Author Kate Aaron last week tagged me in her blog post, which means she passed a series of questions to me that I'm supposed to answer on my blog, and then tag other writers who do the same on their blog.
Slip on over to Kate's blog for a few minutes, peruse her answers, then come on back here and see what I have to say about my next work (I shift gears quite a bit from my horror and thriller work for this one).
And now, on to the next big thing!
What is the title of your next book?
Still working on that, although the tentative title is CHOICES.
Where did the idea come from for the book?
It's hard to pinpoint one event or idea. Over the years I've come to realize the natural results of many choices I've made over my lifetime. Some turned out okay, others were bad choices that still have an effect not only on me, but my entire family. Unfortunately, I think many of us make more bad choices than good along the way. It was that theme I wanted to explore.
What genre does you book fall under?
Inspirational/religious.
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Oh, that's a though one. For my main character, Joey Reagan, I see John Stamos, although he'd need to be about 25 years younger. His sister, Amy Martin, would be played by Sarah Lancaster and his would-be girlfriend, Jessica, I think would be played by Zooey Deschanel (with a different color hair – you'll have to read the book to learn what color). As for the father, Jack, I think I'd like to see Gene Hackman play that role – not necessarily because he fits, but I can't think of a better actor.
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
(Okay, I'm cheating on this and using two sentences). A series of bad choices cost Jack his family and career, and left his kids growing up alone. Years later he and his son, Joey, are faced with a chance to put aside a lifetime of hurt – can they overcome their past, or will they each make another bad decision with life-long, maybe even eternal, consequences?
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agent?
Self-published.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your novel?
About six years. Okay, maybe not quite that long, but it was a good long time between the beginning and the finish. I started the novel several years back, got a couple of thousand words into it, then put it aside. Once I came back to it and decided to finish, it was really about a month of writing time.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
“The Christmas Box” by Richard Paul Evans or perhaps Donna VanLeire's series of Christmas novels (“The Christmas Promise,” “The Christmas Hope,” and a few others).
Who or what inspired you to write your book?
Oh boy, I hope you have some time on your hands.
Three separate events, separated by 17 years.
The first happened when I was a young reporter, way back in the dark ages (1989, I believe), three local homeless men died in a fire. The three had taken shelter in a vacant building on a particularly cold winter night, built a small fire to stay warm and some time during the night while they slept it went out of control and burned the building down. I was the reporter who drew the assignment of spending a couple of days out on the streets, talking with various homeless people, local shop owners who may have known them, trying to figure out who these guys were, what they were like, what led to this end. Turns out one of them had plenty of money in the bank – he wasn't rich, but he had close to $40,000 there. You could buy some small houses in that city for that amount of money back in those days. His family said he just got tired of life one day and left, and had been living on the streets for years.
The second event happened in 2006. I was group publisher of some newspapers and various other publications, making good money for the company, when I was asked to do a couple of things I found unethical, which I couldn't do. Pretty soon the firm I worked for decided it was time to “change things up” and “go a different direction.” My job, along with a few others, was eliminated. Up to that point I had been paid reasonably well, but I was the sole bread-winner for a family of seven and it didn't take long for us to find ourselves in pretty bad shape. For two years I did a combination of part-time work, freelance writing, selling some fiction here and there, taking a job for a small weekly publisher who ended up stiffing me on quite a bit of pay, all the while flirting with losing our rental home. Even after I found a decent job and moved to a new place, we struggled with – and to a degree continue to struggle with – some of the repercussions of those two years. True confession time here: There were times during that period when I just didn't care, I didn't see any end. I worked and worried and did what I had to do to keep my family fed and under a roof, but for me, personally, if no one else was involved I would have just walked away and ended up homeless. I came to a point where I understood what that gentlemen from years ago must have felt – sometimes, it's just easier to walk away, even if that literally means living on the street. I think readers will see some of that in CHOICES.
The final part of the “inspiration” came when I read “The Christmas Promise” by Donna VanLiere. As a writer and editor I have a terrible, awful tendency to sometimes read work by someone else and say “oh heck, I could do that,” or think “that's not really all that good.”
I don't know Ms. VanLiere and have no reason to think she would ever read my blog, but if she does I hope she'll forgive me for this next statement. When I read “The Christmas Promise” my first thought was “Eh, kinda nice, but a best-seller? No way.”
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the book, but I kept thinking it was too simple, maybe too much of a formula. Then I decided to write my own Christmas novel and found out it wasn't so simple. I went back and read “The Christmas Promise” again, and a third time, and realized Ms. VanLiere had done a really wonderful job of building a novel, of setting various plots in motion and bringing them together later in the work. I read her novel a fourth time, then drew upon those other two events in my life and ended up with CHOICES, although it's a bit darker than some holiday novels.
What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?
Wow, I've already gone on way too long. Hopefully by now you're ready to read! It'll be available on Amazon.com soon – sometime between Thanksgiving and Dec. 1. You can sign up and follow my blog for more details, or sign up for my e-mail alert list by sending an e-mail to johnpeterswriter@yahoo.com Put “reader alert” in the subject line. I won't give out the address, or spam you – I'll just send out the occassional e-mail when I've got new work available.
Now it's my turn to get tagging. Carry on following the hop by checking out the authors below to find The Next Big Thing! (I'm supposed to have five writers, but it seems most of the ones I know have already been tagged, except for one writer who, ahem, seems to have misplaced his blog – if you'd like to be one, I can still add you!)
J. Heather Leigh
Stephen Mark Rainey
Michelle Garren Flye
A.J. Brown
Showing posts with label Michelle Garren Flye. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michelle Garren Flye. Show all posts
Friday, November 16, 2012
Monday, August 27, 2012
Five (mostly) indie authors I'd like you to know
The indie author movement is an exciting time not only for authors, but readers. Just three or four years ago we were still trapped in that small world of publishing where just a few folks decided what writing was “marketable” and what readers should be able to get their hands on.
Yes, there have always been self-published authors, but until electronic publishing came along those folks had to spend a pretty penny to get their work out. Today, it’s a different universe.
As a writer I find that thrilling. I’ve had a good number of my short stories published through traditional means in some quality magazines, anthologies, and webzines. I feel I was pretty close, on a few occasions, to getting an agent for three of my novels (which is no guarantee of being published, but that puts you on the short list of consideration).
But now, with Amazon’s Kindle, B&N’s Nook, and other e-readers and publishing software, publishing is literally just a few button pushes away (Okay, that’s a simplification – formatting, cover designs and such make it a more involved process, but you get the idea).
More importantly, for readers this indie author movement has really opened up the world. Just on Amazon there are somewhere in the neighborhood of a million titles ready for download. Yep, I said a MILLION, and if you have a Kindle, you can download those for a fraction of what a printed book will cost – some are even free. Heck, if you download a free Kindle reading app for your computer (or mobile device), it’s conceivable you could be reading novel after novel for just a few cents each.
With that wide-open world, though, can come a little confusion. With a million titles from which to choose, how do you know what to try, what to pass on?
Well, I want to help you with that, and in turn ask you to help me out a little.
My help to you is introducing you to five authors.
First there’s AJ Brown, known by some as Jeff, known by most everyone as the most prolific writer in North America – for a fuller take on AJ’s productivity, I interviewed him back in January, and you can check that out right here.
AJ is putting together a short story collection at present, and I hope he publishes it soon, because I am anxious to read his work. AJ is painstaking in making his choices for the collection, and equally fastidious in editing and revising his work for final presentation. Many of his tales are downright creepy, which is what he’s usually going for.
You don’t have to wait, though, to read some of AJ’s work. He has another collection called ALONG THE SPLINTERED PATH that’s been out since the first of the year, and hopefully you’ve already gotten it. If not, you need to download this collection now (just click on the link). See, AJ doesn’t simply write horror stories. He creates a world in which you feel for the character, a creepy world that can draw you in and, if you’re not careful, keep you there for a while.
