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Guest Post by S.G. Browne – Author of Fated

Apparently, I’m a pantser.

I never knew I was a pantser, or even what a pantser was. Kind of like in seventh grade when one of the other thirteen-year-old students asked me if I was a virgin and I answered, with a certain amount of disdain: “No.”

I had no idea what a virgin was, but I knew without a doubt I couldn’t possibly be one. So imagine my surprise to learn that I was a pantser.

In the world of short stories and novels, there are apparently two types of writers: Plotters and pantsers. The former, obviously, plot out their stories, while the latter tend to write by the seat of their pants.

Personally, I prefer to say that I write the same way Indiana Jones solves problems: I make it up as I go. Plotting has never much interested me. I prefer to discover the story as I write it. It’s kind of the difference between taking a guided tour where you have everything planned out or buying a plane ticket to your initial destination and figuring out where you want to go next.

While it’s true that this can sometime get me into trouble (like when I get two-thirds of the way into a book and I’m not really sure how the third act is going to play out), eventually the characters help me to figure out where the story needs to go. And yes, I know that sounds kind of weird in a multiple-personality kind of way, but for the most part, all of my plots develop from the actions of my characters, not the other way around.

I recently came across a quote from Robert Heinlein on BoingBoing in which he talks about just the same thing. And although I could paraphrase, I think Heinlein explains the relationship between character and plot better than I could summarize:

“My notion of a story is an interesting situation in which a human being has to cope with a problem, does so, and thereby changed his personality, character, or evaluations in some measure because the coping has forced him to revise his thinking. How he copes with it, I can’t plot in advance because that depends on his character, and I don’t know what his character is until I get acquainted with him.”

And that’s how I approached writing my novel, Fated. I started with a main character, who just so happens to be Fate, and put him into a situation in which he’s in charge of the 83% of the human race who are fated for normal or mediocre lives. Or worse.

Drug addicts. Criminals. CEOs of oil companies.

He doesn’t get the Winston Churchills or the Michael Jordans or the Thomas Edisons of the world. Destiny gets those. And she loves her job while Fate hates his. He’s like a government worker who can’t quit and who doesn’t have any opportunities for promotion.

He also has a bunch of rules he has to follow, the most important of which is Rule #1: Don’t get involved. But how Fate reacts to his existence and to his changing circumstances isn’t something I knew in advance.

When he ends up falling in love with a mortal woman on the Path of Destiny, that isn’t something I planned out.

His friendships with Sloth and Gluttony and Karma weren’t in any character sketches.

His five-hundred-year-old grudge with Death just showed up without warning.

And when he breaks Rule #1 and starts altering the fates of his humans, that wasn’t on his original List of Things to Do.

Like I said, there are definite risks you take when you don’t plot out the story. After all, it’s not always easy to figure out where you’re going if you’re not really sure how to get there. But I enjoy the process of discovering the story as it unfolds and I hope that translates to the reader enjoying the discovery, as well.

My name is S.G. Browne and I am a pantser.

Scott G. Browne is the author of Breathers, a dark comedy about life after undeath through the eyes of an ordinary zombie.

His second novel,Fated (scheduled for release November 2, 2010), is an irreverent comedy about fate, destiny, and the consequences of getting involved in the lives of humans.

www.sgbrowne.com

www.undeadanonymous.com

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Lydia’s Note: I want to say thanks to Scott for stopping by and providing The Lost Entwife with a insightful, humorous look at how he wrote Fated. My review of Fated can be found here and I encourage you all to check it out — but only if you are not afraid of snickering and snorting with laughter as you read through it.

Lydia

16 November, 2010

Author Spotlights

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Browne, Comedy, Fate

Giveaway & Author Interview – Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt has been one of my favorite books to read this year. The story is charming, full of fun, lively characters and the setting is one that seemed so real I felt myself relaxing into it and fully enjoying myself.

Lydia

31 May, 2010

Author Spotlights, Giveaways

10 comments

Guest Post by Megan Eaves, Author of This is China, a Guidebook for Teachers, Backpackers and Other Lunatics

Megan Eaves, author of This is China, a Guidebook for Teachers, Backpackers and Other Lunatics visits The Lost Entwife today to speak on writing travel books. Megan is a friend of mine and one of the masterminds behind our recent project, The Button Club. I was thrilled when she said she’d gladly do a guest post here and was excited to read it when it came in! I currently have a copy of This is China set aside to read on my plane trip home in June and am looking forward to reviewing it. Megan’s blog is hilarious (she even has a funny entry on squat toilets!) and I encourage you all to head over there and check her out. You can also find Megan on Twitter.

