Guest blogger talks about determining a setting in your novel

Bestselling Novelist Karen Dionne talks about how she chose the setting for her newest novel, Boiling Point.

Editor's Note: If you are inspired, awe struck or just emotional about a particular place consider using it as a setting in a novel. A place with such emotional ties adds a rich element to the story.

Karen Dionne is the internationally published author of Freezing Point, a science thriller nominated by RT Book Reviews as Best First Mystery of 2008. 

A second environmental thriller, Boiling Point, about an erupting volcano, a missing researcher, and a radical scheme to end global warming is forthcoming from Berkley in January 2011.

Karen is cofounder of the online writers community Backspace, and organizes the Backspace Writers Conferences held in New York City every year. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and the International Thriller Writers, where she currently serves on the board of directors as Vice President, Technology. 

She is also Managing Editor of the International Thriller Writers' newsletter and webzine, The Big Thrill.

My new environmental thriller, Boiling Point, is about an erupting volcano, a missing researcher, and a radical scheme to end global warming involving geo-engineering. The story takes place during the time of a real volcanic eruption: Chaitén volcano, in Northern Patagonia, Chile.

Chaitén Volcano came to life for the first time in 9,000 years on May 2, 2008 in a major eruption. The magma blasted 3.1 miles through Earth’s crust in only four hours, giving the people living in the town at the base of the volcano six miles away just 30 hours’ warning. The volcanic plume climbed 12 miles into the stratosphere, covering much of Patagonia with ash and drifting as far east as the Atlantic. 

No one lost their life, but ten days later, heavy winter rains washed the ash that covered the ruined mountains into the river, creating a lahar that caused the banks of the Rio Blanco to overflow and destroying 90% of the town.

Because my publisher bought Boiling Point before it was written, I was able to travel to Chaitén volcano one year after the initial eruption for onsite research. I stayed in Chaiten town, even though the town was still evacuated and without electricity and running water, and hiked to within one mile of the new lava dome, where I saw steam vents, heard explosions coming from the caldera, and felt a small earthquake. It was an amazing and inspiring trip that definitely informs the novel!

I chose Chaitén as the location for Boiling Point after I saw this amazing picture of the initial eruption that was making the rounds of the Internet:

 As I wrote the chapters leading up to the moment of eruption, was really looking forward to describing that amazing plume:

"A colossal pillar of ash and gas spewed from Chaitén’s caldera. Molten rock colored the column red as it streaked for the stratosphere, turning the sky around it a sickly yellow. Plumes of steam erupted from the surrounding rocks, cheering the inferno heavenward like hissing demons."

Boiling Point follows several characters’ stories until they all converge at the volcano at the end, and so not long after, I had the chance to describe the plume again from another character’s point of view:

"To the east, the massive pillar of ash stretched into the night. It roiled and pulsed like a living thing, lit from within by great sheets of orange and red flame like a Hollywood explosion that just kept going. Flickering around it and through it were brilliant bolts of lightning, dancing and chasing each other, lighting up the whole plume and the layers of cloud above and below with purple. A terrifying construct of fire and lightning and smoke. A vile, elemental monster, looming over his town, threatening to rain down flame and thunder. Heart-stopping. Terrifying. Like something born of the perverse imagination of a disaster movie director. This wasn’t something that happened in real life. And yet there it was, right in front of him, and Gabriel was watching it with his own eyes."

And not long after that, again:

"And then there was the volcano. At the edge of the caldera, wisps of steamlike mist. Beyond, a smoking hump—a newborn lava dome, barely visible in the shifting ribbons that curled up around it. A brand-new mountain where none had been a day ago. It smoked and shuddered, and even from this distance they could hear it pop and rumble as boulders tumbled down its slopes. The tendrils of steam that spewed from its sides rose up to meet the main column, a vast nightmare tower of churning ash and steam. It rose up into the heavens and mixed with the clouds until Ross couldn’t tell where the volcano’s plume ended and the sky began, spreading its umbrella over the world and raining down ash. Ash that was falling on them."

– and again:

"An angry black column of ash and debris filled the sky, writhing and roiling like something alive, so big, she felt like an ant contemplating the smoke from a roaring campfire. Like the lone survivor of an atomic blast."

–  and again    

"At last, the caldera. She craned her neck as she drove through a passage that was eerily similar to the one she’d entered from the other side barely twenty-four hours ago. Towering walls guarding a narrow entrance, the gates of Hell. Inside, a world of fire, steam, and smoke. Staggering in its immensity and power. Elemental. She could feel Chaitén’s vibrations thrumming through the floorboards. See the rocks crumbling off the cliff faces as she drove between them. Smell the sulfurous odor belching from the bowels of the Earth. Hear the mountain roar. The vast expanse of rocky ground was split apart, riddled with cracks oozing new rock, spurting steam. And in the middle, a hill of red rock that was already the size of a small mountain, vomiting a roiling tower of ash and gas from the center of the Earth, darkening the skies and raining down cinders and ash: the newborn lava dome. Dante’s Inferno."

– again and again and again. I’ll admit, by the time the last character saw the volcanic plume for the first time, it was becoming a real challenge to find a fresh way to describe what was essentially exactly the same thing.