The second writer I want to mention today is Will Hahn, who writes fantasy. Again, a heck of a nice guy even though in this picture – particularly with that wall in the background – he looks as if he could go medieval on your hinny at any moment. The first thing I’ll tell you about fantasy is that I don’t generally read much of it. Most of the time I get lost in the descriptions of some other world, with technology and culture and customs that take waaaay too much time to wade through.
Every once in a great while, though, I come across a fantasy writer whose work draws me in, makes me want to learn a little more about what’s going on, to figure out what the characters are doing, and why. In other words, every once in a while I find a fantasy writer who does a really nice job with the writing and story-telling.
Will is one of those writers. If you have any inkling of appreciation for fantasy, check out his work (particularly THREE MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT, although I don’t think you’d go wrong with any of them).
A third writer I’d encourage you to check out is Michelle Garren Flye. I met Michelle a few years back in an online horror writer’s group, and while she still dabbles in the occasional scary story, she’s doing a lot with romance these days.
In addition to self-publishing one title, she’s had two picked up by Lyrical Press and most recently another novel, WHERE THE HEART LIES, published by Carina Press, an e-book imprint of Harlequin. Her writing is really nice and I think brings a little more than the typical romance tropes to the page (or e-reader). She knows how to write and how to tell a story.
Fourth, let me introduce you guys to J. Heather Leigh. I really don’t know her very well, having just met here on Twitter a few weeks ago. But here’s what I do know – she writes in an arena of some tough subjects that so many, many people face in real life.
I was raised in a fairly conservative home, with parents who had strict and solid Christian beliefs. Out-of-wedlock pregnancy, a cheating spouse, divorce – those were issues facing many, but still not talked about openly, and certainly not written about in works of fiction, among those of us who were church-going people.
Times have changed, but in some parts of the religious world those issues still are sometimes avoided. That’s why I like Heather's work. She does address those, in ways that are not preachy, and she does it with a nice story-telling flair.
Finally, I want to mention Lucas Pederson (hey, I started this list with a horror guy, gotta end with one, too). I met Lucas in the same horror-writing workshop where I met AJ and Michelle, and while I don’t really know him as well, I do know he’s been working on his writing for years, and he’s sharpened his ability to tell riveting, interesting stories.
He’s also recently begun traveling down the indie publishing trail with the release of two shorts -- THE FOLLOWERS and BUCKLE ROAD. I like Lucas’s work, but I have to confess to a little envy at present. In a good way of course. He’s got two stories out there, people are buying and reading them, and from the ever-elusive reviews we all seek (and Lucas is getting) they are enjoying this work. I'm entitled to be a littel envious of that, I think.
Seriously, though I’m happy for Lucas, and for the others I’ve mentioned here. Whether you’re into fantasy, horror, romance, or some real-world inspirational stories, these folks have something for you.
And now that I’ve helped you a bit in finding your way in this million-book world of e-readers, I'm going to ask you for a favor. Tell as many people as you can about this blog, about these five authors. If you're on Twitter, tweet about my blog today with a link. If you're on Facebook, post there with a link. Not so I can get a lot of hits, but because I'd like to see these five folks selling a truckload of their work, and this is one way we can all help them.
So what do you say? Go get a few of their works, then tell everyone you know about them.
Thanks.
Yes, there have always been self-published authors, but until electronic publishing came along those folks had to spend a pretty penny to get their work out. Today, it’s a different universe.
As a writer I find that thrilling. I’ve had a good number of my short stories published through traditional means in some quality magazines, anthologies, and webzines. I feel I was pretty close, on a few occasions, to getting an agent for three of my novels (which is no guarantee of being published, but that puts you on the short list of consideration).
But now, with Amazon’s Kindle, B&N’s Nook, and other e-readers and publishing software, publishing is literally just a few button pushes away (Okay, that’s a simplification – formatting, cover designs and such make it a more involved process, but you get the idea).
More importantly, for readers this indie author movement has really opened up the world. Just on Amazon there are somewhere in the neighborhood of a million titles ready for download. Yep, I said a MILLION, and if you have a Kindle, you can download those for a fraction of what a printed book will cost – some are even free. Heck, if you download a free Kindle reading app for your computer (or mobile device), it’s conceivable you could be reading novel after novel for just a few cents each.
With that wide-open world, though, can come a little confusion. With a million titles from which to choose, how do you know what to try, what to pass on?
Well, I want to help you with that, and in turn ask you to help me out a little.
My help to you is introducing you to five authors.
First there’s AJ Brown, known by some as Jeff, known by most everyone as the most prolific writer in North America – for a fuller take on AJ’s productivity, I interviewed him back in January, and you can check that out right here.
AJ is putting together a short story collection at present, and I hope he publishes it soon, because I am anxious to read his work. AJ is painstaking in making his choices for the collection, and equally fastidious in editing and revising his work for final presentation. Many of his tales are downright creepy, which is what he’s usually going for.
You don’t have to wait, though, to read some of AJ’s work. He has another collection called ALONG THE SPLINTERED PATH that’s been out since the first of the year, and hopefully you’ve already gotten it. If not, you need to download this collection now (just click on the link). See, AJ doesn’t simply write horror stories. He creates a world in which you feel for the character, a creepy world that can draw you in and, if you’re not careful, keep you there for a while.
The second writer I want to mention today is Will Hahn, who writes fantasy. Again, a heck of a nice guy even though in this picture – particularly with that wall in the background – he looks as if he could go medieval on your hinny at any moment. The first thing I’ll tell you about fantasy is that I don’t generally read much of it. Most of the time I get lost in the descriptions of some other world, with technology and culture and customs that take waaaay too much time to wade through.
Every once in a great while, though, I come across a fantasy writer whose work draws me in, makes me want to learn a little more about what’s going on, to figure out what the characters are doing, and why. In other words, every once in a while I find a fantasy writer who does a really nice job with the writing and story-telling.
Will is one of those writers. If you have any inkling of appreciation for fantasy, check out his work (particularly THREE MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT, although I don’t think you’d go wrong with any of them).
A third writer I’d encourage you to check out is Michelle Garren Flye. I met Michelle a few years back in an online horror writer’s group, and while she still dabbles in the occasional scary story, she’s doing a lot with romance these days.
In addition to self-publishing one title, she’s had two picked up by Lyrical Press and most recently another novel, WHERE THE HEART LIES, published by Carina Press, an e-book imprint of Harlequin. Her writing is really nice and I think brings a little more than the typical romance tropes to the page (or e-reader). She knows how to write and how to tell a story.
Fourth, let me introduce you guys to J. Heather Leigh. I really don’t know her very well, having just met here on Twitter a few weeks ago. But here’s what I do know – she writes in an arena of some tough subjects that so many, many people face in real life.
I was raised in a fairly conservative home, with parents who had strict and solid Christian beliefs. Out-of-wedlock pregnancy, a cheating spouse, divorce – those were issues facing many, but still not talked about openly, and certainly not written about in works of fiction, among those of us who were church-going people.
Times have changed, but in some parts of the religious world those issues still are sometimes avoided. That’s why I like Heather's work. She does address those, in ways that are not preachy, and she does it with a nice story-telling flair.
Finally, I want to mention Lucas Pederson (hey, I started this list with a horror guy, gotta end with one, too). I met Lucas in the same horror-writing workshop where I met AJ and Michelle, and while I don’t really know him as well, I do know he’s been working on his writing for years, and he’s sharpened his ability to tell riveting, interesting stories.
He’s also recently begun traveling down the indie publishing trail with the release of two shorts -- THE FOLLOWERS and BUCKLE ROAD. I like Lucas’s work, but I have to confess to a little envy at present. In a good way of course. He’s got two stories out there, people are buying and reading them, and from the ever-elusive reviews we all seek (and Lucas is getting) they are enjoying this work. I'm entitled to be a littel envious of that, I think.
Seriously, though I’m happy for Lucas, and for the others I’ve mentioned here. Whether you’re into fantasy, horror, romance, or some real-world inspirational stories, these folks have something for you.
