GENREALITY

New York Times, USA Today, and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling author Yasmine Galenorn writes urban fantasy for Berkley: both the Otherworld/Sisters of the Moon Series for Berkley and the Indigo Court urban fantasy series. In the past, she wrote mysteries for Berkley Prime Crime, and nonfiction metaphysical books.

Yasmine has been in the Craft for over 30 years, is a shamanic witch, and describes her life as a blend of teacups and tattoos. She lives in Kirkland WA with her husband Samwise and their cats. Yasmine can be reached via her website at www.galenorn.com and on Facebook and Twitter.

Success can change some people, but it hasn’t changed Yasmine. When I met her she was already a multi-published author with Berkley, but she’d just sold the first three books of her Sisters Of The Moon series and was super excited about it. When I heard the concept, I understood why so it was no surprise when the series put her on multiple Bestseller lists. The series is still going strong, and Yasmine is still an intelligent and awesome woman. Please welcome her as today’s Guest Blogger.

Paranormal Experience—When Life Intrudes on Fiction?

Thanks to Sasha for inviting me here to blog! I’m Yasmine Galenorn and I write two series for Berkley—both urban fantasy: The Otherworld Series, and The Indigo Court Series. I used to write mysteries and metaphysical nonfiction. My newest release—Courting Darkness, comes out on November 1st. It’s book ten in the Otherworld Series.

People often ask me just how much I use of my real-life paranormal experiences in my fiction. Well…first—yes, I am a shamanic witch—I’ve been in the Craft for over 30 years. No, I’m not Wiccan. I follow a different path. I started out my “official” publishing career by writing eight metaphysical books before breaking into fiction with Berkley. I had written seven novels and—after hundreds of rejections—hid them in the closet before I received my first contract for the nonfiction. And yes, they’re still there.

So, when people ask me about the merging of my paranormally-focused reality with my fiction, there’s really no easy answer.

In my perception, life itself is a paranormal experience. Every inch of my life is touched by my spiritual path, every aspect of nature seems magical to me. Science and magic blend in a mystical dance in my world. And yet…this paranormal white noise exists mainly in the background, a part of my very being without always being on the surface. So how does it color my stories?

In my first mystery series—the Chintz ‘n China series—Emerald O’Brien was the town witch—she was psychic and accepted her abilities as normal and natural. And some of her experiences had their foundation in things I’ve experienced, but to turn an interesting tidbit into a great story, I exaggerate and change what happened. For example—Mr. Big & Ugly from Ghost of a Chance was a composite of several nasty spirits I’ve encountered, although amped up quite a bit. So those experiences became the skeleton on which I built the rest of the body. Because reality, while fascinating, doesn’t always make for the best of fiction.

And the entire plot for A Harvest of Bones stemmed from a terrifying incident where two of our cats got loose (they’ve always been indoor-onlies). Somehow, the combination of losing the gurlz (and subsequently finding days later, both alive and relatively unscathed, thankfully), a picture of an autumn path, and the poem The Lady of Shalott, all merged in my mind to create the plot for the book.

Once I started writing the Otherworld Series, (aka—the Sisters of the Moon series), I totally let loose. Based in the genre of urban fantasy, this series has much of its foundation in my study of various mythologies of the world, as well as the ravings of my own warped imagination. What personal paranormal experiences there are, are exacerbated to be almost unrecognizable because of the very nature of the genre. And, after ten books, I have gone farther afield for inspiration. But there are snippets of my reality tucked away in the pages…you just may never know what they are.

With the Indigo Court Series—two books in, I have entered the realm of dark fantasy, verging on horror, and while the monsters are out of my imagination, a great deal of the magic is based on the way I perceive my shamanic witchcraft—only, once again, exacerbated. I very much view the entire world as a magical place, with a spirit inhabiting just about every living thing.

