Make-Believe Monday with Mary Eason

Today on Make-Believe Mondays my guest is Mary Eason.

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

Mary:  Standing On The Edge Of Goodbye is an inspirational romance about second chances. Matt Stevens is finished with life. Grieving the death of his son, Matt withdraws from humanity, sequestering himself in a mountain cabin far from the reaches of anything human-anything that may remind him of the life he can no longer have...that is until Kate Alexander arrives on his doorstep and begins to strip away the bitterness he carries in his heart.
Running from an abusive ex-husband who tried to murder her, Kate Alexander's life is turned upside-down. Learning of her grandmother's death-the only woman who ever believed in her-is almost Kate's complete undoing, especially when the devastating news comes from a man so lacking in human emotion he may as well be a robot. Yet, Kate is drawn to Matt Stevens in a way she's never before experienced. Could there be more to this unlikely friend of her Grandmother's-something beyond the cold surface he presents to the world?
 
Debra:  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?

Mary:  By reading. I love to read. It not only ignites my creative juices, but it helps me to relax and unwind.



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

Mary:  When I first begin a story, it starts with a basic idea that might come to me in a dream or from something I’ve read or head on TV. From there the characters begin to come alive along with the storyline. I usually simmer on a new book idea for a few days to get the backbone of the story mapped out in my head. And then, well then the characters take over and it never ends up like I expected.

Debra: That's part of the fun of writing, I think. The way characters and stories can surprised you.

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?

Mary:  No, I cannot say that I’ve played with words. In some of my romantic suspense stories, I have taken certain liberties with law enforcement procedures and protocol, but that’s entirely different.

Debra:  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?

Mary:  Definitely. I’d say about 80% of my stories come to be in dreams. Many times, I’ll dream most of the story that ends up becoming a book. 

Debra:  How wonderful to have such a vivid dream life. Some of the best stories have come from dreams.

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

Mary: I was a huge Victoria Holt and Phyllis Whitney fan growing up. They’ve definitely influenced my romantic suspense writing. 



Debra:  Oh I was a fan too. :-)  Devoured their books

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?

Mary:  Its funny you should say that because that’s pretty much my process for getting a new book typed. I start with my idea then allow myself to simply write. I don’t worry about boundaries, or genres or pleasing anyone but the characters in my head. 

Debra: Awesome to be writing with complete freedom.

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?

Mary:  I believe that as a writer, my next book is limited only by my imagination. And there’s nothing more intimidating or exciting than sitting down in front of a blank computer screen and writing those first few words that later become the story of your dreams. 

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

Mary:  Thanks for allowing me to spend time with you and your readers.

Debra: It's been a pleasure.

Readers can visit Mary at

www.maryeason.com

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Continuing revisions on the novella, also planning to submit to another agent on my list of preferred agents this week.  While it is not true that once you are published you'll never get another rejection letter, I have had two of the nicest ones I've ever received from agents recently.  It's important that I match up with the right agent for me, so I am far from discouraged.  The letters tell me that it's more about finding the right match that it is about my writing or this story. And the right match is worth waiting for.
 
What else is new?  Lately I've been getting emails from various people wanting writing advice, so I decided to post in the notes section of my facebook fan page.  I'll do that every so often and pick topics which relate to the questions I'm getting.

And I also have some spots on the Make-Believe Mondays calendar to fill.  If you are an author of fiction you can request an interview using the form on my website,
www.debraparmley.com
or by sending me an email.

Until next time,

Love and Light,

Debra

Make-Believe Monday with Teresa Noelle-Roberts

Today on Make-Believe Mondays my guest is Teresa Noelle-Roberts.

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


Teresa:  Manuscript? Singular? If only my brain was that straightforward. 
First there's the brand-new book, Foxes' Den, which is the second work in the Duals and Donovans series from Samhain.

As for works in progress, I'm writing two paranormal series for two different publishers and have installments for each underway.
For Samhain, I'm working on the next book in the Duals and Donovans series, which includes Lions' Pride and Foxes' Den. The third book, tentatively called Shamans' Sanctuary, stars the sexy cousin of Rafe, one of the heroes from Lions' Pride. It has duals (my version of shifters), Native American shamans, evil sorcerers, a broken-hearted female cop who discovers her shamanic gifts, and guest appearances by the three main characters of Lions' Pride.

For Phaze, I'm winding up the Seasons of Sorania Cycle of slightly kinky fantasy romance (Lady Sun Has Risen, Rain at Midsummer and the forthcoming Threshing the Grain) with The Longest Night. It's a holiday story with a twist, set during this culture's version of Yule or Winter Solstice celebrations. What would you do if a sexy naked satyr stumbles into your house, desperately in need of your help, while you're getting ready for the holidays? Laeca soesn't quite tie a bow on him, but it becomes clear the gods have sent them to each other as a gift.

And if two paranormals aren't enough, I'm also working on a sexy contemporary comedy with my coauthor Dayle A Dermatis. We write together as Sophie Mouette.


Debra: Quite a few in the works then.  One good thing about having so many is that it helps prevent writers block. You can always go work on a different one when the first one starts to slow down.


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?

Teresa:  If I could, I'd travel constantly. Being exposed to new places, especially ones with beautiful scenery and/or a rich history, always sparks my creativity. Since constant travel isn't feasible on a writer's budget, I explore the area where I live with a fresh eye whenever possible. A walk in the woods, a trip to the beach, a visit to some historic spot, be it Plimouth Plantations, a museum or an old factory or cemetary, can all spark something inside me. What comes out of those visits may have no obvious connection to where I've been.

I also find that various forms of creativity feed one another. In addition to writing, I belly dance, garden and cook seriously and also knit and take photographs, both with more enthusiasm than skill. The physical challenge of dance, the multi-sensory experience of cooking and gardening, and the visual and kinesthetic aspects of knitting and photography all seem to help the writing. Needless to say, I also read omnivorously.


Debra: As a former travel consultant who has visited many countries I can attest to that. Travel expands the mind and feeds the soul.  I also spend some time as a professional belly dancer and know well the challenge of dance, but also the joy and how it feeds the soul. :-) 


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


Teresa:  Even as a child, I read anything I could get my hands on, so I could ramble about this question for pages and pages. But I'll spare you all by focusing on one book.

T.H. White's The Once and Future King, a retelling of the King Arthur legends, has haunted me for years. The first section, The Sword in the Stone, is about Arthur's boyhood and is light-hearted enough it was made into a Disney cartoon. I'm not sure my mother realized for years that I kept reading after the story becomes dark and twisted and tragic. I think the book may have influenced me more as a writer than books I reread more often. White takes a familiar story, reinterprets it through a contemporary lens (World War II, in his case), and makes even the villains well-rounded, with understandable motivations. I'm not by any means as brilliant and scholarly as White, but I think he influenced the way I look at mythology and legend as source material-and at my tendency to put wordplay and humor into even tense scenes.

Debra:  It's a beautiful thing how one book can influence a life.  The magic and power of words and how words and stories stay with us. What a wonderful craft we practice.  :-)


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?


I frequently dream in print and can see finished stories and poems on a page in front of me. Alas, when I wake up they're gone!

I have the first few chapters of an urban fantasy involving a djinn, a graduate student and the struggle for control of oil in the Middle East that grew out of a dream. I'm a bit daunted by the degree of research I'd need to make the book work, as it would weave in a lot of fairly obscure follklore and classical Arabic poetry as well as contemporary politics.


Debra:  Oh but if you were to write that one.... Well if you do, be sure to let me know as I'd want to read it.


