Jennifer Estep - Mythos Academy

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Mythos Academy
by Jennifer Estep

Greetings and salutations! First of all, I want to say thanks to the folks here at Night Owl Reviews for having me on the blog again today. Thanks so much, guys!

My name is Jennifer Estep, and I write the Mythos Academy young adult urban fantasy series for Kensington. The books focus on Gwen Frost, a 17-year-old 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 is shipped off to Mythos Academy, a school for the descendants of ancient warriors like Spartans, Valkyries, Amazons, and more.

Touch of Frost, the first book in the series, came out on July 26. First Frost, a prequel e-story to the series, is also available now. The second book, Kiss of Frost, will hit shelves on Nov. 29.

Since I’ve just launched a new series, I thought I’d talk about some things you should know if you’re interested in Touch of Frost and the Mythos Academy books. Here goes:

1) The books feature a lot of Greek and Norse mythology: I’ve always loved mythology, and it was a lot of fun for me to put my own spin on some of the gods, goddesses, and creatures from Greek and Norse mythology. For example, I’m basically pitting Nike, the Greek goddess of victory, and the other members of the Pantheon against Loki, the Norse trickster god, and his Reapers of Chaos. In my books, Loki is the ultimate bad guy, and it’s been a lot of fun to write such an unapologetically evil character.

2) There be monsters here: The bad guys, the Reapers of Chaos, use a variety of mythological monsters to do their bidding, including Nemean prowlers, which are black, panther-like creatures – only with much bigger teeth and claws and burning red eyes. The Reapers have trained the prowlers to be giant, kitty-cat assassins, and Gwen faces down more than one of them in Touch of Frost. And there are more monsters to come in future books in the series.

3) Anyone can be a bad guy: Anybody at Mythos Academy can be a Reaper, from a fellow student to a teacher to the lunch lady. So Gwen always has to be careful and watch her back.

4) There’s a cute guy in the mix: One of the main characters in the series is Logan Quinn, a fierce Spartan warrior who’s as cute as he is deadly. Gwen doesn’t really like Logan at first, but after he saves her life a couple of times, she starts thinking that he might be okay.

5) There are lots of statues: Stone statues of gods, goddesses, monsters, and more can be seen in and on all the buildings on campus. Gwen thinks that the statues are all super creepy because it seems like the statues’ eyes are always watching her.

6) There’s a lot of action: I really like writing fight scenes, and having Gwen attend a school where the kids are training to be warriors lets me pack a lot of action and battles into the books.

7) The library is the deadliest place on campus: At most schools, the library is a quiet place to study. But at Mythos Academy, the Library of Antiquities is a place where Bad, Bad Things can happen at any time – like Gwen fighting for her life.

8) Gwen has a major sweet tooth: Gwen loves to eat the sweet treats that her Grandma Frost bakes on a regular basis. She’s always sneaking off campus to go see her grandma, who lives nearby.

9) Gwen is stronger and more of a warrior than she thinks she is: Gwen hasn’t had the lifelong training that the other warrior whiz kids have, but she’s stronger than she realizes. Good thing, since she’s going to be put to the test in the books.

10) The books aren’t just for YA readers: The Mythos Academy books have a lot of the same elements as my Elemental Assassin adult urban fantasy books do – a strong, sassy heroine, magic/world building, and lots of action/fight scenes. So I think folks who like my adult books will find a lot to enjoy in Touch of Frost as well. Fingers crossed, anyway.

Happy reading, everyone! ;-)

Jennifer Estep is a USA Today bestselling author who also writes the Elemental Assassin urban fantasy series for Pocket Books. 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.

Books in the series are Spider’s Bite, Web of Lies, Venom, and Tangled Threads. Spider’s Revenge, the fifth book, will be released on Sept. 27. Visit www.jenniferestep.com for free short stories, excerpts, and more.

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Jason Henderson - The Need to Reach Boys With YA

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The Need to Reach Boys With YA
By Jason Henderson (http://alexvanhelsing.com)

I am the creator of Alex Van Helsing. That’s a series of YA novels published by HarperTeen about a teenage vampire-hunting spy. This is true-blue adventure material, full of close calls and impossible escapes. The trappings are horror, but these are really adventure novels of a very old school—James Bond and Matt Helm meet the Hardy Boys and the Three Investigators. With vampire terrorists.

