Wednesday Rewind: Book Spotlight│When You Give an Imp a Penny by Henry Herz

When You Give an Imp a Penny

by Henry Herz  (Author), Harrison Herz (Author), 

Josh Herz (Author), Abigail Larson (Illustrator)

Hardcover: 32 pages

Publisher: Pelican Publishing Company, Inc. (February 1, 2016)

About the book:

Before you lend an imp a penny, there’s something you should know—such a simple act of generosity could set off a side-splitting chain of events! A colorful picture book full of mythology, mischief, and magic, WHEN YOU GIVE AN IMP A PENNY shows us just what happens when an accident-prone—but well-intentioned—imp comes along asking for favors! The same writer/illustrator duo that brought you MONSTER GOOSE NURSERY RHYMES brings to life a comedy of fabled proportions.

Sneak Peak 

Read more about Imps HERE

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** Wednesday Rewind features previously published Guest Posts and Book Spotlights in this site.

**post originally published in 2016.

Wednesday Rewind: Book Spotlight│Jamie Quinn Mystery Collection by Barbara Venkataraman

Jamie Quinn Mystery Collection

by Barbara Venkataraman

About the book:

Books 1-3 of the Jamie Quinn Mystery Series! Including:

"Death by Didgeridoo"-Winner of the Indie Book of the Day award. Reluctant lawyer, Jamie Quinn, still reeling from the death of her mother, is pulled into a game of deception, jealousy, and vengeance when her cousin, Adam, is wrongfully accused of murder. It's up to Jamie to find the real murderer before it's too late. It doesn't help that the victim is a former rock star with more enemies than friends, or that Adam confessed to a murder he didn't commit.

"The Case of the Killer Divorce"-Reluctant lawyer, Jamie Quinn, has returned to her family law practice after a hiatus due to the death of her mother. It's business as usual until a bitter divorce case turns into a murder investigation, and Jamie's client becomes the prime suspect. When she can't untangle truth from lies, Jamie enlists the help of Duke Broussard, her favorite private investigator, to try to clear her client's name. And she’s hoping that, in his spare time, he can help her find her long-lost father.

"Peril in the Park"-There's big trouble in the park system. Someone is making life difficult for Jamie Quinn's boyfriend, Kip Simons, the new director of Broward County parks. Was it the angry supervisor passed over for promotion? The disgruntled employee Kip recently fired? Or someone with a bigger ax to grind? If Jamie can't figure it out soon, she may be looking for a new boyfriend because there’s a dead guy in the park and Kip has gone missing! With the help of her favorite P.I., Duke Broussard, Jamie must race the clock to find Kip before it’s too late.

Excerpt

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** Wednesday Rewind features previously published Guest Posts and Book Spotlights in this site.

**post originally published in 2016.

Wednesday Rewind: Guest Author│Mike Phillips' Hazard of Shadows

Hello everyone, and thank you for reading my guest post. My name is Mike Phillips and my new book is Hazard of Shadows. I have been asked to talk about some of the more interesting characters in the book, the goblins. 

In folklore and literature, goblins have always been evil creatures. To this day, goblins are hiding in our closets and under our beds. They are wicked monsters that are no happier than when they are burning fields or robbing cradles. Living on the fringes of society as they must to avoid camera phones and governmental laboratories, goblins lead harsh lives. Once they have been won over, goblins are the best sort of friends. They may have terrible manners, they may say awful things, they may smell bad, but we can all be that way sometimes. In the end, my use of goblins helps us see the best in humanity.

Writing about goblins was a riot! Goblins live on the fringes of human society. They make their homes in junk yards, abandoned buildings, sewer systems, and anywhere else people try to avoid. Once they find a likely spot, the get to work. Goblins are clever with tools and machinery. They will use and repurpose anything they can get their hands on, so many of their dwellings look like they were designed by frat-boys. Not always the best of neighbors, goblins have to take security seriously. They construct elaborate pitfalls to keep themselves safe from enemies like collapsing tunnels, pongee pits, and mechanical traps. 

Goblins, like their human counterparts, each have a unique personality. They live in what they call crews, a sort of family, a lot like college dorm-mates. Each goblin has a special skill. One might be a bully (a most desirable skill in the goblin world). Another might be crafty at making traps. Some use sorcery or poison. Others are good at machinery. Some just eat a lot (another desirable skill). Goblins, in general, have a loose sense of morality. If it doesn’t hurt another member of the crew, with the obvious exception of fighting, then it’s usually okay. Fighting is always acceptable behavior, though if an enemy is around, a goblin is expected to stop fighting the other crew member and start fighting the enemy. Common sense rules like that are the cornerstone of goblin society. 

