BLENDING THE REAL AND RIDICULOUS

My guest is the award winning paranormal romance author, Judi Fennell.

I enjoy reading Judi’s stories for the same reason I love screwball comedies—she makes me laugh and I feel good after I’ve read them.

I love the romantic comedy series of the ‘70s, like Bewitched and I Dream Of Jeanie and I was curious how her new Bottled Magic series differed from the TV series. One of the things I love about Judi’s writing is her ability to take bits the ridiculous and blend it in her stories and not only make them believable but crack me up.



I’ve been on a big blog tour to promote the release of the first book in my Bottle Magic series, I Dream of Genies, and one of the facts that inevitably comes out that, yes, it is based, loosely, on the television show, I Dream of Jeannie. The title is the same, the lead character in my story is named Eden (like Barbara Eden), and the hero’s name is Matt Ewing, which is a play on Larry Hagman’s (who played Major Anthony Nelson in the television show) character on Dallas, JR Ewing. But that’s it for the similarities. (Okay, maybe there are a few more nods to the show, but you’ll have to find them for yourself.)

That’s pretty much it for the similarities to the show, though. At this point, the story starts to resemble an Indiana Jones movie. As an homage, I have a wax figure of Indy in the Cave of Great Unknown, but what that’s doing there, well, you’re going to have to read it to find out. Wouldn’t want to give you the whole story… what incentive is there for you to read it? But there’s action, adventure, hurry-up-ness, weapons, fights, and danger. What better way to fall in love than with end-of-life scenarios cropping up all over the place and having to rely on each other?

One of the questions I’ve been asked a lot is how I came up with the idea for the series. I wish I knew. (Where is my own personal genie when I want one???)

Before I’d sold the Mermen to my editor, I was trying to market as many stories as I could with commercial appeal and didn’t want to pigeonhole myself to just one series. What if the Mers hadn’t sold and I kept writing them? Waste of my time. So I tried to come up with another paranormal being I’d like to write about that hadn’t been done all that much.

My mind went right to the sitcoms I’d loved as a child: Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie. There are a lot of books with witches in them, be they dark or light, but there weren’t all that many genies. So that’s where I started. And that was pretty much all I had in mind, other than, for some reason, I heard the Indiana Jones theme music in my head when I’d think about it. That was my pitch to sell it: “I Dream of Jeannie meets Indiana Jones.”

Talk about the importance of an “elevator pitch.” That was mine. And that’s how I sold the series. Oh, yes, I had to do a proposal, but since I didn’t know the stories, it was more character sketches and world-building. It wasn’t until I started writing it that the story started coming together – its own kind of magic.

And then Obo showed up. I have sidekick animals in all of my stories so far. Not on purpose, but when you’re talking about otherworldly beings, why wouldn’t they be able to communicate with animals? I’ve always found it rather presumptuous, narrow-minded, and self-centered of us to think we’re the only ones on the planet who can communicate. Why wouldn’t animals be rolling their eyes at that presumptuousness?

Sia mentions my ability to make the ridiculous work in my stories; I consider it another perspective. How many of us have cats? (I’d originally written “own cats,” but as all cat lovers know, you don’t own a cat; you are grateful for the crumbs of affection they might toss you while you spend hundreds of dollars per year on keeping them healthy and fed, but that’s a whole other story.)

Anyhow, as I was saying, you know that look cats give you when you’re calling them, or trying to entice them over to you? They blink their eyes, maybe twitch their whiskers and flick their tail ever so softly… and then turn their head and tuck their paws tighter under their chest. They might not be verbal, but that says soooooooo much about what they think of us, doesn’t it?

That’s my bit of ridiculous: I get inside the cat’s head. In this story, it’s Obo. He’s on his 9th life and he has a lot of sins to atone for before he can enjoy his Afterlife. A. Lot. And he’s not happy about having to atone for them, especially when he has to keep an eye on a genie. Seriously, for Obo, there’s nothing worse than having to take direction.

