An Editor Speaks

Today's post is part of a bit of cross-blogging I'm doing with some of the people I work with at one of my favorite publishers, Buzz Books. 

In the past, I've had two short stories published by Buzz Books, both in the Young Adult genre, which was  a sort of story I'd never written before finding Buzz. The first, "A Kiss on the Threshold," appeared in the anthology Prom Dates to Die For, and the second, "Spectral Media," was in a collection called Something Wicked. I had a blast working with Buzz Books on both stories, so when it was time to look for a publisher for my upcoming horror novel, Chicago Fell First, I contact them. They accepted the book and it's now in it's last phase of preparation for an October release.

One of my favorite parts of my Buzz Books experience is the time I spend working with Senior Editor Mari Farthing. Mari is an excellent editor with an eye for tiny details, both in grammar and plot, and a contagious enthusiasm that makes an author feel like his work has even more potential than he realized when writing it. Perhaps most importantly, Mari knows how to make the long, sometimes tedious process of preparing a book for publication fun. It's not just about finding and correcting typos and improving plot elements. It's about the joy of the creative process. That enthusiasm reminds a writer that creating a story is supposed to be a refreshing experience and not the heavy burden it can sometimes feel like.

Mari was kind enough to answer five questions about her experiences as both an editor and a writer. I'd like to share those answers now with the readers of this blog.




Aaron: You've worked as both a writer and an editor. I'm going to assume the desire to write came first, but please correct me if I'm wrong. If I'm right, how did writing lead to the decision to go into the editing side of the publishing business?

Mari: I’ve always been a writer. You’re right, there. Ever since I can remember, I’ve been writing things down. I first started with poetry, horrific, horribly bad poetry when I was a tween (though we didn’t have that word back then). Very sweet, emotional stuff—but my family realized that I was good with words, I was able to evoke feeling and emotion through words even at a young age. Loved creative writing classes in school, but never really considered how to make that my career. Meanwhile, in all my jobs I would find ways to inject technical writing wherever I could, which scratched that itch. I also discovered that I liked editing and I sort of followed myself down that path. I’ve had a varied career background (moved around a bit with a military husband) and I’m easily distracted, so writing and editing, jobs which are always focusing on something new, was a great discovery.
            Magazine work was a great push in this direction—I began as a freelance writer and was brought on as an assistant editor and refined my skills under my wonderful former editor, Denise. I knew I wanted to be an editor when I saw her fix a sentence that had given us fits for an hour or more, we just couldn’t get the sentence to sound right. It was an amazingly simple fix, but something that none of us had seen, and it just made all the difference. That little sentence changed my life—though I’m sure the reader never even noticed! How intriguing it is, that hidden world that the reader isn’t privy to, the realm of editing. Sometimes when I see someone reading something I’ve worked on, I can’t help but think “oh, you have no idea!”
            I spent five years as the editor myself before leaving the magazine to freelance—which is how my current writing and editing work is structured. For me, it’s ideal, as it leaves me time for family and my own writing projects.


Aaron: How did you come to be the editor for Buzz Books?

Mari: I’ve known Malena Lott, Executive Editor at Buzz for many years through our shared connections in local media. When I heard about her new venture with Buzz, I let her know that I would love to take on freelance editing if she was in need. She took it one step further and asked me to come on as her Senior Editor. We worked well together from the start, our divergent styles complement each other and Buzz is such a creative atmosphere, so open to brainstorming and originality.


Aaron: What aspects of editing do you enjoy most? What are the worst parts of the job?

Mari: I love making words behave. It’s immensely gratifying to find the proper way to say something that’s giving you fits. And when you find the right combination of words, it can be such a rush. It’s also extremely tedious. There have been times when I’ve had to read the same piece upwards of ten times and by the time you get there, you just want to start the whole thing over again and nothing sounds right. It’s a process that takes a lot of time and sometimes as long—or longer—as the writing itself.
            I love working with writers, meeting new people (even if it’s virtually done) and helping bring books to publication. The worst parts of the job are dealing with rejection—either from us, when we have to reject a work that isn’t quite right for us, or from the writer, when our offer isn’t accepted. Rejection is never easy but it’s an integral part of the process.
            I hate to hear criticism. And it’s amplified as an editor—anytime a book I’ve worked on gets a negative review, I take it as personally as the writer does, I invest a lot of myself into these projects and feel a responsibility to the writer. I want their books to succeed as much as they do! I did read one harsh criticism in the past that was aimed directly at me, the book’s editor, and that was hard to take. But it’s just like writing, you have to roll with it because it’s a part of it.


