Learning to Swim & more from Sara J. Henry

When any novel hits the stands, the author often can be found doing a blog tour around cyberspace. Many of the tour stops will involve interviews. The questions can be pretty standard and are great ways for fans to learn about the debut novelist and their book. However, many authors don't enjoy answering the questions and worry that they are not making their book sound interesting enough. The trick to answering questions and getting the attention of a potential reader is not just to tell them about the book (although that is important), but to give them a piece of yourself. With that in mind, our own debut novelist Sara J Henry is answering questions here with the hope you'll learn something interesting about her and see that answering interview questions can be fun.

So – congratulations on your very soon-to-be-released debut novel, LEARNING TO SWIM (which will hit stores on Feb. 22, 2011). Do you want to tell us about it or would you like to talk about your passion for Home Depot instead?

Sara: No, it’s Canadian Tire I dearly love. I once won fifty Canadian Tire dollars at the gas station in a scratch-off game, which was so wildly exciting I nearly got the “math skill” question at the end wrong (added, I think, so it’s not considered a game of chance).

I found this lovely description of my book in Ottawa magazine, and adapted it a bit (there seems to be a Canadian theme here, but only part of the book is set in Canada):

While standing on the deck of the Lake Champlain ferry bound for Vermont, Troy Chance sees a small boy tossed over the side of a ferry going the opposite direction. Without thinking, she jumps to his rescue, setting off a chain of events that see her embroiled in a kidnapping plot with tendrils in the Adirondacks and Vermont as well as Ottawa and Montreal.

I should probably point out that Daniel Woodrell said, “From the grabber beginning to the heartfelt conclusion, LEARNING TO SWIM is an auspicious debut.” And that Michael Robotham called it a “moving and insightful psychological thriller.”

What’s the first thing you did after getting ‘the call’ that your book sold to Crown?

Sara: Here’s the thing: we had several offers, which sounds exciting, but it meant some agonizing decision-making, which I didn’t actually complete until the wee hours of the morning. So pretty much the next thing I did was go to brunch with Quinn Cummings, which sounds so LA-ish and unlike me (Quinn, I should point out for readers younger than 40, was nominated for an Academy Award when she was 9), but I happened to be in LA at the time, and Quinn is a wonderful writer and one very cool lady.

Which character in your book would you like to invite to Thanksgiving dinner to torment your family?

Sara: My family would torment the guest, if we did Thanksgiving dinners. Who would be the most amenable and entertaining dinner guest? Possibly Simon.

What’s your favorite and least favorite foods to eat at a family dinner? (Now is the time to specify so that your family has no excuse not to feed you well next time!)

Sara: I will not eat hominy, which I was forced to eat as a child. No, hominy is not grits – although a type of grits is made from ground hominy. Hominy is corn that has been soaked in lye (to preserve it – hello! we have freezers now) and it’s just about the nastiest form of human food in existence. I also do not eat cooked beets, which I find disgustingly flabby. Or sauerkraut. Or olives or anchovies. Or buttermilk. Or liver, which besides being unpleasantly smushy, concentrates the toxins in whatever animal the liver resided in. Ah, I’m shivering in disgust as I write this.

Do you like to have music or some kind of background noise when you write or do you require absolute silence?

Sara: I am abhorrently ignorant of music and that will be my project for the next year – to introduce music into my life. For the time being, my “music” is birds singing, crickets chirping, chipmunks chattering, and my dogs making all sorts of canine sounds.

If you had a time machine, where and when would you go?

Sara: I would go back and plead with my father to go to the doctor sooner, to pursue treatment more aggressively, to tell him how important he was in my life so that he would not die far too young, and he would be here to see my novel coming out.

Who is your favorite author to hang with at a conference bar? And speaking of bars, what is your favorite drink? (I know your fans want to know what to buy you when talking about your book!)

Sara: My favorite hanging-with author is hands-down Reed Farrel Coleman, whom I met at one of Lee Child’s parties at Bouchercon, and has become a wonderful friend and “mentor” (I put it in quotes because having a mentor makes me feel about sixteen). But gosh, I had a lot of fun at Bouchercon San Francisco hanging with Daniel Woodrell, too, and some others. But Reed is my #1 hang-out bud.

I am almost as appallingly ignorant of drinks as I am of music, but I like good red wine, and sometimes rum and diet Coke.

What are you most looking forward to about being a published author and what’s next for you?

Sara: I think the best part has already happened – that I think of myself as a writer and writing as my job now, and now squeeze other things around writing instead of vice versa. And of course all the absolutely wonderful people I have met and the writing family that has welcomed me.

