Michelle, welcome to Turning The Page! I’m very excited to host another MuseItUp Publishing Author.

Thank you for having me.  I’m so excited to be here!

Tell us about your debut novel, Concilium. It’s urban fantasy and sounds different than anything I’ve read, and I’m looking forward to its release on July 27^th.

Concilium tells the story of Les (Leslee), a young woman who saw a mysterious animal one night while driving home from a friend’s house. After her encounter she is attacked in the parking garage of her business.  She soon learns from a mysterious stranger that the two events are related and the reason is something she finds unbelievable.

You write science fiction and urban fantasy–what sparked your interest in those genres?

It’s funny you ask that.  I have never been a huge science fiction or fantasy reader.  It isn’t that I don’t like the genres; I just read mostly thrillers and mysteries.  So I was completely taken by surprise when my first “real” idea for a novel was an urban fantasy/science-fiction.

What’s the most difficult part of writing in those genres? The most fun?

The fun part of writing in the genre is bending and blurring the lines of what we know to be real with something fantastical.  An urban fantasy is set in modern day life (think Twilight). So it is grounded in what we know to be true.  The sky is blue and the grass is green and so on.  But the fun part is adding the fantasy bit, the little twists that blur reality.

In Concilium the setting is in the present day in my home state of Michigan near a wildlife refuge that really exists, although names and locations have been manipulated a little to make them fit the story.  But then there are the Imbibo and a few other goodies that don’t have a place in the world as we know it.  That’s the fun of it.

The challenge is keeping the fantasy at a level that people will read the story and enjoy it rather than focus on how totally unbelievable it is.  I mean, really, sparkly vampires?  Who believes that?  But the story entertained most people.  The fantasy wasn’t too far out there that it overtook the story.  Finding that balance is challenging.

Concillium isn’t the only book you have coming out soon. Tell us about PODs, releasing from Spencer Hill Press in 2013.

I actually have two books scheduled for release within the next year.  Concilium: The Departure, the sequel to Concilium, will release from MuseItUp Publishing in November.

PODs is my debut young adult science-fiction romance. It will release in paperback on June 4^th, 2013 – my son’s 12^th birthday (good luck, I think).  In it, seventeen-year-old Eva is one of a few chosen to live in an underground habitat (the PODs) built by the government.  The PODs protect the residents from a deadly virus sweeping the Earth.  When the virus is believed to be contained the PODs are unsealed and the survivors emerge to begin a new life.  But when they leave the safety of the PODs they find themselves in even more danger than they were before for very different reasons.

With the trend toward self-publishing, what made you choose a small press?

I wanted the support and guidance they could offer.  I knew just enough about self-publishing to know I didn’t know enough to do it on my own and do it correctly.  I queried some larger publishers, but quickly set my sights on indie publishers.  I found Muse and have been so happy with them and the people I’ve worked with.  And the authors I’ve met are all wonderful.  I can’t imagine trying to self-publish alone.  I genuinely value each relationship I’ve made at MuseItUp. The same goes for Spencer Hill Press, which is also a small press.

Being an author is hard work, and being a debut author is even more challenge. What’s been the toughest thing?

Marketing. I’m not good at it.  I’m not a sales person. I don’t like talking about myself and it’s hard for me to strike up a conversation with a stranger to tell them about my book.  Some people are natural sales people.  Not me.  I’m the anti-salesperson!

Tell us about you. What do you do in your free time? Dream vacation?

If I’m not writing I’m spending time with my family.  We like to play board games and cards.  We also like to take day trips and explore our new home state of Texas.

My dream vacation right now is a cruise on the Disney cruise ship and a week a Disney World with my kids.  When my kids have grown I’ll have more grown-up dreams, I’m sure, but right now I’m enjoying their childhood right along with them.

What’s coming up from you in the future?

I plan to keep writing as long as the ideas keep flowing.  My family is very supportive and one of my kids or my husband will pitch me an idea at least once a week.  My son is by far my best idea source.  He averages two or three a week—usually all involving monsters in some form.

