The Next Big Thing Take 2

The Next Big Thing Blog Tour has circled around here again ... this time I'm letting the lead author on a Work in Progress, my friend Dawn Treadway, take over the blog to answer questions about her concept for the Children of Sheol series and the first book, Dark Dreams, which I'm thrilled to be credited on.  Dawn ... take it away ...

(To backtrack to the last post in the tour .... visit my friend Rory Ni Coleiain's blog ... http://rorynicoileain.wordpress.com/2012/10/24/the-next-big-thing/ )

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What is the working title of your current book?

Children of Sheol: Dark Dreams

Where did the idea come from for the book?

My original thought when the book popped into my consciencness was of woman in an outdoor bazaar who sees a mysterious man move through he peripheral vision in a distant corner of the market. She was immediately excited by his presence. His repeated appearance in her life was where I intended to begin a foundation for a plot. This scene eventually turned into Nias's visit to Jade's bookstore, where she does actually see him, almost like a shadow, in her peripheral vision for the first time.

What genre does your book fall under?

Dark Dreams is definitely a paranormal romance, but with a slight lean toward a fantasy. In the book Girl meets beautiful alpha male and trouble and love combine into a perfect romance. However while their love develops, we take them on a long and twisting journey into the depths of a Hell. This world was fully created by one girl's (that would be me, Dawn) vision of what a dark and at some points beautiful place the underworld could be. The creation of this world and the journey aspect of this book, I believe pushes it just past the confines of a straight romance.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie?

This, I'm afraid is a question I would have a huge problem answering. As my fellow writers will probably attest to, we make our characters bigger than life. To then assign them to someone else's face is so difficult. The male lead, Nias’s, attitude would be almost Vin Diesel's cocky take charge bad boy, Riddick, in the original Pitch Black movie. But his looks are far more sleek muscular panther, like Alexander Skarsgard. Jade Shear would be a bit easier because she is all about personality, the actress would just have to grasp her sassy tone and increase in paranormal power.  Possibilities for Jade are Zooey Deschanel or Emily Blunt, with red hair of course.

What is a one sentence synopsis of your book?

Dark Dreams is a love story between an ordinary girl, who just so happens to be an empath, and a gorgeous insatiable daemon that wants to drag her into Hell.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I want an agency for the support and experience they can provide. As I am not an expert I think having our first book represented would not only be helpful in promotion and direction and getting a good deal but also just as a learning experience. I look forward to working with a seasoned professional in the business.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

6 months.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I don’t know what books to compare it with honestly.  I think many writers feel their work is unique LOL …

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

My inspiration came in the form of necessity. I was in a situation personally that I no longer wanted to be a part of. I suppose this was my first step out, into an exciting world where perfect gorgeous bad boys fall madly in love despite their best efforts to resist and semi-ordinary women become powerful daemon fighting bad asses and live happily ever after.

What else about your book might interest the reader?

Personally my favorite piece of this book is the demonology, and all the interaction with the dark demons. The way they move, how they look, their lineage and their own, excuse this pun, demons.

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The first chapter of Children of Sheol: Dark Dreams, is still posted on the So You Think You Can Write web page here ...

http://www.soyouthinkyoucanwrite.com/manuscripts-sytycw-2012/children-of-sheol-dark-dreams/

And there are five other excerpts posted here on this blog in October ... check them out!!!!

http://aaronspeca.blogspot.com/2012/10/dark-dreams-excerpt.html

http://aaronspeca.blogspot.com/2012/10/dark-dreams-excerpt-2.html

http://aaronspeca.blogspot.com/2012/10/dark-dreams-excerpt-3.html

http://aaronspeca.blogspot.com/2012/10/dark-dreams-excerpt-4.html

http://aaronspeca.blogspot.com/2012/10/dark-dreams-excerpt-5.html

Don't forget, tomorrow the Sisterhood of the Traveling Blog make their first stop at each other's blogs and are guesting here.  It should be exciting!

Countdown to the Sisterhood

The ladies are getting ready to take over this blog space, and I think I finally got everything cleaned up for them.  So please stay tuned here and on the other blogs (posted below) to meet and learn about nine great authors!

Another exciting thing that will be happening is - they'll be giving away an e-book at the end of the blog tour. All you have to do to be in to win is comment on one of the blogs in the tour. It couldn't be more simple! Plus if you sign up officially to follow any of the blogs participating (by clicking the join button) then you get an extra entry. A list of the books available (By some of the authors in the blog tour) will be made available for the winner to choose from.

