From Blogger to Book Writer: Stasia Ward Kehoe Shares Her Story

Today it is my great pleasure to welcome Stasia Ward Kehoe to Red House Books

Stasia is sharing with us today her journey from Blogger to Book Writer

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It can be hard to admit that you want to be a writer.  Over the years, I occasionally summoned the courage to reveal my ambition, and discovered four common reactions.  People would either:
     (a)    Smile while their eyes glazed over
     (b)   Tell me it’s nearly impossible to get published
     (c)    Tell me they’re thinking about writing a book, too
     (d)   Say, “You’re a wonderful writer—you can do it!” (okay, that was my mom)

So, I spent years writing my fiction quietly, while sharing my love for YA literature on my appropriately-titled blog, Writer on the Side.  I offered insights from my day job in book marketing, discussed novels I admired, and posted photos of my dog in reading glasses.  Then, it happened: In 2010, I got an agent and sold a book.  I kind of wasn't expecting it.  I had planned to keep my dream on hold until my youngest son was in kindergarten and my house was clean, but you know what they say about the best laid plans…

There are many surprises that come with getting published.  One I did not expect, however, was that my sense of identity as a blogger would grow shaky. Could I still call myself a writer ON THE SIDE now that writing was squarely in the middle of my life?  I didn't want my blog to become the story of me-me-me, yet I was learning so much through my own publishing process that I wanted to share.  Could my convivial relationships with other bloggers remain the same as my pub date approached?  When bloggers started writing about my own book’s cover, what was I supposed to do?  Finally, my agent, other writers, and pretty much everyone else kept telling me that I should maintain my online presence BUT NOT NEGLECT WRITING THE NEXT BOOK.  What they couldn't explain was how to add about six hours to every day!

I’d like to tell you that I did some research, learned to live without sleep, and found my way, but I haven’t.  What I have discovered is that the writer-blogger community is as kind and celebratory as it always was, and that a surprising number of bloggers have had the wild experience of becoming published writers and are willing to offer advice.  I have decided that, as a blogger, the best I can do is to be myself.  I may not always strike the right balance or write the best posts when I’m deep in manuscript revisions.  But I am happy to keep on celebrating my love for YA lit with fellow writers, readers, bloggers, and all combinations thereof.  Because we all still want the same thing: The perfect reads for the sunny summer afternoon, the chilly winter morning, and the occasional lonely night.

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Thank you so much Stasia!

Stasia Ward Kehoe blogs at Writer on the Side (www.swardkehoe.blogspot.com) and can also be found at her author site, www.stasiawardkehoe.com.  Her debut novel, AUDITION, published by Viking is on sale now!

Guest Post: Author E. Van Lowe + Giveaway

Today it is my great pleasure to welcome E Van Lowe to Red House Books. 

E shares with us today the story of the beginnings of his TV writing career. 

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People always ask me how I got started writing for television.  Growing up in New York I had no desire to write for TV or film.  I knew I was destined to become a playwright/novelist.  I’m lucky enough to say I am a playwright and a novelist, but most of my career has been spent in TV and some film.

This started when I finished college.  I had written my first horror novel Child’s Play under the pseudonym Sal Conte.  My mentor/professor from USC, Shelly Lowenkopf had high hopes for the novel.  And since he did, so did I.  I envisioned getting one of those dream advances.  I would become a media darling, taking up the author’s seat on late-night couches.  That did not come to pass.

After Child’s Play was rejected by all the major houses, I got the manuscript back from my agent.  Dejected, I went to a newsstand and was looking over paperback original horror titles.  Many of them seemed to be similar to what I was doing.  I sent letters to a number of the publishers, and heard back from Dorchester.  I sent them the manuscript and a few weeks later I received a contract in the mail.  The advance was $5000.  If I wanted to write full time I needed a writing gig that paid a whole lot more.

I was lamenting my situation to a friend who said “why don’t you try writing for TV?”  My brother and I watched a lot of TV when I was a kid.  I mean LOTS of TV.  Having watched so much, I felt I had a good handle on TV, but I’d never seen a teleplay.  I’d spent two and a half years at USC and not bothered to look at anything dealing with television.

