Another Year, Another Me

I'm not certain I wanted to be
writer at age two, but by three
the bug had definitely bit me! 

Thanks so much to the Girlfriends Book Club for having me here during this Authorial Reinvention cycle – because that is a topic that hits so close to me, as I’m pretty sure that I have reinvented myself about as often as, oh, summers in Texas cross the 100+ mark (in other words – often!)

But at eight, I knew!

The thing about being an author is that it’s one of those jobs that is inextricably intertwined with your life.  In other words, I can’t really talk about how I’ve reinvented myself as an author without also talking about the changes in my life during the time that I’ve been writing. 

For example, that “inextricably intertwined” thing I mentioned a moment ago?  Lawyer speak.  Yup, when I first started the journey to become a published author, I was practicing law.  Working loooooong (billable) hours and managing to squeeze out moments of creativity in cleverly crafted briefs and legal memos.  (Really, you might be surprised.)

My first book! I
still love this cover!

Although I’d been writing my whole life in fits and starts, it wasn’t until I was practicing law that I got serious about it.  After never quite managing to get a legal thriller off the ground, I tried my hand at contemporary romance—and found that I loved writing hip, sexy stories!  My second manuscript sold to Harlequin Temptation in 1999 and suddenly, my identity changed.  I wasn’t “a lawyer” anymore.  I was “an author.” Pretty dang cool!

Coming in October!

But life is ever changing, and so was my writing.  While I loved the contemporary romances, I was weaned on paranormal, and I started also writing a series of romances featuring superheroes (back in the day when it was near-impossible to sell a paranormal.  Yes, that time really existed!) and then, when I had my first child, I shifted away from romance and toward my own spin on chicklit, reinventing myself (and sort of inventing a genre) with "paranormal mommy lit" and the book Carpe Demon: Adventures of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom.  (I'm excited to say that I have the rights back to these books, and an all new book featuring Kate Connor will be out in just a few months, Pax Demonica!)

If you need proof that writing
twines with life, here's me and authors Dee Davis
and Kathleen O'Reilly (my critique partners) at
my eldest daughter's baptism! 

Did I mention that whole new-mom-reflected-in-the-writing thing?  I recently re-read the early books in the series while proofing them to get the books ready for their new life as digital indie releases, and it was a walk down memory lane, as so many of Kate's toddler's "isms" came from my own daughter's habits, likes and dislikes.  (She used to call margarine "butter cheese," for example, and yes, that made it into a book!)

Here's an old pub photo

About the time that Carpe Demon came out, I had another life change:  I gave up the practice of law and became a full-time writer.

In China with the oldest and
our newly adopted youngest daughter!

And then another life change on the heels of that one when we adopted our second daughter (that whole "I'll have more time to write now" thing just went out the window.  And then we decided to homeschool, and I did that until the last academic year when our oldest started fifth grade.  (The youngest will do her first year in public school this coming year.  Am I excited?  Why yes, I am!)  And in addition to all that life stuff, I took on a new name, J.K. Beck (so I was juggling Julie Kenner for most stuff and J.K. Beck for dark, sexy paranormal romances.)

But the changes weren't done coming!  Especially in this day and age with publishing changing so rapidly (it's exciting!) and now I'm reinventing myself again.

Here's my new pub photo,
10 years later!

I've come full circle on the sexy books and have stepped up that game with the Stark Trilogy, a New York Times bestselling series of erotic romances that I write as J. Kenner.  I'm having a fabulous time writing these books (and a new trilogy that I'll announce soon!) for Random House's Bantam imprint.  The third book, Complete Me, comes out in just a couple of weeks on July 30, and so far I've been thrilled with the advance reviews! (Books 1 and 2 are Release Me and Claim Me.)

Coming July 30!

At the same time, though, I'm not only indie-publishing my backlist, but working on new books like Pax Demonica (and others that I'm psyched about!)

I've gone from lawyer to lawyer-author to author-mom to author to entrepreneur-author.

Honestly, I'm excited to see what's next!  And you can follow along with me if you want!  Pop over to my website, follow me on Twitter, or hang out with me at my Julie Kenner or J. Kenner Facebook page!

How about you? Does change excite you or make you nervous? Have you "reinvented" yourself?

A New Adventure...

I've written four, 300 page books on the Bombay Family of Assassins and one, 125 page novella. All took place in present day.

So why would I do something like SNUFF THE MAGIC DRAGON, a collection of short stories through history featuring the Bombays?

Well, we shall see. The book is available for pre-order on Amazon now - and goes live everywhere on July 22.

