Tag Archives: Writing

February 28, 2020 · 7:47 am

“Lessons From Rejection” by Olive Balla

Please help me welcome Olive Balla with an article all writers should read…

“Lessons From Rejection” by Olive Balla

For the umpteenth time, I click my cursor through the terse, to-the-point emailed responses to my latest barrage of agent queries. Thanks, but no thanks; Unfortunately, your work is not a good fit for our agency; and finally, the dreaded: This is in no way meant to reflect on the quality of your writing, keep it up.

“I’m seventy years old; the clock’s ticking,” my internal doomsday prophet intones. How many increments of a typical six-month waiting period do I have left? I don’t even buy green bananas.

Driven by the desire to hit that sweet spot required to find an agent willing to take a chance on my writing, I ask, “What does a good fit look like?”

Apparently, as the old saying goes, it’s different strokes for different folks. One agent’s pot-o-gold is another’s anathema. The bottom line is, how tough would an agent find it to sell my story? The shifts in the industry over the past decade alone have made it harder than ever to sell anything even remotely considered cliché, passé, overdone, or not edgy enough. To quote an agent who spoke at a writer’s convention I attended, “Please, don’t send me another story about vampires or kid wizards.” It’s a market-driven business; fads quickly come and go – emphasis on GO. To be marketable, a novel must not only be well-written, it must sizzle and pop with unique plot, peopled with and acted out by unique characters.

The latest series of rejections compelling me to action, I spend the day researching books on Amazon, paying careful attention to the back covers and blurbs to get a feel for what’s selling. Then I read my manuscript out loud, in hopes that getting another sense involved may help me spot gaps in the plot or highlight weak verbs and wonky sentences. Regardless of how many times I’ve edited, I edit again, searching for typos, misspellings, and over-use of be, am, is, are, was, were, been, or has been and have been.

If I’m still happy with my plot and character arcs, I seek and destroy anything written in passive voice – the use of which will doom even a great story.

I then move on to the Query letter. Does it sing? Does the Hook really hook? I re-read Query by C.J. Redwine and invest a day re-working my Query letter. I search the pages of the latest Guide to Literary Agents, highlighting the agencies I’ve not yet queried.

After doing everything I know to do, and as the melody of Cast Your Fate to the Wind – a golden oldie from the seventies – floats across my memory, I send out another barrage of Queries. Then I square my shoulders, open the Outline Template on my desktop, type in a working title, and begin another story.

 

Blurb: 
Eleven-year-old Jillie Ross escapes the vicious relatives threatening to flush away her beloved sister’s ashes if she doesn’t lead them to her dead father’s rumored treasure. Determined to find her sibling’s ashes and honor them along with their parents’ remains, the feisty orphan must endure harsh weather, escape a stalker, and hide from the police. But how long can she survive when at least one family member wants her dead?
Excerpt: 

Jillie dropped the metal lid as if it were red hot… Her stomach heaved, and something sour shot up her throat. Panic sent her running to the door where she pounded against the unyielding wood until the muscles in her arms cramped.  She  fell to her knees and clawed at the floor, ignoring the pain radiating up her arms from torn fingernails…The sound of approaching footsteps made the tiny hairs on the back of her neck move. Jillie snatched up the broken shovel handle and took a position in front of the door. With her legs slightly bent,, she balanced on the balls of her feet as she’d seen a martial arts professional do on television. She gripped the pole in both hands as if it were a sword, aimed its broken, pointed end at the door, and waited.

Olive Balla is a retired educator and author of two mystery/suspense novels An Arm and A Leg and Jillie published by TheWild Rose Press, Inc. A New Mexico native, Ms. Balla lives in the village of Los Lunas with her husband, her bossy puppy, and her pesky Internal Editor.
Find Olive Here:

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December 7, 2019 · 8:06 am

Interview with a Villain by Olive Balla

I’m happy to have Olive Balla back on my blog. Today’s article is entertaining and informative…

Interview with a Villain       

Grinning as if I’d just won something, which I never do, I push my office chair back from the desk and toss another ball of wadded paper toward the trash can. Whoosh, it falls through the opening without touching the sides. A good omen; one which cannot be ignored.

“Woo-hoo!” I pump my fist up and down. My pulse quickens, and I glance at my watch.

Today’s the day. In precisely six minutes, I will interview a murderer.

I couldn’t do such a thing on just any day, you understand. It must be a day filled with good omens, a day in which I feel physically energized and psychologically pumped.

A day like today.

In preparation for the interview, I drag a woven, cane-bottomed dining room chair into my office and situate it directly across from my seat. The straight, ladder back should prove uncomfortable enough to keep my guest off balance, thereby ensuring more spontaneous responses to my questions. The distance of five feet between chairs, give or take a few inches, will allow unimpeded eye contact.

I take a deep breath and blow it out through puckered lips then drop into my chair. With less than two minutes to go I peer at the screen of my laptop. My mouth goes dry as I consider the questions that seemed insightful minutes earlier but now appear insipid and pointless.

