Where do you get those wonderful ideas? A guest post by Katie Stewart

Let's all welcome back Australian fantasy author Katie Stewart. Previously I interviewed her about her debut novel, TREESPEAKER. Today she's here to tell us about one of her newer YA fantasy works, MARK OF THE DRAGON QUEEN.

-----

Kira has led a sheltered life, brought up by her widowed father, whom she adores. When he is arrested and imprisoned for a murder he allegedly committed 18 years before, she is devastated. So when she overhears an ex-student of her father's planning to visit the prison, Kira decides to go, too. However, the student - Arun - is not who she thinks he is, and she soon learns that her father has not always been the man of integrity she has known for fifteen years.

Caught in a rebellion against the Lord High Councillor who would return the country to Wizard Rule, Kira finds that there is one more lesson she has to learn - about herself. Success depends on her, but is she willing to make the sacrifice it will require? 

Something many readers seem to want to know is where an author got the idea for a particular story or novel. As a writer, I’ve learned that ideas can come from anywhere and everywhere - from major events to tiny things that might stay for years as a seed in the mind, until the right novel begs to be written. As Neil Gaiman puts it:

“You get ideas from daydreaming. You get ideas from being bored. You get ideas all the time. The only difference between writers and other people is we notice when we're doing it.”

In my "real" life – the one where I’m not pretending to be a writer – I work in the library of a small, private country school. It’s a great job, with a lovely crowd of people, and even if all my books were suddenly to become best sellers, I wouldn’t quit work entirely. In fact, my third book, MARK OF THE DRAGON QUEEN actually owes its existence, in part, to my job.

Two years ago, the school, along with the rest of the world, went through a financial crisis. Budgets were cut, including the one for the library. We had no money to buy books. No new books meant that there was little to do beyond the regular book changes with the children and shelving. So I found myself sitting for many hours, re-covering old books just for something to do. To ease the tedium, I listened to my iPod; more specifically, I listened to the musical, Les Miserables, which I’d just discovered and fallen in love with (I know, I’m a little slow on catching up with these things). As I listened to the story, I began to wonder what would happen if, instead of trying to escape from gaol for years, a man had to try to avoid going into gaol? What if he was given the chance to stay out of gaol, simply (or not so simply) by not doing what he had done wrong, ever again – with the punishment being death if he did? So, for example, what would happen if they’d killed with their right hand and were never allowed to use their right hand again? I mulled that over for a while and MARK OF THE DRAGON QUEEN, in which the protagonist’s father has managed not to use magic for eighteen years, was born.

Of course, the novel didn’t come together as a whole right there. It took a long time of what Ursula K Le Guin refers to as "composting" before the whole plot began to gel. Characters had to be found in the image library of my brain, a whole lot more what ifs had to be thought of and worked into a plot. It was like my first efforts at knitting as a child – it generally hung together, but was full of holes. In fact, I’d written quite a chunk of the first draft before I worked out exactly how the story would end. I’m definitely not a planner.

It seemed the more twists I put into the story, the harder I made it for myself. To start with, I had a main character who was very much concentrating on her father’s problems. That made it difficult to keep the perspective on target. Often I found myself slipping up, letting the father become the main focus and I had to rewrite whole sections. There was a prophecy which seemed to say one thing, but of course, there’s always a twist with a prophecy. That was tricky. Worse, it meant doing something horrible to one of my characters, a character I was very fond of, forcing me to write a scene that I hated myself for. I think it would have been easier to kill him off. On the other hand, his plight does give me a stepping stone into a sequel*.

To compost properly, you need the right tools. The ingredients have to be stirred and turned over. This was done with the help of members of my favourite critiquing site, Critique Circle . A hardy group of four to six other writers read my book, chapter by chapter, telling me what was good and what didn’t work. They encouraged me and chastised me for not writing quickly enough. Normally a writer wouldn’t have someone critique a first draft, but I tend to edit as I go, so what they read was reasonably edited, even if I wasn’t always entirely sure what I was doing! Then, when I’d completed the first draft, those same wonderful people read through the second draft. I don’t think I’ve ever been enthused about writing quite as much as I was with this book, and it took less than a year to get it completely written and edited. Actually getting it to the publishable stage took longer, because I’m not fond of the nitty gritty of e-publishing. I procrastinated wherever possible – designing the cover, working on the next book. However, I did get there in the end and MARK OF THE DRAGON QUEEN was published on New Year’s Day this year.

