Blog Ring of Power--Karina Fabian

Today the Blog Ring of Power is interviewing Karina Fabian. I first heard of her when we both had stories published in the anthology Firestorm of Dragons. Since then, she's published other works, including Live and Let Fly and her latest, I Left My Brains in San Francisco, the second in the Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator series. Let's learn more about Karina's creative process:

Where do you get your story ideas?

I once watched my grandmother make chocolate frosting for a cake by going through her shelves, pulling out a little of this, some of that, seemingly at random, and making them into something amazing.  I tend to write the same way—little bits here and there.  For example, *I Left My Brains in San Francisco* came as a result of a needing a second book for my character Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator, a trip to San Francisco, my brother-in-law’s suggestion that a refinery would be a good place for a zombie attack, and a prompt chat in which we were to sell a vehicle that ran on manure.

Do you have a specific writing style?

Like so many things, this can vary by story, but my writing is usually more action and dialogue-oriented.  I don’t go in for long, literary descriptions illustrating the pathetic fallacy of the cornfield in the rain.

How do you deal with writer’s block?

I don’t believe in writer’s block.  I have been lazy or intimidated by a story, but not really blocked.  The only way to deal with either of those is to work through them.  Give yourself permission to write junk—you can always clean it up later—and go for it.

How do you develop your plots and characters? Do you use any set formula?
For the most part, I start with the character or a situation, and it grows.  I don’t follow a formula, fill out character worksheets, or do any kind of trick.  I just imagine and let it flow.

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 a little of both, in varying degrees, depending on the book.  For I Left My Brains in San Francisco, I pantsed, and had to go back and reorganize a few scenes in order to fix the flow.  (There are a lot of independent scenes of zombie sightings and attacks.)  Other times, I’ve written extensive outlines, and sometimes, I plot out a basic progression and let my characters take over.

Do you use critique partners or beta readers? Why or why not?
I love critiquers.  They help me find my errors, whether typos or problems in the content or characterization.  I have a few friends who are writers and who know not to hold back when it comes to critiquing.  They’re invaluable!

How much time do you spend on research? What type of research do you do?
I spend as much as I need to answer the questions I have, then I move on.  So I do a lot of looking things up on the internet—yes, I sometimes even use Wikipedia—or I call a source.  It’s lots of fun calling people cold and asking them to help out in my bizarre plots.  For I Left My Brains in San Francisco, I talked to Greg Hardy, Manager of State Government Affairs, Rocky Mountain Division, at Chevron about planning a zombie attack.  It was fun.

Is there anything you find particularly challenging to write?

Literary descriptions illustrating the pathetic fallacy of a cornfield in the rain?

Website: http://fabianspace.com, http://dragoneyepi.net, http://zombiedeathextreme.com
Blog:  http://fabianspace.blogspot.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karina.fabian
Twitter:  http://twitter.com/#!/KarinaFabian
Google +:  https://plus.google.com/103660024891826015212
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/10981939-karina-fabian


Zombie problem? Call Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator--but not this weekend.

On vacation at an exterminator’s convention, she's looking to relax, have fun, and enjoy a little romance. Too bad the zombies have a different idea. When they rise from their watery graves to take over the City by the Bay, it looks like it'll be a working vacation after all.

Enjoy the thrill of re-kill with Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator.


Find I Left My Brains in San Francisco at:
Damnation Books: http://www.damnationbooks.com/book.php?isbn=9781615727643
Amazon: http://amzn.to/Nzm01L (paper) http://amzn.to/OBBmkL (Kindle)
More about it at http://zombiedeathextreme.com


Winner of the 2010 INDIE for best Fantasy (Magic, Mensa and Mayhem) and a Global eBook Award for Best Horror (Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator), Karina Fabian’s writing takes quirky twists that keep her--and her fans--amused. Nuns working in space, a down-and-out Faerie dragon working off a geas from St. George, zombie exterminators—there’s always a surprise in Fabian’s worlds. Mrs. Fabian teaches writing and book marketing seminars online.

