So You Want To Write A Legal Thriller?

Reece is offering two copies of The Insider to two commenters today.

I'm pleased to have debut legal thriller author, Reece Hirsch, as my guest today.

Aside from the fact that his book is a must read, he has some practical pointers on pursuing the ambition to write and be published. Reece covers The Law of Literary Inertia (which cracked me up), Write What You Know – Then Make Stuff Up, Don’t Chase Trends, Embrace the Process, The All-Important First Page, and  Develop a Thick Skin. Sounds like he's been there and done that, doesn't it?

Reece calls it his six year struggle.

Scott Turow and John Grisham are a little like the Beatles and Stones of the legal thriller genre. Everything that has come after them tends to be categorized and measured in terms of those two highly successful lawyer-authors. When Turow’s Presumed Innocent was published in 1987, I was a first-year law student at U.S.C. When Grisham’s The Firm was published in 1991, I was a first-year associate at a Los Angeles law firm.


Like many other lawyers of my vintage, I read those two enormously successful (and very different) books and thought, “I’d like to try writing one of those someday.” But it took 12 or so years for me to find the time to make the effort. After all, the demands of practicing law and maintaining a personal life don’t leave a lot of spare time for creative endeavors.


Eventually, though, I did begin writing and in May 2010 my debut legal thriller The Insider was published by Berkley Books, a division of Penguin, as a mass-market paperback. I’d characterize The Insider as more of a “Grisham” than a “Turow” because it’s a fast-paced story of a young lawyer who becomes a pawn in a complex criminal scheme that involves, among other things, Russian mobsters, insider trading and a secret government domestic surveillance program.


While I am but a humble beginning writer, I think I learned a few things in my six-year struggle to complete a novel and get it published. For those of you with a partially completed manuscript in a drawer or a long-postponed goal of writing one, I hope these pointers will make your journey a little shorter and less arduous than mine was.

• The Law of Literary Inertia. 

To paraphrase Sir Isaac Newton, a writer at rest tends to remain at rest, while a writer who is writing tends to continue writing. After I turned 40, I began to hear the literary equivalent of a biological clock ticking. I knew that if I was ever going to make a serious effort to write a legal thriller, I’d better get started. Then I hit the snooze button and commenced writing in earnest two years later.


In order to jump-start my literary efforts, I enrolled in a U.C. Berkeley Extension Novel Writing Workshop. The weekly assignments forced me to write regularly, and I enjoyed the process of getting and giving feedback.


At the end of the workshop, I had about fifty pages written and an encouraging evaluation from my teacher. It gave me just enough momentum to continue writing consistently on weekends, early weekday mornings and on the BART train to work. Later, I joined a weekly writers group, which provided the same kind of weekly deadlines and critiques that were so helpful to me early on.

• Write What You Know – Then Make Stuff Up.

Despite the number of legal thrillers that line the bookstore shelves, I found that, as a practicing lawyer, there were still many facets of the legal profession and law firm life that were relatively new ground for the genre. For example, in The Insider, I touch upon the tussles over billing credit among partners that can sometimes define a career. In one scene, I try to show the drama that can be found in the gamesmanship of an M&A negotiation. I also drew upon my knowledge of privacy and security law in developing one of the novel’s key plot elements.


Of course, a little legal verisimilitude goes a long way with most readers. If I had stuck to the real-life experiences of a young, workaholic corporate attorney like my protagonist Will Connelly, my thriller would have been about as thrilling as a day spent in a due diligence room reading corporate minutes. To remedy that, my story also includes plenty of deception, betrayal – and a sizable body count.

• Don’t Chase Trends.

As tempting as it might be to write a legal thriller about vampire lawyers following a series of clues that may reveal the lost secrets of the Freemasons, chasing publishing trends is futile. The lead-time involved in writing and publishing a book is so long that any fad will be hopelessly passé by the time your book reaches the market. However, it is helpful to read the genre that you’re writing in and think about how you can bring a fresh angle.

• Embrace the Process.

Like most things, writing a novel is something that you learn by doing, and by making mistakes. Many of the debut authors that I’ve met recently have a first, unpublished manuscript in the drawer, their “learner book.” Instead of scrapping my first attempt and starting over on a second book, I chose, perhaps from sheer stubbornness, to laboriously rework and rework my first book until it was publishable. Whichever route you take, there seems to be no getting around the fact that, unless you are some sort of literary prodigy, writing a publishable novel often takes years of painstaking revision and refinement.

