Author: the outside lane

Happy. That about covers it.
books, guest article, writing

Interview with the Author: The Second Time Around with LynDee Walker

the outside lane

I know you’re all looking forward to LynDee Walker’s latest installment of the Nichelle Clarke Headlines in Heels Mysteries, but you have to wait just a wee bit longer.  I didn’t have to–bragging.

I already know how it ends. Ha! You're going to love it.
I already know how it ends. Ha! You’re going to love it.

However, as much as I have enjoyed my Advanced Reader Copy of BURIED LEADS, I can’t tell you what happens.  I can tell you that LynDee’s series is only getting stronger, and I asked if she would come talk to us about what it’s like the second time around.

Q:  So, LynDee, what differs from the release of your first book to your second?

A:  Not much, that I can see, except I have readers who know who I am. The first time, I was really nobody from nowhere. I wondered what kind of reception Nichelle would get from readers, but it was all theoretical, because no one had ever heard of either of us.

This time, there are people who read Front Page Fatality and really enjoyed it, and they’re waiting for Buried Leads to launch. It’s a little wild for me to wrap my head around the fact that there’s even one reader who’s not in my immediate circle who is waiting for my book to launch. And it’s really cool.

She looks good with a Sharpie! LynDee signing books for her fans.
She looks good with a Sharpie! LynDee signing books for her fans.  She might have been new with Front Page Fatality, but now she’s got masses of adoring readers.

 

Q:  What do you know, going into the second release, that you wish you’d known with the first?

A:  That an author can only do so much. I’m a control freak, and I planned everything and booked blogs months in advance. And don’t get me wrong, it helps. A lot. And I think as an author you have to put that effort in (and I am doing it for Buried Leads, though I do have a tour organizer and my fantabulous Henery Press marketing folks taking care of a lot of the blog tour stuff this time). But you have to understand that you can write guest blog posts until your fingers fall off and it will not magically make you JK Rowling.

In the end, the very best thing that can happen is that you do the work, and then the retailers decide to help you.

 

Q:  What role does your editor play in getting your book shelf-ready?

A:  Oh, I could go on forever about this. But I won’t, because my editor would  slap my hand. I am blessed to have an editor who really gets Nichelle and understands what I want my stories to be. That is so, so important in this business.

She is brilliant and very good at her job, and she sees things in the books that don’t come across the way I intended and offers suggestions to make them better. But she listens to me. If I say, “wait, that’s important later,” or “I adore that character, how can I keep him?” she brainstorms with me and we figure it out together. I love the feeling of teamwork, and knowing that she cares about my career.

And all that “tightly written, fast-paced” praise I get? That’d be because my editor is a master of trimming and speeding the story without losing anything. One of the things I love most about working with her is that she’s teaching me to be a better writer.

Here we are with LynDee's poster. And you thought the cover art was cute on its own? I want my LIFE to look like this poster.
The most fun of book releases is meeting people, LynDee says.

 

Q:  Now that you are releasing book 2, writing book 3, and are involved in a couple of other Nichelle mini-novels, what advice would you give writers who are looking for the big break?

A:  Why, Miss Lane, I think we had this discussion very recently, didn’t we? [Yes!  Which is why I want TOL readers to hear it from you! Lane] Here it is, y’all, as crazy as it sounds: enjoy writing just for the love of writing. It should always be true, in my opinion, but it’s easy for that to get lost in the pressure of deadlines and edits and marketing after you have a contract (or three). I owe my friend Gretchen McNeil thanks for telling me that about a year before Front Page sold, and now I have paid it forward. Your days of editors and deadlines and reviews will come in their own time. If you’re a writer, it’s part of who you are. Take joy in sitting down and creating.

 

Q:  Tell us about the audio books.

A: *Squeals* That was the most amazing thing yet! I think. Maybe tied with that amazon #1. But really: an actress (no, I do not know who yet) is going to read my books out loud. Holy crow. All I really know about it right now is that the rights to both Front Page and Buried Leads have sold, and as the production process moves along, we’ll have more information on the narrator and release dates.

 

Q:   What is the most fun part of the book release?

A:  Meeting people. Getting to know different folks was always my favorite part of being a reporter, and whether it’s online or at a signing, meeting people—readers, other authors, bloggers, booksellers—is my favorite part of this, too.

lyndee reads

Q:  Tell us where your release is going to happen, and why that is awesome.

