_ G'Day,

It seems apt that as I've spent the last three and a half weeks in Australia visiting my darling little grandson, my next featured author should live in Australia too. So before I leave these shores for Thailand please welcome Elita Daniels, author of Before Dawn, Tree of Life Book two.  As each and every author I've featured on here, Elita has her own unique way of writing and planning her next novel. Thank you for participating Elita...

 

The idea for Tree of Life came as an isolated scene in my mind of mother and son running from something or someone who wanted to hurt them. There was no story to speak of until my old dog passed away and the reality of mortality hit me. I became completely obsessive about death and I struggled with the idea of having to lose loved ones and that one day my life would end, too.  

With the idea of mortality a story was beginning to take shape. But it wasn't until I came across a picture of Murtagh (a character from Christopher Paolini's Inheritance cycle) that I realised who my main character was going to be. I decided he would be the little boy and that something terrible would happen to him, and he would have to be raised in the immortal elven realm where he suffers the enhanced realities of his morality. I wanted Nature and the elves to be his antagonists, and I wanted him to be his own enemy, not just the bad guys. I also wanted a love story weaved in there with a dark priestess, which he struggles with, so even love itself becomes an enemy. 

The story for Tree of Life came together very quickly then. I went through the process I always do when writing. I keep hundreds of notes. I find as I start writing  ideas just keep coming on their own accord, especially at night when I'm in that stage in between awake and asleep, so I try to keep a pen and paper next to the bed. I like to set my mind to dreaming about different scenes in the story, like a movie going on in my head. 

I also ask myself a lot of questions, starting with the main character - want does he want, what does he hate? If he wants something unusual, who else wants it and who are they? What world is he in? Who is he going to fall in love with? I find asking myself questions will just keep building and fleshing out the story as I answer them. 

I never, ever imagined I would become a writer, even though I've always had a fascination with stories, usually in the form of movies. The two things that motivated me to write were escapism from pain and wanting to be involved in the movie industry. I wrote a screenplay for Project Greenlight and made it to top one hundred with some pretty encouraging feedback. So I decided to try my hand at novel writing with hopes of one day having them adapted into movies. 

One of the reasons I wanted to become an actor was to not only lose myself in fantastic roles, but also to work with extraordinary people who share a passion over the same project and sort of become a little family. I'm experiencing a similar satisfaction being an author. Working with a small team of people who get excited over the same project, the story, the cover design, the videos, and everything else that goes into bringing a book to life. It's been a pleasure to work with my friends and family, and all of you who have supported me along the way. We still have a long way to go, but I'm looking forward to it!  

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Thanks Elita - and thanks everyone who has been following my seriesof featured authors. My next blog post should see me back in Cyprus at the beginning of March. 

May I take this opportunity to thank all of you fab people who have supported me these last few weeks. Both The Assassins' Village and Children of the Plantation, and not forgetting The Surgeon's Blade have done phenomenally well on Amazon. THANK YOU! You all rock!
Have a great week and weekend ahead everyone.

Faithx

_
G'Day,

The days fly past and we've now got less than one week  for our stay in Australia. It's been an amazing experience and no doubt we'll be back. Next time I'd really like to try some of the more serious outback of the Northern territories and Queensland. Until then we'll make the most of North South Wales and ACT.

Can I take this opportunity to thank everyone who has been interested enough to download Children of the Plantation, my second mystery murder novels which has been free for two days. The response has been phenomenal and many readers have taken the opportunity to look at my other books - a huge thank you!

Now on to my main subject today and it is of course on writing matters. I am delighted to introduce C J Ellisson as my featured guest author and I will let her explain how she comes to sit down, plan and write a new novel. C J is a fabulous author and I as well as many other authors can learn a lot from her. Over to you CJ...!

Weaving the Magic by C J Ellisson
 

If we’ve done our job right, when a reader sits down to read our polished novel they should be swept away by the story and finish it in a few sittings. Our work may not appeal to everyone, but when it does, the reader will know it and want to devour the book as quick as they can.

