Guest Post: Meet Sarah Jayne Carr

Hello! I must say, I'm delighted to have Sarah Jayne here with me today, and not just because she spells her name like my favorite television character. (Okay, so that might have more to do with it than anything. I'll admit it, the Hero of Canton is awesome!) ANYWAY... I give you Sarah Jayne Carr...

What are your greatest challenges in your writing career?

Finding enough time to do it. There are never enough hours in the day to accomplish what I would like to do.

(Lynn: That does seem to be a common theme...)

When did you find out that you wanted to be a writer? What inspired you to put pen to paper?

My cousins and I used to write stories as children. Throughout the years, I would write snippets and put them away, pulling them out periodically. In 2005, I discovered NaNoWriMo and wrote my first full-length novel. The rest is history!

Of your published works, do you have a favorite? Why?

Completed? Embracing Hamilton. Amelia really starts to come out of her shell and the personality dynamics blossom for some of the characters. Work in progress? Hunting Hamilton. Let’s just say I enjoy writing a warped character named Estian.

What are your biggest pet peeves for other people's grammar? Are there any mistakes that you find yourself making regularly?

I’m a spelling junkie and I try very hard to spell everything correctly. Let’s just say the Dictionary/Thesaurus app on my phone is one of the top three apps I gravitate toward. ;)

Do you ever want to go back and edit an older story? 

Nope, it’s finished for a reason and if I were to change anything, it might alter the stories that occur after it. As for grammatical edits? I’m OCD about them so I do my best to let anything go I see.

How do you decide on character names? 

I try to name my characters after people I don’t personally know (or at least at the time of the character’s creation). I don’t want any true-to-life traits to influence my imagination.

Tell me about your first publication. Who was it with? How did you feel when you got that acceptance? 

My first publication was the first release of Revealing Hamilton. It with a publisher who has since shut their doors. Acceptance? There’s no other feeling like it. It’s a complete high and it feeds the muse!

How much of your life and the people you know end up in your work? 

Very little is added to my story when it comes to real people. A lot of my characters die so I try to make my characters unique and unlike anyone I actually know. On a separate note, I take some life experiences and those absolutely weave into my writing. For instance, there’s a scene in the JR7 series that takes place in a morgue. Guess who went on a tour? This girl!

What projects are you currently working on? Are you willing to share a small excerpt from a work in progress? 

I recently finished book two of the JackRabbit7 series, Embracing Hamilton. It’s due to be released this fall. Here’s an excerpt (unedited):

“You have a lot of nerve calling and asking for help. You know that? I replied. “Why don’t you just go to the police?”

“I can’t go to the police for the same reason you can’t go to the police: we’re in over our heads. You know, none of this would have happened if it wasn’t for your grandfather,” he muttered.

I heard a crash in the closet and my heart pounded up into my throat. Unable to speak, my mind pieced together that Nick was across the hall. Someone else was in the room with me. 

“Nice. Now you’re going to give me the silent treatment?” Don asked.

It couldn’t be Donovan in the closet. I would have heard it through the phone and he didn’t seem to have a clue about the clatter. I flipped the phone shut, allowing my own safety to triumph over the continued argument. If I died, no one would be around to save Simon, Herb or Camille: provided Donovan told the truth.

My hands were clammy as I rubbed my fingertips against my palms. I reached out for the closet door and everything appeared in order. Old shirts hung to the left and jackets hung to the right. I wondered why Don hadn’t taken everything with him when he moved out.

When I looked lower, I noticed a pair of faded loafers on the floor. Strange. Donovan never wore anything like them. I allowed my eyes to travel upward and noticed jeans were positioned above the shoes. When one of the pant legs twitched, I realized I had a problem.

What's your writing routine? 

The muse is always orchestrating in the background of what I’m doing. Whether I’m at work, driving, at daycare or elsewhere…she’s thinking of ways to tackle me. When do I write? After the kiddo is in bed at night.

Is there a character or story that's stuck in your head and won't leave, from either your work or someone else's? 

I have two plot lines going on right now and both main characters are bull-headed. They fight for dominance in my mind so they’re always stuck in my head.

What writers or novels do you consider “must reads”? 

I love reading anything by my CHBB (Crushing Hearts and Black Butterflies, the sister press of Hot Ink)  family. My favorite author from over the years is Laurell K Hamilton because she was who first inspired me to take my writing seriously. My favorite book of all time is The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse. It’s this amazing murder mystery about nursery rhyme characters.

Talk to us about your domestic life; a favorite recipe, craft, your pets, children, house, or favorite set of socks.

