Interview with Steve Hagood, Author of CHASING THE WOODSTOCK BABY

Welcome, Steve. What is your book about?

Retired Detroit police detective Chase is approached by a nice old lady who asks him to find the baby she had, and lost, at Woodstock. The search takes Chase to a small town in Michigan that has a secret that it has been hiding for four decades. The man who runs the town will go to any lengths, including murder, to keep the secret.

What inspired you to write this particular story?

I have always been fascinated with Woodstock. When I heard the legend of the Woodstock baby I wondered what had happened to it. Why has nobody ever come forward to claim to be the baby, or the mother? My imagination took over from there.

Tell us a little about your main characters. Who was your favorite? Why?

Obviously, my protagonist Chase is my main and favorite character. A lot of Private Investigators in novels have a sidekick who acts as his foil – dark, mysterious, the guy who does the dirty work – Spenser and Hawk, Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. Chase is both of those guys rolled into one. He is the wise cracking, lovable guy who isn’t afraid to do the dirty work.

Sarge and Sally are Chase’s partners in the bar he owns. Sarge was Chase’s training officer when he joined the Detroit Police. He still acts as a mentor and a steadying influence. Sally is the brains of the operation. She acts as Chase’s de facto research department. She doubles as the female, creating sexual tension between the two.

Did you do any research for the book? If so, how did you do it? (searching Internet, magazines, other books, etc.)

Yes. I had to do quite a bit of research for this book. The internet is a wonderful tool for a writer. It can transport you to any place and any time you want. I was able to put myself at Woodstock through pictures and stories. Hopefully my writing puts the reader there with me.

What’s your writing schedule like? Do you strive for a certain amount of words each day?

I don’t really have a schedule. I have a day job and a family so it’s not always easy to find time to write. I write when I can. I live by the mantra “Writers write” to push myself to write something every day, even if it’s just a few paragraphs or sentences.

What are you working on right now?

I recently finished another Chase novel, titled Cold Dark Places. Hopefully we will see it soon from Indigo Sea Press. It’s a story about a college girl missing in Detroit, and the basketball player implicated in her disappearance.

What was the first story you remember writing?

I didn’t start writing until about thirty. The first story I wrote was a ghost story. I don’t know why. It’s the only ghost story I’ve ever written. It was about a group of friends on a fishing trip who were haunted by the ghost of a Civil War soldier. It wasn’t very good, but it was a lot of fun to write.

Where do you get the names for your characters?

Names are tough. One of the techniques I use is to open up the internet and use the first name that I see, if it fits the character that I need to name. I head up a scholarship given by my graduating class to the high school we graduated from. I offered my former classmates their name in a book in exchange for a donation to the scholarship. I had a couple people who wanted to see their name in a book, so it worked out for me, for them, and the scholarship.

What’s been the most surprising part of being a writer?

The most surprising aspect of writing, for me, is when the story builds upon itself. Sometimes I feel like a stenographer. I’m just the guy typing the words, the story is writing itself. In The Woodstock Baby there is a scene where Chase is questioning a suspect, the suspect denies any involvement and Chase says, “We have a witness!” I thought, “Wow, there’s a witness!” I didn’t know there was a witness until I typed it, and I’m the author! I couldn’t wait to see who the witness was because I sure didn’t know.

What writer influenced you the most?

I actually have two big influences. The late great Robert B. Parker made me fall in love with books. His Spenser stories are still my favorite. I’ve read them all multiple times. The fact that Chase is known by a single name is in homage to Parker and Spenser.

The other writer who influenced me is JA Konrath. I love his books, but it’s more than just his writing that influenced me. One thing the general public doesn’t know is that it is very difficult to get published – “you should publish that” a lot. If only it was that easy. Konrath called himself the king of rejection. He wrote nine full novels in two or three different genres before he got one published. He accumulated literally hundreds of rejections, but he never gave up. He eventually broke through and now has millions of books sold. He inspired me to never give up, to never stop chasing my dream.

What one word describes how you feel when you write?

Joy

If your book was made into a TV series or Movie, what actors would you like to see playing your characters?

Ironically, in Cold Dark Places I make mention to The Woodstock Baby and how some Hollywood people wanted to make a movie about the case. They promised to get Denzel Washington to play Chase, even though Chase is “white, younger than, and nowhere near as pretty” as Denzel.

In “real life” I see Chase as more of a Will Patton type. He has the ability to be caring and tough and make them both authentic.

There’s this other actor who I know named Tevis Marcum who I think would do an outstanding job as Chase. He’s from the Detroit area and has the look. Like Will Patton he has the ability to be caring and tough in the same character.

What is something you never leave home without (apart from keys, money and phone)?

My flash drive. My work goes everywhere with me. I do back it up to my computer however. It has gone through the wash a time or two. There is no terror like the terror of finding your flash drive in the bottom of the washing machine.

What is your favorite place, real or fictional? Why?

Saline, Michigan. It’s my hometown. I moved away for a while and when I returned I thought, “Ahh, I’m home.” When I needed a small town to set The Woodstock Baby in I chose Saline because “there’s no place like home.”

Where can people learn more about your books?

From Indigo Sea Press http://www.indigoseapress.com/Stiletto-Books–Crime-and-Mystery-Authors-A-H.php#Steve and www.stevehagood.com

Writing Romance for Baby Boomers

It’s been great to get to know Australian blogger,Lana Pecherczyk  from Author Zoo. Lana asked me to write about romance novels from an aged perspective for her series on “How to write a Romance from A to Z”. Google Author Zoo and check them out!

 

Baby Boomer LOVE

by Jonna Ellis Holston

If you are writing romance then chances are that a large percentage of your readership will be of the baby boomer age. Infrequently is a romance novel written specifically for this generation, so in rarity we find value. If written well the rewards are great.

This is the population who met the Beatles, the Woodstock women who eased the way toward sexual freedom. They lived through the sixty’s and now they’re in their sixties. If you are interested in writing about and for the boomers then, author, know thy sub-genre.

Writing an older woman protagonist has undeniable appeal. In her you discover a character of complexity and depth. She has confidence, wisdom… experience. Imagine the possibilities for characters, setting and plot.

-Feel the energy between a silver cougar and her prey. Is her motivation lust for his hard body or is she damaged and hiding her need? Is he drawn to her mystique, living MILF fantasies or does he plan to steal her money? What do they talk about? Where is the conflict? Who gets hurt and who is healed?

