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Guest Post: Jack Caldwell Talks About Writing

March 14, 2012 by

Yesterday, I reviewed The Three Colonels:  Jane Austen’s Fighting Men by Jack Caldwell, which is set just after Napoleon is exiled to Elba and combines characters from Pride & Prejudice with those from Sense & Sensibility, along with some new characters.  From romance to intrigue and war, Caldwell combines the best of Austen’s social commentary with the action of a war novel, but tempers it with wit and drama. 

Today, Jack has offered to talk about his writing, his inspiration, and his writing space.  Please give him a warm welcome.

Good day, everybody. Jack Caldwell here, the author of THE THREE COLONELS – Jane Austen’s Fighting Men, a sequel to Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility, now available from Sourcebooks Landmark. My first novel, PEMBERLEY RANCH, a reimagining of Pride & Prejudice set in post-Civil War Texas, came out in 2010.

The kind and lovely Serena asked me to talk to you about how and where I write, and what inspires me. Well, I’m hesitant to do so. You know how shy we authors are. We never want to talk about our work—

Alright, Serena, you can stop laughing hysterically now.

The first thing you must know is that I’m a guy. Therefore, I own my own computer. That may sound like a strange boast, but from what I understand, many of my female compatriots must fight the rest of their family to get computer time to write. I don’t have that problem. This machine is mine. Nobody touches it but me!

(Note: My wife has her own laptop. I ain’t stupid. Happy wife – happy life.)

I’ve taken over one of the spare bedrooms to serve as my office. I have a desk, two printers, the computer, network equipment, files, and bookcases filled with novels and reference books. This is my Pemberley Library, my inner sanctum, my Batcave.

But this is not where I write. This is where I type.

Believe it or not, I write in bed while I sleep — while I dream. You see, I have this uncanny ability to control my dreams. I run the plot of my current writing project through my mind like a movie while I sleep. The best part is when I run into a dead end, stop everything, back up, and try again on a slightly different path, all while remaining asleep. The next day, I transcribe my dream into the computer. Cool, huh?

Now, that doesn’t mean I don’t have a roadmap. I do, because before I write a word, I put together a detailed outline. I know how my story ends before I write it; in fact, the last chapter is often one of the first I write. This way, I always finish my projects.

I also depend on a team of extraordinary women to help me. They are my editors, whom I call affectionately my Beta Babes. They go over every word I write. The group has changed membership slightly over the years, but the one constant has been Beta Babe #1, my wife, Barbara.

Writing is a lot of work. Some days I put down only a few hundred words, other days several thousand. But I need to write every day. Even at that pace, it takes between six to nine months to write a novel, averaging 100,000 words.

Then, if my publisher likes it, I get to cut it — a lot. It ain’t fun, but usually her suggestions are the right ones. The finished novel runs about 85,000-95,000 words. We bounce it back and forth, polishing it up, and after the final edit is accepted, we start all over again with a new book.

I’m having a ball.

So how do I get the ideas of what to write? My muse, my dear friends — that harsh mistress who lovingly and relentlessly drives me to write. Here’s her photo:

Hot, isn’t she? She’s the one who challenged me to write in the first place. She helped me overcome a high school teacher who thirty-five years ago told me I had no writing ability.

She also spurs my ideas, especially as she found out writers can write off a portion of their travel if it is used for research for their work. She’d LOVE it if I wrote a Pride & Prejudice reimagining set in Hawaii! Who knows—maybe one day…?

Anyhow, I hope all of you enjoy THE THREE COLONELS, especially as I’m writing a sequel to it right now. Which means that not everybody dies in it (I have such a bad reputation about that).

And remember, it takes a real man to write historical romance, so let me tell you a story.

~*~*~

So, which do you like better—sequels or reimaginings? Where would you move your favorite Austen characters in time and space? Let’s have some fun!

About the Author:

Jack Caldwell is an author, amateur historian, professional economic developer, playwright, and like many Cajuns, a darn good cook. Born and raised in the Bayou County of Louisiana, Jack and his wife, Barbara, are Hurricane Katrina victims who now make the upper Midwest their home.

His nickname—The Cajun Cheesehead—came from his devotion to his two favorite NFL teams: the New Orleans Saints and the Green Bay Packers. (Every now and then, Jack has to play the DVD again to make sure the Saints really won in 2010.)

Always a history buff, Jack found and fell in love with Jane Austen in his twenties, struck by her innate understanding of the human condition. Jack uses his work to share his knowledge of history. Through his characters, he hopes the reader gains a better understanding of what went on before, developing an appreciation for our ancestors’ trials and tribulations.

When not writing or traveling with Barbara, Jack attempts to play golf. A devout convert to Roman Catholicism, Jack is married with three grown sons.

Check out Jack’s blog, The Cajun Cheesehead Chronicles, at Austen Authors, his Website — Ramblings of a Cajun in Exile — and his Facebook page.

Thanks, Jack, for sharing your writing and inspirations with us.  Also check out my review of Pemberley Ranch.  I personally love both sequels and reimaginings!  And I cannot wait for the sequel to The Three Colonels!

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Guest Post: Researching a Story by Ken Brosky

February 28, 2012 by

Ken Brosky’s book, The Unauthorized Biography of Michele Bachmann and Other Stories, is a collection of stories about survival whether it is a white man lost in Darfur or an Iraq war veteran with one leg.  The collection has a certain wit about it and the writing is expected to make readers think about survival and all that it entails.

