THE "Temporary Anne" TOUR CONTINUES

We're in between Blog Ring of Power interviews today, but today I have a guest post from Briane Pagel instead:

I've been live-writing a horror story that has grown to include Beasts, bagpipes, flaming spiders, and more!  It's all to support my book "Temporary Anne", about a woman too evil to escape hell -- but so evil she JUST MIGHT. 

At each stop of the tour, I put another installment of the story up, and readers help decide what comes next. If you missed part of the story, here's the complete blog tour list:

1. Life Is Good: Friday 9/13

2. Strange Pegs: 9/16

3. Laws Of Gravity 9/18

4. The Blutonian Death Egg 9/20

5. Nigel G. Mitchell Author, Blogger, Geek 9/23

6. Jessica Bell Author/Musician 9/26

7. Sandra Ulbrich Almazan, Speculative Fiction Author 9/30

8.  Jess' Book Blog 10/3

9. Lara Schiffbauer's Motivation For Creation 10/7

10.PTDilloway.com 10/10

We're up to part SEVEN, and it's a doozy:

_____________________________________________________________________________

"You've got, I'd say, ten minutes," the man says.

"Before the egg sacs hatch?" one of me says.

"Before the poison paralyzes us?" another of me says.

"Before that guy" -- I gesture up -- "Gets away?" I say.

"Yes," says the Bearded Man.  "And also..."

All of mes are waiting for him to finish the sentence.  The pause goes on for long enough that I, or one of me, anyway, finally grows impatient.

"Well?!" I or someone like me says.  "What, you need more dramatic effect?"

"NO!" snaps The Bearded Man.  "SHUT UP!"

We all are quiet then.

He looks sad for a moment.

"Did you hear that?" he finally asks.

"Hear what?" me and another me say.

The third me says "I heard it. She's dead."

"Who's dead?" I ask but there's been only one female around here anyway and I know the answer to it.

"So there is a bottom," says the Bearded Man, "And that's not good for us.  Not good,  at all." He looks around at us again.

"What I was going to say, and it just got more urgent, is that you need to gather up as many of you as you can so that the antivenom can meld you back together.  We've got enough problems without you running around creating more problems."

"ME?" all the mes say.  "I didn't do any of this!"

The Bearded Man looks directly at me, the real me, or at least the first me: the me who is telling you this.

***WE TOLD YOU NOT TO TALK DIRECTLY TO US****

Look, I'm sorry, but I...

***SORRY IS NOT AN OPTION****

What does that mean?

***IT MEANS WHAT IT MEANS****

But that's true of everything. Except puns, I think. Because with puns you really mean something other than...

***GO ON WITH THE STORY****

Do I have to be upside down?

***PROBABLY, YES****

Probably? Or Yes?

***...****

What's tha...

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!

*** NOW, GO ON WITH THE STORY****

I... I...

I looked back at The Bearded Man, who says to me:

"Who do you think is creating all this?  Stephen King? Well he's not, he's dead, as are hundreds of others, thanks to you!"

There is the sound of an explosion from the top of the pit, followed by the faint echo of someone shouting "WOW! THAT REALLY BLEW ME AWAY!"  I ponder, briefly, how loud the explosion had to be to reach down here so quickly, and so audibly.

"...probably thousands," The Bearded Man says, "And our only-- our only -- chance to stop them is to gather up as many of you as we can, and grab The Beast, damn, we could really have used the Drum Major, maybe... NO. I can't let you make more."

I realize, then, that he is pointing one of the bagpipes at me.

"The Beast?" I say.  "But he's down there," and I point to where the egg sacs are heaving.

"Yes," The Bearded Man says.  "And that's where we're going.  All of us."

The other two mes all join me in shaking our heads.

"No way," I say.  "We'll just be heading in the direction that is not full of spiders and monsters."

"Don't make me use this," The Bearded Man says, menacing us with the bagpipes.

"Yeah, by all means, lets not force you to play Scotland the Brave while dancing around in a kilt."

