Tag: Interview Page 8 of 18

On January 17, 2023

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I talked about James T. Lambert’s first book, Aether Powered, last month–and he participated in a Q&A about it and his writing in general (both the book and his answers are well-worth your time). Now he’s back with some thoughts about the writing life in Southwest Idaho and some related things, too. I had a blast with this one, I hope you do, too.

Before we get into things, why don’t you give the reader a brief introduction to you and your work.
My name’s Jim Lambert, but I write under James T. Lambert (my real name, lol) for that sweet, sweet Star Trek cred. I have read a lot of science fiction and fantasy for a long time. I always loved reading. I saw a NaNoWriMo poster up in a game shop back in (I think) 2009 and thought that would be fun. But it was already November 15th so… next year (NaNo runs from 11/1 to 11/30 with a goal of writing a 50,000 word novel in that time). Next year I did a little better. I was only a week late. In 2011 I remembered it on 11/3. “I’m a fast typist. I can catch up. Now what am I going to write about?” Yeah, pretty silly.

But I came up with an idea and made it to 50,000 words (barely). I did it for several more years, ending up succeeding four times early on, then falling apart in 2016. I didn’t get anything substantial written for several years, but this year is my ‘Year of Getting Stuff Done.’ Last year I finished polishing a novel from 2014, and Indie published it in January. That was Aether Powered, a ‘modern steampunk’ novel. I also did some work on a non-fiction book and with my co-author we put The Tao of Trek out in March. I Indie published a science fiction novel, Proxies, in August. My next book comes out mid-November: Steam Opera, a more traditional steampunk novel. I’ve got another science fiction novel ‘in the pipe’ for next year, Relics of War.

You can find my books through my website http://jamestlambert.com/ or directly through my Amazon author page http://amazon.com/author/james.t.lambert.

What brought you to Idaho in the first place? What is it about Idaho that keeps you here?
I’m not a native. My family moved here in 1976 when I was between third and fourth grade. I grew up in Meridian, took a job in Bend, Oregon for a couple of years before moving back to Boise. I like a lot of things about Boise. It’s a small city, so you get the advantage of a city, but not nearly as many of the disadvantages. It’s clean, the people are friendly, and it’s safe. Well, all mostly. It’s a rough world and that affects everywhere. But I do like running into people I know all over town.

I had to grin at “Well, all mostly.” It’s easy to forget both the friendly and safe parts if you spend too much time online (and easy to forget the “mostly” part, too). What’s one thing that you find yourself telling people who aren’t familiar with Idaho about the state (after the obligatory “we do more than grow potatoes here”)?
That we’re in the Pacific Northwest and that’s where most of the hops for beer for the US comes from. Yeah, strange factoid, but I’m a craft beer guy so I like that one. I often mention the geographic isolation of Boise. We’re 300 miles from the next ‘major’ city (Salt Lake City). 400 miles from Portland and 500 from Seattle. Other than the string of cities right next to us (Nampa, Caldwell, Meridian, Eagle, etc) we’re a long way from anywhere. That has a lot of impact on us. There’s not nearly as much ‘through traffic’ since anyone going somewhere on the ‘other side of us’ is going to be best off flying and skipping the 700 miles to get from Portland to SLC. It really depends on what the person I’m talking to is interested in. If they like the outdoors, there’s a lot of good stuff here. Fishing, the same. Major concerts? Not so much. Book tours? Not so much. Conventions? Yeah, there’s a few, but being isolated makes it tough for people to come here.

Are you tied into some sort of local author/bookish group/culture? If so, tell us about it and how it helps you as an author. If you’re not, is there a reason for it?
At one time, early in learning to write novels, I was in five critique groups and a member of the Idaho Writers’ Guild. I’m still a member of one of those critique groups and I’ve recently rejoined the Idaho Writers’ Guild after a few years out. I’m on the board of directors and hope to help make the Guild more valuable to its members. I’m in the Boise Speculative Writers Support Group, where we compare notes and encourage each other. I’ve also been involved with the NaNoWriMo community here and attended some of the writing-related (and science fiction/fantasy-related) conventions in the area or nearby.

I think it’s important for everyone to ‘find their tribe’ and surround themselves with supportive people interested in the same things you are. I have many friends from the writing community I can ask for help or for recommendations for things like editing, proofreading, beta readers, and publishing. My good friend, fellow writer, co-author, freelance editor, and partner in publishing I met in my critique group. Another of my good friends came from that group and she’s also a partner in publishing. We formed a group called Bert Books, https://bertbookspub.com/, since we all (at one time) had last names with ‘Bert’ in them. A member of the critique group when I joined, but who has since moved away, just finished proofreading my latest book. A friend from the Spec Fic Support Group will be joining me on the board of directors. When we all pull together, we can do just about anything we set our minds to.

What kind of events in the area do you attend—either to sell/promote your books or to network with authors? Are there any outside of this area that you hit regularly and wish we had something like it here?
There used to be a science fiction/fantasy/etc convention, Fandemonium, which has since missed several years. I enjoyed going there and meeting with genre authors and going to panels and talks about writing for that fanbase. I’m still friends with the founder.

I go the Idaho Writers’ Guild annual conference, which doesn’t focus on my genre, but has a lot of great material.

A new annual event Boise Books and Brews, began this year and I’m part of the group organizing it.

I missed out on the Boise Comic Arts Festival this year, but plan to catch it in the future.

I made it to the Nampa Festival of the Arts and had a booth there.

Idaho Writers’ Guild schedules author networking events.

Some of the local libraries schedule author events (I should be at one in Eagle in December). (clearly, there’s a gap between when he responded and now…be sure to come back to The Irresponsible Reader to learn all about the events you could’ve attended months ago)

I attend a few conventions outside the area, mostly ones that specialize in my genre. A particular favorite is LTUE (Life, The Universe, And Everything), which happens in Provo Utah, is inexpensive, and has a wide variety of topics covered. Another is Fyrecon, which is now a virtual convention, which I’ve attended every year since they started. Missoula has Miscon, a long-running genre con with amazing guests. In the past they’ve had George R.R. Martin, Patrick Rothfuss, and Christopher Paolini. FanX in Salt Lake City, Rose City ComicCon and Emerald City ComicCon are all big events with tens of thousands of fans.

I’d like the strong program of LTUE, the dedication of Fyrecon, the guest list of Miscon, and the big crowds of the comic cons to happen more often in our area.

I heartily recommend the Library’s Comic Arts festival (I spend more there than I budget for every year, it seems) and am glad I saw you at the Nampa Arts festival this year. The Books and Brews event looked great—glad to hear it’s going to be an annual thing. Outside of sales (can’t minimize their importance), what for you is the best part of these events (Books and Brews/Nampa Arts/Library events) where you can interact with readers/browsers? Are you picking up enough readers at events like these to justify them, or is this a long-term plan—if you keep showing up, people will pay attention?
I like meeting people (although as an introvert it wears me down some) and it’s an opportunity to find out what readers are reading. When I’m asking about what they like to fit them with one of my books I’m also finding out what they like in general and getting a sense if that would be a good fit for me to write. I’d like to think I’m getting some regular readers from being there and being friendly with folks, but it’s hard to gauge. I plan on continuing to do these since it’s the only way to get that in-person feedback. Economically it’s not bad either. Eliminating the extra expenses of resellers means I can make more money per sale even if I lower prices a little. It’s not a perfect system and there’s definitely limitations to how much you can sell at an in-person event, but I like it for now. I do keep in mind the advice I’ve heard “would I be better off writing?” Big name authors (Brandon Sanderson for example) have to balance going to a convention every weekend with getting new books written. His big Kickstarter talked about how the pandemic prevented him from touring and gave him enough time to do four extra novels. I remember Terry Pratchett saying he quit his day job when it was costing him money to go to work instead of staying home and writing. My goal isn’t to be a speaker and make money from appearances, I want to write some books and have people buy those. I do want to be well known enough that I can go to some of the cons and hang out with the ‘cool kids’ but if that doesn’t happen I’ll hang out with the cool kids I already hang out with, lol.

