Earning Your Keep

As I cleared off bookshelves over the holiday break, I uncovered a lot of books of the do-it-yourself variety. At one time, all of them had looked promising to me, but the cold, hard reality was that I didn't have enough shelf space to keep all of them.

And so I needed to devise a plan for tackling this pile that would enable me to determine which books would prove themselves worthy of returning to the limited shelf space in my living room.

Since most of the books were non- fiction, I gave each book ten minutes - enough time to peruse the table of contents and, since I was on a time schedule, dive into whatever looked most interesting, rather than whatever came first. The books that sated my appetite in ten minutes or less would be donated. Those that merely whetted my appetite in that time frame would go back onto the shelf, a bookmark inserted where I had left off.

It occurred to me belatedly that an agent or editor approaches our lovingly created manuscripts in much the same fashion. As writers, we are sometimes offended by this, wondering how anyone can possibly make a decision based on only the first few pages of our cherished manuscripts. But as readers, we do much the same thing. Perusing the stacks in a well-stocked bookstore or library, we give each title only a few moments of attention before deciding whether or not to invest our time in it. If we miss, choosing a book that does not live up to our expectations, we have invested only our time. An editor or agent, however, stakes his or her reputation - as well as the reputation of his or her employer - on every title he or she backs. Talk about pressure.

So what's an aspiring writer to do? Exactly what the writing magazines tell you. Put your best work on the page, no matter how many tries it takes. Before sending your work to any publishing professional, make sure it is read - and critiqued - by fellow writers, and then revise it again. Only after you have completed this process should it land on a publishing professional's desk.

Anything less puts your reputation at stake, and jeopardizes any chance you may have at that coveted shelf space.

Realistic Pain

In most good  medieval fantasy books there is some amount of action.  You know what I mean.  Fighting, battles, wars, sword duels, bows and arrows.  And in most books not only the bad guys suffer an injury.  Treatment of injuries in medieval times would vary, perhaps the wounded's health would depend on herbal treatments or magical doctoring.  Either way, people receive some kind of medical assistance.
I'll save the medicine post for a later discussion but for now I want to talk about the pain of injuries.  Today I had surgery on my ankle(old basketball injuries piling up).  The minor operation became a bit more when the surgeon discovered the damage was more than expected.  More fixing up equals more post-op limitations and pain.  It hurts.
As writers, we love, or at least now we should, torture our heroes and heroines.  Emotional pain can be the best but sometimes in those fight scenes they get hurt.  Most of haven't been sliced by a sword or shot with an arrow so we don't exactly what if feels like.  When I lay in the pre-op yesterday, I reminded myself to hold onto the feelings, emotional and physical of waking after someone took a knife to my body.  I'm doing some major edits on the rough draft of my current WIP.  My hero suffers.  A lot.
I'm not a hero and I wakened with groggy half-formed memories of nurses talking to me, moving me and the painful lump wrapped around my ankle.  I swear my bones hurt on the inside and I could feel it.  It felt like the surgeon had left  a big thick hunting knife sticking in between my bones.  I don't do pain meds other than ibuprofen or Tylenol so I experienced the real deal.  I'm not brave.  I only get very ill with narcotics.
Now if I were one of the warriors in my books and someone stabbed me and then another person stitched me up, I guarantee I would need some magic to get me back into the fight. 
We stab our characters, let them take injuries that would fell lesser men or women.  But we must be careful how unrealistic it is.  I'm sure many of us have watched shows or movies where a character was shot and yet kept going to perform more incredible heroic tasks.  Or in the case of the antagonist perhaps he continued to wreck havoc and deal murder.  But could they?  Wouldn't the pain stop them?  Wouldn't the blood loss?  If a thigh is sliced horribly by a sword or knife the muscles would be badly damaged.  Could the joint at the knee or hip even move?
I've had multiple knee injuries and of course, the old weak ankle.  It's not only painful to walk on certain injuries but physiologically impossible.  So when your hero overcomes his pain and steps back into the fray, make sure it's realistic.  Or put the magic to use as I do a few times in my current WIP.  I wish I had a little of that magic for my ankle. 
So can you name a TV show or a movie where a character continued to run and fight? after and injury that should have left them unconscious or dying?  Did it take you out of the moment?

