I’ve known Tina Donahue via Triberr for awhile now. She’s prolific, and if you like your romance on the steamy side, check her out. And even if not, read on ’cause her song choice is way cool.

Katy Perry’s Roar – that baby is spot on. In Intimate Details, Shana’s not
taking it anymore. Despite a tragic and hidden past, she’s now a
world-class computer hacker, bringing down one of Manhattan’s most corrupt
executives. A far cry from when she was the victim. Now, Shana demands
justice, which gets her involved with two of the hottest men in town, Mike
and Cody. They’ve never met anyone quite like Shana, smart as hell, sexy
as sin. These guys will do whatever it takes to keep her safe and in their
arms…

I love that song. Simply love it.

Tina’s explanation does a pretty good job of telling us what the book’s about, no? But here’s the official description anyway:

As a computer hacker, she demands justice.
As a woman, she craves two powerful and commanding men.

Shana’s been hacking one of Manhattan’s most corrupt executives, making
him pay for what he’s done to his victims. Using her skills, she convinces
Mike and Cody to hire her at their intelligence-gathering firm, where
intimate details help their clients.

Never has Mike met a woman as delicious as Shana. Smart as hell, curvy and
assured, she’d be a delightful challenge in bed. Cody’s carnal hunger is
equally intense. He and Mike want to know everything about her.

She won’t divulge the secrets of her past. All she can offer is
unquenchable desire and her heart.

During weeks of shameless lust and pleasure, Mike and Cody peel away the
layers of Shana’s life. The stunning truth changes everything. They’ll do
all that they can to keep her safe…and in their arms.

Pick up your copy, exclusively at BookStrand.

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One of the things every business class has taught me is that networking is very important stuff. So in addition to being involved (although not involved enough) with my local Chamber, I’ve been keeping my eyes open for groups that meet over lunch in my area. After all, I work at home, by myself. If I don’t go to the Hoity Toity Health Club, I  may not see another adult at all. Plus, there’s the business-side benefits to raising my profile locally. More jobs for my non-fiction department, for instance.

I thought I’d found a group, a women’s-only group organizing online.

The directions for the first meeting were sketchy. Panera. Table in front. But when I clicked through to RSVP, it said “Table in Back.”

I went to Panera. I got there right on time and walked through. At the front was a group of people who’d pulled a bunch of tables together. They sat in a semi-circle and faced a man who was holding court.

But… it’s a women’s networking group, right? Maybe the “in the back” was what had come to be.

Sure enough, back there sat a group of women in rather conservative business clothes, with very conservative haircuts. Most of them were older than me, which wasn’t what this group I was trying to meet had sounded like. Dirty plates were piled to one side. They’d clearly been there awhile, and they were very involved in their discussion, leaning in toward each other, ignoring everyone around them.

Now, there’s a couple reasons I work at home: I like it. I’m here for my kids. If I want to work at 2AM, I can (and I do. Nothing soothes an emotional upset or bad nightmare like getting lost in words.) I can work in my sweats. And it keeps my business overhead low. Very low.

So it’s an occasion when I’m heading out. Even though I’m still on the business clock, I’m not editing, so I structure my day around getting my project work done. That means skipping the Hoity Toity Health Club. It means putting the sweats aside and enjoying the fun of getting a little more dressed up. Dangly earrings! Flats instead of hiking boots! Shirts that button and pants that zip! Woot! We’re living large now!

And because I’m going to all this effort, when I get to where I’m going, I want to feel welcome. I want to feel on an equal footing with people. I want to be able to say I’m an editor because I love what I do and I get out of bed every day excited to see what words I can play with — and not get strange looks for that. After all, I don’t look at accountants funny when they wax poetic about how numbers make sense and it’s all there in black and red. I want to be met as a business owner, which I am. Nothing less, but maybe a lot more (esteemed business owner, welcome presence… you get the drift).

Maybe if I’d been having a better day, I’d have walked up to that group at the front of the store, the one surrounding the man, and asked if they were the people I was supposed to meet. And you know why I ultimately didn’t? Because when I paused inside the doorway and took them in, three of them looked over at me. None of them smiled or acted in any way inviting. In fact, they looked sorta … hostile.

