Make-Believe Monday with M J Frederick

Today on Make-Believe Mondays my guest is M J Frederick.

Welcome M J!  First, please tell us a little bit about the manuscript
 you’re working on now.

MJ:  Thanks so much for having me! I love talking writing! Right now I’m revising a straight contemporary romance which combines a friends-to-lovers element with a road trip from Minnesota to Seattle during a snowstorm. I’m having so much fun building the tension! I’m also playing with the plot of a new romantic suspense that takes place on a cruise ship. I hope to start working on that one later this week.

Debra:  It's a pleasure having you here.  Road trips certainly have a way of bringing people together or pushing them apart, add a snowstorm and it just intensifies.  I have a completed contemp set on a cruise ship also, which I'm sending out to agents currently.  I'm partial to romance on the sea from all the trips I took while working as a travel consultant.  Bet that one will be fun for you to 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?


M J:  My very favorite thing is to go to the museum. It’s free on Tuesday nights, and when I’m there, I just want to grab a pen and notebook and start writing. It’s nothing in particular that I see, but the atmosphere fills me up. Also, going to historical buildings. Here in San Antonio, we have the Alamo and the missions. Those always light a spark in me.

Debra:  Wonderful ideas all!

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

M J:  If they don’t, I know I have a problem. If they aren’t real for me, I worry they won’t be real for the reader. Sometimes it’s that I haven’t spent enough time with them, or didn’t do enough to develop their personalities. When I first started writing, I wasn’t writing every day so I spent a lot longer thinking about my characters. I had characters set in a certain town near my grandparents’ place and now every time I drive through that town I think of those characters! I really should revisit that story….



Debra:  Oh, yes, it sounds as if they are calling to you.

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?


M J:  How funny you should ask. Beneath the Surface, my July Samhain book (in print July 6!) came from a dream. I dreamed of archaeologists working in the jungle and being kidnapped by guerillas. I fully intended to write that book, but the dh pointed out it could get pretty gritty, especially for the heroine. Around that time, one of the cable stations started playing the movie Twister a lot. I was drawn into the reunion aspect of the story, and Beneath the Surface took off from there.




Debra:  Fascinating.  Hmm maybe there are two books emerging from your dream.  Dream worlds can be so rich and vivid.

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

M J:  Trixie Belden! I recently rebuilt my collection. I loved the friendships of those novels, the adventures, the different settings. I wanted to be Honey Wheeler so bad. Then there were the Little House on the Prairie books, which weren’t imaginary, I guess, but I loved traveling back in time to her world (as long as I could eat Double-Stuff Oreos while reading them!)


Debra:  Oh, I wanted to be Honey Wheeler too.  (And don't tempt me with those Double-Stuff Oreos now, or I'll be in trouble.)  lol

M J 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 please visit M J at
www.mjfredrick.com
 ------------------
Debra's News/Debra is watching:

I'll be chatting more on my Facebook Fan Page, as I close my personal page.  Soon there will be pics from writing events I've attended (and yes some of those handsome cover models) as well as talk about the writing life.  Stay tuned.    


I'll be writing this week on Tue and Wed most of the day.  Also plan to get a partial of the contemporary romance in the mail to an agent I've had my eye on.  ;-)  Wish me luck!


www.debraparmley.com

Until next time, stay cool in this summer heat and have a Happy Fourth of July!

Love, light and joy,

Debra

Make-Believe Mondays Announces The Release Of Debra's First Novel

Today I am thrilled to announce the release of my first novel, A Desperate Journey, published by Samhain Publishing on July 22, 2008.

A DESPERATE JOURNEY
ISBN: 1-60504-074-6
Length: Novel
Price: 5.50
Publication Date: July 22, 2008
Cover art by Angela Waters

Sometimes a journey of the heart is the most dangerous journey of all.

Sally Wheeler learned the hard way that men aren’t always what they seem. Now she will stop at nothing to track down the bigamist husband who stole her child and abandoned her on their failing Kansas farm. Even if it means traveling with a handsome maverick who could change her mind about men.

Free after spending seven years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, Rob Truman aims to balance the scales of justice on the man who sent him there—Luke Wheeler. His quest doesn’t include falling for the one woman who will lead him to his quarry, but Sally’s courage in the face of her fear touches his soul.

Through dangerous days and nights on the trail, neither Sally nor Rob can ignore their growing feelings for each other. Yet both are haunted by the poor judgment that, in the past, led them down the wrong road. Love—and trust—are luxuries neither of them can afford.

But as the bullets start flying, love may be all that saves them—and Sally’s son.