That brings us to the topic of goblin social structure. Goblin society is feudal. They organize in crews, bound by familial ties or friendship. These associations are loosely formed, and if a goblin wants to go it alone, no one holds a grudge. A crew may have two or three leaders at a time. It is not unusual for goblins to disagree, so sometimes they have no real leader at all. Though they fight with each other like crazy, but they are deeply loyal in times of trouble and would do anything for the other members of their crew. No female goblins appear in Hazard of Shadows, but that is a topic for another time.  

People have been asking how to make friends with goblins, so I thought I’d wrap things up by talking about that. Goblins are monsters, after all. To begin with, don’t look like a victim. They are predators. If you run they will chase you down. The secret to making friends with goblins is not to treat them like animals. They won’t be trained and can’t be suckered. Think of them as that particularly feisty aunt that always speaks her mind. So if you want to make a goblin your friend, it’s best to start with an act of kindness. Goblins have hard lives and even a small act of kindness means a lot to them. In the book, Mitch does a favor for a goblin without even knowing it. In turn, the goblin rescues Mitch from a pan dimensional, man-eating dumpster. Friends like that are hard to find!

Thank you so much for joining me. I hope you enjoy Hazard of Shadows and The World Below. Please visit me at mikephillipsfantasy.com.

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** Wednesday Rewind features previously published Guest Posts and Book Spotlights in this site.

**post originally published in 2015.

Wednesday Rewind: Guest Author│Annette Oppenlander's Escape from the Past: The Duke’s Wrath

I’d like to thank Jenai for allowing me to share the background story of my novel, “Escape from the Past: The Duke’s Wrath.” For this novel, inspiration firmly hit me in the forehead.

In 2012 a friend of mine suggested I visit the ruins of Castle Hanstein near Kassel, Germany. It was a beautiful day and I couldn’t believe my eyes when we drove up the mountain to park our car. 

Castle Hanstein floats majestically above the valleys, its walls fused to the red rock it sits on. We climbed the rest of the way on foot, but once I stepped into the inner bailey and through the portcullis I knew I had found an amazing place. Most of the walls, six to nine feet thick, are broken and half torn down, thanks to the Swedes visiting during the 30-year war. However, you get a feel for the rooms, most windows still showing built-in stone seats. The great hall, recreated to house weddings and other events, is now situated in a different spot, but it is easy to imagine lords and ladies meeting here.

One of the towers was restored and used to serve as an observation point for the former East German military. Castle Hanstein is situated very close to the border between Thuringia and Hesse. You can still climb all the way to the top through an ever more narrow winding stone staircase. The view is breathtaking with gently sloped hills and valleys, farmland, the occasional church tower of a quaint village. It’s like looking at a painting. Wedged between two valleys flows the river, Werra which takes on an important role in my book.

Off to the side of the staircase I came across a kemenate, French for chimney room, meaning a room heatable by a fireplace. In the Middle Ages such rooms typically were occupied by the ladies and their small children. On the wall I found a short description of Werner von Hanstein, a knight who’d lived here in the late 15th century. For eight years he’d feuded with a duke over a beautiful woman. 

After walking through the ruins, then reading about about Werner I was hooked. I knew I had to write a story about this castle. 

The second part to the story came dealing with my two now adult sons.  Both boys were and are avid gamers and at times it seriously bothered me, seeing them spend umpteen hours in front of the PC. So, maybe it was just natural that I imagined one of them being sucked into the game. 

I hope you’ll enjoy gamer Max’s adventure in medieval Germany. 

Escape from the Past: 

The Duke’s Wrath

by Annette Oppenlander

Paperback: 299 pages
Publisher: Lodestone Books (July 31, 2015)

About the book:

When fifteen-year-old nerd and gamer Max Anderson thinks he's sneaking a preview of an unpublished video game, he doesn't realize that 1) He's been chosen as a beta, an experimental test player. 2) He’s playing the ultimate history game, transporting him into the actual past: anywhere and anytime. And 3) Survival is optional: to return home he must decipher the game's rules and complete its missions—if he lives long enough. To fail means to stay in the past—forever. Now Max is trapped in medieval Germany, unprepared and clueless. It is 1471 and he quickly learns that being an outcast may cost him his head. Especially after rescuing a beautiful peasant girl from a deadly infection and thus provoking sinister wannabe Duke Ott. Overnight he is dragged into a hornets' nest of feuding lords who will stop at nothing to bring down the conjuring stranger in their midst.