• The All-Important First Page.

The first page, and the first chapter, of your manuscript are critical. The competition to grab the attention of literary agents and publishers is intense, and if they aren’t absolutely riveted by the first pages, they simply won’t read further. No matter how brilliant the climax of your book is, it probably won’t get published without a killer first chapter.

• Develop a Thick Skin.

To write is to be rejected. Unless you are that literary prodigy that I mentioned earlier, you will amass a fat stack of rejection letters from agents and later, if you’re lucky, publishers. You will amass so many form rejection letters that a handwritten rejection will seem like a drink of cool water in the desert. Fortunately, lawyers are well known to be fairly impervious to abuse. And that may be the lawyer-author’s secret weapon.

• What some of the lessons you've learned along the way to publication?

The Insider Back Cover:

San Francisco corporate attorney Will Connelly's well-ordered life is shattered when he watches a colleague hurtle to his death outside his office window. Within days, Will is the prime suspect in a murder, the target of an S.E.C. insider trading investigation, and a pawn in a complex criminal scheme involving the Russian mafia and a ruthless terrorist plot. Now, Will must ensure that a deadly enemy doesn't gain access to the nation's most sensitive and confidential information—and the power to do incalculable, irrevocable harm.  

EXCERPT

Hirsch's fast-paced, film-ready plot and tough, ambitious characters will keep fans of legal thrillers on the edge of their seats."

—Publishers Weekly

 

BUY: AMAZON, BARNES & NOBLE, BOOKS-A-MILLION, INDIEBOUND

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Reece Hirsch Facebook

Reece Hirsch's debut legal thriller THE INSIDER was published by Berkley Books in May 2010. He is a partner in the San Francisco office of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, specializing in privacy, security and healthcare law. Reece is also a member of the Board of Directors of 826 National, a non-profit organization that conducts writing and literacy programs for young people.

Reece earned his law degree from the University of Southern California and a B.S. degree in journalism from Northwestern University. Prior to law school, Reece worked as a journalist in Atlanta for several years, including a stint as an assistant editor of a business magazine. For three years, he edited and published an arts and entertainment magazine in Atlanta.


In writing THE INSIDER, Reece drew upon his experiences working in law firms and his background in privacy and security law. THE INSIDER touches upon privacy concerns raised by government domestic surveillance in the wake of 9-11 and is based in part on the true story of the Clipper Chip, a National Security Agency encryption program from the mid-Nineties.


Reece lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife Kathy and their dog Simon.

Interview With Dale Cozort

Two copies of Exchange will be awarded to two commenters 

My guest today is Sci-fi debut author, Dale Cozort. Dale and I met through a Gather writing contest and I fell in love with his writing. I’m a big Sci-fi fan and have always been and was thrilled when Dale got a contract. Dale is funny, smart as a whip, and I swear he had to have touched the Blarney Stone, because he tells a great story. 

Tell me a bit about Dale Cozort? By profession you’re a teacher?

Yep. I teach computer skills and do hardware and software support.

Oh, I love computer geeks! I learn so much from them. What do you like to do for fun and relaxation?

In the winter I read quite a bit—mostly science fiction and mysteries, and spend too much time watching TV. In the summer I love long bike rides. We have a couple of nature trails and pretty much every day we can see chipmunks, squirrels and rabbits along the trail. We see deer and raccoons a couple of times a year. It’s nice.

You’ve been writing for some years, how long have you had the goal to be published?

I got serious about it sixteen years ago. I took a couple detours of several months to a year or two along the way, most importantly when I was helping my aunt with a lawsuit she got involved in.

I understand Exchange was entered in a writing contest, correct? How did you do in the contest?

Yep. Gather’s second First Chapters contest. Exchange made the semifinals—in the top twenty-five out of over three hundred. Unofficially it ended up in tenth place.

I know I was not only impressed with the quality of your story but where you ended up. Gather’s First chapters’ contests were very tough to brutal, in my opinion.


What lessons did you learn from it?

