Interview with author Jeffrey Littorno

Jeffrey Littorno is an indie author slowly building his brand in the self-publishing world. Recently, he talked with Where Zombies Come to Read about his zombie series. Along with horror, this diverse author wrote a paranormal novel titled Soul Hostage. Let's learn more about Jeffery and his writing...

Q: How long have you been writing and when did you decide to indie publish?

 

A: I have been writing for as long as I can remember.  My first published work was a short story for the school district when I was in second grade, Leo the Lion Tamer. I’m sure you’ve heard of it, right?

 

Q: What was the biggest hurdle in going it alone?

 

A: As far as being an indie writer, the toughest part has been the need to spend time marketing my books when I would rather just be writing... Oh, other than this interview, of course. Self-publishing these days is like throwing a pebble into a huge pond. It’s very difficult to make much more than a ripple. On the one hand, it is great that self-publishing has become such a viable and accepted way to get books on the market, but it has also resulted in a huge wave of titles. Without effective marketing, a small book like mine can easily be swept away.

 

Since I have no experience going the traditional publishing route, I have no idea whether it is any different as far as marketing.

 

Q: In 2013, you published Soul Hostage. Can you explain the idea behind the book? Where did the inspiration come from?

 

A: I have a really tough time in pinning down precisely where my ideas or inspiration come from. I get a lot of my ideas in the shower. Go figure.

 

I know that a seed on an idea came from watching a homeless guy outside of a coffee shop. I wondered about the guy’s past and what exactly put him on the streets. I toyed with the questions what if he was on the street by choice and why would someone choose to live on the streets. In my mind, the idea took a sinister turn, and the plot for Soul Hostage was the result. I wrote the book without a title. One day I heard a television reporter use the phrase sole hostage regarding a bank robbery. I thought soul hostage was a decent play on words so used it.

 

Q: What drew you to paranormal fiction as a genre? Do you plan to branch out to other genres as your career progresses?

 

A: I have always been a big fan of the paranormal and horror genres in books and movies. It seemed like a very natural path to take. The main element which draws me to the genre is the way a well-written story can cause readers to suspend belief. A truly great horror story has the power to make readers accept the presence of ghosts, zombies, or devils as part of their everyday lives.

 

As far as branching out to other genres, it is a definite possibility. I do have some story ideas that are more literary. I will have to wait and see if those stories grow into something more.

 

Q: Can you tell us about the main characters in Soul Hostage?

 

A: The main characters are Thomas, Joey, and Louis.  Joey and Thomas have been very close friends throughout most of their lives. And they have had lives filled with a great deal of trouble. As readers get to know the pair of less-than-upstanding men, it becomes clear that the only thing they have been able to count on is each another.

 

But this close bond changes after Louis Stoaffer comes into the picture. The apparently feeble, homeless old man soon makes it clear that not everything is as simple as it appears.

 

Q: How do you come up with the names for your characters?

 

A: Most of the time, I take friend’s names and twist them a little. Or I just come up with names that sound good to me. With Louis Stoaffer, it was a little different. I knew I wanted a name that meant more, held a clue to his identity. If anyone remembers the movie Angel Heart, it is similar to Robert De Niro’s character.

 

Q: Chicken or the egg question. Do you create a character and build around him/her? Or do you imagine a concept and create characters which fit the idea?

 

A: For the most part, I get some idea or character floating around in my head. If it sticks around for more than a day or two, I know that I have to write a story around it. That said, I think my first book Bloom’s Desk sort of started with both a concept and a character. I had the idea of a young teacher being possessed by the spirit of a killer, and the story started from there. So the best answer is probably both.

 

Q: How do you avoid writing a Mary Sue or Marty Stu when most writers can’t help falling desperately in love with their creations?

 

A: Most of my characters aren’t that nice so I don’t have a problem with this.

 

Q: Do you use anything to inspire you while you’re writing? Music, visual aids, etc? Also have you found ideas come to you more freely in particular places or at certain times of the day?

 

A: Oh, so we are back to the shower! I am not sure exactly why I get a lot of ideas in the shower. Maybe it’s the combination of steam, soap, shampoo, and water. Of course, most of the ideas that I get in the shower disappear as soon as I dry off. But a few stick around. I have to admit there is one idea that had been banging around in my head for several months. I just haven’t had time to get it out yet.

