By Allison Brennan

So . . . I was originally going to write about the difference between FRUSTRATION and DISCOURAGEMENT in pursuing publication, but then a news story caught my eye, and I was going to write about THAT but when I logged onto the Murderati Members Only site, I discovered that one of my more knowledgeable fellow bloggers has a brilliant post on the very subject I was going to discuss . . . 

So I went back to my FRUSTRATION v. DISCOURAGEMENT idea. Only, I don’t want to talk about being frustrated in this business, or discouraged. Because tonight I’m elated.

No, I haven’t hit any lists recently, nor have I heard any good news. In fact, as far as careers go, mine is in limbo. I’ve had some major upheavals recently, and honestly, probably shed more tears over writing and the business of writing in the last four months than in the four years I’ve been published. 

But I am elated. I’m calm because there’s one thing I have now that I never had at the beginning of my writing career:

Friends.

Okay, don’t feel too sorry for me. I had friends of course, and a very few who I consider close personal friends, like Trisha who I dedicated SPEAK NO EVIL to. (My first book I dedicated to my mom; my second to my husband; my third to a fallen sheriff’s deputy from my adopted hometown. So Trisha is a dear friend who got my fourth dedication!)

But in THIS business–publishing–“friends” means something completely different.

We have MySpace friends. And Facebook friends. People follow us on Twitter and subscribe to the RSS feeds on our blogs. They are FRIENDS–in the broad sense of the word. They either like our books, or want to learn about publishing, or met us at a conference and liked our humor (that would be Toni, not me!), or think that by friending us they are networking because my friends are your friends, in a mi casa et su casa kind of way (and no, I don’t speak Spanish–I took three years of Latin in high school–so if I got that wrong, don’t shoot me.)

But true friends are those you can vent to. Those you can commiserate with. Those who will stand by you No. Matter. What.

In publishing, especially when you’re in the same relative field of fiction, your friends can also be your competition. But true friends don’t consider that a reader may have to chose between their book and yours on pay day. A true friend will always give you the best advice they can because they love you and want you to succeed–because your success has nothing to do with their success.

In 2008, I attended the RWA conference in San Francisco. I regularly attend both Thriller Writers and Romance Writers because (surprise) I write romantic thrillers that I think appeal to both sides of the line. I went to the RWA conference coming off a great Thrillerfest, but at the same time I was stressed because of personal family issues and I was president of PASIC, the Published Author chapter of RWA, and had a major event to host. Evidentially I offended someone because I didn’t recognize them or I didn’t pay proper homage or I said something wrong. I don’t know, because I only heard about this third hand. It hit me then for the first time that maybe–just maybe–I needed to change. That when I left my hotel room, I needed to be “on” and “alert” at all times. 

I didn’t leave my hotel room much that conference. 

But one person was there for me, and understood what I said even when I didn’t make any sense. (Ah-ha! you’re all thinking, it must be Toni. You’re right!)

I have had some major ups and downs in my career, and Toni has stood by me from the very beginning. I have a few other friends who have always stood by me as well, and they know who they are. But when the world comes crashing down, or when I have terrific news, Toni is the first person I want to talk to.

I only met Toni after I sold, but before my book came out. We met online though Backspace, a group for writers (which I have sorely neglected of late.) We were both attending the first ThrillerFest in 2006 (Right after my first B2B2B trilogy came out.) Toni confessed that she was nervous and an introvert (she doesn’t act it, but she is! Trust me!) and wanted to know if I’d have a meal or two with her. We ate virtually every meal together, talked until the wee hours of the night, and I was so blessed that she actually liked me. (Toni is smart, funny, and a far better writer than I can ever hope to be.)

As my career progressed, I realized that sharing information or fears or worries or highs or lows wouldn’t be taken the same way by the same people. For example, if I am at all critical of something in my career, I have a half dozen people telling me they wish they had my problems. I want to shake them and say, really? You want them? You want to stay up until three in the morning for two weeks, knowing you have to get up at seven to get the kids to school because you have a tight deadline? But the grass is always greener, and some people think that the life of a bestselling author is all glamour and bon-bons and working 10-to-2.

Except the people who know better. 

There’s an urban legend that may be true, may be false, but I’m inclined to think it’s true. Apparently, someone cornered Nora Roberts in the elevator at one RWA and said, “OMG, I want to be you.” And allegedly, Ms. Roberts said, “Really? You want to be me?” And then laid into her. 

I read JT’s facebook status yesterday. On Saturday, she was working on her next book. I was working on revisions. My friend Christy Reece posted early in the morning that she was editing all day. 

I’m not sharing all this to get sympathy. I’m sharing today because I want you all to look around you. Who is the one person you can count on No. Matter. What? Who will stand by you if you rob a liquor store, murder your boss, or  . . . oh, wait. Sorry. Scratch that.

Who will stand by you while you vent? Complain? Even if you’re wrong, they’ll listen and give you loving correction, because they love you and want you to succeed. No matter what.

Thank you Toni, I would never have gotten through these last few months without you standing by me!

By Allison Brennan

I made someone cry last week.

I didn’t mean to. I went to speak to the Yosemite Romance Writers last Saturday and I gave a variation on my workshop “Breaking Rules to Break In or Break Out” which is about shucking the so-called “rules” that we allow others to impose on our creativity. (Many of these “rules” apply to romance only, but some are cross-genre—such as never write a prologue or don’t use flashbacks. For those Murderati readers who are going to the RWA conference in Orlando, Toni, JT and I will be joined by Random House editor Shauna Summers to present this workshop on Saturday afternoon.)

Inevitably, when I open the floor to questions, one question is always asked: how do I find the time to write while being a wife and mother to five kids.

Writing has always been extremely important in my life. When I hit thirty, I realized I wasn’t completely happy, but didn’t know why. Then it hit me: I’d stopped writing when I got married. I went from writing almost every day to writing a couple days a month. Or less.

So I started writing again. Every day. It wasn’t easy. I had to make sacrifices, and so did my husband. I gave up television to make the time to write. Three hours every night, after the kids were in bed, I sat at the computer and wrote. Every night. (Except one night a week as a compromise to my husband who didn’t like the new schedule.) I couldn’t write during the day because I had a full-time job. I couldn’t write in the evenings because I had children to care for who hadn’t seen me all day. So nine to midnight was my writing time.

Now, I write full time. Anyone who works from home knows that working from home is still WORKING. But many who don’t work from home think that it’s easy for us to “just” do one thing—make calls for a church rummage sale, volunteer at the school, coach the kids soccer team, pick up the dry cleaning, run elderly mom to the doctor—the list goes on.

I think I’m more sensitive to this because I’ve been on both sides. I worked full-time outside of the house—thirteen years as a consultant in the California State Legislature. Yet I was the one who took the kids to the doctor; if someone was sick I stayed home; I had to leave exactly at five to get the kids before the school or day care closed at six; I made dinner, gave baths, did the laundry, made lunches, and got the kids ready for school in the morning.

Just because now I work from home (the emphasis on WORK) doesn’t mean that I suddenly have all this free time and can add more to my full plate.

It wasn’t easy to get to this point. I told the group that each one of them had to learn to say “NO.” Whether they work full-time or are a SAHM, whether they are married or not, have kids or not, have elderly parents or not, they need to understand that if they want to write—if writing fulfills them, completes them, is something they love to do and makes them happy—they have to make sacrifices to find the time to write.

But what do you do when your spouse or family ridicules your dream? What do you do when they are passive-aggressive, letting you “do your little thing” without understanding that the way the talk about it demoralizes you?

It’s worse for stay-at-home-moms. I’ve talked to women who love being a wife and mother and keeping a house, but they also have a hobby or dream of their own. Yet they have no support from their families for their “little hobby.” Whoever said that when we become a wife and mother that suddenly our personal pleasures are not important? We already put everyone else’s needs before our own, can’t we do whatever we want with that sliver of time left over for us? We make sacrifices for our families, and there’s no reason our families can’t make sacrifices for us. Because in the end, a happier mother means a happier family.

