REVIEW OF 1/1: JIHAD - BRITAIN BY DAVID COLES AND JACK EVERETT

  I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I found it impossible to put down and really wanted to know what happened next. The action moves from country to country in the build-up to the 1/1 New Year terrorist tragedies. With thousands dead at the hands of Islamic fundamentalists, the UK government has no answers. We watch as the Islamic fanatics plot more terror. It is time for a new party, a radical party, the Independents, led by Francis Raike, who promises Draconian laws to deal with those bringing terror to the land.

With its new laws, from the annulment of the Human Rights Act, the split from the EU, the reintroduction of the death penalty and the repatriation of disaffected immigrants, Francis Raike and his team are gradually getting to grips with a country in turmoil.

But then the terrorists pose a new and more terrible threat that will devastate a large part of the country. Can the government catch the perpetrators before it’s too late?

I found this a fast-moving, up-to-the-minute, thriller that posed questions asked by many of us. This is a novel that deals realistically – if frighteningly – with an all-too-modern problem. I enjoyed it very much and heartily recommend it.

STOP PRESS!

George, my husband, is coming home from hospital today! It'll be lovely to have him home with me again. No more long trudge to the hospital. Hurrah!

Stop Press!

Sorry, but I'm not likely to be posting during the next week as my husband's in hospital and I spend most of my time there. Hopefully, he'll be out by the end of the week. Fingers crossed.

Six Assumptions Worth Challenging

For authors: Six Assumptions Worth Challenging

Video Book Trailer for Dead Before Morning

Here's the trailer I made for my latest ebook, Dead Before Morning, the very first crime novel in my fourteen-strong Rafferty & Llewellyn series. It is available on kindle, iPad, iPhone, nook, sobo, android, iBookstore, etc. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo-BPA8GByM

I was interviewed by Beth Hull of Nebula Contacts

Read the interview about my writing here. http://bethhull.com/2010/12/03/nifty-author.geraldine-evans

Interview with Jack Everett and David Coles co authors of 1/1:Jihad - Britain

Here's my interview with Jack Everett and David Coles

authors of the political Thriller 1/1:Jihad - Britain.

Why did you decide to write books in partnership and

how do you divide up the work?

David won a short story contest in a magazine who printed his name & address. I read the magazine and realised we lived 3 miles apart...Our division of labour is as follows:

A Writing Team.

David and Jack have been writing    

t   

together for more years than they can  

remember. It started with a book with  

the working title of Chunnel BC, a

humorous tale of the Romans planning               

a tunnel beneath the English Channel

because Julius Caesar got seasick

outside of the Mediterranean. It never

even made it to the publisher but, as a

first attempt, it was good fun and cemented

a friendship which has lasted longer than

three Prime Ministers.

In the years since then, they have continued the historical theme with a serious novel concerning the disappearance of the Roman Ninth Legion in Britain, a medieval mystery and a WWII story. There have also been fantasy and science fiction novels – built on a shared admiration of Jack Vance’s work. A political thriller – 1/1:Jihad-Britain the most recent. Work in progress includes a historical fantasy and a modern-day crime/mystery novel.

All of these novels have been written as a team. After their first co-operation- which consisted of writing a chapter each during which they attempted to leave the hero in such a diabolical dilemma that much head-scratching ensued- things changed. The writing model is now one

of repeated layers. Typically, after

discussing the main sweep of the plot

for a new book, Jack will begin writing

and pass a week’s work on to David who

rewrites it, checking facts in some cases,

questioning flights of fancy in others and

adding 10% to 20% new material. Once

the initial draft is completed, it goes back

to Jack, back again to David, a process

repeated until both are satisfied and at

each stage, material is added or changed,

phrasing is amended.The model varies, of course, the main input may  come from one or the other but one rule remains paramount: if either of the team dislikes something, it gets pulled. It works for them. In this case, two people writing together generates far more than twice as much fun.

Your latest novel 1/1:Jihad - Britain  sounds interesting.  Can you please tell us what  prompted you to write the book. I'm assuming it was  9/11 and  7/7, but were there other spurs, too?

Firstly the media seemed to be full of it, terrorism seemed to be taking place on a global scale but it was becoming accepted as the norm. We asked the question - how big does an act of terrorism have to be before it makes people sit and take notice? Perhaps take united action.

What do you do to promote your books?

We ask Geraldine Evans to carry an article on her blog! Ha, Ha. And we put it on Facebook and Twitter and a video on Youtube

and Trailer Spy... (sorry, just panting) and we ask anyone that liked it if they would care to review it on Amazon.

Do you have a favourite book? If so, which is it?

Jack's favourite: anything by Jack Vance.

David's favourite: Tales of the Dying Earth by

Jack Vance. This writer, now sadly retired due to blindness, writes like poetry and you get as fond of the anti-hero as you do of the hero.

