Buzz, Balls & Hype

Really? You Haven't read The Twelfth Enchantment?

Really?

You read Discovery of Witches and The Shadow of Night and you haven't read The Twelfth Enchantment?

Really?

You read Mr Penumbras 24 Hour-Bookstore and you haven't read The Twelfth Enchantment?

Really? 

You read City of Dark Magic and The House of Velvet and Glass and The Night Circus and you haven't read The Twelfth Enchantment?

What are you waiting for?

I was enchanted and enthralled. The Twelfth Enchantment  was one of my favorite historical novels of the last few years. It's almost impossible to me that Liss didn't transport himself back in time in order to write with such assurance about another time and place. The story is original and captivating and I just loved this novel. I'm not a reviewer so here are what other authors and reviewers have said about it. 

“Tremendously appealing characters . . . a thoroughly enjoyable, satisfying read.”—Deborah Harkness, author of A Discovery of Witches

 
“A fascinating netherworld weaves through David Liss’s intoxicating new novel, The Twelfth Enchantment. Set in Regency England, it tells the story of Lucy Derrick, a vivacious heroine in the tradition of Jane Austen’s Elizabeth Bennet. It takes a cunning novelist, indeed, to tell a story this gripping—and magical.”—Katherine Howe, author of The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
 
“Truly a magical, mystical tour de force . . . Liss, in fanciful English prose, fans the flames into a literary conflagration that eventually engulfs us.”—San Antonio Express-News
 
“A unique and fascinating story, compelling characters, and the delicious combination of realism and mythical.”—Pittsburgh Historical Fiction Examiner
 
“A tale of mystery, intrigue, and magic that leaves the reader wanting more.”—Austenprose
 
“An enthralling tale of romance and the supernatural—with a heroine for the ages.”—Stephanie Barron, author of Jane and the Canterbury Tale

IMAGINE

Imagine if every author followed F.Scott Fitzgerald's advice. Really. Just stop and imagine if we all really challenged ourself to follow this advice.  I feel so passionately about this becuase in this time of difficult discovery we need to astound our readers no matter our genre so they can do nothing less than rave about our work outloud. 

First Fitzgerald to his daughter:

Nobody ever became a writer just by wanting to be one. If you have anything to say, anything you feel nobody has ever said before, you have got to feel it so desperately that you will find some way to say it that nobody has ever found before, so that the thing you have to say and the way of saying it blend as one matter—as indissolubly as if they were conceived together.

And to his friend:

You’ve got to sell your heart, your strongest reactions, not the little minor things that only touch you lightly... it was necessary for Dickens to put into Oliver Twist the child’s passionate resentment at being abused and starved that had haunted his whole childhood...In ‘This Side of Paradise’ I wrote about a love affair that was still bleeding as fresh as the skin wound on a haemophile... [Literature]  is one of those professions that wants the ‘works.’ You wouldn’t be interested in a soldier who was only a little brave.

(Longer letters via Brainpicking here.)

 

Wow Required

"I want to implore you to remember to dedicate at least as much effort, if not more, to craft than you did before you started taking on so many of the business functions in the industry. Simply never lose sight of the fact that readers expect you to bring your A-game consistently, and they have more incentive than ever to walk away if you disappoint them.” - Lou Aronica, Publisher, Fiction Studio, in his last letter as President, to the membership of Novelists, Inc.

Estimates are that in 2012 over 1.5 million books will have been published (About 20% of them coming from traditional houses). And thanks to the explosion of self-publishing, 2013 could see double that number; as many as 3 million books might grace our virtual bookstores next year! That means we are going to be awash in covers and titles, plot descriptions and characters. That means we are going to be pushing harder than ever to break through the crowded marketplace and doing it without any new methods or magic.

It means that now more than ever we can’t be writing just another book. We can’t be rushing through a draft.

There are those who say the way to win the game is to write fast and furious, and fill up the virtual shelves with as many books carrying your name on the spine as possible. In the past there’s been some proof that it was a viable strategy.

But there’s more proof that the future isn’t about endless quantity.

With so many millions of titles available, the books that will get talked about are the books that make readers talk about them. Now is not the time to try and write twookay books a year as opposed to one really gangbuster book in the next 12 or 18 or 24 months.

I’m not really talking about good vs. bad books. Not talking about quiet vs. noisy books. I’m talking about books that whatever their genre or sensibility areexceptional. If it’s a romance or mystery or literary fiction it has to stand out. Way out.

Not even the few hundred branded authors with built-in fan bases are exempt.

The playing field isn’t level; it’s so overcrowded we can’t see it. Whether we are writing about serial killers or heroines who engage in bondage or National Book Award fiction we need to be writing that “WOW” book. That book that makes readers go “Oooo.”

