Five Elements that Make Fantasy Fiction Feel Real By Robert Liparulo

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Today author Robert Liparulo joins us to share five elements that make fantasy feel read. Robert is the author of several teen reads including the "Dreamhouse Kings" series.

Dreamhouse Kings Series List:

1) House of Dark Shadows
2) Watcher in the Woods
3) Gatekeepers
4) Timescape
5) Whirlwind
6) Frenzy - Coming May 18th, 2010 in Hardback

You can find Robert online at: http://www.robertliparulo.com/ and on his blog at: http://www.robertliparulo.com/blog.html. Roberts website is undergoing a redesign. So, check that out when available.

Tammie King of Night Owl Reviews / YA Insider www.YAInsider.com


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Five Elements that Make Fantasy Fiction Feel Real

By Robert Liparulo

I like stories that surprise me, show me things I’ve never seen before, and get me playing make-believe like I haven’t since selling my G.I. Joes and Legos at a garage sale. Few tales are as make-believe (or as fun) as fantasy fiction—from the ones I call “light fantasy,” like alternate histories, time travel, and monsters in the “real” world, to the hard-core stuff involving space odysseys, made-up worlds, and dragons. Trouble is, I’m a skeptic, a hard sell. For a story to grab me, no matter how far-fetched it’s supposed to be, I have to see and feel things I recognize, things I relate to.


Sounds like common sense, but as a voracious reader of published fiction and a judge in umpteen writing competitions, I’m here to tell you it’s not as common as you’d think. If the first half of a book has left you thinking, I can’t get my head around this, or more simply, Oh, come on!—then you know what I mean.


The idea of reality-based fantasy truly hit home when, after writing three thrillers for adults (Comes a Horseman, Germ, and Deadfall), I decided to tackle a fantasy-adventure story for young adults.


In the Dreamhouse Kings series, a family moves to a small town in northern California, so Dad could take a job as principal of the local middle and high school. They move into a run-down Victorian home, where they find a hidden hallway of doors. Each door leads to a portal to a different time in history. But not only can they go from the house to the past, people from the past can come through into their house. Someone does—and kidnaps Mom, taking her into some unknown place in the past. The family—primarily brothers David and Xander—begin a quest for Mom, which takes them to all sorts of dangerous and fascinating places throughout time. We slowly learn that the Kings are in the house for a very specific purpose, and they must do much more than “simply” find their mother.


My goal was to make the story feel as real as possible, to entice readers not only to enjoy my story of time travel, but to think maybe . . . just maybe, this could really happen. Well, I’d settle for their wishing it was real—and that they were part of the adventure. And just to set the target a bit higher, I wanted to reach even readers who don’t normally like fantasy elements in stories; I wanted them to be surprised by how much they liked it.


In crafting the story, I identified a few key ingredients that would help me reach this goal. These aren’t new ideas; many writers have used them to handhold readers into brilliant tales of fantasy. (And even non-fantasy authors incorporate them to varying degrees, but I believe fantasy writers need to be all the more aware of them and wield them more deliberately.) If you're a writer, consider making a mental checklist from these “tips of the trades.” As a reader, you may benefit from knowing what’s drawing you into a story . . . or why it’s not working. So, here’s what I look for:


1. Characters who feel. The way to a reader’s heart is through a story’s characters. Doesn’t matter if they’re fighting dragons or stepping into the Roman Colosseum during a gladiator fight, a character has to experience fear and courage, love and heartbreak, blood, sweat and tears, realistically rendered in a way the reader understands. In the Dreamhouse Kings, I decided to make the time travel parts feel real by making everything else absolutely real.


The poor King boys (ages 12 and 15) suffer so many cuts, bruises, and broken bones that a popular contest on my website involves identifying as many wounds as possible on medical body charts. They cry for their mother, and ache at the possibility of never seeing her again. They also realize how much they need and love one another, and even find time to laugh.


Look, too, at Ender Wiggin in Orson Scott Card’s brilliant Ender’s Game: That boy went through such a gamut of emotions (loneliness, anger, triumph, self-discovery) that despite the future setting on a spacecraft, readers ate it up.


2. A character who’s skeptical. I believe some authors have done so much research, spent so much time contemplating the fantasies of their stories, and probably read so much of their preferred genre, that buying into the fantastic is a no-brainer for them. Their characters barely shrug at the concept of vampires or the shattering of the laws of physics.


I read a lot of fantasy, but I still want to be convinced every time. It helps when at least one character mirrors my disbelief. It tells me the authors knows he or she is venturing into fantasy territory, so I trust that I won’t be left behind. As the evidence slowly convinces the skeptical character, more times than not, I’m convinced as well. In other words, the author builds a bridge between reality and fantasy—if not necessarily with rock-solid explanations, then at least with feasible theories and suppositions.


3. A learning curve in understanding the fantasy. “Hey, a watch that stops time—let’s do it!” You’ve probably seen the equivalent of this many times: the characters instantly grasp and use some crazy new item or idea. I want to see them stumble, misuse it, make mistakes, figure it out. A large part of the fun in Dreamhouse lies in the family’s near fatal mistakes as they rush to find Mom, and how their assumptions about time travel and the portals consistently lead them into more trouble. They eventually set up a “Mission Control Center” to map where the portals take them and what they can and cannot do in the past.


In Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend (my favorite book), protagonist Robert Neville is constantly learning new things about the creatures after him and the virus that turned them into vampire-like beasts. Readers get to tag along and figure out the problems and solutions with him; discovery becomes a team effort between character and reader.


4. Real surroundings and situations. Like characters who laugh and cry, hyper-realistic environments make the fantasy elements feel more real—because everything else is. When the King family finds the house, it’s dusty and run down, the banister leaves splinters in their palms, when the electricity comes on, old bulbs pop. Tolkien was a master at this, chronicling in Lord of the Rings the hobbits’ journey in almost painful detail. He gradually pulls readers in until we’re there, sore—if not hairy—feet and all. Likewise, characters should eat, sleep, go to the bathroom, whittle . . . whatever makes them real.


5. Consistency. A major Hollywood studio is currently pushing the Dreamhouse Kings toward the silver screen—an interest that started after the first two books came out (five of them now have been released; the last one comes out in May). One eye-opening (and very long) conversation I had with a producer involved the “mythology” of the house: What are the rules of time travel, of the portals, of surviving in the worlds of the past? It dawned on me that movie people are particularly sensitive to remaining consistent to the rules of made-up conceits because audiences can spot inconsistencies easier in the condensed stories of film (and movies rarely have the time to explain how seeming inconsistencies really aren’t).


