Cait London | PSYCHIC OR PARANORMAL, WHICH IS IT?

The Aisling psychic triplets trilogy was a departure for me. I'd always had a little of the Gothic in my books, a little suspense, and layers of characters and their interactions. But while writing the sisters' books, I was struck by how much of the material, resource, and research already dwelled within me.

Writers often speak of where they get their research, and share with others. To some extent, writing is a share and hand-me-down craft. The rest of the writing experience rests on the individual's investment of time and energy. Some people are just natural storytellers, and stories bubble out of them. But structuring them, and putting them into book form, takes editing and control.

I spent a great deal of time setting up this trilogy. Due to the logistics of business and contracts, I wrote SILENCE THE WHISPERS (a favorite story) prior to beginning this trilogy; the psychic triplets had to sit on the back burner for a while. The basic trilogy idea contains a story arc, where the threads of the story run through each book, and end in the third. I'd written several other series, including the TALLCHIEFS (9 books), and understood how to build a series from the start, not just adding book after book. I usually lay down all three story ideas at one time, rather than adding on one at a time, which may be more usual. (I happen to like building proposals and series.)

As for this trilogy, I wanted Celtic names for the contemporary sisters, who are in order: Claire, Tempest and Leona. I have a great number of baby namer books and used the definition of the names to suit the characters. In a series, in this case a trilogy, it is really important to keep a character list and to balance the names of all concerned. For instance, Claire in AT THE EDGE is an empath and more gentle and reserved (until Neil comes into her life). Tempest's name says everything (A STRANGER'S TOUCH 4/08). And Leona (FOR HER EYES ONLY 10/08), the oldest of the triplets by three minutes is a lioness, when defending her family. Greer, the world-famous psychic mother of the triplets has red hair and a pale complexion, just as they do. Greer's coloring and her gifts are inherited from her ancestor, Aisling, the captive bride of a Viking chieftain.

Greer is a widow with very unusual children, and one profitable gift in her pocket: she's a powerful psychic. As a single mother, with three daughters, born three years apart, I understood much of the family dynamics. To some measure, this trilogy mirrors my own life and interests. That research was already built into me, stacked up and ready to be used. It's true then, a writer sells pieces of their family off, a few at a time. I understood the relationship and interaction of the sisters, and somewhat how the mother would feel/react in certain instances. I'm also very interested in Viking history, and elements of the Celts. You can read much of this at my website and blog, how I used my own earrings and other elements dear to me, such as beach stones and handcrafted in artistic items, within my stories. I like to keep a variety of objects around me; each seems to have a story lurking within.

I also visit every location of every book, but fictionalize the names. AT THE EDGE is set in Montana, a state I love very much and have set several books there. A STRANGER'S TOUCH is set on the shores of Lake Michigan, where I spent a creative retreat. I thought Port Salem was an excellent choice for a fictional town, considering what happened to psychics in another Salem. FOR HER EYES ONLY is set in Lexington, Kentucky, where I visit often.

Here is where regimentation and control of the writer come into play. With everything built into me already, and my extensive interests, it was important to center into the threads of the story, running through all three books. Yet it was imperitive to give each book, each sister, an individual suspense/dangerous story. This trilogy is a crossover between psychic and romantic suspense, because there is individual danger included, and there is an overall family danger. For those unfamiliar with romantic suspense, it can be light or loaded with forensics and bullets. The Aisling trilogy is loaded with tension and danger and suspense, but also saturated with family relations. It is also loaded with sensuality and romance, as the sisters deal with their different and unwanted psychic gifts. That is the key to the trilogy: these women want to live like every woman, yet they cannot. They cannot even live close together, for fear of their sibling and psychic connections interfering with each other.

If you are a reader who prefers a light, comical read, this trilogy may not be for you. These stories are layered with intrigue and relationship and very dangerous threads. I very much enjoyed writing the individual suspense stories, and building the threads running through these books. I hope readers enjoy them, too.

As for the psychic elements, I researched much of that and interviewed psychics. But I kept the elements away from what I consider paranormal, like ghosts or vampires. In each book, the sisters relay that they are not shapeshifters or mediums for the dead, which is a psychic element. To me there is a distinct difference between paranormal and true psychic.