For the rest of Karina's interview with the Blog Ring of Power, please follow these links:

Part One--About You (Theresa)
Part Two--The Writing Life (coming soon, Emily)
Part Four--About Your Current Work (coming Tuesday, Dean)
Part Five--Words of Wisdom (coming Wednesday, Terri)

Back on the Blog Chain: Can You Feel It?

For this round, Christine picked the topic:

How do you add emotional depth to your stories? How to do [stet] know when you have enough emotional content? And how to [stet] you keep it authentic?

Annie posted before me, and Archy will follow.

Before I get started, here's my theme song for this topic:




I'm going to answer the questions out of order.

How do you add emotional depth to your stories? I actually took an e-mail course on Empowering Characters' Emotions several years ago through the Romance Writers of America. Unfortunately, I don't think they offer the Killer Instinct classes anymore. We covered too much material for me to summarize it effectively, but I can offer a few tips (and examples from my own work). One of my techniques is to consider physical responses to emotion as a sixth sense, one focusing on the body. This means I sprinkle in physical responses to emotion as I would any other piece of description. Here's an example from my short story "A Reptile at the Reunion"; I wrote this paragraph as a writing exercise for my course:

Anger seeped like acid into my stomach, then erupted, burning my face and pooling in my palms. Even the hair on my forearms felt repulsed by it. My jaws ached like overstretched rubber bands as I clamped them shut.

(The examples were supposed to be over-the-top, but I don't think it's too much.)

Emotions also affect characters' perceptions, so I have them color how the character views a setting. Here's an example from my current novel, Across Two Universes. The main character, Paul, is at his mother's funeral:

Paul’s inner strength melted when he reached the funeral home’s entrance. He sagged against the black iron railing. Below him, fresh green grass and yellow flowers taunted him with their exuberance. How could anything be normal or joyful again?

How do you keep it authentic? Here, I do what most writers do: draw on my own experiences and my observations of other people. Even if I haven't experienced exactly what my character is going through, I can project how I might feel onto him or her. I have to have some empathy for his or her situation; after all, as Robert Frost said, "no tears in the writer, no tears in the reader." (I like this quote so much I've used it in another Blog Chain post.) I also try to make sure the emotions flow naturally in the scene and that they are appropriate responses to stimuli. (I learned this from Jack Bickman's Scene and Structure.) Sometimes this may require rearranging scene elements.

How do you know when you have enough emotional content? When my readers react the way I want them to react. I'm too wrapped up in the story to judge it effectively, but if I can make a reader feel my character's pain, then I've done my job.

Feel free to follow the other links in the chain to learn how other writers handle emotion. Tune in later this month for another Blog Chain topic!

Justifying an Addiction

Since I joined Facebook, I've been trying lots of the applications people keep sending me. Some of them I try a couple of times and decide I don't care for them too much, but some of them can be practically addicting. One of the latter is Pet Dragons One (a sequel is in the works). It's a simple premise; a friend gives you a dragon egg, and you hatch it and raise the dragon. Every day you have twenty actions, or turns, you can use in feeding your dragon, letting it collect gold, or training it for combat with other dragons. There are a variety of different strategies one can use in this game; you can try to be the biggest dragon, the richest, the best fighter, or an all-around type of dragon. Although the game really doesn't require a lot of time (you can use all of your turns in a few seconds, and once you send your dragon off to combat, it can take up to twelve hours to resolve the battle), I still find myself checking the game constantly and learning as much as I can on the forum. I'm also looking forward to Pet Dragons Two, which should be coming out in the next month or two.

It didn't take me long to realize that a group of people who are interested in dragons might be interested in reading about dragons, especially the Firestorm of Dragons anthology. When I set up my dragon, I named her after a character in my short story, and I based her profile on that short story too. I did mention the anthology on the forum, though I did so in a thread devoted to dragon books. And tonight, when I earned enough gold to buy a custom title, I chose "Firestorm of Dragons." I wanted to make it "Read Firestorm of Dragons," but it didn't fit. I don't know if this marketing will have any effect, but I figure it's my best chance at turning the game gold into real cash.