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

Today, Tuesday, July 22nd 2008

I am blogging over on
Samhain Weblog

and celebrating the book launch in a live internet book launch over at
the Samhain Cafe

from 10:00 to 1:00 am Eastern
and again from 3:00 to 5:00 pm Eastern
and 7:30 to 12:00 pm Eastern

Come and join me!

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

I have a new website
www.debraprmley.com

My publisher is
Samhain Publishing

And this is where you can purchase my book
My Books And More

Make-Believe Mondays With Debra Parmley

Today on Make-Believe Mondays, I am simply introducing myself. My first novel, A Desperate Journey, is being released July 22 by Samhain Publishing as an eBook.

Next week, instead of an author interview, I will provide links to my new website (which will be up soon), my publisher, and the site where you can purchase the book. Then we will return to the regular schedule of author interviews. But this week, I simply want to answer the same questions I've been asking my author friends for the last three years. Everyone receives the same questions, yet each interview is as unique as a fingerprint. It's one of the reasons I so enjoy hosting this blog.

Since I am interviewing myself, I'll simply list the questions and answer them.

1.) First, tell us a little bit about the manuscript you’re working on now.

I'm polishing a contemporary romance which is almost ready for submission. It's the story of a widow whose husband is killed by a random act of violence. She cocoons herself, allowing her world to shrink in upon her in order to feel safe. Then she wins a Caribbean cruise and meets a man who is a hell fighter. (The men who put out fires on oil rigs. There is also a John Wayne movie by this name.) The last thing she wants is to fall in love with a man who lives so dangerously. Yet she does and he teaches her to face her fears. He sees the woman she really is, deep inside.

This was actually a story I wrote some time ago, but I have found that having gone through the editing process to prepare my first novel for release, I learned so much that all the previous manuscripts now need some fine tuning.

I also have seven other manuscripts in various stages of development. Historical romance, paranormal romance, contemporary romance and a fantasy.

2.) 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?

I am constantly filling my cup with experiences. I am a world traveler, not a tourist. I like to eat where the taxi driver takes his family, to listen to local musicians, hear or read the folk tales, visit the historic sites, understand the people to the best of my ability. I want to see the local artwork, not the gift shops. I want to experience life, not simply observe. Though I have closed my travel consulting business I will always be a world traveler, a life traveler.

Nature fills my creative cup. I like to watch clouds, to wiggle my toes in the sand as the ocean washes over them, to snorkle above a coral reef, to listen to birds singing in the trees. I love the scent of the Tiare flower of Tahiti as it drifts on the breeze. Every sense fills my creative well.

I also like to play the "what if" game of imagination and to play with words. Play is an integral part of staying creative. I dance. I read widely, across genre. I listen to music of all kinds, I enjoy theatre and art museums. Sometimes I color with crayons. I blow bubbles. I enjoy being silly, and I look for the joy in each day.

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

I am a character driven author rather than a plot driven author and always begin with the heroine. She is in a situation and something changes for her. As I write, just around chapter three, I start to get a real good picture of who she is and will usually begin to hear her and know what she would and wouldn't do, and how she will react to people and events. Usually this means my first three chapters will either be entirely re-written or scrapped. This is what happened with my first novel, A Desperate Journey, once Bobbi Smith told me the story really began in chapter three. I revised it, entered it in the American Title II contest and Dorchester Publishing selected me as a finalist. If I had not carved those first chapters out, this story would never have made it to publication. After writing the second novel, I realized this three chapter mark was my process. It has held true for every story I have written so far.

4.) 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?

I love to play with words. For the fantasy I am working on I have created a world and fantasy creatures which needed their own unique words. This is where I am most playful with language and one of the things I enjoy about writing fantasy.

5.) 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?

For the past three years I have been fascinated with dreams and the subconscious. Many times something I dream will end up in my fiction. I now keep a dream journal by my bed to try to capture the imagery down before it flits away, but this is tricky as so often I can't remember everything.

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

As a child I devoured books, even took them out to the playground at recess. I read quickly so I would get my work done and then open a book and read while the rest of the class caught up. Favorites were Nancy Drew, Alice in Wonderland, Anne of Green Gables, The Boxcar Children, Pippi Longstocking, Island of the Blue Dolphins, Robinson Crusoe, fairy tales both Grimms and Hans Christian Anderson. Sleeping Beauty was a favorite fairy tale and I named all my dolls Aurora.

7.) 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?

I am playing with the idea of a poem-story where the story is made up of a series of poems. I also am working with an unusual structure to my fantasy novel but as it is not finished yet, I'm unable to explain it here.

