I’ve
been quite remiss for the last month or so, only dropping in for the IWSG when
I clearly announced my return from a much-prolonged hiatus. Seems habits are hard to break. It’s more than that though. It’s been rough for me lately. Personal stuff. My dad.
He has Alzheimer’s and had to be admitted to a care facility. It’s for the best, especially for my mom, and
I thought, hey, he deserves it; he’s treated everyone in his life like crap for
as long as I can remember. But…yeah…easier
said than done. My heart isn’t quite as
hard as I thought it was. Then bad went
to worse, and he was hospitalized yesterday.
They think it’s a stroke.
Whatever it is, just like everything else, it’s not a solvable
problem. There’s no happily ever after
to this story.
And
yet, every nugget of misery seems accompanied by a hint of happiness. While I struggled with with my dad, I had
some really good news come in. My debut
dark romantic thriller, The Mistaken,
became a three-category finalist (best
hero-heroine, best thriller,
and best
audiobook) in the eFestival
of Words 2014 Best of the Independent eBook Awards. It had to pass the peer nominations stage to
get there, but now that it’s a finalist, it’s all up to public voting.
And
while you might have never heard of these awards before, winning, or even
coming in second, can be very impactful.
My BFF, Lisa Regan, won in
2013 for Best Heroine and was the runner-up for Best Novel for her debut, Finding Claire Fletcher, and it’s
gone on to be very successful, and Lisa now has a contract with Amazon
Publishing’s Thomas and Mercer imprint. This year, Lisa’s follow-up, Aberration, is a multi-category
finalist, including Best Thriller,
Best Villain, and I’ve Been Shameylaned (best twist). How’s that for impressive?
So
I’m hopeful. Maybe something will come of this for me. I could really, really REALLY use your help
though. The registration is a tad convoluted, not too bad, but the voting is super easy. I’ll
leave easy-to-follow instructions at the end to assist you should you want to
vote. Either way, I have a LOT of
friends who’ve also finaled, many of whom you’ve heard of, like…
Alex
J. Cavanaugh, Best Science Fiction, CassaStorm
Cassie
Mae, Best YA & The Harvey Award, Reasons I Fell for the Funny Fat friend
Michelle
Kemper Brownlow, Best NA & Best Villain, In Too Deep
Michael
Infinito, Best Horror, 12;19 & I’ve Been Shameylaned, In Blog We Trust
Carrie
Butler, Best Series, The Nexus Series, & Best NA, Strength
And
some you might not have heard of, but should definitely check out, like…
MK
Harkins, Best NA, Best Sweet Romance, & Best Villain, Intentional
Julie
A Richman, Best Romance, Searching for Moore
JB
Hartnett, Best Erotica, Inky
Kristine
Cayne, The Harvey Award, Deadly Addiction
Dana
Mason, Best Romance & Best Mystery/Suspense, Dangerous Embrace & Best
Hero, Precious Embrace
And
before you think anyone has any category wrapped up, think again. We’ve got two long months of public voting to
endure, so each and every vote helps every single one of us. I know I’d appreciate your vote if you have a
moment. Thanks in advance for your
support!
3. Confirm your
account: To pass validation, click on the survey question (typically a benign
question about your car or income,) then type the revealed, easy CAPTCHA into
‘Your answer’.
4. Ignore the
sponsor offers and click ‘Submit’. You are now registered and may login
Look at me, two posts in one week! And I'm not even
back from hiatus yet either. But this is
super important, so I hope you can take a quick moment to give this some
consideration.
Now, I realize, some will not want to vote for a book they
have not yet read, and I totally understand that, so no spanking necessary.
But if you don't object and wouldn't mind going through the process of
registering then voting, I would really love your help!
You see, not only is Finding
Claire Fletcher a superbly written and fantastic story -- one
ripped from the headlines BEFORE there even were headlines -- it rates 4.8
stars on Amazon with 60 of its 70 ratings at 5-stars, and 8 more at 4-stars.