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Wednesday Rewind: Guest Author│Being A Ghost Writer (Wally Wood)

Although I have made my living as a ghostwriter of business books for the last twenty-plus years, I’ve always thought of myself as a novelist. I’ve been writing fiction—short stories, plays, novels, even some poetry—since I was 14 years old. I’ve been in fiction workshops, poetry workshops, and earned an MA in creative writing from the City University of New York. As a volunteer, I’ve taught creative writing to middle-school students and to prisoners in two different state prisons. None of this, of course, says anything whatever about my writing. 

I was brought up to believe that if a book were good enough, it would eventually find a publisher and an audience. After all, anecdotes circulate to prove it: The Bridges of Madison County was rejected by 29 publishers before Warner Books took a chance on it. Stephen King had given up on Carrie (and writing) when his wife rescued it from the trash. John Kennedy Toole had not only given up, he killed himself after A Confederacy of Dunces was rejected. But those are all books about which we’ve heard. How many worthwhile books are never published? (The flip side of that question—how many atrocious books are published?—is not a subject I want to address.)

In my experience, hundreds—thousands!—of reasons exist not to write fiction. There’s no money in it. The world doesn’t need another book. Your story is banal, the characters cardboard, the setting hackneyed, and what’s more you never learned to use the comma properly. So why do it?

I’m sure the reasons are as varied as individual writers. I do it because it helps me impose meaning and structure on experience. It helps me to live what I consider to be a full life.
An inmate student once asked me, “What is the meaning of life?” I did not have a good answer then, or now, but I’ve come to believe that one’s life means what you make it mean. Within a novel, lives and experience do have meaning or the writer wouldn’t have included the action, incident, or dialogue. In fiction, after all, you can’t get away with the preposterous, and meaningless, coincidences that routinely occur in life. As Harry Turtledove (of all people) is credited with saying, “The difference between fiction and non-fiction is that fiction must be plausible.”

All of this is to say that I like to read and write fiction that tells me something about the world and people in it that I cannot get from, say, a travel guide, a biography, or a history. I speak Japanese and have led tours of Japan. It seemed a natural step to put a dozen fictional characters in real Japanese locations in Getting Oriented: A Novel About Japan. Do readers learn something about Japan? Something. About the human condition? Something. About the way the world works? Something. 

As a ghostwriter, I believe my role is to help the author say whatever he or she wants to say as clearly and effectively as possible. My stock phrase is, “all the ideas are the author’s, all the words are mine.” That’s not strictly true because I record my interviews and work from the transcripts, so many of the words actually are the author’s.

In my first conversation with a new client I ask what an editor asks: Is there a market for this book? If so, how big a market? Is the subject worth a book? What are the author’s qualifications? Do other, similar, books exist? In some cases, I work with the author to create a proposal that we sell to a publisher before we begin to write the book. 

I spend as much time as I can with the author to immerse myself in that world. I went to one author’s day-long seminar then spent almost another day and a half interrogating him before I began the book proposal. If the author has speeches, white papers, presentations, whatever, I want them. Once we have a structure for the book and a tentative table of contents, I ask questions like: What do you want the reader to know at the end of this chapter? Is this the best order to present the information? What else should we include?

We meet regularly throughout the writing process, although today that meeting may be via phone or e-mail. For one recent book, I did not meet a California-based author in person until after the book appeared. I send the author every chapter as I write to ask for feedback, and some authors are far more hands-on than others, editing what I have written, which is fine. It is still his/her book.

Ideally, the relationship between author and ghostwriter is as intimate as a good marriage; no secrets, no hidden agendas, no lies or evasions. I don’t see myself as a pair of hands, pounding a keyboard on behalf of the author, but as an equal collaborating for a common goal. All of my authors contractually do acknowledge me inside the book.

I get asked about the relationship between my ghostwriting and my creative writing. With a business book, I have a wealth of material to work from. With fiction, I have to make everything up. While I use fictional techniques to great effect in non-fiction (description, scene-setting, dialogue), I have no limits—beyond plausibility—in fiction. In a novel, I can tell you what a character is thinking and feeling. In non-fiction I can tell you only what I’ve been told or learned through research and experience. 

