Guest Post: Author, Alison DeLuca

Allow me to introduce a wonderful author and friend Alison DeLuca. Alison writes YA Steampunk novels. Admittedly I knew very little about the genre, until I was told where it originated. But I won't bore you with my poor description. Instead, I'll let the professional tell you about it.  

 Of Airships and Automatons

Steampunk is a mutt, a hybrid. It is sci fi mixed with ersatz historical fiction: a strange monster indeed. Purebred genres have their good points, of course, but sometimes readers are looking for a place to escape to in a world tired of vampires.

Is it new? No. It’s been here, after all, since the days of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne. It was resurrected in the late 80’s by the likes of William Gibson and James Blaylock. Perhaps those writers were tired of the slick, aseptic world of 2001 and wanted something grittier that was at once urban and urbane.

Over the past few years, however, steampunk has really taken off. It has been given new life in the publishing world as well as on programming like Fringe. It even appears in a Lady Gaga video.

There are amazing books that have recently come out in the genre; there are collections like Corsets and Clockwork, series like the Behemoth books, and stand-alone works like The Windup Girl. They are edgy; they are filled with cogs and wheels and drawing room manners; they are sexy, like The Girl in the Steel Corset.

Hang on – how about those corsets, though? I write Steampunk, but I write books for a YA audience. I have deliberately decided to keep my work G-rated. There are no corsets there, except for those well hidden under riding habits and tea gowns.

I’m an editor as well as a writer, so “Will it sell?” is a question I’m learning to ask. What is steampunk without the steam? Will a younger audience be interested in an antique world?

There are YA collections out there for kids and teens, the Nickie Nick vampire hunter novels by O. M. Grey, the Blackfeather Chronicles, and the Girl Genius series by the Foglios. There are stand-alone books like Beltbuckle and Flash Gold. How popular they will be, and whether they will remain on Barnes & Noble bookshelves remains to be seen.

It makes sense that some books about cogs, wheels, and automatons should cater to kids. After all, children and adolescents were Verne’s and Wells’s and Doyle’s main audiences. I do believe that there must be quality in the story, however.

Steampunk, in order to save it from becoming steampulp, needs to have the Victorian or Edwardian technology serve a purpose. The airships should be there for a reason, not just floating around in order to give the author an excuse to slap a steampunk genre sticker on her book.

The airships and automatons must be an integral part of the plot, adding to the action and even, if I dare, the character development. I believe that kids appreciate character as much as any group of readers; they are just as turned off by poorly written protagonists. The characters in the books must be real, with flaws to overcome and problems to solves, as well as human feelings and hopes and desires. They cannot, in other words, be corset-wearing automatons.

I firmly believe that we will continue to see amazing books in the genre for YA. As the interest grows (there are already Steampunk festivals and exhibits all over the world, after all,) more authors will discover the fascinating fantasy that comes from opening the door to the old factory and discovering the possibilities of the alien machinery that waits inside.

Alison DeLuca grew up on an organic farm in Chester County, Pennsylvania.  Her parents were British, so in the summers she went to stay with her grandparents near Dublin.

There was no stereo or TV there, so Alison, her sister, and her cousins spent the summer inventing stories and plays for each other.  “This gave me the ability to entertain myself with my own imagination in any situation,” she says. “We used to be taken to tea with great-aunts, and we were expected to sit on an uncomfortable couch and not move or say a word.  It was possible to endure it because I was watching my own little stories play out in my mind.”

After graduating from West Chester University, Alison became a teacher of English and Spanish, teaching students from kindergarten up to college level. She loved teaching, and it was with reluctance that she left the classroom to be a fulltime mom when her daughter was born.

While she was teaching and raising her daughter, Alison took every free minute she had to write.  The Crown Phoenix Series was the result.

She is currently working on the final book in the series, as well as several other projects.

 

Meet author Carlie Cullen

I had the pleasure and honor to interview author Carlie Cullen, whose new book Heart Search:Lost has its launch today. As a fellow author, I thought it would be fun to pick Carlie's brain about the internal aspects of writing.