I’m finishing up my second novel as we speak, the sequel to Learning to Swim. And have books 3 and 4 worked out in my head, and am eager to start on those.

And the most important question of all – is Elvis really dead?

Sara: In Tennessee, and in people’s hearts, he lives on forever.

Like her main character, Troy Chance, Sara lived in Lake Placid, New York, and worked as a sports editor at The Adirondack Daily Enterprise. Sara’s website is http://www.sarajhenry.com/, and you can read her first chapter here.

Questions were posed by ITW Debut class of 2010 author Joelle Charbonneau (Skating Around The Law, Minotaur Books)

Write What You Know by Allan Leverone

It’s July, 2008, and I’m in a hotel conference room in Manhattan pitching a manuscript—a paranormal thriller—to a high-powered literary agent. Agentfest is in full swing, and if you’re unfamiliar with it, that is the annual three-hour pressure-cooker of an opportunity offered up by the International Thriller Writers in which unsigned authors can pitch their manuscripts in three-minute intervals to dozens of top-flight agents.

Tables are lined up around the outside of the big room as well as in clumps throughout the interior. Behind each one sits an agent and in front of each one sits a prospective author, each doing his or her best to convince the agent this book is worth representing. It’s hot in the room and getting hotter, and you can feel the nervousness and determination of the authors. It’s like a physical presence.

And I’m pitching an agent. And the agent isn’t the least bit interested in my manuscript.

I get maybe thirty to forty-five seconds into my brilliant dissertation and he shakes his head and smiles. “It’s not for me,” he says, and suddenly I’m thankful the pitches are limited to three minutes. To make conversation until the speed-dating bell rings, he asks me about myself. “So, what do you do for a living in the real world?”

I tell him I’m an air traffic controller, working traffic into and out of Boston’s Logan International Airport. He gives me a strange look. It reminds me of Tom Cruise looking at Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man, you know, like awe and pity are fighting for control of his face and pity is winning. All I can think of is the old commercial with the guy smacking his head and saying, “I could have had a V-8!”

But he doesn’t smack his head. Instead, he looks like he wants to smack mine. He says, “Duh. Why don’t you write an air traffic control thriller?” like it’s the most obvious thing in the world.

Okay, that part’s a lie. He didn’t say, “Duh.” But I know he was thinking it.

He goes on to explain that publishers love “experts.” It’s one reason why you see spy thrillers authored by former CIA operatives, cop novels written by ex-and-sometimes-current cops, PI mysteries from writers with investigative experience. He explains it patiently, like maybe he’s not dealing with the brightest guy in the room. He’s right about that.

So I take his advice. I go home and write an air traffic control thriller. The thriller genre is not overly populated with aviation-related books and most of the ones out there are written from the pilot’s perspective, the most obvious example being the many outstanding books written by John Nance, commercial airline pilot and aviation expert. There aren’t that many thrillers written from an air traffic controller’s perspective.

And damned if the agent isn’t right! Fast-forward a little less than a year-and-a-half, and I’m signing the contract with Medallion Press for publication of my first novel, an aviation thriller written from an air traffic controller’s perspective titled FINAL VECTOR.

I’m forever indebted to that agent, who wasn’t interested in the book I was pitching but still took the time to chat with me and offer some valuable advice. Of course, he was sort of a captive audience, but still.

I’d love to thank him in person, but there’s one problem. I pitched my manuscript to eighteen agents that day, and for the life of me I can’t remember which one out of those eighteen gave me that sage (not to mention free) advice.

So if you’re a literary agent and you’re reading this right now and you remember talking to a really clueless guy about being an air traffic controller and telling him to get off his dumb ass and write an air traffic control thriller, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

By the way, I still don’t have an agent. Interested?

* * *

Allan Leverone is a twenty-nine year veteran of the aviation industry whose debut thriller features an air traffic controller much braver, younger and better-looking than he. FINAL VECTOR will be available tomorrow from Medallion Press. Allan lives in Londonderry, New Hampshire with his unbelievably supportive wife Sue, three children, one beautiful granddaughter and a cat who has used up eight lives. Learn more at www.allanleverone.com.

Things I Learned as a Debut Author by Brad Parks

Carla Buckley asked me to write something for this blog, and if I learned nothing else from being a debut author, it’s this: Do whatever Carla tells you to do.