8.) 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?

Just this. Our dreams come from deep within, and we must follow them. We must guard them from those who would tug on them and hold us and the dream down. We must take risks and try again and again when we fail. And we must never give up. Dreams do come true, we can reach those mountain tops that seem so far away at first and when we do, the view from the top is simply stunning. The feeling is beyond wonderful. The joy is indescribable.

Next Tue I will be celebrating the release of my first book from yet another mountain top with great joy and a bit of the bubbly. Perhaps you might hear the echo of the champagne popping from far away.

I would like to thank each of you for joining me on Make-believe Mondays to share a little bit of the magic of writing.

Make Believe Mondays With Anton Strout

Today on Make-Believe Mondays our guest is Anton Strout.

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

Anton: Currently I'm working on three things:

- one short story for City Fantastic (DAW Books) called "Stannis", about a gargoyle and his century long watch over one New York family

- a second short story about magical critters, also set in New York City for another anthology which name escapes me at the moment

- one full length novel which is the second book in my Simon Canderous series after DEAD TO ME. It's a very different experience ... with DEAD TO ME I had several years to write it since I was a n00b, but the second, tentatively title BACK TO LIFE, I've had a year and deadlines to meet. Things are a little crazy at the Strout Compound right now.

Debra: Wow. Yes, I can imagine they would be. There's nothing like having a deadline looming to speed up the process.

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

Anton: I tend to think cinematically when I sit down at the keyboard, laying out much of my thoughts like a screen play so my mind's eye sees my characters right from the get go. However, they tend to be a bit skeletal on my first draft as I write it out fast and dirty, but by about two-thirds of the way through I know them well enough that they start to flesh out nicely.

Debra: Skeletal. Yes, it's a bit like layering, isn't it? I like that image, the flesh being the last layer.

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?

Anton: I am amazed when I read, say, Tolkien and the myriad linguistic tricks he pullls off, but it's not for me. I tend to cringe at the idea of creating fanciful words for my work...it doesn't feel honest to what I do. I write mostly in reality anyway, only with little twists to it and using names that are all consonants like Krxyzl or something just seems like bad scifi conventions.

Debra: Yes, better not to do it if it doesn't feel organic to the writing. Then it is forced and is as you say, like bad scifi.

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

Anton: Dreams don't play heavily into my work, which I suppose is why most of it is grounded in reality. For instance, I love the shows Joss Whedon creates because ultimately they're about real people trying to get through their day as weird shit goes down around them. Buffy Summers is just trying to get through school and date, but unfortunately she is The Chosen One. Mal and his crew are just trying to earn their keep and live peacefully, but they're flying through space dealing with pirates and a world where the Brown Coats lost....I'm intrigued by real people thrust into unreal situations.

Debra: Yes, and the reader can easily get caught up in that scene because what if they were thrust into that world? What would they do? I think that is why a TV show like Lost, for instance can be so popular.

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

Anton: I go to a Tolkien rereading binge every few years, but I think of the books from my teen years as the ones that most influenced my style: Douglas Adams, Robert Aspirin and Craig Shaw Gardner - I wanted their levels of humor, William Gibson - I envied the way he dropped you in a story with little explanation and you as a reader had to hit the ground running to keep up, Stephen King - I desperately wanted to tap that vein of universality he hits when he turns a phrase.

Debra: Yes, I do that rereading binge too every so often. But I can't read King. He is so good he gives me nightmares. lol

Anton, thank you for visiting with us here on Make-Believe Mondays.

Readers can visit Anton at

His website www.antonstrout.com

http://antonstrout.livejournal.com/

His group blog with other urban fantasists: http://leagueofreluctantadults.com/

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

News and updates from Debra:

I'm adding this new feature at the end of all the interviews to let everyone know what I am up to as an author, what I am working on, where I am blogging, what I am following in the writing world.

First, I'm thrilled to announce my first novel, A Desperate Journey, will be out July, 2008.
I haven't seen the book cover yet and will soon be working on the edits. I closed down my travel agency at the end of 2007 to focus on writing full time, so of course that is a major shift for me.

I also blog over at
http://titlewave.blogspot.com/
with my American Title II sisters. I'll post a schedule of upcoming topics and bloggers there once we have the 2008 schedule worked out.

Make-Believe Mondays With Denise Eagan

I'm happy to be able to kick off the New Year here on Make-Believe Mondays with a visit from my American Title II sister, Denise Eagan, who we affectionately call Dee.