Aaron: How has your work as an editor affected your writing? Do you find you're harder on yourself as a writer because you've been on the other side of the process too, or has it made it easier?

Mari: I occasionally speak about writing and editing, and I try really hard to practice what I preach—write through your first draft, never mind the rules or format when you’re just trying to get your story out, write daily, take your characters on adventures if you find yourself at an impasse, and so forth. But I also let my audience know about the absolute worst writer I’ve ever worked with, the one who can’t take criticism, the one who constantly rewrites those first few paragraphs, the one who can’t keep all of those names and places in order… and of course, I’m referring to myself.
            So I guess the one thing I try to impress upon other writers is to give yourself a break and just get on with it, which is the advice that I most need. And that’s how I try to treat the writers I work with—how I would prefer to be treated. Perhaps that’s one thing that first being a writer has allowed me to bring to the editing process.
            As for being an editor, well, I’ve gotten to read outside of my own chosen genre a lot, which is great, and I’ve learned what my own writing foibles are (overuse of that, the inevitable verb agreement issues) and I’m working to overcome them. Editing is the art of taking an intensely personal thing and presenting it for public consumption. Working in editing has taught me to be more open to criticism (at least a little bit) and respect that process a bit more.


Aaron: What books or writers have influenced you as an author? And, here's something I've never thought about before, are there any notable editors who you consider influences or role models when it comes to that profession?

Mari: Influential books and writers? I’ve got lots. This is a curated list. If you ask me tomorrow, I could come up with a hundred more:
·         In high school, I read Ayn Rand’s Anthem and was amazed by what she was able to do in such a slim volume. I wrote several chapters that continued the story (fan fiction before there was such a thing?), I wish I knew where they were.
·         Walden (Henry David Thoreau) and To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee) and most of both Kurt Vonnegut and Ray Bradbury’s titles are books in my recycle pile (meaning that I reread them every now and then and always learn something new). Anytime a book can do that, it’s amazing to me.
·         Stephen King. He’s absolutely brilliant. He creates worlds full of amazement that don’t challenge you to suspend belief—you just do. Those fantastic worlds become reality. I remember trying to explain to someone a King story I had read and the more I tried to explain it, the more confused the other person became. I couldn’t explain it. You can’t explain it better than he can. He elevates popular fiction to a new level.
·         Nora Roberts. Yes, she’s a romance writing machine who pumps out titles like a fast food restaurant pumps out cholesterol, but her books are smart and well-researched. She does her homework and if there is a cookie-cutter story (boy meets girl, sparks fly, a misunderstanding occurs, girl forgives boy, the end) in some stories, the details that are pumped into her narratives are rich and satisfying. Another example of a popular writer who takes fiction and elevates it.
Regarding influential editors… I don’t really know of any. But I think that’s the way it’s meant to be. Think of us as the nameless, faceless force, the quiet collaborators working behind the scenes like shoemaker’s elves. And that’s okay with me. The mark of a great editor is that you can’t see their mark on the projects they’ve worked on.

Sincere thanks to Mari for expressing her thoughts on the life of an editor and writer. Also today, on Mari's blog, which can be found at   http://mariedits.blogspot.com/2013/09/buzz-books-blog-tour-chat-with-author.html  are my answers to five questions Mari asked me, focusing on my work as a writer. I hope everyone will hop over there and read that next!

Chicago Fell First, my upcoming release from Buzz Books, will be available in October.

A Bloody Good Book

Christopher Farnsworth has some serious guts. Sure, all writers are brave people. We bleed on paper, putting some of our most personal thoughts and dreams out there for the world to read, even if we do often disguise them as the actions or ideas of our characters. But I'm talking about a different kind of creative courage.

If there's one thing that's most precious to writers, it's ideas. We need ideas to ply our trade. We horde them away as if they were as valuable as Faberge eggs. We collect them in Word files, on the backs of used envelopes, on little scraps of paper stuffed Columbo-like into our trench coat pockets, and we'll even resort to scribbling on toilet paper before an ethereal inspiration slips away in the night. So when, on page 20 of Farnsworth's latest novel, Red, White and Blood, I read, "Only a week ago, they had dealt with a squad of men who'd learned to use Spontaneous Human Combustion to make themselves into living bombs..." my jaw hit the floor. What Farnsworth did there was take an idea worthy of at least a short story and maybe even a full novel, and fire it at his readers like a single bullet just to make that one paragraph more interesting. I'd be overjoyed to come up with an idea that good and I'd probably milk it for every word it was worth...and Christopher Farnsworth uses it as a little detail! My respect for his writing doubled at that moment, and it was already at a pretty high level to begin with.