And this is when one of the writers—a SAHM of two–got teary-eyed. She tried not to, and I tried to be positive, but what got to her (and me) was that she had no support for her dream.

A good friend of mine, a SAHM-turned-successful published author, emailed me a couple weeks ago because she’d gotten to a crisis point in her career. She was juggling multiple contracts, was late on her current book, and had a husband and three kids who expected her to do everything she did before she sold, as well as now being the major breadwinner in the household. Her husband had always been supportive of her writing—before and after she sold—but at the same time expected a certain level of accessibility. Ditto her kids. And she was trying to do it all because of mommy guilt. Her boys play baseball and I asked her how many games she missed. One. And she felt awful about it. She admitted that, while they understand she has to write and meet deadlines and can’t do everything she used to, her family still expects it and she feels bad when she can’t do everything. It’s the unspoken sighs and passive-aggressive guilt families heap on their loved ones.

I helped my friend come up with a strategy for managing her schedule, all stuff she knew she had to do but when it comes from the outside, it seems more doable (it helps that I’ve gone through everything she was going through.) And I offered advice: don’t sweat the small stuff. Do what you can, but both your stories and your family will suffer if you don’t cut back on commitments.

I, too, go to almost every sporting event, drama performance, art show, and other events for my kids, but sometimes I can’t make it. I tell the kids I’ll take them on one field trip during the year, but not the three or four they go on. (Hence this last week I went to the zoo, and then to six flags—though I was just a driver on the latter and spent eight hours at Starbucks writing.) I do what I can, not because I have to but because I want to. I enjoy my children, and my kids know that. Just because I have to say no to something doesn’t mean that I love writing more than them—it means that mom has a job and there are some things I can’t do.

It may sound like I’m dissing men, but I’m not. I know there are a lot of dads out there who are active in their kids lives. I know there are a lot of husbands who are supportive of their wives dreams. And sometimes it isn’t the spouse, but parents or siblings or children who are undermining the writer. It’s sometimes hard for people to unconditionally support someone else’s dream—especially when we don’t share it or understand it.

But it isn’t lost on me that in all the speakers I’ve listened to over the last few years, I have never heard a male author asked, “How do you find the time to write, while also being a husband and father?”

On a completely different note, I posted my original short story “Ghostly Vengeance” to my Seven Deadly Sins website. It’s a ghost story that takes place between ORIGINAL SIN and CARNAL SIN. I’ll be posting additional bonus content to this site over the next month in anticipation of the release of CARNAL SIN on June 22.

I’ll leave with one of my favorite quotes by Edward Everett Hale, which pretty much sums up my life motto and seems appropriate:

I am only one,

But still I am one.

I cannot do everything,

But still I can do something.

And because I cannot do everything,

I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.

Do you have a favorite inspirational quote or advice that someone has given you that helps you get through the tough times when everyone seems to be dead-set against your dream?

By Allison Brennan

Once again, Alex has a brilliant post about spiritual themes, analyzing one of my all-time favorite movies, THE MATRIX. And I have to blog after her. Sometimes, life is not fair . . .

I’ve had an unusually busy week (okay, nine days.) Last Friday was my daughter’s 14th birthday. (Happy Birthday Kelly!) The day started out unusual enough–I toured Folsom State Prison with the FBI Citizens Academy alumni. Fellow thriller author and all-around great guy James Rollins was there as well (as a guest, not a prisoner) and I think we both enjoyed the three hour tour (fortunately, we didn’t get stranded.) I blogged about it on Thursday at Murder She Writes.

After the tour, I rushed (not speeding) to my kids’ school to pick up the birthday girl for her special one-on-one birthday lunch, after which I took her to a track meet 45 minutes away. After the meet, we made it home by 7:30 to have cake and open presents . . . 

The weekend was spent finishing the rough draft of LOVE ME TO DEATH, which I sent off to my editor at about 2:30 Monday morning. Well, the last 75 pages . . . the rest I’d sent a week before, so she’d finished and was ready for the very rough ending. Later that day, we talked for two hours about the book, what worked, what didn’t, and I got the manuscript back with comments. I mulled over her comments for a couple days, caught up on things I neglected when I was rushing to finish the first draft, and started revisions on Wednesday.

I love revisions. Some authors apparently dread them, but honestly, every book I’ve written is better because of editorial input. I think some people, especially if they’ve never been through this process, or maybe had a strict editor, think that revisions mean that the author has to make every change the editor suggests. My editor rarely says to change specifics–she tells me what she likes and what’s not working; where the pacing is slow or too fast; characters that are weak; and places to increase the emotion . . . among much more. 

For example, in this book (being vague here so I don’t give anything away!) my editor had some questions on how my characters learned specific information, so it was obvious I wasn’t clear enough earlier. She felt that one of my main characters started strong, but fizzled when my hero came on scene and because they are both important to the suspense plot, I need to balance them better after the first third of the book. I also had a scene that is important but drew attention to itself because of over-description. And my primary villain–I’m writing a first person POV villain for the first time. I feared that was going to be the weak parts (I’ve never written first person before.) Fortunately, it worked–but she wanted him introduced earlier and add more scenes from his POV because he is such a strong villain.

A lot of these things I’d sensed, but couldn’t pinpoint while writing the manuscript. Perhaps, if I had time to put the book aside for a few weeks and then re-read with fresh eyes, I’d see the problems. But being on a tight schedule, I don’t have that luxury. My editor, however, never tells me how to fix problems–she helps identify them and then I can talk them through with her as needed. But the remedies, the fixes, are all mine.

A classic example I’ve used when speaking about the value of editorial input is when I was revising THE KILL, my third book. I was still a very new author and struggling with the revision process (mostly in finding my own path.) There’s a scene where the villain had the heroine hostage in a car (the heroine is forced to drive) and the hero and FBI Agent are following. They’re driving down a winding mountain road and the killer has a gun on the heroine. The scene plays out pretty quickly, and the villain is apprehended.

My editor felt the scene had a lot much tension and high stakes and it ended too quickly, and suggested that my heroine go for the gun. I didn’t see how that would work, but I agreed with her that the scene was too short. I role-played with my husband, trying to get the water gun from his hand while in the car, and in every scene I ended up dead. It would not be the smart thing to do while driving down a winding mountain road–and my heroine was very uncomfortable around guns. But she WOULD try to get away, knowing that she’d be dead if she went with him, and may live if she jumped from the car.

So I had her slam on the brakes and open the door, trying to jump from the vehicle, but the villain pulls her back inside. He’d dropped the gun when she slammed on the brakes, but now he has a knife in hand and it’s at her throat. I was able to draw out the scene and increase the tension.

My point here is that good editors know when a scene has problems. They don’t always know how to fix it. That’s why I always listen when my editor is struggling with something, because that means my readers will struggle. But ultimately, it’s up to me to find a solution that fits with my characters and logic. 

So I was very excited to start! But first on Tuesday, I editing the synopsis for the second Lucy book and sent that off to my agent. I’d written it awhile back, but now that I was done with the first book, there were a lot of changes. Not that I’ll ever look at the synopsis again. That would be too much like . . . plotting.

Wednesday and half of Thursday I worked on the revisions . . . only I had to put the book aside early. I’d agreed awhile back to speak to the third graders at my son’s school. It was a blast. The kids were enthusiastic, they love reading, they asked great questions, and I had fun talking about the two things I love most: reading and writing. We talked a lot about perseverance (one of their themes this year) and working hard when you want something, whether it’s learning to play baseball or the piano or writing a book. There’s nothing to stop you except you. Third grade is a great age–too young for most of the drama and brattiness, but old enough to understand hard work and dreams. So enthusiastic about the future. I love this time!