But how do we weave that magic? It appears effortless to the reader and they often expect that we’ll be able to whip up the next story in a matter of weeks. Every author will approach the spell differently, but I’ve found a recipe that works well for me so far.

First, I outline the book with three to five sentences per chapter. The story plan is loose and allows me to have direction on where the book is going, and the ending, while leaving room for the story to happen spontaneously as I’m writing it. Some scenes are much more vivid than others and I’m visualizing the action as I’m creating it.

With my previously published works I had severe memory issues, often having to reread several chapters and my outline before ever being able to start writing for the day. It became a habit to edit the previous day’s work before starting new pages. Now, my memory is better and I’m able to recall the story and action easier, pushing my editing to one or two afternoons a week instead.

Some people like to plow through the whole first draft before editing, but every writer has to find what works for them. I’ve found that by editing as I go I don’t insert plot holes, or leave sub-plots dangling at the end. It also helps me keep small details prominent in my mind so I can slip them in when needed.

I’m writing on a tight deadline right now so every week my editor is getting a three to five chapter chunk of work from me. I’ve gone over the chapter several times before she gets it, but I know I’ll always have mistakes another set of eyes needs to catch. She points out phrases that need clarification, questions dialogue credibility, tightens up some passages with line edits, and catches my punctuation and grammar errors.

I used to read the edited chapters immediately upon receipt, now, I’m too busy trying to churn the story out, so the editing and revising will wait until this initial pass is done. Since I’ve gone over each chapter three times or more already, there aren’t normally big gapping plot holes, or scenes that have no purpose and need to be cut. 

By the end of the manuscript, I may decide I need to punch up a scene or add more detail—so far out of four books, I’ve never had to do extensive rewrites like change an ending or alter a subplot. Once the full novel is complete and my editor has returned all chapter chunks to me, I’ll incorporate her suggestions and go over the entire novel again.

She’ll get the manuscript back, in its entirety, and hopefully any issues will have been cleared up, but if not, this will be the pass where any glaring errors stand out. After I make her suggested revisions, I’ll send the MS to over a dozen beta readers. My first book had over 270 betas, and my last one had less than ten. I’m thinking with book three I’ll go somewhere in between.

Once I get feedback from the betas I’ll make final adjustments and edit the entire thing again. If the book needs it, which it usually does, I’ll send it for a copy edit at this point. Previously, I thought my line and content editors could do copy edits—I found out the hard way that they missed things. In a 90k word novel the best editor can find 99.9% of all errors and that would still leave ninety mistakes in the book. 

Ninety is too many for my tastes! My first two books each had at least three professional editors on them. Yes, it cost me a lot of money, but I think having the best book I can produce is worth it in the end. 

The editing is one of the few things I never see complaints about in my reviews. Either they don’t like present tense or the book contains too much graphic sex, but rarely do I get bashed for poor editing. In the end, what I create will be subjective to the reader’s tastes. Producing anything less than the most professional product would reflect poorly on me, not the editors. 

It’s your work, make sure to tell an engaging story and relay it as best you can, because never doubt, you will be judged by the quality you produce.

How do you weave your spell?

Author Bio:
C.J. Ellisson is the author of the bestselling contemporary fantasy series The V V Inn. Right now there are two of the projected five books published, with the third releasing in early 2012. She also writes erotica with eleven other authors for the Kindle Blog sensation, Everything Erotic.
C.J. lives near Washington DC with her husband, two children aged eleven and nine, two Staffordshire Bull Terriers and a young cat she's newly allergic to. After spending most of her working life dealing with real estate - either as a sales manager, corporate trainer, Realtor, or as a property manager - she's now writing full time and happy for the first time in years. Writing has become her passion and to find people want to read her stories feels like a dream come true.
You can visit C.J. at her website (http://www.cjellisson.com) or search for her on Facebook and visit her author page.
Thanks CJ ~ a riveting insight into how you plan your writing. Many thanks to everyone for dropping by to read this post.

