Magic – Do you believe?

I’m pleased to have para romance author, Donna Grant, visiting Over Coffee again. I had the chance to meet Donna at a conference and spent quite a bit of time with her. What a fun time.

There are moments in her books that I can’t help but burst out laughing at something one of the characters have said or done. After meeting Donna, I fully understand where the humor comes from. She’s a beautiful and gracious southern lady with a backbone of steel and an impish sense of humor. You will definitely meet the Cajun side of her when you read her books—hot, spicy, and satisfying.

Donna's topic today is magic.

First, thank you, Sia, for asking me to return for another guest blog!

It seems in every culture throughout history there has been mention of magic. Some would say it doesn’t exist, some would argue it does. How can something so widely spoken about not be real? And if it is real, how do you prove it?

The wonderful thing about writing fiction is that I can include all kinds of paranormal elements in my worlds. The world in my new Dark Sword series is most definitely filled with magic. Both my heroines and heroes hold magic, though in different ways.

My heroes are warriors with primeval gods inside them giving them immortality as well as enhanced senses and the ability to control something be it water, people’s minds, or the very air you breathe. The gods also transform my Warriors. Each god favors a color, so when unleashed, the heroes turn the color of their god. They also have fangs and claws, and some even have horns and wings. It has been fun matching heroes to their powers.

My heroines are Druids, blessed with certain magical abilities that will aid the heroes in defeating the evil spreading over their world. There are two sects of Druids in the series – the mie, or pure Druids, who practice healing and using their magic for good. Then there are the droughs who go through a ritual that binds their souls with evil to create black magic.

In WICKED HIGHLANDER (Nov 2, 2010) the heroine, Marcail, is a Druid. Marcail has magic that allows her to take someone’s feelings from them into herself. She uses this several times throughout the books at great cost to herself since she gets violently ill when she does take away someone’s hurt, anger, or pain. More than that, deep in her mind is the spell to bind the gods inside the Warriors. Her grandmother buried the spell so deep that it will take Marcail falling in love to unlock it.

• My question is: If you could have magic, what kind would you have?

Wicked Highlander:

A HEART IN CHAINS...


The most reckless and fierce of the MacLeod brothers, Quinn is a prisoner of the god inside him, tormented by his inability to save his family from slaughter. His fury governs him, and day by day he loses himself to the darkness in his soul. But Quinn has a profound yearning for a woman’s love...


A PASSION UNBOUND...


Raised by Druids, the achingly beautiful Marcail is as spellbinding as the ancient magic that surges through her body. To Quinn, she is the most desirable woman he has ever known. But to his enemy Deirdre, she is the perfect bait to lure Quinn into her trap. Once the two lovers are in her wicked grasp, their passion will be put to the ultimate test... Excerpt and trailer.

The Dark Sword series unleashes the magic, passion, and fury of three legendary brothers - cursed by fate but bound by desire for the women they love...

Buy: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books a Million
 
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Donna Grant is the award winning author of more than twenty novels spanning multiple genres of romance – Scottish Medieval, historical, dark fantasy, time travel, paranormal and erotic.
 
Donna was born and raised in Texas, but loves to travel. Her adventures have taken her throughout the United States as well as to Jamaica and Mexico. Growing up on the Texas/Louisiana border, Donna's Cajun side of the family taught her the “spicy” side of life while her Texas roots gave her two-steppin' and bareback riding.

Donna’s love of the romance genre and the constant stories running through her head prompted her to sit down and write her first book. Once that book was completed, there was no turning back.

Donna sold her first book in November 2005 while displaced from Hurricane Rita, a storm that destroyed portions of the Texas Gulf Coast. Since then, Donna has sold novels and novellas to both electronic and print publishers. Her books include several complete series such as The Druid’s Glen, The Shields, The Royal Chronicles and the Sisters of Magic.

