Deanna Raybourn | Writer’s Passion

As a writer of historical fiction, I am frequently asked about research. Specifically, readers—and aspiring writers—want to know if it is necessary for me to visit the sites I write about. On this point I always give a firm and unequivocal yes. And no. Contradictory, I know, but hear me out. Developing a historical novel means creating a dual setting; it means creating a specific time and place for your reader to inhabit. They are a tourist in your world, and you must give them a guidebook of essential details to help them get around. In order to do that, you have to know the neighborhood at least as well as they do—and preferably better!

In preparation for writing Silent in the Grave, I traveled to England. (Technically, I tagged along on a school trip as a chaperone—a maneuver I only recommend to the truly desperate or masochistic.) I had planned that Grave would be a Regency effort, light and sparkling and frothy as a syllabub with just a spot of murder to spice the pot. But once I began writing, I realized the book needed Victorian London, a city of foggy streets, shadowed by industry and populated by Jack the Ripper and Sherlock Holmes. The only difficulty was that I knew much less about 1886 than I did 1816. Luckily, I changed the setting the week before I was scheduled to depart. Once I knew my setting would be changed, the trip to London enabled me to experience that setting through new eyes. I sat on the same park bench that Lady Julia Grey shared with a London prostitute; I walked past her house on Curzon Street; I chatted with a raven in the Tower. And just as importantly, I was able to purchase maps and historical guides only published in England—books and ephemera that were indescribably valuable in establishing the London of Julia Grey and Nicholas Brisbane.

On the other hand—and you knew there would be another hand, didn’t you?—when it came time to write Silent in the Sanctuary I was desperately pressed for time. (My publisher may have gotten the idea that I was just a bit further along than I actually was…) With a deadline looming and the dollar falling, I had no choice but to press on and write the book without a trip. I relied instead upon mountains of research books and the blessed expanse of the internet. I found floorplans to Cistercian abbeys, photographs of jubilee towers, and moon tables for 1886 so that I could write with confidence that the moon was full and streaming its silvery light into the windows of Bellmont Abbey.

I have repeated the pattern in subsequent books. For Silent on the Moor, I told my husband I needed to smell a moor, and we packed our bags to spend Easter week of 2007 in Yorkshire. (And a very good thing we did. It turns out that moors have a very distinctive smell, and that it is very difficult to hold a proper conversation upon one.) The book I am just beginning to write, The Dead Travel Fast, is a compromise. It opens in Edinburgh, a city I have visited twice, but the action quickly moves to Transylvania, and I am forced once again to rely upon research and my own imagination.

And in the end, I think that is the most important travel tool of all. All of the scrambling over pyramids or sailing down the Danube will never convey the atmosphere of a place to a reader. Only a writer’s passion for a setting can do that, and while travel is broadening and inspiring, it is no substitute for the journey of imagination.

Deanna Raybourn
www.deannaraybourn.com/

Deborah Cooke aka Claire Delacroix | New Worlds from Familiar Names - and Familiar Faces with New Names!

One of the interesting things about the popular fiction market is the way that it changes. Tastes in fiction are fluid, and constantly on the move as people develop interests in new areas, or ideas come into fashion. I think that this dynamism, while it can be frustrating, is also fascinating.

And it offers authors the chance to try new things.

Many of you will be familiar with the medieval romances that I wrote in the 1990's. I wrote a lot of them, because I had so much fun. What I liked about writing medievals was the world-building, that challenge of creating a slice of a lost time and place so tangible that readers might feel as if they were standing right there. I loved doing the research, and I really enjoyed weaving myths and legends into the fabric of my fictional worlds. I particularly loved my heroes. My guys were usually wounded or otherwise compromised, and they were always caught between a couple of apparently bad choices.

So, when the historical market became less vibrant than once it was, it's not really surprising that I focussed on the challenge of bringing a fictional world to life on the page, on a world that would require me to move into the university library for a while, on exploring a big slice of mythology and legend, and on noble heroes caught between a couple of seemingly bad choices.

This year, I launched two new series, one of which is being marketed under Claire Delacroix - a familiar name with a new world - and the other of which is being marketed under Deborah Cooke. I think they both have a lot in common with my previously published work.

The Dragonfire series by Deborah Cooke (http://www.deborahcooke.com/) features dragon shape shifter heroes in a contemporary setting. These dragon shape shifters are called the Pyr, and are an ancient race which has become divided over time. They're charged to defend the treasures of the earth, which the good Pyr believe includes humans. The Slayers, which are Pyr turned bad, believe that humans - and the Pyr who defend them - must be exterminated to save the planet. The Pyr are male, and they mate with human women - the mark of meeting their destined mate is a sensation of heat called the firestorm. This series begins with the Pyr on the cusp of a transition, a last chance to save the earth in the big battle with the Slayers. Each book focusses on the firestorm of one hero: each Pyr hero is both noble caught between two bad choices in each book - his duty to his fellow Pyr and the demands of his courtship of what is usually a skeptical mate. I'm loving the challenge of making these fantastical men seem real and human, even with their abilities, and loving the interaction of their mythology with our own. The series is a lot of fun to write. Dragonfire began last February with KISS OF FIRE, and continued in August with KISS OF FURY. The third book in the trilogy is KISS OF FATE which will be released in February 2009.