Red, White and Blood is the third novel in the Nathaniel Cade series. The premise of the series is partially based on a real historical incident. President Andrew Johnson once commuted the death sentence of a man accused of being a vampire. That part is fact. What Farnsworth did was take the idea further and attack the question of what if it really was a vampire? What if this blood-drinking undead being has secretly been working as a government  operative for every U.S. president from Johnson to today (although the current president in the books is a fictitious character instead of Barack Obama). It's a great concept and the books are even better than they might sound from my brief summary.

I've read and enjoyed all three books so far, and each has gotten better. The first, Blood Oath, introduces readers to the vampire Nathaniel Cade, his president-appointed "handler" Zach Barrows (a young man who knows politics but has to learn the hard way how to navigate the terrors of the night), and various supporting characters. Blood Oath  focuses on events involving a modern day Frankenstein-type character,

The second Cade book, The President's Vampire, was even more thrilling for me than the first, as it contains elements inspired by the work of one of my favorite writers, H.P. Lovecraft. It also tells us what really happened to Osama Bin Laden!

So I recently read the third installment, Red, White and Blood, and I'm happy to be able to report that it's the best one yet. The plot, which centers on a thing called the Boogeyman, a seemingly indestructible  incarnation of the serial killer or slasher archetype, is interesting, fast-paced, suspenseful, and even heartbreaking at times. After this one, I've also come to the conclusion that Christopher Farnsworth is one of those writers with whom no character is truly safe, which is yet another reason his work impresses me.

The Cade novels aren't strictly horror stories. They tend to cross genres between gruesome horror and intense action, with bits of mystery thrown in as well. And I can't forget to mention the references. Farnsworth ties together all sorts of historical facts, conspiracy speculations, occult ideas, and other details in ways that will make fans of the things he refers to smile, while not getting in the way of the enjoyment of readers who might be unfamiliar with such things. In other words, the style in which these books are written will welcome both hardcore genre fans and casual readers alike.

As the author of two vampire novels myself, I'm occasionally asked about my favorite vampire books or movies. There are many bloodsucker stories I've enjoyed over the years on either paper or film, but Farnsworth's Cade series is easily my favorite currently running vampire series of any kind. These are excellent books, with each better than the last. I look forward to the fourth book in the series. 

Anything Can Happen at Midnight

I suppose it was inevitable that I'd want to write about vampires at some point in my life. I've been interested in the undead ever since I was about five and a vampire story in a Batman comic scared me senseless. Over the years that followed, I saw dozens of vampire movies, read most of the best-known vampire books (and many obscure ones too), and never completely lost interest in the idea of blood-drinking creatures of the night.

It was a few years ago that I wrote my first vampire short story, "100,000 Midnights," which was published in one of the magazines I sometimes contribute to. I started writing sequel shorts to that one, soon had a handful of them, and then made the decision to combine them all into one book instead of publishing them piece by piece. That became the novel 100,000 Midnights, which was released as an e-book just over a year ago by Musa Publishing. While it was a slow starter in sales, possibly because it was aimed at an audience outside my usual pulp stomping grounds, it's really started to pick up in recent months, probably due to the help of some very positive reviews. Here's the Amazon page for 100,000 Midnights. 

 

Now, I'm happy to announce that the second book in my vampire series, Across the Midnight Sea, is now available for Kindle, Nook, and most other electronic formats. Here it is on Amazon.

 

So as I write this, I'm thinking about what it's like working on this series of vampire stories (and yes, there will eventually be a third book), and I'm starting to smile as I realize how much fun it is.

The vampire books, or I guess I can call it the Midnight series now, since that word appears in both titles and will find its way into future volumes' titles as well, are my personal playground where anything can happen. Other series of stories I've written or are currently writing seem to have more rules that I have to follow (not that that's a bad thing, it all depends on what I'm trying to accomplish with a given project). For example, when I work on a character like Sherlock Holmes or Allan Quatermain, I have to maintain the essence created by the originator of the character. When I work on a Marcel Picard detective story or a spy novel like Nobody Dies For Free, the stories take place in a realistic version of our world and I have to obey the laws of science and reality. But with the Midnight books, my typing hands are completely unbound.

The Midnight books are set in a world full of supernatural beings, though the general human public isn't aware of what goes on in the shadows.