 

Q: When an idea hits you, do you start writing immediately or plot it out first?

 

A: I definitely don’t start immediately, but I can’t say that I plot it out first. With Bloom’s Desk, I actually tried doing an outline and all the other organizing tools that writers are supposed to use. But I soon found the constraints of an outline frustrating. As ridiculous as it may sound, the story just told me where to go. Maybe it’s voices in my head or a muse, whatever you want to call it. There just seemed to be a direction that made sense to me, and the direction had nothing to do with where I thought it was going to go.

 

Q: When you read less than fawning reviews, how do you know when to use the critique to improve your future writing and when do you chalk up the criticism as different strokes for different folks?

 

A: Fortunately, my first two books had very good reviews. I should have known this streak wouldn’t last.

 

I just released The Most Uncommon Cold I: Life in the Time of Zombies and received my first really negative reviews. I wish I could say that I just shrugged them off. But after reading them a few hundred times, I moved to the positive reviews. It’s easy to say that no everybody is going to like your book, but it is another thing to see it written out in front of you. I did take a few bits of the criticism to heart and will try to keep them in mind for future writing. But other than that, the negative reviews are forgotten… Not really.

 

Q: I’ve read criticism from particular bloggers (Fangs for the Fantasy being one) about the lack of people of color and different sexual orientations in fiction. Do you take this lack of diversity into consideration when creating plots and characters?

 

A: I try to make my characters a reflection of society.  So yes, I suppose I do take diversity into consideration, even if it is not always a conscious decision.

 

Q: Do word counts mean anything to you? Do you find your books top out at around the same lengths?

 

A: No, the word count is really secondary to simply writing until the story is told to my satisfaction.

 

Q: How big a deal is writer’s block for you and what do you do to shake it off?

 

A: I don’t think writer’s block is what I get. It’s more like writer’s resistance. And I can let my brain convince me that I have other things to do than write or that I can’t come up with ideas. However, most of the time if I just force myself to sit down at the keyboard, I can write. I have found that reading the last five or ten pages written puts me on track to write.

 

Q: What books did you enjoy most in 2013?

 

A: I guess you mean other than Soul Hostage and The Most Uncommon Cold.

 

Well, I just finished a book called The Hand that Feeds by Michael W. Garza which was enjoyable. I reread Catcher in the Rye for about the twentieth time. I have read a number of books about selling more books, but I can’t say that I truly enjoyed those. I am in the process of editing Fires of Gehema by Justin Ordoñez. It is science fiction which is something new for me, but I am enjoying it. And I am looking forward to reading Doctor Sleep, Stephen King’s sequel to The Shining.

 

Q: What trends do you hope die in 2014? Are there any you hope take off?

 

A: Well, I am pretty tired of vampires. I am not sure how long the zombie craze will last. Hopefully, they will still be popular when I finish The Most Uncommon Cold III!

 

As far as new trends, I would like the next big trend to be reading everything written by Jeffrey Littorno.

 

Q: What are you plans for 2014 as an indie writer?

 

A: My plans for 2014 are the same as my plans for 2013, keep writing and marketing and writing some more.

 

Find Jeffrey's books at Amazon.

 

Follow Jeffrey at Twitter, Goodreads, and his website.

Exclusive Excerpt from "God Attacks!" by J.R. Kiefer

God Attacks! is a daring horror tale by J.R. Kiefer. This first novel in a two books series envisions a very ominous version of God. Check out an exclusive excerpt from God Attacks! below then get your copy of the occult thriller at Amazon.

 

Summary

God is not dead; it has merely slept. It stirs from its enforced slumber and its dreams of annihilating that which created it in its own image, that which drove it mad—a blinded mankind.

Two ancient secret societies guard the secret of God. One of these occult orders wishes to enslave and control the abominable thought form that is God. The other wishes to destroy it and to free humanity from the fetters of beliefs capable of creating such monsters of unholy destruction. Their directive: What Man created, Man must destroy.

Caught in the midst of these turbulent cosmic forces is the sleeper incarnation of Kirt Tucker, a neurotic, semi-suicidal used-car salesman, and his companions: Roland, the country club golf pro, and Celia, the talented psychic. Join them on a non-stop, page-turning race to stay alive in the face of a psychotic deity and its God-awful minions.

God Attacks! is the first of two volumes of a tale where the world is turned upside down; where good and evil, and the shades of gray in between, blur in a belief-bending thrill-ride of a read.
 