The Bearded Man blows into one of the pipes, inflating the bag. As the windy, whirly strains of bagpipes begin to sound, the pipe that had been pointing at me is lifted, slightly, by his hand, and a flare of something very much like a laser shoots over my head.  There is a flash, a pop, smoke, and a bit of rock-dust floats around me.  I turn around and most of the wall of the pit has been disintegrated, to about twenty feet back.

"Wow," I say, as we all fall through the web, which is suddenly unsupported, and we drop into the blackness below us, The Bearded Man using his grappling hook/jetpack to stay with us, shouting directions.

"You!" at one of me "Push that egg sac off the net!"

"You!" at another of me. "Get by him!"  The other me did what he was told and stood next to me, as the first me began pushing at the writhing, swollen egg sac.  There were many more below us.

"Use that disintegrator on them!" I tell The Bearded Man.

"Doesn't work on things YOU make up," he says.  "That's why I have to do this!" And he pointed the bagpipe at me, and started to play it again.

"What the! No! I..." I start to protest, but then realize I had enough time to protest, or live, and I needed to do the latter more than the former. So I dove off the edge of this web, just as the disintegrator fires, and I hear not the whoosh of disintegration but some sort of zapping or popping sound, and The Bearded Man is yelling:

"YOU #$**#%&$ IDIOT!"

I fall to the next net, and seeing him looking down at me with his arm on the copy of me, I jump off that, too, and so I can barely see that something else has happened, that the me he's standing next to has become all stretched out and stringy and that The Bearded Man is having trouble letting go of him.

"YOU CAUSED ME TO INTEGRATE HIM WITH A SPIDER'S WEB!" I hear, but I'm diving off the next web, and the next, jumping my way down, and I'm about ten webs down from him when the spider's egg sacs hatch.

***YES, NOW WE ARE GETTING TO THE GOOD PART****

That depends on how you define good part.

***ENOUGH BACKTALK****

No, not agaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiii...

___________________________________________________________________________

OKAY, Readers, what happens next? Help Sandra decide by leaving your ideas in the comments.

___________________________________________________________________________

The FIRST REVIEWS ARE IN:  "It's fascinating. If you like horror, this is definitely a book worth reading."-- Andrew Leon

"Another chilling tale from the author of The Scariest Thing You Can't Imagine. ...Pagel's style reminds me a lot of Vonnegut's work in that while the narration seems jaunty with its humorous asides and such, there's a lot of hidden depth to that narration."-- PT Dilloway.

THANKS to everyone who's following the Temporary Anne blog tour!  

If you didn't already get it, "Temporary Anne" just $0.99 today, so click this link to download this excellent horror story. 

OH, AND ONE MORE THING: For being so great and all, I am going to make my book the After absolutely free today!

Saoirse's life didn't really begin until it ended: When a plane crashes, Saoirse wakes up in 'the After,' a place where everything is exactly what you want, unless what you want is to not be there.

Confused at first, Saoirse's new... life?... takes a turn for the (more) unexpected when William Howard Taft knocks on her door and says he knows a way out. From there, Saoirse travels through scenarios that are fantastical and mundane at the same time, trying to discover not just a way to end this new existence, but also whether she wants to do that in the first place.

'the After' is a heartbreakingly sad and funny mystical journey through one version of what happens after we die, told through the eyes of a woman clinging to the memory of a life she didn't know she cared about. Thoughtful but action-packed, 'the After' presents an entirely new and not always comforting view of what comes next for us all.

"A masterpiece of speculative fiction" -- author Michael Offutt.  GET IT FREE TODAY BY CLICKING HERE. 

Science of the Week, 9/27/13

Here are some of the most interesting science news articles I read this week:

Turning plastic bags into high-tech materials

"microbial clock" may help determine time of death

Toe fungus drug is found to eradicate HIV permanently from infected cells

Astronomers discover densest galaxy ever

New dwarfism mutation identified in dogs

Using genes to rescue animals and plants from extinction

Spinning CDs to clean sewage water

Engineers develop a stretchable, foldable transparent electronic display 

Yale team identifies molecular "finger" that pushes the domino of life

First evidence that fears can be reduced during sleep

Experimental drug eradicates brain tumors in mice

Creating electricity with caged atoms

Water for future Mars astronauts?

