Tuesday, March 12, 2019

Author Groups vs Genre Groups: Love To All


Author Fan Clubs. Fans of Specific Author Groups. Multi-Author Reader Groups. Genre Reviewer Groups. Whatever they're called, the most awesome thing to see is readers enthusiastically sharing their love of books.

Author-Run Fan Clubs/Groups are neat to observe. Maintaining that connection is a significant time investment, and I hat-tip to all the authors who thrive in the setting. The romance community--especially the PNR readers--IMHO, win the prize for most author-to-reader engagement. Nalini Singh's and Sherilyn Kenyon's are two of the author-run groups that spring to mind. UF comes charging into second place, probably due to the huge crossover from PNR (the LKH fan club was strong for a long, long time). Yes, I know personal assistants and fan club moderators help the authors balance writing their books and engaging with their fans. Mad props to the whole engine making fan clubs happen.

Now, that's not to throw shade on the fantasy readers, no, no. Fantasy fans seem to congregate around the genre more so than specific authors. Sure, they champion the hell out of their favorite series within the genre groups. You can make a drinking game out of frequency with which Malazon, LOTR, Farseer, and WoT are mentioned.

Personally, I participate in genre reader groups (okay, I lurk a lot and post when I have an answer to a question that doesn't already have dozens of responses). I don't have a fan group of my own beyond my Facebook Author Page, mostly because I suck at small talk IRL and online.

Monday, March 11, 2019

Fan groups?Do those really exist?

I'm joking of course. Yes, I know they exist. No, I don't have any.
I have followers on Twif=tter and facebook. That's about all I've managed. If I ever figure out how to do more, I will.
"Jim, why don't you hire a publicist?"
Money. Unless they can do it for the love, (You know, like a lot of publishers ask the writers to do) that just isn't happening.

So here: Instead let me remind you I have a new book coming out in a few weeks.


YOU can order it HERE




Sunday, March 10, 2019

Screaming Love and More for You

At the SFF Seven this week, we're discussing author fan groups – whether we have them, like them, how they work, and we're interested in what the readers think about them. Do you belong to any fan groups and what do you like about them, which are your favorites and why?

I confess I didn't have a fan group for a really long time. I don't really love the word "fan" to begin with, and given the opportunity, I'll say "my readers" instead. With I think of "fan" I immediately picture Simon Zealotes from Jesus Christ, Superstar, singing and dancing with his crew about their fanatical zealotry.


What can I say? Early impressions and all that.

But I did finally form a fan group on Facebook because one of my readers asked me to. I did it back in November of 2016 and it's called "Jeffe's Closet." That's a bit of an inside joke. I used to have a Tumblr called Jeffe's Closet. Actually, it's still there - but because Tumblr freaked out about erotic images, and my closet was full of naughty pictures, it's been gutted. Or it's there, but behind a firewall? I don't even know anymore. I haven't added to it in forever, mostly because in the era of Trump, images of girls in chains began to feel too literal and not at all sexy anymore.

Alas.

Anyway, I like my private group! I post extra things there occasionally, and ask people to weigh in on stuff. Probably I should post there more often. So that leads me to ask - what should I be posting? What author fan groups do you belong to, what's the platform and what are your favorite things to see there?

Oh, and in case you haven't seen it, there's the final cover for LONEN'S REIGN! Out March 20 and available for preorder now :-)

Amazon
Smashwords
Kobo




Saturday, March 9, 2019

Silence Is the Sound For Me

DepositPhoto

Do I have a soundtrack or playlist for my novels?

I don’t write to music. I used to, many years ago, but there came a point where I found the music too distracting in the background, so I now write surrounded by silence, other than the ambient noises and Jake the Cat’s occasional demand for attention.