There are a couple of reasons why I attempted something so different.

1) I've had a few fans ask if the Bombays have been involved in any famous past assassinations. The idea intrigued me - I love history. If I could get a Ph.D. just for fun someday - it would be in history. I'm a total nerd.

2) I wanted to continue the Bombay Series, but I'd retired the family from the business in I SHOT YOU BABE.  How else could I bring them back as assassins in the family business?

3) I wanted to try something new - and a collection of short stories was a challenge more tempting than I could resist. I always quote Oscar Wilde here: "I can resist anything but temption."

4) Self-publishing makes something this experimental possible - I could never have sold this idea to New York.

So it's a grand risk - and one I'm willing to take.  I'll let you know how it goes!

Leslie Langtry

RECIPE FOR A HAPPY LIFE by Brenda Janowitz

My third novel, RECIPE FOR A HAPPY LIFE, came out yesterday.  And I'm feeling a million different emotions all at once: excitement, fear, happiness, joy, terror.... you name it.

It's not the first time that I've had a book come out.  In fact, RECIPE FOR A HAPPY LIFE is my third novel.  But there's something about putting your work out there into the universe for all to see.  

And judge.

I was recently chatting with a memoir writer about how we put ourselves out there as writers.  I was telling her that I found it brave, the way she was able to tell the truth.  But then I thought about it: isn't that what we do as fiction writers as well?  Sure, I won't have family members coming to me to complain about the way they were portrayed in my novel, but aren't we truth tellers, too?  Aren't we trying to tell the world what we think, how we think, and how we process it all?

RECIPE FOR A HAPPY LIFE is about three generations of women with a culture all their own.  When Hannah finds herself spending the summer with her glamorous grandmother, a widow six times over, at her sprawling beach-front Hamptons estate, she learns that there’s more than one recipe for happiness. 

A story of mothers and daughters, grandmothers and grandchildren, RECIPE FOR A HAPPY LIFE is a quirky story about correcting the mistakes from your past and trying to create a future for yourself. 

Julie Buxbaum called it "a great summer read" and Ellen Meister said it was a "wise, tender and poignant story." Melissa Senate said "this gem of a novel sneaks up on you with just how powerful it truly is."

It's the most personal book I've written to date.  It is, at its core, about how I see the world, what I think about relationships.  It reflects who I am now, the person I've become, and it's terrifying to think that I've put that out there, for all the world to see.

I just hope you will all enjoy it.

I’m the author of SCOT ON THE ROCKS and JACK WITH A TWIST. My third novel, RECIPE FOR A HAPPY LIFE, was published by St. Martin's on July 2, 2013. My work’s also appeared in the New York Post and Publisher’s Weekly. You can find me at brendajanowitz.com or on Twitter at @BrendaJanowitz.

The Ooze: When Fiction Crosses the Line

by Susan Crandall

A good writer can crawl inside the skin of his or her characters.  She (from here on out, we’re going with the feminine, sorry boys) can see through their eyes, breathe what they breathe and feel what they feel.  Some writers are better at it than others.  I’ve always found it interesting to examine this as I critique fellow writer’s works-in-progress.  Some writers focus first on the outside forces, the details of the scene, the action, the plot.  Others focus on the motivations and emotions of the characters.  In the end, whichever you tend to do in first draft, we all have to cross that line and venture into the territory that makes us least comfortable as writers.  It’s the ability to blend both seamlessly that allows our readers to experience the story on a visceral level.

Me?  I’m a character-first writer all the way. I build them and then I begin crafting a story around them.  From that first step, I’m walking in their shoes (which is why I do very little plotting beforehand).  Never has this been more evident to me than with nine-year-old Starla Claudelle in WHISTLING PAST THE GRAVEYARD.  This character nagged me incessantly before I even started writing the book, whispering in my ear, spouting her wry observations.  She’s fiery, impulsive, a champion for the underdog and brave beyond words.  In other words, she’s the opposite of me as a child—except for the underdog part.  So to create this character, I really did have to concentrate and focus my thoughts to view the world through her eyes. 

But is there such a thing as getting too deep inside your character?  Perhaps.  Perhaps not.  I supposed the end proof is in the readership.  We shall see. 

So here is some of the fallout I recently discovered about going deep.

I was so entrenched in the point of view of Starla that her voice came shining through as if she were telling her story without me sitting between her and the reader.  Which made this book unique (good).  It also made it impossible to switch to any other character’s point of view (bad?).  I did try it—because readers generally like to crawl around inside various characters’ heads and follow them through parts of their lives where the main character isn’t a participant.  But it was just too jarring to shift from Starla’s sassy narrative into any other character.  Even though many of the characters in this book, Eula and Starla’s father in particular, would have made good storytellers.

Starla told her story in the moment, with her nine-year-old understanding (think of Huckleberry Finn), not as a recollection from the perspective of adulthood (think of Scout Finch).  So, I had to finesse the reader into understanding that although this was what Starla thought and understood, she was operating with only her nine-year-old consciousness and might actually be wrong or misconstruing (neither good, nor bad … just more challenging as a writer).

And then there’s the non-writing issue.  I call it The Ooze.  Sometimes when you’re living so many hours a day deep in another life, in another time, that character begins to inhabit and influence your real life.  Of course, when you’re character is a nine-year-old girl it isn’t nearly as dangerous as if, say, your character is an international spy or a serial killer.  Still, that nine-year-old from 1963 can cause you to blurt out un-adult-like comments that draw many a raised eyebrow.

WHISTLING PAST THE GRAVEYARD is my first novel written in first person, so maybe Starla Claudelle stepped so easily across the line between fiction and reality because this was a new experience for me.  Or perhaps it was because of the kind of in-your-face, don’t-mess-with-me character she is.  Whatever the reason, I found myself spouting Starla-esque observations and using 1963 vernacular—sometimes at the most awkward moments.

As I said, my personality couldn’t be farther from Starla’s.  I was an obedient child.  A rule follower.  A conflict avoider (hmmm, still am that).  But I found Starla’s attitude lingering in me after I’d closed my file and backed up my work.  I felt myself being more “prickly.”  Things like, “crap on a cracker” and “don’t get your back up” and “mind your own beeswax” and “truth be told” and “love it enough to marry it” started seeping into my personal dialog.  Wildcats became catamounts.  Purses became pocketbooks.  Music once again came on records and Walter Cronkite became the voice of reason.  I developed a slight Southern accent after listening to Starla talk in my head all day long.  I dropped my g’s in every -ing word.  And I found myself using totally unPC phrases.  When I’d spent the entire day thinking in 1963-speak, I once actually referred to African-Americans as “colored” when talking to my daughter-in-law.  I certainly meant no disrespect, but how embarrassing!  (One thing that incident did was emphasize the vast changes we’ve made in our attitudes over the past forty-some years.  Thank you baby Jesus -- Oh yes, that was another Starla-speak that oozed over.) As I got deeper into the book, the harder it became to mentally step back into the twenty-first century.

It took several weeks after the book was finished to get my language all straightened out again.  Now that I’m going on book tour and doing readings nearly every day, I imagine Starla will begin regaining a foothold in my daily dialog.  I’ll welcome her back … I’ve really missed that little firecracker.

WHISTLING PAST THE GRAVEYARD

July 2, 2013, Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster

July Indie Next List

Summer Okra Pick

A coming of age story set in 1963 segregated Mississippi.  Starla Claudelle's sometimes funny, sometimes dangerous journey to find true family in an unjust and confusing world.

Susan Crandall

www.susancrandall.net

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorSusanCrandall

OFF THE BUS AND ON MY FEET

Judith Arnold

I’ve been writing romance novels since my first publication in 1983. I would probably still be writing romance novels if editors, publishers, agents and karma hadn’t roughed me up a little. But in a period of just a few years, my single-title publisher dumped me, my series-romance editor got laid off, my agent and I parted ways, a bunch of other agents declined to represent me, one agent did finally agree to take me on but failed to sell anything of mine, I left her, I teamed up with another agent who also failed to sell anything of mine, and I left him.

I’d been cruising along in a comfortable romance-fiction bus—smooth ride, beautiful scenery, no complaints. And suddenly, I found myself lying in the rutted breakdown lane, choking on the bus’s exhaust fumes as it continued down the road without me. 

I had two choices: I could remain where I was, watching the bus grow smaller and smaller until it vanished from view, or I could move. I decided to move.

I wrote a mystery, and I wrote The April Tree.

The mystery, Still Kicking, was a hoot. It was a comedy, an affectionate satire of suburban mores. The victim deserved his fate. The heroine saved her own neck, solved the mystery, and enjoyed some great sex along the way.

The April Tree was not a hoot. It was a wrenching emotional exploration of fate and faith. The story of three teenage girls and a college boy whose lives are torn apart by a small-town tragedy, it addressed thoughts and feelings I’ve wrestled with since my own adolescence. I had approached this story many times over the years, from many different angles. Each time, I’d wound up running from what I’d written. But this time, I steeled myself against the fear and forced myself to keep writing.

