Trust the Maze by Christa Allan

Sometimes writing is like spending months studying Italian only to discover, when your plane lands, that you're in Greece. Eventually, you drink some ouzo (which is capable of rendering you nearly comatose), visit a few islands, and come to embrace this new territory. It may not be where you wanted to go, but you discover that it's exactly where you needed to be.

Until I wrote my first novel, I had not walked through what we're calling this cycle the "corn maze" of writing. In fact, I attended conferences and would overhear published authors saying to one another, "My character just refused to do what I needed him to do," or "I had no idea where this character came from." I'd tiptoe to the nearest corner and wonder how it was I came to be with this strange group of adults who must have missed their imaginary friend stage as children.

And then I started Walking on Broken Glass. My protagonist's husband, Carl, suddenly had a brother.  I never intended for him to have a sibling. He just appeared straight from my fingertips and onto my screen. I still remember looking at my monitor and saying, "What the hell...?" This brother, it turned out, influenced decisions Carl's parents made that ultimately determined what motivated some of Carl's actions in the novel.

In Threads of Hope, an elderly couple came out of nowhere and met my protagonist at the airport where she was waiting to board a plane to take her to her new life. They shared their lives with her, and Italy became Greece.

Then in my first (and only!) historical, Love Finds You in New Orleans, a minor character became a major player in turning the plot into an unexpected direction.

I just started my next project, An Unexpected Christmas, a novella that's going to be my first-ever self-published ebook (insert excitement here!).  Pulling it together was like trying to shove an octopus into a box. Then Seymour came along.

Seymour is an actual rescue dog, and my husband's vet clinic is trying to find him a forever home. He's as impish as he is adorable, and he's exactly what my protagonist needs to shake up her life.

Sometimes it really is all about walking through the corn maze long enough to find your way out.

Christa Allan's newest novel, Test of Faith, released in March. You can find her atwww.christaallan.com, Facebook, and Twitter. She and her husband live in New Orleans with their three neurotic cats and new dog, Herman. You can find her other novels here.

Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans? by Christa Allan

The topic for our latest cycle is setting. Being a New Orleans chick, born and bred, I consider myself fortunate to have such a rich history to draw from for settings for my novels. In 2012, my first (and only, to date) historical released. Love Finds You in New Orleans , which takes place in the 1840s. I discovered that so much of  the landmarks and landscapes of my city are like patina, a richness that forms from fine scratches on silver over years of use. On the surface, those shadows and dark highlights may seem to spoil the luster of a piece, but it actually adds to its value and beauty.

This is how I described my city in the novel to bring it alive to readers:

New Orleans is a city much like the gumbo for which it is famous. Populated by the Indians, founded by the French in 1718, and later inhabited by the Spanish, the Germans, and the British, various cultures have simmered for centuries creating a stew of rich, hearty, and vibrant people.

Called “the Crescent City” because its communities expanded along the half-moon curve in the river, New Orleans is as genteel as it is raucous, as flamboyant as it is understated, and as historic as it is contemporary. In one day, visitors can admire the towering triple steeples of Saint Louis Cathedral, the oldest cathedral in North American; meander into the French Quarter for Sunday bunch and listen to jazz in the lush courtyard of the Court of Two Sisters; shop for antiques along Magazine Street; stop at Plum Street’s Snoball Stand, where the treats are served in Chinese takeout containers; dine on the two-hour Natchez steamboat cruise along the Mississippi; and end the night with coffee and beignets at Café du Monde, the original French Market coffee stand.

Soulful jazz spiraling from clubs on Frenchmen Street, lavender wild irises and pink azaleas splashed along Creole cottages, beads and doubloons tossed at Mardi Gras parades, streetcars clanging along St. Charles Avenue, and fleur-de-lis flocked Saints fans chatting “who dats” all the way to the Superdome—New Orleans wraps her arms around you and hugs you so close, you can feel her heartbeat.