Why did you decide to write in several genres (Young adult fantasy, adult fantasy, historical, science fiction and thrillers)?

We are always trying to find what goes down best with the readers - the jury is still out. Also you never get fed up with your characters because they are always fresh and new.

Do either of you have other creative talents?

Jack is an award winning  wood turner David writes computer programs (does it for fun!)

 Is there one book that you wish you had written and  why?

Jack: Huckleberry Finn 

David - see favourite  books. If I'd been able to write that, I'd have  mastered prose as poetry and the art of making you smile while I did it.  

A lot of authors seem to start out as short story writers -did you? And if so, what kind of stories have you  written?

Jack: Novel length all the way I never seem capable of telling a story in less than 60,000 words and even then I prefer 100,000+.

David: I have a selection of shorts still awaiting recognition, I think I've had about 4 published in my lifetime so I guess they're not all that good.

Tell us about your typical writing day.

Jack: I am an early riser and like nothing more than to get a thousand words down before 7-30, after breakfast I can write until lunch but I leave the afternoons mainly for chores.

David: My wife gets up and goes to work, for me - breakfast at crack of 9am, fire up the laptop and get creative with the keyboard, write-up some of Jack's work, re-write his or mine and that takes me through to making dinner for the Missus. Maybe a little more after dinner if the muse is still active. There are those other days too, for both of us, writing pieces for the promotion web-sites, following blogs and and keeping the personal web-sites up to date.

 What are you working on now? Or is it a case of having to promote your

Jihad book and not having time to write at present?

Jack's doing the  heavy promotion along with finishing off a crime

thriller involving MI5, MI6 and an ex employee and David's been

working on the final version of an historic fantasy... watch out for the title: Postponing Armageddon

Jack and David’s books can be seen and purchased post free at http://www.jackleverett.me.uk/ or http://www.davidbcoles.co.uk/ or from www.AcclaimedBooks.com and even more at http://www.archimedespresse.co.uk/. A video for their most recent book 1/1:Jihad:Britain can be seen on YouTube by visiting http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ahTkPK7puo and this book is also available from Amazon.

Coming Soon! The authors of 1/1: JIHAD - BRITAIN

 Early in December I will be interviewing co-authors Jack Everett and David Coles about their political thriller 1/1: Jihad - Britain.

Versatile writers, together they have tried their hands at young adult fantasy, adult fantasy, science fiction, historicals and thrillers.

I am very much looking forward to interviewing them and learning more about both them and their work.

Until December...

Proofreading Finished At Last!

Well I've finished all my proofreading. I've done the proofing for both Deadly Reunion, my next hardback for Severn House and Dead Before Morning, my second ebook, which will shortly be up for sale on kindle, iBookstore, nook, sobo, android, etc. Deadly Reunion is due to be published on 24 February 2011.


It's such a relief to get both lots done and finished. It'll be a joy to get back to the creativity of actually writing rather than the boredom of checking. Do you hate checking proofs? I know they have to be done if your final book is to look as you intended, but God, it's a chore!

To change the subject - how are your Christmas preparations coming on? I'm feeling pretty smug. Not only have I bought all my Christmas presents, I've got the damn things wrapped as well! Next, it's the Christmas cards. They seem to take longer and longer each year. But I'll get to them; I've got Sergeant Dafyd Llewellyn's work ethic in spades.

How are your Christmas preparations going? Have you ordered your turkey from the butcher or do you buy a frozen one from the supermarket? We bought a fresh one the other year, but it's so expensive, we're switching back to frozen. I can't say I find the taste any different.

Better go. Those Christmas cards are calling...

WRITE THE FIRST 250 WORDS OF A CRIME NOVEL CONTEST!

WRITE THE FIRST PAGE (250 WORDS) OF A CRIME NOVEL CONTEST!
 
And win 3 signed copies of my novels PLUS, if the winner goes on to finish their novel, I will read and critique it. ENTER NOW UNTIL 31 JANUARY 2011.

I will also write a critique of the winner's entry.

For (brief) rules and to enter, go to my website: http://www.geraldineevans.com/

Excellent Review For Death Dance, my latest Rafferty & Llewellyn crime novel

I've just received a terrific review from Mystery Women for Death Dance. This is my seventeenth novel and the thirteenth in my Rafferty & Llewellyn crime series  http:www.geraldineevans.com

Interview with David Wisehart, screenwriter, director, producer and now novelist

David Wisehart has had a varied career, as a screenwriter, actor, director and producer, in Hollywood and in the UK. Devil's Lair is his first novel.

CAN YOU TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT DEVIL'S LAIR?
Devil's Lair is an epic fantasy set in Dante's Inferno: a medieval knight leads a quest through hell to recover the Holy Grail from the Devil.