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The Sisterhood of the Traveling Blog is coming here for four weeks, every Wednesday starting October 31st!  Don't miss it!  And so you can make sure to catch them all on their various blogs and pages, here are where you will find all the posts during that month:

Amy Kessler

http://blog.amylkessler.com/ 

Ashley Nemer

http://ashleynemer.blogspot.com/

Patricia Laffoon

(right here!!!)

Johanna Rae

http://johannamrae.blogspot.com/

L. S. Broomfield

http://lsbroomfield.blogspot.com/

Sherrie Henry

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorSherrieHenry

Stacy Moran

http://stacymoran.blogspot.com/

Torie James

http://torienjames.blogspot.com/

Tracey Steinbach

http://traceysteinbachmichael.webs.com/apps/blog/

The Sisterhood is Coming ...

"Ow!  Damn it!"

I come out of the other room rubbing my head, the sound of crashing behind me, and look up.

"Oh, hi there!"  I look around at the mess in the room and rub the back of my neck.  "Yeah, I know, this place is a mess.  I've got to get it cleaned up before the ladies get here."  I see you look at me quizzically.  "Yeah you probably don't know.  See for some reason I agreed to turn over this space to my writing partner, Patricia Laffoon, and a bunch of her friends for a bit.  But I didn't realize how much of a disaster this place was.  Can't have the women seeing it like this ..."

I walk over to pick up some dirty clothes and toss them in a nearby laundry basket.  "Who?  Oh, they call themselves the Sisterhood of the Traveling Blog.  They'll be here starting on Halloween for four weeks.  Every Wednesday."  I pick up the laundry basket and look back up at you.  "I think you'll enjoy it, they'll be talking about why they write, their favorite books and characters, even about their hobbies.  Well, I'd better get back to it.  There's still a lot of chores to do ..."

I walk over to the door and look back over my shoulder ... "And ... make sure you don't tell Patricia about the state this place is in?  Please?"

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The Sisterhood of the Traveling Blog is coming here for four weeks, every Wednesday starting October 31st!  Don't miss it!  And so you can make sure to catch them all on their various blogs and pages, here are where you will find all the posts during that month:

Amy Kessler

http://blog.amylkessler.com/ 

Ashley Nemer

http://ashleynemer.blogspot.com/

Patricia Laffoon

(right here!!!)

Johanna Rae

http://johannamrae.blogspot.com/

L. S. Broomfield

http://lsbroomfield.blogspot.com/

Sherrie Henry

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorSherrieHenry

Stacy Moran

http://stacymoran.blogspot.com/

Torie James

http://torienjames.blogspot.com/

Tracey Steinbach

http://traceysteinbachmichael.webs.com/apps/blog/

Lessons Learned ... I Hope

I have learned many lessons over the last few months.  Most of them have to do with the fact that I get very focused sometimes on one thing.  It’s both a blessing and a curse.  It makes me work hard on one thing, but sometimes at the expense of others (like actually writing).  For someone with great limits on time like I have, that’s where the curse part comes in.

But I figure by talking about it, maybe I can purge it a little bit and learn from it.  So, what exactly did I learn over the last few months?

1. Fight the battles that need fighting, but understand when it becomes a draw.  In July and August, I became very engaged in the issue of e-book piracy.  I had no idea it was so rampant.  I did a lot of research into the issue and made several blog posts about the subject.  And I engaged the pirates on their own “turf”, so to speak, joining one of their boards and making an argument against the practice.

Did it have any real impact?  Possibly.  I got an e-mail from someone thanking me for educating them on the issues and impacts of e-book piracy on individual authors.  So perhaps my efforts did make some headway with people that truly didn’t know what they were doing.  But, frustrating was the attitude of diehards, and their staunch denial of facts, their sense of entitlement.  I’ve run into this before, once people take a position, they stick by it despite any compelling evidence to the contrary.  Mostly in religion and politics, but then some pirates DO consider this a political or even religious issue.

Do I regret doing it?  Not at all.  I learned a ton about the industry itself while researching this issue, so that’s a good thing.  (If you want to read what I found out, check out the blogs titled “Pirates or Patriots?” in July and August.)  But … the effort did take a lot out of me, and ultimately arguing with that attitude is simply draining.