And now that I’ve helped you a bit in finding your way in this million-book world of e-readers, I'm going to ask you for a favor. Tell as many people as you can about this blog, about these five authors. If you're on Twitter, tweet about my blog today with a link. If you're on Facebook, post there with a link. Not so I can get a lot of hits, but because I'd like to see these five folks selling a truckload of their work, and this is one way we can all help them.
So what do you say? Go get a few of their works, then tell everyone you know about them.
Thanks.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Ghosts, goblins and romance: An interview with romance writer Michelle Garren Flye
Michelle Garren Flye is a novelist and short story writing living in coastal North Carolina. While some of her early work dealt with the darker side of life as a horror writer, her novels take a little more sensual, and definitely lighter, tone. Her third novel, Weeds and Flowers, is being re-released today, on Valentine’s Day
JOHN: I first met you a few years back while hanging out online with a group of horror writers. As I recall, you had a number of short stories published over the years, but you've since moved from writing horror to romance novels. That's quite a change, so the first question that pops in my head is how did that change come about?
MICHELLE: I had a long dry spell in my writing after my second son was born. I'd been slowly moving away from horror, writing more literary (I guess you'd call it) flash fiction. One day I realized I didn't want to write horror anymore, even the pretty gentle ghost stories I'd been writing (and thank you for classifying them as horror). I've always been a romantic, a fan of soap operas and romantic comedies, but more than that I love fairy tales with happy endings. I just decided to go with it and I've never regretted it. I am very glad I spent some time hanging with horror pals, though, and I'm still a big fan!
JOHN: You have three kids, right? They aren't something like a television that you can simply turn off when you need to write. How do you balance meeting their needs with writing?
MICHELLE: I write when I can, where I can. I have an "office", but I tend to write in a big chair in our family room while my four-year-old plays nearby or at a basketball practice or dance class. And I stay up too late way too often when the words are flowing. I almost think the distractions help. I have this fantasy that one day I'll have a whole weekend alone to write. But if I didn't have plenty of distractions, I might just sleep instead.
JOHN: When you're a horror writer, people who read your work sometimes look at you funny, as if they're afraid you're about to whip out the chainsaw and attack. When you're a romance novelist, people sometimes look at you slyly, as if they're trying to figure out if you're writing from experience -- particularly the steamier scenes. You ever get either, or both, of those reactions from people?
MICHELLE: Honestly, I got much weirder reactions from people when I wrote horror. Some people even said, "Wow, where did that come from? You seem like such a nice person." Maybe I don't get any really weird reactions now because what I write now is closer to reality, nobody's questioned me. Or maybe they're just embarrassed to ask!
JOHN: Any particularly funny or embarrassing reactions from others?
MICHELLE: I assume you mean about the sex scenes. I'll have to say no. I've been very upfront about my romance novels. I got kind of uptight about my first one Secrets of the Lotus, so I actually wrote a blog entry about it entitled "28 Days and the Dreaded Subject". I knew a lot of people, including parents, teachers, my family and friends would be reading my novel. I wanted them to know right off the bat that if they read my book, they'd find a sex scene in it and I felt the scene was necessary. (As a sidebar, I'm actually considering inviting some romance and women's writers to my blog to form a sort of panel to address the necessity of sex scenes and how to write a good one on my blog later this month.)
JOHN: There seems to be a hot and ongoing debate between the relative merits of self e-publishing and the traditional route, which includes a pretty rigorous vetting process before a book ever makes it to publication in paperback or hardback. You seem to have bridged that gap - your novels, Winter Solstice and Secrets of the Lotus, represent both. You had to go through the regular submission and editing process common with the so-called legacy publishing industry, yet your publisher is an e-book publisher. Why did you choose this path to publication?
MICHELLE: After I wrote Secrets of the Lotus, I tried the more traditional route of finding a print publisher and/or agent. Many emails and letters later, I felt I had failed. Then I started on small presses and happened across a listing for Lyrical Press. Lyrical Press, at that time, did have a print program but all books went the e-publishing route first. Lyrical has since discontinued the less profitable print program. My next novel will be published in late summer/early fall by Carina Press, the e-publisher for Harlequin, so I guess I'm putting my eggs in the e-publishing basket. I truly believe—now—that almost all genre fiction will be published exclusively electronically within the next decade. I'm sure the bestsellers will continue to have a print market, but with more and more people reading books on e-readers, I think print fiction books will become more and more scarce. Don't get me wrong. I want what all writers want. I dream of having a bestseller, book-signings, a tour, etc. But the print part of that equation is becoming less and less necessary.
JOHN: Your latest novel, Weeds and Flowers is being re-released today. You opted to do the self-publishing thing with this one. Why?
MICHELLE: Weeds and Flowers is very close to my heart. Of my three novels, I actually wrote it first and I feel like it has much more of a story to tell than any of my others. Again, I tried the traditional publishing route, then I even looked for an e-publisher for it. But it's not a traditional novel in a lot of ways. It's written from the point-of-view of a teenage girl, but a lot of the themes in it are too adult to classify it as a young adult novel. It has a mystery in it, but it's not a mystery. It's even got a ghost in it, but it's very far away from horror. And yes, there's a little romance, too. When I failed to find a publisher or an agent for it, I let it sit for literally years on my hard drive. One afternoon I made a decision I didn't want it to sit there any longer, went on Amazon and found out how to self-publish it for the Kindle. I'd never imagined doing that before, but I ended up really enjoying the process. Of course, lacking a professional editor, I found so many mistakes and typos in the released novel, I decided to release a "second edition" (or new and improved version), which is what's coming out today.
JOHN: Okay, some non-writing questions. Mountains or beach for vacation?
MICHELLE: Mountains when I can since I grew up there, but beach when I only have a day or two because it's only about an hour away.
JOHN: For full-time living?
MICHELLE: Beach. No doubt about it, my heart belongs to the coast now.
JOHN: Three favorite movies?
MICHELLE: Batman Begins, The Princess and the Frog, and Pirates of the Caribbean
JOHN: If you could visit any place on earth, money is no object, where would it be and why?
MICHELLE: Bristol, England. I spent a month there with my husband while he was in medical school, but money was definitely a constant worry for us. I'd love to go back and really see it without the limit of that particular worry.
JOHN: Favorite author and why?
MICHELLE: This is a tough one. I admire a lot of authors. Stephen King, for instance, probably knows everything you need to know about writing. Anne McCaffrey has always been a hero of mine. I admire authors like J.K. Rowling, Nicholas Sparks and Nora Roberts for what they've done with their talent. But I guess my favorite writer would be Jane Austen for her amazing understated sense of humor.
JOHN: If you could undo one thing from your past, what would it be?
MICHELLE: Trying to be a sports reporter. I love basketball and baseball and can write competently about them. I faked my way through the soccer season by taking some pretty decent pictures. But when it came time to unravel the mysteries of high school football, I totally embarrassed myself.
JOHN: Favorite restaurant (either by name or by type)?
MICHELLE: Greek. Anything with olives.
JOHN: Okay, back to writing. You started an effort called Helpful Outstanding Novelists, Editors and Others in the Writing Profession, or HONEOWP. Tell us a little about what that is.
MICHELLE: Last year I decided to donate my royalties to charity because I wanted to feel my writing was somehow benefiting the world. Because I don't sell a whole lot of books yet, I decided to set a minimum amount to donate of $25. I also asked my friends to help spread the word, join in, whatever. What I wanted to form was a network of writing professionals working to help each other promote their work and donate to a good cause at the same time. Although I ended up donating several hundred dollars to charity last year and met some pretty great people who tried the HONEOWP thing, it didn't really amount to much. I haven't given up, though. I'm planning to launch another effort later this month, although I haven't totally decided how to do it. If you're interested, stay tuned to my blog.
Incidentally, by asking that question, you qualify to be listed on my blog as a HONEOWP. That's really all it takes.
JOHN: That seems so contrary to what many people dream about when choosing to pursue writing as a vocation, either full-time or part-time. Many have visions of best-seller lists, book signings and fat royalty checks dancing in their head. Your approach seems to be the opposite. Tell us a little about your motivation -- why give away all the money you made on writing over the course of a year?