The story takes place in Italy, 1349, during the Black Death, when nearly half the population of Europe was wiped out in a few short years. It was an apocalyptic time, a time of enormous sorrow, and yet it birthed one of the world's greatest comic masterpieces, Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron.

Giovanni is my main character. He's a poet, a lover, and a scoundrel. He's also an expert on Dante, and gets recruited against his will to join an expedition through Dante's Inferno to steal the cup of Christ from the Devil. Nadja, an epileptic girl with the gift of prophecy, has visions of the Holy Grail and believes the plague was caused when the Devil stole the Grail. The two other main characters are: the historical William of Ockham, a philosopher-priest; and the fictional Marco da Roma, a Knight Templar with no memory of his past. Together they descend through hell, facing many dangers—including their own personal demons—to save the world from destruction.

YOU'VE HAD SOME GREAT REVIEWS. HAVE YOU ANY PLANS TO BRING OUT A PRINT EDITION?

Yes, Devil's Lair has received some wonderful reviews. USA Today bestselling author Rebecca Forster wrote, "Devil's Lair is by the best book I have read in years!" And Christa Polkinhorn, author of Love of a Stonemason, called the book, "Brilliant!" Both of these authors were writers I interviewed on my Kindle Author blog. After the interview, they bought my book and wrote their glowing reviews on Amazon. I'm quite pleased, of course.

I might release a print edition of Devil's Lair through CreateSpace. No definite plans yet.

YOU HAVE A VERY INTRIGUING BACKGROUND; COULD YOU TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT IT? I'M PARTICULARLY INTERESTED TO LEARN HOW YOU GOT STARTED IN FILM-MAKING.

I went to film school at UCLA and ended up working in the multimedia business, producing educational CD-ROMs based on licensed characters like Snoopy and Charlie Brown. I worked for awhile with Charles Schulz before he passed away. Then I got into video games, landing a producer job at Fox Interactive, where I worked on a kid's adventure game based on the animated movie Anastasia. I directed Meg Ryan and Hank Azaria for the game. I produced several Simpsons games, and got to direct the TV voice cast. I also produced a CD-ROM based on Titanic, and had a chance to work with James Cameron. It was fun for awhile, but the job left me with little time or energy to write my own stuff. I was pretty unhappy there at the end, and creatively unfulfilled. I eventually left Fox to write full-time. I wrote a lot of unproduced screenplays.

 I wrote Valentino: a play in verse and my first novel, Devil's Lair. This year I directed, co-produced, and acted in Valentino at the first-ever Hollywood Fringe Festival. Lately I've been heavily involved in acting and directing theater. I wrote the libretto for an opera, The Other Wise Man. I'm also the stage director for that. It opens in Hollywood December 5. I'm currently casting another play, Friends Like These, which I'll be directing in December for a January run.

WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO PUBLISH ON KINDLE?

I was getting tired of reading letters from agents who said they loved my writing but wouldn't represent my book because they didn't think it was commercial enough. I'd already self-published my uncommercial verse play through Lulu.com, and sold about 100 copies. I decided to publish Devil's Lair myself on Kindle, even if it meant I'd only sell 100 copies. I exceeded that sales number in my second month.

YOU HAVE WRITTEN, DIRECTED AND PRODUCED FILMS AND ARE ALSO AN ACTOR. WHICH OF THESE SKILLS DID YOU FIND OF MOST HELP WHEN YOU STARTED TO WRITE DEVIL'S LAIR?

I trained as a screenwriter, which is a very pure form of storytelling. Screenplays are structure. Plotting now comes very easily to me. Writing great characters took longer for me to learn, and for that my training as an actor helps. One thing that was difficult when making the transition from screenwriting to novel writing was point-of-view. This isn't something a screenwriter worries much about. You are always in the camera's point of view. In other words, the audience's point of view. But for a novel written in limited third-person, or in first person, you are in the point of view of one character. You are in their heads. You know what they know, and only what they know. This is both liberating and limiting. It was a challenge, but I've grown to enjoy it. As an actor I learned to focus on my intention: what does my character want in this scene. That is also what a novelist needs to know when writing a scene from a character's point of view. So acting definitely helps.

WHICH OF THESE PURSUITS GIVES YOU MOST PLEASURE? OR IS IT A CASE OF LOVING THE DIVERSITY?

I'm an introvert by nature, and have written stories since I was a kid. Writing is a more substantial pleasure than stage acting, which is ephemeral. But stage acting, in front of a live theater audience, is much more fun. That's why they call it a play.
WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE ON THE KIND OF BOOK TO WRITE?