Yeah, I learned other stuff during my debut year, too. And since I’m technically only a debut author for one more day – I’m writing this on Jan. 31, and my second book, EYES OF THE INNOCENT, comes out Feb. 1 – I’d better get to it. So there’s no time for pretty, flowing prose. Instead, I’m going with a list…

THINGS I LEARNED AS A DEBUT AUTHOR:

1. When it comes to promotion, figure out what you enjoy, do it well, and forget everything else.

In my mind, this is the one

absolutely golden rule to debut author book promotion. And it’s not just my conclusion – even smart people like Hilary Davidson have discovered the same thing. Look, you can drive yourself

absolutely batty thinking you should be doing everything for your book. But you can’t. You only have so many resources, so much time, so much sanity. So you might as

well do what you like. If your idea of a hot day in hell is driving four hours, standing in front of ten strangers talking about yourself, reading out loud and answering their

random questions, then, for the love of God, do not do bookstore events. You’ll be miserable and, worse, the audience will know you hate it. It won’t be fun for anyone. If, on the other hand, you’re like

me – an extrovert and a certified attention whore who enjoys public speaking – then maybe bookstore events are more your speed.

The same goes for other aspects of promotion. Take SWAG (Stuff We All Get), also known as giveaways. I’m one of the rare human beings who can admit he doesn’t have very

good taste (it’s why my clothes are so boring). Trying to put together gift baggies or making lipsticks with my book cover on them would not only be painful for me, I’d be

bad at it. On the other hand, I sort of like designing postcards on my ancient Macintosh (still using PageMaker!), and because I do the design myself – and get

them printed at relatively low cost by PrintPlace.com – it’s a pretty cost-effective way (at 28 cents per stamp) to get the word out. I could go on, but you get the point: Do what you like and you’ll do it well, which is important, because well-done

promotion always works better than poorly done.

2. There’s no place for fear in the publishing world.

I sort of decided early on that when it came to this whole book thing, I was going to be unabashedly me, for good or for ill. Granted, there are drawbacks to that. I’m, uh, a little high-energy. My enthusiasm can be annoying. I’m full of myself. I offend people without meaning to. I don’t dance very well. But here’s the thing about this whole game: You don’t need everyone to like you, you just need a few people to like you a lot. Even if 90 percent of the book-buying public comes to think you’re a moron, it only takes 10 percent of them (or less) really digging your act to put you on the bestseller list between now and the end of time. So you might as well be fearless in being you. What are the practical applications of this philosophy? For me, it was something like serenading Brad Meltzer at the ITW Debut Breakfast last year (for a video reenactment, go here: http://www.bradparksbooks.com/multimedia.php). Now, was that a risky move? Absolutely. It could have backfired horrifically. I’m sure I could have easily talked myself out of it for at least half a dozen very good reason. But, going with my plan to just be me, I just sort of went with it. And I think most folks got a kick out of it. (If nothing else, they remember it – I’m still asked about it constantly, as recently as this interview last week http://readersentertainment.tv/radio/interview-with-brad-parks). Now, am I saying go out and serenade Brad Meltzer? Of course not. But next time you find your own version of the Brad Meltzer serenade, don’t talk yourself out of it. Believe in yourself and take a risk.

3. Local sells.

It sells with the media. It sells with bookstores. It sells with strangers. Everyone likes a local author. And in a ridiculously crowded literary marketplace, being local makes you stand out. So find a place to be a local. Maybe it’s where you live. Maybe it’s where your book is set. Maybe it’s where you grew up. (Hell, I try to claim “local” status in all three places). Then, once you’ve found your local, hammer it. Flood the media – from the newspapers to the hyperlocal blogs to the supermarket giveaways. Flood the bookstores. Make yourself visible in every way possible. Every marketing study I’ve ever seen shows that you need to make multiple impressions in order to influence a sale. Unless you have a publisher giving you an enormous marketing budget and major co-op – in which case, why the hell are you reading MY drivel? – it makes sense to concentrate your limited resources and try to create that buzz that comes when people feel like they’re seeing your name pop up everywhere. The flip side of that, and I saw it in some of my fellow debut authors, is that they’d spread themselves too thin, going out to California and then Texas and then somewhere else – all the while ignoring the library in the town next door. Sure, you can make the big trip somewhere if your budget allows. But your time and energy will pay more dividends if properly focused.

3a. As a corollary to “start local,” If you do a signing in your hometown, don’t hang out drinking with your old high school friends until way too late and then go to a two-day conference that starts early in the morning. You’ll get sick as hell.