Exclusive Excerpt from God Attacks!

“Listen, my uncle used to sell cars,” Brian said. “He told me never to sign up for any of the crap you guys try to sell. So, we don’t want it. Let’s just get the rest of this done. I gotta get my kid home.”

Kirt knew where this was going and felt his face heat in a blush of anger. His customer had switched from easy-going to grade-A asshole in seconds. He had to repair his rapport with the customers before it was beyond salvaging.

“At least let me tell you. . .”

A sharp pain along his inner thigh forestalled his words. He felt something pinching him—pinching hard. He pushed his chair away from his desk and looked down to his lap.

What the hell is that?

There was motion in his pocket. In dawning horror and disbelief he saw the fabric of his thin, brown slacks moving. However, it was the intense pain he felt cutting into his inner right leg that set off the shrieking cacophony in his head.

“What’s the matter?”

Kirt barely heard Brian’s words.

The baby in Tina’s arms suddenly emptied his lungs in a piercing wail that bounced around Kirt’s tiny office like an ambulance siren in an echo chamber.

“What’s wrong, honey?” Startled, wide-eyed, and mouth agape, Tina held her infant son in front of her, grasping him under both of his armpits.

The baby screamed and peddled it legs, trying to run from something, but instead only kicked the air helpless and panicked.

Kirt rocketed out of his chair, which careened backwards on its rollers and collided with the credenza behind him in a loud Thwump Bang! The credenza wobbled from the impact and a Buick golf clock, given him by the General Motors rep, fell from its perch atop the credenza to the floor by Kirt’s foot, shattering its plastic frame and faceplate upon the thin carpet.

 “You’re scaring my baby.” Brian shot to his feet with balled fists and such immediacy that Kirt thought he was going to take a poke at him. “What the hell is the matter with you?”

But even this was not enough to distract Kirt from the red hot needling pain hammering at his senses—from down there where the baby’s “toy” was.

“I’ll be back,” Kirt hissed through clenched teeth; he had to get somewhere private and extricate the stuffed animal from his pocket. It was the only thing he could think of that could be causing the stabbing agony so uncomfortably close to his groin.

Oh my God! What’s going on?

He maintained enough reason to realize if he pulled the thing out here, in his office, he’d have difficult questions to answer. He tore out of his office awkwardly contorted, hand clamped over the still moving lump in his pocket. Out of the corner of his vision he glimpsed Brian snatch the baby out of Tina’s hands and caught snippets of angry words and more of the baby’s wailing; but his brain couldn’t translate these sounds into anything coherent. He had to get to the restroom and stop whatever was causing the terrible stinging hurt along his right inner-thigh. It was more than just the pain now; it was also Kirt’s fear of the unknown—what was causing the pain—that drove him to panic.

“Hey, you ok, Kirt?” Isaac asked, turning the corner toward Kirt’s office and unwittingly blocking Kirt’s path to the sanctuary of the restroom. “I heard some yelling.”

“Can’t...talk...now.”

Words were difficult and felt like a wheelbarrow of rocks to be pushed up a mountain. Kirt’s vision narrowed, but his purpose was clear and burning. Oh, did it burn. All he saw was Isaac’s chest. He had to go through him; a detour around him was unthinkable, because he had to know what was happening and right NOW!

“Move!” Kirt put his arms forward, intending them to move Isaac aside, but instead, with his momentum, he ended up body-slamming the salesman. Isaac’s body fell to Kirt’s left and out of his sight. Kirt saw the opening to the bathroom door and he bolted for it; bent at an angle and hobbling, he reached it. With his free hand he pawed at the door handle and pushed it down and thrust the door open and flung his body into the bathroom.

Once inside, Kirt spun around and locked the door. Now, at last, he plunged his hand into his pocket and wrapped it around the pliable stuffed toy, yanked it from his pocket and held it at arm’s length in front of him.

In a surreal moment of disbelief he saw it had again transformed into the hideous prophet doll. He stared aghast at the thing gripped in his fist. It moved; its mouth opened and closed. Kirt smelled a terrible odor and realized it was the thing’s breath, rancid and existing in a measure beyond any sane proportion of what should be able to issue from an orifice as small as that of the plastic prophet’s mouth. He gawked at what he guessed had caused his pain. The prophet’s staff had transformed into a wriggling serpent.