Despite the deadlines and her voracious reading, Donna still manages to keep up with her two young children, three cats and one long haired Chihuahua. She's blessed with a proud, supportive husband who's learned to cook far more than frozen chicken nuggets.

Find Donna: Website, Blog, Facebook, Twitter

SNOW GLOBES AND STORIES

My guest is women’s fiction author Sheila Roberts. She writes things near and dear to women’s hearts: family, friends, and chocolate (oh, I love this woman!).

Before she started writing about those things, she wrote music (still does), was in a band, and—are you ready for this? —She owned a singing telegram business. Yep, she was the perky person who sang them to you. I’m not sure if she wore costumes or not, but kudos to her. I can sing to you and no problems from a stage, but in person and at your door, restaurant, or in your office? Um, that would be no.


Sheila sent me an Arc of Snow Globe (did I mention I love this woman?) and it was my first (but certainly not my last) introduction to her writing. I reviewed the book here and on Night Owl Reviews.


Sheila says she originally wanted to create a story that would become a Christmas Classic, “serious and heartwarming and a real tearjerker.” But I’ll let her tell you about that.


Don’t you love snow globes? I sure do! There is something peaceful about that charming scene frozen under glass that simply fascinates me. And I’m not the only one. These pretty ornaments are highly collectible (especially some of the Disney ones) and can go for a small fortune on eBay. I understand how that bidding fever can take over a girl, believe me.

Last year at a girlfriend party I got, well, let’s just say highly competitive over a gorgeous snow globe that someone had brought to our annual Christmas party. We were playing the old steal-each-other’s- presents game and, wouldn’t you know? I was the first to pick the package with the gorgeous globe. Needless to say, I didn’t hang onto it long. I tried every sneaky strategy I could think of to get it back. And failed. And complained loudly. All to no avail. There SHOULD NOT be a limit on how many times you can snitch a gift when you’re playing that game, and that’s all I’m going to say about that. Oh, except that I actually found an even prettier one at TJ Max on the way home from the party. My reward for (almost) being a good sport! :-)

Not only do I enjoy snow globes, I also love Christmas. It’s my favorite holiday. And I wanted to write a book that could become a Christmas classic, something people could read and enjoy every year. I wanted it to be serious and heartwarming and a real tear-jerker, like The Christmas Box. And I had a big, dark, tear-jerker plot all figured out. Well, somehow the book morphed from big, dark, and tear-jerking to sweet and funny. But also, I hope, encouraging. And I’m very happy with it.

Maybe someday I’ll write Snow Globe 2 and get to write my deep, sad, story. But for now I’ll simply be happy with the tale I’ve told and celebrate the season of miracles. And bring out my snow globe!

• Snow Globes do seem to make me think of winter and Christmas. What makes you think of Christmas?

Snow Globe:


On a blustery afternoon, Kylie Gray wanders into an antique shop and buys an enchanting snow globe. “There’s a story behind that snow globe,” the antique dealer tells her. The original owner, he explains, was a German toymaker who lost his wife and son right before Christmas. When the grieving widower received the handcrafted snow globe as a Christmas gift, he saw the image of a beautiful woman beneath the glass—a woman who would come into his life, mend his broken heart and bring him back to the world of the living. For years, the snow globe has passed from generation to generation, somehow always landing in the hands of a person in special need of a Christmas miracle.


Kiley could use a miracle herself. This year, all she wants for Christmas is someone to love. A hopeful shake leads her on an adventure that makes a believer out of her. When Kylie shares the story of the snow globe with her best friends—two women with problems of their own—they don’t believe it. But they’re about to discover that at Christmastime, sometimes the impossible becomes possible and miracles really do come true. Excerpt

Discover an unforgettable holiday treasure in Sheila Roberts’ heartwarming tale of love and laughter, magic and miracles, friendship and coming home…

Buy: Amazon, Barnes &Noble, Books a Million

~*~*~

Sheila Roberts lives on a lake in the Pacific Northwest. She’s happily married and has three children. She’s been writing since 1989, but she did lots of things before settling in to her writing career, including owning a singing telegram company and playing in a band. Her band days are over, but she still enjoys writing songs. When she’s not speaking to women’s groups or at conferences or hanging out with her girlfriends she can be found writing about those things near and dear to women’s hearts: family, friends, and chocolate.