I don’t know. Maybe they were as put out at having a man come in and dominate as I felt. Maybe their favorite food wasn’t on the menu. Maybe they’d wanted to order lunch but had been told to wait.

But still. Those are all crummy excuses to, at the first meeting of a new networking group, not have the welcome mat out. And right then, I needed a welcome mat in the form of a cheery smile and a “Hey, glad you’re here. Come join us.”

So. Moral of the story:

1. If you’re running a new networking group and meeting in a popular public place, bring a balloon or goofy stuffed animal to set on the table so people can find you.

2. If you’re running a new networking group, smile at the people who walk through the door until every last person who RSVPed has arrived. Even if their idea of business attire doesn’t match yours.

3. If you’re the one walking into a new situation, buy the intimidation you’re feeling a brownie and stick it in the corner with the fancy chairs.

Maybe another group will surface. Maybe I’ll hear from this one that they’re sorry they missed me and next time, they’ll bring a goofy stuffed dog so we can find each other.

In the meantime, I’ll be at home, playing with words for an international clientele who continues, on a daily basis, to overwhelm me with their creativity, professionalism, and passion for what they do.

I’ve been blogging for a long time now, and for a long time now, I’ve seen the Blog Blast for Peace every year. And every year, I think, “Man, I should join in, but I can’t do graphics for anything, so I can’t personalize my globe.”

Thankfully, now I don’t have to. (Of course, if someone wants to make my vision for a globe real, holler.)

I’ve made veiled comments here over the past I don’t know how many years that my personal life took a left turn a number of years ago. I like the new direction a lot better than the old one, but you know what I’m missing? Peace. Peace for my kids. Peace for myself, in a certain, specific sector of my world.

So let’s all take a few minutes today and do something to make the world a better place, huh? A more peaceful place.

And please join me in wishing for peace for a tormented soul in my life, that healing can begin for so many of us. Especially that certain, specific sector of my world.

You gotta start somewhere, right?

Last month was both a rush and a killer. I had a couple really intensive edits that demanded a lot of time and energy (and effort). I worked through weekends. Dishes piled up in the sink, I was a week behind in reading the newspaper, and I slept like a baby. Didn’t write a word of my own fiction, either.

So if I owe you mail, you should have gotten it by now. This  month looks to be lighter in terms of intensity, which is always welcome after a period of such time-sucking and exhilarating work.

There are lots of openings at the New Book  Spotlight if you’d like one. Help yourself; tell your friends. Remember, if you’re willing to take what’s next in line, it’s always free. Free promo, people!

As for editing… well, that’s not so open. We’re looking at mid-December for dates, which really, if you think about it, ought to work just fine. Who wants to be thinking about their manuscript during the last part of the holiday rush? Why not send it to your editor and let her deal with it while you finish shopping and face the realization that you just can’t put off buying something for Strange Uncle Jimmy*? Yeah, I know: You don’t want to deal with Strange Uncle Jimmy. Ever. He’s got a … well, a smell and he’s always telling you that a woman’s place is making bread. Fresh bread daily, that’s what Strange Uncle Jimmy wants. And no, there doesn’t seem to be a metaphor involved in any of that. Last year, your brother bought him a sourdough yeast starter, a bread machine, and six different mixes.

Your brother is still paying for the padded room that put poor Strange Uncle Jimmy into. Bread makers seem to violate his sense of how the universe works. Who knew?

Now, here’s the best thing about hiring me to be your editor: I’ll help you come up with a good gift for Strange Uncle Jimmy. It’s all part and parcel of what I do here at West of Mars, and frankly, the brainstorming would be a lot of fun.

Hey, have I mentioned that if I do your content or line editing and you need a proofreader, I’ve got subcontractors for that? Subcontractors who’ll come with a 10% discount because you’re a West of Mars client?

No? Well, there ya go. Learning new stuff daily around here. It’s what I do. No reason you can’t join me, too.

* I once had an Uncle Jimmy. He’s now ex-Uncle Jimmy and the nicest guy you’d ever meet, married to one of the most gracious, caring women I’ve come across in my crazy path across this world. And I have no idea what he thinks a woman’s role in life is. I never asked. Maybe I should have. Maybe it’d be what I expect. Maybe it’d be weirder than fresh bread daily. Who knows? Well, ex-Uncle Jimmy does.