-A similarly aged couple finds a second chance love. Can two households merge? Do their adult children worry about the wills or cringe in disgust with each kiss. Which is worse? Which is real? Can their love survive their offspring?

-An older woman is polyamorous. Is she honest or deceitful? What will the neighbors say about multiple partners? Would she care? Will her lovers meet in conflict then end in a threesome?

What about writing physical limitations and the body image issues that millennials have yet to discover? Tread lightly here lest you break the spell. Use softer images, shimmering fabric catching candlelight or try something risky like a shared vape under moonlight and they end up naked in the lake.

Her body is no longer perfect. You might describe the grace of her movement, the curve of a shoulder or the shape of his arms but consider what point when physical description must yield to expressions of feeling. The softness of her breast, the warmth of his skin, the magic of losing self-awareness in the moment, the urgency in knowing that this could be the last time either one experiences this feeling of love in their lifetime.

Age creeps on, choices lessen. Lovers sicken and die. When you write a character that a boomer identifies with she escapes more readily in your work. Once again she’s made beautiful, desirable and loved. They value this feeling for its rarity. They are greatly mindful of the moments ahead and appreciate each one all the more.

If you wish to write such a romance, understand that She is not your grandmother’s grandmother. She is Women’s Liberation in the Age of Aquarius. She’s the bra burner, the Great Mother and the flower child of love.

Do her justice. Write her truth. Write her well.

Emotional Rollercoaster by L.V. Gaudet

November has been a month of emotional rollercoaster.  Not just for me, but for the world.

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Like a novel with no story, the growing insanity plaguing the world has climaxed with the terrorist attack in France.   The world is spurred to cry out both against it and at the world’s obliviousness to the terrorist atrocities being committed and ignored daily in other parts of the world by many different groups and individuals, all depending on where those cries are coming from.

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This has also caused a ripple effect of fear and hatred, growing with each wave, fed by ignorance and political agendas that have nothing to do with what’s really happening in the world and all about getting what is perceived as the popular vote or having their own voice heard.

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One side calls for the closing of the world’s or local borders to all outsiders.  The other side calls to embrace them, shelter them, and let them in.  Sorrow and fear live side by side, acceptance and hate.

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Fear and hate spurs people to react in different ways.  The extremes in emotions on both sid
es cause more conflicts, turning neighbors and friends against each other.

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Good things that I should have been happy about and things that mattered to me this month are made small and unimportant compared to what others are dealing with somewhere else in the world.  Should I feel guilty for those small happiness’s?

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This post is not about what side of this debate I’m on.  It’s not really about this debate at all.

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It is about looking at humanity for what it is and using that to make your characters touch your readers.

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Humanity is capable of the most outrageous of horrors, from the puppies cemented into a fish tank and left to die, to the world’s events.  The news every day is full of it.  Cold and cruel.  No horror writer can come up with horrors worse than humanity comes up with on their own.  But for all it appears on the surface, there is some driving force beneath it all.  Some series of events, combined with experiences, personality, strengths and weaknesses that drive each of these people to commit what they have done.

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Maybe this is what drives people to dark fiction and horror movies, the exploration and attempt to understand what makes people do such terrible things.

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Humanity is also capable of great feats of compassion, incredible strength of character, self-sacrifice, and amazing acts of courage and self-expression.

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As a writer, witnessing these real life events and people’s reactions to them has given me a deeper understanding of the incredible level of complexity that drives humanity and people as individuals.  Understanding the why of how that complexity works and what is behind it is something even the best psychologists and psychiatrists may not even be capable of.

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Pay attention to your own reactions and feelings to the things around you, in your own life and beyond, and you might get an understanding of how it might affect others.  How do those around you react?  Why do you think they respond that way?  Why do you?

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Getting the reader to relate to your characters, to love or hate them, feel for them, root for them or swear at them, is about how well you can relate to what might be going on in the minds of other people.

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Your characters need to be real, not just give the impression.  Make the reader forget they are fictional people.  What thoughts are going through their mind as they commit themselves to an action or inaction? Do they regret it before they start?  Are they blindly going forward without thought to the consequences?  And what about after?  How does it affect those around them?

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A character’s words and actions do not have to match what is inside them.  They don’t always for real life people.  People do what they think is expected of them far more than they do what they truly want to do.  Peer pressure, upbringing, expectations, culture, they all play a role in everyone’s actions and reactions.  So does fear of being called out by someone who does not agree, for right or wrong.

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Know your character’s culture, their upbringing, and the dynamics of the culture they are living in now.  Know their strengths and weaknesses.  Know how all this relates to real people and how other people may feel and respond in the same situation.

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Write your scenes, descriptions, and actions to resound with the reader.  Touch their five senses as they read.  Feel the body’s involuntary reactions, the wet of the rain, and the touch of the cold.  Feel the loneliness, despair, hope, and small sense of victory.  Feel what the reader feels.  Make the reader feel what you want them to feel.  Make them feel what your character feels.

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Words have an incredible power.  They can move people to both great and terrible things.  The impressionable person is changed for good or bad.  Opinions are changed.  Beliefs are reformed.  Make your reader evolve with the world and characters of your story.

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A story is ups and downs, highs and lows.  Envision the roller coaster, its peaks and valleys, the loops of rolling out of control, the thrill and fear and excitement.  The expectation.  Emotions, action and suspense surges, bringing the reader up.  A plateau.  Things level out, but the expectation hangs motionless in the air.  The reader knows it is coming, the peak, the biggest mountain before the frightening stomach-lurching drop to the deepest low.  But when?  Tease them with a smaller stomach-lurching drop followed by another rise to higher heights of tension.  When the ride ends, they should feel satisfied, fulfilled, yet just a little empty and yearning for more.

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The story that leaves the reader unchanged is the story that missed the mark.

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Where the Bodies Are is still available on various online retail sites while waiting for the changeover to the new publisher, Indigo Sea Press.

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Watch for The McAllister Farm to be released, hopefully some time in 2016.

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You can find my books both in paperback and various ebook formats at various online retailers, including these:

Amazon author page

Barnes and Noble

Smashwords

McNally Robinson

 

The Passage of Time and Little Details by L.V. Gaudet

Just as in life, little things in your story would change with the passage of time.  It’s not a necessity, of course, but those little changes can bring a sub-layer of change to the reader’s unconscious mind.  And if they do pick up on it, it’s a nice touch in adding depth to the story.