In any event, while writing Getting Oriented was immense work, it also gave me enormous pleasure. I can only hope that the readers who find it and read it receive half as much enjoyment as I had creating it.

About the author:

My new novel, "Death in a Family Business" was inspired by experiences I had as a business magazine editor and as a SCORE counselor. The original working title was "How to Save a Sick Store," and while the business in the novel is very sick, and while the characters work effectively to save it, that title makes the book sound like something you'd find on the bookstore's "Business" shelves, which would be the wrong place.

Because I like novels that tell me something about how the world works, those are the novels I like to write. So even if you've never worked in a retail store or been to Japan, I trust you'll find the information interesting—not to mention the characters and the story. 

.. read more HERE

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Wednesday Rewind: Guest Author│Laurie Roper's Travels to the Sixth Dimension

As a fashion director, publicist, journalist, teacher, staff developer, parenting coach, seminar leader, good friend, loving daughter, major party girl in the 70’s – I've certainly had many incarnations even in this life.  These varied vocations and avocations speak to that fact.

I was born with memories of past lives, and began seeing some complex algorithms and number codes appear before my eyes, even as a child.  I decided something was up, and not getting any pertinent feedback, I finally started to delve into the mystical side of life as a young adult, studying metaphysics, sacred geometry, eastern religions' alternative healing therapies, astral projection, and all sorts of "woo woo" stuff – things which are usually described as anything outside the conventional line of thinking.

Finally, I experienced an epiphany at the tender age of 45, when I began studying Keylontic Science – the science of multi-dimensional anatomy, ascension, DNA activation and high level quantum physics, to explain how we got here (planet earth, that is), where we came from (somewhere not from planet earth), who we really are (the bigger picture, as we are not just our physical body for sure),  and where we’re ultimately going.  That could be a choice of a few options! 

With an "ahhHa!" and a big light bulb that tortuously zinged above my head, because sometimes you have to experience a little pain to be reminded, I realized I myself was an indigo – that first wave of conscious people who began to reincarnate on this planet about 100 years ago.  One of my missions would be to share the information with the new incarnates – those kids who recently choose to be born here in this space and time.  They too, have special talents, and they are even more gifted than the "old guard".  These young adults and little ones can blow your mind with their wisdom and talents because they need to share the  knowledge which will change our destiny.  They must 'step up to the plate’ ASAP!

So, fortuitously, I figured, instead of having them wait until they reached their 40's to put the puzzle together, I undertook to write a trilogy of self-help books for young indigoes as a wake-up call, in order that they may understand their abilities and use them wisely.  Now, if that’s not a cool mission, I don’t know what is!  Granted, I get a little help from my personal mentors off-planet, and I’d be delighted to share the credit with them in my new book, but they prefer anonymity for now.  

Travels to the Sixth Dimension: A Journey Through Hyper-Space is the first of a trilogy for youngsters who have the innate wisdom to know there is more to life than meets the eye, and have a thirst to know why we are here, how we got here, and where we’re going.  It’s full of heart and humor as TeTe fills in the gaps with irreverent and quirky comments to deliberately get Jackson thinking and questioning.

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Wednesday Rewind: Guest Author│One Writer’s Journey to Becoming a Bestselling Author (Cheryl Kaye Tardif)

One Writer’s Journey to Becoming a Bestselling Author

Like most writers, getting published was a long process and a bit of a struggle, and I could have given up any time. But I had a dream—a huge one—and it wouldn’t let go of me. As a teen I yearned to be the next Stephen King or Dean Koontz or James Patterson or Heather Graham.

I queried traditional publishers and received what most authors do—rejection letters. One after the other. I have so many I could probably wallpaper my office twice. After a while, this becomes very discouraging. So I set aside my big dreams for quite a few years. Almost twenty years ago I tried again, this time with a children’s picture book. It went nowhere.

In 2003, I heard about Print On Demand publishing companies. They were similar to the old-style vanity presses but cheaper because they only printed books as readers or authors ordered them. I decided that I wanted to self-publish, and that’s the route I chose. Borrowing money from my mother, I delved into publishing my first novel, WHALE SONG. And I embraced self-publishing fully, even though many warned me it would destroy my chances and career. I set out to prove them wrong.

I published DIVINE INTERVENTION in 2004, hoping it would really take off so I could pursue writing a series. In 2005 I published THE RIVER, a techno-thriller that takes place in an area of Canada’s north that’s nicknamed the Bermuda Triangle of Canada. By this time, I had learned how to have successful book signings and how to capture the attention of the media.

