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Virtual Book Tour: Alma Alexander at the Astraldome
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Mar. 1st, 2007 @ 12:05 pm
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Today the Astraldome welcomes bestselling author of the Jin Shei series, Alma Alexander.
So, same format as before, with the help of two mediums strapped to a supercomputer we are going to astrally project Alma to a place very close to your computer screen. Warning: there is an 'r' in the month so there will be ectoplasm.
Ready? Okay, Windows ESP is loading, the mediums are entering a trance like state - possibly Belgium. Now, concentrate on Alma's picture below. Will her across the astral plane. And hold that image. The astral plane is a slippery place and she may snap back.
Can you see it? Alma's spectral form? Then let the interview commence...
Q1 I hear that Jin Shei has sold over 30,000 copies in hardcover in Spain in only six months. Just how large is the Spanish branch of your family?
Someone I met at one of my many schools, back when I was fifteen or so, grew up to be a Spanish teacher - she lives in Wales and holidays in Spain regularly. Believe it or not, that is my only connection with Spain. The only thing I can say in it with any degree of conviction is "Que?" (you have to imagine the other upside down question mark, my keyboard doesn't do exotics *grin*). The success of this book in Spain was completely unlooked for, utterly confounding, and still hard to believe...
Q2. Has living in a large number of countries and travelling extensively seeped into your writing? Do you find it easier to write about outsiders and 'the other?'
That's cheating, that's two questions.
What can I say? It's two for one night on the astral plane.
Okay, part the first: I would recommend travel as a way of learning people. I make it a point to try and "mingle"; when I was living in New Zealand the opportunity arose to visit Tahiti and I grabbed it - and by the end of my ten days there I could speak a couple of dozen words in the local language, I had engaged in conversations with a local young security guard at my hotel in the only language we had in common (French) although they were peppered with lots of "how do you say" prefixes as I tried to remember the rusty schoolgirl French I'd not touched for years, and I had learned a bunch of traditions and ghost stories and tales of mystery and magic many of which WILL find their way into my writing sooner or later. I've still got my entire African life experience to write about, practically untouched. Travel is wonderful.
Part the second: oh, yes. There's nothing like coming in from outside the circle for clarity of vision of the way things are INSIDE the circle. The things that the insiders don't, will NEVER be able to, see. And will sometimes hate you, the outsider, for pointing out.
Q3. You receive a phone call from a serial killer. He asks you the same question he asked his previous victims. "You have 150 words to sell me your book. 150 words exactly. If I like what you write I'll buy the book. If I don't you die." What would your 150 words be for your new book, Gift of the Unmage?
"Thea Winthrop is a Double Seventh - seventh child of two seventh children - the most magical of the magical, the flowering of her potential eagerly awaited by her family, by her world. There's just one problem - she can't do any magic at all. Before giving up completely and sending her to the Last Ditch School for the Incurably Incompetent, where children of a magical world who are incapable of magic are sent for a decent education while being kept out of harm's way, Thea's desperate parents whisk her back in time into the care of an Anasazi tribal elder for a last attempt at waking the dormant Double Seventh potential. What Thea learns in the shadow of the red mesas of the Southwest will make her realise that she and a handful of other misfit kids from the Last Ditch School are the only ones who can save their world from a hungry evil called simply The Nothing - and that Thea's co-called magical powerlessness is the most potent weapon of all."
How is the serial killer counting the words?
Very scarily using other people's fingers.
A glance towards the silhouetted serial killer. He's deep in thought ... and other peoples' fingers. What's he going to decide? It's ... it's a thumbs up - several thumbs up - for Alma and Thea.
Q4. In Gift for an Unmage Thea attends the Last Ditch School for the Incurably Incompetent. Would you have liked to have gone to that school? Did you?
I didn't go to that school, no, but funnily enough a few of its teachers taught at schools I DID go to. I will (ahem) particularly draw your attention to the Mathematics teacher, Mr Siffer - and later, in the second book (coming next year) the Biology teacher, Mr Crow. (My husband recently bought me a T-shirt that says, "Careful or you'll end up in my novel". He thinks he was kidding.)