 

They said goodbye in the spring.  She ran her fingers through his hair that was cut short just the week before, the hair tips following the curve of the top of the ears they were just shy of touching.  If it were any shorter, it would be called a brush cut.

She frowned inwardly at that.  She had always disliked brush cuts.  They reminded her of the father she had lost the day he enlisted in the army when she was only six.  He died years later, coming back for brief moments between tours of duty.  But something had changed in him.  When he came home for good, he never came home all the way.  Something of him was left behind in the war-ravaged wasteland that was left behind when so-called peace came and sent the soldiers home.  He killed himself ten years ago on her twentieth birthday.

 Now, years later, as she said goodbye to her own six-year-old son in the spring, it felt like a piece of her had been torn out.  She had watched him walk away, holding his father’s hand, her estranged husband, with his freshly cut short hair, she swore she would never let her son join the army like her father had.

 Her husband had joined the army too.  That’s why she left him.  She could not bear to live that again, to have her son live it like she did growing up.

 Summer is over now and fall is coming.  Her son’s summer with his father is over and school starts in a few days.

 She turned at the unmistakable racket of the approaching train, watching anxiously down the tracks.  Butterflies flitted in her stomach.  She told herself it was at seeing her son, but the reality is was over seeing them both.

 The train pulled into the station and she waited the interminable wait of one waiting for their loved ones to arrive in the designated arrival area.

 She held her breath and forced herself not to run to him, to tear him away from his father’s hand and squeeze him tight.

 There he was.  It felt like her heart would leap right out her throat.  Her throat constricted and her eyes burned.  Where is he?  Her son was alone.  How could he send him alone?  He’s only six!  But then her son turned, and he came through the crowd.  Her heart leapt and sank at once.  He was dressed in uniform.

 Her son ran to her, face cracked into the biggest smile she had seen since she said goodbye to him in the spring.  She got down on one knee, opening her arms to him, and he ran to her, throwing himself into her embrace and wrapping his arms tightly around her neck.  She ran her fingers through his hair, the tips of his hair reaching just past the top of his ears.

 “Mommy,” he sighed into her shoulder, “your nails got longer.”

 She looked up at a sense of a presence close by.  Her estranged husband stood over her looking down.

 “You look thinner,” he said. From his expression, she wasn’t sure if it was an attempt at a compliment or sarcasm.  He was still bitter at her for leaving.

 “You were supposed to bring him back last week,” she said, narrowing her eyes at him.

 

If you picked up on it, the above starts with a reference to the boy’s recent haircut and his hair being trimmed above the ears.  When he sees him again, the boy’s comment on her nails is a distraction to the reference to his hair now being just below the tops of his ears.  The ex-husband’s comment on her weight could go in any one of many directions.  It could be used as a reference to a longer space of time since she left him.  It could be a hint into his character, or her own wasting away at the end of her marriage.  It could even mean she’s become more healthy and fit since leaving him, at a healthier weight than before.

 

Even if the character doesn’t noticeably change, and neither does his or her immediate surroundings, some things can’t help but change with the years. Some things grow (plant life); other things inevitably deteriorate with age. Things become modernized as they have to be replaced. After all, that fridge in the kitchen will not last fifty years seemingly untouched by time.

 

It might be an old ice box from before the age of refrigerators, then be replaced with an early style fridge, eventually becoming more modernized as each one has to be replaced. (Just as an example, assuming the character even has one.)  Or it might be a fridge at a place the character frequents, even if that frequency is once every decade.

 

A change like that the character is certain to notice. Similarly, horses and wagons eventually become replaced by increasingly modernized cars.  Everything has a finite lifespan, whether it is a fruit fly or something that lasts for eons. A small sapling tree will grow and grow, becoming a massive tree and eventually dying.  A stone wall will weaken and crumble over time.  Look around you; everything is touched in some way by the passing of time.  Pick things that can be described well by you and easily be identified by the reader.

 

It is little details that make a story.  The odd little things that might catch one persons eye while no one else in the room even noticed.  Throw them in at the oddest of moments.  A moment so divine, that it is almost out of place – almost.

A moment of utter seriousness, where  picking out that one ridiculous detail only serves to bring home to the reader the gravity of just how serious it is.

That one out of place almost unnoticeable thing in a time of grief, to show how strangely the mind might work in a moment of stress and confusion masked by forced peace and quiet, to reinforce on the reader the many levels of the story and its characters.

 

Amidst the crowd of mourners packed into the room like cattle in a cattle car on the way to be rendered, Annie alone noticed the little loose thread sticking out mournfully from the fabric of the seat where Mrs. Peckham sat.  Annie stared at that thread, mesmerized, unable to look away.

 A stray thought teased at her mind.  With all these people staring at Mrs. Peckham, watching her sit there lost in her private world of grief, weeping for her child so tragically torn from her breast by the drunk driver, what does that thread mean?  Is the chair unraveling in sympathy to the shattered lives of all the mourners who’ve sat there day after day?

 She looked around, wondering if anyone else saw the thread and what thoughts it provoked in their minds.

 

No matter how farfetched and deep within the realm of the unbelievable a story may lay, it’s the little details that suggest it might just be possible.  It’s the ability to sell the story as a “what if”, the idea that just maybe this *could* be real if our world were shaped a little differently … that is what makes a good story.

 

L. V. Gaudet is the author of Where the Bodies Are

What kind of dark secret pushes a man to commit the unimaginable, even as he is sickened by his own actions?

Watch for book 2 of the McAllister series coming soon at Second Wind Publishing, LLC:  The McAllister Farm.  The secret behind the bodies is revealed.

 

Link to reviews of Where the Bodies Are on Angie’s Diary

https://angiesdiary.com/bookoftheweek-web/081-botwoct262014.html

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Don’t Love My Characters, Please by L.V. Gaudet

I do not want you to love my characters.  I am quite serious about that.  I do not even want you to like them.  They are all fallible creatures who do not always do what they should.  They are full of idiosyncrasies, flaws, and sometimes downright poor judgment.

Revile them and admire them.  Root for them to win and cheer when they fall.  Get passionate about getting angry with them.  Pity them and feel vindicated at their suffering.  Share their emotions and their troubles, love them, hate them, and empathize with them.  But please don’t just love them.