Be sure to check out Sheila's Contests, Blog (she talks about MAKING snow globes) Facebook.

Life After Acceptance

My guest is fantasy fiction author Glenda Larke.

My first experience with the wonderful created world of Glenda was book two (Stormlord Rising) of her Stormlords Trilogy. I loved it. Rich believable world, strong, but flawed, characters, and a wonderful story. The plot is multi-layered yet she effortlessly weaves all the pieces together in a real page turner. A very satisfying read and one I couldn't put down until the denouement.

I enjoyed it so much I wrote to her and asked her if she'd be a guest on Over Coffee. I'm honored she accepted.


Glenda is a fascinating woman. Why? She’s the wife of a Malaysian scientist with a job with the UN, raised two children while traveling the world. Glenda has in lived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Borneo, Tunisia in North Africa, and Vienna, Austria. She’s worked about every job you can imagine and probably some you can’t. She’s a passionate defender of the rainforest and a field ornithologist. She tells us:

“[While in South-East Asia ] I learned to tie a sarong, cook with chillies, speak the language, clean squid, make curry, eat politely with the fingers of one hand, get rid of cobras in the house and explore the rainforest…

We returned to Malaysia where I turned more and more to environmental work, earning a living as a field ornithologist. I've waded through mangrove swamps, been followed by a tiger and attacked by a king cobra, been caught in a flash-flood and stung by a colony of irate wasps, studied birds on tropical atolls and swum with turtles. I've survived an open boat in a tropical thunderstorm and been eaten alive by leeches, mosquitoes, sandflies, ticks, chiggers and things that don't even have names. Would I do it all again? You betcha! In fact, I still do. My love of the rainforest is boundless, and I feel obligated to do my best to save it…

[Through all this] I kept on writing—in tents, at home, on boats and beaches, in swamps and mangroves, in national parks and logging camps, in airports and on planes.”

Boy, am I glad she kept on writing! Glenda shares what it's like as author after being published.


The day I heard my first book had been accepted for publication was also the day before my mother’s funeral. I was standing in my sister’s house after flying in from overseas, ripped by grief and feeling guilty because I hadn’t been there, when I was handed a fax. It was from my agent. I read it several times before the words even began to make sense. After almost seven years of various story rejections, there it was: Havenstar was to be published, chosen as one of three launch novels for a publisher’s new fantasy and science fiction imprint.

I was torn in two. The moment I had waited so long for, worked so hard to achieve – it had finally arrived. I wanted to be ecstatic, yet I was swamped with despair. I wanted to scream and dance for joy, yet I was weeping inside. My mother would have been delighted for me, but she died not knowing that her youngest daughter was achieving her lifelong dream. She would never know. I was devastated, conflicting emotions churning inside. Even now, thirteen years later, I can feel the raw anguish of that moment, the sense of Oh, why didn’t I know this a few days ago while she was alive?

Most authors – fortunately – don’t experience quite that mix of pain and joy when they get the news. They think they’ve reached the mountain peak where the view is great, and from now on everything will be wonderful … What they don’t know in that perfect moment of joy is that all they are doing is standing on a bump along a very long road.

They’ve probably spent years perfecting that first book. It’s their baby. They’ve thrown out a number of other attempts, but not this special one. This one they’ve nurtured, rewritten, polished. They’ve had it critiqued, it’s been rejected numerous times by publishers and agents - but still they’ve maintained their faith in it. And now that faith is vindicated.

