Author Sarah Hoyt (who very kindly linked “Dream Student” on her blog yesterday) had an article a couple of weeks ago in which she outed herself as a “Pantser.”

You should also be aware that sometimes the plot changes as you write and characters take on a life of their own.  This happens to some writers all the time, to others not at all, and to some occasionally.  If it happens to you, you’re normal.  Just roll with it, and change your plot as you go.  Of course, then you might find yourself becoming a pantser.

 

I used to write plots so detailed that I’d just fill in dialogue and description, and I had a full novel.  And then… it changed.  I could write all the plots I wanted, but the story would refuse to conform.  Or the story blasted through so fast, I had no time to plot.

I’m definitely a pantser myself.  I have a general idea where the story is going, but it often changes over the course of the book as the characters go in different directions, and as some minor characters turn out to be not-so-minor after all.  The subplot about Janet’s dying mother in “Dream Doctor” came about that way.  Janet wasn’t really meant to be a major character in the book; I only included her because I wanted Sara to have at least one familiar face in med school, and Janet had been mentioned in the first book as a pre-med student in Sara’s same year.  But as I wrote, she took on a larger role, because Sara needed a close friend, and Beth, her best friend from the first book, was very much offstage.

Then it occured to me that Sara should have a secondary dream-related plot, unrelated to the main murder mystery.  And it came together – something that was more personal and painful, and also a “teaching moment”, as dealing with terminal patients and their families is something every doctor has to learn to handle.  But none of it was outlined or planned until it revealed itself to me.

The entire main plot of “Dream Family” happened this way, as well.  Sara’s arrest was going to be a minor roadblock and a small embarrassment, but it turned into a terrible ordeal and the plot turned into Sara’s efforts to recover.  The original idea was an “evil dreamer” who was using her powers for, well, evil.  The only surviving part of that plot in “Dream Family” is the trouble Sara’s godmother finds herself in.  But the idea survived, and it’s the main plot of book #5.  But there again, pantsing rears its head – my favorite scene so far in the book was entirely unplanned – Sara catching her adoptive daughter Grace having her first kiss, and Sara’s subsequent flashback to her own.  I’m sure there’ll be plenty more surprises for me as the book goes on…

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It’s time to spotlight another great indie author.  Today, it’s Melodie Campbell…

Melodie Campbell achieved a personal best this year when Library Journal compared her to Janet Evanovich.  She has over 200 publications, including 100 comedy credits, 40 short stories, and 4 novels. She has won 6 awards for fiction.

You can find out more about Melodie at her main website or her humor page (Melodie began her career as a comedy writer; she knows funny!)

Melodie’s got a new book out, and just for today and tomorrow, it’s only $0.99 – you can’t beat that!  The book is “Rowena and the Dark Lord”, the second book in the Land’s End series.

Is that a broadsword on your belt, or are you just glad to see me?

“Hot and hilarious!”

“A fantastical tour de force”

“The Princess Bride with Sex”“

And Melodie’s been kind enough to provide a brief excerpt for you…

I rose to my feet and turned to the east as the spell book instructed.

“What is she doing?”

Lars’s voice. What was he doing here?

I chanted the words from the book in my hand, silently, beneath my breath. Then I chanted them once more, louder and with confidence. My voice became richer, louder, resonating in my ears.

Whoosh. The ground trembled. The air in front of us seemed to swirl, clouding my view of the field ahead. A grey mist rose from the ground, thick with dust or soot, obliterating all vision.

I stood rock still, hardly able to breathe.

The mist swirled. I heard men yelling—coarse shouts over the ring of steel on steel, then an eerie silence. It put chills up my spine. Lars muttered something at my side. Gareth stood stock still. Loki moved up against me. We waited.

Men’s voices again, echoing like souls lost in a fog. The mist lifted in one swift movement to disappear into nothingness. In its place, were at least a hundred men.

Bugger. I messed up.

“Houston, we have a problem,” I said out loud. This wasn’t supposed to happen. I must have pronounced one of the spell words wrong.

“Who is Houston?” Lars said.

“Romans!” Gareth hissed. He drew his sword.

“Romans?” I stared at the battle-scarred men before us. They looked exhausted. They also looked bloody, dirty and rather short. Not to mention confused.

How the heck could they be Romans?

Someone yelled “Form Square!” in—yup—that was Latin.

“What the hell?” I stared. The men came to life moving with purpose into a square. Within seconds we were facing a shield wall bristling with spears.

Gareth and Lars already had their swords drawn. They tried to move in front of me but I spread my arms to hold them back.

“Sheath your weapons,” I commanded.

They hesitated, eyeing the wall of men and knives.