In 2006 my first novel, WHALE SONG, was picked up by a small and new traditional company. It was re-released in 2007. Two years later the company went into bankruptcy after mismanaging funds. Fortunately for me, I didn’t let this stop me. In this time I managed to interest a literary agent from New York named Scovil Galen Ghosh at the time. It has since been renamed.

In 2010, Amazon’s publishing platform, now known as KDP, opened to Canadian writers, and I jumped on the bandwagon. Since then, I have successfully republished all of my works and released an average of three books a year. Around this time, I decided to separate from my agent, thinking I would simply pursue self-publishing. 2011 brought me two Chinese translation deals for WHALE SONG and CHILDREN OF THE FOG.

Then 2012 came along, and Amazon introduced KDP Select, a method for independent authors and small publishers to offer works for free for a limited time in order to gain a strong readership and possible after-sales. And it worked! One of my titles, CHILDREN OF THE FOG, was #4 on Amazon’s overall bestseller list, out of over two million ebooks. That was the year I earned 60% more than my husband did, and he had a six-figure income. It was also the year that a Turkish translation of THE RIVER came out; it was featured prominently at the Istanbul Book Fair that year.

2012 was also the year that Amazon came knocking, along with an editor from a major publishing house and a literary agent from a well-respected New York agency. Amazon offered me a couple of special promotions that were by invitation only. The publisher was interested in CHILDREN OF THE FOG but I chose not to relinquish my rights. Never would I have ever guessed, back in 2003 or earlier, that I would turn down an offer from one of the Big 5! Next, I signed with Trident Literary Agency—my second agent.

2013 was also another stellar income year. It brought me two audiobook deals.

2014 saw the release of the German CHILDREN OF THE FOG, DES NEBELS KINDER, and it immediately made multiple bestseller lists on Amazon in June. This year also brought me a 4-book German deal for THE RIVER and my Divine Trilogy, the last of which (DIVINE SANCTUARY) was originally published in English on June 18th. And there’s a big possibility that by the time this blog post comes out, I’ll have a German deal for my psychological thriller, SUBMERGED. And by the way, remember that children’s book I tried to get published almost 20 years ago? It was published this year.

So how do I feel when I look back over the past 10+ years? I have been on a wondrous journey, with exciting twists and turns, a virtual rollercoaster ride that sometimes made me wince in fear or doubt but also made me shriek with delight. I am truly blessed to be doing what I love, what I’ve dreamt about since I was a teen. I’m not the next Stephen King or Dean Koontz or James Patterson or Heather Graham, like I had hoped to be. I’m Cheryl Kaye Tardif, and I’ve learned that that is the best dream to have—to be uniquely me. J

Cheryl’s Bio:

Cheryl Kaye Tardif is an award-winning, international bestselling Canadian suspense author represented by Trident Media Group in New York. Her novels include Divine Sanctuary, Submerged, Divine Justice, Children of the Fog, The River, Divine Intervention, Lancelot’s Lady (written under the pen name of Cherish D’Angelo) and Whale Song, which New York Times bestselling author Luanne Rice calls "a compelling story of love and family and the mysteries of the human heart...a beautiful, haunting novel." Cheryl also has three Stephen King-inspired works: Dream House (short story), Skeletons in the Closet & Other Creepy Stories and Remote Control (novelette). Cheryl is also the owner/publisher of Imajin Books, a hybrid publishing company.

Booklist raves, "Tardif, already a big hit in Canada…a name to reckon with south of the border."

Cheryl's website / Official blog / Twitter / Facebook / Goodreads / Amazon / Imajin Books 

Wednesday Rewind: Guest Author│MYSTERY—SUSPENSE, SO WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE? (Cindy McDonald)

MYSTERY—SUSPENSE, SO WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE??

I’ve had several readers and reviewers post that they love my mysteries. Ahhh, but most recently I had a reviewer complain that she was upset because there was no mystery involved in one of my latest books, and there’s a darn good reason for that: I simply do not write mysteries! While some readers and reviewers put my books in the mystery category, the simple fact is that I write murder suspense and romantic suspense novels.

Okay, so what’s the difference?

A mystery writer holds their cards close to their chest. Bit by bit the mystery writer will slowly feed you clues as to who killed the poor widow who lives in the Victorian mansion on the hill. During the course of the story they will throw suspicion in several directions and perhaps throw a few twists into the plot to keep the reader guessing all the way to the end as to whodunit. A very good mystery writer will surprise you.