FALLEN - first of my new trilogy from TOR - is set in a gritty urban future, a post-nuclear world without a lot of hope for humanity. Unbeknownst to most people, the Apocalypse is close at hand, and volunteers from the angels are sacrificing their wings, taking flesh to help save humanity. This isn't the kind of thing that Lilia Desjardins, our heroine, is inclined to believe. She's outspoken and idealistic, a pragmatist who believes that her estranged husband's death wasn't the accident that the police have determined it to be. She sets out to discover the truth, at any price. The most formidable obstacle to her quest proves to be a homicide detective named Adam Montgomery. Montgomery is one of those angel volunteers, caught between two bad choices - his attraction to Lilia, a woman suspects he shouldn't trust, and the completion of his earthly mission on earth. Will they learn to trust each other in time?

These books are indisputably new directions for me, but I think they show the hallmarks of my earlier work. They certainly are a lot of fun to research and to write, and the challenge of something new is invigorating. Writing these books has been a great creative adventure for me - it would be an even better ride if you joined me.

Happy reading and all my best -
Deborah aka Claire
http://www.delacroix.net/blog

Excerpt:

FALLEN
KISS OF FIRE
KISS OF FURY
KISS OF FATE

Sara Reyes | Author Stalking

AJ Jacobs and Gwen Reyes
Originally uploaded by freshfiction

There are a few authors every reader follows as avidly as the film buff follows an actor or director, or the fan buys tickets for no matter the cost to see their band in concert. You know what I mean, it's the book that comes out on a certain Tuesday and you're there at the book store, money in hand as soon as possible to pick up it up. If you're lucky you've got the book set aside waiting impatiently for you, with your name on a yellow sticky. You'll even bribe someone to get there if possible in case the store runs out. I know I have a history of not even making it out of the parking lot before I've got most of it read much to my daughter's dismay and her constant source of tattle tailing over the years. But on Tuesday I had the opportunity to watch her meet one of her writing idols. So the cheek was turned!

A.J.Jacobs is a writer for Esquire and has written two books about his experiences trying out "new" things: the first was his year reading the Encyclopaedia Britannica from beginning to end, The Know-It-All; the second was last year's bestseller The Year Of Living Biblically. After getting a preview of YEAR at Book Expo, and reading the Advanced Copy, Gwen was hooked. Stalking A.J. she tracked the book release as well as the possible signings in the area. Little did I know the "area" included a trip to Austin for the Texas Book Festival. When Gwen couldn't go because of a commitment she dare not miss, she deputized her parents to go. We were even briefed on what to say, how to get the book signed and more importantly what NOT to say! Seriously, would I embarrass her with an author?

Fortunately, after a single mishap when I lost her father for over an hour as he was so taken with A.J.'s talk at the Dell Jewish Community Center he had to get his own set of books and forgot to tell me where he was going, we managed to get Gwen her own specially inscribed copy of Year. But on Tuesday night, the stars aligned and Gwen and A.J. met in person. It was a nice moon out as well. And we got pictures. And I did a little wave at A.J. who swore he remembered me (I doubt it, but what the hey!). And the audience loved his story of writing the Year and what he learned and where he's going in the next adventure, uh, book.

So now I can tell the tale of the fanatic reader and what she'll go through to see her "man." Although to be honest, I've seen it before. And I'm not ashamed to admit I'm proud of my kids who love reading so much they'll stand in line for an author and I don't mind being the one who rushes to the book store at opening to pick up their must-have book. It might begin to make up for the years I made them do it for me *grin*

And maybe it helps my book club forgive me when I get an author confused...as the signing on Monday night with the wrong author of the comics "Maxine." And that is another story to be told...

Sara Reyes
DFW Tea Readers Group

Rita Herron | Good or Bad

Do you believe that people are born either good or bad? That your genes determine whether or not you have a temper, are violent, or lose control?

That’s only one of the premises I explore in my Demonborn series.

Vincent Valtrez, the hero of book one, INSATIABLE DESIRE, has only faint memories of his traumatic past. Memories which disturb him because he feels a darkness in his soul.

Memories and a killer that bring him back to his hometown.

A hometown full of secrets and evil. A hometown he swore he’d never return to.

A hometown plagued by danger and the girl he left behind.

Vincent had no idea what is in store for him. Or that his destiny is calling.

Only that his need for sex and darkness have begun to call his name again.

But giving in to the dark side could be his downfall and cause him to lose his soul once and for all.

Do you have a dark side?

