Word of the Week: meshuggeneh (mə-sho͝og′ə-nə) - hear it! - noun - one who is crazy - the Free Dictionary

Indie author of the month: Come meet - Mr. Ted Fink!

I’m always delighted when a first-time editing client returns for additional services. Naturally, it’s a good feeling to know the client was pleased enough with my work to want to come back, which means possibly good word-of-mouth recommendation and, of course, additional monies coming in as my career in freelance editing grows.

But! For me, it’s much more personal. I truly enjoy getting to know my clients as individuals, discovering what makes each one unique in his/her own talent and lifestyle, and to be able to share in this with each of them. To treat them like gold (hence, one meaning behind the recent name of my editing business: Golden Standard Editing and Proofreading Services), and not just another faceless client who throws money my way.

And this brings me to my featured indie author this month: Mr. Ted Fink.

Back in September of 2013, just two months after I opened for business, Mr. Fink approached me to edit his 125K word roman á clef novel*, “In Search of Joel Gomez.” I’d been recommended by a mutual acquaintance, and of course, I happily obliged, eager to build a client base.

During the time spent editing his project, I got to learn more about Mr. Fink, both through the project itself and through our email correspondences that started off as simple editing updates (as I do with all of my clients), which gradually morphed into casual, friendly dialogues.

Easy-going, with sense of humor and an all-around good-natured disposition, Mr. Fink was (and is) an absolute pleasure to work with, so I was thrilled when he’d asked me (a little over a year later) if I would edit his collection of short stories, tall tales, and stories in rhyme.

How could I say no?

And what wonderful stores they are! You see, Mr. Fink is a celebrated oral storyteller from Philadelphia (among other great things he’s accomplished), who’s performed in a variety of venues throughout the Philadelphia area, bringing his tall tales and stories in rhyme to vibrant life for many, many different audiences to enjoy.

In the time I’ve known him, I’ve grown quite fond of Mr. Ted Fink, and I’m proud to call him not only my client, but also my friend.

Now, all of you can have the chance to get to know him by reading his interview here, visiting his website, and buying his forthcoming collection, “The Tales I’ve Told,” now available for Kindle and through Createspace.

Mr. Fink is certainly a client I truly treat like gold.

*  *  * 

Hi. My name is Ted Fink, Philadelphia storyteller, singer/songwriter. I would sincerely like to thank Kim Grenfell for inviting me to her blog to talk about who I am and what I do. On my desk I keep a copy of Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken,” because in my life, I think, I’ve taken them all. If we define ourselves by what we do to make a living, I suppose you could say I’m a diversified survivalist. In my time, I’ve done so many damn things to survive… but, with no regrets. For, each path has led to an adventure, a tale to be told; a story that I must unfold. And, for me… story is everything. It’s what we are, it’s who we are, and it’s what we hope to be. And while I’ve been down those dusty roads and played those different roles, I always knew that in my heart I was an artist, a writer. It seems I’ve been writing all my life.

I created my first poem, my mother told me, and anybody else who would listen, when I was four. Here it is: Night and day I like to play and I like to play at night too, but I have to go to bed, don’t you? Hands in the air, she went off shouting, “He’s a poet! He’s a poet!”

Years later, my brother, Paul, who was a famous psychiatrist, would correct her, “No, he’s not a poet, he’s a meshuggeneh!” He once lovingly described me as the ultimate risk-taker: “Ted’s a guy who believes he can do anything. The worst thing you can do is to tell him there’s something he can’t do. Without ever reading a book on the subject (he’s mildly dyslexic) or working as a carpenter, he built his own house -- hammered every nail, designed and built most of the furniture within it, paints watercolors, performs his original stories at established venues, writes songs, sings songs, and has taught himself to be an excellent guitarist. Oh yeah, he goes sailing and scuba diving while not knowing how to swim! He’s nuts, is what he is.”

Geez, I loved the guy.

What he left out was that I have a master’s degree in education. I taught in an inter-city school for ten years, opened several fine restaurants, developed real estate, sold insurance and for six incredible years became The Eelman in the United States of America—that’s right, the Eelman! Want to make something of it?

When I was twelve I became fascinated with Kipling’s, Gunga Din and began reciting it for friends and family at the drop of a hat. Once old enough to drink alcohol, I could always get a free beer by suddenly stepping away from the bar and invoking, “You may talk o’ gin an’ beer while you’re quartered safe out ‘ere an’ you’ve sent the penny-fights an’ Aldershot it…” Today, my delivery on stage is often inspired by Kipling’s incredible story.