I grew up with a love of epic fantasy. My father read Lord of the Rings to me and my brothers when we were kids, and I've read those books more than a dozen times since. One of my favorite passages is the mines of Moria sequence, which is what the ancient Greeks called a katabasis, a descent into the underworld. It's a common theme in mythology, but for me it goes back to Moria. As an adult reading Dante's Inferno, I kept thinking back to Moria. I was reading a lot of Italian literature at the time, researching my verse play, Valentino. It was on a plane ride back from Italy, reading the prologue to Boccaccio's Decameron, that I came up with the idea of Devil's Lair. In his prologue Boccaccio gives a vivid account of the Black Death, which he lived through. Boccaccio was also the first Dante scholar. Elsewhere in his writings he gives an account of some townspeople watching a man walk down the street with a singed beard, and the people exclaiming that it must be Dante returned from hell. Boccaccio's comic idea was that these people really believed in the tale of Dante's Inferno. But what if it were true? What if the Commedia was Dante's actual memoir? And what if Giovanni Boccaccio, Dante's literary heir, was forced by dire circumstances to literally walk in Dante's footsteps? I combined this idea with an idea from the Grail legends, that the loss of the Grail led to terrible plagues and famines in Camelot. Then I knew I had a story. It would be a historical fantasy about a writer, Dante's literary heir, traveling down through Dante's Inferno to steal back the Holy Grail and save the world from history's greatest plague. It would be told in the style of Tolkein's Moria scenes, with an epic quest, fantasy creatures, a reluctant hero, great personal sacrifices, and a surprising-but-satisfying conclusion.
YOU VERY GENEROUSLY INTERVIEW OTHER AUTHORS ON YOUR BLOG (INCLUDING YOURS TRULY!) WHO WAS THE MOST MEMORABLE INTERVIEWEE AND WHY?

I'll give you three.

The first was Stacey Cochran, because his was the first interview I did on the Kindle Author blog. It set the stage. At first I didn't think Kindle Author would be an interview blog. I imagined it would be an advice site for beginning authors, with a bit about my own writing. But within in a week of starting the blog I read a comment that Stacey posted on Jon Konrath's blog, asking for authors with websites to help him with the blog tour of his latest book. I interviewed Stacey, and he sent a lot his readers to my Kindle Author blog. I saw some good traffic from that interview, and realized that interviewing self-published writers was a win-win. I could give them a platform to publicize their books, and they would send more readers my way. This has worked out great so far. Also, I really love interviewing. I learn so much!

The second memorable interview was with Lee Goldberg. Lee is a very successful television producer and novelist. He's traditionally published, but he also self-publishes his backlist books on Kindle. Among other things, Lee writes mysteries based on the TV series character Monk. He gave me a very gracious interview, with lots of wonderful insights, but at the end of the interview I asked him, as I ask everyone, what advice he'd offer to a new writer who wanted to self-publish on Kindle, and he basically said, "Don't." Of course, most of my readers are beginning writers who are self-publishing books on Kindle. Some were upset, and took the comments personally. A few of these writers began posting in forums about what a terrible thing Lee had said in the interview. The interview became controversial. People visited my blog to find out what Lee Goldberg had really said, and I got a lot of traffic from that kerfuffle. So I remember that incident quite well. For the first several months of my blog, Lee's interview was the most-read post on the site. To this day I'm grateful to Lee Goldberg not only for granting the interview, but for kicking the hornet's nest.

The third memorable interview is one I did recently with M.R. Mathias, also a controversial figure online. Mathias has a unique and compelling story. He wrote his fantasy novels while serving time in maximum security prison. Though he rubs some forum readers the wrong way—he has a very in-your-face promotional style—he does have a lot of interesting things to say, and his personal story is a great example of overcoming obstacles, and personal demons, to find success. I'm really glad I had a chance to interview him, and share his personal story with a wider audience.

DO YOU HAVE ANY OTHER INTERESTS? OR DON'T YOU HAVE TIME FOR ANY OTHERS?

I'm interested in many things, but have time for only a few. When people ask me how I can be so productive, I tell them to turn off the television. That's my secret. I don't own a TV, and haven't for years. Of course, I do spend a lot of time on the Internet, but I'm also fairly productive there, as my Kindle Author blog will attest. I generally post at least once a day, and very often more than than.

I think that having various interests has allowed me to ask better questions on a wide variety of topics. The authors I interview seem to appreciate that.

WHAT ARE YOU PLANNING TO DO NEXT?

I'm working on a couple of books. One is a contemporary horror novel called The Highwayman. It's based on a screenplay of mine that recently had an Oscar-winning director attached. The director has an overall deal with one of the big studios, but they passed on the project. He tried to raise independent financing, but couldn't get the funds he thought he needed. My contract with the director expired in October, and he didn't renew, so now the only person attached to the project is me. I'm rewriting it as horror novel. I expect to have a first draft by December 1, and to release it on Kindle before the end of the year.