So I’ve got this client, right? We’ll call her Stevie. (go figure)

Stevie dropped me a note the other day, asking about romance. Did it have to be erotic?

She’s been trying to write a romance set in the hockey world. As in: the romantic lead is a hockey player. But everything she is finding is erotic. Or if not erotic, more explicit than she’d like.

We were messaging and not e-mailing, which is a shame because I had to give her a truncated answer, never something I like to do. But I told her that yes, there are a ton of options within romance. There’s clean, there’s closed door, there’s explicit, there’s BDSM, there’s m/m, there’s menage… the sky is the limit these days. (Of course, there’s my passion, Rock Fiction, but wrong category. She’s going sports — specifically hockey romance with this one, so why confuse the issues?)

She asked for titles. I can only think of one: Liana Laverenz’s Thin Ice. I have a copy of it around here somewhere that I can give her, because she’s one of those cool people I know in real life. (which might mean she’s not an editing client, per se, but she came to me for help, so we’ll call her a client.)

Anyone got other suggestions? We’re looking for … not explicit. Relatively tame, in terms of heat. I don’t think they have to be totally clean, just … on the tamer side.

And again: hockey romance specifically.

Leave titles in the comments and I’ll have her peruse the list.

I can’t recall if Kelly Washington has stopped in at West of Mars before. I know her alter ego, Della Roth (formerly Jean 8), has.

Kelly’s good people. Special people in my world. So don’t just read this post. Be sure you go pick up a copy of her newest romance, Collide Into You. Here’s why.

What song makes me think of my book? “Afraid” by The Neighborhood.

YouTube link (with lyrics!) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsLMoxa6xZ0, the key lyrics being, “When I wake up, I’m afraid somebody else might take my place.” (Note the explicit version of this song.)

Now, this song is somewhat on the darker/moodier side, and my novel, Collide Into You, is a romantic comedy with a “touch of magic”. Hmmm… these two emotions don’t exactly mix, now do they? However, this is a body swap romantic comedy and, one day, my two romantic leads (Keira and Dillan) literally wake up as somebody else–each other–with hilarious and touching results.>

Sounds good, huh? Here’s the description:

When twenty-seven-year-old Army Sergeant Keira Holtslander, an orderly and rule-loving intelligence analyst, is reassigned to the Pentagon for a special assignment, she agrees to room with her brother’s best friend, Dillan Pope. But there’s a problem. Several, in fact. He’s sarcastic, egotistical, full of himself, extremely attractive, and a womanizer. Within a matter of days, her life is chaos. She didn’t like him when they met nine years ago, and her opinion isn’t likely to change now.

Dillan Pope, a thirty-year-old career businessman climbing his way up the corporate ladder, has learned to use his looks, charm, and sexual skills to his advantage. There isn’t much he cannot accomplish. Women easily tumble into his bed and business deals come about effortlessly. But when his best friend’s little sister moves in, he knows he’s in trouble. She’s rather hostile toward him, which takes him by surprise. Not even his patented smile works on her, but maybe that’s why Keira, aka Sergeant Prim and Proper, has always been the one girl he hasn’t been able to forget since their first meeting, nine years ago.

When a meddling barista puts a charm on the roommates, causing them to swap bodies, they must live as the other until they both own up to some hard truths. They quickly learn that panic, fighting, and accusations will get them nowhere. Until they can learn the lessons they refuse to acknowledge, they experience life as the other. Along the way they are forced to concede that maybe the other isn’t so bad.

Maybe there’s a reason they hated each other. And admitting the feelings that lay hidden may be the only way to undo the switch.

Nice, huh? I’ve … read this one. If you get my drift. Yes, I’m biased.

Get your own copy, exclusively at Amazon.

I can’t blame being swamped on Rocktober. Jett’s got a firm control of that over at The Rock of Pages, and if you aren’t following along this  month, you’re missing out. Jett’s been having a great time, although I have to send her a guest post that she needs to get up.

So, yeah. The title says it all, doesn’t it? I’m working on an edit for one of my favorite clients and it turned out to be more extensive than I’d expected. I’m sure Steve (we’ll call him, since my last client was Stevie) is swooning as I read this, so let me take a few seconds and wax poetic.

