Tag: clean burn

Happy Book Birthday to Me-e-e!

Hip, hip hooray! After all the waiting-waiting-waiting, the book birthday for Clean Burn has finally arrived. Here’s a short blurb:

Wry, smart, tough private eye Janelle Watkins swore off investigating child abductions four years ago, when she left the San Francisco PD. But when two clients with missing children beg for her help, Janelle can’t say no. Even though it means returning to the scene of her nightmares – her hometown of Greenville.

Forced to enlist the help of her ex-partner and ex-lover, Greenville County Sheriff Ken Heinz, Janelle soon finds herself playing with fire in more than one way, and in a race against the clock to find the missing children before it’s too late.

Here’s what some bestselling authors have said about Clean Burn:

“Karen Sandler’s Clean Burn is a taut, timely thriller ripped from today’s headlines. Blisteringly paced, authentically told, here is a novel that demands to be read in a single sitting. I can’t wait to strap on a side arm and join Watkins for her next case.”
– James Rollins, New York Times bestselling author of the Sigma series

“Clean Burn is a guilty pleasure. Curl up for a snappy pace, and an ex cop P.I. heroine with attitude, and a haunted past.”
– Lynn Hightower, author of The Piper and The Debt Collector

“Chilling, engrossing and addicting from page one! Karen Sandler weaves a tight, tense mystery, and with Janelle Watkins gives us an honest, tough, and flawed heroine – I can’t wait to read what comes next for this exciting character.”
– Brenda Novak, author of When Snow Falls and When Lightning Strikes

Published by Exhibit A Books in the UK, distributed in the US by Random House, you should be able to find copies in chain stores like Barnes & Noble as well as your local indies.

If you’d like to save yourself the petrol and the footwork, you can order Clean Burn online at Amazon or Barnes and Noble or other online bookselling establishments. Or try these great indie bookstores: Sacramento’s Avid Reader, Reno’s Sundance Books, or DC’s Politics & Prose. If you know of other fab independent bookstores in either the US or UK, please share them in the comments.

And watch out for the confetti and the helium balloons. They’re getting pretty thick in here. 🙂

August 27, 2013
Taking Responsibility for Your Pets–Or Your Fictional Characters

Almost three-and-a-half years ago, I had to say goodbye to my orange long-haired cat, Charlie. He was a wonderful cat, and sorely missed. But after a few months, I started thinking about how much I like having three cats and decided I would be open to the possibility of adopting another kitty.

As circumstances would have it, a feral cat had kittens right outside my son and daughter-in-law’s apartment. My son and dil coordinated with a local cat rescue organization and planned to capture the kittens and bring them in. Sadly, they could only grab one before the rest of them scattered.

Still working with the rescue group, they got the little kitten fairly comfortable with humans, then arranged for me to adopt him. Rather, they arranged for me to adopt her–there was a little confusion about gender, even after the kitten arrived at my house. It took me calling the vet and confirming that yes, she did a neuter and not a spay, to establish that the new addition was Zak, not Zoey.

It had been a long time since I had adopted a kitten and a feral kitten was a…well, a cat of a different color. He lived in my office for a few weeks, and whenever something startled him (which was often), he would race into the corner under my printer, completely out of reach. He would burrow under the covers at night, keeping me awake. He would play fetch with a toy mouse. And sometimes he would hide somewhere in the house, terrifying me that he’d gotten outside and was lost.

He’s now one of the best cats I’ve ever had, although at 13+ pounds, he can be quite a lapful. He still dips a paw into his water dish to lick it off and test it before drinking. And although he doesn’t play fetch, he’ll still run around the house carrying that mouse in his jaws.

What does this have to do with fictional characters? Well, they may not be living, breathing beings, but they can be as complex and problematical as a finicky feral kitten. You have to consider characters them from every angle, and take as good care of them as you would that pet cat.

How do you “take care” of a fictional character? You get to know them inside and out. You write dialogue for them that fits them, give them actions that are realistic for their personality, write a storyline for them that allows them to achieve the goals you carefully set up for them. You make them seem as real as that wide-eyed kitten I adopted.

You don’t make them a prominent character at the beginning of the book, so your reader thinks they’re important to the story, then drop them partway through, never to be seen again. You don’t introduce them a hundred pages in, as if they’re an afterthought. If it’s a minor character that’s intended to have a small role, that’s okay. But even minor characters must be necessary to a story, and have their part to play out. They can’t just be dropped in and dropped out at a whim, any more than you would adopt a kitten for no particular reason, then return it a week later.

Okay, maybe I’m stretching the cat analogy a bit. I am this close to being a cat lady and could go on and on about felines until your eyes glaze over. But I’m also a fanatic about characters, about every one having a purpose, and each character behaving in such a way that makes sense. When a character acts out of character in a book, it spoils the story for me.

