Upcoming Rose Pressy Interview - R n' R is Undead

Rose Pressey's latest ebook, Rock n' Roll is Undead, is hilarious. The author was kind enough to share a few thoughts about the story in an upcoming interview. Stay tuned.

Confessions of a Virgin Sacrifice

Confessions of a Virgin Sacrifice is soon to be available on all eBooks.

Here's the blurb:

Sound the alarm! Saddle the horses! Wake up the village elders! The Sacrificial Virgin has escaped!

Jezebelle's voluptuous cousin Dizeray is slated for a sacrificial swan dive into the local volcano. Not if Jez can help it! She plots to rescue her cousin and find an eager candidate to 'disqualify' Diz from being this year's Virgin Sacrifice. But things to horribly wrong and now the gals are on the run with the furious Village Elders in hot pursuit!

Jez sweeps her cousin on a whirlwind adventure through the jungle and beyond with nothing but her sardonic wit and bronze brassiere at her disposal. Along the way the two Glamazons attract a motley cast of characters including a brooding barbarian with a decidedly un-heroic phobia, an ill-tempered troll looking for love, and a deadly blue wolf with a soft spot for Jezebelle.

This unlikely troupe stumbles head first into one wacky adventure after another, encountering love, magic, monsters and mayhem. Throughout their travels, Jez untangles clues to her True Destiny. She discovers a Forbidden Secret that threatens to unravel the very fabric of her word—or at least ruin her day.

This saucy off-beat romp will keep you laughing as you follow Jez and her friends on their first adventure.

Megan Abbott Interview

Award winning author Megan Abbott has wowed fans of noir and lovers of good ficiton alike with her hardboiled books including Die a Little, Queenpin, The Song is You, and Bury Me Deep. One of the things I love about Megan's writing is that, even though her stories are usually centered around female characters, she doesn't pull her punches. If you want an intriguing read that's hard to put down, do yourself a favor and check out one of her books.

AA - What is your history with noir? What first drew you to writing in the genre?

MA - Everything I write I can trace back to the movies I watched as a child. My primary fantasy life stemmed from watching old movies on TV on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Somehow, those movies, especially film noir, became the dark foundation for me—they formed the world I wanted to enter, and writing was my way of entering that world. I became fixated on both the worlds of those movies and everything they might be just barely concealing. So when I discovered James Ellroy’s novels in my teens, it brought everything together—the official cultural history and alternative, subterranean truths. I fell head over heels. I wanted « in. » When I write, I tend to even cast my favorite actors. Gloria Grahame appears in almost all my books. As does Ralph Meeker. Steve Cochran. There’s a slightly seedy glamour to all of them, and I think that’s the feel I’m most drawn to, as a writer, reader, spectator, voyeur.

AA - You have a new book coming out. What can you tell us about it?

MA - It’s called The End of Everything. Set in the suburbs during the 1980s, it’s the story of Lizzie, a 13-year-old girl, whose best friend, Evie Verver, has disappeared. The two girls have been intensely close in that way young girls can be right before adolescence really crashes in. With Evie gone, and Evie’s glamorous family (a beautiful, popular sister and a handsome, charismatic dad) struggling, Lizzie begins to insert herself into the investigation, unable to stop herself. It’s a big departure for me in terms of time and place, but in most ways, I’m exploring the same dark corners. All my books seem to be about the treacherous journey from innocence to experience. They’re all Little Red Riding Hood.

AA - If you can't say Chandler or Hammett, who is your favorite noir / hardboiled writer. What do you admire about his / her style?
MA - James M. Cain. The Postman Always Rings Twice. Confessional narrative that’s like a whisper in the ear and you can’t stop listening. It’s completely persuasive, utterly cunning and finally heartbreaking.

AA - Why do you think so many noir classics are set in California?

MA - I think because California is, by geographic fate, the dropping-off of the American frontier. Manifest Destiny at its endpoint. You reach your dream here or you’ve lost it forever. The Land of Milk and Honey but also the place of last chances. So many noir characters are there because it’s the last place to go. They can’t run any more.

AA - If you couldn't write noir, what genre do you think you'd write?

MA - I guess I don’t think in terms of genre, as a reader or writer. I never set out to write a noir novel, or a mystery or anything else. I think we all respond to story, voice and character and that’s the main thing I think of when I write. That said, my love of the books and movies dubbed noir is because they are so filled with the big feelings and drives of life—desire, greed, rage, sorrow—and in its purest form. What could be better? That’s terrain I never want to leave and I think you can find that across all the genres. Even writing a book set in the suburbs in the 80s, it felt like I was writing about the same heightened feelings.

AA - Besides the ones you have created in your own books, who is your favorite femme fatale and why?

MA - Oh, there’s too many good ones for me to have to resort to picking one of my own! I’m going with Gene Tierney in Leave Her to Heaven: cold, remorseless, perverse. And so gorgeous you find yourself believing her any way. And that movie disproves the old axiom that noir must be in black and white. In that movie, color—the look of a host flush on the skin, the glaciality of Tierney’s’ eyes—make for pitch-black noir.