Like all my clients, Steve is learning and growing. Signs of a newbie writer in the first two books are a lot less visible here. He’s even taking a risk or two with this new one, and I’m glad to see it. He’s pulling it off.

So why is the work more extensive if it’s so good? Well, because now that Steve has  more experience, I can push him into deeper places. Expand here. Give me two words there to polish this sentence. Explore this. Don’t you think the character might feel this? How about this? Just think about it and decide for yourself… it’s YOUR book, after all. I’m just here to … well, do what I’m doing. Give you ideas, stir your creativity, show you options.

I know Steve’s waiting both patiently and impatiently. On the one hand, I’d hoped to have this done last Friday. But he knows I’m taking my time because he’s going to wind up with a better book at the end. I know he doesn’t want to see how bad I think it is (and, like all my clients’ works, I don’t think it’s bad. This guy is a master plotter.), or how many comments I’ve made (lots). But I also know he’s dying to hear what I think (love it, which contradicts the backhanded compliment above of not thinking it’s bad, but if you knew the dynamic between me and Steve, you’d understand that’s not nearly as backhanded as you may think it is) and he’s dying to start to make the changes I’m suggesting or some that I’m demanding (dude, you gotta spell cloud right. You just do. And that’s why I’m demanding that particular change). He’s dying to get this book out into the world, and I don’t blame him.

There’s a certain subset of the reading world that’s going to love this one. Hopefully he’ll stop in and do a Featured New Book about it when it comes out and I can preen about how he did the hard work I asked him to.

But first, I gotta finish up. I have clients in the pipeline waiting for me, a ton of e-mail to answer — including a new Featured New Book, which will run next week (Sorry, Client Named Stevie who’s not the same Client Named Stevie from my last post about a Client Named Stevie) and yes, I’m pushing myself hard. Why do you ask?

With two degrees in creative writing, I have long struggled to break into the world of publishing. Back in grad school, we were expected to submit our writing to publications — usually literary magazines, as most MFA students focus on short stories — and were even offered free postage (as this was in the Dark Ages, before online submissions). When self-publishing began to be recognized as great for niche works, I turned to it for my own fiction. After all, Rock Fiction historically doesn’t sell well, according to the agents and acquiring editors I spoke with at the time.

Of course, self-publishing continues to be looked down on to this day, although usually by the establishment and readers who are so  burned out on poorly edited books, they can’t see the redwoods in a forest of weeds. I get some of those arguments; I daily see errors that wouldn’t have been made if the author had hired me to work on their book.

Maybe it’s because I’m an editor that keeps me attuned to the small stuff, even when reading books published by the big publishing houses. The one I’m going to pick on now was put out by Grand Central Publishing, which is an imprint of Hachette. It’s a print copy and I have no idea where it came from; it’s been on my shelves for well over five years. Possibly ten. All I can tell you is that it looks like it’s never been read, even now after I’ve read it.

It’s the details we’re focusing on today, so let’s get started. Like when the female lead gets into her friend’s Acura and slides over into the driver’s seat. This actually happens more than once, and both times, I wanted to scream. Would have, too, except it would scare the cats and then I’d have Scared Cat Toenail marks in my legs. Blood usually accompanies those, so … forget it. No screaming, no matter how frustrated I got.

Here’s why: I have had four Acuras in my life, dating back to the 1997 model I leased in ’96. I’ve got two right now. My family and friends have owned Acuras since the original Integra debuted in 1986. And I have never been in an Acura that had a front seat configuration that let a passenger slide across the seat. Hell, I’ve done the climb from bucket seat to bucket seat and let me tell you, it’s hairy, even for a short, flexible woman like myself.

Small? Stupid? Sure. But you know what else? The author could have easily checked this for herself by going to an Acura dealer and trying to slide across the seat in all the models on the showroom floor. She could have researched how Acuras are different from Hondas and realized that the Acura line benefits from the race care technology the company has developed. Race cars are built with cockpits that protect the driver. Sliding around in a race car is a bad thing. Sliding around on a car going around a tight turn is a bad thing. See how that works?

It’s the small details. The romance features a Secret Service agent. You really think that if she were my client, after reading the gaffe with the Acuras, I wouldn’t shoot an e-mail to a buddy of mine who is former Secret Service? Because, frankly, I doubt that any Secret Service agent who wants to keep his job would be given the slip by the president’s daughter. Knowing the author’s already been sloppy, I have a harder time suspending disbelief for the sake of the story.