Plus, unlike its leading competition in
the awards, Finding
Claire Fletcher ranks consistently well in sales. That should
tell you something: Not only do people love it, they WANT to buy it!
It's that good!
So, if you're on board to help, this is how you can vote:
1. Go HERE and
register. (REGISTER is
at the top OR just click on this link).
Don't worry, you will NOT receive any unwanted spam mail from them at
all.
Tips:
At the CONFIRMATION CODE captcha --
if it's a video, hit the play button and a phrase will come up along the bottom
of the video after 2-4 seconds. Just type that phrase into the blank space at
the bottom of the video box. If it's only a simple captcha, then just input the
characters.
Below that, after you AGREE TO THESE
TERMS and hit SUBMIT, you're actually DONE.
It will take you to a page that says, "You're almost finished…" THAT'S AN AD. You don't actually have
to do anything there. So close out the page.
There will be a list of polls. BEST
HERO/HEROINE is closer to the top and BEST
NOVEL is almost halfway down the list. Just click on each
poll (or the links I provided above) and you will be taken to a list
of books to vote for. You can go back to the Awards Hall and vote on
other polls.
THAT'S IT!! Thank you so very much for your time
and consideration. I hope we can pull Lisa's book up to the #1 position
it so rightly deserves.
I’M SO EXCITED! Thursday was the launch of Finding Claire Fletcher, the poignant tale of a young woman who was kidnapped at
the age of fifteen and held captive for ten years. This incredible novel of love, loss, and hope
was written by my very best friend, Lisa
Regan.(Read my
review of FCF here.)
I was lucky enough to have read this book as a critique
partner a couple of years ago, and since then, I’ve read it an additional three
times. That’s how much I love it! I know you’ll love it, too. As a preview, I’d like to give you a bit of
insight into Lisa and her novel so you can see just how wonderful and talented
she really is. So here is an interview I
conducted. Enjoy!
Why the obsession
with missing children?
I think it was from being bombarded as an adolescent by
missing child stories. Jacob Wetterling
and Jaycee Dugard were both abducted within two years of each other and the
news coverage was extensive. Certainly
something I’ve never forgotten. Right
around that time, that TV miniseries I Know My First Name is Steven about
Steven Stayner came out and that had a big impact on me. I was the same age as Wetterling and Dugard
and I think it was a that-could-be-me kind of thing that started the obsession.
You’ve been writing
since you were a child, so what is it about Finding
Claire Fletcher that made you want to seek representation and a publishing
contract?
It was the first thing I wrote that had a discernible
plot! As an adult it was the second
novel that I finished. In my first novel
I was trying to do too much. But FCF was
pretty simple: girl is abducted. Here’s
what happens. Man tries to find
her. FCF seemed much better written than
everything that came before it. I just
had this feeling that after all those years of trying, I had written something
worth reading.
How long was it from
the day you started writing Finding
Claire Fletcher to the day you finally signed your publishing contract, and
was there ever a time you just wanted to give up, tuck Finding Claire Fletcher into a drawer, and move on? If so, why didn’t you?
I started writing it sometime in early 2004 and I signed my
contract on 4/3/12 so it was eight years from first word to contract. If I had a dollar for every time I wanted to
give up, I wouldn’t have to work. Yes,
there were times I wanted to put FCF into a drawer. There were times I felt like I should put it into a drawer and move
on. But Claire’s voice was so compelling
to me that I simply couldn’t. The whole
time I was writing it, I felt like she was standing behind me with her hand on
my shoulder, whispering the words into my ear.
She became like a real person to me, and I felt like I owed it to her to
see her story through. Maybe because she
represents all the children who have lived through an abduction whose stories
most people turn away from.
What is the most
important lesson you learned during this time between writing and publication?
Ask for help. When I
was growing up, I approached so many teachers asking for help or direction with
my writing, and I was consistently blown off.
So by the time I started writing as an adult I had a bit of a chip on my
shoulder. I didn’t want to ask for help
because I was sure no one would give it.
But my college professors were wonderful, and, later, after I started
querying unsuccessfully, I found plenty of other writers willing to help me
(wink, wink, nudge, nudge).