I learned a lot about how difficult it is to stand out from a large field. The structure of the Gather contests really gave you a feel for what editors and agents go through as they try to find marketable writing in a sea of writing that ranges from awful to just not quite good enough.


I have to agree. It certainly gave me more of an appreciation for agents and editors too. There were some very good entries, but after reading them all, there were more entries that ranged from god awful to, as you put it, not quite good enough.

Do you feel writing contests benefit writers?

It depends on how they’re structured. If they give good and meaningful feedback, then yes, they can be great. If not, they’re just another slushpile—not necessarily bad, just no real advantage.

Good point. How have you handled discouragement that comes with submitting and getting rejections?

A long walk or a bike ride usually helps. A good book can help. Sometimes I write. Some of the edgiest writing can flow when you’re discouraged, angry, experiencing any kind of strong emotion.

How would you classify Exchange? I know it has, as all good books and movies, an element of romance but is this Sci-fi?

It’s definitely Science Fiction, but it explores relationships more than people usually expect from science fiction. If you go into it as a person who only reads Romance, it’ll be an okay read, but not a great one for you. If you like Science Fiction and Mysteries and you also like stories where relationships are important, then you’re the core of the target audience.

What drew you to this genre?

I’ve been reading science fiction and mysteries since I was in middle school. I like exploring new worlds and trying to figure them out. I love what-ifs.

Give me a glimpse of this world you’ve created?

I see it as being both beautiful and incredibly tough. The size and variety of animals makes the North America of Exchange feel more like Africa before it was tamed down than anything else, though in some ways it is recognizably North America.

“Before it was tamed down?” So, are you talking about prehistoric creatures too?

The big, fierce animals that didn’t survive past the ice ages in our world are still around in large numbers, along with some exotic ones like the swarms of fast-running little monkeys. Sharon, the heroine saves a young monkey from a flood, and when he attaches himself to her she gets a lesson on how different the new world she has entered is.

The monkey showed no sign of aggression. It also showed no sign of going away. It foraged for insects and bats in the grass near Sharon, snatching them and popping them in its mouth so quickly that the motion blurred. Sharon thought about trying to chase it away, but decided that might precipitate whatever danger the monkey posed. Instead she found a couple of rocks and tried to chip a point on one.


Within a short time, Sharon’s hands were cramping and bruised from her. She noticed the monkey watching her intently and held up the rocks. “Don’t you wish you could do this? This is what separates us from you.”


The monkey strolled over and picked up a couple of the larger chips that she had flaked off. It chipped at one of them for a couple of minutes with quick, practiced motions, then moved back, carrying a sharp-edged chip in an odd grip between its thumb and the top of the next finger.

Sharon stared at the monkey and said in a subdued voice, “Well, that’s supposed to be one of the things that separates you from us.” The monkey chipped an edge onto a larger rock and handed it to her.

I like Sharon; she’s got a wry sense of humor and she’s emotionally strong and not afraid to tackle whatever needs to be done. What do you admire about Sharon?

She just keeps going. No matter how hopeless the situation seems, she just keeps working away at it until she finds a way of going on.

Your hero, Leo, is a bit of a rogue, a good dose of mystique, some dangerous edges and I think he’s very interesting and complex. Leo, in my opinion, is rather hot with a good amount of sex appeal, as many dangerous men do. What do you like about him?

Leo is a mystery. He has layers of secrets, and as you unravel one you become aware of a bunch more. At the same time you get the feeling that it’s worth the time of finding out what he’s really about.

Do you have a favorite scene in the book?

My first thought is, sure that’s easy, but it doesn’t turn out to be.

I don’t do easy, Dale, lol! That’s what you call a deceptively simple question. So what was your second thought?

I had a lot of fun writing the scenes between Sharon and Leo, as she tries to figure out who he is and what his motives are.

I love their relationship. Would you mind sharing one with us?

One of the earlier ones without spoilers:


Sharon heard a fragment of the reply, “…don’t care who he is. I haven’t had a woman in years.” She eased the pistol from her belt.

Not a man. Just a target.

The balding convict spurred his horse and approached at a gallop. He raised a stone-tipped spear. The others eyed Leo and stayed put. Sharon raised the pistol, thumbed the hammer back, and aimed at the center of the man’s chest.