2. Social media promotion works.  I had two things going on in September and October.  First was my entry with Dawn Treadway into the Harlequin 2012 So You Think You Can Write contest.  Second was the publication of the anthology containing Patricia Laffoon’s and my second short story.  For both of these events, I promoted heavily on Facebook and opened a Twitter account.  And I also created a Facebook event for each. So what did I see?  Engagement on the event pages.  Several glowing reviews for the anthology.  Spikes in Amazon sales rank that coincided with promotional posts and contests.  So does it work?  It sure seems to.

3. A watched inbox never fills.  With regards to the Harlequin contest, I think I’ve become a little obsessed.  Waiting and waiting for an e-mail that never comes is PAINFUL.  At this point, it’s a pretty safe assumption that we did not get selected as a finalist, which of course is disappointing, but we learned that MANY people liked the first chapter which has encouraged us to move forward with submissions regardless of the final results.  But obsessing over it has been detrimental to … well just about everything else LOL.

4. I have a pretty obsessive personality actually.  I’m sure my wife would agree.  The common thread was … each of these things became pretty all-consuming.  I’m learning to balance out a little better, but I think I still have a long way to go.  But I’ve only gotten a total of about 5000 words written in the past month.  Gotta change that!

This whole thing has been a crazy ride, and I’m sure it will just get crazier!

Dark Dreams ... Excerpt #5

One last excerpt from our entry into the Harlequin 2012 So You Think You Can Write contest, Children of Sheol: Dark Dreams, by Dawn Treadway and Aaron Speca.  If you enjoy this, then go to the link at the end of the excerpt, read the entire first chapter, and give us a vote!  Every day from today through October 11th!  There are still 2 days of voting left!  If you want to get a chance to read the entire book, then we need to make it to the next round!

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 Leaving her eyes closed for a few seconds, she felt the soft sheets beneath her bare body, and heard only the near silence of the early morning breeze.  But she could also feel his body against her, his powerful presence and masculine smell permeated her very being.  She shifted involuntarily against him as her hand went to his hips (still clothed?!) and sighed deeply.

She looked up, and he was already awake and gazing at her.  She had a sudden vision of their encounter and was struck with self-consciousness.  The reality of her situation invaded the fantasy, and she blushed beet red, looking away.  Deviant sexual behavior is so not like me.  But that sure as hell didn’t feel deviant!  She shook her head.  What the hell had she been thinking, she barely knew this man.  And yet she lay there cozied up and secure in his body.  He was sex on a stick; it oozed out of him, the way his massive arms unavoidably flexed whenever he shifted.  It was only one of the highlights of his impeccable body.  The arrogant smile he gave, which always accompanied the soft dark sexually charged laugh, raised her ire. 

“What is it Kitten?”  She jumped slightly; his deep sexy voice startled her. 

She could have screamed.  She could have lashed out at him.  She could have gotten up, demanded some clothes and gotten the hell out of there.  Maybe she should have done any one of those things.  But after everything that had happened … “I was reflecting on the absurdity of the situation.  I could be crippled by fear, ashamed at myself or throw my hands in the air and confess that I’m just not in Kansas anymore. I guess that’s what I’ve decided to do.”  Again she chuckled at her own humor.

“I don’t understand, what does this day have to do with a Middle American state?” 

God, has he never even seen “Wizard of Oz”?  Where was he from anyway?  “Never mind, I have a really strange habit of making myself laugh when things are too … overwhelming.” 

“I understand you feel undone.  But, I believe I have discovered a way to calm you a little.  Shall I apply my findings again?”  He flashed another wicked grin.

“No!” God no, she thought, even though her protest came a little more sharply than she intended. “Please keep your findings to yourself for a while.  I have never done anything like that before.  I am a little humiliated with my actions.  What I’m trying to say is I should have stopped that from happening and I didn’t and I’m not sure why.  Okay, I am going to shut up now.” And her face turned bright red again as she managed to dam up the words that came tumbling out of her mouth faster than she could think about them.  He continued smiling wickedly at her.  “What, why are you grinning at me like a cat with a mouse trapped under its paw?” 

“You do realize, my Kitten that you said, ‘for a while’ don’t you.  You asked that I keep my so-called ‘findings’ to myself ‘for a while’,” he stated with a big sardonic grin.

“Oh, well that’s not what I meant,” she choked out, as if she didn’t even believe it herself.  Weak, Jade, truly weak.  “Anyway, now that I’m not being ripped apart by monsters, or smeared with blood; which reminds me I would really like a shower; or molested, I have a whole lot of questions for you.”