Is there anything else you'd like to share with our readers?


Teresa:  You can catch more of my rambles at 
www.teresanoelleroberts.blogspot.com or friend me on Facebook. I'm there as Teresa Noelle Roberts. My website is www.teresanoelleroberts.com", but I'll warn you it's perpetually under construction.


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

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I will be away for several days this week visiting the Atlanta area, combining my love of travel with my love of belly dance and of course my writing.  Will share my adventures over on the facebook fan page upon my return. 


The contemporary romance is out to two agents and fingers crossed.  The novella is under revision and I am still doing research for the medieval romance.  Last week I went over the manuscripts I'd started to choose one to finish next and the novella won because it was the closest to being done.


And of course trying to stay cool in the Memphis heat.  It looks as if August is going to be a hot one.


Sign up over on my website for my newsletter and a chance to win an ebook.  Newsletters will go out once a month starting in October.

www.debraparmley.com


Until next time, stay cool and enjoy the rest of your summer


Love and light,
Debra

Make-Believe Monday with Kimberly Troutte

Today on Make-Believe Mondays my guest is Kimberly Troutte.

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

Kimberly:  My newly released print book, Catch Me in Castile, is a paranormal romantic suspense set in Spain. It’s about a woman battling Anxiety Disorder who finds comfort in the healing arms of a Spanish doctor—until a fifteenth-century ghost warns her that being with the man is dangerous, possibly even lethal.

The manuscript I am working on right now is about a woman and her son who are hiding for their lives in a quiet offbeat town until the boy becomes famous from an ear surgery that allows him to hear God.

Debra:  Fascinating.  I have to wonder if the ear surgeon would then be swamped with requests for that same surgery.

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?

Kimberly:  That’s beautiful, isn’t it? I’ve had the opportunity to hear Mr. Bradbury speak several times at the Santa Barbara Writer’s Conference. He is such an inspirational man, so full of encouragement for writers.
I keep my cup filled by playing with my kids. I have two boys who challenge me, make me laugh, keep my feet grounded, and my heart soaring. We hike in the mountains together, swim, boogie-board, dance, go to the river and try to catch polly-wogs.
Life is always exciting with two boys.

Debra:  How fortunate you are!  I always wanted to hear him speak but never had the chance.  So I look for his writings and as I collect quotes, well this is one of my favorites.  It is very beautiful.
My two sons are grown now, but I remember those days.  Polly-wogs make me smile.  :-)

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

Kimberly:  Yes. It’s thrilling when this happens. And a little exhausting. I tend to be able to “hear” my characters best when I’m in bed, everyone else is asleep and I am starting to drop off. All of a sudden dialogue pops in to my head and I know if I don’t get up and write it down, I’ll lose it in the morning. When I am deep into writing, I will usually be up typing until 1:00 in the a.m. It is amazing when the characters take shape. And many times they will change the story once I know them a little better. This makes it fun for me and adds twists and surprises that I never anticipate.

Debra:  The people in your stories must be night owls.  :-)  Mine are too.  They refuse to speak before 10:00 am, ever. lol


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

Kimberly:  As a kid, I read all of my dad’s hand-me-down books. I was enthralled by novels that where set in exotic locales, like those written by James Clavell, Leon Uris, and Pearl S. Buck. Anya Seton wrote a book called Green Darkness that took place in the past and present and made me want to write something similar when I grew up.

Debra:  Now there's another book to add to the to be read list.  Thank you.


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?

Kimberly:  Imagination is like magic. It creates new worlds, new lives, intricate stories. Imagination is what allows a writer to play the “what-if” game. For Catch Me in Castile I had a lot of what-if questions. What if a woman who thinks she is losing her mind is the only person who can see a 15th Century ghost? What if that ghost tells her she is in danger? Imagination is the key.

Debra:  So very true, Kimberly.  Excellent thoughts to leave us with.  Imagination is the key. 
Thank you for joining us here on this Make-believe Monday to talk about imagination and creation and to share a little bit of the magic of writing with our readers.

Kimberly:  Thank you for having me!

Debra:  It's been my pleasure.

Readers please visit Kimberly at

www.kimberlytroutte.com

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I'll be uploading pics from various author events onto Debra's facebook fan page
Thank you to everyone who made the switch over from my personal page to my fan page.  I simply don't have time to keep up with a personal page (which is one reason I shut it down) and the pubic pages and still have the time I need to write.  And really, the writing needs to come first.  :-)

So how is the writing coming along?  Well there's a completed manuscript waiting for the right agent to fall in love with it so it can find a home.  Then there are the uncompleted manuscripts which are calling to me even now.

www.debraparmley.com
This fall there will be some changes to the website and I plan to start sending out a monthly newsletter.

Debra on MySpace
Here you can find some photos from my travels around the world.  I'll add to those periodically.

But for now, I am off to write!

Until next time, stay cool and enjoy your summer.  Each day is a gift.

Love and light,

Debra

Make-Believe Monday with Christine Price

Today on Make-Believe Mondays my guest is Christine Price.  Christine, first, tell us a little bit about the manuscript  you’re working on now.

Christine: Well, my new work (due out in September from Carina Press) is a horror-romance hybrid, which focuses on a young man with psychic powers who falls into the clutches of a mad scientist, only to find love in the most unexpected place.

Debra:  How exciting to be one of the first authors at Carina Press!  Congrats!  It sounds like an exciting story.

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?

Christine:  I draw inspiration from a LOT of different places. Whether it’s a particularly memorable episode of The Tudors or a good book, I seem to be unable to stop myself from suddenly getting a trillion ideas racing through my head all at once. The only problem with that is that it conflicts with my attention span, which is roughly that of a goldfish. I always have a half-dozen serious projects going on at once, and another dozen waiting for my attention on the backburner.

Debra:  The Tudors, hmm I need to check that one out.  Thank you.  It's nice to have more than one project going.  I'm a firm believer in that and suspect it prevents writers block.  Because if one story frustrates on any given day there's the option to jump over to the other one!

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

Christine:  Characters for me are interesting. I tend to come up with small snippets of dialogue first. From there, I start wondering what sort of person would actually SAY the stuff that’s suddenly appeared on my screen. From there, it just tends to escalate. When they really start showing up for me, though, is when I find a song that reminds me of them. Take one of my newest characters, Matt. I love him to death, and a large part of his character was developed while I was listening to “Falling For the First Time” by the Barenaked Ladies.

Debra:   Fascinating.  I've been doing these interviews for four years now and you're the first author to say this about songs.

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?

Christine:  Absolutely! One of my first passions was high fantasy, and I spent a whole year working on a project that needed about three different unique languages (all of them to come up with a way to say ‘zombie’ strangely enough). I’ve never gone so far as to actually create an entire language (the prospect terrifies me), but I think that every good fantasy writer has the ability to develop something unique to their world, and often that defies the languages that already exist.

Debra:  Yes, so true.  Hmm you have me wondering how many different ways there are to say zombie now.  :-)

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?

Christine:  I’ll be honest: the entire premise for Soul Bond was based on a dream. As I recall, the dream actually started out on a pirate ship, but Julian and Ellis were very definitely there. When I saw the open call Samhain had going on for space opera, I knew that it would work. I think I remembered three things from the dream besides the characters. Something about a ring, a sacrifice for love, and a long-awaited reunion. It was probably the most vivid dream I’ve ever had.

Debra:  Wonderful!  Some very good books have come from the author having a vivid dream.