MICHELLE: I don't write for the money. In fact, unless you're somebody like Stephen King or Nicholas Sparks or J.K. Rowling, you can't afford to write for the money because there's just not that much to be had. I do write in the hopes that some day I will have a best-seller. I want to know enough people have read my books to give some credence to what I do. Otherwise, I might as well stop transcribing the voices in my head and get a real job contributing to society in another way.
That's not to say that the money won't come in as a handy side-effect, though.
JOHN: I know you've focused on novel writing in recent years. Do you still pen the occasional short story?
MICHELLE: Yes, I do. I have three or four novel ideas right now but can't seem to settle down to any of them, so I'm actually working on a short story. A few months ago, I wrote a short story "Life After", which ended up winning third place in a writing contest. You can read it in Hyperink: The Best of All Sins: Stories of Love and Heartbreak, which is available on Amazon in both electronic and print formats.
JOHN: What genre do those tend to fall in?
MICHELLE: Well, "Life After" was pure romance. My current story is a romance with some different elements in it, though. Not sure what it'll end up being at the moment.
QUESTION: Do you intend to continue your focus on novels, or will we eventually see more short stories from you?
MICHELLE: .I love writing novels so much I don't think I'll ever return to writing short stories full time. However, I do still enjoy writing one occasionally and I probably always will.
JOHN: Tell us about your upcoming work.
MICHELLE: My next novel, currently titled The Sixth Fold, will be published by Carina Press this summer/fall, although it may not have that title. It's about the widow of a Marine killed in Afghanistan who moves to her dead husband's hometown to take care of his parents. Here's my unofficial blurb:
Even a broken heart keeps beating.When a soldier dies, his flag is folded exactly thirteen times before it is handed to the next of kin. Each fold represents something, but to one woman, it’s the sixth fold that haunts her, for it represents where the heart lies. Can she be sure her Marine husband’s heart was with her when duty was so important to him? A heartbroken widow and mother of two, Alicia Galloway returns to her husband Ty’s hometown, determined to carry out her Marine’s final wishes. She takes over his ailing father’s business, lives in his childhood home and begins to put her life back together. Ty’s family, neighbors and old friends are ready to help her, giving her the support network she needs. But Alicia soon finds that Ty’s family and friends have secrets, and it’s those secrets that begin to give her some idea of where Ty’s heart was when he died…and where hers is now.
JOHN: Wow, that definitely sounds intriguing. I’ll be looking for that when it’s published. Where can we find your work, both new and old?
MICHELLE: The best answer for this question is to do a Google search. I've still got a lot of short stuff available out there for free (and there's a free fiction page on my blog, too). My romance novels are available at any e-bookstore, including Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Weeds and Flowers is only available for Kindle on Amazon. If you want one of my better horror stories, try "The Grove" in Horror Library Volume 1, "Squalus" in Tooth Decay, or "Caveat" in Our Shadows Speak. Those are the ones that really made people look at me funny.
JOHN: Thanks for much for chatting with us today, Michelle. To keep up with her work, visit Michelle's website.
MICHELLE: Thanks for having me here, John!
JOHN: I first met you a few years back while hanging out online with a group of horror writers. As I recall, you had a number of short stories published over the years, but you've since moved from writing horror to romance novels. That's quite a change, so the first question that pops in my head is how did that change come about?
MICHELLE: I had a long dry spell in my writing after my second son was born. I'd been slowly moving away from horror, writing more literary (I guess you'd call it) flash fiction. One day I realized I didn't want to write horror anymore, even the pretty gentle ghost stories I'd been writing (and thank you for classifying them as horror). I've always been a romantic, a fan of soap operas and romantic comedies, but more than that I love fairy tales with happy endings. I just decided to go with it and I've never regretted it. I am very glad I spent some time hanging with horror pals, though, and I'm still a big fan!
JOHN: You have three kids, right? They aren't something like a television that you can simply turn off when you need to write. How do you balance meeting their needs with writing?
MICHELLE: I write when I can, where I can. I have an "office", but I tend to write in a big chair in our family room while my four-year-old plays nearby or at a basketball practice or dance class. And I stay up too late way too often when the words are flowing. I almost think the distractions help. I have this fantasy that one day I'll have a whole weekend alone to write. But if I didn't have plenty of distractions, I might just sleep instead.
JOHN: When you're a horror writer, people who read your work sometimes look at you funny, as if they're afraid you're about to whip out the chainsaw and attack. When you're a romance novelist, people sometimes look at you slyly, as if they're trying to figure out if you're writing from experience -- particularly the steamier scenes. You ever get either, or both, of those reactions from people?
MICHELLE: Honestly, I got much weirder reactions from people when I wrote horror. Some people even said, "Wow, where did that come from? You seem like such a nice person." Maybe I don't get any really weird reactions now because what I write now is closer to reality, nobody's questioned me. Or maybe they're just embarrassed to ask!
JOHN: Any particularly funny or embarrassing reactions from others?
MICHELLE: I assume you mean about the sex scenes. I'll have to say no. I've been very upfront about my romance novels. I got kind of uptight about my first one Secrets of the Lotus, so I actually wrote a blog entry about it entitled "28 Days and the Dreaded Subject". I knew a lot of people, including parents, teachers, my family and friends would be reading my novel. I wanted them to know right off the bat that if they read my book, they'd find a sex scene in it and I felt the scene was necessary. (As a sidebar, I'm actually considering inviting some romance and women's writers to my blog to form a sort of panel to address the necessity of sex scenes and how to write a good one on my blog later this month.)
JOHN: There seems to be a hot and ongoing debate between the relative merits of self e-publishing and the traditional route, which includes a pretty rigorous vetting process before a book ever makes it to publication in paperback or hardback. You seem to have bridged that gap - your novels, Winter Solstice and Secrets of the Lotus, represent both. You had to go through the regular submission and editing process common with the so-called legacy publishing industry, yet your publisher is an e-book publisher. Why did you choose this path to publication?
MICHELLE: After I wrote Secrets of the Lotus, I tried the more traditional route of finding a print publisher and/or agent. Many emails and letters later, I felt I had failed. Then I started on small presses and happened across a listing for Lyrical Press. Lyrical Press, at that time, did have a print program but all books went the e-publishing route first. Lyrical has since discontinued the less profitable print program. My next novel will be published in late summer/early fall by Carina Press, the e-publisher for Harlequin, so I guess I'm putting my eggs in the e-publishing basket. I truly believe—now—that almost all genre fiction will be published exclusively electronically within the next decade. I'm sure the bestsellers will continue to have a print market, but with more and more people reading books on e-readers, I think print fiction books will become more and more scarce. Don't get me wrong. I want what all writers want. I dream of having a bestseller, book-signings, a tour, etc. But the print part of that equation is becoming less and less necessary.
JOHN: Your latest novel, Weeds and Flowers is being re-released today. You opted to do the self-publishing thing with this one. Why?
MICHELLE: Weeds and Flowers is very close to my heart. Of my three novels, I actually wrote it first and I feel like it has much more of a story to tell than any of my others. Again, I tried the traditional publishing route, then I even looked for an e-publisher for it. But it's not a traditional novel in a lot of ways. It's written from the point-of-view of a teenage girl, but a lot of the themes in it are too adult to classify it as a young adult novel. It has a mystery in it, but it's not a mystery. It's even got a ghost in it, but it's very far away from horror. And yes, there's a little romance, too. When I failed to find a publisher or an agent for it, I let it sit for literally years on my hard drive. One afternoon I made a decision I didn't want it to sit there any longer, went on Amazon and found out how to self-publish it for the Kindle. I'd never imagined doing that before, but I ended up really enjoying the process. Of course, lacking a professional editor, I found so many mistakes and typos in the released novel, I decided to release a "second edition" (or new and improved version), which is what's coming out today.
JOHN: Okay, some non-writing questions. Mountains or beach for vacation?
MICHELLE: Mountains when I can since I grew up there, but beach when I only have a day or two because it's only about an hour away.
JOHN: For full-time living?