It's a nice enough school, as schools go, if it weren't for that moniker and its reputation as a dead-end place for useless misfits - but then, my books redeem the place, and how, so I guess that having gone there will come to be regarded as a plus rather than something to try and hide on your resume...
Q5. If you had the power to select any book, delete its existence from the time line, then give that concept to another writer, what would be that book and who do you think should have written it?
Oof. No fair. These days such books might well be written by my own peer group, by people I consider friends - and quite often the people who I might nominate as replacement-writers will ALSO be people I consider friends. Doing this would not be kind to either. But might I put forward the screenplay for the LOTR movies (as done by Peter Jackson et al) and suggest that they would have been better off giving the job to, well, *me*...? (okay, everyone, put the rocks down. I know the Jackson movies have LOTS of fans. I, however, don't think he did the book justice, he messed with the storyline (leaving out important stuff which WAS in the books and inserting irrelevant nonsense of his own making), and he COMPLETELY failed to get either Aragorn or the Elves. There IS a way of filming these books. I could have written that screenplay, kept the sweep and the drama of the movie and still kept true to the spirit of the book.
Thank you, Alma. The mediums power down, Peter Jackson's lawyers reach for their ouija boards and Alma's ghostly presence returns to whence it came.
Meanwhile, The Gift of the Unmage can be bought from all good bookshops including Amazon in the US and UK
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Promotion
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Feb. 12th, 2007 @ 04:01 pm
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Has being published made any difference to the rate at which you write, or would you have gone on to write the next two books after Resonance regardless?
I thought this question deserved a longer answer. Gone are the days - if they ever existed - when an author received that offer of publication for his/her novel and everyone lived happily ever after. Getting published is difficult enough but staying published is harder.
So, would I have gone on to write the two next books? Yes, I'm a writer. Though, having said that, I think continuing rejection wears away at even the most addicted writer. I don't know if I could have taken my unpublished novel count into double figures.
But did it slow down my output? Definitely. Why? Promotion. Seasoned writers may say don't do it, that promotion is for publishers and the best thing a writer can do is write the next book.
But... if the first book doesn't sell you endanger the second book. And if the second book tanks then there goes your career.
Economics. Publishing is a business. Many bookstores base their book orders on how well the last book did and how much money the publisher is putting behind the new book. The quality of the book doesn't necessarily enter into the equation.
So, unless you're famous and/or have a publisher willing to spend $50k+ to promote your book ... you need to get out there and push both the book and yourself.
Which means lots of networking and research. Take last week for example - I spent quite a lot of time researching UK bookstores, finding out which chains had central buying, how they were organised and who would be the best person to contact. The result - excellent feedback from both Waterstones and Borders.
Now, some people will say that that wasn't my job. My publisher should have done that. But Baen are a US publisher, they don't have a UK sales force. And no one is more motivated to sell a book than the author.
And with hundreds of thousands of books competing for shelf space it's a complacent author who doesn't take an active role. Writing a great book is no longer a sure way to a prominent shelf display. In the UK recently there was a furore when it was let slip that a book chain's 'book of the week' was not selected on quality but by a publisher handing over £50k. It's the same with window displays. A good window display in a big store costs £30k. Unknown authors can't compete with that. So we have to network and push and tour and persuade.
Or, failing that, marry or murder a celebrity. Preferably both. On camera.
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What to Do When the Words won't Flow
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Feb. 9th, 2007 @ 10:33 am
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Most, if not all, writers experience times when words misbehave - either fleeing for the coast or arranging themselves in the wrong order, with all the best words hiding at the back, hands in pockets and refusing to co-operate.
So, what do you do?
Unfortunately there is no magic solution. Well there is but you have to be a magician to use it. Instead there are several well-trodden remedies. And like all remedies, some only work for old wives.
