BN

Been spending the day at the office:

Or, what an out of work, broke, wannabe novelist college grad can consider an office, trying to sweet talk Jordie into submission and admiring the butter yellow light of fall and the way Markus's coat is coming in black again, when I decide, just for kicks, to go over to Barnes & Noble's website and type my own name in.

Bam.

There it is. You can imagine the dazzling effect that would have on a lifelong wallflower and generally unnoticed person. I'm thinking: This must be a mistake. No way. No freaking way! It's humbling and terrifying and unreal. It doesn't mean much, true - I'm not a success or any less of an unnoticed wallflower - but it does my little heart good.

The link - just for proof and kicks: Keep You at Barnes & Noble

Knuckling Down

So apparently, if you don't log onto Facebook often enough, Facebook sends you helpful little emails reminding you of your antisocial behavior. This is hysterical. It's also a trap I'm not falling into.

I've realized there's a pattern to the way novels pull at you - or, at least me - when you write them. The first half is going up the roller coaster, that slow chug-chug-chug of the chains catching with screeching sounds and the car lurching until you're convinced the whole thing's coming off the rails any second and you're about to become an evening news story entitled Tragic coaster derailing kills five.

But then the halfway point arrives, and all of a sudden you're plummeting headlong down the drop, and everything's clicking: the wheels glide, the tugging stops, and everything around you turns to this blur of earth and sky, without detail or meaning, and all the loops and barrel curls, the sudden switchbacks - they're nothing you can't handle.

When I get to the halfway point and what lies beyond, I get very focused. I'm knuckled down right now on Dream of You, and for the moment, before the editing and marketing and futile attempts to impart excitement in others, I couldn't be happier.

See, this is why my family gives me odd looks. Because I compare book writing to roller coasters and want to discuss fictional people instead of real ones.

From Keep You

I have been so, so excited by my blog traffic as of late. I really can't believe so many people out there keep coming back to see me. UK, Russia, Germany, France, Canada, New Zealand, Latvia, Poland, Finland, Sweden, China...wow. I'm psyched. Thank you guys for sticking around!! It makes me think I'm not THAT crazy.

Because it's a scary-ass market for a newbie to the publishing world like me, I want to thank all of you who've purchased my book and continue to encourage the doubtful. An outcast to the end, I'll keep fighting the popular crowd one realistic relationship at a time. Keep You is only $5.99 (for Kindle). I'd love to hear from some more of you!

Broken Harbor

I can not wait to dive into this. I've set it up on my bookshelf like a showpiece for the past two weeks and have let the anticipation build, but I think I'll have to start it tonight. I stumbled across Tana French's first novel In the Woods two Halloweens ago, struck by its cover art after I fished it out of a back shelf at Borders. I don't like trendy fiction, so I was excited to find someone I'd never heard of. She's become my very favorite author and I almost hate to read her latest because I know I'll hate when it's over.

I've really never been a fan of first person perspective - mainly because it fails to deepen my understanding of characters and usually makes the protagonist sound shallow as hell. "I'm pretty, I'm scared, I'm so hot for this guy...see Spot run....", etc. But Tana French is masterful with first person. She uses it to highlight all the layers and prejudices of her characters: through their eyes, we come to learn just how damaged they are, and just how desperate their circumstances become as the novels unfold.

Her last novel Faithful Place was wonderful. Without an ounce of smut, she paints a picture of a love affair that continues to haunt the protagonist, and as a reader I was catapulted back to Frank Mackey's past - a place that was alive with sensory details and dominated by how much he loved his girl. It's a book that stays with you, that had me very near actual tears, which I can tell you, doesn't happen to me while reading.

Sneak Peek: Dream of You

It's spoiler free if you haven't read Keep You yet. Writing this one has made me realize Jordie might be my favorite. Might.

I'm halfway through and am determined it will be out before Christmas.

Lost in the Doldrums

Remember this book?

I've stumbled into a writing funk that reminded me of Milo and his time lost in "The Doldrums". Every writer, I'm sure, gets lost there on occasion. It's not a place found due to a lack of ambition, but quite the opposite - an abundance of worry and stress and over-analysis. I'm dissatisfied with everything I write and that leads to a tailspin of doubt. And then I start thinking I ought to be writing something else entirely, something unrealistic, sensational and smutty, and then I can't write anything. It sucks! Where's my timekeeping dog to haul my ass out of here?

Love Autumn Rain

It's not truly autumn yet, but it's starting to feel like it. And the wind is becoming ominous and talkative like it does in winter.

I love the aesthetics of rain. Love watching it come rolling in like waves crashing along the horizon.

Love the way it sounds on a barn roof.

 

It's good reading and writing weather, and there's nothing I like to do better to fictional characters than to dump a good rain storm on them.

Giveaway Winners

Three entrants and I drew two names out of a hat - literally - and the winners are:

Sarah

Janice

Email me at laurengilley45@gmail.com with your shipping info and I'll get books to you :)

Prefab

I elected not to attend the big annual writing conference this year because I’m tired of being harped at about genre. In today’s market, the universal “they” who hold the steering wheel tell me that genre fiction must be able to be trimmed, tightened, and forced into very particular parameters. The result is the literary equivalent of prefab cheese slice product.

