Writing the Dream books has entailed a fair amount of research.  I’ve never attended medical school, or worked as a resident in a hospital, or been to jail.  But Sara has done all those things and more, so to make them believable, I’ve had to look a lot of things up.  If you looked at my Google history and you didn’t know I was using it for research on my books, I’m not sure what you’d think about the variety of topics I’ve searched for.

Dream Student required the least amount of research.  It’s set (more or less) where and when I went to college, even down to the same dorm.  The only thing I made a point of looking up was an extremely fancy restaurant about an hour outside of Washington, DC (the Inn at Little Washington), to use as a model for the totally made-up Blue Duck Inn that Sara and Brian have their New Year’s Eve date at (interestingly enough, there actually is a Blue Duck Tavern in downtown Washington DC, which I didn’t know about until after I finished the book!).  Other than that, I did look up the history of the MCAT (medical school admission test) to see what the score range was in 1990, when Sara was taking the test.  Everything else in the book came from my memory (or my imagination).

Dream Doctor, on the other hand, required a LOT of research.  As noted, I haven’t been to medical school.  In fact, the only thing I really knew about it was the Gross Anatomy class (dissection of a cadaver over the course of the term with a group of fellow students).  I used four sources to get myself up to speed on what’s taught in medical school, and how.  First was the website of the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine (appropriate since Sara attends a fictionalized version of that very school).  The main thing I got from there was the daily class schedule.  Second was the movie “Gross Anatomy”, which gave me a general sense of life for medical students, especially in showing how one’s Gross Anatomy group becomes almost a second family during the very stressful first year of medical school.  Third was “A Not Entirely Bening Procedure”, a memoir by Dr. Perri Klaas, a woman who attended Harvard Medical School in the late 1980’s.  I got a very good sense of what it feels like to be in medical school, and how it changes your thinking and the way you view the world around you.  The idea of Sara having a baby while still in medical school also came out of this book, as Dr. Klaas did precisely that during her second year of school (that’s also a subplot in “Gross Anatomy” as well).  Finally, for the actual details of Gross Anatomy, I used Grant’s Dissector (the standard textbook for the class) to help me describe exactly what Sara would be doing each week in class.  There was also some research into poisons, and the exact symptoms of thallium poisoning, which mostly came from the ever-helpful Wikipedia.

Dream Child didn’t require a huge amount of research, but there were some specific topics that I had to look up.  They included: details of the seal pool at the National Zoo; which statues represent the state of Pennsylvania in the Capitol Rotunda (Robert Fulton, inventor of the steamboat; and John Muhlenberg, Revolutionary War hero); the name and location of the wealthiest suburb of Philadelphia; information on “sick building syndrome”; details about the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and its environs; and growth charts for four-year-old girls; and types of and treatment for pediatric stomach cancer, among other things.

For Dream Family, the main thing I had to research was basic criminal procedure (what exactly happens to you after you’re arrested?  When do you see a judge?  How exactly does the bail process work?  What does a bail-bondsman do?), and what someone experiences when they’re arrested and booked into jail.  Some of the specific details in the book came directly from this research, although what Sara goes through is much worse than what generally happens to people in the Arlington County Detention Center (at least, according to the information I was able to find).  I also did some research into floorplans of doctor’s offices, the developmental milestones of 2 year old children; and the graduation attire of CWRU medical school graduates.

For Book #5, just in the four chapters I’ve written so far, I’ve had to look up: the Wintergreen Ski Resort; the Army-Navy Country Club; heart attack causes, symptoms and treatments; and the history of Google as a publicly traded company.  I’m sure there’ll be more interesting things to dig up before it’s finished!

To my fellow authors who read this – what’s the most interesting, or strangest, or most-likely-to-make your-friends-and-family-wonder-what-the-heck-you’re thinking thing you’ve had to research in the course of your writing?

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Sales are pretty (extremely) slow, thus far.  The reviews are all pretty much great – once people see the books, they like them.  The trick is getting them to see the books!  I’ve got internet/blog promotions on May 2nd, 6th and then on the 19th through June 1st..  Hopefully that will help some.  We’ll see.