So, cats or characters, make a commitment. Take responsibility. Give them the care and feeding they both deserve.

August 17, 2013
A Broken Ankle, a Writing Career, and Playing the Long Game

A few weeks ago, I fractured my right fibula (the smaller bone on the outside of your ankle). I wasn’t doing anything particularly fun or dangerous. I was kind of trotting toward a local pet store, planning to ask to use the bathroom. I leapt up onto the sidewalk, and when the outer edge of my boot hit a groove in the concrete, my foot rolled under. Crunch.

I’d hoped it was just a sprain, in fact had to be talked into going to the doctor. I’m now in an attractive (not) “cam boot” that keeps my ankle stable. The boot is far better than a cast because I can take it off to shower, or to scratch an itch.

But here’s the thing–I’m a fairly active person. I’m in the habit of working out at the gym 3 times a week, dancing at least once a week, and before I sold my mare, I was riding 3-4 times a week. I was in the middle of horse-shopping for a new horse (which I blogged about here). In fact, that day I broke my ankle, my trainer and I were about to head out to try a horse. My trainer thinks it was fate that it happened since the horse we were going to check out wasn’t a good match for me.

Even still, it’s maddening not to be able to continue my usual level of activity and to see my calf muscle shrink. I’m exercising as much as I’m allowed to (I can go to the gym if I wear the boot and can do some strengthening exercises without the boot on). But I have to balance letting the ankle heal with my desire to get back to normal. In other words, much of the process is a waiting game.

Waiting is also a huge part of any author’s career. Take the Tankborn Trilogy. After the long process of writing the first book, Tankborn, I had to wait to hear back from agents. Once I had representation, I had to wait through the process of marketing the book to publishers. Once the book sold to Tu Books, I had to go through the complex process of the rewrite, then wait to see the gorgeous cover art, then wait again until the first book was released in September 2011.

The decision to go to the second and third books of the trilogy took some time, then more writing, more editing, more waiting for release dates. Awakening came out in April 2013, and I have to wait until spring 2014 for Rebellion, the final book of the trilogy.

Same deal with the Janelle Watkins mystery series that starts with the book Clean Burn. After all the waiting, it’s hard to believe that it’s going to be released in the US in less than a month. Back when Exhibit A first gave it the thumbs up was nearly a year ago. Which is kind of blisteringly fast from first offer to release. But it doesn’t seem that way when you’re dying to see the book on the shelves.

But just like I can’t make that ankle heal any faster, no matter how much I will that bone to knit, I can’t make the cycle of book to shelf happen any quicker. Writing and publishing is a long game, whether it’s via the traditional path that the Tankborn Trilogy and Janelle Watkins mysteries have followed or the indie-pubbed trail that my other books have traveled. And just as I can support my healing by eating right and exercising properly, I can support my writing career by writing the best books I can, polish them in as many rewrites as necessary, and do my best to get the word out so those books land in the hands of as many readers as possible.

July 29, 2013
The Magical Formula for a Bestseller (Sorry, there isn’t one)

Some writer friends of mine just got back from the national conference of Romance Writers of America. This is a huge conference, jam-packed with workshops on both the craft and business of writing. When I was a member of RWA, I attended the conference nearly every year.

This year, as I’m sure has been done in previous years, two mega-bestselling authors presented a workshop on writing bestselling novels, this one titled, Secrets of the Bestselling Sisterhood. I’m sure there were many nuggets of great information doled out, and I’ll venture to guess that “write the book of your heart” and “write the best story you can” might have been mentioned once or twice.

With all due respect to those two bestselling authors (who have both worked hard for their success), I have a few thoughts of my own about how one writes a bestselling book. And unlike those folks writing expensive how-to books and pricey workshops that purport to reveal the holy grail of how to craft that next big breakout book, I’m willing to share my opinion for free.

And here it is: There is no recipe. There is no checklist. There is no magical formula to follow that will guarantee a book you’ve written will become a bestseller. We can analyze the heck out of the bestselling novels flying off the shelves of bookstores and selling like hotcakes on Amazon. But none of that analysis will give you a guidebook to follow that will lead to equal success for your book.

The problem with bestsellerdom is that any knowledge gleaned from studying what’s been successful is that it’s hindsight, rear view mirror stuff. You’ll only learn what worked for those particular books. Just putting a boy wizard, a girl crushing on a vampire, or a dystopic future into your story is not a magic wand. There are so many intangibles about bestsellers that are impossible to quantify.

So what’s an author to do? If you want a chance at bestsellerdom (as opposed to 100% certainty), there are some things you can do to improve your odds. These suggestions are along the lines of setting yourself up for success. Like a runner whose goal is to cross the finish line first in their next marathon. A serious runner will train in the months leading up to a race as opposed to being a couch potato right up until race day.