Don’t get me wrong: Boiling Point was a lot of fun to write. After all, the novel has a 40-page climax that takes place IN the caldera of an erupting volcano – it doesn’t get more exciting than that! But having the bulk of the story take place immediately following Chaitén’s eruption created another descriptive challenge, as the following video illustrates:

(Chaitén volcano, Northern Patagonia, Chile. Video by Karen Dionne. To see more photos and video of my research trip to Chaitén volcano, visit www.karendionne.net)

 My next novel, I’m choosing a more colorful setting!

To read an excerpt from Boiling Point, click here.

Want to publish your manuscript as an ebook - try Pubit

It seems there is only one formidable opponent competing on level ground with Amazon's Kindle and that is Barnes & Noble.

With the launch of their new ebook self-publishing venture, Pubit, in early October, the book store giant is finally on equally footing with Amazon.

Pubit was the last puzzle piece in the new paradigm of publishing that Barnes & Noble needed to take on Amazon with equal word power. (excuse the pun)

Both companies have control of the entire ebook publishing process from obtaining manuscripts to marketing, sales and distribution.

Here are the similarities:

Both companies have a huge inventory of books.
Both have years of experience selling books.
Both have comparable ebook readers with similar features and now both have self-publishing ventures. (Pubit and Kindle)

Cover via Amazon

And the war is on. Check these other similarities between the two competitors as they try to one up each other.

Amazon pays its Kindle authors 70% of the list price if the price is $2.99 or more.
B&N pays its Pubit authors 65% of the list price if the price is between $2.99 and $9.99.

It is free to upload and publish your manuscript as an ebook on both Amazon and on Pubit.

Both companies have free, downloadable apps that will allow their ebooks to be read on other devices such as the iPad, iPhone, Android, PC and other mobile devices.

B&N claims they have more than 2 million NOOKbook titles.
Amazon claims to have more than 725,000 Kindle titles.

Amazon lowered its Kindle price to $189 last year.
B&N lowered its NOOK price to $149.

Amazon produced a next generation Kindle that is thinner, has longer battery life and a crisper screen in a cool graphite shell.
B&N recently introduced a full color model in a graphite body with a full touchscreen.

So what's next?

More great ebook devices and apps at great prices and lower book prices.

Who will win? No one knows. Maybe both will.

For authors undecided about publishing on the Kindle or the NOOK, well, pick one or pick both. You will win either way. Both companies have an equally strong market share and different market segments.

After all, think of how boring life would be if there were only one car company, one computer company, one pizza shop, and only one big ebook retailer.

Related articles

• Publish Your Own EBook (And Profit!) With Barnes and Noble's PubIt! [Ebooks] (gizmodo.com)
• Review: Barnes & Noble NookColor (crunchgear.com)
• Barnes & Noble PubIt! Good-bye Agents & Publishers, Hello Profits (cultofmac.com)
• Customers Begin To Touch the Future of Reading™ As Barnes & Noble Starts to Ship NOOKcolor™, The Ultimate Reading Experience (eon.businesswire.com)

Is Dark End of the Spectrum a Harbinger of the Future?

When I started researching my thriller/mystery about digital terrorists, DARK END OF THE SPECTRUM in 2005, I found that many security experts were talking about cyber threats and the possibility that organized hackers could take down the any major US infrastructure like telecommunications or the power grid. But their concerns went unheeded mainly because the mindset was that things that went on in cyberspace didn't affect things in the physical world.

Image via Wikipedia

But the technology was there and in place only the human part of the equation had not yet caught up with it. As technical novelist and visionary William Gibson wrote, "The future has already arrived, it is just not widely distributed."

But, when I Googled specific incidents that I read about on the Internet, there was little or no press on them. Just unofficial sources of information. But my instinct told me the threats were real and they had occurred.

The truth was that many companies, governments and organizations that had been hacked kept it secret. They didn't want the world to know as well as other hackers that their computer networks could be breached.

The problems have been escalating significantly since 2005 as more and more of our daily lives depend on the Internet.

Just last week The New York Times and other major media reported that Google asked the NSA (National Security Agency, the super secret agency that is charged with global electronic surveillance) to look into "computer network attackers who breached the company’s cybersecurity defenses last year, a person with direct knowledge of the agreement said Thursday," according to a report on Feb. 4 by The New York Times.

Google said the attacks originated in China, according to The Times and this is not the first time US government agencies, corporations and major infrastructures like the power grid and water treatment facilities have reported cyber attacks from China.

The Times article further reported that,

"Concerns about the nation’s cybersecurity have greatly increased in the past two years. On Tuesday, Dennis C. Blair, the director of national intelligence, began his annual threat testimony before Congress by saying that the threat of a crippling attack on telecommunications and other computer networks was growing, as an increasingly sophisticated group of enemies had 'severely threatened' the sometimes fragile systems behind the country’s information infrastructure.
'Malicious cyberactivity is occurring on an unprecedented scale with extraordinary sophistication,' he told the committee."

I wrote DARK END OF THE SPECTRUM with the hopes that my storyline would shed light on the increasing threats in cyberspace and how those threats could disrupt more than our connections to the Internet. I also wrote about the human drama involving a family and how it would play into such a tragedy if one were to happen.

And what is scary about such an attack is that there is no warning - it just happens as quickly and completely as turning a light off in a room.

I just hope a major breach in our computer systems never happens and that DARK END OF THE SPECTRUM will shed some light on this ominous, invisible threat that could seriously disrupt our way of life.