I’m also waiting on the audiobook front.  I’ve got one possible narrator (who sounds fantastic), but there are some details to work out.  I’ve got my fingers crossed that it’ll be sorted out this week.  And then there’s book #5 – it’s going slow, but it is going.  Hopefully I can pick up the pace a little.

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I cane across this at Kyra Halland’s blog (another indie author, who’s now on the blogroll), which she picked up from The Daring Novelist’s blog – write a post about what your characters do for breakfast.  As she says:

What a person chooses to eat for breakfast tells you something about them.  What they choose when they can’t have what they normally have can tell you more.  (And what they choose when somebody else is buying tells you more also.)  Food relates to culture as well as taste, and a person’s choice will be influenced not only by the culture they are currently surrounded by, but also the culture they were raised in.
For the next two weeks, I’m going to be blogging about what various of my characters eat for breakfast in different situations.  I’d like to challenge other bloggers out there — both writers and readers — to write a post about the breakfasting habits of their favorite characters.

Kyra’s post about her characters and their breakfast habits is here.  As for my characters…

Sara and Brian’s stories are set in the present-day (well, close to it – we’re up to December of 2000 in book #5) and in middle-class America (specifically the suburbs of Washington, DC in the last two books).  But the thing that really defines their meal choices is the fact that they both work demanding jobs (she’s a doctor, he’s an aerospace engineer currently working at the Pentagon), and more importantly, they’ve got four kids.  So on a weekday morning, time is at a premium; Sara and Brian aren’t usually sitting down for a civilized breakfast on a weekday morning, they’re grabbing a bite of toast or cereal or whatever else is handy in between getting dressed for work and wrangling the kids.  Oh, and the coffee – there’s always coffee.

On weekends, when there’s often (but not always) more time, breakfast is more civilized; Sara and Brian make an effort to have everyone sit at the table together.  If Sara’s mother (who lives half a mile away) is there, breakfast will be pancakes (possibly chocolate-chip pancakes) and bacon hot off the skittle.  If not, and it’s Sara or Brian cooking, it’ll be frozen waffles and pre-cooked mocrowaveable bacon. 

Eating out, both Sara and Brian tend towards the sweet rather than the savory for breakfast.  They’ll order pretty much the same thing out that they’d make at home.  And, partly due to the kids and partly to their own temperments, when they do go out for breakfast, it’s more likely to be at IHOP or the equivalent than someplace fancy.  For Sara especially, when eating out, comfort and familiarty are the most important things. 

If Brian and Sara find themselves at a fancy restaurant, they’ll still gravitate towards the familiar – although they both appreciate good food, neither of them are true “foodies”.  What they’d appreciate more is the time to themselves, something that’s at a premium with four children.

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Not much progress this weekend.  At least Chapter 3 is finished, so only 12 more to go (it’s going to be the usual 16 chapters, but I’ve already got chapter 7 written). 

I’m starting to have doubts about the ending.  Assuming the story doesn’t completely change course on me, what has to happen at the end is very clear.  The problem is that what has to happen is both in-character and completely out-of-character for Sara, and I’m not sure whether I can make it work or not.  I guess I’ll just have to see when I get there.  There’s still a long way to go before that point.

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I’ve done a guest post over at the Zigzag Timeline blog – go on over and check it out!

While you’re clicking around, have a look at Share-an-Excerpt Saturday, where you can see excerpts from a wide variety of great books from great indie authors (including a bit from Dream Family by yours truly)

 

 

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Lots of promotional activity.  The books were featured at Elizabeth Alsobrooks’ blog yesterday, and we’ve got another guest spot coming up tomorrow.  There’s also a big promotion planned for May 2nd, and then again May 6th and a Virtual Book Tour starting May 19th.

There’s also Sample Saturday, the Virtual Book fair with excerpts from dozens of indie authors (including me!).

So we’ll see if all this activity helps sell some books.