Happy New Release

Today marks not only the start of a hopeful new year, but also the release of Book #2 of The Futhark Chronicles.  Beyond the Gate is now available from ebook retailers and by the end of the month will hopefully also be released in print.

This novel picks up only a few moments from the cliff hanger ending of The Keepers of Sulbreth.  Futhark is the fantasy world where this epic series takes place.  Marshal Cage Stone the sorceress he protects, Keeper Sabelline Shelton, have taken the first steps inside the cavern where the magical seals keeping the demon hordes from their kingdom have weakened.  Their plan is simple though dangerous.  But nothing is as it should be.  They find mysteries linking their present difficulties with a long ago war and evil they thought long buried.  Cage must let go of his human inhibitions and connect with his heritage if they are to survive and help their beleaguered friends save Futhark.

Please join me one week from now when I start a mini blog tour including a top here on The Susquehanna Writers after it begins on my blog. 

So Happy New Year and here's wishing you lots of new books to read.  What new book is first on your list and are you trying any new to you author?

Meet and Greet

This week I'm hosting four of my friends and fellow authors on my blog.  Each will share some insights into their success as published authors and their writing process.  I think many hopeful writers believe there is a secret formula to success and becoming a published author.  Those of us in the field know persistence and hard work are the only two things all published authors have in common.  After that the process of completing a novel and finding a home for it in the publishing world varies for everyone.  Still, there is no harm in learning how others do it.  One little hint could make the difference in your own writing.
As a reader, I love learning how my favorite writers get the words on to the paper.  It fascinates me endlessly, especially their little quirks.  I also like seeing the person behind the writer. 
The four authors I will be interviewing also have another thing in common.  Their books are available for purchase on your new eReaders.  I hope you received one for Christmas like I did.  Please visit everyday and I promise you'll find something for you.
On Monday, December 27th, welcome Cate Masters.  She's a member of The Susquehanna Writers and has her own busy blog.  I'm so happy she could find time to join me.
On Tuesday, December 28th, welcome Natalie Damschroder.  She has a new release and a big book coming out in April.
On Wednesday, December 29th, meet Megan Hart and hear about her upcoming release, Precious and Fragile Things, a chilling suspense novel you'll be still thinking about long after you're finished reading it.
Thursday, December 30th, welcome fantasy novelist, Jon Sprunk, also a member of The Susquehanna Writers.  Jon will tell us about the first book in his fantasy series, already released, the upcoming second book. 
Please stop by and read their interviews where you'll find them as clever in person as their characters are in their novels. 
Do you like meeting authors personally?  Did you get or give an eReader for Christmas?  What books have you bought?

Seasons Greetings from the Susquehanna Writers

Gemmell Nomination

Hey folks,

Just wanted to share that Shadow's Son has been nominated for the prestigious David Gemmell Award in the Morningstar and Legend categories. Here is a link.

Voting begins, I believe, on Dec. 26.

Pardon our construction

In an attempt to evoke the lush central Pennsylvania region, we've been searching for a new look.

I hope you like the latest, and hopefully last, at least for awhile. It's cleaner and easier to read.

Susan Gourley/Kelley posted an interesting discussion on her blog about whether authors needed both a blog and a web site. I wonder the same thing. What are your thoughts? If an author makes his/her blog look professional, does it impact your impression if that author has no web site, but only a blog?

Susan did such a wonderful job redesigning her blog, don't you think? It made me want to redesign mine too, so I did. Now mine looks much cleaner. I'm considering doing away with my web site, which now seems redundant.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this subject. Is a web site necessary for an author, or will a blog suffice?

Holiday sale!

