Sunday, September 28, 2014
The Last One by Tawdra Kandle Release Day
Meghan Hawthorne is restless. The last year has been a roller coaster: her widowed mother just married a long-time family friend. Her younger brother unexpectedly became a father and a husband. Everyone's life is changing. . .except for hers. As she begins her final summer of college, Meghan's looking for excitement and maybe a little romance. Nothing serious; this girl just wants to have fun.
"As an almost strictly paranormal romance reader, it takes a certain type of author to convince me to dive into straight romance. Tawdra Kandle is one of the few authors I will make an exception for. Her writing style is so easy and relaxing that I have to really keep an eye on the time or I’ll stay up all night to finish one of her books." Carrie Williams, Goodreads Reviewer
"Wow. Talk about romance with an edge. From the beginning the characters were so real that I was completely invested in them. The sexual tension woven into the story added so much value to the relationships. I will be reading this book many times just so I can spend more time with Meghan and Sam." Cheryl Garrett, Goodreads Reviewer
"I'm in love with this book!!" Leah Fennick, Goodreads Reviewer
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Pretty in Pink: Blane vs. Duckie
I remember the first time I watched Pretty in Pink. Like
most girls of a certain age, I loved it. Maybe because it was a glimpse into the
quickly approaching high school experience. Or maybe it was because something about the movie always seemed hopeful. Perhaps though, I loved it simply because John Hughes knew his audience. It was too long ago to tell.
However, I watched Pretty in Pink again today for the umpteenth time, but the experience was different today than I remember it being before. Don’t get me wrong, it is still a great movie, but the difference between then and now is me.
However, I watched Pretty in Pink again today for the umpteenth time, but the experience was different today than I remember it being before. Don’t get me wrong, it is still a great movie, but the difference between then and now is me.
Back when I first watched the movie, I was certain than Andie and
Blane (“His name is Blane? That’s a
major appliance, that’s not a name! ”) belonged together. And *spoiler alert* the
movie gave me my ending. He sees her at the dance (in an ugly dress. I know I
was supposed to be awe of it, but it’s ugly and boxy and honestly I expected
more) and comes over. Ending with the feeling that they will defy all odds and live happily ever after, uniting the “richies”
with the other side of the track. It was everything you want high school to be.
You want to make it to the end and see that the cliques never really mattered.
You want to think that if two people like each other their friends’ opinions
won’t sway that. You want to be as cool and confident as Andie.
After I saw the movie, I, of course, bought the book (after all I love reading). I liked the book as much as the movie right up until
I got to the ending where she didn’t choose Blane. She chose the
goofy, lovable, nerdy, and not at all exciting (because there was no boundary crossing) Duckie. I
believe this was the first time I ever threw a book across the room. How dare
they ruin my happily ever after? Originally, the movie also had the ending where
she stays with Duckie, but the screen test was bad. The audience wanted her with
Blane as much as I did.
Flash forward to adult Liz watching Pretty in Pink.
Andie is an idiot for choosing Blane. If he was so weak that his douchy (yet James Spader is an awesome bad guy) friend can convince him to
stop talking to her, then she doesn’t need him. She had things going for her. She
was strong and confident. She figured out that the bullshit in high school
doesn’t matter WHILE she was still in high school. That is awesome. She had a
scholarship, she was smart, and she was going to be fine with or without a guy
who obviously had poor taste in friends.
As far as happily ever after goes, in what world would the
two of them actually end up happily ever after? How many people in high school
actually make it to happily ever after? Hell, how many adults get there? I am sure his parents have him
in some ivy league school and Andie is going to design school. They aren’t staying
together. They probably aren’t going to make it to graduation.
Whereas Duckie, on the other hand, loves her. He is willing
to make a fool out of himself just to make her smile, he is willing to fight
for her even when she has no idea he is doing it, and he was willing to wait
for hours outside of a club he couldn’t even get into just so he could ride
home with her. He respects her. Duckie is a diamond in the rough. No matter
what happened in her life, Duckie would be the one person she could always count
on. Under no stretch of the imagination should she have ever ended up with
Blane at the end of the movie.
And on that note, “I’m off like a dirty shirt.”
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Bigger Things Interview with my editor Ev Bishop
Hello all,
Today I have a very special guest on my blog. She has been my primary editor right from the very start. We met on Twitter and our styles just clicked. I am so excited that she has a new book out. I read it this week and Bigger Things is a really great book. So if you are looking for a new contemporary book to try out, please check this one out!