So I stuck Obo, Matt, and Eden in some outlandish situations, tossed in a smidgen of reality, then made them all respond to it. Matt and Eden are attempting to avoid the evil vizier while keeping Eden free; Obo just wants to get his job over with and whatever he has to do to do that, he will. But only at the bare minimum. And with full-on disdain.

There’s a group of gargoyles playing charades and I Spy—why wouldn’t they? Think about it; they’re stuck up on the rooftops or, in this case, corbels. What else is there to do? And what happens when one falls off that corbel? Gargoyles are made of stone; hitting a marble floor is going to do some damage. To both the gargoyle and the floor. That’s the bit of reality that turns absurd in one scene.

Another one that just smacked me in the face: I try not to read anything similar to what I’m writing while I’m writing it so I don’t either use something someone else came up with or can’t use something I would have come up with because someone did. (Perfect example: I watched the movie Aquamarine just after I’d started In Over Her Head. There’s a scene where the mermaid who’d come on land picks up a seashell off the human girl’s bedroom furniture and talks to her father, the king of the sea, through it. When she “hangs up” she sees the human’s dumbstruck expression, shrugs her shoulders and says, “Shell phone.” I soooooooo would have come up with that!!! But I couldn’t use it because it wasn’t my idea. After that, I stayed away from all things Mer until I’d fleshed out the world for myself.)

Anyhow, as I was saying, I try not to take ideas from anyone, but I needed a deadly plant that people would recognize. I could have gone with hemlock or nightshade, but when I was doing research, I found out that mandragora was a real plant. Harry Potter fans will recognize it as the Mandrakes, the screaming baby-looking plants, from the first book. Obviously, I couldn’t use that plant, even though it was real.

Until I found one of the plants’ nicknames: Djinn’s eggs. Then all bets were off. JK Rowling pulled from reality; I could too. And if our reality was the same starting point, we used it differently so I wasn’t using her idea.

It’s that kind of serendipity (that the plant is known as djinn’s eggs) that sometimes smacks me in the face and I just have to use it. I probably could have made it up, but the reality of it was ridiculous enough for me. Will the reader know that while they’re reading it? Probably not. But if anyone gets interested to see why I chose the same plant as JKR checks it out, they’ll see that I actually didn’t make it up… so what else didn’t I make up in the story? It puts a whole new level to something that is meant to be read as light-hearted and breezy. That’s what I want my stories to do for people; take them on a magical journey for a few hours before coming back to face whatever reality it is they’re in.

But there’s more to the books. There’s another level. Or two. I always reference the movie Shrek when I talk about my writing. I took my kids to see it when they were little and they laughed at one level of funny while my husband and I were laughing at a whole other level. The sing-a-long at the end with Fiona impersonating Madonna? Hubs and I were roaring! That’s one example I can pull off the top of my head, but there are 2 levels of humor in that movie: one for the adults and one for the kids. As Shrek said, “Onions have layers; ogres have layers;” I’ll add in, “and my stories have layers.”

And I hope you laugh at all of them.

I DREAM GENIES:

He needs to change his luck, and fast!


Matt Ewing would gladly hunt down a fortune in lucky pennies if he thought it would help save his business.

But for all his hoping, Matt’s clueless when his long awaited lucky charm falls in his lap in the form of a beguiling genie. He just can’t believe that this beautiful woman could be the answer to his prayers…

She’s been bottled up for far too long!


Spending 2,000 years in a bottle would make any woman go a little stir crazy. So when Matt releases Eden from her luxurious captivity, she’s thrilled to repay him by giving him the magical boost he needs…

But for all her good intentions, Eden’s magical prowess is a little rusty and her magical mistakes become more than embarrassing. And though Eden knows falling in love will end her magic and immortality, she can’t help but be drawn to the one man who wants her just for herself…Excerpt    Extra gargoyle scene

Buy: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Borders

Judi, you mention wanting to find a marketable niche for your stories and I’d say you’ve been highly successful with that. All three of your Mer books have won awards this past year, haven’t they? How does it make you feel?