Granted, this one might be specific to me. Okay, moving on…

4. Don’t forget the libraries.

Or maybe it’s: forget libraries at your peril. It blows my mind when I hear authors griping about libraries because, They just buy one lousy copy of your book and then let forty people read it. That costs me thirty nine sales! This, I will tell you, is utterly wrong-headed, especially for a debut author. I have come to firmly believe that libraries are the keys to the kingdom for an unknown writer. Because, fact is, most readers are hesitant to plunk down $24.99 on someone they’ve never heard of. They will, however, check you out of the library. And if they like you? Some of them will actually go ahead and buy your book; and some more of them will make a note to buy your next one, because you’re no long an unknown quantity to them. Whenever I get reader e-mail, I always ask how they heard about me. A very large percentage say the same thing: That they discovered me in the library but plan to buy me from now on.

5. Conferences are not only fun, they pay dividends long-term that are not always immediately apparent.

Typical debut author experience: Shell out hundreds of dollars for airfare, hotel and vittles to attend (name conference here); appear on panel populated by your agent, two unpublished writers, and a trio of chirping crickets; go to bookseller room and sit there in anguished embarrassment, selling three books while two stalls down Jeffrey Deaver needs the local police department to do crowd control on his line; retreat to bar to calculate that it cost you $294 each to sell those books and… oops, make it $296 because you just ordered another drink. Yep, happens to all of us. But I’m here to say, let it happen to you. In more ways than I can list, I have seen value to attending conferences like Bouchercon and Thrillerfest and immersing myself in the mystery/thriller community. Part of it is in what it does for my soul. I’ve met lots of great friends (yes, even Carla!), who have become invaluable as confidantes and sounding boards in navigating (and surviving) the rugged world of publishing. That, and I tend to have a blast at them (I have young children, so I don’t get out much otherwise). But if you need to be more mercenary about it, apply the lesson I learned as a young newspaper reporter: The more you attention to a community, the more the community pays attention to you. So many of my promotional opportunities – whether it’s guest blog opportunities, radio or video interviews or bookstore gigs – have come from contacts I made at conferences.

6. Keep lists of what you did the first time. It’ll make life easier for the next book.

Lists of the blogs you did, lists of the bookstores you did, lists of the librarians you met, lists of reviews you got… it’s all good. Put it on a spreadsheet, keep it in a diary, make a folder for each category – whatever works for your brain style. You’ll be glad to not have to reinvent the wheel when No. 2 comes around (says the guy who didn’t learn this lesson the first time and is only now starting to make lists).

7. When it comes to blogging, quality over quantity.

It’s true the Internet is absolutely overwhelmed with content, which can make blogging feel like whispering into the face of a hurricane. But it’s also true the Internet is absolutely starved for good content. So don’t measure your blog based on how many you do, but by how well you do them. If you write something that manages to catch people’s fancy, trust me, it’ll be worth the effort. I learned this with my post “Ten Things Crime Fiction Writers Can Learn From Paris Hilton.” (http://dosomedamage.blogspot.com/2009/12/faces-of-divas.html). It was a throw-away post done at the end of my blog tour and – lo and behold – it became a mini-sensation. Janet Reid picked it up on her blog (http://jetreidliterary.blogspot.com/2009/12/10-things-crime-writers-can-learn-from.html). It got recycled by blog aggregators. My website is still getting hits off it to this day.

And now I’m… holy crow, I’m 1,700 words into this post! Okay, enough from me. Have a great debut year. And if you do end up singing to Brad Meltzer? Be sure he knows it wasn’t my idea.

For more information, please visit Brad's website www.bradparksbooks.com.

February 2011 Debut Releases!

Congratulations to our February debut authors!

Allan Leverone

FINAL VECTOR

Medallion Press

Brad Taylor

ONE ROUGH MAN

Dutton Adult

Leslie Tentler

MIDNIGHT CALLER

MIRA

Sara J. Henry

LEARNING TO SWIM

Crown

Carla Buckley Chats About Her New Release and Fab Contest

Chevy Stevens is the NYT Bestselling debut author of Still Missing (St. Martins, 2010). Recently she sat down and had a chat with Carla Buckley, debut author of The Things That Keep Us Here (Random House, 2010) about the forthcoming release of Carla’s critically-acclaimed book in trade paperback.

Chevy: The Things That Keep Us Here is about a family trying to survive a terrible pandemic and although there are lots of fascinating scientific facts—some which are still keeping me up at night—the book never inundated us with boring data. Personally, I hate it when an author dumps a bunch of information in the middle of a book, but I know how hard it can be to resist sharing all your newfound research. How did you avoid that?

Carla: Thanks, Chevy. That's so nice of you to say! I did a lot of research-- from reading about the 1918 Great Pandemic to interviewing scientists out in the

field monitoring the migratory bird population.