And there’s also been a little movement on the audiobook front, but I’m not quite ready to make an official announcement yet.  I’ve got my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to make one in the next few days, though.

And there’s also (slow) progress on Book 5 (I’m still not totally in love with “Waking Dream” as the title, but it’s the best I’ve come up with so far).  Four chapters are done, so the book is about a quarter of the way finished.  Right now, I’m writing what may be Sara’s toughest challenge yet, worse than serial killers or mobsters or jail: having “the talk” with her (adopted) eleven-year-old daughter.

 

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As promised, here’s another great indie writer you ought to know about – Elizabeth Alsobrooks, author of “Illuminati: The Book of Life”

Now that her children have flown from the nest, Elizabeth lives with her two new babies (AKA Maltese) and husband, Bobby, at the foot of the beautiful Catalina Mountain Range in Oro Valley, AZ.

She loves to hike the mountain trails, ride her bike on the miles of walk/bike paths, sit on her patio sipping coffee and reading or brainstorming plots and enjoying the grandeur of her breathtaking mountain views.

Elizabeth calls herself a pantser on steroids. The first book of her Illuminati series flowed like a psychic muse channeled it from her fingertips to the keyboard. She wrote 120,000 words in 45 days. “After the first couple of chapters, the characters took over. They knew what they wanted and what they were willing to do to get it.”

Her love of mythology and ancient literature and history were the backbone for her series, and the Sigma Force series by James Rollins inspired the fast-paced adventures (He recently told her at a literacy fundraiser that he found that flattering, as no one had ever told him he was inspiring before!). The result was an action packed URBAN FANTASY novel series, with its basis in truth, superstitions, mythology and conspiracy theories.

A friend compared Elizabeth’s series to what it would be like if Ford and Jolie stepped through the Stargate using the Da Vinci code as a compass, tried to kill each other, and ended up colliding with a love as seemingly hopeless as Romeo and Juliet. Elizabeth claims she pictured a blond “The Rock” as the hero when she was writing, but that Jolie, with lavender eyes, would fit her heroine just fine. It was difficult for her to claim a genre (pigeon hole) for this work. There is a love relationship, but it’s all about the family relationships, dysfunctional and otherwise, and the timeless struggle for power. There are very strong female leads in this story, and the men are macho enough to hold their own.

In the above picture, Elizabeth was in New Orleans on a tram with author friends Nancy Gideon and Laurie C. Kuna, doing research for book II in the series. Travel, exploring and research have always been her idea of a good time!

That’s Elizabeth.  You can read more about her at her website, Goodreads, Facebook and Twitter.  Now, about her book…

Ljluka Vargas, immortal prince and the cool-headed enforcer for the Vargas Dynasty, must go up against his most intriguing enemy, the mysterious Nalini. She intends to beat him to the secret archaeological site of The Book of Life which contains the genetic secrets of their ancient ancestors.

In order to escape the cruel domination of her family and gain freedom for her mother, Nalini assumes the role of assassin. In her rival, the sleek and deadly Luc, she finds a different kind of danger. She’s supposed to eliminate him, but that would foil destiny’s plan for them to be together.

It’s a race from power-hungry D.C. cabinet rooms through the secret realms of the Vatican, from cloud forests and desert sands to the caverns of the Underworld as mankind hangs in the balance. For whoever possesses the Book of Life has the potential to rule the world, offering or denying immortality to the human race.

You can buy the book at Amazon or Barnes & Noble.  You can watch the book trailer on YouTube, and read a breif excerpt from the book here.

Last, but certainly not least, Elizabeth has a little treat for us – an interview with her heroine, the assassin Nalini:

Why have you agreed to be an assassin, Nalini?

Nalini: I had no choice. It’s the only way for me to escape the harem and free my mother from the beast.

What beast are you talking about?

My father.

Your father is a beast?

I shouldn’t have said that. I don’t wish to discuss it further.

Okay. How do you feel about your first mission?

I thought nothing of it at first, but that man, Luc, there is something different about him. Something unsettling.