Blog Tour Schedule

Here's the schedule for the blog tour promoting Firestorm of Dragons this month:

November 1 (Authors and Characters Interview) Time with Tannia www.timewithtannia.tripod.com
1 (book Information) Tree Lady http://tree-lady.livejournal.com

3 (character interview) The Book Connection http://www.thebookconnectionccm.blogspot.com/ 3 (Information) Interview Joy in the Journey www.teresaslack.blogspot.com

5 (summary) Brenda Weaver http://brenda-weaver.tripod.com

6 (Summary) Kim Richards on Live Journal http://kim-richards.livejournal.com/
6 (summary) Kim Richards on My Space http://www.myspace.com/kim_richards
6 (summary) Kim Richards on Blogger http://kim-richards.blogspot.com/

10 (character interview) The Book Connection http://www.thebookconnectionccm.blogspot.com/

13 (Kim Richards Interview) Bibliophile's Retreat http://bibliophilesretreat.com

14 (Review of Anthology) Bibliophile's Retreat http://bibliophilesretreat.com

15 (summary) Cathi's Chatter http://cathischatter.blogspot.com

16 (review) Cathi's Chatter http://cathischatter.blogspot.com

17 (character interview) The Book Connection http://www.thebookconnectionccm.blogspot.com/

20 (book trailer) Cathi's Chatter http://cathischatter.blogspot.com

22 (Bios/book information) Books and Authors http://joyceanthony.tripod.com/blog

24 (Karina Fabian and Vern Interview) Bibliophile's Retreat http://bibliophilesretreat.com

25 (Sandra Ulbrich Interview) Bibliophile's Retreat http://bibliophilesretreat.com

Thank you to all of the blogs featuring us this month! Please go check them out.

Feeling Like Royalty...

Or should I say, royalties.

I got my first royalty payment today for my short story in the Firestorm of Dragons anthology. It's quite a heady feeling, though I won't be quitting my day job anytime soon. And considering Alex has been having some rough times today due to his ear infection--not to mention he's currently Resisting A Rest--it's good to have something good happen today.

Firestorm A-Brewing

Now that it's August (we're expected to reach the 90's today, but with all the storms we've had so far, I don't know if that will happen), it's time to start thinking about Christmas. At least, that's what my co-authors and editors have decided. They want to promote Firestorm of Dragons as a gift for the dragon-lover. (But why not go ahead and buy it now? It's always reading season in my universe!) So we're going to do a blog tour in November. I don't have many details yet, but I'll post them as they become available. One thing that I do know is that there's a Yahoo! group set up specificially for this book tour, and it's open to bloggers/podcasters as well as the authors. If you know anyone who might be interested, please tell them or pass me the contact information. In the meantime, I'll need to increase my presence in the blogging community to help promote this book. I figure by November, Alex should be past the point where he needs to grab Mommy's fingers to walk around the house. Instead, I'll only have to jump up every five seconds to prevent a walking/climbing/exploring accident. I'm sure I can accomplish a lot with the other four seconds....

ETA: Maria makes a good point; I should include the link to the Yahoo! group. Here it is:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/firestormofdragons/

And I can't believe I forgot this (though I've forgotten a couple of other things at work today too); it's the trailer for the book on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWgszslAEtM
As always, links to the official website for Firestorm of Dragons and the publisher's website are on the sidebar on the right.

Our Son is One! (And Other Wonderful Things)

I'm a little late on this, but Alex turned one on Friday. At daycare, he got to wear a little crown (I'm not sure how much he liked that), and they sang, "Happy Birthday" to him. That evening, a photographer came out to our house to take pictures. We know her so well we invited her, her husband, another photographer from the same company, and the second photographer's husband (do you have all of that?), to stay for dinner. It was a relatively simple meal, but Eugene more than made up for that with his mile-high apple pie, made with two dozen apples. (I'm not kidding; this pie is huge.) Too bad we didn't have enough time to make our own vanilla ice cream. It was fun having them over.