If you want to experience first hand a plausible, possible scenario of what could happen if the US infrastructure is compromised by digital terrorists read DARK END OF THE SPECTRUM, available from Amazon, and bookstores everywhere.  The ebook is available from Smashwords.com, the Kindle, the Nook and Mobipocket.com

Women on Writing Blog Event emphasizes Family

Today I'm participating in a mass blogging! WOW!

Women On Writing has gathered a group of blogging buddies to write about family relationships. Why family relationships? We're celebrating the release of Therese Walsh's debut novel today. The Last Will of Moira Leahy, (Random House, October 13, 2009) is about a mysterious journey that helps a woman learn more about herself and her twin, whom she lost when they were teenagers.

My most memorable family relationship was with my father. He was the hero in my life.

He moved through life with bold strokes, never letting other people bend him from the way he wanted to go. He was a pioneer in his family going where his ten siblings would not go. His bold strokes made all of our lives better.

When he returned from World War II, he took on the world – he married my mother and did things his way. He was always himself and didn’t care what other people thought of his thoughts or his actions whether they were laughable or significant.

He taught me to always reach for the stars even if you couldn’t touch them – just keep reaching. He wanted a better life for me and now I have it because of him.

“I want you to do better than I have,” he would often say and when life beat him down many times, he still had a smile, a joke, and a cheerful, contagious presence that no one could resist.

He taught me that keeping one’s word is more important than anything else in life because that is what made the true grit of a man, not his wealth or his position or his looks.

When we were teenagers, we would play cards on the back porch during those lazy, nothing to do summer afternoons and my friends would not play without him. His contagious personality appealed to all generations.

There are many heroes in the world today, but a true hero’s words linger inside of you all your life and guide you when you have to make the tough decisions. That’s what my father did for me – his words and presence are always with me providing a guidepost that I have used all my life. He is my hero.

Samuel Anthony Policastro 1925-1999

Visit The Muffin (http://www.wow-womenonwriting.com/blog.html) to read what Therese has to say about family relationships. And make sure you visit Therese's website (http://www.theresewalsh.com) to find out more about the author."

About the book: The Last Will of Moira Leahy By Therese Walsh A LOST SHADOW Moira Leahy struggled growing up in her prodigious twin's shadow; Maeve was always more talented, more daring, more fun. In the autumn of the girls' sixteenth year, a secret love tempted Moira, allowing her to have her own taste of adventure, but it also damaged the intimate, intuitive relationship she'd always shared with her sister. Though Moira's adolescent struggles came to a tragic end nearly a decade ago, her brief flirtation with independence will haunt her sister for years to come. A LONE WOMAN When Maeve Leahy lost her twin, she left home and buried her fun-loving spirit to become a workaholic professor of languages at a small college in upstate New York. She lives a solitary life now, controlling what she can and ignoring the rest--the recurring nightmares, hallucinations about a child with red hair, the unquiet sounds in her mind, her reflection in the mirror. It doesn't help that her mother avoids her, her best friend questions her sanity, and her not-quite boyfriend has left the country. But at least her life is ordered. Exactly how she wants it. A SHARED PAST Until one night at an auction when Maeve wins a keris, a Javanese dagger that reminds her of her lost youth, and happier days playing pirates with Moira in their father's boat. Days later, a book on weaponry is nailed to her office door, followed by anonymous notes, including one that invites her to Rome to learn more about the blade and its legendary properties. Opening her heart and mind to possibility, Maeve accepts the invitation, and with it, a window into her past. Ultimately she will revisit the tragic November night that shaped her and Moira's destinies, and learn that nothing can be taken at face value, as one sister emerges whole and the other's score is finally settled. Note: To read reviews about The Last Will of Moira Leahy, please visit Therese's website: http://theresewalsh.com/News_Reviews/news_reviews.html ------------------ About the author, Therese Walsh: Therese is the co-founder of Writer Unboxed, a blog for writers about the craft and business of genre fiction. Before turning to fiction, she was a researcher and writer for Prevention magazine, and then a freelance writer. She's had hundreds of articles on nutrition and fitness published in consumer magazines and online. She has a master's degree in psychology. Aside from writing, Therese's favorite things include music, art, crab legs, Whose Line is it Anyway?, dark chocolate, photography, unique movies and novels, people watching, strong Irish tea, and spending time with her husband, two kids and their bouncy Jack Russell. Therese's website: http://theresewalsh.com Therese's blog: http://theresewalsh.com/blog.html Writer Unboxed: http://www.writerunboxed.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/ThereseWalsh Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/therese.walsh