Oh, and someone should tell both the author and her editor at the big fancy publishing house that Phi Beta Kappa isn’t a sorority. It’s not a fraternity, and it’s not something a person can rush. It’s an honors society, formed at the College of William and Mary in 1776.

THAT mistake reveals more about the author and her editor than I think either wanted the world to know…

And we’ll leave it at that, except to say that yes, mistakes happen. Every publisher, whether it be a big corporation or an author him/herself. We all make mistakes.

Just don’t go vilifying an entire subset of the publishing industry for something endemic across the industry.

Now, all this said, mistakes do happen. Yes, I’d have caught these sloppy attempts at research, but I’m sure there are other details I’ve let slip. I do trust my authors to a degree, and as an editor, I make no claims to catch every mistake you make. I’m not liable if something you say isn’t true, and I’m pretty up front about that. However, I’m also not a big publishing house with the funding — one would assume, although in today’s climate, all bets are off — to hire fact checkers. Because you’d think that a company interested in earning millions would care enough about the quality of the work they put their name on. I sure do.

So it came to my attention that a Featured New Book post had shown up with the funky formatting I’ve struggled with since the website’s redesign. (If anyone is a website maintenance person, who can help work on the site on a regular basis without charging me two arms, a leg, and my firstborn, holler.)

The funky formatting meant you couldn’t read Hans’ reply to the famed one-question interview.

So here’s the link.

Or better yet, here’s Hans’ answer:

Eagle, by ABBA
This was not an easy question to answer and and I’ve been tossing and turning over this for a long time, as the story of the book is not very pop or rock even. I’ve contemplated pieces from Mozart’s Requiem (too somber as it is) to Beethoven’s Fifth (too majestic and pompous) to glamrock (too duh!) before I finally settled on a song.

I ended up settling on this particular song from my favorite musical group (yeah, I am THAT old), because the lyrics do speak to some of the core beliefs expressed in the book, and lyrics are as important to a good song as the cover is to a good book. Fallen Angels obviously can’t fly, but the question the book raises is what it takes to make them fly again, and the eagle from the song does: “high, high, what a feeling to fly over mountains and forests and seas, and to go anywhere that I please, a symbol of hope and above all freedom.” And it is the freedom that our fallen angels need more than anything else to be able to soar and fly once again.

But the eagle also symbolizes Haakon, who’s traveled far, who’s seen the world, who’s got great stories to tell.. Listen och enjoy one of my favorite songs from Sweden’s greatest music export ever, and enjoy a corny 70s music video!

And the book description:

In an isolated mountain town in Norway, Haakon dreams of traveling the world, pursuing adventure, seeing great places, finding love. His very first trip to London with friends from university offers much promise, yet soon after tragedy strikes. Still young, and mourning the loss of his lover, Haakon is not ready to give up on his dream, so when a rich Englishman offers him the chance to join him on a tour of the world, Haakon takes it, daring to believe that his dream is finally coming true: but at what price?

The Fallen Angels of Karnataka is a novel filled with adventure, life’s hard-learned lessons, loss, despicable evil, and finally, love and redemption.

A remarkable story that will have readers hooked until the end. Denny Patterson, Vital VOICE Magazine

 

You know you need a copy. I sure do!
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So I’ve got a client, right? And she’s got a new book in the works. You with me so far?

We’ll call her Stevie ’cause I’m on a Fleetwood Mac kick (as Lacuna Coil blares from my speakers). And Stevie’s written a good twenty or thirty books, most before we teamed up. She insists she’s a better writer since she found me, and I have certainly seen her grow in the 10 or so books we’ve worked on together.

Like ambitious writers everywhere, Stevie doesn’t want to rest on her laurels. She wanted to push herself, stretch, see how far she can grow as a writer. So she wrote something new. Something that for her, is a definite stretch.

Still with me? See where this is going? It did require more from her than either of us were prepared for. And so even though I finished the edit, we’re still talking, still brainstorming. How to make it better, more authentic. And can she do what she wants with her characters while still succeeding in the genre she’s chosen for the book? (That sounds wrong, but to say  much more will reveal too  much, so trust me when I say it’s not like she’s way off base. She’s not.)