There's nothing better than talking to people who are passionate about their work. They'll put things in such interesting and conversational ways that even I--a former art major--can follow along.

I didn't want to burden my story with a lot of scientific facts, but I did want to convey just how scary the flu virus is. One way I did this was to have Peter, the husband in my story, deliver a lecture to a group of students who knew nothing about influenza. Another way was to have Ann, Peter's wife and a non-scientist, take the lead so that she could ask the questions that mattered, as the threat unfolded.

Chevy: Reading about the 1918 Great Pandemic, eh? Fun! All kidding aside, another thing I realized after I finished reading the book

(when I wasn’t busy stockpiling my house with supplies and trying to convince my husband to build a bunker in the backyard), is that although science supports the story line, it’s really more focused on this one family as they try to survive a pandemic—a family that was already struggling. What made you decide to go in that direction?

Carla: Actually, some of those books on the Great Pandemic are really terrifying! Back then, people didn't have a clue what was making them sick. They could only watch in horror as it worked its way through their neighborhoods and homes.

Some of that helplessness played out in my decision to write about a pandemic from the perspective of one average American family. I wanted to put real people in a situation that tested them and forced them to face their greatest fears, and by doing so, show how people can be pulled apart or brought together under the worst possible circumstances.

Chevy: Well, it was very effective. One of the reasons I couldn’t put your book down was because I became so emotionally involved with the characters. Another reason was that the pandemic you described was an all too real possibility. This was something that could happen, and in fact, did. I also read recently that birds have been falling from the sky. What was it like for you when your nightmares came true?

Carla: Um...not good! I can't tell you how many readers have contacted me regarding the recent bird die-offs, wondering if my story was about to come true. I asked my scientist husband what the scientific community was saying, and his response was that scientists were as perplexed as the rest of us. Yikes!

The good news (though not for the birds) was that those recent deaths were not due to disease.

But the recent H1N1 Pandemic was another story. It started off exactly as the 1918 Pandemic had, with a mild, quiet surfacing in the spring followed by a large and much more active rebound in the fall. All my research had shown that this could be the pandemic the world had long been dreading. Smack in the middle of all this, I had my first book appearance scheduled 400 miles away. I decided to board the plane, but I made my husband promise that if the airports shut down and borders were closed, he'd hunker down with the kids and I'd figure out a way to get back home. Very fortunately (not to diminish the tragedy of the lives that were lost) the H1N1 strain proved not to have a high mortality rate and now there is a vaccine against it.

Chevy: That must have been terrifying! Now that the world is relatively safe for the moment, let’s talk about something that’s essential to a writer’s survival. Snacks! As an author myself, I know that those long days at the keyboard can be really frustrating, how you want to tear your hair out rewriting the same scene over and over, and the only things that get me through are popcorn and peanut butter—not at the same time! What are some of your favorite food-related-stress-reliefs?

Carla: Excuse me while I brush the crumbs out of my keyboard. There. Let's see. *studies heap of crumbs on desktop* Well, it seems that this week, I nibbled on leftover Chinese food, Raisinets, brownies, and potato chips. Yep, that seems to be everything. Don't tell my kids what I eat while they're at school. I'm trying to convince them to eat more fruits and vegetables.

Chevy: You are a writer after my own heart, Carla—but now I’m hungry! After we wrap up this interview I’m going to have to hit the store ASAP. I know you have an exciting contest you want to tell us about, but before we learn how readers can win a copy of your book, I wanted to ask about your next novel Invisible. One of the truly frightening aspects of The Things That Keep Us Here was the idea of the threat being this big nameless thing spreading across the world, something we couldn’t see or put a face to, but that was coming for you and your family. Does your next book have any similar elements?

Carla: I wish I could run to the store with you! We could pile a shopping cart with salty and sweet things, and then watch some reality TV while we plot our next books. Speaking of which, yes, I also wanted my next novel to be about a family in turmoil forced to face a much larger crisis. Invisible tells the story about a woman who returns to her small hometown after a long absence to attend her sister's funeral. While she's there, she not only confronts her own tragic past but what might have what sickened her sister and her former neighbors and friends. I didn't want to be a disease-of-the-week writer, however, so I did a lot of research before unearthing a different sort of a scientific threat that's bearing down on humankind and which I predict it will be making headlines soon.

Chevy: Oh! That sounds like bliss! The running to the store part, not the plot

for Invisible—that sounds terrifying. Then again, the two of us loose in a junk food aisle could also be terrifying. So, now that you've thoroughly scared the crap out of us and I'm fighting the urge to barricade myself into my house, why don't you tell us about your contest?

