Archives for November 2011

Sometimes things just fall into your lap from the sky. If it is blue ice or bird crap, not so nice. If it’s a book deal – hot damn! Two serendipitous occasions lately have given me pause for thought in my writing career.

First, at a seemingly innocuous signing at a local Tucson book store, I met a woman wearing a Tucson Festival of Books t-shirt. For those that don’t know the TFB is held each year at the U of A campus and draws thousands of writers of all genres for lectures, signings, book stalls, etc. We talked about the TFB for a while and she left. Later, I was at another signing with several authors and she was the moderator. A few weeks later, she e-mailed me and  asked me if I wanted to join some other local authors in sharing a table at TFB. Very cool!

Second, I sold a vampire horror novel, Blood Lust, to Severed Press. That in itself is good, but later they asked me if I would be interested in working on a three-book zombie series. I informed them I had a stand alone zombie novel, Ice Station Zombies,  set in Antarctica and Australia, where Severed Press is headquartered. They bought it sight unseen and still sent a contract for the 3-book Judgment Day series.  Five books for one. Who’da thunk?

Luck only comes to the well prepared. I had the books and the ideas at hand to pitch. Preparation is okay but means nothing if the opportunity does not come along. I could have waited and tried to sell the other books somewhere else, maybe a larger publisher, but having the novels out there in the public eye not only helps with sales, it primes the pump for future novel, future publishers. Publishers like a writer who has a proven track record, even with small press and there is only one way to get one.

Unlike lightning, serendipity can strike twice in the same spot. I’m hoping the old ‘good things happen in threes’ adage is true. I’m watching out for that phone call or letter from ACE or TOR.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

 

 

 

Fall brings to mind bonfires, burning leaf piles, roasting marshmallows and tailgate parties. Fire, fascinating and foreboding, has been a tool of mankind for millennia, probably before early man had a name for it. Fire is a useful tool in your writing as well.

Your characters need to Burn. They need to be as alive to the reader as the person sitting beside them, the person walking down the street, or lurking behind the shrubs. They need to blaze a trail through the pages, leaving ashes behind them. Their words, their actions, even their thoughts should fire the reader’s imagination, make them believe that this person, this character can come through the trouble with which he/she is faced and triumph. To do this, the writer must endow them with an inner fire and spirit equal to the task. Trying and failing does not make a story. Trying and failing and then trying and succeeding does.

Your sex scenes need to Sizzle. If it is worth writing about, it is worth writing well. Graphic sex has its place in literature, but that’s not what I refer to. The Heat between two characters should be visible to the reader – the way they touch, speak, look at each other. Their conversations, even when others are present, should be filled with emotions that only they can feel Smoldering beneath the words. Others may guess or intuit, but they can never understand the depth of passion. The reader must.

Sparks should fly when protagonist and antagonist meet, especially if their relationship is visceral and deadly. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Moriarty conversed as English gentlemen but the heat in the room would melt even The Queen’s icy resolve. Their words, their banter should be delivered like sword strokes or, if the relationship is more subtle, like daggers. This not only applies to high adventure, but to horror and science fiction as well. After a conversation between two strong foes, the reader should have to wipe his/her forehead and take a sip of water.

Fire is universal. It is elemental and necessary for a good story. Chances are most of your favorite novels struck a nerve with you because of the fire with which the writer imbued his words and characters. Put some Heat in your writing. Come on baby light my fire.