Currently I have a young adult paranormal romance on submission and I’m working on a young adult urban fantasy. In fact, it’s based on an idea my husband gave me.

Thanks so much for the interview, Michelle!

Thank you so much for having me.  It was fun “talking” with you.  I’d like to add that I LOVE to hear from my readers and other authors.  I love comments on my blog and emails in my inbox. Whether you have good things to say, or constructive (that means nice) criticism, or even if you just want to say “Hi,” I want to hear from you.  Here’s where you can find me on the web:

Website     Blog   Email     Twitter     Facebook     Goodreads     Linkedin

Buy Concilium HERE  **Concilium will be available on Amazon in the near future!
Concilium Web page
PODs Web page

Michelle’s doing a very cool giveaway during her blog tour: the winner will receive a copy of Concilium and a $10 Amazon gift card. Be sure to enter!

Concilium Blurb

Leslee hit a strange animal with her car.  Now she’s marked for death.

It was a simple car accident – the animal didn’t even die – but it drew the attention of the Cruor Imbibo. Driven by their insatiable need to feed, the secret society of Imbibo has devoured the dregs of civilization for centuries.  Afraid Leslee will expose them, and put an end to their meal ticket, the Imbibo want her dead.

The Concilium is Leslee’s only protection. Guardian of the ancient secret and the protector of humans, the Concilium fights to control the Imbibo and end their feeding frenzy. Miller works for the Concilium. Keeping Leslee alive is his next assignment.

Now Leslee is on the run, and the only thing between her flesh and the snapping jaws of the Imbibo is Miller. He and Leslee quickly form a bond, but will falling in love make Miller’s job more difficult? Because if he fails, Leslee will be next on the Imbibo menu.

The Cruor Imbibo are coming, and they’re coming for Leslee.

Michelle has been an avid reader since a young child.  She began writing for personal enjoyment in college, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in accounting.  Deciding sitting in a cubical all day was her form of cruel and unusual punishment, she decided to do what she really wanted to—share her passion for reading and writing with others.

She wrote her debut novel Concilium in 2010.  The sequel, Concilium: The Departure soon followed. Both will be published by Muse It Up Publishing with scheduled released dates of July 27^th and November 2012 respectively.  Her Debut young adult novel, PODs, will be published by Spencer Hill Press and is scheduled for release in paperback June 4^th, 2013.

Michelle was born and raised in Michigan.  She now resides in a small community outside Houston, Texas with her husband, four children, a 125-pound lap dog, a very grumpy cockatiel and a cat that thinks she’s queen.

Michelle writes adult and young adult Sci/Fi and urban fantasy romance.

Very excited to welcome bestselling author Anna DeStefano to Turning The Page. When I first stepped into the online writing world, Anna’s blog was one of the first I followed. Her positive attitude and wealth of experience make her a standout author. Thanks for guesting, Anna!

Embrace the things that go bump in your nightmares…

Thanks for having me over to play, Stacy. Let’s talk about dark and spooky stuff!

You and your buddies seem to like that sort of thing—freaks. As luck would have it, I have a contemporary gothic suspense releasing on June 15^th, because mixing scary stuff with happily-ever-after-endings is one of my favorite things. Which makes me a freak, too ;o) So scoot over and pass the popcorn!

Her Forgotten Betrayal, a launch book for Entangled’s Dead Sexy line, is full of spine-tingling fun, with my amnesiac heroine fighting for her life, her love and her memory, and ultimately facing her nightmares in order save the day. Oh, and most of the book is set at night, over a forty-eight-hour period, while Shaw Cassidy believes either her mind or her creepy house (or possibly the hero) is trying to kill her. So much gothic-y goodness…

But the nightmares in this story, the things you’ll find at first most terrifying, end up being the key to the solving the mystery. The more Shaw listens to and learns from her sleeping mind, the better she’ll be able to protect herself. And the symbols in her dreams never actually mean what she’s at first afraid they mean. Her instincts are trying to tell her things she needs to know, and they’re using the strongest emotions they can to reach her—exactly the way our dreams work in our own lives. Paying attention to how your dreams make you feel is the key. Emotion is the conduit between your sleeping and waking self.