Unfortunately I didn’t have critique partners or beta readers until after I started querying for FCF. I really believe if I had gotten the type of
feedback I got between 2006 and 2010 from CPs and betas before I sent out my
first query, my journey would have been a lot shorter. Plus this is not a journey you want to take
alone. You need other writers to support
and encourage you—only they can understand the unique misery you’ll
experience. Get involved in a writing
community—in person or online and accept their help and support.
Do you think the
subject matter in Finding Claire Fletcher
made it a hard sell, and why?
Absolutely. It’s the
element of sexual assault that makes it a hard sell. I’ve found that murder and dismemberment are
easier for people to deal with than rape.
But I purposely did not want to shy away from it. It happens to women all over the world every
day. It is real, and it is
damaging. We shouldn’t pretend it
doesn’t exist. We shouldn’t minimize it.
I think that would be a disservice to women (and men, too) who are recovering
from it or have survived it—and their loved ones whose lives are also affected
by sexual assault. You know, Diane
Sawyer asked Jaycee Lee Dugard why she went into detail about the sexual
assaults she suffered at the hands of her abductor in her memoir and Dugard
said, “Why not look at it? You know,
stare it down until it can’t scare you anymore?” I think that is incredibly brave.
With real-life cases
like Shawn Hornbeck, Elizabeth Smart, and Jaycee Lee Dugard so well-known, why do think the Big Six
turned Finding Claire Fletcher down
on grounds they thought it unbelievable that a kidnap victim allowed to leave her
prison would not seek help from the authorities?
Well obviously I can’t speak for the Big 6 but I think the
real issue is that most people have a hard time believing the real-life
instances. I think a lot of people look
at kids like Hornbeck, Smart, and Dugard and, in the back of their minds, there
is a nagging question as to why they didn’t try to escape. What people don’t realize is that, first of
all, these were children. Do you
remember how you felt when you were 11 or 14?
Do you think you would have been equipped to handle being torn away from
everything you knew and systematically tortured, both physically and
emotionally for a sustained period of time?
Because make no mistake—what happened to these kids was torture. Second, they were completely terrorized and
broken down by their captors. By the
time people see them on the news, they’re grown up. They look like and they are now adults. People forget that they were just kids when
they were taken. So I think a lot of
people want to say, “Why didn’t they just walk away?” But no one looks at a Prisoner of War and
says, “Why didn’t he just bust out of there like Rambo?” They are kids and they’ve been tortured. I think that’s the point people miss. But to answer your question, some publishers
may have reasoned that if people find it hard to swallow that real life kids
don’t leave at the first opportunity, then they won’t buy a fictional account.
After all the hard
work getting Finding Claire Fletcher
a home, what’s been the most difficult part since?
Managing my time. I
had no idea that this part would be so busy!
Don’t get me wrong, I’m ecstatic and euphoric. It has just been hard finding time for everything
on top of working full-time and raising a child. But I wouldn’t have it any other way!
What can we look
forward to next from you?
More of the same!
LOL. Well there is Aberration
which comes out on 6/6/13. It’s about an
FBI profiler working on a serial killer case where she turns out to be the
object of his affection. The WIP I’m
working on now is about a single mom who is a detective in Philadelphia investigating a series of sex
crimes. After that I had planned on
working on a new book that would have Connor and Claire in it, but we’ll see
how successful FCF is—if people like it, I’ll bring Connor and Claire
back. If not, I’ve got a few other
things up my sleeve, but whatever it is you can count on dark and gritty.
·1 signed copy of the paperback of Finding Claire Fletcher
·1 e-book version of Finding Claire Fletcher
All you have to do is visit the Finding
Claire Fletcher Blog Tour & Giveaway page and comment on that page
letting Lisa know whose blog you’ve just come from. Each commenter will be assigned a number and
then the winners will be chosen using random.org. Winners will be announced on 12/24/12!