A character who seems endearing, drawing you to their side in their pursuit of evil, might just reveal their true driving force is not entirely for purely good reasons.

The victim who you might sympathize with, rooting for when things get rough and cheering them proudly when they rally their strengths to pull him or herself out of trouble, may prove to be more the cause of the trouble than the antagonist is.

The bad guy, committing atrocious behaviors, pulling you into his web of evil until you despise him and want only to see his downfall come to him in a most inglorious way, might throw you with a show of tenderness.  He might just make you sympathize with him when you know you should hate him.

Making characters that draw the reader in is not about making the reader simply love or hate them.  They need to feel what the character feels.  They need to love, hate, and sympathize with that character.  Root for them even as they want to see them fall because you are supposed to want to see the bad guy lose.

Characters do not have to be all good or all bad.  In fact, I would say they should never be all one or the other.  They should be a complex layering of traits that include both.  Even the vilest creature has feelings; dreams and desires, loss and sorrow, loneliness and love.  They have a flaw and that flaw is their own emotions.  The gentlest of characters, pure of heart and soul, have a dark side beneath.  They are capable of anger and resentment, even of acts of revenge.

Every character should have a hidden back-story.  This is what gives them life.  Even the smallest bit player should have one.  That waitress who served the coffee looks tired, but really, she is sad.  You don’t have to reveal why she is sad.  That is just one more mystery that gives a little more depth to the scene where the true focus is your protagonist or antagonist.  Make the mystery of the waitress’s personal life draw on the personality of the character who is the true focus.  After all, your character did notice the lines of exhaustion hide a deeper sadness.

Drop hints and clues about your characters’ back-stories.  Make the reader feel they are slowly drawing the character out of their shell and learning just a little bit about them as they progress through the story.  Let the reader be drawn a little at a time into your character’s life, their personality.  Let them yearn for more, drawn to dig deeper into your character’s psyche as you see fit to reveal it.

The reader becomes more familiar with the character with each revelation, feeling a little closer to them like a new friend, wanting to know more.  As you draw out a little more back-story, those secrets add to the drive that pushes the story forward.  That simple story is no longer so simple.  What other secrets do the characters have?  What flaws?  What strengths?  What new lines of drama will wind into the story, adding more layers of sub story?

MEET THE CHARACTERS

WHERE THE BODIES ARE (available now in paperback and eBook)

Detective Jim McNelly is perhaps the hero of the story, if anyone can be described as such.  He works with missing persons and homicide cases, taking each case personally as his own personal failure for not stopping the victimization of the victim before it could happen.  For a hero, he has a lot of flaws.  He is obese by as a result of his own failings, which is the cause of additional health problems and exacerbates his insomnia, which in turn causes him to feed his obesity.  He is no people person and doesn’t much like most people.

And yet, Jim McNelly honestly cares about his job and the victims.  He has a lot of back-story that has not been revealed, including hints dropped about his wife.

Detective Michael Underwood is a likeable kind of guy.  He is described as being the kind of guy who is just as at ease at grandma’s quilting group as watching sports with the guys.  Even the nervous and suspicious nurse Molly can’t help but feel a tingle of excitement at the idea he could possibly have an interest in her, as impossible as she knows it is.

Michael Underwood is perhaps a bit too obsessed with protecting their victim, an obsession that itself has its own back-story, almost a personality of its own.

Lawrence Hawkworth is an investigative reporter with the InterCity Voice, who is described as being a man of less than moral morals.  And yet he and Jim McNelly have a shared back-story.  He is the one person McNelly would trust with his life, despite McNelly’s dislike for the man.  It’s kind of a love-hate friendship, like unrelated brothers.

Jane Doe, the victim and the sole survivor of the killer’s madness doesn’t even know her own back-story.  Her own weakness, her amnesia, puts her directly on a path to her own destruction.  Or does it?  She has a surprising reserve of personal strength, something gained from her own unknown past.

Kathy Kingslow is a train wreck of a woman.  She is a weak creature who knows only one thing, how to survive an abusive relationship.  She does not even know how to escape one, if she could get up the courage to.  She also has the potential to become one of the most powerful characters in the story, if she can pull herself up off the floor and put a little courage into her spine.  She has a hidden strength, the killer’s own inexorably being drawn to her.

The Killer is nothing but evil, right?  The killer is driven by a compulsion, his reality blurred between past and present, with a dark secret locked in a fractured mind.  But he is also tormented by his own actions and desperate to stop killing.  The search for the killer will lead to his dark secret buried in the past.

The appearance of the mystery man is the embodiment of the ultimate back-story of Where the Bodies Are.  He enters the story just at the moment when the as yet unidentified killer is reaching a plateau of temptation by the dangling bait that is Jane Doe, the one victim who escaped alive.  He quickly becomes McNelly’s prime suspect in the kidnapping and murders of multiple women.   His arrival embodies the pivot point where the story climaxes and the killer is being drawn into the readers’ sight from the shadows of the story.  That back-story is revealed when you take a step back in time with The McAllister Farm to learn the secret behind the bodies.

THE MCALLISTER FARM (coming soon in paperback and eBook)

William McAllister is a hard man.  He demands respect from everyone he encounters and absolute obedience from his family.  His children respect him with the fear of a harsh disciplinarian.  He keeps his family apart from the community around them, not allowing them to have friends or participate in the community.  Visitors to his farm are threatened off, and his children know well the sting of his hand.  William is also absolutely dedicated to the safety and well-being of his family.  As stern as he is, nothing matters more to him than his family.

The entire community is distrustful and hateful towards William for his strange ways, but that does not stop him from doing what he thinks is the right thing to do without hesitation.

Marjorie McAllister is a frightened deer of a woman, always nervously wringing her hands.  She silently disapproves when William strikes the children, not brave enough to stand up to her own husband.  She leans on his strength too.  As desperately lonely as she is, his keeping her apart from her family and community is like a safety net for her.  She does not have to face awkward situations if she never leaves the farm.  But, when push comes to shove, Marjorie finds a hidden well of strength to stand against the hostility of the townspeople against her family.

Jason McAllister is the oldest child of William and Marjorie.  He has the expected problems of a ten year old who is different because his family is different.  He takes the brunt of the community’s sense of his family’s strangeness through his difficult interactions with the kids and teachers as school.  Jason is expected to be more man than child and it weighs heavily on him.  He is a troubled youth, something that his father comes to realize just how deeply troubled in the most disturbing way.