It was absolutely thrilling for me to be able to weave these tidbits of accuracy through a fun, fast-paced romantic suspense that most readers will love for a host of other reasons.

For me, and for others who’re fascinated by dream theory, and for everyone who revels in cool things that go bump in the night, finding this kind of “creepy” in the midst of a contemporary romance is a blast. Because it’s an almost-real kind of creepy. Dare I say it, an optimistic kind of creepy?

That’s right.

Optimistic.

The underlying message of Her Forgotten Betrayal is to follow your dreams—even the scarier ones. Because your dreams are just that—yours. They’re your thoughts and your intuition and your memories. And when your dreams go dark, it’s often your mind’s way of focusing you on the tough stuff you’re avoiding in your every day. In Shaw’s case, her mind’s completely shut down so she doesn’t have to face her worst fears. But those realities are bleeding through into her sleep and fighting their way back to her—so she’ll have everything she needs to beat her phantoms at their own game.

Our darkness is a very real part of us. And as you might have guessed, it’s typically a very real part of my writing, whether I’m penning home and family stories, suspense, or psychic thrillers. Because darker emotions are just as real as the breezier things we often prefer to spend our energy on. I’m all about the fun, and as a romance writer I’m all about the beauty of a happy ending. But isn’t the lighter stuff at its best when it’s the product of being real and honest and powerful? I think so.

Pay attention to the tough things that come your way, particularly in your dreams. Value them. Learn from them. You never know when your perfect ending is waiting just on the other side of the spooky thing you’re fighting so hard to avoid…

So, dreams and nightmares, fantasy and realism, lightness and spooky drama. Oh, and I forgot to mention a hunky FBI undercover operative and a sizzling, tense relationship that seems doomed from the start… Bwahahahahaha! Doesn’t Her Forgotten Betrayal sound like a blast?

What’s the scariest nightmare image you can remember? On my blog we talk Dream Theories all the time. I’d love to hear about your experiences, either here or there. And maybe help you make sense out of what you’ve seen in your sleeping mind.

Or on the lighter side, share your happiest dream memory. Remembering any dream—having it touch your waking world—is a powerful thing. Tell us how a dream has affected you in a positive way. Because that’s the gravy my friends. That’s what this imagination thing all about!

***

HER FORGOTTEN BETRAYAL

Remembering will save her life.
But will the truth destroy their love forever?

When the CEO of a global technology empire retreats to her ancestral mountain mansion to heal from a brutal shooting, she discovers the danger has just begun. Suffering from amnesia, Shaw Cassidy is at the mercy of nightmares that soon morph into something much more real…as well as a menacing stalker determined to toy with her sanity.

The FBI suspects her of illegally selling top-secret research, and has sent an agent to find evidence of her treason. She doesn’t realize the man who sweeps in from the cold claiming to be her protector, and her former love, is keeping dangerous secrets from her. She begins to trust Cole Marinos, unaware that he is about to repeat the most painful betrayal of her past–a past she doesn’t remember…a past that may kill her.

“DeStefano crafts a tense and touching suspense about forgotten pasts and reunited lovers.” —Caridad Pineiro, NYT and USA Today Bestselling Author

***

Best-selling, award-winning author Anna DeStefano wants to you stop, look, and keep digging, until you find the soul of your own fantasies. No matter how moody the setting or impossible the dilemma, Anna’s characters and stories challenge you to hope and dream for your own exciting future, the way her strong heroines and hunky heroes do. Her Forgotten Betrayal has its own Pinterest page (http://pinterest.com/annadestefano/her-forgotten-betrayal/). Scoot over for all the fun details and updates. Then join Anna’s blog each week for posts on The Soul Of The Matter, Dream Theories, Things My Teenager Says, How We Write, Waterfall Challenges, and more. And to keep up with all her 2012 releases, friend her of Facebook and follow her on Twitter.