Yes, it’s been quite a journey, and guess what, it ain’t over yet!

*  *  *

* For those of you who don't know, a roman á clef novel is a novel in which real people or events appear with invented names.

Word of the Week: plenitude \ˈple-nə-ˌtüd, -ˌtyüd\ - noun – (hear it!) - 1: the quality or state of being full; 2: a great sufficiency

Four Things to [Please!] Never to Say to a Writer (or My One-Liner Writerly Pet Peeves)

Most people I come across in real life don’t know I write.

Well no, I take that back. Kind of.

Most of my friends and family understand I’m a writer, sure. But others? You know, those acquaintances I say all of six whole sentences to throughout any given day? . . . they’re mostly in the dark.

You see, I don’t normally go around blabbing that I’m a writer; the subject never really comes up comfortably. It’s more or less like trying to introduce them to Sasquatch or inviting them to a three-headed alien party on another planet.

Kinda awkward.

When the subject does crop up, though, I mostly nod and smile and answer their questions in the tongue-tied manner of one who can string together oodles of beautifully written prose, yet can’t construct a spoken sentence to save her life.

Of course. *shrug*

Some are interested, others are not. And even more are kind of suspicious afterwards.

I have, however, heard some irritating things in the course of writerly conversations with those non-writerly laypersons, all of which I’d like to share. And so here they are, in order from slightly chafing, to downright irksome: Four things to [please!] never say to a writer (a.k.a. my one-liner writerly pet peeves).

Irritation # 4: “I don’t read.” (← Mind you, key word here: “don’t,” not “can’t.”)

Well, shit . . . ain’t that just the bee’s knees? . . . Pfft—hell no. It sucks to hear that, especially to a writer.

We’re born to entertain, to bring good stories to a plethora of readers the world over—through the written word! How many tales have these people foregone because they’ve chosen not to read anything? How many times have they missed out on expanding their vocabularies, broadening their horizons, fleshing out their own imaginations? Tons, I can tell you that. Movies just don’t hack it. Spoon-feeding, that’s what that is. Read something, for goodness sake! And let the writer’s story whisk you away to different world. . . .

Irritation # 3: “Writing a book is easy!”

Hahahahahahahahahaha! Oh . . . I’m going to bust a gut laughing at that one.

Wrong. So completely wrong.

Writing a book is NOT easy. Not with:

• the planning, the creating, the revising, the research, and the (sometimes harsh) feedback;
• proper sentence construction, setting the mood, emotionally tugging at readers’ sympathies;
• hook at the outset, proper conclusion at the end;
• development of characters so they aren’t stupid wooden cut outs, development of a story world so it’s scientifically sound;
• omniscient, third person limited, first person, or a combination, AND deciding which would best tell the story;
• description and narrative, dialogue and [interwoven] backstory, pace and scene, AND balancing all of this through “show and tell” so the reader isn’t thrown out of the story;
• suspension of disbelief, breaking the fourth wall, intrusive narrator, maintaining the proper POV(s) (a.k.a. character point of view)

. . . and the list goes on.

Yeah. Writing a book is easy. Not.

Irritation # 2: “Well, that certainly says a lot about you, doesn’t it?” (← in reference to the content of a writer’s novel.)

Um, well . . . no.

I write about demons who eat people to get high. What does that say about me?

That I have a wild imagination.

Period.

No, I don’t demon worship. No, I don’t get high. No, I’m not sadistic or sick or whatever else my novel’s content “might” say about me. Novels and their writers are mainly two different things. Sure, we interject bits of ourselves into characters, bits of our ideals into our works, bits of what we’ve been influenced by into our plot lines. Does it completely reflect our overall state of mind? No. We’re just more creative than other people, and we like to show it.

Irritation # 1: “I want to buy a Kindle . . . so I can play games on it.”

Ouch. That’s just so wrong on so many levels.

Playing games is fine; sometimes one needs to play a game as an escape.

But Kindles originally stored BOOKS to be read later. Books. Reading material. Short stories. Whatever. Something to read with, not play games on. People have iPads, Xboxes, Wii’s, and computers, and a plenitude of other things to play games on, so please, please, PLEASE, I beg of everyone everywhere: Reserve a Kindle for reading, treat it like a portable library, or just don’t bother buying one.