What’s the breakdown of your audience—do you have a strong local base, or are your readers from other parts of the world?
I’m just getting started, so my main audience is family and friends (many from the writing community) so far. I’ve had a few sales overseas, the UK, Australia, and Germany for example, but I’m still building my audience and getting ramped up. I’ve done stand-alone books so far, so I haven’t been able to take advantage of the series readers returning to the next book in the series. My next book kicks off a trilogy, and some of my stand-alone books have the potential to turn into series, so that may change in the future.

Fair enough—so, let’s tweak things a bit. Based on what you know from your local contacts, how would you expect/hope things to go and how are you working to that end? Or do you have a plan yet?
I don’t have a firm plan for an end game. I’m at the ‘get some books out there’ stage. I figure people can’t buy my books if I don’t have any out there to buy. So I’m building my backlist. That being said I am doing some things to try and get some readers involved. I’m advertising on Amazon. I’m planning on getting some series going. I’m planning on publishing some short stories that are in a series. I hope that will give people a series to link into and since they are shorts maybe make it easier to write a new one on a faster schedule. Maybe even get involved in Vella and publish some things through there. Mostly I need to work on getting some regular sales so I know I’m doing things right and then just keep moving in that direction. One specific thing I haven’t gotten rolling yet is an email list and newsletter. I know they are important and effective, but I’ve just not gotten them going.

Do you think there are particular challenges or advantages to being a writer in the Treasure Valley? (possibly both)
With our geographic isolation (nearest big city is SLC, and the next three nearby ones are over 8 hours away by car) it’s not easy to jump over to a convention or event outside the valley. I’ve driven to Seattle for one day visits twice to see authors who are my particular favorites (Lois McMaster Bujold once and Terry Pratchett {GNU} once). We do get some ‘big’ authors here at times. I saw Margaret Atwood at BSU.

This same problem combined with a relatively small population leads to more niche interests having smaller representation. I’ve an interest in Steampunk, but we only had a dozen or so active steampunk fans in the area. The club for it eventually faded away.

But if you do find your ‘tribe’ here it’s much more likely you can get involved in activities with people who ‘get’ you. You aren’t one of dozens trying join a particular group, but probably someone that group is trying to seek out.

Of course, if you appreciate isolation and a distraction-free environment we have lots of natural areas close by where you can sit and write until your laptop battery runs out. And then switch to pen and paper! Several groups have sponsored retreats to cabins in nearby areas where a small group can isolate and really dig into their writing.

I definitely get the small population leading to small representation and how that impacts things here. When I brush up against someone with similar likes in the area, I’m always surprised (not sure why, but I am). A few years ago, when Scalzi was at the Boise Library! my reaction was kept bouncing between “I can’t believe this many people turned out” and “Of course he’s this popular.” If you were new to the area, how would you go about finding a tribe here? Google?
Google is a great place to start. Facebook is another, as it allows creations of groups. I’m interested in boardgames and there’s a Boise Area Boardgaming Enthusiasts group on FB. The Library used to have a club registry (last time I looked at it was pre-Google) so they probably still have something like it. The Boise Weekly has an events calendar which can get you to an event where people interested in your topic are going to be. I remember way back in the 80’s when a local comic book store owner did a talk at the library he had a signup sheet for forming a local club. He just waited for the first person who called interested in how the club was going and put them in charge. I was the second person, lol. We started a Science Fiction club that lasted a decade or so and many of the people from it are still friends. Offering to do a community education class on something you are interested in will bring in some people to meet. Once you meet a few people you can ask them for introductions or information about more.

I’m almost finished with a short story set in downtown Boise featuring Meriwether Cider, the Idanha, and the Owhyee Plaza. Okay, and the Chinese Tunnels under downtown.

I’d probably use locations from whatever place I was living. When I visited my hometown in 2011 I was doing a NaNo project and visited a coffee shop that made a big impression. I used it as a setting for a short story I wrote later.

I’m sure some of my language, colloquialisms and such, are based from Idaho, or at least the Pacific Northwest, but I don’t think my stories have much flavor from here beyond using real locations for models or as settings.

One final question, is there a book (or two…or 18, if you get really carried away), that embodies Idaho/the Idaho spirit to you to recommend to my readers?
Oh, that’s tough. Hmmm. A friend wrote Fearless about the guy who started Fearless Farris Stinker Stations, that’s pretty Idaho.

My friends Troy Lambert, Danielle Parker, and Marlie Harris all wrote some stuff that is set in Idaho.

Troy and Dani each wrote a novella which ended up combined in Incidents in Idaho. They are in the same universe, our Monster Marshals stories. One is set in Boise during a snow storm in July. The other in a mine (Troy has a deep background in mining history (yeah, I know what I did there)).

Troy and Marlie wrote a story collection called Into The Darkness about evil spirits in mines and in reservoirs in Idaho. So that one really has Idaho ‘spirits’ lol.

I haven’t read a lot of books that are set in Idaho and give a deep feel for the state. I know some authors who write stuff set here, but it’s not really in a genre I read. A former Idaho Writer’s Guild president I knew wrote a book about Bogus Basin history I enjoyed.

So I don’t have any I strongly recommend for their Idaho-ness, but the Monster Marshals stories are good. And Into the Darkness is good if you like horror (not my favorite genre, but they submitted some to the critique group I am in so I did read most of it. I might have beta read it later too, it’s been a few years, so memory is a bit fuzzy).

Thanks for your time and participation! Hope you enjoyed it!

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A Few More Quick Questions with…Paul Levine

On January 11, 2023

On Monday, I posted my take on Early Grave, the twelfth and final legal thriller featuring Jake Lassiter.

Back in 2020, when Paul Levine gave me a little of his time to participate in A Few Quick Questions, I wrote, “If you’d told me 20 years ago, that I’d get Paul Levine to respond to a handful of questions I asked him for a blog? I wouldn’t have believed you—but I’d think that was a great story.” And now, he’s back? This is too good.

According to his website, Levine “worked as a newspaper reporter, a law professor and a trial lawyer before becoming a full-time novelist. Obviously, he cannot hold a job. Paul claims that writing fiction comes naturally: he told whoppers for many years in his legal briefs.

His books have been translated into 23 languages, none of which he can read.”

Did you know going in that this would be Lassiter’s last case—or did you make that decision while writing? Have you had second thoughts about it? Has it settled in for you, or are you going to have to come to terms with this after publication? After all these years, I can’t imagine it’s that easy for you.
I’ve been living with that big galoot in my head for 33 years, and I know he’d never hang up his briefcase voluntarily. He even threatened to break all my fingers if I benched him, a pretty good trick for a fictional character. Yes, I knew it would be Lassiter’s last adventure…or misadventure. It felt right. He’d had his mediocre career with the Miami Dolphins. He’d fought for justice for decades, not always winning. Like so many of his teammates, he’s apparently suffering from CTE, the deadly brain disease. But you’re right. It wasn’t easy for me to say goodbye.