Participating Bloggers! Day By Day Writer: http://daybydaywriter.wordpress.com/ Adventures in the Writing Life: http://adventuresinthewritinglife.blogspot.com/ The Beautification Project: http://thebeautificationproject.wordpress.com/ Reading Frenzy: http://lumorgan.blogspot.com/ A Girl, Her Career, and Life on the Dairy Farm: http://sandhillssequitur.blogspot.com/ The 5th Line Project, Page 56, Line 5: http://the5thlineproject.wordpress.com Read These Books and Use Them!: http://margodill.com/blog/ Julie Bogart's blog: http://juliebogart.com/blog/ A Ponderance of Things: http://rcponders.wordpress.com/ A Woman's Life Stages: http://www.awomanslifestages.com Danielle Buffardi's blog: http://www.daniellebuffardi.com/ Just Another Perfect Day: http://gundiva.blogspot.com/ Stories of life: one writer-mom's odyssey: http://www.kristinemeldrumdenholm.blogspot.com/ Once Written, Twice Shy: http://www.shywriters.blogspot.com/ Writing Cops...It's What I Do: http://melanieatkins.wordpress.com/ Anna Louise Lucia's blog: http://annalouiselucia.com/blog/ Word Wranglers: http://wordwranglers.blogspot.com/ Erin Denver's blog: http://www.erindenver.com/ Writers Inspired: http://writerinspired.wordpress.com/ Romancing the Blog: http://obe-romancingtheblog.blogspot.com MamaBlogga: mom's search for meaning: http://www.mamablogga.com/  About.com's Freelance Writing: http://freelancewrite.about.com/ GardenWall Publications: http://www.gardenwallpublications.com/blog/ Moonlight, Lace and Mayhem: http://moonlightlacemayhem.blogspot.com/ Five Scribes: http://fivescribes.blogspot.com/ R.J. Writes: http://www.ruthjhartman.blogspot.com/ Catch a Star Before It Falls: http://celestialgldfsh.livejournal.com/ Words from the Heart: http://contemplativeed.blogspot.com/ Magical Musings: http://magicalmusings.com/ Fat and then, a journey back to my true self: http://fatandthen.blogspot.com/ Gayle Trent, Cozy Mystery Writer: http://www.gayletrent.com/blog/ Paris Parfait, Tara Bradford writes from the City of Light: http://www.tarabradford.com/ Cathy C.'s Hall of Fame: http://www.cathychall.blogspot.com/ Misadventures with Andi: http://www.misadventureswithandi.com/ Kristin Bair O'Keeffe's blog: http://www.kristinbairokeeffeblog.com/ Awake is Good: http://www.awakeisgood.blogspot.com/ The Writer's Edge: http://writersedgeinfo.blogspot.com/ Writing is About Putting Yourself to Words: http://aspnovelist.blogspot.com/ Squirrel's Treehouse: http://www.scrollsquirrel.blogspot.com/ Gaijin Mama: http://gaijinmama.wordpress.com/ Multi-Tasking Mama: http://www.multitaskingmama.com/ Self Help Daily: http://www.selfhelpdaily.com/ Words and Coffee: http://jonathandanz.wordpress.com Elizabeth Kirschner's blog: http://elizabethkirschner.wordpress.com/ One Woman's Eye: http://onewomanseye.blogspot.com/ Entering the Age of Elegance: http://www.maturingmodernwomen.com/ The Write at Home Mom: http://www.thewriteathomemom.blogspot.com/ Mother Daughter Book Club Blog: http://motherdaughterbookclub.wordpress.com/ Muse: http://erikarobuck.wordpress.com/ the SIMMER blog: http://simmerblog.typepad.com/ Scales and other lies: http://scalesandotherlies.com/wordpress/ Natalia Maldonado's blog: http://www.nmaldonado.com/blog/ writers, dogs, and germans*: http://sdennard.wordpress.com/ Meryl's Notes blog: http://www.meryl.net/section/blog/ Little Miss Information: http://s-frostie.tumblr.com/ Linda Mohr's Blog: http://lindamohr.wordpress.com/ Reconsidering Sanity: http://www.reconsanity.blogspot.com/ So Many Books, So Little Time: http://purplg8r-somanybooks.blogspot.com/ Cynderella's Castle: http://www.cynthiadalba.blogspot.com/ Dianne Sagan, Life as a Ghost(writer): http://diannesagan.wordpress.com/ Janel's Jumble: http://janelsjumble.blogspot.com/ North Side Four (plus Eleanor Roosevelt, the Senator and the President): http://www.northsidefour.blogspot.com/ Teresa Shen Swingler's blog: http://teresashenswingler.com/ Color Your Life Happy-Flora Morris Brown, Ph.D.: http://coloryourlifehappy.com/blog/ a-century-of-thoughts: http://chehrenegar.blogspot.com/ Behind Brown Eyes: http://right2write.blogspot.com/ 'Manda Blogs About...: http://mandablogsabout.blogspot.com/ SFC Blog: Families Matter: http://familiesmatter2us.blogspot.com/

The Future of Publishing is Really the Future of Reading

Cover of Brave New World

By Anthony S. Policastro

I recently came across a very interesting article by Clive Thompson in Wired Magazine about the future of reading.

Here are some of the points that struck me as highly significant:

• People should start thinking about the future of reading rather than being always preoccupied with the future of publishing.
• Every other media that has gone digital has been transformed by its audience with the ability to comment on the content.
• Books need to be set free digitally to improve book discovery. It may also spawn a class of "professional readers" whose commentary is so informative that you would pay to download their take on a particular book.
• Programmers are already working on XML-like markup languages that would link every chapter or significant passage of a book to a unique URL address. Then you can easily examine the contents of a book with a few clicks.
• A few authors have given away digital copies of their books and found they end up selling more print copies. (I'm one of the those - both of my novels are free as digital downloads.)
  