Have a good weekend, everyone, and stop by Monday for a special guest post by Briane Pagel!

Please Fill Out a Broad Universe Survey!

Broad Universe, the organization dedicated to promoting, encouraging, and celebrating women writers of SF, fantasy, and horror, wants to hear from you. They have a short survey up on their website asking for feedback on what programs they should provide, the proportion of women writers in various aspects of publishing, and other areas. It doesn't matter if you're a writer or not or a member or not--they'd like your opinion. It only takes a few minutes to fill out the survey, so why not click here and do it? They'll appreciate it--especially if you share this news with others. Thanks for your help!

Blog Ring of Power--Ellen Larson

Today I have with me Ellen Larson, who's here to discuss her current work. You can find the other parts of her interview at the links below:

About You--Terri--9/18
The Writing Life--Theresa--9/19
The Creative Process--Emily--9/20

Words of Wisdom--Vicki--9/24

Tell us about your new book—what is it about—and when it is out? Where can people purchase it? 

In Retrospect, the dystopian murder mystery, will be available about December 11th from amazon.com. Because Five Star’s main market is libraries, it will only be in a few book stores. Or you can attend my book launch, 2 PM Sunday, December 8 at the Somerville Public Library, where the book will be available at a discount or via a raffle.

Is there anything new, unusual, or interesting about your book? How is it different from other books on the same subject?

The fun of In Retrospect--and the challenge--is that the book is dystopian science fiction through and through, but shaped like a traditional murder mystery. Merit, my sleuth, is a professional investigator--or at least she was before her city was invaded and occupied by a supposedly peaceful neighboring state. She survived because she was attuned for time travel, a technology that the invaders covet. Forced to work for her enemies, she investigates the murder of her former General--whom she despised because he surrendered prematurely. The suspects include the General’s lover, the resistance operative who was once sent to assassinate the General, and Merit’s psychiatrist, who seeks power through the manipulation of the weak.


What was the hardest part of writing this book? 

It was extremely difficult to maintain a strong forward-moving plot given its unconventional structure (for example, the beginning of the book is also the end of the book) and the numerous flashbacks (the literary equivalent to time travel) to three different time periods: Merit as a child learning to be a Retrospector; Merit as an adult, falling in love and finding success; and Merit as a soldier and resistance operative during the war.

If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in this book? 

Nothing.

 Tell us about your book’s cover – where did the design come from and what was the design process like? 

My favorite subject. I was lucky enough to reconnect with an old friend, artist Mike Sissons, shortly after In Retrospect was accepted by Five Star. Mike has always been a fan of my writing, and--total coincidence--was looking for some really good descriptive writing that he could illustrate as practice for a course he was teaching. He did an amazing book trailer (www.inretrospectbook.com/trailer.html) and generated tons of art related to the book. The good folks at Five Star suggested that we use his art for the cover, which is great, because now the cover, the trailer, and the postcard and bookmark art are all integrated.



After 20 years working as a substantive editor in Egypt and the US, Ellen Larson was recently named editor of The Poisoned Pencil, the YA mystery imprint of Poisoned Pen Press. Ellen, who lives in an off-grid cabin, also writes. Her fiction has appeared in Yankee Magazine, Bloodroot Literary Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine (Barry Award finalist), and Big Pulp. Her dystopian mystery, IN RETROSPECT (Gale-Cengage, Five Star), will be out December 2013.

Former elite operative Merit Rafi suffered during her imprisonment at the end of a devastating war, but the ultimate torment is being forced to investigate a murder she would gladly have committed herself. In the year 3324 the Rasakans have attacked the technologically superior Oku. The war is a stalemate until the Oku commander, General Zane, abruptly surrenders. Merit, a staunch member of the Oku resistance, fights on, but she and her comrades are soon captured. An uneasy peace ensues, but the Rasakans conspire to gain control of the prized Oku time-travel technology. When Zane is murdered, the Rasakans exert control over Merit, the last person on Earth capable of Forensic Retrospection. In Retrospect is a good old-fashioned whodunit set in a compelling post-apocalyptic future.