Today I have a very special guest on my blog. She has been my primary editor right from the very start. We met on Twitter and our styles just clicked. I am so excited that she has a new book out. I read it this week and Bigger Things is a really great book. So if you are looking for a new contemporary book to try out, please check this one out!
Best friends since childhood, Jen, Chelsea and Kyra know everything about each other. Or think they do.Jen should be celebrating her whopping 121-pound weight loss. Instead she feels like she’s betrayed fat girls everywhere. Will anyone love her for who she is inside, fat or thin? More importantly, will she?Chelsea appears to have it all—a husband, a family, a beautiful home—but plaguing memories threaten to destroy everything. In her desperation to maintain control, will she succumb to a compulsion that costs her life?Kyra is sick of the superficial persona she’s worn for so long. It’s exhausting to pretend to be an airhead while running a successful business. But if she sheds her life-of-the-party façade, will she ever find the boyfriend she thinks she needs?When a nervous breakdown leaves one of them fighting to survive, all their secrets are laid bare. To stay friends, they need to battle personal dragons, confront the past, and embrace change. But can they break free from the roles they’ve played so long? Or must they leave one another behind in order to move forward?BIGGER THINGS by Ev Bishop is available in digital formats at:
Now for the interview!!
Interview with Bat Country
(Thanks so much, Liz! J)
Q: I read that you shopped Bigger Things, but it was rejected
because publishers didn’t believe there was a market for it. What was it about
this story that made you want to fight to tell it?
A: It was actually agents that
I shopped Bigger Things around to. I
sent it out and sent it out. And sent it out. I had quite a few requests for
full manuscripts from "big" agents. It was horrible. Almost without
exception they all said really, really, really positive things—then went
on to say they didn't know where it would go on the shelf, how it would be
marketed, or who it would sell to. Initially I found it very disheartening that
they would say such lovely, complimentary things about the story, only to
decline to represent it. Now I realize, as you so often do with hindsight, that
things worked out the way they should. Bigger
Things is a wonderful fit for indie publishing. And why did I hold onto the
dream of sharing it? Well, the main character Jen wouldn’t let me forget
her—kept whispering in my ear—and I really believe that the themes and issues
the story explores are important. J
Q: Tell us about the three friends
in Bigger Things.
A: Hmmm, what to say, what to
say? The three friends in Bigger Things—Jen, Chelsea, and Kyra—feel absolutely
real to me, as real as any of my life and blood friends (and yes, I’m aware of
what that suggests about me—but I’m safe crazy, I promise!), so it actually
feels a bit weird to “talk about them,” per se.
The book blurb shared with
this interview provides a small glimpse into each of them, but other than that,
I’ll let readers form their own opinions about what they’re like, what their
motivations are, etc. I suspect most women will relate to them in some
ways—both good and bad. And I do hope people, even if they disagree with them
sometimes, understand where they’re coming from, root for them, and like them because as I said, I care
about each of them a lot. They’re close to my heart.
Q: You wrote a very sweet Christmas
short story that I read last year. Can you tell us about any other work you
might have out?
A: Aw, thanks for the kind
words! You’re referring to The Present, a novella penned by my
warmer, mushier alter ego Toni Sheridan—the
pen name I use for Inspirational romance works. And funny that you brought it
up. A sister story (literally) called Drummer Boy is coming out this November, again through Pelican
Book Group’s White Rose imprint, featuring Candy’s sister Jane.
Despite the fun of having a pseudonym,
I do most of my work, regardless of genre or form, under my own name (Ev
Bishop). I’m a long time columnist with The
Terrace Standard newspaper, have a fair amount of non-fiction articles and
essays published in a myriad of publications, and am excited by my growing list
of published short stories—yay!
Writing
Q: Do you plot or write the
story as it comes to you?
A: I’m definitely what some writers
refer to as a “pantser”—meaning I write by the seat of my pants, following
whatever threads happen to appear, not that I pants unsuspecting people! I
happily tear along without plotting or outlining—or do so until some dreaded midway
point where I slam into a wall and become convinced I’ll never finish the
story. I’ve learned that at that painful place, a bit of outlining—like one
line jot notes—to plan to the end of the story helps me find my way again, and
to my continual surprise and delight, the story resolves itself.
Q: What is your favorite and
least favorite part of writing?
A: I love it all. And I hate it
all. Just kidding! (Sort of.)
My feelings, as my initial
response suggests, about writing are all over the place. A famous quote, though
I can’t recall who said it, speaks to this for me: “Everyone wants to have written.
