HOW TO DATE DEAD GUYS

Meet Ann Noser, author of How To Date Dead Guys. and her newest novel, soon to be released How to Ditch Dead Guys.

Q. I understand you're a busy mom and have to steal time to write, tell us one of the biggest things you've learned on the creative / publishing / marketing journey. Do you have any advice for the novice?

Advice:

            Be prepared to spend a lot of time and money when starting out--consider yourself forewarned--marketing takes much more time than you expect.

            Although a lot of people recommend writing EVERY day, that doesn't work for me. I write when the spirit moves me (and when the children are otherwise occupied). I don't pretend to know what everyone else needs in their lives, but I suggest following your own heart and not someone else's rules.

            Ask. Ask. Ask. Because new writers probably don't know much starting out, and it's always best to know what's going on.

Q. What is the most exciting thing to have happened to you because of your creativity and if fame and success were yours, how would it change you and your plans?

            Book signings have been wonderful. I've had people (old friends, classmates, and teachers) attend them that I haven't seen in years.

            I hope fame wouldn't change me much. Not sure if I'll find out. :)

Q.      Blogging has changed. I even read a blog that asks the question have authors ruined blogging due to cover reveals, and book tours. What is your opinion of the direction and subject of current blogs and the need for authors to blog about their journey and advertise their books? What do you enjoy, in regards to blogs, whether reading or writing one?

          This raises a good point. A lot of blogs promote books. I enjoy finding out about new books, and just screen past the genres I'm not interested in (I don't care much for erotica or heavy romance, but that's just me). This blog made me realize that lately I've spent more time organizing blogs to promote other people's books than I have just plain blogging or writing about other things that are important to me. It's good to make this realization. Perhaps I need to address this. But this also brings up the point that sometimes it's hard to know just how much time one should spend on writing, and how much on each type:  marketing, blogging, new projects, etc.

If you're curious about where the question on blogging came from - the Ninja Captain, Alex J. Cavanaugh posted the question on a recent blog. Follow the link if you want to get in on the discussion.  Are Authors Killing Blogging?

Just for fun!

Q. If you could visit any time period, would you go back or forward and why? 

I'd love to meet my parents when they were young.

Q. If you could live and write anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?

I'd like to visit all the national parks, but I'm not sure I'd want to live there. I like where I live now.

Q. If you were the President with complete power, what would you do with it?

What a horrible question! (haha) I'd do the best I could, and make a lot of enemies, just like every other president has done, I imagine.

Q. If zombies attacked, what would you do, and why?

Probably die, because they are zombies.

Q. Have you ever read the last page of a novel first? Why? Did you read the entire book afterwards?

No! But I know people who do. Gah!

Q. What entices you to buy a book, the cover, the blurb, the writing, or the author?

All of the above.

*****

HOW TO DATE DEAD GUYS

College sophomore Emma Roberts remembers her mother’s sage advice: “don’t sleep around, don’t burp in public, and don’t tell anyone you see ghosts”. But when charming Mike Carlson drowns in the campus river under her watch, Emma’s sheltered life shatters.

Blamed for Mike’s death and haunted by nightmares, Emma turns to witchcraft and a mysterious Book of Shadows to bring him back. Under a Blood Moon, she lights candles, draws a pentacle on the campus bridge, and casts a spell. The invoked river rages up against her, but she escapes its fury. As she stumbles back to the dorm, a stranger drags himself from the water and follows her home. And he isn't the only one.

Instead of raising Mike, Emma assists the others she stole back from the dead—a pre-med student who jumped off the bridge, a desperate victim determined to solve his own murder, and a frat boy Emma can’t stand…at first. More comfortable with the dead than the living, Emma delves deeper into the seductive Book of Shadows. Her powers grow, but witchcraft may not be enough to protect her against the vengeful river and the killers that feed it their victims.

Inspired by the controversial Smiley Face Murders, HOW TO DATE DEAD GUYS will ignite the secret powers hidden deep within each of us.

Meet the Author:

My to-do list dictates that I try to cram 48 hours of living into a day instead of the usual 24.  I’ve chosen a life filled with animals.  I train for marathons with my dog, then go to work as a small animal veterinarian, and finish the day by tripping over my pets as I attempt to convince my two unruly children that YES, it really IS time for bed.  But I can’t wait until the house is quiet to write; I have to steal moments throughout the day.  Ten minutes here, a half hour there, I live within my imagination.

