Issue 46

Congratulations to Karen Bence, author of Midnight Revelations, the first book in the “Dark Whispers Series.” Her book has been named a finalist in ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year contest in the Horror/Fiction category. Over 1400 books were submitted in 61 categories with only 668 books making the final cut. The winners will be determined by a panel of judges including librarians and booksellers. The winners will be announced on May 29, 2009 at BookExpo America in New York City. A list of the 2008 finalists can be viewed by clicking here.

Click here to purchase Midnight Revelations.

Check out Karen’s latest article about creating three dimensional characters in fiction by clicking here.

J. Conrad Guest for “The Smoking Poet” has reviewed Postmarked Baltimore, the latest novel by Jeff LeJeune.

On New Year’s Eve, 1989, Father Perry Burns sits, haunted by his many regrets. Fifteen years have elapsed since he fled, without a word, from the woman he loved, the result of a shameful indiscretion. Father Burns has just received a letter from Noel, who managed to trace his whereabouts. Recently widowed and a mother, Noel fills in Perry on her life and also expresses the hurt with which Perry left her. She is over him, she writes, but still loves the memory of what they shared.

A great portion of Postmarked Baltimore is told in flashback, as Perry relives the events that led up to his decision to join the priesthood.

Author Jeff LeJeune relates Burns’s story with great sensitivity, creating in Burns a protagonist who is mostly unlikable and tormented, while allowing the reader to catch an occasional glimpse of Burns’s goodness ― a man driven to do what is right yet fearful of hurting Noel, a slave to his baser drives, and filled with self-loathing the result of his salacious thoughts as well as his actions. Like many addicts, Burns is driven not so much by an evil nature but by an inability to help himself.

At times Postmarked veers dangerously close to melodrama, but the reader forgives the occasional indulgence for more frequent moments of near brilliant prose:

”Sometimes it can be more difficult to forget memories of things that never happened than things that did; the ones that never happened are stainless, fashioned and refashioned in the mind until perfection is attained. Those images of him and Noel together had been arranged like a restaurant table setting, neat and tidy and ready for use and feasting. Instead, he was forced to sit at the table and avoid the setting and the food. He couldn’t eat. He couldn’t even touch the silverware. No one told him he couldn’t leave, but he couldn’t unfold his limbs into a walking posture either. There was no closing time. So he just sat there while the waiters waited and the managers managed and the closers closed, bogged down and slumped over in front of the perfect dish he couldn’t eat.. He couldn’t even touch it. It wasn’t real. And that is the knife that slices men to pieces when our plans with love don’t materialize. It’s not real. Never was. But you swear it had been at one time, just last week, just yesterday, hell, just a minute ago. All of it was real.”

Recommended reading.

To purchase Postmarked Baltimore by Jeff LeJeune, please click here.

Maggie Shayne is the best-selling author of more than 40 novels including women’s fiction, romance, romantic suspense and paranormal fiction. She is the recipient of numerous awards including two Romantic Times Bookclub Career Achievement Awards, the National Readers’ Choice Award and the RITA Award. She has written for CBS daytime dramas and her novel, Eternity, has been optioned for film. Her next release is Bloodline on sale this May.

Q: It’s been said that the paranormal/horror genre has become more acceptable in the marketplace. What is it that draws readers to the paranormal?

A: Paranormal is certainly more popular than ever. I think readers find it appealing for the same reasons as they do any other sub-genre--at first, it's exciting and different and they just can't get enough. But also like any other sub-genre, it'll get to be same old, same old, soon enough. Especially with the current glut in the marketplace. Everyone who can string two sentences together is suddenly writing paranormal romance, and a lot of it just isn't very good. Yet it's bought and published because readers can't get enough and publishers can't find enough to fill the slots. Soon, though, like with any other hot new genre, it'll stop being the novelty of it that draws readers in. Instead, it will be great writing that pulls them back time and time again. The rest will fall by the wayside.

Q: You are an elder in the Wiccan faith and have founded a new tradition known as RavenMyst Circle. How does this influence what you write?