Thanks so much to Anna for this inspiring guest blogs. My dreams are always full of crazy plots and characters, and figuring them out is a great way to dig deeper. Please take a minute and leave Anna some love.

When I first began my writing career, I made a choice that didn’t sit well with my mentor. I was advised that I should pick one genre and stick to it. Well, I’m from Missouri, stubborn in the trace, and kind of mule-headed generally. I like several genres and couldn’t pick just one. Oh, I could have, and that would have been mystery. Always loved those mystery novels of the old days.

As things progressed, I decided to prove that a man can write a successful romance (check out above Missouri references). My wife, not a romance fan, argued with me but my intransigence won out, and I wrote several romantic comedies and suspense novels. Got them published. Got some good reviews. Okay, I proved that point. Now, what?

I’m back to writing what I enjoy the most; mysteries. But, good old Missouri mule that I am, I still cannot confine myself to just one type of mystery. No problem. After a lifetime of doing things the hard way and persevering, I’m ready for this latest challenge.

I have the first of a series coming out in May, Toccata. It’s a romantic (see how corrupted I am by that genre?) adventure set in the city where I grew up: St. Louis. This is an experimental extension of the traditional whodunit novel and damn hard to put together. Book one is on the way to my readers, and book two is in the publisher’s hands, ready for editing, with book three on the drawing board as we speak. Things are moving along nicely.

So how can I screw that up? Simple. I’m beginning work on a different series, a more traditional kind of mystery, set in another city I know and love: Kansas City. Series one is written in third person, utilizing principally the voices of Dan Quinn and Sera Moreland, my male and female protagonists, to tell the tale. Series two is written in first person, in the voice of my sleuth, CT Archer, with a turn toward sarcastic enthusiasm in his pursuit of justice. St. Louis Blues Mysteries are 90-100K in length, but Archer Chronicles will be much shorter, in the 50-60K realm.

I suppose I could have written two series using much the same format, but I prefer this system. If you deem it a system, that is. Why? For much the same reason that I’ve written some very dark gritty tomes to violence and mayhem, alternating with sunny little comedies. The dark and the light – kind of a Beethoven of the written word. The Maestro wrote alternately dark and light symphonies, probably for much the same reason I do what I do.

How will it all turn out? Now, that’s a question I’d like to know the answer to, but I doubt I’ll know in the years I have left. And that’s the way it should be, in my view. If I’d undertaken to write for money and fame, I’d have listened to that mentor’s sage advice. I write because my damn head is so full of characters and plots, I have to clean them out on a regular basis. Were I mentoring today, I’d definitely give the same advice I rejected sixteen years ago. That is, unless I had some mule-headed yahoo on my hands, and then I’d tell him to write what he wanted, but don’t cry if it never made him rich. LOL

If you want to check out what makes a crazy writer tick, click on the links below to the sites where you can get a glimpse of how I’ve done so far. Happy reading, all.

Pat Dale

Books at Amazon: http://www.tinyurl.com/78eu63o

And at Barnes & Noble: http://www.tinyurl.com/6v8wwzt

Coming soon:

TOCCATA

MuseItUp Publishing

Just released:

LAST COWBOY IN TEXAS

A lighthearted look at romance

Available through:

www.bookswelove

Here’s Laura–and please make sure to leave her some love:)

Why did you choose to go with a small press over self-publishing or the traditional route of an agent?

I didn’t so much choose my route as that’s just the way it unfolded. After I finished my first book, Forever Freed, I queried the manuscript to dozens of agents. I got a lot of requests for partials and fulls, but it has unique features (1^st person from the male POV, for example), and no one signed it. Then, the first epublisher I queried bought it. I’m not considering self-publishing at all at this time (maybe when I have a larger backlist and established readership I will). To me, there doesn’t need to be any distinction at all between these options – an author can traditionally publish, go with an epublisher and self-publish a title too.

As you’ve moved further down the publishing road, what’s been the biggest benefit of being with a small press publisher? 