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

Christine:  For me, it was more like which mundane task could pull me OUT. If I had to pick one particularly influential author, however, I would have to say that Patricia C. Wrede’s Enchanted Forest chronicles were the whole reason I got turned onto fantasy in the first place. Her character Cimorene was the first strong female character in a fantasy series that I’d ever read about, and I felt like I could relate more to her than any of the male heroes that had come before her.

Debra:  Another to add to the to be read list then.  :-)  Thank you. 

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?

Christine:  What a fantastic question! I don’t know what the book would look like, but it would definitely have hot men kissing. All kidding aside, I think it’s important for any writer to just write what they love. Reader expectations and categories are absolutely important, but passion is what ultimately breaks through.

Debra:  Thank you!  This is so very true.

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?

Christine:  A long time ago, I heard that the most effective brainstorming sessions cannot have anyone say ‘no’ or claim that something is silly. I apply the same thing to my writing. My imagination gets triggered by the weirdest things, and as long as I sit back and enjoy the ride, instead of resisting it, it never lets me down.

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

Christine can be found haunting her blog at
www.christinepricewrites.com and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/CPriceIsWrite. Her first work, Soul Bond, was released last month

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The weather here in the Memphis area has been getting up to 100 and this sort of weather always has me slowing down to that southern summer pace.  Sitting and sipping a glass of something cold while observing people is one thing that feeds this writers creative cup.  Like Christine, I have multiple projects started, though I tend to only mention the one I'm working full steam ahead on.  This week I'll be pulling them out, looking them over and deciding which one calls to me the loudest.  I'm still researching for the Scotland set medieval and continuing the agent search with the most recently completed manuscript, so in the meantime I need to use the writing muscles again until I'm ready to jump start the medieval story.  This is the beauty of having more than one project waiting in the wings.

you can find me any number of places such as

www.debraparmley.com
Debra's facebook fanpage

Till next time, stay cool and remember to drink plenty of cold liquids.

Love and light,

Debra

Make-Believe Monday with Brad Parks

Today on Make-Believe Mondays my guest is Brad Parks. I first met Brad at the Romantic Times Book Lovers convention in Columbus OH at the big book signing where we were seated next to each other. He has a great sense of humor which made the signing all the more fun.

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

Brad; It’s the third book in my mystery series with St. Martin’s Press, which features the adventures of Carter Ross, the sometimes-dashing investigative reporter. This one won’t be out until 2012, so I don’t want to get people too excited – it would feel like a big tease – but right now I’ve got Carter trapped in a car with a homicidal maniac on a deserted road in the middle of a thunderstorm. It’s not looking too good for our hero. But I can confirm he managed to make it alive out of the second book, EYES OF THE INNOCENT (due out early 2011). So maybe he’ll find a way to escape this time, too.

Debra: Okay, too late. I want to know how he gets out of that mess! But it's okay, a little bit of teasing is allowed. :-)

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?

Brad: I used to be a sportswriter, and am therefore a fan of sports movies. In one of the great all-time baseball movies, Bull Durham, the grizzled veteran catcher, played by Kevin Costner, gives the wild young pitcher, played by Tim Robbins, his first piece of advice: “Don’t think. It can only hurt the ballclub.” That rather neatly sums up my feelings about creativity in two ways. One, I try not to think about creativity very much – not how it works, why it works or what makes it work sometimes and not others. I’m afraid I’ll jinx myself. And, two, my most creative thoughts come when I’m not thinking actively about being creative – when I’m driving a car, doing the dishes, or doing something else that is keeping my mind minimally occupied. There’s something about keeping your conscious mind a little bit busy that allows your subconscious to bust out and do what it does naturally.

Debra: Yes there is something to that. The subconscious is key, I believe. It's a bit like trying to remember someones name and trying so hard that it won't come, then you go off to do something else and voila. There it is. So true.

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

Brad: Before I wrote a lot of fiction, I’d occasionally find myself watching some famous author being interviewed. Inevitably, he’d get asked, “Well, famous author, how do you know what comes next in your books?” And the famous author would reply, “My characters tell me where the story needs to go.” And I’d always think, “Yeah? Do your characters tell you you’re a nut bag, too? Because that’s what you sound like right now.”

Then there I was, writing my first Carter Ross novel (FACES OF THE GONE, which came out last December). I’m in the middle of this scene where Carter, in his quest for a certain piece of information, has to smoke marijuana with a bunch of gang members so they’ll know he’s not a cop. Now, Carter is a pretty clean-cut guy who tried pot once or twice in college and never touched it since. Nevertheless, he tokes up, the gang members tell him what he needs to know and I’m thinking that’s going to be the end of it. It’s time for the next scene, right? Except when I tried to make Carter rise off the couch, he started tugging on my sleeve and giggling. “Dude,” he said. “I can’t go anywhere. I’m stoned out of my mind.” I shook my head and said, “Come on Carter. You can’t just sit on the couch for the next three hours. It’s boring and this book is supposed to have a lot of action in it. Let’s go.” Carter refused to move, so I made him get up anyway, and the next thing I knew he was stumbling all over the place, crashing into walls and… well, you get the point. It turned into one of my favorite scenes (you can read it at http://www.bradparksbooks.com/faces-of-the-gone2.php) and it established something I have come to accept as a fiction writer: My characters do tell me where the story is going to go, I just have to make sure I’m listening.

Debra: Now that is a great story to illustrate this point. I always find it interesting when an author is reluctant to say they hear their story people. It probably has to do with not wanting to sound crazy. But then some will say the voices in my mind tell me.... and that one makes me smile too. You've managed to cover both aspects quite well.

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?

Brad: My stuff is pretty well grounded in reality. So, no, I haven’t created anything like that. But I certainly wouldn’t be averse to it. The point of language is to communicate meaning. As long as the reader is getting meaning out of the invented word? I say inventimicate all you want.

Debra: Inventimicate is a good one. :-)

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?

Brad: My dreams are, by and large, much too freaky to turn into a book. I fear some psychoanalyst would read it, interpret it, and insist I was a danger to society who needed to be institutionalized.

Debra: Though if you ever got the urge there's always the use of a pen name.

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

Brad: I mean, who didn’t see themselves living in a giant peach with Roald Dahl? Or feel the intense desire, thanks to Beverly Cleary, to pull the boing boing curls of a girl named Susan? But I think my favorite book as a kid was GENTLE BEN by Walt Morey. It’s about a boy from Alaska who adopts a grizzly bear. I must have read it twenty times. I wanted to have a pet bear so badly I would actually fantasize about my family taking a trip to Alaska and stumbling upon an orphaned bear cub. (Then I grew up, hit puberty, and started fantasizing about other things… I also read that Alaska has way more guys than women and realized that really wasn’t going to be the place for me if I ever wanted to get a date).

Debra: I remember that book! Haven't thought if it in years though. You're the first to mention GENTLE BEN which now that I think of it, is amazing. Because it's a very good book.

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?

Brad: Well, I think it would be a book about a boy wizard who goes off to a boarding school for other young wizards and then… what? That’s been done already? Aw, shucks.

Debra: Yeah, darn it. If you'd only been faster with that one. :-)

Brad: No, seriously, I’m actually thankful for reader expectations. It gives me some kind of guide. Otherwise, I’m like a horse without blinders – all skittish and distracted, looking around at everything instead of focusing on the task ahead of me. Besides, the chief expectation for a mystery writer is that the crime gets solved at the end. And, really, that’s not too onerous. I feel like I still get plenty of imaginary rope with which to hang myself.

Debra: Yes there's still plenty of room (or rope) for the imagination to play within a mystery world.