A: Well, when I write about Witchcraft and natural magick, I do so with authenticity and authority. Other than that, I don't think it changes the way I write at all. Although perhaps I do take the notion of muses and daemons a bit more seriously than some might do.

Q: How can novice writers take their passion--work, hobbies, experiences etc.--and make it happen into a book?

A: Work, hobbies, experiences--those are boring. It's the passion you want to take with you into a book. Passion for what you're writing about. If you're passionate about work or a hobby or an experience, fine, but if not, it's not book material. Writing a book is opening a vein. There has to be absolute passion for the topic or it just won't stand out. I advise aspiring writers to join professional writers' groups, such as Romance Writers of America, network with authors, take classes and workshops, read voraciously, and write what you love to read. I also advise them to understand the difference between vanity presses and legitimate publishers, and to know the difference between small, new, electronic publishers and large, commercial print publishers. Tens of thousands of dollars in differences there. So learn the business, learn the craft, and write what you love. Oh, and never give up.

Q: How important is it to balance the use of personal experience and investigative research when writing a work of fiction?

A: Personal experience is kind of the underlying, subconscious platform from which the writer works. My history and childhood do influence the way I write, but I don't write about them. On the surface, what I have lived has nothing to do with my storylines. If I were writing about personal experience, I'd be writing memoirs rather than novels. Investigative research--same answer, really. I write fiction. Aside from getting the geography of an area right, or knowing a bit about the careers I choose for my characters, I don't see the need for investigative research. I'm not a reporter. My main tool is my imagination.

Q: It’s been said that finding an agent is as easy as flipping through the pages of Literary Marketplace? Do you agree or disagree and why? What suggestions would you offer a non-published writer?

A: I think that is absolutely false. Finding a good agent is tough. Especially if you don't come to them with an offer from a publisher in hand. And finding a bad agent, while likely quite easy, is worse than finding no agent at all. The author/agent relationship is like a marriage. Ending it is just as hard, and can cost you just as much. Too many new writers settle for the first agent who offers to represent them, and then live to regret it. This is an area where a writer cannot be careful enough. Take time, and make the right choice. Remember, you are hiring this person to work for you, not the other way around.

Q: What is the best way for a writer to hone their skills? Why?

A: I think the best way to become a better writer is to keep on writing. Like with anything, practice makes perfect. I also think that switching sub-genres and even genres is an excellent way to keep yourself constantly improving. Writing in a way you never have before makes you a stronger writer. Experiment with point of view, with story structure, with style, and don't be afraid to do things you've never done before. This will keep you fresh. Also reading, lots and lots of reading.

Carlotta Holton is the author of Salem Pact and Touching The Dead, and is a member of the National Federation of Press Women and an affiliate member of the Horror Writers Association.

Carlotta Holton has just received her second award for Touching the Dead from the National Federation of Press Women Communications Contest. Click here to purchase the book.

By Amanda Linsmeier

Face the Fire (Jove 2002,) the conclusion to Nora Roberts Three Sisters Island trilogy is an inspiring and passionate novel about magic and bravery. Mia Devlin, a remarkably gifted and beautiful witch is also a successful business woman. With her café and bookstore thriving, the deep and caring friendships of two other witches, Nell and Ripley, and a happy, comfortable life, Mia seems like she has everything she could ever want. But behind her confident exterior lies a woman still nursing a broken heart. When Sam Logan, another witch, left her years ago, she vowed to never love again. Now that he has returned to the island, old passions obviously linger and Mia finds herself drawn against her better judgment to the man she once promised everything. Besides the conflict between herself and Sam, Mia is also in the middle of a centuries old curse that only she has the power to break. If she cannot find it in herself to beat this evil that stalks her and those she holds dear, the darkness will destroy her, those she loves and Three Sisters Island as well.

I really enjoyed this last book in the trilogy the most. I thought Mia and Sam had an amazing chemistry. As Mia is the most talented and experienced witch of the bunch I loved the displays of magic she could create. But underneath her strength, Mia shows a certain vulnerability that I could really connect to. I knew in the end she would overcome the curse, but I wasn’t sure how and the anticipation of that coupled with the “will she forgive Sam” definitely kept me reading. Face the Fire is a wonderful story about the power of magic- and love.