Last day of May!
TWO DAYS 'TIL LAUNCH!!!
Go on over to my writing friend and agent-mate Jody Holford's blog ...
And when you're done...buy one of her books!
Showing posts with label book tour. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book tour. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
Thursday, May 26, 2016
Thursday, October 2, 2014
SPLINTERS Blog Tour and Giveaway
Please welcome Fiona and Matt, as they celebrate the new release of their co-written YA horror novel: Splinters! We've seen Fiona here before as she released Confessions of the Very First Zombie Slayer (That I Know Of) earlier this year, and both Matt and Fiona are agent and publisher mates of mine.
As Fiona hosted me for my Dependent blog tour, asking me about my fears...I thought turnaround was fair play and stuck her with the following questions:
What frightens each of
you and why? And where do you feel safe?
Here's Fiona's response:
The flashiest and most obvious answer to what
frightens me is G-force. I have severe barophobia, the fear of changes in
gravity. I have issues with things like amusement park rides, elevators,
airplanes, anything that makes it feel like gravity isn’t working the way it
should.
Why? Am I afraid of death or injury by falling?
Am I afraid of being literally crushed to death by gravity? No, nothing so
pseudo-rational. I’m afraid of the fall,
not the landing.
 |
| F.J.R. Titchenell |
So… what? So I have an irrational phobia that’s
a pain when I go to Disneyland. I got a pretty cool horror short story out of
it once, if I do say so myself, but that’s about all the material a fear of
gravity has to offer, a short story. On its own it doesn’t seem all that
meaningful.
It wasn’t until my early twenties that I started
to figure out that, hand in hand with my less dramatic fears of failure, wasted
time, anesthesia, riptides, and excess calories, my barophobia was a symptom of
my fundamental fear of losing control.
So, having figured out the root of the problem, I’m
all better now? Um… no. I can’t switch off being a control freak any more than
I could stop loving books. It’s who and what I am, and I accept the problems
with the advantages (hey, I do have killer
willpower). I’ve been able to work on some things, learned to stress a bit less,
and I’d dare say I’ve kicked my tendencies toward disordered eating, but the
barophobia remains, too irrationally ingrained to be removed by rational
thought.
What awareness of my issues does allow me to do (other than share them honestly with blog
readers), is understand a large part of what frightens people. There are many
more people with fears like mine, if to different degrees and with different
manifestations. As a horror author, I’ve found that a large part of frightening
people is figuring out exactly how much of the illusion of control to give them
(or their surrogate main characters), and when to take it away.
Like giving the rebel teens of Prospero homemade
flamethrowers and Tasers to fend off the superpowered monsters who run their
town.
Where do I feel safe? Other than with my amazingly
patient, compassionate and understanding husband at my side, my coziest safezone
is with my fingers on the keyboard. As well as making me a better horror
writer, my fears are part of what make me a writer in the first place. As every
control freak hates to hear, the one thing we can hope to control is ourselves,
our own thoughts and reactions to the world. What better way to stave off the
fear of powerlessness than by getting to purge, organize, analyze and
understand my own thoughts, and then reshape and use them to make something
positive and new, into the best story I can tell?
Thanks Fiona! And here's what Matt had to say about his fears:
I could go into a full list of rational, adult
fears and why each of them gets to me (failure, loss of a loved one, etc.), but
we all know that’s not what you want to hear. We all have those rational fears,
and they’re not much more fun to read about than they are to actually have. No,
if you’re reading this,
you want to hear about our crazy, irrational fears that
make us seem more like little kids than responsible adult authors.
 |
| Matt Carter |
So, let’s bring the crazy.
The biggest one for me has always been Chucky.
Yeah, the killer doll. The fictional one (though truth be told I don’t know of
any real killer dolls, which is probably a really good thing). When I was three
I caught a good chunk of the original Child’s
Play on TV, and, well, in my impressionable young mind that was afraid of
pretty much everything, I got a little warped. Flash forward two decades, me in
my mid-20’s, a huge fan of horror and all things creepy, and still Chucky gave
me the willies. I could stand the most hardcore horror, and the briefest image
of him still gave me the sweats and a faster heartbeat.
I’m better now. One day I made myself sit down
and watch the movie and now it’s one of my favorites, but damn if I still don’t
get that kneejerk reaction sometimes when I see him.