Remedy One. The keep writing rule. Like baseball crowds in cornfields - if you write it, those good words will come. It may take some time but that's what second drafts are for. Many writers swear by this, others just swear. Me, I can't do it. I have to be 100% committed to what I'm writing. When I am, the writing flows. I feel the right phrase, words queue up and immolate themselves on the screen. But when I'm not, I almost get an allergic reaction.
Weird but true. If I force myself to write I feel ... wrong. Not exactly nauseous but the emotional equivalent. Suddenly anything is preferable to writing. Cleaning out the litter tray, washing up. And if I keep typing it's so easy to descend into the 'it sucks, I suck, why bother' cycle of writerly despair.
So I clean out the litter tray. My view, and it works for me, is that there's a time to write and a time to clean out litter trays. If the story's good the muse will return and until then why churn out 1000 words of crap a day? The world has enough crap and it's incumbent upon us all to keep our crap footprint small.
That's Remedy Two - take a break until the muse returns. Not good when you're working to deadline or have a muse who takes frequent sabbaticals.
Which brings me to Remedy Three. Analysis. Where has the suckiness come from? Is it the scene you're writing? The characters? I've certainly found this helpful in the past. Go back to the parts of the book you were happy with and work out what went wrong. Writing is as much about deleting as it is creating.
Remedy Four. Move on. Jump forward to a scene you feel happy with and start from there. This gives you plenty of time to come up with a bridging scene in draft two.
Remedy Five. Switch to another project. Most writers will have more than one project - the embryonic idea for the next novel, a short story, an outline, a synopsis. Switch to the project that excites you the most and get back the will to write. That way you stay productive and return to the original project in a better and more objective mood.
For remedies six and up consult your inner psychologist. Paraphrasing Kipling, there are nine and sixty ways of handling writer's block and every one of them is er ... oh sh**, what's the word?
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Virtual Book Tour: Chris Roberson at the Astraldome
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Jan. 30th, 2007 @ 10:58 am
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Today the Astraldome welcomes award winning author and publisher of Monkey Brain Books, Chris Roberson.
So, same format as before, with the help of two mediums strapped to a supercomputer we are going to astrally project Chris to a place very close to your computer screen. Warning: there may be ectoplasm.
Ready? Okay, Windows ESP is loading. Concentrate on Chris's picture below. Will him across the astral plane. And hold that image. The astral plane is a time-slippery place and he may snap back.
Can you see it? Chris's spectral form? Then let the interview commence...
Q1. Who is your favourite X-men character?
It’s sad, but if I’m honest my favorite X-Man is none of the cool ones. No Wolverine for me, with his cigar-chomping machismo and hairy chest. And that strange glowing-eyed Cajun who throws playing cards didn’t come along until after my time, so I don’t even have an opinion about him. No, my favorite characters are the staid, the boring, the blatant reader-identification figures for nerdy teenage boys. It’s a toss-up between Cyclops, who seems to have no identifiable personality traits of note, and Cypher, the teenaged New Mutant whose only super-power is the ability to translate things into and from foreign languages (only very, very fast). It’s certainly no accident that I just wrote an X-Men novel for Pocket Books in which the ability to translate things was of vital importance to the plot...
Q2. If a genie from the Justice League of America offered to make you into a superhero, what powers/mutations would you choose? And what name would you take?
Does the JLA have a genie on staff? Sheesh, they’ll take *anybody* these days. (If you ask me, when they lowered the standards far enough to let Firestorm on the team, the salad days were over.)
But powers? At the moment, I’d like the mutant ability to jump ahead in time to a point just after I’ve finished writing whatever book I happen to be writing at the time, to save the muss and fuss. Wouldn’t it be so much easier that way? I always enjoy the moments leading up to writing a book, and I love the warm afterglow of having finished one, but the time in between is muddied up with all of this damned *work*.
As for names, I’ve always been partial to God Emperor. It has nothing to do with my requested superpowers. I just like the sound of it.
Q3. The God Emperor receives a phone call from a serial killer. He asks you the same question he asked his previous victims. "You have 150 words to sell me your book. 150 words exactly. If I like what you write I'll buy the book. If I don't you die." What would your 150 words be for Paragaea?