Thanks
Faithx

_ G'Day,

Continuing my 'good mood and sharing theme' here in Australia, I'm delighted to let you know that Children Of The Plantation (the 2nd in the Diana Rivers mystery murder thrillers), is Free today! So why not get your own copy now? To give you a little insight I've included the prologue to the novel...enjoy and thank you so much for looking in.

Prologue

Opening the kitchen door, Hermione spotted a vixen standing near the refuse bin. She clapped her hands, and it shot through the hedge at the bottom of the garden.
Hermione's heart was thudding in her breast as she considered what next to do. Casting a look around, she gave thanks that the clouds scudding overhead made it a dark night. This had to be done in complete privacy.
Giving herself a mental shake, she crossed the damp grass to the shed and picked up a spade. A clod of earth still clung to the sharp blade from where she had been digging in her vegetable patch earlier that afternoon. It seemed such a long time ago now. She paused, still not completely certain she was doing the right thing. Making up her mind, she walked over to the newly turned earth.
The air smelt fresh after the rain shower, and a light breeze blew the mixed garden scents her way while she dug. The hole was to be small but deep, especially as she had just driven the fox off. Satisfied, she stood back and peered down into the soft loamy material, a sorry place for such a pathetic bundle.
Sick at heart, but knowing they had no choice, Hermione laid down her spade and walked back into the kitchen. She picked up the tightly wrapped package and carried it outside; it weighed no more than a couple of pounds as she gently laid it down into the hole.
Covering it with fresh earth, she scattered pebbles around and knelt on the grass. Had there been any other choice? Whatever were they going to tell him when the time came?

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Have a great weekend!
Faithx

Good Day!

Today I have Jenn Sterling here to tell us a little about how she came to begin her writing career. Dreams are amazing things...I often finish off a chapter by dreaming the answer and I'm told it is a natural phenomena. So over to our dream queen Jenn...

First off, I want to say Thanks to Faith for having me here!  So… thanks faith!

My name is Jenn, but I go by J. on my books. I write Young Adult fiction and my first book, In Dreams is out now.

The idea for this particular book came from an actual dream I had one night. The opening chapter of the book IS a part of that dream (guy included). It’s been a really interesting experience seeing how people react to this story. There are so many pieces of reality scattered throughout this book- that it blows my mind sometimes at the things people insist couldn’t be true. If they only knew. ;)

When I first set out to write In Dreams, I honestly thought that was the only book idea I had floating around in my head. I used to say, “Who writes only ONE book?” and then I’d laugh. But the most amazing thing happened once I started actually writing. I found that I had a lot of ideas!!! I mean, A LOT! It was like I opened some sort of floodgate into an area of myself I didn’t know was there. Don’t get me wrong- I always liked to write and I’m a fairly creative person, but In Dreams was the first time I’d ever attempted to write an entire novel. I wasn’t certain I could even do it. And I definitely didn’t start writing with the intention of having a follow up book. Or any other books.

It’s funny how things change. How we grow when we allow ourselves to.

As for my writing style, it’s…chaotic to say the least. I always have parts of the story in my head...like I’ll know the main idea of the book, how I want it to start and certain events I want to take place. But I usually don’t know how the story will end and I don’t ever write with outlines. Is that weird?

I write the opening scene first and then I write all the really emotional or dramatic scenes after that. All the big moments- I am so driven to write them right away because that’s the good stuff! But then I’m left filling in all the parts in-between the good stuff and at some point I usually look up from the computer crying like, “THIS BOOK IS SO BORING! OMG, IT SUCKS!” But that’s because I’m writing all the filler-and it’s so not exciting! Along the way, my characters usually take on a life of their own. How I started out writing them may completely change. The ideas for how I wanted their personality to be, sometimes doesn’t last. They start to create themselves...it’s pretty cool actually.

Right now I’m finishing up my second book called Chance Encounters. It’s a love story about what happens when we meet someone who makes us question everything we already thought we knew. It’s about following your heart for the right reasons, as opposed to your head for the wrong ones. It’s headed to the editor in a matter of days! I can’t wait.