We need to write books that publicists and marketers and booksellers and book club leaders and librarians and readers can get excited about. That have something about them that makes them stand out. That makes them shine.

PR and marketing doesn’t sell books. It gets attention for them. It sends readers to bookstores and websites to read a few pages. We need to make sure those pages grab the reader with talons and won’t let him or her go.

WOW BOOKS

Today at Writer Unboxed I have a post up that goes against some current advice. Maybe we shouldn't be trying so hard to write fast and write more - maybe we need to write better.  Read it here.

In Santa's Book Bag - The Fishnet Stocking Stuffer

This year I'm giving as many books as I can - here are some suggestions.

For the fishnet stocking: 

The steamy first installment in the Inside Out erotic romance trilogy by Lisa Renee Jones, in the bestselling tradition of Fifty Shades of Grey.

When Sara McMillan finds a stack of journals in a storage unit, she’s shocked and enthralled by the erotic life the writer led. Unable to stop reading, she vicariously lives out dark fantasies through Rebecca, the writer—until the terrifying final entry.

 Certain something sinister has happened, Sara sets out to discover the facts, immersing herself in Rebecca’s life. Soon she’s working at the art gallery Rebecca worked at and meeting Rebecca’s friends. Finding herself drawn to two dangerously sexy men, the manager of the gallery and a famed artist, Sara realizes she’s going down the same path Rebecca took. But with the promise of her dark needs being met by a man with confident good looks and a desire for control, she’s not sure anything else matters. Just the burn for more.

When Sara McMillan finds a stack of journals in a storage unit, she’s shocked and enthralled by the erotic life the writer led. Unable to stop reading, she vicariously lives out dark fantasies through Rebecca, the writer—until the terrifying final entry.

 Certain something sinister has happened, Sara sets out to discover the facts, immersing herself in Rebecca’s life. Soon she’s working at the art gallery Rebecca worked at and meeting Rebecca’s friends. Finding herself drawn to two dangerously sexy men, the manager of the gallery and a famed artist, Sara realizes she’s going down the same path Rebecca took. But with the promise of her dark needs being met by a man with confident good looks and a desire for control, she’s not sure anything else matters. Just the burn for more.

 

Backstory from Eva Stachniak

Catherine the Great intrigued me for a long time. She was a powerful woman monarch. She was an immigrant to Russia. She was the best empress Russia has ever had. And—to me born and raised in Poland—she was also the empress who wiped Poland off the map of Europe and turned my ancestors into the reluctant subjects of the Russian tsars.

An irresistible combination.

As soon as I decided to write about Catherine the Great I began reading her letters and memoirs in search for inspiration. In one of the letters Catherine wrote to Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, a British ambassador to Russia, I came across the following sentence: Three people who never leave her room, and who do not know about one another, inform me of what is going on, and will not fail to acquaint me when the crucial moment arrives. “Her” meant Elizabeth Petrovna, the empress who invited Catherine to Russia as a prospective bride to her nephew Peter. “The crucial moment” meant Elizabeth’s much awaited death which Catherine saw as her big political chance. But who were the three spies Russia’s Grand Duchess kept in the imperial bedroom? And what stories and secrets could they reveal? 

Whoever they were I couldn’t stop thinking about them and the kind of lives they must have led: dangerous and filled with betrayals. 

The Winter Palace begins in 1744 when a fourteen year old German princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst arrives in Russia. One of the palace spies, Varvara, a Polish orphan who is trying to assure her own survival, befriends the newcomer from Zerbst and for the next twenty years watches how Grand Duchess Catherine turns herself into the empress and sole autocrat of All the Russias.

Listen to me, Varvara says, I know. 

The one you do not suspect is the most dangerous of spies.

Visit  http://www.evastachniak.com

From Santa's Book Bag - for the fantasy stocking!

Magical books that I loved and urge you to get a copy for yourself when you buy them for others on your list.

Shelf-Awareness says: 

When a tale is shaped so well that the line of the narrative seems to have been able to take no other path," Pullman says, "and to have touched every important event in making for its end, one can only bow with respect for the teller." There are several moments in Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm in which Pullman himself earns that honor. --Ron Hogan, founder of Beatrice.com

Discover: An enticing collection of familiar and not-so-familiar fairy tales, retold with clarity and wit by a master of fantasy literature.

 

 

 

CITY OF DARK MAGIC, written by the mysterious Magnus Flyte (pseudonym for authors Meg Howrey and Christina Lynch.

It has a very spiffy trailer here.  It's the delightful and absorbing and fanciful story of a woman who goes to the Prague Castle for the summer.

Paranormal suspense at it's best. ( Along with some tantric sex and Beethoven.)