Paragaea is that familiar old story of girl launches in rocket, girl falls through hole in spacetime, girl meets boy, girl meets jaguar man, girl and boy and jaguar man fight monsters and pterosaur-riding pirates, girl meets ancient android, girl falls through another hole in spacetime and loses boy. It’s a planetary romance in the style of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Leigh Brackett, but with an underpinning of real science. A female cosmonaut, a timelost British naval officer, and an outlaw prince of the jaguar men have adventures the length and breadth of the posthistoric world of Paragaea, pausing frequently for suitable alcoholic refreshment. Along the way they encounter a merman, an ancient android, and an Amazonian warrior, take a trip in an airship, go on a sea voyage, walk long distances, ride on horseback, and travel crosscountry by indricothere (look it up). It’s the same old, same old, really.
A glance towards the silhouetted serial killer, he's thinking - or maybe he's looking up indricothere in his serial killer dictionary - and ... yes, the chainsaw can be put away for another day, it's a mass-murdering thumbs up from the Man in the Ironed Skin Mask.
Q4. It's been rumoured for quite some time that the success of Monkey Brain Books is down to the use of small amounts of real monkey brains impregnated into the fabric of each page. Is this true or do you use synthetic monkey brains?
I take deep umbrage at the scandalous suggestion that we would use anything but the finest in free-range farm-fresh monkey brains in our publications. Lies! All lies!
Q5. Was there a moment in your career when you moved from 'I think I can be a writer' to 'I know I can' and if so what, other than alcohol, precipitated that change.
I was foolish enough to “know” that I could be a writer long before I actually should have. I wrote my first novel in college, then finished another before I graduated, and between then and the time that I actually started selling fiction I managed to write another seven novels and a few dozen short stories, none of which anyone will ever see. It was that complete lack of any realistic expectations, I think, that helped me weather those long years in which I completely sucked as a writer, to reach the point where my suckiness dropped to tolerable levels.
Of course, once I reached that point, and started selling novels and short stories, I became immediately convinced that I was a fraud, with no business writing anything at all, and that it was only a matter of time before I was found out. And it’s in this latter state that I persist, to this day.
That said, alcohol certainly didn’t hurt, in either condition.
Thank you, Chris. The mediums power down, Doris falls down, and the God Emperor's ghostly presence returns to whence it came.
Now for feedback - did anyone see any ectoplasm? Did anyone sober see any ectoplasm? Did Chris's astral form billow out and grasp anything? And if so, is it anything you can talk about? Enquiring minds need to know.
Meanwhile, Paragaea can be bought from all good bookshops including Amazon in the US and UK
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Library Stats
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Jan. 8th, 2007 @ 04:15 pm
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I received my first ever PLR payment over the weekend and with the statement came some very interesting stats on book borrowing at UK libraries.
There were 330 million books borrowed from UK libraries between 1st July, 2005 and 30th June, 2006. A drop of 11 million on the previous year.
Why do PLR gather these stats? To pay authors, of course - a very worthy cause:) They calculate how many books have been borrowed that period, divide that into how much money the government has allocated them and come up with a 'rate per loan.' This year it comes to 5.98 pence. Which means that every time someone borrows a book from a UK library, the author (if they're registered) gets 5.98 pence.
To be registered the author has to be a UK or, I believe, a Commonwealth citizen. There are 21 countries that have similar systems to help their authors.
So how much did I get? Well, I'd been expecting about £1.50 as most libraries didn't stock Resonance until the late spring. But I was wrong. I received the heady sum of £20.21 for 338 loans. Which bodes well for future years.
To put that amount in proportion 10,385 authors received nothing as their payment amounted to less than £1, and 286 authors received the maximum allowed - £6,600. That's 286 authors each with over 110,000 loans in one year.
Which gives the following nifty table showing the number of authors in the various bands:
Loans Authors
110,367+ 286
83,613 - 110,367 77
41,807 - 83,612 397
16,723 - 41,806 788
8,362 - 16,722 922
1,673 - 8,361 3,661
17 - 1,672 17,738
<17 10,386
Even though the bands aren't equally spaced you can see that the average author has his or her books borrowed about 500 times. And note the skewed nature of the table. Most books borrowed are from a small group of popular authors.