But their concern should also be the author’s. Readers of time-travel stories don’t want to be told that technology can’t be used in times before it was invented, and then read later how our hero uses a machinegun against Genghis Khan. That doesn’t happen in Dreamhouse, by the way, but it easily could have. In this context—talking/blogging about it here—it sounds silly and obvious. But, trust me, in a fast-paced story, or one that’s complex or long, little rules that don’t at first seem like rules to the author (Does a door open into or away from a room?) can be forgotten . . . only to come back to jar a reader out of the story. While writing the subsequent books in the series, I found myself frequently consulting a catalog of Dreamhouse rules I’d drafted for that producer.


Not every story requires equal doses of these elements. Think of them as spices: the amount authors use of each depends on the dish they’re preparing . . . and their personal tastes. I labored on the Dreamhouse Kings to make the unrealistic realistic, and it appears to have worked: The books have became best-sellers and Scholastic picked them up for its book fairs and book club. More rewarding are the letters I’ve received from kids and adults, telling me how real the stories seem. So I guess fantasies can also become real; they did for me.


Robert Liparulo
http://robertliparulo.com

Moved from the YA Insider Blog to the Night Owl Reviews blog on 5/1/2010.

Because The Editor Says So, That’s Why! -- Kay Marshall Strom

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Because The Editor Says So, That’s Why! -- Kay Marshall Strom

High in the Himalayan mountains, where Nepal edges up against China, a line of sun- worshiping laborers stare into the rising sun and pray desperately for enough sustenance to make it through another day. Just one more day… 

“I like your writing, and the concept it good,” the editor says.  “Now, what is your platform?”

Say what?

When it comes to editor/author dialog, that’s the big question today.  It never used to be, but it surely is now.

Good writing… great premise… unique concept… All those are important.  Essential, even. But your book will have to make its way through the glutted marketplace.  It will have to sell.  And so it all comes back to platform.  What do you as a writer bring to the table that will entice buyers to spend their hard-earned money on your book?

If you are Oprah, or Sarah Palin, or John Grisham—no problem.  People who already have a big following, already have a platform.  But if you are not one of those—and most of us aren’t—here is a suggestion:  find a partner.  Align yourself with an organization that is already on the cutting edge of your topic and suggest a partnership/buy-in agreement.  If they agree to purchase, say, 10,000 copies of the book off the top, that’s a great incentive for the publisher.

Partnership can help in other ways, too.  Your partner organization can promote your book to its constituency.  Also, its people can share their up-to-date research with you.  And they can connect you with people who can give you first-hand stories and illustration.

Today, high in the Himalayan mountains, where Nepal edges up against China, a fifty-two-year-old woman sits with a clutch of women gathered around her as she teaches them to make candles. Later, she will show them how to make soap. Under her tutelage, the village women have started a businesses of their own, the first ever “store” in their area. They walk miles to neighboring villages to barter for such necessities as rice and beans and oil, then they bring it all back and stock their shelves. Now they will add candles and soap to their inventory, two luxuries no one in the area has ever had before. No longer will the villagers need to worry about sustenance for tomorrow.

The great thing is, you aren’t the only one who benefits from this arrangement.  So does the organization with whom you partner. Your book showcases their work.  (Just be certain you don’t go too far and end up with an informercial!)

So, how can you secure a partner?

Ask!

Most organizations are overjoyed to have exposure for the work they do.  I have written five books this way, and each of them has been a joy.  In fact, I would not have written The Second-Half Adventure had it not been for my association with the Finishers Project (www.finishers.org).  Without that excellent organization, I would have had no way to connect with so diverse a cross-section of active retirees.

Two retired businessmen have their bags packed, but they couldn’t tell me where they were going because the area in which they will spend the next three months is too sensitive. “Just say North Africa,” one suggested. “That’s close enough.” One man is an accountant and the other has expertise in the area of marketing.

A retired paralegal is on her way to Tanzania, although she had to get out a world map to see just where Tanzania is. “They have such a backlog of social justice cases there,” she said. “I will be there for a month, so I can at least get some things moving through the system.”

Another woman with a simple résumé—she is a mother and grandmother—is on her way to an orphanage in South Africa where she will sit in the sun-dappled courtyard under flowering bougainvilleas and cuddle AIDS babies…

And since Finishers is an umbrella group for over 100 mission organizations, they offer wide exposure for my book.

Voila!  Here, dear editor, is my platform!

BIO:

Kay Marshall Strom is the author of thirty-six published books, including her most recent, The Second-Half Adventure: Don’t Just Retire-Use Your Time, Skills & Resources to Change the World.  Her writing credits also include magazine articles, short stories, prize-winning screenplays, booklets for writers, and anything else that will help make the house payments.  Kay is an in demand speaker at events throughout the country.  She and her husband Dan Kline love to travel, so Kay encourages writing and speaking assignments in far flung corners of the globe.  To find out more about Kay, or for contact information, check her website at www.kaystrom.com.

Musical Marketing Muse by Sara Taney Humphreys

Win a package of author goodies from Night Owl Reviews. Just comment on this blog post. This is a cross blog post / contest between Night Owl Reviews and Night Owl Romance.

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Include the first part of your email address with your comment. You need to be a NOR newsletter subscriber to enter. That's how we get your full email address...so you don't have to post it all on the comment. You must be 18 or over to enter. Entry open to USA citizens only - USA Postage Only. No Purchase Necessary. Contest Ends: 3/5/2010
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Musical Marketing Muse by Sara Taney Humphreys

The song that sparked my creative juices and woke up my muse is called "Honey on the Skin". You can find Amy Petty and her spectacular music on her website http://www.amypetty.com/ John connected me with another awesome musical muse. The Strike Nineteens. TSN are a band of adorable guys from Scotland. Ladies...think William Wallace/Braveheart accent....yummy.

Their music is gritty and intense. These darlings actually wrote me two songs! One of which will be on their new album "Screams for Denver" which will be released this Spring. I look forward to checking them out LIVE when they come to the USA later this year.

You can check out their music at http://www.myspace.com/thestrikenineteens Cross marketing with music is fun and a little outside the box...just the way I like it.