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

Dee: Yes, but sometimes not soon enough. It's not until they are actually talking to each other in my mind - sort of like a movie in the mind - that I can write anything. Still, I'm not completely "there" until I can imagine how they speak, how they interact after the end of the book. Another way I know if I "know" my characters is if I imagine them at a party together, and I know how they act at that party. For some reason that solidifies them for me. Everything else is learning exactly how they act at that party. For some reason that solidifies them for me. Everything else is learning about how they got to be the way they are.

Sometimes for me this is a matter of creation. Sometimes they are just there. That’s how both Wicked Woman and Wild Card were for me. I had the characters talking to each other in my head—the scenes rolling through my mind—before I had any thought of writing those books at all. Those of “gift” characters and “gift” books. Not that they don’t have their own challenges, they just “come” easier then ones where I have to sit down and figure out why this character is behaving this way or why that character won’t behave this way.

Debra: Tell us a little bit about the manuscript you are working on now.

Dee: The working title - sure to be changed because I'm very bad with titles - is Stalking Star. It's sort of a sequel to Wicked Woman and Wild Card, as in the heroine, Star, is the daughter of the hero and heroine in Wicked Woman, and starts talking about the hero, Nick, in Wild Card. Star is a woman's rights activist who has forgone marriage to pledge her life to the movement. But she doesn't want to forgo the intimacy of the marriage bed. Unfortunately, the conservative, uptight society men of Boston and New York are not willing to assist her in this endeavor. When she and her family visit with Colorado rancher Nick McGraw, she assumes that a Western man will be less uptight, and he become her latest target. It’s not until she has developed feelings for him that she learns he is not going to concede to her wishes, certainly not while they are inhabiting the same building. He may not be high society, but he does know right from wrong. As they the book progresses and the characters dance to the music of stalker and prey, Star’s secret admirer, unhappy with her association with the harridans of Women’s Right’s starts to do some stalking of his own. Only his comes with physical threats. . . .

Debra: The heroine sounds like a fascinating woman. I will be waiting for this one to come out.

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?

Dee: Oh yeah, I wrote one whole book based upon a dream I had. It was very warm dream and the “hero” of the dream was a vampire. I can’t see myself ever writing a vampire, book, though, so I took the characters of that dream, twisted and turned them, and came up with a book, Heart and Soul. Just so I could write that scene! Funny thing, though, I never put the scene in the book. In the end, the dream mostly just set the tone of the hero and his journey, dark and menacing, which I mixed with a heroine who is all light and humor. Eventually the book went on to take second place in WISRWA’s Fabulous Five contest.

Debra: Sometimes the writing of a book is a story all on its own and just as fascinating. :-)

Dee, thank you for visiting with us here on Make-Believe Mondays. It is lovely to be able to share the success of my ATII sisters with our readers.

Readers may email Dee at

victorianromance@comcast.net

Visit her at www.deniseeagan.com

and www.slipintosomethingvictorian.com

Make-Believe Mondays with Gina Black

Today on Make-Believe Mondays I am thrilled to be able to introduce my American Title II sister, Gina Black. Gina's first book, the Raven's Revenge, just came out and we are all celebrating its release.

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?

Gina: Creativity is everywhere. It's in fragrant flowers growing in a neighbor's garden, a cat's purr, a red balloon tied to a wrought iron fence, a hot cup of black tea with just the right amount of milk and sugar. To keep myself creative I take walks. I ride the bus to and from work. I watch people. I also indulge in knitting--a good time to work out plot points (unless I'm working on an intricate lace pattern!) and enjoy the feel of the soft fuzzy yarn (or smooth silk, or shiny bamboo). I firmly believe that the more we create the more we *can* create, so it's important to stay in practice. Specifically with my writing, I've found that I'm more creative if I write every day.

Debra: Yes, it becomes a way of life, a way of looking at everything around us and then inspiration is found everywhere we look, in everything we touch.

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

Gina: Yes, usually as I'm starting to fall asleep. Kidding. Kind of. My stories actually germinate in the dark recesses of my mind for quite some time before I start to write them. I don't do character sheets, although I usually work out the main plot points before I start writing. The main character usually comes to me first. When I stop deciding things about them and start hearing what they have to say about things I know they are taking over and it's time to start
writing the book. In THE RAVEN'S REVENGE, the hero, Nicholas, was right there from the very beginning, but Katherine, the heroine, took a lot more work and didn't appear as fully fleshed out until maybe the fifth revision.