The snake was dark and marked with virulent green patches. It sprang at Kirt’s hand, but was unable to strike him due to his fierce grip about the prophet doll’s lower half. If the prophet let go of its own grip on the serpent’s scaly thickness, the snake would have been able to strike downward and sink its thumbtack-sized fangs into his hand; but some law of reality appeared to still apply. The prophet doll, it seemed, could not move anything but its mouth. Kirt felt the reptile’s lower half trying to slither from his fist. Its touch was wet and revolting; it felt more earthworm than snake, the cold slimy feel of something that fed in the damp, beneath fetid and rotting corpses.

I’ll squeeze the shit out of you, you son-of-a-bitch!

He contracted his grip and squeezed until the muscles in his arm ached and the tendons in his wrist stood out like steel cables beneath the skin. He bared his teeth and a primitive grunt escaped his strained wild-eyed face. When he could take no more of the intense exertion, after he thought there was not another ounce of grip pressure left to him, he raised the doll above his head and hurled it to the floor with such force that it leapt off the hard ceramic tile and almost landed in the commode, before bouncing off the toilet’s rim and coming to rest upon the bathroom’s tiled floor.

Now only a doll lay there on the floor. A doll made of plastic, cloth and white fibrous stuffing. No blood spewed, no bones protruded from torn flesh.

Unsatisfied with the lack of gore he needed to see and still caught in the survival-mode panic of a person who opts to fight rather than to take flight, Kirt raised his right foot and aimed the heel of his polished, brown leather Doc Martin shoe at the prophet doll’s head. When his raised leg had reached its apex, just before he began the downward thrust of his foot to smash the horrid thing, he froze and stared incomprehensibly at the doll. The doll’s mouth had moved as he had wound his leg up to stomp it. He’d heard its voice, soft, yet menacing, a whisper of cockroach legs scuttling behind derelict walls. Icicles formed in Kirt’s shriveling testicles and he could taste his fear. The doll’s speech invoked an elemental dread in him, an unfamiliar primitive and jagged trepidation generated by an atrophied part of his brain that evolution had softened after humans had become ‘civilized’ and no longer had to fear being ripped apart, chewed, and eaten on a daily basis.

Kirt lowered his leg. In opposition to his brain’s command that he should now take flight, that horrible danger was present—that he was food—he knelt next to the thing, ready to spring away the instant the doll moved anything more than its mouth. Its smell swelled around him and infected his palate, which caused him to gag dryly. He swallowed and stopped breathing to avoid its reeking stench. Now that he was closer, he could make out its whispery words:

“Come near to hear and hearken: Let the earth hear, and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth of it. The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats.”

Something else there was there, too. Beneath the words that Kirt distinctly heard spoken, another voice spoke in his head at the same time. This voice was not, however, a part of his catalog of internal voices that he’d become familiar with of late. This was utterly different, independent of his routine self-bashing and the reliving of the trauma of his Divorce or his Depression.

This was not him remembering the cold exactness of Beverley’s words, when she’d sat on the edge of the bed, prior to them turning in for the evening, and said in a matter-of-fact tone:

“I’ve got something to tell you: I don’t want to be married anymore.”

As if ending their fifteen years together was on par with the news that she needed to go to the grocery store in the morning to buy milk. No. Nor was this the constant rehashing of her words and rationales behind the Divorce—most he never knew existed, but she drove home with fierce, hurtful intensity—and her need to be free from him; to reject him.

It wasn’t the usual replay of that particularly dastardly internal tape; the really bad one.

“I have thought about coming back to you—but I don’t want to settle.”

Kirt was well familiar with his own internal hell-alogue and the constant berating drone in his head. What he heard now was not the product of his thoughts. That much was crystal clear. In this instance Kirt couldn’t push away, nor diminish this occupation of his mind by simply yell-thinking:

“Get out of my head! Leave me alone! Just chill, Bill.”

 The words he heard the doll utter, the sword of the lord and all that, and the words he heard in his mind but did not own, overlapped and intertwined, but he could understand them nonetheless and the underlying message was:

“Enemy of God! You must pay for your Godmaking sin. Your death and unending torment will please God. You cannot defeat Him!”

“Nooo!” Kirt yelled. “WHAT…ARE…YOU?”