This led me to do what all good editors do: I put a call out on Twitter to see if anyone had book recommendations for me. Yes, I’ll read and study how others have done it so that Stevie (and I, to a lesser degree) can get it right.

It’s a tricky thing I’m looking for. Romances where the loss of the first spouse is still new, still raw. How appropriate is it, Stevie wonders, for the female lead to fall in love with another man so soon after the loss of a husband she loved? Even if he’s a man she’s known forever and yes, there’s a romantic — albeit unresolved or explored — past between the two.

I picked up one of the books last night at my library, but I’m hardly done yet. If you’ve got what you think is a great example of a romance where a seriously grieving widow is able to move on and find love again, leave ’em in my comments. I’ll read as many of them as I can while Stevie and I work. And then, who knows? Maybe I’ll keep reading. I love to read, after all…

Oh, the things I do for my clients… and the worst part of it all is that it’s delightful fun, every step of the way.

Yeah, so it’s tacky to feature myself. But it’s been quiet around here again; what’s with these spurts?

So… what song makes me think of my short story? Like many before me, it’s a hard choice. Ozzy’s Crazy Train is an option ’cause if there’s anything going on with Ice Cubes in Hell, it’s a crazy train. This band is dysfunction city — and sadly familiar to many of us inside the biz.

Maybe I’d settle on Nothing More’s breakout song, This is the Time (Ballast) — as a warning to my fictional friends that what gets revealed this night needs to be moved past.

Or there’s my son’s favorite song (Not): Katy Perry’s Roar, since Broken describes the events that happen when T finds her voice — although she’s never been the sort to bury it in the first place. T’s a pretty in-your-face sort of woman. I like her for what it’s worth.

The Amity Affliction’s Pittsburgh? A definite contender, as this band, these people are lost and drowning.

Funnily enough — or not — I have three of these songs in my Spotify playlist that keeps me company at work. I bet you can’t figure out which is the one not on the list…  And yes, I’m sticking to these four. It’s MY site, MY interview question. I get to break the rules.

Here’s the long description for Broken:

For T and the rest of Ice Cubes in Hell, it’s a routine night backstage after their set, opening for the notorious Vanessa Kontempt. The party’s in full swing when T walks in, but she’s not in the mood. Not tonight. Things spiral downward when she finds some groupies raiding her stage clothes. One breaks the heel off her favorite boot, and as T confronts the band’s tour manager about the destruction, secrets are revealed. Secrets which might tear the band apart … or bring them closer.

The story won’t be released until the 15th — that’s just next week! — but you can preorder it now.

Smashwords  (Uhh, no affiliate link this time. Go figure.)

Amazon

The good news is that the editing is keeping me busy. The bad news is that means my writing is taking a hit. And given that a lot of my clients come to me because I am an author and I have my fingers in publishing, I suppose I gotta put up.

This one, I’m glad to put up. It’s my new short story, called Broken. 

My very longtime (I started to say old, but I don’t want either of us to be old) Metallica friend, Carol, did the cover. Go visit her. Tell her I sent you.  You deserve a cover by someone like Carol.

It’s a short story, as the cover makes pretty darn clear, and it’ll be for sale for 99c once it’s up and able to be preordered or out-and-out for sale. (Yes, I’m writing this in advance.)

Ready for the description? Too bad. Here it is.

For T and the rest of Ice Cubes in Hell, it’s a routine night backstage after their set, opening for the notorious Vanessa Kontempt. The party’s in full swing when T walks in, but she’s not in the mood. Not tonight. When she finds groupies raiding her stage clothes and one breaks the heel off one of her favorite boots, things spiral downward. As T confronts the band’s tour manager about the destruction, secrets are revealed. Secrets that might tear the band apart … or bring them closer.

I’m crazy proud of this story. Took me a long time to get right, and I had to run it past my editor, too, for help pulling it all together.

Buy links will be arriving as soon as I’ve got ’em. Pick up your copy and help me keep my fingers in the publishing pie.

Ahh, the beauty of writers’ groups. If you’re a writer, find yourself one. Find a good group of folk who don’t merely lift you up when you need it, but who always always always lift your writing up.