I’ve been asked before how much of personal experience to infuse into the work—and to that, I can only answer, “As much as you need to, with care and thought.” When you insert your experience into your books, unless it’s nonfiction, the writing must seem seamless—as if the incidents were created specifically for the story, not plundered from real life.

Author intrusion can be a big problem. It removes the reader from the story and makes them too aware of the storyteller. But if the experience truly fits the story, then by all means use it. Just make certain to take it out of reality and tailor it to be part of the character’s life. How you do that will depend on the voice of your narrative, on the pattern of your writing and characterization—there’s no one-answer-fits-all. When in doubt, run the scene by a trusted writing friend to see if it feels contrived, or if it sucks them in.

So, to answer the question: Do my personal encounters with the paranormal influence my writing and show up in my novels? The answer is yes, they provide inspiration. And no—because in the novels they are changed beyond recognition.

I’ll be giving away a $10 Amazon or BN.com gift card to one person who leaves me a comment or question here before Friday the 28th. Winner will be contacted by my assistant on the 1st of November (Courting Darkness’s release day—and there was much rejoicing!!!!). Make sure you leave your email addy with your comment/question for me to contact you if you’re interested in entering!

Yasmine

Courting Darkness (book 10 of The Otherworld Series)
November 1, 2011 * ISBN: 978-05150070

We’re the D’Artigo sisters: sexy, savvy ex-operatives for the Otherworld Intelligence Agency. But being half-human, half-Fae means our powers go haywire at all the wrong times. My sister Delilah is a Death Maiden and werecat who belongs to the Autumn Lord. My sister Menolly is a vampire who’s dating a gorgeous werepuma, and the godfather of the undead-set. And me? I’m Camille, Priestess of the Moon Mother, married to a dragon, a youkai, and a Svartan. But my dragon father-in-law has decided that he doesn’t like having me for a member of the family…
It’s Winter Solstice, and Aeval welcomes me into her Court of Darkness. With Morio still dangerously weak from his injuries and Vanzir alive only thanks to my silence, the thought of training under Morgaine doesn’t seem as daunting as it did. But then, Hyto returns to shatter my life. Captured and swept off to the Dragon Reaches, can I manage to stay alive long enough to escape, even as Smoky’s father intends to break my spirit, then my body?

Print, Kindle, Powell’s, SeattleMystery.com, BAM, B & N

Eve Berlin aka Eden Bradley On Research & Writing Sex (With a Little Discussion About the Kinky Stuff)

We’ve all heard the saying ‘write what you know’—or at least, we writers have. Over and over. I believe this is mostly true. Of course, none of us can actually ask anyone what it’s like to turn into a werewolf, so it’s impossible for this to apply in every circumstance. But I do think our work is more believable if we’ve done our homework, and sometimes that means actually doing something ourselves rather than reading about it.

I’m very open about my real life experiences with some of the topics I write about. I’ve been on Playboy Radio talking about sex, have done a number of writer’s workshops on writing sex, and about kink in particular, so it’s no secret that I’ve been involved in BDSM off and on for most of my adult life. And I think it makes a difference in my writing. There are some people who are very good at writing BDSM who’ve never made that foray into extreme sexual practices, but I can (almost) always tell when an author is writing from experience. I think it’s something many readers will pick up on, even if it’s on some subtle level they don’t quite recognize.

Before I continue, perhaps I should define what BDSM means: bondage and discipline, domination and submission, sadism and masochism. That can cover a lot of territory, but basically it addresses a power exchange between partners, where one—or more—person is in a position or role of domination, and the other—and yes, this can be more than one at a time, too!—is in a position or role of submission. This can include pain or sensation play, or simply the roles themselves—because BDSM is, at its most basic, about symbols and how we respond to them. It’s all about the psychology. And that’s something that can be difficult to research. You have to ‘get’ what the power exchange is all about in order to write about it effectively and realistically.