Based on what’s happening to Lassiter and the events of this book alone—is it fair to say that you have some pretty firm opinions on the state of football when it comes to safety? If so, did you develop these after you gave Lassiter his condition—or was it the other way around? Would you say you’re in line with Jake on this—or does life not imitate art at all here? I know it can be dangerous to try to assign motives to an author based on what his character says and does, but something about the writing here makes it feel more heartfelt.
I was sports editor of The Daily Collegian at Penn State and thought my career path was headed toward sportswriting. I love football. Always have. But, I’m not oblivious to the dangers in the sport. The NFL belatedly accepted the medical evidence that repeated blows to the head could cause a fatal brain disease. Lassiter rues the fact that six members of the Miami Dolphins’ undefeated 1972 team are dead of CTE. “Perfect season, my ass,” he says. One of my close friends, a former college football player and a rugby player for 25 years, died of CTE. I dedicated Bum Luck to him. All of this was long before Damar Hamlin’s injury shined the spotlight on dangers inherent in the sport.

Lassiter (and Solomon) spend a lot of time pushing ethical boundaries (when they don’t just ignore them). Sure, there’s a heightened and comedic reality at work here, but how do you balance that without turning readers against them? Is it their intentions, or something else? Have you found yourself having to change direction because one of them went too far.
In To Speak for the Dead, the first of the series, way back in 1990, Lassiter robs a grave to have a not-quite-legal autopsy performed. He suckers a witness into punching him out in the courtroom to prove the man’s propensity for violence. In Early Grave, he plays some courtroom tricks that aren’t necessarily kosher. But he’s generally on the right side of justice, so the moral issue is whether the means justify the ends. And I’m happy to let the readers decide that thorny issue.

I’ve seen Lassiter go up against prosecutors before, he’s a reliable David to go up against the Goliath of the State (or the Feds). But Sandra Day and the office of Wikerham and Snoot, make them seem like kittens in comparison. You didn’t take it easy on Lassiter at the end here, did you? Why’d you pick this kind of an opponent for him—or what it that given the topic of the book, you needed a private firm?
A long time ago, I was a partner in a 150 year old Philadelphia law firm. Now, there was no one as cutthroat as Sandra (Sunny) Day, but the firm did have enormous resources and could suffocate less well-funded opponents with an avalanche of paperwork and other fancy litigation tactics. I always want Lassiter to face enormous odds, whether it’s the U.S. Attorney’s Office with all the power of the Justice Department (Cheater’s Game) or a judge who’s either corrupt or incompetent (many books) or as here, a law firm that dates back to the Civil War.

Schooner Wickerham IV was an inspired choice, how on earth did you come up with him? Is he inspired by anyone in particular?
Schooner Wickerham IV is a throwback, a dinosaur, someone stuck in a time warp. He’s the privileged, to the manor born scion of a wealthy, powerful family. He’s obviously and casually misogynistic and racist and represents everything Lassiter despises. He thinks that power and money will carry the day in and out of court. Thankfully, he’s a dying breed, if not close to extinction.

What’s next for Paul Levine, author?
I’m working on a spec feature film script, a Hollywood period piece set in the 1930’s. Other than that, I take my pooch for walks on the beach and watch a LOT of football.

Thanks for your time and willingness to let me pester you with these questions—I really enjoyed Early Grave and hope that it finds the audience it deserves.
THANK YOU

LITERARY LOCALS: A Q&A About Writing in Idaho with Cate Lawley (a.k.a. Kate Baray)

On January 10, 2023

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I took a quick break from these posts for a couple of weeks during the holidays and while I was focusing on wrapping up 2022, but now I’m back with a quick Q&A with Cate Lawley.

Lawley was actually the first to get back to me with answers for this post, and I’m really grateful for that. I’ll be dipping my toes into her work and that of her nom de plume in the next couple of weeks, she (they?) have some really good-looking stuff.

Before we get into things, why don’t you give the reader a brief introduction to you and your work.
Author bio for Cate Lawley:
Cate Lawley writes humorous, action-filled mysteries that frequently contain a paranormal twist. And when she’s writing as Kate Baray, she writes page-turning urban fantasy with relatable characters.

When she’s not tapping away at her keyboard or in deep contemplation of her next fanciful writing project, she’s sweeping up hairy dust bunnies and watching British mysteries.

Cate is from Austin, Texas (where many of her stories take place) but has recently migrated north to Boise, Idaho, where soup season (her favorite time of year) lasts more than two weeks.

She’s worked as an attorney, a dog trainer, and in various other positions, but writer is the hands-down winner. She’s thankful readers keep reading, so she can keep writing!

Contact basics:
www.CateLawley.com
https://www.facebook.com/katebaray

Are you a native Idahoan? What brought you to Idaho in the first place? What is it about Idaho that keeps you here?
I’m from Texas. Family brought me here. I love the weather, the beauty of the state, and the wonderful friends I’ve made since coming here.

Are you tied into some sort of local author/bookish group/culture? If so, tell us about it and how it helps you as an author. If you’re not, is there a reason for it?
I belong to several local author groups in the Boise area. The Idaho Writers Guild, the local chapter of Romance Writers of America, and a few smaller groups. I enjoy the community of it. Sharing knowledge and resources, as well as the friendships I’ve made with like-minded people.

What kind of events in the area do you attend—either to sell/promote your books or to network with authors? Are there any outside of this area that you hit regularly and wish we had something like it here?
Locally, I attend a variety of events. Whenever a topic piques my interest, I’ll attend a presentation, and I also enjoy socially oriented meetings. The local RWA chapter also has a yearly retreat that I sometimes attend.

Nationally, I try to attend NINC’s conference in Florida and Romance Author Mastermind in Houston, but they’re specialized events and not something I’d expect locally. Sometimes it’s good to leave so I can come back and appreciate Boise all the more for being gone. = )

I’m trying to capture an idea of what the literary community is like in the area, could you mention a couple of the specific events? What kind of things grab you?
Idaho Writers Guild just had its annual membership meeting with more than 60 Idaho writers in attendance. Dinner, games, and giveaways = ) I also meet regularly with a group of writer friends for coffee and a writing chat.

What’s the breakdown of your audience—do you have a strong local base, or are your readers from other parts of the world?
I write fairly niche genre fiction under three different pen names: urban fantasy, paranormal cozy mystery, and steamy paranormal romance. My audience is primarily US, but also in other English-speaking countries (UK, AU, CA). I don’t target locally or expect to find a voracious market for my work in the local area.

Is there a particular reason you don’t expect a voracious market locally?
I write in very niche genres. While I’m sure I have readers in the area, the population is relatively small and statistically isn’t likely to have a large percentage of vegan vampire-loving cozy mystery readers (to reference one particular series.)

Do you think there are particular challenges or advantages to being a writer in the Treasure Valley? (possibly both)
Advantages: A warm, welcoming writing community! I arrived in Boise with no local contacts four years ago, and I’ve met so many amazing people almost exclusively through various writing communities in the area.