Everyone should read more. We’d all benefit from it.

Alas, Failure is a Form of Cute 

Hmm . . .

—tip-tap-tippity-tap-tip-tip-tap—

How Not to be Distracted . . .

—tip-tap-tappity-tip-tip-tap-tippity-tap—

by Cute Puppies . . .

—tappity-tap-tip-tap-tap-tip-tip—

(While Writing a Novel)

—tappity-tap-tap.

by Devon Winterson.

Tap.

Um . . . hmm . . . right . . . let's see . . .

Puppies?

Or novel?

Puppies . . . ?

Or novel . . . ?

Roly-poly, fuzzy playthings with cute faces . . .

Or tough strings of words I’ll need a sledgehammer to pound into place . . . ?

Hmm . . .

—tap-tap-tippity-tap-tap—

 

A while back, a good friend suggested I write a post about how not to get distracted by . . . um . . . distracted by . . . cute . . . um . . . puppies while writing a, um . . . novel . . . but, er, ah—

—tip-tip-tap—

* Devon abandons blog post, tosses computer aside, races after puppies *

Word of the week: impasse - /ˈimˌpas,imˈpas/ - noun - (hear it!) -
a situation in which no progress is possible.

Taking a Breather 

Once upon a different life, Spare Time and I were friends.

“He” alone taught me so much in the years we knew each other: how to play, how to love, how to imagine, how to dream. . . . We frolicked in the woods; caught frogs, snakes, and lizards. We dug low in the dirt; and climbed high in the trees, fell out of them, laughed, then did it all over again. We lazed in the sun, and curled up with good books. We took wonderful walks, and pretended to ride horses or hunt dragons in the field.

Oh, Spare Time and I explored every nook and cranny of life, endlessly, relentlessly, tirelessly, once upon a different life.

Ah, but how the older years change everything!

With age come responsibilities, burdens; and with these, comes the sly intrusion of Essential Time.

Oh sure, Essential Time and I were friends . . . at first.

“She,” coupled with Spare Time, taught me so much in the years we’ve known each other: how to work, how to decide, how to view reality, how to take solid root . . . We built a house*; finished, finalized, and furnished it. We worked when scheduled, and did chores when home; took care of a child, fell flat on our faces, chuckled, then did it all over again. We toiled in the sun, and curled up in exhaustion at day’s end. We forewent those walks, and pretend horses and imaginary field dragons floated away like smoke on the wind. . . .

Huh. Some change.

Before long, Essential Time and I struggled to remain friends, after she’d transformed into a needy creature, roughly shoving aside my dear old friend, Spare Time.

“Tend to me!” she’d cry haughtily. “You must tend to me. I am your life now . . . no more frolicking, digging, or climbing; no more lazing around, or reading for enjoyment; no more strolling, or pretending to ride horses or slay foes. No, no, look around, look at all you must do. . . .”

Initially, Spare Time would visit, until Essential Time’s interruptions—she, with her snooty nose in the air—forced Spare Time to leave, dejected. Soon, all that remained were Essential Time’s venomous demands, which gradually shifted in frequency and intensity, despite her needs being the only ones I knew.

Until . . .

(And please believe me when I say “Rare is the moment I have nothing to do.”)

Out and about on a motherly errand one afternoon, I ended up being too late to return home and too early to pick up my daughter from school; I was at an impasse. So, I decided to visit our town’s river where people often fished, and as I sat down onto one of the benches along the bank and closed my eyes to enjoy that nice, warm, sunny solitude . . . I soon felt Essential Time’s dismay at my inactivity.

“Why are you sitting?” she yelled. “You shouldn’t be sitting! There’s far too much to do! Get up! Get up!”

I promptly ignored her. Hey, what could I do? Too late to return home, too early to pick up my daughter. I was at an impasse, dammit!

Yet Essential Time continued to yell; she prodded, and poked, and chastised. Still I sat, waiting for her to go away. At last she did, fading off, frustrated and angry, and before long I sensed a familiar presence beside me.

“Hey,” it whispered, “how do you like it?”

My old friend, Spare Time.

“How do I like what?” I whispered back.

“Taking a breather, taking in the world again.”