A:  It IS awesome! The Buried Leads launch party is part of this year’s Virginia Literary Festival! I am just over the moon about this opportunity. The people who organize the festival are amazing, and it’s such a great event. And and AND, we’re launching this book at the Library of Virginia, which is a breathtaking building that houses the state’s most important historical document collections. In Virginia, that’s some pretty amazing stuff. Nichelle would be honored to be so close to that much history.

Thank you so much for stopping by to chat, LynDee.  I know everyone is very excited to get Buried Leads.  It is available for pre-order now.

 

movies, Reviews

Movie Review: Elysium

the outside lane

Elysium.  I’ve seen worse.

(Spoiler free for your reading pleasure.)

Kidding.  I have seen worse, but it really wasn’t bad.  It’s not my kind of entertainment–I like my action peppered with one-liners and better looking heroes, but it was good for what it was.  Matt Damon is always excellent.  Alice Braga was great.  Sharlto Copley was a terrific bad guy, and was clearly having more fun than anyone else in the movie.

The plot was thin, but the smoke and detritus from the many explosions plumped it up a bit.  It was a sci-fi/action movie, and for that genre, it was a little better than all right.

What made it problematic?  Mainly, Jodie Foster.  I had no idea it was possible to be wooden AND chew scenery at the same time.  She was awful. I actually turned to B and asked, “When did Jodie Foster get to be terrible?”  I’m still flummoxed.  Maybe she’d had bad shrimp?  I don’t know.  All I know is that her wig and her calf muscles were doing most of the acting.

The other big problem for me was the fact that Matt Damon was the only white guy on Earth, and he was also the only guy who could save Earth.  They could have at least cast a few white extras to make it not-as-obvious that he was the blue-eyed, blond Messiah.  I’m white and I was kind of offended that the only character in the movie who was pure of heart and motive was a white guy.  Everyone else was some variety of hoodrat, save for the one female character, who had to be in peril and saved by the one white guy.  This role would have been perfect for Vin Diesel–and how often do you get to say that?

Oh!  There was one other white guy who lived on Earth, but he was just a bad boss character.

Did I laugh?  No.  Did I cry?  What do you think.  I cried at Glitter.  Of course I cried–there were sick children and sad Matt Damon.  Sad Matt Damon is enough to make anyone cry.  Sad Vin Diesel just makes you remember to buy prune juice.

3 out of 5 stars.

 

 

Cozy Cat Press, Destinee Faith Miller Mystery, Tiara Trouble

Come Cozy Up With Me

the outside lane

I’ve had a lovely whirlwind of activity in the past few days, starting with an offer for TIARA TROUBLE from Cozy Cat Press on Thursday, and winding up with that completed contract in my hot, little hands this morning.  Destinee Faith Miller and her mayhaps/mysteries have found a home, and I couldn’t be happier.  I’ll keep you all posted as things develop, but for now I am just thrilled.  So thrilled, I can barely feel my toe throbbing–I broke it on the coffee table on my way to open email this morning, and promptly forgot about it when I found my completed contract waiting.

Here’s the funny story about how Cozy Cat came to read my submission because you know if it happened to me, it did not happen without some hijinks.

A few days ago, B and I were talking about me publishing under my name.  We were laughing that I wasn’t exactly Jane Smith, having unusual first and last names.  Somewhere else entirely, managing editor, Patricia Rockwell, was opening an email from me.  She was a little confused because her author Lane Stone, writes a series also involving tiaras (the subject line of my query was TIARA TROUBLE, with my name), and because she knew and had worked with someone who shared my last name.  Thankfully, she liked that colleague well enough not to be put off immediately 😉  And, she sent me an offer full of encouraging words about Destinee’s future.

When I wrote back, I asked if her former colleague was called Bob.  Because Bob is my husband’s uncle, who worked in the same field as Patricia.  Not only was it Uncle Bob, but he was remembered quite fondly.  B checked in with Uncle Bob, who had the same impressions of Patricia, and…well, that was that.

I am a Cozy Cat author.

How crazy is that?  Out of all the world (and out of all the publishing companies and agencies I researched,*) from Texas I query a press in Illinois, with a managing editor who has ties to my Uncle-in-Law in Louisiana–unbeknownst to all of us.  That is something that would only happen to me.  I love it!

Yay!

*While I queried about 20 agents, I only contacted four publishing houses from probably about 200 agents/presses that I researched.