“I’ll shoot.”


He grinned and kept coming. Sharon hesitated. The sight wavered.


No choice. Do it.


She fired. The pistol jerked against her hand and the bullet’s crack echoed in the still landscape. Above his paunchy stomach, a red stain blossomed on the man’s tattered shirt. The spear dropped at Sharon’s feet. The convict fell with one foot still in the stirrup, spooking his horse, and the animal ran off, dragging his unconscious rider. Sharon caught a glimpse of a rifle tattoo on the convict’s flailing forearm—AK. She shuddered when his head bounced off a rock outcropping and turned away, only to find the convicts’ semicircle had dissolved into chaos. Another convict fell off his bucking horse, which kicked him in the chest with both hind feet when he started to get up. The man flew backward and twitched in the grass.


When the remaining convicts got their horses under control, the man with the pockmarked face spoke to Leo.


“Don’t imagine you’d sell the bitch?”


“You can’t afford her,” Leo said.


Sharon stared at her companion. A strange, eager expression faded from his face as she watched.


“Let us just get what’s left of Joe and catch the horse that ran off. Then we’ll be on our way.”


“Good idea.”


While Sharon and Leo watched, the convicts hauled up the bodies and arranged them on horses. They rode off, several looking over shoulders to stare or gesture at Sharon and Leo.


Sharon kept her pistol pointed warily toward them until they disappeared over a hill.


“They didn’t seem like the kind of men to give up that easily,” she said. “He was an AK. I think they all were.”


“Aryan Kings? Probably. They’re in most prisons and a lot of cities in the Midwest.”


“Not people to run away from a fight.”


Leo grinned. “Maybe you scared them off. Only three of them had guns and who knows if those guns had ammunition. Could be a lot of things.”


“I don’t think so,” Sharon said. “I think you scared them.”


Leo smiled. “You had the gun.”


“I had the gun but they weren’t afraid of me. Who are you?”
You can read the official exerpt and Blurb


What’s coming next from the pen of Dale Cozort?

My next priority is getting Char ready to go out the door.

Yeah! Oh, I loved what I’ve read of Char, as you well know. Can you tell us a bit about this one?

Char is a unique mix of science fiction and police procedural. An apparent cavewoman shows up in rural Wisconsin in the middle of a paintball game. One of the paintballers dies and a very smart female sheriff ends up trying to untangle a mix of clues which includes bare footprints that don’t seem quite human and a trail that comes out of the center of a mudhole with no trail going into it. The sheriff is a wonderful character, with a devastating dry wit and powerful detecting ability. I would love to see people get to know her, along with Char, the cavewoman.

After that I want to finish my work in progress, which involves the modern United States and the US of 1953 coming in contact with each other—and not particularly liking each other.


I’m looking forward to both. I love your premises, the ‘what-ifs’ and the blend of old world and new.


Dale, it’s been a pleasure to talk with you. I always appreciate authors taking time out of their busy schedules to answer questions.


Folks, if you haven’t read Exchange, you’re in for a treat. It’s a fun story that grabs you attention right from the beginning and doesn’t let you go. It has a cast of strong and complex characters, an intriguing storyline with well-crafted suspense and adventure, with a nice touch of romance.  Buy:  Amazon  Stairway Press  IndieBound

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Dale is a computer teacher, nature lover, and an avid amateur historian. He has worked as a computer person for the Illinois Bureau of the Budget and DeKalb Genetics and as an underwriter for MetLife.

Dale loves science fiction and mysteries. He lives with his wife, a teenage daughter, three cats, two nervous birds, and a couple of thousand books in a house built in 1864. For many years his home, located in a university town sixty miles west of Chicago, was also a foster home for stray or abandoned Samoyeds and Siberian Huskies.

Dale has written four novels, numerous short stories and novellas, and a number of essays on alternate history and political/military events. For the last twelve years he has written and edited an on-line alternate history newsletter, with issues appearing four to six times per year. Around a dozen of Dale’s articles on political/military events have been published by the news site Strategypage.com. Dale was one of five finalists (out of 250+ entries) in last year’s TruTv Search for the Next Great Crime Writer contest.
Blog  Gather Home Page

HOW CAN YOU BE A WRITER IF YOU'RE NOT A READER?