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?

I recently spoke to a group of middle schoolers who were taking a year-long writing class. I wanted to demystify the writing process for them a little bit, so I talked about how I approach a new book: Basically, I start with characters who have a problem they need to solve. So we worked together to invent some characters and then began brainstorming a plot. It was amazing the way their minds’ worked. Sure, some of what they came up with was pretty derivative – obviously drawn from whatever television shows they liked. But some of it was really original and just, well, out there, in ways both good and bad. It was so far out there that the teacher, who was doing her best to keep them on task, began reigning them in a little bit. And I don’t blame the teacher, who had to maintain some semblance of order in the classroom. But it did strike me that the young brain was this incredibly fertile thing, capable of sprouting all these wonderful, wild ideas; it was only the grown-ups who needed things to fit into a neat box. So it’s made me mindful of sometimes going back to my own middle school self – minus the braces and awkwardness – and channeling some of that great craziness.

Debra: Oh, now that is a beautiful story and message to share. Thank you for adding that one. And thank you for joining me here on this Make-believe Monday to share a little bit of the magic of writing with our readers.

Visit Brad Parks’ website www.BradParksBooks.com
and Brad Parks on Facebook. You can also follow Brad_Parks on Twitter.

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Debra's News/Debra is watching:

Last weekend I went to an SCA medieval reinactment event called Crown List which is where they fight for who will be King and Queen. It was great fun and I enjoyed the pageantry, the fighting and the medieval feast. Just enjoyed it while absorbing it all in for the medieval romance I will soon be starting. This is my research and planning period for the story.

I'm also sending my contemporary romance out to agents this week as the great agent search is on. Otherwise this will be a quiet week and I find I'm needing one of those. Those are important too, to recharge and refill the creative cup.

www.debraparmley.com

Make-Believe Monday with Roland Mann

Today on Make-Believe Mondays my guest is Roland Mann.

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

Roland: The working title of my current project is The Interns. It came about because I enrolled in the MFA in Creative Writing at Spalding University. I already had 25,000 words of a book I was working on, but the program strongly suggested students produce new material. I’d actually written the very first “scene” as a comic strip that I wanted to pitch to a local newspaper. It didn’t happen, but the scene remained in my head. When I began to generate the pages for the MFA program, that scene popped into my head and became the first three chapters. The story itself is about a young superhero who’s finished his time at The Academy and is assigned to do his Internship. He’s assigned to a small town in the South and things don’t work out the way he imagined they would, being a superhero and all.

Debra: The story sounds very intriguing. Also, those stories that won't let us go, well I think they need to be written and so often turn out to be the best ones an author will write.

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?

Roland: I love Ray Bradbury. In fact, he’s part of my answer to a following question! J Personally, I think creative people are filled by everything around them, and I mean everything. Though some might try to tell you otherwise, authors/writers can’t remove themselves completely from their work. No, I’m not trying to suggest that when you read a book, the author is the main character, but a part of that author and who he is, is in the work somehow. That said, some of the things I do: obviously, I read a lot. Currently the stuff I’m reading is all for school, but it’s a pretty big load—not that I’m complaining. It’s better than working math problems! Another thing I do is eavesdrop. No, not the illegal kind, but the kind where when I’m out and about, I listen to people. Cellphones have helped that “research” aspect for writers tremendously. Give most people a cellphone and they become oblivious of their surroundings and speak at volumes louder than normal. You can get really good bits of dialogue that way!

Debra: Oh, I love him too. His work and his words of advice are true gems. And I agree with you about removing ourselves from the work. We can get distance but it's still authorial voice coming through at least in good stories it is. And math problems? Shiver. Anything but those. lol. Eavesdropping is a tremendous source. Perhaps everything an author encounters is potential fodder for the page. I'm now thinking I should pay more attention to people on cell phones. :-)

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

Roland: That’s a cool question. Y’know, I think it’s kind of like our relationships with “real” people. The longer you spend with them, the more time you invest in them, the better you know them. I think that may be why series are so popular—you’ve invested yourself reading one book, so that when the 2nd (or 3rd or more) book comes out, you already “know” that character. I feel that’s why television series are popular and why new ones are hard to get going. To answer specifically, I felt I really knew Caleb (the main character in The Interns) after I’d finished chapter 6, and then revised the entire chaps 1-6.

Debra: Oh thanks, Roland. :-) That's a great way to explain it. Perhaps our story people become more real the more we get to know them as authors and as readers, then they become less like characters.

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

Roland: The first one I name may not be exactly what you or your readers anticipate. For me, the first to suck me in was Stan Lee, the man that created or co-created half of the Marvel universe. As a kid, I didn’t really like to read—had no interest in it. Mom, being the good mom she is, sought a way to get me more interested in reading. She introduced me to comic books and the Marvel Universe. I fell in love with the characters almost immediately. Those comics led me to explore other work, and I found writers like HG Wells, Ray Bradbury and Jules Verne.

Debra: I wonder how many children enter the world of reading through comic books? Bless all the mothers like yours who encourage their children to find a route into reading that they enjoy. That story world of imagination, there's nothing like it. The world of story is such a magical place, whether the route to it is a comic book, a hardback or audio book,or lately an e-book or graphic novel. The story world is where the magic is and I'll never understand why people fret so over the route into 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?

Roland: I told you about the book I’m working on, but I would also like to tell you about the one that will be out in just a matter of days. If you had the chance to re-do part of your life, would you? Even if it meant dying earlier? Buying Time is a book that explores this very thing for two men, who purchase part of their past and attempt to relive it. When I get the book in my hands, I’ll announce it on my blog www.rolandmann.wordpress.com and let folks know how they can get it. Thanks for having me here!

Debra: Roland it has been a true pleasure. 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 may find Roland at
www.rolandmann.wordpress.com
www.facebook.com/rolandmann
http://rolandmann.wordpress.com/projects/buyingtime/

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Debra's News/Debra is watching:

I'm home from the Romantic Times convention in Columbus, OH and pictures will soon be up on my website. www.debraparmley.com

There has been a lot going on during the convention and beyond. Here in the mid-south, there has been terrible flooding. Millington, TN is only 20 minutes from my house and to drive home I had to come through Nashville which also had terrible flooding. I'm happy to report that my home is fine as are family members and friends. Some of my friends have lost their homes to flooding and the relief and repair efforts continue here.

My second novel is complete and this week I begin the search for an agent. I will also start playing with the beginning of a new novel, which means exploratory writing, research, imagining....
....one of my favorite times is the beginning of a new novel, when anything I can imagine is possible.

Until next time, stay safe and healthy and hug your loved ones.

Love and light,
Debra

Make-Believe Monday revisits the very first interview hosted here with Lucy Monroe

Today I thought it would be fun to re-run the very first interview I did here on Make-Believe Mondays, back in Jan, of 2006. As you can see the questions have remained the same. Over the years I've interviewed hundreds of authors and you can find them all in the archives.

So now....the very first interview revisited:

I'm thrilled to introduce my dear friend and mentor Lucy Monroe on our first Make-believe Monday.

Lucy writes wonderful romances filled with heroic men and modern women and she writes for three publishing houses. Berkley Sensation, Harlequin Presents and Kensington Brava. On my most recent visit to her website I counted 51 books!

She truly is an amazing author, so let's find out what she has to say about creativity and imagination.

Mark Twain said, "You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." How do you fill your creative well to keep your imagination in focus?