While I tried to write at night, it proved impossible. And on Friday, I went to my kindergartner’s Mother’s Day breakfast where we ate, drank coffee, and listened to them sing. Yes, most of us moms were crying. My littlest guy is a hoot. There was a dance, and while he was dancing with me, he kept looking over at his “best friend” — a little girl. I asked him if he wanted to dance with her, and he started off . . . I pulled him back, saying she wanted to dance with her mom. But he wouldn’t stop looking over his shoulder, trying to catch her eye! LOL.

And also on Friday, my third grader turned nine . . . and my daughter had her last track meet, the final meet. She came in third in two events (the mile and the 4X400m) and did great! After the meet we rushed home to . . . you guessed it! Presents and cake. While my mom watched the two little kids, my husband took the birthday boy to the fish store to pick out fish for our new tank.

Then came Saturday, the party. Thirteen kids between the ages of 4 and 9, ten of them boys, at my house. Tired, but not completely out, I took the two oldest teens (14 and 16) plus one of their friends to see NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. Great remake. I really enjoyed it, especially since I thought the storyline was more believable than the original, and because of that more scary (more suspenseful while being less gory, though I haven’t seen the original in more than 20 years so my recollection is poor.) The new version used a lot of the same elements as the old one (boyfriend accused of murdering one of the victims; Nancy seeing her friend in a body bag; among others) there were fresh twists and a different crime for Krueger. Worth seeing if you like horror.

And now it’s Sunday. Well, for me, late Saturday night! For Mother’s Day, after church we’re going grocery shopping, then home, then an early dinner out with the kids and my mom. Probably some games when we get back.

Today is my last day off. Not only am I eager to get back to my revisions, the deadline looms two weeks away. Enough time, but it’s ticking . . . and there’s the next book, waiting for me to start writing.

Happy Mothers Day to all the mom’s reading this!

By Allison Brennan

At RT one year, I sat on a panel with other thriller writers. One fellow author was shocked that I don’t plot. He was even more surprised when I told him that I didn’t know what was going to happen in the book I was writing at the time.

Thriller writers tend to be plot driven and for most of them, not having a roadmap—at least of the basic plot points—can be paralyzing. But thriller and mystery writers aren’t the only people out there who can be anal plotters. Take the fabulous Suzanne Brockmann, who writes romantic suspense. 

I took an online class from her in December of 2003 about writing connected stories (as opposed to a series.) I had just sent out THE PREY to agents, including several who were reading the full manuscript, and I was very excited because I’d never had so many request the complete with my first four manuscripts.

I was stunned when she shared with the class that she was a plotter. Not only a plotter, but an uber-plotter—she had 100 page outlines before she even started writing the book! She admitted that it takes her longer to outline the book than it does to write it. She had color-coded notebooks, multi-book character arcs and subplots, and all these were clearly labeled.

I thought to myself, “If this is what it takes to get published, I’ll never be published.”

If I was told I had to write a detailed outline before someone would buy a book, I would very likely stop writing for publication. I’d rather write the entire book first, then create an outline. 

I do not know where my story is going when I start. I do not know where it is going to end. I know who the hero and heroine are. (Most of the time—twice I’ve been wrong.) I know the basic crime. I don’t always know why, I don’t usually know the villain or if I do, I don’t know why. I don’t know who’s going to live to the last page or who is going to die. Well, except for the hero and heroine because I write romantic suspense and they kind of have to survive, or it wouldn’t be romantic suspense.

Getting to the end is half the fun of writing. Finding out what happens is thrilling. If I knew the ending, I wouldn’t write the book. It’s enough to know that my hero and heroine are going to live, and the bad guy is going to get what’s coming to him.

To quote Stephen King. “Why be such a control freak? The story is going to end up somewhere.”

This isn’t to say that all thriller or mystery writers are plotters or all romance writers are organic storytellers. It’s just that I think aspiring thriller writers think they need to have a structure and detailed outline before they write because of the complexity of most thriller plots.

I’m here to tell you that no, you don’t have to.

You CAN if you want to. I’m not going to tell anyone NOT to plot their story just like I’m not going to tell anyone they HAVE to write organically. Our brains are wired differently and one thing I learned early on is that no one can tell anyone else the best way FOR THEM to write a story.

I have a workshop I’ve presented a few times called “No Plotters Allowed: Solutions to Writer’s Block for Those Who Can’t, Won’t or Don’t Plot.”

I’m thinking of renaming the subtitle of the workshop to “The Subconscious Writer.”

I’m deep into writing currently untitled Lucy Kincaid #1. Friday night I was stuck. I had everything set up and I started writing what I thought was the next scene, but it just wasn’t working. Something felt off to me. (Organic writers tend to “feel” problems in the story. I know, it’s sounds all wishy-washy and stupid, but it is what it is. And I really hate the word “pantzer.”) I put the book aside and started working on a title. My title had been rejected (NO WAY OUT) and I didn’t like what my editor  came up with, then I submitted another title, which they liked but didn’t feel was right, so it’s back to the drawing board. (Aside: Lucy #1 is coming out in January of 2011, and Lucy #2 is coming out in March 2011. Lucy #2 has a title—we think. It’s not approved yet. So I was trying to match the rhythm of that title.) I scoured my thesaurus and bookshelves, pulling out words that have some relation to the story.

Betrayal. Bait. Stop. Tempt. Lose. Lure. Love. Murder. Kill. Dying. Death. Trap. Shoot. Ruin. Entrap. Chase. Thrill. See. Touch. Watch. Predator. Web. Seduce. Snare. Break. Fear. Retribution. Stalk.

That’s about 10% of my list of words. Then I moved to phrases, which may or may not be title-esque. Cry Me a River. Dying Breath. Taking the Heat. Don’t Look Back. No Time to Run. No Way Out. Edge of Danger. Web of Lies. Over Her Dead Body.

Again, that’s just a small fraction of what I had written on seven sheets of notebook paper.

Then I went to bed.

Saturday morning I woke up with not only a title (actually, four good titles that all have the same basic foundation) but I’d solved my story problem!

When I was stuck Friday night, as I often do I skimmed what I had already written. This is bad for me because I usually start editing as I go and that takes time, and often sends my story in new directions. (At least when you’re on a tight deadline, it’s bad.) But since I’d already edited the beginning of this book to death, it was tight and I wasn’t doing major editing, just small tweaks here and there. So when I went to bed, I had the whole story in my head, as well as a couple hundred words and phrases swimming around.

I realized when I woke up that I had the solution already written in the book. I didn’t have to fix anything, it was already there. It was as if my subconscious had the story down even when I didn’t know it.

I thought Character A was watching Lucy out of a sense of paternal protection, and even though he’s a bad guy, he didn’t want to hurt her. He was more worried about her.

It’s not Character A at all! I realized that in two specific places in the story before the midpoint, Lucy had the distinct impression of being watched. But she has a fear of being watched, and knows this about herself, and thus has learned to dismiss the sensations because they happen whenever she’s in public.

My husband thinks I’m very strange. I told him that I was excited because the guy I thought was watching Lucy really isn’t, it’s this other guy who I didn’t even know about but he’s been there all along! Seriously, I had two scenes where he was there and I didn’t even know. When I re-read them this morning, it was so damn obvious you’d think that I’d planned it out. Dan said, “But these are your characters. You’re the writer, you tell them what to do.”

Um, no. When I start telling my characters what to do, they put on the brakes.

My editor is sometimes amused with me, I think. I always do a round of revisions. Always. Even if the book is pretty tight, I always go through it with editorial notes. Virtually every book I’ve written has a completely different ending than the first manuscript. My editor likes this because she feels like she’s reading a completely new story. Most people think I’m insane because I essentially write every book twice. But I don’t see how I can do it any other way. I’ve tried. It doesn’t work for me.

Yesterday, Alex commented about fast writers and swore at me (in her loving, kind and non-judgmental way, of course!) I’m not a fast writer. I’m a subconscious writer. I’m writing 24/7, just not always at my computer. I run through dialogue in the car (when I’m alone—thank God for hands free phones because people think I’m talking to someone else and not myself!) I play the what if game. I think about my characters and how they would react to different situations. When I’m sitting down actually writing, I write fast, but the physical writing is only a small part of the writing process.