MICHELLE: Beach. No doubt about it, my heart belongs to the coast now.
JOHN: Three favorite movies?
MICHELLE: Batman Begins, The Princess and the Frog, and Pirates of the Caribbean
JOHN: If you could visit any place on earth, money is no object, where would it be and why?
MICHELLE: Bristol, England. I spent a month there with my husband while he was in medical school, but money was definitely a constant worry for us. I'd love to go back and really see it without the limit of that particular worry.
JOHN: Favorite author and why?
MICHELLE: This is a tough one. I admire a lot of authors. Stephen King, for instance, probably knows everything you need to know about writing. Anne McCaffrey has always been a hero of mine. I admire authors like J.K. Rowling, Nicholas Sparks and Nora Roberts for what they've done with their talent. But I guess my favorite writer would be Jane Austen for her amazing understated sense of humor.
JOHN: If you could undo one thing from your past, what would it be?
MICHELLE: Trying to be a sports reporter. I love basketball and baseball and can write competently about them. I faked my way through the soccer season by taking some pretty decent pictures. But when it came time to unravel the mysteries of high school football, I totally embarrassed myself.
JOHN: Favorite restaurant (either by name or by type)?
MICHELLE: Greek. Anything with olives.
JOHN: Okay, back to writing. You started an effort called Helpful Outstanding Novelists, Editors and Others in the Writing Profession, or HONEOWP. Tell us a little about what that is.
MICHELLE: Last year I decided to donate my royalties to charity because I wanted to feel my writing was somehow benefiting the world. Because I don't sell a whole lot of books yet, I decided to set a minimum amount to donate of $25. I also asked my friends to help spread the word, join in, whatever. What I wanted to form was a network of writing professionals working to help each other promote their work and donate to a good cause at the same time. Although I ended up donating several hundred dollars to charity last year and met some pretty great people who tried the HONEOWP thing, it didn't really amount to much. I haven't given up, though. I'm planning to launch another effort later this month, although I haven't totally decided how to do it. If you're interested, stay tuned to my blog.
Incidentally, by asking that question, you qualify to be listed on my blog as a HONEOWP. That's really all it takes.
JOHN: That seems so contrary to what many people dream about when choosing to pursue writing as a vocation, either full-time or part-time. Many have visions of best-seller lists, book signings and fat royalty checks dancing in their head. Your approach seems to be the opposite. Tell us a little about your motivation -- why give away all the money you made on writing over the course of a year?
MICHELLE: I don't write for the money. In fact, unless you're somebody like Stephen King or Nicholas Sparks or J.K. Rowling, you can't afford to write for the money because there's just not that much to be had. I do write in the hopes that some day I will have a best-seller. I want to know enough people have read my books to give some credence to what I do. Otherwise, I might as well stop transcribing the voices in my head and get a real job contributing to society in another way.
That's not to say that the money won't come in as a handy side-effect, though.
JOHN: I know you've focused on novel writing in recent years. Do you still pen the occasional short story?
MICHELLE: Yes, I do. I have three or four novel ideas right now but can't seem to settle down to any of them, so I'm actually working on a short story. A few months ago, I wrote a short story "Life After", which ended up winning third place in a writing contest. You can read it in Hyperink: The Best of All Sins: Stories of Love and Heartbreak, which is available on Amazon in both electronic and print formats.
JOHN: What genre do those tend to fall in?
MICHELLE: Well, "Life After" was pure romance. My current story is a romance with some different elements in it, though. Not sure what it'll end up being at the moment.
QUESTION: Do you intend to continue your focus on novels, or will we eventually see more short stories from you?
MICHELLE: .I love writing novels so much I don't think I'll ever return to writing short stories full time. However, I do still enjoy writing one occasionally and I probably always will.
JOHN: Tell us about your upcoming work.
MICHELLE: My next novel, currently titled The Sixth Fold, will be published by Carina Press this summer/fall, although it may not have that title. It's about the widow of a Marine killed in Afghanistan who moves to her dead husband's hometown to take care of his parents. Here's my unofficial blurb:
Even a broken heart keeps beating.When a soldier dies, his flag is folded exactly thirteen times before it is handed to the next of kin. Each fold represents something, but to one woman, it’s the sixth fold that haunts her, for it represents where the heart lies. Can she be sure her Marine husband’s heart was with her when duty was so important to him? A heartbroken widow and mother of two, Alicia Galloway returns to her husband Ty’s hometown, determined to carry out her Marine’s final wishes. She takes over his ailing father’s business, lives in his childhood home and begins to put her life back together. Ty’s family, neighbors and old friends are ready to help her, giving her the support network she needs. But Alicia soon finds that Ty’s family and friends have secrets, and it’s those secrets that begin to give her some idea of where Ty’s heart was when he died…and where hers is now.
JOHN: Wow, that definitely sounds intriguing. I’ll be looking for that when it’s published. Where can we find your work, both new and old?
MICHELLE: The best answer for this question is to do a Google search. I've still got a lot of short stuff available out there for free (and there's a free fiction page on my blog, too). My romance novels are available at any e-bookstore, including Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Weeds and Flowers is only available for Kindle on Amazon. If you want one of my better horror stories, try "The Grove" in Horror Library Volume 1, "Squalus" in Tooth Decay, or "Caveat" in Our Shadows Speak. Those are the ones that really made people look at me funny.
JOHN: Thanks for much for chatting with us today, Michelle. To keep up with her work, visit Michelle's website.
MICHELLE: Thanks for having me here, John!
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Say it ain't so: Mr. Techno Phobe now reading a Kindle?
A few years back I came across a few accounts here and there about those little devices called e-readers. Most of you will know them by their brand name, the two most popular of which are the Kindle and the Nook.
I found a few folks online who used them, then I did a bit of research on the new-fangled things. My initial thoughts were that these might be neat little toys for computer-nerds, but they would never really catch on with the general public. Come on, who wants to be reading novels on a little screen? Who wants a supposed book that's nothing more than electrodes on a thin electronic device? Virtually no one is going to give up on the feel of a real book in their hands.
Then I joined the 21st century and got a cell phone. I had it for a couple of years before giving it up this winter for various reasons (cost and simply wanting to be left alone at times chief among those reasons). However, over the time I had the cell phone I found myself using it for more than simple telephone service. I gradually came to rely on the thing for monitoring e-mail. Then I started checking my Facebook account periodically.
Next thing you know I was using it to...gasp...read! Whenever I was stuck somewhere, maybe waiting to pick up one of my kids, or in an office waiting on an appointment, I'd whip it out and check the latest stories on ESPN.com or Fox Sports. If a major news event broke and I wasn't around a computer or television, the old cell phone would do.
So much for not wanting to read on a little screen, huh?
Still, that's a far cry from reading a book on an electronic device, right? Besides, while my family isn't exactly destitute, with five kids in the household we watch our pennies. A Kindle was simply a luxury we couldn't afford.
Just before Christmas I entered a contest being sponsored by writer Michelle Garren Flye and the prize was the winner's choice of a Kindle or Nook. Guess what? I won! I received the Kindle about six weeks ago. In the time since my wife has probably downloaded and read 50 or more novels (she is a voracious reader). My youngest, a 10-year-old, loves downloading and playing games, and she does a bit of reading on the Kindle (there is, however, a dearth of good, modern children's work in e-books.) I've even come to enjoy reading on the Kindle. Since owning it, I've read about four paperback novels, two novels on Kindle, and two non-fiction books on Kindle (I'm a sloooooow reader with a short attention span).
The other night my wife was lying in bed, reading as she normally does before drifting off to sleep. She put down this big old honkin' hardback and picked up the Kindle, then looked at me. “Reading in bed with this is just so much easier,” she said, holding up the Kindle. Then she picked up the hardback. “Reading this big thing is just so awkward.”
So much for the feel of a real book in your hands.
It's no secret, or at least I try not to make it a secret, that I'm now turning my attention from attempting to break into traditional publishing (paperback and hardbacks) to e-publishing. Sure, I'll continue to submit short stories to small press publications, but even many of those have gone to pdf and online formats.