Sara Taney Humphreys
http://sarataneyhumphreys.com

Why I Choose To Write In The Contemporary by Anton Strout

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Include the first part of your email address with your comment. You need to be a NOR / SFF Insider newsletter subscriber to enter. That's how we get your full email address...so you don't have to post it all on the comment. You must be 18 or over to enter. USA Shipping Only. Open to USA Citizens Only. No Purchase Necessary. Contest Ends: 3/5/2010

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Why I Choose To Write In The Contemporary By Anton Strout


For those of you not familiar with me, I write the Simon Canderous urban fantasy series for Ace Books, the fine purveyors of work by icons Jim Butcher and Laurell K. Hamilton. The latest in the series, Dead Matter is just out this week and so far, it’s probably my favorite book that I’ve written. Lots of creepy crawlies and things that go bump in the night, all set in modern day Manhattan where fighting evil has to be done on a departmental budget.

It’s a fun gig and the hours are good, plus I get invited to guest blog about whatever’s on my writerly little mind sometimes, which I like quite a lot. I thought today I’d take a moment to talk about what I love about writing urban fantasy set in the contemporary world.

First and foremost, I am lazy. There are times when I think I became a writer because the idea of never getting out of my jammies and staying home really appealed to me. It also looks better on a resume that ‘crazy shut in’.

Maybe lazy isn’t the write word for what I’m getting at. Let me ‘splain.

The things I like to write about, the things that really matter to me, aren’t super descriptive. I’m more interested in character and action, why people do what they do… what makes them tick…

And frankly, because of that, I don’t really like writing description. In fact, I loathe it. I feel like I end up writing a travel essay or catalog copy when setting a scene and my eyes tend to glass over. So what’s a writer like me supposed to do?

When I write, I have a movie of what I want playing in my mind at all times. That’s what I’m trying to share with you. Writing in the contemporary world gives me a lot of shortcuts that I can use. Why? I don’t have to waste my time (or the readers) going into lengthy description that slows down the action of the narrative. For instance, when I type ‘top of the Empire State Building,’ I don’t really need to say much more about that, do I? You know it. You get it. You’ve probably seen it in Sleepless in Seattle. And that’s what I rely on. There is a symbiosis that exists between writer and reader. The writer makes assumptions about the readers. I have the feeling that most of you out there have an idea of what the top of the Empire State Building looks like. I can say it and throw in a few choice words about the way the wind whips around up there, the romantic couples hanging out, the tourists and you get it. We can move on and discuss why there’s a horde of shambling zombies coming your way up there instead…

I think that my job as a writer is to strike the balance between what I want to tell you and what I think you already know. Over explain stuff to your readers and they feel insulted or like they’re reading a text book on a subject. They skip ahead, and I don’t want that. To me, I’m constantly trying to give you just enough to go on, like adding flavor to a soup so that you’ll swallow it. That’s where the real fun for me comes into being an author. That communal bond that happens between the moment I write it and the moment, roughly a year later, when you get to read it and we finally connect. I get jazzed about that. Writing is a lonely process, but the sharing of it is worth it, even if it’s delayed gratification.

I think this is why my books read more cinematically than anything else. You strap in for the ride and it’s pretty damn fast and furious. It’s what excites me in what I like to read and that’s what I want to deliver to my own readers. So if you come visit my urban fantasy series, fasten your seat belts, dear readers, you’re in for a bumpy ride. Thanks for reading.

Anton Strout
http://antonstrout.com

Moved over from the SFF Insider Blog to the Night Owl Reviews blog on 5/1/2010.

SCIENCE FICTION ROMANCE: A MALE AUTHOR’S VIEW

Win a ecopy of a book by Robert Appleton! One lucky commenter will be selected. Just comment on this post to be entered! This is a cross blog post with the Night Owl Romance blog. One winner between the two blogs comments.


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SCIENCE FICTION ROMANCE: A MALE AUTHOR’S VIEW by Robert Appleton

A soccer-mad friend of mine told me about a book he’d read recently, the first book he’d ever read cover to cover. We were in a boisterous pub, but I managed to pick out the words “tragic”, “stars”, and “an action-packed ride”. My eyes lit up. Had he…could he possibly have read…science fiction? It was the last thing I expected, and I’d had no intention of telling him about my latest project. A space opera romance. I mean seriously—it’s dodgy to even mutter the words “science-fiction” in a pub on a Saturday afternoon, let alone tie a pink ribbon round them with “romance.” That’s worse than running in stark naked, waving a scarf for the wrong team, shouting “Drinks are on me!” and expecting not to take an instant beer bath.

Yep, it’s a tricky thing for a thirty-year-old guy to explain—why I write romantic science fiction.

And yes, my friend wholeheartedly recommended his book. Tragic, an action-packed ride, stars. He said it was a great autobiography of a professional wrestler.

So here I am (online), to tell you of my newest passion. Sci-fi romance.

The Mythmakers marks my first real foray into space opera, a sub-genre of science fiction characterized by a predominance of space flight, cliffhangers, and romance. Think Firefly, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica. And though I’ve written science fiction from a female POV before—my Eleven Hour Fall trilogy featured a feisty female survivalist, Kate Borrowdale—this is the first time I’ve put romance front and centre, on an equal footing with the action and the “science”.

Here’s the blurb:

For Captain Steffi Savannah and her crew of deep space smugglers, life has become little more than a dogged exercise in mere survival. Their latest disastrous heist ended with another dead crew member—and no place left to hide. She’s even finding it hard to dredge up any excitement over the giant, crippled ship that appears on their radar, even though it’s the salvage opportunity of a lifetime.


They find that it’s no ordinary alien vessel. It’s a ship of dreams, populated with the last remnants of Earth’s mythical creatures. Including the blond, built, mysterious Arne, one of a race blessed with extraordinary beauty—and few inhibitions. Though he won’t tell her exactly what he is, in his arms Steffi rediscovers something she thought she’d never feel again. Wonder, love…and hope.


It isn’t long, though, before the Royal guard tracks them down, and Steffi and her crew are faced with a terrible decision. Cut and run. Or risk everything to tow the Albatross and her precious cargo to safety.

Sci-fi romance is a genre almost exclusively written by women, about women, and for women. So why do I like it? Well for one thing, it’s a refreshing change from the hero-centric sci-fi books I was brought up with. Don’t get me wrong, John Carter of Mars, H.G. Wells and Jules Verne will always take pride of place on my bookshelf. But the women in those are ornamental at best, not to mention tied to the past.