Do they zero in on the villain’s motivation like a professor’s laser pointer, or are they so ambiguous as to allow room for sloppy evasion? Are any of them redundant? Will they elicit responses that help my Readers to understand human nature while chilling their bones?

I chew my thumbnail and shoot a look toward the office door. A shadowy figure stands in the opening, backlit by the hallway light.

“You’re early,” I say.

“Insightful,” the murderer says. “Anything else, or is that it?”

“Thanks for showing up.” I point to the chair opposite me. “Have a seat.”

The villain saunters to the rattan chair. She stares down at it, snorts then grins and shakes her head. “Such an obvious ploy. Contrived. Best be careful or I’ll disappear before you have what you need.”

“Sorry.” I hold my hand up, palm out as if to stop a charging rhino. “Is there anything you’d like to tell me?”

“No, no, no.” My murderer moves her index finger back and forth imitating a clock’s pendulum. “That’s not how this works. While allowing me freedom of expression is important, it’s up to you to ask the right questions. Otherwise, you risk making me predictable, or worse, cliché. When I have something unexpected to say, as I most assuredly will if you do this right, I’ll jump in and it’ll be up to you to keep up.”

“Okay.” I take a deep breath.

For the next hour or so, I shoot questions at my murderer, furiously typing her responses into my laptop. I’ve just finished memorializing her umpteenth impromptu stream-of-consciousness monologue when she falls silent. I glance in her direction just as her shadowy form retreats through the office door.

“Thanks,” I call out.

Wordlessly, she waves an arm over her head then is gone.

My pulse pumps like race car pistons as I review the transcribed pages that will set the stage for my suspense novel.

“Not at all what I expected,” I murmur.

The fragrance of lilacs suddenly fills the room. I breathe deeply, sensing another presence.

“My turn,” says my Protagonist.

“So it is,” I say. “Please, have a seat.”

 

Thank you, Olive. Love this! It’s a great idea for writers to interview their villains, and main characters, before writing their stories. 

Now, here’s Olive’s latest release, chock full of villains…

 

Blurb:
Eleven-year-old Jillie Ross escapes the vicious relatives threatening to flush away her beloved sister’s ashes if she doesn’t lead them to her dead father’s rumored treasure.
Determined to find her sibling’s ashes and honor them along with their parents’ remains, the feisty orphan must endure harsh weather, escape a stalker, and hide from the police. But how long can she survive when at least one family member wants her dead?
Excerpt:

Jillie dropped the metal lid as if it were red hot... Her stomach heaved, and something sour shot up her throat. She pounded against the locked, unyielding door until the muscles in her arms cramped.  She  fell to her knees and clawed at the floor, ignoring the pain radiating up her arms from torn fingernails...   

The sound of approaching footsteps made the tiny hairs on the back of her neck move. She snatched up the broken shovel handle and stood behind the door. With her legs slightly bent, she gripped the pole with both hands as if it were a sword, aimed its broken, pointed end at the door and waited.  

Bio:
A retired educator, Olive Balla began writing in her sixties. Her first mystery/suspense novel, An Arm And A Leg, was published just after her sixty-fifth birthday, and her second, Jillie, was recently published. Ms. Balla is a mother of three, grandmother to eleven, and great grandmother of seven. When she isn’t writing, she can be found making sawdust in her wood shop near Albuquerque New Mexico.

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November 1, 2019 · 9:33 am

Why Do We Do That Voodoo We Do? by Olive Balla

Please help me welcome Olive Balla, an author with whom I had the pleasure of working with at The Wild Rose Press on a few books, the most recent being her fantastic suspense novel, Jillie.

WHY DO WE DO THAT VOODOO WE DO?

I tap the screen of my laptop and find a writer’s blog entitled Why Do You Write? Since the process of establishing a “motive” is central to my Suspense/Mystery genre, this gives me pause. I chew on the question, a frown creasing my forehead.

Other authors seem to have no problem defining their motivation, so why can’t I? It’s not a trick question – it’s something I should probably know.

Did my inability to name a consistent tune to which my Writer Spirit dances signify a lack of imagination? Was it a death knell to my aspirations to write something worth a few hours of someone’s life?

One blogger claims his raison d’etre is a drive for pure creative expression. His stories offer the perfect venue for building other worlds peopled with folk of his conjuring.

Yup, I say to myself, that’s a cool reason to write. Maybe I just feel the need to do me some creating.

Another writer vows she has no choice but to obey a powerful Inner Command to write. I consider the implied nobility of that statement. Maybe that’s why I write. I DO sometimes feel compelled. No, really.

What might happen to a writer who ignores such a command; would she expire? Would she explode into unfulfilled bits of gelatinous non-writer? I sigh.

With a grateful heart, I find one blogger who admits to purely mercenary motives. Time to get new carpet for the living room? No problem, just whip out a blockbuster. If only.

As a retiree living on a clenched-butt fixed income, that thought sets off a responsive gong. Perhaps paving a pathway to a gratifying payday is my true motivation after all.

Yet another blogger says his writings are borne of angst. His words, a therapeutic outlet, offer catharsis to his existential pain.

Then there is the writer who believes he has important information for the world, words of wisdom, answers to the mysteries of the human condition. And there are indeed those writers whose words change the course of history.

