Sophie Jordan/Sharie Kohler | Juggling Genres

Authors can find themselves writing in different genres for multiple reasons: 1) varied interests that demand you try your hand at ... well, varied genres; 2) career security; and, 3) a cheating heart. Yes, Hank William's twang is running through my head right about now. Anyone else?

As you may know, I write historical romances (Sophie Jordan) and paranormal romances (Sharie Kohler), which puts me at writing a book every five months, sometimes less. Why do I hold myself to such a demanding schedule? Which of the above reasons motivates me?

I'm guilty of all three. Like most of us, I'm a voracious cross romance genre reader. Right now I have books in the following sub-genres on my nightstand: historical, suspense, single-title, category, paranormal, young adult, women's fiction, even the occasional inspirational and erotica (talk about extremes!). Seriously though, great books all. Books that move and inspire me. I cut my teeth on historical romances: Kathleen Woodiwiss, Johanna Lindsey, Dorothy Garlock, Julia Quinn. I love(d) these books! I wanted to write books like these. So - I did. Starting with my debut, ONCE UPON A WEDDING NIGHT. Incredibly (at least to me!), Sophie Jordan was born and here she is, four books later. But I like gritty contemporary reads, too, and decided to try my hand at a paranormal, and MARKED BY MOONLIGHT came to be. Check off reason number one.

Reason two? Career security sounds mercenary, but I figured two balls in the air increased my chances of maintaining a writing career. And above all, I want to write for as long as possible. I want to keep my stories on shelves. It's the career I've always dreamed of - to write romance novels?!? For thousands to read? And I get paid to do it? Yessssssssss.

And what about reason three? A cheating heart touches on reason one a little bit. As varied as my interests, it's just impossible for me to remain faithful to one genre when there are so many other smooth-talking and good-looking genres out there. Fortunately number three only applies to my books -- I'm happily married. ;)

So what do I tell readers who read one of my books from one genre and love it, but claim to dislike books of the other genre? Don't knock it til you try it! If you like Sophie Jordan, you're going to like Sharie Kohler, too! Because, be it historical or romance, you're going to get the same type of emotional journey behind each book. No matter the genre, I write with the same tone, the same level of intensity. Test me! Take the Sophie Jordan/Sharie Kohler challenge by starting with my newest historical release, SURRENDER TO ME and then reading book #1 of my paranormal Moon Chasers Series, MARKED BY MOONLIGHT.

So the question begs to be asked ... would I ever add another genre to the mix? Hmmm... can I plead the fifth? Who can say? With my cheating heart, it's always a possibility. ;)

What about you? Readers: do you cheat, too, and read cross-genre? Or are you loyal to one specific genre? What about the writers out there? Are you exclusive?

Cheers,
Sophie/Sharie

www.shariekohler.net/
www.sophiejordan.net/

Jason Starr | How Do You Co-Write a Book?

This is the question I've gotten most often over the past few years, since Ken Bruen and I published our first book together (BUST in 2006). Writing, obviously, is normally a solitary process and it's hard enough to organize your own thoughts coherently, so people wonder how we can possibly do it when Ken lives in Ireland and I live in the U.S. and we write entirely over the Internet?

Like with any type of writing, I don't think there's any formula for how to write a book with someone else. The most important thing is that the writers need to have chemistry and share the same vision. We knew we had that part down--we both knew the books would have a nourish, darkly humorous sensibility. We were more concerned about the writing itself.

Ken and I have written three books together now and going into each one I wasn't sure we could actually pull it off, but I had my biggest doubts before we wrote the first book. We had a bit of a head start with BUST because it was loosely based on a book I had previously written, but had kept in the drawer. The original manuscript had the basic plot of what became BUST, but we basically needed to do a page-one re-write on the material and make many changes to the plot and add a couple of new characters. While it was exciting and different to co-write, it was also terrifying because we had signed a contract for a book I wasn't sure we could actually write.

The main issues were voice and style. Normally, Ken and I write in very different styles. Ken has a much more relaxed, stream of consciousness style than I do, and we have very different rhythms to our prose, and we don't even write dialogue the same way. So we both knew that a big challenge was to make the book read as if one person had written it. We sent some notes back and forth discussing the plotting of the first few chapters, then Ken did his take on chapter one. It was great, but it read like one of his books. So I did my take, and by sending the chapter back and forth a few times we eventually created a new style, some kind of unholy union of our writing. It had the same darkness as our individual writing, but it was a lot funnier. Some readers have falsely assumed that since we co-write and have Irish and American characters that we must switch off writing chapters. But, actually, we write the same chapters at the same time and we both write the Irish and American (and in our new book THE MAX) the British and Greek characters. I love it when someone assumes that Ken wrote a line when I actually wrote it, or I get complimented for one of Ken's lines. It's an indication to me that we really got the voice part down.