It's also interesting to note that, according to PLR, some of the most popular 'library' authors are not the bestselling authors in the shops. Over half the authors interviewed said the PLR payment represented a very significant part of their income. The largest group of these were the mid-list genre fiction writers (particularly crime and romance) and the retired authors.
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Hidden in Time: Update
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Dec. 29th, 2006 @ 04:33 pm
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Christmas over and typing fingers fireproofed I'm back in novel writing mode. Last time I wrote I was in 1969. Now in my Time Travel (or is it?) novel, I may be in 1972. Ziggy Stardust is touring, Harry Nilsson is Without You, Don MacLean is driving his Chevy to the levee, Donny Osmond loves his puppy and Jon Pertwee is Doctor Who.
And the bestselling UK single in 1972?
Amazing Grace by the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards. Yes, 1972, the year of Glam Rock when even soldiers dressed in skirts to appear on Top of the Pops:)
And here (hopefully) is Hidden in Time's progress metre.
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Dublin: March 10/11, 2007
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Dec. 19th, 2006 @ 03:40 pm
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It's official - the flights booked, the money paid - I'm off to next year's Phoenix Convention (P-Con IV) at the Wynn's Hotel, Dublin. The convention begins on Saturday, 10th March and concludes the next day. I'll be arriving on the 9th, with camera, so all Irish kittens beware - snaps might be required for the following Kitten Picture Wednesday. I wonder if I can hold a Kitten Factor audition in the hotel?
Guests and attendees at the convention include such notables as Charlie Stross, Ken MacLeod, Kim Newman, Diane Duane, Juliet E McKenna, James P Hogan and Paul Cornell. It's my first literary convention and my first trip to Dublin so with my track record vis a vis Fate, there's a good chance that something unusual will happen. My only hope is that it won't be such that I'm not invited back the following year.
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Virtual Book Tour: Cherie Priest at the Astraldome
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Dec. 1st, 2006 @ 10:49 am
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Well this time the Astraldome leaves its walls unhosed down, its drains blocked and a film of scary ectoplasm moistening its drapes ... because (cue Vincent Price at the organ) it welcomes Cherie Priest - ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) cmpriest and Mistress of the Southern Gothic.
So, same format as before, with the help of two mediums strapped to a supercomputer we are going to astrally project Cherie from her office in a Seattle graveyard to a place very close to your computer screen. Remember, there may be ectoplasm and if any gets on your keyboard - don't let your cat lick it up.
Ready? Okay, Windows ESP is loading and the quantum computer has flipped through to its spin cycle. Now concentrate on Cherie's picture below. Will her across the astral plane. And hold that image, even if it takes a scary form. The astral plane is a slippery place and Cherie's spectral image might snap back.
Can you see it? Cherie's spectral form? Then let the interview commence...
Q1. Do you think that you'll continue to set most of your novels in the South? Or has moving to Seattle nudged your writing axis?
Well, I spent most of my life in the south so it's the region I know best -- but I'm already planning to rework one upcoming project to be set in Seattle. It's simply easier to write about a location that I know very well and/or have easy access to.
Q2. If you were given a government grant to design the ultimate scary chimera. What animals would you borrow from and for which parts? And would it start with the face of a sloth?
Hmm .... let's see. Face of sloth, yes. Hands of sloth too -- they look like lobster claws with fur. Maybe mouth of those bitey fish that have the glowing lures on their heads. Legs of kangaroo ... because what could be scarier than a hairy lobster-clawed sloth beast with big teeth LEAPING TOWARDS YOU?
(long pause) ... Interviewer stands back for next question, sneaking worried glances over left shoulder whilst listening for Slobbo, the were-skippy.
Q3. If you had (pauses for another look over shoulder) the opportunity to spend the night in the haunted location of your choice - anywhere in the world - where would it be? Or would you pass?