But alas, pleased to un-dangle participles and duct-tape split infinitives, I don’t have anything of such magnitude to say. One writer’s nuggets of gold are another’s horse puckie.

Then my hard-nosed Internal Editor sends up snarky questions on the quality of my own writing. Was my plot tight enough? Did my dialogue sing? Should I have included at least one scene of graphic sex? Or horror of horrors, did my characters behave uncharacteristically?

Perhaps I write to justify my mother’s never-flagging faith in my abilities, while jabbing a finger in my dad’s eye for suggesting I get a real job.

By the time the self-doubt and reflection are said and done, I arrive at a near-epiphany: Sometimes I write for all the above reasons but sometimes I write for none of them.

Mostly I write because I want to. If someone escapes a less-than-perfect reality for a nano-second by reading something I’ve written – that’s just plain cool.

My Internal Writer sighs. The tightness in my neck relaxes, and I bang out another scene.

 

Blurb:
Eleven-year-old Jillie Ross escapes the vicious relatives threatening to flush away her beloved sister’s ashes if she doesn’t lead them to her dead father’s rumored treasure.
Determined to find her sibling’s ashes and honor them along with their parents’ remains, the feisty orphan must endure harsh weather, escape a stalker, and hide from the police. But how long can she survive when at least one family member wants her dead?
Excerpt:

Jillie dropped the metal lid as if it were red hot... Her stomach heaved, and something sour shot up her throat. She pounded against the locked, unyielding door until the muscles in her arms cramped.  She  fell to her knees and clawed at the floor, ignoring the pain radiating up her arms from torn fingernails...   

The sound of approaching footsteps made the tiny hairs on the back of her neck move. She snatched up the broken shovel handle and stood behind the door. With her legs slightly bent, she gripped the pole with both hands as if it were a sword, aimed its broken, pointed end at the door and waited.  

Bio:
A retired educator, Olive Balla began writing in her sixties. Her first mystery/suspense novel, An Arm And A Leg, was published just after her sixty-fifth birthday, and her second, Jillie, was recently published. Ms. Balla is a mother of three, grandmother to eleven, and great grandmother of seven. When she isn’t writing, she can be found making sawdust in her wood shop near Albuquerque New Mexico.

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July 5, 2018 · 10:48 am

The Fourth, Siblings, and The Searcher

Good morning!!

Hope everyone had a wonderful, safe Fourth of July. I didn’t celebrate the holiday, I seldom do. But, I did go see my sweet momma in the nursing home. She has been ill and had to have IV antibiotics. I hated seeing her like that, so weak and feeling unwell. She was still precious and happy to see me, though. I love her so much, and I’m so grateful she’s still living. I feel bad, though, because I know her quality of life is not great. She often says she just wishes she’d pass so she could be in Heaven with my dad. Then, she says, “But I worry, what if he’s up there with his first wife, Anne?” 🙂 I assure her that Anne is with the husband she was married to for 4o something years and Mom will be with Dad, who she was married to for 40 years. 

I then had dinner with my BFF, Paige. We’ve been friends for more than 40 years, and I’m so blessed to still have her in my life. Her daughters, who are 13 and 14, are spending a few weeks in California with their aunt, so Paige is a little lost, but I encouraged her to enjoy the peace and ‘me’ time. As a single mom, she doesn’t get much of that. What about you? When your kids were away, were you lost and bereft? Relieved and at peace? A little of all of those?

 

This weekend, my siblings and I are all going to Checotah, Oklahoma, near Lake Eufaula, and renting an AirBnB so we can visit my brother, who’s battling cancer. He lives in the area and can’t travel, so we’re going to him. There are seven of us (and two of my brothers-in-law will be there as well, so we’ll have eight in the house we’re renting…should be interesting! :)). My eldest brother, my half-brother, is coming from Arkansas. I’m sad, yet excited, about the weekend. It’s horrible to watch Brett struggle with this awful disease, but I’m glad that our family will be spending time together. The seven of us were together a few months ago at a music benefit for Brett. Before that, I believe our last time to be together was after Dad passed in 1994. 

(If anyone is interested, we are holding a few different fundraisers for Brett’s medical bills. You can purchase Tupperware, my books, a wrist band, or just donate. Brett Robertson Cancer Fundraiser)

Top Row: L to R: Eddie, Me, Sheri, Christi (the baby). Bottom Row: Ruth, Brett, Janis

What I’m reading/listening to:

I seldom actually read a book. I’m so busy that having down time to sit and relax and read is a rare luxury. So, I’m a member of Amazon Audible, and I do most of my pleasure ‘reading’ via audio books in the car. Even if I’m on a 15 minute drive, I listen to audio books. I’m very picky, though. Suspense/Thriller is my favorite genre, but it’s difficult to find a good, solid suspense. I give up early in quite a few of them. My very favorite are police procedurals. If you have any good recommendations, I’d love to know. (Not really ‘romantic’ suspense. I have plenty of good ones I haven’t read yet) The one I’m listening to now is ‘Their Lost Daughters.’ The plot and writing are pretty good, but the characters are not all that memorable or interesting. The protagonist is a good ‘copper’ whose team are good coppers, they just aren’t at all unique and didn’t really come alive for me. I do love that it’s British. I love listening to British narrators, and I enjoy the idioms. For example, ‘Duty Solicitor’ instead of Public Defender and ‘Dust Up’ instead of argument or disagreement. 🙂 Overall, it’s definitely worth reading. The fact that I’m almost finished with it is a testimony to its enjoy-ability. 🙂