My other big concern was the plotting. I was afraid that we'd want to take the stories in different directions and the plots would become confused. But it's turned out that the plotting hasn't been an obstacle at all; it's actually been a strength for our co-writing. Normally when I write, I always think about the plot ahead of the characters; I need to know where the story is going. Ken is just the opposite, and he always starts with the characters first. So, in this way, our styles complimented each other. I could take the lead with the plotting and Ken could push the characters into new directions and we got--as Hannah Montana might say--the best of both worlds.

I think a collaboration either works or it doesn't work. The advantages are that you can write twice as fast (it's very cool to write 8 pages a day instead of 4), and it can also be very enjoyable if you're writing with someone who is also a close friend. But I think the best co-written books are the ones that couldn't have been written by the individual authors.

There are a lot of great writing teams currently at work today, P.J. Tracy, P.J. Parrish and the Todds jump to mind. Who are some of your favorite writing teams (past or present)? If you are a writer, have you ever considered co-writing a book? What do you think would be the major obstacles for you?

As I mentioned above, The Max, my latest novel with Ken Bruen (in what we are now calling The Bust Trilogy) is now on-sale everywhere. Check out www.jasonstarr.com/ and sign up for my newsletter to win free books (I gave away 10 books already this month). If you live in the New York City area, please join Ken Bruen and Jason Starr at the official THE MAX launch party at The Mysterious Bookshop on Thursday Sept. 4 at 6:30 pm. Alison Gaylin will launch her new thriller Heartless at the same event. Hope to see you there!

Jason Starr is the multi award-winning author of nine crime novels, including his latest novel, THE FOLLOWER (paperback on Sale 12/2/08 from St. Martin's Paperbacks). He is also-co written three novels with Ken Bruen for Hard Case Crime, edited an anthology of horse racing fiction for Vintage Books, and written an original graphic novel which will be published in 2009. Visit his website at www.jasonstarr.com/

Maryrose Wood | HOW THE WRITER WORKS IN THE SUMMERTIME

Now that the hazy, lazy days of summer are morphing into one gigantic Back to School Sale, it’s time to review what has or hasn’t been accomplished over the last ten weeks and offer a definitive answer to the question: how do writers work in the summertime?

Now, I know that plenty of people work in the summertime. Most people, even. Students (and, one assumes, snowshoe instructors) are really the only people whose summertime months are likely to be work-free.

I’m no longer a student and I’ve never even met a snowshoe instructor, but the truth is that I resent working when third graders don’t have to. As soon as school is out in June, somewhere deep inside I’m convinced that I too deserve to be on vacation until Labor Day.

But I’m not, of course. Even though I’m writing this sitting by a pool, outdoors, barefoot, in a bathing suit, a tall to-go cup of iced coffee at the ready — I am not on vacation.

I’m not! Really! Ignore the evidence of your eyes! I Am Working. I must be working, because I’m combining words into sentences into paragraphs that have to be finished by a deadline. For the Writer, that qualifies as a long hard day at the office — no matter how many times she dips her feet in the water and applies sunscreen in between bouts of inspiration.

Speaking of offices: my office, like the office of many writers I know, is in my house. This is the same house in which I live, and in which my children live. And my children, being children and therefore students by profession, can (unlike me) legitimately be said to be on vacation, all summer long.

This is not a recipe for extreme productivity on my part. Meals and snacks must be prepared. Clean clothes and towels must be produced on a regular basis. Daily trips to the pool must be planned and executed. I must work nevertheless. I have a book deadline not exactly looming, but imminently looming. I have other projects in various “stages of development,” as we say in the trade, and there are e-mails to answer and guest blogs to write, which brings us back to the question at hand: How do writers work in the summertime?

Does it require superhuman levels of energy and concentration? The ability to multitask? A bottomless well of inspiration? No, my friends. Those are all icing on the cupcake. The key to poolside writing success is having the right equipment. Here’s my list of essential summertime writing supplies:

1) The Typing Device. Many people are willing to lug a laptop computer with them everywhere they go. I am not. One, it’s too heavy when I’m also lugging bags of beach towels and coolers full of nutritious snacks. Two, I’m not stupid enough to bring a piece of expensive and delicate equipment to a neighborhood pool full of sticky-fisted toddlers holding juice boxes.