I live in Washington with my husband and our golden nugget. By day, I work in medical billing and I’m a novelist by night. Socks? Now, we’re talkin’! I love socks! Variety is key and they don’t have to match! Favorites? They include vivid colors, animals, toe socks, etc! My absolute favorite pair are rainbow monster socks with felt teeth on the toes. They also have floppy eyes on the tops of them.

Tell us three things about you that are interesting.

I’m an ordained minister, I’ve given a dolphin a vaginal exam and when I met Laurell K. Hamilton I accidentally said, “I love you” in front of a studio audience of a talk show. Oops!

Writer's Call Wednesday: LONG deadline

I have posted a lot of links here for antho calls and I was talking with one of my writer friends about a collection I thought she should submit to; and she said,

"Well, I'll see, but it's a pretty tight deadline."

I looked at the call again, counted days, and said "It's over a month away..."

"That's a tight deadline for ME." (Keeping in mind that she has 2 kids, a soon-to-be ex-husband, a boyfriend, two different editing jobs... and I start thinking she's right...)

So here's a deadline for January NEXT YEAR. Obviously, no one has to submit for it... but if you chose to do so, you've got plenty of time...

Due to the success of Smut in the City, Lucy Felthouse and Kevin Mitnik are pleased to announce that they’re putting together a spin-off anthology, with a Sapphic theme.

Smut in the City: Sapphic Edition will be a collection of lesbian erotica with an urban/city feel edited by Lucy Felthouse and Kevin Mitnik.

The Smut in the City: Sapphic Edition anthology will feature stories from a variety of genres, but they must have that overall “city” feel, either in location or style. Think sex in or around famous tourist attractions, on top of skyscrapers, on the underground or subway, in city centre fountains and so on. But be aware all of those examples have already been done in the original anthology, so be unique!

Read Smut by the Sea Volumes 1 and 2, Smut in the City and Smut Alfresco to get an idea of what we like. If you’d like some clarification before submitting your story then please contact us.

Requirements

• Submission deadline: 1st Jan 2104
• Genres: Any
• Theme: Sapphic
• Pairings: F/F (multiples accepted)
• Word count: 3,000 – 6,000

Need some clarification before submitting? Please Contact Us

Payment

Royalties will be split 40% of the net profits with contributing authors, exact values will be given once we know how many stories will be in the final anthology. Royalties will be paid to each contributor once their share reaches a minimum threshold of £20.

Roll with it

Well, I'm finished Part Three of London Steam, my vampire / artificial heart / daughter of a demon menage story...

Pretty awesome. And it's already been contracted by Torquere Press, which is More Awesome.

I have a cowboy story, Pistols & Guns, out right now. Ripped is still out - I begin to think that project folded and vanished into nothingness. The story's been out for over a year now and I haven't heard a word... My middle-aged lesbian story is out... and that's it at the moment.

I may or may not write a Tristan & Isolde based BDSM story; I have one that's about halfway done, but I'm not really happy with it. I think I'd have to scrap what I've written and start over. The due date for that one is May 1st, so I still have time... ish.

And I may submit stories for both Sex Objects (due July 1st) and Delilah's Highlanders & Knights call... (due June 1st)...

I've also finished concept edits for my fantasy-romance novel, cut the word count down dramatically, and have it ready for pitching. More on that later.

I need to finish writing my vampire urban supernatural story - I pretty much ended the damn thing right after the climax (story climax, not sex climax!) without having any of the falling action, sum-up stuff that usually makes up the end of a romance novel.

And then there's what I want to be doing now... which is the coming of age, m/m story, Roll, that's somewhat loosely based on a short story that I never finished. The original short was about two lovers, one of the men firmly in the closet, especially with his family, who took his boyfriend out to the family farm on a day when no one else was supposed to be there (because it was the day before his brother's wedding, and really, everyone had something better to be doing...) and ends up getting caught... that scene is still going to be in the novel, but when I sat down to map out the characters, they both had more to tell me. And in the end, I decided to let them. Which means I have a novel length project in front of me....

Beau with his uptight, highly religious family, and Vin with his over-protective grandparents and the search for his birth-father...

So, I'm working on that. My outline gives me the thought that this'll be about a 50,000 - 75,000 word novel... which means if I write about 2,500 - 3,000 words a week, I should be ready for edits in September/October.

And I've still got my short-short project; we just passed 25,000 words yesterday... I think it's going well, and that should be complete by June. (Oh, and I could use some more prompts... 5 words, noun, verb, adjective, and two random...)