Website:
Blog:
Goodreads author page:
Facebook
Twitter:
Amazon:
Smashwords:
Book trailer:
Other:

What format is your book(s) available in (print, e-book, audio book, etc.)?

In Retrospect: print (hc)
Measure of the Universe: print (tp), ebook
The Hatch and Brood of Time (reprint) - Feb 2014: print (tp), ebook

Science of the Week, 9/20/13

Here's the latest from Science Blog, and some of it is pretty interesting:

UK scientists convinced they've found extraterrestrial life

Biologists discover revolutionary new method for discovering antibiotics

Are nanodiamond-encrusted teeth the future of dental implants?

Emotional attachment to robots could affect outcome on battlefield

Scientists use "wired microbes" to generate electricity from storage

It's a shock: life on Earth may have come from out of this world

On the road to fault-tolerant quantum computing

Smartphone "microscope" can detect a single virus, nanoparticles

Superconductivity to meet humanity's greatest challenges

When lab organisms go wild

World's thinnest glass: 1-molecule thick

Tiny plankton could have big impact on climate

Molecule tricks HIV into destroying itself

Tiny bottles and melting corks: temperature regulates a new delivery system for drugs and fragrances


So, do you think extraterrestrial life could be reaching us? What would you do with nanodiamond-encrusted teeth, a microscope on your cell phone, or a melting perfume bottle?

Enjoy your weekend, and I'll see you Monday with another BRoP interview!

Back on the Blog Chain: Trouble with Titles

Alyson's question for us this round is about more than just trouble with titles, but I couldn't resist the alliteration. After all, alliteration can give titles more of a punch. Here's her complete question:

How do you come up with titles for your work? Does it just come to you or do you spend hours stressing about it? Do you use silly working titles? What have you read recently with a great title? An awful title?

I usually look for titles within my stories, and the titles come to me in their time. I like to find an unusual phrase or something intriguing that's strongly relevant to the plot. I don't use a silly or placeholder title, but sometimes I wind up changing the title if I think it doesn't work or if it's too similar to another title. For example, the original title of Lyon's Legacy was Move Over Ms. L., the title of a John Lennon song, but I decided to change the title when I removed Lennon's lyrics. Twinned Universes was originally called Thine Own Self from Hamlet, then I changed it to Across Two Universes to better fit the genre. Then, when Beth Revis's Across the Universe came out, I changed the title of my book to Twinned Universes. (Ironically, her book is named after a Beatles song, but I guess there's less chance of confusion there.) However, one of my short stories, "The Book of Beasts," turns out to have a common title. I guess I need to search for a title on Amazon or Google to see if it's been used before settling on it. While titles can't be copyrighted, they should be unique enough to be searchable.

One thing I forgot to mention earlier--with series, sometimes it's nice to find a way to tie all the books in a series together. I don't do that with the Catalyst Chronicles series, but all the titles I have so far planned for the Season Avatars series will have the word "Season" in them.

As for good or bad titles, I've recently read stories such as There's Only One Quantum, "Corporate Zombie," and "2BR02B." Those are pretty memorable, but sometimes when I'm reading a book on my Kindle, I can't remember the title of the book because I don't see it. This happened to me with Ripped and Other Adventures. Actually, I did remember the first word in the title was "Ripped," but I had trouble finding the title on Goodreads when I searched for that word.

For more about titles, check out Kate's post and see what Christine will say tomorrow.

Season Avatars Sneek Peek at Scene 13

Happy Sunday, Everyone! We're already in the middle of September, so it's my day to post at the Scene 13 group blog. Our challenge this month is to write a flash fiction piece based on a word/image we found in our current book. I used two characters from Scattered Seasons in my piece, so please head on over to Scene 13 and learn more about Gwen and Jenna. Enjoy the rest of your day!

