Meet Jamie Taylor (no, not that one)

If you’ve ever wondered where characters in your favorite author’s books come from, this is a terrific blog hop to follow. The Meet My Character series, written by authors, sheds terrific light on a single character of their choosing, which also might shed a little light on the author!

I was invited to join this parade by Lala Corriere. Here’s a little about her (and how you can meet one of her characters):

Lala Corriere is the author of four titles in suspense, with her most recent work, Bye Bye Bones, scheduled for release in late winter, 2014. Her credits include the endorsement and long-term mentorship from the late Sidney Sheldon, and blurbs from Andrew Neiderman [author of the Devil’s Advocate], J.Carson Black, Paris Afton Bonds, KT Bryan, and CJ West. Lala’s a desert rat. She nestles there with her husband of twenty-five years, two Teacup Yorkies, and an American Curl.

www.lalacorriere.com

Amazon Author Page

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Jamie Taylor recently agreed to be interviewed by Suspense Novelist. What follows are excerpts from that interview.

SN: What makes you interesting?

JT: (laughing) That’s kind of direct. I suppose it isn’t me so much as my dogs. I have four of them, and they’re all working dogs. When we’re not looking for lost hikers in the Colorado High Country, we’re looking for signs of arson, making ill people feel better, or finding evidence of human remains. Each of my dogs has his or her specialty and I just go along to write the reports.

SN: Have you always had dogs?

JT: We got our first dog when my dad took early retirement from an international security company, and we moved to Aspen Falls. I’d always liked dogs—from a distance. But when we got Sammy, I fell in love. If I’ve been disappointed in people, dogs prove that God got something right.

SN: How have people disappointed you?

JT: Where do you want me to start? I have a lousy record of choosing men. Is that me, or is that the men? I was married once, and the only thing I took with me from that experience, aside from the clothes I was wearing when I left, was a six-inch scar that runs from my belly button up to my left breast. I’m not sure an intimate, lasting relationship is in the cards for me.

Then there’s the fact that my mother was murdered.

SN: Wow, I’d say “disappointed” is an understatement. Did they catch whoever murdered your mom?

JT:  We did, but that’s another story.

SN: What are you working on now?

JT:  My accelerant detection dog, Kaji, and I are working on a series of fires in Colorado, many of which have turned out to be arson, and dodging threats from the arsonist, which, as you can guess, makes everything personal. In addition, I’m trying to figure out my relationship with the FBI agent I met a year or so ago. It’s a little dicey given my history.

SN: If readers want to get to know you a little more, where can they find you?

JT: Red Tide is a terrific book, and you can find out about what happened to my mom there, and a little more about my ex-husband. Peg is working on telling the story about arson in Flame Game, where Kaji and I are trying hard to help the investigating detective. That should be available by the end of this year.

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Next: (Just so you know, I feel incredibly fortunate to have these two authors coming up. You should take advantage.)

On August 14th, it's Sheila Lowe: Like her fictional character Claudia Rose in the award-winning Forensic Handwriting Mysteries series, Sheila Lowe is a real-life forensic handwriting expert who testifies in handwriting-related cases. She holds a Master of Science in psychology and is licensed to provide continuing education for marriage and family therapists. She also authored the internationally acclaimed The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Handwriting Analysis and Handwriting of the Famous & Infamous, as well as the Handwriting Analyzer software.

www.claudiaroseseries.com

Blog: www.algonquinredux.com  

On August 18th, it's L.J. Sellers: L.J. Sellers writes the bestselling Detective Jackson Mysteries—a two-time Readers Favorite Award winner—as well as the Agent Dallas series and provocative standalone thrillers. L.J. resides in Eugene, Oregon where many of her novels are set and is an award-winning journalist and the founder of Housing Help. When not plotting murders or doing charity work, she enjoys standup comedy, cycling, and social networking. She's also been known to jump out of airplanes.

http://ljsellers.com

https://www.facebook.com/ljsellers?ref=profile

https://twitter.com/LJSellers

google.com/+LJSellers

________________

And then:

On August 22nd, you'll get to hear from Michael W. Sherer: Michael W. Sherer is the author of Night Tide and soon-to-be-released Night Drop. The first book in the Seattle-based Blake Sanders series, Night Blind, was nominated for an ITW Thriller Award in 2013. His other books include the award-winning Emerson Ward mystery series, the stand-alone suspense novel, Island Life, and the Tess Barrett YA thriller series. He and his family now reside in the Seattle area.