It's a brave new world out there for books, but the publishing industry is moving like a snail to embrace these new technologies. But that's Ok because others will do it before them and reap the benefits along with us readers.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Digital books will by transformed by their readers (lib.uiowa.edu)
• Thinking "instead about the future of reading" (jwikert.typepad.com)

For All Writers - There is Hope

I highly recommend reading my post on authors who self published:

With all the doom and gloom with the economy and Wall Street, I wanted to share some light and hope with all the struggling writers out there who dream of becoming a published author one day.Anthony S. Policastro, The Writer's Edge, Nov 2008

Future Trends of Publishing

I was recently a guest blogger on Joe Wikert’s Publishing 2020 Blog with a post on the future trends of publishing. Here are the first few paragraphs. Click on the link below to read the rest of the story.

I recently caught a broadcast on my local NPR station from American Public Media about the troubled book publishing industry.

The most recent trend is that bookstores are ordering more books than they could ever sell because they are trying to compete with online book stores. They fear, according to the report, that if customers cannot find what they are looking for, they will go home and order the book online. Their fear is justified – after all, the average big box bookstore like Borders can stock approximately 100,000 titles while Amazon can list millions.

While book publishers may be rejoicing over increased orders, the orders are really a double-edged sword because the bookstores can return any books they don’t sell after 90 days.

To add to the problem, some bookstores are returning books before the 90-day window, waiting a week and then ordering more books. Now they have another 90 days to pay for the books and whatever they don’t sell they can return without losing a dime, according to the broadcast. More evidence that the publishing industry’s consignment model no longer works. Add to that decreasing book sales and you have a formula for disaster.

You can read the rest of the story by going to Joe Wikert’s blog.

SIMPLY WAIT: THANK YOU! from Patry Francis

I just received this email from Karen Dionne of Backspace and one of the wonderful people who helped organize THE LIAR'S DIARY BLOG DAY on Tuesday, Jan. 29.

"In the end, very nearly 400 bloggers helped move her novel from a ranking of 55,000 on amazon at the start of the day, to #1 in Mystery, 375 overall by evening. Those statistics prove the day was a success, but we knew it would be even before the day began because we could see the groundswell of support, feel the sense of community.

Canada's National Post did a story about our effort on the 29th, and the next day, told us it was their third most-read online article EVER. We're hoping that others in the print media will now come on board. What took place was a remarkable demonstration of the power of the Internet community, and deserves to be told. And of course, we hope Patry's sales continue to soar, and more important, that her recovery goes smoothly."

And don't forget to read Patry's thank you on her blog, SIMPLY WAIT: THANK YOU!

Update to THE LIAR'S DIARY BLOG DAY!

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE - Thanks to Richard Cooper, one of the 300 bloggers who just pointed out that Patry's book soared to the Number One position on Amazon for Psychological and Suspense fiction yesterday. Check out his blog with the screen shot of this phenomenal success story.

***

The power of the Internet and more specifically the power of blogs proved to be a significant force yesterday in the publishing world.

Patry Francis' THE LIAR'S DIARY jumped from a sales rank of 26,701 to 380, up 6,926% on Amazon.com. The book was the 2nd largest gainer in sales in 24 hours as of yesterday afternoon.

Her current rank on Amazon is 440 up from 10,947 or a 2,387% increase in sales! Thanks to the selfless efforts of more than 300 bloggers who wrote about Patry yesterday and all the wonderful people who bought her book.

Take a look at my post below and the links there to realize the reach of this noble effort.

Today is LIAR'S DIARY Blog Day - Want to Help?

Well, today is the day when the stars of the blogosphere shine on Patry Francis and hopefully we will either make blog history as one of the greatest promotional efforts in publishing history or it will be just another Tuesday.

But none of that is important because no matter what happens it is a special day, a day when fellow writers, fellow human beings unselfishly gave some of their time and resources to help someone greatly in need of support.

Today is THE LIAR’S DIARY blog day when more than 300 bloggers all over the country mention Patry Francis and the release of the paperback version of her debut murder mystery novel, THE LIAR’S DIARY.

We are also encouraging you to buy a copy in support of Patry, in support of life and of all the people who have suffered or are suffering with cancer.

Patry Francis was diagnosed with rapidly-spreading cancer a few months ago and does not have the energy to promote the release of her book after several surgeries. So fellow writers, authors, agents, publishers and publishing professionals have banded together to help Patry promote her book on the blogosphere today.

I know Patry only through emails, but from our short communications I found that she is an amazing and talented person. Here is what she wrote three weeks after she was diagnosed with cancer:

“One thing I learned was that for every ounce of trouble I was forced to drink, I would counter it with two ounces of bliss. Not the cheap bliss I attempted to find in a wine bottle, but the real thing. The kind I saw in that thin shell when I held it up to the light. The kind we all have inside us if we choose to draw on it.

I really think this is where we so often go wrong. When bad things happen--whether it's disease, rejection, mistreatment, perceived or otherwise - we allow it to control us. In other words, we pour ourselves another glass of poison when what we really need is the antidote - a double shot of BLISS.”

You can read the rest of her story of hope on her blog, Simply Wait.

You can also help by buying a copy of THE LIAR’S DIARY at Amazon or at your favorite bookstore. It’s a great read.

Here’s the synopsis:

How far would you go to protect your family? To protect your children? How many lies would you tell? Would you dare to admit the darkest truths - even to yourself?

Jeanne Cross is an ordinary suburban wife and mother with a seemingly "perfect" life when Ali Mather arrives on the scene, breaking all the rules and breaking hearts. Almost against her will, Jeanne is drawn to this powerfully seductive woman, a fascination that soon begins to infect Jeanne's husband as well as their teenage son. Though their friendship seems unlikely and even dangerous to their mutual acquaintances, Ali and Jeanne are connected by deep emotional needs, vulnerabilities, and long-held secrets that Ali has been privately recording in her diary.