100,000 Midnights begins with our protagonist, Eric (who I've never given a last name to) stopping in a diner late one night. Eric is what you might call a very young hermit, a somewhat eccentric young man who has few friends and often feels like he was born in the wrong era. So he's sitting alone in this diner and he meets Siobhan, who turns out to be a 292-year-old vampire, though she physically looks like she's not even twenty yet. Eric's whole life changes that night and he finds out that there's a hell of a lot more going on in the world than he ever imagined. He also discovers that he has a natural talent for dealing with supernatural emergencies, though that doesn't mean its always easy. And, he also soon discovers that he can't ever really go back to the way his life used to be, not that he wants to, because that would mean leaving Siobhan.
I'm not going to say anything more about the plot right now,but Eric's nocturnal adventures continue through that book and into the sequel.

The Midnight books are also, I realize, a place where I can pay tribute to many of the things that have influenced me. Quite a few of the places in those two books are thinly disguised versions of places I've been to. Someday, I'm going to do a blog post featuring photos of the real-life locations that have inspired the places in the novels. There are references and homages to a lot of other things in there too, things like the work of H.P. Lovecraft, old Archie comics, H.G. Wells, Dracula (of course!), Shakespeare, Sherlock Holmes, and probably a dozen other things, some of which I might not even have been aware of putting in there at the time!

When I started the set of vampire stories that eventually coalesced in the first novel, I really didn't know exactly where I was going with them. Now, two books into the series, with a third just barely started, I'm still not sure where Eric, Siobhan, and the others will eventually end up, but I hope those who have read and enjoyed the first book and those who are currently reading the second, will come along for the ride. You can never be sure what will happen at midnight.     

Jason Kahn and BADGE OF LIES

Last Month, Pro Se Press released two new novels on the same day. One was my spy novel Nobody Dies For Free, and the other was a work of crime noir by Jason Kahn called Badge of Lies. For today's post, Jason was kind enough to answer some questions about his novel and his writing career in general.

 


Aaron: Your novel, Badge of Lies recently became available. Can you tell us what it's about and what inspired you to write it?

Jason: Badge of Lies is the story of detective Frank Arnold, a recovering alcoholic who’s just buried his partner and best friend Mitch Connell, only to find out that Mitch was not the man Frank thought he was. The mistress who comes out of the woodwork is surprising enough, but the ties to organized crime are more concerning, especially after the cryptic warning Mitch gives from beyond the grave, that Frank’s in trouble, and not to trust anyone.

Avoiding thugs, crime bosses, his ex-wife, his new girlfriend, Internal Affairs and a rogue cop who might be framing him for several mob-related killings, Frank desperately tries to unravel Mitch’s cryptic clues. But the closer Frank gets to the information that will protect him, the more danger he finds himself in. The truth may set him free, but it may also get him killed as Frank tries to stay one step ahead of the cops, the criminals, and the women eager to betray him. It’s enough to drive a good man to drink, or become all the things he despises before he’s done.

 I wrote this at the request of a different publisher who liked a science fiction crime series I was writing for her. She asked me to write a hard-boiled detective novel, and of course I said yes. I’d written a previous short story set in a fictional “Metro City” involving some of the same main characters, namely Frank and his partner Vera. So I thought I’d write the story of how they became partners in the first place, and combine that with Frank being led on a constant goose chase by his dead partner.

 Aaron: How did you originally start writing and then pursuing it seriously?

Jason: Academically, I was always drawn to writing—high school newspaper, stuff like that. I was headed toward a journalism degree my second or third year in college, so I knew then that I wanted to be a writer. But it wasn’t until the summer after my senior year that I discovered I wanted to be a WRITER. I’d been reading scifi-fantasy books since I was a kid, and during my senior year, my then-girlfriend, now-wife, said to me, “hey, why don’t you write one of those?” Incredible as it may seem, the thought had never occurred to me. That summer I started writing, and haven’t stopped since. I’ve published numerous short stories in magazines and anthologies, and Badge of Lies is my first novel.

Aaron: Who or what are some of your major influences?

Jason: Early on, I would say authors like Raymond Feist and David Eddings as I tried to write fantasy-adventures, but then, much more James Ellroy and Joseph Wambaugh as I started writing more noir crime fiction. Especially Ellroy. The Black Dahlia, L.A. Confidential, The Big Nowhere. I wasn’t prepared, my mind exploded. A whole new world opened up.

Aaron: Badge of Lies was published by Pro Se Press, a major entity in the New Pulp movement. How did you come to be involved with New Pulp in general and Pro Se in particular?