Then I plan on finishing the next book in The Dreams Series. It’s called Before the Dreams and it takes place in the past, during one of our characters past lives. I can’t wait to finish writing that story. Talk about characters who won’t leave me alone- they drive me crazy. Or maybe I’m just crazy? 

Alright, like a typical girl, I’ve gabbed your ear (eyeballs) off! Thanks for listening (reading)!  :)

Thanks Jenn, you had me laughing when I first read this piece as I could visualize you so easily! In Dreams sounds a great YA book and the sequel(s) too. Good luck with your writing!

Thanks for reading the posts, guys and thanks to Jenn for allowing us this insight into her writing - have a great week everyone
Faithx

           

 G' Day!

I'm fortunate to be writing this from Sydney! For years I've longed to visit this amazing and beautiful country and at long last I am now having that pleasure. So far everything has lived up to expectations - except for the weather, which is unseasonably wet. Let's hope it bucks up, but in the meantime we're having great fun and have met some fantastic and friendly people.

Today I'm introducing my next writer, J C Andrijeski and how writing has come to be such a huge part of Julie's life. I hope your readers (and writers) out there enjoy another dynamic and interesting post. Enjoy!

JC Andrijeski ~ First Novel Pains

I read somewhere that the average apprenticeship for a novelist is ten years. The other I’ve heard is “1 million words” before most can produce a novel worth reading. For some reason, for me, most of those words ended up being spent on the same set of characters.

I wrote different books, mind you. That’s the funny part. I wrote six full-length novels only to be unsatisfied with each one. There were common threads through all of the books...such as, the main characters always had psychic abilities. After the first few versions, I realized I kept getting stuck on certain concepts in building the world. I mentioned this to another writer friend, and she suggested, quite sensibly, that I do some research.

I stared at her blankly.
“Research on a made-up phenomenon?”
She gave me an equally puzzled look. “Don’t you live in San Francisco?”
That actually made me laugh. I also had to concede her point.

I’d always shied away from the New Age thing, though. I may have lived in San Francisco, but I grew up in the South Bay, where my parents were Catholic and my friends agnostic. I’d gone to graduate school in New York City and felt pretty staunchly grounded in the material world. On the other hand, I had a research background, was a history buff already, and I’d even taken up martial arts to understand one of my characters. So I tried to approach my friend’s suggestion in the same light.
I started to research psychic phenomenon.
I admit, most of what I read initially struck me as pure bunk.
I kept at it though, and eventually began chasing more reasonable-sounding threads, most of them pertaining to more ancient systems of meditation and philosophy. I'd always resisted meditating in the past...yet, from a research perspective, the more hardcore practitioners fascinated me. In addition to some pretty amazing powers of concentration, a lot of these people seemed unusually happy...and in a real way, not a giddy, 'let's pretend' way.

Of course, at a certain point, I had to try it myself...so I got heavily into meditation for about six years. Throughout that period, I didn’t write much fiction. When I came out on the other side, however, I found my entire approach to the book I’d wanted to write had changed. I started from scratch yet again and finally wrote the book that felt like the “right” one.

How did I know it was right?
Because I immediately wrote the sequel.
So when people ask me how long it took me to write the Allie’s War books, I always feel like Orlando when I say, “Well, the first one took...awhile.”
Since then, I’ve had a pro writer tell me that some ideas come along before the writer is ready to write them. My very first (real) novel ended up being that kind of book.
In this case, however, I think the book really wrote me.

Author Bio.

JC Andrijeski is a bestselling author who has published novels, novellas, serials, graphic novels and short stories, as well as nonfiction essays and articles. Her short fiction runs from humorous to apocalyptic, and her nonfiction articles cover subjects from graffiti art, meditation, psychology, journalism, politics and history. Her short works have been published in numerous anthologies, online literary, art and fiction magazines as well as print venues such as NY Press newspaper and holistic health magazines.