You see, I’ve always had an active imagination
that’s always gone past the realm of rational, understanding thought. Even when
I know something is fake, that it’s all just smoke and mirrors, I have a hard
time not letting it get to me if it just manages to tickle my scary bone.
Perfect example? The first time I saw Cabin
Fever, I didn’t drink tap water for three days. I knew it was safe, that it
wasn’t infected with some strain of flesh eating bacteria that would rot my
flesh off the bones, but damn it if it didn’t make me pause anyway.
I was 18 at the time, for what it’s worth.
I’m a lot better, and a lot more cynical right
now, so these sorts of things haven’t been an issue for a while, but I gotta
say, sometimes it feels good to let these irrational fears in, since they do
have their own way of helping the rational fears feel just a little bit
smaller.
Thanks Fiona and Matt! Matt, I'm glad you got over the tap water thing...not easy surviving without, well...water. It's rather essential. Hope to have you back again!
You can find more about this quirky pair on their respective websites...
You can find F.J.R. Titchenell online here:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FjrTitchenell
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FJR_Titchenell
Website: http://fjrtitchenell.weebly.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FjrTitchenell
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FJR_Titchenell
Website: http://fjrtitchenell.weebly.com/
You can find Matt Carter online here:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mattcarterauthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MCarterAuthor
Website: http://mattcarterauthor.weebly.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mattcarterauthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MCarterAuthor
Website: http://mattcarterauthor.weebly.com/
And more about Splinters here:
And now, if you'd like to win a copy of Splinters, click on the giveaway below. Good luck!
Brenda
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Blog Tour: Johnny Worthen
ELEANOR, the UNSEEN
I recently had the privilege of interviewing the fabulous Johnny Worthen about his new novel: Eleanor, book one of The Unseen. Johnny is a publisher-mate, and his story releases July1st. I was lucky enough to get my hands on an ARC, and it's a great read!
On to the interview!
* * *
B: Welcome to my blog, Johnny and congratulations on your release of
ELEANOR!
J: Thank you Brenda.
I’m pretty excited to have Eleanor coming out. She means a lot to me.
B: So, questions. When did you start writing Eleanor?
J: The idea for
Eleanor the character came to me on a vacation to Taos New Mexico with my
family. Driving along a lonely high desert road, I first saw my young
vulnerable girl in a small western town hiding in plain sight. The idea stayed
with me and grew. After months pondering and planning, I dropped my pen on February 20, 2012 and had
a rough draft on March 28. It just flowed out my fingers.
B: Describe the process from start to finish. Are you an
outliner or a pantser?
J: I know some people
who’ll write a forty-thousand word outline for a sixty-thousand word novel. I’m
not like that, but neither do I start out without a map. My prewriting stages
are all about characters, setting, scenes and theme. Theme is the most important. I’m not talking
about morals or lessens, I’m talking about central questions. In Eleanor’s case
it was change the ideal metaphor for adolescence and the contradictions I
foresaw in her. Using the theme as a beacon to navigate the characters through
the scenes I planned, I wrote. The scenes are the way points, the theme a
guiding light, my daily writing the progress.
B: Where did you get your inspiration for the character of
Eleanor?
J: I envisioned an ultimate
outsider, someone special but unnoticed, deliberately ordinary but truly
extraordinary. I saw a powerless being with great power, but having to keep it
quiet. I saw someone who’s lost much and about to lose more, struggling with
the very notion of survival while trying to form a family. The inspiration for
all this came from many places. My niece in particular was an inspiration. She
was shy and yet had a noble strength. Native American legends played a big
role, as did my grandmother who showed strength when she was weakest.
B: What is your favorite part about being an author?
J: The feelings of
completion. There’s the completion of my daily word goal, the thrill of having
completed a book – that’s a huge one. Then there’s completing a sale of a book,
contacts and all that, and finally and ultimately the excitement of holding it
in my hands and knowing other people will read it too.
B: Least favorite part?
J: Rejection. It’s
part of the job, a big part – bigger than anyone outside this world can
imagine. You never really get used to it and it happens. All. The. Time.
B: Totally agree. It's a very 'NO' world in publishing. Glad you could turn that into a 'YES' for Eleanor. In an ideal world, what would happen next for you in your
writing career?
J: A movie deal for Eleanor,
The Unseen, after it achieves best-seller status. Or before. I can go
either way.
B: Wouldn't we all love that. Ah, a movie deal! Sigh. So...Dogs or cats?