 

What I’m writing:

I’m working on my Martini Club 4 story, Paralyzed. It’s been slow going, but it’s starting to pick up and I am determined to finish soon. We had our critique meeting on Monday night, and I actually had a scene submitted by the time we met. We all did, as a matter of fact. I was quite pleased. I told the group a few days before the meeting that, in order to provide some incentive, we should make it a rule that, unless all 4 of us have submitted, we will not meet. They balked at the idea (well, they shot it down altogether, LOL), BUT, even the threat of it apparently encouraged us all to submit. 🙂 My thought is, we’re in this for the writing. We need to get a little more serious. If we can’t even finish a scene in two weeks, we’re not taking it seriously enough, am I right? Of course, once we finish a project, we’ll be in revisions for a while, then we’ll need to brainstorm and plot our next project. So, at that time, we shouldn’t be expected to submit during that time. This is a ‘mock’ cover for my MC4 story. Hopefully, looking at it will inspire me to keep plugging along!

Elvis:

I’m excited about this new documentary about Elvis. When Krysta Scott and I were in Memphis in March, we stayed at The Guest House at Graceland and met some ladies who mentioned the show and that they were there at the hotel when the film crew was there filming part of the documentary. Can’t wait to see it!

https://www.hbo.com/content/hboweb/en/documentaries/elvis-presley-the-searcher/about.html

 

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June 28, 2018 · 8:02 am

Retreat, Zoodles and Serialized Novels

Good morning!!

Our weekend retreat was even better than I expected! You can read about it here if you’d like: Facebook Post 

The place we stayed was perfect, our host could not have been more gracious and accommodating. And, I was fairly productive, although now that I’m back in the ‘real world’, I’m afraid I’ve once again let my writing slide. I’m working on a daily habit, though. Wish me luck!

 

I’ve done a very poor job of staying on Weight Watchers, but like my writing, I’m determined to be more committed. I made cauliflower rice and was NOT a fan, but then, I don’t like cauliflower. I’m going to try zucchini rice, since I love zucchini. Here is a video showing different ways to make them and another with a few recipes:

Would you like to share any healthy tips/recipes you’ve run across?

 

I’m meeting a friend this evening to help her with a book she’d like to self-publish in a serialized format. She’ll release each section, which will be approximately 15 to 20,000 words, every two weeks for 99 cents each and let readers know it is ‘to be continued.’ I plan to do the same, one of these days, with a story idea I have. As a reader, I very much dislike when authors leave me on a cliffhanger. However, if I know going in that it’s ‘to be continued’, it wouldn’t bother me. How about you? Would you be okay with a continuation if you knew it going in?

 

And, just because…

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June 20, 2018 · 12:12 pm

Maestro, Eggs, and Nina No More

Good morning!!

I’m so excited about this weekend. My critique partners and I are getting away for a mini writing retreat. We will be staying at an Air BnB called “The Maestro” which is owned by the son of band leader Al Good. It looks like a cool place to hang out. And, I definitely need the push and focus for my writing. I’ve been neglecting it terribly lately, feeling very inadequate, but yesterday, I received a really nice compliment from an author I respect a great deal plus, I’ve been listening to Donald Maass’ The Emotional Craft of Fiction via my Kindle. Wow, such great insight about how to tap into reader emotions. It also helped tap into my emotion for my story, which has made me like it a little more, and that’s important. If you don’t like your story, how can you expect readers to? Suddenly, I’m re-inspired and I feel I might actually have the ability to write…and finish something!

 

I’ve been attempting weight watchers and some days I do well, others, not so much. I have found that if I meal prep, I’m much more likely to stick to it. Also, if I use my Tupperware Breakfast Maker, I eat healthier breakfasts. Without this, I often stop for fast food breakfasts…yuck! I keep eggs, spinach, cheese, milk and Canadian bacon at work. (Did you know Canadian bacon is only 2 smart points for 5 slices!!! – I only use 2 in my breakfast, so that’s very low in points.) Admittedly, the cheese jacks up the points, but without cheese, what’s the point of anything, right? What tips do you have for eating healthy? (Please don’t suggest cauliflower rice, been there done that, didn’t like it. I also tried that two-ingredient pizza crust with flour and greek yogurt….blech!!!)

