Last night I was playing with my new graphics tablet, and whipped out a quick sketch that I really need to refine (especially the clothed version). What I also need to refine, though, is Tobias’s personal history and the secondary characters around him, so as I work on edits assigned by the Great Editorial Goddess K.L. Grady, I’m introducing two new named characters.

And that’s where you come in.

If you’d like to have a character named after you, just comment and tell me why you should be in my book. When the contest is over, I’ll pick one female and one male winner, and name the new characters after them. I may even have the chance to work in a few physical similarities, so if you win I’ll ask you for a couple of traits like hair color, height, etc. Nothing too creepy or stalkerish. A few details:

1. Contest entries close on January 15th, 2012. If I take any longer to finish my edits, K.L. may kill me.

2. Because From the Ashes does involve a m/m relationship and the new characters are involved in the main character’s backstory, the two new characters will likely be in some way involved in the LGBT community, even if they aren’t gay themselves. If that bothers you, don’t enter. (Then again, if you follow me on Twitter and got here from there, I sincerely doubt anything LGBT bothers you after dealing with me…)

3. Only one entry per person.

4. If you’d rather not use your real name, we can create a variant. It does still need to be a normal name a normal person would have, though, and if you use a completely fictional name it rather removes the point of naming a book character after you.

5. If you’re female but would like a male character named after you, or male and would like a female character named after you, let me know in the comments. We can always gender-reverse your first name.

6. Winners will be mentioned in the acknowledgements in the back of the book, just so people who aren’t aware of the original contest will know of your awesomeness.

7. If you’re uncomfortable posting your real name in the public comments, don’t. I can always ask you for the proper name to use via email if you’re selected as a winner. Just make sure you leave a way for me to contact you.

8. Because the characters are part of Tobias’s history, they won’t be taking a prominent role in the main storyline, though they’ll still be very important in demonstrating his character and establishing the base from which he grows. Your comment will have a strong role in determining how I choose to integrate the new characters into Tobias’s past, but I reserve the right to decide what works best for the story and make the necessary adjustments.

A little about From the Ashes:
25-year-old Tobias Rutherford is a villain in a world without heroes, born to a race of superpowered beings known as aberrants, whose mutant evolution gave rise to neurological disorders that labeled them as psychopaths, sociopaths, freaks – and Tobias’s father is the worst of them all. Plotting the demise of mankind from within an empire built on conquered nations, the supervillain known as Blaze uses his son as a weapon, a tool, an extension of himself with no free will and no future other than the one his despotic father has planned. A graduate-level researcher by day, the villainous Spark by night, Tobias does what he must to further his father’s goals – until one night with Dr. Sean Archer makes him question everything he thought he knew about aberrants, his own humanity, and the power he has to shape his own destiny.

P.S. Akismet is still being crazy aggressive, so if your comment doesn’t show up initially, don’t double-post. It’s in there, and I’ll fish it out of the spam filter ASAP.

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Guest Post: Ros Clarke, Author of ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS (Entangled Publishing, December 2011)

When I started writing All I Want For Christmas, all I knew was that I wanted to write a Christmas-themed short story. Anna appeared on the page with the hangover from hell, the morning after the office Christmas party. She’d obviously drunk too much and embarrassed herself somehow.

Enter Hugh Munro, the sexy advertising director who works on the second floor and the focus of Anna’s embarrassment. Anna fancies Hugh. Hugh fancies Anna. They’re both adults. Why not just get together?

And that’s when the star of my story made herself known. Anna’s mother, Irene, has early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Anna lives with her mother and cares for her when she’s not at work because Irene isn’t safe to be left alone. She forgets the stupidest things and conversations tend to be repetitive in the extreme. But she is the sweetest woman, who loves her daughter so much and is so proud of her.

My grandfather suffered from Alzheimer’s in the last few years of his life. I know how heartbreaking it is to see someone you love forgetting who you are and that you love them. The best portrayal of Alzheimer’s I’ve ever seen was in the wonderful film of Iris Murdoch’s life with Judi Dench. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it – but make sure you have a box of tissues handy! There is no cure for Alzheimer’s and it is both degenerative and terminal.

All I Want For Christmas is a romance novella with a happy ending for all three characters, Anna, Hugh, and Irene. It’s the sort of happy ending you get in real life, where you know there are going to be some tough times ahead, but you know that you will be able to face them better together.

I don’t know what you want this Christmas, but I hope that you will all have the happiness of being together with the people whom you love.

ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS can be purchased at Amazon, Amazon UK, Barnes and Noble, or Books on Board. You can also read reviews and ratings on GoodReads, or find Ros on Twitter as @Ros_Clarke.