Today, Ken is going to regale us with his expertise on researching a story.  So please give him a warm welcome.

When I was compiling my short stories for my first collection, I noticed that a number of them were examples of what I call “writing outside your box.” I’ve never been a phone hacker. I’ve never visited the region of Darfur. I’m not an Iraq War veteran. But regardless, the stories involving these various scenarios have all received a warm reception from readers and critics alike.

“Writing outside your box” isn’t anything new, but nowadays in literary fiction there really aren’t that many writers daring themselves to step away from their own lives and try something alien and unfamiliar. The old saying “write what you know” probably stops writers short when it comes to this. But there’s not a hypocrisy here, provided writers take the time to research the topic they’re going to incorporate into a story.

For example, my award-winning short story “I Can’t Just Turn it Off,” features an Iraq War Veteran who returns after losing a leg in an I.E.D. explosion. The story was originally published in Gargoyle Magazine and contains a fair bit of fiction given that I’ve never been to Iraq. So how did I put it together?

First, I talked to a veteran. His stories and experiences jump-started the writing process and sent my imagination into overdrive. After I’d established what I wanted out of the overall story, I began researching. I looked up I.E.D. details. I watched and read interviews with veterans. I research PTSD. I was also inspired by a very touching warts-and-all first-person account of a soldier who realized just how much the war had changed him and was disgusted by it.

All of this made for a better story, even though 99 percent of it wasn’t used in the final draft. The research became more of a guiding force, and it was all inspired by a single conversation with an Iraq War veteran.

I remember while in my MFA program, I’d accidentally convinced my workshop class that I’d worked in a video store. They were convinced, reading one of my short stories, that I had some experience renting out DVD’s and VHS tapes. I didn’t. What I’d done was fool them well enough that they were able to get lost in the story and accept the details I was providing them. I did it mainly through research: I spent time inside my favorite video store. I talked to the owner constantly. I wandered the aisles, picking up the smells and the sights. I even spied on the employees as they went out and restocked recently returned videos!

Here’s another example: “Gojira: King of the Monsters” by Jim Shepard is one of the best short stories I’ve read in a long time. It re-energized my writing habits and challenged me to dig even deeper while researching for stories. “Gojira” is a fictional story about the man who designed the Godzilla costume for the original movie. The details are amazing, right down to the director’s frustrations and the methods used to destroy the mini-Tokyo set. Beyond that, it’s also a story about the bombing of Hiroshima, and how important that all-too-familiar monster really was to an entire society.

Research like this takes practice. It takes patience. But one of the best gifts a writer can provide to readers is the gift of escape, and taking readers to new and exciting places is a fantastic thing … provided the writer does some research first.

Thanks, Ken. Stay tuned for my review of this collection.

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Guest Post: M.J. Rose’s Inspiration for The Book of Lost Fragrances

February 22, 2012 by

The Book of Lost Fragrances by M.J. Rose (my review) is a suspenseful mystery that takes readers through time from Egypt to present day New York City and Paris.  As with her other books in the series, Malachai Samuels is seeking memory tools to aid in his reincarnation work, but there is more at risk here as friends of his are endangered by his search and are embroiled in international political struggles.

 Today, I’ve got a treat for my readers from the author about what inspired her to write about lost fragrances in her latest reincarnationist book.

Without further ado, here’s M.J. Rose; Please give her a warm welcome.

M.J. Rose:  I’ve been fascinated with lost fragrances since long before I started writing The Book of Lost Fragrances… since I found a bottle of perfume on my great grandmother’s dresser that had belonged to her mother in Russia. Here is one of those lost fragrances that stirs the senses and the imagination… (researched and described with the help of the perfume writer Dimitrios Dimitriadis)

ISSEY MIYAKE – LE FEU D’ISSEY

A creation that came well ahead of its time, Le Feu d’Issey was launched amidst countless androgynous, unisex releases in the mid 90s, and represented the polar opposite of the scents that found their success at that time.

Sichuan pepper, amber and benzoin leant a combustable warmth to the composition, whilst Japanese lily, Bulgarian rose and lactic milk accords an opulent facet. Regarded as a huge commercial flop upon its release, Le Feu d’Issey is a perfume which many look upon now, some 15 years later, as an abstract masterpiece.

Click for the rest of the tour

 

Thanks, M.J. Rose, for sharing your inspiration with us.  Please follow the discussion on Twitter:  With Hashtag: #LostFragrancesVirtualBookTour

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Guest Post: Plot Hinge: Where Fact Shapes Fiction by Josh Martin

February 17, 2012 by

Today, I’ve got a guest post form Josh Martin about Plot Hinge, a website community dedicated to the serialized novel, especially those shaped by the real world.  The site offers a brief history of the serialized novel, and offers some bonus content, including an alternate chapter by Emily St. John Mandel (I reviewed her novel Last Night in Montreal).

If you are interested in participating, you can contribute by offering some writing, artwork or advice.  Now, without further ado, here’s Josh.

If. For such a little word it certainly packs a lot of significance. If we never met at that coffee shop all those years ago, we wouldn’t be married. If I hadn’t missed my flight I’d have gotten that job. If it keeps raining our basement is going to flood. It’s remarkable how much this tiny word shapes who we are and where we end up in life.

My latest writing project, Plot Hinge, is built around that two-letter word and lets chance decide the outcome of online serial novels.