As I mentioned before, there are some people who get this on a very deep level without having experienced it themselves, but my real life experience is one reason why I write about it. The psychology of my characters is always what fascinates me most, and putting them into extreme situations naturally elicits a more complex psychological dynamic. And since I’m drawn to BDSM in real life, those more complex dynamics are more interesting to write about. For me, it’s a sort of kinky ‘the chicken or the egg’ question.
Kink is also fun to write about, and one of my intentions in becoming a writer was to enjoy what I do. But I also feel a sort of responsibility to write about kink in a realistic way, to present it to readers in such a way that they can perhaps accept something they might usually shy away from. And I’ve read too many BDSM stories where the dominant is just a jerk with a riding crop, which can happen in real life, of course, but that is absolutely not the ‘norm’ for those people who practice their kink under the ‘Safe, Sane and Consensual’ credo.

When I’m writing kinky characters I always ask myself what might be behind their need to express themselves in this way. For a dominant, it may be some trauma that left them with a sense of hyper-responsibility. For a submissive, it might be that in their everyday lives they are always in control, and letting go, turning that control over to someone else, is an enormous relief. These are actually very common themes in my writing and in real life. And understanding what fuels these desires is half the battle when formulating a realistic character. As a writer, I have to ask myself not only what a character is feeling, but why—and that’s in every instance, not just my kinky characters.

I’ve been asked a number of times why I’ve chosen to write erotica and erotic romance. The answer takes me back to my fascination with psychology. I believe we as humans are at our most primal, our most raw and vulnerable, when it comes to sex. And that’s when our deepest fears, needs and desires come out. Exploring our sexual selves can be incredibly revealing. And I think that’s a necessary part in writing a good romance. I can’t see writing a romance without addressing the sexual relationship, because for me, anyway, there will always be something crucial missing in the character and relationship arc. I think it’s important to do that in any romance, if even in some small way, where the character’s response to a sexual situation is the only thing that makes it onto the page, rather than the act itself. Sometimes this may be simply the tension between two people who haven’t actually had sex yet. But writing about it on some level, and especially in a realistic way, is crucial in developing a believable relationship.

I’m not saying don’t write about your heroine being spanked unless you’ve tried it yourself—although I definitely recommend you do try it if it’s something that captures your interest. But if you’re not going to try it, then do your reading, and that means more than basing your spanking scene on another author’s fiction. The Internet has opened the entire world to us, so start clicking. Of course, if you want to buy your own riding crop, I’m totally behind you…*G*

CONTEST! To help you get started on your road to literary kink, I’ll give away a signed copy of my first Eve Berlin BDSM novel, PLEASURE’S EDGE, to one commenter (this is for US residents only), ~and~ I’ll also give away a copy of my Eden Bradley erotic contemporary ménage e-book (a different brand of kink!) SUMMER SOLSTICE to any commenter (US or International). I’ll announce the winner in the comments section tonight, so be sure to check back!

* * * * * * * *
Award-winning and best-selling author Eve Berlin aka Eden Bradley writes dark, edgy erotica and erotic romance for Berkley Heat, Harlequin Spice, Bantam/Delta, Samhain Publishing, and soon for HQN. You can find Eve Berlin aka Eden Bradley online:
www.EdenBradley.com
www.EveBerlin.com
www.Smutketeers.com

**You can find Eve’s latest release DESIRE’S EDGE now on Amazon, at your local bookstore, or other online retailers!

Alright folks, I’ve invited one of my best friend to guest blog today. Not only is Tawny a talented writer, she’s a truly good person with a strong and loyal heart. I asked her to guest blog because I think she’s smart, and has some cool shit to say.