My opera, The Other Wise Man, opens in December. I wrote the libretto for composer Damjan Rakonjac. He's the music director and I'm the stage director. It's a contemporary retelling of a classic Christmas tale. The production is turning out quite well, and I hope one day it will become a standard holiday piece for churches and smaller opera companies, as an alternative to the widely-produced Christmas opera Amahl and the Night Visitors by Gian Carlo Menotti. I'm working on two more librettos for composer Damjan Rakonjac. One is a short, intimate opera we hope to stage for next year's Hollywood Fringe Festival. The other is full-length opera, based on a well-known literary classic.

Next I'm directing a play, Friends Like These, which was written by LA-based playwright Gregory Crafts. My production will run for three weeks in January. I'm also writing another verse play, and a rather zany farce for the stage, plus I've written a low-budget horror script that I'll direct when I have the money.

Thank you, David, for a very interesting interview. Devil's Lair is available on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Devils-Lair-ebook/dp/B003AOA4IQ

You can learn more about David's work on his website: http://davidwisehart.com/

David is also on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/#!/david.wisehartHe Tweets: http://twitter.com/#%21/DavidWisehart

and has a blog: http://kindle-author.blogspot.com/
where you can read all the interviews to which he refers above.

So You want to be a Writer III

And So To Market!

Well! You've been and gone and done it! Got your book accepted, I mean. That's great. Many, many congratulations. Celebrate. Go on, you deserve it. You've just accomplished something that hundreds, if not thousands of people attempt.

But once the celebrations are over, it's time to get down to work. Apart from starting on your second book (you are, aren't you?), you've got some more hard work to do. Unless your agent and editor think you're going to be a bestseller, they won't offer much in the way of marketing, so you'll have to do it. Of course, you might have enough cash to pay a publicist to do it for you (lucky you!). But if not, the following are the sorts of things you'll have to do:

Get yourself a Facebook Page and make friends, as many as you can manage. I don't mean the ordinary Family and Friends page, this is a Page with a capital P, where you can post about all the amazing things that are happening since you became a soon-to-be author. Mention your book - not so much that people's eyes glaze over when they see a post from your Page, but perhaps once or twice a week.and ask for reviews once it's published, providing the link to the book's page on amazon.

Send out postcards about your book as soon as you have the artwork of the book jacket. Google bookstores and libraries and anyone else you can think of who might do you some good and send them one of your postcards. Put the cover of your book on the postcard along with details of publisher, price, where to buy, your website (you have got one, haven't you?) and a brief synopsis of the book. Add any reviews you've received to the address side of the postcard.

Create, or get a printer to do them for you, flyers and bookmarks to hand out when you give talks about how you wrote your book, your life as a writer, your journey to publication, whatever.

Create a blog (http://www.blogger.com/. It's free) and post regularly once or twice a week.

Join crimespace, librarything, linkedin, theredroom goodreads and post your bio and details of your book.

Don't forget to ask your friends and family to buy it. You'll only receive six or so free copies, perhaps ten if it's a pb, so be mean with them. Don't hand one out to anyone who asks, though you'll have to give one to your other half and perhaps your mum. Make the rest buy a copy.

Ask your local bookstores if you can do a signing. And if you get a 'yes', don't just sit at the table waiting for customers. Wander round the store and hand out bookmarks and flyers. Chat to people. Be as friendly as you know how and some of them might just buy your book. If you've got the free time and can afford the travel expenses, ask for signings further afield, too.

If you can afford to buy however many more copies of your book, contact reviewers (newspapers, magazines, online) and ask if they'll review your book. If so, parcel it up and send it off.

What else? Can't think of anything else for now. But you've got plenty to be getting on with.

And for those of you who received a rejection - take heart. Writing's a marathon, not a sprint. You'll get there. It's just going to take a bit longer. Maybe the next day's post will bring a show of interest from one of those many editors/agents you wrote to. It only takes one. Meanwhile, for a bit of fellow-feeling with other rejected authors, go my my website (http://www.geraldineevans.com/) and click Links, then scroll down and find Rejection Collection (that's what it's called if I remember rightly) and read about what other rejected authors have received. It just might make you feel a bit better. If not, what are you waiting for? Get on with the next book. There's nothing like it for stopping the tears. And it would be good to be able to say you're working on the follow-up when you do get that spark of interest from Miss Ed. Go to it!

Just Out! Audio of Blood on the Bones

Just heard that the audio of Blood on the Bones is now out. Published by Isis Soundings November 2010. Read by the wonderful Gordon Griffin. This is a Rafferty & Llewellyn crime novel. The cover's a bit dark, alas.

Coming Soon! Dead Before Morning ebook

Dead Before Morning, my second ebook, is actually the first in my 14-strong Rafferty & Llewellyn crime series. This will be coming out soon on kindle, iPad, iPhone, Apple, iBookstore, nook, kobo, android, etc. I have been working with Kimberly Hitchens (hitch@Q.com) to make it ready for epublishing. This is the cover. What do you think? (Hope you're able to comment as this has been giving problems.)