Here’s how it works.

Each week a new chapter will be posted on the Plot Hinge website. At the end of each chapter the story will be left at a cliff hanger with the story able to progress in a couple different directions. We then connect the story to an upcoming, real-world event. The outcome of that event will decide which direction the plot will proceed and the following chapter is written accordingly.

For example, at the end of the current story’s Prologue (click here to go there now), the readers are left with the plot able to go in a couple directions. Whether or not Wiarton Willie sees his shadow on Groundhog Day (Feb 2) will decide which of those directions the story takes.

It’s a new approach to storytelling that leaves the fate of the plot to chance. The result is an unpredictable but hopefully very rewarding experience for both the reader and me as the author.

So how will these Plot Hinge serial novels end? Well, that’s a bit iffy.

We live in an exciting time where technology and social media are pushing the boundaries of traditional writing and publishing. The internet opens up opportunities to innovate and experiment with new forms of storytelling. Thanks to platforms like blogs, Facebook and Twitter, the walls between readers and writers are starting to crumble, allowing the two sides to interact and collaborate.

I think there will always be a place in the world for traditional, printed books. The tactile experience alone gives them value. But I’m excited about the future of publishing and finding new ways to create and share stories. My hope is that Plot Hinge, and interactive and dynamic stories like it, can contribute in some small way to this evolution of storytelling.

Plot Hinge’s debut serial novel, Run, is now live. You can learn more, read the latest installments and subscribe for free at www.plothinge.com.

Thanks, Josh, for sharing a little bit about your project with us. What do you think about serialized novels and bringing those to the Internet?

About the Creator:

Josh Martin is the creator and author of Plot Hinge serial novels. He was born and raised in rural southwestern Ontario, Canada, with seven siblings. He’s been a writer ever since his story “Super Something” won first prize at the Dungannon Fall Fair when he was in grade 1.

He now lives in the Guelph, Ontario, area where he works as a freelance writer, blogger, and serial novelist. He’s a cancer survivor, card-carrying member of the Sour Toe Cocktail Club, and an avid hiker.

Visit his Website to read more of his work: www.joshmartinink.com.

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Guest Post & Giveaway: The Lovesick Author by Spencer Seidel

February 14, 2012 by

Valentine’s Day is the time to celebrate your loved ones whether they are spouses, significant others, boyfriends, girlfriends, etc.  But there is a darker side to love that creeps into novels like Lovesick by Spencer Seidel.

In the novel, forensic psychologist Dr. Lisa Boyers receives a call from an old friend Attorney Rudy Swaner who needs her to interview young killer Paul Ducharme, who claims he does not remember the events of a murder.  However, as she helps him uncover his memories, she realizes that she must confront her troubled past.

Today, Spencer Seidel is offering us a guest post about the darker side of love.  Please give him a warm welcome.  Also, stay tuned for a giveaway for my U.S. and Canadian readers:

Fiction is best when the author’s voice cannot be heard. But sometimes, inevitably, that voice creeps in. Perhaps a character’s political views too conveniently match those of the author. Or perhaps the raunchy, inorganic sex scenes you’re reading in a new novel make you wonder if the author’s wife really turns her back to her husband at night.

That gets me to thinking. What if an author were to fall hopelessly head-over-heels in love with a character? Better yet, what if he were compulsively and obsessively (ahem) lovesick with his own creation? Hell, it’s Valentine’s Day! We can have a little creepy fun with that, right? Surely things would eventually take a turn for the worse for our poor lovesick author. . .

I imagine a messy desk, littered with manuscript paper, sketches, rejection letters, and overdue bill notices. Above this, a series of composite photos of a woman are pinned to the wall, every image lovingly and painstakingly photoshopped together from various files pulled from Google. Each is slightly different from its neighbor. The woman to the right has larger lips. The other, at the end of the row, smaller breasts. Our author hasn’t gotten her quite right yet and never will. It’s more fun that way. Perhaps she was an old lover or someone he used to know. Or maybe this woman is no one at all. A figment of his imagination. His perfect woman.

The author himself is seated there at his desk, a scotch just out of reach of his right hand. Next to it, a cigarette smolders in a dirty ashtray. The room is dark because the shades are always closed. A pale, unnatural glow from the computer monitor highlights our author. His brown hair spikes outward in greasy clumps. His beard is dark and patchy on his white skin. He wears a faded threadbare bathrobe, untied. He is naked underneath.

To our author’s left is a stack of manuscript paper a foot and a half high, each page neatly aligned with the one beneath and filled with double-spaced type. There must be 1,000 pages or more stacked there, representing years of work.

He types loudly, angrily, in bursts, while gazing absently at the monitor in front of him. Gulps his booze. Pulls hard on his cigarette from time to time. After each writing session, he masturbates compulsively while studying her picture and waiting for his laser printer to finish printing the day’s work.

For months before she left him for good with their young daughter and black lab in tow, his wife tried to understand. She begged him to stop, but like a compulsive gambler, our lovesick writer can’t. He loves his character too much to stop writing about her. And it will cost him everything: his wife, his writing career, his health, his house, and his sanity. In the end, having spent a lifetime writing about his imaginary woman, he will likely die in a psychiatric ward at his keyboard, and his creation will cease to exist shortly after.

On page 18,699.