Science of the Week, 9/13/13

Since it's Friday the 13th in 2013, I feel as if I should wish you "Good luck" or "Break a leg" or something similar. However, that seems unscientific and out-of-place in a blog post of science links:

Cell transplants may be a novel treatment for schizophrenia

Scientists demo new method for harvesting energy from light

Cancer vaccine begins Phase I clinical trials

Wireless network detects falls by the elderly

Artificial lung to remove carbon dioxide--from smokestacks

On the road to a new kind of car-sharing

Artificial-intelligence research revives its old ambitions

Protecting world's poor from climate change

Climate change may speed up forests' life cycles

Teleport: scientists transmit an atom from one location to another inside chip

AIDS vaccine candidate appears to completely clear virus from body

New system uses nanodiamonds to deliver chemotherapy directly to brain tumors

New material mimics calamari skin, is invisible to infrared cameras

Enjoy your weekend, everyone! If you're online Sunday, stop on by Scene 13 for my monthly post and a peek into the world of the Season Avatars!

The Indie Life: Indie Reader Guides

It's time again for another edition of Indie Life, when indie authors share their experiences and tips.

Are you an indie author looking for a place to showcase your book? Are you a reader who'd like to read more indie books and discuss them with other people? Check out Indie Reader Guides! This website is still under development, but it will offer several features useful to book clubs, such as lists of books arranged by genre, readers' guides, review copies, and private sub-forums for discussing books. I'm proud to say Lyon's Legacy will be among the books listed when the website is finished. Come check it out, and read more Indie!

Blog Ring of Power--Bonnie Milani

This round, the Blog Ring of Power is talking to Bonnie Milani. I get to discuss her creative process, but see the links below for the other parts of the interview:

About You--Theresa--9/5
The Writing Life--Emily--9/6
About Your Current Work--Vicki--9/10
Words of Wisdom--Terri--9/11


Where do you get your story ideas?

Good question.  'Home World' - the entire Home World universe - grew out of a recurrent dream I had waaaaayyyy too many years ago.  In it, a young woman in a highly decorated military uniform was chained to a dungeon wall.  Now, I am emphatically NOT into S & M, so the imagery in the dream both shocked & fascinated me.  I kept coming back to the dreamscape, trying to figure out just how a sensible, combat vet of a woman could wind up in such a situation.  Once I got the WHO &WHY worked out I had figure out the HOW.  By the time I was finished, I'd interviewed the head of the raptor section of the LA Zoo ( a wonderful man who was also Steven Spielberg's consultant for the raptor behaviors in Jurassic Park); sat with a professor of genetic engineering to work out a viable model for the genetic engineering that proved to be the core technology in the story.

How do you develop your plots and characters? Do you use any set formula?

I'm lucky enough to have been trained by folks like Syd Fields in structure so I'm a BIG believer it working out the key plot points in  outline first.  As the saying goes, ya gotta know where you're going if you hope to get there.  That's especially true when it comes to novels.   However, as I used to try to pound home to my students in my writing classes, NOTHING in the outline is set in stone.   I find that as the story develops, WHAT happens doesn't change so much as WHY it happens.

I think as writers we have a gut feeling for the real power points of the plot line; the problem generally is convincing our characters they want to go through all that pain and suffering.  So I've learned to let my characters develop the plot by pursuing their own ends.  Turns out I seem to create some fairly bloody-minded sorts so there's rarely a problem with getting them to do stuff to each other.

Are you a “plotter” or a “pantser” (do you plan/outline the story ahead of time or write “by the seat of your pants”)?

I'm probably a combination of the two.  I definitely work out the plot line first; I learned the hard way to force myself to tell myself the whole bluidy story with the novel, just so I could see who was doing what to whom; when; why.   But all that is really just to develop the through line that sets up the protagonist's character arc; the story's ultimate denouement.  Past that, the key thing is to figure out what each of the main characters really wants, and WHY they want it.  After that, it's a matter of turning 'em loose in my mind & letting 'em go for it.