Coming Soon: Author David Wisehart

Coming soon to this blog! Writer, Director, Producer and Actor, David Wisehart. He's the author of Devil's Lair, a thrilling adventure through Dante's Inferno, of which USA Today bestselling author, Rebecca Forster said: 'This is by far the best book I have read in years!'. Wow! Some recommendation. Devil's Lair is available now on amazon's Kindle.

Work in Progress - Latest Rafferty & Llewellyn crime novel

Well, I'm halfway through the first draft of my latest Rafferty & Llewellyn crime novel. Hit a snag with the subplot. Going to have to rework it. Luckily, I've come up with a cunning plan! At least, I hope it's cunning. Time will tell.

Not entirely happy with the main plot, either. Gawd! What to do? Scrap the lot and start again? But I'm over a hundred and fifty pages in, so I'm reluctant to do that. I think devilish ingenuity will save it. I often find first drafts a bit lacking. But they've generally been rescued in later drafts. Must be true, otherwise why would my copy-editor for Deadly Reunion (out February 2011), say I handled the character development 'superbly'? Love that man...


With first drafts, of course, you have so much to think about, you just want to get the story down; the characters, the plot development, the subplot (grrr!) and the rest. You haven't got any brain to spare to get it right. That's what later drafts are for. When I think how many drafts I had to go through for Dead Before Morning, my very first crime novel, I'm amazed I finished it. But I did finish it and I'm still proud of it these many years later.

The problem with the subplot I should have seen coming. I would, too, if I could add two and two. Though I might have been all right if it had only been adding. But this was subtracting - a whole different ball game. The problem was obvious from the word go. The problem is one of time. Eight bloody years of time! Way too long a time period to smudge over. But not to worry. As I said, I've come up with a way round it. Will wait to see what it looks like when I get it down on paper.

To divert from the work in progress, my last post was an interview with David Wisehart. I've posted it here on my blog (see below), I've posted it on my website, on Twitter, Facebook, CimeSpace. The trouble I find, is trying to remember where else I should post it. Must make a list. Another one. I'm always making lists. I find them essential or I'd never remember anything. Memory's going, alas.

One of the problems with the main plot is I have one hell of a lot of characters. Admittedly, a lot of them only appear once. At least the suspects are limited, which is the main thing. I often wish I could have my characters marooned snowbound somewhere, as Agatha Christie did, with the telephone lines down and no signal for the mobiles. Trouble is my novels are set in the fictitious Essex town of Elmhurst, not the Scottish Highlands. Could always do as Raymond Chandler advises and have a man come in the room with a gun, I suppose, and shoot half of them. That would be a solution, I suppose. Not a good one, admittedly, but- No, no. Must resist the temptation, if only to keep Dr Sam Dally sweet. He'd be none too pleased to be presented with as many bodies as in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Have you hit snags with your latest novel? Why not post a comment about it? A trouble shared and all that...

Must go. I have to get the copy-edited pages back to my editor. Then I have to wrestle with my latest Rafferty & Co effort. It's not all fun being a writer. But a lot of it is. Better than my many day jobs, certainly.

Till next time.

Interview I did with David Wisehart

The lovely David Wisehart asked to interview me for his blog.http://kindle-author.blogspot.com/2010/10/kindle-author-interview-geraldine-evans.html

So you want to be a writer? II

Following on from my previous posting on this subject; let's suppose you have now finished your novel. It's gone through several drafts.You've checked, or had checked, the spelling, punctuation and grammar. You paid for a professional/begged a knowledgable friend, to critique it for you and have made the necessary changes.

You've printed it out. Read it through again. Noted the remaining typos that show up now you've printed the novel out again, corrected them and reprinted.

Hey! I think you might now be ready to send it out. But how do you choose who to send it to? Simple. You buy/borrow/steal (oops! not really) the necessary reference book. That will be Writers' Handbook or Writers' & Artists' Yearbook in the UK. Writers' Market in the US. And please get the latest edition as these people MOVE, darn 'em. A LOT.


Now you check through the listings, marking up and turning the corners of the pages of your pristine new book (yeah, I know, you hate to do that. Get some post-it notes, then, or similar), those agents/publishers who are interested in your particular type of book, be it mystery, history, romance, sci-fi, and so on. Then you check to see if the listing gives a name for the person who handles your genre and ring up the receptionist to make sure she or he hasn't moved, gone mad or died. Be sure to check the correct spelling of their name. And you send them a letter, telling them a little about yourself and your book and whether you envisage it being the first book in a series and asking if they'll consider reading your book, which you'll describe (briefly) Try to make this letter no more than one page - you don't want to inundate Ms Editor/Agent with your ramblings. That's likely to piss Ms Ed off and she'll put you on her 'Avoid Like The Plague', list.