I wouldn't pass so long as I'm not alone. I wouldn't do it by myself, that's for sure. But with company? Holy crap. So many options! I've always wanted to go to Waverly Hills, in Kentucky. It's an old sanitarium (what IS it about me and old sanitariums? I tell ya ...) , fearsomely haunted, and I think that Ghost Hunters on the SciFi channel even did an episode there. Really, I'd be game to go just about anyplace, so long as I was assured (a). that I wouldn't be alone, (b). some good recording equipment and (c). somebody else would be paying my traveling expenses.
Q4. If a friend with a time machine gave you the chance to go back in time and alter something from your writing past, what would it be? Telling your 15 year-old self to burn that first novel? Or would you say 'forget it' and take the machine back to watch an early Bowie concert?
Bowie. All the way. I've made a lot of mistakes, but I've learned from them -- and it's worked out fairly well so far. So yes. Let's say "Bowie" on that one. Or let's just say "Bowie" a lot anyway. Bowie Bowie Bowie ...
Q5. You receive a phone call from a serial killer. He asks you the same question he asked his previous victims. "You have 150 words to sell me your book. 150 words exactly. If I like what you write I'll buy the book. If I don't you die." What would your 150 words be?
Which book? I've got this stack of them, see ... But okay. Let's take Dreadful Skin (since that's the next one out). Dreadful Skin is a trio of stories about a little Irish nun who hunts werewolves with a silver-bullet-loaded Colt. The first story, "The Wreck of the Mary Byrd," is my werewolf/steamboat/disaster novella; the second one, "Halfway to Holiness," has the nun infiltrating a traveling Pentecostal camp meeting (in search of werewolves); and the third, "Our Lady of the Wasteland," features our nun-hero hunting werewolves in [cue Jack Palance voice] the ooooold west.
Is that less than 150 words? Cripes, I hope so ...
A glance towards the serial killer. He likes the nun, the silver-bullet-loaded Colt brings back memories... But he's not sure about the word count. He's taking off his shoes and socks ... putting down his chainsaw... Oh dear, I knew he should have done that the other way round. But ... here comes the verdict. He raises a thumb - several thumbs, several pieces of thumbs. And it's a many thumbs-up verdict for Dreadful Skin.
Thank you, Cherie. The mediums power down, the serial killer limps off towards a distant alley, and Cherie's ghostly presence returns from whence it came.
Or is it ... BEHIND YOU!
Now, for those still able to read, did anyone see any ectoplasm? Did anyone sober see any ectoplasm? Did Cherie's astral form billow out and grasp a pen? And if it did, did it write anything you can sell on eBay? Enquiring minds need to know.
Meanwhile, Dreadful Skin can be pre-ordered from all good bookshops including Amazon in the US and UK. For those who can't wait,Wings to the Kingdom is out now in the US, the UK and all good bookshops worldwide.
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Virtual Book Tour: Sarah Hoyt at the Astraldome
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Nov. 2nd, 2006 @ 10:16 am
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Following the great success of the inaugural astral interview (i.e. no one died. Well, no one important...) the Astraldome has had its walls hosed down, the drains unblocked and ... welcomes fantasy and mystery author Sarah Hoyt.
Sarah has two books coming out this month. Draw One in the Dark - a shape-shifting urban fantasy - and, writing as Sarah D'Almeida, Death of a Musketeer - an historical mystery starring four very famous musketeers.
So, same format as before, with the help of two mediums strapped to a supercomputer we are going to astrally project Sarah from her home in Colorado to a place very close to your computer screen. Same warning as before. If there is any ectoplasm leakage - which I'm assured there won't be - don't let your cat lick it up.
Ready? Okay, Windows ESP is loading, the quantum computer may or may not be on. Now concentrate on Sarah's picture below. Will her across the astral plane. And keep concentrating. Hold that image. The astral plane is a slippery place to cross - her spectral image might snap back. Or shape shift. We are dealing with an author who uses pseudonyms.
Can you see it? Sarah's spectral form? Then let the interview commence...