Author JJ Hensley is in one of my writer’s groups. He’s also one of the few people who knows what I look like, so be extra nice to him and maybe he’ll spill the goods. Of course, we’ve only seen each other face to face once, and that was at a table in a restaurant, so who knows how much of me he actually saw.

Anyway, JJ’s got a new book out, Measure Twice. He’s garnering some good reviews, so be sure to check them out, as well as the book.

Let’s get down to business. JJ, what song makes you think of your book?

Man of Constant Sorrow

 

This is a traditional folk song that has been covered by multiple artists since 1913.  Many people are familiar with the tune from the George Clooney movie Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?  However, I’m not really into folk music, so the version I like is by a hard rock band called Charm City Devils. 

 

My new novel, Measure Twice, is a story about addiction, recovery, and the search for redemption. An addict, Lester Mayton, is methodically killing Pittsburgh city officials and Homicide Detective Jackson Channing is on the case. However, Channing has his own addiction and a dark secret that is tearing him apart.

 

Like true men of constant sorrow, both of these characters struggle to be free of their addictions in very different ways. Mayton’s addiction to religion has to be broken if he is to complete his terrifying plan, while Channing’s alcoholism is threatening his career and his sanity.

 

The novel is divided into 12 chapters, or “steps”, mirroring the 12 steps of recovery as defined by Narcotics Anonymous. This literary 12 step program propels the reader through a plot unlike any other.

 

While the lyrics of Man of Constant Sorrow do not exactly reflect the content of Measure Twice, the underlying theme of the song makes me think of the novel.  In fact, this song pops into my head whenever I think about the climax of the story and envision the scene. 

 

And I certainly do not see George Clooney.

 

Charm City Devils. Good choice, JJ! And killing Pittsburgh officials… why do I think this was written near the end of the Ravenstahl administration?

Ready for what the book is about? I sure am.

Lester Mayton is struggling to break free from his addiction. In his particular case, the drug of choice is religion. Now with his wife dead and city officials to blame, Mayton is out for revenge. In order to commit the atrocities necessary to spread his message of justice, he must change his ways and become the evil he has always abhorred.

Pittsburgh Homicide Detective Jackson Channing is struggling to break free from his own addiction. His alcoholism may have already cost him his marriage and now threatens to sweep away his sanity. Ever since he and his partner were brutally tortured by a sadistic murderer, his life has spun out of control. Following a failed suicide attempt, Channing decides his life must have some meaning and the only way he can put the pieces back together is to break free of his addiction and commit acts of redemption.
When the body of a city official is discovered in a public location, the entire city of Pittsburgh bears witness to a form of evil that is difficult to comprehend. Channing learns the killer is patient, methodical, and precise. In order to stop the killing, Channing will have to pull his life together and come to terms with a secret that is tearing him apart.

With each chapter of this thriller representing one of the 12 steps of addiction recovery, Measure Twice is a story of personal struggle, revenge, and the search for redemption. Pay attention throughout this heart-pounding pursuit. The details are important because every cut is lethal.

Now, I don’t usually delve into author bios, but here, I feel like I need to. That’s ’cause, you see, JJ? He’s the real deal. Former cop and Special Agent with the US Secret Service. Cool, huh?

I know neat people. Love it.

So. Ready to pick up your copy?

Smashwords (affiliate link, so be sure to use it. Those three cents add up!)

Amazon

And before I’m out of here for the day, let me make one more comment about why you should pick this up: a portion of the sales for Measure Twice go toward breast cancer research through the non-profit group Par for The Cure. Anyone who’s read my Trevor’s Song knows this is an issue near and dear to my heart. 

Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of blog posts about people — often without experience — now offering editing services.

I remember when I came out of retirement. I’d retired in 1999, and twelve years later, there I was, looking for work. People were slow to take a chance on me, and I was offering very low rates. Heck, in some instances, I was giving work away for free, just so that friends and authors I knew casually could tell their friends they’d seen my work and were happy with it.

But here’s the thing: I’d been editing professionally since the mid ’90s. I came back into this with experience. And even though I’d been officially retired, I really hadn’t stopped editing. Real editors never do, just as real writers never stop writing and real STEM geeks can’t turn off the STEM in their heads. Ever.