I feel pretty certain that most of my readers are probably girls because girls tend to read more in general. I’m just guessing, but certainly most of my reviewers are female, and I’m heartened that they tend to be kind. But we describe these books as “boy friendly.” That’s a label that means the books are fast-paced with a male main character. There are other smaller details that I think are important to being boy-friendly, but for now we can keep it simple. Are these books “for boys?” Of course not; they’re for readers.

Is Twilight “for girls?” Is Paranormalcy?

From a marketing perspective: yes.

These are books for readers too. Do boys read these books? Sure. But we can’t honestly say boys are the market any more than we could suggest that Gray’s Anatomy is built to attract males.

Alex Van Helsing books, of course, always have a boy on the cover. Then again so did every issue of Tiger Beat. So I have no idea if that’s boy- or girl-friendly. But we need to worry about this, because in this country, girls read more than boys, and that’s a trend worth evening out.

We market YA books to girls more, with the covers, with web promotions and with myriad other marketing endeavors.

We need to start marketing books to boys. We have to reach them on male-heavy web pages in ads in male-oriented video games. I can hear the crickets chirping on this one, because of the old Catch-22: publishers market to girls because they know more girls read. Publishers are really wary of being left at the altar, of marketing a book to boys and finding no boys buying. A problem with this is that the vacuum left behind will be filled by other products that market to boys, such as games and books aimed at adult readers. If you go into a middle school, boys who love to read will tell you they skipped straight from MG (middle grade) books to adult commercial fare like Dean Koontz and Stephen King, or YA-friendly genre series like The Dresden Files.

But wait, Jason, I hear you say. You just said that the boys who are reading are reading adult books, so at least they’re reading. So what’s the big deal?

The bid deal is don’t kid yourself; only some of them make the switch to adult books, the rest stop reading. While girls are finding new titles every month that speak to them, some boys head for King, the rest leave reading behind. According to the New York Times, “at the end of high school, among white boys who have at least one parent who attended college, 23 percent score “below basic” in reading. Only 7 percent of their female counterparts score that low.” Likewise, boys scored “proficient” on federal writing tests exactly half as much as girls. If boys and girls were reading the same amount, but boys were just lining Stephen King’s pockets more, surely we wouldn’t see this fall-off. No, no. Some are switching. Most are stopping.

And of course they would. Even though a 13-year-old can read Stephen King’s language, those are adult books. The themes are built to resonate with grown-up readers. The visiting young reader might be interested to read about Jack Torrance’s struggle with alcoholism and rage issues, might even take back some observations about his own life, but does he know or care about the frustrations of struggling to make it in a history department? Will he care?

So what is a “boy friendly” book on the inside? Setting marketing aside, this is actually a more challenging question than you would think. Anything I suggest (say, “action”) is something that generally any reader will want. Hey! says the female reader. I like action! Yes, it’s only a matter of degree. The difference is that you will likely put up with more chapters featuring no action than male readers will. Boy-friendly books need more action, meaning they need less chapters in a row where the characters talk about their feelings, unless something is about to explode under them. I tend to prefer to have the characters say things about their feelings while they are busy killing monsters, and usually they don’t get around to finishing what they were going to say, because they forget. Which in my books is fine. See what I mean? It’s fine.

A boy-friendly book should have romance, like all good stories, but could have very little at all and that would be fine. The X-Files, remember, for many years, had zero romance, only chemistry. My books usually have a romance the way James Bond does—the romance is not key to the plot. The romances in Alex Van Helsing are tinged with inchoate longing. Life for this hero is being put off, and romance takes a back seat to the job. For paranormal YA books, romance is often the very center of the plot—if romance takes the back seat, it howls until it is allowed to drive.

What about grossness? Eh. People say boy books need to be more full of gross jokes and that kind of thing, but man cannot live on fart jokes alone. There’s room for a higher-brow entertainment that still appeals to YA boys.