Tawny Stokes has always been a writer. From an early age, she’d spin tales of serial killers in love, vampires taking over the world, and sometimes about fluffy bunnies turned bunnicidal maniacs. An honour student in high school, with a penchant for math and English, you’d never know it by the foot high blue Mohawk and Doc Martens, which often got her into trouble. No longer a Mohawk wearer, Tawny still enjoys old school punk rock, trance, zombie movies, teen horror films, and fluffy bunnies. She lives in Canada with her fantastical daughter, two cats, and spends most of her time creating new stories for teens. You can visit her at www.tawnystokes.com, but for now.. please, read on, and make her feel welcome here at Genreality

PS: Tawny also writes adult fiction as Vivi Anna www.vivianna.net

From Page to Screen and Back Again
By Tawny Stokes aka Vivi Anna

I actually started my writing career with screenplays back in 2001. I bought some books, read a lot of scripts and started writing. I wrote seven scripts in a year. Then I tried to sell them. It was hard. Really really hard. I got a lot read—I write a mean query letter. I talked to one amazing producer on the phone and he was so awesome. He loved my writing and would’ve bought my script if he hadn’t been moving in a completely different direction. I still email him now and then to catch up. But nothing stuck and I didn’t get the interest that I needed to make a real go of it. So I decided I’d go in the back door to Hollywood and write books. That was in 2003.
So because of that, the way I write books is different. It helped form my process. And why almost all of my books are action-packed fast-paced thrill rides with little to no exposition and probably a lot less emotion then most books, especially in the romance genre.  Just ask any of the wonderful authors I’ve critiqued with over the past. I’d always get the note…more emotion!! What are these people thinking?
Now after seven years, I’ve gone back to writing screenplays and find that my novel writing has totally helped me to write a better, more structured script. Now I get requests all the time, and I’ve secured a manager and have developed a TV show with a producer that is at the networks being read.
There are a lot of similarities between scripts and novels. But there are also key differences that define each medium. Knowing them can help you become a better writer. Also, remember just because you are a great novelist, doesn’t guarantee you’ll be a good screenwriter. And vice versa. You have to work at your craft constantly.
I’ve actually heard in Hollywood that novelists usually make terrible screenwriters because of the tendency to overwrite and the fact that novelists are married to their words. Screenwriting is 90% rewriting and collaboration.

Similarities:
There’s a beginning, a middle and an end, following the three Act structure
Follow a story arc – inciting incident, rising action, black moment, denouement
Character arcs – each character starts as one thing and ends up as another at the end

Differences:
Length obviously – feature scripts are in a range from 90-120 pages, novels can be anywhere from 250-500 pgs or more if you are JK Rowling or Stephen King
Scripts are heavily structured, and have a format that has to be followed, using screenwriting software is a must
There is little to no exposition in a script, only write down what can be visually conveyed
In a script what the character looks like and is wearing is irrelevant, unless it is part of their character
Describing the setting in detail is irrelevant as well, unless it is important to the plot and or character
There is no introspective in a script, it is about what the characters say and do, not what they think
With a script the idea is paramount, with a novel it’s the writing

Writing both is a challenge. I have to constantly switch mindsets. But I believe my work on each has strengthened my ability to tell a story regardless of the medium. And Story is what really matters.
Advice I’d give to novelists, especially to better their dialogue, is to read a ton of scripts and really study the dialogue, read it out loud. Then sit down and write a script. Use the story you’re already working on for your book. You’ll totally see where you are failing in your story arc and in your dialogue. Punch those up and you’ll have an amazing addition to your books.

Tawny’s latest release: Static
During the summer before her senior year, 17 year old band groupie, Salem Vale, has been following her favorite punk rockers, Malice, from gig to gig hoping that one night she might get backstage and meet the sinisterly sexy guys. She’s been saving her virginity for the lead singer Thane. One fateful evening she gets her wish. It’s a dream come true.

Except the dream turns to a nightmare when she wakes up in a dumpster, tossed away like yesterday’s trash, with no memory of what happened the night before. She feels strange, different, as if something is trying to get out. Soon she realizes she’s changing…turning into something not quite human.

Now a hunger deep inside claws at her to feed, to siphon energy from those around her. Before she can do just that, Trevor, the band’s roadie shows up and stops her from killing. With his help she learns to control the hunger inside, because he’s just like her. And in return he wants her help to do one little thing…

Help him kill the members of Malice.

