Monday, June 30, 2008

Make-Believe Mondays With Mandy Roth



Today on Make-Believe Mondays my guest is Mandy Roth.

Mandy, is there a point when your characters begin to come alive and you can see and hear them?

Mandy: Sadly, from inception. I’d see a doctor but really, where is the fun in that? If I can’t automatically see and hear the characters in my mind, I don’t even bother bringing them to life on the page. I have to form an instant connection with them or nothing moves.

Debra: Oh, that would be no fun at all. No, there's no point wasting time with characters who refuse to tell you their story, any more than there would be going on a second date with a person who wouldn't talk. Better to move on.

Some very famous authors have played with language, creating words for people or places that no one has ever heard of. Have you ever played with words in that way and if so how?

Mandy: All the time. I love mixing languages such as Latin, Italian, French and English, to come up with a word that fits what I need it for. I love to flavor up a document, giving it a certain unique quality—something all its own. Creating words is a perfect way to do it. For example, in Last Call, I have OMNIMORPHELEONS.
Origin: from the scary depths of Mandy Roth's mind. She (okay, I… but third person sounds so official) was sick of using creatures everyone had already heard of so I mixed the words omni+morph +Chameleon.

Meaning: Demons that can change shape at will, Omnimorpheleons are closely related to weres and vampires. They are a blending of the two—a superb race of supernaturals if you will. That is why they are often called the guardians or masters. They say The Powers That Be created them to keep the supernatural population in check.

Debra: Fascinating.

As a child did any particular book or author pull you into their imaginary world?

Mandy: Stephen King was a huge influence in my life. I’d devour his works and couldn’t get enough of them. Clive Barker was another favorite, followed closely by Anne Rice.

Debra: If there were no categories for books, no reader expectations to meet, and you could create the wildest work of imagination that you could think of what kind of story would that be?

Mandy: Exactly what I’m doing now. I tend to ignore the categories and the genres and do whatever feels right for the book. This hurts me as far as NY goes but I don’t mind so long as the readers are happy. My newest release, Bella Mia: Daughter of Darkness Book III (June 2008) is an example of blending vampires, faeries, werewolves, romance, paranormal, urban fantasy, suspense and just about anything else I can toss in. The Daughter of Darkness Series has afforded me a chance to do what feels natural and I really love writing them.

Debra: I'm always pleased to hear an author say they are writing what they love and allowing free range of the imagination.

Mandy, thank you for joining us here on this Make-believe Monday to share a little bit of the magic of writing with our readers.

Mandy: Thank you for having me!

Visit Mandy M. Roth at:

Web: www.mandyroth.com

Blog: www.mandyroth.com/blog

Raven: www.ravenhappyhour.com


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Debra's News/Debra is watching:

This week I'm planning changes to my website, A Desperate Journey is with the final line editor, and my dad is here visiting. And as the book will be released July 22nd, I am planning several things for that week. One is my own interview here on the Make-Believe Mondays blog, July 21st!

Wishing everyone a happy 4th of July! May it be full of joy.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Make-Believe Mondays With Karen Wiesner



Today on Make-Believe Mondays our guest is Karen Wiesner.

Karen, first, tell us a little bit about the manuscript you’re working on now.

Karen: I’m never working on one thing at a time. I think a writer is always fresher when working on manuscripts in stages. Plus, I’m always working six months to a year ahead of releases so I’m never rushed and can always be working on new projects.

This month, I’m writing the third book in my Family Heirlooms Series (inspirational romances), Foolish Games, which features characters from the first book, Baby, Baby (to be released in electronic formats on June 24, 2008; trade paperback early 2009) and the second, Shadow Boxing (coming January 2009 electronically; later in 2009 in trade paperback). Kimberly Wolfe was one of Peter Samuels’ late wife’s best friends. He’s the man she’s loved from afar for as long as she can remember. Falling in love could take simply letting go of their fears...or a miracle. For more information about this series, visit http://www.angelfire.com/stars4/kswiesner/fiction9.html.