Christa Allan's newest novel, Test of Faith, released in March. You can find her at www.christaallan.com, Facebook, and Twitter. She and her husband live in New Orleans with their three neurotic cats and new dog, Herman. You can find her other novels here.

Gifting with Gratitude by Christa Allan

I’m so grateful to take a break from my post-retirement from teaching, newly assigned position as the unpaid receptionist at my husband’s veterinary clinic where my duties consist of saying, “Hello, how are you? Hold on…” and taking detailed chart notes to feed my longing for my non-existent writing time.

Since my reading as of late consists of deciphering scribbles to write prescription labels, I’m quite excited about the new cycle in GBC blog-land, which is talking about books. And how cool is it that it coincides with the holidays, as in hint-hint-hint…gift-giving.

So, now the happy chance to suggest some titles from out GBC list:

THE IN-BETWEEN HOUR (coming December 31) by Barbara Claypole White What could we worse than losing your child? Having to pretend he's still alive…

SCOT ON THE ROCKS by Brenda Janowitz (chick lit/ women's fiction)

It's the story of a woman who goes to her ex-boyfriend's wedding.  Hilarity ensues.  

THE OTHER WOMAN  by Hank Phillippi Ryan  Winner of the Mary Higgins Clark award, nominated for Agatha, Anthony, Daphne, Shamus and Macavity awards.  It’s The Good Wife meets Law and Order! A Boston reporter on the trail of an ex-governors secret mistress—and a detective on the trail of a possible serial killer. 

FATHER FOUND by Judith Arnold   Jamie McCoy's syndicated column, "Guy Stuff," keeps thousands of men in a macho frame of mind. But the day Jamie finds Samantha on his doorstep, his life changes drastically. Samantha is a baby. Jamie knows nothing about babies. He phones Allison Winslow, a nurse who runs the Daddy School, for advice. But when he actually meets Allison, he finds he wants much more than her assistance. Winner of the RT Magazine Reviewers Choice Award for Best Superromance of the Year.

PERFECT TIMING by Laura Spinella   There’s rock, there’s a hard place, then there’s Aidan & Isabel.   What’s a Jersey Girl to do when she moves to Catswallow, Alabama ? Isabel Lang finds the answer in friendship, an unlikely bond with the musically gifted Aidan Roycroft. The two share everything from a first kiss to startling family secrets. But when Aidan is accused of a violent crime, they flee to Las Vegas where Isabel’s future comes tumbling down.  

 LITTLE WOMEN AND ME by Lauren Baratz-Logsted (for teens) Emily is sick and tired of being a middle sister. So when she gets an assignment to describe what she'd change about a classic novel, Emily pounces on Little Women. After all, if she can't change things in her own family, maybe she can bring a little justice to the March sisters. (Kill off Beth? Have cute Laurie wind up with Amy instead of Jo? What was Louisa May Alcott thinking?!) But when Emily gets mysteriously transported into the 1860s world of the book, she discovers that righting fictional wrongs won't be easy.

WHAT A MOTHER KNOWS by Leslie Lehr When a woman recovers from a deadly car crash and is accused of murder, she learns that her 16 year-old-daughter, the only one who might know the truth of what happened that day, is missing.

PRIDE, PREJUDICE, AND THE PERFECT MATCH by Marilyn Brant  A single mother and an ER doctor meet on an Internet dating site—each for reasons that have little to do with finding their perfect match—in this modern, Austen-inspired story. It’s a tribute to the power of both “pride” and “prejudice” in bringing two people romantically together, despite their mutual insistence that they should stay apart…

HOLLYWOOD GIRLS CLUB by Maggie Marr  Four friends; A-List actress Cici Solange, Producer Lydia Albright, Agent Jessica Caulfield, and Screenplay Writer Mary Anne Meyers try to get their film made in the treacherous cut-throat town that is Hollywood.  

A Happy Thanksgiving to all the GBCers and our readers everywhere!

Christa Allan's newest novel, A Test of Faith, will release in March of 2014. You can track her down at Facebook, and Twitter while she awaits the re-invention of her website. You can find her other novels here. She and her husband are looking forward to Thanksgiving surrounded by family, laughter, and--of course--football.

A Helluva Authorial Reinvention by Christa Allan

My husband thinks I should try writing erotica. For someone whose books have been published by Christian publishing houses, that’s one hell of an authorial reinvention.

I tried to explain to him that the problem isn’t the genre. It’s my aptitude for writing it.  Just working out the logistics of two people kissing when I write can be a challenge. Erotica? I’d have body parts flying all over the place.  Not to mention the paradigm shift in our personal sex life. Making love with writer’s brain (this goes there, he does this, she does that, oops…that didn’t work), and thinking one of those speech recognition software programs would be useful at the time.

I have given serious thought to introducing erotica in Christian fiction. Rumor has it that there are Christians who are actually having married-to-one-another sex and enjoying it. And, have you read “Song of Solomon” in the Bible lately?  Clearly, a study in metaphoric sex: “his abdomen is carved in ivory” and her “orchard” blossoms, and he’s attracted to her “garden”?  Then there’s this illustration of the Song of Solomon, which serves to demonstrate some of the inherent problems with literal interpretations.

Song of Solomon illustrated

Even J.K. Rowling is reinventing herself as evidenced by the outing of her as Robert Galbraith, author of The Cuckoo's Calling, a crime novel released in April "praised by critics," according to NBC News. She called the pseudonym a "liberating experience," because of not having to endure the hype or pressure of being always Harry Potter author, J.K. Rowling. Not many seemed to mind that she published the Harry Potter series using the gender-neutal J.K. as opposed to her first name, Joanne. 

But some think she may have pushed the boundaries of fabrication by claiming to be a married father-of-two and a former undercover police investigator.  The author bio on Amazon states, "After several years with the Royal Military Police, Robert Galbraith was attached to the SIB (Special Investigative Branch), the plain-clothes branch of the RMP. He left the military in 2003 and has been working since then in the civilian security industry. The idea for Cormoran Strike grew directly out of his own experiences and those of his military friends who returned to the civilian world."

Does that mean there are boundaries to reinvention? You can assume a false name, but you can't assume a false history related to your new identity? But, if fiction is, as Merriam-Webster defines it, "something invented by our imaginations," are we going to restrict our reinventions? So, people are upset that she wasn't honest about her alias? Seems rather oxymoronic or, at the very least, headache-inducing.

Female writers have hidden themselves under gender neutral or male names for centuries, even as recently as our own with Nora Roberts reinventing herself as J.D. Robb. Mary Ann Evans used George Eliot so that her work would be taken more seriously, Amantine Lucile Dupin published as George Sand, and even Harper Lee dropped her first name, Nellie. The author of The Outsiders, Susan Eliose Hinton, preceded Rowling as an author using only her initials, S.E.  Publisher's Weekly wrote an article about male writers using women's or gender-neutral names when writing romance.

It seems writers reinvent themselves because of reader perceptions, pre-conceived notions of males writing erotica or females writing grisly crime and detective stories. Or, as in centuries ago, readers not embracing women as writers. Sometimes its self-preseveration with publishing houses or even careers. When I taught high school, I don't think parent conferences would have gone well if my name had been on the cover of Fifty Shades of Gray. Then again, if it had been, I wouldn't need to be sitting in parent conferences...

I wonder, though, what our perceptions as writers are of readers that cause us to want to reinvent ourselves. 

What happens when I decide to write outside of the genre that's defined me for the five novels I've already written?

I'll let you know.

In the meantime, do you feel duped by author pseudonyms? Would you follow a favorite author into any genre?

Christa Allan's newest novel, under her very own real name, A Test of Faith, will release in March of 2014. You can track her down atwww.christaallan.com, Facebook, and Twitter. She and her husband recently moved to New Orleans with their three neurotic cats. You can find her other novels here.