Which series is that? I’d be curious to see how you work Boise in. I’ve read a couple of Boise-based series lately, and have fun picking out the things they mention (and the things they use poetic license on).
My Cursed Candy (Cate Lawley) world takes place in Boise. From Cursed Candy Mysteries: Cutthroat Cupcakes, Twisted Treats, and Fatal Fudge. From the related series, Furry Fairy Holiday Hijinks series: Candy Cane Conspiracy and Sugar Plum Ploy.

Thanks for your time and participation! Hope you enjoyed it!
Thanks! Cate

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A Few Quick Questions with…Matt Witten

In A Few Quick Questions With..., Fiction, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

On January 3, 2023

Earlier this afternoon, I posted my thoughts (or at least many of them) about Killer Story, and now I’m pleased to present this Q&A with the author, Matt Witten. I loved his responses to the questions—and have plenty of homework to do based off of this. I didn’t realize that I was familiar with his work before due to watching way too much TV.

Also, no offense to anyone I’ve done a Q&A with before, but I’m pretty sure the opening to his fifth answer is probably the best response I’ve ever received. Enjoy—and be sure to pick up Killer Story!

Why don’t we start off with you telling us a little about yourself, what got you into writing/your path to publication, and so on.
I started writing poetry in first grade. Mostly my poems were about how great the Baltimore Orioles baseball team was, and how terrible the New York Yankees were.

I had a crush on my tenth grade drama teacher, Karen Kramer. She suggested I write a play, so I did. It was an abstract, surrealistic one-act called Mort-Free, about how humanity doesn’t need to be unhappy. I have gotten much less profound since then. Mort-Free was performed at the women’s club of a local church, and I was hooked.

When I was seventeen I got an undiagnosed illness and vowed that if I ever got healthy again, I would remember that writing is central to who I am and I should never give it up. Fortunately I did get healthy again, and even though I had some almost penniless years as a writer, I held tight to my dream. Except for that one time when I applied to law school.

In my early to mid-twenties I wrote plays that weren’t very good, but then at twenty-eight I wrote a good one called The Deal, about the FBI investigating political corruption in a small town. I wrote several plays after that. Probably my favorite is Sacred Journey, about a homeless Native American man I met on the streets of Brooklyn. I passed by him every day for six months, and then I started talking to him, and he was so intriguing I wrote a play about him that was performed all over the world. One of the most moving moments in my life was when he came to see the first performance in New York. He loved the play so much he ended up coming every night!

Somewhere in there I decided to start writing mystery novels, because I loved reading them. I wrote the Jacob Burns mystery series, with a main character who was a writer, married to an English professor at Adirondack Community College, with two boys aged five and three. At the time I was married to an English professor at ACC with two boys aged five and three. As they say, write what you know!

I never really intended to become a TV writer, but somehow or other I got hired to write a freelance episode of Homicide, and then a freelance episode of Law & Order, and before I knew it I was uprooting my family to live in LA, where I’ve been writing for TV for twenty years, on shows like House, Pretty Little Liars, Law & Order, CSI: Miami, JAG, Judging Amy, Women’s Murder Club, The Glades, Medium and Supernatural. I also wrote the movie Drones, produced by Whitewater Films. It’s been quite a journey, working with wonderful talented people, growing as a writer, and sitting on my living room sofa with family and friends watching a show I’ve written and realizing that millions of other people are also watching my words being performed.

Meanwhile my favorite thing to do in life – well, one of them, for sure – is to sit with my feet up and a cup of tea and read a thriller. My favorite genre is psychological thrillers; I consume them like candy. So a couple of years ago I decided I’d try my hand at writing them. It’s been incredibly fun. Collaborating on a TV show is fun too, but sometimes it feels good to just sit in your office – or the coffee shop – and write something that’s all yours, that comes totally from the heart, like The Necklace and Killer Story.

I’m thrilled that The Necklace found such a great publisher in Oceanview Publishing, and that it’s been optioned for the movies by Appian Way and Cartel Pictures, with Leonardo DiCaprio attached as producer. Killer Story comes out from Oceanview on January 17. My dream is to write a novel a year until I’m 80, and then take it from here.

All authors have more ideas running around in their head than they can possibly develop—what was it about this idea that made you commit to it? What came first—the victim, the protagonist, the murder, the way it’s solved, the story about Petra—and then how did you build it from there?
The main character came first: an idealist journalist who kept getting laid off.

I know several men and women in their twenties who are fiercely dedicated to going into journalism despite the huge obstacles they face. Journalism is such a rapidly changing field, with newspapers dying, internet news sites unable to find workable economic models, and decent paying jobs increasingly hard to get. These aspiring young journalists have a passion and sense of mission that I admire.

I found additional inspiration in my own life. All TV writers get fired at least once in their careers, or to use the industry parlance, they “don’t get their contracts renewed”; and that has happened to me as well. There are many reasons TV writers don’t get renewed – often it’s as simple as, there’s a new head writer who wants to hire people they’ve worked with before. But whatever the reason, losing your job is painful.

And it happens all the time in the newspaper industry. Will Doolittle, a reporter for the Glens Falls Post-Star, told me that when he started out twenty years ago, they had fifty reporters; now they’re down to eight. All over the country, newspapers are laying people off or going under.

So I created a main character in Killer Story, Petra Kovach, who is about to get laid off from yet another journalism job. She obsesses about all the things that just about everyone I know who’s ever lost their job, including myself, stresses about: Did I choose the right path in life? Is what happened somehow my fault? Will I ever get a job in the industry again?

But Petra gets back up off the mat and keeps on fighting. She’s a young woman who’s determined to make it in a very difficult business. When I wrote the character, I kept thinking about a brilliant young woman I know who, like Petra, is a first-generation immigrant with big dreams from an economically disadvantaged family. She’s working her way through law school now.

As to the murder itself, the last thing I figured out was who the murder victim would be. I landed on Olivia Anderson, a Harvard freshman who’s also an alt-right media YouTuber. I’m intrigued by how young people, especially ones from privileged backgrounds, can get sucked into that morass; and solving that mystery became a big part of solving the murder mystery.

Actually, when I think about it, that wasn’t the last thing I figured out. I remember being an artist colony in Iceland in June, and lying on my bed during the midnight sun thinking that I had the wrong murderer. It wasn’t satisfying. Now I’ve written a lot of murder mysteries in my life, dozens if you count TV episodes, and I’ve always known from the start who the killer was. But with Killer Story, for the first time ever, I changed my mind on that while I was in the middle of writing the novel. I’m really glad I did; I love who the killer is. I won’t say more so as not to give a spoiler.

You walk right up to the edge of politics—it’s clear what Petra thinks of Livvy’s ideas, it’s only pretty late in the book that you really get into details. How hard was that to hold back? And did you spend much time thinking about the reactions of readers with conservative tendencies (probably not going as far as Livvy, but with inclinations in that direction?
I like that expression: “walking right up to the edge of politics.” I don’t recall it being hard to hold back the details; that flow seemed to come naturally. But I definitely thought about the reactions of readers with conservative tendencies. I suspect that alt-righters will not enjoy the book, that’s just built into the story; but it was important to me to write the novel in such a way that it would be accessible to everyone else of all political stripes.

I’m a sucker for investigative journalist stories—I don’t think I’ve seen one like this before, though. You talk about this some in your author’s note, but why was it so important to you to talk about the influence of social media on journalism in general and investigative journalism in particular?
Thanks, I’m glad to hear Killer Story is original!