Book 2 of my Kaleidoscope Series (contemporary romances), “Behind Amethyst Eyes” (to be released September 2009 in Tales from the Treasure Trove, Volume V, A Jewels of the Quill Anthology) has been written and will be revised this month. For more information about this series, visit http://www.angelfire.com/stars4/kswiesner/fiction9.html.

Finally, I’ll be outlining Book 8 of my Incognito Series (action/adventure romantic suspenses) at the end of this month in preparation for the March 2009 release date. More about the Incognito Series can be found here: http://www.angelfire.com/stars4/kswiesner/fiction9.html.

Debra: I'm always happy with more than one manuscript in the works too. If I get stuck on one I can always work on another one.

Ray Bradbury said, “We are cups, constantly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.” How do you keep your creative cup filled?

Karen: Many different ways. First, I write in basically every genre conceivable except historical, Regency, Young adult, and science fiction/fantasy. An author really has to be creative to spread herself out so much, so to speak. Discipline is my key to staying creative. I mentioned working in stages. The way I see it, there are several, very distinct stages in writing a book. They include:

1) Brainstorming
2) Outlining
3) Setting the outline aside
4) Writing the story
5) Setting the novel aside
6) Editing and polishing the story

Working in stages is essential for keeping my creativity at its peak. Brainstorming occurs, most ideally, over a period of years before I have enough details accumulated to begin an outline. Once the outline is completed, allowing it to sit for a couple of weeks—or even months—before writing the first draft is, again, absolutely essential. The next time I pick up my outline, I want to have a fresh perspective so I can evaluate if it really is as solid as I believed it was when I finished it. I also see more of those connections that make my story infinitely cohesive after I’ve had a rest.

Another reason for setting projects aside between stages is I, like most writers, always reach a point where my motivation runs out and I simply want to get away from it as fast as I can. With every single book, I get to rock bottom and I’m convinced that if I ever see it again, I’ll tear it to shreds. Setting it aside between the various stages the project goes through really gives me back my motivation for it and creativity (and love!) in spades. I’m always amazed at how much better I can face the project again when I haven’t seen it for a week or even a month or two. I fall in love with it again. The next stage in the process becomes easier, too, and that helps my writing to be much better.

Also, the more books I have contracted (17 at present), the more I seem to need these breaks in-between stages, or even when I feel a project isn’t working. If I put it on a back burner for an extended period of time (as long as I can possibly allow and still meet my deadlines), amazing things happen over a low flame. By the time I return to it, I find myself bursting with new ways to fix the problems I couldn’t pinpoint when I was too close to and sick of it.

I honestly don’t know how a career author could do anything else and still meet deadlines without constantly burning out or facing writer’s block.

Debra: Thank you for sharing such a thorough glimpse into the life of a working author. It truly requires all sorts of juggling and multi-tasking.

Is there a point when your characters begin to come alive and you can see and hear them?

Karen: Funny that you ask. I was just recently talking about something similar with a critique partner, who asked me what the different is between a book that practically writes itself and one that comes hard. I think the answer to that comes down to characters. Even if I don’t have a book sitting in my head, brewing on a back burner for a long time, if I connect with the characters, I can write them as if I’m just following a movie those same characters are showing in my head. The writing of the book is simplicity itself then.

But when characters are hiding and won’t show me their internal workings, it’s harder to write a story. When characters hide, I do a lot of character sketches. I also believe that there’s a vital need for cohesive characters, settings and plots, and that’s part of what makes a book work and what makes one complicated to unknot. My September 2008 Writer’s Digest Book, From First Draft to Finished Novel {A Writer’s Guide to Cohesive Story Building} goes in-depth into this vital need for a cohesive trinity with these elements. For more information about this book and to pre-order a copy, visit http://www.angelfire.com/stars4/kswiesner/nonfiction3.html.

When the characters come to life like that—so I can see them, hear them, know exactly what they’d say, do and think in every single situation—is different for every project, and I wish I could pinpoint why some characters wait so long to come out and reveal themselves. It would make each project so much easier.