Busy writer is busy. I've already written 3,200 words on Roll this week, in addition to writing 1,800 words yesterday on my short-short (which I may steal, write another 2,000 words on, and turn in as my short for Sex Objects... we'll see....)

Guest Writer, Gabriella Lepore

I'd like to introduce you today to a slightly different sort of writer... young adult writer Gabriella Lepore. I have to say, I adore young adult work when I'm reading outside of my own genre - and I do read out of genre all the time. Mostly because I get somewhat worried about story-lag. Liking someone else's scene so much that I end up duplicating it in my own work.

So, please welcome Gabriella, and check out her work. (Besides, she's Welsh - like me! - and that makes her AWESOME!)

When did you find out that you wanted to be a writer? What inspired you to put pen to paper?

I remember being around seven years old and telling my friend that I wanted to be an author. From that day on, I began writing down my daydreams… and I never stopped!

Of your published works, do you have a favorite? Why? 
I have 3 published YA novels, The Witches of the Glass Castle, How I Found You and Evanescent, and although there are aspects of each that are particularly significant to me, I couldn’t pick a favorite. I’d feel too disloyal to the ones I didn’t pick!

For links to the books check out http://www.gabriellalepore.com/

How do you decide on character names?

I only ever seem to have trouble deciding on the name of the female lead charter. In The Witches of the Glass Castle, Mia was called Maisy until my final edits. And in How I Found You, Rose was called Jessica in my first draft. Evanescent was a little different, I was sure I wanted a strong Welsh name to tie-in with the nods to Welsh folk lore in the book (by the way, I’m Welsh!), that’s where Bronwen came from. It means ‘pure hearted’.

How much of your life and the people you know end up in your work?

Very little. In fact, it’s usually the other way around–I’m forever slipping up and calling people by character names! I suppose because I spend so much time thinking about these characters, and writing them, it’s easy to get confused!

(Note from your blog hostess here - I have done this. When my ankle was broken and I was recovering from surgery, I spent quite a bit of time in the recovery room because I wanted, desperately wanted, my friend's demon character, Xarroch, to come sit with me... as a note, he had healing powers, so that probably contributed!)

What projects are you currently working on? Are you willing to share a small excerpt from a work in progress?

Tarantula is my current project. I’ll share the prologue below…

It was November. The leaves had changed and fallen, and they’d spread across the streets like a crisp, tawny river winding through the outer limits of Ashwood Hollow. The temperature had dropped, too; winter was on its way. I remember the air was brisk that day, and I’d made it halfway to school before the chill began to crawl under my skin. My denim jacket just wasn’t cutting it anymore. 

It’s funny, but that’s the thought that kept playing through my mind while I sat in the front passenger seat of a black Lancia, wrestling to free myself from the rope that bound my wrists. I should have worn a coat, was all I could think. 

We sped past the You Are Now Leaving Ashwood Hollow signpost. I watched it whizz by and noticed the words Come Back Soon! scrawled in small letters across the bottom. Huh, I mused. I’d never noticed that before. I guess I didn’t leave often enough. 

My captor was silent, his hands on the steering wheel, his eyes trained on the desolate road ahead. Thin, spindly trees lined the tarmac, a layer of morning mist clinging to their branches. 

I was cold, and I was scared. And I knew, as I watched the wing mirror and saw the signpost disappear into the distance, that I would not be coming back soon. In fact, I would not be coming back, ever.

I want to make one thing clear, though—he wasn’t all bad. If he had been, then maybe I wouldn’t have ended up here, telling you this story. But I’ll get to that later. For now, I probably should start at the beginning.

Tell us three things about you that are interesting.

I don’t know if these count as interesting, but I’ll give it a go… My favorite movie is Hocus Pocus, my favorite color is green, and my favorite number is 22!


Visit Gabriella Lepore Books Facebook page!
Or follow on Twitter 

Calls for Submission: Sex Objects

SEX OBJECTS: AN ANTHOLOGY OF EROTIC ROMANCE STORIES
Editor: Delilah Devlin
Publisher: Cleis Press in Spring 2014
Deadline: July 1, 2013 (although sooner is better!)

SEX OBJECTS: AN ANTHOLOGY OF EROTIC ROMANCE STORIES is open to all authors.

Editor Delilah Devlin is looking for hetero stories for a romantic erotica anthology tentatively entitled SEX OBJECTS: AN ANTHOLOGY OF EROTIC ROMANCE STORIES.

High powered, high ranking...and in high heels.