Like all busy American mothers, I multi-task.  I work out plot holes during runs.  Instead of meditating, I type madly during yoga stretches.  I find inspiration in everyday things:  a beautiful smile, a heartbreaking song, or a newspaper article on a political theory.  For example, a long drive in the dark listening to an NPR program on the SMILEY FACE MURDERS theory made me ask so many questions that I wrote HOW TO DATE DEAD GUYS to answer them to my satisfaction.

I’d love to have more time to write (and run, read, and sleep), but until I find Hermione Granger’s time turner, I will juggle real life with the half-written stories in my head.  Main characters and plot lines intertwine in my cranium, and I need to let my writing weave the tales on paper so I can find out what happens next.

LINKS 

AMAZON

BARNES AND NOBLE

WEBSITE

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

Last but not Least:

Tell us about your upcoming release HOW TO DITCH DEAD GUYS.

I just signed the contract, and sent it off to the editor, so I have no dates to share.

Description:

How to DITCH Dead Guys, a 73,000 word count New Adult, Urban Fantasy (Book Two in the Under the Blood Moon series). This book is a bit darker than the first. Many of the characters remain the same, and the storyline arc follows nicely after the setup of book one.

Blurb:

After everyone EMMA ROBERTS raises from the dead sinks back into the river, she longs for a purpose. A schedule. Something to accomplish.

Then OFFICER WALKER leaves a message on her voice mail:  "There's been another murder, and I need your help."

With a bag of witchcraft supplies slung over her shoulder, Emma performs a séance for Walker at the site of the murder. But nothing happens until Emma gets back home.

Black smoke swirls inside the bathroom. An invisible force slams her head onto the tiled floor. A golden snake slithers across her legs, then impales her wrist with its icy teeth.

As the smoke clears and the images fade, the truth becomes clear.

This time around, Emma won't just watch what happened. She'll live it.

As Emma helps Officer Walker solve murder cases, she relives the horror of each victim's last moments of life. From the edge of the river to the underground lair of the gang who murdered Steve, she endures it all.

As Emma weakens, both the victims and the murderers who killed them fight for control of her body and mind.

She's possessed, and the voices inside her head won't let her ask for help.

Even the Book of Shadows can't save her now…

*Just curious, would you consider dating a dead guy - especially if you knew how to ditch him if it didn't work out?

BURNT EDGES

Introducing Dana Leipold, and her latest release 
Brunt Edges.
 Today she's agreed to share her writing habits.

You hear established authors and writers say all the time, “Write every day, and at the same time each day.” Well, that’s not reality…at least not for me.

I do write every day but it’s not always for my fiction. I have a “day job” where I write marketing copy for corporate America. I write website copy, brochures, emails, and other content. I’m also a full-time mom to two very active kids as well as a wife. It’s tough to balance all of that sometimes. The thing is, I would probably go insane if I didn’t write something other than marketing copy. After a while, that stuff gets kind of boring.

I started Burnt Edges in May of 2011 and did the best I could to squeeze in writing where I could. Doing NaNoWriMo was extremely helpful for getting the rest of the first draft completed. The bulk of the heavy lifting, however, comes during editing. For me, this was when the story really took shape.

Many times I would work late into the wee hours of the morning when my kids and husband were asleep. (Thank GOD for coffee!). Other times, my husband would take the kids and give me a chunk of time to just focus on writing. I would go to a little café in our neighborhood, put on headphones, and get lost in editing or writing.

Now that my first novel is under my belt, I’m still trying to figure out how to work in writing time for the second book that picks up the story where the first leaves off. This time I’m scheduling in one solid hour a day to work on it, and when my husband is being sweet, he’ll give me a chunk of time on the weekend.

Writing your next novel while you’ve got a job, family, and other responsibilities is no easy task but it can be done. You just have to want it bad enough. I give up a lot of television (and sometimes exercise…which I don’t like any way :-) The one thing I never give up is reading so I try to squeeze that in too. Balance is an every day thing, and some days it’s harder to maintain but I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

How about you? Do you have to steal time to work on your masterpiece? What drives you to put your story on paper? 

In my case, I think this quote by Kathy R Jeffords sums it up: "...I will write on because writing is not just something I do but part of who I am."

               Abuse or an uncertain future. This is Laurel Lee Page’s choice when she is faced with an unplanned pregnancy at 18. Born into a broken family, all she has ever known is guilt and shame. No matter what she does or who she meets, Laurel appears to be living a condemned life but she is determined to find independence and freedom in spite of her family’s legacy of hatred and self-contempt. Can Laurel see that she is in a powerful position, poised to break the cycle of abuse? Set in Southern California during the tumultuous 1960s era, Burnt Edges is based on true events and proves that strength can be found even in the most horrific situations.