In a way, I suppose this is plotting. (Shiver.) But 99% of the time I don’t write down that verbal dialogue I played with. I don’t use a plot point that came to my head playing what if? I don’t put my characters in situations where I know what they’ll do—or, they’ll do something completely different because of a factor I hadn’t considered.

Every writer I’ve talked to has lamented their process. I tend to freak out near deadline when I don’t know what’s going to happen. I write frantically, excited to finally know how it’s going to turn out, and hoping I don’t get stuck. I usually know who the bad guy is, but sometimes even I’m surprised.

And that, for me, is half the fun of writing.

Over at Murder She Writes on Thursday, I posted a short story I wrote called “Ghostly Vengeance” that was printed in a the Walmart “Book of the Month” selection printing of ORIGINAL SIN. I finally got permission to post it on my website (it’ll be up at Seven Deadly Sins Books later this week, but I wanted to give my blog readers an early preview.) Hope you enjoy it!

And no, I didn’t plot it out or know what was going to happen. In fact, when they asked me to write a short story with the ORIGINAL SIN main characters, my editor asked what I’d write. I said, “How about a ghost story?” 

Then I wrote it.

By Allison Brennan

I have taken a strong stand against piracy here and elsewhere, as many other authors have done. While I disagree with the contention at this point that a pirated copy is a lost sale, I also disagree that a pirated copy isn’t a lost sale (because they would never have bought the book in the first place.) Why? Because at this point in time, I think that the majority of pirated books are stolen by people because of the convenience, and they would never have bought them (thus no lost sale) or by people who can’t purchase them because of where they live.

However, ebooks will become more popular among readers and thus there will be more lost sales–people who used to purchase print copies who learn about “free” (illegal) downloads and stop buying. (As a format, e-book sales are still a very teeny percentage of print books sold–meaning, if a book is available both for print and e-book, the print books will generally sell in far greater numbers. My own e-book sales have slowly risen over time, to about 1% to my total sales.) Joe Konrath had a very interesting blog about the success of his Kindle experiment–that by pricing the books rejected by traditional publishers at a low price point, he is able to make a goodly sum of money–more than through traditional publishing as a midlist author.

There are many pros and cons to Joe’s experiment. The pros include the fact that he’s one of the first to self-publish through Amazon (and I also assume through the other e-distributors, though that wasn’t explicitly stated in his column.) By virtue of being early to the game, he’s able to garner a name among e-book readers as a reliable source for reading entertainment. He’s already published, and I would assume far above the average self-published author in terms of editing ability–he can tell a good story, knows how to edit it, and put out a clean book.

He gets to keep most of the money, price the book what he wants, and build sales through providing his readers with more of what they want.

As e-book sales grow–both in terms of print books available in e-format and self-published e-books–readers will be inundated with more choices than they have now–which are an incredible number. I don’t have the latest per year or per month releases, but I know it’s staggering. According to a May, 2009 article by Publishing Central, Bowker’s reports there were 275,232 new titles and editions in 2008, and a historic (over doubling from 2007) self-published/on-demand books published.

(One comment to put the numbers in perspective, of the 275,232 titles, 47,541 were fiction. Non-fiction still dominates the total number of books published. Also included are textbooks, college publications, etc.)

The Bowker’s report (pdf) has other interesting data. While books published (not self-published) declined from 2007-2008, they have still increased from 2002-2008. In addition fiction showed the highest percentage increase from 2002-2008, 89% of titles published, and is still the largest percentage of categories (17.27%) For our purposes here at Murderati, I think we’re most interested in the fiction numbers.

According to a 2006 article, 93% of books published (this is all published, not self-pubbed/on demand) books sell less than 1,000 copies. 

Joe Konrath has proved that he can and will sell more than 1,000 self-published e-books–a rarity among print-published books. But at his price point and already having a fan base through his traditionally published books, it’s almost a no-brainer to try this with books he hasn’t sold.

Authors with an established fan base may do well in this new e-book world because they are a known quantity. Readers have already sampled them, so they trust the author to tell a good story. Authors who are new to this world may have a shot because they can price the books on the cheap side where someone might be willing to sample a story by an unknown author if it doesn’t cost a lot.

The problem becomes volume. There were 285,394 on demand/self published books in 2008 and it is still growing exponentially (now maybe we can understand the vanity press business–there is a huge market for them to make money from writers.) The overwhelming majority of these books are not available through traditional outlets, they sell few copies (there are exceptions of course, but by and large most sell poorly and only through the hard work of the writer) and even on Amazon and other sites, they rank low. As more people self-e-publish, there are more choices–and as we know from the self-published world as it stands now, many of those books will be poorly edited and not very interesting. I’m not dissing self-published authors–there are many who have published great books for a niche market. But as it becomes easier and cheaper to publish in e-format, even more people will do it, making it even harder to stand out as a new author. 

Some other downsides include paying for professional editing (unless you’re already a fantastic grammartarian and self-editor), marketing (on-line, which right now isn’t hugely expensive, but it’s growing as more people spend more time on-line), and design. That comes out of your profits (as opposed to the publisher–who pays an author less money per book but eats the cost of publication.) A professionally edited and presented book gives comfort to a reader who knows that based on his experience with that author, they’re going to get a good story.

But I’ll admit I am intrigued by Joe’s “experiment” and how it will both succeed for some and fail for others–very similar to print publishing. Readers are going to gravitate toward the people they know, so authors who are already bestsellers may fare exceptionally well with this model. Midlist authors like Joe will also do well because they usually have a loyal fan-base (and thus keeping a higher percentage even on a lower price, you’ll earn more per sale.) Unknown writers? Not so much. As the titles increase, name ID will become even more important, as readers aren’t going to want to sift through thousands of books in their favorite genre. That means endorsements, marketing, or already being an established author.

I don’t believe print publishing is dead. I do believe that more people will choose the e-book format. I believe that sales will remain relatively level for each individual author (all other things remaining equal) but the percentage of format sales will change (such as I do see within the next 5 years my e-format sales increasing to 10% of my total sales.)

I also agree with Joe that publishers need to becoming more innovative in this Brave New Market. While I don’t think devaluing stories–it is the STORY that has value, not the platform it is delivered on–is the answer, I do think that e-books should be discounted from the print copy. (For example, my Kindle books are 20% less than my print books full retail price.) I, personally, like the idea of where a reader can buy a print book and get a coupon to purchase the e-book at a greatly reduced rate. I also like the idea of added value for e-books–author interviews, exclusive short stories, photographs, pictures, or perhaps include a free backlist title. So you pay the same as the hardcover, but you get more. 

There are lots of options and ideas for this expanding market. I’m both excited and apprehensive–excited by the possibilities, but apprehensive about how much time exploring the possibilities will take from my writing.

But all that aside,  more than anything, I believe that authors should be united against piracy.

As e-format books increase, so will piracy. And e-book exclusive authors are hit the hardest because theirs is more a “lost sale” than a print published author. In the romance community, there are many e-published authors who fight tooth and nail against piracy because see it affect their bottom line and their ability to make a living.

Piracy is stealing. Even the pirates don’t really dispute that. They simply think there’s nothing wrong with it. They justify it to make themselves feel better. Dan Brown is already a multi-millionaire. Another author is an asshole, I don’t want to give her any money. I can’t afford to buy the book (and don’t want to go to the library, don’t have a library near me, don’t want to get on the waiting list, etc.) I’m not hurting anyone. I wouldn’t have bought it anyway. I just want to try out the author, but not pay for it or stand in the aisle of a store.