Do I have any interest in psychic or intuitive ability? Yes, definitely, and I feel bits of it reside within my family. (BTW, I have my own set of runes, which I understand better than Tarot cards.) I really enjoyed writing this trilogy, and hope you enjoy it too. A newsletter is available at my website, if you wish to keep up with the progress of this trilogy and my other upcoming books. Bookmarks and newsletters are also available for SASE.

http://caitlondon.com/

http://caitlondon.blogspot.com/

Jana DeLeon | Truth is Stranger than Fiction

People often ask where writers get their ideas for stories. Well, most of the time, we couldn’t tell you, but once and a while, story ideas stem from real life. My current release, UNLUCKY, comes straight from pages out of my own life. Here’s the story behind the story:

My husband and I got married in 2000. At the time, I was working contract, making fabulous money on these long-term accounting clean-up projects. I had just ended a 13-month project and was taking the next three months off so I decided to plan our wedding and study up for the honeymoon. Ah ha, I got you there, didn't I? You were wondering what I was studying, and I’ll bet all sorts of things that had nothing to do with Blackjack crossed your mind. But Blackjack is exactly what I meant. You see, we were getting married in Vegas and I had plans to take the Blackjack world by storm. By birth, I'm the product of an accountant and an engineer so math is like breathing to me. I figured if anyone can learn to beat the house, it ought to be me. So I started studying. And I learned. Boy, did I learn.

I learned every single statistical combination of cards on the table and what I should play based on my hand versus the dealers. I learned to count cards and had mastered a fairly basic counting system for up to six decks of cards (which is what most houses use). I had beaten my software so soundly, I knew I was going to take the bank. Then we got to Vegas and started playing. And that's where the ugly reality stepped in. I am horribly unlucky. I don't mean just a little unlucky. I mean so unlucky that not only can I not win at cards, but when I sit down at a table, everyone at that table starts losing. It was a complete anomaly, and I was not in the least bit prepared for. My husband (who plays combinations so ridiculous, he annoys the other players) is one of those lucky people who wins a lot of the time while playing hands he should never have played. Me - no way! If I had 18, the dealer had 19. If I had 20, the dealer had 21. If I had 21, the dealer had 21. It was like a Twilight Zone episode.

So I gave up Blackjack and switched to video poker since I didn't want to lose more money than I had already contributed to the tables. My husband, of course, went on to play for twelve hours straight on $25. At RWA (Romance Writers of America) conference in Reno a couple of years ago, my agent asked if I'd had any luck gambling, and I told her the story about why I don't play the tables. Not because I don't want to, but because it's just not worth it. She laughed and said "you know, there's a story in there somewhere." Well, I thought on it long and hard and came up with heroine, Mallory Devereaux, a girl so unlucky that her entire life is like living with a disability.

When I pitched the idea to some writer friends of mine, one of them said "make sure you work the word 'cooler' into the proposal." I didn't want to appear unhip and ask what a ‘cooler’ was exactly, so I googled it. Low and behold, I find that coolers are a casino myth (or reality, depending on who you speak to). They're people so unlucky that the casino managers pay them to sit at hot tables and shut the other players down. A secondary career choice that I didn’t even know was available to me. Even more interesting, while writing UNLUCKY I spoke with several casino managers, both in Louisiana and Las Vegas. They would neither confirm nor deny the existence of coolers.

Looks like we have a real mystery on our hands.



Jana DeLeon


http://janadeleon.com/

Jennifer Rardin | What A Day

What a fabulous day! I’ve got Christmas tunes on surround sound. The house smells like praline caramel sticky buns. And my second book, Another One Bites the Dust, officially releases in the States TODAY. I haven’t felt this fab since I spied a whole stack of Wonka’s Everlasting Gobstoppers on the shelf at my grocery and realized that I might actually live long enough to meet an oompa loompa. I’ll have to clean up my act first though. Far too much swearing for their taste, I’m pretty sure.

Should we talk about the book a sec? About the fact that Jaz has to belly dance as part of her cover? About how she’d much rather crawl through the mud while being fired upon by a long line of tanks manned by vicious, American-hating devil-worshipers? Never fear, our girl is up to the task. Gotta impress the boss-man, right? Plus, when Vayl looks at her that way…she may just learn to like the skimpy costumes.

It’s not all fun and games though. Jaz and Vayl have been assigned to take down a slippery old vamp named Chien-Lung who’s gotten away with far too much for way too long. Hindering their progress—a new kind of nightmare creature with ties that seem to stretch all the way to hell. If they don’t kill Jaz, her dreams just might.

When you finish this read, you can look forward to Biting the Bullet, which comes out in just a couple of months. February 11, 2008 if we want to be anal about it. Which I do. Sorry, one of my multiple shortcomings, along with a weakness for chocolate and a tendency to freeze like a Popsicle if I sit in one place for more than fifteen minutes at a time. I’d be a horrible mountaineer, wouldn’t I? I can just see me trying to scale Everest. If I even made it to base camp, all I’d do is walk around all day slapping my arms against my chest saying, “Damn, it’s cold! Why are we here again? And sleeping in tents? Seriously, somebody should build a hotel!”