To me, it’s fascinating to see how women view themselves in situations that call for the type of heroism traditionally expected of male heroes. Take today’s archetypal sf romance heroine—independent, resourceful, good in a fight, aggressively sexual, but also wounded, conflicted, lonely. I look at the book covers and see a woman’s idea of the perfect woman. Sexy, take charge, equal to any man of the future. These books aren’t marketed to men, but the cover models are still hot. The heroine’s sexuality is a potent draw for female readers. Just as the muscular, impossibly handsome Conan and John Carter are to boys and men. This kind of fantasy wish-fulfilment, or hero worship, traditionally a crucial part of male-centric science fiction and fantasy, now has its flipside in science fiction romance.

Unfortunately, most male readers don’t want to read a story told from a woman’s POV. And even less want any truck with the romance label, in any genre. Yet, romance has always been an integral part of pulp sf and fantasy. Every single Edgar Rice Burroughs novel features a man and a woman falling in love. From Flash Gordon to Avatar, romance has helped define the genre.

So why do male readers shy away from modern sf romance? Is it because they’re written by women? Is it because we feel threatened on some level by the tough female protagonists who can beat the snot out of us? Is there too much emphasis on romance, whereas those pulp sci-fi tales of the past, though romantic, never bore the “romance” label?

Sales demographics answer all those questions. Most publishers won’t even consider a sf romance, or any type of romance, unless it’s told from a woman’s POV. It just won’t sell. Women are every bit as protective of their own genres as men. But I wonder how many male readers have given sci-fi romance a real chance? I’ll bet hardly any. They might be surprised, as I was, to find just how brilliant a lot of these female space authors can be. Lois McMaster Bujold, Isabo Kelly, Sherrilyn Kenyon, etc. create fascinating universes and people them with heroines and heroes to rival the top male sf authors. The action is great, the science intriguing, the stories fast-paced and unpredictable. What’s not to like?

Oh, I forgot, they have love scenes. Okay, no way round that then. How about if male authors started getting in on the act? Sci-fi romances with slightly less lovin’, slightly more blowin’ shit up? Then again, male readers don’t like stories written from the heroine’s POV. So I guess we’re basically stuck in the good ol’ days of John Carter saving the planet on his own.

It’s funny, though, that female sf readers aren’t averse to sf with a male POV.

So what kind of protagonist is popular in sci-fi romance?

Personally, I’d rather end up with one of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ princesses—Dejah Thoris, oh yeah!—than a butt-kicking, gun-toting space babe who knows more about warp drives than me. But I’d much rather read about the latter, learn who she is, where she comes from, what she wants from the universe. Women in science fiction romances are much harder to fathom. They’re all the things guys don’t get about women, only twisted around and shoved back in our faces, at light speed.

They’re also funny. They act like pirates and train like GI Jane and fly a ship better than all the blokes. And they’re not always funny intentionally. How many women do you know could trade blows with a man, an average sized man, and beat ten bells out of him? I don’t know a single one. Well in the future, guys have lost their edge, see? Sci-fi romance babes are the next generation badasses. We don’t stand a chance. I’ve always loved Ripley in the Alien films because she’s a survivor first and a woman second. She was kind of revolutionary in the sci-fi genre (at least in movies), but now that character, or elements of her, are everywhere in popular SFF culture. She was a springboard for the tough, larger-than-life space heroines of today, such as Starbuck in BSG.

Steffi Savannah in The Mythmakers falls under that category, though she’s more feminine than either Ripley or Starbuck. She started life on her home world as an optimistic farmer’s daughter, steeped in tradition, and she’d accepted her role in life—to marry, raise a family. But disaster struck, leaving her homeless, an off-world drifter. To make ends meet, she turned to smuggling, and eventually made enough to buy her own ship, the Albatross, and hand-pick its crew. Her love life is confined to one-night stands in space ports and a no-strings sexual relationship with Bo, her loyal-but-not-too-bright cargo chief.

I wanted to strike a balance in Steffi between toughness—to captain her own smuggling ship, she has to be—and vulnerability. She gives orders and listens to advice. She can be cynical, but she also longs to be that wide-eyed girl on the farm again. When she discovers a crippled alien ship in deep space, she’s at her lowest ebb. What she finds on board, however, and who she finds on board, gradually reopens doors in her heart she’d long-since closed.

Some might see it as unusual for a male author to dabble in a female-oriented market, but for me, the best ideas have always come from unusual endeavours. I enjoy the challenge of writing a female POV. And to prove it, I have several more sf romances in the works, including one steampunk mystery I’ve almost completed. Just don’t tell anyone down at the pub, okay?

Click here to read the first chapter of The Mythmakers.

The Mythmakers is available Feb 23 at Samhain Publishing, priced $3.50 (ebook). Later in the year, it will appear in paperback as part of Samhain’s Impulse Power space opera anthology.

To read more from author Robert Appleton, head on over to his website: http://www.robertappleton.co.uk or visit his blog at: http://robertbappleton.blogspot.com

Moved over from the SFF Insider Blog to the Night Owl Reviews blog on 5/1/2010.

Real Settings Add Magic by Cecilia Tan

Win an ebook copy of book one in Cecilia Tan's Magic University series. One lucky commenter will win.

Include the first part of your email address with your comment. You need to be a NOR newsletter subscriber to enter. That's how we get your full email address...so you don't have to post it all on the comment. You must be 18 or over to enter as this is a spicy romance series. No Purchase Necessary. Contest Ends: 2/26/2010

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Real Settings Add Magic by Cecilia Tan

I live about half a mile from Harvard University, so when J. K. Rowling came to speak during their graduation ceremonies a few years ago, I wangled tickets to the event. Perhaps it was that afternoon, among all the pomp and circumstance, observing the traditions that date back hundreds of years, and listening to Rowling joke that she was "pretending she was at the biggest Gryffindor reunion in the world," that the seed was planted in my subconscious that grew into MAGIC UNIVERSITY.

My editor at Ravenous Romance and I were talking about the Harry Potter books not long after that, and I said I wished there was a series for all the "grown-up" fans of the books who would have liked to see what would happen to Harry at age 18-25, the years not mentioned even in the infamous epilogue. "Why don't you write it?" she said. "Write something new, but give us the college years as well as all the magic."