The diary also holds the key to something darker. Though she can't prove it, Ali is convinced someone has been entering her house when she is not at home - and not with the usual intentions. What this burglar wants is nothing less than a piece of Ali's soul.

If you are not convinced this book is a page turner, take a look at some of the five-star reviews on Barnes and Noble and the cool book trailer on Powell's Books.

In case you didn't know Patry Francis, here is a brief bio from her publisher:

Patry Francis is a three-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize whose work has appeared in the Tampa Review, Colorado Review, Ontario Review, and the American Poetry Review. She is also the author of the popular blogs, simplywait.blogspot.com and waitresspoems.blogspot.com. This is her first novel.

One last thing, if you have a story of hope or just want to say a few kind words, please feel free to post them here for Patry and others like her. She would like that.

Don't forget to check Susan Henderson's blog, Lit Park, and to see the special gift Patry's husband Ted gave her.

And if you want to know how this great effort started and who are some of the participants check out my earlier post, "Have a Blog? Want to Help a Fellow Author".

Getting Published is a Matter of ...

I recently read in The New York Times Rachel Donadio’s essay on how Elie Wiesel’s NIGHT, a Holocaust memoir, was rejected by 15 publishers, ignored by readers and went on to sell 10 million copies. It was recently taken off the NYTimes best seller list after Oprah Winfrey picked it for her book club last January. During that time, it sold 3 million additional copies and stayed on the NYTimes list for 80 weeks.

CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL by Jack Canfield was rejected by 140 publishers because no one in the business could figure out how to classify it among all the different genres already taking up space in bookstores all over America. The book has sold over 112 million copies worldwide and it has spawned over 170 titles in 41 languages.

What both books did was create new genres. And whenever something new comes along it takes a while for it to be accepted and embraced as another icon in our culture.

I believe it is the same with writing. Established authors try to recreate themselves all the time. Dean Koontz did it in THE GOOD GUY, where he “…did not use traditional methods of character revelation, no back stories in narration or in dialogue until late in the text. All the characters have secrets.”

Michael Crichton veered away from the traditional novel in NEXT, where he compiles a series of different scenes thinly related by his overall theme emphasizing the dangers of gene therapy and genome mapping.

Both books explored new areas of storytelling moving away from the traditional plane.

The moral of this post is to take these stories to heart and never give up on your writing - persist.

It’s a matter of persistence – finding the right agent or publisher who believes in your work and will expose it to the publishing world with the same enthusiasm and passion that you have for your work.

It’s a matter of timing – eventually readers will get tired of seeing the same genre of books on the best selling lists and migrate to other genres. If your book is in the newly accepted genre, it will have a better chance of selling. (However, don’t write a book because you think a particular genre is hot at the time. Just write no matter what genre.)

The right stuff - Lastly, your writing must be engaging, your story interesting and the mechanics of your book flawless. Your work must have the right stuff of good storytelling and a purpose whether to entertain, inform or take up a cause.

Have a Blog? Want to Help a Fellow Author?

If you have a blog and would like to help fellow writer Patry Francis fulfill a lifelong dream, please help us support her by mentioning her in your blog and encouraging readers to buy her book, THE LIAR'S DIARY on January 29^th.

Patry was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer in November and does not have the energy to promote the launch of the paperback version of her book on January 29th.

You can preorder her book from Amazon.com right now or buy it from your favorite bookstore on the 29^th. I've already ordered mine from Amazon.

I know Patry Francis only through emails, but she is a wonderful, warm, and sincere person. You can read an interview I did with her on her writing at the Backspace website.

I also included this blog post reprinted here with permission from Backspace, the Writer's Place.

Patry Francis is a talented author and lovely person whose debut suspense novel THE LIAR'S DIARY came out last spring in hardcover from Dutton. The trade paper release is January 29^th, but a few weeks ago, Patry was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. She's had several surgeries, and her prognosis is good, but given that Patry won't have much energy for promoting, a number of bloggers are banding together to do it for her.

"THE LIAR'S DIARY Blog Day" is going to be held January 29^th. Folks who wish to participate are asked to mention the book on their blog that day and link to Patry's website (www.patryfrancis.com) and the book's purchase page on Amazon. You can do a liars themed blog, review the book, sponsor a contest, or anything else you think might help Patry get some much-deserved notice. Bloggers are also asked to
encourage their readers to buy one/buy one for a friend between January 29^th and Feb 1.

Brilliance audio is putting together a special audio clip that bloggers can use, and Circle of Seven productions is making a "cover story" promo video, which will also be available to bloggers. And Susan Henderson, of LitPark, says if you like, you can come to her blog on the 29^th and copy what she writes.

