Month: September 2016

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    • Author Interview – E M Holloway

    Please start by telling us a little bit about yourself.

    I’m 35 and I’ve been writing as long as I can remember. The first thing I solidly remember writing was a story about a cruise ship crash that I wrote in fifth grade. I think I must have been a pretty morbid ten year old. I live in Arizona although I wish I didn’t, and I’m going to be married this December to my girlfriend/zucchini of ten years. I have three cats and one dog, all rescues. I once named a pencil Mr. Universe.

    The Way Out is Through coverNow share a little bit about your books.

    I have so many of them! Modern fantasy, or fantasy that takes place in a mostly real world setting with a few twists, is my favorite jam. I write some soft sci-fi, although I’ve never been good at hard sci-fi because of how technical it can get. I’ve also written some classic fantasy (with dragons!) and even some real world drama. I love a good mystery. Almost all my books have some element of mystery to them, because it’s my favorite kind of plot. Creating characters is my favorite part of writing, which is probably why I wind up with so many in each story!

    Some of your books started out as fanfics. How do you go about converting a fanfic to an original book?

    When I see a fanfic and think “that could actually stand pretty well on its own”, the first thing I do is try to change everything I can. The story’s location, characters’ gender or race or career, any major plot point that doesn’t need to be specific. Can that car accident become a drive-by shooting? Can that woman who died of an illness have fallen down her stairs instead? Since my fanfics tend to have a loose approach to canon in any case, that’s often enough change to make it an original, although the real alternate universe fics are the ones that are easiest to convert.

    What’s the biggest difference between writing fanfic and writing original fiction?

    Having the characters already set up is by far the biggest. I mean, I love creating characters, but it’s always nice to just sit down with them all created for you, and you can just throw them into fun situations to see what happens. Fanfic is less demanding, and I don’t just mean because it doesn’t have to pass a publisher’s muster – you’re building off accepted characters and tropes, so there’s just less to explain. You can slap ‘soulmate AU’ or ‘dystopian setting’ on the label and know that your readers are going to come in with knowledge about what you’re writing, so you don’t need to include five thousand words of exposition about what a soulmate AU is or how it works. Sometimes when I’m converting I have to stop and really look at what I’m writing and ask ‘is a non-fandom person going to know what the hell I’m talking about?’

    Do you have a favourite character in your books?

    Puck, from The Sum of its Parts, will probably be one of my favorite characters forever. I absolutely love writing “that normal guy in amongst a bunch of supernatural scary creatures” – it’s one of my favorite tropes. Especially when that normal guy is by far more dangerous than the supernatural creatures.

    How about a favourite moment?

    Hands down, when Connor comforts Puck in the hospital after his father is hurt. Favorite moment in that whole series. I just love the two of them and their relationship so much in that moment.

    Is there anything that’s surprised you since getting published?

    Not really? I’m sorry, that’s sort of a lame answer. But I’ll probably have a different one if I ever get picked up by a major publishing house. 🙂

    Are there any authors who particularly inspire you?The One You Feed cover

    So many! So, so, so many! But I’ll try to limit it. Madeleine L’Engle, Susan Cooper, Jim Butcher, Bruce Coville, Neil Gaiman, Isaac Azimov… et c

    If you could sit down for a chat with any author, living or dead, who would it be and why?

    I’m gonna say Roald Dahl. His books are so amazing, such a great combination of childish whimsy and true horror. I’d love to get a peek at his thought processes. Plus I’ve heard he was kind of a jerk in real life, which means he and I would probably get along really well. =D

    What are you working on at the moment?

    Right now I’m working on converting The Boy in Red, which is the fourth installment of The Sum of its Parts. Plus I’ve been trying to get one of my other works, The More Things Change, published by an actual publisher instead of by me, heh. I’ve also been writing a lot of fanfiction lately for the Malec fandom! I can’t get enough of those cuties.

    You can find E M Holloway’s books on Amazon.

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    • The evolution of a cover

    Child of the Hive coverOne question I get asked whenever I give a talk about writing is how much control I have over the cover art so I figured I’d put my answer in full here. This is one of those things that varies considerably from publisher to publisher, and from book to book. I’ve spoken to authors who’ve had no say, or almost no say, in cover designs for some books. I’ve met authors who’ve hated the covers they were presented with. I’ve been lucky. For all of my books, I’ve been given a lot of input and I’ve been delighted with most of them.

