Monthly Archives: September 2010

“Will you recommend me…”

  By Shiloh Walker | 30 September, 2010 - 8:00 am | , ,
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I was over at Monica Jackson‘s blog a few days ago and read this…

I actually spent my personal time three years ago replying to an e-mail to somebody who asked me to read their work and recommend my agent–somebody I didn’t know from Eve.  I encouraged her to write queries and wished her good luck.   I JUST got an e-mail back saying what a bad and unhappy person I am because I wouldn’t do what she wanted.

Hmmmm.  Monica’s a smart lady.  I would have responded the same why.

Okay, so… yeah, writers do get asked those questions.  Generally from people who are fairly new or who are frustrated and trying to get an ‘in’.  Have I been asked that question?  Yes.

What’s my answer?

No.

Why?

Point blank… unless I know the person really, really, really well…it’s not smart.   If I recommend Author Sally Sue to my agent, and author Sally Sue turns out to Godzilla in Pink Leather and becomes the Biggest Pain in The Ass my agent has ever met, just how well do you think that’s going to reflect on me?  Not well.

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Writes and Wrongs

  By Shiloh Walker | 29 September, 2010 - 4:53 pm | , , ,
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Okay, so if you’ve been reading my blog, my twitter feed or even my facebook rants, you know how certain…ah… things annoy me.

And now I’ve found a positive outlet to vent those annoyances. This is good, right?

You know all those annoying BUY MY BOOK spam crap things some of us just hate?

I’ve found a place to talk about them-yep, somebody who will let me talk about it outside of my blog.  O.o

(Don’t worry, I’m not just going to rant…and actually, since it’s not ‘my’ place…er, blog…site, I’ll keep the outright rants to a minimum.  I also plan to talk about things that I think work in a positive way, too).

Writes and Wrongs…over at the RT website.

Future topics will be things like twitter, facebook, etc, etc…

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General reminder/quick update

  By Shiloh Walker | 29 September, 2010 - 2:00 pm |
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A few housecleaning type of things…

FYI-my blog does get imported to a few places, like Amazon, Facebook, Goodreads, etc.  Any time a contest is run?  It includes a little line that says…read my disclaimer.

My disclaimer includes things like

  • void where prohibited
  • do not forward to sweepstakes site
  • it’s your responsibility to check back to see if you’ve won and to contact me to claim your prize-FYI, this does mean contact me directly, not via my blog, a yahoo group, twitter, etc.   I’m sorry-this is trying to be a hard ass about things, but I have to juggle a lot of crap and the only way I can keep with things like winners is through email-if you want your prize… email me. If you don’t… you don’t get it.
  • you can only enter my blog contests via my blog-not wherever it gets imported.
  • Entering contests means you’ve read my disclaimer…thus means you’ve the rules…

Posting this just because…

:D

Now… if you want to make sure you don’t miss important things like contest wins…something you might want to think about is subscribing to the blog.  Then it gets emailed to you.  It’s that little box at the top left…a fairy new addition.  Although the blog has always has the RSS feed and people use the various feed readers already know about RSS, this is a simple way for those who aren’t into the RSS thing so much-this gets the blog sent to you.  Might make it easier to know if you’ve prizes.

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Amidst a Crowd of Stars by Megan Hart

  By Shiloh Walker | 28 September, 2010 - 8:00 am |
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I read this short story last week, and loved it. It’s an altogether lovely story.

ebook from Samhain Publishing
A love as rare—and precious—as a desert rain.

Marrin Levy needs a man. Not to have children. Her husband gave her three before he died—along with a failing homestead and crushing debt. What she needs is a strong back to help her wrest a living from the harsh, desert planet of Lujawed.

She’s sent away for a field-husband to take over the hard labor, nothing more. She never expected the devastatingly handsome, forever-young Seveeran, Keane Delacore, would fit so easily into her family’s life.

Keane’s heart is as strong as his back, bringing Marrin more than just help in the fields. He offers her love she never thought she’d feel again…if she has the courage to reach out and take it.

This book has been previously published.

Warning: Contains three-alarm love scenes and a three-hankie love story. Read it and weep—in a good way!