 Jason: I wouldn’t say it was a conscious decision to start writing New Pulp fiction. It just so happened that what I was really getting into writing happened to be in that genre. And finding Pro Se was a stroke of utmost fortuitousness. Remember when I said that other publisher asked me to write a hardboiled detective story, which turned into Badge of Lies? Well I wrote it, and then her small press house went out of business, leaving me high and dry with a manuscript and no publisher. Needless to say I was a bit depressed. But I would not be deterred, and I started looking around for an appropriate home. I looked for a LONG time, and eventually found several candidates. Some weren’t the right fit, others just said “no thanks.” Then I found Pro Se. The head honcho, Tommy Hancock, said they were not quite closed to submissions and I could certainly send in the manuscript. I did so, and within a few weeks was informed that Badge of Lies had been accepted. From that point on, everything has just been a dream.

Aaron: What other projects of yours, either past or upcoming, would you like readers to know about?

Jason: I recently finished that science fiction series I referred to earlier. It’s called The Dark InSpectre, and involves a police unit of telepaths with the unique ability to contact the psychic awareness of the dead. I’ve always thought of it as a cross between L.A. Confidential and the psi-corps of Babylon Five. It’s a wicked piece of noir fiction, and I’ve submitted it to Pro Se. It’s been accepted for publication and we’re going into the editing phase shortly. I’m totally psyched about it.

Aaron: In your experience, what are the best and worst aspects of being a writer?

Jason: The best part about writing for me is that it makes me happy, pure and simple. When I’m not writing I’m edgy and anxious. I constantly feel like I should be writing, like I’m slacking off if I’m not. But after I’ve written something, even if it’s just a paragraph or two, that all goes away. I feel better about myself. The neurons start firing, I get jazzed about the new possibilities that arise from the latest section, about where they might go and all the other story threads that will now come into play. I feel a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. I’d say the hardest part is finding the time. Both to write and to just think about a story, to work it out in my head. I’m a news editor by day, and my job is extremely busy. I’m also a husband and father of two boys. I’ll write whenever I can, but long stretches can go by when I’m not writing. It can be very frustrating. I look forward to long flights, like from New York to San Francisco and back. I tend to get a lot of writing done on flights like that!

Aaron:  Thanks, Jason, for taking the time to tell us about your work.

Badge of Lies can be found on Amazon on its own page or along with Jason's other work at his Amazon author page.

More information about Jason's work can be found on his website, his blog, or Facebook. 

Once I Get Started...

I recently started a new day job. While there, I’ve met a coworker who’s expressed a lot of curiosity about my writing career and shown some interest in doing some writing of her own. I’ve never before been in a situation where I’ve been asked for help or advice by anyone trying to get started writing. At first, I wasn’t sure how to react. For one thing, writing is an intensely personal and individual thing. Good writing comes from the writer’s unique personality and set of experiences, and I felt that maybe I didn’t have the right to advise anyone else on such matters, even if asked. Another thing is that I don’t often think of myself as a successful writer. This is simply because I want more: more money coming in from the work, higher profile writing jobs, more reviews, and higher sales. Of course I want those things. It’s not greed, but ambition. No matter what I do, I can always do better. I suppose I feel that the moment I get comfortable with what I’ve done so far, I’ll risk losing some of my drive to do more and more. It’s good to be motivated. In some ways, I felt that if I’m not more successful than I am, why should anyone else want help or advice from me?

            But then I started thinking about it a little more and came to realize that in many ways, I am successful with this writing thing! No, I can’t support myself solely on my royalty checks, but I get royalties, which is more than many writers can say. I’ve had 32 stories published, with a few more to come out this year. I have four publishers who are always willing to read something new from me. I’ve been given opportunities to write some of my favorite fictional characters, including Sherlock Holmes! I get to create my own characters too. The vast majority of reviews of my work have been good (and only one story was ever called “a real stinker!”), and there are several readers who seem eager to know when my next vampire or spy novel is coming out. And, just as important as the money and reviews, I’ve made more friends than I can count over the past 5 years, all because of writing. Readers, editors, publishers, artists, and others: all of whom I met through my literary endeavors and the networking that goes with it. Taking all that into consideration, I suppose I am a successful writer in many respects. There’s always room to move up, but I’ve come a long way. Perhaps, then, I am in a position to offer advice to someone who wants to take some steps down the road of words and stories. If I can help at all, I’m glad to do so. Anyway, we writers love to talk about what we do, even if we won’t usually admit it! 