My solution: The Alphasmart NEO. It’s light, relatively cheap, and you can type on it. I’m typing on it right now. Compared to a laptop, it’s indestructible. Plus, it has no Internet surfing abilities. Therefore, when working on the NEO I cannot ever, even once, visit Facebook and play Word Twist. This is more helpful than you can imagine.

Sadly, to my knowledge the NEO is not actually submersible. I don’t recommend attempting to use it while paddling around the pool.

The NEO, while nearly indestructible, is unfortunately not submersible.

2) My BlackBerry. This technological marvel lets me get poolside phone calls and e-mails from my agent and editors, which is excellent. And from my friends, which is very pleasant but distracting. It also allows me to check my friends’ Facebook status updates, which is bad, but it does not allow me to play Word Twist. This is purely to the good.

3) Coffee. During the summer, a large pot of strong French-press coffee is prepared at home every morning and poured in my tallest travel mug, for easy transport to the pool. This keeps me awake for large portions of the day — a mixed blessing, since I consider naps to be an essential part of the creative process. However, there is no comfy place to take a nap at the pool. Such hardships must be cheerfully borne.

Umbrella tables make nice poolside desks. Note iced coffee close at hand.

4) Snacks. These run the gamut. Today our menu includes hummus, chips, apricots, cherries and Pirate’s Booty. Some days there are no snacks and the Writer must walk to the pizza parlor and bring back pizza for the clamoring hordes. This requires far too much effort and sun exposure, and is to be avoided. If at all possible, bring snacks from home.

This is how it goes. Tasty snacks, iced coffee, occasional e-mail reading, and now and then a few sentences of the work in progress are typed into the NEO. The pool itself beckons every hour or so for a refreshing dip. Sometimes the Writer thinks plot points will be found resting patiently on the bottom of the deep end, and she goes looking for them. Pennies and broken goggles are generally her only reward.

If only plot points could be found at the bottom of the pool.

Yet, as demonstrated above, with the right gear it is possible, though difficult, for the Writer to work in the summertime. As for how she can possibly work during the autumn, when the leaves demand continuous raking up, or during the winter holiday season, with all its shopping and decorating and round-the-clock cookie-baking — these questions will be answered at a future, cooler date. Right now, I feel like taking one more dip in the water…

MARYROSE WOOD is the author of Why I Let My Hair Grow Out and How I Found the Perfect Dress (Berkley Jam), which follow the adventures of Morgan Rawlinson, a snarky Connecticut teen who moonlights as a half-goddess from the days of Irish lore. Maryrose also wrote My Life: The Musical and Sex Kittens and Horn Dawgs Fall in Love (Delacorte). Visit her at www.maryrosewood.com/.

Eva Gordon | STONE OF THE TENTH REALM

Hello Fresh Fiction,

I have written five full-length novels, three fantasy novels, The Stone of the Tenth Realm, Gaea's Keeper and the sequel to The Stone of the Tenth Realm, Alchemist of the Tenth Realm, a science fiction titled Post-Apocalyptic Genome, and Werewolf Sanctuary, a paranormal romance in my Wolf Maiden Chronicles. The Stone of the Tenth Realm is my first published novel. My second romance fantasy, Gaea’s Keeper is due out next summer.

I have a BS in Zoology and graduate studies in Biology. I have taught Biology, Environmental Science and Anatomy/Physiology in both public and private high schools. My background in science and passion for wildlife biology inspires my writings. I moonlight as a faculty member of the Grey School of Wizardry, an online school for kids and adults interested in magic and lore. I am in the departments of Beast Mastery.

I am passionate about wildlife and the environment. I combined my love of animals and writing by being a guest speaker for the Silicon Valley Romance Writers last summer. My topic was on Wolves and Ravens as Archetypes in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing. I also teach at The Grey School of Wizardry in the Department of Beast Mastery. I have also taught about animals in fiction workshops for the Hearts Through History Romance Group. I spend several weeks last summer doing volunteer work at a wolf sanctuary in Southern Oregon. All my life I have trained and worked with dogs and horses. I hope to soon pursue the ancient art of falconry

The Stone of the Tenth Realm


By Eva Gordon

Blurb

Sophie Katz, a Jew, escapes a Nazi concentration camp. By way of Prague and with the help of a golem and the Kabbalah she is transported into the 10th Realm, a magical dimension that parallels the world she left behind. Logan Macleod, a man hunted unjustly for a murder, runs to the Bestiary, a forest so dangerous no man dares enter. Drawn by his bagpipes, Sophie and Logan meet. As love ensues, the Tenth Realm's evil parallels the Third Reich's atrocities. Together they must join the armies fighting Gustaf Hissler, Adolph Hitler's doppelganger. Will they survive?