Do you use critique partners or beta readers? Why or why not?

 Yes, absolutely!   Without the critiques and competition I get from seeing or hearing others' work and being on a submission deadline I would never get anything written at all.   EVERY writer MUST learn to endure constructive critiques.  It's the only way to learn how to craft a story.   Once the story's as finished as you can make it, you need the beta readers to go through and spot the flaws in your plot logic or character behavior, or anything of the dozens of things that can sabotage a good story, because by the time you've typed 'the end', you as the writer can no longer see those flaws yourself.  And we're not even starting on the brain farts...

That said, I've seen an awful lot of aspiring writers do truly savage critiques of fundamentally good stories.   When I was running a writer's group, I made sure to lay out ground rules specifically prohibiting any kind of personal or disrespectful comments in a critique.   The people who behave that way don't just injure the poor soul being savaged; they damage themselves as writers even more.   Producing a good, thoughtful critique is HARD because you have to lay out what works, what doesn't, explain WHY that particular element doesn't work for you and then - if you're doing it right - come up with a possible way to fix the problem.  DO it right and you'll teach yourself how to step back and look at your own work objectively enough to start seeing the structural problems in your stories.   It's the very best way to learn the craft of fiction writing.

How much time do you spend on research? What type of research do you do?

As much as necessary.  When I started out, there was no internet to provide quick'n not-necessarily-correct answers to just about any question in the universe.  It was library time & interviews.   Made learning a whole lot more time consuming, but also a whole lot more fun - and you pick up a tremendous amount of wonderful extra info in an interview that you won't get on-line.  Still, I'd say the rule of thumb remains the same:  you research everything you can find until you stop turning up new info.  When every answer you find is one you're already familiar with - you're ready.


Bonnie has taken what might be called the sandwich approach to writing. She started writing early, winning state-wide writing contests in grammar school, publishing an environmental fairy tale under the aegis of the NJ Board of Education in college. After earning her M.A. in Communication at Stanford, Bonnie freelanced feature articles for East Coast newspapers and regional magazines, from Mankind and Peninsula to Science Digest as well as how to articles for the late & much lamented fanzine Speculations. She stopped writing completely after marriage while building a pair of businesses with her husband. It was only with the successive deaths of each member of her family that she reclaimed her love of story-telling. Home World is the result. Today, Bonnie lives with her husband of thirty-six years in Los Angeles. She is still a full-time benefits broker, specializing in employee benefits for entrepreneurs and micro-businesses.

HOME WORLD: Amid the ruins of a post-apocalyptic Waikiki, Jezekiah Van Buren thinks he’s found a way to restore Earth – Home World to the other worlds of the human Commonwealth – to her lost glory.
Ingenious even by the standards of the genetically enhanced Great Family Van Buren, Jezekiah has achieved the impossible: he has arranged a treaty that will convert Earth's ancient enemies, the Lupans, to her most powerful allies. Not only will the treaty terms make Earth rich again, it will let him escape the Ring that condemns him to be Earth's next ruler. Best of all, the treaty leaves him free to marry Keiko Yakamoto, the Samuari-trained woman he loves. Everything’s set. All Jezekiah has to do is convince his xenophobic sister to accept the Lupan's alpha warlord in marriage. Before, that is, the assassin she's put on his tail succeeds in killing him. Or the interstellar crime ring called Ho Tong succeed in raising another rebellion. Or before his ruling relatives on competing worlds manage to execute him for treason.
But Jezekiah was bred for politics and trained to rule. He’s got it all under control. Until his Lupan warlord-partner reaches Earth. And suddenly these two most powerful men find themselves in love with the same woman. A woman who just may be the most deadly assassin of them all.

Home World will launch later this month, but in the meantime, you can connect with Bonnie on Facebook.