Imagine it: standing there on the pinnacle of your career as a writer. You envision a lovely new book with your name on a shiny cover, loads of money, bookshops asking you to come and do a signing, fanmail stuffing up your inbox…What you get instead is a contract you don’t understand and a request for a rewrite from an editor you’ve never met – help, she even wants to change your baby’s name. Worse, she doesn’t like your name, either! She wants a pseudonym.

If you haven’t got an agent, you scurry around trying to find one because everyone says you ought to have one before you sign a contract. And that contract: horrors, it talks about your NEXT book as well. The one you haven’t started yet. And what does “at a discount of 52.5% up to 57.5% inclusive the royalty payable will be four-fifths of the prevailing rate…” actually mean? You’re not a lawyer! And where’s the bit about the date of publication? Oh, that’s on page twelve…Nooo - you have to wait anything up to two years? Two years? Your family’s already planning the launch party!

About then you realise this pinnacle of your career is really more like a road hump and you still have to negotiate the potholes of contracts and re-writes and copyedits and proofing and back page blurbs. Not to mention starting a website, and blogging and all those other things that authors are supposed to do. Publication day may well be ages in the future, but somehow everything has to be done in a hurry. Worse, you not only have to write a new book, but you’ve made a crazy promise to hand it in within twelve months - even though the first one took you six years to complete.

You want to drop your daytime job, but you can’t do that. Your advance is hardly enough to buy the cat food; it’s certainly not going to pay the mortgage. Everyone agrees: stopping work is madness for a new writer. So somehow you learn to juggle job, kids, spouse, leisure, getting the flu and carpel tunnel syndrome – while writing to a deadline. And suddenly the bump on the road begins to look more like an abyss.

Never fear, though. One day, in the mail, there comes a book. You rip open the packaging, and there it is: your creation. It has your name (or pseudonym) on the cover. There’s your dedication to your long-suffering family. Those are your words there in chapter one, your story, your blood, sweat and tears, paragraph after paragraph. (Probably a typo or too as well, so don’t too look closely right now.)

And that’s the mountain top. You’ve arrived. Some time soon you’ll have to deal with the deadline again and all that other stuff, but right now you really are standing on the peak, smelling that new book smell, and the view is magnificent.

Better still, sometime very soon, someone, somewhere, is going to ask you, “So where do you get your ideas?”

Stormlord Rising

Shale Flint has skills needed in a world in which water is worth more than gold, yet he can't control his own destiny. Circumstances force him to continue helping the devious rainlord, Taquar Sardonyx, to create rain—even though Taquar is using his control of water to further his own lust for power…

Terelle has been forced to leave the Scarpen with her great-grandfather, Russet; his painting of her future has trapped her into doing his will. Russet will not give up until he has regained his status as a Watergiver lord in his homeland—but Terelle is determined to resist, no matter what the price.

Meanwhile, Ryka Feldspar has been captured and taken as a concubine by a Reduner tribemaster. She discovers her rainlord husband, Kaneth, in the slave lines, but he has no memories of their time together. She is desperate to flee—but how can she leave him to his fate? Excerpt

As I said, I read book two first, but there were things I had to guess at--not hard, but a lot to absorb. So I would highly suggest reading Book One: The Last Stormlord, Synopsis and the excerpt, first.

Buy: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books a Million

BOOK GIVEAWAY Glad to do this, and the book will come from me, posted to anywhere. Choice of The Last Stormlord or Stormlord Rising.

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Glenda was born on a farm in Western Australia, and moved to Malaysia after her marriage. She has been at various times in her life a housemaid, a high school teacher, a university tutor, a field ornithologist and a designer of nature interpretive centres. Besides Australia, she has lived in Kuala Lumpur and Malaysian Borneo, Tunisia in north Africa and Vienna, Austria. Her passion (when she is not writing) is rainforest conservation. Sometimes the two things get mixed up and she has been known to do copyedits in logging camps, or to read proof pages by candlelight in a tent in a peat swamp. Aged eight, she decided she was going to be a writer, but her first forays into print were all in non-fiction. When she was forty-five she submitted her first novel to an agent and she now has nine books published worldwide, with the third book of the Stormlord trilogy due out next year.