Small presses offer lots of benefits. Some of the top ones would be quick time from contract to release, a great way to establish a fan-base, and ability to write outside the boxes traditional publishers typically consider to be marketable.

You’ve got got five books out now with different presses, and you recently announced your Hearts of the Anemoi series sparked the interest of Barnes and Noble. They’ll be putting the series on the shelf this summer in mass market format. First off, congratulations! How did you react when you heard the news? What do you think was the biggest contributing factor in B&N decision, and how much part did your publisher play in it?

I was so excited! It is definitely one of my dreams to be able to walk into a bookstore and see my books shelved there! That’s still my reaction, just complete thrill to know I’ll get to do that just a few short months from now. Certainly, Entangled Publishing played a huge role in getting my Anemoi series shelved beginning this summer—they’ve created a tremendous presence in the industry in a short time, and the incredible deals they’ve negotiated, like this one, show that. B&N was particularly attracted by the books’ genres, covers, and the social media platform of the authors. That latter was a nice bit of validation of all the time I put into social media…

Given your experience, do you believe a small press is a good way to get your foot in the door with an agent, or is it a better way to learn the business, or both?

There are many ways to get your foot in the door with an agent. Unless your book sells very well, being published with a small press is only useful to the extent it shows writing credits. It’s a great way to learn the business though, there’s no doubt about that. The best way to get an agent is to keep writing great manuscripts that ultimately hook one!

Did you work with an “editor for hire” prior to submitting to your small press? If so, why and how did you choose from the multitude of people offering editorial services?

I never did this, and probably never would. Then again, I have access to a wonderful critique group of other authors pursuing writing and publication professionally. That’s what I would recommend people use to ready their manuscripts for publication.

How much marketing assistance, including guidance and advice, not just money spent, can an author expect from a small press?

It varies a lot from publisher to publisher. I have two presses that bust their butts to help authors promote their work, and one that doesn’t do much at all. So there’s no generalizing. Prospective authors should talk to current authors if they want insights into this question specific to a certain publisher they’re considering.

With all the different social media platforms, what’s been your single best marketing tool, and how do you use it?

Hmm…I don’t think I can pick just one. Social media success, in my opinion, is about the way you integrate your brand and presence and engagement across multiple platforms. Take Twitter and Facebook, for example. I have a lot of overlap in who follows me in both, but the types of friendships I’ve made and interactions I have tend to differ on those two sites. So I value them both, greatly.

Given your success with a small press, would you still consider going with an agent and seeking out the Big 6?

100% yes. At some point, I would like to gain the greatest possible exposure for my books, and the best chance of that is with big 6 publishers.

Finally, you’re putting out quality books at a strong pace. How do you manage your writing time with social media and a family?

It’s a challenge, to be sure. Time is the single commodity I need the most and have the least of! I think that’s true for all writers. I do write fast, and that helps, and I also write clean, which means my first drafts are in pretty decent shape and don’t need rounds and rounds of revision to get ready for publication (that’s not to say they’re perfect at all!). I also have cut out other activities I used to spend a lot of time on, liking watching TV and sleeping, LOL. So, it’s a trade-off. There’s only so many hours in the day, how do you want to use them?

Thanks so much to Laura for taking the time to stop by and sharing her experiences. Don’t forget to stop by her website and check out her books!

Buy Laura’s Books

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About Laura Kaye

Voted Breakout Author of the Year in the 2011 GraveTells Readers’ Choice Awards, Laura is the bestselling and award-winning author of a half-dozen books. Hearts in Darkness is a finalist for the EPIC eBook Award for Best Novella, Forever Freed won the NJRW Golden Leaf Award for Best Paranormal of 2011, and North of Need, the first book in the Hearts of the Anemoi series, was named GraveTells’ Best Book of 2011 and won their 5-STAR Gold Heart Award, and won Sizzling Hot Read of the Year at Sizzling Hot Books. Laura lives in Maryland with her husband, two daughters, and cute-but-bad dog, and appreciates her view of the Chesapeake Bay every day.