I read a number of blogs. An agent writes one blog I regularly read. On this particular occasion there was an informal discussion going on between several agents and editors, chatting about a dichotomy between readers and writers. The gist of it was that there were a whole lot of writers out there that weren’t readers. People convinced that they had a “book or two in them,” but they weren't readers. Then there were the writers who felt you shouldn't read other’s work in your genre because it would interfere with your "voice".

To me, the question has always been how can you effectively write a book if you don't read them? Base it on TV? Your fascinating life? Because you're a professional writer on the job?

I write many things professionally, articles, seminars, notes, and lots of reports. I'm writing something every day and while I don't have the time to read six or more books a week anymore, I do read something everyday. I read for pleasure. I also read to keep an eye out for what is selling, what’s not, styles of writing, and premises used.

I write creatively and have completed three 90k contemporary romance manuscripts of a trilogy and I'm working on a paranormal trilogy. So, I'd say I had “a book or two in me”. I’ve told stories all my life. I come from a very creative family of oral storytellers and published authors.

My love of books came from reading voraciously throughout my life. As a child my parents and grandparents felt to be well read one must read classic literature first. I was also encouraged to branch out and explore various genres, not just one. Consequently, I regularly read various sub-genres of romance; paranormals, suspense and thrillers, and I love Sci-fi. You could say I'm a mood driven reader. I'm the same with music for much of the same reasons--my parents and grandparents.

There is a perception out there that you can't read another’s words when formulating your stories--something nonsensical about copying the voice or premise, yada yada. To me, that's BS. My voice is mine and doesn’t change just because I read someone’s work.

I often think about how coaches train their athletes. It isn't by ignoring the competition. To the contrary, they watch recorded games of the competition so they can be better. Actors know the style of other actors—they watch them. You don't think musicians aren't aware of those who produce the same style of music? Or artists aren't aware of whose style is similar?

As an author, to know what’s marketable you have to read it. Analyze it. That’s keeping your finger on the pulse of market.

I’m a marketing/promotion rep by profession, to sell my products and people; I have to be familiar with what’s out there. Is their product comparable? Better? Worse? How is it packaged? Any book I write is my product and to market it effectively I have to know what’s selling, what my target demographics are and why.

So, you want to be an author? Read. Particularly in your genre. Know what’s selling out there and why.

What are your thoughts about this?

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  What kinds of books do you like to read? By all means share some good ones with  us!

I'll share the covers of a few I've read recently that I've thoroughly enjoyed. 

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.

When I’m Not Writing About Hunky Wolves, I am…

It's my pleasure to have para romance author, Terry Spear, visting today. I thoroughly enjoy reading her werewolf series and have been looking forward to Leidolf's story. 

Terry shares a bit of what she does when she's not writing and how many of those relaxing things lead to even more stories, except for the bears...

Thanks so much, Sia, for having me here to share some thoughts over coffee. I thought I’d talk about what I do aside from writing about werewolves!


Truthfully, I love work. I wish I had more time to write, but I enjoy the company of my fellow co-workers who share with me every wolf story that crosses the library counter, and who make me Highland hunky cake and a faux Highland book for my birthday, and even give me title ideas and story ideas and make my job even more fun—both with writing and with the day job. Heart of the Highland Wolf (coming Spring 2011) was a by-product of one of my co-workers saying I hadn’t written about a poor werewolf yet. All of them were wealthy. So what with the current economic crisis and the number of white collar criminals who have been exploiting tons of business and individuals, wiping out their bank accounts, and the fact I’d been mulling around the idea of a story about a pack of Highland wolves—how about a laird whose one salvation is to allow for a movie production at his castle? Now, he’s not happy about it. But what is a broke laird to do? Then here comes Julia Wildthorn, werewolf romance author, who’s suffering writer’s block, and what better way to jumpstart her muse than to write about hunky Highlanders? Only she doesn’t know until she arrives what she’s really getting herself into.


I also love to garden. Now, how does this relate to my stories? Whenever I moved, I’d take part of my home with me in the form of plants I love—like pine trees mysteriously appeared in gardens in Oklahoma and Texas because of my love of hearing the breeze whoosh through the pine needles in California, my original home. And the smell of the aromatic pine in the air. It reminds me of home. I’ve also brought daffodils and irises from my garden in Oklahoma, treasuring the beauty of the flowers in spring.