CC: Hi Joan, thank you so much for inviting me here today.

JH: Thanks for joining me. Let's just jump right in with the fun stuff. I read on your bio that you were writing stories before you reached double digits. Can you tell us what your first story was about?

CC: Oh goodness, that’s going back a few years. I’ve really got to delve into the memory banks for that one! [Laughs]. Ok, I’ve found it and removed the dust and cobwebs.

It was a fairy tale. A princess had unknowingly upset a wicked witch who started putting evil spells on people in the castle. The princess managed to escape and sought the help of a good fairy. She offered her life in return for the fairy reversing the spells and stopping the wicked witch. The fairy agreed, reversed the spells and imprisoned the witch where she could do no more damage. But she didn’t take the life of the princess on the basis that as she was willing to sacrifice herself for other people, she deserved to live.

JH:Awww, that is a really sweet story. Who would you say most influenced your writing style?

CC: When I first began writing, it was undoubtedly Hans Christian Andersen. It was reading his stories and those of The Brothers Grimm which fostered my love of fantasy.

Although I’ve always loved fantasy, as a teenager and young adult I decided to broaden my horizons and read books from other genres. It taught me there were other ways to tell stories, different elements to draw on and I believe I’ve taken a little something I learned from each of the authors.

My biggest influencers are the following. For world-building, it could be no one but the incomparable J R R Tolkien (although I do think he tended to over-describe in places). For emotion, I learnt a great deal from Virginia Andrews. For tale weaving or storytelling, I found Jeffrey Archer and Sidney Sheldon had a great deal to offer. Finally for suspense and unexpected twists, it would have to be Dean Koontz and Stephen King.

I’d like to think I’ve taken what I’ve learnt from each of those amazing authors and applied my own style to it.

JH:In your short story, A Rift in Thyme, (love the play on words) the topic is a muse. Do you have a muse? If so can you describe him or her for us?

CC: Yes, I do have a Muse and part of A Rift in Thyme was actually based on true events.

My Muse is called Catherine (I’m not sure if she spells it with a C or K though) and she lived in the 16^th century. She has an oval face, hazel eyes, pale lips and is quite pretty. Her hair is dark brown and hangs in ringlet-type curls down to her knees. She wears a long jade green velvet dress typical of the times and an unusual amulet hangs around her neck.

She was an herbalist and healer. It’s not clear who accused her of witchcraft in her village, but she was ambushed in the woods one day when she was picking herbs and was murdered, driven through by a sword.

I’m told she was drawn to me by my inner strength, purity of spirit, willingness to help others, my writing ability and imagination.

JH:I know that you are a writer of fantasy. Is there another genre that you would like to try? If you did write in another genre, would you continue to use Carlie Cullen or would you use a different pen name?

CC: I’m sometimes drawn toward horror (I read quite a few horror books in my teenage years), but it’s more the paranormal-type horror I liked not the slasher-horror. The idea of mindless violence for the sake of it doesn’t appeal at all. The paranormal has always held a fascination for me so, at some point I might try writing a paranormal horror. I’m also quite fascinated by Steampunk, which is something else I’d be interested in exploring.

I don’t think I would write under a pen name if I published a book in a different genre. I believe by keeping my own name, it would show my versatility as a writer.

JH:As a writer I find there are characters I love and characters that I am not so fond of. Is there a character in Heart Search: Lost you found you were not so fond of?

CC: Actually, yes.  Although she was fun to write and I enjoyed every minute of creating her, I didn’t like Dayna. She was such a bitch, who took great delight in bullying a weaker member of her coven, and showed no remorse for it. When she was severely chastised for her actions she blamed her victim for the trouble she was in and was completely in denial, unable or unwilling to accept she’d brought it all down on her own head.

JH:You are both a writer and an editor. Is there anything that you have learned through your time as editor that has helped you in your own writing?

CC: Absolutely. It’s taught me to watch for duplications of words in the same sentences or close together in paragraphs. Also the over-use of the word ‘that’ is something I’ve become extremely aware of; if I find myself typing it, I stop immediately (or as soon as I finished the sentence) and self-edit, even though I know I shouldn’t. Another thing it’s taught me is to look at how I begin sentences and not having two or three consecutive sentences beginning with the same word.