I’m a huge fan of crime podcasts like Serial and Accused and crime documentaries like Making a Murderer and Jinx. At the same time, I’m a skeptic of these shows. I’m intrigued by how reporters sometimes omit key details or distort the truth in order to tell a better story.

Today, for the first time in history, every reporter, editor, and publisher has instant access to: how many people are reading this story? In a way, that’s great: it pushes journalism into reporting the stories consumers want to read. But in a way, it’s terrible and scary: the very clear economic motivation is to get clicks and followers, and that can be more important than getting the truth.

Imagine if you were a young investigative journalist in this ultra-competitive field. The temptations to futz the truth a little, in exchange for clicks, would be huge! My intention with Killer Story was to explore all the financial and moral obstacles and dilemmas that journalists face today.

Who are some of your major influences? (whether or not you think those influences can be seen in your work—you know they’re there)
Throughout my life, two writers have inspired me the most: Dr. Seuss and Elmore Leonard. Dr. Seuss wrote with such freedom and wealth of imagination, and I believe has had a tremendous, underappreciated impact on so many writers who came after him. Elmore Leonard wrote with such economy of language, and such wonderful realistic dialogue, that I still marvel when I reread his work today. Swag is one of the greatest novels ever!

In the past five or ten years, when I’ve been gobbling down psychological thrillers like candy, there are so many writers who have inspired me. Here’s a partial list: Gillian Flynn; Harlan Coben; Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen; Laura Lippman; Jessica Knoll; A.J. Finn; Paula Hawkins; Shari Lapena; Karin Slaughter; Mary Kubica; Lisa Lutz; Ruth Ware; Linwood Barclay; Fiona Barton; Lisa Jewell; JP Delany; and Hollie Overton.

Let’s play “Online Bookstore Algorithm” (a game I made up for these Q&As). What are 3-5 books whose readers may like Killer Story?
The Necklace, by the one and only Matt Witten. A very different story – for one thing the main character is an unambiguous hero; but the writing style is similar.
The Murder Rule, by Dervla McTiernan. A twisty thriller starring a young woman sleuth with a strong mission, whose behavior is sometimes questionable.
Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn. A twisty thriller with jouflawed main characters.
The Night Swim, by Megan Goldin. A thriller about a true-crime podcast.
Her Perfect Life, by Hank Phillippi Ryan. A thriller set in the world of journalism.

What’s next for Matt Witten, author?
I’m finishing up a novel called Brainstorm, a thriller about a brilliant young neuroscientist who gets kidnapped along with her blind date and thrust into a high-stakes cat and mouse game about a weapon of mass destruction that she herself accidentally created. Ariel needs to escape from her abductors, decide whether she trusts her date, and save the world from catastrophe.

I’m also doing two TV projects: cowriting a pilot for NBC called 51%, and writing a Hallmark Mystery Movie based on A Dark and Stormy Murder, by Julia Buckley.

Thanks for your time—and thanks for Killer Story. Petra is going to live on in the back of my mind for a long time. I hope you have plenty of success with her story.
Thank you!

LITERARY LOCALS: A Q&A About Writing (and Drawing) in Idaho with Jeremy Billups

On December 20, 2022

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I’ve got a chat with Children’s Book Writer/Illustrator Jeremy Billups today. I love Jeremy’s stuff—some of his artwork has popped up here over the last year. I have enjoyed and blogged about his three books and am eager to see what’s next from him. But for now, am excited to share this with you. Hope you enjoy!

Before we get into things, why don’t you give the reader a brief introduction to you and your work.
Ok, sure. Let’s see. I’m Jeremy. I live in Boise, Idaho with my family. I’ve written three children’s books so far, Bearded, Bearded Too, and Sea This and Sea That. I’m currently working on two new children’s books that I hope will be out at some point in 2023. I’m also working away on some comics that I’m super excited about. Should I share the titles of the new stuff? Or should I keep them a mystery?

If anyone is interested in buying my books right now, I’ve made it super tricky. I decided to stop selling on Amazon. I took down my personal website and am in the middle of building a new website that will serve as the exclusive home to all my stuff. I’m hoping to launch the new site soon. So, really the only way to buy my books is directly from me, and I’m a terrible salesperson. Haha.

For the announcement of the new site you can follow me on Twitter at @jeremybillups.

You should share the upcoming titles. I won’t publish them if you don’t want me to, but you should share 🙂
Okay! I’m having a hard time keeping it all secret, anyway. I’ve decided to add a third book to the Bearded series. Bearded Tree should be out this upcoming Summer. And, I’ve been trying to finish a Christmas book that I’m currently calling, Caroline, Caroling. I would love for that to be out next October. The comics I’m working on are Tales of the Incredible and Squirrel E. Jones. They’re very different from each other, but both are a lot of fun.

Are you a native Idahoan? What is it about Idaho that keeps you here?
Yep. Born and raised. I grew up in the small town of Weippe in North Central Idaho. Very small town when I lived there and even smaller now. My parents still live there so I still get to visit at least a couple of times a year.

And, I love Idaho and the Treasure Valley. With family and friends here, it’s hard to imagine living anywhere else.

Just to be on the safe side, you want to tell non-Idaho readers how to pronounce Weippe? Am sure growing up that you heard all the jokes… (but probably didn’t make any of them yourself)
Good call! Weippe is pronounced like “We Hype”. I have definitely heard all of the jokes and still do. I’m guilty of making some of my own jokes too. 🙂

Are you tied into some sort of local author/bookish group/culture? If so, tell us about it and how it helps you as an author. If you’re not, is there a reason for it?
Yes and no. I was meeting with one of my friends from college once a month to talk about current projects, critique each other’s work, and motivate each other to keep pushing to get better. That was going really well, until we both had kids. Haha. Now we email back and forth when we can.

I was also in SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) for a while and participated in a couple of events, but that was hard because at the time I was a member they lumped Southern Idaho in with Salt Lake City and all the really exciting events were down in Utah. Considering the event fees, hotel, gas and travel time – it was hard to get down there. I’m not sure if they’re still lumped together. I should probably check because SCBWI is a great organization.

I guess this is a good time for me to share some news along those lines. With my new website, I’m also launching a Discord server. I’m hoping that it turns into a small online community where people can share, critique, learn, have fun, and ultimately grow creatively. If anyone is interested, the server is already open. Here’s the link: https://discord.gg/9DYb8GWFVr

What kind of events in the area do you attend—either to sell/promote your books or to network with authors? Are there any outside of this area that you hit regularly and wish we had something like it here?
I absolutely love the Boise Comic Arts Festival! It’s always so much fun and such a positive energy. I always walk away from that event recharged and excited to make new stuff. Plus, that’s where we met! I wasn’t able to attend this year because of my day job but I’ll definitely be there next year.

I also enjoy selling at small Holiday Bazaar events at local schools. And, I’ve done a couple local school/library visits. They’ve been good options for children’s books.

I haven’t been to one yet, but there are some great children’s book festivals around the country. I would also love to see a children’s book festival here in the Treasure Valley. Oh man, now you have me pondering whether or not it would be a good idea to start a festival like that here. Should I do that?!