Hey, I had this whole raving-lunatic-post written and ready
to go for today, ‘cause you guys are like, you know, awesome and always ready
and willing to rally around a writer in need, but there’s some big, BIG news coming down the pipeline and it
just doesn’t feel appropriate right now.
Sooooo… there goes my post.
Now I got nothing because I can’t, or shouldn’t, really, say
what’s coming. And to be frank, I’m a
bit confused. I mean, I thought I knew
what it was, and, for once, I felt like one of the super cool kids included in
on the secret, however inadvertent.
A hint, it has a little sumpm sumpm to do with this bad boy:
Then another little birdie whispered something in my ear
and now I’m not so sure. But
I can’t say. I guess by the time this
hits the press, you’ll all know, or at least have an inkling, even while I’m
still snoring away in ignorance out here on the west coast.
*sigh*
Well, at the very least, I have this to report: In case you forgot, or I forgot to remind
you, I’m guest posting today over at Arlee
Bird’s Tossing It Out. Check it out
and tell me what you think.
Also, in case you missed it on Friday, here’s the awesome
new book trailer for Lisa Regan’s debut novel, Finding
Claire Fletcher, launching December 6th. I’m reading this book again, for the 4th
time, this time in paperback, and it is even better than I remembered. Easily one of my favorite books of all
time! Check out the trailer and see for
yourself…
And lastly, you might have heard that I will be working with
Stephen
Tremp,Mary Pax, C.M. Brown, and Christine Raines and their new support group, Writere4Writers,
which will feature my book, The Mistaken,
on the W4Ws December 6th debut campaign. Participants will join in and help bring
awareness to newly released novels and hopefully increase sales.
The
bloggers we really miss…
and the ones we would really miss!
Do you have a couple blogger buddies who aren’t posting as often? Those who’ve
pulled back and seem absent from the blogging world? Do you have blogger
buddies you are grateful they are still around and would miss if they vanished?
Now is your chance to show your appreciation and spotlight them!
On November 16, list one to three bloggers you really miss and one to three
bloggers you would miss if they stopped blogging. Then go leave a comment on
those blogs.
Our blogger friends are special – time to let them know!
I only blog on Mondays, my day to post and make
the rounds, but there are a couple of blogs I visit every day or every day I
know there’ll be a new post. And while I
follow and love so many blogs, and most of them are active, there are a couple
of bloggers who don’t post as much as I would like.
First, two I miss because they don’t post as often as they
used to:
Jennifer Hillier at The Serial Killer
Files – Jenny’s a big time author now with two incredibly popular books,
her 2011 debut, Creep,
and this year’s follow-up, Freak,
plus she’s working on a new novel, so it’s no wonder she doesn’t post as
often. But I really, really miss her,
especially since she moved away from Seattle
almost a year ago. Lucky for me, we chat
via text, email, Facebook, and phone calls so I never truly lose touch.
Janet Reid’s Query Shark – Yes, I
know, Ms. Reid has her own regular
blog here, but I really love Query Shark.
I’ve learned so much from that blog.
But she hasn’t posted since September 30th, and for months
before that, her posts were sporadic, at best.
I miss waking up on Sunday mornings and tuning in to read how The Shark
has ripped to shreds yet another query written and submitted by someone who’s
failed to read all the other queries, as directed. Better still, I miss those few queries that
hit it spot on the very first time, even when they break all the rules—like the query forJosin Mcquein’s
Premeditated. I realize I’m past
this query stage, but I still learn a lot from reading them.
Which brings me to a blog I would miss if it were to ever
disappear: In fact, when this blogger
took a short break earlier this year, I found out just how much I did miss it. And him.
And that blogger is…
Matthew MacNish at The QQQE or The
Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment – Much like Janet Reid, Matt
has serious skills when it comes to dissecting and analyzing queries and
determining what works and what doesn’t then suggesting ways in which to fix
it. So if you have a query you are
thinking of submitting to agents, send it to Matt first. The man knows what he’s talking about. And his commenters help a lot, too.