Website: http://www.glendalarke.com/

Glenda working on her writing in the field

Blog: http://glendalarke.blogspot.com/

Monday Musings "I'm Late, I'm Late, I'm Late"

I got a bit of a late start on this article. Blame it on insanity and an incredibly busy life of late, lol! Today’s sort of a hodgepodge of stuff. I have some great guest visiting over the next couple weeks.

This past Saturday, I had the chance to spend time with a friend, Olivia Cunning, part of my incredible online writing group, The Writing Wombats. I’ve met quite of few of the Wombats at conferences and events.

Saturday was Olivia’s first book signing with Backstage Pass, and the first book in the hot new series, Sinners On Tour. What a great time! Olivia had wonderful hosts (Doug and Shannon Wilson) at Village Book Store in Columbia. Doug Wilson was hamming it up in the store—I get the impression he does this on a regular basis, in fact I have it on good authority he can be a lovable dork. I loved meeting him. I did see him with his semi serious face recommending various books to an avid reader and was impressed with both his love and knowledge of various genres and authors.

The fabulous Becky is standing

Becky Asher was fabulous as well. She had read Backstage Pass, not once but several times. She not only talks it up but also was able to pull together a huge group to stop by while Olivia was there, some from online (like Facebook), the Village reading group, and the normal walk in customers that stopped by to see what was going on in our section of the store. I’m sure all the laughter and high-jinx drew some as well. And we did have lots of laughter. She was a grand hostess, running for drinks and goodies, making sure everyone had something to munch on or drink. I took a wrong turn getting to the store and had to call—only to find out I was merely a couple of blocks away—but she waited outside the door for me to arrive! Wow! I have a great deal of respect for her knowledge of genres and authors who write them and book industry in general. Part of the Village reading group was there and the discussion that ensued was remarkable as was the span of ages of the visitors in addition to having both males and females participating in the lively discussions.

Olivia knows well how to handle a crowd but I brought her chocolate just in case she needed an extra boost. I’m thinking I should have brought some Motrin or Aleve to for her arm and hand. She signed so many books it’s a wonder it didn’t fall off. The good news was she sold all the books the store had on hand and the extras ordered in for the signing event. The only thing that would have made this a better event was if we could have had the Sinners with us, lol!

If you you’re anywhere near Village Book Store, do stop by and visit with the amazing staff. It’s well worth the trip!

Upcoming guests: Glenda Larke, Stormlord Rising, Sheila Roberts , The Snow Globe, Donna Grant, Wicked Highlander, Nina Bruhn, Shadow of the Sheik (Immortal Sheiks Trilogy), Caridad Piñeiro , Stronger Than Sin.

So be sure to stop by and visit with us!

Dealing With A Demanding Secondary Character--Hello Series

My guest today is Romance author, Wendy Ely. Wendy tells me she never intended to write a series. Along came a larger than life character demanding her own story.

So, what's an author to do then? My curiosity was aroused and so I asked her about it.

The second book in my Desert Secret Series has recently been released. Its title is Midnight Secrets. When I started the first book (Confessions) in the series I had no idea that I would have four books planned out within a month of the contract for Confessions being offered. Actually, I never wanted to do a series at all. So how did this all come about?

I started writing Confessions with only one sentence of an idea. The characters in the book seemed to bloom rapidly and I became absorbed in every part of the story. I had recently moved to Arizona when I had started writing Confessions so everything was so new and wonderful. I had decided that Confessions needed to take place in a small town for it to ring true and then came the fictional town Wilson, Arizona. I had a blast researching the small desert towns around here and even more fun making up the shops in Wilson. I was hooked on the location from the start.