And that’s my point: Lately, I’ve been seeing lots of blog posts about people now offering editing services. Yes, their rates may be cheap. Yes, you may be like me and have a thing for the little guy. Support the underdog and all that. Help someone out, especially if it’s a woman-owned business… blah blah. I know all the reasons. I’ve used them to sell my own services.

Cheap or not, new or not, the FIRST question you should ask a potential editor, if you don’t already know the answer: how much experience do you have? I’ve seen folk who say, “I was good at editing a paper I had to write for history, so now I’m an editor.”

WHAT?

Or, “I’ve written ten books and they’ve all gotten five stars at Amazon, so now I’m an editor.”

WHAT?

Neither of those have anything to do with the price of beans, boys and girls. You want someone who has a relationship with language, whose mission is to bring out your best. That’s still my focus, and I still on occasion give freebies to friends and clients. While I used to do it as a way to build my client base, now I do it because it’s the right thing to do. I love what I do. I get up every morning raring to go, ready to dive in and play with words. So if my current crop of clients are all between projects, yeah, I’ll do a freebie. Lawyers call that work pro bono. I call it fun.

Good intentions are great to have. I wish all my fellow editors luck, and I wish all authors would spend the money and use our skills.

But know what I wish even more? That I’d stop finding new clients who say to me, “I wish I’d found you before I used my last editor.”

I wish clients would stop saying, “I threw my money away on that person. They didn’t know nearly as much as you do.”

I wish I’d stop hearing, “I went with them because they were cheap. I got what I paid for, and now I’ve got bad reviews next to my book and it’s stopped selling, so would you please re-edit this and maybe I can save it?”

Yeah, those are flattering comments and often, the clients who say those things to me become loyal clients. (Yes, sometimes, they move on, always in search of someone better, but do they ever find that person?)

But it also kills me to hear that. It means authors didn’t  use word of mouth. They didn’t carefully vet a variety of editors with samples. They didn’t talk to their friends. And usually, they made decisions with their bank accounts.

Yes, editing is expensive. I’m not the most expensive out there, by any means (the woman I use for content work is triple my own rates, and she does no language or grammar work like I do), and I get it when authors say they can’t afford me. But folks, it’s worth trying. And it’s worth hanging in there to find someone really good, really experienced. Who knows how to edit, how to value your work, how to preserve your voice.

I’ve said this before, and I know I’ll say it again. Make wise choices, choices that’ll bolster your career, not sink it. Take a risk on a really good editor, go ahead and build a relationship with him or her. And then hopefully you’ll be saying to your friends, “Go use my editor. She’s great.”

And hopefully I’ll get more e-mails that say, “I read a bunch of reviews of books written by your clients, and the reviews keep getting better and better. You’ve got to be good at what you do.”

Some of that is because the author’s skill is growing, but hopefully it’s because I’m helping them grow that skill.

Choose wisely. Look for experience.

The best part of Twitter is being able to chat with people and get to know them. And so it has been with my buddy Hans Hirschi, who I first met through Triberr. (Can I be involved in any more social media that start with the letter T?)

I don’t think I knew Hans when he put out his first six books, but I’m here now, and glad of it. Let’s get busy. Hans, what song makes you think of your book, The Fallen Angels of Karnataka?

 
Eagle, by ABBA
This was not an easy question to answer and and I’ve been tossing and turning over this for a long time, as the story of the book is not very “pop” or “rock” even. I’ve contemplated pieces from Mozart’s Requiem (too somber as it is) to Beethoven’s Fifth (too majestic and pompous) to glamrock (too duh!) before I finally settled on a song.

I ended up settling on this particular song from my favorite musical group (yeah, I am THAT old), because the lyrics do speak to some of the core beliefs expressed in the book, and lyrics are as important to a good song as the cover is to a good book. Fallen Angels obviously can’t fly, but the question the book raises is what it takes to make them fly again, and the eagle from the song does “high, high, what a feeling to fly over mountains and forests and seas, and to go anywhere that I please”, a symbol of hope and – above all – freedom. And it is the freedom that our fallen angels need more than anything else to be able to soar and fly once again.

But the eagle also symbolizes Haakon, who’s traveled far, who’s seen the world, who’s got great stories to tell.. Listen och enjoy one of my favorite songs from Sweden’s greatest music export ever, and enjoy a corny 70s music video!