Oops! Missed a few!

Catherine Chisnall has been stacking up the reviews, but I didn't get them until now ... so here they are:

http://www.examiner.com/writing-careers-in-boston/new-author-catherine-chisnall-discussing-her-novel-descending-1

http://www.all-review.co.uk/book-reviews (third one down)

http://stuartaken.blogspot.com/2010/08/catherine-chisnall-author-interview.html?zx=767c187a6edf3fd4

Tim Roux featured on Authors On Show

This week, we’d like to take the opportunity to thank   Tim Hewston le Roux of Night Reading and Night Publishing.

We are great supporters of Tim, his sites and what he is doing for fellow authors. They are kind enough to mention us regularly, as we do them on here. This is what promoting is all about. We are all after the same thing – supporting and promoting other writers as much as we can.  Sites like ours work together, not against each other. Though I have to say, we’re slightly jealous of his active and popular forum. Well done Tim!

Tim Hewston le Roux

Tim Roux

Where publishers fear to tread …..

Once upon a time, publishing was a religious vocation, sneaking printed copies of the bible off secret presses so that you could be arrested and burned at the stake. (click on the link to read more!)

Today is "Descending" day on The Indie Spotlight. Yay Catherine!

 featured TODAY (Sept 27) on

"Simon's Choice" is a 'wondrous ride' ...

Thanks to Sheila Deeth at Books.Gather.com for this beautiful review:

..."Simon’s Choice by Charlotte Castle is a wondrous ride through the comedy and terrible tragedy of family life and death. The dialog’s spot-on, from careless remark, to kindly encouragement, to condemnation and despair. The background is picture-perfect England. The characters are entirely believable, and the agony all too real. It’s a novel that will leave you crying at the end, and remembering forever. If you want to know how you would feel if a child were dying, if you want to know why “I’m sorry” is so inadequate, and “Life goes on” so like a dagger to the heart, or if you just want a marvelously powerful uplifting read, this is the book for you."...

More to Teresa Geering than meets the Eye (of Erasmus!!)

This is from www.All-Review.co.uk

... a terrific new interview/book review site...

Our current meet the author interview is with...

Teresa Geering  Author of: Eye of Erasmus.  AR. How did you first become a writer? TG. I started writing in my early teens to amuse my younger brother. It wasn’t anything very special just my thoughts and ideas. AR. So what inspired you?  What books, Movies, Authors? TG. From a very young age I was always a very avid reader, but I have never been much of a movie buff. I do recall reading The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCulloch in one sitting when it was first released. I just worked past that sleepy faze to finish it. However nothing as such has inspired me.   AR. How did Eye of Erasmus come to you?  How did you find writing it?   TG.  Quite late, one hot summers evening, I was sitting among the Shasta daisies in my garden with the proverbial glass of red wine. I was suddenly aware of a spider spinning a web. It was beautiful to watch, so intricate it was almost sensuous. I started to think about faeries and time travelling. I grabbed a note book but couldn’t write quick enough so I exchanged it for my trusty tape recorder. From this, Shasta was born. Then I realized another character was lurking in the shadows and my fingers helped to introduce Erasmus.    AR. Did you base your characters on anyone you know?    TG. Haha, no not really but there have been some suggestions that Erasmus has a few traits of a close friend I work with.    AR. Can you explain how the story went/did it flow?  TG. I started to write the first story which was Shasta and The Enchanted Garden. This involved her present life plus a flavouring of her past. The second story Shasta Village is the story of her past life. She discovers she has a hidden heritage. The third story in the trilogy is The Eye of Erasmus of course. Due to popular demand the Eye of Erasmus was published first. The complete trilogy took me a year to write, and yes it did flow very easily. I think the storylines had just been laying dormant waiting for my fingers to get moving.   AR. How would you sum up Eye of Erasmus in one sentence? TG. Erasmus is a time travelling lover with attitude! AR. Have you plans for any other books? Are you working on anything else?  TG. I have another book in the series which is racing about in my brain at the moment. It features another of the characters from the trilogy. I’m eager to get down to writing it, but being published generates a lot of extra work. I had no idea I would be this busy and in all truth like most authors I just want to write. Actually there are several characters from the books that would make individual novels, and I have ideas for at least another ten! I was working on another novel completely unrelated to the series, but that has had to go on the back burner for the time being to make way for the fourth in the series.   AR. Does all of your work have a supernatural/fantasy background?   TG. I would say primarily yes to that question. However … the book idea on the back burner is slightly different. The element of fantasy is there though.   AR. Who published the Eye of Erasmus? What obstacles did you have if any?  TG.  The Eye of Erasmus is published by Night Publishing. http://nightpublishing.com This came about because both the manager of the Publishing House (Tim Roux) and I were exchanging reviews on a Harper Collins site called Authonomy. I asked Richard of Struggling Authors if I could interview him on our behalf and he agreed. During the interview he made his feelings quite plain as to how it was cheap enough to get books published. The hard part was selling them. He and another writer Bruce Essar were fed up with so many ‘celebrity press’ books, flooding the market. In their opinion many fantastic writers were being overlooked and needed to be published. From this conversation Night Publishing evolved. They have published at least twenty books so far. The Eye of Erasmus included. Basically Night Publishing uses a monthly voting system. The members on the site have an opportunity to vote for the most outstanding book each month and the outright winner is then published. Alongside this Tim and Bruce get to cherry pick their own favourites. They head hunted me for the Eye of Erasmus and the rest is history as they say. Many thanks go to Teresa Geering for the interview, to find out more on Teresa`s work and interests follow the following links. Teresa Geering Blog Struggling Authors website Night Publishing