Debra: It would be nice if they showed up on the front porch on day one one, page one and said, "Here I am, you just type away and I'll dictate." But as you said, characters seem to have their own timing.

For some writers, dreams play a role in creating fiction. Has this been true for you? Have you ever dreamed a scene or an image that later wound up in one of your books?

Karen: Dreams are huge in my fiction writing. My police procedural novel, Degrees of Separation (Book 1 of the Falcon’s Bend Series I write with Chris Spindler), started with an amazingly vivid dream I’d had—years before Chris and I started thinking about writing together. After I woke up from that dream, I wrote down everything I remembered from the dream, and much of it formed the basis for the novel. “Blind Revenge” (Falcon’s Bend Case Files, Volume I) began just as I was about to drop off to sleep one night. In my mind, I saw a woman walking down a hall. I saw a man ahead of her. The woman kept walking past him, then she looked back at the door, and he was looking at her, too. The woman went outside, got in her convertible, and a second later the passenger door opened and the man got in. At that moment, my subconscious mind turned creepy. Suddenly this woman was blindly kissing her stranger like it was the end of the world. I knew that, for her, it was the end of the world when she said the witch was coming for her eyes. “Fixated” (also in FBCF, Volume I) was based on a dream I had about a woman who was being stalked by someone. “Retribution” (which will be in Falcon’s Bend Case Files, Volume II) is based on a dream I had about a scantily clad woman temporarily inhabiting a property and lurking in the backyard. When I woke, I was in a Falcon’s Bend mindset, and quickly worked this dream into the idea that the subdivision Lieutenants Pete Shasta and Danny Vincent live in becomes home to a very hot young mama…and their wives Lisa and Melody aren’t too happy about all the men in the neighborhood moonlighting as Peeping Toms. But it isn’t until the woman disappears, leaving her two children alone, that Lisa realizes crime is firmly afoot.

Anyway, I think using dreams to craft fiction is brilliant. Is it a little...well, disturbing? Sometimes it is, but writers can always make lemonade out of lemons.

Debra: I am fascinated by dreams and the subconscious as it affects writers and their works. For me it's part of the mystery, the magic of writing.

As a child did any particular book or author pull you into their imaginary world?

Ruth Chew was my J.K. Rowling when I was a child. I loved immersing myself in the world of kids who always seemed to find a witch lurking nearby.

Debra: Karen, thank you for joining us here on this Make-believe Monday to share a little bit of the magic of writing with our readers.

Readers can visit Karen at:
http://www.karenwiesner.com
http://www.firstdraftin30days.com
http://www.falconsbend.com
http://www.JewelsoftheQuill.com
http://samhainpublishing.com/authors/karen-wiesner
If you would like to receive Karen’s free e-mail newsletter, Karen’s Quill, and become eligible to win her monthly book giveaways, send a blank e-mail to
KarensQuill-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

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Debra's news/Debra is watching:

This week I am working on my second manuscript and looking forward to a visit from my Dad this weekend.

Over on Title Wave, the blog of the American Title II sisters, we have changed the format and content. Gina is blogging today. Hop on over and see what is up!
Title Wave

Authors who would like to be interviewed on Make-Believe Mondays may email me at debra@debraparmley.com

Monday, June 16, 2008

Make-Believe Mondays With Michelle Pillow



Today on Make-Believe Mondays my guest is Michelle Pillow

Michelle, first, tell us a little bit about the manuscript you’re working on now.

MP: I just finished my fall release for Virgin Books/Random House called Degrees of Passion (Coming in Trade Paperback, November 25, 2008). {Preorder Link:
http://www.amazon.com/Degrees-Passion-Michelle-M-Pillow/dp/0352345004?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210466136&sr=1-14 }
Breaking up with her high society boyfriend, a distraught Sasha finds comfort in the arms of moody, hard working Kevin Merchant whose cuteness is overshadowed by his know-it-all attitude. But, one drunken night of passion is hardly the start of a relationship and when her boyfriend wants them to get back together she has some choices to make.