Available at Samhain

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Why don’t you write…

  By Shiloh Walker | 27 September, 2010 - 8:00 am | , ,
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Why don’t you write…

Have you ever considered…

Sometimes I’ll get questions from various people asking things like…ever thought about writing YA…ever thought about doing books on the fae/ ever thought of writing a series with witches/ can you write more romantic suspense/ why don’t you write more menage/ can you write this sort story, that sort of trope…fill in the blankety blank blank…

Well. No.

Here’s the thing about YA…I’m not a YA writer.  I don’t plan to be a YA writer.  Should an idea come to me that would work as a YA thing, I’d think about it more than, but honestly, I’m not in the mindset to do YA.  So that’s a nope.

About writing specific sorts of stories…I get these questions a lot.  Sometimes followed with what people probably think are helpful suggestions to kickstart my brain.  But the thing is…it’s not going to do it.  Unless an idea comes to me, on it’s own, I can’t write it.  And I’m not going to write something based off a suggestion from a reader.  I can’t.  For one, I won’t feel that it’s mine and I’m a control freak.  I have to feel that it’s mine.  Plus, that’s also wading into a dicey area that I don’t want to discuss.  But my story ideas have to come from me. I can’t force the ideas, either.

I didn’t sit down and automatically plan to write about fairy tale characters playing at guardian angels…I was watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer…the Hansel and Gretel episode and BAM, the idea was there.

I didn’t sit down and plan to write a series about paranormal cop types with my Hunters–I hadn’t been reading other vampire/werewolf series with an idea in my head, well, I want to do what she is doing.  I woke up one morning and Tori was in my head.  I had been reading a lot of vampire fiction, yes, and I was frustrated with a character in a series of books and how this character was always portrayed so some of the inspiration behind her character came from outside influences.

I think a lot of writers get inspiration from outside influences, but the ideas need to come from me.

I didn’t sit down and plan to write a couple of books about two brothers who’d served in the Army Rangers.  I had an idea come to me for one brother–only one, just Luke, because Quinn was going to be the bad guy.

I don’t plan books.  I don’t plan ideas. Ideas have to come.  I can’t force them.

They come from stuff I see, stuff I read, stuff I talk about, yes.  And I see, read, talk a lot…so I never know what’s going to come next.

But I can’t force anything, either.  It just won’t work…nor am I inclined to try, because the ideas that work for me are the ones that jump out of the blue and all but attack me.  Forcing an idea just sounds dull and if I’m not into the idea?  It’s going to be a dull read for you all, I promise.  Assuming I could even make myself finish it and I probably couldn’t…that short attention span of mine would jump up and bite me.

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Featuring backlist titles

  By Shiloh Walker | 26 September, 2010 - 8:00 am | ,
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Somebody told me I need to push my backlist titles more.

I’m lousy at promo crap and hate it, unless it’s something like my blog or twitter and I can just tell myself I’m talking.

But she was right.

So I’m going to start putting up random backlist titles on my blog’s sidebar.

Some of you who’ve read a lot of my backlist?  What titles do you suggest?  I’m starting with my first ebook, Her Best Friend’s Lover, because it just makes sense.

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How $10 became $1150

  By Shiloh Walker | 25 September, 2010 - 8:00 am |
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Well, technically the math doesn’t add up, but somehow on Thursday $10 became $1150.

Limecello who blogs/reviews over The Good, The Bad and The Unread managed to turn $10 into $1150.  How?  Because the blogging/twitter community rocks.

From Lime’s original blog…

Most of you know about Mashable, which is actually a company/something I know less about. Social media opinions are for another post. (RED) is an organization I’ve kept on my radar for a while, because of my interest in ONE.

(RED) Video

The Global Fund (where all (RED) money goes) invests 100% of (RED) funds into HIV/AIDS programs in Africa. I’m totally cool with giving them my money.

Need or want more reasons to feel good about this?

Why you should feel good about supporting the (RED) cause today:

  • Thirty-three million people in the world have AIDS. Twenty-two million live in Africa.
  • Every day 3,800 people die in sub-Saharan Africa from AIDS.
  • It costs just 40 cents per day for the life-saving medicine someone living with HIV/AIDS in Africa needs to help them live a healthy and productive life.