Science of the Week, 9/6/13

Here are some of the most interesting science news articles I read this week:

Training the older brain in 3-D: Video game enhances cognitive control

New low-temperature chemical reaction explained

Electric fish may hold answers to better understanding of sensory abilities and movement

Breakthrough technique could make electronics smaller, better

Why our black hole is a finicky eater: matter ejects itself before black hole can devour it

Aging really is "in your head"

Terramechanics research aims to keep Mars rovers rolling

Electronics advance moves closer to a world beyond silicon

No adverse effects in volunteers following Phase I clinical trial of AIDS vaccine

New research may expose new aspects of the universe

Transparent skull implant creates "window" to the brain

 An easier way to control genes

Canine remote control: hands-free dog walking for the digital age

DNA "cages" may aid drug delivery

As if this wasn't enough, this month's issue of Scientific American is devoted to food. If you like to eat, check it out.

Enjoy your weekend, and see you Monday!

Temporary Anne--Blog Tour Promo

SHE'S ALMOST HERE... and I'd advise not being here when she arrives.

My name is Anne. With each day of my life, my actions brought me closer to Hell. Now, with each day of what is left of my existence, I struggle to avoid the fate that was set out for me -- or rather, not just to avoid it, but to master it. 

 A contemporary horror classic, "Temporary Anne" presents the terrifying tale of a woman who avoids eternal damnation by sending others to take her place, scrambling to avoid the minions of Mephistopheles while searching for a way to allow her ravaged body to serve her indomitable will. The frightening images -- demons made of ice, babies' souls consumed -- will stick with you for as long as Temporary Anne exists -- which is FOREVER.

Get it on Amazon for $0.99!  And watch for the blog tour where you can win free copies of this book and all my others.  The tour will be:

1. Life Is Good: Friday 9/13

2. Strange Pegs: 9/16

3. Laws Of Gravity 9/18

4. The Blutonian Death Egg 9/20

5. Nigel G. Mitchell Author, Blogger, Geek 9/23

6. Jessica Bell Author/Musician 9/26

7. Sandra Ulbrich Almazan, Speculative Fiction Author 9/30

8.  Jess' Book Blog 10/3

9. Lara Schiffbauer's Motivation For Creation 10/7

10.PTDilloway.com 10/10

For this tour, Briane will not only be offering not only giveaways of Temporary Anne and his other books, but he'll  be writing a short horror story on the go: he''ll begin the story and each host and their readers will get to suggest where the story goes next.  It's a blog tour like no other!

Back on the Blog Chain: Not Finishing What You...

It's my turn to pick the topic for this round of the blog chain. Naturally, I have to make it a tough one:

Is there a writing project you've failed to finish? If so, why? Are you planning to return to it at some point? Alternatively, describe a book you started to read but didn't finish and why you didn't finish. You don't have to name the book.

I have a slew of partial short stories that I've abandoned, at least for now. Some of them are several years old, while others are more recent. Probably my biggest reason for abandoning them is plot--or rather, not knowing how to resolve the plot. Some of these stories no longer interest me, but there are a couple that I would like to finish and publish. There's always the possibility that I may take the story idea and rework it into something else, the way I transformed an old short story called "Antidote for a Family Feud" into "Letters to Psyche."

I have to admit I do have some abandoned novels as well. One of them is the final volume in the Season Avatars series. I wrote the first two books when I was trying to traditionally publish them, but I dropped the series when I failed to get anywhere with it and became interested in what's now the Catalyst Chronicles series. Now that I can independently publish the Season Avatars series, I've regained my interest in it. However, since I'm starting with a brand new prequel, and since I've made several changes to the world, I'm going to have to revise what's already been written anyway. So perhaps it wasn't so terrible of me to leave that first draft unfinished. Also unfinished is a NaNoWriMo project I started a few years ago about a pair of shapeshifting sisters. I've discovered NaNoWriMo, although fun, doesn't really work well for me in terms of finishing a story, not just putting 50,000 words down. Again, maybe someday in the future, when I've cleared some of my current projects from my brain, I can return to that story. While there's life, there's hope, right? And hopefully I'll have fewer abandoned projects as my writing career continues.