I smiled. It was wonderful. The burble of the river, the crisp freshness of the early spring breeze, the rustle of dead leaves, the warm sun on my skin . . . all sensations I’d once enjoyed and cherished but now had forgotten how to, crunched under Essential Time’s incessant “Hurry, hurry, hurry up! Go, go, go!”

Her straining demands had expunged from my mind what all writers are obligated to do: Stay connected to the world—to truly listen, to feel, to taste, to smell; to really pay close attention everything around us and utilize every available sense to take it all in, because honestly . . . what is a true story scene without sounds, without smells, without tastes or tactile sensations? For a writer to describe these through the written word, and for a reader to experience a fleshed-out, sensory-rich scene sincerely and in full, enough to become lost in the story world . . . it’s like spinning a web of magic.

So thank you, Spare Time, dear friend, for slowing me down and reminding me to take stock in the various sensations of the world around me, so I may continue to grow and mature in my career as a writer.

I will forever be grateful.

* My hubby helped! :-D

Word of the week: antiestablishmentarianist (sic) – noun - [derived from: antiestablishment – adjective] – [one] opposed to or working against the existing power structure or mores, as of society or government – Dictionary.com

Indie Author of the Month: Come Meet . . . Tyro Vogel!

Through my years of writing and editing (and the year and a half I’ve been blogging), I’ve had the chance to meet so many wonderful writers with a host of gifted minds.

Stories of all genres written by ambitious, talented authors have captured my eye, and I love highlighting them here at The Ether of my Imagination with the high hopes that someone else—or many, many someone elses!—will learn more about those whom I’ve had the distinct pleasure of meeting, getting to know, and oftentimes gaining as repeat editing clients.

Today, I’d like to introduce you to one of these particularly gifted minds who takes his readers on journeys of wild fascination through his science fiction and edgy cyberpunk stories. I enjoyed editing Extatica [part one], and proofreading his short story collection, Double Five, both of which are very engaging and very creative. Not for everyone, mind you—and certainly not for younger readers. But for an open-minded adult searching for some reads out of the mainstream, something with just that unique flair . . . I highly recommend checking out this author’s works!

Best of all (at least I think, in my humble opinion): Any money he makes on Extatica will go to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation. All the more reason to help support this excellent budding author!

And so now, without further ado, here’s Tyro Vogel to tell you about himself, and his current and future projects! (And yes, the font change is deliberate. :-) )

* * *

Who?

My name is Maxim, but I (mostly) write fiction as Tyro Vogel, which stands for "Beginner Bird."

I am an antiestablishmentarianist who works in an office.

When nobody's looking, I also run a copywriting business.

What?

Human being, just like you.

As to what I write ... well ...

For copywriting projects I'd written everything from Facebook game quests to texts for a hotel chain on the Seychelles Islands. Which can be fun if done right, and is (or can be) financially rewarding, but it's not where my heart lies.

When I write for myself, I write short stories. I'd written more than two hundred of those little suckers between the ages of 13 and 27, and some of them I still have the audacity to like. Horror stories, detective stories, at least one Western, erotic stories, flash pieces without real beginnings, middles or ends, science fiction stories ... mostly science fiction stories.

In 2013, I've started working on my first novel Extatica, which is scheduled to come out August 15. Writing the first half had been an immensely rewarding experience through which I've made new friends and had a chance to work with some wonderful people (including the owner of these electronic pages), and I can't wait to see what will come out of it when it's finished.

While I'm not the biggest supporter of the self-publishing model, working on Extatica had taught me that it's not without its merits, especially after I'd accepted that I will make no money on it whatsoever (and whatever money I will make will go to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation). But guess what! You don't need to wait until August 5 to help them sponsor new advancements in cancer treatment, you can always go to http://www.bcrfcure.org and pledge a few dollars (pounds, rubles, euros) today.

Since finishing my work on the first half of Extatica, I'd released a free Sherlock Holmes / Star Wars / Doctor Who crossfic The Girl with the Scarab Necklace to Smashwords and a collection of short stories called Double Five to Amazon.

I am currently writing my second Fallout fan-fiction story (stop looking at me funny, I love writing and I'm a fan, what else would you have me do), writing the entries to the third and fourth quarters of Writers of the Future competition, and, of course, working on my pseudo-erotic cyberpunk thriller, Extatica.

Where?

Budapest, Hungary. The land of good wine, home to Ernő Rubik and cheap pornography.

My website is www.tyrovogel.com; moreover, I regularly post stolen art and music to my Google+ stream, which you can find at https://plus.google.com/+TyroVogel (clickety click).