You sound as if you won’t be able to defeat him.

He did win the first battle. They say it’s not possible, that no one has ever won a fight against him. But I must. I must.

Are you afraid he might kill you?

No. I’m not afraid to die. There are worse fates.

What is your deepest, most secret wish?

For my mother and I to find somewhere that we can be safe, and happy.

Where would that be?

If only I knew that, we would already be there.

What are your plans?

At the moment, I am planning to find the Book of Life. I must beat Luc to the site.

Do you think you will be able to do so?

Yes. My mother has seen in a vision that I will hold the book in my hands.

In a vision? Does your mother–

Enough! I must go. I can’t tell you any more.

To find out the rest, check out the book.  You won’t be disappointed when you do!

 

 

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Maybe.  I hadn’t thought about audio versions of the Dream books, but my wife’s old boss, who loves books but who’s legally blind and has tremendous difficulty reading, suggested the idea. 

I think it’s a great idea, and I’m very excited about it…except that it’s very expensive – the prices I was qouted were all in the $3,000-$4,000 range per book.  Why so much?  I didn’t know any of this, but I do now:

You get about 8,000-10,000 words read an hour for an audiobook.  So for ream Student at 94,000 words, that’s anywhere between 10-12 hours. 

You pay for those hours; not just the narrator (who’s a skilled professional) but also a producer and/or engineer (who might be one and the same person), and that works out to anywhere between $200 and $400 an hour depending on who you’re talking to. 

But there’s an alternative, provided (no surprise) by Amazon, called the Audiobook Creation Exchange (or ACX – www.acx.com).  There, you can offer your book as a project to be recorded, and narrators/producers can offer themselves, and both side can set the price they’re willing to pay (or accept).  The neat thing is that you can offer to do it for a split of the royalties, rather than money up front.  Which is what I’m hoping will work out for the Dream books.  We’ll see…

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So far, 66 books sold (counting all four books together).  There are a few more promotional efforts coming up, and I’m working the Facebook and the Twitter.  I even talked to an audiobook producer yesterday, and I’m exploring Amazon’s ACX platform for creating audiobooks as well.

I’ve also got a couple more indie author profiles coming up in the next few days – as well as my books appearing on other blogs.  I’ll keep y’all posted!

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I’m thrilled to be a stop on the Virtual Book Tour of fellow author Aoife Marie Sheridan, author of the fantasy novel Eden Forest.  You can check out my review of this great book at Goodreads.  Eden Forest is the first book of the Saskia trilogy, and the second book, City of Secrets, will be released in June.

About Aoife:

Aoife Marie Sheridan is twenty nine years of age. She lives in Kells, Co. Meath, a small town just outside Navan.  Aoife was raised in Navan but left with her family at the age of sixteen. Aoife has always had a passion for writing but mostly poetry. This is her first time to write a novel.

Aoife Marie Sheridan studied Accountancy and qualified as an accountant technician. She worked in this profession for several years but with the economic downturn she was made redundant.

Aoife Marie Sheridan now spends endless hours reading and writing.

About her books:

Eden Forest (Part one of the Saskia Trilogy)

 Four banished Angels,

A world created by the hands of God,

A Kingdom on its knees,

A secret protected for centuries,

And one mortal can save them all.

Step into Saskia.

 

City of Secrets (Part two of the Saskia trilogy)

A war awaits her arrival,

A warrant for her arrest.

She must rise as a princess,

And Darkness shall fall.

But will their love survive this battle?

For Tristan and Sarajane?

Step back into Saskia. 

 

Aoife’s other works:

Wisps

Nine

The missing

 

Interview with Aoife:

Question: How, and when, did you decide to become a writer?

Answer: I have always written but mostly poetry, it’s always been my way to deal with my emotions, no matter how big or small. Two years ago I lost two people I was close too. I had never lost anyone before, so I didn’t deal very well with it. One night I had a dream of a man and women on a horse, passing through a wall of fire. The dream lingered with me, as did my grief. So instead of writing poetry I started my story. My starting point was my dream and I worked my way from there. Eden Forest helped me once again deal with death, and all that comes with it. So in a way I am very grateful for this story.