What makes this all so much worse, and hugely frustrating, is when reputable people stand up and announce that it’s okay to steal. When Randy Cohen tells someone that it’s okay to steal an illegal pirated copy of a book because they already bought the hardcover, it gives everyone the sanction to do it. Generally law-abiding citizens now breathe a collective sigh of relief, because they can steal with a clean conscious. Randy Cohen, The (so-called) Ethicist for the New York Times, has deemed that while it is illegal to steal an e-book, it’s not unethical if you already bought a hardcopy.

Soon, no one is going to think they need to buy a hardcopy. That it’s their right to read any book for free (which it is–if they get it from a library.) As it becomes easier and easier to download illegal copies, more people will do it without buying the hardcopy. (And honestly? I doubt there are many people similar to the reader who wrote Cohen–that they buy the book and download a “free” illegal copy.)

So I would ask Randy Cohen this: If I buy a ticket to Clash of the Titans, is it okay for me to download a pirated copy when it comes out on DVD? After all, I already paid to see the movie . . . why should I have to pay twice? 

By Allison Brennan

My good friend Karin Tabke wrote a blog last week asking the question, “How hard do you work?” and pontificating on the 10,000 hour rule: that to be truly good at something, you need to put in at least 10,000 hours. I thought that sounded like an unusually long amount of time, until I figured out that there were 8,760 hours in a year. Suddenly, 10,000 hours didn’t seem very daunting at all.

Doctors go to school–not including residency–for eight years. Between classwork and studying, they probably put in 60-70 hour weeks for at least nine months of the year. That’s over 20,000 hours just to graduate–and most of us probably prefer a doctor with a few years experience.

Musicians–the top guns, the ones who play at Carnegie Hall–practice many hours every day, often from when they are young children. I played piano for eight years, and I was technically proficient–but I didn’t love it so much that I was willing to put in more than the minimum required 30 minutes a day. (I can play piano, I’ve said, but I can’t make music.) A girl two years younger than me practiced three hours every day. Was it any surprise that she was better? Yes, she had natural talent. But without practice, that natural talent would have gone nowhere. Just for the years she was a minor–before going to college–she practiced more than 10,000 hours.

Athletes train year-round, practice hours every day in and out of season, is it any wonder the basketball player who spends his free time shooting hoops and conditioning is the one getting the scholarship?

Then why is it that every writer on the planet hears, “I could write a book if I had the time.” Or, “I’ll write a book when I retire.” Or, “It must be easy to churn out [fill-in-the-blank] books–they’re so formulaic.” (Romance writers get this all the time, but I know many mystery writers who hear the same thing. After all, aren’t all mysteries the same? Murder, investigation, solution. Duh, anyone can do it, right?)

No one goes up to a doctor and says, “When I retire, I’m going to be a heart surgeon.” Or, “If I had the free time, I’d go to medical school.” 

Everyone has a story to tell. Everyone thinks they’re the best person to tell it. How many hours have they put in to read, learn the craft, write, edit, delete, and write some more? I grow frustrated at times by some writers who finish a book and are then stunned and defeated by rejection. Many times these writers blame the system (New York wouldn’t know a good book if they wrote it themselves.) Or agents (they don’t want to work, they want the easy money.) Or the reading public (they just want to read trashy books.) Far too often, these writers become discouraged and spend more time lamenting the system or learning only about the business of published, rather than learning the craft: how to be a great storyteller.

One of the best things that Romance Writers of America does that few other writers organizations do (largely because most aren’t fully open to unpublished writers) is teach want-to-be authors that they need to practice, write, re-write, write some more, and repeat as necessary. That most authors do not sell their first manuscript, or even their second. Or third. Yes, some do–many do not. An article I read when I first joined RWA in 2003, the year before I sold, said that among published authors in RWA, it took on average FIVE MANUSCRIPTS before a sale and FIVE YEARS, SIX MONTHS of writing before making the first sale.

Storytelling is hard work that takes thousands of hours of practice (and this doesn’t include the thousands of hours of reading) but it doesn’t get easier.

A doctor or a lawyer or an engineer may become more confident in their abilities as they gain experience, but I’d venture that open heart surgery is never easy, no matter how many times you’ve done it. Books are the same way. It doesn’t get easier. Authors may gain confidence, or may see problems in their stories earlier simply because they have more experience, but writing is never easy. In fact, as we’ve discussed here recently, it gets harder. My books are tighter and cleaner when I turn them in–meaning, the technical part of the writing is easier for me after 14 books–but the storytelling is harder now than when I started. 

But even so, I love it. With all the warts and heartache and long hours and the fact that I’m still learning and have much, much more to learn about storytelling (like who knew I needed a theme? Thank you Alex and Stephen) . . . I wouldn’t want to do anything else. There is no end of the road, where you’ve learned everything you can. Basketball players, when they win, don’t stop practicing. Doctors, when they graduate, don’t stop reading medical journals. Writers, when they get published, don’t think they now know everything. (In fact, many of us are stunned when people come to us for advice because we’re really just winging it.)

I figured I probably wrote or studied craft about 10,000 hours from when I was ten until I was 34, when I sold my first book. Since I sold, I’ve put in over 14,000 hours writing and re-writing and studying and practicing and learning from people who know much more than I do.

Writing is hard work. It takes hours, thousands of hours, to go from crapola to something marginally publishable. And if you fail as a writer, you can always be a heart surgeon, right? 

Writers, what are some of the odd or insulting comments you’ve gotten about your writing? Readers, what are some misconceptions about YOUR profession? What, if anything, are you willing to put in more than 10,000 hours to master? 

By Allison Brennan

I’ve been out of the loop these last couple weeks, and I want to apologize to my Murderati partners in crime that I haven’t been visiting daily. Usually, reading the blog posts here and at my other group blog, Murder She Writes, are my first two Internet stops while drinking my morning coffee.

But sometimes, life gets out of hand and we all need to step back, tackle each project in turn, and reflect.

I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting lately. I don’t have any answers yet, so I can’t really share my thoughts. They’d read like a typical Libra on speed–on the one hand, A; on the other hand, B; but on the other hand, C; though maybe D. All the way through Z and back again. (And yes, I’m a Libra. I don’t hold much faith in astrology, but considering that Libra’s are said to weigh the pros and cons ad nauseum . . . then make a firm and definite decision they stick with . . . maybe there is a sliver of truth there.) I’m still in the weighing the pros and cons, and no where near that firm, defend-to-the-death decision.

But life getting out of hand . . . that I can relate to.

First, there were copyedits. Some writers breeze through copyedits. I’m not one of them. I hate copyedits. See, I LOVE writing. I LOVE revising. Getting that story done just right, having editorial input to ask the hard questions, making that story better, tweaking and fixing–I love it all. And the last stage, the galleys (or page proofs, whatever they’re called) is fun. That’s my book set for the press. It’s minor tweaking time, making sure the timeline is solid, changing words or phrases here and there, making sure the changes were incorporated from the copyedits, and that the rhythm is right. I try to read my page proofs out loud, every word–but at the minimum, I read all dialogue out loud to make sure it sounds right. I like this part–I feel like I have completely a huge accomplishment, it gives me the warm fuzzies 🙂 . . . juxtaposed to when I get my author copies, about two weeks before the book hits the shelves, and I alternate between “this is the best book I’ve written” to “this is so awful my career is over.” (And no, I never read my books after they are in print. I sometimes go back to read specific scenes because I forgot something, but I hired an indexer so I don’t have to do that anymore. Most recently, I had to re-read two chapters in FEAR NO EVIL because I couldn’t remember how many guards were left on the island and which ones were killed when Dillon and Kate rescued Lucy. It was important to know as I’m now writing Lucy’s book!)