There’s also been a down side to being an editor as well as a writer, although I’m over it now.

After I’d done a particularly long edit and went back to my own work, I found I was self-editing almost every sentence I wrote and as a result my writing didn’t flow as well as normal – I couldn’t get myself back to the ‘stream of consciousness’ writing where I allowed the story to write itself. I’ve learned a valuable lesson there and besides, when I told my editor, Maria, what was happening, I got quite a telling off for trying to do her job. She reminded me who the editor was where my work was concerned and encouraged me to just allow the words to flow and let her worry about the editing. Maria told me it was my job to tell the story and hers to do the polishing.

JH:Has there ever been an idea for a book, short story or movie that you have watched or read and thought, “Dang, why didn’t I think of that?” If so, what was it?

CC: Yes and no. There was one movie I watched (and ending up buying) where I thought “I could have written that!” ’The Craft’ was about four teenagers experimenting with witchcraft. One of them was a natural witch, a gift she’d inherited from her mother while the other three were powerless in comparison. Once they joined together, things began to happen. One girl went power crazy and allowed it to go to her head, eventually turning against the girl with the real power. Unsurprisingly the natural witch won the battle in the end and the power crazy girl ended up in a straightjacket.

As witchcraft is another area which fascinates me, and I have some witchy books planned for the future, The Craft was definitely something I could see myself writing, but I never actually thought, “Dang, why didn’t I think of that?”

Thanks so much for the great interview, Joan – I really enjoyed myself! 

 Once again I would like to thank Carlie for taking the time out of her schedule to share her thoughts with us. Best of luck on the new book!

Carlie is having a give away!  Go to the address below and enter for your chance to win.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/3dde780/ 

 


Carlie M A Cullen was born in London. She grew up in Hertfordshire where she first discovered her love of books and writing. She has been an administrator and marketer all her working life and is also a professional teacher of Ballroom and Latin American dancing.

Carlie has always written in some form or another, but Heart Search: Lost is her first novel. This is being launched 8^th October 2012 through Myrddin Publishing Group and work has started on book two: Heart Search: Found. She writes mainly in the Fantasy/Paranormal Romance genres for YA, New Adult and Adult.

She is also a professional editor and holds the reins of a writing group called Writebulb. Their first anthology was published September 2012.

Carlie currently lives in Essex, UK with her daughter.

Call me Mingan

Congratulations to Leanna Gutierrez!

 

The polls have closed and all votes are in for the "Name My Character Contest". The new character's name a Native American name, Mingan, which means Grey Wolf. As winner, Leanna will receive an autographed copy of Burdens of a Saint when it comes out later this year.  

Thanks to everyone who entered the contest and congratulations again to Leanna!

DEADLINE APPROACHING

I wanted to give an update on the contest that is going on for the book I am working on. Voting will begin on March 21st so if you would like to enter there is still time.
 
You can view all the details by clicking on the Theriontrope Foundation logo (TM) .

Here is a list of the names I have received so far:


Dayton
Mingan (means grey wolf)
Goxslouge
Tanek (immortal)
Charlie Bishop
Indigo Frost

It's a Contest

I have always been intimidated by contests. I'm sure my fear stems from early childhood and my mother's eagerness to place me in a beauty pageant. Luckily, for me, it was the one and only I was ever forced to be in. That's probably due to the fact I spent most of the evening standing in the wings crying. Unfortunately, the irreversible scarring to my psyche had already taken place.

But now, after an undisclosed number of years, I have decided to try again. No, I am not entering another beauty pageant. Author, Chanelle Gray, is sponsoring a contest to pitch your novel in 140 characters or less and of course the contest is called, the Twitter Pitch Contest.

http://chanellegray.blogspot.com/2011/03/twitter-pitch-contest.html

The contestant whose pitch is chosen will have their manuscript read by Michael Carr of Veritas Literary Agency. Much better than a beauty contest.

Wish me luck!