I find music immensely inspiring and I love to go for long drives on the Southern California freeways with the music turned up loud and contemplate plot challenges. At various times in the old day job I had long commutes to make and I got used to doing some of my most complex plot problem solving during those otherwise boring drives. (I find driving on the freeways is mostly routine but every now and then there’s a CRISIS and you’d better be able to respond fast. There was also the time I got trapped on the freeway by a brushfire, surrounding several other cars and mine, and I was right next to a gasoline tanker…CHP thankfully got us out of there…and we won’t discuss the wreck I had in 1982 where I rolled the car three times…thank goodness for seat belts! I wasn’t worrying over plots when that happened – I’d just decided to find another job, came around a curve and oh my, all the traffic was stopped while here I was going ummm perhaps a bit north of the posted speed…)

I also enjoy listening to music on my old ipod. I’ve got hundreds of my favorite songs on endless replay and I just let the melodies flow. Pretty soon I’m not really hearing the songs because I’m in the zone and the ideas are swarming.
My playlist ranges from golden oldies to rock to show tunes to bagpipes to country, with a lot of stuff in between. Sometimes a certain song will inspire a plot point or will remind me of a character or a situation. The connections probably wouldn’t be obvious to anyone but me and my Muse though! I tried to come up with a good example for this post and the explanation got very convoluted. Which is the way my creative mind works!

One of my favorite novellas from my backlist is STAR CRUISE: SONGBIRD, which was my scifi rock star romance and even for that one I didn't have a soundtrack. Here's an excerpt from the first concert in the story:

The show was already going on at full volume. Karissa’s was the final set of the evening and when she ran onstage, her dancers bouncing and doing acrobatics around her, the roar was astounding. Grant stood in the wings, as close to the stage as he could, and watched the performance. Karissa strutted, she danced, she teased, she brought a child on stage for a brief chat, she sang full throated. The crowd loved it all. He had a hard time keeping his eye on the audience, watching for problems, because she was so riveting.


“First time at a show?” asked an older woman standing next to him. “This is nothing compared to what she’ll do at the big concert on Calillia next week. There’ll be multiple costume changes and aerial components. And maybe some new songs, although she’s been quiet about her songwriting lately. She doesn’t want Ted getting the rights to any more of her stuff if she can help it. Things are unfixably sour between them now.” She laughed self-consciously and held out her hand. “I’m  Desdusan, by the way, her chief makeup artist. Chief busybody too. I try to look out for her as much as I can. Been with Karissa for nine years, ever since she hit the bigtime with ‘Twisted Comets’. She’ll probably sing that for the encore.”

“I hate to admit it but I’ve never heard her music before—it’s all new to me,” he said as they shook.

The woman did a double take. “You’re kidding, right? You’re probably the only person in the Sectors who hasn’t heard at least one Karissa song.”

“I have now,” he pointed out, annoyed to feel so defensive.
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Friday, March 8, 2019

The Writer's Playlist

Even though I've managed to save so much music to Spotify that it won't let me save any more - what's up with THAT? 10k songs is nothing! My music tastes are wide ranging and horrify pretty much everyone I've ever lived with. So I do most of my listening (and singing) for when no one else is around. But I have come to the conclusion that music is for when I'm not writing. My writing playlists used to be game sound tracks.

Myst. ALL OF THEM. The Diablo soundtracks. Halo soundtracks. Anything moody and/or without lyrics. I dipped into Brain.fm and some of the other binaural sound tracks available. Anything to shift my brainwaves and help me concentrate and shut out the world. For along while I listened to Nox Arcana to get my fill of atmospheric, we're all gonna die music. Frontline Assembly and, oddly enough, Nine Inch Nails worked for that, too. (I know I said no lyrics. I guess I lied.)

But then science happened and now there's data pretty much proving my high school science teacher's most unpopular assertion. Music impairs creativity. Granted. One study does not a landslide make. But if you're trying to listen to the still, small voices inside, maybe consider turning down the interference?

So I'm writing silent. This is a luxury and I freely admit that. When my folks move in and I'm having to block out conversations, TV, and the sounds of other humans breathing, earphones and sound may be my only solace. Until then, I'm writing a deaf heroine. Silence is exactly what's needed.

Thursday, March 7, 2019

Creative Focus, and the Playlists Behind Them

I've been a little radio silent the past few weeks, at least in terms of posting, because I've been chin-deep on a few things, both in terms of creative projects and other personal responsibilities. Nothing bad, mind you, just busy.