“First of all, ‘molested’ implies you did not consent and I’m pretty sure I remember every stroke, moan and wiggle, and Kitten, you heartily consented; and second, we can take a shower any time you wish.”

“Okay, molested may have been the wrong word, and I did not mean take a shower together.  Arrogance isn’t going to get you anywhere.”

“On the contrary, I think it already has.”  He arched his brow.

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If you like what you are reading, then please go check out Chapter 1 here!  If you still like it, then give us a vote!  Thanks!

http://www.soyouthinkyoucanwrite.com/manuscripts/children-of-sheol-dark-dreams/

Dark Dreams ... Excerpt #4

Another brief excerpt from our entry into the Harlequin 2012 So You Think You Can Write contest, Children of Sheol: Dark Dreams, by Dawn Treadway and Aaron Speca.  If you enjoy this, then go to the link at the end of the excerpt, read the entire first chapter, and give us a vote!  Every day from today through October 11th!  There are still 3 days of voting left!

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 Then a high, whiny voice spoke in English.  “How is it you know Nias, what business does he have with you human?”

 Fuck, fuck, fuck, did it just say human like it wasn’t one?  She just wanted to go back home.  She wanted to wake up from this whole nightmare.  She began crying again, she couldn’t breathe right.  The chains were too tight and she couldn’t catch her breath.

 She was screaming again!

 “Stop!”  It slapped her again, hard. “What is your business with Nias, answer me or I will not continue to be so kind,” it whined in a macabre singsong manner.

 For some inexplicable reason, she felt compelled to lie.  “I don’t know who that is!  I have no idea who…what do you want from me?” she managed to choke out through the blood running from her mouth, in her breathless state. 

 It tore through her shirt with razor sharp claws, drawing down her chest, diagonally over her breast, across the chains, ripping across her stomach.  She cried out then bit her bleeding lip.  The claws made a scratching noise as they pulled over the last of her bindings.  Sharp pains were now emanating from her torso in concert with the continued pulsing in the back of her skull.

“Do not lie to me, I saw you transcend in with him!  You were in his home; I saw you converse, what did you discuss?”

Her vision was hazy and she wasn’t sure what she should say.  She really didn’t want to make it angrier, but she had the feeling that giving it too much information was definitely a bad idea.  Actually, she couldn’t think of a good idea at all.  For the second time in a day, she was sure she was going to die.

 “Speak!”  It ran one of its razors slowly down her arm.  

 It was horrifying, but the feeling of being trapped and powerless over the situation was starting to make her angry despite her terror.  She clenched her teeth, and began to struggle again but this time with fury.  She shoved aside the pain and pushed back at it with her mind, grabbing its emotions within its head and twisting them.  She attached herself to the darkness within it and it consumed her; she knew it would, she also knew somehow it would only last until she gained control. 

 When changing, or altering really, someone’s emotional state she used the opposite emotion to push it out.  It was something she rarely had attempted, and her success varied.  It depended a lot on how in touch with the emotion she could get, and how strong the emotion in the target was.  Although the utter darkness and pure hatred was heavy and difficult to move, she found its self-doubt and the thing allowed her manipulate it; at least, she thought, enough to get it to stop injuring her.  She tried her best to channel pleasure until she could feel its hate dissipate, if only slightly.  At the moment, she was finding it quite hard to find any pleasant images to pull from.  She only wished that hate could move hate.  She was feeling plenty of that and channeling it could have knocked the fucking thing on its putrid ass.  

Jade thought she would try to manipulate it into letting her go.  She tried to speak evenly.  “I was taken by the man you’re referring to, but I’m not sure how.”  The best lies are always the ones that contain at least minimal truth.  “I have no idea what he wanted from me.  What is it you want from me?”  Her anger and pain were starting to make her breathless. 

 “I need to know what the Djinn are planning.  They are a bad lot.  They hurt people, did you know this?”  It continued in its high-pitched unholy melody.  She could sense immediately it was lying to her but decided to play along.  Her headache was starting to subside and she was beginning to gain even more mental control.

 “I didn’t, but I knew when he abducted me that he had bad intentions, I was afraid for my life.”  Yeah, does this stupid thing not get that I am afraid for my life now? 

 “Yesss,” it hissed, “you were right to fear for your safety, you are much safer now.” 

