When you don't have a backlist...you pick a fave!

 

My frontlist is coming! Yeah, I know, publishing is one big sea of secrets that you can’t talk about…what a crock. But what that really means for this week’s blogpost is—I don’t have a backlist book to share…

Backlist [noun]: books available in print, but are not new releases

My goal, back when I was in the corporate world, was to have 10 backlist books before retiring from the lab to become a full-time author. Heh, chronic disease be damned, but it did give me the opportunity to jump right into stay-at-home writer!

*side note: I’d still suggest having some backlist books before diving into this full time…yikes!

But through it all I’m still reading! And so I’ve picked a backlist book from one of my favorite series to share with you today! I recently read THE FATE OF THE TALA and THE LOST PRINCESS RETURNS, so choosing the one that started it all seemed to fit.  

Queen of the Unknown is the tagline and it absolutely fits THE MARK OF THE TALA. Andi, the middle daughter of the High King, is a bit odd and never feels like she fits in. Until she meets a strange man while out riding…and he becomes a crow. He opens her eyes to a hidden kingdom, one that she has claim to, and to the destruction her own father is wrecking on their world’s magic. 

It’s full of shapeshifting, magic, political intrigue, romance, and a lesson of trust. It’s, IMO, the perfect backlist book because it opens up the world of the Tala and whew is it an entire world! And, if you’re a series devourer like me, you’ll be happy to know that Jeffe ties up all the plot lines and story arcs nicely in THE FATE OF THE TALA. 

Do you have a backlist book, or one that you love? Let me know so I can check it out!

The Mark of the Tala 

The Twelve Kingdoms #1

by Jeffe Kennedy

Queen Of The Unknown

The tales tell of three sisters, daughters of the high king. The eldest, a valiant warrior-woman, heir to the kingdom. The youngest, the sweet beauty with her Prince Charming. No one says much about the middle princess, Andromeda. Andi, the other one.

Andi doesn't mind being invisible. She enjoys the company of her horse more than court, and she has a way of blending into the shadows. Until the day she meets a strange man riding, who keeps company with wolves and ravens, who rules a land of shapeshifters and demons. A country she'd thought was no more than legend--until he claims her as its queen.

In a moment everything changes: Her father, the wise king, becomes a warlord, suspicious and strategic. Whispers call her dead mother a traitor and a witch. Andi doesn't know if her own instincts can be trusted, as visions appear to her and her body begins to rebel.

For Andi, the time to learn her true nature has come. . .

Not an Oops: My Little Backlist

 Very quick funny story...

I started working in publishing about the same time my husband started programming games. (We were babies.) Early on in a biz, you’re learning so much every day, and often we’d come home and exchange knowledge, kind of like kindergarteners bring home their “look what I did!” finger paintings. Most times, hubs was excited about my excitement, but when I started talking about the RR Bowker out-of-print lists — fondly called the “OOP lists”—he’d get this very confused expression on his face. Finally, I asked what was up with that, and he countered with a question: What do old books have to do with object-oriented programming? (Also OOP, apparently.)

This week on SFF Seven, we’re talking about our old stuff: out-of-print books, early books, backlist books. And since I’m sort of new to this whole authoring thing, I don’t have a whole lot to talk about. In an age of ebooks and long-term contracts, none of my books are out of print. Publishers have lots of fun tricks to retain rights long after the first blush has faded from a release. 

In terms of backlist (that is, a book of mine that is not a new release), I guess the book I self-published last summer would count? It’s third in a series, but I challenge folks to read it as a stand-alone. I think/hope it holds up. The book is about a self-aware AI that, instead of deciding to nuke the world aka Skynet, really only wants to find a way to smooch her fella. Title is More Than Stardust, and it begins with a serious oops that has to do with neither publishing nor programming.

The Burned Spy: The Book That Launched an Urban Fantasy Series

As I work through the edits of Book 6 in the Immortal Spy series, it's only fitting that I bring "from the boneyard" Book 1, the story that introduced us to a gatekeeper on a mission from Hel.

THE BURNED SPY
The Immortal Spy: Book 1

Gods. Always ready to screw you.

When Bix the Gatekeeper is summoned from exile a hundred and seventy years early by the goddess of the Norse Under World, the former Dark Ops agent knows there’s a catch. On the surface, the terms of the deal are simple. Someone attacked the pantheon’s ambassador to the Mid Worlds and left the ambassador in a coma. In exchange for early parole, Bix must identify the perpetrator and drag their soul to Hel.

It’d be a sweet contract, if not for the details. The ambassador is Bix’s ex-girlfriend, the lead suspect is the key witness from Bix’s trial, and the organization leading the official investigation is the same intelligence guild that disavowed Bix when a covert op went pear-shaped. Undeterred, Bix returns to her old stomping grounds where clues in the smoldering woods of Centralia, Pennsylvania, lead to the waterfront of Washington, DC, and Worlds beyond.