I do think we can forget the importance of finding the right content for the age, too. Just because you can wield a chainsaw in Gears of War doesn’t mean that as a 12-year-old you necessarily even want to experience hard-core violence in your reading. There are levels of physical violence and torture that are appropriate in a Stephen Coontz thriller that don’t need to be in a YA book. (Note: this is a minefield of an issue because some people love their gore and sadism, and to them I say, more power to you.) It’s a sliding scale, anyway. I try to keep the level of violence in Alex Van Helsing at about a PG rating, but some readers have found even these books too intense. That’s okay. My point overall is, we should be plunging into this arena with more choices. We can’t assume boys are served because Stephen King exists.

Boys were half as likely as girls to score proficient on writing tests. Half. We are abandoning them, but there is a market there. It’s time for a new literature and marketing strategy for boys in YA.

AUTHOR BIO

Jason Henderson is the author of Alex Van Helsing: Vampire Rising (HarperTeen, a VOYA Best of 2010 and TXLA Lone Star Selection) and Summer 2011's Alex Van Helsing: Voice of the Undead. You can fiund him online at http://alexvanhelsing.com. He also hosts a regular podcast on horror and vampire movies called the Castle Dracula podcast, found at http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=99734&cmd=tc.


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Ericka Scott - Things I Wish I'd Known

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Ericka Scott - Things I Wish I'd Known

May 17th, 2011 was not my birthday, but was a significant milestone. That was the day I celebrated my fourth anniversary as a published author. I wasn’t a publishing novice by the time that first novella was accepted. In fact, I’d had over thirty short stories published in various print and electronic formats. However, I had never thought of my writing as anything but a hobby up until 2006 when I decided that for the next chapter of my life, I was going to ‘be an author.’ It’s been a wild ride, one I wouldn’t trade for the world, and I’m glad to say that it’s not over yet. Still, there are some things I wished I had known (and am still learning), that I’d like to pass along.

• All publishers are not created equal

Crystal Clear, my first novella, was released by Cobblestone Press. I was very lucky to stumble upon them and have their shining example as to what a publisher should be like. They are author-friendly, have prompt and open communications with their employees, have fantastic cover art, and pay regularly and on-time each and every month without fail.

With some of my other publishers, I haven’t been so lucky. Several of them disappeared almost overnight. In addition, one of my past publishers kept such shoddy book keeping that I was paid royalties before my book was even released (explain that one?!?) and never received a clear accounting of what books were actually sold. Communication with a few other publishers has been hit or miss.

I thought I had learned what to look for and where to go to ask questions (Writers Beware, Absolute Write Water Cooler, Piers Anthony) but even with all that information, it’s still possible to leap without looking. For instance, did you know that not all publishers edit the books before they are released? I didn’t realize that until I received the galleys for one of my books and found out it’s the exact file I sent them (forehead slap).

• Do your research.

Even if you’ve sold once, it takes just as much work to sell again.
It may sound silly, but I honestly thought that once I’d sold a book, it would be a breeze to sell the next one. Nope. Even after three years, eighteen novellas, two full-length novels, and a handful of short stories, I still garner a healthy number of rejections. At times it’s discouraging and the waiting never gets any easier.

What I have learned is that if I’m lucky enough for an agent or editor to give me feedback, I take a step back and apply a critical eye to the story before I send it out again. Although it’s only one opinion and I may not agree with their criticism, there is usually truth in their remarks. Thankfully, almost all of my manuscripts have found a home, but it’s never been the easy road I envisioned.

• Goals and deadlines

Writing a book is hard work. Many authors have a 9-5 job, families, friends and a writing career. Often the time to write has to be crowbarred into the day, either early in the morning or late at night. For many, there is no real sense of urgency to create that first or second draft. Then, the manuscript sells.

The mistake is to think that simply because the book sold, there will be no further work. Ha! There are forms to be filled out, edits to complete, and galleys to review. Make those deadlines a priority. The difficulty arises when life intervenes, kids get sick, the paying job’s projects are due. It’s easy to let it all slide, especially if the book won’t be released for months. But don’t do it. Your editor and publisher will thank you.

Even if your book hasn’t been sold, even if the manuscript is still in the beginning stages, set goals and deadlines and make every effort to meet them. It’ll be good practice for when you sell.