They've all been nominated for awards: National Readers' Choice Award, Golden Leaf, Prism, Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence, and others. I was utterly thrilled when Wild Blue Under won the Prism for Best Light Contemporary, tying with Kerrelyn Sparks. She's one of my favorite authors so I had an absolute fangirl moment when that won. Plus, it was the first book I'd written under contract and under deadline and had had some fairly extensive revisions to do, so it was such a relief to know it all worked. Catch of a Lifetime recently won the NJ Golden Leaf for Best Paranormal, and it's great validation for the teamwork of my editor, the copy editors, the cover artist and I make. The ideas come from me, but the finished product involves a lot of other people, and everyone helps get it to that winning "shape."

Don’t you have something special happening with Borders this year with your Bottled Magic series?

I was THRILLED to be interviewed on Borders TrueRomance. There are interviews with the likes of Nora Roberts, Sherilyn Kenyon, JR Ward, Roxanne St. Claire, Gena Showalter... to see me among that crowd... I'm still pinching myself! ;)

When is your next book in the Bottled Magic going to be released?

Just as I told my editor when we were discussing the Mer series, it's a big ocean/world out there. Genies and Mers... I could come up with a bunch of ideas. Right now, I'm contracted for 3 Genie books, and readers have been asking for Marianna and Pearl's stories (the two remaining Tritone siblings from the Mer series), so once I get close to finishing Leave It To Genie, we'll take a look at which direction we should head.
 

Judi, congratulations on a fabulous year. Thank you for taking the time to answer a few extra question and visiting with us OVER COFFE!

  

Sia, thanks for having me again!

JUDI FENNELL

Ooh, Pretty!

My guest is Judi Fennell. She is both friend as well as an excellent writer for whom I have a great deal of respect. I knew she was up for the Prism Award and for my favorite of her Mer series, Wild Blue Under. I also knew she didn’t think she’d win it. I couldn’t believe she didn’t even go to the awards. Since I wasn’t able to go to Nationals this year I had to rely on second hand accounts of her win, I told her she owed me an account, lol!

Judi, is also part of my village. Writers rely on others to tell them the truth about their proposals, do beta reading, doing critiques, and be there when a problem is kicking their arses and they need problem solving input. Knowing your *village* and their skills is important too. I don’t know what I’d do without my *village*.

The title’s an inside joke with my online Writing Wombats group (go, Pat!), but the award in this picture is no joke. It’s a PRISM Award, given by the Fantasy, Futuristic & Paranormal chapter of RWA for excellence in paranormal romance, and if you look closely, you can see my name there.


Trust me, I’ve looked closely. Have run my fingers over it repeatedly. Breathed on it and shine it up quite a bit—and my name doesn’t disappear. How utterly cool is that?


I’ve won writing contests before and the thrill never goes away, but with this one, I’m still trying to catch my breath. I mean, I was up against Kerrelyn Sparks and Angie Fox, both New York Times best-selling authors, who are incredible writers with great stories. I ended up tying with Kerrelyn for this award, which is just icing on the celebratory cake, because, honestly? That whole, “It’s just a thrill to be nominated” thing? Seriously, it was. I saw my name on that list and just giggled myself silly. Me. There. With them. Ha!


Of course I wasn’t going to walk away with that shiny, pretty thing. I mean, Angie Fox and Kerrelyn Sparks! Come on, it was an honor just to see my name there. There was no way I was going to win.


I even went to my publisher dinner instead of going to the awards dinner, that’s how sure I was that my name wouldn’t be called. (Side note: I did, however, write an acceptance speech for a friend to give on the “Hell-freezes-over, off-chance that someone would do the math wrong and take pity on me and call my name” because if I hadn’t, I would have won and looked like an idiot and winning wasn’t worth looking like an idiot.)

See, this was my first book written under contract and under deadline. Close friends have heard the horror story I had with this book, typical “Second Book Syndrome.” If you haven’t experienced it, lucky you, but it’s the “I wrote the first one for me; there’s no way I can do it again and people will like it” thing. (We authors, we’re neurotic!)