So too did Bella Wilder when she left Colorado to live in Oregon in Heart of the Wolf. Her greenhouse had some of her treasured plants to remind her of home. And when she returns to Colorado, she takes some of her plants from Oregon to enjoy in her new home. In Dreaming of the Wolf (coming Fall 2011), Jake Silver loves to photograph wildflowers in Colorado, and Alicia Greiston loves hikes through the Colorado country, enjoying the beauty of nature. I only wish I could take photographs as great as Jake does, but I enjoy doing my amateurish part and sharing them on my blog from time to time.


Bears! Yes, yes, I know I’m supposed to be talking about wolves, but I love to make teddy bears that have made it into Teddy Bear Review Magazine and Texas Monthly Magazine, Texas Co-op Monthly, and The MacNeill Gallery. Ah, there’s the connection. Well, kind of. Ian MacNeill is the hero in Heart of the Highland Wolf…I know, he’s a wolf, but I’ve made MacNeill Celtic Clan bears for several MacNeills, and who knows if one of them might be related to Ian? In fact, I’m sure of it. Okay, well, I’ve been asked if I would make a wolf teddy bear…a teddy bear in wolf’s clothing? Anyway, it’s still on the agenda when I have time. But I LOVE making teddy bears. Oh, which reminds me, I have to make one for a new baby.


Let’s see, I’ve taken up hiking again, with my library crew. I told you they were the greatest! And how does this relate to my stories? I’m in search of hunky wolves!!! I love returning to nature, the woods, envisioning running into sexy werewolf types and including them in my stories. Inspiration comes in all shapes, sizes and forms—and from all kinds of different venues!


And definitely reading is an inspiration to me. Seduced by the Wolf was inspired by a true story about a wolf biologist who finds a gray she-wolf, her mate dead, and she’s trying to fend for herself and a litter of pups. In Wolf Fever (December 2010), the flu epidemic that was going on at the time, gave me the idea for writing the story.


I have to mention my love of genealogy also. Although I haven’t been as active in working on it—lack of time, you know. But learning about my family’s roots has inspired me to incorporate a small bit of one of the tales concerning my family history in Heart of the Highland Wolf. And in Seduced by the Wolf, Cassie Roux is named after my Roux family from Selencourt, France, since Roux means red and she’s a red wolf. :-)


So I really do participate in other stuff other than writing! All of which help inspire me to write all things wolf, Scottish, and vampiric! ;-)


Thanks so much for having me, Sia! As always, it’s been my pleasure!

• And here is my question for everyone: What is YOUR favorite pastime?

We will be giving two copies of Seduced By The Wolf to two commentors today. Thanks to everyone who takes the time to drop by and say hi!

SEDUCED BY THE WOLF

 His first priority is to protect his pack…

Werewolf pack leader Leidolf Wildhaven has just taken over a demoralized pack. With rogue wolves on the loose causing havoc and the authorities from the zoo suddenly zeroing in on the local wolf population, the last thing he needs in his territory is a do-gooder female, no matter how beautiful and enticing she is…

She’ll do anything to help wolves…

Biologist Cassie Roux has dedicated her life to protecting wolves in the wild. On a desperate mission to help a she-wolf with newborn pups, the last thing Cassie needs right now is a nosy and entirely too attractive werewolf pack leader trying to track her down…


With rogue wolves and hunters threatening at every turn, Cassie and Leidolf may find their attraction the most dangerous force of all…

Excerpt (under the book, click excerpt tab)         Buy: Amazon Barnes & Noble

              ~*~*~*~

A retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, Terry Spear has an MBA from Monmouth College. An eclectic writer, she dabbles in the paranormal as well as writing historical and true life stories for both teen and adult audiences. Spear lives in Crawford, Texas. For more information, please visit Terry at these various places on the web:

http://www.terryspear.com/

http://www.wickedlyromantic.blogspot.com/

http://casablancaauthors.blogspot.com/

http://fierceromance.blogspot.com/     

http://www.facebook.com/terry.spear

http://shapeshifterromance.wordpress.com/

http://terry-spear.blogspot.com/

DORCHESTER: Is It Really A Surprise?