He surged to his feet to distance himself from the prophet’s ghoulish double sermon. Now he did bring his foot down upon the thing. He worked his leg like a piston and stomped the horrid toy, which transformed into a walrus again somewhere between the fourth and fifth blow of his heel, until the jarring action of his stomps made his shin scream in protest and demanded he stop. Panting, he left the doll there and stared with disbelief at its torn, shredded and misshapen form. It was no longer something a child should play with, if ever it had been. Now it was silent and still.

What the hell did I just kill?

Keeping one eye on the thing, Kirt undid his belt and fumbled with the button and zipper of his slacks until he had them undone as well. He lowered his slacks and inspected the area of his thigh that continued to sting, though the pain had abated since he’d fled his office. He gasped when he saw that a large, purplish blotch covered the affected quarter-sized area like a bad grape juice stain. At the center of the discolored skin he poked his index finger gingerly at two tiny puncture marks. The holes oozed a small amount of blood mixed with some clear fluid he could not identify. He winced and pulled his finger back.

Damned thing bit me!

Kirt’s head began to spin. He steadied himself with his left hand on the sink’s white porcelain coolness and with the other turned on the faucet. The hiss and burble of flowing water comforted Kirt in a strange way; the simple, everyday sound brought normalcy to his senses. He ran his fingers under the tap. Cupping his hands, he filled them—almost prayerfully—with cold water and bent forward to splash his face and wash away something he couldn’t define.

Face dripping, he looked up and into the mirror.

Kirt didn’t see the familiar self that greeted him every morning when he shaved. He didn’t see the small scar under his full bottom lip he’d acquired when at ten–years old he’d fallen out of the old oak tree his dad had told him not to climb, and for which he received the strappin’ he’d been told he’d get if he disobeyed.

His bottom lip wasn’t full now either; it was thinner, stronger.

Kirt’s nose now appeared a little wider than it should be, no longer bent at that familiar soft angle in the middle where a Marine had clocked him years ago in the Navy, when Kirt had defended a guy from one of the Marine’s drunken buddies.

His complexion now appeared in the mirror to be tanned, rough, weathered. Kirt burned in the sun, he did not tan. And, his face didn’t have the mileage that was reflecting back…on his face! And the beard—that coarse, bristling, black thickness hadn’t been there this morning when he’d looked in the mirror wishing he was headed anywhere except to work. Kirt’s red tie was also transformed, now a red design of some sort, familiar, yet unremembered, a shape splayed across a. . .

. . .tunic?

. . .covering some type of chain mail that, Kirt noticed with not a little anxiety, appeared to have actually been used at some point for what it had been fashioned for: Armor.

But, it was the eyes that stared back at him that sent his mind reeling. Those eyes were his eyes: Blue-gray, familiar, self-reflecting, they didn’t belong to the face of the man in the mirror. Kirt Tucker’s eyes shouldn’t be in someone else’s face. That was fundamentally wrong.

Yes, there was something definitely wrong with the Universe.

Kirt’s mental circuitry chose that moment to protect him and blew a breaker: His world began to turn into gray speckling. Before he fell and his head hit the rim of the toilet, on his way down into the darkness, Kirt heard a voice. It was at once his voice, but not his voice. The authoritative voice spoke to him in accent-cloaked words that Kirt heard, but did not understand:

“Min' me; min' ye.”
 

    Then the world turned at a right angle and there was a blinding flash of light.

 

 ************************************************************

Follow J.R. at his website, Twitter, and Goodreads.

Shooting the Shit with Derrolyn Anderson

Derrolyn Anderson is the awesome author of both The Athena Effect and the Marina's Tales series. Indie Angie talked to Derrolyn earlier in the week about her writing. Now, let's learn more about her as a person...

Favorite food and drink
High end sushi and red wine, but not together.

Favorite Books
*Cop Out Alert* I like a little bit of EVERYTHING. Recently, I’ve been trying to read older fiction and the classics. I may write YA fiction, but I want to avoid being subconsciously influenced, so I generally try to avoid my contemporaries.

Favorite Music
I was a punk rock kid, shared a crazy house with a wannabe eighties hair-band, and have been to so many live shows I have high-frequency hearing loss. I like rock, pop, classical, reggae, alternative– just about everything but hardcore rap & new country– Although my daughters are slowly turning me on to that stuff. I love my iPod.

Favorite Movies
I was WAY ahead of the curve on zombie flicks. I remember tormenting my poor husband with all of the classics on videotape back in the stone age when we were dating.