To celebrate the holidays, Wild Child Publishing / Freya's Bower will discount your order of $8.00 or more by 25 percent! At checkout, just add the coupon code: Happy Holidays

You can find several of my titles with both publishers. Wild Child Publishing released Liberation via Pen, which reviewers called: "a great story. Cate Masters does an exceptional job working out her plot."

This summer, Freya's Bower released my historical romance, Angels, Sinners and Madmen. Set in 1850s Key West during the heydey of the wreckers, it's a unique adventure you won't soon forget.

Also with Freya's, Wilderness Girl is a humorous erotic romance novella. It's a 2011 EPIC finalist too! Reviewers have said: "Wilderness Girl is an adorable contemporary romance with a really cute beginning that will make you laugh out loud! This storyline was a nice change of pace from what I've been reading lately and it was quite enjoyable. Hank and Dana had quite a bit of fun, which made it fun for me. This is my first book by Cate Masters, but it won't be my last. I look forward to reading more from her and I'm thinking you'll feel the same way too!" and "I loved this story for one main reason- it's why I love romances. The story was so fun. It was also filled with hot and steamy sex scenes, and the figuring out how this relationship will work stuff. I always think I like longer books, but the length on this one was just right. Enough to read in one sitting, but filled with everything I needed or wanted to know. Ms. Masters can write a story filled with all the ingredients for a good erotic, romance in my book."

Lastly, The Lure of the Vine is also available through Freya's. Reviewers have said: "Do you like a little mythology in your books? Then here is a good one for you. A nice SPICY read that is titillating, sexy and an ending that makes the journey worth the trip :) What a wonderful little read that is not the typical Harry met Sally, I enjoyed the drama, the lust and the issues right until the bitter end. This is not the first book of Ms Masters that I have been fortunate enough to read and let me just say that it won't be the last :)" and "This is an interesting and creepy tale. Dion and his Maenads will give you the chills right from the beginning of the story. The author does a good job of turning a Greek god into a successful businessman looking for love."

Happy shopping!

December Events

Hey folks,

I've got a couple of local book signings next month:

* Dec 11 (5pm) -- Borders Books in Camp Hill, PA.
* Dec. 15 (5:30pm) -- Borders Books on Allentown Blvd. (Harrisburg, PA)


Come by, and bring your literate friends. :)

A Writer of Influence

Writers—whether we admit it or not—are influenced by those who precede them.

Though his name is not so familiar as others, Pennsylvania was the birthplace of a man who influenced such varied literary masters as Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville.

In fact, no less an authority than the Encyclopedia Britannica calls Charles Brocken Brown the “father of the American novel.”

Born in Philadelphia on Jan. 17, 1771 to Quaker parents, Brown was early forced into the study of law by his family. They were unable to stifle his literary ambitions which had been fired by a lifetime of voracious reading and ardent desire to write. He was published as early as the late 1780s and had completed his first novel by 1798.

In his brief career (he died at the age of 39 of consumption) he produced at least eight novels, in addition to short stories, poetry, history and political writings, and served as editor of the Monthly Magazine And North American Review.

His best known novel today is probably Wieland, a gothic romance involving a supposedly inexplicable mystery.

One which should be of more interest to us is Edgar Huntly, which predates Cooper’s introduction of the American Indian into fiction. Peter Kafer, an independent scholar, has linked the roots of this novel to the infamous Walking Purchase of 1737 which forced the Lenape west into the Wyoming Valley and set the stage for the Indian wars later to ravage the settlers along the Susquehanna River.

Van Wyck Brooks called his novels “…singularly original, poetic and impressive.” Brooks says it is easy to see many images in Brown’s novels reappear in Poe’s tales and poetry.

If it were only these so-called gothic novels for which the man is known, it might be enough. But, influenced early in life by Mary Wollstonecraft, William Godwin and other thinkers, he was also an advocate for the rights of women, education, penal reform and other social issues.

Recognizing him as “the early republic’s most ambitious and accomplished literary figure,” the Charles Brockden Brown Society was founded in 2000 as an international scholarly organization to stimulate interest in his writings and his era. More information on the society is available at http://www.brockdenbrownsociety.ucf.edu/