Please visit me on my website

www.ravenauthor.com/ or on my blogs (I have a fan group on Facebook)

evagordon.blogspot.com/

EveGordonPage

Eve Gordon

Beverly Barton | COLD HEARTED

I’m delighted to be a guest on the Fresh Fiction blog today and appreciate the chance to tell y’all about my latest romantic suspense novel from Zebra. COLD HEARTED, which hits the shelves tomorrow, actually began with a comment my editor made. “Have you ever thought about writing a book with a black widow heroine?” No, I hadn’t; but the idea intrigued me so much that I could think of little else. However, Jordan Price is no ordinary black widow. Her late husband’s brother hires a private detective, Rick Carson, to prove Senator Dan Price did not commit suicide. Rick immediately assumes Jordan is a cold hearted bitch who is capable of murder; but he soon realizes that those who know her best think of her as a saint.

Rick, who works for the Powell Agency, headed by Nic and Griff Powell (THE MURDER GAME), is torn between his physical attraction to the lovely, young widow and his suspicion that she is a clever, ruthless murderer. The deeper he digs into Jordan’s past, the more dead bodies show up – a first husband, a former fiancé, and an old boss, to name a few. Jordan had profited handsomely from each man’s death. But did she kill them or is she, too, an innocent victim?

Among Jordan’s family and friends, many either emotionally or financially dependent upon her, you’ll find enough possible suspects to make your head spin. There’s Jordan’s best friend since childhood, who was the late Senator Dan Price’s assistant, a man who obviously adores Jordan. Are he and Jordan secret lovers? Did they plot the senator’s murder together? But what about Jordan’s stepmother, who would do anything for Jordan --even kill? And then there is the mentally unbalanced stepsister who idolizes Jordan, the worthless stepbrother who has the hots for Jordan, her former fiancé’s mother who is totally devoted to her, and her assistant who both loves and envies Jordan.

Naturally, this story is set in the South, this particular book in Georgia. Those of you who are familiar with my romantic suspense novels know I always use my South, the South that I find utterly fascinating, as the setting for these romantic thrillers. And those of you who have read past books that featured Griffin Powell as either a secondary character or the hero will be glad to know that Griff and Nic show up in this book in minor roles. You can expect to see more of Griff and Nic in upcoming books, including my next Zebra novel set for release in September 2009.

I hope you enjoy getting to know Rick and Jordan and discovering along with Rick if the woman he finds himself falling in love with is truly a black widow.

Beverly Barton

COLD HEARTED, Zebra Romantic Suspense
Release date: August 26, 2008

Sandi Shilhanek | Get your Olympic medal in reading.

Over the last weeks the Olympics have been what quite a few of my friends have been discussing. Mostly they’re talking about Michael Phelps and his phenomenal performance in not only winning eight gold medals, but in the process also setting seven world records.

It has been about thirty-six years since Mark Spitz set the record that Michael Phelps has broken.

So all this hoopla that has so rightly surrounded this year’s Olympics has gotten me to thinking about how many books people are able to read in a year and how that might translate into an Olympic medal.

From my surfing around the net I have discovered that some people have amazing reading speed. eharlequin has challenged their members to read and blog one hundred thousand books this year and they will donate books to The National Center for Family Literacy.

Yes, I do my best to contribute to this worthy cause and post my books there, but so far this year I’ve only read or listened to eighty-one books, while one member has read five hundred eighty! She would surely be a contender for a gold medal. I on the other hand can only wish to be in that league, and would undoubtedly not win a medal at all, but might surprise myself with a bronze.

While I might not be able to compete against the world and win a medal I might be able to compete in my small circle of friends. Well, on second thought as I think about my closest reading friends I again think I don’t stand a chance for a medal, but that’s okay because what I am gaining by reading a book or listening to an audio is more important to me than earning a medal I’d have to dust.

I want to know are you a contender for an Olympic medal in reading? Do you have a circle of friends with whom you compete? What medal would you win if you were to compete with them? Are you like me, and while I do compete with a friend for who can read the most in a year it really doesn’t matter whether or not I’d win a medal because the fun is really in reading great things, and living vicariously through the stories that the authors have provided me with.

Sandi