I never know what the theme of my book is going to be until it’s written. My books tend to be about relationships, and this one definitely is, with the main character’s love of her father being pivotal. It’s also about judging people on who they are now, rather than who they used to be, and about the opposition between love and power and how the two can’t exist together.

*I’ve had quite a few people asking me for a sequel to MARK OF THE DRAGON QUEEN and it will come – in time. I’m tentatively calling it ELLYETH'S HARP. At the moment, I’m working on the sequel to TREESPEAKER, which I hope to have out by mid-year. I’m also working on a children’s story which I originally wrote as a short story for my adopted son. It’s about a little Korean adoptee who finds an imugi – a Korean mythical serpent - which has come to Australia to discover the crystal that will allow it to become a dragon. That’s taking a bit of research, but I love research. It’s my favourite procrastinating tool.

-----

Thanks, Katie.

You can find more Katie at:

Website: www.katiewstewart.com

Blog: http://kates-scribbles.blogspot.com.au/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Treespeaker

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/Skate60

Forced Perspective: The difference between Heroes and Villains, A Guest Post by Liana Brooks

Today I have a guest post from Liana Brooks as part of her blog tour to promote her super-hero/villain romance novella, EVEN VILLAINS FALL IN LOVE. It was just released by Breathless Press. 

-----

In photography there is a technique called Forced Perspective that manipulates perception to change how you view objects, like making the moon look like a light bulb, or making a distant lighthouse look like a toy. In the movies, this is the trick that makes Elijah Wood and Ian McKellen look like one is Hobbit-sized and the other is tall. It's the trick that historians use to make you remember King John (1166-1216) as a horrible, whiny man-child who never moved past Prince John (a different person entirely, the prince lived from 1905-1919).

Forced Perspective is what defines a hero and creates a villain.

Consider for a moment the long list of things that are considered impolite - even outright criminal - by modern society: punching a stranger in the face, breaking into to someone's home, spying on someone, eavesdropping, murder... Any person caught committing these offenses would be considered a criminal. Done with enough flair and pomp the person might be considered a villain.

Unless the person in question wears black spandex, drives a funky car, and calls himself Batman.

Let's pretend that vigilante justice is excusable because "Batman never kills anyone" and then consult the actual text of Batman's life. Class, please open your comic books to Batman Incorporated Volume 2 wherein Batman is fighting the immortal Lord Death Man... and shoves him into a rocket so Lord Death Man can resurrect and die for the rest of eternity.

Holy overkill, Batman! Why didn't someone stop to consider the advantages of rehabilitation?

Batman should be the ultimate villain in our modern era. He's the one percent. A man who runs roughshod over the law not because of divine right, mutation, or superior morals but because he has more money than everyone else. Let me repeat that. Batman is a hero because he's rich.

That's it. That's his superpower. "By the trust fund invested in me I get to run this town!" Yet, through the miracle of Forced Perspective, Batman has been a superhero since 1939. This product of the children's welfare system is 73 this year, and still acting like an angsty 15-year-old who didn't get a date to prom.

Seriously, Bruce? Most people call a therapist.

This is how Forced Perspective works in literature. It makes a hero out of someone who ordinarily wouldn't be considered a good person. Robin Hood was a thief. Luke Skywalker was a terrorist. Superman was an alien who came and forced his views of right and wrong on our people.

I admit, I had fun playing with Forced Perspective in EVEN VILLAINS FALL IN LOVE. I took someone who was technically a criminal, technically a super villain, and made him almost a hero. Doctor Charm gets what he wants through sneaky and underhanded ways, but when his back is up against the wall he makes the right choice.

Choice is the theme throughout the Heroes and Villains series. When you have superpowers, whose side are you on?

Feel free to leave a note for me in the comment section. Defend Bruce Wayne, tell me what superpower you would have, and whose side you'd be on if you had the power. And, don't forget, I'm running the EVFIL in the Wild contest until May 5th. Send me a picture of EVFIL on your e-reader for a chance to win a $10 gift certificate to Sock Dreams!

-----

Thanks, Liana.

More from Liana can be found at her author website, Twitter, and Facebook.


Her book can be purchased from Breathless Press and Amazon.


EVEN VILLAINS FALL IN LOVE has a Facebook and Goodreads page.