Debra: Ah, the choice between two lovers. Difficult at best.

Ray Bradbury said, “We are cups, constantly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.” How do you keep your creative cup filled?

MP: Whenever I feel myself starting to get stagnant, I try to switch gears and work on something else. A lot of the time I’ll take a break from writing and focus on marketing and promotions. I’ll create book videos or answer email—anything that isn’t the story. Often, just taking the break helps my brain reset itself and I can get back into it.

I also do a lot of research and research reading. Since I love history, many great story ideas come from studying different cultures and pasts. Even my futuristic novels are based of historical ideas and places. It’s a way for me to incorporate my love of the past with my daydreams of the future.

Debra: I think sometimes we try too hard, like trying to think of someone's name and it won't come until your mind switches to something else. So I tend to do the same things as you and usually that's when inspiration strikes again.

Is there a point when your characters begin to come alive and you can see and hear them?

MP: Ideally, it happens in every book. That’s when the flow is really going and you know you’re onto something good. I love it when the brain seems to shut off and the words just flow onto the screen.

Debra: Oh yes. Me too. There is no feeling in the world quite like it.

Some very famous authors have played with language, creating words for people or places that no one has ever heard of. Have you ever played with words in that way and if so how?

MP: I create words all the time. I make up towns, planets, solar systems, races of aliens, vampire clans. Most of the time I base the word of a historical term no longer in use. Other times, I take normal everyday words and turn them into futuristic swearing, like when my cat-shifting Lords of the Var curse, “Sacred Cats!”

Debra: Sacred Cats. :-) Love it.

Is there anything else you would like to add about the role of imagination, and dreams in creating fiction? Any other message for our readers?

MP: Just let your imaginations flow. Set aside the time to relax and daydream. Stories and ideas can be in everything and anything.

Debra: Michelle, thank you for joining us here on this Make-believe Monday to share a little bit of the magic of writing with our readers.

Thank you so much for having me! Readers are welcome to contact me through my website or hang out at my blog. You can check out my latest contemporary romance, Recipe for Disaster, now for sale at Amazon. {Buy link:

http://www.amazon.com/Recipe-Disaster-Michelle-M-Pillow/dp/0352341777?ie=UTF8 }

Website - www.michellepillow.com
Blog - www.michellepillow.com/blog
Raven – Free Story/Radio Show – www.ravenhappyhour.com

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Debra's news/Debra is watching

Now that final line edit approvals are in I'm back to working on my second manuscript. This week I also had to select two excerpts from my book. One for the publishers website and the other to go in the back of similar books for promo.

Monday, June 09, 2008

Make-Believe Mondays With Vonna Harper



Today on Make-Believe Mondays our guest is Vonna Harper.

Vonna, first, tell us a little bit about the manuscript you’re working on now.

Vonna: A BIT OF BACKGROUND BEFORE I ANSWER THAT. I HAVE A MULTI-BOOK CONTRACT WITH KENSINGTON TO WRITE EROTICA FOR THE APHRODISIA LINE WHICH IS WHY I'M IN THE MIDDLE OF AN 80,000 WORD STORY. GOOD OR BAD, I DIDN'T OUTLINE MUCH BEFORE PLOWING INTO UNTAMED. I'VE SPRINKLED IN EQUAL PARTS SHAPE-SHIFTING, BONDAGE, PSYCHIC POWERS AND THROWN MY CHARACTERS INTO A STARK, REMOTE ENVIRONMENT WHERE THE ANCIENT ANASAZI ONCE LIVED. OTHER THAN KNOWING HOK'EE AND KAI WILL SURVIVE, I'M NOT SURE OF ANYTHING.

Debra: Well, that's writing by the seat of your pants!

As a child did any particular book or author pull you into their imaginary world?

Vonna: I WAS A HUGE FAN OF TARZAN SO EDWARD RICE BURROWS TURNED MY CRANK. NO WIMPY GIRLY BOOKS FOR ME, GIVE ME KILLER SNAKES AND A HUNK WITH A KNIFE.

