Made by MeghanContinuing the blog tour theme around here, check out this guest post on Lena Hillbrand’s blog in which I pontificate on the the use of screenplay structure in the 1st draft of a novel.
Now, if I only followed my own advice, think how many more of these first draft novels I’d have completed!
This post is part of a Blog Tour supporting Indie Authors and their self-published books. I hope you enjoy getting a little bit of insight into the writer’s mind & craft. If you like what you read, please consider supporting the author by checking out their work (links below).
Q. Pitch us your book!
A. Draven is just another law-abiding vampire citizen in a world ruled by vampires—until one night he catches Cali, an escaped human. What begins as one small act of defiance against his society forever alters the course of his mundane life when he vows to purchase the human, whatever the cost.
Q. What compelled you to write this particular story?
A. I had read a couple other vampire books where the vampires were very powerful and even had superpowers. I wondered why they didn’t try to dominate humans, since they were clearly capable. Plus, they’re the next step up on the food chain, so it makes sense that they’d control the human population. I decide to write a book (or seven) about it.
Q. Did you stumble upon any interesting facts or trivia or insights while writing and/or researching your book? How did you incorporate this into your work?
A. I did some research on vampires, which was very interesting and fun! I got to learn a lot of different vampire lore from all different countries. I think the only unplanned thing that made it into my books was an incubus slipped into one after I read about them.
Q. Pitch us your next book and/or project!
A. That’s easy! My next book is the next book in the series. It’s called The Vigilantes. You might think you know what it’s about after reading the first one, but it definitely won’t be what people are expecting. Or at least I don’t think so.
Q. What are a few of your favourite things (books/movies/comics/hobbies, etc?)
A. I love reading, talking about books, writing, etc. Also I scrapbook when I have time and try to spend time outside when I can. My love of nature makes it into most of my books. And I love music, chocolate, funny movies, and my family, although not in that order!
Q. Favourite cookie?
A. Homemade oatmeal raisin.
Q. Where can we find more of you (website/blog/twitter/goodreads, etc.)?
After the Virus received a new review on Amazon.com yesterday. I’ve copied & pasted from the Amazon.com page for After the Virus to share here:
4 out of 5 stars
Kicks serious ass, June 28, 2011
By Scott F Gray
This review is from: After the Virus (Kindle Edition)
Deftly mixing post-apocalyptic survivor thriller tropes with a wickedly morbid sense of humor, Meghan Ciana Doidge’s “After the Virus” manages to be both the funniest and most kick-ass action/adventure narrative I’ve read in ages. (Not exactly a spoiler, but skip this but if you like to be completely surprised when you read: “The Boss, completely focused on Snickers, turned to violently vault the girl across the room. Instead, he discovered the three-inch-heel of her previously so impractical shoe buried his throat, which was a bitch, as she’d aimed for his eye.”)
The novel tells the story of two survivors of a world-destroying biological plague — A-list actress Rhiannon, who finds herself the unwitting central figure in the plots of a maniacal fascist boss; and ex-pro quarterback Will, intent on living his life alone but looked to by a population of scattered survivors desperate for someone to lead them. The darkness of the story speaks to the trials of its characters and the strength of its setting (which will particularly resonate with any resident of Vancouver who’s ever asked “Could this city possibly be more unlivable?”) But at the same time, Doidge builds her narrative on a firm foundation of hope for the future, manifested in an 8-year-old girl known only as Snickers, who becomes the point of emotional entanglement connecting Will and Rhiannon as they’re dragged through the darkness and back out again.
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This post is part of an Indie Author Blog Tour. Enjoy!
Thank you for the opportunity to join the blog tour for a chat on a blog that feels so comfortable. Strange words, maybe, considering the subject of “After the Virus”! I’ve been thinking about writing methods because I’ve got a problem. My first book just went on sale for Amazon’s Kindle – “Running in Heels,” a story of murder, mayhem and cosmetic surgery – and the more I think about it, the more the book frightens me.
It’s that weird feeling you get when you suspect something you’ve created has gotten completely out of control. The “Frankenstein’s Monster Syndrome.” I only began to feel it after people asked me why my book has a female protagonist when I am, well, not female. (“Nobody’s perfect!” said Joe E. Brown in the last scene of “Some Like It Hot.”) It wasn’t supposed to be that way. The novel started out with a male lead character. I still can’t figure how the heroine crept into the story and booted him out.
Oh, I’ve tried to piece together the evidence from previous drafts – not easy to do when dealing with electrons – and I think this is how it happened:
You see, I’m not the sort who can write an entire book in his or her head and then key it and zip it off to fame and fortune. Nor am I a writer who can outline in detail. Once I’ve told a story, in outline or summary, it’s dead to me and I just can’t write it. So I get an idea and a handful of characters and a rough target toward which I want the story to go, and then I come up with an opening paragraph and start in, excited to see what happens next.