“For crissake,” I insisted, “what do you expect to do against that, besides get us all killed?”

With reluctance the swords slid back into their scabbards.

The man on the horse wore a breastplate the sort of armor that you only saw in museums back home. Or movies. I was reminded of Cleopatra starring Elizabeth Taylor. Richard Burton playing the part of Marc Antony.

Hoo boy.

The man on horseback stared at me. No stirrups on his saddle. A helmet that was in history books. Definitely Roman. I stared back at him.

Romans? In this time? What the poop had I done?

“It’s a freaking temporal rift!” My laugh was strident. “Where the hell is Spock when you need him?”

Rowena and the Dark Lord is available at Amazon, and as noted above, it’s only $0.99 today and tomorrow.  And the first book in the series, “Rowena Through the Wall” is also available at Amazon.   You should definitely check them out!

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Check out an interview with me at Joyce Strand’s blog.

And tomorrow, don’t forget to visit the Virtual Book Fair – always worth your time!

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I’m about a third of the way through book #5 at this point.  I’ve got the prologue and chapters 1-3 and also 7 finished, and chapters 4 and 8 are both mostly done.

The next part will be chapters 5-6, where we’ll meet some of Brian’s co-workers, as well as the villain (although we won’t know that when we first see her).

I know what’s going to happen in chapter 9 (and probably 10), and I’ve got the last chapter figured out, but there’s a big gap there between chapter 10-15 that I’m not quite sure about yet.  We’ll see how that all goes.

Meanwhile, here’s a little bit from chapter 8.  Sara’s decided to try and actively use her ability to step into dreams to help Brian figure out who’s trying to undermine him at work…

“How many times have I helped other people with my dreams?  Why shouldn’t I help the man I love?”

“Sara…”

I look into his beautiful brown eyes, and I can feel the power blazing from my stare and into him.  I’m holding him motionless, helpless, the way he does to me so easily and so often.  I’ve never done that to him before – but I have done it at work.  When I’m worried that a parent isn’t taking their child’s condition seriously, or when I’m delivering bad news that they don’t want to hear but absolutely need to know.  When my protective nature comes out full-force.

If there’s anyone in this world I should be protecting, it’s my husband, right?  “No arguments.  You think I’m going to sit back and watch you lose everything you’ve worked for without a fight?  You ought to know me better than that.”  He does; he can tell that there’s no way he’s going to change my mind.  Besides, he knows I’m right.

He doesn’t say anything for a while, he just relaxes his grip on me and I tighten my hold on him in return.  “OK,” he says, finally.  “If you’re going to try, I’d start with Joe.”

“Why him?”

“He’s the number two man.  He knows everything I know.”  It’s hard to picture Joe Burns trying to undermine Brian.  We’ve had dinner at his house probably a dozen times; his daughter is in Brownies with Lizzie.  My disbelief must show on my face, because Brian shrugs.  “I don’t really think he’s doing anything on purpose.  But he could still be talking when he shouldn’t – maybe whoever he’s talking to is the one behind everything.”

That’s possible.  I suppose it’s as good a place to start as any.  I summon up a mental picture of Joe: close-cut hair nearly the same color as Brian’s, grayish-blue eyes behind terribly unfashionable black plastic-framed glasses, a navy suit that looks as though it once belonged to his father.  And an infectious grin that he’s worn just about every time I’ve met him.  It’s strange to be making myself purposely think of another man, especially at bedtime, but I can see him very clearly as I feel myself fading…

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I wanted to give a quick mention to another friend named Jennifer – this one is Jennifer Povey, who’s also an author, and whose novel “Transpecial” is being released this Friday (two days from now!) by Musa Publishing.

You can see more about it at Musa’s website and you can buy the book directly in a variety of electronic formats (Kindle, Nook, plain old PDF) there.  You should also definitely check out Jennifer’s blog and her general website – she’s been posting interesting details about the book.

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I’m going to briefly turn the blog over to another indie author who you ought to take a look at – Jennifer Howard.

You can find her on Goodreads or at her own website.  Her novel, the Healing Heart

…is available at Amazon, and here’s what it’s about:

After losing the love of her life, Jamie Hansen finally picks up the pieces and moves on, determined to never let go of her past. Or so she thinks. One glance from Conley Michaels, and suddenly her whole existence is turned inside out. Does Jamie have a second chance at love? Only if she allows Conley the space to fill her healing heart…

But enough talking from me, here’s what Jennifer’s got to say…

It has been said by @AKMamma that, “Writing a book is like sliding down a rainbow! Marketing it is like trudging through a field of chewed bubblegum on a hot, sticky day.”  When I saw this quote on Twitter, I belly laughed. I was knee-deep in the middle of one of ‘those days’… you know the ones. The days when you get little else accomplished other than ‘selling yourself’ to the highest bidder. Now, was I truly out there ‘selling myself’? No, silly, that’s illegal in most states! However, as an indie author, that’s exactly how you feel!

