As you can see by my topical motivator, today’s guest author has ties to Potter Fandom. That’s because she is notorious for having written several well-known parodies. The best known of which, Henry Potty and the Pet Rock has won Indie Excellence Award and USA Book News National Best Book Award.

 

I’m speaking of Valerie Frankel.  This September is a big month for Valerie. Henry Potty and the Pet Rock will be released in a new special edition in which the hero faces sparkly vampires and silly slayers in the Try Wizarding Tournament and then unites all the franchises into the Order of the Takeout in a special edition that will be released this month.  She will also have a nonfiction book released through McFarland books entitled . From Girl to Goddess: The Heroine’s Journey in Myth & Legend. From Girl to Goddess explores the heroine’s journey and how it differs from the hero’s by examining women’s mythology from all over the world.

Another motivator courtesy of Motivated Photos.com

Since last November (the start of Nanowrimo, in fact) I have been slowly working on a novel. At this point, I’ve written about 60,000 words, and I will be finished with both my first and second drafts by the beginning of November. Possibly sooner.

When people ask me where I find time to write, I usually tell them that people who want to write can’t not write. But I’m never sure that I convey what I mean. It’s more that writers place such as high value on writing that other distractions don’t merit when compared to writing time.

Human beings have a large number of distractions that can keep them from writing. Video games, television, moves, the internet, reading (That’s Stephen King’s secret plot to knock out the competition. He keeps them so busy reading the sheer volume of his work that no one can possibly write.)

If you are in high school or college there is the social life. If you have kids, there is their social life (soccer practice, dance lessons etc.).

Writers simply put such a high premium on writing that they either cut other things out, like the television (And really, who is going to care about who won American Idol or whether Lindsey or Paris got arrested again in two years, anyway?), or they fit the writing around things they can’t cut out (It’s called losing sleep.)

In the case of my novel, I simply chose to take 12 months to get the book on paper instead of 4 (and wrote extra short stories along the way). But when you consider that I have in the past shoved a novel out of my brain in 3 months and then spent the rest of the year writing short fiction, it’s really about the same amount of productivity.

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FYI: Tomorrow's author spotlight will be Valerie Frankel, Author of the Harry Potter Parody Henry Potty and the Pet Rock.

   Today's motivator comes to me courtesy of MotivatedPhotos.com

Today’s author spotlight is on Emilie P. Bush, author of the Steampunk adventure novel Chenda and the Airship Brofman.

Chenda Frost is the young widow of the reclusive Commander Edison Frost of the Republic Airship Service. His death was ruled a suicide but foul play is suspected. Candice Mortimer is a geology professor who was Edison’s good friend twenty years ago. Chenda finds a letter and some jewels hidden in a secret compartment of her dead husband’s desk. In the letter, Edison requests her to join Candice in a secret mission to help the Republic defeat the Tugrullian Empire. “Chenda and the Airship Brofman” is highly recommended for fans of young adult science fiction/fantasy. Chenda is an adorable young girl who quickly matures into a responsible woman who is determined to fight the Tugrullian Empire. This expertly crafted, fast paced novel is filled with mystery, suspense and romance. I have a feeling that Chenda will fall in love with the handsome, young chauffeur, Daniel, whose father served aboard the Valiant Eagle along with Commander Edison Frost. Candice Mortimer is also a strong, brave woman with a sense of humor. She will become good friends with Chenda and help her find a mystic, Pranav Erato.

Chenda is Emilie’s first novel, and she said that she is very pleased with it.

“Every month it picks up speed sales wise. There is a buzz around it. People are passing their copies along to friends and that pleases me!” she said.

The book is set in a world unlike our own, where several types of alternate power --not just steam --developed as the dominant technology. For example, the airships in Chenda’s world are powered by photosynthesis created with algae.  Emilie said that she had a lot of fun building Chenda’s world.

This is part 2 of an interview with author Emilie P. Bush. To read part 1, go here.

In addition to The Gospel According to Verdu, Emilie said that she is working simultaneously on another novel, which she called a modern mythological fantasy.

“I’m sleeping better these days, but am not writing as quickly,” Emilie said.

Today’s blog is inspired by a similar topic that Rhonda Eudaly recently covered. I’ll call this topic Don’t be that guy.

There are very few hard and fast rules in the business of writing. One of the ones that nearly everyone will tell you is that you should never be unprofessional to an editor. You should especially, avoid responding to a rejection letter.

 ETA: Also? There is an amazing writer's resource for men's dress clothing here: http://hackthis.livejournal.com/561614.html

I knew some of this stuff from buying my husband's suits, but the detail is just incredible.

Today’s author spotlight is on Rosemary Jones. You can read part 2 of the article here.

Rosemary is the author of the Wizards of the Coast Novels Crypt of the Moaning Diamond and City of the Dead. Both novels are set WotC’s the Forgotten Realms universe.

Rosemary categorizes her books as “Dramedy, Dungeons & Dragons.”
 

“I like writing about people and how they would naturally function in some pretty strange settings,” Rosemary said. “Someone said that my fiction features ordinary folks who do the behind-the-scenes work in the fantasy, and that seems about right.”

Rosemary said that Crypt of the Moaning Diamond follows a group of sappers (a real life military job dating back to Biblical times) as they try to survive in a one very bad day in the monster-filled underground lair, not lose their little white dog in the chaos, and find lunch because the camel ate their breakfast.

This is the second part of an interview with author RosemaryJones. You can read the first part here.
Rosemary said that she began writing for WotC because she lost a contest.

“Wizards of the Coast created a competition to find someone to write a novel based on the Goddess of Pain as part of a series about all the gods in the Forgotten Realms pantheon.. The winning outline won a contract. I suggested a romantic comedy with Pygmalion overtones – apparently a funny novel about the patroness of torture and destruction was not what they were looking for. However, I and several other writers ended up on a short list of authors approached about other projects.”

  -- The Goddess of Pain in the Forgotten Realms Universe. And in Rosemary's hands, the potential subject of a romantic comedy.