Amazon Kindle * Smashwords

Howdy folks.

I thought it would be nice to bring someone else in and give you all a break.  Please welcome my best pal, John “J.A.” Pitts, author of Black Blade Blues and the recently released sequel Honeyed Words — the first two novels in the exciting new Sarah Beauhall urban fantasy series.

John was my first ever writing friend.  We met in 1997 and have been great pals ever since.  We started out both slinging short stories against the market and here we are, fourteen years later, both writing series with Tor.

So without further ado, J.A. Pitts! 

How many times have you heard “Great first chapter” when someone reads your short story?  How many times have you wanted to toss your computer through a brick wall and take up bee keeping, or something else which would hurt less as you heard how the story starts with a bang and ends with a whimper?

I’m here to let you know you’ll be okay.  Honest.  This is a good problem, for two reasons.

Alpha) You wrote something that made your reader want more.

Beta) You will likely make more money off a novel than a single short story.

Okay, these things are subjective in a lot of ways, but bear with me and I’ll explain.

If the only thing your readers comment on in your short story is that it reads like a first chapter, then you have not given them a compelling or satisfying ending.  This is a problem for about 103% of all writers at one time or other in their life.  What you really need to do is go back, reread your story and pay attention to what you promise at the beginning.  Short stories are like book shelves.  You have got to have a matching set of bookends on the beginning and the end of the story.

That way, when the reader sees the ending, they recognize the beginning and the promise you made there.  They are satisfied that you have come full circle and tied things up with enough closure to give them that warm, fuzzy feeling we all want from our reading experience (or terror, you know, depends on your genre).

It sounds easier than it really is.  The only way to get the hang of it is to write a lot.  I mean, a ton — dozens, hundreds of stories or chapters or scenes.  Each of those starts with a promise that has to be answered by the end to deliver the punch you’re looking for.

Now, I’ll add my one caveat here.  If you are writing literary fiction, your ending my not be as robust as one needs for genre fiction.  There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.  Literary fiction will frequently concentrate on other aspects of story telling such as setting or theme, without really coming to a conclusion for the characters involved.  Some of those stories can be powerful in their own right, but they don’t often fly as genre works.

For genre — horror, fantasy, science fiction, urban fantasy, romance, western, steam punk (and their myriad of combinations) — readers demand a solid character arc, and at the end of that arc.  They want closure.

Let’s take a typical three act arc.

1) Boy (who’s a video game expert) meets girl, in trailer park, both are bored with their existence.

2) Boy loses girl (since all he does is play one video game over and over), but encounters alien with awesome ray gun technology

3) boy finds love with

          a. life outside the trailer park (and earth’s atmosphere)

          b. girl

          c. using alien spaceship to save the universe

          d. all of the above

At 1) the premise is that boy strives for the ultimate high score on his favorite video game, but is bored with his life.  He craves excitement and to meet the girl of his dreams.  Unfortunately at 2) we realize girl is much too savvy to fall for our heroes platitudes and video game prowess and leaves him and his roll of quarters for more interesting things.

Fortunately for our hero, this super cool alien arrives begging our boy to help save the universe with his coolest of nerd talents and his somewhat inexhaustible roll of quarters.

At 3) our hero, in a fit of heart-sick heroics and an amazing sense of wonder, agrees to flee the earth with this alien and join the ranks of the resistance.

The hero was looking for something at the beginning.  Love and adventure, but mostly love.  If he doesn’t get love at the end of the story, we are not going to be happy.

Unless, of course, the hero changes.  This is what makes really good stories.  Maybe what he thought he wanted was love (and the high score), but by the end he discovered he had to save the universe from Xur and the Ko-Dan armada.  Of course, if by doing so he can also win the heart of his best girl, then more the better.