So I plotted out a four book series for Magic University and decided that the book had to be set at Harvard, rather than at some completely fictional place a la Hogwarts.

Harvard is already very much like Hogwarts to begin with. For one thing, the undergraduates are divided into houses; each house has a common room and a house master. I've kept that up in Magic University, of course, where each of the four houses has as its emblem one of the suits of the Tarot deck. I have invented a few other buildings, too, which are on the Harvard campus but invisible to non-magical people, and many of the scenes in the books happen in these places I've made up.

But some of them take place in real Harvard buildings. The annual flying broom race launches every Halloween from William James Hall, Harvard's one "skyscraper," and the church spire of Memorial Hall (photo here) is used as a landmark. Kyle takes a poetry class in Robinson Hall (photo here) and confronts Timothy Frost, his rival, in front of the real gryphon frieze on that building.

There are other buildings on the Harvard campus I've "borrowed" elements from for the magical buildings, too. Gladius House shares many architectural elements with this building at the Law School, for example. And of course, everywhere you look, you find references to Veritas (which the non-magical folks claim is Harvard's motto, but the magical community knows better). There's even a gate to Harvard Yard that really looks like it ought to lead magically to Hogwarts: the McKean gate.

The terrific thing about this is I've been able to take a place that already has something of a mystique and add to that. I can use a combination of real details and invented ones to create a rich setting in which the events of the novels unfold. There are times when I can use research to fill in details--like what the dining halls are serving for dinner--and other times I can let my imagination run wild. If anything I am freer to invent the important things I need to, like spell names and magical theory, since I don't have to be inventing the names of streets, rivers, shops, etc. that already exist. I can save my energy for the real "magic," writing a great story.

Visit my Picasa album of Harvard photos at: http://picasaweb.google.com/ctan.writer/HarvardPhotos?feat=directlink.

Bio: Cecilia Tan has been writing professionally since she was a teenager, which she definitely isn't, anymore. She is the author of several romances for Ravenous Romance, including her "Harry Potter for adults" the Magic University series and Mind Games, as well as the BDSM sci-fi adventure Royal Treatment just released from Torquere Press. Her literary erotica has been published nearly everywhere. She loves tea, baseball, cats, and books, and more of her thoughts on these and other subjects can be found at her blog: http://blog.ceciliatan.com/.

The Trouble with Genre Labeling by Sylvia Engdahl

Win a Signed print book by Sylvia Engdahl!

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Include the first part of your email address with your comment. You need to be a NOR / SFF Insider newsletter subscriber to enter. That's how we get your full email address...so you don't have to post it all on the comment. You must be 18 or over to enter. USA Shipping Only. Open to USA Citizens Only. No Purchase Necessary. Contest Ends: 2/26/2010

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The Trouble with Genre Labeling by Sylvia Engdahl

I have always been frustrated by the labeling of novels by genre. I don't mean “genre” in the sense of attempts to distinguish science fiction from fantasy, or either of them from horror. I'm referring to the unbridgeable division between all three and mainstream fiction. In many respects this is disastrous in terms of getting fiction into the hands of the readers who would most enjoy it.

Think about it. Are historical novels arbitrarily separated from the mainstream in such a way? I've had people tell me that yes, historical fiction is a genre; but from the editorial and marketing standpoint it is not. Bookstores and websites rarely have separate sections labeled “Historical Fiction,” set apart where general readers never browse. Even more significantly, historical fiction is not issued by separate editorial departments--or by specialized publishers--as science fiction is. Yet just as portrayal of the past is of interest to a wide variety of readers, so is speculation about the future. At least in principle it is, provided it's written in such as way as to be intelligible to the average educated person.

I'm not saying there isn't a place for science fiction that's directed to a more specialized audience--of course there is. I was once told that I would have to slant my work toward people who have read at least 500 science fiction novels previously in order to succeed in the field, and I'm sure that's true. The needs of people who have read 500 science fiction novels are obviously different from those of readers who read only an occasional one. What I object to is the rule whereby any story set on another planet is automatically classed as science fiction and judged by the standards of specialists, regardless of its potential appeal to the general public. This prevents books not written specifically for fans of the genre from being widely read, and prevents others from being published at all. It also prevents the majority of readers from encountering any fiction about the future apart from Star Trek.

For a writer who wants to reach the people who aren't already thinking about the future, there is no satisfactory solution to this problem. What I initially chose to do was write Young Adult novels, a field within which genres are not separated -- at least for editing and marketing they are not, although unfortunately the separation often occurs on library shelves. (For example, the latest edition of my YA novel Journey Between Worlds, which is a romance for teens about the colonization of Mars, got enthusiastic reviews at romance websites, but libraries labeled it science fiction and so the girls most apt to like it didn't find it.) My novel Enchantress from the Stars became a Newbery Honor Book, has won others awards, and is quite well known; but it's often viewed as fantasy--although there's no fantasy in it apart from the style in which some of it's told--and its speculation about relationships between extraterrestrial cultures are not taken seriously. Moreover, unlike most other YA science fiction successful in hardcover, none of mine was picked up for mass-market paperback reprint; it was not “far-out” enough to please the majority of science fiction fans. This was intentional. It was meant to interest people who don't read other science fiction, many of whom told me that to their surprise, they liked mine. It was not meant to “turn kids on to SF” with the expectation that they would graduate to more esoteric material, as some commentators assumed.

The time came when I got tired of oversimplifying my ideas to the extent of making them understandable to young teens (though I never fully succeeded in that respect, and many adults enjoy my YA books). But for a novel about the future on another world to be published in the traditional way as adult SF, it must by definition fit the requirements of the specialized science fiction publishers. It must either be action/adventure fiction, or be far enough from reality in terms of the culture and concepts portrayed to strike people with extensive science fiction background as innovative. And this is where I part company with everybody else who writes about the future. I'm not willing to limit my audience in that way--though by refusing to do so, I unavoidably limit it by market considerations.

My only recourse was to publish Stewards of the Flame and its recently-released sequel Promise of the Flame myself. The prejudice against self-published novels, even when written by authors who have formerly been published traditionally, is a topic I won't deal with here--I was aware of it, of course, but I am not young and I wanted these books to be read within my lifetime; waiting for the market to change was not an option for me. I happen to have desktop publishing skills and to have worked as a professional copyeditor, so I personally produced the files from which the books were printed. But has Stewards of the Flame reached the people I hoped to reach? No, because despite the timely issue it deals with, it's categorized as science fiction and its reviews appear under that heading--and thus other readers don't know it exists.