So this blog entry is an open letter to a friend, in which I’m about to speak very honestly about some of my thoughts on the subject of writing. Most of what I say isn’t going to be right or wrong, but will consist of my opinions. When my fellow writers read this, they may nod in agreement with some of what I say and shake their heads (or fists!) in vehement opposition to other statements. That’s what makes writing so great. Every writer is different, and so we end up with a beautiful variety of stories in the world.

Anyway, to the person who started me down this road of thought (and anyone else who wants to listen to my rant), I’ll tell you this:

            Today at work, I overheard your little explosion over certain comments people had been making to you or about you. It’s not my business, but the back room is tight and it’s hard to not hear everything that gets said (and just for the record, don’t let their bullshit get to you), and I liked what I was hearing. Do you remember how it felt when you let out that long string of words, shoved all that frustration into the air and let everything that was on your mind flow out with no hesitation? There was good stuff in there, clever stuff. You were in a state of mind where you just had to get those thoughts out and give them life by turning them into words. You probably felt like you’d explode if you didn’t say those things. You had no choice. If you can find that feeling, that zone, again when you try to write, you’ll be just fine! And that doesn’t mean the writing has to be guided by anger or any other negative emotion, but it has to feel like it needs to come out. You’ll know when it happens, and you’ll love it.

            And once you find that feeling, you’ll want to make it continue, maybe even need to make it continue. That’s where what we talked about in person today comes into the equation. You asked me about discipline, about how I manage to get the work done. I’ll repeat here what I said to you this morning: set a goal and stick with it. Personally, I write a minimum of 1,000 words a day, unless I’m editing a major project, in which case I put the story I’m currently writing on hold just for a little while. Other than those editing pauses, my thousand words are non-negotiable. It’s not what I do when I feel like writing. It’s what I must do to keep the guilt from hitting me too hard. I don’t feel like a real writer if I don’t produce material. If I feel great, I write a thousand (and more sometimes). If I feel like crap, I write a thousand. If I have a headache, I write a thousand. If I’m joyful or depressed or confused or exhausted or sentimental or angry or horny or hungry or not even sure how I feel at the time, I write a thousand. That doesn’t mean you have to write 1,000 words a day. It might be 500 or 1,500 or even just a few paragraphs, but what you have to do is set a goal and stick to it no matter what.

            And it’s not easy. It only looks easy in the movies. Writing, if you really take it seriously, is not a leisure activity. Sure, you’re sitting in a chair at a desk and maybe the only thing anybody else sees moving are your fingers, but don’t make the mistake of thinking writing isn’t work. It is work, and it will have its effects on both your mind and your body. It will give you a glorious mental workout, it will make you tired at times, might cause you to literally break a sweat (remember Sean Connery in Finding Forrester telling his young student to “Punch the keys!” I wish I could type in his accent), will cause an occasional headache, cost you some sleep, and maybe even give you nightmares from time to time. Yes, writing is work, and it’s worth it if that’s what you really want to do. If that’s what you really need to do!

            But what if you can’t make it happen? What if you get Writer’s Block?

            I’ll tell you a secret. There’s no such thing as Writer’s Block. It’s an excuse. Either a person can write or they can’t. If your thoughts turn into stories and you feel the urge to express them in words, that’s a trait that doesn’t just stop. That doesn’t mean it’s always going to be easy. There will be times when you get stuck. My solution to that has always been to have two projects going at once. If you get hung up on a detail of one story and don’t know where to go next, switch channels and work on something else for a while. Don’t worry. The wheels will begin to turn again soon enough. Don’t ever give up. Inspiration strikes like lightning and you can never really predict when it will happen or what form it will take. For that matter, keep a pen and something to write on near you at all times (or your smart phone if you want to take notes that way), so you’ll be able to grab the gold before it slips through your fingers.

            And speaking of inspiration, I have no definite answer about where it comes from. I can tell you all about the things that might intentionally bring it about, things like reading great books, watching great movies, or using your own memories as fuel for your work, but what nobody can ever anticipate are the little events in life that cause those wonderful bursts of sudden inspiration. Ideas explode like popcorn at the oddest times. A sentence in a news article can make you speculate about what the world would be like if events happened slightly differently and soon you have a science fiction story on your hands. A stray bit of conversation between strangers at the next table in a restaurant might have you making up entire life histories for characters who didn’t exist a moment ago (that’s how my detective character, Picard, came to be). My point is that anything you see or hear or feel might spark your next big idea, so keep your senses absorbing the world around you.