• Being an author is like running a marathon, not dashing a sprint.

Every year, there are more and more published books competing for a reader’s attention. Although I was sure my first novella would be a bestseller (thankfully, it was), some of my other books, that I believed in just as strongly, haven’t been. For each title I took out the same number and type of ads, promoted them much the same way, and I know the publisher has done their job to promote the title as well. What went wrong? Your guess is as good as mine.

Sadly, we can all look at the flaws in the latest bestsellers and even I fall into the pit of wondering why my book, which didn’t have cardboard characters, a predictable plot, and a heroine who is too stupid to live, didn’t hit the NY Times Bestseller List. Still, a close look at those writers who appear to be ‘overnight successes’ reveals that the reality is far from the truth. They, too, put in the long hours (or years) of writing, garnered drawers full of rejections, and paid their dues to get where they are. That doesn’t say I don’t believe that there is an element of luck or magic involved. Being in the right place and the right time certainly doesn’t hurt. However, I remind myself daily that I’m in this business for the long run.

• And the most important thing to remember -- there is only one rule for Authors. Keep writing!

Ericka Scott is a multi-published, bestselling author of seductive suspense. She's written stories for as long as she can remember and reads anything under the sun (including the back of cereal boxes in a pinch). She got hooked on romantic suspense in her college days, when reading anything but a textbook was a guilty pleasure. Now, when she’s not chauffeuring children around, wishing she had more than 24 hours in a day, or lurking at the library, she’s spinning her own web of fantasy and penning tales of seduction and suspense. She currently lives in Southern California with her husband and three children.

Ericka’s latest release, Wild Ghost Chase, is currently available at Barnes and Noble as well as at Amazon.com in both Kindle and Paperback editions.

Ericka loves friends, so come friend her at http://myspace.com/erickascott

She's also on Facebook at http://facebook.com/ericka.scott and Twitter @ErickaScott

You can find out more about her books at www.erickascott.com

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Elizabeth Kolodziej - When the Gods Inspire

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When the Gods Inspire
by Elizabeth Kolodziej

Hello everyone out there in blogger land! I’m Elizabeth J Kolodziej, the author of Vampyre Kisses and Werewolf Descent (The Last Witch Series). I am so glad Night Owl Reviews is letting me do a guest post on their site! Thanks!

What I wanted to write about today is regarding something many people like about my books: mythology/folklore mixed with my own uniqueness, vampires, werewolves and witches.

In my book, Werewolf Descent, I decided to do more research into werewolves and their history. This ended up being a little more difficult than I imagined due to the lack of stories. The one story I did find is from the book “Metamorphosis” by the Roman poet Ovid. The story, which is the oldest werewolf story out there, tells the story of King Lycaon being changed into a werewolf after he tries to feed Zeus human flesh. That’s the gist of it at least. You know those Roman and Greek poets never wrote anything that short and simple!

What I did with this story is decided to make King Lycaon (I’m positive you notice Lycaon being incredibly similar to Lycan) the first werewolf ever in my book. This story is basically the same in my book, however the events that follow the story are what make it unique. I can’t tell you all of it since it would ruin the book for anyone reading Werewolf Descent, but what happens is the bloodlines come into play; the blood being of high importance in this book. It is when I mix an old mythological story such as this with my own work that people seem to get very interested.

However, I do want to make one thing known because this gets brought up once and awhile from people, this particular thing causes me to end up thinking someone only read half my book. You see, Kane is not Cain and nor is the story of Cain and Able anywhere in my books. The story of Kane and how he became the first vampire is explained in detail in Vampyre Kisses and it is nowhere near the same as the story of Cain and Able.

Anyone who reads my books will see that I take a lot of lore and mythology from Greek and Japanese stories but I am just not that big on biblical stories. I am not trying to offend anyone I just haven’t found one that interests me enough.

Let’s move forward though. One of the stories in Vampyre Kisses I loved the most was similar to the story of “Helen of Troy”. It is the story of Kane, the god of vampires, Daeka, the god of werewolves, and Lilith. Funny thing is this, I didn’t actually intend on the story resembling that of “Helen of Troy”, but after I re-read it, it kind of was similar! I believe this to be an instance on how what we as authors read influence and affect our writing without us even being aware. Given there are many differences between my story and the other but the basics are the same.