Obtaining an MA in political science from the New School for Social Research (NSSR) in NYC, she did her graduate studies in race and caste systems, slave and ex-slave systems, religion and its impacts on social systems and other historical weirdnesses which fitted her surprisingly well for both fiction writing and being extremely annoying at parties. She moved from NYC to San Francisco in 1997, and otherwise has lived or spent considerable time in Albuquerque, Portland, Los Angeles, Seattle, Vancouver BC, New York, Florida, San Diego, Prague, London, Berlin, Sydney and Swinoujscie, Poland. JC currently lives in India in the foothills of the Himalayas in Himachal Pradesh, a location she drew on a fair bit in writing the Allie's War books.

Please visit JC Andrijeski's website at: jcandrijeski.com or her blog at jcandrijeski.blogspot.com

Thanks Julie! I'm off now tosearch for that elusive Australian sunshine. Sydney Opera House tomorrow to see Turandot - bliss! - catch you later! Enjoy your week!
Faithx

Good Day!

I am pleased to welcome the second writer in my current series. Those of you who were kind enough to read my previous post will know I'm featuring authors who have very kindly let me into their secret past and how they came to be established writers of today. Each writer has a unique tale to tell us that are as  interesting as they are varied. Enjoy!

The Organic Author ~ Marissa Farrar

I suspect, like many writers, I started writing with only the view of getting my story out of my head and onto paper (or in this case, my computer). I’d been writing stories since I was a small child. My mother even has video footage of me at about seven years old, babbling on about a time travel book I was writing and how I was going to get it published.

That book never made it to fruition, but many others have since. The first novel I ever wrote from start to finish will never see the light of day. Considering it is about 90K in length; that fact is slightly painful. But I would rather run around naked in public than let anyone read that particular manuscript! It was a lesson in how not to write a novel. My main character was unlikable, my hero’s motivation suspect, my ending weak. I still like the premise behind the novel, but if I ever went back to it, I would be starting at the beginning and writing the whole damn thing over again.

Since then, I’ve written another eight novels, a number of novellas and numerous short stories. But it’s only been in the last year or so that I’ve actually started thinking about the technical aspect of novel writing: story arcs, plotting, over-used words.

In some ways, I’d like to go back to my pre educated days. Sure, it’s improved my writing, no question about that, but there was something true, earthy, organic, about purely putting a story I loved onto paper. I didn’t think about what other people might make of it. I was simply writing for the love of writing.

Nowadays, things are different. I’m painfully aware of the fact people will be judging what I write. Almost every day now I hear from readers wanting to know when the third book in my ‘Serenity’ series will be out. It’s fantastic that so many people are keen to read my books, but at the same time I worry about letting them down. I worry that it won’t be good enough or my characters will do or say something to let the reader down.

You see, in many ways I still view myself as a very organic author. I don’t plot anything. At all. I barely know what’s going to happen from one chapter to the next; I just let my characters do what they want and simply write it down for them. At the end of book two in the ‘Serenity’ series, ‘Buried’, I thought the book was going to end one way, but then right at the last minute, one of the characters jumped up and did something I totally wasn’t expecting. Book three, ‘Captured’, is now almost finished, and something similar has happened—a character had a secret even I didn’t know about, something that wasn’t unveiled until the last moment.

I know that must sound nuts to some people—I mean, it’s coming from my head—but that’s just how I feel. My characters are very real to me and I’m simply writing down their story for them. To alter how they behave to fit what my reader might want feels very wrong. It’s my character’s story I’m writing, not mine, or the readers.

After I’ve got the story out, then I got back and apply all the important technical parts—I get my editing head on, in other words.

I should probably be writing this from a padded cell (the voices in my head are telling me to do things) but until they catch up with me, I guess I’ll keep writing stuff down.

Book one in the ‘Serenity’ series, ‘Alone’ can be claimed for free at https://www.facebook.com/RedHotReaders. Just go to the giveaway tab and then look under ‘genres’, and ‘romance’ to get your free copy!

Author Bio.