            I mentioned reading great books a moment ago. By all means, read the bad ones too. Read as much as you can. Read the books you can’t live without reading and read some you think you’ll hate. I read a lot of horror and mystery because those are the genres I write most often, but sometimes I’ll scan through something I’m not the least bit interested in because it exposes me to different styles and subjects. I might even occasionally glance through a cheap romance novel (how many ways can they come up with to use the word “throbbing” anyway?) or a children’s book or revisit something I tried to read years ago but didn’t enjoy at the time. Words are our tools, so we need to see many different ways to use them.

            Concerning those tools, the best way to learn to use them…is to use them! There are no shortcuts. Write a lot and you will get better. There’s no way around the fact that the more you cut with that sword, the sharper it becomes.

            And please, don’t let worrying about writing get in the way of writing. Don’t over think it, and don’t make concrete rules that don’t have to be there at the beginning. If you look around the various writers’ forums on the internet, you’ll see a lot of experienced writers saying a lot of smart things, but you’ll also see a lot of inexperienced writers who aren’t getting any experience because they’re too busy worrying about how to do it right, which keeps them from doing it at all. You’ll get more out of writing 10,000 clumsy, fumbling words than you will out of spending a month planning how to write and fine-tuning your approach and memorizing some silly list of do’s and don’ts before you type the opening line.

            You can have all the self-imposed rules you want, but the rules are yours to follow as you see fit, not limits with which you should restrict yourself from doing what’s best for the story.

            On that note, I’m going to share the best piece of writing advice I’ve ever been given. Several years ago, I was working with a certain publisher for the first time. My first vampire novel was in the editing phase and the editor sent me an email that was one of the hardest to accept messages I’ve ever read. Basically, she felt that my storyline was excellent, but the way I’d written the book needed some major cutting and tightening and a lot of changes. It was a damn good spanking. For about an hour, I sat there in sadness. I was insulted. I loved that story, I was proud of it. Part of me wanted to tell that editor exactly where to stick her suggestions. Then I came to my senses. I really wanted that book to come out. But I wasn’t sure how to handle the situation. How could I adjust my point of view and edit so much of that story that it would feel like I was a doctor about to operate on his own child? Could I really cut that deeply and show so little mercy for the book I’d worked so hard to write in the first place? I needed advice. I contacted Ron Fortier, my first editor and a very good friend. Ron’s advice to me was so simple, but it made so much sense. He said, “Love the story, not the words.”

            That was it. My whole mood lifted and everything was all right. I followed the other editor’s suggestions, reworked much of the book, and eliminated a lot of stylistic clutter. In the end, the finished product was far better than the original manuscript and the essence of the story I had set out to tell was still intact. “Love the story, not the words.”

            Okay, so I’ve now been rambling on for several pages about the process of writing. But how, you might be wondering, do you know if it’s working properly? If you’re writing something that’s good or could eventually be good? I’m sure it’s different for every writer, but here’s how I know I’m on to something promising:                              

             When it affects you as much as you hope it affects the reader. When your characters become as real to you as the people who live next door, when you can hear their voices and see the expressions on their faces and share their sorrows and joys. When they suddenly do things you’d never expect them to do, as if they’ve taken on a life of their own. When you feel remorse for the hellish things you put them through. When you nearly make yourself sick with just how twisted you can make a horror scene. When you write a sex scene so candidly that it turns you on and you’d be embarrassed if your mother read it. When you have to force yourself to kill off a character because you feel like you just can’t do that to them and it seems to you, at that moment, that it’s not just words on a page but a real life or death situation. That’s when I know I’m on the right track.

            I’m not embarrassed to admit that I’ve made myself cry while writing. I’ve also made myself laugh out loud and scream in anger and pump my fist in victory. That’s when I know it’s working.

            But guess what? I just lied. The truth is I am embarrassed by what I just admitted. And that’s a good thing. Writing should be embarrassing sometimes, because a part of it is being honest in the lies we tell. We make stuff up for a living, but we also use those stories to reflect what we really feel and think and how we react to ideas and events. If something gets to us, makes us cry or scream or smile or laugh or shake in fear or fall in love, we owe it to our readers to use it to make our stories stronger, because if those things bring out those emotions in us, chances are they’ll do it to the readers too.     

Writing is a wonderful and terrible thing at the same time. It can be magnificently rewarding or dreadfully disappointing. One day it will lift your spirit above the highest cloud and the next it will break your heart and stomp the pieces into the dirt. Is it worth it? I think it is, but I can’t make that decision for anybody else.  