And finally, the one blog I never, and I mean NEVER, EVER miss, is your friend and mine…
Alex J. Cavanaugh - There are
very few bloggers out there who are as consistently and truly inspiring,
relentlessly selfless, and remarkably entertaining as Alex. He is the highlight of my Monday, Wednesday,
and Friday mornings. In fact, I
typically read his posts before I even get out of bed in the morning. So if Alex’s blog were to ever cease to
exist, I would be crushed. He is a
lesson to us all on how to be humble and pay it forward. And what's more, I've met most of my Blogger friends through Alex, so he's kind of a matchmaker of sorts. Many thanks and cheers to you, Alex!
With less than 3 weeks until the December 6th
launch of Lisa Regan’s debut
novel, I’d like to share with you her book trailer for Finding
Claire Fletcher. So without further
ado…
Back on June 4th, I wrote a very brief post about Goodreads, the book-lover’s social networking website. In May, I was granted an author’s page, as well as a page for my book, The Mistaken. Since then, I’ve had quite a few folks add it to their TBR list. A few others, who received the ARC, gave my book a ranking and review. Yay, so far, I’m 5 for 5 stars with all great reviews! Whew!
My point here is that Goodreads is an invaluable resource for both readers and writers. I generally only read books that have been referred to me, and Goodreads helps me with that. So now, I’ve started to write extensive reviews on books that I’ve read recently. I wrote a pretty good one for Alex J. Cavanaugh’s first novel, CassaStar.
I think reviews should be more than just synopses. They should offer the reviewers gut feelings on the book. So if you’re interested, here’s my review of one of the best books I’ve ever read, one to which I gave 5 out of 5 stars. Yes, the review’s a bit lengthy, but it deserves it. And wouldn’t you want a thorough review for your own novel? Either way, I hope you add Finding Claire Feltcher to your To-Be-Read list on Goodreads.
“Finding Claire Fletcher is truly a story of our times, and magnificently told, even in its brutality. It follows ten years in the life of a girl kidnapped off the streets on her way to school at the age of fifteen. We’ve all seen or read those news stories of kids who vanish without a trace. We wonder what happened to them, if they still live, and if so, how? We know the type of monsters who prey on these children, and we can only imagine what they do once they’ve captured their victims. This is that story. It isn’t pretty, and it makes no excuses for that.
Claire Fletcher, though young and naive, fights against her captor, trying her best to outrun the villain who subjects her to daily atrocities. He uses her fear against her to keep Claire hostage as he chips away at the girl she used to be, slowly and effectively destroying any hope of reuniting with her family and a mother who never gives up hope that Claire is still alive.
Even as she ages and becomes physically stronger, Claire cannot escape the torture and degradation. Her captor holds Claire in an emotional cage every bit as much as a physical one. To control her, he not only uses the threat of violence against those she loves most, he uses violence itself, hurting Claire’s family or killing those she asks for help. Knowing she cannot expose her loved ones or even strangers to the kind of cruel fate her kidnapper threatens, she resignedly settles into life as Lynn, the name her captor has given her.
Still a hostage, but allowed to leave her captor’s compound, Claire meets Police Detective Connor Parks at a bar. When she disappears following a chaste night together, leaving behind only an old family address, Connor discovers the beautiful woman he’s come to know as Claire Fletcher has been missing for ten years and is presumed dead. But he knows she’s not, and he’s determined to find her, even as his commander orders him off the case and Claire’s captor targets Connor as punishment for defying him.
Told from alternating points of view, we see the story emerge from both Claire’s perspective, as well as Connor’s. Author Lisa Regan delves into the mind of a sexual deviant, exposing and exploring what drives a man to such desperate acts. But while she alludes to the horrific misery Claire’s captor subjects her to, Regan never stoops to showing the acts themselves, only examining the effect such debased treatment has on his victim.
Those who wonder why women like Elizabeth Smart or Jaycee Dugard never attempted to leave their real-life captors will find the reasons eloquently explored in this well-written, hauntingly brutal, yet sweetly realized story, a story of love and determination to overcome the most heinous of fates.