If it hadn't gotten good reviews, I wouldn't complain about its small audience. The frustrating thing is that Stewards of the Flame has received excellent reviews, albeit mainly online because most print media won't review self-published books. (Quotes from them are at www.adstellaebooks.com if anyone is curious.) On the whole, it gets better reviews from the non-specialists it was meant for than from science fiction fans, although it's had some favorable ones from SF reviewers, too. Yet a review does little to increase awareness of a book if it's posted where few members of the intended audience will see it. This is why genre labeling is so troublesome--not only to cross-genre authors, but to readers who fail to discover some of the books they would enjoy.

Sylvia Engdahl
www.sylviaengdahl.com

Moved over from the SFF Insider Blog to the Night Owl Reviews blog on 5/1/2010.

WOMEN OF THE BIBLE – HOW THEY CAN INSPIRE US TODAY by Eva Etzioni-Halevy

Win a Print Copy of "The Triumph of Deborah" from Eva Etzioni-Halevy.


One lucky commenter will win.

To Enter: Include the first part of your email address with your comment. You need to be a NOR newsletter subscriber to enter. That's how we get your full email address...so you don't have to post it all on the comment. You must be 18 or over to enter and a legal residents of the the USA. This prize only ships to  the USA. No Purchase Necessary. Contest Ends: 2/26/2010
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WOMEN OF THE BIBLE – HOW THEY CAN INSPIRE US TODAY by Eva Etzioni-Halevy

By profession, I am a sociologist, but in recent years I have been writing been writing light, entertaining and romantic novels about women in the Bible (Old Testament), the most recent of which is THE TRIUMPH OF DEBORAH. I am proud to be writing about heroines from this book, the basis of the heritage, which Christian Jews and Moslem share. Also, the biblical stories have long held a special attraction even for people with no religious orientation at all.

But wait a moment: is not the Bible a bit outdated these days?

A while ago, I participated in a symposium on women of the Bible at which a lady asked: Why should we, women of the 21 ^st century, be interested in biblical women, who are so different from us? They were consumed mainly with getting married and bearing sons, while we have so many more options and ambitions in our lives.

However, this challenging question is based on a misconception. While the women of the Bible lived thousands of years ago, in essence we are still similar to them in our hopes, desires and anxieties.

The Dramatic Loves of Biblical Women

Contrary to their image they were NOT concerned solely with marriage and bearing sons. They had the most dramatic and traumatic lives. Their traumas had to do also with love, jealousy, rejection by the men in their lives, and the loss of loved ones. They craved for a whole variety of things, including success and power, and had a great many issues on their agendas.

In this sense they are particularly close to us today, an era in which we celebrate diversity, and each woman realizing herself in her own way. Hence listening to their voices is not only intriguing but may have an empowering effect on us.

As an example let us consider the prophetess, judge and national leader Deborah, the heroine of my latest novel THE TRIUMPH OF DEBORAH.

The Scripture (JUDGES 4-5) tells the most amazingly dramatic story about her. Let us cast our mind back some three thousand years. Israel was in deep trouble as it had to face acts of terrorism and threats of destruction from the neighboring Canaanites, a much superior military power.

Leader Deborah summoned warrior Barak, who lived in another part of the country to appear before her and charged him with the task of launching a strike against the Canaanites.

Here is where the dramatic part comes in. In response to her command, he said to her (and I quote): "If you go with me, I will go, and if you don't go with me I will not go."

Three thousand years ago, a woman in the battlefield? Deborah must have asked herself: why did he want her there? Moreover, as the Bible tells us, she went with him not only to the battlefield, but to his hometown as well. What prompted her to do so, although she was a married woman and a mother, and there is nothing to indicate that husband Lapidoth accompanied her?

Surely she must have worried about what her husband would have to say to this strange excursion? In fact, what would ANY husband say if his wife went off to distant part with another man, leaving him to do the baby-sitting.

It is reasonable to assume that this caused severe marital difficulties between them. How did those difficulties lead her to relate to Barak? And what transpired between her and the young warrior when they were alone together with no husband in sight?  Did Deborah and her husband manage to overcome their marital problems, or did they split up?

I found these traumatic aspects of Deborah's life-story most compelling and they prompted me to write my novel in which I use my imagination and identification to answer these questions.

The Strength of Biblical Women

Another feature of biblical women that may inspire us today is their strength. Although they lived in a male dominated society in which they were downtrodden, most of them were strong women. They did not merely sit around, meekly accepting fate. Instead, they took destiny into their own hands and shaped it to do their bidding.

For instance, amazingly, Tamar from the book of GENESIS struggled to become a single mother and achieved her goal.

Ruth the Moabite (RUTH) was adamant to migrate and settle in an alien country, and although she encountered a great many difficulties, was successful in the end.

Most prominently, Deborah (JUDGES) managed to "break the glass ceiling" over three thousand years ago and became a religious and national leader, and a chief justice, all wrapped in one.

Most impressively, Queen Vashti (ESTHER) stood up for her rights and refused to have her bodily charms exploited by her husband's cronies. And there are many other examples as well.

Does all this have any meaning for us today? I think it does, and that women of the Bible can serve as shining role models for us.

What we can learn from them is that women are strong and capable. That, no matter what the obstacles, we women can draw on our feminine strength to achieve what we aspire to, without giving up our femininity.

Deborah, for one, may serve as a role model to any contemporary woman who has career ambitions in her life. Not every woman wants to become a leader. But by looking at what Deborah was able to achieve, every woman can say to herself:  No matter what the field in which I want to realize my potential, no matter what is right for me, I can do it. If she could do it then, when conditions were so harsh, I can do it now.


The Sexuality of Biblical Women

Last but not least, what is remarkable about biblical women is that several for them were sexual personalities: not merely sex objects, but sex initiators.

Leah (GENESIS) goes out to meet Jacob when he comes back from work and says to him: "You will come to me…"  And he lay with her that night.

Tamar (GENESIS) initiates sex with her father-in-law Judah.

Ruth (RUTH), at her mother-in-law's instigation, goes out into the fields at night and lies down at the feet of Boaz, thereby seducing him.

Bathsheba (II SAMUEL) displays her charms to King David by bathing on the roof of her house and so leads him to commit adultery with her.