Aren’t we as readers smarter than this? Yes. Don’t we deserve better? Yes. I don’t believe genre fiction should be so limited. If fiction is art, I believe our imaginations should be able to test the barriers that divide the genres.

Giveaway!!

Okay, I've never done this before, but I want to give it a go. Get it? Give? Yeah, I know.

This will require some reader involvement in order to win. I'm giving away two of my novels to two drawn at random giveaway entrants.

To enter:

Simply leave a comment on this post and please include your name and the title of the book you'd like to receive: Keep You or Shelter.

Winners will be picked at random and I will announce on Tuesday, September 18th on a post entitled "Giveaway Winners" which will include instructions for collecting your winnings.

Snippet

I'm piecing together a story I want to work on in little scrap parts. Not true flash fiction, but it's a good exercise.

 

A thousand possible futures she lived in her mind while the grass lapped around her. The horses – their riders – came closer, the muffled tattoo of hooves across the field a vibration beneath her. “Go with them,” he’d told her, “they will be kinder to you than my master.” But as the sun seared the backs of her eyelids, all she could see was his face, and none of those futures were ones she wanted. The horses came and then were gone again, the echo of their departure long fading. Whatever pain awaited her now, at least she’d chosen it. At least it had been her decision.

Miss You, Lieutenant Dan

Shelter

My novel Shelter - see the post "New Release" for details - is now available in paperback here.

And for digital download here.

Synopsis:

Alma Morales never expected to be a widow so soon, least of all a pregnant widow. Three weeks after her husband Sam’s murder, she’s still searching for questions no one seems to have the answers to. How does a landscaper from quiet, suburban Marietta get gunned down in the heart of Atlanta? What are the police not telling her? And most important, why does her family not care? Alone, a bundle of ragged nerves, she turns to Sam’s cousin Carlos for comfort.

Carlos grew up with his cousin Sam – they were more like brothers than cousins – and the death hits him hard, even harder than Alma knows because Carlos was there the night Sam was shot. As Alma searches for closure, Carlos tries to keep one step ahead of her, hiding the painful truth of Sam’s dark associations, all while getting himself more deeply entrenched in the Atlanta drug trade. With the help of Sam’s friend Sean, Carlos sets out to find the man who shot his cousin. But when the trail leads to a new, powerful entrant into the narcotics business, it’s no longer Carlos’s freedom that’s at stake, but Alma’s life.

New Release

Three years ago, I was an aspiring novelist with lots of ideas and zero readers. I turned to fanfiction as a means to test the waters: I wanted to see what strangers, what unbiased, impartial readers thought about my characterization and storytelling approach. Lots of published authors look down their noses at fanfiction, and it certainly isn't the sort of thing I talk about at parties because I try to pretend I'm not a geek in real life, but the feedback I received was invaluable. So many really sweet, really supportive readers from around the world gave me the ego boost I needed to keep plugging away with my original fiction.

My newest book isn't that new at all. I took a theme I explored through fanfiction and picked it apart - stripped out anything that wasn't originally mine and added in a new setting and new plot twists. I wrote a fanfiction story about a young widow and then I adapted it into something I can call uniquely my own.

Shelter is a decided sidestep from Keep You and its sequel, Dream of You (which will be released soon). Shelter follows two heartbroken souls on their struggle to higher ground. It's drugs, sex and violence, dark alleys, heartbreak and redemption.

You can find the Kindle version here, and download it to almost any digital device, including iPhones. Only $6.99. The paperback will be available soon and, as with Keep You, you can read a large sample section from the Kindle page before purchasing.

Going Digital

Being in my twenties does not automatically mean I'm on the cutting edge of technology. I'm an old fashioned book girl - I like the smell of pages. That was one of my neurotic little worries about getting my hands on my own book - I wanted it to pass the smell check. It did. I'm weird. So sue me.

But, I will give digital downloading credit - it's instant, accessible, and economical in all manner of speaking.

Keep You is available for Amazon digital download here, and is now just $6.99. That's less than I paid for the last paperback I bought (and ended up not liking and chucking into the abyss of my closet). And, even cooler, you can read a sample of the Kindle addition of my book right there on the website. A big sample - the first six chapters.

I'm doing a lot of marketing, and for that I apologize, but I've had so many blog visitors and I keep thinking that you all must be coming back for a reason. I'm convinced the world of published fiction has room for new voices and approaches, and I'm hoping all my lovely visitors think so also.

A True Story: part 7

 

“People will come up to you,” Cosmo’s owner told me. “He draws a crowd.”

This Week

Happy day after Labor Day

I was a sloth this weekend, which means I have twice as much to do this week. On the blog, I'll have the final installment of my true story up soon - it's not thrilling, but it's been good practice writing non-fiction, if nothing else.

In addition to working on the sequel to Keep You, I'm prepping another manuscript for publication, so I'll have some info to share about it. Maybe a story update...? We'll see.

Until then, thank you kindly to my book purchasers!! I am endlessly appreciative.