Debra: You can keep the snakes. Though the hunk would be nice. ;-)

If there were no categories for books, no reader expectations to meet, and you could create the wildest work of imagination that you could think of what kind of story would that be?

Vonna: HANDS DOWN IT WOULD BE A MAN (OR WOMAN) AGAINST NATURE STORY. ONE OF THOSE, YOU'RE GONNA LIVE ONLY IF YOU MAKE IT THROUGH THE STORM, EARTHQUAKE, FIRE, WHATEVER, TALES.

Debra: Life and death. It doesn't get much more dramatic than that.

Is there anything else you would like to add about the role of imagination, and dreams in creating fiction? Any other message for our readers?

Vonna: I REVEAL ALL AT WWW.VONNAHARPER.COM AND BLOG AT WWW.THEBRADFORDBUNCH.COM

Debra: Thank you for joining us here on this Make-believe Monday to share a little bit of the magic of writing with our readers.

Vonna: THANK YOU FOR GIVING ME THE OPPORTUNITY.

Debra: My pleasure.

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Debra's news/Debra is watching:

This weekend I attended the Heartland Writers Conference in MO. It's a one day conference, only three hours from where I live, but I went up a day early to have dinner with friends. My husband came along, and Saturday we celebrated my birthday. The conference had excellent speakers and I enjoyed making new friends. I took along my laptop to work on line edit approvals which had a deadline of the 10th.

The editing process on your first book is such a learning experience. One of my issues was eye color changes. Bobbi Smith gave me a great idea to prevent that problem in the future. 3 x 5 cards by the computer with those details to refer to. This is going to be really helpful because I usually have more than one book going at a time and I sometimes switch from working on one to working on the other. So it is easy to mix up the people in my books when it comes to eye color.

One nice thing about working with an editor is you start to see where your problem areas are. So I'm sure the more experience with this, the cleaner your writing will get. It's such a wonderful and exciting experience all around.

Now that I've been all the way through the process I can safely say I love working with an editor on my books. And my editor, Beth is awesome.

Monday, June 02, 2008

Make-Believe Mondays With Rebecca Goings



Today on Make-Believe Mondays our guest is Rebecca Goings.

Rebecca, first, tell us a little bit about the manuscript you’re working on now.

Rebecca: Right now, I’m working on a book for Champagne Books, one of their Orphan Train series. My contribution is entitled ONCE A DREAMER, and takes place in Dodge City, KS as well as Topeka and the wilds of the Kansas prairie. Doc Holliday makes a cameo in this book, and it was so much fun to write him after all the research I did, not only on what he’d done, but the content his character as well. I can only hope he comes across as believable!

Debra: Oh, yes. Doc Holiday was a fascinating person. You have me intrigued already.

Ray Bradbury said, “We are cups, constantly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.” How do you keep your creative cup filled?

Rebecca: Well, I read a lot of the kind of books I like to write. I study how other authors handle different situations, and sometimes my creativity stems from an idea I read about or watched on TV. My creativity is also sparked by daydreams or questions I ask myself about my own life. It’s fun to explore those situations I think of.

Debra: Is there a point when your characters begin to come alive and you can see and hear them?

Rebecca: I daydream about my characters all the time, so in that way, I suppose you could say I “see” and “hear” them. But I’ve never had “conversations” with them… :P Might be a little creepy if that ever happens. Heh.

Debra: LOL Well if you ever did, you'd be in good company. Dickens had conversations with his characters all the time. ;-)

Some very famous authors have played with language, creating words for people or places that no one has ever heard of. Have you ever played with words in that way and if so how?

Rebecca: Yes I have. In my fantasy series, The Legends of Mynos from Samhain Publishing, a lot of the original names are made up of two mundane, everyday words. All I did was look around the room, find two things, then put their syllables together and they actually sounded pretty good!