Debra: Your process is so much like mine, the main character always coming first. (And I do believe that writers write even in their sleep even if they don't realize it.) ;-)

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

Gina: Books have always transported me to other times and places. From Dr. Suess' Mulberry Street, to A.A. Milne's 100 Acre Wood, stories have always given me worlds to visit and friends to cherish. Jo March, Laura Ingalls, Tom Sawyer, Elizabeth Bennett. Each in their own way
kept me company and helped me grow up and make choices for my life as they had for theirs. So many books were (and continue to be) part of my life I can't narrow it down to one.

Debra: Oh, there are so many to list, aren't there? Just when I think I have thought of them all another author answers this question and I think, oh yes, that one too. How can I have forgotten that one? lol

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?

Gina: I thought long and hard about this, but I couldn't come up with anything I would do differently than what I am doing now.

Debra: That is a wonderful thing to hear because it says you are right where you need to be, following your bliss.

Gina, thank you for coming to do the interview here at Make-Believe Mondays, and thank you for being such a wonderful supportive AT II sister.

Everyone, please visit Gina at her blog: http://www.theginachannel.com

and her website: http://www.ginablack.net

Make-Believe Monday with Theresa Meyers

Today on Make-Believe Mondays I'm thrilled to introduce my dear friend and American Title II sister, Theresa Myers. Theresa has sold her first book and we're all thrilled for her.

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

Theresa: I’m currently working on what can be best described as a regency Mr. & Mrs. Smith, called Lord & Lady Spy. James Ryland, Earl of Grayston, and a spy for the crown, was directed to find and eliminate the French spy, Le Fantom…the only thing stopping him was that Le Fantom turned out to be his wife.

The daughter of a British Marquis and a French aristocrat mother, Giselle was the perfect foil to disguise his spy work and a constant mystery to him. But after seven years of marriage, and an ever-increasing emotional gap between them, he is beginning to wonder if he really knows his wife at all.

For years Giselle has had a secret of her own. She has purposely deceived her husband as a double spy seeking to avenge her family lost to the revolution and assist those who were not as fortunate to escape as she was. While she secretly owes her allegiance to England, she is known as a spy for the French in order to gain the inside information no one else can obtain. Yet, even as she secretly works for the English against the French, her own personal goal is about to be realized. She has only one chance to save her brother being held by Napoleon’s forces. And no one is going to stop her.

While the movie Mr. & Mrs. Smith inspired me to start thinking in historical terms, the characters have really given the story a life of their own. Normally one doesn’t have the chance to put in sword fighting scenes where the heroine is a near match to the hero. It’s kind of fun seeing this alpha male have to realize that there’s every possibility his wife is capable of being his match professionally, as well as emotionally and that the secrets they’ve both kept really in the end are what bring them closer together.

Debra: I love sword fighting scenes and I can't wait to read this!

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

Theresa: Usually as soon as I have an idea who they are in terms of personality, they become very vivid for me. I’m a very visual person, so when I write it’s like I’m transcribing a movie in my head only with taste, touch and smellovision. The first draft through I am just writing down the basics of what is going on, who is where and what they are saying. Then I rewind the movie and find out what was happening around them and fill it in. As far as characters being real. Oh yeah. I’ve had some flat out refuse to do things and go walking off in an entirely different direction (which always makes the story stronger).

Debra: They can be stubborn that way, can't they? ;)

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

Theresa: Absolutely. My mother read to us using different voices for different characters. She was a total bibliophile and pretty much turned us into bibliophiles too. When she read a Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle you could feel the tesseract pull around you and pulsating energy off of the giant brain. When we read The Tower of Geburah by John White, you could smell the must in the attic where they find the televisions that transport them and the tingle in your fingers as Lisa picks up the book for the first time (by the way if your kids like the Narnia series or the Harry Potter series, I highly recommend The Tower of Geburah which is part of the Archives of Anthropos series.)

Debra: What a wonderful gift her story telling must have been. The way tales were once told around the campfire.

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?

Theresa: That’s a good question. In some measure I already have. The book is called The Morelock Project. It’s a sci-fi romantic adventure – think James Rollins crossed with James Patterson--where two scientists uncover a mummy of a centaur and are asked to find it’s origins by the government to uncover the possibility of genetic hybridization and how it would work. They crisscross the globe from the ruins of a ancient Etruscan site to the jungles of Thailand, where they encounter a secret sect bent on protecting humanity from the truth, that all those monsters we learned about in Greek mythology, weren’t myths, but oral history. They did exist and the humans on this planet were being used as colonial resources for experiments by the colony of “gods” at Atlantis. When they uncover the truth in the South China Sea, revealed by the tsunami, they have a choice to expose the truth or save the world.

Debra: That sounds fascinating!

Theresa, 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 Theresa at http://www.theresameyers.com/