Thankfully, Katrina doesn’t have segmented legs or multifaceted eyes – but she’s still as beautiful and graceful as a dragonfly, and as deadly as you never knew the odonata could be.

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Guest Post from Jessica Zellman, author of Odonata: City of Night

The idea for Odonata: City of Night literally buzzed past me while I sat in my backyard one summer afternoon. I had just finished reading a godawful vampire book (which shall remain nameless) and the feminist in me was on a rampage. Why were the vampire protagonists always male and so much more powerful than their young, naïve, human lovers? I wanted a kickass leading lady. Not a vampire hunter. That’s already been done by writers I admire. I considered a female vampire interested in a human male, but that didn’t seem original enough either. I wanted my characters to be equals, or at least on the same playing field.

Then a mosquito bit my arm.

Everyone hates mosquitoes. Nasty little bloodsuckers. It occurred to me that they are just mini-vampires, flying around, sucking people’s blood. On the other hand, I love dragonflies. They’re pretty and amazing to watch, and they eat mosquitoes. So what if there was a supernatural predator who, like a dragonfly, ate vampires? I did some research on dragonflies and found the Latin group name for my favorite insect: Odonata. “Oh-done-ah-tah.” That just sounds cool.

I read somewhere that dragonflies can’t move until the morning sun hits them. It made sense for a vampire predator to be a creature of the sun as opposed to vampires, creatures of the night.

My main character, Katrina, came to me pretty quickly after that. I imagined her standing in the bright Los Angeles sunlight, red hair blazing like a fiery sunset. She looked at me with intense blue eyes and said, “Vampires believe themselves to be the ultimate predators, but they aren’t. I am.”

To which my only response could be, “Okay then, let’s go.”

To my readers, I hope you enjoy the ride. City of Night is just the beginning.

And to Adri, thanks for being the best editor ever and for letting me take over your blog for a day.

-Jes

First things first. (Wait, why do we say that? Why wouldn’t first things be first? Would first things ever be last? What’s the point? First things in the middle… no wait, that doesn’t make any sense either.) Never mind, I’m moving along. That’s the last time I’m using a title as long as The Electrifying Exploits of the English Three. I loved it when I was writing; everyone ooh’d and aah’d over its neatness. I’m not entirely sure how I came up with it, for those who’ve asked me before. I just started thinking of what the book was about. Exploits. Three English women. There’s a lot of electrical stuff involved. Then it just sort of hit me. Alliteration is my friend. Usually.

I am proud of thinking of it, but when you get to the editing phase of publication, that title follows you around everywhere. Adri and I stretched the limitations of the ability to name a file. Who knew there was a character limit? I didn’t. Woops. For a while, we used EEE3 instead. It stuck as a nickname, actually. Even on Twitter, I’m tempted to use EEE3 so it will fit. Then people asked me what the hell I was talking about. And when you’re obsessing over numbers and reviews, you have to google it often. That’s a lot of typing. Thank goodness for predictive text. (For once.)

As for the writing of the EEE3, the characters came to me in a non-standard way. Generally, when I think of something to write, I have this scene in my head, then I expound on it. What is going on in the scene? Where are they? Who is involved? What’s their name, motive, clothing, etc?

With these characters, I had actual people in mind. They originally started out loosely based on me and two other friends who would occasionally meet for coffee and have laughs. On Twitter, we would chat about how our kids were driving us to the brink of climbing clock towers. Somehow, it morphed into someone climbing the clock tower, someone being in charge of bringing the coffee, someone else bringing the ammo, and then scheduling it just so we would be home on time to meet our children at the bus stop. It was a mad day online. No, of course we don’t condone taking out your aggressions of general anxiety by climbing the local tower and picking people off. It was just ‘one of those days.’ Please don’t send me hate mail.

For some reason, the conversation stuck with me and it somehow melded into the English Three’s story. The witty, wild trio just trying to do their job sensibly – no matter what the job entailed.

The Three include Jillian – the daughter of the proprietor of the most exclusive and elusive club in London, Miss Merriweather’s. She’s managed to dodge the marriage bullet her friends had not time to dodge. She enjoys tea, whist with her friends, and leisurely walks in the park.
Then we have Miriam – the wife of an abusive, controlling alcoholic who is responsible for gambling away their title and land. She enjoys coffee, quiet talks with her friends, and indexing ways of how to off her husband.

Lastly, we have Eliza – the estranged wife of an older gentleman. She keeps a house in the city while he tries to lure her away to the country, to no avail. Eliza prefers being alone in London, *cough* balls, and the company of others.

The men are somewhat condensed. One is a rake, one is a gentleman, and one is a mystery.