When I wrote my first book, it poured out of me easily. A handbook about living in China, I wrote it while living in China, meaning that I was basically writing what I was living everyday.

I was thinking about this fact this morning. I am in the middle of composing a new ebook about studying abroad for a client that hired me via Elance and I realized that I had written about 1000 words in 30 minutes, which is totally record time for me. By comparison, normally it takes me about an hour to write a 500-word blog post. I started relating this fact to my husband and was reminded of those 6 months I spent in Zhejiang Province writing This Is China. The words poured out of me easily because what I was writing was firsthand experience that required no research. I was the expert and my words were the expert’s advice.

My second book, Insiders’ Guide to El Paso, was not so simple, although the concept and destination seem like they should be more straightforward than a book about China. After all, it’s EL PASO for goodness sake.

The fact of the matter is, despite living only a few hours from El Paso for much of my life, I knew relatively little about it when I started writing the book. I knew a lot less about El Paso than China, ironically.

Complicating matters was the fact that This Is China is more of a cultural handbook, with advice about daily living matters, travelling in China and teaching at Chinese schools, while Insiders’ Guide to El Paso is a guidebook with listings, relocation information, restaurant reviews and hotel descriptions. It required so. much. research.

Most people think that travel writing is probably a dream job. In reality, it is, but like any job, it is neither perfect nor fun all the time. Imagine trying to describe the difference between 25 different chain hotels – Sleep Inn, Comfort Inn, La Quinta, Days Inn – in small-town America and you’ll understand what I was faced with in writing the El Paso book.

I never thought I would be a book writer, mostly because I felt that I didn’t have the stamina to finish a whole book, particularly a fiction book. I still think fiction books would be much harder to write, but in fact, I realize now that book writing, like any other type of writing, is a simple act of fitness. You can’t expect to be a writer without writing. A LOT. Do you think that professional volleyball players expect to simply step on the court and bring their A-games? Certainly not, and the same is true of writing. You find, the more you do it, the easier it gets.

On my back burner the past few years is an unfinished manuscript – a fiction story – about a girl (more or less me) who goes travelling around Ireland. I’ve wavered between feeling that it was a regular fiction story and a young adult story, and I still have no end to it, but I know now that the end will come as it is supposed to, and when it is supposed to.

Aspiring writers occasionally ask me how I managed to break my way into travel writing. My answer is fairly simple: be willing to work for nothing. I am the published author of two books and still oftentimes work for only a pittance. I once read a blog by a guidebook writer who had written several Lonely Planet type guides to Guatemala. He said he’d vowed never to calculate his hourly wage, because guidebook writing is a 12-hour a day (or more) affair. First you have to visit the places, then write about them. It’s 8 hours of sightseeing (terrible, isn’t it?) followed by 8 hours of writing.

I write for the love of travel and the love of writing. I’ve never expected to make money out of it, and it’s only now I’m starting to barely make some money out of it. Finally.

Megan Eaves is a travel addict and has found herself writing about her world adventures for a living. She’s the author of two travel guidebooks and, currently, lives in her home state of New Mexico. More about her at www.meganeaveswriting.com

About the book:

This is China: A Guidebook for Teachers, Backpackers and Other Lunatics

By Megan Eaves (www.meganeaves.com)

Available now on Lulu.com in Paperback and eBook formats

‘This Is China’ is the expert guide for anyone thinking about becoming a foreign teacher in China. With tailor-made advice on what to do before you go and you how to navigate daily life in China, ‘TIC’ is a must-read for anyone looking for a genuine China experience without suffering utter and total humiliation.

Inside you’ll discover:

•Where to find a teaching job

•How to get a Z visa and not an L visa and why

•How to pare down your luggage without losing the essentials

•Ready-made tips for deciphering travel tickets and menus

•Expert advice on phones, computers and the postal system

•Top 10 must-see places and road-less-traveled destinations

•A ‘Laowai Dictionary’ with word and language tips to match each chapter, and real-life phrases you won’t find elsewhere!

Want to avoid finding a basket of chickens on your train seat? Don’t know the difference between mianzi and kuaizi? Generally confused by the oddities of life in China? This book is for you. ‘This Is China’ is your essential guide to transforming from a China newbie into a groovy laowai laoshi and a true foreign expert in the Middle Kingdom.