The term “Sex Object” brings to mind a curvaceous starlet on a casting couch or an iconic, bee-stung-lipped beauty being pursued by a powerful, capable man. Turn that concept upside down by allowing the woman to objectify a handsome, sensual man, using the concepts of role reversal and power play but from a female perspective, and you have the makings of something evocative and fun for the feminine, romance reading audience.

Imagine powerful women unafraid of going after the men they want...
* A beautiful divorcee stepping out for the first time as a single woman with a paid male escort.
* The movie producer using the casting couch to lure the latest movie heart throb into a torrid affair.
* A university professor calling a male grad student into conference to discuss his “thesis.”
* A worldly corporate boss asking for “dictation” from her personal assistant.

These women will be masters of their own domain, in charge and proud...capable of using sex for pleasure's sake...but ultimately succumbing to the pull of desire created by the "objects” of their desire.

SEX OBJECTS will seek contemporary stories, although the editor is open to a futuristic or historical. Exotic, international settings will be considered. Traditional themes/tropes can be used, but writers are encouraged to create tales that surprise. Delilah seeks unique stories from authors with strong voices, and above all, she’s looking to be seduced by tales filled with vivid imagery and passion.

Published authors with an established world may use that setting for their original short story.

Keeping in mind that this volume is targeted at women, the editor seeks mainly hetero stories, but will consider bisexual or lesbian encounters and polyamorous relationships. This is erotic romance, so don’t hold back on the heat. Stories can be vanilla or filled with kink, but a deep sensuality should linger in every word—and don’t miss describing the connection between strong-willed individuals learning to trust and love one another. Keep in mind there must be a romantic element with a happy-for-now or happy-ever-after ending. Strong plots, engaging characters, and unique twists are the ultimate goal. Please no reprints. These must be original stories.

How to submit: Prepare your 1,500 to 4,500 words story in a double-spaced, Arial, 12 point, black font document with pages numbered (.doc, NOT.docx) OR rich text format. Indent the first line of each paragraph half an inch and double space (regular double spacing, do not add extra lines between paragraphs or do any other irregular spacing). US grammar (double quotation marks around dialogue, etc.) is required.

In your document at the top left of the page, include your legal name (and pseudonym if applicable), mailing address, and 50 words or less bio in the third person to realsexobjects@gmail.com. If you are using a pseudonym, please provide your real name and pseudonym and make it clear which one you’d like to be credited as. Authors may submit up to 2 stories. Delilah will respond in December 2013. The publisher has final approval over the stories included in the manuscript.

Payment will be $50.00 USD and two copies of the published book upon publication.

About the editor: Ms. Devlin has published over a hundred and twenty stories in multiple sub-genres and lengths with Atria/Strebor, Avon, Berkley, Black Lace, Cleis Press, Ellora’s Cave, Kensington, Kindle, Montlake Romance, Running Press, and Samhain Publishing. In Fall 2011, she debuted her first anthology with Cleis Press, GIRLS WHO BITE. Since then, she has published SHE SHIFTERS and COWBOY LUST. SMOKIN’ HOT FIREFIGHTERS and HIGH OCTANE HEROES  release in summer 2013.

Direct any questions you have regarding your story or the submission process to Delilah at realsexobjects@gmail.com.

Regionalism

Or Why do the Brits think we all sound like we're from Texas

I have a friend in my on-line guild (I play Star Wars, The Old Republic these days) who does this Minnesota sex-tape voice "oh yah, baby. Just like that. yah, oh yah." If you've seen Fargo, you know why this cracks me up, Every Single Time he does it. One of these days I'm going to get a recording of it... I might even use it as my ring tone...

Now, I watch a lot of movies from the UK (Love, Actually being one of my favorite "chick flicks"...) and the only thing I hate about it is that Colin goes to WISCONSIN and ends up hooking up with a lot of "American babes." Who all sounded and looked like they had guest star appearances on Dallas. Straw cowboy hats, shorts skirts and cowboy boots. Okay, seriously, I'm here to tell you that very few people wear heeled cowboy boots when they're walking around in the snow. Okay? ok.

Talking with one of my writer-friends, she was asking about how much of a southern accent she should put into her novel; one editor was saying "please take out all these apostrophes and put the g's back in to works like waitin', readin', and thinkin'." A good Southern expression is "fixin' to get ready." Another one is "y'all." True Southerners will sometimes say y'all's. Or even, "all y'all's."