The news has broken that Dorchester will be going 100% to an ebook/print on demand model with trade paperbacks when printed books are ordered, starting September, 2010. It’s sent shockwaves through out the industry.

What's interesting in this Dorchester brouhaha is it's not unexpected, really. I’ve been observing the effect of Print On Demand and e-books on the publishing field the last three years. Some of you may remember I was the marketing/promotion director of a small indie press with a lot of potential, which sadly it didn’t live up to and so we parted ways. I knew the potential impact of Print On Demand technology and e-books on the traditional publishers' business (toner-based/offset printing vs digital). For them to survive they would have to look at this new technology and create their own business platform around it.

If you've been carefully watching, most of the big publishers have been busy behind the scenes shoring up e-pub business platform (which represents a little less than 3% of the US book market with with toner-based/digital claiming 6%, according to Forbes).  All are securing that part of the business. They’ve created minor scandals with authors’ e-book rights. Publishers are first and foremost big business. They’re in it for the money. They’ve seen the handwriting on the wall. Fact is Print On Demand is a more viable business platform than traditional toner/offset.  

Even if they contract with a print on demand company, publishers will save money by filling an order with trade paperbacks for bookstore A and another amount for bookstore B without costly warehousing and will dramatically cut the cost of returns. Backlists will be more easily accessible too.


Out of print?  Not with digital unless the publisher wants to retire a book. If they’re smart, publishers will be signing new contracts with e-format releases and trade paperbacks after an author proves themselves as a moneymaker or they will start some debut authors out in e-format first and if they make their money back they will release those books to print, but I doubt it will be mass paperback, for long.


Most of the publishers are doing a percentage of trade paperbacks as it is. If they use a trade paperback format at all, you can bet they're considering POD/trade paperbacks in long run. All I can say is regardless of your publisher make sure your agents are using a fine toothcomb when it comes to your digital rights. It has to have profit benefits for the author as well as the publisher. I think agents are becoming savvier in the area of e-formats, if the agent blogs I’ve been reading are an indication.


I also think the big publishers have looked long and hard at companies like Samhain who uses POD technology and puts out the print version, for those who order it, in trade paperback. Samhain has a staff of editors, has guideline standards for submissions, and has access to art professionals to turn out outstanding book covers. They don't publish any old thing submitted. E-books are not vanity press. I'm afraid many people associate trade paperbacks with vanity or very small publishers that don't have staffs in insure the quality of their product.


Australia has used trade paperback format for years rather than mass paperback format. When their books make here, they convert it to mass. Several Aussie authors told me about that. I didn't know before then.


What does it mean for writers looking to be published in the next few years? Royalty/advance changes. Tighter standards for POD technology books even in e-book or trade paperback. Bigger houses will still have the advantage. They have a long standing reputation and the name to make the transition to POD profitable. But their standards will be just high as they are now. They have to demonstrate quality and profit and I think they will. Bottom line is, regardless of the format they're presented, in content books are books. Authors are still authors and will still have to be paid for their work. That isn't going to change.

What about promotion of e-books and digital vs mass market print? Word-of-mouth has always been the best way to sell a book--and the Web represents the best word-of-mouth medium.  There will be countless opportunities for books to get viral publicity on Blogs, social networks, and YouTube.


My personal opinion, as most of this is, based on assimilation of what I’ve read over the last few years, print books aren’t going to disappear in the next decade, maybe not in the next twenty. I do believe the method of creating and delivering those books will change. A lot.

I don't like the manner Dorchester used to announce their decision. That wasn't kosher. In this transition period authors should have been warned and given options. But of course Dorchester will have factored in the future revenues based on those signed contracts over the next two years and perhaps they didn’t want to lose it. That's speculation on my part. I know from reading several sources, Dorchester is hoping to keep it's recently signed authors.
 
It will be interesting to see how this big publisher handles the transition and I’m sure others will be watching and taking notes as well.

• What are your thoughts on this?

• What do you think about reading your favorite author’s books in a trade paperback as opposed to mass paperback? As an e-book?

This weeks guests:

Wednesday: Terry Spear

Friday: 2010 Prism winner, Judi Fennell

Having Fun With Cheryl Brooks

My guest is para romance author, Cheryl Brooks. I had the opportunity to meet Cheryl at RT, I love her sense of humor and that twinkle in her eye, like she knows a secret.