So here are some odds-increasing steps for an author:

1) Write high concept

Write a story you can describe in one succinct sentence. An orphan boy discovers he’s a wizard and is sent off to a wizardry school to learn magic. An annual lottery forces teens to fight each other to the death in a gladiator-style competition. It makes the book easier to market and for the reader to more immediately grasp what the story is about.

2) Write visually

Write scenes you can imagine on a movie screen. Think action, not internal narrative. Make it easy for a producer who happens to pick up your book to envision the movie your book could become. Make it so riveting for your reader she can’t put your book down.

3) Write relatable, likeable characters

Likeable doesn’t mean sweetness and light, namby-pamby nice guys/girls. It means interesting characters, people who are heroic in spite of themselves. Write characters the reader would love to be, to exchange places with. Or, if it’s a harrowing story (like The Hunger Games), write characters so real their plight will grab the reader’s emotional jugular and make them feel as if they’re experiencing what the characters are experiencing.

4) Write fabulous prose

Yes, there are crappily written bestsellers. But yours doesn’t have to be one of them. Particularly if this is your first book, your chances of getting an editor past the first page (or a reader checking out a sample of your indie published book) might hinge on whether said page is riddled with errors.

5) Work denking hard

Write like a maniac. Write lots of books. Most of the big bestselling authors out there didn’t start that way with their first book. It took time and many books to become an overnight sensation.

6) Get lucky

You make a book video, a world-renowned blogger spots it, and it goes viral. You write a blog post about your book and a celebrity stumbles across your blog, picks up and reads the book, and tweets it to her zillions of followers. You end up sitting next to Steven Spielberg’s nephew on a plane and he’s enchanted by your story concept.

Obviously you only have control over items 1-5. And none of the above may help your book become a bestseller. There are plenty of books out there that are high concept, have wonderful, visual scenes, great characters, and beautiful prose, but never became bestsellers. There are books that don’t follow these rules that surprise by becoming big hits.

I admit, too, this isn’t an exhaustive list. I bet you could come up with your own reasons why you enjoyed the last bestseller you read. Or maybe you read a book before it hit big and you just knew it was going to end up on the New York Times and USA Today lists. Tell me what you think are some of the elements of a bestselling novel. #SFWApro

July 22, 2013
The Trials and Tribulations of Book Surgery

Have you ever had a problem right in the middle of a sewing, craft or home improvement project? You’ve just realized you sewed the sleeve on inside out, or your embroidery thread is tangled in the middle of a satin stitch, or you’ve made the cut on your crown molding at the wrong angle. So you have to grab the seam ripper to remove that sleeve, turn it right-side-out and re-sew. Or snip the embroidery thread below the tangle and get that little short bit back underneath your work. Or schlep to the home improvement store for more crown molding and cut it right this time.

It’s a groan-worthy experience, both because you’ve just spent X amount of time in wasted effort and because you have to spend Y amount of time to make it right (can you tell I was a math major?). That’s about the time I start to yell at my sewing machine (and the poor thing is an inanimate object), saying a few choice words not suitable for polite company. I sometimes feel like chucking the whole thing into the garbage bin, but I never do it. That would truly be a waste because I know with just a little more effort, I’ll soon have a nice shirt/skirt/pair of shorts to wear.

This is sort of what’s going on with the young adult paranormal book I’ve been working on. After I finished the most recent rewrite, I knew it needed another pair of eyes. So I did a beta-read trade with another author. She had some excellent feedback, some of which I’d already figured out, some that was more of a doh moment. Like I have far too many characters, and several can be eliminated and their actions shifted to the truly important main and secondary characters.

But to make the changes my beta reader suggested requires some major surgery of the book. Large chunks will be able to remain the same, but they’ll have to be detached with that seam ripper, rearranged the proper way and re-knitted into the story. It’s a good-sized book, rather like a massive quilt, and it’ll be a challenge keeping straight what goes where, particularly with the elimination of several characters.

It’s like I’ve got my book gutted and on the operating table, but I’m still not sure where all the parts go. I am truly grateful for my beta reader’s feedback. I’m excited by the prospect of making the book better. But wow, what a messy project.

I’m really just starting out reassembling this odd garment of a story. I only have a small window to work on it since I’m carving out time before I my editor returns the edited manuscript for Rebellion, the third book of the Tankborn trilogy. I probably don’t have quite enough time to get the YA paranormal rewrite done before I have to shift to Rebellion and then my second Janelle Watkins mystery. It will be so nice to finish it eventually though, to get those last seams pressed and the final bit of embroidery around the neckline. Then I’ll sit back, admire my work…and send it to another beta reader.

So what projects have you got going, writing, craft, or other? Have they been a straightforward or a tricky job? Share your stories.

#SFWApro

July 9, 2013