I did enjoy writing this piece more than others did. It seemed to flow easy until I got to the revising part. That was kind of painful. But don’t tell Adri – I did like being able to pick this thing apart and put it back together. Painful yes, but very well worth it.

Thanks for reading!
E.

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From Adri: All I can say is that I wish I’d known about the clock tower daydreams before I…er…tastefully suggested revisions to the manuscript. I might have been a little more delicate. And worn kevlar. ~coughs~

Plus, check out Wednesday Peters on the cover. Isn’t that thing (the cover, not Wednesday) freakin’ gorgeous?

Guest Post From Ashley: Where Did Originality Disappear To?

First of all, I want to thank Adrien for giving me this opportunity.

In researching The Witching Hour, I found myself not only choosing various pagan gods, but going back and reading stories about them. What I found in doing so was a rich tradition of story-telling not so different from what writers do today, that is, the ancients were taking themes and tales that already existed and putting their own spin on it.

We often hear people saying there is no such thing as an original idea anymore. In my research, I found that if you want to say there’s no such thing as an original idea anymore, you’d have to say there was never any such thing as an original idea. Since the beginning of time there have been several themes that resonates in each of us. Themes that have been a part of our lives since we were children.

For example, in The Witching Hour, the theme is a modern take on heroism and the conflict is man vs. god(s).

I took the idea of a hero like Perseus or Hercules, who were both sent on epic quests meant to test their fortitude by the gods, and made it something relevant to today. I also stripped the gods of their infinite powers and gave the power to the humans being tested. In doing so, I think I’ve managed to create a believable conflict of man vs. god(s).

But again, this is a theme that is ever present in books and movies, what I’ve done is just managed to give it my own spin.

The point is this–no, there are no original ideas, but there will always be original spins on old ideas.

You may also take note of the links strewn throughout the post, and make with the clicky-clicky. C’mon. You know you want to.

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Liz:

So, I was a very bad author and was gone during the release of my urban fantasy, Bound by Blood, I also totally owed my BRILLIANT editor a blog….so this is my attempt at making amends and pimping my book at the same time. *grin*

Five reasons I love my editor:

1) He asked me which color hi-lighter I wanted him to use to…ehem…artfully and constructively tear apart my manuscript. In case you are wondering…I went with purple…it might as well be pretty right? Although I am pretty sure it looked like Barney the Dinosaur bled all over my manuscript by the time he was done with it.

2) He put lovely comments about “werewolf morning wood” in my manuscript…which led to me spewing coffee all over my laptop…through my nose…

3) He was constantly patient and understanding, even when my computer set out to doom us all.

4) He took my April fools joke about turning my dark urban fantasy into a musical featuring Tom Jones songs and my alpha hero Bryce wearing a sequined shirt…without murdering me.

5) He also hasn’t murdered me with his red pen, despite the fact I may have been stranded during my book’s release and didn’t supply him with a guest blog.

In all seriousness, I owe a great deal to Adrien for all the amazing insight, patience and help he provided me with throughout the process of editing Bound by Blood, and I am so proud of the finished product. So thank you Adrien! *passes you some Kona coffee, with a side of rum*

Now…that I have successfully groveled at my editor’s feet….*grin* I am going to pimp my book! If you enjoy urban fantasy, vampires, hot biting, lots of action packed gun fights, then you might want to check out Bound by Blood!

Thanks for letting me stop by…even though I was tragically late!

~Elizabeth Darvill
www.elizabethdarvill.com

You know what day this is, right? Of course you do. It’s the release day for Rogue’s Curse, Jason Beymer’s debut novel, available from Lyrical Press. (For only $5.50. My lunch costs more than that. C’mon. It’s worth it.)

Seeing this book debut is like watching my firstborn child leave for their first day of school. If I had a firstborn child. If I wasn’t as child-friendly as an uncovered electrical socket. The point is, when a book is published its successful release isn’t just the pride of the author and his family, friends, and demon minions. It’s the pride of all the people who worked on it: the copy/content editor(me!), their senior editor(s), the line editors, the cover artist, the production manager, the review coordinator…the list goes on and on. It’s a group effort, one where the author is central but not entirely alone in their investment in the book. There’s a whole team of people who care about that book, who take pride in its success.

I definitely take pride in Rogue’s Curse, and in Jason.

It’s only by random chance that I ended up working on this book. I’ve only been with Lyrical Press for about six months now; before that I was working as a freelance editor. When I first started I was told I’d be taking on some previously contracted authors they thought would be a good fit for me, until I started to pick my own from the slush pile. So here I was, several books already on my list, all of them interesting, exciting, fun. Apparently my senior editor gauged my tastes well, because I’ve yet to edit a single book that I didn’t love.