The Boise Comics Art Festival was interesting this year—having it in the Zoo added a nice bit of flair (but the downside was that you had to wander around a lot to see everything, and we were never sure if we had). Are there some sure-fire Bazaar events that authors/readers should check out, or does it vary from event to event, year to year?
I saw some pictures online of this year’s Festival. I’m very bummed I missed the Zoo. I did wonder about the “artist alley” experience. Definitely not the typical approach. I wonder if they’ll have it at the Zoo again next year.

Other than the Boise Comic Arts Festival, it tends to vary from year to year for me. Gem State Comic Con is one that I’ll be checking out in April. If it’s not too late, I should probably look into getting a table there.

I’ll also mention The Cabin (thecabinidaho.org). They have excellent events, activities, and workshops all throughout the year. I think they’re a tremendous local resource for both readers and writers.

Back to your idea of starting a children’s book festival, personally, I’m game for any book festivals I can get to 🙂
Good to know! I’m definitely putting it on my list of things to ponder. I imagine it would be a lot of work to put on, but I think it would be something that could be a lot of fun for years to come!
(you might want to see what Devi Walls said about that last week)

What’s the breakdown of your audience—do you have a strong local base, or are your readers from other parts of the world?
Through the power of Amazon, I definitely have more readers across the nation and world than I do locally. I was pretty intimidated, still am, with selling face-to-face so I thought selling on Amazon would be the best place for me to start. I have no complaints with starting there, but I did finally come to realize the power of local, not just for selling, but for meeting people and growing relationships. I finally started participating in local events a few years ago. I’m so glad I did.

Do you have solid plans (as much as anything can be solidly planned) for expanding locally, or are you more at a “throw it at the wall and see what sticks” point?
My big focus at the moment is to get my website squared away. Once that’s done, I’ll take a fresh look at expanding locally. There are a lot of farmer’s markets here in the valley that I’ve been looking into. I think they could be a really good next step toward growing my local audience.
I think that could work pretty well.

Do you think there are particular challenges or advantages to being a writer in the Treasure Valley? (possibly both)
Compared to where I grew up, there are definitely advantages. Events, activities, resources, and communities of like-minded people with similar aspirations are easy to find here.
Nothing against Weippe, but I bet!

Do you bring Idaho (or some sort of Idaho-sensibility, assuming one exists) to your work? Whether or not anyone else sees it, can you look at some aspect of your writing and think “That’s Idaho” or “I would do ____ differently if I was a Kentuckian or from Illinois?”
So far I’ve been deliberate about leaving Idaho out of my work. But now I’m wondering if that’s the best approach. Have you ever watched a cartoon by the name of Bluey? It’s an amazing show about a family of dogs that live in Australia. The show is made in Australia and is VERY Australian. Watching the show from an outsider’s perspective, I’ve come to really enjoy the little peeks into Australian life and slang. By the way, did you know that Australian slang for toilet is “dunny”? Haha.
That could work really well—assuming there’s a local slang.
Definitely going to explore this. I think it could be a lot of fun.

Is there a book (or two…or 18, if you get really carried away), that embodies Idaho/the Idaho spirit to you?
Growing up here in Idaho, I was introduced pretty early on to the Idaho and Ernest Hemingway connection. That connection led me to reading A Farewell to Arms which was followed up with me reading anything and everything written by Hemingway that I could find. There was something about the unadorned style, subject matter, and time period of his writings that really resonated with me. In a lot of ways, it’s like reading about the romanticized version of Idaho that I have in my head.

Thanks for your time and participation! Hope you enjoyed it!
Thank you for taking the time to chat! It was a lot of fun!

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A Few Quick Questions with…James T. Lambert

On December 15, 2022

Earlier today, I posted my take on the charming Aether Powered by James T. Lambert, and now I’d like to share this Q&A with you. Lambert got me to work a little harder than most authors do, which was a fun twist for me. Hope you like this Q&A and check out his work! He’ll be back in a week or two for another Literary Local post, too.

The second question and answer are probably technically a spoiler for his novel so you may want to skim/avoid them. But I think we’re both safe enough that it won’t really ruin much for you.

All authors have more ideas running around in their head than they can possibly develop—what was it about this idea that made you commit to writing it? Was there something about it that led it to be the first one you published—is it something as simple as of those you’d finished, it was the most worthy of being polished up, or was it something about that particular story?
So this was my second (and a half) NaNo project. My first had some style problems I wanted to fix and wasn’t making fast progress on, so when someone asked me which of my project was closest to completion, I thought Aether Powered was. Even after finishing some of my other NaNo projects, this one still seemed like it needed the least work to get to publication. After having published Steam Opera and Proxies I think I was wrong and Proxies was probably in better shape, but at the time I was convinced it needed a major rewrite to start in a different spot.

So my first NaNo project was Steam Opera and I attempted to write a sequel about 8 months later. It kind of fell apart between real life drama (a tree crushed both my cars while I was writing a few feet away) and problems with lack of direction in the plot. Steam Opera was a great NaNo idea as it had a specific goal for the plot: Get to the moon. If the characters got to the moon or failed in an interesting way the plot worked. So every decision while writing was ‘what do they do next to get to the moon?’ But Aether Powered was a less clever idea in terms of daily writing. I started with an interesting concept: trunk full of inventions. But every day was ‘what happens next?’ I didn’t have a goal like Steam Opera. But I wanted to succeed at NaNo and get those 50,000 words written, so I stuck to it.

When it comes to a character like Carol—how difficult was it to maintain (and/or arrive at) a believably overbearing girlfriend, without making her into a monster? Is the key in the way you write her, or in how Joseph reacted to her?
At the base she wasn’t that bad a person. She had the assumption that since Joseph owned a house and had a trust fund, he was rich. She just never moved beyond that to realize he was just scraping by. I just kept her focused on ‘I want money’ and always pushing and that gave her some ugly motivation. Also the jealousy and suspicion. I may have gone overboard with the ‘I’ll ruin your dating life’ but maybe she meant it as a joke and it just came out wrong. But with those motivations for acting the way she did, and with Joseph’s easy-going attitude letting him get steamrollered, their relationship was doomed, but not over-the-top unbelievable. People get stuck in bad relationships that aren’t quite bad enough to end. An old friend once said “it may be a cold, wet mudhole, but it’s YOUR cold, wet mudhole.” There’s a certain amount of inertia in most people and overcoming that to get out of a bad situation can be hard. I think Joseph’s reactions to her probably sold it better than anything. He tried to be careful, say the right thing, not make waves, but that just got him in deeper instead of fixing things.

There are several aspects of this book that I’d love to do a deep dive into, but I’m going to keep myself to one other: the Seafair Pirates. They are such a fun group! Is anything about their part of the story (a group like them, the Seafair, anything) based in reality, or is this something you made up en toto? When do we get a novel about them (either as a semi-sequel to Aether Powered, or something unrelated)?
I wish I was clever enough to make them up. Seafair and the Seafair Pirates are totally real. I just lucked into finding the information about them when I needed him to get some help. Here’s the website for the event: https://www.seafair.org/ The Pirates also exist (or did when I wrote the book) and I found news footage of them coming ashore. http://www.seafairpirates.org/

The descriptions of them in costume were from videos and pictures I found online. I read a lot about what they did and tried to incorporate as much as I could, but ended up modeling individuals and group scenes (like the singing) around fan groups I’ve been in. I’ve got a recording of Where the Red Queen Reigns from the group Annwn and I’ve been in Filk circles singing like that at conventions. When I was in my Science Fiction club we had all kinds of interesting people who did interesting things, so I made it a lot like that. Same with the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) where you could find one of everything in the groups. Just as examples: Federal radio techs fixing Smoke jumper radios at NIFC (National Interagency Fire Center), Ham radio enthusiasts who dispatched ambulances during power outages, rocket scientists who programed Martian rovers. Those are all people I’ve met through fan stuff.

