Linda Gerber | My Fiction Addition

Hi. My name is Linda and I’m a fiction addict.

I live fiction, I breathe fiction, I make up really creative excuses when I forget to turn in my PTA sign-up sheets. Honestly, I can’t go through the day without a fiction fix.

Today, for example, I went to the bookstore to grab Stephenie Meyer’s latest. Just walking into the fiction section was like entering an enchanted canyon where everyplace I turned, something wonderful called out to me. Sadly, THE HOST was not on the shelves. The bookstore had just sold their last copy. I panicked. Leaving the bookstore without a book was not an option. Heart palpitating, I ran back to the fiction section and scanned the shelves frantically until found the next two books on my TBR list. Holding them in my hands, I was finally able to breathe easier.

Once, on vacation, I finished all the books I had brought with me. And I a whole day left at the beach and an entire flight home to get through! I made my dear husband drive into town – thirty miles away – and find a drugstore with a decent fiction selection(it was too small to have its own bookstore. I know, sad!)

With my fiction fixation, writing books is like a dream job for me. And exciting! Case in point, while working on DEATH BY BIKINI, I got to live at an exclusive tropical resort where I rubbed shoulders with senators and rock stars and ultimately outwitted an assassin. How can you beat that?

Speaking of DEATH BY BIKINI, if you like YA fiction, you are cordially invited to my cyber launch party May 15-18 at lindagerber.blogspot.comwhere you can win books from over 15 YA authors, including yours truly.

Meanwhile, what about you? Are you addicted to fiction? What is it about fiction that grabs you?

Thanks again to everyone at Fresh Fiction for having me!

Linda Gerber

lindagerber.com
lindagerber.blogspot.com

Coming May 15 from Puffin Books – DEATH BY BIKINI

Kimber Chin | What's In A Name?

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose/By any other name would smell as sweet". Ummm… okay, Shakespeare. That's why Juliet fell in love with Romeo and not some guy named Fred. Yeah, somehow, I'm not buying the names are meaningless sales spiel.

Why? Because names aren't meaningless. They're important. That's why most parents spend the entire nine months trying to decide on one (I, on the other hand, was named after the toilet paper and one of my brothers was named after a box of tissues). They set expectations, invoking feelings and passions.

For the rest of your life.

I know this first hand. Who do you picture when you hear the name Kimber Chin (or, if you prefer, the Dr. Seuss version Kim Chin)? Perhaps Lucy Liu from Charles Angels and Kill Bill? Or Ziyi Zhang from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? Or…

I'll stop naming gorgeous Asian actresses now before I get depressed. You see, that's SO not me. Even the top Photoshop expert in the world (i.e. my hubby or so he thinks) can't make me look like Lucy Liu. I had to marry to get that last name. My background is Irish, my two sisters are redheads, and I'm paler than Casper, the Friendly Ghost.

Names are even more important for our fictional characters. I doubt any of the great characters in fiction were named carelessly.

There's the wicked George Wickham in Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice. I just knew with a name like that, he'd turn out to be a baddie.

What about Elena Michaels from Kelley Armstrong's Bitten? She couldn't be plain Ellen Michaels, no, because there is something just a tad bit off with her. Hhhmmm… like being a werewolf, perhaps?

Dr. Jekyll, from Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is also betrayed by his name. When I hear Jekyll, I think jackal, the animal, the beast. Not exactly good doctor material.

Sisters are extremely interesting. The D'Averette sisters from Margaret Moore's King John series share a surname emphasizing their ties to their land (De meaning of or from). However, they have very different and distinct first names, stamping each character as an individual. Lady Adelaide, with her almost masculine given name, is a woman of strength and bravery. As for the second sister? I've never met a meek Gillian, dull appearance or not. Lady Elizabeth or Lizette, with her amateur theatrics, won't be tied down to a single moniker. Margaret Moore doesn't say so but I'd bet big money Lizette is a Gemini.

In my first novel, Breach Of Trust, quiet, unassuming Anne James has the plainest name I could think of. Or almost does. She isn't a Smith, is she? No. I thought James more royal and, as our hero, the oh-so-French Philippe Lamont, can attest to, Anne can be a royal pain in the… well, never mind. She appears mild mannered (the Anne) but is truly fierce (the James). Contrasts.

What fictional names do you find interesting or amusing (Dumbledore, anyone?)? Do you try to guess the character's personality by his or her name? I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

Kimber Chin
Author of Breach Of Trust (Champagne Books)
http://businessromance.com/

Gail Barrett | Advantage, Women

When the man sitting in the front row raised his hand, I was curious about what he would ask. There weren’t many men in the audience, mostly women who’d come into the bookstore to hear four local romance authors discuss their craft. And this fellow had arrived early. He’d parked himself belligerently in the front row, right in the middle, as if daring us to ignore him. And he’d been eyeing us ever since -- rubbing his jaw, biding his time -- like a predator waiting to strike.

And strike he did. Why did women read romance novels, he demanded. Was it because we were frustrated? Were we trying to escape reality? Was there something wrong with our (sex) lives?

I thought we did an admirable job of answering him. No one got excited. No one lost her temper. We took his questions seriously, answered rationally, compared reading novels to other forms of entertainment, including sports. We talked about fiction in general, romance novels in particular, told him why love stories touch our lives.

Was he convinced? Doubtful, although he stayed until the end and bought a book. Who knows if he actually read it, though. Maybe he did -- and maybe he loved it. Maybe he’s now devouring romance novels and has become our biggest fan.

And maybe he only read the sex scenes. But at least we tried. So the advantage this round goes to the women. Now if we could only win the game...