Copyedits, on the other hand, is work. Hard work. Copyedits make me feel stupid. I see all those red and brown marks (my copyedits and line edits are on the same document) and think, “I can’t write worth shit.” Then I’ll see a page with no marks and think, “I’m brilliant!” Then I catch a typo or missing word and think, damn, maybe they just skipped this page because it was so boring. In copyedits, you have to go over each line with a fine-toothed comb, reading not only the changes but what you had originally. And though I love my line editor dearly, and most of my copyeditors have been very good, sometimes they get something wrong and make changes that are . . . well, wrong. And then there are the “Queries” which are copyeditor questions for the author. Some of them are easy (usually a slip up in timeline or using the wrong name or staging the scene–like once, I had a character entering the room twice . . . without leaving. Those mistakes are usually from revisions, when I make minor changes to a scene but don’t read it carefully enough beginning to end.) And some of them are HARD–and necessitate going through to fix something, or research a point, or rewrite a paragraph–or scene–because I missed something or my editor missed something or because I changed something in revisions, I forgot to fix a parallel point later on. For example in CARNAL SIN, I had a scene in my original draft that I cut from the final draft–but meant to rewrite and put back in. But forgot. It was a minor scene, but a pivotal turning point, and my line editor noted that there seemed to be this scene missing . . . it was. Integrating that, after rewriting it, was not fun.)

So for ten days I worked on my copyedits for CARNAL SIN. At the same time, they needed the excerpt for my next book to be printing at the end of this book. It’s a completely different story (CARNAL SIN is a paranormal romantic suspense; NO WAY OUT is a traditional romantic suspense that is also launching a series–same characters.) So switching gears was hard. I had a rough beginning, but I needed to clean it up and make sure that it WAS the beginning of the story. (Only once has the first chapter excerpt not been the actual first chapter. In TEMPTING EVIL, the excerpt in KILLING FEAR became chapter two in the actual book.)

And, as soon as I sent off my copyedits a week ago Thursday, I had to dive back into writing NO WAY OUT which is due mid-April.

But there’s also family. My oldest daughter, a 16 year old sophomore, is an athlete (volleyball and basketball) and her Div-V team was in the playoffs. On March 5th, they won the regional championship, played at Arco Arena. (yeah!) (Oh, another digression–on March 5th Katie also had her ACSI Choir performance. So for two days–the 4th and 5th–her choir joins with choirs all over Northern California. They learn several songs that they sing together for a night-time performance, but also they have what’s called “adjudication”–I think–where the individual schools are critiqued by this Big Music Expert Guy–who I don’t know, but he’s supposed to be a college music professor and very knowledgeable–after they sing three songs. So I went with Katie on Friday because right after adjudication, she had to quickly change from a black velvet gown into her basketball uniform and sweats and I then drove her halfway across Sacramento County so she could have lunch with her basketball team before the championship game–which she missed eating because they were done by the time we got there. BUT it was worth it because the Big Music Expert Guy singled out the sopranos in Katie’s choir as being pitch perfect and among the very best he’d heard in a high school choir. Katie is a soprano. I was very proud . . . especially since I can NOT carry a tune.)

So . . . we won at Arco, which means Nor-Cal playoffs. This is the third year we’ve won regionals, but we’ve never made it to the Nor-Cal playoffs. This year . . . we’re there. Next Saturday, we play for the Northern California Div-5 championship.

I love basketball, but more than that, I love this team. So I enjoy going to the games, supporting Katie (she’s a sophomore and non-starter, but when she goes I love watching her!), and supporting all the girls who I absolutely adore and admire. They are truly a TEAM and I’m so proud of them! 

Anyway, I’m not complaining at all . . . but the basketball schedule has impacted on my writing time, which means that I write later at night. Okay, full disclosure . . . I LIKE writing at night, but my BEST writing comes from 1-5 pm. I don’t know why. I try to start writing at 10 am. And three days a week I have to quit at 3 to get the kids. But if I could pick the four hours a day that I wrote quality scenes, it would be 1-5. Which means I have to work harder when I lose this time. And because I get stressed, I stay off-line more (or hop on and off all day, two minutes here, two minutes there.) But I don’t THINK of going to blogs because I have this mental slave driver that says, “You must write NOW! You have to leave in two hours!” . . . “You must write NOW! You have to leave in one hour, fifty-nine minutes . . . “

Needless to say, when that bitch, er, internal clock clicks in, I get NOTHING done even though I try. Those are the pages I end up deleting the next day.

And this week I also got report cards for all the kids. There is good and there is bad. One of the bad points was that my three youngest children have apparently not turned in much of their homework, and that was noted. They are in kindergarden, first and third grade. Okay, I was not much of a homework person. Like my third grade son, I could still ace every subject. (Though, he got a C in reading because he FORGOT to turn in his two book reports, even though the teacher gave him grace. Sheesh. Those reports were HALF his grade, if he’d just turned them in he would have gotten an A.) So . . . my bad. I never nag about homework. But this week? I set aside a 30 minute window before dinner to work on homework until done. One day, great . . . if it takes two or more? Fine. But I can’t help thinking that the teachers think that I am the failure because really, when you’re dealing with a 5 year old, who REALLY is responsible for the homework???? (They are homework packets that go home on Monday and are due Friday–spelling words, math sheets, reading ten minutes a night, vocab, etc.)

So I had that on my head–just like last year I had a period of Severe Tardiness where we were late three days a week (or more) for a couple weeks and I was called into the principal’s office. I was determined not to be summoned again! (This school year, they’ve been late 10 times. Last school year, they were late 10 times–in one month.)

Oh, and I had to read my RITA books. These are the books for the Romance Writers of America contest. I only had five books to read–a piece of cake compared to the 30+ books in the Thriller Awards!!! But I had less time and . . . well, one was FABULOUS, but the others were . . . not as fabulous. FAB book I read in one night (then went out and bought the second in the series and read that, too!) . . . the others took a bit longer to finish. I also judge the romantic suspense category of the Golden Heart. The last two years, I had the winning entry in my packet and KNEW it would final. This year . . . nothing stood out as exceptional. Two had potential, the type of potential where I wish I could contact the entrant and give them just a little advice because they are *almost* there but  . . . and there’s always that but. In the GH everything is anonymous and you don’t critique or fill out a score sheet, just a number score. Which is great . . . except when an entry could have been stellar if only . . . 

So that’s why I’ve been out of the loop. I’m sure I’m missing a few things . . . oh! The dog!

On Wednesday, March 3, a beautiful, friendly female black lab showed up at our house. It was pouring rain–a major storm. The dog walked by the French doors in my office and I ran out into the rain and escorted her to the back porch, which was covered. My daughter (Brennan #2, the 8th grader) dried her off and gave her a blanket to sleep on. That afternoon, we went to all the neighbors–and at night, those we missed–and no one was missing a dog. Because it was cold, Dan put a space heater on the back porch (I really don’t want to get the next electricity bill!) so the dog wouldn’t get cold, and we gave her a blanket and towel and she slept on our cushioned chair. We fed her hamburgers and toast.

The next morning, my boys discovered her. They dressed and ran out to play with her. Our dog was put to sleep last year at the age of 16. We had planned on getting another dog, but time and busy schedules . . . well, seeing the kids with her we realized we need a dog. All the kids loved her (except my 6 year old daughter who doesn’t like animals AT ALL and closes her bedroom door so the cat doesn’t go in there.) Dan and I loved her. We secretly prayed we never found the owner. On Thursday night we considered letting her inside, but decided against it for fear we’d be too attached. She slept outside (with the heater) again. We did buy food and a bowl for her, though. The kids started calling her “Liquor.” I put my foot down, even when they explained WHY–they meant “Lick-her” because the dog licked them when they came out to play :/ . . . I said no, and they changed the name ti “Licorice.” The teenagers put the foot down. I said, “Don’t name her, she’s not ours. Someone is missing her.” But on Friday morning, they called her “Brownie.” Again, the teenagers said, “Ugh.” I said, “Don’t name her, she’s not ours.” But . . . she was such a good dog! Healthy, friendly, happy, and great with the kids. And she didn’t bark except once when excited. 

Friday was the Arco basketball game . . . we left, and when we returned, she was gone.

We all assumed that her owners walked through the neighborhood calling for her and she went to them. 

On Monday morning, she returned. You know that adage–if you love something, set it free? If it returns, it’s meant to be yours? We were thinking . . . you know, maybe . . . 