Carla: No, don't barricade yourself--at least, not until I get there, armed with junk food! Okay, this is how the contest will run:

Everyone who leaves a comment about their favorite survival tip on my Facebook Fan Page by Monday, January 31 (12 pm EST) will be entered into a contest to win a signed copy of The Things That Keep Us Here along with my own concept of a survival kit.

Post a comment here on The Thrill Begins blog AND on my fan page and be entered twice. Tweet or FB the link to the contest (and let me know by posting it to my fan page) and be entered three times!

Chevy: That sounds great! I can't wait to read everyone's answers. Now please hand over--I mean pass--the chocolate.

To find out more about Chevy and Carla, check out their websites: http://www.ChevyStevens.com and http://www.CarlaBuckley.com

Making an Audiobook

Some argue there’s no such thing as an audio­book. After all, a book is something you hold in your hands. Okay, maybe a book is also a file you download onto your preferred electronic reading device, but no matter the form, a book is still something you read. It has physical characteristics: a type font, chapter headings, pages. When a book is read to you, you’re not actually reading, someone else is. Ergo, an “audiobook” is not really a book, it’s a recorded listening experience.

I used to think that audiobooks weren’t for me. I’ve always considered myself a visual person. Tell me your name when we’re introduced in a social setting, and it’s gone five seconds after I hear it. Write it down where I can see it, and I’m the elephant who never forgets.

But after my science thriller Freezing Point sold to Audible.com as part of their “Breakout Thrillers” program, suddenly, I had reason to pay attention. I listened to samples of my narrator’s reading on Audible’s website, and fell in love. His voice quality, and his wry, sardonic tone, were perfect for my novel.

Before he began recording, Mark Boyett called me to go over a few pronunciations. “I always like to have a conversation with the author if at all possible before I go in to record,” Mark says. “I like to give the author a chance to talk about his or her novel and express anything they’d like me to communicate as I narrate their book. After all, people are downloading the book to experience the author’s work first and foremost, so my work needs to serve that end.

“As I prepare the book, I’ll make margin notes, sometimes about the mood of a scene, or the subtext of a character. Or I’ll score sections with little notations that only make sense to me to remind myself to link up these words, or drive through this part, or make this paragraph start as a fresh new thought rather than a continuation of the previous one, and so on.

“Colored markers are also important. In scenes where there are multiple characters, I assign each character a color and then dot each line they speak, so I can read right through, changing the voices as needed, without having to stop and figure out who’s talking when. Luckily, in the event that a narrator needs a reminder about the voice he’s using for a particular character, the engineer can go back and replay earlier clips as a refresher.”

With that level of professionalism and attention to detail, us it any wonder I was delighted with the result? An audiobook, I discovered, isn’t just a reading. It’s a performance, like listening to a one-man play. The emotion my narrator conveys through his voice adds a whole new dimension to my written words. And the accents – Irish, Brazilian, English, Australian – until I heard my book read out loud, I had no idea I’d created such an international cast.

On Dec. 28, the print and audio versions of my second environmental thriller, Boiling Point, will publish simultaneously. Because Boiling Point brings back two characters fromFreezing Point, Mark Boyett narrates again. I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy – figuratively speaking – and enjoy what will undoubtedly be another outstanding “recorded listening experience.”

_____

Karen Dionne is the internationally published author of Freezing Point, a science thriller nominated by RT Book Reviews as Best First Mystery of 2008, and Boiling Point, about an erupting volcano, a missing researcher, and a radical scheme to end global warming just published by Berkley. Karen is cofounder of the online writers community Backspace, and organizes the Backspace Writers Conferences held in New York City every year. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and the International Thriller Writers, where she currently serves on the board of directors as Vice President, Technology. She is also Managing Editor of the International Thriller Writers’ newsletter and webzine, The Big Thrill.

Ready – Set – Action!

I love action. Not in real life. In real life, I’m a writer, which means I spend 90% of my day sitting in front of my computer. Oh, once in a while I get up, stretch a little, put on my shoes, and walk out to the mailbox to see if the mailman happened to drop off a royalty check. Or I head into the kitchen for a drink of water or a cup of coffee and a cookie. But that’s about as exciting as my life gets.

Still, I love action. I love watching it on TV or on the big screen, and I love reading it. Give me a heart-thumping chase scene over an introspective walk in the woods any day. Too much exposition in a novel, too much description, too many paragraphs and pages going on and on about chaos theory, and I start flipping pages. (Sorry, Michael. Much as I loved Jurassic Park, I’m pretty sure I actually read only 3/4s of the book.)