What Am I Doing Wrong?

Recently I happened on a conversation on NightReading.ning.com (started by Jonathon Hopkins), bearing the excellent title: "To critique ... or damn with faint praise?" It was agreed by all that unmerited compliments do no one any good.

Later on in the conversation, a new member named "Nenno" said something I've heard this many times. She said she wants to improve - needs to improve, but has no idea what she's doing wrong. She said what she could really use is a good "nit picking" site. I recommended Scribophile.com, and George suggested YouWriteOn.com, both of which are good because the reviewer gains and loses nothing by contributing ... whereas on Authonomy, 'backing' and 'critiquing' can often be for selfish gain.

Nenno suggested we form a sort of crit circle, in which we all have assignments and deadlines. Personally, I can't do that - at the present time I'm editing two Night Publishing books, just finished one, promoting NP books, teaching piano, looking for editing jobs that actually pay (!), running a household ... and working on my own novel. But everyone is definitely encouraged to form their own circles. You never know who you might meet, and where that might lead.

But George and I thought it might be a good thing to offer kind of a "Editing Tip of the Week" or something on here. Some of them you may already know, some of them may offer an *aha* moment, but all of them are tried and true. There are, of course, thousands of sites which already contain tips, and I'll link to some of those on occasion, but it can also be overwhelming.

I thought I'd start the ball rolling with my own favourite tip, which I learned from Stephen King's "On Writing" - in my opinion the BEST book on writing ever written. This was my very first lesson, and has influenced everything in my writing.

LESS IS MORE

We're good writers. We love words. But why do we need to junk up our work with too many of them? It's because we want to make sure everyone reading our book understands exactly what we mean. But too many descriptive words cut up on the piece, shoving speed bumps all over the place for the reader to navigate.

I'll never forget what my mentor, Rona Altrows asked about the first battle scene of mine that she read. She shook her head and said, "This character is amazing. How did he survive all those adjectives?"

So what King suggested (and at first I said Pshaw! I'm not doing that! ... but I did, and wow) was:

1) Take the first page of your book. Read it - out loud.
2) Delete EVERY SINGLE adjective and adverb (of course I don't mean delete permanently. Do this on a separate document. Never delete anything you've written).
3) Now your first page is 'naked'. Read it - out loud. Doesn't that sound cleaner?
4) Read it through slowly again, adding in any descriptive words you feel are imperative. But don't layer it on thick. Don't use three adjectives when you could use one more effectively. For example: It was a hot, humid, oppressive day. Change to: It was a muggy day.
5) Apply this technique to everything you write.

My original first novel was 150,000 words long, and I loved every single word. Using the above technique (and a few others), I cut it to 75,000. And you know what? They're way better.

So that's Tip #1. Hope this helps.

If you have a tip to share, please email me at genevievesawchyn@nightpublishing.com and I'll add it to our blog. Thanks, all!

Have you read this amazing book by our fearless leader, Tim Roux?

If you have ever read one of George Polley's reviews, you know he is particular and to the point. Here's what he said about "Dance of the Phaesodile". He's bang on, too. Incredible book that took me someplace I had never been before.

..."Part romance, part paranormal crime thriller, it is a wonderful read. There are laugh-out-loud scenes in this book, some chilling ones and some very poignant ones. I won’t say more, because I don’t want to give too much away in this intriguing, funny and well-told story.

I give it a AAA+"

A note from SenoraG ...

My Two Cents:


..."This was such a fun book to read. It has a little bit of everything, murder, ghosts, romance, friendships, parents, funerals and so much more."...

Dancing In the Dark authors featured on Authors On Show

This week, we have not one guest author, but six...

The authors of Dancing in the Dark are featured on Authors on Show: Sessha Batto, John Booth, Robb Grindstaff, Diane Nelson, Noelle Pierce, JD Revene, Kate Rigby, T.L Tyson

Soooz Says...Stuff.: Interview with Brendan Gisby author of "The Island...

"Join me in welcoming Brendan Gisby author of~ ‘The Island of Whispers’~ ‘The Olive Branch’~ ‘ Ferry Tales’ and ‘The Bookie's Runner’. Meet Brendan Gisby..."