When?

Yesterday, today, tomorrow.

How?

I have a real-to-God paper notebook into which I write story notes, draw crazy business plans and website layouts, write poetry (with varying results), and sometimes plain prose when the laptop's battery dies.

I read a lot; sometimes I read about writing.

When I write, I want to try what I haven't tried before. Usually I fail, and end up procrastinating, just like I did before ... enter Yoda: DO OR DO NOT. THERE IS NO TRY.

I try to finish what I start because I believe that one finished "okay" story is endlessly better than a hundred "great" stories which I will never write.

Sometimes, I exercise.

Other times, I get annoyed at repeating the word "I" too much.

Why?

One person can change the world; we've seen it happen numerous times, and one time too many, the change had been for the worst. Sometimes, the change had been for the better.

To change the world, you need to change the way people think ... but I don't think you can really change a person. You can only help them change themselves. All you need is an idea.

For me, that's what stories are: ideas.

And I believe in the power of stories.

Hey, hey! Come give my author alter-ego, Devon Winterson, a "Like" on Facebook, and read a posted excerpt from my dark fantasy novel, The Perfect Player, every Tuesday until November 11th! 

Word of the week: netherworld /ˈneT͟Hərˌwərld/ - noun – (hear it!) - the underworld of the dead; hell.

Influences

Every so often a reader will ask me: “Where do your ideas come from?”

Usually I tell them ideas just pop into my head. Which they do. Often. That’s the easy part. The “Why?” and “How?” are normally the harder questions—ones people don’t think to ask—and are really the reasons behind what we writers write most of the time.

Influences.

All around, every day, writers are constantly influenced by everything around them, whether consciously or subconsciously, and every set of influences (plus the reactions to those influences) is different for every writer.

A couple kissing on a park bench, for example, may evoke feelings of love, devotion, and possibly yearning in one writer, whereas it might provoke the deep desire to retch in another. And while the second writer might view a lion’s bloody takedown of a limping gazelle as strong, powerful, and nature’s efficient way of weeding out the weak, the first writer may shudder and whine at the injustice of a helpless animal’s death.

What we writers do with what we’re shown and handed over the years usually filters through and into our stories—big time!—and it often shapes what we write and how our characters react to certain things.

Caendoria, my own fantasy world, has been influenced by a couple of things both *kind of* well known and not well known at all.

What the hell do I mean by that?? Here, I’ll show you.

Pop quiz!

How many of you recognize this . . .

Baron of Hell

. . . and this?

Cyberdemon

If you’ve lived through the nineties and played a game called Doom by id Software, then you’re probably familiar with the Barons of Hell, and the powerful Cyberdemon (respectively), who kind of seemed like the Barons’ overseer.

Maybe. I don’t know.

Anyway, I always thought they looked pretty cool. And massive. And just plain ol’ downright awesome. Thus, the creation of my netherworld demons were influenced by the structure of these demonic characters. With my own twists to them, of course. (All authors add in their own twists to stuff we’re influenced by!) In the end, my own rendition of these demons have become the dystopian element in the otherwise perfect world of Caendoria.

Now, how about this? . . .

Again, if you’ve lived through the nineties, you’ve probably heard of a game called Myst by Cyan Worlds, created by Rand and Robyn Miller. Way before I ever started seriously writing (and waayy before I had children), my husband and I would sit together for hours upon hours, solving the puzzles inside the storyline, progressively unlocking each secret as we proceeded through the game.

Awesome enough, to be sure!

But the elements! Ah, the elements . . . they were purely fascinating—nearly utopian, beautifully rendered, and [mostly] pleasing to all of the senses (well, if one goes further into one’s imagination; ghost smells and all that, you know . . . ).

Little did I know these bits and pieces would captivate my then-dormant writer’s mind and lodge securely to later be altered and rendered; picked apart, stretched out, and twisted up like twisty ties to create the world I now know as Caendoria: lavender sky and grasses; thick, drinkable liquid—iridescent by day, blue luminescent by night; silver- and gold-topped trees; intricate mechanisms hidden throughout the world. All sorts of fun and unusual stuffs!

Yes . . . so now you know a little of the “Why?” and “How?” behind what I write. Behind what all writers write, really.

Influences. All around, every day. Things take root in our minds, our hearts, our feelings, then we mix and match in unique ways, and write it all down for everyone to share.

