who achieve and maintain that state of mind, and who produce their work from within it.

As for me, I’ve started a collection of jokes about the wisdom (or folly) of sleeping with your agent. But the real result of my afternoon job has been to slap a pair of glasses onto my head with mirrors attached to the sides. They provide a clear and present view of the pack with whom I have chosen to run: countless thundering feet that will trample the ambitions of anyone who refuses to keep pace.

• As for wealth and glory, they are always the most unpredictable girls at the dance. It does no good to chase them--they come to you on their own. We all know stories of brilliant writers with exquisite works who were derided by critics or initially ignored and then later rediscovered. Therefore, regarding the writer’s state of mind, “doing it like you mean it” reveals a writer who never forgets that public appreciation and acceptance of one’s work may be the result of someone else’s subjective call, but the excellence of it is there to be guaranteed by you.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Anthony is the author of the new historical true crime book, The Road Out Of Hell, which has just been released by Union Square Press at Sterling Publishing. It tells the true story behind the murders that formed the basis for the movie “Changeling,” but focuses on young Sanford Clark, the thirteen year-old who was held for two years at the Wineville murder ranch and forced to participate in the most gruesome of crimes.

Anthony’s primary research source for that story is Jerry Clark, the surviving son of Sanford Clark, which is why Jerry’s name is on the book. Anthony is also the author of the nonfiction book ”Tiny Dancer” from St. Martin’s Press, which earned high praise from the NYT Book Review, and the true-crime book, “A Checklist For Murder” from Dell Books, which sold to NBC Studios as a TV movie.

He has two historical crime novels from Ballantine books, “The Last Nightingale,” nominated by the International Thriller Writers Assn. as Best Paperback Original for 2007, and also the novel, “The Hidden Man,” in 2008, which continued the San Francisco murder mystery series.

He is a masters degree graduate of the American Film Institute, where he won A.F.I.’s Paramount Studios Award for his screenwriting. He has worked as a screenwriter for The Walt Disney Studios, NBC Studios, and The Discovery Channel. His work was also featured in the 1000th issue Commemorative Edition of Reader’s Digest.

He is currently a member of the Writers Guild of America/west, the International Thriller Writer’s Association, and the Mystery Writers of America.


Anthony Flacco website You can see the book trailer and blurb for the book here as well.