Then you repeat this letter to other editors/agents dealing with your genre, again ringing the firm to check the individual's name. Do this step as many times as you can afford or till you run out of people. Don't worry about multiple submissions. Who's got the time to hang around while Ms Ed works her way through the slush pile of letters/submissions? The only thing you should allow to limit the number of your submission letters is time and/or money.

Then you wait. Probably for three months, maybe more. But you don't spend the waiting time in idle contemplation of your navel. You get on with the next book. Yes, that's right. More of the same. You don't want to be a one-hit wonder, do you? In your spare time you can do a bit of networking to see if you can't make acquaintance with a few editors/agents that you missed. Or even those you didn't.

In what remains of your diminishing spare time, you get yourself a website organized. Your own Blog, too, would be helpful. And you are on Facebook, aren't you? Tell me you Tweet. Social networking has helped me sell books; there's no reason why it shouldn't do the same for you. Putting the word out is simply preparing the ground for when you are published.

By the way. CONGRATULATIONS! You've got a book out to market. Well done! You're clearly one of the doing writers, rather than one of the thinking about doing, writers.

Till next time and So You Want To Be A Writer III. When I'll post about what happens if Ms Ed rejects you. And - even more important - what to do if she - GASP - accepts your book.

To Kindle, or not to Kindle?

Are you thinking of buying a Kindle? So am I. I've read a lot about them and I want one! I've given my husband a few hints about what he can buy me for Christmas and it's definitely not scarlet underwear. I already buy kindle books for PC and have quite a collection waiting to be read. I'm currently enjoying While the Savage sleeps by Andrew Kaufman.


I've also considered buying an iPad, but they're too expensive for our budget. They look tremendous, but the screen on a kindle is reckoned to be far superior when you only want the gadget to read books, which is my requirement. And then there's the amazon factor to consider. Amazon is the largest market for ebooks, I understand they even have an App which enables you to download from iPad and other ebook formats, though I've yet to find a need to try this. I read widely and I also have a need to buy non-fiction for research and sheer pleasure, so it's the Amazon's kindle for me.

Let me know what you think and what your preferences are.

Hip, Hip, Hip Hooray!

Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday, dear Geraldine. Happy birthday to me!

Introducting American guest blogger, Chris Redding

Chris Redding, an American suspense author, is here today to talk about the importance of setting in stories. She will also tell us something about her novel, Corpse Whisperer, a paranormal romantic suspense. Here's Chris: 

Today I am going to talk a little bit about setting in a story.

In Fiction for Dummies, Randy Ingermanson and Peter Economy write “You are the god of the story world you create, and  you have complete control over everything that happens there. But this doesn’t mean that just anything can happen in your story world. Your story world needs to have an inner logic that drives it.”

The world you create must have scientific laws. (physics, chemistry). There must be conflict. There should be a good and evil.

Let’s examine the parts of our story world.

          There is the physical world. This world could be all water (Waterworld) or be a city as in most urban fantasy. The world will have geography and weather patterns. In Incendiary I have a hurricane hitting New Jersey. I once had someone call me out on it, but if you see how I use it, it isn’t like a hurricane in Florida. It jives with what they are when they reach us up in NJ.

          In your story world, there will be at least one cultural group. Maybe more depending on your genre and what the conflict of the story will be.

          Lastly, your story world needs a backdrop for the conflict. Is there a war going on? Think of the political climate or the religious climate. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible the Salem Witch Trials are a key component.

          As a writer you want your story world to come alive in the reader’s mind.  You want to create a sense of place. Don’t waste a single word. Active descriptions not static. I’ve said it before.

          When describing anything that description should do double duty. It should keep the story moving and, more importantly, evoke an emotion in the reader. I forget this on the first draft.

          Weaving the descriptions into the rest of the story, making it seamless is most effective. Don’t stop the flow of the story. Don’t stop the action to describe what’s around. Think about two people fleeing from bad guys chasing them. They aren’t going to stop and notice the beautiful hydrangeas at one end of the parking lot. On the other hand, if those hydrangeas make the heroine sneeze therefore giving away the characters’ positions, then those flowers are significant.

          If it isn’t pertinent to the story, don’t describe it. If it doesn’t’ move the story ahead, then the reader doesn’t need to know. Is it important that her eyes are the blue of the sky after a rainstorm when someone is trying to kill her? Not unless the killer is targeting her because of those blue eyes.

          To recap, your story world need to have physical rules to follow. You need to incorporate at least one cultural group and the setting is the backdrop for the conflict.

          Thanks for stopping by today. For one lucky winner I have a pot full of chocolate. Leave a comment to be entered into the drawing.

          Chris Redding lives in New Jersey with her husband, two kids, one dog and three rabbits. When she isn’t writing, she works for her local hospital. The above blog was an excerpt from a workshop she will be doing at the beginning of May of writersonlineclasses.com.