Lucy:For one thing, you can't stay creative if all you do is create. So, taking time off from creating is a must for me...just not an easy thing to do. I also love to read magazines...not gossip rags (yuck), but stuff like "The Smitsonian", "Architectural Digest" and "Harper's Bazaar", etc. I've just recently taken up knitting and a rousing game of Perquacky with my family can be very creativity enhancing. I also read tons, both fiction and nonfiction, but romance is my favorite. I re-read my favorite authors over and over again and I think that helps me write better. Learning in cockpit as they say. But it fills up my creative well to sip at someone else's.

What a lovely thought. I can just picture authors visiting each other and dipping down to gather that cool clear water before sipping. Creative works can nourish the soul that way.

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

Lucy:Usually before I ever type the first word in their story, but sometimes they are nebulous beings that only become concrete after I've really settled the first 50 or so pages of their stories. They always do become concrete and very real to me at some point in the process though.

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?

Lucy:I get lots of story ideas from dreams and find that I dream more vividly (and remember my dreams better) when I'm not writing. So, clearly, I've got to get better about taking time off if I want more story ideas to buzz around inside my brain. My agent calls it thinking time...for me, it's dreaming time.

Lucy, thank you for joining us and sharing a glimpse into the creative life of an author. May your dreams be plentiful and your well always full.

To learn more about Lucy and the many stories she's written, visit www.lucymonroe.com
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Debra's News/Debra is watching:

This week the mad dash is on to get ready for the Romantic Times Booklovers convention. I've a manuscript to finish, gift bags for booksellers to make, promotional materials ordered and waiting for them, costumes to plan and a schedule to finalize. I'm thrilled that it will be held in Columbus, Ohio this year because Columbus is where I was born. My parents still live about an hour away and my sister and her family live in the area as well, so it will be nice to be able to visit with my family again.

On Wed April the 28th from 2:30 to 3:30 I am teaching a panel all my own which I am very excited about. It's the first time I will be offering this one.

HEALTH AND WELL-BEING:WRITERS BREAK-- THE MIND BODY CONNECTION

WEDNESDAY: Spending hours at the computer can create stiffness, aches and pains. Using skills she learned as a professional belly dancer, Debra Parmley will teach you how to apply yoga and dance movements in your daily writing routine to stay limber, relaxed and in the flow.
Panelists: Debra Parmley

If you will be attending I would love to see you there!

www.debraparmley.com

I've added a link on this blog today where you can click to subscribe and follow. Thanks for reading! Comments are always a surprise and a joy.

Love and light, until next time,

Debra

Make-Believe Monday with Philip Athans

Today on Make-Believe Mondays my guest is Phil Athans.

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

Phil: I’ve recently put to bed The Guide to Writing Fantasy & Science Fiction for Adams Media. It offers easy to read advice and inspiration for genre authors of all levels, but is geared a bit more for the aspiring author. I managed to pull together interviews with a number of major authors in the field. Advice, encouragement, anecdotes, and even warnings from those colleagues are scattered throughout the book. Contributors include some of the best-selling authors currently working in the fantasy and SF genres today (R.A. Salvatore, Terry Brooks, Kevin J. Anderson), critically acclaimed newer authors (Paul Park, J.M. McDermott) and even other editors (Lou Anders, John Betancourt), agents and critics.

Though I have a part of me that’s always been a bit skeptical about “how to” books in a subject I hold as sacred as I do the written word, the advice is geared toward the specific demands of the fantasy and science fiction genres. I honestly don’t think any book can teach you how to be a storyteller, but there are certain peculiarities to genre writing that can be learned, and should be if you want to appeal to genre readers. I hope the book will teach you how to build the “skin” that covers the essential spirit of any novel: a story well told, a clever turn of phrase, and a heartfelt universal truth.

Debra: One of the things I have always appreciated about my author friends is their willingness to share what they've learned, what they know of the writing craft and what it takes to craft a compelling story. Storytelling is a craft and I've always viewed the passing along of such knowledge as a way of showing respect for that craft along with thankfulness for the lessons learned and the mentors who helped along the way.

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?

Phil: It may sound like a cop-out answer to say, “I’m inspired by everything,” but I expend a considerable amount of energy trying to do just that. I think a writer should be a sponge, literally and liberally soaking up anything you gather in from any and all of your five senses. There’s nothing that can’t end up in a book, from ancient religious scripture to the often impenetrable mumblings of reality show contestants.

In particular I’m drawn to the creative output of others. Inspiration for a story, a character, or a whole fantasy world can be drawn from any combination of any number and variety of sources, including history, mythology, and current events. But reading other fiction, inside and outside the genre you tend to write, is essential to any fiction writer. Movies and (quality, scripted) television also inform my writing, especially in action scenes. The movies have really been dialing up the stakes on the action set-piece and any author of fantasy and SF in particular should be watching those movies and taking advantage of the written word’s lack of a special effects and stunt budget to spark wilder flights of creativity. Bigger isn’t always better, but smaller isn’t always better either. In the book I encourage authors facing a blank page at the beginning of an action scene to ask themselves: WWJCD? What Would Jackie Chan Do?

Debra: Not a cop out at all. And I like your Jackie Chan question. :-)

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?

Phil: That sort of thing is an absolutely essential skill for fantasy and SF authors. Fantasy readers in particular are drawn to plausibility, not realism, so the adventures of Jim’s trip to Chicago is inherently less interesting to a fantasy reader than Huirdon’s journey across the Sandwastes of Chyren. I’ve always stopped well short of the hyper-immersive Tolkienesque steps of first inventing the language, but what you call something can tell a reader an awful lot about that thing in a single word. In The Guide to Writing Fantasy & Science Fiction I give the example of a political office: If the Foreign Minister of a fantasy realm has set out on a program of genocide against gnomes, we’re not certain right away of that’s something he’s doing on his own or is part of his job description—is he evil and grossly overstepping his authority, or is the realm itself institutionally genocidal? If the character’s title is Minister of Gnome Eradication we instantly know that this is a government purposefully and openly organized with the goal of gnomish genocide. The author’s decision in that one naming convention builds his world in very specific ways, without pages of dry exposition.

Debra: Yes one word can change everything. As you've shown one word can explain so much.

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?

Phil: I have no spiritual, metaphysical, or superstitious component to my life at all, so I think most people would expect me to dismiss dreams as random firings of neurons without any particular significance, but that’s not at all the case. Though dreams are indeed, more or less, the result of the random firing of neurons, they’re my neurons, bent to my collection of memories, my emotional and psychological tendencies, my hopes, fears, and so on, so the result of those random firings can be of great personal significance, and no serious writer of fiction should ever ignore any moment of great personal significance.

There’s a scene in my novel Whisper of Waves in a which a ship is transported through a magical portal but something goes wrong and the ship emerges a hundred feet in the air, and crashes to the sea below. I dreamed that before I ever started writing the novel and had it in mind from the moment I started thinking about that story. The published scene is pretty close to the dream experience.

Several years ago I wrote a screenplay that, like the overwhelming majority of screenplays written by anyone, remains unproduced. It’s called Every Two Years, a Spider, and concerns a woman with the pathological compulsion to have children then intentionally poison them with the bite of the black widow spider. “Inspired,” if such a noble word can be invoked for such as this, by stories that were all over the press at the time of mothers murdering their own children, it’s a disturbing, tense little piece that I gave up on at least five time as I was writing it—because it was giving me nightmares.

At first it seemed as though my own brain was rejecting the writing of this script, but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed that what I was really trying to do, subconsciously, was deal with it in some way, compartmentalize it, cleanse my mind of it. And the dreams only got worse when I wasn’t writing it.