Thanks, Spencer, for sharing this darker side of love with us.  If you’d like to win a copy of Lovesick, please leave a comment here about the dark obsession of love.  Deadline to enter will be Feb. 29, 2012, at 11:59PM EST.  Happy Leap Year and Happy Valentine’s Day!

For additional chances to win, check out the Blog Tour Scavenger Hunt.

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Guest Post: The Heart of the Writing Space by Sheryl Steines

February 8, 2012 by

Sheryl Steines, author of The Day of First Sun, is stopping by the blog today to talk about her writing space and how the heart of her home became to best place for her to complete a novel that has vampires, zombies, and magical wizards.

Her novel (according to the Amazon synopsis):

In this Young Adult Fantasy, Annie Pearce and Bobby “Cham” Chamsky are tracking the vampire Sturtagaard who they believe is creating a zombie army. Before they find him and learn why, the FBI recruits them to solve the murder of the mortal Princess Amelie: who they believe was killed by magical means. Amelie’s magical boyfriend Jordan is missing and with him the key to finding her murderer. The key, a magical glass Orb used to capture and trap souls, is the vital item needed to create the zombie army.

The vampire Sturtagaard needs it and when Annie and Cham finally catch up with Jordan, they encounter Sturtagaard too. While in custody, Jordan is murdered and the Wizard Council becomes aware that there is a mole in the council who is hampering the case. It becomes clear that Amelie and Jordan’s death is collateral damage in a plot to overthrow the ruling Wizard Council. A trap is set using the Orb, knowing that someone is desperate to have it. Annie and Cham need to hurry before the magical holiday, The Day of First Sun, a time when the magical energy created on that day can expose their world and endanger the non magical society as well. The Orb, the Wizard Council and the world are waiting on Annie and Cham.

I just love fantasy worlds with vampires and zombies. Now, without further ado, please welcome Sheryl as she shares with us her writing space.

My workspace. It probably wouldn’t be considered the most productive place in which to write a book. I really tried when I first started writing. I set up my desk in the guest room with my computer, my printer, extra pens and paper. You know, an office separate from the rest of the house, where I could go and work. The first time I sat at the desk I remember how quiet that room was. Really, really quiet. I was fidgety and would find other things to do. A little filing, a little cleaning, a little internet searching. For white noise, I brought in my MP3 player, but all that accomplished was a good deal of daydreaming. My dreams of writing the next great American novel would never materialize at this rate.

Every workspace is individual to the person who uses it. We find comfort in the things around us, and hopefully become inspired by those spaces. If a space limits our creativeness, or makes us uncomfortable or doesn’t offer us inspiration then we need to find a new space to work.

I moved my workspace to the family room, the heart of my home. It has a big comfortable couch, blankets when I’m cold and it’s close to the kitchen. And most importantly, it had a television. Now I don’t recommend doing homework or writing a best selling book with the television on, but I have to say, with the right program, the white noise, keeps me sane and even focused. And sometimes, a particular program, a word, a thought, a plot twist can inspire something grand.

Eight chapters into my second book, I happened to be watching Torchwood, one of my favorite science fiction programs. The storyline of the show was similar to the storyline in my book. And I paid special attention to the plot. I was concerned with how the characters got themselves into the problem and back out, how the story flowed and progressed to the finale. I realized quickly that my own work, my plot, my characters, had taken the easy way, something that I found myself doing in my first book. And it occurred to me at that moment, that sometimes a little stress, a little angst, a little in fighting and definitely not working through the problem quickly is the way that I should now be thinking of my story. I made a book altering decision and rewrote the first eight chapters of my book and I didn’t look back.

My goal isn’t to rewrite what others have done. My desire as I watch television shows and book in my genre, is to remind me and inspire me to think about things in a different way, remind me that there are no rules, no formula to a fantasy novel. It only takes that one idea, to spark an entire book.

Moving my workspace to my family room was a much more productive workspace than the quiet of my guest room. Though I have to admit, when the kids are home from school, it’s not the easiest of places to work. I have to learn how to do my most productive work when they’re not home, make sure that I set aside a time to only work and not get caught up into the rest of my life. My writing is my full time job and I need to treat it as such.

The workspace is far more than a place to sit down and write a little. It has to offer us comfort and safety as we continue to strive to meet our goals. As unconventional as my space may seem, it is the place that I work well in, it offers me a chance to find inspiration and I don’t dread my time there. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Thanks, Sheryl, for sharing your workspace with us.

About the Author:

Sheryl Steines’ mind is chaotic and surprising and it shows in her writing. Never one to sit back and see what may come, Sheryl is driven to write everyday. Somehow, amidst the chaos, she finds the time to volunteer and give talks to book clubs and students about her writing. She even walked the Avon Breast Cancer walk two years in a row.

Sheryl’s series Annie Loves Cham is full of surprises and mystery. Refusing to be restricted by genre Sheryl has taken the characters she loves and set them in new situations which test them and their friendships. The second book in the series is set to release in late summer 2012.

Follow her on Twitter and Facebook. Also check out her blog.

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Guest Post: A Tiger Mom’s Writing Spaces by Nina Benneton, author of Compulsively Mr. Darcy

February 3, 2012 by

Compulsively Mr. Darcy by Nina Benneton was released on Feb. 1 from Sourcebooks Landmark. In this modern re-telling, Dr. Elizabeth Bennet tries to overcome her own intimacy issues, while Mr. Darcy is looking for a woman to love him and all his obsessive compulsive tendencies. Through a serious of complications and misperceptions, Benneton weaves a modern fairy tale in her modern debut that will have Austen lovers salivating.