For my novels and other longer works I'm going with e-pub. While I've been kicking around the idea for nearly a year, it wasn't until holding a Kindle in my own little hands, seeing how convenient and easy it is to use, that I've been able to fully grasp onto the idea.
Truth be told, despite my earlier objections (and suffering from a bit of techno-phobia), as a reader I think I now prefer the Kindle to paper.
P.S. Despite my burgeoning love affair with e-readers, I still like paper, so don't forget you can be entered into a drawing for a free trade paperback copy of either the Stoker-nominated Horror Library Vol. 3 anthology by Cutting Block Press or the recently released Night Terrors 2 published by Blood Bound Books. I have a story in each collection, along side some great writers. Remember, in order to enter into the drawing you must join my blog as a follower AND leave a comment on one of my blogs this month. You have to do BOTH. If you've joined the site prior to the start of this contest, simply leaving a comment will enter you.
I found a few folks online who used them, then I did a bit of research on the new-fangled things. My initial thoughts were that these might be neat little toys for computer-nerds, but they would never really catch on with the general public. Come on, who wants to be reading novels on a little screen? Who wants a supposed book that's nothing more than electrodes on a thin electronic device? Virtually no one is going to give up on the feel of a real book in their hands.
Then I joined the 21st century and got a cell phone. I had it for a couple of years before giving it up this winter for various reasons (cost and simply wanting to be left alone at times chief among those reasons). However, over the time I had the cell phone I found myself using it for more than simple telephone service. I gradually came to rely on the thing for monitoring e-mail. Then I started checking my Facebook account periodically.
Next thing you know I was using it to...gasp...read! Whenever I was stuck somewhere, maybe waiting to pick up one of my kids, or in an office waiting on an appointment, I'd whip it out and check the latest stories on ESPN.com or Fox Sports. If a major news event broke and I wasn't around a computer or television, the old cell phone would do.
So much for not wanting to read on a little screen, huh?
Still, that's a far cry from reading a book on an electronic device, right? Besides, while my family isn't exactly destitute, with five kids in the household we watch our pennies. A Kindle was simply a luxury we couldn't afford.
Just before Christmas I entered a contest being sponsored by writer Michelle Garren Flye and the prize was the winner's choice of a Kindle or Nook. Guess what? I won! I received the Kindle about six weeks ago. In the time since my wife has probably downloaded and read 50 or more novels (she is a voracious reader). My youngest, a 10-year-old, loves downloading and playing games, and she does a bit of reading on the Kindle (there is, however, a dearth of good, modern children's work in e-books.) I've even come to enjoy reading on the Kindle. Since owning it, I've read about four paperback novels, two novels on Kindle, and two non-fiction books on Kindle (I'm a sloooooow reader with a short attention span).
The other night my wife was lying in bed, reading as she normally does before drifting off to sleep. She put down this big old honkin' hardback and picked up the Kindle, then looked at me. “Reading in bed with this is just so much easier,” she said, holding up the Kindle. Then she picked up the hardback. “Reading this big thing is just so awkward.”
So much for the feel of a real book in your hands.
It's no secret, or at least I try not to make it a secret, that I'm now turning my attention from attempting to break into traditional publishing (paperback and hardbacks) to e-publishing. Sure, I'll continue to submit short stories to small press publications, but even many of those have gone to pdf and online formats.
For my novels and other longer works I'm going with e-pub. While I've been kicking around the idea for nearly a year, it wasn't until holding a Kindle in my own little hands, seeing how convenient and easy it is to use, that I've been able to fully grasp onto the idea.
Truth be told, despite my earlier objections (and suffering from a bit of techno-phobia), as a reader I think I now prefer the Kindle to paper.
P.S. Despite my burgeoning love affair with e-readers, I still like paper, so don't forget you can be entered into a drawing for a free trade paperback copy of either the Stoker-nominated Horror Library Vol. 3 anthology by Cutting Block Press or the recently released Night Terrors 2 published by Blood Bound Books. I have a story in each collection, along side some great writers. Remember, in order to enter into the drawing you must join my blog as a follower AND leave a comment on one of my blogs this month. You have to do BOTH. If you've joined the site prior to the start of this contest, simply leaving a comment will enter you.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Oh my! Mustangs, Legos, and writing at the speed of light: An interview with author A.J. Brown
Today I'm featuring an interview with author A.J. Brown. I had the good fortune to meet A.J. several years ago in an online writer's group, and we've kept in touch off and on during the years. You can even find a couple of anthologies here and there in which both of us have work (just this month, Blood Bound Books released Night Terrors 2, an anthology in which work from both of us appears). Truthfully, it's hard to find an anthology or publication that A.J. doesn't have something in. I don't know that I've ever seen a writer so prolific -- over the past two years A.J. has written a combined 112 short stories, a figure which puts most writers to shame. Over the four years immediately prior to that, he wrote an astounding 512 -- with a high of 135 stories in 2008. Most recently he's had his story, "In the Shadows They Hide," published in the aforementioned Night Terrors 2 anthology. And earlier this month, Dark Continents Publishing released a collection featuring three of his stories entitled Along the Splintered Path. The collection's release was part of Dark Continents' project Tales of Darkness and Dismay, featuring a series of novellas and collections from a dozen different writers.
If you want to know a little bit about the nuts and bolts of how A.J. and Dark Continents put the collection together, writer Michelle Garren Flye covers that in an excellent interview with A.J. at BREATHE.
Now, A.J., let's get started.
John: Tell us briefly about the Along the Splintered Path -- how did you whittle your work down to the stories you chose, how they were chosen, what were you looking for when Dark Continents commissioned you to do the collection?
A.J. Brown: I didn’t have a lot of time to put this together. Thankfully, throughout 2011 I had put together a couple of larger collections in hopes of having one of them picked up. I received a few nibbles and even had a few promising leads, but they all fell through. So, when DCP contacted me about putting something together—a novella or three or four short stories for a collection—I jumped on it.
I did a ton of editing on around twenty stories last year so I perused those and chose six pieces. I then enlisted help from a few friends and got it down to the four pieces I ultimate sent off. DCP chose the three they liked and Along the Splintered Path was born.
As far as what I was looking for: I’m a writer and I want to be published, I want readers to be able to see my work, to enjoy the words I put down. That’s the goal—to reach readers.
John: I'm particularly interested in The Woodshed. I read that story several years ago in its first public incarnation in the Dark Distortions anthology. You said in Michelle Garren Flye's interview that you rewrote much of the story since then. Is that a difficult process? How do you set aside what's already there, how the story already came to life once, and put together a separate piece that maintains the essence of the original? Isn't that, in many ways, more difficult than the original writing?
A.J. Brown: When I decided to rewrite The Woodshed I knew it would be a challenge. It had garnered some good comments and a lot of people really liked it. As a writer yourself, you know that things you wrote five years ago may not be as well written as things you would write today. When I went back to the Dark Distortions version, I saw a few things that could use tweaking and a lot of that had to do with the way Kyle came across. He had to be a sympathetic character and his voice had to ring true throughout the entire piece. There were parts in there that I felt Kyle lost his voice. There were also a couple of contradictions that I can’t believe I didn’t catch back then.
The thing with rewriting a story from beginning to end is you can’t be enamored with a line or paragraph or even entire pages. You have to be willing to say this has got to go and this needs to be reworded and, oh boy, how did I miss this? Your mindset is completely different and the work is more tedious—it is harder than sitting at the computer and typing something all new.
To best explain the process, it’s kind of like working on a car or fixing the roof of your house. You see what needs to be done, you figure out what things need to be taken off or dismantled, then you repair it by putting in new parts or making the old parts sturdier. It’s time consuming and sometimes—okay, a lot of times—you mash your thumb or mess something up and have to go back and do it again, but in the end, you have things the way you want them. Your car is running again and your roof is fixed. Can you tell I’m from the south?
John: We haven't kept in touch too much over the past year or two, but I recall from earlier times you were really wrapped up with short story writing, with no inclination toward longer works. Any ideas of tackling a novel now, or have you already done that?