See, his success (or horrible, tragic failure) at the end reflects back to the beginning.  Our hero thought if he had the love of this one girl his life would be fulfilled.  What he learned by the end was that he would sacrifice himself to save the universe.  Luckily he survives and this whole saving the universe thing makes him interesting and he also get the girl. 

Everything is wrapped up neatly, with a heck of a ride in between.

,Remember the ending doesn’t have to be happy.  But it does have to give us closure.  He could have died saving the universe and not get the girl, but we’d be okay, because he was willing to go above and beyond his own wants and desires and put the life of his girl and the 9 billion or so other earthlings ahead of his own happiness.  Not the gee whiz ending of true love, but something that will leave us with a bitter-sweet fondness for his sacrifice.

Find your favorite author and read the most wonderful short story she’s ever written.  Study the structure, take notes.  Figure out what promise she made in the beginning and then, as you cruise through the prose and slide into that most satisfying of endings, make note of how the beginning ties to the end.

That’s how we all learn.  I can tell you exactly how to make this happen with silly examples and textbook definitions, but the real test is in the doing.

Until you’ve written a whole trunk full of beginnings, middles and ends, you won’t be comfortable.

Now, one or two of you out there will scoff and tell me you’ve never once had a problem with an ending.  I salute you and will likely grumble about you over drinks.  But, hey.  Good for you.  The rest of us have to go about it the longer route of practice, practice and practice.

There is no substitute for doing the work.  I’m fairly blessed with ideas and drive.  I’ve never had writers block (knock wood).  I do, however, struggle with endings.  I work on them and work on them, because I know that the ending is what you fine folks are going to remember the longest.  If I write a ripping yarn of intrigue and adventure, but the end falls flat, you won’t remember the daring-do as much as the fact you were left less satisfied than I promised you at the beginning.

Practice.  Write, Read and for the love of Xur, finish what you start.  You can’t practice endings if you don’t finish the story you’re working on.

And that, as they say, is all for today.

“But, wait,” you exclaim, brows furrowed.  “You didn’t discuss item Beta.”

Good catch.  That’s what we’ll discuss next time.

See what I did there?  Promised something at the beginning and didn’t deliver it at the end.  We sometimes refer to this type of ending as a cliff-hanger, and if not done well it screams cheat.  I’ll let you be the judge of how well I did.

I think he did great and I’m looking forward to Part Two.  I hope you are, too.  Tune in next week!  Thanks, John!  Trailer Boy out.

Hi all, I’ve got another guest blogger for you today. Bestselling mystery author Gemma Halliday is here to share process with you. Please make her feel welcome, especially since she’s doing a giveaway too! Read on….

Gemma had a hard time figuring out what she wanted to be when she grew up. She worked as a film and television actress, a teddy bear importer, a department store administrator, a preschool teacher, a temporary tattoo artist, and a 900 number psychic, before finally selling her first book, Spying in High Heels, in 2005 and deciding to be a writer.

Gemma now makes her home in the San Francisco Bay area where she is hard at work on her next book.

A huge thank you to the Genreality crew for letting me crash their blog today. I’m a big fan of these authors, so I’m thrilled to be here!

My Hollywood Confessions Blog Tour is into its second and final week, but I do have a few more stops to make, so please check out my website for links. I’ll be giving away more prizes at each stop! (Including gift cards, free books, cameo appearances, and Hollywood Headlines collectibles!)

One thing that the lovely Sasha White mentioned to me when she invited me to guest here was that mystery is one genre not represented by the regular contributors. So, I thought I’d come dish about writing mysteries and my own process for that. Of course, with each book my process has been a bit different, but this is as close to a road map as I get.