Two things have been my creative focus of late. One is finishing the draft of THE FENMERE JOB, the third Streets of Maradaine novel, and like all third novels in the Maradaine saga, there is a crossover element, which I'm sure you can suss out just from title alone. 

The other is more in the developmental stage, but let's just call it a Secret Project for now. But it will probably be a standalone thing to palate cleanse myself between Phase I and Phase II of the Maradaine Saga.

Both of these, I've got some inspirational music for, though I don't tend to go full-on curated playlists. Rather, I tend to find thematic material and throw it together and then, in process, figure out which stuff really works for me.

In the case of The Fenmere Job, I'm leaning toward film scores from films that evoke the same feeling I'm going for. Here's the spotify link for that one.

For The Secret Project, it's got a very different feel from the other stuff, and the playlist matches it. As you can see, it's largely focused on a specific artist. That might morph over time, though.

All right, back to the grind. Plenty to do over the next few days.

Wednesday, March 6, 2019

Drawing Inspiration from Music and Brains

It’s not really a secret that listening to music can get you into a mood. Writers draw on that mood, and on the related emotions, to make our stories more memorable and effective. I think most writers have a playlist of some sort.

I do a lot of my writing by walking and thinking. Yes, this is work time. It’s just how my brain operates. When I’m walking and thinking and writing, I pipe music into my ear holes. Playlists match particular characters and scenes and feelings. Angela was AC/DC’s Back in Black album. Kellen was “Desperado” by The Eagles. Mari and Heron each had a playlist, but when they were fighting together against the world, they were “Read My Mind” by The Killers. Chloe is a lot of Def Leppard and Dollyrots, and intimate scenes almost always lean heavily on the music of Prince (well I mean, duh).

But when I sit down to actually put words on a screen, music no longer works for me. I need to get out of the song’s story and into my story, deep in my own brain. For that particular sorcery, I use a phone app called Brainwave Binaural.

The app works by starting a wave in one ear and finishing it in the other, sort of forcing the brain in the middle to match its mood. I use the Concentration setting for editing and Euphoria for drafting, but if you use this app, you’ll need to find your own personal sweet spot, the setting combo that drops you right into go mode.

Which is what I really love about this app: I sit down, plug in, and am instantly in the writing zone. If I don’t have Brainwave on, it takes me maybe 15 minutes to get into a writing groove.

So that’s my playlist advice: a lot of classic rock n’ roll and a brain-control app. (Brain control, not mind control. No matter what kind of speculation you’re writing.)

Tuesday, March 5, 2019

Sing Me A Song & I'll Tell You A Story


I listen to music...all the time. When I need to sink into a mood, I have a playlist for that. When I'm not connecting with a situational mindset of a character, I have a song, an album, or an artist to get me there. When I need to drown outside noise, I have a smart-station for that. When my dog's losing her mind due to a storm, there's music for that too.

As I'm working my way through the fifth book in the Immortal Spy series here's what's in my Top 5 Playlists queue:

  1. Pain is Necessary Mix: Dommin, Godsmack, 3 Days Grace, Metallica, Theatre of Tragedy, Shinedown, BVB, etc.
  2. Blues Guitars & Grit: Joe Bonamassa, Beth Hart, Johnny Lang, Kenney Wayne Shepherd, Koko Taylor, Memphis Mille, Muddy Waters, BB King, John Lee Hooker, etc.
  3. The Bogeyman Cometh (Opera's Bass/Baritones) Mix: Bryn Terfel, Thomas Hampson, Rene Pepe, Sam Ramey, and more.
  4. Women Have Had Enough Of Your Shit Mix: Halestorm, Dorothy, Heart, Joan Jett, In This Moment, Gin Wigmore, ZZ Ward, The Pretty Reckless, Aretha, Ella, Janis, Tina, Stevie, etc.
  5. We're All 12 with Dirty Minds (Classic Rock): Meat Loaf, Aerosmith, Def Leppard, Mötley Crüe, AC/DC, Alice Cooper, Bon Jovi, Cinderella, Van Halen, etc.