Hey SLC peeps

Salt Lake City friends and family. This Friday, (Nov. 30), I will be signing books at the Sandy Library from 4-6.

Come see me and get a signed book. (They make great Christmas presents) Eat treats and have a good time. This is the last chance to get a signed copy of EMERGENCE before Christmas or the end of the year unless you're going to be in Mesquite NV on December 14-15. (Then it's your second to last chance.)

YAY!!!!!

Guess what I have IN MY OFFICE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

SEVEN DAYS!!!!

That's simply hard to believe. I will have my book in my hands and be able to offer it to you my readers in SEVEN DAYS!

I'm so excited!

So to celebrate I'm going to post every day until the 8th and I'm going to shamelessly promote me and my book.

So first things first. I was tagged in a blog chain hop about my book and I decided to post my answers so you can get to know me and my book better.

Have fun!

The next big thing blog chain.

J. J. Bennet has chained me to this “next big blog chain”

By joining this blog chain I get to answer a few questions about my upcoming book (or WIP) and generate some excitement about the debut. So here we go with the answers.

My new book is titled: Emergence

Where did you get the idea for the book?
I was playing with the idea of “What would it take in his life to change a man from a bad boy to a good guy.” We did a lot of what ifs and turned my old draft completely upside down.

What’s the genre of the book? Futuristic suspense

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in the book?
Antony: Jason Moma
Elite: No idea, someone thin but rugged and pretty. Loves to be adventurous.
Catelyn: Tall, thin, long black hair, aristocratic.
Man in black: Wears black suits and glasses. Long black hair.
Gage: White blonde, golden eyes. Wears Hawaiian shirts.
Mathilde: Pale, blond, delicate looking.

My elevator pitch: He was the corporations prized hit man until he refused an assignment. Now he’s going to find it’s a lot easier to kill a man than to keep him alive.

Will your book be represented by an agent/publisher or self pubbed?
Emergence is being published by Walnut Springs Press.

How long did it take you to write your first draft?
About four months. The revisions and editing too just more than a year.

What other books compare to yours in your genre?
The Jason Bourne series.

Who or what inspired your book?
The main character Antony Danic.

What else about the book might pique a readers interest?
There’s lots of conflict, lots of surprises, a hologram a tattoo and some betrayal.

Now to fling the link to someone else.
If you want to try it, go ahead and grab the questions.

I think I'm in love with a cover.

Manuscript Proofreads

I'm 110 pages away from being done with my final proofread of my manuscript Emergence. We should go to press next week. I'm dead, my eyes hurt and my brain is much. See you guys on the upside.

Beautiful Sorrows by Mercedes M. Yardley

I met Mercedes through a mutual friend. We were Facebook friends for a few months before we actually got to meet in person. I'm so glad we met She's awesome and we connected immediately we have so much in common. Mercedes is an amazing female horror writer and her collection of "tragic" short stories called Beautiful Sorrows is out now.

Here is her blog and the purchase link for her book. As well as an awesome interview.

ENJOY!

A Broken Laptop

Shock Totem Bookstore

Amazon link


How does a small town girl end up in Vegas?
This small town girl first sampled Seattle, Helsinki, and then ended up in Vegas. My family and I are definitely adventurers. I’m being absolutely honest when I say that there are definitely things that I miss about growing up in Castle Dale. I miss things like talking over the fence with the neighbors and growing up with the same group of kids. My son has been to almost a dozen schools in six years here, and that’s hard for him. There’s no continuity. But I love how many friends pop into Vegas for vacation or for conferences, so I get to see them. And it’s great having a store open in the middle of the night! When I visit home, I get panicked because I forget that everything closes at 9:00 pm. There’s that 8:45 rush to run down there and make sure we’re good for the evening.

Why do you write what you write?
I write what I read. I write what I think about. My mind has a tendency to spiral toward the dark beautiful, and it’s easy to jump in the rabbit hole after it. I also try to exorcise some of my fears and anxieties of the moment. My husband constantly tells me, “Your mind is not your friend,” and he’s absolutely right. I try to put some of this crazy energy to work for me, instead of just against me.