 

Ugh, I’ve been working on my 1940s Martini Club story for a while now, (way too long), and I haven’t gotten nearly far enough. But, I have realized some things about the story that has made it more interesting to me, so now, I am more enthused and I am determined to finish it, this month, maybe during our retreat weekend. One thing I unhappily realized is, my heroine’s name, Nina, was used by me for a heroine in a short story. So, I had to come up with a new name for her. I researched girl names for babies born in 1925 and the list was not all that appealing. I did find a few gems and ran them by my critique partners, who I met for dinner last night, and they came up with some suggestions as well. However, after thinking about it further, I decided not to use the ones we discussed, and now, my heroine is Sylvia. It will feel weird for a while to call her that, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it soon. Hope she does too! 😀 Have you ever done that, repeated hero/heroine names for your stories? Once you have a name for a character, does it bother you to change it? Side note, this is Jessica De Gouw, the actress who is the model for Nina Sylvia— 

And, just because…

 

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September 30, 2015 · 9:59 am

Murder and Other Unnatural Disasters – AWESOME Debut Novel by Lida Sideras – Giveaway!

I am absolutely thrilled to introduce today’s guest, Lida Sideris. I had the privilege of being her editor for her debut novel, Murder and Other Unnatural Disasters with The Wild Rose Press. Not only did I love the book, Lida was a joy to work with. Please help me welcome her and her fabulous story…(And isn’t the cover fantastic???) 🙂

LIDAe3d391a42d895d179ff01253.image.200x300

To be taken to the Amazon Buy Page:   Click Here

Blurb:

Watch out Southern California! There’s a new entertainment attorney in town and she’s got game. Only problem is, it’s not the one she should be playing. Corrie Locke belongs behind a desk, not behind a Glock. She should be taking VIP calls, not nosing around a questionable suicide. Instead, she’s hot on the trail of a murderer. Luckily, she’s the daughter of a late, great private eye and she’s inherited his love of sleuthing…and illegal weaponry. It doesn’t help matters that her gene for caution is a recessive one. Corrie finds herself in the center of a murder case, unearthing suspects in shocking places. With a cold-blooded killer on the loose, Corrie will have to up her game, or die trying.

Excerpt: 

I veered out of the parking lot and bounced onto the cavity-ridden dirt road. The mystery car appeared out of nowhere from beneath the tall pines, eclipsed by the darkness. Now it raced away somewhere ahead.

“Why didn’t we hear it start?” I asked James.

“It’s a hybrid.”

“We’re in a car chase with a Prius?” A car chase with a Porsche or Ferrari was respectable, but with a battery operated car? All bragging rights vanished.

I shifted into warp speed and surged downhill. Seconds later, we faced the hybrid’s rear bumper. The spot for the license plate sat empty.

“He’s not getting away,” I said.

The hybrid turned and launched up a hill, kicking up pebbles and a dusty haze. It fish-tailed and I nearly nipped it in the rear. I executed a sharp left and ran over something large. And lumpy.

“Stop,” James said.

I skidded to a halt, a cloud of dirt trapped in my headlights. The Prius escaped through an open gate and onto La Paz. My eyes cut to the rearview mirror. My tail-lights illuminated the road behind us in an eerie red glow. As I surveyed the scene, not a trace of saliva remained in my mouth.

On Sale through The Wild Rose Press for ONLY $3:   Click Here

*** LIDA is giving away a print copy to one lucky commenter. (US Residents only) Winner will be announced this Saturday!

And now, let’s get to know Lida…

1) Where did you get the idea for MURDER AND OTHER UNNATURAL DISASTERS?

I was seeking an escape hatch from my day job, a way to lighten things up. The hatch eluded me, until I carved one out using words and altered scenes from a former life. I’d gone from working a high-profit job in a movie studio to running a non-profit on a shoestring budget. I used the entertainment industry as the backdrop of my novel and inserted a strong, but conflicted heroine, some slightly insane minor characters, and a murder to really rouse things. Writing a mystery was a challenge, but so much fun! And that’s what I was going for: fun. I really enjoyed twisting and turning reality around, and figuring out what the crazy characters were going to do or say next.

2) Are there any tricks/habits you use when creating a story?

One of my aunts shared issues of a magazine with me: Point de Vue, a French publication featuring European royals.  All very attractive, well dressed royals living colorful lives. I’d study the photos and create characters based on expressions, demeanor, and how I fancied they’d act, react, and interact. I wrote profiles for each and turned them into characters to populate my novel.

4) Do you have another occupation, other than writer?

I’m a lawyer, which works well because my day job has given me endless ideas and material for writing!

9) What’s your favorite book of all time and why? What’s your favorite childhood book?

I LOVE books, so it’s a challenge to whittle it down to one.  Today, I’d say it’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe because she wrote it during a time when women were expected to do little more than run a household, and because this one small book made such a monumental impact.

My favorite childhood book is The Secret Garden – it contained mystery (who was crying at night and why the garden was a secret) and explored a multitude of themes like the power of positive thinking, which was highly appealing to my young mind. And I can’t resist happy endings!

10) What do you want readers to come away with after they read MURDER AND OTHER UNNATURAL DISASTERS?

I love films of the thirties and forties, especially those that give the viewer a little lift afterward. I hope that readers feel a small lift after reading my book. And if any part brings a smile to the face of a reader, I’ve been successful.

12) Would you rather have a bad review or no review?