The art of effective marketing is diaphanously shrouded in mystery. It sits, Zen-like, somewhere high in a mountaintop temple, patiently watching over many lowland grovelers, such as myself. It smiles, shakes its head sometimes, and continues to wait on folk, such as me, to scale the heights, attempting to claim the prize that it offers. Some days, I make headway up said mountain, very Indiana Jones-like. Other days, not so much. But every day, I try.

I promote myself on more numerous social platforms than Grand Central Station’s. I make connections. I reach out to countless reviewers. I promote others, hoping that ‘instant karma’s gonna get [me]’, and, in fact, propel me forward. I beg, I borrow, I contemplate stealing–but then I don’t. Again, it’s against the law. (Sheesh, what ARE you trying to turn me into??) Most importantly, I attempt to be creative and think ‘outside of the box’. And some days, like this week, I am utterly blessed and rewarded. Being named Goodreads Paranormal, Fantasy, Dystopia, and Romance Writers and Reviewers featured author of the week has placed, at my disposal, a veritable army of indie warriors aiding in my promotional cause. J.J. DiBenedetto is one of these warriors. He looks awesome in armor, by the way.

Will I ever reach the pinnacle of the mountain and gain marketing guru status? Probably not. But every endeavor I make takes me a step closer to achieving my true goal. What goal is that, you ask? Simple… the placing of my work into the hands of others. Would I like to make a gazillion dollars and retire to the south of France, upon which I would sip a fine red wine with my pinky held high in the air and speak in a snooty accent? Umm, hello…of course.  But even the thought of that doesn’t bring me true joy. True joy, for me, comes in the actualizing of a long held dream, and the thrill of having my very own creations touch the lives of others out there.   So, if I never reach that mountaintop shrine, my smile will still be both bright and wide.

Jennifer Howard is a dreamer, a thinker, an indie, and very much, a newbie! Her debut contemporary romantic fiction work is entitled The Healing Heart. Coming soon, look for her second novel, entitled Ten Steps. http://www.jennifer-howard.net

Thanks to Jennifer for visiting – please take a few minutes and give her book, and her website a look – it’s well worth your time!

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I was thinking more about the review from the Paranormal Romance guild of “Dream Family” and I honestly can say it doesn’t upset me.  This is the last paragraph of the review:

I found this story at times very unrealistic, and there were way too many dream sequences.  The whole story revolved around Sara and her adjustment to being in jail, only she wasn’t even there a whole day. In addition, Sara came out a broken woman which was a total opposite of the woman who in the last book went face to face with Paul Sorrentino.  I am sure that being in prison is not a cake walk, but I think the author went overboard with Sara.  I also thought the book was too long and drawn out.

My response would be that, clearly in the case of this reviewer, I didn’t do a good enough job conveying what Sara was feeling and how she was processing what was happening to her.  As I was writing the book, it did worry me that readers might react exactly like this – “it was only one night in jail, why is it such a big deal?”  But what i realized as I went on was, that is the story.  It’s a big deal to Sara.  Everyone has their own weak points, and everyone reacts differently when faced with a situation that’s completely outside of their experience, one that turns everything they understood about the world upside down (in this case, Sara’s belief that the police are there to protect her; that because she’s law-abiding and a good person, she could never find herself in jail).  I tried to point the way to this in the story, by showing how confused Sara was that there was actual, physical evidence of the crime she was accused of – her signatures on her prescription pads, and how that undermined her confidence and her hope of getting out.  That, combined with the constant physical loss of freedom (being handcuffed for so many hours in a row, being locked in a cell when she’s never even been acidentally locked in a cellar or anything in her entire life), and the slow removal of her identity – having her wedding ring removed, having a barcode put on her, etc all worked to push Sara into a desperate and hopeless place she’d never been in before. 

It’s the combination of all the factors that really breaks Sara.  If the arrest had been for something she knew she could fight, or that wasn’t a major felony, she would probably have been able to endure it a lot better – if she was picked up for DUI, or as a matter of mistaken identity, she would still have suffered, but she wouldn’t have lost hope – she would have, at least mentally, fought back, because she would have known she could fight back. 

The final straw comes with the cavity search.  Sara experiences it, in the end, as a sexual assault.  To her, it’s not merely a search, not just a matter of procedure.  She’s forced against her will to strip in front of strangers, and to allow them to touch her in the most intimate, private place, without her consent.  I tried to make that very clear.