Marissa Farrar is a multi-published horror and paranormal author. She was born in Devon, England, loves to travel and has lived in both Australia and Spain. She now resides in Devon with her husband, two children, a crazy Spanish rescue dog and four hens. She has a degree in Zoology, but her true love has always been writing.
Her dark take on a vampire romance, Alone, was first published in 2009 and has now been re-launched as book one in the ‘Serenity’ series. The second book in the series, Buried, is now available to buy. The third title, Captured, will be published March 2012. She is also the author of the horror novel, The Dark Road, and two short story collections.
Her short stories have also been accepted for a number of anthologies including, Their Dark Masters, Red Skies Press, Masters of Horror: Damned If You Don’t, Triskaideka Books; and 2013: The Aftermath, Pill Hill Press.
If you want to know more about Marissa, then please visit her website at www.marissa-farrar.blogspot.com. You can also find her at her facebook page, www.facebook.com/marissa.farrar.author or follow her on twitter @marissafarrar.
She loves to hear from readers and can be emailed at marissafarrar@hotmail.co.uk.

Thanks Marissa - that was really interesting and I'm sure readers will have enjoyed your post too.

Have a great week ahead everyone!
Faithx

Good Day!

For the next four weeks I'm off on a fabulous trip to Australia.  During that period, I'll be looking in from time to time with things that catch my attention and which I think you as readers and writers would like to know about. It struck me recently that as writers we often feature other writers on our blogs and websites but we rarely touch on how the 'writing of a novel' actually comes about. So I thought I'd feature writers and get them to tell us how the germ of an idea for their novel came to them and how they set to and wrote  that book. First writer I'm delighted to have on my website is Neil Low - over to you Neil!

Neil Low, police captain extraordinaire!

I am always vigilant when it comes to looking for story ideas to write about. As a veteran police captain I pay particular attention to crime news, headlines, and pick through cold cases. I look for the unusual that has a particular angle worth exploring. My genre is noir fiction, set in 1940’s Seattle, when the city was rife with corruption. My protagonist is Alan Stewart, who becomes a private detective while in pursuit of the men who killed his father. All indications are the perpetrators were corrupt police officers. Because of Alan's age, he is far from "hard boiled,” in the Dashiell Hammett/Raymond Chandler sense of private investigators. Alan’s on his way to toughness, under the guidance of mentors, including Vera Deward, who becomes his partner.

The idea for the story came while I was writing the back story for another novel, a project I've since shelved until the Alan Stewart series is exhausted. I started by creating very clever characters who hijacked the story line, taking it in a direction I hadn’t foreseen. I had no outline, no plot, no idea where I was going, but I was smart enough to recognize a good story unfolding and went with it. Not until after I was published did I discover why I wrote it. A reporter asked, "Was THICK AS THIEVES your way of dealing with the death of your father?" My jaw dropped as I stared a long moment... "Yes, absolutely." She had figured it out before I did. My first story was a form of catharsis, and I felt much better for getting it out of me and down on paper.

My second novel's theme was based on spying and concerns over US scrap metal going to Japan, prior to US entering the war. I wondered if this scrap metal had helped build the ships responsible for my father's ship being sunk near Guadalcanal. I tied my curiosity to an internet story I found on women spies, some based on the West Coast. I wondered what motivated them. So I read heroic accounts of them sacrificing their lives for their countries, a theme I felt compelling. An added bonus I didn’t discover until SIGN OF THE DRAGON neared completion was that two Canadian’s had tried to blow up the ship I had picked for my story in Seattle’s harbor. So I figure a certain amount of kismet played a role in this story’s creation.

With all four of my novels, I have worked with little in the way of plotting, but that’s not a completely true statement. I had been a detective, a detective sergeant, and a police manager for years. I know what it takes to solve a case: the same elements it takes to tell a good story. The boilerplate is engrained in my head. So although I will tell you I write organically and not rely on a plot, the truth is that the plot is not very far below the surface of my psyche.

Apologies Neil as at first I had you down on here as an ex police Captain!