Soooz Says...Stuff.: Interview with Brendan Gisby author of "The Island...:

Night Publishing is pleased to be publishing "The Bookie's Runner".

"The Wedding Gift is truly an enthralling read."

Thanks to Misha from  "My Love Affair With Books" for her review!

... "There is a foreboding feeling , of something horrible to come, right from the start. The title of the book is truly ironic. Who would want such a wedding gift? Eventually this "gift" turns out to be Leann's worst nightmare. I have never believed in ghosts , but the plot was so believable that I could not sleep two nights in a row.
The Wedding Gift can be enjoyed by anyone who enjoys a well-written supernatural mystery."...

Kathleen McKenna on "One More Page" blog

Today is a momentous occasion on One More Page as I publish my first author interview!

Kathleen McKenna emailed me last month to see if I’d like to review her latest book, The Wedding Gift. In Kathleen’s own words, the book is

“A Southern Gothic paranormal story (ghosts, no vamps) told in the voice of a crazy charming small town beauty queen who runs for corn princess, loses the boy she wants and marries the idiot son of the towns richest family all before senior year is over. Marrying for money can be really dangerous. Leeann’s new mother in law is beyond horrible and the wedding gift she receives is a little off too. Mrs. Willetts, Leeann’s new in law is appalled at her son’s choice so as a tongue in cheek wedding gift she gives the newlyweds a fabulous antebellum mansion, one still occupied by an earlier beautiful unwanted bride who lived there and killed there.”

I loved the book (you can read my review here) and have been chatting to Kathleen over email ever since, so a couple of weeks ago I asked her if she’d let me interview her for One More Page and she very kindly agreed.

Amanda : I loved The Wedding Gift; what inspired you to write it?

Kathleen: I had spotted this gorgeous antebellum house once in New Orleans, I wanted to live there!  Anyway I started thinking about the people who DID live there, were they happy, or what if a beautiful girl from the wrong side of the tracks got to live there and then what if there was a ghost?  LOL! As you can see I’m somewhat demented, anyway it built on that, I had fun writing that book!

Amanda: Lead character Leeann is very funny – describe her in five words.

Kathleen: Confident, beautiful, loyal, selfish, sweet.

Amanda: Who was your favourite character to write and why?

Kathleen: Hands down Jessie. Before I started writing I was an adolescent counselor; Jessie is every tough sweet kid I ever worked with all rolled into one. I loved her so much that I had to give her, her own book and that’s The Comeback (the follow up book to the Wedding Gift, due for release later this year!)

Amanda: The Wedding Gift features a very feisty ghost in Robina, have you ever had a ghostly encounter of your own?

Kathleen: Well I have, or I think I have on a few different occasions, none of them were good; seeing things move that you didn’t move yourself or hearing things drop in another room – it’s not nearly as much fun as it sounds. Actually everyone I’ve ever met has a creepy little story. All of them seem to be kind of negative so my impression of ghosts is that overall they are scary and so I took it up a notch with Robina -  Miz Willets makes an uhm….charming ghost.

Amanda: The Wedding Gift combines chick lit, horror, mystery and comedy – are your own reading tastes this varied? What are your favourite books?

Kathleen: Oh geez, varied is an understatement for my tastes! I love history, horror, biography, humor, mystery … My fave book of all time is The Cider House Rules, but last year what made me happy were the Charlaine Harris books and Audrey Niffengers fabulous ghost story Her Fearful Symmetry.  I have to recommend the scariest book I ever read; it’s called Come Closer by Sara Gran, overall my taste pretty much runs to if its a book I want to read it.

Amanda: There are two more books planned in the series, can you tell me a bit about them.

Kathleen: Heck yes!  The Comeback is about Jessie and Mark’s adventures in leasing a very famous Beverly Hills Mansion, once owned by Desiree Danforth. The thing about really famous beautiful women is that being dead sucks for them, and dead stars are no different than say Lindsay Lohan; everybody wants a comeback.

The House on Easton Drive takes my crew back to Dalton to reunite with old friends and with Miz Bethany, then through circumstances I can’t relate for spoiler reasons Jessie manages to find a house that makes Willets House look like a nice place to live by comparison!

Amanda: Do you have any plans to write other types of books in the paranormal genre (vampires, angels etc?)

Kathleen: I wont write vamps; two women I admire own the genre to me. Anne Rice’s soooo sexy vampires, and Charlaine Harris’s hilarious and also smoking hot Sookie Stackhouse books. I’m a straight up ghost girl. I have two other novels that are supernatural – well actually they are  horror. One is about the Manson family and is ironically named Family Matters, the other one Dead Town combines a serial killer and a ghost town and I wrote it based on some very creepy stuff that went down just eighty miles from where I live. Then there are my other books about rich, beautiful women who’s lives went straight to hell (and usually to the grave) based on some baaaaad marital choices.

Kathleen – thank you very much for agreeing to be interviewed and good luck with The Comeback!