Liana Brooks was born in San Diego, California. Years later she was disappointed to learn that The Shire was not some place she could move to, nor was Rider of Rohan an acceptable career choice. Studying marine biology  so she could play with sharks seemed to be the only alternative. After college Liana settled down to work as a full-time author and mother because logical career progression is something that happens to other people. When she grows up, Liana wants to be an Evil Overlord and take over the world.


In the meantime, she writes sci-fi and SFR in between trips to the beach. She can be found wearing colorful socks on the Emerald Coast, or online at www.lianabrooks.com.

The Dangerous Task of Writing a Sequel: A Guest Post By Chrystalla Thoma

I am above all and foremost a reader – have been since I learned to read, and even before that, when I blackmailed my parents into reading to me every night before falling asleep. Such a long addiction and deep love of stories can only mean that I’m a demanding reader. I can’t stand clichés. I frown at wooden dialogue and flat characters. I can’t abide plot holes and bad prose.

See how difficult I am? But I think we all are, when it comes to something we truly love.

As luck had it (or fate, or just natural predisposition), I ended up a writer. Since then, I find myself divided between two opposite camps – on the one hand, I am the creator, the founder, the writer, and on the other I am the world’s most demanding critic.

No wonder I feel I’m going crazy some days.

Series are a particularly touchy topic for me. I love them. Since I’m an escapist and want my books to be thick as bricks so that I can lose myself in them forever, series accomplish this to the utmost degree: they allow me to be lost in a greater world.

But series are tricky to write well. Very often, the first book is amazing, but midway through the second book things go awry and by book three you want to strangle the author – not so much for the waste of money, but for the destruction of the magic.

Cue dramatic music: I decided to write a trilogy (Elei’s Chronicles). I wrote the first book, Rex Rising and released it last summer. Meanwhile, I began working on the second book, Rex Cresting.

Cue percussion. Stress. Fear. Insecurity. Will my second book deliver? Will the third?

As a result, I pestered my friends and beta readers (critiquers) for months with questions such as “is this too melodramatic”? “Is this a good sequel?” “Is this crap?”

I swear, I’ve never felt such stress and angst about writing a story. First books are easier: you set up the characters, the premise, the conflict, the world. But the second book has to follow through and develop those characters more, bring the conflict to the next level, give hints as to the resolution that is coming in the final book.

I now sympathize with all writers who write series. A marvelous idea can degenerate in the second book and fall to pieces. Wonderful characters can step over that thin line that turns them from likable to disagreeable. The writer walks a tightrope.

And have I succeeded with my second book?

Too soon to tell. Besides, I’m too close to the book to be able to see it critically right now. I have done my best. Now it’s up to the readers to tell me whether it fulfilled promises made in book 1 or not.

Let’s hope it has.

-----

Thanks, Chrystalla.

Chrystalla lives in Cyprus with her husband and her hoards of wild books. She writes fantasy and science fiction and is now starting a non-fiction book about the dragons of the world. She is interested in parasites, ecology, Indian recipes, love in all forms and medieval music, not necessarily in that order. She is currently writing Book 3 of the dystopian sci-fi YA series, Elei’s Chronicles, and a gay sci-fi novel with androids and lots of mayhem.

Mayhem, in fact, is her middle name. You’ve been warned.

Chrystalla is all over the internet:

Blog: http://chrystallathoma.wordpress.com
Amazon profile: http://www.amazon.com/Chrystalla-Thoma/e/B001JOWZCC
Twitter: http://twitter.com/chrystallathoma
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-Chrystalla-Thoma/117863861560579
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4397966.Chrystalla_Thoma
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/Chrys

Elei’s Chronicles series (YA dystopian science fiction):
Rex Rising (on sale this week for .99 cents)
Rex Cresting Rex: Equilibrium (coming summer 2012)
Also: Hera (a novelette set in the world of Rex Rising)

Guest Post: Julie Dawson-The fascination with vampires

Today, I'm hosting Julie Dawson author of the paranormal thriller, A Game of Blood.


Before we get into her blog post about the reading public's continuing fascination with vampires, I'd encourage you to check out Operation: Backpack. This charity effort is giving e-books in exchange for a donation that goes to ensuring homeless kids have school supplies.

Now onto our guest post:

-----

Vampires have, in a way, been a part of my life for a very long time.

My first official memory of vampires (besides the Count from Sesame Street), is an old black and white silent movie who’s title I have long forgotten.  I remember it was a Saturday afternoon.  My dad, who at the time was working the night shift, was taking a nap on the couch.  My sisters and I decided to watch TV.  As the oldest, it was my job to make lunch.  So I got lunch together and we all sat on the floor around the TV and settled on a vampire movie.  