I used to be into the whole camping scenario. When I was younger, and springier. But now, like Vayl, I kinda like my perks. Get a little grumpy, for instance, without the daily shower. Whenever I watch the survivalists on TV doing their seven-day treks all I can think is, How bad are you itching right now, not to mention the stench? Jaz could pull that off, no problem. But she’s tough, right? She’s been through it, almost from birth. And though you really have to appreciate her grit, you’ll see in later books how it’s becoming something of a detriment. After all, surviving is one thing. Learning to become a social, friendly, even loving human being post-tragedy is quite another. That’s where she’s going now as I edit the fourth book in the series, Bitten to Death and write the fifth, One More Bite. It’s been interesting watching her progress. When she falls. Whew! Spectacular. But she always gets up again. And that’s why we love her.

Jennifer Rardin, Author

Once Bitten, Twice Shy

Another One Bites the Dust
http://www.jenniferrardin.com/

Melissa Marr | Secret Passages & Mirrors? Not So Much.

As a writer, I've found the misconceptions about writing fascinating. Now, as a rule, I don't tell people what I do, but somehow or another it almost always eventually comes out--at which point there are several typical responses.

1. "Who'd you know? You have to know someone to sell a book."-- This is utterly false. I wrote a book, researched agents, queried, wrote another book, queried some more, signed with an agent who shopped my book. Then I accepted an offer. There were no secret passageways, networking, muttered passwords, or any of those things. No tricks. Write, research, repeat as needed. It's pretty straight-forward.

2. "Who are you in the book?"-- I've been astounded by how many people ask this. I write multiple points of view, so there are various guesses. Ash likes photography, so do I . . . so maybe she's "me." Hmm. I have friends who like photography too, but I'm not them either. Having an interest in common with a character isn't being that character. Those commonalities help me write the characters, but each character has something of my beliefs or interests or ant-interest or anti-beliefs. It's an exercise in adding veracity, not a mirror into the author.

3. "Ok, but am I in the book? Or will I be in the next one?"-- I'm sorry, but no. You're alive; they're fiction. I'm aware that some authors do this, but I'm not at ease with any conscious insertion of real-world people into my texts. It feels uncomfortable to me. In retrospect, I sometimes see traits of people I have known. These aren't intentional on part when they do happen. My fave example is that a person I dated 14 years ago had a shoulder tattoo that I ended up giving a minor character in Wicked Lovely. I didn't do this deliberately, but after the fact, I realized that this tattoo had impressed on my memory and was in text. The character has no similarity to the real person beyond the tattoo. Little bits of life swirl in our memories and end up on the page, but again, there's no mirrors.

I love my job. Spinning out stories is exciting to me. Sometimes, though, the misconceptions are as interesting as the fiction itself. Secret passwords, hidden versions of people, and identification games--this is exciting stuff . . . but a sort of fiction as well.

http://www.melissa-marr.com/

Francis Ray - The Graysons of New Mexico

First of all I'd like to thank the wonderful folks at Fresh Fiction for making this possible. It's always a pleasure to reach out to readers. You make all those solitary hours writing worthwhile. You are incredible and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

During this wonderful holiday season we are especially reminded of the joy of having a close, loving family. The Graysons of New Mexico is such a family. Four gorgeous, successful brothers and one beautiful, outspoken baby sister. There was only one thing wrong - or so their loving mother thought - they weren't remotely interested in getting married. So, Ruth Grayson with a mother's uncanny perception of what her children want in a soul mate, places in their unwitting path the perfect candidate.

For Luke, the protector and the oldest, she'd chosen Catherine Stewart, a noted Child psychologist in UNTIL THERE WAS YOU. The ideal match for Morgan, the defender, in YOU AND NO OTHER, was Phoenix Bannister, a renowned sculptress. For her middle child Brandon, the nurturer, the perfect woman was Faith McBride, executive manager of a 5 star hotel in DREAMING OF YOU. Pierce, the thinker and last bachelor, learned there were no rules in love when he fell hopelessly in love with Sabra Raineau, a Broadway actress in IRRESISTIBLE YOU.

In ONLY YOU, Book #5 of the Graysons of New Mexico Series and my current release, Ruth faces her greatest challenge with Sierra, her independent and stubborn daughter her sons nicknamed The Little General. The last thing on Sierra's mind is a man - until Blade Navarone "wins" her at an auction. An unexpected and torrid kiss leaves both reeling. Each has strong reasons to fight the attraction, but sometimes love won't be denied.

Before saying goodbye, I want to wish you and yours the happiest and safest of holiday season. And of course, time to curl up with a good book.

Francis
http://www.francisray.com/

www.MySpace.com/francisray

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