The secret is, or at least one of them, is her ability to write an enthralling fantasy set in a galaxy far away, peopled by hot Zetithian males and a cast of engrossing characters. I have a tendency to quickly zip through Cheryl's books because they're rather hard to set aside. :-) The heroes are hot and the sex even hotter. 

Another reason for the twinkle in her eye is Cheryl's Erotic Blog, but I warn you now, it's not rated PG-13 by any stretch of the imagination.   

Hi Sia!



Thanks so much for having me here on Over Coffee again. It was wonderful to finally meet you at the RT Booklover’s Convention, too!


For today’s blog, you asked me two very tough questions:

• What do you do for fun aside from writing? Does writing get in the way of this other hobby?

The answer is that I have very little time to do anything fun, though we did have a blast at RT, didn’t we? Working full time as a critical care nurse and trying to keep up with my writing career has me sitting at a desk most of the time—so much, in fact, that my legs have been swollen for the past six months or so. I’ve tried all sorts of things—diuretics, support hose, limiting salt, and giving up tea entirely (which I was told would cause this problem, though I’d never heard of such a thing!), but nothing seemed to help.


Then on the Fourth of July, I took the day off and spent the entire day doing what I wanted to do. I was outside crawling around in the dirt, cleaning the weeds out of my rose beds and harvesting my garlic and then making it into braids—and my legs were still swollen. After grilling steaks out on the deck, to kill some time until it was dark enough for fireworks, I decided to watch a movie. I pulled my VHS tape of Cannery Row (yes, it really is a tape and is every bit of twenty years old) off the shelf and sat down in my recliner to watch it. Lo and behold, after two hours of sitting with my feet up, the swelling was gone. The simplest cure for swollen legs worked, I just hadn’t ever gotten around to trying it! The best part is, I can drink tea again!


Okay, so to recap, for fun, I cook, garden, drink tea, play guitar (which I haven’t touched in months), watch the occasional movie, and have three very large pasture pets that I visit twice a day to feed and clean up after. I have a riding lesson once a week, but my own horses haven’t been ridden in two or three years. Plus, I have two sons and a husband, who, fortunately, look after themselves most of the time and help out with the horses, the laundry, the cleaning, and the mowing. And yes, the writing gets in the way of all of this. In addition to the actual writing, editing, and proofreading, I’ve got a blog (sometimes two or three) going up every day—I even blog when I’m on vacation—plus there are emails to respond to, and promotional periods are very hectic. I’m also a member of the Indiana chapter of RWA, and the monthly meetings are a two hour drive from where I live, but even though it takes up almost an entire day, it’s worth it to be around other writers and learn more about the craft.


I love writing, and at one time, it was my hobby. Nothing can compare with the joy of creating strange new worlds, weird aliens, and, of course, my fabulously sexy Zetithian heroes. So, if I’m too busy to have fun, I guess we can blame it on The Cat Star Chronicles!

• What about you? What gets in the way of your fun?

HERO (available in stores now)
The Cat Star Chronicles #6

He is the sexiest, most irksome man she’s ever encountered...

Micayla is the last Zetithian female left in the universe. She doesn’t know what’s normal for her species, but she knows when she sees Trag that all she wants to do is bite him…

He has searched all over the galaxy for a woman like her…

Trag has sworn he’ll never marry unless he can find a Zetithian female. But now that he’s finally found Micayla, she may be more of a challenge than even he’s able to take on...

Excerpt (Click on the excerpt tab below the book picture)

BUY: Amazon.com Barnes & Noble, Borders, Chapters.Indigo.ca

Two copies will be awarded to to commenters on today's blog. If you're interested in being considered for winning the book, please send me an email siamckye@gmail.com with Hero Drawing in the subject line. I will announce it here and send you an email.

~*~*~*~*~

Cheryl Brooks is an Intensive Care Unit nurse by night and a romance writer by day. Previous books in The Cat Star Chronicles series include Slave, Warrior, Rogue, Outcast and Fugitive. She is a member of the RWA and lives with her husband and sons in Indiana. For more information, please visit http://cherylbrooksonline.com/.