The beloved of the SONG OF SONGS calls on her lover to make love with her, and a lot more in this vein.

The sexuality of biblical women, too, is very inspiring for us today, an age in which women's liberation also means sexual liberation. It is empowering to know that the repressive Puritanism that prevailed in Western culture for so long did not stem from our original Judeo-Christian tradition. That thousands of years ago, women were not ashamed of their sexuality, so there is no reason why we should be.

In my biblical novels, and also in THE TRIUMPH OF DEBORAH, I celebrate the women's dramatic lives, their strength and their sexuality. I wrote their stories in a manner that is faithful to the Scripture, but makes for light, entertaining reading. They can be enjoyed not merely by Bible lovers but also, no less, by people who have never held a Bible in their hands.

Eva Etzioni-Halevy
http://www.evaetzionihalevy.com

Effective Book Promotion: Where Should You Start?

Enter to win a print book by Barbora Knobova! One lucky commenter will win.

To Enter: Include the first part of your email address with your comment. You need to be a NOR newsletter subscriber to enter. That's how we get your full email address...so you don't have to post it all on the comment. You must be 18 or over to enter and a legal residents of the the USA. This prize only ships within the USA. No Purchase Necessary. Contest Ends: 2/19/2010


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Effective Book Promotion: Where Should You Start? by Barbora Knobova

Whether you're writing your first book or your tenth, the process is never easy. It's full of challenges, obstacles and frustrations, but every author knows that writing is probably the most fulfilling and rewarding activity in the whole world. Many first-time authors think that after they've finished their masterpiece, they can relax, sit back and enjoy the fruit of their labor. However, getting your book to readers is the most difficult task that every author faces.

Good book marketing needs a plan and you should start planning your campaign even before your book is published. I suggest you read two books that taught me everything I needed to know about book publicity: Red Hot Internet Publicity by Penny Sansevieri and Book Promo 201 by Nikki Leigh. When I first read these books I found them totally overwhelming because I felt like I had to do at least two thousand things every day. However, not everything works for every author and for every book and you should give it some time, think about it and discover what really works for your book, for your genre, and what doesn't.

Build a website. Your website is your internet business card and your homepage is your billboard. Your website should contain all the necessary information but it should not overwhelm and stress visitors. Some websites have endless menus and so much information that visitors find the whole concept confusing and leave the site without even reading your information. Keep it clear, keep it brief, keep it friendly. And don't forget to add your media room with updated information and downloadable files.

Start a blog. A blog is the easiest way to get your message to readers, it's easily maintained and updated. Make sure to publish new posts regularly (usually when I have some time on my hands, I write a few blog posts in advance for future use, it saves time). Blog about your book, post excerpts, blog about what it is like to be a writer. There are so many options.

Use social media. Social media like Twitter, Facebook and others expose you to your niche if you use them wisely and they fill the internet with your message.

Get reviews. Many authors say that getting reviews is hard but it's not as hard as it may seem. There are many keen readers that blog about books and are happy to review yours. Search the internet and also look for Amazon reviewers that review your genre. Most of them have a blog where you can contact them and ask them to read your book. Paid reviews are also an option, and not a bad one. Many people think that paid reviews are worthless, which is a common misconception. If you pay for a review it means that you will receive an honest review, it doesn't mean that you will receive a positive review. It's frustrating to pay for a review and then receive a bad one but that's how it works. At least it creates a buzz around your book and makes people curious.

Get on the radio. I love Blog Talk Radio. There are so many wonderful hosts that interview authors and talk about books. When you see a show you like, contact the host and ask him/her to consider your book. You can even start your own show!

Use Amazon.com to market your book. Amazon offers many opportunities for authors to get in front of their readers. Build your Author's Page and blog, be active in discussions about your topic. Review books that are similar to yours. Be creative, Amazon is a great networking place for authors.

Organize a Virtual Book Tour or have it organized by those who really know how do to it. A VBT is a unique and very effective way to connect with your readers and generate sales. I work with Dorothy Thompson from Pump Up Your Book (http://www.pumpupyourbookpromotion.com) on my tour and I'm nothing but impressed. Dorothy is diligent, creative, helpful, she goes the extra mile. She understands authors, she understands books, she understands the market and she understands her job. Besides, she's such a sweetheart and a wonderful friend.

Be reasonable about how much money you spend on book promotion. Start learning as much as you can about book marketing and soon you will find out that you can do many things yourself. This may save you thousands of dollars. Every author needs to invest into book marketing but it doesn't mean you should use your life savings and end up broke. Set aside a budget and stick to it.

There are three important things I've learned about book promotion and I think every author should keep them in mind. One, don't sell the book. Sell what your book can do for the reader. Two, be polite and never forget to thank those who have reviewed your book, hosted you on their blog or radio show. Make sure they know you appreciate their effort. And three, have fun with your book promotion. If you have written a good book, sooner or later it will find its way to readers.

Barbora Knobova is a writer, relationship coach and expert in Delicious Life. A world traveler, she is one of those rare world citizens who live everywhere and nowhere. Barbora is a firm believer in female friendship, loyalty and bonding. She writes hilarious, sharp-witted, caustically apt, ironic, moving, true books for strong, independent, smart, fearless women. Barbora has also written several self-improvement books and teaches women about the importance of self-love in relationships and life in general. Barbora speaks eight languages and has found her home away from home in New York, London and Milan. She is always on the move, accompanied by her beagle Brinkley, the nasty dog from Tales for Delicious Girls. You can visit her website at www.barboraknobova.com.

Barbora will be giving away a copy of her book, Tales for Delicious Women.

Barbora Knobova
http://www.barbora-knobova.com

These Are the People in Your Neighborhood by Seanan McGuire

Win a copy of Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire!

Just comment on this post! One lucky commenter will be chosen.

Include the first part of your email address with your comment. You need to be a NOR / SFF Insider newsletter subscriber to enter. That's how we get your full email address...so you don't have to post it all on the comment. You must be 18 or over to enter. USA Shipping Only. Open to USA Citizens Only. No Purchase Necessary. Contest Ends: 2/19/2010
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These Are the People in Your Neighborhood by Seanan McGuire

When I'm trying to explain Toby's world to people, I frequently find myself opening with Xena: Warrior Princess. "You know how ancient Greece wasn't really like that?" I'll say, and when the nodding starts, I continue with, "Well, that is as historically accurate to our world as Sleeping Beauty is to Faerie." That tends to go over surprisingly well. It's hard to argue with a warrior princess.