A.J. Brown: Ha! Yeah, I still have no real interest in tackling a novel. However, I have written two in the past couple of years. I know, a contradiction of sorts. I didn’t set out to write a novel or really anything over five or six thousand words. I never do. I have a process for when I write: I sit down with a thought or a story swirling in my head and I just start typing. Most of the time the hardest part is coming up with the right opening line. I write. If a story ends up being two thousand words, then fine. If one ends up being sixty-seven thousand, then I’m fine with that also. I chose a long time ago not to limit my stories based on a word count. I found writing to a word maximum was restricting for both the stories, and me so I stopped doing that. The two novels I wrote were done so by just sitting and writing and letting them take me on a journey.
John: Along the Splintered Path is an e-book collection, available for download to the Kindle. In this age in which it seems nearly every writer is abandoning traditional publishing for self-pub e-books, why did you choose to work with a publisher, rather than go it alone with self-publishing the work?
A.J. Brown: I was lucky. Simple as that.
I actually did do a little e-publishing at the beginning of last year. Three stories were posted in a four month period over on Smashwords. They got some good reviews and I think I even got a fan or two out of it—which made the effort well worth it. But, ultimately, I’ve always wanted a publisher to think that my work was worth putting out there.
I must have queried fifteen different places in 2011 about putting together a collection. It may have been more. I’m not sure. But, the no’s outweighed the nibbles and I strongly considered calling it a writing career and being done with it.
Earlier in the year I subbed to DCP and they were very polite in their rejection and, honestly, I marked them off my list for 2011 and thought I would try again in 2012. Then at the tail end of November I received an e-mail to consider submitting for the e-book launch, Tales of Darkness and Dismay. Of course, I submitted and I’m happy I did so.
You never know when a door you thought was closed may reopen. As I said, I was lucky.
John: Tell me, how in the world do you write at such a prolific pace? Before you answer, let me tell our readers those short story figures I mentioned in the introduction are for fully completed stories. They don't count the unfinished pieces, nor do they count the poetry, blogs, and other writing you do.
A.J. Brown: It was something that developed in 2005 when I joined the workshop you mentioned earlier. In that workshop are various private offices and there was one called, I can’t quite remember the name, but something like ‘Nellie’s Flash Office.’ It was an office where you were given a topic on one day, you had one hour to write the story in under a thousand words and post it up for the other contestants to read and then 24 hours to read and review the stories and vote for your top three.
This was more of a literary type office, but I learned a lot about the economy of words and how restricting they can be. But I also learned how to take a simple idea and turn it into a story in an hour’s time. Now, understand what I’m saying: View the topic, come up with a story, write the story, edit the story to some degree and post it in sixty minutes. That’s when you realize how short an hour can be.
Later on I joined another flash contest office before creating my own dedicated to horror stories only.
After I stopped writing flash stories (they are just too restrictive for a long winded person like me) I still implemented something I learned in that original office. Instead of writing in increments of a thousand words I began writing in increments of five hundred. By writing five hundred words, walking away for a few minutes or an hour or whatever, then coming back and writing five hundred words again, that word count became a breeze and I could write six, seven, ten thousand words in a day (when I had that type of time) easily. For me, I actually have a notepad by my desk so when I write I note the current word count and the time and then write until I reach the five hundred word mark, then stop (unless I’m on a roll and then I keep going). I make note of the new word count and time then do it again. It’s almost like I’m holding myself accountable to five hundred words every single time I sit to write. Not four hundred ninety-nine. It’s always five hundred or more. Always.
John: There are not enough markets to publish all of your works, I don't believe. What are your plans for all those stories that have not yet seen publication?
A.J. Brown: I’m going to rewrite them. I started that process last year and have turned some bare bones stories into meaty pieces by concentrating on what’s good about each piece and improving on them. I’ll never get them all published and I don’t think I’ll try to. But, there are easily a couple to three hundred good pieces that can be fleshed out a little more and that can come alive with a little more work.
John: Let's stray away from writing for a bit for a round of quick questions to give readers a little insight into you. What would be your dream job?
A.J. Brown: Coaching. I love coaching kids.
John: Dream car?
A.J. Brown: 1972 Mustang
John: Dream location to live?
A.J. Brown: Wow. I really don’t know. I would love to live in Ann Arbor, Michigan so I could go see the Wolverines play, but my wife says no way to that.
John: Favorite non-writing-related activity?
A.J. Brown: LEGOs. No joke. I love LEGOs.
John: Who is your favorite big-name author?
A.J. Brown: Stephen King
John: Favorite not-quite-so-big-name author?
A.J. Brown: I absolutely love John Mantooth's work. So elegantly written. His stories are just phenomenal works of art.
John: Favorite television show?
A.J. Brown: The Walking Dead
John: Favorite movie?
A.J. Brown: The Outlaw Josie Wells
John: Okay, back to the writing. What's the best part of the writing process for you?
A.J. Brown: Watching my characters come alive and seeing how the stories unfold. I rarely have a clue where my stories are going or how they’ll get there. I have an idea and I just go with it. Learning about the stories and sitting in the passenger’s seat while they unfold is awesome.
John: Is there anything in the process you particularly dislike?
A.J. Brown: Getting stuck. Sometimes I write myself into a corner and have to go back and figure out where that happened. I hate it when that happens.
John: What do you do to get away from it all -- when work is hard, writing doesn't fill the bill -- how do you recharge your batteries?
A.J. Brown: My mind never really leaves writing. It’s always there, intentional or not. Anything can be a story idea—anything at all—and that is both the exciting part of being a writer and the bane of existence as well.
Music, I think, is the one thing that takes my mind away—at least temporarily. It gets the juices flowing again and helps with the writing process.
John: Plans for the rest of 2012? Where can we find your work? What big projects are on the horizon?
A.J. Brown: Keep writing and promoting for Along the Splintered Path as well as for the other books in the Tales of Darkness and Dismay release. I hope the collection is a springboard of sorts and that someone reading it would consider my work for something else further on down the line. I do have those two novels—one of which I’m pretty sure readers will like.
Places you can find me are:
My blog, Type AJ Negative
Facebook: AJ Brown
I have a Twitter account, but I hate Twitter. However, I do use it. You know how it is with all those necessary evils.
Twitter: @AJBrown36
John: Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions. A.J. I'm looking forward to reading the new version of The Woodshed, the rest of the stories in Along the Splintered Path and to seeing what else you have coming down the road this year.
A.J. Brown: Thank you, John, for having me.
John: My pleasure, A.J. For any of you wanting to keep up with A.J. and his work, visit his website at Type AJ Negative
If you want to know a little bit about the nuts and bolts of how A.J. and Dark Continents put the collection together, writer Michelle Garren Flye covers that in an excellent interview with A.J. at BREATHE.
Now, A.J., let's get started.
John: Tell us briefly about the Along the Splintered Path -- how did you whittle your work down to the stories you chose, how they were chosen, what were you looking for when Dark Continents commissioned you to do the collection?
A.J. Brown: I didn’t have a lot of time to put this together. Thankfully, throughout 2011 I had put together a couple of larger collections in hopes of having one of them picked up. I received a few nibbles and even had a few promising leads, but they all fell through. So, when DCP contacted me about putting something together—a novella or three or four short stories for a collection—I jumped on it.
I did a ton of editing on around twenty stories last year so I perused those and chose six pieces. I then enlisted help from a few friends and got it down to the four pieces I ultimate sent off. DCP chose the three they liked and Along the Splintered Path was born.
As far as what I was looking for: I’m a writer and I want to be published, I want readers to be able to see my work, to enjoy the words I put down. That’s the goal—to reach readers.
John: I'm particularly interested in The Woodshed. I read that story several years ago in its first public incarnation in the Dark Distortions anthology. You said in Michelle Garren Flye's interview that you rewrote much of the story since then. Is that a difficult process? How do you set aside what's already there, how the story already came to life once, and put together a separate piece that maintains the essence of the original? Isn't that, in many ways, more difficult than the original writing?