Nobody wants to write.” I don’t quite agree with it fully because I love
falling into a story and being thrown this way and that in a world that I’m creating
and somehow in charge of, but that’s a complete mystery and is totally beyond my
control at the same time. I delight in—and need—the process of trying to
articulate what I feel, what moves me, what angers me, what baffles me, what
incites love and passion in me in whatever form, creative non-fiction, story,
or poem, that those words want to come. What I don’t like—dread, in fact—is the
incredibly nasty things inner voices throw at me, especially at the beginning
of a writing session or new project (once I get into the zone, the sheer joy
and rush of story and/or thoughts tend to shut them up). That’s why the quote resonates
with me. I love writing, but often that joy comes after I’ve actually gotten
myself to do the writing. Does that make sense?
Q: Did you have any fears
about publishing this on your own? What were they?
A: I have constant fears and
worries—about everything. Just ask my poor husband! But at the same time, I’m
fearless and go for whatever I want. Is that a confusing, contradictory answer?
If yes, welcome to my head! For example:
I am afraid people will read
my books and not get them, not relate to them at all.
BUT . . .
I don’t really care because I care about my stories. I get them (sort of!). I relate to them. Also, if even just one
person reads something I’ve written and thinks, “Ah, that’s like me. . . .” and
for one minute feels connected to and
understood, like they have company on the road of life—all the work is worth it
to me.
I’m afraid people will think
less of me, depending on the subjects I tackle and how I tackle them.
YET . . .
I don’t care if people think
less of me. I care that I do the best I can, at the time and place I am at the
moment, and that I’m honest and share things as I really see them and feel
them.
I’m afraid I’ve made—or will make
in the future—some terrible financial decision and bankrupt us.
EXCEPT . . .
I’m a very hard worker and
I’ve never met a job that I’m “too good” for. I’ll always be able to find
something to pay the bills—and if I can’t, there’s social assistance—and I
don’t want the reason I write to ever be about the money anyway. J
I’m afraid I’ll fail.
EXCEPT AGAIN . . .
I don’t know what that even
means. The only true failure, to my mind, is not to try. Try = success. So
whoohoo, I’m a success! (Er . . . now I feel weird and self-conscious for
yelling that!)
I’m afraid I’m not good
enough. That I suck.
(Er . . . speaking of those
mean voices again.) But again, what does that even mean? Some attacks are not
worthy of a response!
I’m afraid. . . .
But I won’t let any of that
inner-icky nonsense stifle me. Both my parents died young and it has been a
massive wake up call for me to do things I feel passionately about now, to not
put off pursuing passions or things I feel I need to do until some far off,
random point in time because sometimes that future day never comes. I don’t
mean to be depressing—but seize the day. It’s the only one you know you have.
I’m afraid. . . .
But argh, you get the point
already!
I could continue on and on
with “I’m afraid” lines and my rebuttals, but there’s no more need. I think we
all have two (or more!) sides: the brave, conquering adventurer side and the bar-the-windows,
turn out the lights, and quake in our shoes and hope the scary opportunity
passes us by side. The older I get, the more I want to bolster the brave side
of myself. And I hope you relate even a little bit to the voices in my head or
is my face red! J
Editing
Q: What is your favorite genre
to edit?
A: I have very few
preferences. Reading and writing-wise, I love stories in all their weird,
twisty varieties. The only thing that has surprised me genre-wise is my growing
appreciation for romance. In the past I never would’ve said anything against it,
just would’ve described it as “not really my thing.” Lately, however, I’ve
changed my tune. I love a good romance now, in a variety of heat levels—as a
reader and a writer. J J I can’t believe how fun—and how varied—the genre is.
Q: Tell us how your background
in editing helped or hindered your writing.
It helps when it comes time to
edit my own work because I’m able to close the door to my writer self better
now and can be quite ruthless with things I know need cut or changed.
It can hinder my writing
because it’s always easier to spot what needs fixed in someone else’s work than
it is to see what needs fixed in your own. Sometimes I imagine clients reading
my stories, thinking of comments and “fixes” I’ve made or suggested on their
manuscripts, and shaking their heads—talk about intimidating!—but like I’ve
learned to close the door to writer-me when I’m editing, I’m getting better at
politely (ha ha) asking my inner editor to leave me alone while I’m writing. It
works pretty well.
Q: Why did you become an
editor?