ISBN: 978-0-557-08118-9 Publisher: Lulu.com

Price: Paperback – $14.98; eBook – $6.00 Copyright: © 2009 Megan Eaves

Guest Post: Author LM. Preston

Author LM. Preston was kind enough to stop by an offer us some hints on becoming a young adult author. This is one of my favorite genres to read and I think it’s an interesting look behind the scenes of someone who has published!

About the Author: LM. Preston was born and raised in Washington, DC. An avid reader, she loved to create poetry and short-stories as a young girl. With a thirst for knowledge she attended college at Bowie State University, and worked in the IT field as a Techie and Educator for over sixteen years. She started writing science fiction under the encouragement of her husband who was a Sci-Fi buff and her four kids. Her first published novel, Explorer X – Alpha was the beginning of her obsessive desire to write and create stories of young people who overcome unbelievable odds. She loves to write while on the porch watching her kids play or when she is traveling, which is another passion that encouraged her writing.

WRITING FOR THE YA MARKET

YA, what is that? It’s the young adult market which ranges from ages 12yrs to 18yrs. If you write for ages 12yrs to 13yrs realize that parents may be heavily involved in their child’s reading selections, so in most cases if you want to promote your book to this age group – keep it a bit clean. Ages 14yrs and up, will usually mix it up a bit between reading YA focused books and adult books. You can use all of the taboos that you can’t for the younger age group with kids 14yrs and up. There are also many sub-genre to consider when writing YA. Those include: adventure, romance, humor, mystery, historical, contemporary, fantasy, sci-fi, and so on.

PREPARE TO WRITE YA

Take time to observe the group you are writing about. When writing for teenagers realize that they are very picky about sounding old or goofy. This is easy for me because I have four kids, and two of which are within the age group in which I write for. They are the best resources of information on language, what’s interesting, what not to say, how far to push it and so on. Not to mention, I also observe their interaction with their friends, siblings and adults. It is enlightening and it has given me great material.

USE KIDS TO BETA YOUR WORK

The best feedback I have ever gotten for my work came from my kids’ friends. I allowed many of them to beta for me. I even bribed some with free movie tickets in order to get them to do it. Getting feedback from this group is invaluable. I gave them a checklist to fill out, and a facebook page to update with question or comments, and also invited them to give me feedback on my cover. The results were outstanding.

ASK KIDS WHERE THEY BUY BOOKS, OR IF THEY WILL HELP YOU MARKET YOUR PRODUCT

Several of my teenage betas loved my book so much that they offered to start an email chain about my book. They also posted it on their facebook and myspace accounts. I was floored, because I didn’t even ask for this. They offered it.

Remember, if you are writing for young people, the best judge of how your book will do in the market comes from your market group. Also, when acquiring an agent or publisher you can refer to the large amount of young betas that had reviewed your work. So grab your nieces, nephews, kids, cousins, or anyone who has kids and write that YA novel.

by: LM Preston, author of EXPLORER X – Alpha (coming out 2/2010) and THE PACK (coming out 7/2010) www.lmpreston.com

Buy Explorer X – Alpha by LM. Preston at Amazon

February Giveaway – The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo

If you haven’t at least heard of Kate DiCamillo then you must be living under a rock somewhere! She’s probably best known these days for her stories The Tale of Desperaux and Because of Winn-Dixie. She is an amazingly charming writer and I’m excited to feature her for the month of February.

So – here are the giveaway rules! I’m giving away one copy of Kate DiCamillo’s The Magician’s Elephant. The giveaway will end February 28, 2010 at 9pm EST.

In order to enter you need to include the following in your comment: Which novel did you read as a child affected you so much that it is first on your “list” to share with other children?

Bonus Entries!

Tweet or blog about this giveaway and leave me a link here on a separate comment for an extra entry

Be a subscriber to this blog (either new or old) and let me know in a separate comment for two extra chances.

But wait! There’s more.

If I reach 50 followers by the end of this giveaway then I will do a second drawing for The Tale of Desperaux.

If I reach 100 followers by the end of this giveaway I will also throw in a copy of Because of Winn-Dixie.

Is will be possible to win all three! Winning one does not disqualify you from the drawings for each of the others.

I will notify the winner on 2/28/10 and contact them for mailing information. Be sure to have your email address included in your comments. Good luck!

(US and Canada only)

The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo

What a beautiful story.

The tale of a boy, a girl, an elephant, a policeman and his wife, a nun, a woman who cannot walk, a begger, a dog and a man with a bent back.