Once valued for her skills creating passageways as small as a capillary or as large as a continent, Bix’s success now depends on the relationships she was forced to abandon. As she squares off against friends who betrayed her and enemies keen to destroy her, Bix follows a trail of secrets, torture, and treason that leads to the very superpowers who banished her. With her freedom on the line and revenge within reach, this highly-trained operative will take on Fates, dragons, angels, and gods to get exactly what she wants.

Hel hath no fury like a burned spy.

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Crawling from the Graveyard

 This week we're talking about out of print books, a terrifying subject if ever there was one. 

My Out of Print book is actually, depending on which edition, a trilogy.

Once upon a time, I wrote a 340,000 word monster of a book. Multiple reviews referred to it as a DOORSTOPPER.

That would have been my fourth novel, SERENITY FALLS.

Long story short, I am a pantser. I do not outline very often and even when I do, I can very nearly promise you I'm not staying on track to use that outline for long.  It's just not the way my mind works, so things change, whether I want them to or not.  I never planned to write a book that big, but I did. It just sort of happened. 

When I'm writing my mind does its own thing. I might THINK I know where a book is going, but like as not, it'll change fast and often. The tale evolves. 

I had an idea for a curse that falls on a town, revenge from beyond the grave, and worse than that. But in order for that to work the way I wanted it to, there had to be a mystery or two, and there had to be a lot of history for the town. before it was done I had written a novel with over 180 named characters, that spanned over 300years of town history.  There were good guys, bad guys, murders, damned near every sin you can imagine covered in bloody history. And then there was the guy who had to deal with all of that, my monster hunter Jonathan Crowley. Hell, his history spans centuries, and I wanted a town that could compete for the readers' attention!

The next thing I know I've spent the better part of a year writing this novel. I normally spend around three months on the first draft and I spent four times that long here. It was so big an idea that when it went from trade paperback to mass market the publisher said it needed to be three books. That meant rewriting a lot of stuff, cutting some out and adding in even more. 

Thus was the SERENITY FALLS TRILOGY born: WRIT IN BLOOD, THE PACK, and THE DARK CARNIVAL. There's a lot of story, and probably fifteen or so perspectives.  

I'm happy to say the reviews were favorable. 

Quite possibly the best horror novel since Salem's Lot. -- Jim Brock, Baryon magazine

Moore is perhaps the most talented writer of this genre to date. ...On the surface SERENITY FALLS sounds like Stephen King's Salem's Lot, but there is much Moore to the novel than just the rewriting a classic. The story line is loaded with, and an intensifying terror that is difficult to classify as the audience wonders between the Curse and the newcomers as to who is the focus of this peril. Surprisingly for such a large ensemble the residents ensure the audience believes the small hamlet exists and bring life to the threat.

Harriet Klausner -- Midwest Book Review

Moore is something to watch. -- Bentley Little

I'll take it. :) 

I'm likely putting this back in print myself next year. 

From the Bone Yard: a BDSM Beauty and the Beast!

This week at the SFF Seven, we're digging in the bone yard and resurrecting... a backlist book!

Yeah, okay - not all that creepy.

But I did pick one of my very first publications that has significant creepitude, in that it's a BDSM Beauty and the Beast. Yes, PETALS AND THORNS is my exploration of what *really* went on in that dark and lonely castle after sundown. What happens when Beauty opens those doors on the Beast's truly wild and beastly nature?

This story has gotten a lot of lovely reviews over the years. I originally published the book under a pseudonym, "Jennifer Paris," so there can be some confusion. Still I love this review:

The BDSM elements work beautifully for this, and I was swept into the story, the characters, and the darkness of the work. Ms. Paris has a gift for drawing a reader into the center of her world and keeping them there, using sensuality, innocence, and desire as her lure. The Beast, while dominant and controlling, is equally soft and tender. The virginal Amarantha is more than a mere bride gained as a means to an end. The writing is fantastic, and I loved the twist at the end in which the Beast reveals the cause of his affliction to our courageous heroine. It added so much to the story and left me wanting more when I reached the final page.

Fans of fairy tales, erotic romance, and BDSM will love Petals and Thorns. This is one of the best novellas I’ve read so far this year, and I can’t wait to read more from Ms. Paris in the future. Definitely place this title on your coveted TBR list.

Interested in some twisty fairytale kink? Blurb and buy links below!

In exchange for her father’s life, Amarantha agrees to marry the dreadful Beast and be his wife for seven days. Though the Beast cannot take Amarantha’s virginity unless she begs him to, he can and does take her in every other way. From the moment they are alone together, the Beast relentlessly strips Amarantha of all her resistance.

If Amarantha can resist her cloaked and terrifying husband, she gains his entire fortune and will be allowed to return to her family and a normal life. But the Beast seduces her at every turn, exposing, binding, tormenting, and pleasuring Amarantha until she no longer knows her own deepest desires. Increasingly desperate to break the curse that chains his humanity, the Beast drives Amarantha past every boundary. But her desire for a normal life may jeopardize the love that will save them both.

       

To NaNo or not to NaNo

 No one:

Me: . . . So. . .

Absolutely no one:

Me: A dearth of cat pictures? No worry! I so got you.