Please visit him at www.michaelwsherer.com or you can follow him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/thrillerauthor and on Twitter @MysteryNovelist.

http://www.michaelwsherer.com

Also on August 22nd, it's Gayle Carline: Gayle Carline is a typical Californian, meaning she was born somewhere else. She moved to Orange County from Illinois in 1978 and finally nested in Placentia a few years later. Her husband, Dale, bought her a laptop for Christmas in 1999 because she wanted to write. A year after that, he gave her horseback riding lessons. When she bought her first horse, she finally started writing.

Gayle soon became a regular contributor to Riding Magazine. Then, in March 2005, she began writing a humor column for her local newspaper, the Placentia News-Times, entertaining readers with stories of her life with Dale and their son, Marcus. In 2009, she published her first mystery novel, Freezer Burn, featuring housecleaner-turned-detective Peri Minneopa. She has now published seven books, three Peri Minneopa Mysteries, two humor books, and two books featuring her favorite hobby – horses.

In her spare time, Gayle likes to sit down with friends and laugh over a glass of wine. And maybe plot a little murder and mayhem. She’ll continue to write columns and mysteries as long as there are stories to tell.

http://gaylecarline.com/

http://www.facebook.com/AuthorGayleCarline

http://www.twitter.com/GayleCarline

http://www.amazon.com/Gayle-Carline/e/B002C7FHZW

It's all better with friends.

The Dynamics of Self-Publishing

When I first began writing, I never would have considered self-publishing. There was a negative stigma (a valid one at the time) attached. I was going to be traditionally published and agented. After all, those two characters were the actors in my daydreams about my writing career.

I confess that I hadn't garnered a gazillion rejections from agents and publishers—probably less than a dozen if you count those who didn't even bother to respond—before I decided to go in a different direction.

But after about eight years of study, I finally thought I might have a manuscript that could hold its own in a very competitive marketplace. And thanks to the very well-placed encouragement of a few other authors, L.J. Sellers in particular, I decided to suck it up and try this thing on my own. I would finally take control over my career, and not leave it up to the whims of others.

But I would do it right. And that's the reason for this blog post. I hope you find it informative and encouraging.

Write your first draft. (I love, love, love that Anne Lamott gave me permission to write a shitty first draft. Sometimes I forget that it really is okay, but that doesn't mean she didn't mean it—and wasn't right.) When you've finished with your manuscript, celebrate! I'm told, and I believe it, that less than 1% of people who sit down to write a book actually finish one. So when you finish that first draft, understand how rare and fabulous you are. Swish your hips a little, or swagger, whatever makes you feel fabulous. Because you are!

Let it sit for a day or two (while you continue to pat yourself on the back and celebrate), then begin your self-edits. This becomes another draft. (Side note: one thing to consider while self-editing is to read your manuscript aloud, or have it read electronically to you, so you can hear the repeated words or other glitches.) This is actually kind of fun. The hard work has been done. You're just pumping it up.

Once you've got your self-edits taken care of, look for a few beta readers. These aren't editors. They also aren't your mother and BFFs. They are smart people (not saying anything negative about your mother or BFFs) who read your genre and will offer you good suggestions and comments about what works and what doesn't. You are building your publishing team when you bring on these early readers. The ideas or changes you choose to accept from them become yet another draft.

Whatever you've done up until now, do not skip this step.  It's time to find a fabulous editor to add to your team. Someone with a solid reputation in your genre. Don't fool yourself into thinking you can achieve this step on your own. This is when you need to bring in the big guns. One good way to find a possible editor is to look in the acknowledgement section of books you've enjoyed reading. Especially books that have been self-published. Check the editor out. What's his/her process? Is he/she a good fit for you? Does he/she believe they can contribute to your final product?  It could take several attempts. This is your first major expenditure. Your first investment in your book aside from your time. Take a breath and make sure you feel good about your choice. And be happy to pay for the experience. (My editor of choice is Jodie Renner. I love her process and her approach. And it doesn't hurt that she likes the words I offer up.)

Going through edits with an editor who knows what they're doing, like Jodie, is one of the most enjoyable parts of this process. It's a collaborative effort with the joint goal to make your creation even better. As good as I think my writing is, a good editor can always make it stronger. Always.

Now is the time to find a cover designer. Unlike editing, it's possible you might have the design skills to do this on your own. Most people do not without training. I figure I have enough things to learn, so I hired a designer. Once again, check out the acknowledgement section in books whose covers you love. Your cover is going to be a huge factor in whether or not someone decides to buy your book.

Of special consideration these days, make sure your cover "pops" as a thumbnail. That's how most people are going to see it on websites. A tiny little stamp mixed in with a bunch of other little stamps.

Your cover designer can also be your interior designer for the trade paperback version of your book, if you don't want to go through the learning curve to do it on your own. A paperback isn't necessary, but not everyone has an e-reader and it's very nice to have something to hand to someone else… and it's nice to put your book on your book shelf. (The cover designer I've used for both of my books is Patty G. Henderson. She has an amazing intuitive ability coupled with the desire to work and work and work and work to make you happy.)

A fun website about what NOT to do for covers is this one: Lousy Book Covers. (Oh, please, please, please God, don't ever let a cover of anyone I know end up on this site. Especially mine. Amen.)

This step is totally optional, but well worth considering. Establish a publishing company as an LLC and buy your own ISBNs. If you want to look and feel professional, this is the way to go. Buying ISBNs onsey-twosy is very expensive. But you can buy a group of ten at a much lower cost. You'll want to use one for your ebook version and one for your paperback. As most everyone does, I used Bowker.

You've got the final product and you've got the cover. Now what?

You need to have your manuscript formatted for ebook and paperback. Again, this is something you could probably figure out how to do yourself (and many do so successfully), but I've seen plenty of really bad results. Now is not the time to pretend like you're an expert.

After a lot of research, and anecdotal data, I elected to focus on Amazon as my distributor. They have a worldwide reach and every author I spoke to told me that by far, most of their sales came through Amazon. Even those readers who only read on their Nook, or iPad, can read books formatted for Kindle and available exclusively through Amazon. The marketing benefits of an exclusive relationship with Amazon are pretty darned impressive, but that's another post.

**It's important to note here that there are options for your ebook's distribution. Those include Kobo, Pubit, iTunes, etc.  You can publish to all of them, including Amazon if you choose. But if you want to enroll your book in the Select program with Amazon, you agree not to have your ebook available for purchase through other distributors. To me, the benefits of the KDP Select program through Amazon far outweighed the benefits of having multiple distributors. You may want to experiment.**

The bottom line here is that I needed to have my manuscript formatted for Amazon's Kindle. There are a lot of people who can do that for you, but I loved the quality and service (and price) I received from Liber Writer. If you've got more complicated formatting to deal with, you might want to take a look BookNook. Hitch is a friend of mine (and a fellow blogger at Crime Fiction Collective) and knows what she's doing from one end to the next. You couldn't be in better hands.

Upload your ebook and paperback to KDP Select and CreateSpace. Because I'd made the considered choice to publish my ebook exclusively with Amazon, KDP Select was a no-brainer. Signing up for this program allows my books to have quarterly promotions (this is a marketing post) and available to be lent through their library. The first time Red Tide was checked out of the library was as good as gold to me. Plus, I got paid!

CreateSpace does an amazing job of producing a trade paperback you can actually hold in your hands. My biggest piece of advice here is to take the time to get a proof. Make sure the colors on your cover are exactly the colors you had in mind. Make sure the layout is perfect. While changes and corrections are fairly easy for your ebook, they can be a little more complicated for your paperback.

Dang! You're done. Now what? Prior to your release date, line up some solid reviewers for your book. Liber Writer has, as part of their program, a way to send your ebook to reviewers with the reviewer's name as part of the ebook. The more reviews you can have at or soon after your release, the better off you'll be. A word to the wise: try to make these legitimate reviews, not friends and family.

If you have any other questions, please say so in a comment. I'll do my best to answer them and update this post.

It's all better with friends.

**Updated 03/09/13 - Thanks, Rashda!

When Hard Work Meets Luck… and L.J. Sellers

When something fabulous happens to a writer there's a tendency to call him lucky. His timing was perfect so he got someone's attention. She got in the business before the business changed. He must know someone.

But the truth is, she's worked hard. Luck didn't come knocking at her door while she was sitting on her behind. She pretty much lived and breathed to write good books. Every day she showed up for work and took care of business. And one day Luck noticed.

L.J. Sellers is one of the hardest working authors I know. She has always been there to give me some advice or kick around some ideas. She's encouraged me and become a trusted friend. Now she shares some fantastic news. I hope you'll stop by Crime Fiction Collective and congratulate her.

It's all better with friends.

Naming Characters

This morning I was brainstorming the name of the sheriff in my current manuscript. I'd called him "the sheriff" too many times. Obviously, naming this minor character (who somehow appeared in more scenes than I'd thought), was in line.

I wanted to find someone who was a reader and who I knew, well, at least kinda knew, in that strange new Internet way of knowing people to name him after.

John Bohnert was already taken, showing up as a detective in L.J. Seller's Jackson series . . . so who?

The sweet name who came to mind first, who has a Sweet Wife, I had to let go. The name Jack Quick sounded a whole lot more like the bad guy, in spite of the fact that I could imagine some terrific campaign slogans. Even though I won't be using him for the name of my sheriff, I'll file him somewhere for something far more nefarious. Something, I'm sure, Jack would like.

So the big news for the day (other than the fact that I wrote my Bound-To-Be-Changed ending) is that I've decided to name the sheriff after an Assistant Fire Marshall who gave me some terrific help to formulate my ending. I hope Jerry Coble doesn't mind crossing over to the dark side from fire to law enforcement. *wink*

CR: I just finished reading a most amazing story that should be available in September. Be looking for a very different novel from L.J. Sellers called The Arranger. It's a futuristic thriller that isn't so far in the future that we can pretend this kind of world won't happen while we're alive.

It's all better with friends.

A Crime Fiction Writer Who Keeps Getting Better

I've always figured that even a favorite author can't hit a home run every time they're at bat. I forgive them and look forward to their next book. It's just the way it is. And a miss to me will be a hit to someone else.

It is really a rare thing to find a writer who doesn't disappoint. I have to tell you, that writer for me has been L.J. Sellers. Beginning with The Sex Club (the title of which has always been a great debate, originating with L.J. herself), and ending with the current book in the series I'm reading, Dying for Justice, Sellers has simply gotten better at her craft.

I've wanted to mention this for a while now, but have hesitated because we're now partners in a blog aimed primarily at readers, Crime Fiction Collective, and I didn't want there to be any appearance of conflict. But I finally decided I needed to let you know about this most excellent writer.

Check her out. Read her books (the order isn't that important, except to see the growth of Sellers as a writer) and let me know what you think.

CR: Dying for Justice by L.J. Sellers

It's all better with friends.

My Date With ???

So, did that get your attention? You know I'm totally and completely in love with my husband. You're wondering . . . "What the . . . ?"

Here's your answer.

I'm working through The Artist's Way. I've been doing my Morning Pages (designed to put my Censor Snake in its place) faithfully.

Morning Pages are a daily event, but there's another assignment. You must take your inner artist on a date once a week. Before I proceed (and OT), I was reminded of the weekly dates LoML and I had back when he was still working. I want to engage those again as well. A special time when it was just the two of us. A special few moments every week.

My planned date for today got squeezed a little bit. But because it got squeezed, it actually expanded. I needed a haircut. Because of my hair stylist's schedule, it was either get there today or wait for six weeks to get in to see her. I'm not stupid. I opted for today.

My planned date was to a wonderful Asian market known locally as H-Mart. I love walking into that space. If you want the suburban grocery shopping experience, you will be disappointed. When you walk through those doors, you walk into a different culture. I love it.

Here's a little list I made today of some of the 'different' things I found and would love to know how to prepare: Lotus root; Pepino melon; Dragon Fruit; Rambutan; Sesame Leaves; Bacha; Nagaimo; Dried persimmon; Mugroot (I so flashed on to Harry Potter); Bellflower; King Trumpet Mushrooms; Enoki Mushrooms; Indian Bitter melon; Whole Kimchi; Acorn pudding; Yellow croaker; Dried octopus; Salmon heads; Snail meat; Sweet Fish Roe; Dried cuttlefish; Dried squid; Beef Blood; Pheasant; Frog legs; Tube squid and Squid Flower. For things LoML and I love—fried Calamari for way more than two people for $2.99, and Wild Caught Sea bass for $2.99/pound.

I was early to my hair appointment by a good 45 minutes (this is where the expanded date begins). And the shop (which had moved since the last time I'd been there) was right next to a little restaurant, the Monaco Inn, which had a delightful patio. I had my Kindle (loaded with an L.J. Sellers book), and opted to have a light lunch, a glass of wine . . . and L.J.

To round it out, I was talking about TAW to my stylist, and lo-and-behold, she's been giving that book away to people for years, but never studied it on her own.

I love when this happens.

CR: Dying for Justice by L.J. Sellers.

It's all better with friends.