Just to give you a very small idea of what you'll see on the 29^th, here are the folks who have already stepped forward to help: Laura Benedict, who came up with the idea. Patry's editor at Dutton, Julie Doughty. Her agent at the Jean Naggar Literary Agency, Alice Tasman.
Her publicist, Laurie Connors, Eileen Hutton at Brilliance Audio, Jessica Brilliant Keener, The brilliant Susan Henderson, Tish Cohen, Dan Conaway from Writers House, Sheila Clover English, CEO of Circle of Seven Productions, Jeff Kleinman at Folio Literary Management, Robin Slick from In Her Own Write, Ellen Meister, Bella Stander, M.J. Rose, Robin Grantham, Kamela Cody of ModernGirlStyle.com, Kathryn Esplin at Gather.com, Clair Lamb at her Answer Girl blog, Sarah Weinman at Confessions of An Idiosyncratic Mind, Hank Ryan from JungleRedWriters, Sisters In Crime, Raven Bower, CJ Lyons, Jordan Dane, Murderati, Jen Jordan at Crimespree, Richard Lewis, Gail Baker and The Debutante Ball, Eileen Cook, Kelli Stanley, Davi Thayer, Amy Nathan, Karin Gillespie, Melanie Lynn Hauser, Amy MacKinnon, Anthony S. Policastro, Carolyn Burns Bass. And you, too, right?

A list of bloggers who plan to participate will be sent to Patry's publisher in a few days. If you'd like to be included, please send your name, the name of your blog, and how many hits per day/week/month your blog gets (if you have those stats, and if you're comfortable sharing them) to me, Karen Dionne, as soon as possible. (karendionne@bksp.org) Patry's publisher is aware of our efforts, and excited about the prospect of working with us to make this blog day a success.

Meanwhile, you can read Patry's unsentimental and inspiring account of how she's dealing with this setback onher own blog, "Simply Wait."

Equally inspiring is watching the writing community rally around one of their own. Our cumulative efforts can make a difference! Feel free to copy this post and share it around to help spread the word, and on behalf of Patry, THANKS.

It's a Wonderful Life

My wife and I were watching Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” on NBC the other night for the 100^th time or so. We both have seen the movie so many times we can recite the actor’s lines as they say them. We watch it every year just as we put up a Christmas tree every year. Although we have seen the movie many times, we both thoroughly enjoy watching it again often saying, “This is one of my favorite scenes,” or “I can’t wait to see this part.”

I started thinking about this film and why it is still popular and why it is so timeless. After all, the film debuted in movie theaters on December 20, 1946, it is in black and white and the lifestyle and mores of the era are those of our parents and grandparents depending how old you are. Some of the actors and scenes are corny by today’s standards, but the film remains highly popular. In addition, it was considered a box office flop because it did not generate the anticipated revenue.

As I watched it I could see that the film was made like a well written novel. Great characterizations, conflict, drama and George Bailey’s (played by Jimmy Steward) self realization that his problems were nothing compared to all the things he had done and all the people his life had touched. All the plot points are resolved in the end and two major themes emerge: self sacrifice to help others and that family and friends are all that matter.

This is the stuff of great novels like GONE WITH THE WIND, THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA and others that speak a universal human truth that lives on through each generation. A truth that is not anchored in time and relevant to the values of any era. This is the kind of story telling all writers would love to write and it is the universal thread that keeps us writing against all odds.

If you have never watched “It’s a Wonderful Life” it is one of those films that should be required watching to become a member of the human race. It’s a film you should watch if you are writing a novel because it has all the elements of great story telling.

Here are links to additional information on the film.

A great review by Tom Dirks on filmsite.org

Photos and videos on The Internet Movie Database

Photos and information at Reel Classics

Do You Believe in Reincarnation?

Author MJ Rose believes so, along with 60 million others in America and this inspired her to write, THE REINCARNATIONIST, her ninth book, a suspenseful historical thriller about gripping revelations on humanity and beyond.

Her book, released on Sept. 1, appears to have been smoldering inside of MJ all of her life as she tells how it started although she didn't know it would be a book one day.

"When I was three years old, I told my great grandfather things about his childhood in that there was simply no way I could have known. He became convinced I was a reincarnation of someone in his past. Over time, after more incidents, my mother - a very sane and logical woman - also came to believe it."

Read my interview with this fascinating author on the Algonkian Writers Conferences website.

How a Novel is Born

You can now download a FREE copy of Absence of Faith from the Publisher's website at Lulu.com

Have you ever wondered what people would do if you took away their faith, their hope, and their religion? Is religion and mores what keeps us civilized and superior to the animal kingdom? My wife and I were discussing these very ideas one day and we thought it would make an interesting plot for a novel.

The result was Absence of Faith, a modern day medical mystery thriller, where negative near death experiences plague a small, highly religious town causing many of its residents to lose their faith, and their belief in the future. When some residents wake up with burnt skin, they believe they went to hell and that God has abandoned them. Matters get worse when a local cult uses the opportunity to promote their beliefs and win over the town residents. The result is an absence of faith.

Here is an excerpt:

Father McDuffy directed him to the head of the table, but he did not sit. The bishop placed a hard black briefcase on the table and snapped the hasps open. The sound and deliberate motions of the bishop suggested that his black case held something ominous and evil and that it would be unleashed when he opened it. The men in the room watched trance-like as the bishop opened the case and took out a small stack of papers.

"All my life I have battled evil. I have avoided it at every turn. I have turned it back whenever I could. I have sacrificed and I have worked very hard to lead my people on the right road, the good road, the road towards salvation. And I have been successful. But now for the first time in my life I don't feel this is something we can ignore or is it something to be taken lightly. I feel that this evil is very strong and we have to push very hard to help our followers hold on to their faith in God and his teachings. I have never said this, but I feel the evil is winning," the bishop announced in a deep, dark authoritarian voice.

"I believe we are seeing the beginning of the end - not a disease or a pestilence, but the rise of Satan, the rise of evil in the world. Armageddon. This did not just happen yesterday or last week or last year. I have been watching it for several decades," the bishop said.

He reached into his briefcase and took out a pair of reading glasses. He positioned them on his large, baldhead, and then reached down and took hold of a thick rust brown leather-jacketed book. Its edges and corners were lighter in color than the rest of the jacket. He pushed his briefcase aside and placed the heavy book on the table in front of him. His hand disappeared into his pant pocket and then reappeared holding a small gold key. He placed the tiny key in a gold lock that held the book shut. The men could hear themselves breathing. He turned the key and the lock made a sharp click. He moved the belt clasp out of the tiny hasp and slowly opened the book. Its pages were the color of old newsprint. He bent down close to the book and turned several pages and then he stopped. He began to read:

"'And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,' is from Revelations, 20:7 '...as ye have heard that Anti-Christ shall come, even now there are many Anti-Christs...’ from 1 John 2:18. This Anti-Christ is expected to spread evil throughout the world, only to be conquered by the Second Coming of Christ and the end of the world. Thes first Anti-Christ was Napoleon, who was responsible for the deaths of two million people and fourteen years of war. The second Anti-Christ was Hitler, who was responsible for the deaths of some fifty million human beings in his pursuit to conquer the world. I believe the third and last Anti-Christ is here now and living somewhere in this world in our current century,” Bishop Phulax explained without blinking once.

The small crowd sighed.

Will the heroine, Chantress, stop the antagonist, Kyle Mabus from destroying all known religions? You can read the first chapter by clicking on the link to the publisher’s page: Absence of Faith

I rewrote the entire book because I created the original in the late 1980s. The characters used phone booths and fax machines quite a bit back then and I had to bring them into the 21st century with cell phones and email. I also greatly improved the plot and put in additional chapters to make the story hold together better.

Researching the facts in the book was a lot more work back in the 1980s when the Internet didn't exist - I had to do my research the old fashioned way - in the library. It was slower and obviously more time consuming.

The setting for the book is based on an actual small town on the coast of New Jersey, where in fact many of the residents were highly religious. I don't know if it is still that way today, but the town is very unique and still has the charm and character of the 19th century.

My daughter, Emily, 12, illustrated the cover from a photo we found of a large stained glass church window. I took her ink pen illustration and designed the front and back covers. It took me a good three months to perfect the cover and the layout. I worked on it almost every night and on weekends playing with different typefaces, different effects, and positioning the elements in various locations until all the elements worked together to create the look and feel I was trying to communicate to readers.

The Writer's Edge: I write because...

The Writer's Edge: Responses to Why Do You Write?

Writer's responses to David Morrell's fascinating premise that writers write because of personal traumas that haunt them throughout their lives. Click on the link above to read the whole story.

Why Do You Write?

Ever since I read David Morrell's fascinating article Lessons from a Lifetime of Writing on Backspace I couldn't get the question out of my head, why does anyone write?

He basically says because writers have unresolved traumas that cause them to write. So I wrote him and asked if there could be writers without traumas. Here's what he told me in an email:

"F. Scott Fitzgerald said there were no second acts in American lives. Applying this to writing, we could say that if a writer creates in relation to a trauma, he or she stops being creative when the trauma is resolved. This has been the case in a number of American writers. But for most of us, the traumas continue. For example, until 1987, I wrote in response to my father's death in WWII and the orphanage I was put in. But after 1987, I wrote in response to my son's death from bone cancer. I never do it deliberately, however. The stories insist."

If you don't know who David Morrell is, he is the award winning author of FIRST BLOOD, the novel that started the Rambo series.

So, I've been trying to determine my trauma, but it eludes me - I've been lucky most of my life - normal childhood, normal straight-arrow adulthood, living the American Dream. The best I could come up with is that I fear loss, but I have not had any major losses. Could there be levels of traumas that affect each of us differently? My losses are nothing compared to his, but could we both be affected the same way and hence have this need to write?

His response:

"The trauma need not be a violent dramatic one in the sense of child abuse or things of that nature. For an author friend, it was the death of his father when he was 8. He often writes about perfect summers of youth that are interrupted. Another author told me that he had a perfect childhood, and then he added, "But I got picked on a lot." He now writes about assassins righting wrongs.

The key questions are:

Why do I want to be a writer? The authentic answer to that is 'Because I need to be.' But why do I NEED to be? What accounts for the obsession?

The answer to that leads you to self-understanding. You said you 'fear loss.' That's an interesting statement and a major theme. You might never know why you fear loss. That's not the point. It's your core emotion and perhaps the reason that you tell stories.

Writers' block is possibly caused by 3 things.

1. The story is just no good, and the subconscious realizes it.

2. The author becomes anal retentive in the first draft and can't move from sentence to sentence.

3. The author doesn't listen to what the story wants to do. Our goal is to serve the story. We must open ourselves and let the story talk to us.

The latter is the best advice I can give to anyone."

Why do you write?

Note: A longer version of his Backspace article is available in his book on writing LESSONS FROM A LIFETIME OF WRITING, which will soon be re-released as THE SUCCESSFUL NOVELIST: A LIFETIME OF LESSONS ABOUT WRITING AND PUBLISHING. (From Source Books).



His latest novel, SCAVENGER is now available everywhere.