But I persevered and turned this book in on time and was happy with it. My editor, however, was not. Major problems with the heroine.


What? I loved my heroine. I thought she was funny and witty and had just enough angst to make her sympathetic but still be her tough-as-nails self.


This, my friends, is why writers need editors. I shudder to think of the response if that book had gone on to be published as I’d turned it in the first time. Man, was my editor right.


Oh, don’t get me wrong; at first I didn’t understand what she meant when she said I had to change the heroine. I mean, that was my heroine. What did she mean, change her? I had done what you were supposed to do; I’d written the best book I possibly could. I liked it. I was proud of it.


But it wasn’t good enough. Talk about a mental adjustment! I gave myself about ten hours to process her feedback, come to terms with the work I had left to do, and then I got down to it and restarted the book—


Twenty-four different times in half that many days.


And none of the new starts worked.


And then, finally, on December 16, I changed the heroine’s name, and voila! There she was. My new heroine.


I’d love to say that her story flowed from my fingertips, but, alas, that’s not true. It was blood, sweat, and tears to drag her into this story.


And stress. Lord, was there stress. You did see the December 16th date, didn’t you? What comes nine days after the 16th? And six days after that? And the book was due by January 4th.


I spent every waking hour on the revisions. And unwaking ones, too. I didn’t sleep well and my cell phone voicemail box had tons of whispered mutterings from the wee hours of the morning when I’d call myself about an idea that had woken me and I didn’t want to wake my husband, but was too freakin’ tired to pick up the notebook and pencil beside my bed to jot down a note.


But the book got written (which is really poor grammar, but I’m reliving the utter “phlumfff!” of getting the story on paper), and thanks to one of my Writing Wombats (Beth Hill, check out http://www.anoveledit.com/ for her editorial expertise!), I turned it in on time.


I still had a few things to touch up after my editor read the new version, but what ended up following that gorgeous cover was 720 degrees from what had originally been turned in so those touch-ups were practically nothing at that point.


That’s why this award means so much to me. It means hard work. It means a big learning curve. It means a few hours of Christmas and New Years’ Eve celebration and very little time with my family. It means the generosity of a very good friend. It means the faith my editor had in my ability and the patience she had in letting me work through it and not tossing my contract into the shredder.


This award is as much my editor’s as it is mine and I’m utterly grateful to her for working on this book with me and making it so much better than it was.


That’s the value of a professional editor and anyone who thinks they don’t need one is fooling themself.


Because we are so caught up in our world, and our story, our characters, and making sure all the loose ends are tied up and the emotions are there, that we don’t have enough distance to see what needs work. I now run my stories through four people before I submit them to my editor, and, still, she finds ways to make it better. Both of my 2009 releases were up for awards this year: NJ’s Golden Leaf, National Readers’ Choice Awards, the Prism, Beyond Her Book PW Readers Choice, and Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence, and I credit that to the wonderful, insightful editorial feedback from both my beta readers and my editor.


You know, writers sometimes call their books their babies, and there’s that old adage that it takes a village to raise a child, so cultivate your village on your way to publication so that you can write the best book you can.


And you won’t have to give up your Christmas holidays to do so. :-)

• Who’s in your village?

Judi Fennell's new series:  GENIES ARE COMING! January 2011, "I Dream of Jeannie meets Indiana Jones, and the action is on!"
 

Read back cover and story line.
 
 
 
 
 

Judi Fennell has had her nose in a book and her head in some celestial realm all her life, including those early years when her mom would exhort her to “get outside!” instead of watching Bewitched or I Dream of Jeannie on television. So she did--right into Dad’s hammock with her Nancy Drew books.

These days she’s more likely to have her nose in her laptop and her head (and the rest of her body) at her favorite bookstore, but she’s still reading, whether it be her latest manuscript or friends’ books.


A three-time finalist in online contests, Judi has enjoyed the reader feedback she’s received and would love to hear what you think about her Mer series. Check out her website at www.JudiFennell.com for excerpts, reviews and fun pictures from reader and writer conferences, and the chance to “dive in” to her stories.