I will not be ignored! So I’d have to say I’d rather have a bad review. Just hope it’s a thoughtful and constructive one or it would be like not getting a review at all.

15) What is your favorite quote?

In my spare time, I collect quotes, so again, it’s a challenge to name just one, so begging your pardon in advance, here are two that tie (you can pick the tiebreaker):

The happiness of one’s own heart alone cannot satisfy the soul; one must try to include, as necessary to one’s own happiness, the happiness of others. ~Paramahansa Yogananda 

I think the mirror should be tilted slightly upward when it’s reflecting life–toward the cheerful, the tender, the compassionate, the brave, the funny, the encouraging, all those things. ~ Greer Garson

I enjoyed the interview, Lida…like you, I love old movies (as we’ve discussed), and I love the quote by Greer Garson. 

Thank you so much for joining me today!

BIO:

Like her heroine, Corrie Locke, Lida Sideris hails from Los Angeles and worked as an entertainment attorney for a film studio. She has written numerous magazine and newspaper articles, a poem or two and a teleplay. Lida resides in the northern tip of Southern California with her family, their German Shepherds, Barbie (short for Barbarian) and Duncan, and a flock of uppity chickens. She was the recipient of the Helen McCloy/Mystery Writers of America scholarship for mystery writing. Murder and Other Unnatural Disasters is her first novel.

Find Lida here:

www.lidasideris.com

https://www.facebook.com/lidasideris

Twitter: @lidasideris

lida@lidasideris.com

You may also purchase the book here:

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January 13, 2015 · 8:19 am

Would you survive? Jill James with her new release, Love in the Time of Zombies…

I am pleased to welcome Jill James with a fun interview, and an intriguing new release….

Where did you get the idea for Love in the Time of Zombies?

I love reading in the zombie apocalypse genre and of course, romance. So I thought, why not combine the two?

Why did you choose this genre (is it something you’ve written in before)?

No, this is my first time. My other books are contemporary and paranormal romance.

Was there anything unusual, any anecdote about this book, the characters, title, process, etc, you’d like to share?

The title is, of course, a play on Love in the Time of Cholera. I wanted to write a very strong female lead and LITTOZ is definitely Emily’s story.

What is the most difficult thing about writing a book?

Butt in chair, Hands on keyboard. Once I’m writing, I’m fine. But that showing up every day is hard for me.

What was the most difficult thing about this one in particular?

This book had my largest cast to date. I had to use index cards on a white board to keep track of people and attributes.

What book have you read that you wish you would have written?

World War Z by Max Brooks. That book started my zombie apocalypse binge reading. He took such a chance writing it as a series of articles and interviews.

What do you love that most people don’t like and wouldn’t understand why you do?

Well, probably the whole zombie apocalypse thing. I love The Walking Dead, Zombieland, and even Shaun of the Dead. I’ve probably read 500 ZA books in the past two years.

What’s your favorite book of all time and why? What’s your favorite childhood book?

Skye O’Malley by Bertrice Small That book is timeless. Skye O’Malley is such a kickbutt heroine. I love her!! My favorite childhood book was the Little House on the Prairie books. It opened my eyes that someone could write a book about their life and people would want to read it.

What actors would you like in the main roles if your book were made into a movie?

I’ve always envisioned Alex O’Loughlin as Seth Ripley in my book. With longer hair and those soulful eyes. Yum! For Emily Gray it has always been Alyssa Milano in my mind. That deceptive fragility she has and the under layer of steel.

What genre have you never written that you’d like to write?

Historical romance. The research necessary scares me.

What is your favorite quote?

Do. Or do not. There is no try. –Yoda 

Now Jill has a question for our readers…

Would you survive the zombie apocalypse? 

**** Pre-order for Kindle – ONLY 99¢ –

Releases January 15, 2015  – CLICK HERE  ****

 

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Influenza swept the planet. In months, two billion were dead. In the decimated United States, President Andrew Thomas signed an Executive Order to spray the national food and water supply with a flu vaccine. It spread and mutated up the food chain. The infected craved the flesh of the living and the undead walked the earth. 

Overnight, Emily Gray’s privileged world was ripped away. From pampered trophy wife to sharpshooter zombie hunter. From an elite address in San Francisco to the outskirts of an East Bay farm town. You never know what event will define you. The apocalypse showed Emily what she was truly capable of doing to survive.

Seth Ripley was a truck driver with simple dreams. Pay off his mortgage, not live paycheck to paycheck, and take care of his mom. The end of the world as he knew it stole all that away. His home and livelihood are gone and the only dream he has left is for his mother to awake from her diabetic coma brought on from the trials and tribulations of getting out of Oakland ahead of the horde of undead. 

When surviving day to day is all you ask of life, love seems an unrealistic dream. Who would ever think that something as terrible as the zombie apocalypse could bring Seth and Emily something as wonderful as their other half, their soul mate, their true love? 

Now all they have to do is survive death, destruction, and a madman who wants to control what is left of the world they knew.

Excerpt:

 

Chapter One

Guess you never know. Who would have thought something as terrible as the zombie apocalypse would bring me something as wonderful as Seth Ripley?