I also love writing action. As a thriller writer, I get to blow things up. Burn things down. Maim, terrorize, and destroy. Get all the meanness out of my system and onto the page.

Action scenes are fun to write. There’s no lengthy introspection, no character development, no scene-setting or descriptions – just short, declarative sentences that propel the reader through the scene:

Her foot caught. She pulled. Pulled again. Looked up. Phillipe and Ross were still at the edge of the waterfall, still hanging on. She pulled again, reached beneath the water with one hand and jerked at the boot lace. The knot held, the lace wet and swollen. She pulled again, ripped at the knot. Tore her fingernails. Didn’t care.

Action verbs are exciting all on their own. Nobody runs – they dash, sprint, dart, spurt, race and tear through the scenes.

Action scenes are also the only time an author can indulge in what would normally be an appalling overuse of em-dashes and exclamation points:

Phillipe – Ross – struggling in the water – the hot, hot water – boiling up her ankles, her legs, her thighs – the helicopter ladder dangling the rescue sling – but Ross – Phillipe – they were in trouble – they needed her –

“Go!” Ross screamed as he struggled to hold on to her stepfather. “Grab the cable! We’re right behind you! Go – go – go!!”

“Sheila!” Rebecca screamed. “Hurry!”

But action is so much more than superficial wham-bam. If that’s all there was to it, then watching the roadrunner chase the coyote off a cliff would be as gripping as watching “Inception” or James Bond.

The reason action scenes get the heart thumping is not because they’re exciting. It’s because the reader cares about the characters.

Back when I was working on my first novel, that understanding hadn’t yet become clear. Three-quarters of the way through the book, I got stuck on a scene where my characters were drifting in a small, engineless boat toward a huge waterfall (no, not the same waterfall in the excerpts above – apparently, those Reader’s Digest “Drama in Real Life” stories about people going over Niagara Falls in a barrel made a deep impression on me when I was a child). No matter how I tried writing the scene, it felt artificial and cheesy. I knew the characters weren’t going to die, and since this scene took place three-quarters of the way through the book and these were the principal characters, I knew the reader would know the characters weren’t going to die, either. It all felt contrived and silly.

The one day, I suddenly realized that the characters didn’t know they weren’t going to die. It seems obvious now, but at the time, it was a revelation. I put myself in the characters’ heads, imagined the events as they were experiencing and feeling them, and the scene practically popped of the page.

Inadvertently, I’d discovered the key to writing a compelling action sequence. It’s not the short sentences or the strong action verbs or the exclamation points that carry the scene. It’s the emotion. Fear. Anxiety. Terror. Apprehension. Desperation. It’s us sitting in our comfortable armchairs feeling what the characters feel as they drift inexorably toward that waterfall that raises our adrenalin level. We’re not reading. We’re sitting beside them in the boat.

And that’s why I love action.

How about you? Why do you love reading or writing action?

Karen Dionne is the internationally published author of Freezing Point, a science thriller nominated by RT Book Reviews as Best First Mystery of 2008. Her second just-published environmental thriller, Boiling Point, about an erupting volcano, a missing researcher, and a radical scheme to end global warming, finishes with a 40-page action sequence that takes place in the caldera of an erupting volcano.

Behind the Scenes of Writing a Back-to-Back-to-Back-to-Back Series

By Pamela Callow

As a member of the 2009/10 ITW Debut Author class, I've benefitted from the experience and generosity of the writers who belong to this incredible organization, and am honoured to be writing the first guest post of its re-launch.

I have been asked to share my experiences in writing a back-to-back-to-back series. I am currently under contract to write four books for the Kate Lange legal thriller series for MIRA Books. DAMAGED (June 2010) debuted six months ago, in which struggling lawyer Kate Lange unearths a legal conspiracy that rocks the foundations of medical research - and puts her in the path of a dementing killer.

INDEFENSIBLE (January 2011), book #2 of the Kate Lange series, released last week. In INDEFENSIBLE, the managing partner of Kate's firm is accused of domestic homicide. Held in prison for the murder of his ex-wife, Randall Barrett's defence lies in the hands of the one person who knows too well the taint of criminal scandal: Kate Lange.

My third book, TATTOOED, will be released in January 2012, and a fourth book in the Kate Lange series is also scheduled for release in 2012.