Sophie McAllister is the youngest child and as such has the childhood freedoms and innocence her brother Jason envies and is not afforded.  Naturally, this breeds some resentment in Jason.  She also in a way symbolizes the need each family member feels to protect the family as a whole.  Her very innocence acts as a contrast to the events surrounding her family.

Sheriff Rick Dalton certainly is not a favorite of the community when he fails to both catch the killer stalking young women in the area before another body turns up and listen to the needs of his frightened community.  A man of the cloth is threatened, the school principal is sent scurrying, and everyone except the sheriff seems to know just what kind of a monster the McAllister man is.  Or, Rick Dalton is simply a wise sheriff who knows that what appears to be is not always what is.

Book three, which is still a work in progress, will bring both of these stories together, finally revealing answers to some of the questions left hanging as the characters of both books are brought together in a disturbing conclusion that may very well leave a new trails of bodies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Link to reviews of Where the Bodies Are on Angie’s Diary

https://angiesdiary.com/bookoftheweek-web/081-botwoct262014.html

Follow L. V. Gaudet:

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Why do I Write in the Fantasy Genre?

At recent book reading for Dormant, someone asked  why I write fantasy novels. My gut answer was that I’m all about escapism and what better way to escape than by hiding in another world?

As I thought about it, I realized there’s a longer answer. I write fantasy stories because of the world building, the chance to create the rules and structure the characters inhabit. To me, a good fantasy story balances between describing the world and describing the characters’ journey — it’s not always an actual journey, of course. For that matter, it’s not always another world. Many wonderful fantasy novels take place in our world…with a twist.

In each world, there are rules that define how life works. The rules can relate to magic — does using magic make a sound that other magic users can hear, can only certain people use magic, or are only certain locations magical?  Where does the power comes form — is it an inherit ability, or does it come from a magical object?  Are you born with the power or does it turn on like a flipped switch? Does magic come from a fragile balance between man and nature that can break without explanation?

The writer defines the rules — she must follow those rules or else build the story around why the rules are suddenly suspended. It’s both fun and daunting to face creating a world with certain guidelines. Staying within the rules can be just as frustrating for the writer as it is for the characters. However, rules must exist because if the character can suddenly change within the story to resolve an issue then there is no conflict.

In The Well World series by Jack Chalker, he creates a planet where the rules change geographically by creating hexagonal like worlds with the major world. The rules of one hexagon might allow magic while the next one over doesn’t. Machines work in some hexagons while they don’t in others. It’s one of my favorite series simply because the rules can change so quickly but within the construct of each little world, the rules are absolute. Machines go from useful to lumps of useless metal just by crossing a border, geography deters poisonous gases, and an extreme patriarchal society borders a hive world run by a queen.

Sometimes people assume authors spend time creating the rules before starting to write the story. Obviously, everyone has a different process but many writers develop the rules while writing the story. I began Dormant with some basic rules — you’re born a supernormal with basic package abilities (super speed, super hearing, super strength, etc.), your significant ability manifests at age thirteen and you don’t get new abilities once you’ve grown into the significant ability. This means I can’t decide Olivia’s ability is fire and then add the ability to fly because it would be an easy away to get her out of a sticky situation. Other rules of the supernormal world inhabited by Olivia and her family evolved as I wrote the story.

As I write Root, the second book in the series, I’m having fun defining more rules — for supernormal beasts, for Ben’s mind reading ability, and, well…you’ll just have to see when Root comes out later this year.

What is your favorite fantasy novel and what are its rules/laws?

LeeAnn Elwood McLennan is the author of Dormant, the first book in the Dormant Trilogy available on http://www.secondwindpublishing.com, Amazon and Barnes and Noble. She’s diligently working on Root, book two in the trilogy. Follow LeeAnn on Twitter @atticusmcl and on Facebook at LEMWrites.

 

 

How Not to Get Noticed by Other Writers, Agents, Other Publishing Types, and Book Junkies

This is my own personal 10 steps on how NOT to get noticed by other writers, agents, various other publishing types, and assorted book junkies.  These tips, of course, are in no particular order.  Failure to follow any one or more might risk exposing yourself to being (gulp) noticed.

Step 1 – Don’t be funny.  Seriously, humor brings smiles, which then bring good feelings.  Humor, smiles, and warm fuzzy feelings breed a sense of familiarity.  If someone in any way feels that familiarity towards you, you feel like a friend to them and you have been noticed.

Step 2 – Don’t follow blogs and other websites.  You never know when the author might peek to see who is following.

Step 3 – Don’t use a memorable picture.  We don’t all like the idea of pasting pictures of ourselves online for the whole world to see.  Sometimes we’d prefer a photo of something else, like your cat or an apple, or better yet that generic silhouette default picture a few billion other users are using.  Best to stick with the generic silhouette, everybody is sick to death of looking at the Grumpy Cat and all those other over-used images.  If you use a memorable picture of something interesting, you risk being noticed.  Worse, use a good picture of yourself and you might be recognized across more than one social media site.  Then you would feel like a real person to others instead one of the multitude of online semi-anonymous acquaintances.

Step 4 – Don’t bop around blogs leaving comments.  Sometimes those comments actually get read.  You never know when someone might decide to follow the link back to your own blog, and then, you got it, chances are you’ve been noticed, and maybe even a few more followers.

Step 5 – Don’t blog regularly about writing, being a writer, your hobbies and passions, family, cooking recipes, or the thousands on thousands of other things people blog on.  A regular blog gets followers.

Step 6 – Multi social media.  This is a definite ‘no’.  Sharing and posting your own blog posts, links to others’ blog posts and book reviews and reviews on their books, and general sharing across multiple social media sites is a recipe for disaster if you want to stay entirely anonymous.

Step 7 – Don’t follow other writers and publishing world peeps in sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, et al with wild abandon.  They have a tendency to follow back and even re-tweet/repost your posts to their own followers if you do the same for them.  That will only build your online presence, instead of keeping you in that obscurity it is so easy to hide behind.

Step 9 – Be selfish.  Don’t do favors for others without the expectation of a return on your investment of time.  Hosting other authors in the forms of interviews, guest blogs, and posting links to reviews on their books or reviewing their books for nothing more than the exchange of a free copy of their book, these are all recipes for disaster when you want no one to notice you.  Not only will those people share your posts with their own followers, they might even be grateful, appreciate your kindness, and even return the favor some time.