“This deliciously madcap novel has it all: murder in Prague, time travel, a misanthropic Beethoven, tantric sex, and a dwarf with attitude. I salute you, Magnus Flyte!" —Conan O'Brien

"The most wickedly enchanting novel I’ve ever read and also the funniest. A Champagne magnum of intrigue and wit, this book sparkles from beginning to end." —Anne Fortier, bestselling author of Juliet

In Santa's Book Bag -The Art Lover's Stocking

For centuries, great artists have been drawn together in friendship and in love. In Artists in Love, curator and writer Veronica Kavass delves into the passionate and creative underpinnings of the art world's most provocative romances. From Picasso and Francoise Gilot to Lee Miler and Man Ray to Saul Steinberg and Hedda Sterne, Kavass' graceful and daring text provides a generous glimpse into the inspiring and sometimes tempestuous relationships between celebrated artists throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.

The cover alone makes it worth giving to the art lover in your life. Click here for a wonderful article about the book and slide show about the artists couples.

 

Buy it here!

 

 

The couples include:

Robert & Sonia Delaunay
Alfred Stieglitz & Georgia O’Keeffe
Jean Arp & Sophie Taeuber-Arp
Anni & Josef Albers
Frida Kahlo & Diego Rivera
Lee Miller & Man Ray
Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight
Barbara Hepworth & Ben Nicholson
Elaine & Willem de Kooning
Pablo Picasso & Françoise Gilot
Jackson Pollock & Lee Krasner
Dorothea Tanning & Max Ernst
Nancy Spero & Leon Golub
Jasper Johns & Robert Rauschenberg
Robert Motherwell & Helen Frankenthaler
Christo & Jeanne-Claude
Bernd & Hilla Becher
Eva Hesse & Tom Doyle
Charles and Ray Eames
Kay Sage and Yves Tanguy
Saul Steinberg and Hedda Sterne
Robert Smithson & Nancy Holt
Niki de Saint Phalle & Jean Tinguely
Marina Abramović & Ulay
Claes Oldenburg & Coosje van Bruggen
Bruce Nauman & Susan Rothenberg
David McDermott and Peter McGough

Have you been to the Montreal book fair: Salon du livre de Montreal.

 In 1950 a little event in Montréal at Hotel Windsor was put in place to celebrate books and promote reading and literature to the public through direct interaction with regional, national and international authors. With time the event grew in both exhibitor participation and guest attendance.

In 1978, the book fair, known officially as Salon du Livre de Montréal, moved to a larger venue, at La Place Bonaventure, where it is currently held annually. Since it’s inauguration, this well orchestrated event has continued with great success, not only aiding in the promotion of literature and reading, but also being an outlet where members of the trade, publishers, booksellers and librarians, can interact.

Just last year 124,500 people were in attendance and 1600 authors exhibited. Passion is at the heart of this event and the organizers work hard each year to bring exciting moments of originality to each visitor. Interviews with authors, intimate discussions and workshops create these magical moments so special to the core of the Salon du Livre. For the authors, multiple prizes are awarded, voted on by both the partners of the organization and by the public themselves.

Some of the names behind this year’s 35th annual Salon du Livre de Montréal are, Francine Bois (general director since 1990), René Bonenfant (Chairman of the Board of Directors since 2005), and Georges-Hébert Germain (writer and president of honor).

Practical Information: Salon du Livre de Montréal begins November 14th at 9am and continues until November 19th at 4pm. It is open to the public and tickets are $8 for general admission. Find a list of discounted prices and daily hours of operation here. A full list of exhibitors can be found here. Traveling to the event? Book your hotel using this link.

A Holiday Book Bundle

 A group of  11 terrific authors (and me) have joined forces to offer you wonderful opportunity to sample our latest novels  -just in time for the holidays—  samples and quirky holiday-themed interviews in one FREE downloadable PDF.

 There's something here for every reader -  mysteries, romance, young adult, women's fiction. So take a look and make some discoveries.

 First Snow – Christine Cunningham
After The Fog - -Kathleen Shoop
A Charming Crime -  Tonya Kappes
Come Back To Me – Melissa Foster
Read Me Dead – Emerald Barnes
Dancing Naked In Dixie – Lauren Clark
The Last Supper Catering Company – Michaelene McElroy
The Hurricane Lover – Joni Rodgers
The Hounding – Sandra de Helen
Milkshake – Joanna Weiss
The Ninth Step – Barbara Taylor Sissel

Each excerpt is prefaced by information about the book and its author. Concluding each excerpt is an order page with clickable links to several online retailers

You can download the PDF “Holiday Sampler” here http://bit.ly/eBookSamples, and share by sending them this link: http://bit.ly/eBookSamples.