Of course, the zombies got my mother and my father, and my husband, Carl. Pretty much, they got my whole family. Okay, my husband Carl had been an asshole so he was no great loss. Never could keep it in his pants, if I may be so crude. If he could’ve kept it in his pants, he may have kept that appendage altogether. But, it was the early days of the Z virus mutation and how could he know the hooker he took to the cheap by-the-hour motel had the sickness? I’m sure he didn’t realize anything until the woman chewed it off, to be honestly blunt. He never was a great one for paying attention during sex as it was. Oh, maybe in the early days of our marriage, but he’d changed in the last few years, just before the end of the world.

Five years of him spreading it far and wide to prove his virility and all I was left with was a one-sheet police report and a blurred photo of Carl with one between the opaque, dead eyes. The police had stopped trying to take sickies to the hospital a couple of weeks before. By the time Carl was attacked it was kill ‘em, identify ‘em, and burn ‘em in a pile. KIB was the order of the day. A few weeks after that and they skipped the identify part of the acronym too. A few weeks more and there weren’t enough police or bullets for the killing part either.

Six months had passed and the police were all gone, along with the military. Now it was survival of the fittest. Never in a million years would I have pictured myself; neglected society, trophy-wife, Emily Gray, in that category. Guess you never know.

Your day could start so shitty and end so… well, not great, because there weren’t too many great days anymore. The only definition to divide the monotony of the days were get bitten by a zombie day and not get bitten by a zombie day. But that day would turn out better than most. At least it would with a great deal of hindsight and distance from the event. Adding a whole hell of a lot of seeing a silver-lining after the fact helped too.

 As with most days, I had zombie patrol for the morning, which was so not my best time of the day. But zombies don’t have an off switch so we had to hunt first thing in the morning to clear the perimeter around the giant mall.

Did you know shopping centers are the best defense against zombies? Me neither, until I got shipped out of what was left of San Francisco to the middle of nowhere—Brentwood. I’d never even heard of the town before I got sent there. Shopping centers are like medieval castles. Brick up the front doors and small back doors and the roof is like the battlements of a castle. Zombies can’t climb. Thank God for any small favor we could get. It’s about the only advantage we have. Because we have to sleep and the zombies don’t.

We were the last escapees of the city by the bay. Pre-Z the city had a population of more than 850, 000. In the end, San Francisco had 5,000 living beings to round up and ship to other communities to the east. The lieutenant governor (the governor had turned on live television and been put down) declared San Francisco the land of the undead, and blew up the bridges connecting it to the rest of the state and collapsed the Caldecott Tunnel for good measure. A bunch of massive explosions of entire city blocks to the south and San Francisco was pretty much an island of zombies.

My skin had burned lobster-red my first week of roof living here. San Francisco is more known for fog and chilly days than for getting a suntan. Once I tanned, it was the burnished copper of my ancestors—Native Americans of some unknown tribe, according to my mother. Way back in our ancestry, she had always been sure to add. The long hair my husband had insisted on was gone—happily. Long hair and zombies did not mix. My first day there I’d seen a young, blonde girl pulled back by her long braid and devoured in a dirt field. Long hair gone. Also happily gone, the extra thirty pounds I had carried through my unhappy marriage years. Running from zombies was the best aerobic exercise around. The penalty for missing a day of exercise was death—or nondeath in our case.

No one knew for sure back then if the animals were susceptible to the mutation, and what eating them would do to us, so breakfast was lots of fruits, vegetables, and soy patties. After six months of eating the food and drinking the water, either we were going to turn undead or not as far as I was concerned. I looked at it like this, if we were going to turn, we would have already done so. Scientific types were still testing cows and pigs to see if they just had the flu vaccine in them or if it would mutate in them too. Hadn’t seen any pigs or cows running amok yet.

 

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Author Bio:

Jill James is a published author with The Wild Rose Press and now self-published. Her books are contemporary romance, paranormal romance, and urban fantasy romance. She lives in Northern California with her husband who is the inspiration behind all her romance novel heroes.

Jill has been a member of Romance Writers of America since 2004. She started her work career as an accountant but soon realized that books and writing were her passion. Her first published book, Tempting Adam with The Wild Rose Press was a combination of her love of romance novels and the golden era of Hollywood movies.

Her hobbies are writing and reading, not necessarily in that order.

 

Facebook www.facebook.com/Jill.James.author

Twitter www.twitter.com/jill_james

Website www.jilljameswrites.com

 

Buy Links:

Amazon

http://amzn.com/B00RHGTYUC 

 

BN.com

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/love-in-the-time-of-zombies-jill-james/1120981220

iBooks   https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/love-in-the-time-of-zombies/id954689040?mt=11

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May 10, 2014 · 12:20 pm

Like Family Feud? Like winning Amazon Gift Cards???