I had this fellow in my head – he was lost in life, desperate, no idea how to change things. Suddenly, fortune and disaster. How does he handle all that, what changes could it make in him? I opened my trusty PC and began to key in the opening para. But he wasn’t in the opening sentence. No. There she was, instead, this strange woman. Staring at me out of the computer screen, daring me to carry on the story without her. She took over the story, lock, stock and down to the last exclamation mark, and believe me I was making a lot of exclamations at that moment.
Where she came from and how she did it, I don’t know. And it worries me. Because I wonder, Will she come back, and which of my next stories will she take over?
Part of my problem is that my writing methods are pretty chaotic – because I don’t write stories, I listen to them. They’re for me first. The stories I like best to hear are those of ordinary people – unlikely people – who do extraordinary things. People who, when their backs are against the wall, decide to be something special. Not to “do” something special, to “be” something special. They may win or lose, and their sacrifice may never be noticed by the world, but they have for that one moment been heroes.
In “Running in Heels,” Kathryn Teal starts the story a coward but ends it a hero. I think she proves Buster Keaton wrong – every now and then some man or woman really does achieve a kind of perfection.
Cheers!
Steven Hardesty
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You can find out more about Steve at his blog and buy his book on Amazon. I have not had the opportunity (aka time) to read Steven’s book, which he just published on June 16, 2011, but his sample pages are awaiting me on my iPAD.
A. S. Anand has posted an interview we did for my book AFTER THE VIRUS on his blogspot blog. Do take a moment to check out Aman’s book, 2032, if you head over there!
This interview is apart of a blog tour that a few indie authors have organized via the Kindle Publishing Forums. I am looking forward to hosting a few of these posts myself over the next few weeks.
As always, if you are so inclined, you can buy AFTER THE VIRUS and/or read/download some FREE sample chapters.
After the Virus received a second review on Amazon.com yesterday. I’ve copied & pasted from the Amazon.com page for After the Virus to share here:
5.0 out of 5 stars
June 22, 2011
By Mark McLeod
Great book!
The main character is an actress trying to survive the dead new world, which is a new approach to the Zombie genera [sic]. The book tells the story of her travails and the people she meets along the way.
There are worse things than Zombies and they walk by us everyday.
Men imagine that they communicate their virtue or vice only by overt actions, and do not see that virtue or vice emit a breath every moment. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Who is one person that you’ve been dying to connect with, but just haven’t had the courage to reach out to? First, reflect on why you want to get in touch with them. Then, reach out and set up a meeting.
(Author: David Spinks)
_________
I have been so focused on promoting After The Virus and trying to carve out writing time (so I follow up with a new novel in a timely manner) that my Trust 30 posts have really fallen to the wayside, but, with that said, I do read and think about the prompts every morning. This one has my brain churning, churning, churning… who have I always wanted to connect to?
Here’s the thing, I’ve always thought that we are all just people. Some people are fantastic at what they do (though, in reference to Outliners, I do believe that talent is only part of the parcel and practice makes perfect or at least really good), and they build a following because of that. So I have always tried to not put people up on pedestals – it’s so much easier for them to fall down that way.
With that said, I would probably become a gushing fan girl if I ever came face to face with Mr. Steven Spielberg, who pretty much raised me via his films.
I’ll have to think on this prompt throughout the day. Just wanted to call your attention to it.
Who have you been dying to connect to?
Ken Badertscher has posted an interview we did for my book AFTER THE VIRUS on his website, ebookfab.
This interview is apart of a blog tour that a few indie authors have organized via the Kindle Publishing Forums. I am looking forward to hosting a few of these posts myself over the next few weeks.
As always, if you are so inclined, you can buy AFTER THE VIRUS and/or read/download some FREE sample chapters.
After the Virus received it’s first review on Amazon.com yesterday. I’ve copied & pasted from the Amazon.com page for After the Virus to share here:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Survival Of The Fittest, June 15, 2011
By R. Jones “music man” (Las Vegas)
This review is from: After the Virus (Kindle Edition)
Plunge headlong into a decaying world of ruined cities, ruined lives, and ruined aspirations. In “After The Virus” you have a detailed look at a world completely off the rails with warring factions determined to re-create that world in degrees of pain and suffering worse that the decimation of the disease that killed 99% of the population. Enter Rhiannon, beautiful, feisty, and determined that she will escape the perils that reach out for her everywhere she turns. Meet Will, strong-willed and silent, bent on restoring his part of that world in a peaceful fashion. Their efforts collide around a mute girl and an injured dog and propel them to the final show-down with an evil expertly crafted to make you wince and shudder. Good solid writing and an action-packed read!