I’m thinking about a sequel to Aether Powered with another invention as the key point. I’d most likely bring in the pirates again. My current working title is Rogue Wave and would be about the rogue wave phenomenon of Tsunamis. I don’t have much else yet and want to get a solid plot for it before I start. Maybe late in 2023? Depends on all the things, lol.

Who are some of your major influences? (whether or not you think those influences can be seen in your work—you know they’re there)
All my favorite authors are influences, but I never feel like I get enough of them in there. Lois McMaster Bujold, Terry Pratchett, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Alan Dean Foster, John M. Ford, Charles Stross, and more.

More personal people would be Troy Lambert (no relation), Danielle Gilbert, David Farland, M. Todd Gallowglas, John M. Olsen, and more.

I learned a lot from the Writing Excuses podcast with Howard Tayler, Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Brandon Sanderson.

You’ve published SF and Steampunk so far (and non-fiction about SF)—are those your genres of choice for writing and reading? Is there a genre you particularly enjoy, but don’t think you could/would want to try—or, given time are you going to get around to them all?
I was a huge SF fan growing up and still am. I used to be a bigger fan of Fantasy too, but am less so now. I like Steampunk, but don’t read it as much as I used to a decade ago. Of course, I’m not reading in general quite as much now as then.

I will probably continue doing SF and Steampunk a lot, but I also like Urban Fantasy and have several short stories I’m planning on getting out that are UF. I’m working on a fantasy as well, so we’ll see how that goes.

I really like humor. I’m a huge Discworld fan and would love to be able to write funny/satirical stuff like that. Or like Keith Laumer’s Retief books (more SF) or Douglas Adam’s Hitchhiker’s books. But I’m having trouble getting into writing it. I’ve got a plot idea for a humorous SF story, but it hasn’t risen to the top of the pile yet.

Let’s play “Online Bookstore Algorithm” (a game I made up for these Q&As). What are 3-5 books whose readers may like Aether Powered?
Ouch, I wish I knew, my advertising might be going better, lol. Seriously though… hmmm, that’s tough.

Flaming Zeppelins. It’s a Steampunk book. More crazy than mine.

City of Saints by DJ Butler. Another Steampunk book set in Utah in the late 1800s.

Rock Band Fights Evil by DJ Butler. A series that is exactly what it says. Again, I wish mine was as creative as this.

I am having some trouble finding books that would have crossover to mine. If you have suggestions, I love to hear it. I don’t seem to be good at that kind of matchup. My first thought when you asked was, Not Dressed by Matthew Hanover—if he was to write contemporary Steampunk, it’d be a lot like it Aether Powered (and Not Dressed is the closest match of his books). While reading the book, I thought of K.R.R. Lockhaven’s The Marauders, the Daughter, and the Dragon more than once (his pirates would love yours—and vice versa).

2022 has been a busy year for you, are you easing up on yourself soon? Can you tell us what’s coming up in ‘23?
I hope not! But didn’t have a great start, getting sick right at the end of NaNo. I’m shooting to keep up a three to four book a year pace, but it’s going to be tougher than it has been since I’m running out of written stuff that just needs rewrites and edits.

I know I’ve got Relics of War coming out in early 23, probably by February (I want it for the LTUE conference in February). Relics of War is a SF story set a few thousand years in the future after a devastating war with rouge AI warships set humanity back. A ship of privateers finds information that might lead to one of the warships from the AI wars, but they aren’t the only ones after it.

I was working on Dead Knowledge until I got sick, so I need to pick that up again and get that ready, hopefully in the Summer. It’s an idea I got when taking a class from Dave Farland where he said that Necromancers were never the good guys. So I have a story where one is. He’s a research necromancer who contacts the dead to answer questions and retrieve lost knowledge. Basically he’s a librarian and the dead are the internet.

I’ve got a bit done on a sequel to Steam Opera which just came out. Shadow Opera is a story of spies and spying. Think a little like Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. I may get that out next year.

I’ve got a story idea with a couple of scenes written I plan on calling IGLOW: InterGalactic Ladies Of Wrestling. Aliens are kidnapping lady wrestlers and pitting them against alien female wrestlers. I may work on that this coming year.

I’ve got a partially finished story I’m having some trouble with I might work on. Muse asks the question: If the Greek Muses were alive today, what would they be doing? A college student with severe writer’s block finds one playing guitar on a street corner and another holding a cardboard sign: Lost Home, Lost Hope, Please Help.

Oh, nearly forgot. I’ve got six short stories in a connected set I want to polish up and print in thin little booklets. As a group they are called Monster Marshals and they are about marshals working for a secret government organization that polices magic and monsters in our world. One of the stories made it into the Haunted Yuletide anthology. “’Twas the Fight Before Christmas” has two marshals sent to a Reindeer farm in Maine to stop animated snowmen from attacking it.
WOW. I’m tired just reading that—that’s ambitious.

Thanks for your time—and thanks for Aether Powered, I had a lot of fun with it and I hope you have plenty of success with it.

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LITERARY LOCALS: A Q&A About Writing in Idaho with Devri Walls

On December 13, 2022

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Devri Walls is (as far as I know) the first author I featured on this blog from around here. She’s participated in two previous Q&A’s with me over the years (this and this), and is a great person to work with (and, as far as I know, all around good person). She was the first author I thought of talking to for this series and am so glad to kick things off with this chat from her. Be sure to click the link to her page and check out her books. (hopefully, after you read the rest of this).

Before we get into things, why don’t you give the reader a brief introduction to you and your work.
My name is Devri Walls and I write all things fantasy! I love writing large worlds that are easy to follow, character driven and well paced. If you’d like to connect you can find links to all my work and social media on devriwalls.com. And if you’re looking for help with where to start, my suggestion would be book one of the Venators series, Magic Unleashed.
(far be it from me to contradict our guest here, but you shouldn’t overlook The Wizard’s Heir, either)

Are you a native Idahoan? What is it about Idaho that keeps you here?
I am native, yes. I was born and raised in the middle of nowhere between Kuna and Melba (Editor’s Note: for those of you from out of the state, that’s the middle of nowhere now. It was even more so when she was raised there. And even more nowhere-y when I grew up near there), graduated from Kuna High and swore I would never live here. HA! The irony. I have actually grown to love this state as I’ve aged and while I’m not sure if I’ll retire here, it’s a beautiful area with a lovely atmosphere. The more I travel to do signings the more I appreciate this state I call home.

Are you tied into some sort of local author/bookish group/culture? If so, tell us about it and how it helps you as an author. If you’re not, is there a reason for it?
I always dread this question. I am not tied to the local author groups or culture. Why not? Well…I am a put my head down and do the work kinda gal. I don’t actually enjoy sitting around talking about it. That being said, I do have many author friends that are scattered across the U.S and are very near and dear to me. Friends I can absolutely call during those dreaded author breakdown moments that plague us all. Being an author is a bizarre “island life” and it’s so important to make sure you find “your people” in this world.