If so, can you resist the call?

Rita Herron

http://ritaherron.com/

Bella Andre | The Idea Bank

Have you ever read a really great book and asked yourself, "How'd she come up with that fantastic idea?" I know I have. Which is why I thought it'd be fun to ask myself the same question. Here goes:

TAKE ME (in which a full-figured heroine gets the guy in Italy): I had a dream about a woman who had lusted after a guy her whole life, but he'd never noticed her. And then one day, the tables turned completely, and he had to chase her. Once he caught her, while in a very passionate embrace, he said, "You're mine, all mine." MINE, ALL MINE was the working title of the book - and the title I sold with. The dream gave me the theme. From there I had to figure out characters and plot.

TEMPT ME, TASTE ME, TOUCH ME (three women on a road trip to the Wine Country find love with three local men): I had just finished watching the move "Sideways" with my husband when I turned to him and said, "Wouldn't it be interesting to flip that movie on its ear and make it a girl's road trip through the wine country instead?"

RED HOT REUNION (old flames reconnect at their ten year college reunion): I had just gotten the invite to my ten year college reunion. ;-) And I thought, what if two young lovers who parted badly met again where they originally fell in love? Especially if the heroine is desperate to escape her life.

GAME FOR ANYTHING (first Bad Boys of Football book): Swear to god this one came to me in the shower! I suddenly thought, what if an image consultant is brought in to clean up a star quarterback's act - but it turns out they have a secret past?

GAME FOR SEDUCTION (second Bad Boys of Football book): The hero of Game For Anything is quick with the lines, almost flashy. I knew the hero of this book would be his opposite - tall, dark, and handsome, of course, but a man of fewer words. Silent and steady. But who to match him with? And what kind of situation could I put him in that would be both fun and sexy? My sister-in-law, Kathy, came through for me one day when she said "Older hero, younger heroine? What about a Bull Durham story with a love triangle?" Once she said that, the story started to flow like crazy.

WILD HEAT (first book in my Hotshots: Men of Fire romantic suspense series, coming May 2009): My agent and I spend a lot of time on the phone chatting about ideas. For years she's been saying, "What about firefighters?" I started researching different kinds of firefighters and once I found out about Hotshots - elite wildland firefighters who fight the fires everyone else runs from - I knew I had to write about them. They thrive on a adrenaline! They're bound by the brotherhood. As far as I'm concerned, they're the SEALS of firefighting. From there, it wasn't difficult to find the right story about an arson investigator and the lead Hotshot, who also happens to be her primary suspect for a wildfire raging through Lake Tahoe.

EXTREME HEAT (2nd book in the Hotshots series, coming late 2009): I'm writing this one right now. It's got a lot of Man vs. Wild elements.

Some ideas certainly come faster than others. The dream that turned into TAKE ME, for example, was a much-appreciated gift. Where and how do you get your best ideas?

Please drop by my website and blog at www.bellaandre.com/blog! And be sure to sign up for my contest (I'm giving away a beautiful necklace and earring set) before the end of the month.

;-) Bella Andre
http://www.bellaandre.com/

GAME FOR SEDUCTION ~ out now!
GAME FOR ANYTHING ~ Cosmo's Red Hot Read!

Sandi Shilhanek | Editing

When my TBR blog was posted last week I went back and read it. I was so embarrassed to have my name attached to it because of the mistakes I found where I obviously hadn’t gone back and proofread it. This got me to thinking about when I read a book with poor editing, and how it can pull a reader from the story.

I recently read a galley of Overnight Sensation by Karen Foley, and I was amazed at the number of mistakes I caught. It pulled me from the story, and truly affected my enjoyment of it. I didn’t mention it in my review, because I’m confident that in the editing process the mistakes were caught, because if I were to be honest I would tell you that for me to notice it has to be blaring, so I’m positive that a professional editor or proofreader would catch the errors and have the author correct them. I have no doubt that the final copies that readers are buying from their local bookseller are perfect, and that readers will thoroughly enjoy Overnight Sensation.

I am not trying to single out Ms. Foley’s work by any means, but this is the most recent book that I’ve read that immediately calls to mind how poor editing can affect a reader’s enjoyment of the book. I can remember reading a book, but unfortunately not the title where the character’s clothing changed in the middle of a dinner. How was something as simple as that not caught?

I can recall another book I had to read for review, and had a printed ARC complete with a back blurb. In the back blurb the hero had a different name than what he was actually called in the book.

These are just a few things I’ve noticed, and while not enough to affect the enjoyment of the story overall they are enough to make me wonder about the editing/proofreading process.

I don’t want to bash a book or an author because I do realize it’s difficult to be creative and continue to come up with the stories that entertain us, and take us away from the drudgery of our daily lives, but I’m curious to know have you read a book where the editing/proofreading was enough to make you stumble over the otherwise easy flow? Did that or did it not affect the overall pleasure you normally get from your reading material?