Saturday we had another couple of guests over for Alex's first playdate. We hit it off with a couple in our childbirth class last year, so the mother and her daughter came over. I'm not sure what Alex thought about another baby exploring his house and playing with his toys, though he did watch the little girl try to climb the stairs. I'm afraid that may have put ideas into his head--not what Mommy and Daddy need! We may go visit them in a couple of weeks.

Today Alex and I went to a friend's bridal shower. I had to wake him up from a nap, but we were still late. He behaved pretty well, though towards the end he was a little fussy. We let him nap before going shopping.

As for the other wonderful thing I mentioned, Firestorm of Dragons is now available through Amazon.com and other online outlets! Order early, order often! Now, all I need to do is find some writing time. With Alex's party next week, it may be tough to find any time at night to work.

Writing News

Lots of writing stuff to post today.

First, I'd like to spread the news about a dialogue contest being run on Nathan Bransford's blog. Nathan is a literary agent at Curtis Brown Ltd. He's challenging people to post up to 250 words of dialogue and supporting description. The contest ends tomorrow at 5:00 Pacific Time (he's out of California). I posted a snippet from Thine Own Self. There are nearly 400 entries already, so we'll see Thursday morning if I made it to the finalist round.

Second, one of the writers I know, Maria Zannini, is celebrating the release of her debut novel, Touch of Fire, a fantasy romance. It's available here as an e-book and will be in print late next year.

Finally, and most exciting personally, I found out from Dragon Moon Press that copies of Firestorm of Dragons are on their way to me. I should receive them Thursday in time to bring them to WisCon. I'm planning to be part of Broad Universe's Rapid-Fire Reading there (reading from my short story) and will be selling copies of the anthology at their table in the Dealer's Room. I can't wait to see the book!

New Links

I added a couple of new links to the sidebar. The first and most important one is a link to the website for Firestorm of Dragons, the anthology which will contain my first published story. The list of authors on the site is currently incomplete (I'm one of the missing), but my short story is mentioned. The listing is also available on Amazon, though Amazon says it won't be available until June 1, while the website says it's coming out in mid-May. I hope the latter date is correct so I can bring copies to WisCon. There's already a book review available here, and it's a good one. It's going to be so exciting to see this book in print.

The second link I added is to the website for the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar, or SPOGG. The site is actually pretty sparse at the moment, though the blog contains listings of bad grammar in action (so it can be corrected, of course). Still, it's important to promote good grammar, so I figure it's worth doing my part to spread the word.

Synopsis Writing and Other Things

I haven't blogged much lately since I was busy with the synopsis writing workshop held through OWW's focus mailing list. If you're not familar with synopses (as I expect most of you are), they're summaries of a novel used to pitch them to agents and editors. They have to sum up an entire novel (which can be over 100,000 words) in just a couple of pages, all while being clear in conveying plot, setting, and character development. No wonder many novelists dread doing them. For this workshop, we started off by reading some "how-to" articles and sample snyopses, then writing one of our own. I wrote one for Thine Own Self, previously known as Lennon's Line. Three people commented on my synopsis. Unfortunately, I got so swamped with work and taking care of Alex (as usual, he's sick) that I haven't had a chance to revise and resubmit my synopsis. I'll probably post it on the OWW workshop once I've revised it.

In other writing news, I'm rewriting the first couple chapters TOS, trying to make my main character more sympathetic. I also signed up for a panel at WisCon, but it'll be a while before I learn if that goes through. Even if it doesn't, I'm participating in a rapid-fire reading with BroadUniverse. Also, the website for the anthology A Firestorm of Dragons is up; this anthology includes one of my short stories. I'll have to post a link to the website when I have more time.

Not much else going on otherwise, just trying to keep up with work and the house and everything else I have to do. I need to split myself into two or more people to get everything done!