And if you really want to know: I am that second writer in my “limping gazelle/lion take down” paragraph. Well, minus the kissing. Kissing’s nice. Unless you see a lion kissing a gazelle. Now that would be weird.

Thus, my wonderful blog readers, I leave you with a fly-through across the Ages . . . literally. Tribute to the Myst Ages. (Note: You may need to lighten your monitor. The trailer's a bit on the dark side.)

Word of the week: ebullience - \i-ˈbu̇l-yən(t)s, -ˈbəl-\ - noun - (hear it!) - the quality of lively or enthusiastic expression of thoughts or feelings

Indie Author of the Month: Please Come Meet . . . Lisa M. Green

(From my Amazon review of The First.)

For several months, I’d waited for The First to be released, truly tempted to read the sample chapters from Lisa’s website, but knew I’d much rather wait for the full version on my Kindle so I could take in the story as a whole . . . and the wait was very worth it.

Lisa takes her readers on an fantastic journey straight from the inside out, fairly turning the main character (Rinni) on her head with startling revelations about herself, her people, and the lifestyle and world she once took for granted and thought she understood, with a wholly unexpected ending that’s sure to make readers think. It sparked my want to read the story again, not only because it’s a well-written book, but also to see with more clarity and foresight how connections are made from start to finish.

Certainly Lisa has taken great pains to polish the prose in The First to a near-perfect shine, and has created a world with characters so very much alive, they practically grab you by the hand and immerse you into the unfolding tale—everything a great book should be and should do for a reader.

Did I have a couple of niggles? Sure I did. But even though the main character voiced her direct thoughts immediately after (which, to my editor’s mind, lent itself to repetition), and Rinni’s reaction to a handful of situations bordered slightly on melodramatic, neither of these detracted from my overall enjoyment of the story.

The First is a solid, well-written novel, all round. Truth be told, and in my humble opinion, it’s a sumptuous blend of some familiar books—it has the feel of The Giver, plus a bit of Wool, all tied up with a very slight smidgen of the Hunger Games—yet in the end, Lisa’s debut novel is an entity all its own, and a book I highly recommend for those looking to read a truly entertaining tale.

And so, without further ado, here’s Lisa to tell you a little about herself. Come, read, enjoy . . . and please, always support indie authors.

* * *

Greetings and salutations, friends! My name is Lisa M. Green, though, in truth, it isn’t. Not yet. It will be soon, once I’ve said my vows and slipped on the Ring of Binding (+1 patience, +2 loyalty). I’m a high school teacher with a teenage daughter (+50 patience). Oh, and I write. Fantasy, of the mythic and paranormal variety, with a bit of might and magic to come.

You could call me a teacher who loves to write. You could call me a writer who loves to teach. But the truth is that I am both, separately and together. I teach literature and writing to high school students. I’ve been writing since I was a very young child, even having my young ego stroked with writing awards and accolades through school competitions. Perhaps that fueled my desire to continue. Perhaps writing is just a part of who I am.

The goal I was working toward was a career in writing, but somehow I talked myself into believing that I could never make a living out of such an uncertain path. Maybe that was true at the time. Either way, I turned to another career I had always considered—teaching—in part because my mother is a teacher. I love teaching literature, as well as writing. Writing has always come naturally to me, but I stopped believing in my ability to actually get published a long time ago. I was scared. And complacent.

But then the muse struck me. To be more specific, she smacked me across the face with a metal baseball bat. And so I began to write what would become my first full-length novel. My college courses in grammar and linguistics, as well as creative writing and editing, helped tremendously in shaping my path through such an enormous endeavor. Yes, I had always been naturally adept at writing and revising, but those experiences pushed me to a completely different level.

Without the current atmosphere within the self-publishing industry, I might never have accomplished my dream of publishing a novel. I will never know if a publisher would have scooped up my manuscript because I made a gut-churning, nausea-inducing decision to avoid the publishing houses altogether. Some may say that it was a big mistake not to try. Some may think that my work must be sub-par since I wouldn’t let a professional take a look at it. Some may have no clue how subjective and time-consuming that process actually is.