 Really?  Did it really just rip its claws through my body and tell me I was safe?  If she had any small measure of doubt about it, it was certainly gone now.  She had to get out of here.  The pain in her head was abating rapidly, but it was starting to swim now, probably from blood loss.

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If you like what you are reading, then please go check out Chapter 1 here!  If you still like it, then give us a vote!  Thanks!

http://www.soyouthinkyoucanwrite.com/manuscripts/children-of-sheol-dark-dreams/

Dark Dreams ... Excerpt #3

Another brief excerpt from our entry into the Harlequin 2012 So You Think You Can Write contest, Children of Sheol: Dark Dreams, by Dawn Treadway and Aaron Speca.  If you enjoy this, then go to the link at the end of the excerpt, read the entire first chapter, and give us a vote!  Every day from today through October 11th!

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“Cease talking, infuriating woman and listen.  I come from an … unusual … family, we know who you are and we are well informed as to what you can do.”

Jade pulled and twisted her hair back with a flip of her hand and studied his face.

“Unusual huh?  How could you possibly know anything about me, about what you think I’m capable of?  Maybe you’re just misinformed.  Have you considered that?”  His hands again became the tightly balled fists.  He exhaled, brow furrowed; seemingly a bit exasperated, but continued to answer her questions with a strange, but strained patience. 

“The Gifts you possess came because one of the Goddesses granted them to you.  She suspected that someday those Gifts would be of use to us.  That day has come.”

Oh my God he really is crazy.  “Why?” She blurted. “Even if I were to believe your cockamamie story, why me?”

“Goddesses cannot go where we must go, and so, for some reason you were blessed with the Gifts of empathy and projection.  I cannot tell you why you in particular were chosen.  It makes no good sense to me.”  His face touched on pained when he said this.  “You must come with me; that I know for sure.  You need to do exactly as I tell you.”

How can he know about this?  She paused, considering his statements.  “You said I should listen, and I have, and I believe the answer is no.” She supposed he decided to ignore her, because he went on.

“You’ll have to train first; unfortunately it will be me who does your training.  And we need to begin immediately, oh yes,” the man actually said in dead pan, “it will be extremely dangerous.  Now, what is your decision?”

“You actually seem serious; you believe what you’re saying, don’t you?”  He was sitting there waiting for an answer.  “Wow, neuroses really can be an all-consuming thing.” She would know.  What the hell, she decided to reply as if she were taking him seriously.

“NO, I’m sticking with, NO.”

After all that delusional crazy talk, she hoped he hadn’t poisoned her food.  She stared down into the empty bowl inspecting it for signs of nefarious activity.   Like I would know, I haven’t gotten my CBS crime investigation degree yet.

Jade stood up pushing the chair back with the back of her legs, turned and calmly walked to the bar, and asked politely if she could use the phone to call a cab.  She refused to even look back at what unfortunately had turned out to be a complete nutjob. 

The next thing Jade knew, someone’s giant hands gripped her around the waist, and with absolutely no effort at all, heaved her straight up into the air and threw her over his shoulder.  Now, ass pointed to the ceiling, face looking down at his backside and the floor, she was being carried away!  Omigod, omigod, he’s going to kill me now!  Why isn’t anyone stopping him?!

“PUT ME DOWN!  You freaking Neanderthal, I don’t care what kind of insanity you suffer from!  You can’t just abduct people!  I said PUT ME DOWN!”  Apparently her screaming had no effect on the man, or anyone else in the establishment, because he simply walked, at his leisure.

“I have tried being reasonable, I gave you an honest chance at free will, and you failed to use it.”

“Hello large deranged man, allow me to edify you on the finer points of free will, because there is no part of that definition which states, ‘when a person decides against doing what you want them to, you then have the right to throw them over your giant, stupid controlling body and walk away with them!’ ”

As her red curls now flopped below her head bouncing off the man’s waistline, Jade fisted her hand, and even though she knew it wouldn’t stop him or deter him from his purpose, she slugged him several times and bashed her legs wildly as hard as she could.

Calmly and smoothly, he walked to the door with her over his shoulder and put his hand to the knob, turning it and swinging the door open.  Even as the noise level of the crowd died down and they watched him walk out with her, they did nothing to even try to stop him, and he stepped out into the chilled night air. 

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If you like what you are reading, then please go check out Chapter 1 here!  If you still like it, then give us a vote!  Thanks!

http://www.soyouthinkyoucanwrite.com/manuscripts/children-of-sheol-dark-dreams/