To follow the rest of the chain, check out what Kate said yesterday, then visit Christine's blog tomorrow.

Blog Ring of Power--Michelle Hauck

I accidentally posted part of this interview before, but now the Blog Ring of Power is set to post the complete interview with Michelle Hauck. Please welcome her back to the blog.

You can read the other parts of the interview here:

About You--Terri--8/28
The Writing Life--Theresa--8/29
The Creative Process--Emily--8/30
Words of Wisdom--Vicki--9/3

Tell us about your new book—what is it about—and when it is out? Where can people purchase it?

Kindar’s Cure is a story of a princess, shunned by her family and everyone else because she has a lung illness. Disease in this world means the gods find you unworthy. When her older sister is murdered, the blame goes straight at her. She sets off with a bumbling wizard to find a cure and nothing turns out as expected. It is available in paperback or e-book from Amazon and Barnes and Noble. You can also buy it from the Divertir website.

Is there anything new, unusual, or interesting about your book? How is it different from other books on the same subject?

I would have to say that Kindar’s disease makes this different from the average epic fantasy. She has a lot of resentment because of her illness and it has made her a closed-off person.

What was the hardest part of writing this book?

The hardest part was forcing myself to finish it. I really didn’t want to let go of the characters and have it end.

What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write and why?

My favorite part of Kindar’s Cure is my main character, Kindar. The most fun part was writing the secondary character of Kindar’s nurse. Lindy is a woman with very set ideas. She says what she thinks and that often comes out as comic relief. I hear over and over that Lindy is the favorite character.

Did you learn anything from writing this book and what was it?

Kind of like my main character, I learned that I could accomplish anything I set my mind to.

If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in this book?

Honestly, the only thing I would change is to add back in two small scenes I removed to make it a stand-alone ending. I think those scenes deserve to be there, even if the ending is not a clean cut. I hope to put them up on my blog for anyone interested.

Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?

Believe in yourself. Don’t be afraid to take help.

Tell us about your book’s cover – where did the design come from and what was the design process like?

The cover art was a long search. Divertir let me choose the picture, but it was difficult to find one that fit. I wanted a model that really represented my main character. It isn’t easy to find a sickly-looking short girl in a lonely setting. Finally, I found a picture that was Kindar. I shared it with my publisher and just when they got ready to create the cover, the photo was removed from the site. I panicked! My publisher suggested other pictures but those models weren’t Kindar. I did a web search and found the photo on another site. That was probably my happiest moment of the whole process when we got the photo I wanted.

Michelle Hauck lives in the bustling metropolis of Northern Indiana with her hubby and two teenagers. Two papillons help balance out the teenage drama. Besides working with special needs children by day, she writes all sorts of fantasy, giving her imagination free range. A book worm, she passes up the darker vices in favor of chocolate and looks for any excuse to reward herself. Bio finished? Time for a sweet snack. Her epic fantasy, Kindar’s Cure, is released from Divertir Publishing. A short story, Frost and Fog, will be released in a summer anthology from The Elephant’s Bookshelf Press.

Princess Kindar of Anost dreams of playing the hero and succeeding to her mother’s throne. But dreams are for fools. Reality involves two healthy sisters and a wasting disease of suffocating cough that’s killing her by inches. When her elder sister is murdered, the blame falls on Kindar, putting her head on the chopping block.

A novice wizard, Maladonis Bin, approaches with a vision—a cure in a barren land of volcanic fumes. As choices go, a charming bootlicker that trips over his own feet isn’t the best option, but beggars can’t be choosers. As Mal urges her toward a cure that will prove his visions, suddenly, an ally turns traitor, delivering Kindar to a rebel army, who have their own plans for a sickly princess.

With the killer poised to strike again, the rebels bearing down, and the country falling apart, she must weigh her personal hunt for a cure against saving her people.


Blog: http://www.michelle4laughs.blogspot.com/
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/Michelle4Laughs?ref=hl
Goodreads author page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6692215.Michelle_Hauck
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Michelle4Laughs