J: Cats. My writing
buddy is Junior. The kids named her. Her. She’s a she and she stays up with me
when I need to the quiet of the small hours of the morning to work.
B: And lastly, the most important question of all…Coffee or Tea?
J: Coffee. My muse
talks to me in hot cups of espresso.
I’ve considered naming coffee on my dedication page before
 |
| Johnny in his signature tie dye shirt! |
B: Yes! I knew you were a coffee person. Yay Coffee! Thank you so much for coming over to visit! And best of
luck making that ideal world become reality.
J: Thanks!
Want to find out more about Eleanor? Check out these links:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Eleanor-
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/
You can find Johnny Worthen online here:
https://www.facebook.com/
https://twitter.com/
http://www.johnnyworthen.
Until next time!
Brenda
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Eleanor-
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/
You can find Johnny Worthen online here:
https://www.facebook.com/
https://twitter.com/
http://www.johnnyworthen.
Until next time!
Brenda
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Guest Post: F.J.R. Titchenell
Greetings from House-Sale Land! No news on that front. There's no life like it!
On a totally non-posting-related note, today I have the privilege of welcoming agent and publisher-mate F.J.R. Titchenell to the blog as she celebrates the release of her debut novel Confessions of the Very First Zombie Slayer (That I Know of)! One of the wonderful perks of being an author is having the occasional ARC come my way, and I have to say, I loved reading Fiona's book! CotVFZS(TIKo) is fun and fast-paced, and the characters are strong and quirky. If you like YA and you like Zombie books, you HAVE to check it out.
I featured the cover on the blog as it was revealed in November of 2013...and you can read more about the book HERE.
So the question I posed to Fiona was this: What was the process of
writing your first book like? How did it feel to hold the ARC?
Here's her response:
Like many authors, I'd been writing a long time
before I finished the manuscript that would be my debut novel. I'd been writing
fiction my whole life, and with serious intent to publish for about five years
before I started Confessions of the Very First Zombie Slayer (That I Know
of).
I had some short stories published, and I had
some earlier novels that I either decided weren't publication-worthy or
couldn't get picked up at the level I was aiming for, so Confessions of the
Very First Zombie Slayer (That I Know of) wasn't my first experience with
completing a novel-length manuscript. It was the first time I was able to
create something I was proud of without an insane number of drafts, though, the
first time I started thinking, "I might actually be getting the hang of
this," and, of course, that first amazing time I caught the interest of
someone in the industry, the awesome Jennifer Mishler.
The process of writing the book itself was a
whirlwind. I went from idea to query letter in seven months, and I wrote the
first draft in an almost entirely linear fashion, which is rare for me. I
usually can't resist jumping forward to my favorite parts, but Zombie Slayer
kept dragging me straight ahead with it.
I had a lot of fun writing Cassie. It was great
being in her irreverent but optimistic head, and I spent many a slow hour at my
then day job vicariously indulging my wanderlust by tracking her progress on
Google maps.
The path to publication from finishing the book
was a lot longer. There was lots of celebration, the agent contract, the
publishing contract, and lots of waiting (I finished the book back in July
2012, nearly two years ago), and in the meantime, learning the ropes of
promotion.
Also like many authors who decide to go the
traditional route with agents and traditional publishing houses, I had this
fantasy for a long time that all that pesky marketing stuff would be taken care
of for me once I had a legitimate contact, and I could carry on with writing my
next book, perhaps occasionally sticking my head out to sign something.
This is where all the published authors reading
this burst into laughter. I've had to come out of my shell a lot in the past
couple years, get used to starting and encouraging conversation, doing
interviews, writing about writing, and generally being an author in all
the ways that aren't the book writing part I got into this for.
With a year and a half-ish of reality check and
experience with the whole authorhood package under my belt, feeling curiously
like a "real" author (and having already held short story anthologies
I contributed to), I didn't expect a little thing like actually seeing the Confessions
of the Very First Zombie Slayer (That I Know of) review copies in person to
have too much of an effect on me anymore.
Wrong. It really is that amazing, finally seeing
the thing you put that much work into in physical form. It's everything you'd
think it should be.
Thanks Fiona!
Curious? Want to read more? Here's Fiona's coordinates:
Website: www.fjrtitchenell.weebly.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FjrTitchenell
Twitter: https://twitter.com/FJR_Titchenell
Brenda
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