Today, I’ve got a real treat for those of you that love a look into writers’ lives and into their writing spaces.  Nina Benneton is going to share with us her “Tiger Mom Writing Spaces.”

Without further ado, please give her a warm welcome.

I’m a Tiger-mom with a pride of active children. My writing space is usually wherever my body is at the moment.

A tiny desk near a little-used front door at Chawton served as Jane Austen’s writing space two hundred years ago.

I call this Jane Austen writing space. The family refers to this as Mama’s throne, my Jane Austen writing space in one corner of the family room. On that round table there, I keep whatever reference books I need for the novel I’m working on (three novels concurrently). Six feet to the left of my chair, a piano sits, convenient for me to Tiger-mother-supervise daily piano practice while I’m writing. To the right of my chair is a large, flat-screen TV that’s rarely on, thank goodness. Diagonal from my chair is a large sectional couch where my husband sits and practices his guitar, and where my kids read or play games (and make too much noise). My favorite and best writing time is in the morning, when I wake up at 3:30 AM to get some writing done right in this chair, and the room is quiet and empty. I get the majority of my fresh writing done until 6:00 AM, when the family wakes up. On the weekends, it’s golden because they don’t get up until 9AM or later and I can actually get 6 hours in. I go to bed two hours after the children do, at 10:00PM (after I sneak in some editing or working on writing classes’ assignments).

I call this my Virginia Woolf space. My writing office is off the master bedroom, on the other side of the house, away from the family room. Because I don’t want to isolate myself physically from my family, I’m rarely in here. When I need absolute silence to concentrate, I come here. My family is very good about respecting my time in here and only bother me if they absolutely cannot find the milk on the fridge shelf right in front of their noses, or if they can’t tell if the dishwasher is dirty or clean, or if someone is calling someone a naughty name.

I call this writing space my Blue Highways space (since William Least Heat-Moon space is too much of a mouthful). I have my daughter’s old pink Princess laptop pillow in the backseat of the van. (Not enough space for my laptop behind the steering wheel). When my kids are at ballet or soccer or swimming practice, I’m in the backseat of the van in the parking lot working on my writing. I go to performances and games, but during practice times, even if it’s only fifteen or twenty minutes in the parking lot, I steal for my writing.

I do most of my pre-writing plotting, brainstorming, getting into the character’s inner rhythm etc… while I’m doing mundane things like making meals, cleaning house, errands and so forth. When I sit down to write, I already know how I want the scene to go. First draft writing is the hardest for me—as I need quiet to create. I make sure I write 1000 words a day at least when I’m doing first draft. Revisions and editing I can do anywhere, anyplace, with noise etc… I basically steal bits of time for my writing. I’m deep editing my third novel, letting my fourth rest, and writing first-draft my fifth.

Thanks, Nina, for sharing with us your writing space.

About the Author:

Nina Benneton was a scientist on her way to save the world and win a Nobel Prize in something, anything, when a rare-bird enthusiast nut whisked her off her restless feet. A flock of beautiful children and a comfy nest kept Nina contented in domestic bliss until one day, she woke up and saw that she was too obsessed with alphabetizing her spices and searching for stray Barbie shoes.

Find her on Facebook, Website, and Austen Authors. Her book is also on GoodReads.

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Guest Interview: Rock Band Glossary’s Joey Knieser Gets Literary by Vicki Keire

January 20, 2012 by

While I often talk a lot about books, poetry, writing, and author and publishing events, I rarely talk about music here, even though it is one of my passions.  I could go on and on about the reasons I love certain bands and certain genres of music, and why I dislike other bands and other genres of music.  However, rather than listen to me ramble on about my tastes and thoughts, I thought I’d share with you an interview from Vicki Keire with Glossary‘s Joey Knieser and his thoughts on books.  (Click on the band name for a few YouTube videos of their songs)

Without further ado, please welcome Vicki and Joey.

The summer before I met Joey Knieser of the rock band Glossary, I was hundreds of miles from home writing the novel that would eventually become The Chronicles of Nowhere (volume one released today through Curiosity Quills Press.) I spent the weeks preceding our meeting wandering beaches bleached white as bone, watching as BP oil-choked kelp rolled in and strangled the shoreline.

Armed only with a battered laptop, I propped it open and listened to my modest music library while watching the waves, waiting for them to carry away the personal disaster that had driven me here. That’s when Glossary started to haunt me. One album in particular became a favorite, on almost constant repeat: their album Feral Fire, with the aptly named “Your Heart to Haunt” in heavy rotation. If the band hadn’t planned a stop in my hometown that summer, I’m not sure I would have come home. But come they did, and I had the genuine pleasure of both hosting them in my home and seeing them play one of the songs most influential to my writing. Naturally, Glossary is at the top of my list when I think about writing and music, and how, for me, the two often intersect.

I caught up with guitarist/ singer-songwriter Joey Knieser to find out if books had a reciprocal power with musicians. Joey, along with most of the band, lives in Murfreesboro, TN, just outside of Nashville. He graciously agreed to answer questions on everything from his favorites books to the impact of the digital revolution on books and music:

Q: What books are you reading now or want to read?