A: Well, for one, it’s my dream
job. I used to always joke that if I could be paid to read I’d be a one hundred
percent happy woman. So here I am, one hundred percent happy.
But personal pleasure aside, I
believe that fiction is critically important to the emotional growth, health,
and well-being of people. Stories help us deal with the challenges and trials
we encounter in our “real” lives, give us tools and coping strategies to survive
hard times—and provide laughter and escape and adventure—things all humans need.
Experiencing life through the lenses of “others” builds empathy and
understanding, and hopefully helps us become kinder, more sympathetic, less
selfish people as we identify with individuals who are different from ourselves
and feel what it’s like to be them. How does that relate to why I chose to
become an editor? Well, if I can help one person bring one story out into the
world that helps or enriches one person’s life I am very privileged.
Random
Q: What is your favorite book?
A: Oh, come on. . . . You might as well ask me to choose a
favourite child! I can’t pick because one favourite does not exist. Here are
just a few books I adore (and I already feel guilty for all I’ve left out!):
READY PLAYER ONE by Ernest
Cline. (This is one of those books that I read and then almost hated the author,
lol, because I was jealous I hadn’t written this story myself! It’s TOTALLY
AWESOME, MAN. 80s lingo used intentionally!)
OUTLANDER by Diana Gabaldon (and
then the rest of the series): I know . . . me and the rest of the world, hey?
THE MEASURE OF A MAN by J. J.
Lee: Okay, this actually may be a
favourite-favourite but I read it just after I lost my dad so it could just be
that it personally spoke so much to me.)
BAG OF BONES by Stephen King.
BLOOD MEMORY by Greg Iles: Tough
subject matter—brutal, in fact—but amazing, amazing read.
MERE CHRISTIANITY by C.S.
Lewis: I love his other titles too. I credit this book as a being a big part of
why I became a Christian, actually.
THE COWBOY’S E-MAIL ORDER
BRIDE by Cora Seton: Pure fun!
PLAGUE by C.C. Humphreys.
Q: What is your favorite
quote?
A: Well, quotes are a lot like
books in that I don’t play favourites. J That said, different words speak to me more or less deeply at
various times. One quote with special resonance and motivating power for me
right now comes from Mark Twain—and how I stumbled upon it is an interesting
story.
A few months ago I was in a
hard place, grieving the loss of my dad and feeling discouraged and down about
a few things. I decided to try morning pages
for a while to get to the root of what was bugging me. I opened my neglected, practically
cobweb encrusted journal, and found my last entry, written by my hand—but
consisting of words I swear I hadn’t seen before, words that were exactly the
message I needed to hear and spurred some long dreamed of, scary actions on my
behalf (like quitting my day job to write and edit full-time, like publishing Bigger Things). And what was the magical
quote that now lives on the wall by my monitor, with the words “To Ev” above it
and the signature “From Mark Twain” below it? Just this:
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things
that you didn’t do than by the ones that you did do. So throw off the bowlines.
Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the wind in your sails. Explore. Dream.
Discover.
I don’t know who all’s reading
this interview, but if you’re on the fence about some big life change, I hope
Mark Twain’s words somehow encourage and cheer you on. Say no to fear. It’s all
in your head.
And if you are so kind as to
read Bigger Things, I so hope you
enjoy it. I’d love to hear from you if you do—and I covet any and all honest
reviews, too.
Thanks so much for inviting me
to do this interview, Liz. I loved the questions. Very fun!
Ev Bishop: Ev
Bishop is a long-time columnist with the Terrace Standard, and her other non-fiction has been published
across North America. Her true love, however, is fiction, and she writes in a
myriad of genres.
Some short story publications include: “The
Picture Book,” Every Day Fiction Magazine,
“Riddles,” 100 Stories for Queensland,
“On the Wall,” Every Day Fiction
Magazine, “My Mom is a Freak,” Cleavage:
Breakaway Fiction for Real Girls, “HVS,” “Red Bird,” and “Wishful,”
(available through Ether Books).
Her novel Bigger Things (Winding Path Books 2014) will be followed shortly by
another standalone novel, What is Seen,
then Wedding Bands (Book 1 in a
romance series called River’s Sigh Bed & Breakfast). She also writes
romance under the pen name Toni Sheridan (The
Present, Pelican Book Group, 2012, and Drummer
Boy, Pelican Book Group, forthcoming).
Visit Ev online at www.evbishop.com,
join her on Facebook, or follow her on Twitter
(@Ev_Bishop). She’d love to connect with you!
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