So, to me, that’s the plot of the book.  Sara is striped of her identity one layer at a time, physically abused (yes, I think keeping someone tightly handcuffed behind their back for hours on end us absolutely physical abuse, and in researching for the book, I came across quite a bit of legal opinion that agrees with that viewpoint), confronted with the possibility of ten years in prison, forced to accept that one of her trusted employees has utterly betrayed her, and before it’s all done she’s sexually assaulted.  That all happens by chapter two, and it completely breaks her.  The rest of the book is how she recovers from that, how she finds her way back to herself. 

I think that’s a solid plot, and I think it’s perfectly reasonable that such an experience could drive someone to the point where they lose all hope and are an empty shell of themselves.  Obviously, at least to one reader, I didn’t do a good enough job of bringing that out, and that’s a completely fair criticism; I don’t agree with it, but the book is out of my hands, and it’s up to readers to judge for themselves whether I accomplished what I tried to do, or not.

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Dream Family was reviewed by the Paranormal Romance Guild today.  I was kind of surprised; the reviewer only gave it 3.5 stars.  It was the same reviewer for all four books; she didn’t really like Dream Student, but she gave five stars to both Dream Doctor and Dream Child.

Personally, if I had to put the books in order, just by writing quality I’d say they go:

Dream Family

Dream Doctor

Dream Child

Dream Student

In order of which ones I personally like the best, I’d say:

Dream Child

Dream Student

Dream Doctor

Dream Family

But obviously tastes differ, and I’m just grateful for the professional reviews from the Guild.

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A couple of updates this morning…

The books are featured today on Livia Ellis’ blog – check it out!

I’ll also be participating in the Virtual Book Fair tomorrow (that link goes to Facebook; you can also go here).

I’ve officially got a narrator to do an audio of at least Dream Student – the fantastic Heather Jane Hogan.  Once I have an audio sample, I’ll post it here.  We’re looking probably at mid-June for a finished product.

And finally, a little more progress on Book 5.  Here’s a quick excerpt…

“Grace, is something else bothering you?”

“How come you talk to me like that?”  I have no idea what she means.

“Like what?”

She blushes a little as she answers, “Like an adult.”

I don’t blurt out the first thing that comes to mind, which is “Why wouldn’t I?”  But that really is the answer.  That’s how my parents – mostly – treated me.  It’s the only way I know to treat my own kids.

A memory swims to the surface.  “I asked my parents the same thing once…”

…I don’t believe they’re really going to let me stay home by myself for a whole night.  They’re going to leave me here, no babysitter, no anything.  I don’t need a babysitter – I’m eleven years old, I can take care of myself just fine!  But none of my friends’ parents would let them stay home alone like this.  Not even Tammy down the street, and her parents let her get away with everything.

Dad’s staring at me.  He knows what I’m thinking – how does he always know?  Mom is already at the door, tapping her foot.  “We’re going to be late, Howard.”

“I think Sara’s got one last thing to ask us before we go, Betty,” he says.  Then he ruffles my hair and asks, “Don’t you, honey?”

“I’m not complaining,” I say quickly, “but – uh – why are you treating me like a grown-up?”

Dad looks over at Mom, then back at me.  They’re both smiling.  Dad laughs gently.  “How will you ever learn to be one if we don’t?”

…Grace is waiting for my answer.  “Sorry, I got lost there for a minute.”  I repeat Dad’s words to her and she gives me a big smile.

“Grandpa is pretty cool, isn’t he?”

“Yes, he is,” I agree, as I shoo her up to bed.

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It’s time to highlight another deserving indie author, so today I’m happy to tell you about Sharon Stevenson and her novel “Blood Bound”.  This is the first book of her Gallows series (the second book, “Demon Divided” is also available).

Here’s a little about “Blood Bound”:

19-year-old twin demon trackers Shaun and Sarah Gallows are used to running into trouble – mostly the kind with fangs – but while Sarah embraces her powers to their fullest extent, trusting her instincts implicitly, Shaun distances himself from his abilities and can do little more than despair at his sister’s reckless nature and idly back her up.

When they come across 17-year-old Melissa Carling, a demon tracker who’s been torturing innocent super-naturals, they know they have to stop her. Sarah is desperate to punish Melissa for what she’s been doing but Shaun’s instant attraction to the girl points to a soul-mate bond stronger than anything he’s ever had to fight before…

You can find the book on Amazon for only $0.99 – you can’t ask for a better bargain than that!   Look for it at Amazon.com or Amazon.uk.

And Demon Divided is also available on Amazon for that same low price.

Sharon also answered a few questions – read on to find out more about her and the world she’s created…

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