An example would be this: I currently see a vase and a curtain in my dining room. So, I could make names such as Vascur, Setai, Taina, Urvas, Asecu… And I’m not even mixing up the letters. If I mix up the letters, I could get Esuai, Raiva, Nesruva, Ceinta, and the list goes on. It’s pretty fun. You should try it!

Debra: Yes, I will try that! Thank you. It's so much fun to play with words.

For some writers, dreams play a role in creating fiction. Has this been true for you? Have you ever dreamed a scene or an image that later wound up in one of your books?

Rebecca: YES! I actually dreamed the beginning sequence of my first shifter novel, THE B*E*A*S*T* WITHIN from Champagne Books. In my dream, I was on the run with a man who could shift into a Bengal tiger. We were in the mountains in the snow, and it was pretty darn urgent that we get outta Dodge. I woke up and thought, “There’s gotta be plot in there somewhere!”

So immediately, I began plotting, asking the who, what, where, when, why questions. Well, I thought the “on the run with a shifter” angle was too good to pass up. So he’s running from…a secret agency who wants him back. Why? Because he’s a secret experiment. Who is this agency? The B*E*A*S*T* agency. I wanted a cool acronym, and what better than B*E*A*S*T* for a shifter? (Which stands for “Bio-Engineering to Attain Shift Transformation” – quite the mouthful, I know.)

Of course, when I did the whole secret agency/experiment route, I knew there couldn’t just be ONE guy they experimented on, otherwise, it wouldn’t be an “agency”. So, my shifter series was born. Currently, there are only three books in the series, with a promise of more to come. J

Debra: Fascinating! I love these stories of how a story can arise from dreams.

As a child did any particular book or author pull you into their imaginary world?

Rebecca: Yes, C.S. Lewis. I loved the world of Narnia so much, one of my childhood friends and I actually “looked” for the entrance in her attic. Looking back now, I’m surprised we didn’t kill ourselves trying to get up there. But he’s one of the “Big Guys” who turned me on to fantasy.

Debra: Oh, I can just see you looking for the entrance. C.S. Lewis is wonderful.

Rebecca: Another one of my favorite authors from childhood was David Eddings because I loved his fantasy stories. I loved fantasy long before I loved romance.

Debra: If there were no categories for books, no reader expectations to meet, and you could create the wildest work of imagination that you could think of what kind of story would that be?

Rebecca: I’d probably write some kick-ass Firefly fan fiction. I’ve always wanted to do a “space opera” of sorts, and I LOVE Firefly, so why not? I might hop on the Stargate fan fic as well. Mmm, Daniel Jackson…

I know, I know, that’s not “wild”, but hey, for me, it would be letting my hair down.

Debra: So, let your hair down, lady. Let it flow free and wild. ;-)

Is there anything else you would like to add about the role of imagination, and dreams in creating fiction? Any other message for our readers?

Rebecca: Don’t ever think your ideas are too weird or don’t fit into a “box” within the genre you’re going for. There’s a publishing house for every kind of story. Never give up. Never let anyone tell you that you “can’t” do it. If I’d listened to my family about the odds of getting published and how I probably would never BE published, I’d never be where I am today.

Never stop learning your craft. Writing is a mixture of talent and skill. If you have a great daydream that could make a good plot, write it down. If your dreams at night are haunting you, write it down! If you think of a different way you would write a certain plot, write it down!

Creativity can come from anywhere, even a random picture in a magazine. Always keep your eyes and ears open. You never know when a book idea will spring forth!

Debra: Well said, Rebecca. Thank you for joining us here on this Make-believe Monday to share a little bit of the magic of writing with our readers.

Rebecca: Thank you for having me. I thoroughly enjoyed myself!
My website addy is: http://www.rebeccagoings.com
My blog addy is: http://beckasbabble.blogspot.com






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Debra's news/Debra is watching:

This week I am approving the changes from my line editor while preparing to attend the Heartland Writers Conference in Cape Gerardeau, MO on Saturday. I'm headed up on Friday night, going to dinner with friends and as Saturday also happens to be my birthday, I'll be celebrating that as well.

Have a lovely weekend!

Debra