AA - Have any words of hardboiled slang crept into your daily usage? If yes, which ones?

MA - I don’t think I use it much in speech, though I hear the slang in my head all the time. To me, they’re part of my unconscious, the life of my brain. Though occasionally I do want to describe someone as a blonde who could make a bishop kick a hole through a stained-glass window. And sometimes I want to walk into a room and ask, “What’s the rumpus?” I also use “stooge,” “patsy,” “hoosgow,” “high-hat” and “gunsel” sometimes. Gosh, I guess they have crept in!

AA - What is one of your favorite lines from your book that's about to launch?

MA - “I know everything.” The 13-year-old narrator says it so many times and every time she’s wrong.

AA - Thank you Megan Abbott!

Upcoming Megan Abbott Interview

Film noir writer Megan Abbott has a new book out, The End of Everything. She kindly agreed to do an interview with my blog, which should be available within the next week. Stay tuned to read Megan's thoughts on writing, noir and the future of publishing.

Barbra Annino Interview - Part II

AA - Who are three of your favorite eBook authors and what genres do they write?

BA - Oy, that's tough. There are so many. LJ Sellers writes great mystery/suspense, Deborah Greary has a book out called A Modern Witch that I'm reading now--a fun fantasy/romance and JL Bryan writers creepy horror.

AA - What’s an average work day like for you? Up and fully dressed in business casual or wearing your pajamas until you realize it’s past noon?

I get up, crawl into workout gear, drink coffee, work until a Dane pokes me in the shoulder, then walk a dog, lunch, shower, then back to work until 6.

BA - If you weren’t a writer, how would you earn your living?

As a professional poker player.

AA - What are your five top tips for promoting an eBook?

BA - Make a walking billboard with your book cover, get naked, slip it over your head and stand in rush hour traffic. Repeat five times.

AA - When writing a novel, do you bullet point out the whole plot or just find yourself listing into it? How do you set about writing a book?

BA - Usually characters come to me first. I do a lot of writing in my head and I might jot down really basic ideas or traits such as occupation of the protagonist.

The first book I outlined, but since then, I've been flying through the air without a net. That way, no one can tell me they knew who the killer was or how the story would end, because I didn't even know.

AA - What can you tell us about your new novelette Doppelganger?

BA - It's a suspense story about a woman who is always in a hurry, never slowing down to enjoy her life until someone tries to take it away--someone who looks just like her.

Have you ever met your own doppelganger?

No, but I suspect she may have had one too many glasses of wine a few years ago because it certainly wasn't me who flashed that tour bus.

AA - What’s next for Barbra Annino?

BA - BLOODSTONE is the second title in this series and then I have plans for an urban fantasy and a YA, but right now I have to wipe the slobber from my keyboard.

Thank you Barbra!

eBook release for Fangs

Fangs for Nothing now available on Kindle, Nook, Sony Reader, iBooks, iPad, iPhone, iWant To Read Fangs For Nothing. (Okay, that last bit was made up ;O)

Barbra Annino Interview - Part I

Barbra Annino is an indie writer best known for her Stacy Justice series.

AA - How did you become an indie writer? Please give us a brief history of your writing career.

BA - I've been a professional writer since just after college. I was a technical writer, a journalist and then a freelancer before I tried my hand at fiction. The fictional path to publication was a lot like Dorothy's trip to Oz except I never quite made it to Emerald City.

In 2008, I pitched my first novel to a small publisher at a conference. She loved the premise and asked for the first three chapters on the spot. She enjoyed those so much she invited me to dine with her and introduced me to everyone as her new author. I sent the full script as soon as I got home and promptly never heard from her again. (I would learn the following year at the same conference she was interested, but never received my email.) A few months after that, I landed an agent. When I learned he only shopped the book to one editor in a year, I fired him. Meanwhile, I had written book two, which I felt was stronger. I pitched Opal Fire to a few more agents and publishers and received an offer from a small press in late 2010. Unfortunately, editorial mistakes were made and the novel that went to print was worse for the wear. I took a deep breath, took my rights back and published in March of this year.

I believe the Universe points you in the right direction if you can just read the signs. I had so many mishaps on this journey (more than what is here even) that I could no longer ignore the message I was getting to go indie. So glad I listened.

AA - What kind of justice does Stacy Justice dish out? Please tell us more about this series.

BA - The series centers around a reporter raised by witches who finds herself in heaps of trouble everywhere she turns. Stacy is funny, honest and a major klutz with a deep sense of right and wrong and a devotion to her family that is unwavering--even though they drive her batty. Opal Fire opens in the middle of a burning building. The Black Opal is owned by Stacy's cousin Cinnamon and before long, she's accused of arson and Stacy is determined to prove that theory wrong. What sets the series apart from other mysteries is that the crimes and victims affect Stacy's family and close friends, so the stakes are very personal for her. It's been compared to Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series.

AA - What’s with all the Great Danes on your website? How do you house them and do the neighborhood kids ever try to ride them?

BA - Those are my furkids! They aren't available for rides, but it is funny to hear the comments people make. I was walking Thor down Main Street and someone asked, "Does he bite?" My response was, "Not me."