Favorite TV
Breaking Bad. Hands down. Never predictable - always amazing.

Best memory from childhood
Curled up in bed reading. I did a lot of that as a child.

 

Best memory from adulthood
Oh, that’s definitely yet to be made.

Life of the party or stand back and observe?

I vacillate wildly between being a “leave me the hell alone” hermit and a gregarious extrovert. My husband is the same way– when we entertain, we ENTERTAIN, but when we’re done socializing, we prefer a quiet house and each other’s company. My idea of a perfect evening? Good wine and something dramatic to watch on TV with one eye while I surf the net with the other.

What makes you rage?

Big government.

What makes you giggle?

Silly cats on the internet.

Find Derrolyn's books at Amazon.

Follow Derrolyn at Goodreads, Pinterest, and her website.

Interview with Author Derrolyn Anderson

Derrolyn Anderson is the indie writer behind The Athena Effect and Marina’s Tales series. She’s written a half dozen young adult paranormal novels. Let’s learn more about Derrolyn and her writing…

Q: How long have you been writing and when did you decide to indie publish? What was the biggest hurdle in going it alone?

A: I was a bookwormy kid who mowed through every dog and horse story in the library. There wasn’t much in the way of YA fiction back then, so I ended up reading Judith Krantz, Gore Vidal, and Jacqueline Susann at a tender age. Once I discovered sex & drugs and rock & roll my education came to a screeching halt, and I only came back to books through vetting what my daughters were reading. I was charmed by “Harry Potter” and “A Series of Unfortunate Events”, but a little freaked out by the creepy stalkerish aspects of “Twilight”.

The massive popularity of that book made me think… I CAN DO THAT! I knew I was a decent writer, and I had the ability to craft a persuasive essay. I’d won concert tickets and workout equipment with my writing, and even penned a poignant letter that got me enrolled in a University armed with only a high school Equivalency and kick-ass SAT scores.

So, my first book poured out of me in a few short weeks in 2010, and I sent out dozens of queries to literary agents, sitting back to wait for them to recognize my brilliance. I seriously expected the phone to start ringing off the hook… Boy was I a naive idiot! All I got was one request for a partial that went nowhere, and to add insult to injury, Snookie got a book deal.

I was crapped out and dispirited, but my brilliant visionary husband urged me to self-pub, and in going through that whole process I’ve learned SO MUCH about writing & editing. The hardest part of going it alone is getting book bloggers and reviewers to give you the time of day, and this sorry state of affairs is not helped out by all the dumbshit indies picking fights over bad reviews. Boo :(.

I wouldn’t take a second of the past few years back, and even though I’m not getting rich, I’m having the time of my life. The writing bug has grabbed me by the throat and doesn’t look to be letting go anytime soon.

Q: Your first series was Marina’s Tales. Can you explain the idea behind the series?

A: For the first decade of our marriage my husband and I rented a little cottage in the charming seaside town of Aptos. There really is a mysterious old shipwreck with hidden stairs leading down to an often foggy beach. Once I decided to try my hand at writing a Paranormal Romance, the setting seemed obvious, and just screamed mermaids!

Q: Do you plan to write more in the series?

A: I may re-visit it someday. I have an idea to write a book from a baby mermaid’s POV.

Q: Marina is the MC in the series. Can you tell us more about her?

A: I saw her as a bookish loner, educated and well-traveled but inexperienced. I think she’s a good girl, but many people really love to hate her.

Q: Your second series is The Athena Effect. Where did you get the inspiration? Do you plan to write more in the series?  A: I saw a “Nova Science Now” on the brain. It mentioned synesthesia and got me to thinking… I think the series will end up being three books, but that’s what I thought about Marina’s Tales.

Q: Both your chick and dude leads in The Athena Effect are named “Cal.” Can you describe how you decided upon this quirky choice? Also can you describe both Cals and what drives them?

A: I have no idea what possessed me to do something so stupid as to have the two MCs share a name. It was an idea that just took hold and wouldn’t let me go. I guess I love a writing challenge.

Girl Cal is a completely ignorant of the modern world, but book-smart and possessed of killer back-woods skills. Boy Cal is being raised without discipline in a chaotic house, chasing skirts & partying along with his biker brother. Both Cals are dealing with loss, but in completely different ways.