Now Monica was only three or four at the time, so she wasn’t really sure what was going on in the movie.  She was just happy to be in the same room with the big sisters I think.  But it got to the scene where the courageous vampire hunters enter the vampire’s lair, throw open the casket, and drive a stake through its heart.  

In retrospect, I should have seen it coming.  Poor dad, oblivious to the danger he was in, slept flat on his back on the couch.  Monica picked up a fork on the coffee table and looked at it curiously for that half a moment that feels like an eternity.  She then looked at the TV, looked at dad, and stabbed him in the chest with the fork.

Tomes have been written on the vampire mystique.  It seems like every six months there is a new book released on the history of vampires in literature.  I suppose I could go on about how vampires represent the desire for immortality, the fear of death, suppressed sexuality and all of that.  Those things are all true in part.  But perhaps the biggest reason why the vampire motif remains so potent is that vampires reflect the worst aspects of humanity, and by vanquishing the vampire we somehow exorcise those negative traits from ourselves.

Though the nature of vampires changes slightly from region to region and century to century, at the center of its black heart is a parasite that feeds off the living to artificially extend its own existence.  Other classical monsters, such as werewolves and trolls and goblins, traditionally have something in their lore that gives them a purpose in the natural order (even if they are themselves unnatural).  They are things that lurk the dark places, reminding humans that there are places they should not go and things they are not meant to know.  But the vampire doesn’t hide in the dark places and wait for us to stumble upon it.  It comes into our cities and homes.  It infiltrates our societies in order to better hunt us.  It is the lord on the hill who has the power of life and death over those in his domain, and is willing to exercise it for personal gain.  It is the succubus that lures men into temptation and then drains the lifeblood from their bodies.  It invades our world, and then kills us and those it considers a threat.

I was just reading an article about a couple of teenage boys who were attacked by a black bear while out camping.  The boys escaped with minor injuries.  The response was to go hunt down and kill the bear.  The bear, though in its natural habitat, was a threat to humans who wanted to use the habitat for their own enjoyment.  So we killed it.  We didn’t care that it served an important role in its ecosystem.  We didn’t care that it was a healthy specimen that would pass on strong genes to future generations.  No, it interfered with our ability to enjoy its woods.  Therefore, it had to die.  

When we look at the vampire, this behavior is what we really see.  Our own willingness to kill and destroy for our own pleasure.  We see the worst in us:  our greed, our vanity, our pride, our willingness to sacrifice future generations for our own immediate wants.  The vampire traditionally has no reflection.  It is, quite literally, incapable of self-reflection in regards to its actions.  Its lack of empathy the result of it’s relentless focus on fulfilling its own desires.  But while it cannot see itself, we can see ourselves in it.  The act of destroying a vampire, therefore, becomes cathartic.  

One of the things that bother me about the popular portrayal of vampires is that it denies these negative aspects.  We have vegetarian vampires now, by the gods!  I think this reflects the hardening of the “me” mentality.  In the past, even if we were careening toward selfish destruction, we had the sense to reflect and ask questions.  We might ultimately make the bad decision anyway, but at least we stopped and thought about it.  We were willing to address it.  But the fact that so many modern vampires are nothing more than sexy, eternally young models with pale complexions signifies that we have stopped even carrying about self reflection.  We have moved so far into the real of narcissism that we cannot even wrap our heads around having to pay a price for our desires.  The notion of having to make a terrible sacrifice to achieve immortality or eternal beauty has become alien.  

That said, however, I don’t think the vampire-as-monster is ready to be pushed aside just yet.  There has been, particularly in the last couple of years, what you could call an “anti-Twilight” crusade to return the vampire back to its actual horrific roots.  I half expect to start seeing “NO SPARKLING VAMPIRES! GUARANTEED!” labels on movies and books soon.  I think horror fans have had just about enough of the fluffy vampire love and are ready to return to the parasite-sucking-the-blood-from-the-helpless.  

