I was interviewed by Raine O’Tierney at her “Hat Party” blog. She interviews writers. The questions are unusual and the writers wear funny hats. It was a lot of fun, and inspired a new photo of myself that I love (an extremely rare occurrence). Please click through and check it out – I’ve written a steamy new piece of flash fiction and detailed my harrowing escape from a horde of burning zombies, just for the party!
I’m beginning to think I should have titled this series of posts, “Twenty Thoughts on…” because I clearly have a lot of thoughts about Disney movies. Anyway, Pinocchio (1940) is the second film from Walt Disney Productions, coming three years after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I’m not sure I’ve ever sat and watched the whole thing straight through before, but I know I’ve seen it in bits and pieces, probably in an edited form on TV when I was a kid.
My first book, Alan Lennox and the Temp Job of Doom, is on sale this week (through Sunday 5/11) for just 99 cents! You can also get it for the Kindle, the Nook, iBooks, or Kobo. Book two is already out, so if you like this one you don’t have to wait for the sequel!
Alan Lennox has been assigned yet another soul-crushing temp job, keeping him from his first loves – drinking, playing video games, and looking for a boyfriend. But Alan’s new job proves to be anything but boring when his co-workers start turning up dead. The mysterious megacorporation Amalgamated Synergy has taken a deadly interest in Alan and his three roommates, and the hapless quartet are woefully unequipped to deal with the psychotic secretaries, murderous middle managers, and villainous vice-presidents hunting them down.
Their investigation leads them deep into Amalgamated Synergy’s headquarters, but can Alan and his friends stay alive long enough to discover who – or what – waits for them on the top floor?
Alan Lennox and the Temp Job of Doom is the first book of The Future Next Door, a contemporary urban science fiction comedic thriller series.
Book One: Alan Lennox and the Temp Job of Doom
Book Two: Caitlin Ross and the Commute from Hell
Book Three: Mark Park and the Flume of Destiny (coming 2014)
Book Four: Dakota Bell and the Wastes of Time (coming 2014)
I’ve had the covers for both of my books redone, and here’s the big reveal! (Well, my mailing list got a peek at Alan Lennox and the Temp Job of Doom earlier this month, but this is the first appearance of the new cover for Caitlin Ross and the Commute from Hell.)
While I love the original covers, the feedback I was getting was that they weren’t necessarily giving new readers the clearest idea of the books’ genres. I’m thrilled with these new ones – I think they just scream “contemporary urban science fiction comedic thriller,” don’t you?
If you’re a fan of the originals, they’ll remain as the covers to the paperbacks for some time yet – these new ones are just on the e-books, for now. But hurry if you want them – I’ll be updating the paperback covers too at some point before the release of book three, Mark Park and the Flume of Destiny, this summer.
Oh, you want to buy them? Thanks! Here are some links for you:
Alan Lennox and the Temp Job of Doom: Amazon, Nook, iTunes, Kobo.
Caitlin Ross and the Commute from Hell: Amazon, Nook, iTunes, Kobo.
I’m currently working on Mark Park and the Flume of Destiny. It’s the third book in my series, The Future Next Door, and it is also, not coincidentally, the third book I have ever written.
Writing is a skill, of course, and like any skill, you get better at it the more you practice it. My first book, Alan Lennox and the Temp Job of Doom, took me just about a year to write, from first word to publication. I learned a lot as I was writing it – both from the act of writing itself, and from actually studying the craft of writing by reading what other, smarter writers than me had to say – and by the time I was finished with the first draft, I realized I needed to go back to the top and do some pretty serious revisions. It was a long process, but worth it in the end. It’s a good book.
The second book, Caitlin Ross and the Commute from Hell, came a lot easier. Not easy, just easier. It took about seven months in all. Less time because I had figured out that I’m a plotter – I need to break the story down before I start to write, not figure it out as I go along. This resulted in the first draft needing far fewer revisions. It was even more fun to write than the first book had been, and I think it shows in the end result. It’s a better book.
I say I started working on Mark Park a few weeks ago, but really, I started it at the same time I started Caitlin Ross. After I finished the first book, I plotted out all three of the remaining installments in the series – there’s an overall story building, and I had to know where I was going in order to know how to get there. So I had a blueprint in front of me when I actually sat down to write book three.
But…but but but. Something was off. Writing when I got home from work was becoming a chore to be dreaded instead of the best part of my day. I pushed through, telling myself I was just hitting a wall, I was tired, I was cranky, I needed to be changed, anything except admitting there was something wrong with what I was writing. I got through six chapters before I realized that the book just wasn’t going to work. The book I had plotted would not be a good book, let alone a better book. It would be a bad book.
So I threw it all away. All my meticulous plotting. All those weeks of work. Even the few little bits I liked. Once I beat my ego into submission and admitted that I was doing bad work, and gave myself permission to let it go, I was able to see more clearly what was wrong. And then I fixed it.
Tonight I finished my second take on the plot breakdown, and I’m bouncing up and down in my chair with excitement. I know it’s good. And I can’t wait to start writing again.