Step 10 – This one is maybe the most important.  Don’t keep writing and writing and writing. The more you write, stories, blogs, and anything else you publish for free download or for sale, the more likely it is that you will develop a fan base.

Now let’s get serious about why you really read this article.

When you feel rejected, dejected, and let down that no one seems to be noticing you … stop it.  This isn’t high school; it only feels like it is.  Everyone out there is trying so hard to get you and everyone else to notice them, that they might not even see you.  Yes Virginia, it is a popularity contest, and the winners are the ones with publishing contracts and large book sale counts.

We all want the same thing, to be writers; and not just that, but to be published writers and have someone love our books.  In order for that to happen, you have to be noticed.  People have to find your book and actually buy it, read it, and rave to their friends about it.  The hard part is getting your book noticed in the sea of books out there.

Don’t let yourself feel down about that when it doesn’t happen.  Even some of the most popular authors struggled in the beginning to be discovered by their fans.  We are all struggling for the same thing, so you are not alone.  Getting discovered has as much to do with luck and it does putting yourself out there and working hard.

And, as a final word, don’t assume that breaking any or all of the rules above will get you noticed.  Sometimes you just have to be at the right place at the right time, and sometimes you have to do something very noticeable to get noticed.  The World Wide Web is a vast dark and dusty weaving of emptiness filled with the intangible beyond your computer screen.  Sometimes, you just can’t get noticed sitting in a room by yourself no matter how hard you wave your arms.   And other times, you might hit on that one magic stroke of luck and you are made.

 

 

L. V. Gaudet is the author of Where the Bodies Are

What kind of dark secret pushes a man to commit the unimaginable, even as he is sickened by his own actions?

Watch for book 2 of the McAllister series coming soon at Second Wind Publishing, LLC:  The McAllister Farm.  The secret behind the bodies is revealed.

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Other links to purchase L.V. Gaudet’s books

Link to reviews of Where the Bodies Are on Angie’s Diary

https://angiesdiary.com/bookoftheweek-web/081-botwoct262014.html

Follow L. V. Gaudet:

Facebook author page

Google+

Instagram

Pinterest

Twitter

WordPress

 

Interview With Katie Burgess McClaren, Hero of “Ghosts and Physics” by April Arnold

What is your story?

Oh geez, my story…teachers back in high school always gave us writing assignments like this, and I didn’t know what to say even then. A person’s story is just too intricate…and generally boring to 99% of the world’s non-family population. But since you asked so politely, I’ll give it a shot. My name is Katie Burgess McClaren, and I’m a confirmed English fanatic. I’m also passionately in love with all things sci-fi with an adoration of the fantastical too. I don’t really know what I want to be when I grow up, even though Mick–he’s my boyfriend-turned-husband…you’ll have to read the book–is always reminding me that I’m already supposed to have achieved adulthood. I don’t like that notion because it means there’s a sizeable amount of catching up to do. Anyway, I also have a penchant for ghost-hunting shows, unorthodox clothing choices, and wine of all shapes and sizes. I’m a really nice person in possession of what I think is an awesome sense of humor. I also second-guess myself a lot…most of the time, in fact. And I randomly change the subject. But all in all, most days I manage to hold myself and life together in a successful manner. It’s just a good thing that life is supposed to be about the journey and not the destination because I’ve been reaching some pretty freakish destinations lately!

Do you have a problem that wasn’t mentioned in the story?

Yes, I have a problem not mentioned in the story: roosters! No wait, that was mentioned in the story. The PRIMARY problem at present has been getting stubborn Mick to help me prove my theory on ghosts vs. time-warping people. Well, that was part 1 of the problem anyway. He finally did invent this totally groovy machine which proved my theory irrefutably…but it also got us stranded in 1922. The nice couple we met there were subsequently transported to the present, and we spent the rest of the book’s chapters trying to figure out how to swap ourselves back. Well, and some government agency was trying to steal Mick’s machine. That didn’t exactly help with the problem either.

How do you see yourself?

I’m always honorable but only sometimes healthy. Honor comes easily for me because anytime I’ve attempted dishonorableness, it’s royally backfired! Like if I tell a lie? You can absolutely bet that a) my face will immediately give me away and/or b) I’ll be lying to somebody smarter than I am who already knows the answer to the question they’re asking and are only asking said question to test my honorableness. Being healthy…well, I drink lots of diet soda and sometimes exercise during a sudden onset of Physical Fitness commitment. Okay, so I’m not at ALL honorable when it comes my commitment to Physical Fitness. I cheat on Physical Fitness all the time.

What makes you angry?

Willing, habitual, on-purpose ignorance makes me angry. And orange sports cars. I mean, what the hell??

Do you like remembering your childhood?

I had a pretty great childhood, actually, except for all the forced child labor my parents inflicted. Okay, so that’s a bit dramatic, but working in the cotton fields in the middle of a Texas summer-furnace is not a happy memory. That sweaty experience aside, my parents were rather awesome in that they took excellent and loving care of my brother and me (the cotton fields aside). We lived in a small community outside of Austin where my Dad farmed and did the cow-raising thing. There was a gorgeous creek a mile or so behind our house where I often wasted a lot of time that could’ve been spent studying or cleaning the toilet or getting a real job…stuff like that.

Anyway, when I got old enough, I escaped the country life and moved to Austin proper where I made just enough money to pay rent and support the wine and Papa John’s industries. My brother and I weren’t pushed to “be” anything as kids. That can be a really great thing since I feel like too much pressure is put on children today to know exactly what they want to do/be as adults and know it by age 5 so an educational plan/plot may be established on the first day of kindergarten. Human beings have a bad habit of categorizing their offspring to the point that said offspring feel trapped in one skill, one path, one destiny. Destiny is undefinable and ever-changing. But that’s too much philosophy! What I’m trying to say is that I kind of wish my parents HAD pushed us to be more ambitious. I feel like I’d have accomplished much more far sooner than I have.

What is your most prized possession?

My most prized possession is that killer all-leather outfit that Mick has confiscated and will never let me wear.

Have you ever had an adventure?

Have I ever had an adventure? My entire effing life has officially become an adventure! I wish the adventure would stop! I’m OD-ing on adventure! What I wouldn’t give to be bored and just STATIONARY for five minutes…

What about your past would you like to forget?