One of the things I tried to do with A Game of Blood is portray how the vampire reflects us, and how we have to confront our personal demons in the process.  Mitch Grogan and Darius Hawthorne are flip sides of the same coin.  As Mitch gets pulled deeper and deeper into Darius’ world, he struggles with himself as much as he struggles with Darius.  Darius’ world is seductive, after all.  It is a world full of wealth and power and influence and leisure.  But it is also a world where teenage girls are seen as playthings to be raped and tortured, where children are left orphaned in order to cover up evidence, and where employees that become liabilities are simply killed without any more thought than one would put into throwing a disposable cup into the trash.  Mitch’s battle with Darius is just as much a battle for his own humanity as it is a battle to stop Darius from continuing his homicidal ways.

And that, ultimately, is why the vampire motif still matters.  Because we look into its cold, dead eyes and see the worst in ourselves.  The horror of the vampire is not in how much blood it spills, but in how easily we can become the monster and not even realize it.  

-----

Interesting in Julie's horror take on the vampire? Why don't you check out A Game of Blood:

What would you do if a 300 year old vampire decided that you would make the perfect Van Helsing for his own twisted game?

A series of bizzare kidnappings leads detective Mitch Grogan to the home of the wealthy and eccentric Darius Hawthorne. What he discovers there unleashes a chain of events that not only threatens his life, but also his sanity. Grogan finds himself caught up in a deadly game with a three hundred year old vampire looking for a worthy adversary. But how can a burnt-out cop with a crumbling marriage compete against a centuries' old immortal with unlimited resources and supernatural powers?

More than boredom drives the cunning Hawthorne, however. His attempts to push Grogan to the breaking point are more than cruel entertainment. They also serve as a test to see whether or not the mortal is ready to help him hunt an even more deadly foe: one that would see the whole world burn to remove the vampiric corruption from it.

(Blog Tour) Chloe JonPaul: This Business of Children

Today, I'm hosting Chloe JonPaul as part of the blog tour for her novel, This Business of Children:

"Vera Harriss, Deidre Fletcher, Mark Pettingill, and Stu Martel are elementary school teachers in the fictional town of Blevins, Maine whose secret, private lives change dramatically as you read. Vera, who is about to retire, vents her anger during a Board of Education meeting with a speech that brings the audience to its feet. Why does Deidre, an exceptional teacher, leave the job she loves to become a corporate trainer down South? Then there is Mark, the perennial job hunter looking for a corporate position with more prestige and pay but then turns down the perfect offer when it finally comes through. Stu, one of the most popular teachers in the school, struggles with a deep, dark secret that he can only share with Deidre. What causes Stu's untimely death? Vera Harriss, Dee Fletcher, Mark Pettingill, and Stu Martel are eager to share their intriguing secrets and entangled lives with you."

I asked Chloe to share the inspiration for her novel with me.

-----

In 1991, I took a leave of absence from my teaching position after a very troubling year at the school where I was assigned. To safeguard my sanity (smile), I decided that it would be best to take some time and re-group so I went back to Maine. My dear friend Helene invited me to stay at her home.

Lewiston, Maine was the place where I had done the best and most creative teaching in my entire career.

It wasn't too long after my arrival that I began musing about the possibility of writing a novel. Before I knew it, these four characters emerged almost out of the blue. They weren't any of the teachers I had known - possibly a composite of people I had known in the many places I had taught over the years. I must admit, however, that there is a bit of me in both Deidre Fletcher and Vera Harriss.

I wanted the setting to be in Maine but I didn't want to name any particular town or city so I named the town Blevins. The story is also a reflection in some way of my own union activism as a teacher.

The greatest inspiration for the novel, I feel, is having worked beside so many wonderful teachers who DO make a difference in the lives of the children they teach. I want to acquaint the world with the struggles they face professionally while having to deal with the demons in their own lives.

My teachers and my high school principal inspired me to be the best that I could possibly be and so the dedication in this book reads:

To the special teachers in my life who inspired me with their wisdom, spirituality, and elegance.

                            Margery Harriss
                            Marguerite Zouck
                            Eunice Shay
                            Mother Colombina, MPF

I actually trashed the novel after I had written it but my friend retrieved it saying,

“You are NOT throwing this away!” I stashed it away and really didn't think about it much until last year when I began seeing so much in the news about the problems in education. What topped it for me was reading about the teacher who committed suicide in Bethlehem, PA after being accused of molesting a student. We also had the 25th anniversary of the Challenger disaster. I thought, “Wow! That's all in my book!” So I pulled the manuscript out once more…and the rest is history.

-----

You can find Chloe at http://chloejonpaul.com/ and her book in both electronic and physical formats at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Books-A-Million.