• Y'all - You All. Y'all come back now, y'hear? (All of you, feel free to visit again soon!)
• Y'all's - You All's. Are these y'all's dogs? (Do these dogs belong to your entire family, or are there some neighbor dogs mixed in?)
• All y'all's - All of your stuff. "Get all y'all's shoes out of the foyer!" (Could all of the children please remove their shoes from the front hallway?)

One of my best friends is from New York. We have horrible arguments about whether the field-mouse batterer in the song's name is Little Bunny Foo Foo or Little Rabbit Foo Foo.

I say Bunny. She says Rabbit. We have been arguing about this for approximately twenty years. (Feel free to weigh in on that discussion... I'll bring it up next time we talk, provided y'all agree with me.)

I spend a lot of time doing research when I'm writing.

I wish the folks at Disney had done some...

 Here's a picture from Pocohontas... nice waterfall. Too bad Jamestown is a freaking swamp. There's no waterfalls. Hell, there's barely any hills around here at all. It's woods and marsh and muck, and by the way, it smells terrible. Also, floods a lot.

look how FLAT that is...

I was talking earlier today with one of my editors; somewhere there's a fine line between accuracy and readability. A military dress shirt is called a blouse, even when worn by a man. This may be accurate, but your average reader is going to assume typo, if they don't have extensive military background. Heck, I didn't even know it until I was told, and my father was in the Navy, my grandfather in the Air Force, and my ex-husband was a Marine.

In the end, you really need to decide if it's important to the story to be accurate...

(And yes, it's still a Chocolate Chess Pie, not a chocolate cheesecake.... you Northerners need to get some culture!)

It's Beginning to Look a lot like....

I'm a terrible gardener. I've got a black-thumb. I can even kill cactus and succulents, two kinds of plants I'm told are "damn near impossible" to kill.

So spring time doesn't usually fill me with tons of joy to get out there and dig around in the garden. I've managed to raise a couple pots of cherry tomatoes - at least until the squirrels got hold of them. But mostly, I've just ended up with pots of mulch and dead plant.

But - and here's the wonderful thing about being a writer; I don't have to have experienced something to write about it. I love doing research. I have several SME's (Subject Matter Experts) that I consult for information. And one of my best friends is a research librarian (probably the best friend a writer could have, aside from an editor. Oh, wait! I have one of those, too!) and she's always delighted to help me look stuff up if my research skills fail.

Which is how I came to write a story about a woman who loves her garden. Really, really loves her garden.

Garden Variety Excerpt


The carafe of wine slipped, unnoticed, from Jackie's hand and smashed onto the patio.  Shards of glass and splatters of Chianti barely registered as she stared, gape-mouthed, at the wreckage of her garden.

Before work, Jackie had checked the seedling beans, twining tomato plants, and a few decorative flats of strawberries, and everything had been pristine.  She'd plucked a few weeds from the warm soil, bound up a falling tomato vine, relocated a few bugs, and discussed the latest celebrity news with the attentive bean sprouts.  After a day of manning the phones at East Agency Collections, being called multiple names – as if she were the one who'd run up thousands of dollars of credit card debt and then tried to default on it – and being bitched out thoroughly by her manager, Jackie had been looking forward to a glass of wine, a book of poetry, and the company of her pleasant, non-meddlesome, non-annoying, quiet plants.  As far as Jackie was concerned, plants were much better company than most humans.

Especially now.

All four vertical trellises that Jackie had painstakingly put together herself lay in shattered ruins.  There was potting soil all over the patio.  Her budding garden, lovingly tended, was torn asunder; the plants yanked rudely from their clay pots and shredded.  There was seemingly nothing that could be salvaged.  This was no act of a careless child, not the destruction of someone's dog that had slipped their leash for a few short moments.  This was wanton, cruel desecration.

“Who the hell would do such a thing?” Jackie was barely aware that she spoke aloud, tears of rage and grief spilling over her lower lids.  She turned her head from side to side, as if seeking answers, but there was nothing.  With all the potting soil scattered all over the patio, she would have thought at least that there would have been some tracks, but the earth gave up no trace of the murderer of her garden.

All she saw was one flicker of life, one tiny, tenacious plant that clung to life.

She dropped gingerly to one knee, avoiding the shards of pottery and glass, scooping up the runner bean sprout. She’d bought them just last week – very expensive – from Garden Variety nursery.

“I'll make it right,” she promised.  Jackie pulled together a handful of soil and pressed it into her empty wine glass.  It wasn’t the best solution, but perhaps it would be enough to keep the one plant alive until she was able to get to the nursery.  “I'll make everything all right again.”

“I promise.”

Just not today, she thought as she closed the porch door on her savaged plants.  Maybe things will look better in the morning.