Toby's Faerie is the source of fairy tales and folklore the world over, and a lot of the stories got sort of, well, garbled as they were told. This gives me a lot of flexibility, since I can always say "Ha-ha, the story you know is wrong in these eight ways!" It also means I have to be very careful, since I need to be able to show how I've changed the familiar into something new and strange. Sea Changes R Us...or something.

One of the hardest parts to explain can be the feudalism. Toby's culture isn't democratic: when your liege gives an order, you obey, or you suffer the consequences. Toby may balk and argue against Faerie's rules, but in the end, she's been trained to do what she's told. This drives her crazy sometimes. Her tendency to ask "Why the hell would I want to do something that insane?" makes the nobility just as nuts, so it's a fair trade.

One of my biggest departures from familiar folklore is my definition of "changeling": a crossbreed, half-fae and half-human, rather than a child stolen from the human world. This was an intentional change. I wanted to start by taking something everyone has heard of, and making it just a little strange, to make the point that when we wrote the stories down, we got a few things wrong. Besides, it meant I didn't have to invent a word or use the cliche-classic, "halfling." I think the first time someone called Toby a "half-elf," she would have been arrested for aggrivated assault. Not a good way to keep your protagonist out of jail.

The fae aren't human, and in some ways, they're not going to make much sense. A pureblood would no more argue with their liege the way Toby argues with Sylvester than I would gargle with live lizards. In other ways, they're very human, because they co-exist with the human world, and we've rubbed off on them. So you get fae who drive SUVs, watch reality television, and own fancy kitchen gadgets they never use. It's a weirdly blended world, and I am having an insane amount of fun introducing everyone to its inhabitants.

Please do not feed your fingers to the Kelpies.

Seanan McGuire
http://www.seananmcguire.com

Moved over from the SFF Insider Blog to the Night Owl Reviews blog on 5/1/2010.

Mixing Fantasy With YA by John Marco

Enter to Win a book - Winners choice - Either Fragile Eternity by Melissa Marr or Dust by Elizabeth Bear! One lucky commenter on this post will win. This is a cross blog contest between the YA Insider and the SFF Insider. One winner will be chosen from the all comments on both blogs. Same post two locations.

To Enter: Include the first part of your email address with your comment. You need to be a NOR newsletter subscriber to enter. That's how we get your full email address...so you don't have to post it all on the comment. You must be 18 or over to win "Dust". To enter you must be a legal residents of the the USA. This prize only ships within the USA. No Purchase Necessary. Contest ends: 2/19/2010. Prize shipped by the SFF Insider.

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Mixing Fantasy With YA by John Marco

First, I’d like to start by thanking Tammie King for inviting me here to guest blog.  It’s always fun for me to have the chance to talk about my work, and especially to talk about Starfinder, a book that’s meant a lot to me personally.  Starfinder is my seventh published book, but the first one I ever wrote with young readers—as well as older ones—in mind.  In fact, of all the books I’ve done so far, Starfinder is perhaps my favorite, because it’s a story I wanted to tell for years.  I also wanted to tell it in a way that appeals to the sensibilities of all ages, so that younger readers would feel a sense of mastery, while older folks like me would experience wonderment—something I don’t see enough of in literature these days.

A lot of people have told me over the years that they think writing for children is easy.  These are non-writers, of course.  Children’s authors know that this is a fallacy.  No good story-telling is easy, and why should it be?  A worthwhile story should be challenging, not just to the reader but to the writer as well.  With Starfinder, my challenge was to bridge the gap between two genres I love—YA and fantasy—and do it in a way that would bring both groups across that bridge to the opposite side.  Whether or not I succeeded in that is up to each reader to decide, ultimately.  But I had great fun writing Starfinder, and I hope that my love for the story comes through in its pages.

The main character of Starfinder is Moth, a 13 year old boy.  I’m not 13 anymore, so my first difficulty came in finding Moth’s “voice.”  Because the story has so much to do with the magic of flying, I discovered Moth’s voice by giving him the same love of flying I have.  Moth’s enthusiasm for flight is my own, and so it became much easier to understand him as a character and motivate him.  Looking back, I wonder how much of Moth is really the boy I was, or the boy I wanted to be.  Moth, on the other hand, is the young man looking ahead.  He’s a dreamer, an outsider.  I was both those things myself as a kid, and I know kids can relate to that.

But Moth moves in a world dominated by adults, and adult situations.  And this is where the older readers come in.  There’s a rule of thumb that says writers should make their main character in a YA novel at least a year or two older than the readers the book is aimed at.  I didn’t do that.  I thought about doing it, I worried about doing it, but in the end decided against it, probably because I had a vision of Moth in my head that was so clear, and also because of that “mass appeal” I was trying to create.  When I call Starfinder a “YA” book, I mean that it’s certainly suitable and aimed and YA readers.  But a lot of adults read YA books these days, and I love that and wanted very much to appeal to them as well.

As I’ve said, Starfinder is also a fantasy book.  In fact, it’s more fantastical than any other book I’ve done so far.  In all my previous books magic is sort of a side dish, not the main course.  Something rare in the world. But in Starfinder, magic is everywhere.  The world of Starfinder is divided into two parts—the human world (or our adult world), and the world of the Skylords (and magic).  I’m not sure if other writers have this experience or not, but I found the YA “label” liberating.  It gave me a freedom I never allowed myself before, so that I could use magic in great buckets instead of spoonfuls.  Starfinder not only has the magical Skylord beings, but also dragons and mermaids and centaurs—creatures that I’ve adored all my life but could never bring together in a book before.  The world of these creatures had a logical all its own, so that nothing really felt out of place.

To me, young adult and fantasy books are a completely natural fit for each other.  The question really wasn’t whether younger readers would accept the world I created.  The real challenge was in getting older readers to take a chance on it.  It’s still a problem, even though the book has been out for almost a year.  A lot of my readers have grown accustom to my traditional, “epic” fantasy novels, and getting them to try Starfinder is tough sometimes.  But when they do, they usually like it.  And if they like it, it means I did my job.

John Marco

http://johnmarco.blogspot.com



Moved from the YA & SFF Insider Blogs to the Night Owl Reviews Blog on 5/1/2010