There aren’t a lot of women who write horror, does this make it harder or easier to be noticed?
When I first started writing horror, I felt that being a woman was used against me. I felt like I was being singled out. Now that I’ve settled into my space, I see that wasn’t necessarily the case, but I was projecting my own insecurities onto other people. Being a woman is helpful because it’s a little bit of an anomaly. Being a woman of faith who writes horror, well! That’s even more strange. It’s helpful if you know how to shoulder the attention, and it took me a while to become comfortable with it. But horror writers are the most amazing crew. I was surprised at how wonderful and generous and kind they all are! They put all of their darkness on the page, so they’re basically left as happy, well-balanced beings. There are exceptions, of course, but they seem to be few and far between.

I’ve seen your painted piano, is your writing space as eclectic?
Ha! I love that piano! I named her Sonja, and after I painted her, she became Red Sonja. She’s a happy thing. My writing space is pretty much the whole house, but I do have a desk that’s set up for writing. I have a statue of Romeo and Juliet that I got in Verona when I was a teenager. A Maleficent figurine, a stuffed skeleton that a friend gave me. There’s an original, signed “The Last Unicorn” poster hanging over the desk, and a wonderfully whimsical and sinister painting of Red Riding Hood riding on the wolf’s back. He has a red muzzle. A picture of my writing group, a picture that my daughter drew, and a pair of red rain boots tucked underneath. For, you know, all of the rain in Vegas. I write in them. So, um, yes, I suppose it’s fairly eclectic. Slightly strange, very charming, and quite me.

If you had to evacuate your home what would you take first? (Besides your family members and mementos)
My journals. Too many precious memories to lose. And my laptop. Once a writer, always a writer. Thankfully I have my work backed up in about a zillion places, but I never want to be without a computer.

What is with the high heels?
I have a slight obsession. I’ve always loved shoes, but it’s since I married my super wonderful, super secure husband that I’ve really started collecting the stilettos. I’m taller than him when I wear them. Heck, I’m taller than pretty much everybody when I wear them! In most of my heels, I’m 6’1”. I love that my husband isn’t at all intimidated or insecure about that. They’re pretty, they’re something special that can be incorporated into every day, and I love the sound that they make when they tic-tic-tic on the floor. It’s a very powerful, very feminine sound.

Tell us about your current writing.
Right now I’m reveling in the release of my first story collection titled Beautiful Sorrows. I’m also working on a novel that I’m planning to turn in to my agent this December. Its working title is Stormlight, and it’s a women’s fiction about a girl who returns to her Southern home after years of being away, and her young daughter goes missing. It’s full of delicious small-town paranoia and emotion. I absolutely adore this project.

A piece of advice?
I’d suggest that we all take 30 minutes this evening that we’d usually waste. Time spent watching mindless television, or playing on the Internet, perhaps. Use this mindless time and write with it. I guarantee something magical will happen. Let’s reclaim our lives and creativity, shall we?

Your Writing Space

Do you have the writing space of your dreams? Is it a corner of another room, a comfy couch, or an office to yourself?

I know one writer who loves to write by hand in a notebook in her papasan chair which she calls her "writing chair". Another writer has a couch and uses the back of said couch for their storage. Another writer has a long narrow office with shelves along one wall a couch on the other and a desk at the end of the long room. I even know a writer that had a whole huge room in the basement with walls covered in pictures of her characters.

Regardless of what it is, It needs to be someting you are happy with. When I attended Storymakers Author Kevin James talked about ergonomics, and that if you are writing you need to be comfortble and in a position that is good for your body. Is your back strained after a few hours? Your eyes hurting? Your hands and wrists in pain? Chances are you need to re-asses your writing space and do something to make it better. If you do, your body and WIP will thank you.

What is your writing space like? Are you happy with it?