What about my past would I like to forget…hmm…well, since my past has become my future and vice versa, it’s kind of difficult to answer such things. I guess anything related to chicken coops or gopher death would be pleasant to forget, and if we suddenly get sucked into the past again, there will probably be something new that’s worth forgetting except that “something” is still in my future in the past…good gravy, where did I put that bottle of Tylenol…

If you were at a store now, what ten items would be in your shopping cart?

Ooo, I like that easy and philosophy-less question…imaginary shopping! What ten items would be in my shopping cart, let’s see…Diet Dr. Pepper, a bottle of Thai lemongrass dressing, a bottle of wine, make-up/foundation, mascara, cleaner for my contacts, sushi, chicken tenderloin, salsa, and cilantro.

How do you envision your future?

How do I envision my future…wow, which one? It could literally shift with a single push of the button on Mick’s electromagnetic field-increasing, time-shifting machine. Our future will forever be decided by circumstances that we and this mechanical marvel have created. Uncontrollable events have been set in motion. Unavoidable outcomes have been initiated. I envision my future as one not of my own choosing. I didn’t mean to get all depressing on you, but yeah…that answer is a truthful one…because I’m honorable.

***

About April Arnold:

http://secondwindpublishing.com is your initial go-to source for my books. They will also be available on Amazon.com in both print and electronic formats. Updates and information on the State of my Writing Union will be posted on my WordPress blog entitled Diabloggical Me. I’ll also be posting information on my Ghosts and Physics Facebook page which is coming soon!

Click here for an Interview with April Arnold, Author of “Ghosts and Physics”

Interview with Velya Jancz-Urban, author of “Acquiescence”

What is your book about?

When Pamina Campbell learns of a murder committed over two hundred years ago in her Connecticut farmhouse in order to avenge an unforgivable crime, she accepts that she has no idea how the universe works, except that it requires acquiescence at every point. Two plot threads twine in Acquiescence, as one woman calls to another across three centuries. One story, featuring Susannah Mathews, takes place in the late 1700s, while Pamina’s story is set in modern day. Pamina learns that disaster – the sort of disaster that leaves you numb on a park bench or aching for your husband to come back to you – can be a freaky thing of beauty. As Pamina and her family try to piece their lives back together in their 1770 home, little do they know that secrecy, homophobia, and a ghastly confession await.

Is there a message in your novel you want readers to grasp?

The message in Acquiescence is that even though a person may have no desire to re-live a challenging or difficult time in their life, the obstacle can play a role in shaping who you become. If you allow adversity to become an opportunity for growth, you may become a different person.

Do you have a favorite snack food or favorite beverage that you enjoy while you write?

While I don’t have any particular type of snack or drink at my side as I write, I did have a food-incentive-as-reward for when I received my first Offer of Representation for Acquiescence. Although I don’t eat them (because years ago I gave up corn syrup, GMOs, and wheat), I’m crazy about Vienna Fingers cookies. A year ago, when I started sending out query letters, I decided to buy a package of Vienna Fingers and keep them on top of an exposed hand-hewn beam in our kitchen. I promised myself that on the day I got my offer, I would welcome “corn syrup coma” and gobble down the entire twenty-four pack, along with a cold glass of raw milk. The enticing red and yellow package stared down at me every time I walked under the beam. With every rejection letter, the rounded-end finger-shaped cookies taunted me. I could almost hear them sneer, “Ha! Ha! We’re safe up here. You’re never gonna eat us!” And then, came my Offer of Representation from Second Wind Publishing. As I triumphantly dunked each crème-filled vanilla cookie, every “unfortunately, this manuscript does not fit our needs at this time” rejection drowned in the glass of milk.

What advice you would give to an aspiring author?

The best advice I would give an aspiring author is a quote by literary agent, Dan Lazar: “The best rule of thumb is always to start the story where the story starts.” This was one of the stumbling blocks in my first drafts. Where does the story start? Until you, the author, have that straight in your mind, the story’s flow won’t be right. Also, although it’s difficult, being able to summarize your book in one sentence clarifies its goal.

If you could have lunch with one person, real or fictitious, who would it be?

If I could have lunch with one person, it would probably be Alva Vanderbilt. Ever since my first trip to Newport, Rhode Island as a little kid, I have been fascinated by the Gilded Age. I was never envious of Alva’s life, just intrigued by her drive. I love the fact that she went from a seen-better-days Southern belle, to an unconventional multi-millionaire American socialite, and then became a major figure in the women’s suffrage movement. For our twentieth-fifth wedding anniversary, my husband bought me a set of her “Votes for Women” china.

Which is more important to your story, character or plot?

Character is the heart of story. Readers relate to stories through character. Plot frames the conflict and action. Why would we want to pick one over the other when we can – and should – have both?

What is a talent you have that no one knows?

– As a hands-on science teacher, I can identify any bone that comes out of a regurgitated owl pellet.
– Although I’m an atheist, I can recite the books of the Bible – Old and New Testament – in order.
– From hours of quizzing my pre-teen son, I still know all 100 answers to the 4-H Poultry Showmanship questions.

Why will readers relate to your characters?

Every family has a moment that changes everything. Things happen – things you can’t even imagine – and in a minute the world is changed. Readers will relate to my characters because, just as in real life, they’ll like some and despise others. In my novel, Acquiescence, the Campbell family finds the courage to overcome adversity, realize that love never dies, and accept that there are bigger forces out there that know no limit. They learn that it’s not what happens to you, it’s how you deal with what happens to you, and that the best revenge is living a happy life.

What famous literary character is most like you?

Although I look like Liza Minnelli, I think my personality is similar to Ma Joad’s in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. I’ve never decapitated a chicken, but, like ‘Ma,’ I’m the backbone of my family.

When we first meet Ma Joad, she is a strong woman. When we see her in the very last chapter, she is a strong woman. Her strength only grows throughout the course of the novel. In fact, her initial strength transforms into a different kind of strength – one that it is dead set on survival – the survival of her family. As her family meets obstacle after obstacle, Ma Joad keeps it together. She is the strongest supporter of family and togetherness. Ma expresses this best when she directs Rosasharn to breast-feed the starving man at the novel’s conclusion. Both Ma Joad and I know that even the most horrible circumstances can be surmounted with grace and dignity.

Did you do any research for the book?