A: I am currently in the middle of reading Tom Franklin’s novel, Hell at the Breech. I’d like to read the rest of Tom Franklin’s stuff. There are a couple Walker Percy books that I haven’t read, and I hope that I will be able to some day.

Q: What are some of your all time favorite books?

A: My all-time favorite books are Twain’s Huckleberry Finn and Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.  Just like the music I seem to go back and listen to over and over again, these classic books just seem to have in them something that appeals to me. You could pick up these two books at any time and read a couple sentences, and before you know it, you’re back into reading it for the millionth time. Being a Southerner, these books have become really important to me.

Q: Do you prefer eReaders or “regular” books, and why?

A: I prefer eReaders because I’m legally blind, and before the eReader, I was limited in what I could read. I had to read only what I could find in large print. But now, with an eReader, I can read any book by just increasing the size of the font.

Q: Do you think the digital revolution will have similar effects on the book industry as it has had on the music industry?

A: Absolutely. It will have the same effect in that content is delivered directly to the customer, which, as a result, changes the current business model that both those industries have had up to this point. In the music industry, there seems to be less and less of an importance to have major labels. In the same way, in the book publishing industry, it seems that the major publishing companies have less and less importance. The digital revolution has put the power in the hands of the artist. The way an artist can connect with an audience is simple and direct. The only problem the artist will have now is to find their audience.

Q: Your album Feral Fire got its name from Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. What about the novel appealed to you?

A: The quote from the novel had little to do with the novel itself. I liked the novel, but they were two words that poked out to me. I thought the alliteration had a real sense of longing. I could never really get that title out of my head while I was writing the songs for the album. It seemed like “feral fire” had a sense of longing and desperation, and basically I felt the songs on the record reflected those emotions.

Q: Are any of your songs influenced by books, and if so, which ones?

A: There are several. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Calpurnia takes Scout and Jem to a church and they sing a hymn that talks of heaven being, “the sweet forever.” I thought that was a great way to describe eternity. I used that phrase to actually title one of my songs in Feral Fire. I did write “Adalina” after I read The Sun Also Rises, because the song deals with a man that can’t have the woman that he wants much like the narrator in The Sun Also Rises can’t have Lady Brett. I actually used a line in “Adalina” that is straight from the book: “of all the ways to be wounded.” I just used it in the same way that Hemingway does, that there are a million ways to be wounded in this world, but that one person you love so much doesn’t love you the same way, and that’s the deepest sort of pain you’ll ever experience.

Q: What particular genres interest you?

A: Being a Southerner, I’m always drawn to Southern writers. Southern goth, too. Anything that deals with the issues of Southern culture and identity, books that deal with the Southern culture and way of life.

About the Band:

Glossary just released its seventh album, Long Live All of Us, available from This Is American Music and Last Chance Records. Glossary has been featured on NPR’s World Café, mentioned in USA Today, Paste magazine, and numerous other acclaimed music publications while being routinely featured on too many “Best of” lists to count. The band consists of bassist Bingham Barnes, singer/percussionist Kelly Knieser, pedal steel/guitarist Todd Beene, drummer Eric Giles, and frontman/ guitarist Joey Knieser.

 

Vicki Keire

About the Interviewer:

Vicki Keire grew up in a 19th Century haunted house in the Deep South full of books, abandoned coal chutes, and plenty of places to get into trouble with her siblings. She has taught writing and literature at a large, football-obsessed university while slipping paranormal fiction in between the pages of her textbooks. She is the author of the bestselling Angel’s Edge series, which includes Gifts of the Blood and its sequel, Darkness in the Blood. She is included in the Dark Tomorrows anthology with J.L. Bryan and Amanda Hocking and now writes full time. You can find her online.

 

This post is part of the Curiosity Quills Blog Tour 2012.

Curiosity Quills is a gaggle of literary marauders with a bone to grind and not enough time for revisions – a collective, creating together, supporting each other, and putting out the best darn tootin’ words this side of Google.

Curiosity Quills also runs Curiosity Quills Press, an independent publisher committed to bringing top-quality fiction to the wider world. They publish in ebook, print, as well as serialising select works of their published authors for free on the press’s website.

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Guest Post: A Workspace and Inspiration by Jeanette Baker

January 18, 2012 by

Irish Lady by Jeanette Baker is about Meghann McCarthy who had left Belfast behind until Michael Devlin re-emerges and needs her help.  He’s charged with murder, but as she attempts to uncover the truth, a history reveals itself through a series of linked histories back to the time of Queen Elizabeth.  This is an emotionally charged romance novel with intrigue and mystery.

Today, Jeanette Baker is offering to share her writing space with my readers and to share a little bit about what inspired her to write Irish Lady.  Please give her a warm welcome and stay tuned for a giveaway.

No one would ever call me a perfectionist. I’m more of a big-picture, good-enough kind of person, but my environment, both writing and living, has always been important to me. My personal space has changed over the course of my career, adapting with the changes in my family and my finances. At first, when my children were small, my “space” was a small computer table and steno chair in the family room. My children played games, watched television and invited friends to play while I created and typed away, oblivious to noise, music and, occasionally, minor wounds.

As my family grew and square footage increased through moves and room additions, I graduated to my own office complete with desk and chair, a comfortable couch and, the most wonderful of inventions, a laptop computer which allowed me to move between desk and couch as the mood struck. Over the years, I’ve done away with the desk and straight-backed chair, choosing to, at first, keep files in a cabinet and, eventually, in bookmarked pages on my computer. I’ve come full circle because, now that I’m an emptynester, my office has returned to the family room. I sit in a very deep, comfortable chair, usually cross-legged but, sometimes, with my legs stretched out in front of me on an equally comfortable ottoman.