That’s a lot of dread in one answer 🙂 Have you tried and found that local groups aren’t for you, or did you just not have a need to seek one out?
I’ve never felt the need to participate in writer’s groups, but for those of you who are looking for the comradely of a writers group I would offer a couple pieces of advice.

Writers groups are the most beneficial when it motivates you to get that next chapter done. It’s like a gym partner except with a bunch of people who think sitting around and talking about people and places that don’t exist is super cool.

While it’s imperative that you learn to listen to critique, pulling in seven different “opinions” on your rough draft is not the greatest environment to learn how to do that. While I realize that this may not be feasible for everyone I highly, highly recommend that you look into hiring either a professional writing coach or editor. One experienced editor and/or coach on your side will do more for your writing than two years of a creative writing program.

What kind of events in the area do you attend—either to sell/promote your books or to network with authors? Are there any outside of this area that you hit regularly and wish we had something like it here?
I haven’t found events locally that I have that “I can’t miss this” feeling around. If I’m going to spend the money and take the time to attend events, I want it to deliver on what it promises. If it’s to sell or promote myself I need it to have enough attendance to do so. If it’s educational I need true industry professionals teaching. For me, Comic Cons have been great for reaching large masses of people. For education I’ve been most impressed with LTUE in Utah. They have such an incredible range of classes and teachers.

That makes a lot of sense, and points to something I wondered about—do local events bring in the sales? Have you spent much time thinking about that and ways that could be improved, or with your wider audience-base, is that something you haven’t found a need to do?
This is such a hard question. There are several problems at work here. One is just local culture, some places are literally “cheaper” than others. This area can be a little cheap. I teach voice lessons as well and my prices would be considered obscenely low in other areas but it’s what this area will support. A woman did try to start a conference here (for several years) and couldn’t get people to pay for the tickets! She had to give most of them away.

The conferences that do really well have at least one “big name” they’ve pulled in to justify the ticket price and to encourage people to travel into the area to attend. That of course becomes the “what comes first” scenario because you need the money to pay for the bigger name but you need the bigger name to get the money.
I hear you—most people here would consider that “cheapness” a feature of this Valley, not a bug. I can only imagine how difficult it would be to build something like that.

What’s the breakdown of your audience—do you have a strong local base, or are your readers from other parts of the world?
I would say my audience is spread out due to the number of events and signings I’ve done around the country. That being said, my books have had a really good run in local libraries and have had such beautiful support from Rediscovered Books in Boise that I do think it’s created a localized pocket of fans.

Do you bring Idaho (or some sort of Idaho-sensibility, assuming one exists) to your work? Whether or not anyone else sees it, can you look at some aspect of your writing and think “That’s Idaho” or “I would do ____ differently if I was a Kentuckian or from Illinois?”
I think the author’s heart and soul comes through in whatever they’re writing so my upbringing certainly colors everything—whether I intend to or not. Now, do I think someone will read my fantasy and think, that girl’s from Idaho! Probably not. That being said, you can very much see repeating landscapes in my work that is very much Boise and its surrounding forest.

One final question, is there a book (or two…or 18, if you get really carried away), that embodies Idaho/the Idaho spirit to you to recommend to my readers?
My problem is when I read fiction I want to ESCAPE. And reading anything that is “local” to me does not feel like an escape. It feels like life. Which I have quite a lot of, thank you very much. That being said, I have read one book that is set locally. The How and The Why by Cynthia Hand. It’s told between the two storylines of a mother giving her daughter up for adoption and that same daughter growing up and asking questions about her adoption. It’s a great book and a perfectly accurate representation of the Boise area.

Thanks for your time and participation (and patience)! Hope you enjoyed it!

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A Few Quick Questions with…Sheryl Bass

On December 6, 2022

A little bit ago, I shared my thoughts about Baby Dragon’s Big Sneeze, which is really something you need in your library (if you have people around in the right age range, anyway). Now, here are a few Answers to my Questions from Sheryl Bass, the author. I enjoyed these answers—and really appreciate how she didn’t say anything about my embarrassing typos that I finally noticed when I formatted this post.

Can you talk a little about the genesis of this particular book? What about this idea (among the large number of others you may have had) that made you devote the time to it?
This book started with a big sneeze of my own. I had the ridiculous thought that it was a good thing I wasn’t a dragon or it could have done a lot of damage. This was approximately 13 years ago. The book has been edited and revised since then.

The illustrations are fantastic—how did you team up with Ramesh Ram? What was the process of working with him to combine story and pictures?
This is a self-published book, but the term “self-publishing” is a bit of a misnomer as there are many people who can help every step of the way. I found my mentor, April Cox of Self-Publishing Made Simple while I was watching a free online video she produced about her services. She has approximately 12 illustrators who she regularly works with and knows that they are willing to do work for hire such that the author can retain rights to the illustrations after their work is complete and they are competent and responsive. She had me review the websites of all 12 illustrators and pick my favorite 3 or 4. Then, I asked the three or four of them to draw the exact same scene from my book in black and white. I paid each of them $50 do do this sketch. I then whittled it down to my top two illustrators and had my friends and family be a focus group and vote on their favorite illustrator. Remesh Ram of Prayan Animation won the votes. He is fantastic and I plan to use him for my future children’s picture books.

I can only imagine that coming up with a story in rhyme brings particular challenges—did you find yourself having to abandon ideas, or backtrack a bit when you couldn’t find a decent rhyme and rework a sentence or two?
Yes! I definitely found writing in rhyme to be a challenge. However, I believe it is well worth it. Many publishing houses don’t like rhyme right now. Various types of children’s books go in and out of style and perhaps rhyme is not as in fashion as it once was. However, I am a big proponent of rhyme as there is research supporting it for children in language acquisition, vocabulary expansion, giving a children a sense of rhythm and encouraging reluctant readers. This is part of why nursery rhymes are so useful and enjoyable for children.

You chose to publish this yourself, rather than going through a small press, or a larger “traditional” press—any regrets about that? Any advice for others considering this path?
I have no regrets about self-publishing this book and doing so in the future with additional children’s books. The advantages to self-publishing are more creative control (I chose my own illustrator and told him exactly how I wanted the dragon to look, what I wanted my townspeople to be wearing, etc.), the royalties are higher (40-50% versus 10-12 percent with traditional publishing) and a faster turn around time to publish (months versus years for traditional publishing).

Before this book, you had a couple of personal essays about dogs published—writing about dogs is a big interest around these parts—can you tell us a little about those essays and the books they were in? Any plans to combine your children’s books and your interest in dogs?
These were two slightly different versions of the same story about being a stage mom to my now deceased dog, Lyric. She starred as Toto in the Boulder Dinner Theatre’s production of The Wizard of Oz. She was the only cast member without an understudy and got paid in prime rib every night (since it was dinner theater). Her mom got paid $40 per show. She did 7 shows per week for five months. This story can be found in Lost Souls: Found! Inspiring Stories About Chihuahuas (Kyla Duffy and Lowrey Mumford) and Second-Chance Dogs: True Stories of the Dogs We Rescue and the Dogs Who Rescue Us (ed. Callie Smith Grant).

Related to that—what’s next for Sheryl Bass, author?
I have two additional children’s picture book stories in drafts and others not yet put to paper that I plan to self-publish. You can find my current book and eventually, my others at http://www.be-kindpublishing.com.

Thanks for your time—and thanks for this great little book—I hope it finds its audience!

A Few Quick Questions with…Marshall Karp

On November 22, 2022