Moving into a 1770 Connecticut farmhouse ignited my interest in the colonial era. Behind the walls of our house, surprises and secrets waited to be exposed, and this became the spark for my novel, Acquiescence. While researching my novel, I became obsessed (in a good way) with colonial women. I wanted to find out what life was really like for them – the stuff we’ve always been curious about. How did they deal with menstruation at a time when women didn’t wear underwear? How about sex and birth control, childbirth, sickness and medicine? I put together an entertainingly- informative presentation called Colonial Goodwife: The Not-So-Good Life of the Colonial Goodwife (www.colonialgoodwife.com) to help promote my novel, as well as to let today’s women see that although we have a long way to go, it’s amazing how far we’ve come.

3 words that describe your writing style

Breezy, honest, unpretentious

What’s next for you?

I have a hands-on science children’s fiction series under contract. As a hands-on science teacher, (www.howcoolisthat.name) I know that the new importance placed on standardized testing doesn’t leave enough time in a school day for hands-on activities. Standardized tests don’t encourage a love of learning. A kid is more than a test score. I offer inquiry-based, hands-on/minds-on science activities like Dissecting Owl Pellets, Making Chicken Mummies, Grossology, Shampoo Analysis Lab and Gotta Brain/ Getta Helmet!. Not every child can participate in one of my classes, but soon they will be able to take part through my book/science kits with the summer 2015 launch of One Lucky Mealworm! and Whooo Eats What?

I’m also cooking up a follow-up to Pamina’s story titled Woman on the Rock.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your work-in-progress?

Working title: The Woman on the Rock

For forty years, Chuck Ehrismann stared at a black and white photo of an unknown stunning woman – the only clue was ‘1949 Keansberg, New Jersey’ penciled on the back, but Chuck suspected she was family and held the key to his own identity.

Where can we learn more about you and your book?

Acquiescence is available from Second Wind Publishing: http://www.secondwindpublishing.com/#!product/prd15/3391685311/acquiescence

Links

Website: www.acquiescencethebook.com
Website: www.colonialgoodwife.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vjanczurban
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Acquiescence-and-Colonial-Goodwife/1554841878108700?ref=hl
Twitter: https://twitter.com/cgoodwife
Blog: https://colonialgoodwife.wordpress.com/

Author Bio

Velya Jancz-Urban, and her Acquiescence protagonist Pamina Campbell, have a lot in common. Both are teachers and hoodwinked Brazilian dairy farm owners, and both share a 1770 Connecticut farmhouse with a spirit woman. Velya has been married for 32 years, and is the mother of two grown children. She has a few too many rescue dogs and cats, is happiest with a fresh stack of library books, loves thrift shops, and is passionate about alternative medicine. Velya is the creator/owner of How Cool Is That?!” (Hands-On Science) (www.howcoolisthat.name), as well as the East Coast Facilitator for Earth Adventure’s Earth Balloon. She teaches throughout NY/NJ/CT/MA. Her entertainingly informative presentation, The Not-So-Good Life of the Colonial Goodwife is a result of the research completed for this novel.

The Problem with Puppet Characters ~ Jessica Rising

Let’s just admit it: writers are megalomaniacs. It’s okay, we deserve to be. At least in our own worlds. We control everything that happens within the pages of our stories, from the last breath of a character to the turning of the stars. It feels good to have control over a whole world and every soul in it.

But sometimes we micromanage a little too much.

I have spent so many years trying to figure out how to keep a story interesting, not only in cadence but in plot. Again and again I found myself mired in a storyline knot, unable to break free in the way I’d planned. I’d build the world, focusing on every detail I could imagine from topography to history to social cues. I’d build the plot, knowing every step toward its pre-planned end and why each step mattered. I’d create my characters and give them every personality trait and flaw they needed. My world and characters were SO 3-D in the planning stage. Then I’d start to write… and it would  all go 2-D. Flat. Shallow. Lacking realism, depth, or empathy.

Then I met Squire Carroll and everything changed.

Squire is the heroine of Bight, my first Young Adult novel. At first I made her like all my other characters — molded to fit the plot. She needed to be weak so she could learn to be strong. She needed to be simplistic so she could resonate with every reader. She needed to be ignorant so she could learn to… learn.

In essence, she needed to be a puppet whose strings I could pull to my ends. There was only one problem: nobody empathizes with a puppet.

I began Blight the same as always, focusing on the concept I’d built it on instead of the story it could be. My concept was a society built on religious persecution based in past-lives. Squire was a child of the persecuted, so she would naturally be meek and ignorant. Chapter 1 was written, and it worked just fine. Chapter 2 delved more into the world around Squire… and she was buried in it. I realized then, as I searched for her in the rubble, that I’d made the same mistake I’d made a million times before: I’d turned my character into a puppet.

How could Squire shine as a heroine for all if she was a puppet to anyone,even me?

Think about all the characters you have ever loved. What do they all have in common?

Individuality.

None of them conformed to any of the rules of their worlds. Now imagine being the writer of those worlds. The one who created those rules. Most of us would want everyone to follow the rules we created, even if we told ourselves we didn’t. The rules are there for a reason. They’re there to keep things focused and logical. They’re there to keep the storyline exact. Think about your worlds and their rules. They’re important! Right? You’ve worked on them for months!

But they’re meant to be broken. And the one who should break them — who has to break them — is our hero.

When I realized this, finally, after two and a half decades of writing, I knew what I had to do. It was terrifying, but I had to do it.

I had to let the real Squire loose in her world.

So I let go. I allowed her personality to shine, and I learned that she’s so much stronger than I thought. So much smarter. And so much more… sarcastic. But that’s okay. She’s Squire Carroll, not Jessica Rising. She grew up in a different world than me, and she  knows that world better than I do, even if I created it.

How do you let a character you created free in a world you created? Just write what they say in your mind, ignoring the voices that tell you they’re being too knowledgeable too early, too sarcastic and cynical, too… non-hero-like according to your own perceptions. Ignore those voices, and their true voice will sing through them to tell their story.

A story not unlike yours, but so much more.

Let your character tell their story. They might take it somewhere you never dreamed, but hang on for the ride. Don’t reign them in. They’re the ones who are living it. They’re the ones your readers will follow. It’s their story, not yours. The sooner you realize you’re just taking notation for your hero, the sooner your story will become a whole world of its own, where everyone feels welcome.