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

Excerpt:

Laurel decided that Rusty was Mother’s favorite child. The afternoon in the garage had been proof. But because he often took the brunt of Father’s anger, she felt a bizarre kinship with him. She also loved the stories he would tell when they had nothing to do. He would make up tall tales like the one about spacemen who came to Earth to taste hamburgers because they had none on Mars. He described them as little green men with antennae.
“Whenever they come to visit, people find their hats missing, because the Martians steal them to conceal their antennae,” Rusty said.
“That’s just silly,” Laurel said.
Gerry sat in the dirt, playing with rocks and half-listening. Laurel thought he’d rather be playing football or punching some kid, so he sometimes got bored of the stories.
“No, it’s true, really.”
“What did they do to hide their green skin?” Laurel asked.
“They also steal women’s pancake makeup and put it all over their faces. Helps them blend in.”
“Ew, they wear girl’s makeup?” Gerry said, sticking out his tongue.
Laurel giggled, imagining Martians wearing makeup and hats just to get a taste of a hamburger.
“Why don’t they just steal the recipe and learn how to make hamburgers on Mars?” Laurel thought she’d caught Rusty off guard with this question.
“They tried that once, and it was a disaster,” he said, picking up rocks and throwing them against the fence in their backyard. “Yeah, it almost wiped out the whole Martian race.”

“What’d they do, get all sick and throw up?” Gerry laughed at his answer.
Rusty threw a rock at Gerry but missed him. “No, moron.”
He kept throwing rocks without saying anything. Laurel thought he was trying to come up with a good story. She waited another moment.
“Well, what happened?” she asked.
“I’ll tell ya! Don’t rush me!”
He stopped throwing rocks and sat Indian style, his elbows resting on his legs, hands clasped together so he was leaning forward a bit.
“The explorer Martians who had just come back from Earth brought the hamburger recipe to the King of Mars. They told him about the most delicious food they’d ever tasted and that they had brought the secret to it. The king was excited and told his royal cook to make up a batch, but they don’t have meat on Mars.”
Rusty paused, and Gerry rolled his eyes, waved his hand, and climbed the rope up to the tree house. Rusty watched him, but Laurel was listening, waiting for Rusty to tell the rest of the story.
“Go on,” she said.
“Nah, no one cares about the dumb old story,” he said.
“I do! Tell me!”
“All right, but it’s horrible!”
“I don’t care. Tell me!”
“Okay, don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Rusty paused and then he began again. “So the cooks tried to figure out what to do. They didn’t want to tell the king that there was no meat. Once a cook had told the king he was all out of Martian mush-rooms and the king executed him. They thought and thought about what to do, and then they called in the royal jester.”
“The jester? What does he know about cooking?” Laurel asked.
“Exactly.”
Laurel looked confused.
“So the jester came in, and the cooks smashed him on the head and put him in a boiling pot. Once the Jester was done cooking, they ground him up into bits and fed him to the king.”
“Yuck!”
Gerry must have heard about the cannibalism. He peeked his head through the hole in the tree house. “That’s disgusting,” he said, loud enough for Rusty and Laurel to hear.
“The king loved it and ordered the cooks to make more. So they did. This time they called in the royal guard, bopped him on the head, boiled him up, and fed him to the king. The king couldn’t get enough of those hamburgers, so he made a royal decree stating that the official food of Mars was hamburgers.”
Gerry had the tree house door open and was sitting on the floor with his legs hanging out. Laurel shook her head.
“The cooks went through the whole Martian Royal Army, the royal court, and most of the Martian population before the king caught on. He ended up executing the cooks, but now the King of Mars comes to visit Earth himself, because he loves hamburgers.”
“That’s the dumbest story I ever heard,” Gerry said.
“If it’s so dumb why did you listen to it?” Rusty answered back.
“Hamburgers aren’t that good,” Laurel said. “Not as good as pizza.”

 

Dana Leipold is a freelance writer, author, and member of the Association of Independent Authors and Creativity Coaching Association. She has self-published two books: a collection of limericks in Dr. Seuss-style for adults entitled, Stupid Poetry: The Ultimate Collection of Sublime and Ridiculous Poems, and a non-fiction book entitled, The Power of Writing Well: Write Well. Change the World, to help writers get their message heard, create stories that connect, and leverage the power of writing well. In addition, she coaches other writers on story structure, messaging, and writing skills so they can achieve their dreams to become published authors. Leipold lives with her husband and two children in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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