A.J. Brown: When I decided to rewrite The Woodshed I knew it would be a challenge. It had garnered some good comments and a lot of people really liked it. As a writer yourself, you know that things you wrote five years ago may not be as well written as things you would write today. When I went back to the Dark Distortions version, I saw a few things that could use tweaking and a lot of that had to do with the way Kyle came across. He had to be a sympathetic character and his voice had to ring true throughout the entire piece. There were parts in there that I felt Kyle lost his voice. There were also a couple of contradictions that I can’t believe I didn’t catch back then.
The thing with rewriting a story from beginning to end is you can’t be enamored with a line or paragraph or even entire pages. You have to be willing to say this has got to go and this needs to be reworded and, oh boy, how did I miss this? Your mindset is completely different and the work is more tedious—it is harder than sitting at the computer and typing something all new.
To best explain the process, it’s kind of like working on a car or fixing the roof of your house. You see what needs to be done, you figure out what things need to be taken off or dismantled, then you repair it by putting in new parts or making the old parts sturdier. It’s time consuming and sometimes—okay, a lot of times—you mash your thumb or mess something up and have to go back and do it again, but in the end, you have things the way you want them. Your car is running again and your roof is fixed. Can you tell I’m from the south?
John: We haven't kept in touch too much over the past year or two, but I recall from earlier times you were really wrapped up with short story writing, with no inclination toward longer works. Any ideas of tackling a novel now, or have you already done that?
A.J. Brown: Ha! Yeah, I still have no real interest in tackling a novel. However, I have written two in the past couple of years. I know, a contradiction of sorts. I didn’t set out to write a novel or really anything over five or six thousand words. I never do. I have a process for when I write: I sit down with a thought or a story swirling in my head and I just start typing. Most of the time the hardest part is coming up with the right opening line. I write. If a story ends up being two thousand words, then fine. If one ends up being sixty-seven thousand, then I’m fine with that also. I chose a long time ago not to limit my stories based on a word count. I found writing to a word maximum was restricting for both the stories, and me so I stopped doing that. The two novels I wrote were done so by just sitting and writing and letting them take me on a journey.
John: Along the Splintered Path is an e-book collection, available for download to the Kindle. In this age in which it seems nearly every writer is abandoning traditional publishing for self-pub e-books, why did you choose to work with a publisher, rather than go it alone with self-publishing the work?
A.J. Brown: I was lucky. Simple as that.
I actually did do a little e-publishing at the beginning of last year. Three stories were posted in a four month period over on Smashwords. They got some good reviews and I think I even got a fan or two out of it—which made the effort well worth it. But, ultimately, I’ve always wanted a publisher to think that my work was worth putting out there.
I must have queried fifteen different places in 2011 about putting together a collection. It may have been more. I’m not sure. But, the no’s outweighed the nibbles and I strongly considered calling it a writing career and being done with it.
Earlier in the year I subbed to DCP and they were very polite in their rejection and, honestly, I marked them off my list for 2011 and thought I would try again in 2012. Then at the tail end of November I received an e-mail to consider submitting for the e-book launch, Tales of Darkness and Dismay. Of course, I submitted and I’m happy I did so.
You never know when a door you thought was closed may reopen. As I said, I was lucky.
John: Tell me, how in the world do you write at such a prolific pace? Before you answer, let me tell our readers those short story figures I mentioned in the introduction are for fully completed stories. They don't count the unfinished pieces, nor do they count the poetry, blogs, and other writing you do.
A.J. Brown: It was something that developed in 2005 when I joined the workshop you mentioned earlier. In that workshop are various private offices and there was one called, I can’t quite remember the name, but something like ‘Nellie’s Flash Office.’ It was an office where you were given a topic on one day, you had one hour to write the story in under a thousand words and post it up for the other contestants to read and then 24 hours to read and review the stories and vote for your top three.
This was more of a literary type office, but I learned a lot about the economy of words and how restricting they can be. But I also learned how to take a simple idea and turn it into a story in an hour’s time. Now, understand what I’m saying: View the topic, come up with a story, write the story, edit the story to some degree and post it in sixty minutes. That’s when you realize how short an hour can be.
Later on I joined another flash contest office before creating my own dedicated to horror stories only.
After I stopped writing flash stories (they are just too restrictive for a long winded person like me) I still implemented something I learned in that original office. Instead of writing in increments of a thousand words I began writing in increments of five hundred. By writing five hundred words, walking away for a few minutes or an hour or whatever, then coming back and writing five hundred words again, that word count became a breeze and I could write six, seven, ten thousand words in a day (when I had that type of time) easily. For me, I actually have a notepad by my desk so when I write I note the current word count and the time and then write until I reach the five hundred word mark, then stop (unless I’m on a roll and then I keep going). I make note of the new word count and time then do it again. It’s almost like I’m holding myself accountable to five hundred words every single time I sit to write. Not four hundred ninety-nine. It’s always five hundred or more. Always.
John: There are not enough markets to publish all of your works, I don't believe. What are your plans for all those stories that have not yet seen publication?
A.J. Brown: I’m going to rewrite them. I started that process last year and have turned some bare bones stories into meaty pieces by concentrating on what’s good about each piece and improving on them. I’ll never get them all published and I don’t think I’ll try to. But, there are easily a couple to three hundred good pieces that can be fleshed out a little more and that can come alive with a little more work.
John: Let's stray away from writing for a bit for a round of quick questions to give readers a little insight into you. What would be your dream job?
A.J. Brown: Coaching. I love coaching kids.
John: Dream car?
A.J. Brown: 1972 Mustang
John: Dream location to live?
A.J. Brown: Wow. I really don’t know. I would love to live in Ann Arbor, Michigan so I could go see the Wolverines play, but my wife says no way to that.
John: Favorite non-writing-related activity?
A.J. Brown: LEGOs. No joke. I love LEGOs.
John: Who is your favorite big-name author?
A.J. Brown: Stephen King
John: Favorite not-quite-so-big-name author?
A.J. Brown: I absolutely love John Mantooth's work. So elegantly written. His stories are just phenomenal works of art.
John: Favorite television show?
A.J. Brown: The Walking Dead
John: Favorite movie?
A.J. Brown: The Outlaw Josie Wells
John: Okay, back to the writing. What's the best part of the writing process for you?
A.J. Brown: Watching my characters come alive and seeing how the stories unfold. I rarely have a clue where my stories are going or how they’ll get there. I have an idea and I just go with it. Learning about the stories and sitting in the passenger’s seat while they unfold is awesome.
John: Is there anything in the process you particularly dislike?
A.J. Brown: Getting stuck. Sometimes I write myself into a corner and have to go back and figure out where that happened. I hate it when that happens.
John: What do you do to get away from it all -- when work is hard, writing doesn't fill the bill -- how do you recharge your batteries?
A.J. Brown: My mind never really leaves writing. It’s always there, intentional or not. Anything can be a story idea—anything at all—and that is both the exciting part of being a writer and the bane of existence as well.
Music, I think, is the one thing that takes my mind away—at least temporarily. It gets the juices flowing again and helps with the writing process.
John: Plans for the rest of 2012? Where can we find your work? What big projects are on the horizon?
A.J. Brown: Keep writing and promoting for Along the Splintered Path as well as for the other books in the Tales of Darkness and Dismay release. I hope the collection is a springboard of sorts and that someone reading it would consider my work for something else further on down the line. I do have those two novels—one of which I’m pretty sure readers will like.
Places you can find me are:
My blog, Type AJ Negative
Facebook: AJ Brown
I have a Twitter account, but I hate Twitter. However, I do use it. You know how it is with all those necessary evils.
Twitter: @AJBrown36
John: Thanks so much for taking the time to answer my questions. A.J. I'm looking forward to reading the new version of The Woodshed, the rest of the stories in Along the Splintered Path and to seeing what else you have coming down the road this year.
A.J. Brown: Thank you, John, for having me.
John: My pleasure, A.J. For any of you wanting to keep up with A.J. and his work, visit his website at Type AJ Negative
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