I always wondered why God created us and what was our purpose, but those questions are unanswered. So in my story I give you the answers for this world called Saskia. In the story God creates a world parallel to ours, for four fallen angels.

Death is something that I also question now, like why do we die, is 60 to 90yrs of life enough, imagine having immortality what would one do to gain it? And that’s where a lot of my plot lies. The greed for immortality, for power’s that only God should wield, drives Saskia into war.

God decides to give one person all the powers that anyone could possess to banish evil, before it destroys Saskia and Earth. This one person happens to be a young lady called Sarajane Anderson who lives in the mortal world (Earth) but is actually from Saskia.

 

Question: Where can we find your published writing?

Answer: I have my own website www.aoifemariesheridan.com

It displays my work, any links to where you can purchase my books, listen to my interviews, watch my book trailers and more.

 

Question: What is a typical day like for you as a writer?

Answer: I work full time so, I write when I can, but always with pen and paper, never typing at first. I carry a pen and paper where ever I go and when an Idea comes to mind I jot it down. Also If I had any weird dreams (the ones that linger) I will keep them maybe for a different story. At present there are seven books I want to write. Since I started I just can’t stop.

 

Question: What types of writing do you do?

Answer: My writing I would consider fantasy. I write about the impossible, of different worlds that have magic in them. I always feel this can’t be it. All us on this little planet, floating in the galaxy, there has to be so much more. We just haven’t discovered it yet. Maybe in a couple of hundred years people will look back and say “They know all along that there was more”. Well that’s what I like to think.

 

Question: What are your favorite characters that you have created? Tell us about them

Answer: My favourite characters in Eden Forest would have to be,

Queen Bellona, she was the most interesting to write about. Bellona is all that is bad in the world she is a combination of people that I have crossed paths with in my life. But she does not represent one person alone. Through her I could vent the injustice of people’s ways, and display it.

Secondly would have to be Sarajane she plays the main Character. She is relatable as in she isn’t perfect. I created Sarajane with flaw, as we all have them. Mine can be that I am selfish so that’s the flaw I gave Sarajane.

I am surrounded by very strong women in my life, and I am grateful for this. I take a lot of their personalities and place them in my characters, or something they might do, or even a facial expression. I love to watch people’s reactions as they talk to me, if they stumble on a line, they may chew their lip, in an endearing way. I note it and file it way for later.

 

Question: do you find you “mentally edit” other writers’ works as you read them? Does doing this help you or bother you?

Answer: Yes which I absolutely hate. I am so much more aware now. It drives me spare. But in another way it makes me feel better that I am not the only one who makes mistakes. LOL.

 

Question: What music do you listen to, while writing?

Answer: My Music:

My favourite Musician would have to be David Guetta; Titanium and She wolf. I wrote nearly the whole two books too these songs, I find the words empowering and a story is told even in the beats.

 

Question: What do you eat while writing?

O God I am really bad, have a serious sweet tooth. I do try and control it, sometimes I do but other times I fail. So I love sour cream pringles. Yum. Cadbury’s cream egg. Love the centre.  After that I love sprite. These are my 3 enemies yet my favourite things ever. (apart from writing and reading, of course).

 

Five for Fun:

What is your favourite non-alcoholic drink?  Sprite I can’t get enough of it.

What is your favourite cartoon character? I would have to say Dora the explorer. My niece is a huge fan, and I think she is so cute.

What is your favourite movie of all time? Troy, I would watch it at least once a week. Brad Pitt is easy on the eyes.

What TV shows do you like to watch? I am not a fan of TV. I love movies or reading.

What do you like to do for fun or just to relax? Reading is my way of relaxing. Give me a book a glass of wine and I am a very content person.

 

Question: Where can we find you on the web?

 

Here are some places:

My website www.aoifemariesheridan.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/Aoifemariesheri

Goodreads: Aoife Marie Sheridan

Twitter: aoifesheri

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