The First is a story of truth, trust, and sacrifice. A young woman, determined not to fall prey to the consequences of inaction, must brave the nightmares beyond her known world in order to fight back against the nightmare within that is slowly killing her village and her people. As a mythic and paranormal fantasy novel, it may not be for everyone, but the professionalism involved should be apparent. With the insurmountable mass of self-published work out there, it is very difficult for those with a professional background to stand out amongst what I like to call “hobbyists.” There is nothing wrong with writing as a hobby, or writing because you love it, but for those who wish to go further and develop a career in the field, the task is a bit overwhelming.

But I will not lose hope. I will not give up. In fact, I am currently writing my second novel—most likely a series—in the fantasy genre. It’s full of magic and time travel and all sorts of other goodies, and I’m quite enjoying the experience. I honestly love to write. I’m overwhelmed with a feeling of euphoric ebullience whenever the muse hits me, despite her sometimes malevolent nature :-P

Being in the earlier stages of my writing process, more research than writing has occurred so far. Names and meanings are very important to me, so I tend to spend a good deal of time finding just the right word or name for many aspects. This wasn’t the case for everything in my debut novel (the character names were straight out of my head, but place and object names were often significant). However, this new series involves some very in-depth research on name meanings.

If I’ve piqued your interest, you can check out the first eleven chapters of The First on my website or via a PDF download. My website’s main page is located at lisamgreen.com. You can also download samples from Amazon or Goodreads. The book was released on February 25, 2014, and it’s available at the following locations: my website (print and all digital formats), Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Apple iBooks, Kobo, as well as many others. You can also order it from your local independent bookstore.

We Interrupt Our Regular Post . . .

Hello and good late-morning (or evening, or afternoon, or night, depending on where you are) everyone! The wonderful Lisa M. Green, author of The First, has very graciously invited me to participate in the “My Writing Process” blog tour, where I answer four questions about . . . well, my writing process.

And why is everything in the color green, you ask? Oh, I’m sure once you give it some thought, you’ll come to see the (green) light.

My Writing Process . . . answered by author Devon Winterson:

1) What am I working on? - Recently, I was working on “The Drawing Voice,” the second book in my retrograde timeline Caendorian World novels, from the youthful perspective of Eden, the mother of Marisa, my main character from my first novel, The Perfect Player. But as of late, I’ve decided to change gears and finish up my humorous middle grade novel I’ve been writing with my son (off and on) for five years called “It Happened on Tarantula Island.” A loopy scientist; two rather large, intelligent, preposition-spouting tarantulas; a crew of dunderheaded pirates; a scholarly boy of ten; and a brilliant talking chicken! What could be more fun, really? 

2) How does my work differ from others of its genre? - Well, most dark fantasy, as far as I can tell, contains either vampires or zombies (and sometimes werewolves). While the latter is way cool (Zombies! Yay!), and the former are kind of ho-hum (to me), my novels have packs of sentient hell-spawned demons who get high from devouring human flesh and blood. But since I haven’t read every book in the universe, there may be something similar out there. If there is, it’s not exactly a very popular subject matter.

3) Why do I write what I do? - I’d like to claim craziness, but I’m no crazier than any other writer. I believe I write what I write because I enjoy delving into the dark corners of the human psyche and giving animalistic creatures more humanistic traits—kind of putting them at our level, and comparing them to humans themselves. I also like to play with situations that could never happen in real life, create fantastic events that I can control (or not!), and help readers understand the messages of tolerance, love, and understanding . . . yes, through dark fantasy. (They’re hidden, but they’re there, those messages.)

4) How does my writing process work? - I sit, write, shake my head in frustration, hit the delete button—many times—write some more, get some coffee, sit down again, write some more, yell at my characters to “DO WHAT YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO DO!!”, hit the delete button again, and again, and again, write and write and write and write . . . then edit out 90% of what I’ve written. But all silliness aside, I’m pretty much a “by-the seat-of-my-pants” writer. In other words, I love to see where my characters take me as they drag me through their world and out the other side, battered and bruised but “band aided” up and “boo-boos” kissed afterwards. Then I throttle them.

Next Monday, on March 24th, three other writers will give you their own “My Writing Process” answers:

Alianne Donnelly - an author of many hats, including fantasy, romance, paranormal, and post-apocalyptic, probably weaving a brand new tale in her head somewhere at this very moment. She does that. A lot.

Monica Mynk - a mild-mannered Chemistry teacher turned Christian fiction writer. 

Robert Evert - the author of the Riddle in Stone fantasy series; he hasn't ever killed anybody.

So, have you figured out why everything’s green yet?