She slept inside Monday night.

Then Dan took her to the vet Tuesday morning to see if she had a chip in her. She did. He called the owner. This kid–Jay, a 20 year old–was stunned. His dog, Kaylie, had been stolen six months ago. He lives way out in dairy country, at least fifteen miles from us. He’d gotten Kaylie from the pound when she was six months old. Had her spayed and chipped. One morning he let her out to do her business (she slept in his bedroom.) He chained her to the front porch while he showered. Fifteen minutes later he goes out to get her, and she’s gone. Her chain was cut. Her dog bed, bowl, and toys–stolen. Jay searched for her, talked to all the construction companies working in the area, did everything–and she was nowhere.

Jay had given up hope and was talking about getting another dog. He lived at one end of a new major county sewage pipeline project. Guess who lives near the other end? Yep, the Brennan’s.

When Dan called Jay, the kid was stunned and so excited that he left a friend he was visiting two hours away to drive back to get her. He came Tuesday night to our house and one look and I knew it was true love–him and his dog. We all miss Kaylie–she would have fit in so well here. But she wasn’t ours, and we knew Jay would treat her like a princess.

So all that, and my own reflections that I’m still reflecting on, has had me a bit off-center. I’m certain no more so than anyone else. But maybe my bit-of-off-center was partly due to forgetting my morning Internet excursions. I’ll try to do better in upcoming weeks.

I was trying to think up a question to ask ya’ll that relates to all this . . . and honestly? I can’t think of anything. So I’ll just ask: What do you do to re-group and get back on track with your life? 

By Allison Brennan

I never visualize real people when I create a character. They are as unique as anyone, and I don’t model them after specific people. But they do tend to certain “types” and I’ve had fun over the last few years picturing which actor or actress would play my heroes. For example, Nathan Fillion from FIREFLY (a more serious Nathan than Nathan Fillion from CASTLE) would make a good Quinn Peterson from THE HUNT. And Evangeline Lilly would make a good Miranda Moore from THE HUNT. Or David Boreanaz as Jack Kincaid. I would say Hugh Jackman would make a great Rafe Cooper from ORIGINAL SIN, but long-time JD Robb fans have Jackman pictured as Roarke, and I really can’t argue with that (though I picture Roarke taller and broader . . . )

And then there’s who would play Moira O’Donnell . . . that one I’m not so sure yet. She’s so real to me that no one seems to fit, and I think I need to watch some more of the teen movies to find the right actress.

But honestly? It’s the villains who intrigue me. I especially like actors who don’t traditional play a villainous role as villains because they tend to be more compelling, less stereotypical, and creepier. Anthony Hopkins was brilliant as Hannibal Lecter of course, and I also loved him as the killer in FRACTURE which was a sleeper that was still a good movie. Anthony Hopkins is so well-known as Hannibal that I’d much rather see him as a hero in the future. He’s already played the ultimate villain.

Actors who are truly talented should be able to play both a hero and a villain.

Johnny Depp in THE SECRET WINDOW from Stephen King’s short story. Glenn Close in FATAL ATTRACTION. 

I saw this photo of Colin Firth and instantly thought he’d make a great villain–disarming, attractive, but with the potential of being evil.

He could be the attractive, extremely intelligent sociopath Theodore Glenn from KILLING FEAR. Or maybe Matthew Walker from ORIGINAL SIN, someone who can look and seem very helpful and then turn on you on a dime.

Other talented actors I’d love to see as a really good villain . . . Russell Crowe. Brad Pitt. Johnny Depp. Robert Downey, Jr. Maybe John Cusack as the very tragic erotomaniac Aaron Doherty from TEMPTING EVIL. I doubt Meg Ryan would ever play a bad guy, but I’d love to see her play a sociopath. I think she could pull it off. Or someone like Emma Thompson.

What about you? Is there an actor or actress you’d like to see stretch to play a villain? A specific villain?

I’ll be responding late as I’m at Disneyland all day. But I’m interested in hearing all your ideas!

By Allison Brennan

ADDED 5:13 pm Sunday: Oh! Toni has a winner from last week! Elisabeth (commenter #9). Yeah! Please email Toni at toni [dot] causey [at] gmail.com and give her your preferred email address and whether you want an Amazon or a BN or Borders gift certificate. Toni will then email the gift certificate directly to you!

Now back to the regularly scheduled blog . . . 

I start writing a new book tomorrow. I would start today, but I’m revising the final two chapters of my current book one last time. It’s crucial to make sure the ending is not only satisfying, but that all the loose ends are tied up, and those that are continuing threads are at least neatly identified. Writing a series is HARD WORK–I didn’t realize how hard until now.

But whatever difficulty I have in ending a book, it’s nothing like the beginning of a book. And the most important question for me now is:

WHERE DOES THE STORY START?

Because this is a series, and this book takes place about two weeks after the book I just finished (well, I THINK two weeks, I’m not quite sure because I haven’t started it yet), the story really started two books ago. Of course, readers don’t want a boring recap of what happened in the first 900 pages of this saga. 

For CARNAL SIN, I started with another vision for my heroine, prompting a tense conversation between characters where I could both advance the story and give the reader the minimum information she needs to understand the story. But since my heroine is not in town at the beginning of MORTAL SIN, I can’t do that again–and it would be kinda boring to do the same thing.

LAW & ORDER is brilliant in how they enter a scene “late”–meaning, after the action or in the middle of action. Elliot and Liv go in asking questions. No lengthy set-up. Dead body? Rape victim? We see part of the set-up (prologue) and then jump into the middle of the investigation. We don’t see them being called, or stopping for donuts, or having a conversation about how they spent the night before. BORING. Sure, it might go to character, but we can get that information in context, not in the beginning.

I love starting books with a dead body. A standard opening in mysteries–a crime to be solved. I’ve done it in many of my books:

SPEAK NO EVIL:

Her death had not been easy.

Homicide detective Carina Kincaid stared at the dead, naked corpse of the young woman, avoiding the wide-eyed terror etched on her face. her mouth was gagged, but what drew Carina’s eye was the word slut scrawled in thick black marker across her chest. A small red rose was tattooed on her left breast.

SUDDEN DEATH:

The homeless man’s murder had been ritualistic, brutal, and efficient.

THE PREY:

Rowan Smith learned about Doreen Rodriguez’s murder from the reporters camped out in her front yard Monday morning.

Because in MORTAL SIN, one of my main characters is suspected of murder, I thought–why not start with finding the body? Not let the reader know–through reading the scene–whether he’s innocent or guilty. When I get into his head, the reader will know (he’s a reliable narrator) but initially, there are doubts. And, perhaps, he’ll know more about the death than he lets on to the other characters–

But still, I don’t know for sure that this is the best place to start, hence my preoccupation with beginnings today.

So I pulled out some books from my TBR pile and read the first paragraph of two, just for fun. Now for a little game: read the openings and tell me which book you would most like to read. (And if you know the book, don’t let on! I’ll post the titles in the comments at the end of today.)

A

At the mass of the dead, the priest placed the wafer of unleavened bread and the cheap red wine on the linen corporal draping the altar. Both paten and chalice were silver. They had been gifts from the man inside the flower-blanketed coffin resting at the foot of the two worn steps that separated priest from congregation.

B

“You have a whisker.”

Though I hear the loudly whispered comment, it doesn’t quite register, as I am rapt with adoration, staring at the wonder that is my hour-old niece. Her face still glows red from the effort of being born, her dark blue eyes are as wide and calm as a tortoise’s. I probably shouldn’t tell my sister that her baby reminds me of a reptile. Well. The baby is astonishingly beautiful. Miraculous.

C

Every eye in the newsroom followed me as I left Kramer’s office and walked back to my pod. The long looks made it a long walk. The pink slips always came out on Fridays and they all knew I had just gotten the word. Except they weren’t called pink slips anymore. Now it was an RIF form–as in Reduction in Force.