A suspense writer holds nothing back. The suspense writer tells you straight up that the handsome, young man whose car broke down during the storm and showed up at the poor widow’s door asking to use her phone killed her. But now will her beautiful, recently divorced daughter who shows up unexpected be next?

A suspense writer will toy with your emotions and your apprehensions by leading you to believe that perhaps you—the reader—is mistaken. Maybe, just maybe, the young man isn’t the murderer, and perhaps someone else killed the old woman. A suspense writer will send cold-hard fear crawling up your skin as the murderer charms the widow’s daughter.

When is he going to kill her?

How is he going to kill her?

Will the police officer that lives down the street figure out what is going on and come to her rescue before it’s too late?

If you can’t put the book down because you simply can’t wait to find out the answers, then the suspense writer has done their job well.

In a mystery book there is always the telling moment when all the characters, which of course includes the protagonist detective and the suspects, all gather together to put all the clues together and reveal the murderer.

In a suspense book the action comes to a climax where people’s lives are hanging on the edge, requiring the protagonist to hatch a dodgy rescue, risking everything to save the widow’s daughter.

It all seems extremely basic, doesn’t it? So what’s all the confusion about?

Stick with me, because this is the important part:

When looking for my books on Amazon, you may very well find works of suspense under the category of mystery. Why? Because when Amazon categorizes books many are lumped together in one category. Mystery and suspense books are put together in a mystery/suspense/thriller category, and then the book will be broken down from there into sub-categories like: romance, police procedural, cozy mystery, romantic suspense, murder suspense etc. Yes! My books could possibly be listed in the same category as Stephen King’s thrillers regardless of the fact that they are not the same kind or genre as Mr. King’s books.

In other words my romantic suspense and murder suspense books can show up in several categories, including mystery, even though it is not a mystery at all.

Whew! Did I clear that all up for you? I suppose the point is, the next time you shop for a mystery on Amazon, you may very well get suspense or a suspense that teases your sense of deductive reasoning with a mystery.

To the Breaking Pointe

Author: Cindy McDonald
Publisher: Acorn Book Services
Pages: 250
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Format: Paperback/Kindle

Purchase at AMAZON

Pushed to the breaking pointe!

Five years ago First Force operative, Grant Ketchum, let the ballerina of his dreams dance right of his life. Silja Ramsay returned to her birthplace, Russia, to take the position of principal dancer for the Novikov Ballet Company.

The owner and director of the ballet company, Natalia Novikov, has a dark secret: her beloved ballet company is almost broke. Natalia forces her dancers to prostitute themselves to financial contributors at exclusive after-show parties. Silja has been exempt and kept in the dark about the parties—until an American financier offers to bail the failing ballet company out. His prerequisite: Silja must become his personal companion, live in his home, and fulfill his every desire. Against her will, Silja is taken to the American's mansion, but before she goes she manages to send a text to the only man who can save her, Grant: HELP!

Now Grant is on a mission to find his lost ballerina and rescue her from this powerful man's subjugation. He will do anything to get her out alive. If they survive, will he let her chasse out of his life again?

**originally published in 2014

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Wednesday Rewind: Guest Author│Slightly Grizzled Words of Advice for Fiction Writers Starting Out (Lana Cooper)

Slightly Grizzled Words of Advice for Fiction Writers Starting Out

So you wanna be a writer? A fiction writer? Sweet! Welcome to the club! What's your style, kid? Do you want to write horror stories? Science fiction? Chick lit? Romance? Contemporary fiction? Or maybe some unique combination of all of those animals? No matter what type of fictional tales you want to weave, there a few basics to keep in mind to help you keep your creative streak, morale, and sanity intact – and hopefully give you a leg up on success (however you may define it).

Find the Truth in Your Characters

Even the most fictional of characters is anchored by a small grain of truth. You know that disclaimer in fine print in nearly every fiction novel? The one that says that all characters in the novel are complete products of the author's imagination and any resemblance to folks living or dead is a coincidence? It's a hot load of monkey crap.  Many famous authors -- from Charles Dickens to Charles Bukowski -- have drawn upon their personal lives to create vivid and memorable characters.