I love color and my space reflects it. My chair and ottoman are a deep garnet-red. A chest hand painted in gold, black and more red serves as a coffee table for my tea habit and the shelves of my bookcases are painted a dark, lacquered green. Even more than writing, reading is my passion. I surround myself with books, hundreds and hundreds of books, written by authors who inspire me, as well as photos of my family to remind me of my focus, and prints of Ireland and Scotland, the settings for many of my novels.

The idea for IRISH LADY first came about after living for several years in Belfast, Northern Ireland. A country divided by religion and economics for 800 years has more than its share of conflict. Meghann McCarthy escaped the slums of Belfast to become a rich, successful attorney in London. Yet she can never quite banish Ireland from her heart, or forget Michael Devlin, the boy she once loved with a passion that nearly tore her apart. When Michael, a notorious Irish nationalist, is accused of a heinous crime, Meghann agrees to defend him. But even as she jeopardizes her hard-won success, she finds the true power and spirit of the Irish heritage she has too long denied…and the courage to face her love for Michael. Meanwhile, throughout her life, Meghann is regularly visited by visions of her direct ancestor, Nuala O’Donnell, a noblewoman from the 16th century who struggles to keep her husband, legendary hero, Rory O’Donnell, and their land free from English occupation.

The furniture changes, as well as the size of the space, but comfort, the perfect chair, access to a cozy pot of tea and a wall plug are consistent staples of writing space.

Thanks, Jeanette, for sharing your writing space with us.

To enter for 1 copy of Irish Lady, please leave a comment about how far you would go for love.

If you follow, tweet, Facebook, or otherwise share the giveaway, leave a comment with links for more entries (up to 4 additional entries)

Deadline is Jan. 25, 2012, at 11:59PM EST (US/CANADA)

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Guest Post: The Home of Visual Imagination by Amanda Grange

December 13, 2011 by

Amanda Grange is one of the most well-known writers of Austenesque retellings from Mr. Darcy’s Diary to her latest Henry Tilney’s Diary.  Henry Tilney is one of the main characters in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, which is the novelist’s sarcastic take on the Gothic novel and its frivolity.

Grange’s diary series of books focus on the heroes of Austen’s novels, though there is one about a villain Wickham.  In all of these diary books, Grange gives readers an inside look into the thoughts and pasts of Austen’s male characters, and she does it all while keeping with Austen’s vision and wit.

Today, I’ve got an inside peek into Grange’s writing space and habits.  Please give her a warm welcome and stay tuned for a giveaway.

I do a lot of my writing in my head before I commit anything to paper. When I’m writing my Jane Austen retellings, I start by rereading the original novel. If it’s a nice day, I do this outside, often going to a nearby stately home or formal garden so that I can soak up the elegant, leisurely atmosphere of days gone by. As I read, I let my mind wander over all the questions that occur to me. What was Henry like as a child and young man? What kind of relationship did he have with his parents and siblings? What was life like for him when his mother died? When did he discover a love for Gothic novels? Where did he read them?

I have a very visual imagination, and as I ask the questions, I build pictures in my mind. This is easier if I’m somewhere spacious and elegant, as I can look around and imagine the characters walking round a corner or sitting in an arbour.

Sometimes I will start writing longhand, on a large notepad, and I often do this out of doors if the weather is good. I’ve written quite a few scenes sitting on the bench in the photo, which is at a nearby stately home. Then, once I’m in full flow I move onto the computer. My study is very plain, because once I get down to the actual business of writing, I don’t like distractions. The walls are a neutral colour without any pictures and there is no furniture apart from essential office furniture. My desk is large because I’m an untidy worker and I need space for all my notes, as well as my research books. I start off in an organised fashion, making neat notes in a word document, but I soon resort to scribbling things down on any piece of paper that comes to hand – an envelope, a copy of the Radio Times, anything. If I’m out, I make notes in a notebook I keep in my handbag, except when I forget it, which is often. Then I will scribble ideas down on an old receipt, train ticket or in fact anything that can be written on. I end up with a jumble of papers on my desk and I daren’t throw anything away in case it turns out to be vital.

Once the book is finished, I throw everything away with a great sense of freedom and tidy my study, which remains pristine until I start the next book. I always say I will take a break before starting the next book, but in fact I get itchy fingers and it’s usually only a week or so before I’m raring to go again.

Thanks for sharing your writing space with us. To enter for 1 copy of Henry Tilney’s Diary by Amanda Grange:

1. Leave a comment on this post about what Austen villain you’d like to see write a diary.

2. Blog, Tweet (@SavvyVerseWit), or Facebook the giveaway for up to 3 more entries.

3. Follow this blog and let me know for another entry.

Deadline Dec. 20, 2011, at 11:59PM EST. US/Canada only

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Guest Post: Out of the Pantry by Patrice Sarath

December 6, 2011 by

Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen has transformed into a subgenre of its own with retellings, spinoffs, continuations, and re-imaginings. What keeps these books going is the fresh perspective that each author brings to the story and its characters.