    I was astonished when Child of the Hive was published how much input I was given. The publisher sent me about a dozen different designs for the potential cover – and I hated them all. I don’t want to imply that they were bad designs, but they were bad for the book. The designer who’d created them hadn’t actually read the book, he’d just been given the text to go on the back cover and a couple of paragraphs of description. The end result was some designs that would have been great on someone else’s book (there was a creepy one with a child coming out of mist that would have been great for a ghost story) but that were completely wrong for mine. Shadows of Tomorrow draft cover

    We had a few emails back and forth and then I was put on a phone call with the designer and I talked about what I liked and didn’t like about the different designs, what the disconnects with the book were, and so on. He went off and came back with a different design, which I liked a lot more. I asked for a couple of minor tweaks and then was given a cover design I was thrilled with.

    When Shadows of Tomorrow was published, the publisher gave me a form to fill out with my ideas for the cover. I suggested a figure silhouetted against a portal holding a sword. They sent me a couple of drafts and, once again, I wasn’t happy with either of them. The covers showed what looked like someone standing at the edge of the sea, which didn’t fit at all, but I did like the font on one of them. The designer went away and came back with the final cover. Shadows of Tomorrow cover

    When Shadows of Tomorrow came out, I really liked the cover. In person, it’s really dramatic. I’ve come to the conclusion though that it doesn’t work as well as a thumbnail on Amazon. It doesn’t look as interesting as other covers. So when it came to Between Yesterdays, I wanted to go with the same general idea but with more happening visually. The design they sent me was pretty good, but I wasn’t sure about the image they’d chosen for Abby. For one thing, in the book, Abby has quite dark colouring, which isn’t obvious in this image. For another, this young woman looks dressed for a party rather than a battle.

    I went back to the publisher and asked for a different Abby for the cover, and was thrilled with the final cover design they offered me. Between Yesterdays cover draft

    The same sort of thing happened with the Codename Omega books. I gave ideas, they sent designs, I asked for changes. The Codename Omega books are self-published so I was given a lot of say in the design because I was effectively hiring the designers to work to my specifications. I wasn’t surprised that I was the one calling the shots with those covers, but I was surprised how much control I had with the others, especially having heard stories from some other authors about how little say they were given. I guess I’ve been lucky so far when it comes to covers.

     

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    • Advice that needs to stop: Write Every Day

    Over the years, I’ve come across a lot of writing advice from a whole range of sources. Some of the advice I think is good, some I think has merit under some circumstances, and some I think needs to stop being repeated. One piece of advice I’ve seen so many times is this: to be a real writer you must write every day.

    This just isn’t feasible for a lot of people. Many writers, even professional authors, have another job that takes up a lot of time. There are days when I have to go into the London office and this involves getting up early, catching a bus, train and tube, for a tedious commute. By the time I get home, it’s half-seven in the evening and I still need to get dinner. Once in a while, I get some writing done on the train but there are days when I spend the commute standing so whipping out my laptop and typing up a chapter just wouldn’t work.

    Writers who have full time jobs to do, kids to look after, elderly family members to take care of, chores to do, or simply lives to live, see this sort of advice and feel guilty, or feel like they’re not really writers after all. So I say: scrap this advice.

    Instead, figure out what works for you. There is definitely something to be said for a regular writing routine, for having a pattern to stick to, but the pattern can be something more forgiving. For me, Saturday and Sunday mornings are good writing times. I get a lot done then, but if I have family commitments or something else going on, I know that the world isn’t going to end if I don’t get my weekend writing done. Once in a while, I have an overnight stay somewhere for work and there’s not much to do in hotel rooms on my own, so I get lots of writing done then.

    I have a lot going on with work and other commitments, but I know I can fit writing around them. So don’t worry about writing every day, but have a think about your usual week and figure out if there are any gaps that can be your regular writing time.

    Above all, remember that if you write, you’re a real writer, even if you only get the time to write once a month or less.