Last week, I was outside in the early evening. This little cat darted out across the street right in front of me. I grabbed a can of cat food and the cat trap. She was hiding in bushes. To be certain she was still there, I popped the top on the can and set it down. As I stepped back, a tiny little cat crept out of the shrubs and began to eat. Back in I went. The cat darted into the bushes. I set up the trap with the can of cat food inside as the bait. I backed off across the street. My heart pounded too hard and too fast. I'd barely gotten my breath and started to get my head together when the trap went off. 

Meet Peseshet. (Pe as in put, se as in set, shet as in Shetland) She's a sweet little thing with a lot of

attitude. She's looking for her forever person in South Central Florida. Preferably, someone who won't throw her out like she doesn't matter the way her former people did.

Ah, November. Election day can't get here soon enough. Thanksgiving is too damned soon. I am not prepared. Above all, NANOWRIMO. 

To Nano or not to nano. That is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the procrastination and avoidance of  -- wait. Didn't I do this last year? Pretty sure I pulled this. K. 

Y'know, here's the long and short of it. Nanowrimo is a really great way to kick start yourself into writing as fast as you possibly can. There's power in Nanowrimo because you know you are taking part in something larger than yourself. The goal isn't to write well - it's to write fast. Writing well comes later. Nano is an amazing opportunity to give yourself the gift of suspending judgement simply because for thirty days, you and thousands and thousands of your peers are doing one thing - writing to 50k. It's thirty days were you can justify taking a little time to write while the rest of the family (generally) respects the effort because it's only for thirty days. 

The downside? If you're someone who responds poorly to pressure, this will just block you. You have to know yourself, your process, and what drives you. If this sounds like you, stay far away. The other possibility is that you're someone who has far too strong a competitive streak, this could be a little toxic.

Understand. Nanowrimo isn't about 'winning' even though the whole process does have a finish line. You either make 50k+ words or you don't. But no matter where you land in word count over the month, you still win. You're farther ahead than when you undertook the exercise if it turns out to be right for you.

Standby for NaNoWriMo

 November draweth nigh. And in the book world that means one  thing…NaNoWriMo!!!

National Novel Writing Month. Now that sounds like the perfect time to write a book? Yeah?

If you’ve been thinking about starting, or have started but stalled out, you might want to jump on this writing train. You can sign up officially and connect with thousands of other people in the same boat, you can track your progress, and you can earn badges and stuff. 

Actually, I’ve never Nano’d. But I have Rory Gilmore’d it and done a pro/con list. 

Pros:

• if you sign up https://nanowrimo.org/sign-up you have a tracker that will get you to 50,000 words by the end of Nov
• you can earn badges, we don’t need no stinkin’ badges doesn’t apply here
• you can connect with writers in the same spot you’re in
• connections mean cheerleaders to keep you going!

Cons:

• it takes time to write and also update your nano/connect
• previous projects have to take a backseat

Sure it’s clear the pros outweigh my cons, but it’s the previous projects part that always gets in the way. I’ve never been at a good place to drop what’s in the works and start a new project. And this year’s no different…I’m still in the editing cave and won’t come out 'til Thanksgiving. 

If you decide to NaNo I wish you many many words! Me, I’m headed back into the dark. If I’m not out in 30 days—send a pie in after me!!

To NaNo or Not To NaNoWriMo

It’s October, and you know what that means. Pink ribbons, ghosts, candy corn, sugar skulls, autumn leaves, pumpkin spice everything... and a bunch of writers fervently getting projects prepped before November 1st. This last might seem odd, but now that I’ve mentioned it, you’ll see it everywhere. It might be accompanied by secret-handshake-like references to NaNoWriMo, or sometimes just NaNo. I promise this is not a reference to a weird supernatural writing cult. It’s National Novel Writing Month, and if you’re a writer or thinking about being a writer, it’s worth peeking at.

Very simply, NaNoWriMo is a one-month writing sprint tracked online at their site, NaNoWriMo.org. You log in word count every day of November, with a goal of logging 50,000 words by the end of the month. Those words don’t need to be good. The book doesn’t even need to be done. You just need the 50k words to “win” NaNo.

If that seems daunting, consider the second part of NaNo: the support. There’s a huge community of writers participating in NaNo every year, and they are super welcoming. They have message boards and Discords, and in the days before Covid, real-life in-person writing meetups. The people involved are generous with their expertise and imagination: you got a plot problem, you can definitely find a group willing to brainstorm. Note, I haven’t run across anybody willing to read pages, but that’s just because everyone is hyper focused on writing. Sometimes folks exchange manuscripts after November.

I’ve done that, or at least I’ve read other writers’ excellent NaNo books, many of which have gone on to lure agents, get published, and win awards. And when I say many, I mean many: I’ve been NaNoing every year since 2004.

But here’s my dirty little secret: I have never, in all those years, “won” NaNoWriMo. I’ve started books that I finished later, and I have written 50k words in a month, just never one book in that particular month, as tracked by the NaNoWriMo site. Never.

So maybe this year is my year. Who knows? But if you decide to join the cult, er, take the plunge and you want a buddy, I’m Viv. 

Happy wording, worders!