By the time I’d finished The April Tree, I had sold (without an agent) a humorous women’s fiction novel to Bell Bridge Books. My editor wanted more books from me, and I had these two manuscripts: a funny, breezy mystery and a searing tale of friends learning how to recover from a devastating loss. I figured my editor would have no idea what to do with The April Tree—to be sure, I had no idea what to do with it. But I sent it to her, along with the mystery. I said, “Read The April Tree and be honest. If it’s crap, tell me. If I’ve just wasted a couple of years of my life on this book, let me know. I think you’ll like the mystery, though.”

It turned out she loved both books. The April Tree is out now, and Still Kicking is scheduled for release early next year. I’ve just sent my editor another mystery, a sequel to Still Kicking.

I never set out to reinvent myself. If I hadn’t been booted off the bus, I’d probably still be writing romances. But I did get booted off.

What do you do when you find yourself myself tossed to the side of the highway, bruised and covered with road dust? You stand up, brush yourself off, and start walking in a new direction. If you’re lucky, you’ll discover other roads that will take you to exciting destinations—and you’ll realize that riding a bus isn’t the only way to get where you’re meant to be.

 

USA Today bestselling author Judith Arnold still writes romance novels and novellas which she publishes independently. Her non-romance novels are published by Bell Bridge Books. Her new release, The April Tree, is available in ebook and trade paperback at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. For more information about Judith, please visit her web site.

Writing on the Double: Pen Names and My YA Twin

by Malena Lott
(or is it Lena Brown?)

Sometimes I pinch myself that I get to slip into another world where I can be in control of the universe, the conflicts are thankfully not real (though they feel like it!) and I come away feeling like I've had a great adventure. If you've written more than one book, though, you realize there are limits to those adventures.

As an author, you don't get to go wild with whatever story pops into your head. You have to be somebody pretty special to be able to write whatever the hell you want and still use ONE name. Readers may love your voice, but we're creatures of habit, too. If your "brand" is known for historical romance, readers will look for another book by you and be devastated that your next book is a sci-fi time travel without so much as one good earlobe sucking scene.

So if you do want to write a story unlike what you've been writing...ta-da!...get a new name.

That's just what I did.  In 2009, I needed a break from writing women's fiction. I'd had two books published (The Stork Reality with Dorchester and Dating da Vinci with Sourcebooks) and my option novel was going to require a major rewrite, revised to a single person POV, down from three - and a switch from first to third POV, at that!

I declined the start-from-scratch option on my manuscript, but realized I needed a real breather.  (Though three years later that book was published the way I had first envisioned as Something New and readers seem to like it this way.)

So I thought at the time - I SHOULD REALLY TRY SOMETHING NEW. Ha. See what I did there?

That "something new" became my YA re-invention, Lena Brown, which happened to be my name when I was a teenager. (Best friends called me Leners.)  I tried several story ideas before I landed on Twin Falls about a secret colony of Messenger angels in Twin Falls, Texas. It's in soft launch now at an introductory offer of just .99 in the Kindle Store and by Sunday for nook. It's also available in trade paperback for those teens who prefer to read the old-fashioned way.

Author Reinvention 101

Upside: You get to be creative and have a release for all those story ideas that didn't fit with your "other  established self."

Downside: It means you're starting near zero on platform. While I have a website and Twitter account I started last year to promote short stories under my pen name in YA anthologies, I don't have near the following I do for my women's fiction.

Downside 2: You may start feeling like you have multiple personality disorder. I say this because I'm working on two other projects in two other genres. Could make your head spin keeping up with it all. Thing is, lots of authors do this and do it well. And you can be published with multiple publishers as well as indie publishing, so you can pull it off. It just may take more time and marketing dollars.

I look at my other selves as brands, not people. And it's okay to mesh them when it makes sense. For example, I'm going on a five city book tour starting in late July I'm calling the "fly" sisterhood tour because I'll be promoting both my Twin Falls title *and* my fifth women's fiction novel, Family Charms. Calling it "fly" because one is about angels and the other is about sisters who travel the world to see where there mother has been the last twenty years. (See what I did there?) So you can see it's possible to do tie-ins and cross promotions where it makes sense. I'll be inviting girlfriends, sorority sisters, family and mother/daughters. I'll keep you posted on how it goes! Until then, you've got to meet my gorgeous cowboy angels...

Do you have a transformation or alter-ego story to share? Questions? 

Good luck, whatever you call yourself.