Your novel doesn't have to include thinly veiled facsimiles of your Great Aunt Matilda and your rotten next door neighbor, but perhaps you can pull attributes of these people into fictional creations. Maybe your Great Aunt Matilda likes to bake apple pies for every neighbor on the block, even the rotten one. You could recycle your Great Aunt's trait of generosity and kindness to create an elderly vampire who shares her stock of hospital-procured blood with other younger vampires in her vicinity, even the former vampire hunter-turned-vampire himself who once tried to kill her. There's always a way to twist the truth into a glorious tableau of fiction.

Get Ruthless With Your Red Pen

More is not always better. Your typical George R.R. Martin or Stephen King novel may lapse into 200,000-word territory, but as a first time novelist, yours shouldn't. If you're planning on pitching your novel to an agent or publisher, the maximum word count that most will consider is between 80,000 and 100,000 words. Typically, many agents and professionals in the publishing industry see an uber-high word count as the mark of an amateur who hasn't learned to edit themselves and whose story may tend to meander. This isn't always the case. Maybe you truly are writing an epic. And that's cool. Don't stifle your imagination. Instead, perhaps pitch part of your epic as part of a longer series.

However, don't hesitate to read through your work once or twice to check it over for redundancies, plot holes, or non-essential parts of the story that bog your novel down. Take a 3- to 6-month break from your work once it's been completed before you start hacking away at it with your red pen. This way, you're not as emotionally attached to any words you may have recently written. Every writer has those warm n' fuzzy feelings of "OMG! That's, like, the best sentence EVER!" Taking a little time away from your work may help you to remove the rose-tinted glasses and better streamline your story into something that really reels your readers in and gives your finished work a great sense of pacing.

Remember Your Gift

If you have a story inside you just begging to be unleashed upon the world, there's nothing more rewarding than being a fiction writer. In doing so, you become part of a long, ancient line of storytellers who brought people together – around a campfire or a computer screen – to unite them with the gift of imagination. Stories have the power to touch people and make them not only feel, but understand those feelings because they see a little bit of themselves in those characters you've created. Stories give readers hope that maybe they, too, can be capable of doing great deeds like the characters in that tale they're wrapped up in reading at that moment.

And you, as the writer, know that you've helped give them that gift. That's a pretty good feeling to have at the very end of the story, don't you think?

Now stop wasting time and start writing!

About the Author

Lana Cooper was born and raised in Scranton, PA and currently resides in Philadelphia. A graduate of Temple University, she doesn't usually talk about herself in the first person, but makes an exception when writing an author bio. Cooper has written extensively on a variety of pop culture topics and has been a critic for such sites as PopMatters and Ghouls On Film. She's also written news stories for EDGE Media, a leading nationwide network devoted to LGBT news and issues. Cooper enjoys spending time with her family, reading comic books, books with lots of words and no pictures, and avoiding eye-contact with strangers on public transportation. "Bad Taste In Men" is her first full-length novel.

Her latest book is the humorous nonfiction, Bad Taste in Men.

For More Information

• Visit Lana Cooper’s website.
• Connect with Lana on Facebook and Twitter.
• Visit Lana’s blog.
• More books by Lana Cooper.
• Contact Lana.

Bad Taste in Men

Author: Lana Cooper
Publisher: Delightfully Dysfunctional Books
Pages: 352
Genre: Humorous Nonfiction
Format: Paperback/Kindle

About the book

Have you ever felt like even Mother Theresa has got more game than you? 

If you have, you'd be in the same boat as geeky, awkward metalhead Nova Porter. 

Bad Taste In Men follows Nova from her prepubescent years through young adulthood and her attempts at getting dudes to dig her. 

Juggling self-esteem issues, small town outsider status, and questionable taste in guys, Nova is looking for love in all the wrong places - like the food court at the mall. Nova's circle of friends and her strange(ly) endearing family more than make up for what her love life lacks. 

Along the way, Nova alternately plays the roles of hero and villain, mastermind and stooge; picking up far more valuable life lessons than numbers for her little black book. 

One part chick lit for tomboys and one part Freaks and Geeks for kids who came of age in the mid-'90s, Bad Taste In Men is loaded (like a freight train) with pop cultural references and crude humor. 

From getting laughed at by your crush to being stood up (twice!) by a guy with one eye, Bad Taste In Men showcases the humor and humiliation that accompanies the search for love (or at least "like") as a small-town teenage outcast, managing to wring heart-warming sweetness from angsty adolescent memories - and jokes about barf and poop.

Purchase your copy

**first published in October 2014