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    • September’s diverse book giveaway

    Every Heart a Doorway coverEvery month in 2016 I’m giving away a different science fiction or fantasy book that highlights some form of diversity (preferably more than one). September’s book is the charming Every Heart a Doorway which I have reviewed in a previous blog post.

    I chose this book for its LGBTQ representation. The protagonist is asexual, and actually uses this word to describe herself which is astonishingly rare. Another major character in the book is trans. There is an incident of transphobic language from one of the other characters but this is clearly addressed by the narrative and the other characters as being unacceptable behaviour.

    If you want a chance to win this book, head over to Tumblr and reblog the giveaway post before the end of September.

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    • New mailing list

    Those of you who read my blog on the website rather than through an RSS feed subscription might have noticed a new section on the right hand side inviting you to sign up to a mailing list. I’ve recently created a new mailing list to share publication announcements and news about book releases. Don’t worry, you’re not going to get spammed with constant emails if you sign up. I’ve created this list because some readers want to get told directly when I have a new book coming out, rather than having to follow my announcements on the blog or on social media sites.

    If you’re one of those readers, you can supply me with your email address to be added to the mailing list. You will receive an automatic notification email with a link to click on to confirm that the email account is live and that’s it. You will then receive emails whenever I have a new book coming out. Simple.

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    • Review: A Rational Arrangement

    A Rational Arrangement coverA Rational Arrangement by L Rowyn is a fantasy romance set in the land of Paradise, which has very rigid societal expectations. There are any number of unwritten rules about what is acceptable behaviour for men and women of different ranks. Unfortunately, Wisteria has never been good at unwritten rules. She needs things to be explicitly spelled out for her. So when a meeting is arranged between Wisteria and Lord Nikola on the understanding that they might get engaged, Wisteria turns up with a detailed document spelling out the expectations on both a business level and a personal level. That her document discusses details around procreation and the possibility of infidelity shocks both sets of parents, but Nik is intrigued and amused by her openness. He wants to know more about this woman who can be so forthright on forbidden subjects.

    His growing fondness for Wisteria however does nothing to diminish his attraction to the handsome Lord Justin. Here the rules are more clear and a sexual relationship between men is considered abhorrent so the two must keep their love affair secret. Nik is not the only one drawn to Justin though – Wisteria finds herself equally attracted and wishes society would let her marry them both.

    Much of this book is focused on the romance between the three characters, but there are some elements of action and suspense in the plot. It should be noted though that if you’re looking for adventure and battles in every other chapter, you might want to look elsewhere. If you like the idea of character-driven romance however, this is a great book.

    I love the character of Wisteria. I found myself relating to her confusion and frustration at the illogic of many societal standards. She is an open and honest character who just wishes people would be more up front about things. Nik is also an easy character to like. He’s dedicated to trying to help people, and he just wants to do the right thing. It’s easy to understand why his people feel such loyalty to him.

    The only character I didn’t particularly like was Justin, but he grew on me as the story progressed. My main problem with him was that he viewed certain groups/classes of people as inferior to him – he actually says, “I hate apologising to inferiors,” when he realises he mistreated an employee. This is probably excellent characterisation for a lord in a fantasy novel, but it made it hard for me to like him as a person. On the other hand, his loyalty towards Nik made him endearing and some of his actions towards the middle of the book won me over a little.

    Some of the plot twists were so well sign-posted that I could see them coming a mile off, but they were unusual enough that I have no problem forgiving them for being obvious. With so many books full of love triangles, I was happy to read this different take on the trope.

    From a representation standpoint, I thought this book did extremely well. The word “autism” is never used but Wisteria is clearly written as autistic. The way this is addressed in the book makes it clear that this isn’t an illness or a problem to be fixed, but simply a different way of being.

    Nik has the ability to magically heal mental illness and this meant that issues of mental illness come up frequently in the background of the story – there is mention of a character who used to be suicidal, a character goes through trauma and suffers from what is clearly PSTD (again, the modern term is not used), while there are background characters suffering from everything from anxiety disorders to full-blown hallucinations. These are all treated in a highly respectful way.

    All this is on top of Nik’s bisexuality and the issues of sexuality that are addressed.

    While the book was a little predictable in places, it was highly enjoyable from start to finish. I will be on the look-out for other books by this author. Four and a half stars.