Step One: The Main Characters
I almost always start planning out a book with the main characters – my hero and heroine. My mysteries tend to have a strong romantic thread in them, so the heroine is my star. But I like a hero that tries to steal the show a bit, too. My latest book, Hollywood Confessions, is the third book in my Hollywood Headlines series, so I already had the characters picked out for this one. Allie Quick, the newest reporter at a tabloid newspaper, is my heroine, and her hero is Felix Dunn, her editor with whom she has a complicated past. So, as I sat down to write this book, my starting point was fine-tuning who these two were and what they wanted. What is Allie trying to prove? Why is this story so important to her? How does Felix feel about that, and why can’t he tell her? What draws him to her while at the same time keeping her at arm’s length? Once I could answer all of those questions and knew these two like old friends, I moved on to the next part of my plot…

Step Two: The Victim
Once I knew who was solving the crime, I needed a crime. Someone has to die – because I like my mysteries with a healthy does of murder – so I had to pick the perfect guy or gal for the job. All of my Hollywood Headlines books are set in – duh – Hollywood, so that was a given. One aspect of Hollywood I haven’t yet explored in this series, however, is reality TV. Since I write humor into all my books, the idea of throwing reality TV into the mix was too tempting to pass up. Plus, I personally have a small addiction to those shows. (Yes, I’m woman enough to admit it.) So, the victim quickly became Chester Barker, the top producer of reality shows in L.A. Which lead me to…

Step Three: The Suspects
I like to have at least three or four good, strong, maybe-it-really-could-be-them suspects in my books. Sometimes I throw in a few lesser suspects as well, just to muddy the waters, but the meat of any mystery is the heroine/hero tracking down and questioning suspects, so they better be interesting. For this book, I drew up a cast of reality show hosts, crew, contestants, and participants that all could have wanted the producer dead. There is Chester’s partner, Alec (who, just to make things interesting, has a bit of a thing for Allie himself), an aging dance-off show host, the parents of sextuplets and triplets who have become American’s favorite train-wreck family, and the bachelor on a little person dating show. Then I had to give each one a really compelling reason – money, revenge, love, etc. Really, any one of them could have done it. But only one did. Which brings me to…

Step Four: The Killer
Last but not least in my plotting process comes the killer. Honestly, this is always the hardest part for me. More than once, I’ve been set on one suspect being the one who actually done-it, only to change my mind halfway through the book. As I write, it often becomes way more fun to switch blame to someone else. And sometimes it’s just too obvious. Or, other times, too obscure. Luckily, with Hollywood Confessions, as soon as I listed my suspects, a perfect killer jumped out at me with just the right amount of motive, just the right lack of alibi, and just the right level of crazy to do the deed. Of course, I’m not gonna spill who it is (Step Five: never give away the ending!), but I was pretty psyched that my killer worked from beginning to end and was twisty enough to trick my beta readers with that surprise ending.

Step Five: Everything else
Once I have the cast and the nitty gritties of the mystery down, I plot out the big moments in the story – how my heroine gets introduced to the case, what makes her determined to solve it, and the dangerous reveal moment where we find out who the killer is. Along the way there are several smaller plot points where my heroine questions suspects, learns new secrets that take the investigation in different directions, and has to deal with her own personal life, too, but I generally work those out as I write. What can I say – I’m a short attention span writer. If I plot too much before I get into the actually writing process, I get bored.

So, that’s my process for firing up a new mystery novel. I’m sure everyone has their own process and own way of arriving at a finished book, so I’d love to hear some of yours. Any tips or tricks for keeping characters straight, keeping your pace going, or planning the perfect plot? Post your thoughts and I’ll pick one lucky commenter to win today’s prize.

Hollywood Confessions is available now in both print and ebook, and since this is the 3rd book in the Hollywood Headlines series, today I’m giving away an Amazon.com or BN.com gift card (winner’s choice) worth $15 so that one lucky winner can either download the first two books in the series (priced at $.99 and $3.99), or purchase the first book in print (priced at $12.99). I’ll pick a winner at the end of the day and post her/his name at the end of the comments!

Happy reading!

~Gemma Halliday

Gemma’s newest release HOLLYWOOD CONFESSIONS is available now HOLLYWOOD CONFESSIONS
available now in: