Degas

Picasso

Gauguin

It's not always easy for a writer to figure out where what they write fits in the cookie cutter categories imposed by booksellers and promoters. Unfortunately, if the book doesn't fit perfectly anywhere, it might be featured on the wrong sites and blogs, displayed on the wrong shelf where it will not sell, or be ignored completely.

White Tiger is an award-winning Science Fiction/Fantasy romance featuring a medieval type of society on another planet along with technologically advanced aliens  FREE in eBook everywhere

 This is especially true for writers like me, who like to mix genres. Since I'm rarely satisfied with one straight genre as a reader, the same is true when I write. My next book blends Science Fiction (set in space, other planets, and a space station) with Fantasy (immortal angels with amazing powers, telepathic felines) and Romance (the love story at the crux of the book). I also like to write strong heroines, evil villains, a lot of action, and I enjoy portraying the fight between good and evil... where the margins are often blurred.

The Ancient Enemy series features the "Worst villain in Science Fiction... Captain Kavak" The heroines carry guns, like many of my heroines. They are the key to saving the human race. And romance is their reward.

So, where does my story fit? It's not literary since I write to entertain. It's not mainstream since Science Fiction and Fantasy are small niche markets. So, what is it?

One thing I have going for me is my voice. Whether I write medieval romance, fantasy, action adventure, or science fiction, the professional reviewers recognize my unique style... and they usually like my brand of fiction.  "Phenomenal world building, characters the readers care about, and an intriguing mystery... all the elements one expects from a Vijaya Schartz story! Easily recommended!" CK2sKwipsandKritique.

Ashes for the Elephant God is a unique brand of reincarnation romance set in India. This award-winning book doesn't fit any category.

Originality and quality are good, I guess, but it takes longer for readers to discover your particular brand when it is spread over several genres. And not all are willing to cross genre from medieval to science fiction to contemporary romance.

The solution? Write for the market? I would never do that. I am proud to write the books of my heart, and I will continue writing them. I may not have as many readers as other popular authors, but my readers are fiercely loyal. They love my stories, and I love them, too. Fortunately, my publishers stick with me because they like my books as well.

My latest series, just completed this year, is Fantasy (based on authentic legends) and medieval, as well as romance.

So expect more romance, action, adventure, science fiction, fantasy, or historical stories, with exotic settings, strong heroines and despicable villains, where the fight between good and evil is front and center.

Happy Reading!

Vijaya Schartz
Action, Romance, Mayhem
http://www.vijayaschartz.com
Amazon - Barnes & Noble -  Smashwords 
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I recently gave a presentation at the Romancing the Capital Convention in Ottawa, Canada that helped to re-enforce what it takes to be a successful author. The Keys to being a Successful Author are a little more in-depth than what I’ll be posting in this blog, but they are the essential foundation to being a successful writer. I’ve had many people ask me what I did to be successful. Hard work, research, learning, some really great stories, and luck some more are just a few things that helped me be where I am. Most authors would tell you they are already doing this! But, it also takes a few additional strategies to become successful. I’m not going to go into great detail, but I will share what I told those who attended my workshop what I believe are the Keys to being a Successful Author.

 

About S. E. Smith

Judging writing unpublished and published novel contests, I see a lot of mistakes. Some of them truly unique, but most of them are quite common. Take for example that staple of the SciFi/Fantasy genre—world-building.

As readers we want and need to fall into the world the characters in a book exist in. As writers it is our obligation to create that world. You know the one, where dragons fly, magic exists and science can do what is now seemingly impossible.

But how much is too much?

Truthfully, the line is in the sand and it moves depending on the tide. When we're writing a series, we scooch the line closer to the water, knowing the tide is low. But when we're starting a new series, we might be inclined to move the line so far inland, it's located two blocks from the shore.

Neither works well.

And that's why many authors are advised to trash the first 2 or 3 chapters because that information dump is interfering with the story telling.  I don't care who she is, authors hate to part with the words they've poured into pixels.

But sometimes it is necessary.

No matter how much it hurts.

This point was recently driven home to me by one of my critique partners. I was so obsessed with building the world/time period that I forgot that the, um, story. Of course, I didn't give up all those words. I copied and pasted a few of the better description into the parts that I was keeping.

And the story is the better for it.

Even if I lost 22 pages of text. And I cried. Because I forgot the cardinal rule of world-building, less is sometimes more and more only counts if the story is moving along. Have any of you had to trash chapters scenes or wish the author had done so in a book you've read?

When I first started writing, I used notecards for my research. Hey, it was a legitimate way to keep organized. And while you may say, that's so last century. It, um, was last century. 1997 to be exact.

Gradually, I managed to move onto loose leaf paper and sticky notes.

Yeah, I'm sure many of you can see the problem

Things got lost. A character that started with blue eyes had brown at the end. Er, I needed to work on a new system.

Actually, I needed a system that worked.

At the time, I worked as the Laboratory Coordinator at a small university, and at the end of every year, all these lab notebooks were left behind.

Being one of many children, I knew better than to waste my newfound horde of writing stock, so I carefully cut out the used pages and jotted my notes in on nicely bound book. Except... I usually only had 25 pages available so many of my novels spanned two or three books, and since I write in series...

Yep, I ended up juggling 9 of the suckers to keep things straight.

Finally, I found nice clean composition notebooks available during the back to school sales usually at 2/3 per dollar. Score!

Alas, I also jotted down new ideas as they came to me in these books so they too began to fill rather quickly.

Now, I know what you're thinking. Don't you write on a computer? Um, yeah, but for me that dragging of a colored pen across a page opens the floodgates to my creativity and helps focus my writing. So doing the sane thing such as files on a computer, just wouldn't cut it.

I have a shelf of notebooks in my office. Four are blank. Twenty are full of my books before they were books. But now I'm shifting from the composition notebooks to lab notebooks. Mostly because they're bigger and have more pages.

I still find the old notecards. Some fall out of the composition notebooks. As for the sticky notes, they're used as tabs for setting, medical, society make up and other random thoughts that make sense at the time.

So what about  you? How do you organize your books before they become books?

Happy 1st of July, everyone. Man, it's hard to believe we're this far into the year already. Where does time go? I think I might have fallen behind because I've stayed very busy over the last couple of months. I did Camp NaNoWriMo in April with a paranormal/historical romance (don't forget that today is the first day of brand new month of the challenge, you can still sign up if you need to meet a deadline), then I was waiting (admittedly impatiently) for content edits on my historical romance coming from Lyrical Press next February.

I've managed two rounds of editing on it in June and hopefully we're going to line edits next. Plus, I signed another contract with them for a second historical romance novel that I was working on at the end of April and through May. Then it was back to adding a few thousand more words to my next release, The Heckmasters: Wystan. On top of that, I'm still struggling with a concept cover for it. I just cannot get the hero on the cover right. It may be time to explore new options.

I meant to do a lot more editing this year than writing, but somehow the writing tricked me. I'll admit, I've always found writing more exciting than editing. Creating worlds, researching various monsters, and torturing heroes is way more fun than cleaning up after them.

And it seems like the more I see and do, the more I want to write. I've been absorbed in Star Trek fanfiction over the last couple of months too. I feel like I'm dying to write a space opera of my own, but I'm only one book into my new series and it would be crazy to plan another project in there when I've got so much editing to do.

This year my big goal was to stay busy. It's paying off with contracts and another book to release under my imprint. Now, if only I could get caught up on my marketing, everything would be running smoothly. Well, you can't have it all. Or... can you?

I'm currently writing about cannibals.

I'm sure you're thinking that it would be very hard to give people the warm and fuzzies over cannibals. But as writers our job it to make people care, even about the villains.

So how does one do that?

It depends. Not the answer I'm sure writers want to hear.

Why is that? Because, what connects me to a character won't be the same as what connects you.

But we, as people and readers, need to be connected to others. We want it, crave it and have it encoded in our DNA.

The best way to start those connections is to give the reader an enemy to hate, one that threatens the hero and heroine. The bigger the threat to them, the closer your reader will be drawn into the conflict.

Have you ever heard the saying, the enemy of my enemy is my friend? That had to come from somewhere, and it's true.

But it isn't enough.

The US joined forces with the USSR during World War II to defeat the Axis powers. Yet both before and after the war, there existed a state of hostility between the two nations.

You can't have that in a romance, otherwise the reader won't believe in the Happily Ever After. And we as readers want to believe.

But how a writer takes us there is unique to them, and that's why everyone has a different favorite author, why the explosion of Indie writers is a great time to find new favorites and why I love my iPad.

January is going full-on. I mean, that's expected because the Earth revolves around the Sun and days bleed into nights and on and on. But for me, January in full swing means I'm super-busy. I plan on making 2013 an even better year for writing than any year before.

I started by registering my own imprint. Why, you may ask (someone did ask)? Okay, I have reasons that go beyond, ooo, pretty graphic on the cover page of a book.

1) In Missouri, it's really easy to start a sole proprietorship. There's not a lot of paperwork involved, no need for a federal employer id number, and you don't have to apply for a line of credit. Makes tax work way easier.

2) It looks nice inside the book and on an ISBN registration.

3) It looks professional on a business card. (Note to self: update business cards)

So, you can see the logo there. And what's with the bug? And the fancy French? Demoiselle translated into little lady, more or less. But that's not why I wanted to use the word. I'm fascinated with dragonflies because of a Native American legend about how dragonflies carry messages from our world the the next. There's a mention of that in the third book in my series. While I was researching dragonfly species, I found out about a damselfly, which is a little smaller and they hold their wings differently. But they're known as colorful, predatory insects. I think we all know you have to be a little colorful and predatory to stand out in the publishing world. I loved it immediately. A little graphic perusing on a stock photo site, and I found that one. Boom. Logo.

Some people will argue that using an imprint name on self-published books is dupping readers into believe they're real books published by real houses. Let me stop you right there--it is a real book. We're real authors, whether we have the Big Six behind us, a little known e-publisher, or are self-published.

Aside from getting my imprint going, I've been participating in a program similar to NaNoWriMo to help finish up the fourth book in my series. It's been a loooooong process. After accidentally (but possibly subconsciously on purpose) deleting the first 70,000 words of it in November, I've been struggling to rewrite and take it in a different direction. Rewriting it has been a pain, but I know I'm better for it. It's not the first time I've rewritten a book. I'm closing the gap at almost 70,000 again. Just a little more to go and then it's back to editing.

This year will also bring me to the end of my 5 book series, Legends & Lovers. I have a plot in mind and character names in place for rounding off the last book. I even have a cover. Because I'm a procrastinator. And I figure if I buy the images and make the cover, I have to write the book. Maybe I should hire some big beefy guys to whack me on the kneecaps if this book falls through. One second thought . . . maybe not.

Argh. Might've taken a little too much off the left side of my head. And, I admit it, I made my arms a little skinnier.

One other thing I'm working on right now is raising money so I can go to the Romantic Times Convention in Kansas City this May. I set up an Indiegogo page for my campaign, RTKC or Bust! It includes horrible Paint cropped pictures of me, so you'll want to check that out. If I don't raise all the money, I promised to donate half of what I earn to the Ozarks Literacy Council here in Missouri so others can learn to read and improve their reading. But if you donate, you have the option of picking a prize from me including e-books and signed artwork related to my series. I think it's kind of cool. If you can't donate, that's okay, because you can still help me spread the word through your social network sites.

When I'm not begging for money and blogging here, I'm at my own blog, Have Novel, Will Edit, on Facebook, Twitter, and G+.

Not sure if you are watching the new series Revolution? I wasn’t so interested in watching when first saw the previews. The concept was somewhat interesting about the power being turned off, but I was thinking not very plausible. But when I heard J. J. Abrams was producing it, I decided to give it a shot. I loved what he did with HEROES. Well, I am hooked. It is one of the shows I try to find time to watch because I never know where it is going to go next.

Well the season finale is on tonight and it will be interesting to see what type of cliffhanger we are left with. The sneak peeks hints that all the missing puzzle pieces of the plot will be tied together. I’m thinking, hmm… More like what twist are they planning? I hope it blows my mind away. I’m not sure the power is going to be switched on for any length of time! How else could they have season two?

I often hear writers refer to the well of creativity. Working for a municipal water laboratory, I have worked with wells and like this analogy. Recently, however, I heard a writer speak about how to recharge your creative well by continuing to take out of it.
Um, if you do this to a real water well your water quality diminishes and the well goes dry.
And I suspect constantly debiting your creative account will leave you bankrupt.
No writer wants that.
The speaker didn't seem to understand what recharge means. In water terms, we recharge a well by filling lagoons, ponds and lakes with recycled water. These areas are carefully selected based on soil type so the standing water filters through the ground and into the aquifers to refill the well.
These efforts by the cities around Phoenix means that the ground water level is actually rising.
And rising water and creativity is a good thing.
Notice that during this process no one had to stop using water, and neither does a writer have to stop writing to recharge.
The important thing to note is that something is being added back into the system.
For writers, this is simply feeding your creative self. In the most basic terms food (energy) equals work (writing) except we're not talking Snickers bars and breaking rocks. We're looking for those things that inspire you and get the little gray cells moving.
Some of my favorite things to do to inspire me to write:
1.) Look at art.
2.) Read.
3.) Stare at the stars.
4.) Cook.
5.) Scrapbook.
6.) Watch HGTV.
7.) Watch a movie, documentary, or TV show.
8.) Sew.
9.) Garden.
10.) Learn something new.

While writing the first book in my Legends and Lovers series, one of the opening scenes for The Treasure Hunter's Lady was the hero, Abel, being confronted by a fortuneteller. She correctly predicts that his life is in danger and that a beautiful woman will change his life. This particular fortuneteller is spot on with her predictions. I didn't know it at the time, but she'd have an even bigger roll to play when I did a second draft of the manuscript. She revealed herself to be a Native American woman named Hummingbird.

What's your book/current WIP about?


It's crazy, actually. It's about women in the future, taking over the world and stealing power from the men. After centuries of fighting for their rights, they say, "The time is now." The women are doctors/nurses, so I've titled it FemDocs.


Care to share your favorite line(s)?


"It’s time to put away the cooking pots, my dears. It’s time to do what you were trained for. No longer will we cater to the male species, allowing them to treat as sex objects or baby incubators.”


What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?


My books in general? People don't like different. They don't like to think outside their little Happy Ever After boxes. But…I'm going to write what I want regardless.


What sparked your interest in futuristic writing?


My father. I have great memories of sitting there with him watching The Outer Limits, black-and-white horror movies with strange creatures and dumb humans screaming, Twilight Zone. I love that I've inserted some of that strange darkness into a book.


Describe your writing in a sentence.


I'm not always going to end a story with hero and heroine getting married and having a baby. Literature today is so predictable, I don't see the point in reading it. With me, you're going outside the box every now and then. If it's a Sonia Hightower book, you never know what you'll find.


What's your next project?


Goodness, I just came back from vacation and have a swamped inbox. LOL. How I'll find time to write is beyond me, but if I do find the time, my father gave me another great idea for a paranormal aviation romance. We'll see.


Bio:


Tara Chevrestt is a deaf woman, former aviation mechanic, writer, and an editor. She is most passionate about planes, motorcycles, dogs, and above all, reading. That led to her love of writing. Between her writing and her editing, which allows her to be home with her little canine kids, she believes she has the greatest job in the world. She is very happily married.


Tara also writes as Sonia Hightower. Sonia writes the racy stuff and argues that she was here first. She just wasn't allowed to be unleashed until the last year. While Tara and Sonia continue to fight over the laptop and debate who writes the next book, you can find buy links, blurbs, and other fun bits on their website: http://tarachevrestt.weebly.com/index.html or their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/ Tara-Chevrestt-Sonia-Hightower/218383211513877.