The calling card for a TV writer is his/her spec script.  This is an episode of a popular show that you write.  You have to make sure you don’t write subjects the show has already covered, and you have to sound exactly like the show.  That was the challenge for me: fresh idea on a popular show, while capturing the characters voices exactly.  It’s not as easy as it seems.  You need a good script, and a lot of luck to get the right people to read it.

Eleven spec scripts in, my luck kicked in.  I met a producer at MTM, one of the major production companies back then—Taxi, Bob Newhart and The Mary Tyler-Moore Show.  It was Mary’s company—MTM.  The producer was honest enough to tell me I was doing everything wrong.  He mentored me on writing a new spec script.  The script caught the eye of a few big companies.  Both wanted to sign me.  Happy days.  I signed with Universal in 1985, and haven’t looked back.  For Universal TV I wrote, He’s The Mayor, Charles In Charge and Knight Rider.  One thing I knew when I started working was one day I would return to writing books.  Books were my first love. What I didn’t realize is it would take twenty-two years.

That’s how it happened for me.  I kept writing and eventually got lucky.  That, to me, is the formula for success as a writer—if you keep working hard, and eventually you will get lucky.  However, while I was working at getting lucky, I think I gained some skill. The first four chapters (pdf) of Boyfriend From Hell are available for free right now on my website. Readers can go to http://evanlowe.com/  and click on the Boyfriend From Hell Sample link to get them.  Please read them, and let me know if the hard work and luck has paid off.   Peace.

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Thank you so much E for sharing your story! I absolutely love Knight Rider - so very cool that you wrote for the show, probably while I was watching it :)

E's first young adult novel, Never Slow Dance with a Zombie released in 2009 and his second novel, Boyfriend From Hell (Falling Angels #1) hit shelves earlier this month.

Place's to find E. Van Lowe
Website
Blog
Facebook
Twitter

GIVEAWAY

Thanks to Roxanne from Bewitching Book Tours  I have 1 print copy of Boyfriend from Hell for a US resident 13 years or older. Fill out the form for a chance to win! 

Guest Post: Author Charlie Higson

Today I have the pleasure of welcoming Charlie Higson to Red House Books.

Charlie is the author of The Enemy series. Book 2, The Dead, releases today in the US. Thanks for visiting :)

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People often ask me why I write horrible stories in which children are terrified, chased around, killed and eaten. After all, my biggest fear, as a parent, is that some harm might come to one of my own kids. Well, maybe that’s the answer. In order to frighten others (the main, though not the sole, purpose of a horror story) we must write about what frightens us. I think novelists have always used their books not only to explore things they are interested in, but also to unload their own fears, neuroses and concerns; they play with their darkest thoughts and utilize their most unpleasant characteristics.

It must be said that children love horror, and the biggest consumers of horror movies are teenagers. I was a horror movie fiend when I was younger, but I’ve found, like many others, that my appetite for gory movies has diminished as I’ve grown older and the impactions of what we’re being shown on screen sink in. As an adult I am all too aware of (to borrow a film title) the consequences of violence. Kids just love horror movies for the gore and the gross out effects. It’s no surprise that the adjective ‘sick’ has now come to mean something especially good. Teenagers don’t realize the lifetime of fear and pain and guilt that real violence can cause, which is why they can so casually attack other teenagers for status. As an adult I increasingly question the use of killing and violence for entertainment, but it hasn’t stopped me writing these books. So I guess I’m a big fat hypocrite.

There are several reasons to write horror books, though. I am revisiting my teenage love of the genre. I am trying to show that violence and death are actually not very nice and, to be honest, I am also trying to keep my teenage boys happy. They are all massive horror fans. Actually that’s no strictly speaking true. My middle boy is a little bit more sensitive and gets freaked out. He hasn’t yet been able to read The Dead.