Not everyone can write, but some of those who can have no choice. Some of us have to do it. If you’ve managed to read everything I just wrote about the good and the bad of writing and you still want to try to do it, you’re in for quite an experience and I’ll be happy to help if I can. 

See what happens when you ask me to talk about my work?  

It Came From the Eighties!

I've always been fascinated by different periods of history and also by how those different times look to our minds' eyes as we think about them, whether we were there or have only read about them in history books or seen movies set in those years. Each decade seems to have certain elements that end up as archetypes that define, in the minds of many people, that particular series of years. When I think about my own life and the different decades I've lived through, I realize that the 1980s had a very strong impact on my development as a person and, years later, as a writer. Of course the 80s did, for that was the decade that contained most of my childhood. I was 3 in 1980 and 12 in 1989, and that's the part of life where the imagination really forms and certain images and themes embed themselves in the mind of a creative person. So I find myself considering which things that could only have happened in the Eighties really stuck in my head and had something to do with the person and writer I turned out to be. Here are some that come to mind.  

THE STAR WARS PHENOMENON 
Yes, I realize the first Star Wars movie came out in the late 70s, but the two sequels were in the 80s and the cultural craze those movies prompted lasted well into my childhood. I don't know if any other series of movies has ever had such an impact on so many children as Star Wars. The movies, its characters, the action figures, comic books, and everything else that had anything to do with George Lucas's science-fantasy saga surrounded us, penetrated us, and bound us all together just as the Force did in his movies. And for any kid who grew up wanting to be Luke or Han or Leia or even Darth Vader, the Force is still with us now.

IRON MAIDEN T-SHIRTS
This had nothing to do with music. When I was a very young kid in the early 80s, I had no idea that Iron Maiden was a band. I had never heard one of their songs. But those shirts seemed to be everywhere. You couldn't walk through the local mall without seeing at least one teenager wearing one of those shirts with their gruesome designs. They were scary! And that fascinated me. Seeing one of those shirts was like catching a brief glimpse into a strange nightmare world, and I loved the mystery of that feeling.

EARLY VIDEO GAMES
While I'm all for advances in technology and I think today's video games are wonderful to look at in all their realistic, precise detail (although I don't play them often), I'm glad I grew up at a time when the graphics were simpler and didn't look so much like perfect pictures of what they were supposed to be. Why? Because seeing what was on the screen and simultaneously seeing what you imagined the little colorful blips would really look like gave the imagination quite a workout! As I thrilled to The Legend of Zelda or Castlevania, I was seeing both the fuzzy little monsters on the TV and the frightful things they would have been if those images had been able to replicate what the story told me they were.

MTV WHEN IT SHOWED VIDEOS
There were some really weird looking rock stars in the 80s, and they made some interesting little films to go with their songs. As a kid seeing the New Wave videos or Michael Jackson's "Thriller" or so many other videos, it really didn't matter too much to me if I liked the music or not. The images that went with the songs sometimes sent my mind in interesting directions in ways that a song alone or a regular movie couldn't.

JEREMY BRETT AS SHERLOCK HOLMES
Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows that Sherlock Holmes is my favorite fictional character. I was very, very lucky to have discovered the Great Detective at a time when the most faithful series of film adaptations was being produced. Beginning in 1984, Jeremy Brett played Holmes in a Grenada Television series that adapted over 40 of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's mysteries. They were as close to perfect as adaptations can be.

RONALD REAGAN
Putting him on my list has nothing to do with his specific politics, but rather his presence during the years in which I grew up. Having such a high-profile president in office at the time when I was first learning something about the history and government of my country made those subjects even more interesting to me. My opinions of what Reagan or any other president did or didn't do while in office are beyond the subject matter of this blog entry, but as a character in my early impressions of the world, Reagan deserves mention here.

PHOEBE CATES BY THE POOL
If you do the math, you'll realize that I was only 5 when Fast Times at Ridgemont High came out. No, I wasn't that precocious! But when it showed up on TV a few years later....let's just say it made quite an impression on me. As I later learned, it wasn't just me. When men of a certain age discuss certain things that had important impacts on their childhood, that movie (and especially that scene, with its soundtrack by The Cars) usually makes the list. 

If I thought about it for longer and really let my mind wander back through those years, I could probably come up with dozens, maybe hundreds of things from the 80s that influenced me then and still do today, but I've spent enough time in the past for one blog. Maybe I'll do a sequel some day.