Q1. I read in an interview that you've had a crush on Athos since the age of eleven. But why Athos? Wasn't Aramis the Musketeer heart throb?
Oh, probably. But one falls in love with characters for different reasons. Besides, quite frankly, if I met Aramis I'd probably think he was too smooth by half.
Athos is different. Perhaps because of his guilt over his wife's death -- though of course, Milady isn't dead but he doesn't know that -- or because of a strict moral fiber with stoic overtones. The thing is, when Athos -- at the beginning of Monsieur Dumas books -- disciplined himself past physical pain and weakness to make his way to Monsieur de Treville's office to defend his friends, I fell headlong in love with him. There is a self-contained darkness there, a discipline and loyalty that transcends mere physical limits. Hard not to fall in love with, in fact.
Q2. In DOITD Kyrie is a werepanther. Which sounds cool but are werepanthers house trained? If I were to visit Kyrie's home would I find a large litter tray in her bathroom?
Um... I have no doubt if Kyrie saw this she would glare at you. Kyrie only shifts when she wants to or needs to. Oh, one or two accidental shifts might happen when she is stressed or in trouble -- but I have no doubt she takes care of the minutia of daily life in the ordinary way. :)
Q3. Given the choice which animal would you like to shape shift into?
One of my cats. This thing about sleeping all day, eating at will and being adored for your troubles HAS to be a good deal. If something more ferocious were desired, probably a tiger. However, my alter ego in Baen's Bar is an ocelot, and I guess that will have to do.
Q4. You receive a phone call from a serial killer. He asks you the same question he asked his previous victims. "You have 150 words to sell me your book. 150 words exactly. If I like what you write I'll buy the book. If I don't you die." What would your 150 words be?
Well, first of all I would yell at the serial killer for being so uninformed. After all, I have TWO books coming out practically one on top of each other.
So, my first talk would be about Draw One In The Dark --
Draw One In The Dark is hip without being illiterate, edgy without being dry and sexy without being sex laden. It does shape changers as you've never seen them before. They are not the cursed creatures of legend, bound to their unwitting fate. No, rather they are humans -- humans whose inner beast is made visible and external and therefore both harder and easier to control. Their battles with themselves are those we all engage in, only magnified. Besides, it's non-stop rollicking adventure with looming danger and a breath-taking payoff.
A quick pause for a reaction ... he's not sure about the word count - he's had to take his shoes and socks off. But he doesn't like the look of that spectral panther ... so, yes, it's an ectoplasmic thumbs-up from our serial killer. So, on with the next question...
Q5. I heard that "Draw One in the Dark" is diner slang for a cup of black coffee. Are you going to continue that theme for the sequel? Will book two be Draw Two in the Dark or maybe A Blonde with Sand Dragged through Georgia?
The second one, which I'm hoping very much will sell is Gentleman Takes a Chance, old diner slang for Hash, the third one Blonde with Sand and the fourth one Bowl of Red. :)
Thank you, Sarah. The mediums power down, the quantum computer's in a state, and Sarah's ghostly presence slithers back along the plane, pauses at the duty free and disappears.
Now for feedback - did everyone see Sarah? Did anyone sober see Sarah? Did Sarah's astral form billow out and grasp a pen? And if it did, did it sign anything? Enquiring minds need to know.
Meanwhile, Draw One in the Dark can be bought from all good bookshops including Amazon in the US and UK
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The Astraldome tomorrow: An interview with fantasy and mystery author, Sarah Hoyt
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Nov. 1st, 2006 @ 05:03 pm
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Yes, last minute touches are being applied to internationally famous medium Doris Scrote. The Salvador Dali Llama is being greased up and Windows ESP is ... displaying a blue screen and blaming everyone else.
But I'm sure all the kinks - and any other sixties supergroups we find lurking in the astral plane - will be ironed out by tomorrow.
So, tomorrow at the Astraldome - be there or be ... somewhere else. It doesn't matter. An astrally projected author can find you wherever you are.
And this one writes about werepanthers.
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