Patrice Sarath is bringing her talents to the fore in The Unexpected Miss Bennet, which tells Mary Bennet’s story. She’s the one considered unremarkable and religious in the original novel. But in this iteration, Sarath takes her on a journey because she’s uncertain about her future of spinsterhood. Today is the release of The Unexpected Miss Bennet.

Today, I have a treat for my readers, a glimpse into her writing space. Please enjoy.

Up until six months ago, I wrote in my pantry. That’s right, my pantry. See, we have a small house, barely big enough for the four of us, so my husband created a writing space for me in our combined laundry room/pantry. It was big enough for my desktop and contained all of my writing miscellanea, as you can see. In the summer, it got pretty hot, so I wrote to the constant sound of a fan positioned at the doorway. In the winter, I kept warm from the dryer.

I wrote four novels and countless short stories in that pantry. I think my success was due to the womb-like nature of the writing space. The only way out of that room was to write my way out of it. I sat with my back to the door, and the world went away, so much in fact that my daughter would have to call me by my first name to get my attention, causing me to jump.

But life goes on, first daughters grow up, and after she went to college, we started to eye her bedroom. Wow, what an awesome space for an office, I thought. We could create a shared guestroom office space – our daughter could stay there on breaks, and I’d have a window for writing.

So we took out the carpet, fixed the ceiling, painted, and put in beautiful flooring. I put in my desk and computer, put up the bookcase my husband made, and made a beautiful writing space for myself.

And promptly got a very bad case of writer’s block. Too much light and air, I think. Too many distractions. It took awhile to get over that. I don’t take change well, and it was a shock to my system. Sometimes I find myself going into the pantry to sit down and write, only to be shocked with how my former space is taken up with household stuff.

So I find my way to the new office, settle in with music and the fan, just useful as white noise now, and fully expect the next years to bring me the same joys and heartache and frustration and elation that writing always brings. I still have to write my way out of the room. It’s just a bigger room.

Thanks, Patrice, for sharing your writing space with us.

Photo Credit: Ben Van Dyke

About the Author:

Patrice is a writer and editor in Austin, Texas. Her first novel, Gordath Wood, came out from Ace in the summer of 2008, and the sequel, Red Gold Bridge, in 2009. Gordath Wood is hard to categorize. It’s fantasy but with only a touch of magic to it.

Like most writers, she has a day job at Hoover’s, Inc. where she writes about business and commerce as it relates to the financial and construction industries.  In the evenings she writes fiction, including her new release The Unexpected Miss Bennet.

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The Inspiration Behind Camp Nine by Vivienne Schiffer

November 18, 2011 by

Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of speaking with Vivienne Schiffer, author of Camp Nine, about her inspiration for the book (my review). 

Today, she graciously offered to share with you the story and share a photo of the real cemetery that inspired her journey into the internment camp for Japanese-Americans during World War II.

Please give her a warm welcome.

Camp Nine was inspired by my personal experience growing up in Rohwer, Ark., a town that was so small it was the perfect spot to hide nearly ten thousand Americans of Japanese ancestry where virtually no one would find them. There, my grandfather, Joe Gould, Sr., a wealthy landowner, sold hundreds of acres to the federal government to build what was euphemistically called the Rohwer Relocation Center. The United States government maintained that the Japanese Americans of California, Oregon and Washington were being simply “relocated” for their own protection, and for the protection of the war effort in sensitive military areas. In fact, it was pure racism. Powerful business lobbies on the West Coast didn’t want the Japanese Americans there. They’d been trying to exclude them for decades. Finally, they had the perfect excuse, and the federal government was the perfect ally.

By the time I was born fifteen years later, not only was the camp gone, even memory of it seemed to have faded. But how odd even that was. In 1942, the population of tiny Rohwer, Ark., swelled almost one hundred fold, from around one hundred people, most of them poor white and African American tenant farmers, to nearly ten thousand people, well educated city dwellers and prosperous farmers from somewhere far away. When the war ended, Rohwer abruptly shrank back to a population of one hundred, and fifteen years after the fact, not a soul in town mentioned that anything had ever happened. The only signs available to a small child were a brown government sign pointing the way over a dirt bank supporting railroad tracks, an incinerator smokestack, a tar-paper barracks formerly used as a hospital, and the ghost, the thing of beauty, the specter that crouched under the trees and hid in the cotton field: the haunting and lovely cemetery.

Copyright Vivienne Schiffer

That there were camps in the Deep South is news to even the well-informed. Japanese Americans from the camps did interact with their neighbors, and there were culture clashes. Unlike their counterparts in the western states, the Arkansans had never had any personal interaction with anyone of Asian ancestry. Their knowledge was limited to stereotypes and cartoons. Fear and resentment were real and were amplified by gossip. But the prisoners were Americans first. The only ethnic group required to prove their loyalty to the United States, men from the Rohwer Camp were a part of the “Go for Broke” team, the 442nd Regimental Combat Unit, the most highly decorated combat unit of its size in American military history. The 442nd famously liberated Rome (although they were stopped at the gates so that newsreels could record only white soldiers entering the city) and rescued the Lost Battalion of Texans in one of the most celebrated battles of the European theatre.

Camp Nine honors the Japanese Americans who endured their ordeal with grace and dignity, as well as those Caucasian Americans who protested their mistreatment and sought to make their lives better.

Thanks, Vivienne, for sharing your inspiration with us.

If you’re interested in reading about how WWII impacted U.S. communities, especially after the government began establishing internment camps for Japanese-Americans, you should check out Camp Nine.

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