So we use horror to explore and confront our own fears, maybe it’s a fun and not too ‘on-the-nose’ way for young people to learn about death and disease and injury… to come to terms with their own fragile morality. Also, it must be said that all the best horror has an allegorical/satirical edge. George Romero’s zombie films became increasingly political, but what gives even his first film – Night Of The Living Dead (the first and the best of the cannibal zombie apocalypse movies, and the film that got me into zombies when I saw it as a teenager) – its bite is its strong element of satire. Something which is perhaps not unexpected in a movie that was originally made as a student film project in the radicalized late 60s. The film explores notions of racism, police brutality and government indifference. Zombies originally took hold in America as a twisted representation and critique of slavery, and since Romero re-invented them as flesh-eating cannibals they have been perfect metaphors for mindless consumerism.

So what do the adult zombies in my books represent? Well, just that… They represent adults. For a while now we have been brainwashed by the media into thinking that teenagers are a threat, that they are mindless, out of control, monsters who terrorize us poor adults. Come off it. As I say, I have three teenage boys of my own, and I see a great deal of them and their friends. Modern teenagers, in my view, are on the whole friendly, decent, open, sensitive and caring. It’s us adults who (as the title of the first book in my series suggests) are The Enemy. We’ve screwed things up for kids. Most problems in young people’s lives are our fault, and in writing these books I wanted to redress the balance a little. Oh, the kids in my books aren’t all precious little angels, and there are some pretty nasty cases, on the whole, though, they’re the ones who are trying to ape the old ways, to behave in the way they observed adults behaving in the past.

In future pieces for my blog tour I’ll be further exploring the theme of kids vs. adults in literature, so stick around and watch out for further details.

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Thanks again Charlie. If you haven't yet picked up The Enemy and The Dead, you should! For more information, visit Charlie's website.

Lemniscate Release Day - Chapter 1 + Prizes

Happy Release Day Lemniscate! 

Book 2 in Jennifer Murgia's Angel Star series comes out today :)
As you may recall, in preparation for this joyous event, some bloggers (myself included) participated in a Quote Hop!
Possible prizes were mentioned ;)

If you commented on my Quote Hop post OR if you comment on this post, you will be entered for a chance to win copies of both Angel Star and Lemniscate or a beautiful double wing necklace.

Also, in celebration, Jennifer has released into the wild (via some very wild book bloggers :) Chapter 1 of Lemniscate!

Read it below, comment and on this Wednesday Jennifer will pick the winners!

Are you ready?

Here it is!

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Chapter One

     It had been raining for three days straight. I rolled onto my side to face the window towards the bit of light glowing behind the thin skin of my eyelids and grew excited for a moment, thinking today the sun might finally make an appearance. I should have known better. Under normal circumstances I would have been more than happy to cinch my covers in closer, keeping the warmth in as long as possible, thawing my flannel-wrapped arm after mercilessly sending it out into the open to slam the snooze button. But not today. 

     I opened my eyes to Garreth standing at the glass, his skin reflecting back a pale glimmer against the dry side of the window. My warm light on the bleakest of Monday mornings was tracing the crooked lines of water with his finger, seemingly deep in thought.

     “Writing love notes to me on my window?” I mused out loud, stretching my cramped legs toward the bottom of my quilted bed. I propped myself up onto my elbow as he turned around, his striking blue eyes reminded me of his perfection.

     Each day I’m astounded to find him here with me.

     My angel. My guardian. My boyfriend.

     Garreth has been earthbound for months now, choosing to live the life of a mortal just so he can spend each and every waking moment with me. It’s not that he’s giving up an extraordinary existence, he’s just trading part of one for another. He’s still my guardian, still here to protect me. True, there isn’t anything human about him besides the charade he plays for others, and his looks, which, now that I think about it, aren’t quite human either. I remember the irregular heartbeats I felt the first time we met at school last spring. The way I would feel all weak and fluttery. Words can’t describe what he means to me. My mother would call it unhealthy and irrational if she ever learned the true depth of my emotions. Anyone would. 

     Garreth’s aura isn’t like the average guy running around my school or at the mall. He’s pure. Surreal. And his heart beats only for me. I should feel important and flattered, I know. But honestly, it makes me uncomfortable. Why anyone would give up the freedom of roaming the heavens to be stranded here is beyond me.

     Especially for me.

     “You’re awake,” he said, walking slowly to my bedside. Sitting down and looking deeply into my eyes, Garreth bent to kiss me good morning. His hand rested gently on my cheek, allowing me to feel the exceptional warmth of his skin, his soft touch nearly lulling me back to sleep.

     “Oh, no you don’t. It’s time for you to get up.”

     “Please tell me it’s Saturday,” I murmured, forcing my face into my pillow.

     “Unfortunately, it’s Monday and unfortunately again, we have a calculus test today.” Garreth nudged my ribs and I couldn’t help giggling.

     “Ok, ok! I’m up!” I smiled into his chiseled face. He looked as handsome as always. His sandy hair, tousled as usual, hung seductively over his brilliant blue eyes. My eyes traced the strong bridge of his nose, which led to his perfect lips, and I let my eyes rest there for a few minutes. Picking up on my thoughts, he bent lower. I could smell the warmth of his skin, fragrant and spicy, as if he’d just showered with an amazing fragrance not yet discovered and bottled. It was his scent, an incense of sorts that belonged only to him and gently surrounded him like his aura. It made me dizzy, but I loved it. I closed my eyes as his lips rested softly on mine and my arms wove up and around his neck to keep him longer.

     “Test? Remember?” He grasped my hands, still clasped behind his neck, and uncurled my fingers with a gentle strength, bringing them to rest at my sides. “Later . . . later you can kiss me and not let go,” he whispered softly into my hair and then stood up.

     “Of course you’ll ace this test. You have infinite knowledge.” I was being sarcastically playful, and Garreth rolled his eyes.

     “I’ll make sure I get a few wrong.”

     “Gee, thanks,” I responded.

     I could hear my mother stirring down the hall. Within minutes she’d be padding softly in this direction to her shower and stop at my door along the way, urging me to wake up. She’s not aware that I’m usually up by this point, nor is she aware that Garreth is the one to wake me before she ever gets the chance to.

     A dresser drawer scraped shut, usually Garreth’s clue for a silent, celestial exit, knowing twenty minutes from now he’d be knocking on the kitchen door to take me to school. I kissed him goodbye with one last chance to see the blue of his eyes sparkle like diamonds. Like clockwork, my mother’s knuckles rapped at my door.

     Only twenty minutes longer.

     That’s all I have to wait.

     Twenty minutes.

Guest Post: Author Alexander Gordon Smith

Today I have the pleasure of welcoming Alexander Gordon Smith to Red House Books. 

Gordon, as he is known socially, is the author of the Escape from Furnace series. The first two books, Lockdown and Solitary  have be released in the US and they are awesome! 

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Horror and Me

I love horror. It’s my absolute favourite genre. I think it always has been, even though my experiences with it haven’t always been good ones! I love horror because of the thrills, the unnerving, unsettling unexpectedness of it. And I love to be scared, the incredible feeling that everything you thought was real might suddenly turn out to be wrong, that the fabric of the universe might peel away to reveal something else, something terrifying beyond. There really is nothing like it.

I think maybe the main reason I love horror, especially as a writer, is that it’s the only genre where absolutely anything can happen. There are no rules. With, say, science fiction you have to stick to whatever science you’re using, even with fantasy you need to adhere to the world you’ve created. But in horror, there are no limits on what can happen. The laws of physics, psychology, biology, religion – everything – can fall apart without warning, plunging you into the abyss. There are countless different kinds of horror, but they all have this in common: they are rule-breakers, they make a mockery of everything we take for granted.

I didn’t know this when I first started writing – I was only six or seven – but part of me must have been fascinated by horror, by the unknown, because my very first book was a collection of monsters. They were just doodles accompanied by names – creatures such as the Ploop and the, er, Poo – and they all had smiley faces rather than scary ones. All the same, I remember showing the book to my mum and dad hoping they’d be at least a little bit scared – and being very disappointed when their only reaction was along the lines of ‘aw, aren’t they cute!’

My first experience of genuine horror almost put me off the genre for life! When I was about the same age, I used to go and visit my gran up in Scotland. I must have told her that I loved horror – by which I meant my little book of monsters and, well, Scooby-Doo. My gran worked in a newsagent’s that also rented videos, and one day, thinking she was getting me a real treat, she brought home a stack of R-rated slasher movies. I don’t remember the titles, but I do remember sitting in her living room, wide-eyed, watching chainsaws and zombies and cannibals and lots and lots and lots of blood. I didn’t have the courage to tell her I was petrified, and every time I tried to look away she’d say something like ‘oh look at that, Gordon, it’s sucking his eyeballs out!’

For a while after that I didn’t go anywhere near horror. I couldn’t even watch Scooby-Doo. But in the long run I think that experience desensitized me to the genre, because by the time I hit my teens I was once again addicted to it. I would read Stephen King almost religiously, I devoured the works of the masters – Stoker, Shelley, Lovecraft, Poe, M. R. James, Blackwood and loads more. I started to write stories of my own. They were silly, and not very good, but my friends would ask me to make up tales of their own grisly deaths. I even got into trouble by writing a story in English about a serial killer who murdered all my teachers – apart from my English teacher, of course, who was wonderful!

When I was twelve, I wanted to become the Ernest Hemingway of horror. I wanted to investigate haunted houses and genuine paranormal events then write novels about them. This ambition didn’t last. One night in summer I managed to convince my best friend – whose name shall remain anonymous for reasons that will soon become apparent – to sneak out after dark to a nearby house. It had been abandoned for years, and everybody said it was haunted by the woman who once lived there. We climbed in through a broken window armed with torches and coffee, thinking that we were the coolest paranormal investigators ever. We set off into the winding corridors, and after about five minutes we had both wound each other up so much in the creeping shadows that we were almost paralyzed with fear. We bolted for the exit, and I was so scared that I had to keep stopping to throw up all the way back to the main road. I thought my friend had escaped with a little more dignity… until I saw that he had wet himself! It was a disaster, and needless to say my dreams of being the Hemingway of Horror died there.

I continued to write, though, and when I was seventeen I began my first real horror novel. It was called Asylum, and was actually set in a prison called Furnace – although the plot was very different to the Escape From Furnace series. I absolutely loved writing it, the freedom that the genre gave me to let absolutely anything happen. In fact, I loved writing it so much that I failed my A-Levels (our main high school exams), because I just assumed I was going to be the next Stephen King. I sent the finished manuscript out to about five different publishers, all of whom rejected it. One even told me that I should seek help because of my disturbed mind!

Despite this hitch, I never really stopped writing horror. And I hope I never do. Horror is terrifying, yes, it makes us hide behind the sofa, or cower under the duvet, but it also allows our imaginations to soar, it pushes back the walls of reality and lets us believe that anything is possible. Horror scares us, but it frees us too. That’s why I love it.

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Like what Gordon has to say about his take on horror? I sure did! Thanks Gordon!

CLICK HERE for a chance to win copies of both Lockdown and Solitary.

Extra entry for commenting on this post.

Guest Post: Author Brenda Pandos

Hi guys! Today we have a special guest. Please welcome Brenda Pandos, author of  The Emerald Talisman and it's upcoming sequel, The Sapphire Talisman.

The Emerald Talisman was a great read for me (review to come soon!) and I highly recommend it.

Thanks for visiting Brenda!

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I think if my book were turned into a movie, this is who I’d like to cast as my characters.

Charlie Weber as Nicholas

(I had to include him without a shirt)

Blake Lively as Julia

Matthew Czuchry as Phil

Ashely Greene as Samantha

Katy Perry as Katie (Imagine the coincidence in names)

Stacy Haiduk as Alora

Of course, these are based on looks and I’ve not seen most of these people act, so I wouldn’t know if they fit the part. 

Thanks for having me on your blog!

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It was great having you Brenda :)

The Sapphire Talisman can be pre-ordered here.

For more Brenda awesomeness, be sure to visit the other stops on the tour.