Then join our Fiction Fanatics Fued Facebook group and play for a monthly first place prize of a $50 Amazon gift card and a second place prize of one free ebook by each of our ten authors:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/FictionFanaticsFeud/

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This week’s questions: (You must answer ON THE FB PAGE and not in the comments below in order to be eligible to enter. More info on entering can be found by clicking the above link)

Fiction Fanatics Feud Question 1: 

Name something you would hate to find under your bed…

 

Fiction Fanatics Feud Question 2:

Name something people are often chased by in movies  

 

Fiction Fanatics Feud Question 3

Name a reason someone might make fun of your car

 

 

 

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January 29, 2014 · 3:05 pm

Wednesday’s Want, Wed, Waste: Former U.S. Presidents

Hello and welcome to my version of the game, ‘F*@#’, Marry, Kill. This week we are WWW’ing U.S. Presidents.

Myself and some of my friends are sharing our Want, Wed, and Waste choices from this week’s list:

Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Abraham Lincoln (What a bunch of hotties, am I right? ;))

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Click on book titles below to learn more and to be taken to a buy link

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Me (Alicia Dean). Author of Valentine romance short story, Cupid’s Beau – What happens when a Cupid falls for her target? (ON SALE for only 99¢)

Want: Roosevelt. I mean, if he was unfaithful anyway, I might as well get in on the action, right? He was suave, handsome, and a great leader. I would feel guilty, though, because I adore Eleanor. (Not that I was born when they were in office, mind you, (side note: I might be old, but I wasn’t around when ANY of these presidents were in office) but I admire what I’ve heard about her, I love her quotes. I actually should read her book now that I think about it…)

Wed: Truman. He seemed like a good, caring man. I admire that he fought in World War I. He did make a tough, controversial decision to drop the bomb, but I think he did it with the best of intentions. It put an end to a war that would have cost no telling how many more Japanese and American lives. So…anyway, I think he was a great leader and he did a lot of other good things while in office.

Waste: Lincoln. As much as I admire and respect him, he gets the ‘waste’ mainly because of his lack of attractiveness. But also, had I lived in the Civil War days, I would have wanted to be a Scarlett-like Southern Belle (although, admittedly, I would be hard-pressed to compete with her in the 18-inch-waist arena) and no self-respecting Southern Belle would dare to be seen with a damn Yankee! (No offense to all my Yankee friends – But, we’d have been duking it out on the battlefield)

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SILVER JAMES, author of SEASON OF THE WITCH (The Penumbra Papers) –  A human FBI agent, a vampire, a supernatural serial killer–what can possibly go wrong? AMAZON LINK:  Website: http://silverjames.com

NOTE: Silver is offering a free digital copy of THAT OL’ BLACK MAGIC (the prequel novella in the Penumbra Papers series) in the winner’s choice of formats. Drawing will be held next Tuesday, February 4th – Be sure to leave your email address with your comment for your chance to win!

Want: Lincoln. I mean, who wouldn’t want a president who can hunt vampires? Okay, seriously, the man had a way with words. And he’s taller than I am. And likes women with padding. Works for me!

Wed: Truman – The buck stops with him. And he’s not afraid to make the hard decisions. He’s also a decent man, and to me? There’s just something inherently sexy about decency and doing the right thing, even when it feels wrong at the time.

Waste: FDR – Eleanor can keep him. I have trouble with infidelity in political leaders. I’m just weird that way.

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Diane Burton, author of ONE RED SHOE – Wannabe writer rescues wounded spy while risking her heart. Website:  www.dianeburton.com

Want: This is tough. Roosevelt, I guess. Handsome, debonair. Sure knew how to manipulate the media—they never showed him in his wheelchair or walking with crutches. Charismatic—if he hadn’t died, I’d bet he would have served more terms.

Wed: Hands down, Harry Truman. He took ownership of problems—the buck stops here. He made sure even MacArthur respected the office of president. His best quality? He was faithful to Bess all his life. Back home in Missouri, they lived like regular people. (Saw a replica of their kitchen at the presidential museum.)

Waste: Again, tough choice. I admire Lincoln for his stance on slavery and preserving the union. But I just can’t see wanting or wedding him.

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LYNDI LAMONT, author of TOVA’S DRAGON – An earth mage and a handsome dragonshifter team up to save the kingdom from an evil sorcerer. ON SALE for 40% off through Jan. 31 at  http://www.lyndilamont.com/

Want: FDR, who was apparently charming, urbane, and sophisticated, but not a faithful husband. An affair with him would have been a fascinating glimpse into the world of American aristocracy and probably a lot of fun. No place for a blue collar girl like me in the long run though. Can you say misfit?

Wed: Lincoln has been one of my heroes since I was a kid. Despite his faults, he was a great man: smart, funny and a good husband and father. Marriage to him would have been ultimately tragic, though.

Waste: Truman, mainly because of his decision to drop the A-bomb, the 20th c. version of opening Pandora’s Box.

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Callie Hutton, author of The Elusive Wife – He doesn’t know he’s about to fall in love with his wife. www.calliehutton.com

Want: FDR as someone I’d want to have dinner with. Talk about his vision for the country. 

Wed: President Abraham Lincoln. I imagine being married to such a compassionate man would be wonderful.

Waste: Truman. Not very memorable for me.

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Now we’d like to hear from you….which of these Commanders in Chief would you Want, Wed, and Waste?
Thanks for playing!

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