Jason, though…Jason was my first.

I’ll be honest: I didn’t know what to expect. I was used to authors coming to me as a contractor, hiring me because they trust my expertise, and generally placing the reins in my hands. The relationship works a little differently when you work for a publisher. I’d heard horror stories about dealing with difficult authors on the publisher’s side: everything from delayed releases caused by author meltdowns to month-long arguments over non-conventional apostrophe use as visual art. In truth, I expected Jason to be a nightmare. Arrogant, stubborn, utterly lacking in common sense, and refusing to budge on so much as a misspelled word or a godawful pet phrase.

Instead he proved why you should never make assumptions or believe stereotypes.

His sense of humor caught me from the first page of Rogue’s Curse, and proved utterly infectious – to the point where my senior editor made me tone down my silly comments when I left editorial notes throughout the book. (I believe there was something in there about Godzilla and octogenarian poontang.) Before I’d even really had a significant dialogue with him, I learned to like him through his book, his characters, his humor, his storytelling, his style – but I learned to value him from an editorial perspective when I sent his first round of edits back. Rather than whine about the amount of work asked of him or argue that his book was perfect as-is, he threw himself wholeheartedly into editing with all the enthusiasm and professionalism anyone could hope for.

Not only that, but he took my questions about plot points and went one step further: he refined the entire story to the point where it was practically a new book. Rather than viewing criticism as a negative point, he instead used it as a jumping-off point to come up with some wildly creative solutions that more than proved his talent and ingenuity. Sometimes I almost couldn’t keep up with him as he spun through ideas, changes, and cheesy one-liners that left me spraying diet coke at my screen on an alarmingly regular basis. His wife, too, has a wonderfully sharp eye; she was always there, looking over Jason’s shoulder and catching that one letter out of place that neither of us noticed after staring at the manuscript for the eleventy-millionth time.

Oh, there were a few points of contention. A few things had to be deleted for the sake of house rules, and darlings (and sheep) had to die. There was a particularly knotty wrangle about italics that left us both so confused we didn’t know if we were coming or going, but we never wanted to see another verbalized sound effect in our lives. Renee, She Who Commands All, nearly killed me over a slight oversight on the cover text. (Seriously, never make a pregnant woman angry. I swear I found three more grey hairs the next day.) Jason had to be threatened with a ruler across the knuckles if he didn’t stop picking at things that were already tweaked to the point of exhaustion. He’s a bit of a perfectionist, in case you can’t tell. He’s also paranoid, neurotic, and utterly hilarious when he starts biting his nails over every tiny little thing. One of these days he’s going to stress himself to a heart attack. I’m probably callous enough to point and laugh. I’m an editor. It’s what we do. All part of crushing your spirit and destroying your artistic vision.

Ahem. Back on topic. More than anything, Jason is a witty, fun, engaging person, and a wonderful author to work with. Just by being himself and dedicating himself to polishing his book, he made my investment in Rogue’s Curse personal. He proved that when an author and editor work together rather than against each other, a good book can transform into a great one. We may not be friends, but I’m damned happy to be his editor.

Maybe if Jason hadn’t been my first author, I wouldn’t love working for a publisher so much. Maybe if Jason hadn’t been such a delight to work with, I would have doused myself in holy water and run screaming back to the freelance life and my private client roster. But “maybe” never happened, and I consider myself lucky that out of all the contracted books pending editorial assignment, my senior editor decided to send Jason (and my other starting authors, because yes, I love you all) to me.

So thank you, Jason. Thank you for being my first Lyrical author, for being wonderful, and for trusting me with your next book, Nether.

Thank you, and happy release day for Rogue’s Curse.

…

Now excuse me. I need to go drown something small and fluffy before people start thinking I’m human.

For immediate release by the Office of Clovort Reduccion:

A clovort’s mouth is a dirty thing. It is best to keep all digits and appendages clear of its gray lips. On the rare occasion you discover an intelligent clovort, do not engage it in conversation. They are manipulative, and you might find yourself asking the clovort to taste you. In reply, the clovort will nod sheepishly and respond with, “All right. If you insist.”

If you spot a clovort while walking through the woods, do not stretch out your arms and make hooting noises to scare it away. This will not work. Do not tap the clovort on the nose. Do not urinate, fall to the ground and curl into a ball, stare it straight in the eye or turn around and run. All of these things will only make you more appetizing. The best course of action is to roll yourself in milk and pray the clovort is lactose intolerant.