I truthfully can’t say where or why I decided to mix folklore and mythology with my books except for the fact that the gods and goddess have always been a part of my life and I guess I can’t imagine a world without them. So I just had to include them in The Last Witch Series. Yes, some of the gods and goddess in my stories are totally made up. I’m a fiction writer it would be weird if I didn’t make up some of them. When you read my books I think you get a glimpse into the great stories so many of us have read when we were little along with my own twist that make them bright and new.

I hope you liked reading this guest post and it wasn’t too long and boring. I would love to hear about what stories are your favorites! Bonus points if you can name a Greek mythology I haven’t read.

<3’s and fangs, Liz ^_^ You can check out more about my books and myself at: www.vampyrekisses.com

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Patricia Snodgrass - The Witching Hour

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The Witching Hour
by Patricia Snodgrass

It’s four am, the witching hour at the Snodgrass household. It’s quiet, it’s dark, it’s finally cool. There’s a slight breeze coming in from my office window, but it’s such a weak pathetic little draft it needs the fan to help bring it through.

I think one of the main reasons why I like to write this early in the morning, barring the fact that it’s not one hundred degrees in the office right now, is because of the quiet, almost sacred stillness of the predawn hours. There is no traffic on the streets. No one is cranking up their lawn mowers, nobody is pounding on the door, or calling on the phone. I am unplugged from my Hoot Suite. It’s just me and Mother Earth, and the primal need to put my thoughts down on paper, much the same way as a distant ancestress would have painted her tribe returning from a successful hunt upon her cave wall.

Here, in the wee predawn hours, before the 21st Century can intrude, I am able to tap into that same raw primal energy. Download myself into that ancient creative force that’s primal and sweet, sensual and intimate.
It is here that I can write about the heat of an East Texas summer, as sultry and dangerous as a lion in estrus. I can tell you about the musky old world scent of wild jasmine mixed with cypress, describe to you, the rich heady aroma of loblolly pine, regale you tales of gentle murmurings of bayou water as it sloshes against the levees; reveal the sensations of a Southern summer as sensual as skin on skin.

It’s also the time of sticky sheets and damp hair. Sweat glistening on bodies entwined in an eternal dance as ancient as the human heart, as deep and mysterious as the undulating river that flows from the Red River basin down to New Orleans. It’s the time of soft jazz coming from a neighbor’s radio, the lonely cry of the coyotes looking for their mates, of old men in t-shirts and women in summer dresses gossiping softly upon their porches, cooling themselves with hand fans and pitchers of sweet tea or hard lemonade.
This is the time I love the best. This is the time when my creative juices flow and I’m so completely absorbed in my writing that I do not notice the faint golden streaks of dawn caressing the horizon. It’s not until the temperatures begin to rise and my office becomes unbearable that I have to abandon it for the cooler, darker recesses of my house.

Dawn has come quietly, unobtrusively; painting the eastern horizon in teal and crimson. The owls have retired, giving the sky to cooper hawks and mourning doves. My window is still open and the fan is still blowing, the air as warm and moist as a summer kiss. The mockingbirds, disturbed by squirrels prancing high in the branches, utter their raucous scolding, then settle back down into silence. Everything is hushed and still. Morning, where the sun blasts its red gold rays into my window has not yet come to pass. But soon, soon, the raging red globe of the sun will make its way over the horizon, and when it does, the world will awaken to the sounds of electronic buzzing, nonsensical ravings of political pundits lawn mowers, and traffic.

The pre dawn, however, is my world. It is the real world, just as nature intended. This is the Earth in all its intensity, all its glory. This is the time where all ancient creative needs are met. This is the Earth stripped of electronic gadgetry and humankind’s folly.

You can’t get this kind of thing on Facebook. You can tweet your little heart out on electronic gadgets, but to do so only spoils the moment. It’s too intimate. Too raw. To beautiful. It must be lusted after like a lover, cherished like a jewel, revered like your soul.

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