Q: What drew you to paranormal young adult as a genre? Do you plan to branch out to other genres as your career progresses?

A: I want to thank Stephanie Meyer for writing the books that launched a thousand authors. Everyone loves to hate her, but I sincerely hope that she’s laughing all the way to the bank.

I’ll definitely be branching out in the future. I’m just getting my chops as a writer, and I want to be prepared when that “big idea” finally occurs to me. I have plans for an adult murder-mystery, and I’d also like to try my hand at high fantasy someday.

Q: How do you come up with the names for your characters?

A: Caledonia came from a Robin Trower song of the same name, and I just pulled Calvin out of the proverbial hat. I know that Marina is blatantly obvious, but I was looking at all of JK’s personifications (Lovegood? Malfoy?, Lupin? Voldemort?) and said, “Why the hell not?”. Stripper names are always fun to come up with ;).

Q: Chicken or the egg question. Do you create a character and build around him/her? Or do you imagine a concept and create characters which fit the idea?

A: Concept first. Characters second. Until they start talking– I’m easy, and they can always have their way with me.

Q: How do you avoid writing a Mary Sue or Marty Stu when most writers can’t help falling desperately in love with their creations?

A: I didn’t even know what those terms meant when I started writing, and you could make an argument that I’m guilty of it in my first book. I mean, Marina’s main flaw is her “stubborn independence”, and Ethan is a humble hottie & hard-working surfer boy (not super realistic, huh?). I was writing these characters with my daughters in mind, keeping the romance sweet, and showing girls what I thought were admirable traits in a boy (besides abs!). Ethan does get more than a little insecure and jealous later in the series, but HELLO, has anyone ever been in love before? It’s programmed to make you crazy, and sexual jealousy is a human instinct!

I’m sure I’ll be adding some grittier characters in the future. After all, I did work my way through art school as an airport bartender, and boy oh boy do I have a plethora of interesting peeps lurking in the back of my mind! In the immortal words of Madonna, “experience has made me rich…”

Q: Do you use anything to inspire you while you’re writing? Music, visual aids, etc? Also have you found ideas come to you more freely in particular places or at certain times of the day?

A: My husband and I have a small business manufacturing cat collars & toys out of our garage (YAY for Beastie Bands!). My day to day work consists of boring assembly and shipping work. When I get irritated with the boob tube, I put music on and take my mind to the playground, brainstorming plot lines and dialogue while I mindlessly drudge away.

Q: When an idea hits you, do you start writing immediately or plot it out first?

A: I’m a pantser. I dive right in, and edit later.

Q: When you read less than fawning reviews, how do you know when to use the critique to improve your future writing and when do you chalk up the criticism as different strokes for different folks?

A: I cringe when someone accurately critiques my writing style and/or points out typos. The worst things anyone ever called me out for were “tense inconsistencies” and “the archaic use of language”. The horror! As much as it pains, I appreciate this immensely, because I’m always striving to improve my mechanics.

It’s funny, but what critics love or hate about my characters & plot speaks volumes about them, in the same way that the characters I create probably say a fair bit about me.
For example, taking note of my twin daughter’s obsession with fashion & designer labels, (they pasted a huge collage of magazine tear-outs on their bedroom wall) I included a wish-fulfilling fairy-godmother type character in Marina’s Tales – The rich and famous Aunt Evie. Boy was Aunt Evie polarizing! Some people wished that they had an Aunt Evie of their very own, while others HATED her wealth and materialism with a passion. You could really tell who was aspirational and who resented the fuck out of the “haves”.

Q: I’ve read criticism from particular bloggers (Fangs for the Fantasy being one) about the lack of people of color and different sexual orientations in fiction. Do you take this lack of diversity into consideration when creating plots and characters?

A: The times I came up in were very different. I watched my dear friend grapple with his sexuality in the seventies, harboring him in my backyard playhouse when he was forced to run away from home. I hitchhiked with him to the local gay bar, hanging out with the under-aged runaways who sold themselves while the chicken hawks circled. I know about the brutality of the bathhouses, and I lost friends and co-workers in the first wave of the plague. I’ve handed my newborn infant over to a dying friend and watched him kiss her for the last time.