A Day in the Life, books, writing

Write This Way

the outside lane

Until I started to write this blog entry, I had forgotten how much I loved Bill Fitzhugh’s book, Pest Control.  It is, hands down, one of the funniest books I’ve ever read.  It also got me a date.  See, I bought it, then went into the B&N cafe to start reading it (as was my wont back in the college days) and I started giggling out loud.  The laughter caught the attention of a fellow bookworm, who struck up a conversation and asked me out.

That dating relationship lasted somewhat longer than the “romance” that blossomed in my psychologist’s office around the same time, but was no less strange.  Oh, the stories I have to tell, People.  The stories I have to tell.

Anyway, Bill Fitzhugh.  Hilarious.  Look him up.  Organ Grinders is another great work of his.

I remembered Fitzhugh because I had forgotten a large part of an interview I read that involved him.  I’m getting there.  Stay with me.  I can’t remember if it was Fitzhugh being interviewed, or someone else being interviewed who mentioned him, but the long and short of it was that one author had worked his arse off trying to get published and there had been some hijinks about renting an ice cream cone costume to try to get his manuscript into the hands of an agent/publisher/something, and one author just sent in a manuscript and was published and famous the next day.  It was an anecdote about how fickle the publishing industry is–any industry that relies on public consumption, really.

Is it who you know?  Or how good you are at what you do?  Or just happening to be where lightning strikes?  Or what?  JK Rowling and EL James are both names you’d recognize, but took very different pathways to their success.  And seriously?  How depressing must that be for some writers?  I mean, Rowling is a demi-god, who should stand in the Pantheon with Lewis and Tolkien (sacrilege?  I think not.)  You can be okay with never achieving her level of success because–look at her body of work!  James is… a very different story.  Although, it makes you feel better about your chances at being struck by lightning, it might make you feel a lot worse about rejection notices.

Everyone goes about it differently.  There isn’t any set way.  The only things that are certain are that you must have the mental energy to finish a manuscript, the willingness to put it out there for criticism, the ability to accept rejection, a thick enough skin to live around the people who hate it, and the optimism, self-confidence and mental energy to do it all over again until lightning strikes.  Lather, rinse, repeat.

It’s funny how many of my friends are writers.  I didn’t go looking for writer friends.  We all just sort of ended up in the same places (LiveJournal, TTP, Facebook–places where you can write) excited about the same things.  We work together, most of us, to help each other along. 

And that’s good, because while I am totally into the idea of wearing an ice cream cone costume, I am exhausted by the idea of printing out so many pages of work and hulking them around everywhere.

writing

Writer’s Block Backwards

the outside lane

I am currently surrounded by a mass of post-it notes, none of which are helping me plot out my latest idea.  That’s all right.  It’s a very dark story and I can only hold dark for so long before I start trying to bring in a clown.  I’m always wanting to add in Mercutio–the only redeeming factor to Romeo & Juliet for me.

I am never in a state of creative happy medium.  The fields are either full or fallow, with nothing in between.  It’s like I can only sow magic beans that all crop up overnight–no growth stages.  Right now, I am having a hard time with various ideas competing for attention.  So, I’ve done what is easiest first, and keep going back and forth between it and my serial killer story (see above–dark.)

I have finally plotted out a novel based on my first trip to NYC, which includes all the highlights of mistaken identity (more than once), a midnight train to DC, shoplifting (not by me!), fraud (not by me!), an attempted mugging (sadly, of me), drug requests (hilarious OF me) and offers (to me–SPOILER–I just said no), vandalism and tresspassing (is it mine if I didn’t know I was doing it?), terrifying gangster boys, unbelievably stereotypical mafia boys (really!), a doppleganger, an MTV veejay, a break in, ticket scalping, a chase through the underground, a few slaps in the face (literal, and also my face), a police chase, a visit to Snow (in case it goes bad, you always go to Snow), a missing staircase, a landlord meltdown, a homeless man’s sacrifice, a hotel shower, a David Lynch movie (like this whole thing wasn’t one), a probable murder, and a decision to go home.  Because my life has always been stranger than fiction.

The follow up novel will be based on my coach tour of Europe, and will include more of the same, only this time with more tourist attractions, drunken Australians, lecherous tour guides, and cute Italian boys.  And the flu.  The flu will be its own character.

The hard part is weaving a thread through it all, so the stories aren’t just a collection of things that happened to me on my way to the Colosseum, so to speak.

And maybe I’ll finish it off as a trilogy, novelizing my unfortunate incarceration.  8 hours in the clink ought to be worth a few thousand words.