Gail Barrett

http://www.gailbarrett.com/



Coming next from Silhouette Romantic Suspense:

The Crusaders: Chasing legends, capturing hearts

HEART OF A THIEF - Book One of The Crusaders, May 2008

TO PROTECT A PRINCESS - Book Two, November 2008

LOVE IN 60 SECONDS (SRS CONTINUITY) - Spring 2009

Jeri Smith-Ready | Heart is Where the Home is

Thanks so much for having me as a guest at Fresh Fiction. I’m thrilled to be here!

For me, knowing where a character hails from is an essential part of figuring out what makes them tick. This background—the place and time—is especially vital for the vampire characters in my new novel, WICKED GAME (Pocket Books, May 13). My vamps are psychologically and culturally stuck in the era in which they were ‘turned,’ making them walking, stalking time capsules (and perfect for their jobs as disc jockeys at WVMP, The Lifeblood of Rock ‘n’ Roll).

WICKED GAME’s hero Shane McAllister, for example, was born in Youngstown, Ohio, in 1968. He was just a boy when the steel mills closed, collapsing the city’s economy. Shane’s own family fell into poverty and despair. Growing up poor made him tough and pessimistic, but it also gave him a core of compassion and understanding.

The oldest vampire DJ, blues musician Monroe Jefferson, hails from Natchez, Mississippi. He grew up in a place and time governed by Jim Crow laws, which institutionalized racial segregation. Even now, he’s extremely cautious around the heroine of WICKED GAME, since in Monroe’s day in the Deep South, a black man could be lynched for the so-called “crime” of having a friendly conversation with a white woman.

Some people deliberately reject their place of origin. Regina, the punk/Goth vampire DJ, comes from a farming community in Saskatchewan. At age eighteen, she left town to hit the music scenes in London, New York, and LA, and she never looked back. A vicious vampire no one dares to cross, Regina defies the stereotype of the ‘nice Canadian.’

Being from nowhere can affect one’s personality, too. The human heroine, con artist Ciara Griffin, spent her childhood on the road with her parents’ fake ‘miracle show.’ This life of wandering made her leery of commitment and reluctant to settle into a steady job or relationship. But maybe deep down, Ciara secretly wants to belong somewhere, with someone.

Do your favorite characters embrace or reject their backgrounds? What about you--how does your home (in place and time) affect who you are as a person?

Thanks again for having me!

Website: http://www.jerismithready.com/
Excerpt: http://www.jerismithready.com/books/wicked-game/excerpt1.htm
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/jerismithready


Photo Credit Copyright 2006 Szemere Photography

Diane Dean-Epps | What If?

"My newest book, KILL-TV, is one of my "what if," stream-of-consciousness moments parlayed into a plot. As a mere lass in my twenties I spent several years working in the radio and television industry where lessons abounded daily, minute-by-minute deadlines were de rigueur, and my video-to-script writing cost me all use and feeling in my verbs.

Back in the day," when I discovered the magic wrought by shoulder pads and their seemingly mysterious ability to make my waist appear smaller than it actually was, I came up with another mysterious point to ponder: What if I wrote a comical and suspenseful story that was based upon a combination of irritating characters I’d worked with in broadcasting and, lest there be any residual hostility on my part necessitating expensive counseling, I just plain killed ‘em off?” You know…cheap therapy. This began my year-long journey into the development of my most ambitious novel to date, KILL-TV, just by virtue of continuity, scene changes, and plotting gyrations.

While some kind folks, to whom I am not related, have commented that I am mildly amusing, humor does tend to always find its way into anything I write. Having said that, maintaining a humorous tone, snappy dialogue, and a fast pace can be a daunting task, but it lent itself well to the setting of the broadcast journalism world, a world that looks pretty danged different from the inside out. I’m often asked why I left the “glamorous” world of broadcasting for my full-time gig as a teacher of Generation Y-ME?! to which I reply cleverly, "Because." Truth be told, as I neared thirty, I was subjected to the tandem aural experience of hearing my biological and sociological clocks ticking; I wanted to contribute to society and use what little experience I had gained to serve people other than myself. Go figure how that kind of thinking can be achieved and channeled through a girl who refused to shop anywhere, but at a store rhyming with, "Lacy’s," until she was…well…thirty.

It may be said that humor is in the mind of the humorist – okay, you got me – I said it and I’m not so sure it makes sense, but just keep in mind, this is my wrap-up and I’m trying to sound all smart, profound, and what-not. With a book that is touted as "humorous," the trickiest part is creating a connection with the reader by accessing the commonality of the absurd and the things that make us all laugh. Being funny is extremely subjective and when I’m fortunate enough to be in front of someone, whether I’m doing stand-up, or just performing one of my "bits" gratis, I at least have the dual advantages of vocal and facial inflection. Writing does not offer this and no amount of exclamation points, italicized words, or clever dialogue can make someone laugh if the tone hasn’t been set first.

In writing, one way I establish tone is to rely upon situations that have happened, but then exaggerate the heck out of them. This is how I created the scene between Leslie and the recently deceased, Lincoln, where she gets her cute little knit top stuck on his tie clasp. As she attempts to set herself free by rocking back and forth in his lap, she creates the illusion that she is in an unseemly coupling with the boss, and this is in full view of anyone walking by in the outer hallway area, which is just on the other side of the control room glass partition. Combining the horror that a character would feel over discovering her dead boss with a slapstick type of physical interaction that is misinterpreted by a key character is no mean feat, but I hope I’ve succeeded. It is my fervent hope, desire, and wish that I have created a tale in KILL-TV that amuses the masses who will graciously welcome these characters into their lives, even briefly, and perhaps beyond if the alliterative protagonist, Leslie Lloyd, agrees to a future foray into my next book.

Diane Dean-Epps
www.dianedeanepps.com/