I’ve had the luxury of developing my series with two two-book contracts that were back-to-back. I sold DAMAGED in January 2009, in a two-book contract to write INDEFENSIBLE, the second book in the series. When I submitted INDEFENSIBLE to my editor in December of 2009, I was asked the following week to submit two more story ideas, and was offered a contract immediately after New Year’s in 2010. Having four books under contract has given me the freedom to breathe a little. As I develop the story line for the next two books, I can play with the supporting cast, knowing that I have more books to explore character arcs, bring back favourite characters, and respond to reader feedback. I am experiencing these benefits right now as I write TATTOOED.

However, it was a different story for books #1 and #2. One of the most unnerving elements of writing a multiple-book series back-to-back, is that you can be in the situation of writing the next book in the series without knowing how readers received the previous one. When I wrote INDEFENSIBLE, the second book in the series, DAMAGED had not yet been released. True to the sophomore book syndrome, I stressed – no, agonized -- over whether my audience would enjoy the development of the characters’ story arcs, and whether the shift to a heavier psychological suspense storyline would be received positively. (My husband now admits he wasn’t sure all of me would survive the process of writing that book.) I’m happy to say that it has, and the feedback about INDEFENSIBLE has been wonderful -- but that is the dice you roll when you write a back-to-back-to-back series. It is a bit like jumping off a cliff. Closing your eyes. And hoping for the best. Fortunately, I have a fabulous editor whose excellent judgment and perceptive suggestions have parachuted me thus far to a relatively soft landing.

Another aspect of writing a back-to-back series is that your reader wants to connect with the series’ characters as much as they want the suspense ride. If you disappoint, they may not want to invest their time and money in the next book of the series. Again, you don't know if you've taken a false step in the first release when you are writing the second. However, I try to be as honest and plausible as possible with my characters' reactions. They are flawed. And so far, readers appear to be relating to them.

For example, in DAMAGED, series lead Kate Lange survives an attack of a serial killer. She is just an ordinary single thirty-something woman, with her share of bills to pay and heartbreak. How, I wondered, would she react to the trauma of her experience? In INDEFENSIBLE, which takes place four months later, Kate is privately dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of this experience – and yet to the world, she is a minor celebrity. Being able to explore the fallout of events from previous books is one of the reasons I enjoy writing back-to-back series.

From a craft perspective, I map each character’s journey within the book, and their arc over the course of the series. The timeline in each of my books spans a two week period, but I work out my characters’ entire histories, and know what has gone on in each character’s life between books.

On a final craft note, I do extensive planning before I write each book. Not only do I conduct detailed research, I write deep back story for my characters. Then I begin working in flowcharts, figuring out how events and motivations intersect. During this process, I chart timelines for plot twists and turns. By the time I reach the climax of the book, I often have the timelines plotted to the minute in terms of logistics for the action scenes.

The planning also helps me brainstorm ideas for the next book in the series. I've learned to have a few ideas up my sleeve because you never know when you might need them. For both my contracts, I was asked to provide further book ideas on very short notice. So, my closing words of advice for writing a back-to-back-to-back-to-back series are borrowed from the motto of the Girl Guides of Canada: Always be prepared.

Pamela Callow is the author of a legal thriller series for MIRA Books. DAMAGED, her debut novel, was a Levy “Need to Read” Pick for June with Top Ten Bestseller display. INDEFENSIBLE, the second book in the series, released on January 1, 2011 to a top rating by RT Book Reviews. She is currently working on the third and fourth book of the series, as well as writing a short story featuring Kate Lange that she was invited to write for ITW’s Thriller 3 Anthology.

Pamela is a member of the Nova Scotia bar and has a Master’s degree in Public Administration. Prior to making writing a career, she worked as a strategy consultant for Accenture Consulting. She has two wonderful kids, one amazing husband, and a mischievous pug. When she isn’t writing, she loves to go for walks (unlike her dog), drink coffee, and fantasize about travelling around the globe.

Hang out with Pam at all the usual internet haunts: her website, Facebook Author Page, and twitter.

January 2011 Debut Releases!

Congratulations to our January debut authors!

Stephen Besecker

THE SAMARITAN

Bancroft Press

Daniel Palmer

DELIRIOUS

Kensington Publishing

Howard Gordon

GIDEON'S WAR

Touchstone/Firestone

New Posting Guidelines for The Thrill Begins

Happy New Year!

Today begins a new era for The Thrill Begins blog. Every Thursday, we'll provide new content from our debut authors on writing craft, the business, and fun anecdotal material for readers.

Please consider writing a blog for us. We'd love to have everyone participate. We'll support your commitment by getting the word out through our many followers on Twitter and the forum.

The new posting guidelines can be found at http://tinyurl.com/39x6tkc.

Questions? Contact Tracey Devlyn at tracey@traceydevlyn.com.