I also sometimes have dreams that I’m not actually a part of. It’s as though I’m watching a movie play out in my head. These I struggle to remember. I still recall in detail a vivid dream that was a complete story laid bare, and one I’m still circling around writing. It’s almost like writing the novelization of a movie you only sat through once—ten years ago. Not easy, but . . .
If you ever see my name on a novel entitled Ghosts of Camelot, that was the dream—scene for scene.

Debra: I would love to see your name on a novel entitled Ghosts of Camelot. And the movie too. :-)

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?

Phil: Ultimately I think it would be a story about how much we all do to stand in the way of our own happiness. I wonder if it’s possible to encourage—even force—people to stop and think about all the things they do, think, and feel that’s weighing them down, making them unhappy for no other reason than “I was raised to believe . . .” or “I’m offended by . . .”

When has being offended by someone else ever made your life better? When has hating someone, stopping someone from doing something that causes no injury to anyone but people who’ve decided to be offended made the world a better place? There always seems to be something we’re all up in arms about—gay marriage in America, for instance, or state-sponsored health care—and in the end we eventually get over it and move on to being offended by something else.

Maybe I could write a historical fantasy that makes it clear that, ninety years ago, millions of Americans were deeply offended by the idea of women voting, or that the year I was born (and I’m not that old) there was such a thing as “Whites Only” restaurants. Human behavior is like the stock market, it fluctuates wildly but over the very long term it trends up.

Oops. Was I being hopeful just then?

Debra: Yes, Phil. You are perhaps more helpful than you know and I have quite enjoyed this interview. 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 here is a little bit about Phil:

Philip Athans is the New York Times best-selling author of Annihilation and nine other fantasy and horror novels for Wizards of the Coast. Born in Rochester, New York in 1964 he grew up in suburban Chicago, where he published the literary magazine Alternative Fiction & Poetry. He now resides in the foothills of the Washington Cascades, east of Seattle.

You can follow him on Twitter: @PhilAthans
and on the blogosphere at: fantasyhandbook.wordpress.com
and read his blog novel at: completelybroken.wordpress.com

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Debra's News/Debra is watching:

This coming Saturday I will be signing books in Blytheville, AR at That Little Bookstore Saturday April 3rd from 1:00 to 3:00. Come by and join me for tea and conversation. I love to meet readers!

www.debraparmley.com

Make-Believe Monday with Jackie Gamber

Today on Make-Believe Mondays my guest is Jackie Gamber.

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

Jackie: Debra, I’ve begun the editing phase of a time travel/historical novel surrounding two of history’s most influential and mysterious people: Adam Worth (the real-life inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘Moriarty’, and Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire. Though the two were born nearly 100 years apart, and are connected in history only by way of a single painting, my novel tells the story of how they met and fell in love. It is the story of “what really happened”.
In addition, I’m writing on the second volume in my Leland Dragons series.

Debra: So you're venturing into romance then. My favorite genre. :-)

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?

Jackie: Much of my favorite kind of writing involves characters from places created only in my imagination. I have, on occasion, created languages as well, which is a lot of fun, although I’m careful not to overdo it. A splash of unknown language between two characters can add realism; too much is overwhelming. But I enjoy naming characters, as well, with phonetically-friendly but unusual sounds. My fantasy novel, Redheart, takes place in Leland Province, where dragon names are something of a Native American feel, and human names seem almost familiar.

Debra: Just a splash, dears. (Writing can be so much like cooking.)

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

Jackie: My first experience with a story that involved characters from another world—a wizard and a witch—was The Frightened Forest by Ann Turnbull. In the story, a girl visits her cousins in an unfamiliar town, and upon meeting a dare to walk alone through an abandoned train tunnel, she accidentally releases a witch who had been imprisoned in the dark. I was enthralled by the tale, but had no idea at the time that it was a “fantasy”. My love for that book definitely shaped the kind of stories I write today.

Debra: Ah, now that's a new one that hasn't come up before. I'll have to look for it.

Jackie, thank you for visiting Make-Believe Mondays this week to talk about imagination, creativity and dreams.

Readers may learn more about Jackie and her books by visiting
www.lelanddragons.com and www.jackiegamber.com

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Debra's News/Debra is watching:

Last week I attended Gulf Wars in Lumberton, MS where I sold some books, slept in a period pavillion (primitive camping at this site) and soaked up the atmosphere and experiences to use in the medieval romance I am planning. Just got in Sunday so this week is going to be spent getting caught up on things after having been away.

This coming Saturday I will be at That Bookstore in Blytheville signing books from 1:00 to 3:00. If you are in the area do stop in for tea and to say hello! I love making new friends and meeting readers.

www.debraparmley.com

Make-Believe Monday with Rosemary Jones

Today on Make-Believe Mondays my guest is Rosemary Jones.

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

Rosemary: I’m always working on multiple projects. Right now, one project with a firm deadline is a short story requested for a fantasy anthology. The other is a new idea that started last year with a rejection from an editor. I had been asked to outline a potential trilogy but the project never happened. I was looking at my notes and thinking that I liked certain characters but I wanted to go in different directions than the original outline.

Debra: 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?

Rosemary: I read. Constantly. I don’t think I could be a writer without being a reader first. My newest electronic toy is an e-book reader that lets me check out books from the library. It makes grabbing a little extra reading time so easy – I can always whip it out on the bus or during a break in the day.

Debra: Yes, how could anyone create books without loving books? Writers must read. In all the interviews I've done here on MBM, you're the first to mention eBooks as a way to feed your creative well.

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

Rosemary: If I’m writing about them, they are already alive in my head. Perhaps because I spend much of my outlining time pondering how people would be reacting in the plot situation, what type of person is being called upon to deal with graveyard ghosts, and so on. All my novels have started with a very specific person in my head: I can’t get started until I know who I’m writing about. For me, fantasy simply doesn’t work if the characters aren’t alive with all the quirks and wonderful flaws that real people have. In Crypt of the Moaning Diamond, I knew the leader of the Siegebreakers was a forthright young woman with a quick temper and a rather messy look. Which meant sparks had to fly when she came up against the very polished and proper Captain who hires her mercenary band. In City of the Dead, the heroine is younger, still seeking her place in the world, and somewhat plagued by having too much family. She lives at home, and the entire family is involved with maintaining the city’s haunted graveyard, and she wants to find another career. Except she is very good at dealing with ghosts, ambulatory skeletons, and the wizard who shows up at her doorstep.

Debra: 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?

Rosemary: I play word games all the time in my stories, but more with names. All the uncles in City of the Dead have names that mean wisdom. In Crypt of the Moaning Diamond, my heroine is named Ivy, an odd choice for the daughter of a druid (ivy chokes trees) except her name is a symbol of her parents’ arguments: her mother picked a name sure to annoy her father. These games remain deep background, as long explanations always get cut out of the final versions. But I know why those names exist and they influence how those characters act.

Debra: Oh, that is fascinating. And this is a good example for new writers of how you trim backstory. Sometimes you need that backstory to write your way into the tale, but it doesn't mean you leave it there.

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?

Rosemary: I daydream certain pieces. So if you see me just sitting under a tree somewhere, staring up at the leaves, I’m not sleeping on the job. I’m thinking up a scene.

Debra: Bless the daydreamers for they are the story tellers of tomorrow. And give thanks for the trees who have watched over the and given root to those dreams. It was one of my favorite things to do as a child, that scene just as you described.

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

Rosemary: Dozens. I collect and read children’s books to this day and ended up co-authoring the Encyclopedia of Collectible Children’s Books. Off the top of my head, my big favorites as a kid in fantasy and science fiction were: L. Frank Baum, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Alexander Key, Andre Norton, Ursula K. LeGuin, and various volumes of fairy tales. These days, on my YA shelf, authors whose work I purchase immediately are J.K. Rowling (I came to Harry a little late, about three books into the series, and then gulped the lot as quickly as they were published), Kenneth Oppel, Philip Reeve, and many more. It is obviously impossible for me to stick to just one name in a question like this.

Debra: What a marvelous list you have provided.

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?

Rosemary: Take the journey that you want to dream about, but take time to think hard about the question: “what would a human being really do in a situation like this.” So much fantasy written falls a little flat because we turn the protagonists into these impossibly wise, strong, and basically overpowered superheroes. Going back to the very first fantasy novel, Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus catches our hearts because he is such a flawed and often weak man. He can’t help boasting, even when it gets him into trouble. He loses his temper. He makes mistakes. But he also figures out how to overcome his magical and mythical opponents because he has the most compelling quest of all: after ten years at war, he wants to go home and see his wife and child.

Debra: Excellent advice. Readers please visit Rosemary at
www.rosemaryjones.com

Rosemary, thank you for joining me here on this Make-Believe Monday.

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Debra's News/Debra is watching:

This weekend I had a lovely dinner with my publisher who was in town for convention. It was another first and a fun night I will always remember. I'm looking forward to the Romantic Times convention at the end of April where I'm hoping to meet my editor for the first time face to face.

This week I am also getting ready for Gulf Wars which is an SCA event (medieval reinactment) and I will be attending Wed the 17th to Sun the 21st. My books will be available in Merchant Rose at That Special Touch, booth 85, from Wed. evening until Friday evening and I'll be around to sign them.

I'm very excited to be staying in a period pavilion tent for the first time and this and other experiences will likely make their way into the medieval story I plan to write soon. So it's going to be quite the busy week.

Check my website for book signings and other events
www.debraparmley.com

Love and light,

Debra

Make-Believe Monday with Stephen Zimmer

Today on Make-Believe Mondays my guest is Stephen Zimmer.

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

Stephen: Right now, I’m working on a couple of fantasy short stories for a pair of anthologies being developed by two different publishers, as well as working with my editor on polishing up the 2nd book in the Rising Dawn Saga (the sequel to The Exodus Gate). We have a release party for this book coming up at Hypericon in Nashville, which takes place June 4-6. I am very excited to be launching the new book there, as this year’s guest of honor is no less than Ramsey Campbell!

Debra: Oh, that's exciting! There's nothing quite like that book release party and holding it in your hands. (And for those who are in my stomping grounds in the Memphis area, Stephen will also be at Midsouth con.)

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?

Stephen: Music, dreams, experiences, travel…a good number of things go into my pools of inspiration. It is not any one single thing, but rather a broader process by which my inspirations emerge from a range of sources.

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

Stephen: Absolutely. I get into a rather strange zone when I write, and it is as if I am writing down what I perceive, telling the story as it is played out within some sort of inner level of perception. Sometimes it is actually quite jarring to come out of a long writing session! I hope that doesn’t sound too crazy!

Debra: Doesn't sound crazy at all to me. I forget to eat and drink when I get into that zone. Then my husband will say what's for dinner, and it takes a moment to register where I am and that it is indeed time for dinner. Good thing we both like pizza. LOL

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?

Stephen: I often have fun with words, sometimes even using international languages to name something. In Crown of Vengeance, I have a very formidable group of woodland creatures called the Jaghuns, which derives from the German for Jaegerhundt, or hunting dog! Similarly, the Unguhur, who live in the great caverns below the surface, have a name derived from the German word for monster.

Debra: This is fascinating! I love knowing a words origins.

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?

Stephen: Dreams are very powerful sources of inspiration, especially as you can experience many things that are not possible in the physical world, whether that be flying, walking under water without scuba gear, encountering dragons or monsters, and much more. I have far too many images to mention that have ended up having strong influences in my books. Visions of the Abyss, heavenly realms, and Purgatarion (in the Rising Dawn Saga) rely heavily upon such dreams. My concepts of the demonic and angelic derive from my dreams. The Elder from the Fires in Eden Series are another strong example, as are the An-Ki shape-shifting race of the Rising Dawn Saga. I’ve been able to get a very first-hand perspective of many things!

Debra: Anything is possible in a dreamscape and maybe that is why they fascinate me so. I'm glad you're able to capture them on paper. That is the tricky thing to do.

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

Stephen: My mother read me J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Hobbit when I was seven, and not long after that she got me the Chronicles of Narnia. It definitely had a profound influence on me, and set me on a fantasy voyage that has no end in sight!

Debra: Bless your mother, and all mothers who expand their children's minds this way.

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?

Stephen: Honestly, it would be doing the stories that I am doing right now, within my epic fantasy series. Epic fantasy is what I love the most, whether the tale is set in past, present, or future settings!

Debra: I'm always pleased to hear an author say that. It means the stories they are meant to be writing are being written!

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?

Stephen: For me, dreams are a huge source of inspiration, and I have gotten many ideas and concepts for creatures and environments directly from dreams. The Elder from the Fires in Eden series, as I mentioned earlier, is one such example. I often have very powerful, very lucid dreams of a fantastical nature, sometimes dark-edged, and I am very happy when I wake up and am still able to remember the content of these sometimes harrowing, sometimes thrilling, and always unpredictable excursions.

Debra: Stephen thank you for a sharing your dream world with us and for visiting Make-Believe Mondays to share a bit of the magic of writing with our readers.

Visit Stephen at:www.stephenzimmer.com
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Debra's News/Debra is watching:

Friday I guest blogged over on Lucy Monroe's blog about Hot Springs, where I plan to set a novel.

I'm hard at work on the manuscript in progess and will soon be sending it to a few selected agents. After some bumpy patches the writing is smoothing out nicely.

Updates for book signings and conferences I'll be attending are on my website calendar:
www.debraparmley.com

Authors interested in being interviewed on Make-Believe Mondays may fill out the form there or email me at debra@debraparmley.com.

I'm enjoying my friend Gerri Russell's blog Knightly Musings and getting ready for an SCA event called Gulf Wars. I enjoy medieval reinactment and this is where we go camping for a few days and live in the re-created world. Still gathering material and researching for the medieval romance I plan to start. (Yes, I like multiple stories to work on. Probably it's the Gemini in me.)

Anyone else noticing the daffodils peeking their heads up? Spring is on its way!

Love and light,
Debra

Make-Believe Monday with Sandra Sookoo

Today my guest is Sandra Sookoo.

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

Sandra: The book I’m currently writing is the third in a trilogy. It’s a blend of paranormal and fantasy, with a bit of historical thrown in. The heroine (Mona) was the secondary character in the previous book and the hero (Braeden) was one of the villains in that book. It’ll be interesting for me to discover how these two will work together and how they’ll both redeem themselves.

Debra: 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?

Sandra: Oh absolutely! That’s part of the fun of being a writer. In THE ART OF FANG SHUI (the first book in the trilogy I spoke of) I created a world based around eight “realms”. Of course, once I created the world, I needed to populate it with different beings. It’s important in world building to remember to create a history and mythology that you’ll remember throughout every book in that series. This way, it’ll be more believable and comfortable for the reader.

Debra: That title tickles me, it's playful and fun and makes me want to read the book! And if you've had fun writing it, that usually plays through into fun for the reader as well.

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?

Sandra: Occasionally I’ll dream about my characters and scenes. More often than not, the next scene or bit of dialogue will come while I’m doing ordinary things like the dishes or making supper. Sometimes, I’ve woken up in the middle of the night knowing exactly what went wrong in a scene and how to fix it. Sometimes I’ll write it down. Other times I’m just too tired to reboot the computer LOL It’s funny how dreams work. I can go to bed hoping I’ll dream out the next sequence in a book. It doesn’t always work that way.

Debra: There is something about doing the dishes, or ironing or taking a shower that gets the creativity flowing, isn't there? That middle of the night waking can be problematic if we can't catch it down on paper somehow. So frustrating when it slips away. Dream journals help but not every time.

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

Sandra: I really loved Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables series. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read those 8 books and everything else she’s written. I spent every bit of my free time growing up at the library, reading there all afternoon then finally checking out 10 books or so to go home and read more. Getting lost in books was the only escape from those not quite so idyllic days. Eventually, I moved on to fantasy stories about wizards and elves, mostly by Terry Brooks. That’s probably what sparked my love of things not quite human.

Debra: Ah yes, Anne was one of my favorites too. It's only recently that I started reading fantasy so I have plenty of catching up to do! Haven't tried Terry Brooks yet but he's on the list. :-)

Sondra, 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 may visit Sandra at:
www.sandrasookoo.com
Paranormal Romantics blog
Believing is Seeing blog
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Debra's News/Debra is watching:

Last weekend I traveled to Hot Springs, AR with my husband to celebrate our 29th wedding anniversary. We stayed in the historic Arlington Hotel and Spa. I'll be blogging about the trip this Friday, March 5th on Lucy Monroe's blog.

Today I was interviewed on the Damsels At The Gate blog.

I've been updating the calendar on my website with book signings and conferences for 2010. Also added a list of authors who have been mentors for me on the links page. Will be adding more things this week as well.
www.debraparmley.com

I'm almost done with the revisions for the contemporary romance and will be submitting to agents before the end of March.

Love and light,
Debra

Make-Believe Monday with Lisa Campbell

Today on Make-Believe Mondays my guest is Lisa Campbell

Lisa: Please accept this lovely bouquet of virtual tulips. It's my way of thanking you for having me on your wonderful blog! Aren't they gorgeous? I had them flown in from Amsterdam early this morning~

Debra: Thank you, Lisa, they are beautiful! So bright and cheerful too. I was just thinking the other day how ready I am for spring.

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

Lisa: If you could see my desktop icons right now, you’d count at least six stories in progress. In addition to writing historical romance, I also write paranormal erotica under my pen name Marie March. It usually makes for an interesting day, as I often skip from my medieval Highland clans, to post-Napoleonic England, with a stopover in present day Eastern Europe where all sorts of evil activity abound. There are days where I happily do away with two or three villains at a crack---it's very cathartic.

Debra: Yes, I can see how that would be! Also a good way to never be stuck on a story then falling into writers block.



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?

Lisa: Booze and lots of it---hey if it was good enough for Hemingway, it's good enough for me. Okay, that's not true. While I do take a nip every now and again, I'm nowhere near boozehound status. So, how do I keep my creative cup filled? Well, I'm a voracious reader and avid eavesdropper! I once made it a goal to read every book in the fiction section of our local library. Unfortunately, I moved to another state not long after (whew!). Really though, I glean a lot from newspaper articles, magazines, ads, and random conversations. For me, sparking ideas has always been the easy part; focusing on just one idea is my biggest challenge.

Debra: Well, your way will be a whole lot healthier than following in his footsteps so I'm glad to hear it. I have to wonder how many books were in that library. :-)

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

Lisa: All too often my characters decide to change the story in mid-stream. This is the main reason I have never written an in-depth outline. Just when I think I have a handle on the story's outcome, one of my main characters', usually the hero, changes the plot in midstream and I have to go back and revamp the whole premise. This happens every time I begin a new manuscript. I know it's going to happen, I'm just never certain when it'll transpire. I could be in the story by five or six thousand words and end up salvaging a few pages. It is quite annoying.

Debra: Yes, it certainly makes more work for us when that happens! The hero has to take charge and determine his own fate I suppose.

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

Lisa: I read every Agatha Christie, I could find---Miss Marple being my favorite of her sleuths. I also couldn't get enough of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Daphne Du Maurier and Dashiell Hammet. However, Agatha Christie captured my imagination with the well-crafted contradictions between Miss Marple's cunning, methodical mind and her proper demeanor, which is the hallmark of the quintessential British matron. I mean, who else could get away with investigating a murder before breakfast and neatly solving it by teatime?

Debra: Miss Marple made it look so easy didn't she?


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?

Lisa: Interesting question! Hmm…possibly an epicurean mystery with an alternate universe made entirely of dark chocolate where the Queen of Torte banishes all milk chocolate. When suddenly, a Hershey's kiss is found in the very same antechamber where the Duke of Cadbury and the Lord of Lindt are fighting over Lady Godiva's hand. In moments the galloping gourmet descends on the trio and---well, I'll save the rest for another day.

Debra: Oh now you've made me hungry for chocolate! Luckily my husband gave me a bar of Lindt dark intense orange the other day. (It has pieces of orange and almond slivers.)

Lisa, thank you for joining us here on this Make-believe Monday to share a little bit of the magic of writing with our readers. I must be off to find that chocolate bar now.

Readers please visit Lisa at

Historical Romance site: lisacampbell.net
Paranormal Erotica Romance site: www.myspace.com/mariemarch
and her blog Damsels at the Gate: www.damselsatthegate.blogspot.com where Debra's interview will appear soon.


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Debra's News/Debra is watching:

I was pleased to be invited to attend the Book Blogger and Publishing Online Conference because of this Make-Believe Mondays blog. To learn more about the conference visit www.romanceinthebackseat.com/bbpcon.html

This is a two day online event that will feature Blog Talk Radio Discussion Panels and open Forums for more inclusive debate on subjects raised. Attendees can listen to panels live or using the links provided at a later more convenient time. The Forums will remain open and those speaking on the panels will be in the forums afterward to answer questions. The Forums will be held in a private Ning for the Conference.

Here's an idea of the time frame.

Friday March 19th

11:00 - 11:30 am EST - Opening Radio Show
What Panels will be going on. How the Conference is set up and works.
12-1:30pm EST Panel 1
2-3:30pm EST Panel 2
1 hour break - Publisher Forums - Publishers can Schedule a Live Q and A Forum
4:30 - 6pm EST Panel 3
6:30 - 8pm EST Panel 4
End of the day - 9pm EST Forums - close - no longer monitored.

Saturday March 20th, 2009

11:00 Forums Open - Publishers Feature
12-1:30pm EST Panel 1
2-3:30pm EST Panel 2
1 hour break - Publisher Forums - Publishers can Schedule a Live Q and A Forum
4:30 - 6pm EST Panel 3
6:30 - 8pm EST Panel 4
End of the day - 9pm EST Forums - close - no longer monitored.

I'll be posting more about this and other events on my schedule for 2010. For more about what's going on visit www.debraparmley.com or my fan page on Facebook

This coming weekend my husband and I will be celebrating our wedding anniversary with a couple nights in Hot Springs, AR. I'm really looking forward to a little R & R and to stepping back in time at the Arlington Hotel. Hot Springs is a very romantic city and full of inspiration for this romance novelist. :-)

Until next time
Love and light,

Debra