If possible, and if not at risk to your physical intactness, tag the clovort with a personalized beacon dart. Then, when you visit the Office of Clovort Reduccion to file a complaint of clovort harassment, we will know whom to give credit to once we have captured the beast.

Any citizen caught using a clovort for manual labor will be punished severely. Given the relative girth of the clovort—usually six hundred pounds and eight feet tall—this prospect may tempt farmers. These beasts are exceptional at pulling ox carts and plowing the fields. However, farming jobs should be awarded to law-abiding citizens and not abominations of God.

Your elected officials are working tirelessly to rid Western Beatrice of this infestation. Despite our best intentions, we are constantly affronted by attacks from Clovort Right’s groups. Rest assured, King Perlezod and the Office of Clovort Reduccion will prevail. We count on your efforts to eradicate this abomination and create a clovort-free society for you, your children and your children’s children.

The Office thanks you for your cooperation.

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If you enjoyed that little bit of hilarity from author Jason Beymer, there’s more clovort-stomping fun coming when his debut novel, Rogue’s Curse, releases from Lyrical Press this August.

If you didn’t enjoy it, well…hush. He saved me from having to actually revive this blog myself. Go be nice to him anyway. He’s an introvert, and he needs to be dragged out of his shell. Kicking and screaming, if need be.

Besides…I owe him. Hard. Bugger stuck my name in the acknowledgments. Go. Mob him.

Good lord, I’m a wordy bugger.

Also: not too long ago one of my authors, Jason Beymer (author of the upcoming humorous fantasy ROGUE’S CURSE), did a great post on character development and how he finds inspiration for his characters. You should go check it out. (And be nice to him. He’s funny.)

Watch this space for some other guest blogs soon, as I cajole my authors and my fellow Lyrical editors into speaking up. (Cynthia, I’m lookin’ at you.)

I keep meaning to update with photos of my nifty new Sony Reader Touch Edition and faff on about how awesome it is, but every time I talk about the thing I sound like a product shill. Bleargh. Well, here, a couple of blurry photos snapped off on my G1 phone, with the thing on my messy, disorganized coffee table:

Man, do we need to vacuum.

That’s the Pixie skin from DecalGirl.com*, crap about my student loans underneath the reader, and Elizabeth Darvill’s BOUND BY BLOOD on the reader’s screen. Liz and Jason have been great sports about not killing me yet despite the volumes of edit notes I’ve dropped on them. Ashley has yet to find out what she’s in for, but she will. [insert innocent smile here]

What else, what else…OH! One other thing: The latest book in Diane Duane’s YOUNG WIZARDS series, A WIZARD OF MARS, released this week. It wasn’t due out until early April, so imagine my surprise when my preorder showed up on my doorstep on the 23rd.

If you love Diane Duane as much as I do, get the damn book. Seriously. YOUNG WIZARDS has always held a firm position as my favorite YA series of all time, and A WIZARD OF MARS is a great addition to the collection.

……

…oi, that’s a lot of tags on this post.

 

 
*Random aside: DecalGirl has the best customer service. My original order was shipped incorrectly; they sent me a skin for the Pocket reader, rather than the Touch edition. I e-mailed asking how to do an exchange, and they apologized and shipped a priority mail replacement the same day. It’s sad that it’s rare to see good, polite customer service, but it’s always nice when you run across it.

So lately I’ve been rereading some old favorites, as well as exploring a few new titles from the authors of said favorites. Some are modern, some are historical, some are the classic bodice-rippers, but in a large number of them I’m noticing a disturbing trend:

Controlling, domineering, irrational men with very few redeeming traits. They’re insensitive, bullheaded, temperamental, impossible to talk to with any level of honesty, misogynistic, arrogant to the point of self-delusion, sadistic, prone to using physical force to get their way, borderline (and often outright) cruel, difficult to reason with once they’ve made a conclusion, and generally in some position of authority over the heroine’s life and well-being – whether placed there by others, rank, an unfortunate and perilous situation, or themselves. These traits, while superficially infuriating to the heroine, in the end only serve to endear him to her as signs of what a man he is, a true man’s man, an uncompromising force of nature who will protect her and eventually give her many fat babies. And naturally his flaws are forgivable because he’s handsome as the devil and the most amazing lover on earth, and he knows it.

I get the lesson: love isn’t perfect, but it can pave the way for accepting a few character flaws in your mate. And I’m aware that all these traits can exist to some measure in real men, in a variety of concentrations and combinations. And I’m aware that many women (and men) have different tastes in what makes a man attractive. But seeing all these traits combined to such extremes that they make an unappealing caricature of a dominating man-child, I have to ask…

Is this really what women want in a fantasy man?