She was going to donate $10…and things started rolling, it ended up being $1150 donated from various bloggers, authors, reviewers, etc.

Want to read more about it? The original post is here.

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Guest blogger… Jennifer Estep… Contest!

  By Shiloh Walker | 24 September, 2010 - 10:00 am | ,
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9.27.2010

Contest is now over.  Winner to be posted to the blog within the next week or so. Comments closed at this time to prevent confusion.

We have guests!  Well… one guest…Jennifer Estep, author of the awesome Elemental Assassin series… which I adore…

Greetings and salutations! First of all, I want to say thanks to Shiloh for having me on the blog today. Thanks, Shiloh!

Some of you might know me as the author of the Ele­men­tal Assas­sin urban fan­tasy series. The books focus on Gin Blanco, an assas­sin code­named the Spi­der who can con­trol the ele­ments of Ice and Stone. When she’s not busy killing peo­ple and right­ing wrongs, Gin runs a bar­be­cue restau­rant called the Pork Pit in the fic­tional south­ern metrop­o­lis of Ash­land. The city is also home to giants, dwarves, vam­pires, and ele­men­tals – Air, Fire, Ice, and Stone.

The first two books in the series are Spider’s Bite and Web of Lies. Venom, the third book, will come out on Sept. 28. Tan­gled Threads, the fourth book, will be pub­lished in May 2011, while the fifth book (unti­tled) will be released in Octo­ber 2011.

I’ve also sold a young adult urban fantasy series called Mythos Academy. The first book is called Touch of Frost and will be out in August 2011. The books focus on Gwen Frost, a Gypsy girl who has the gift of psychometry, or the ability to know an object’s history just by touching it. After a serious freak-out with her magic, Gwen finds herself shipped off to Mythos Academy, a school for the descendents of ancient warriors like Spartans, Valkyries, and more.

So I thought I would talk a little today about balancing romance while still writing an action-packed urban fantasy book. It’s a tough thing to do. There’s so much crossover these days, with romance readers branching out and trying urban fantasy books, and fantasy readers trying romance titles. Urban fantasy really straddles the line between fantasy and romance, and urban fantasy books seem to have a little bit of everything in them.

It can be hard to write a book that has enough magic, world building, and action to satisfy fantasy fans, but still has enough sexual tension and romance to please romance fans. But it’s something that you have to think about as an author, because both types of readers will hopefully be checking out your books.

I don’t have a set number of fight scenes versus romance scenes in my books, but usually, I’ll have about three fight scenes and two romance scenes. That’s just how it generally works out. My heroine Gin usually has a couple of minor skirmishes with the bad guy or his minions before the big finale fight scene at the end of the book. Along the way, she’ll have a quiet moment or two, and that’s when I try to bring in the sexual tension and romance. So the book formula would look something like this: fight, romance, fight, romance, fight, happily ever after (for now).

To me, the fight scenes and their consequences are what really drive the plot of the book. The romance scenes are a chance for Gin to let her guard down and maybe have a little bit of fun before she faces down the big bad. I think it’s a pretty good balance. The books are certainly a lot of fun for me to write, and I hope readers have just as good a time reading them.

What about you guys? How much romance do you like in urban fantasy or other genres? What are some of your favorite urban fantasy or paranormal romance books or series?

FYI…Jennifer has kindly offered up a copy of VENOM for one lucky commenter… just comment to win…naturally, make sure you stick to my rules… *G*  Winner will be posted here at my blog.  Remember to read my disclaimer, guys….open to the US & Canada only…

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September Sizzles Winner-The Big Winner

  By Shiloh Walker | 24 September, 2010 - 8:00 am |
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Winner of the September Sizzles Contest-$150 to the Online Bookseller of their Choice…

We couldn’t have made this much more random if we tried.

Courtesy of Random.org…the winner’s name came from Anya’s blog…

Ok loving this contest it not only has awesome experts. Its bringing me in contact with some authors i havent read and love find new authors to read

by Heather Hann

Heather, you have about a week to contact the contest coordinator (Shiloh) at shilohwalker(at)gmail.com

Please put September Sizzles Grand Prize Winner in the subject line.

Thanks to all who participated! It was a lot of fun for us, hopefully for you as well!

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