BUT GUESS WHAT? I’m a straight white woman and I don’t feel the need to apologize for my POV! I have a gay character in my Marina’s Tales series, but his gayness is incidental, and although I wrote his coming out and acceptance (that one’s for you, Jesse) his sexual orientation was never a main plot line. I don’t write preachy after-school specials, and I don’t want to include racial or sexual “types” just for the sake of including them. I do model characters on combinations of people I’ve known, and I’ve known lots of different kinds of people.

Semi-comically, half of my young girl readers fell harder for my emo gay character than they did for the hard working and earnest love interest. I don’t think a lot of young girls have very good gay-dar, LOL.

Q: Do word counts mean anything to you? Do you find your books top out at around the same lengths?

A: No, but my books do seem to be getting shorter, so maybe I’m just getting better at getting my point across.

Q: How big a deal is writer’s block for you and what do you do to shake it off?

A: Sometimes I’m so cock-blocked by my business that writing is all I can think about doing. Then, when I actually have the time, I waste it farting around on Pinterest and Goodreads :P. This is why I eschew Facebook & Twitter. The last thing I need is another time-sink, or to have my checkered past coming back to haunt me.

Q: What books did you enjoy most in 2012?

A: I liked Wallace Stegner’s “All the Little Live Things”, and I read a short-story compilation featuring John Galsworthy, Ring Lardner & Pearl Buck, among others. I recently caved and had to read Monica Murphy‘s NA romance, “One Week Girlfriend” because of all the buzz about it. I really liked it. Short, sexy, sappy, and sweet.

Q: What trends do you hope die in 2013? Are there any you hope take off?

A: I try to avoid thinking about trends. I just want to tell a good story.

Q: What are you plans for 2013 as an indie writer?

A: I'm working on the third book in The Athena Effect series, and I hope to keep on keepin’ on. I pray I don’t lose my writing mojo, but who knows? I haven’t been motivated to paint for a while now. Maybe I’ll get a wild hair and start goat farming next year… Mmmm, I do like me some goat cheese.
Life is a marathon, not a sprint, and the muse is capricious. Gotta go with the flow.

Find Derrolyn's books at Amazon.

Follow Derrolyn at Goodreads and Pinterest.

The Bog is .99!!!

Get your copy of The Bog at Amazon for .99!
 
This 40,000 word novella in the Gigi Monroe series can be read as a prequel or sequel to The Moon Rises.

Learn all of Gigi's secrets from her first breath in the grips of evil to a childhood filled with joy and darkness to the reason she left the Bog and moved to the Circle. Meet Mamma Celeste, Daniel, Millicent, and Gigi's lost love Wolf.

The Moon Burns, the next full length novel is due for publication in the summer of 2013.

Blue Sacrifice Now 1.99 at Amazon

Young Adult Paranormal

Blue Davison’s destiny has always been to die.

For hundreds of years, Davison women have sacrificed themselves for Lily Falls and this time the town expects sixteen year old Blue to welcome death.

Yet, charmer Flynn O’Shea arrives in time to thwart Blue’s suicide plan. While she initially dismisses his perfect timing as a mere fluke, Blue soon wonders if the gorgeous stranger is an opportunity for her to create a new destiny full of romance and promise. No matter Blue’s hopes and Flynn’s charms, the darkness in Lily Fallsrefuses to be denied its sacrifice.

Blue Sacrifice is the first in a two book series with Blue Awakening to be released in 2013.

Shooting the Shit with Indie Author Renee Travis

Renee Travis is an indie author with several paranormal novels under her belt. We talked to her earlier in the week about her writing. Now, let's learn more about her as a person...

Favorite food and drink

Ice tea and wanton noodle soup

Favorite books

Jurassic Park and Dracula

Favorite music

Just about anything, I have very eclectic tastes.

Favorite movies

Jurassic Park, Say Anything, Steel Magnolia's, Cry Baby

Favorite TV shows

Bunheads, NCIS, Doctor Who

Best memory from childhood
What is childhood? Cause my best memory is the HUGE party my mom and dad threw for my 18th birthday.

Best memory from adulthood
The birth of my daughters

Life of the party or stand back and observe?
Life of the party

What makes you rage?

Ummm so many things. Mainly conservatives who think they can tell me what I can and cannot do with my vagina.

What makes you giggle?

Honestly? Fart jokes...Yeah I know immature right? This one time my mom called me to tell me my dad farted and right after the smoke alarm went off, I almost died.

Find Renee's books at Amazon. Follow Renee at her blog.