All together these characters create a magical, whimsical, enchanting world filled with love and hope and magic.

A simple read – but thoroughly enjoyable. This was the first of this author’s books that I have read and now I intend to read her others, especially if they are written at all like this one was.

View all my reviews >>

Lydia

1 February, 2010

Author Spotlights, Giveaways, reviews

46 comments

Author Interview: Brigid Pasulka “A Long, Long Time Ago & Essentially True”

This month, I’m featuring Brigid Pasulka, the author of A Long, Long Time Ago & Essentially True. This book was my absolute favorite book of 2009 and, as a result, my most recommended and gifted book. While you are here, be sure to enter my giveaway of this amazing story! The giveaway will be ending on January 31, so be sure to get your comments in!

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Me: Did you base “Long, Long Time Ago” on a real life love story and have you had one of your own that you could share with us?

Brigid: Unfortunately, my grandparents died when I was young, and I don’t know the details of their romance, except that they met in Chicago and not a place like Half-Village. As for me, I’m happy to report that I’m getting married to a wonderful man in a few months, but like most people these days, I dated for what seemed like eons before I found the right person. And while some of my dating experiences were very positive, some were not. At times, I remember being very discouraged, as if the whole modern dating scene was a debris field where you could just barely pick out the remnants of some long-past set of values, the faint outline of human decency somewhere off in the distance. I felt somewhat isolated, as I think is true for many people through those dating years, only instead of hitting the bottle or kvetching to my girlfriends (or maybe in addition to), I happened to be working on this novel. So I guess my frustrations bloomed into the idealized romance between the Pigeon and Anielica, and that gave me a kind of escape from the e-mailing and the texting, the wait-three-days-before-you-call rules, the cheapening morals and the lowered expectations I saw around me. Looking back, I honestly think writing that half of the book helped me to preserve my hope and idealism not only in relationships, but in the world at large.

And then at 35, I finally found my Pigeon! We met just after the editing for the book was completed, but a year before it came out. And though he has not yet built a new tin roof for my condo building, he has a lot of the same qualities I see in the Pigeon. I do have to out him for one thing that I hope won’t embarrass him, but for the first six months or so, he did this really sweet thing where every few dates, he would e-mail me an updated list of the dates we’d been on, complete with a hilarious running commentary. One day it actually dawned on me that maybe these were the modern equivalent of Anielica and Pigeon’s notes. I guess we’ll have to wait until one of us is forced into political exile to truly test the relationship.

Me: What inspired you to choose a WWII setting for your first novel?

Brigid: I think it chose me. I actually wrote the modern story first. I spent a number of years on it and then put it away. Then, I think it was in June of 2005 when I was in Krakow for a visit, and I went to my favorite café there, hoping to make some headway on a new novel I had started, this one set in Chicago. The café happens to be called Gołębia 3, or Pigeon 3, after its address, and it has murals of pigeons and pigeon mobiles hanging down the center aisle. So as I sat there, for the first time since I’d started writing seriously, I was absolutely blocked. Something wouldn’t let me move on. Something told me that in order to know Baba Yaga, I needed to go back and find out her grandparents’ story. I remember banging out the first two chapters in an afternoon, and probably about six or seven chapters by the time my vacation in Krakow was over. Of course, her grandparents were old enough to be in the war generation, and when it came to researching that thread of the novel, I realized that I already knew quite a bit about the Holocaust from a class in college and my own personal reading, but I knew very little about the experience of non-Jewish Poles in the war, and especially the resistance movement. I found the details about the vast secret networks and the heroic actions of ordinary people fascinating.

Me: Are there any particular books or authors that have influenced you?

Brigid: When I was living in Russia more than ten years ago, a British friend gave me Louis de Bernieres’ Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. I read it in a week, loved it, but eventually forgot about it. Or so I thought, until my British publisher made the comparison in some marketing materials. Now, of course, I see the obvious influence of that book on mine. I have also always admired Flannery O’Connor for her knowledge of people and her dark sense of humor, and I love the way Salman Rushdie is able to zoom from the nose of an Indian villager to the entire spinning globe in one glorious breath. But there are so many good books out there, I’m constantly learning from and admiring other authors.

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I want to thank Brigid for her time and encourage you all to read her book, A Long, Long Time Ago & Essentially True. It’s a book that sits on my shelf and will be read again and again. You can visit Brigid at her website located at: http://www.brigidpasulka.com/.