They all felt the slightest tingle of relief that it hadn’t been them and the slightest tingle of anxiety because they still knew that no one was safe. Any one of them could be called in next.

D

I’ve always wondered what people felt in the final few hours of their lives. Did they know something terrible was about to occur? Sense imminent tragedy, hold their loved ones close? Or is it one of those things that simply happens? The mother of four, tucking her kids into bed, worrying about the morning car pool, the laundry she still hasn’t done, and the funny noise the furnace is making again, only to catch an eerie creak coming from down the hall. Or the teenage girl, dreaming about her Saturday shopping date with her BFF, only to open her eyes and discover she’s no longer alone in her room. or the father, bolting awake, thinking, “What the fuck?” right before the hammer catches him between the eyes.

E

Cops aren’t supposed to get frightened. The badge and the uniform and the gun strapped to a cop’s side are intended to ward off the normal fears that most people experience when confronted by unspeakable horror and evil.

But it doesn’t always work out that way. Cops get scared, just like everyone else. Sometimes they get so scared, they run for their lives. Other times, they get shaken to the core and never forget the things they’ve seen. It happened to me, two years into the job.

F

On January first, Mac rolled over to smack her alarm clock, and ended up facedown on the floor of her studio.

“Shit. Happy New Year.”

She lay, groggy and baffled, until she remembered she’d never made it upstairs into bed–and the alarm was from her computer, set to wake her at noon.

Okay, those are the six pleasure books on the top of my TBR pile–meaning, I’d looked through them on Friday to pick something to read for the weekend, and those interested me the most, but then one thing led to another and I didn’t have time to start anything new. If those six books were at the top of your TBR pile, which would you read first? Remember, don’t spoil the fun and give away the author!

And as a little teeny reminder . . . ORIGINAL SIN went on sale this week. It’s a supernatural thriller–a little different than what I’ve been writing, but I had a lot of fun writing something new! So to celebrate . . . I’m giving one copy away to a random commenter. Just tell me your favorite beginning (above) or just say hi! 

By Allison Brennan

Late last night I finished the last of my Thriller Best First Novel entries. Reading three books in one day wasn’t fun, especially since I’m in the middle of revisions that are due now. Well, it wasn’t exactly three full books, because I had started each of them long ago, but these were the three that I really had a hard time with and thus kept putting aside because I just didn’t want to finish them.

But I’m sure other people loved them. I know at least one person did–the editor who bought the book. I’m rarely critical of books because I know that my tastes are not everyone else’s tastes, just like I know that some people love my books–and some people don’t.

Editors buy books they love. They have to love them–they’re going to be reading, and re-reading, that book many times. They’ll be fighting for that book in editorial and marketing and sales and art meetings. 

For me to love a book, and give it a high score, there has to be three things present.

3) An interesting story. Whether a romance or a mystery or a thriller, or a blend of all three, I need to be interested in the story itself. This is what I’m really looking for when I read cover copy–the basic plot. Most books I put back on the shelf because the plot doesn’t sound interesting to me.

2) Voice. Voice is an interesting story told well. It’s what makes the multitude of similar plot lines fresh and unique. Voice is the rhythm an author “speaks” on the page. There’s some voices that hit us and we cringe; others that are like music. Voice is what has me falling in love with an author. 

1) Characters. I have to care about SOMEBODY. I have to want the hero to live and not strangle him because he’s an idiot or toss the book because he’s a jerk. The plot is important–what are the stakes, why are they important, what will happen if the bad guy wins? But I need at least one character I can believe in. He can be flawed. He can be imperfect. But he has to be more good than bad, and his bad can’t be evil. Maybe I’m too simple in my tastes, but I want a good guy.

There’s also the matter of getting into the character’s heads. Some authors are incredible this way–I feel like I’m in the POV character’s shoes. There’s a depth of character, inner conflict, personal strife, that I can feel as the story unfolds. If I’m there with the characters, and care that they survive, and the author’s voice is music to my ears, and the story is interesting–I’ll always score the book high, even if the writing itself isn’t brilliant or there’s a plot problem or two. Why? Because if my personal criteria is met, I can read without sensing the passage of time. And if I can lose myself in a book, it’s like living a completely new life for a few hours. It’s quite a heady experience.

The television show HEROES had me greatly worried for awhile. It still has me a little worried. There is one Good Guy and lots of nearly good guys and lots of nearly bad guys and a Very Bad Guy. Peter Petrelli is the Good Guy. (We won’t go into Claire because she often annoys me and sometimes does TSTL things, but because she regenerates she always lives.) I need Peter to stay the Good Guy. He can do the wrong thing for the right reasons, and he can make mistakes, but his goals must remain noble. For a few episodes, I feared that Peter was being sent down the wrong, dark path. Which would have been completely against his character and tick me off. Fortunately, he ended up making the right choices.

Some of the characters I met in my contest reading were cardboard cut-outs. The book may have been a thriller–and usually met my “interesting story” criteria–but I didn’t care about the characters in the the story, and thus didn’t care what happened to them or the world. 

Before I was published, I never put a book down unfinished. Even if it was awful, I’d finish it (albeit I might skimread it!) But now I have far too many unread books, and I don’t have time to waste on a so-so book, or a book that just doesn’t do it for me.

But I made the commitment, so I had to finish these books. 

I discovered that they all had one fatal flaw, for me at any rate. I didn’t care about anyone in the story. I didn’t care about the hero, the villain, the victims (if there were victims) or even the stakes. The books were well-paced and technically well-written, but, as Rhett Butler would say, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” Without the depth of character, I felt like I was observing a black-and-white B-movie with no subtext. There was no color, no emotion.

I thought I was done with contests, but my RITA books are on their way. Fortunately, I only have to read seven books (two of which I’ve already read) and I have two months, as opposed to thirty books in three months. Much, much easier!

I’m presenting a class on Rule Breaking this month. It’s one of my favorite subjects 🙂 . . . one of the things I talk about is passion in writing. That you have to love what you’re writing. You have to love your characters–even the bad guys. You also have to challenge your characters, hurt them, make them suffer. In unpublished contests I’ve found that too many authors pull their punches. Well? What’s interesting about characters who are just like everyone else?

I’ve been reading Donald Maass’ FIRE IN FICTION. I like Maass’ books because they’re straightforward and “talk” to me in ways that other writing books don’t. He wrote some things that struck me as I was in the middle of writing ORIGINAL SIN last year:

“Is your protagonist an ordinary person? Find in him any kind of strength. . . . Without a quality of strength on display, your readers will not bond with your protagonist. Why should they? . . . So what is strength? It can be as simple as caring about someone, self-awareness, a longing for change, or hope. Any small positive quality will signal to your readers that your ordinary protagonist is worth their time.”

A protagonist is different than a hero, to which Maass says:

“Is your protagonist a hero–that is, someone who is already strong? Find in him something conflicted, fallible, humbling or human. . . . Be sure to soften the flaw with self-awareness or self-deprecating humor . . . What is a flaw that will not prove fatal? A personal problem, a bad habit, a hot button, a blind spot, or anything that makes your hero a real human being will work.”

And perhaps the most valuable point:

“The effect of one character upon another is as particular as the characters themselves.”

These last two points is where I found the most problems in the recent books I read. Heroic characters whose flaws weren’t integral to the story, they were forced or worse, there were no flaws–or the flaw was seen as something positive by the character, i.e. they had no sense of how their actions affected those around them. The characters often seemed to act and think in a bubble–as if everyone was a catalyst, and no one changed by the end of the book.

There was one book I read that I scored very high that wasn’t the best written book in the pile. But from page one I was sucked in because I cared about what happened to the characters. They grew over the course of the book and I could absolutely feel the impact they had on each other, not just the main characters but the other characters they met on the way.

“No man is an island.” We all affect the people we meet. Characters should, too.

What are some of the more powerful characters you’ve seen recently in fiction or film and why?