          Corpse Whisperer is out on Kindle. A paramedic must solve a murder that didn’t happen yet. Incendiary will be out mid-December in electronic and print.


Thank you, Chris. An interesting blog. The setting is an important element of any story and should be given similar importance as other aspects: something I don't always remember, alas!



Don't forget to post a comment to be in with a chance of winning Chris's pot of chocolate!

Coming soon! American Suspense Author Chris Redding

American suspense author, Chris Redding, has kindly agreed to guest blog. Don't miss it! Be here on Tuesday 19 October 2010, when Chris will be talking about the importance of setting in stories. She will also be telling us something about her latest novel, Corpse Whisperer, a paranormal romantic suspense. Out now on kindle, it is also available in print.

Alongside her novel writing, Chris has also sold stories to confession markets and developed a workshop on writing from the male point-of-view, which she taught three times in 2009.

At the moment, Chris is working on a romantic comedy.

In the meantime, why not visit her website: www.chrisreddingauthor.com and check out her blog: http://chrisreddingauthor.blogspot.com.

See you here next Tuesday!

Women in Crime Ink: No Justice in Oklahoma

Women in Crime Ink: No Justice in Oklahoma

So you want to be a writer...?

So you want to be a writer? Fine. We won't talk about whether the idea of loads of money sparked your desire, even though it's a fallacy that all authors earn megabucks. They don't. Take it from me. No author will sell well if no one's heard of him/her. And most likely no one will hear of you unless your publisher decides you're going to be a bestseller. You'll get minimal marketing. If you want to be marketed you'll have to do it yourself via a website, a blog, postcards, bookmarks, flyers, newsletters, talks, Author Pages on book websites. All while holding down a full-time job, bringing up the kids, doing the shopping, cooking cleaning, whatever. And that's always assuming you actually get published. Because, as all you would-be writers out there know, getting published's the first hurdle.

So what do you do? I can't say I went the obvious route of joining writers' circles and book clubs and the like. I have been a member of writers' circles, but I didn't find them that helpful when it's a novel that you need to be critiqued. Novels are too long to be critiqed at your average writers' circle meeting. Think about it: you're one of maybe a dozen at the once-a-month critique meeting and have to take your turn. So you'll be able to read no more than a single chapter. Spread that out over how many chapters are in the book and you see the difficulty. Who the hell remembers what happened in the earlier chapters by the time they get to the last one? Of course, if you show your face often enough and make friends, you might persuade one or two other members to read your book in its entirety. But it's still not a very satisfactory way of finding out where your work needs improvement. And it will need improvement. Believe me.

So what do you do? Well, once you're sure you've got the fundamentals of line spacing, page spacing, spelling and grammar sorted out, it's time to try the professional criticism route (details of who provides these services can be found in either the Writers' Handbook or the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook). A good professional criticism service is worth its weight in gold and will provide a detailed crit and tell you where your plotting, characterisation, storytelling, etc has gone astray. And though such services are expensive, they're worth it. You're paying for expert advice, so of course it doesn't come cheap. It's what made all the difference for me. I might have mentioned before on this blog that, if it hadn't been for such professional advice, I might still be bemoaning my fate as an unpublished author. But I don't think it's a thing that can be stated too frequently.

I'd written a book a year for six years, all romances, and all aimed at the Mills & Boon market. All while I had a full-time job and household chores to do, too. And all but the last one received nothing but rejections. That last one was Land of Dreams, a romantic novel set in the Canadian Arctic. And while I was finally published, my next romance offering was rejected.

It was when I switched to writing crime novels that I first started paying for a professional crit. And it paid off because that first crime novel, Dead Before Morning, was taken from Macmillan's slush pile and published (1993). It was only the second time I'd sent it out, so as you can imagine, I was thrilled. It was also published in the States, in hardback and paperback and, as it's a backlist book, I'm now in the process of publishing it on kindle. It even sparked interest in a Los Angeles film producer! That came to nothing, alas, but it was exciting while it lasted.

Maybe you've taken my advice and paid for a professional critique and still got rejected. Have you asked yourself whether you're chasing a dying trend? Different types of books are hot at different times and then fade till no editor wants them. Maybe, if you've had nothing but rejections on your current project, you should put it away and start again. Most first books are unpublishable. Writing's a trade and needs to be learned. And no trade is learned overnight. And when you start again, do so with the book you actually want to write rather than the one you think you ought to write. Believe me, when you're writing from the heart, about characters and themes you care about, it shows.

That's it! Lecture over. I hope you've found my observations helpful. If not, and you're still getting rejected, buy yourself a big, fat jokebook, one with a section on writers' woes and you'll at least see that you're not alone. Persevere, as nearly all published writers had to do and if yours is a true vocation, you'll get there.