While writing Confessions, Chelsea’s sister ended up being such a strong character, it was hard to keep her in the background while Chelsea was living out her story. As soon as I started editing Confessions, I knew Allison had to have her own book. Instead of doing only a sequel, I decided at that point that I wanted to base a series around Wilson, Arizona. Readers would have the chance to watch the lives unfold of the beloved characters around the town.

I knew that Allison’s story would be next and Miguel made a wonderful hero for her. His confidence provided an excellent balance to her self-doubt. I had a great time mixing Allison’s larger than life attitude with Miguel’s respectful personality. The combination made for some steamy scenes and awesome chemistry between the couple.

The next two books planned in the series is Lost and Found with the best friend, Lisa Palmer. The series wraps up with the Montgomery sister’s enemy, Bailey Roan.

• Writers:  Have you written a story that ended up being a series when you had no intention of it being one?
• Readers: Have you read a book you wished was a part of a series?

Midnight Secrets

Will Miguel’s whispered midnight promises ever see the light of day?


Content with her job as small town waitress and roll of single mom, Allison believes she's better off without a man. In her opinion, all they bring is chaos - and that includes the father of her child. So why has Miguel’s arrival shaken her so badly?

It's not easy for Allison to keep Miguel a secret with someone set on shutting down her bakery and the local sheriff believing she harbors a vendetta against the town because of her tormented past.


Keeping her secrets and clearing her name just might be harder than Allison ever imagined. Excerpt

Amazon, Indiebound Lyrical Press

~ * ~ * ~

Wendy has been interested in romance for a long time. She began her first romance novel when she was just thirteen-years-old. It certainly wasn't anything great but sparked the passion for writing romance novels.

When she’s not writing, she's usually busy taking care of her two children in Phoenix, Arizona. Wendy keeps busy with her small business and going to college. During her free time, Wendy enjoys traveling and being outdoors.

Visit Wendy Ely at http://www.wendyely.info/ or Facebook

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

Maintaining Sanity

“...When the dog bites,

when the bee stings,
when I'm feeling sad,

I simply remember my favorite things,
and then I don't feel so bad.”

Life for the majority today is hectic. We're balancing family, jobs, and school. The emotional baggage of new relationships and old relationships. In between, we try to fit in our writing and deal with deadlines, major revisions from our editor, or rejections and yet continue to find the inspiration to create stories. Or simply find a way to recharge, to maintain our sanity and refresh our souls. Not an easy thing to do.

For me, it depends on mood. What works one time may not do for another time. Listening to music or reading a book. There are times meeting a couple of friends for lunch, visiting my sister and sitting on the front porch drink coffee and giggle over silly things. Other times I want to be somewhere boisterous, with lots of laughter and fun.

There are times I am able to recharge and feel refreshed by visiting with my writing group, The WritingWombats. On the Wombat threads I find laughter, teasing, and fun, interspersed with strong support and practical knowledge on how to make something work, especially when I've hit a wall in my writing. We have aspiring and published authors. I listen and watch them deal with proposals, juggling life and deadlines, not to mention the proverbial pulling out of the hair in frustration.

Sometimes I want to go someplace quiet but away from home. Those times, especially if I want to get my equilibrium, I head for the water—ocean, river, lake, my pond on the lower 40. Sometimes it's heading to the family compound and having a cook-out and tall tales around the bonfire.

Or go over to my brother's pool house and bar, and be silly. Sometimes taking in a little league football game. Sometimes hanging out with my dogs. As the song goes, “...theses are a few of my favorite things.”

What refreshes your soul and spirit. What do you do to recharge? What helps you maintain your sanity and save you from being a Axe murderer and serving life without parole?

What are a few of your 'favorite things'?

All pictures here were either taken by me or for me.


Top, my Great Dane, Gidget and Callie Kitten,
Cappucino coaster set, Bodega Head, Bodega, CA
Sia and my brother Rob, at his bar St. Patricks.