Though it is superbly written and moves with intense, page-turning speed, Finding Claire Fletcher is not always an easy read in that it probes into the most corrupt behavior imaginable. It’s difficult to feel what the young Claire experiences as she is made to suffer at the hands of a pedophile. But as tough as those parts are to read, the story is balanced by the hope and memories Claire holds as a way of surviving her ordeal. And as much as it is Claire’s story, it is also DetectivePark’s story, as well, analyzing the failure of his marriage and his precarious position within the police department following a questionable shooting and his involvement with Claire’s seemingly unsolvable cold case.
But in the end, Finding Claire Fletcher is a love story about a child and her mother, and the man, Connor Parks, who cannot forget or abandon her, and risks not only his career, but his own life to save Claire. This story will frighten you, make you angry, cry, and cringe, but it will also energize your faith in the human spirit and its ability to heal and move forward. Regan deserves every one of these five stars for her original and haunting debut novel.”
Do you use Goodreads and write reviews for books you’ve read? If you’re a writer, what style of review do you hope your readers will write for your book?
Before I get into my next A to Z post, I want to give a HUGE shout out to my girl, my favorite CP, my writing soulmate, Lisa Regan, who just signed her very own BOOK DEAL with Sapphire Star Publishing!
Yes, Lisa is joining my ever expanding family at SSP. Her first book, Finding Claire Fletcher will be released on December 6, 2012, and her second book, Aberration will released on June 6, 2013. Both books, in the suspense/crime genre, are phenomenal reads! I will post more about Lisa's remarkable journey after the A to Z Challenge is over. In the mean time, please drop by Lisa's and give her a big hello and a pat on the shoulder. She's waited for this moment for many years!
Many bloggers have chosen a theme for the A to Z. My pledge since becoming a blogger is to post about writing, so for this event, I will being posting about what I've learned about writing a novel.
________
I is for Inner: Situated or farther within; interior; more intimate, private, or secret; of or pertaining to the mind or spirit; not obvious; hidden or obscured. (Dictionary.com)
This might seem like an ambiguous topic, but when it comes to creating a story, “inner” is of extreme importance. First, there are two levels to every novel: the outer level or the plot and the inner level or the story itself. For every outer action, motion, or goal, there is an inner reaction, emotion, and growth. The outer notion to attain works with the inner notion to become.
The protagonist’s inner journey deepens when the reader learns who he needs to be in order to be whole and why that is important. Why is he broken or wounded and how does that manifest itself in his behavior and attitude? What will lead him to be whole again, to force him to change, or lead him to sacrifice?
Each major scene in a novel should have turning points with two dimensions. The way in which things change that everyone understands is the outer turning point. And the way in which the protagonist changes is the inner turning point.
A story’s greatest inner dimension is the inner conflict. This is the protagonist’s fear and doubt brought to the surface, a battle between his two sides: reason and passion. These two voices directly oppose each other. He brings them with him into the story before it even begins. It’s what’s holding him back. It is this very contradictory battle that is so compelling and satisfying to the reader.
Inner conflict is a result of the plot. It’s what leads the protagonist to realize his goal is essential to his well-being. It’s what makes him strive to attain his impossible goal. Each obstacle he overcomes provides the protagonist the opportunity to learn more about himself. In knowing his weaknesses and strengths, he is better able to transform himself.
Though my own novel is a thriller and therefore plot-driven, it is the main character’s struggle with the villain he has become that is the most compelling.
Do you focus equally on both the inner and outer aspects of your stories?
And
while you might have never heard of these awards before, winning, or even
coming in second, can be very impactful.
My BFF, Lisa Regan, won in
2013 for Best Heroine and was the runner-up for Best Novel for her debut, Finding Claire Fletcher, and it’s
gone on to be very successful, and Lisa now has a contract with Amazon
Publishing’s Thomas and Mercer imprint. This year, Lisa’s follow-up, Aberration, is a multi-category
finalist, including Best Thriller,
Best Villain, and I’ve Been Shameylaned (best twist). How’s that for impressive? 
MK
Harkins, Best NA, Best Sweet Romance, & Best Villain, Intentional
