Jonathan Maberry and Sue Lange at The Speckled Hen for Reading Reads

From the desk of Sue Lange:

Jonathan Maberry and Sue Lange will be reading at The Speckled Hen tonight October 27, 2009, as part of the Reading Reads literary festival.

Doors open at 5 for dinner, readings start at 6. Three other writers (Mickey Getty, Patrick Klimcho, and Marilyn Klimcho) will be joining us on stage.

Reservations are not required, but might be a good idea: (610) 685-8511

See you there.

Sue Lange

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The Speckled Hen is located at 30 S 4th Street in Reading, Pennsylvania.

Reading Reads is the Berks County Annual Literary Festival which takes place throughout the month of October each year.

To learn more about their work, visit Sue Lange and Jonathan Maberry online.

“Who Put the ‘Urban’ in Urban Fantasy?”

When my first book showed promise in various competitions, I became firmly entrenched in my decision to make the switch from writer to author, even if it meant I’d be forever ruined for reading for innocent enjoyment.

Oddly enough, the aspect of this business that most confounded me was genre. I couldn’t decide what niche the book fell into. At one point, I actually yelled at myself for not knowing what I wrote and for not writing a story that fit neatly into a genre. (That was before I learned how wonderful cross-genre stories can be, and how unique my story was because it wasn’t cookie-cutter genre fiction.)

So I followed some advice I read on the internet (always a wise thing to do, right?) and I walked into the bookstore, decided where my book would fit in, and even pushed a space between the books on the shelf to make room for mine. It would be right there with the books I enjoyed as a reader and thusly I narrowed it down to two genres: paranormal romance and urban fantasy.

What’s the difference between the two genres? In the beginning, I had absolutely no idea because the books I enjoyed were found in the same section of the book store. While I gradually learned there are rules for each genre—and like every other rule, there are exceptions, loopholes, and trapdoors—back then, I used a more practical approach: it came down to my choice of footwear that day. If I was wearing leather boots, I called my story urban fantasy.

The term urban fantasy was coined to characterize fantasy stories taking place in modern times (that is, not the country-bumpkined, unurbanized, and undeveloped good ole days before dragons became extinct.) Most I’ve read are city-based. So is my story, but that’s only because I live in a rural location. Instead of dragons, I have corn fields and wild turkeys and a pack of biker frogs that take over my frog pond every March for their egg-laying orgies. How cool is that?

Not very.

I get stuck behind tractors when the dirty jerks won’t pull over. I have near-death experiences with tri-axle coal trucks that lumber like oily mammoths on the charge. I get mad when a neighbor is noisy. Shut up! This is the country! Don’t junk it up with your I-used-to-live-in-town-and-I-can-talk-loud-at-ten-o’clock-at-night-if-I-want-to attitude!

And nobody—I mean nobody—in their right mind will write a story about this place. Considering you can’t pick up a wi-fi signal anywhere, there are no good coffee shops around, and I’ve never seen a single sidewalk in this twenty-three tractor town, there’s really nothing to do.

Then again, there’s no stop lights, either. The only bonus.

I mean, come on. What could happen here? A few years ago at the beginning of my research and subsequent enlightenment, I wrote a sarcastic piece and used this blurb as an example:

Internet-surfing heroine Martha Underfelderkoch discovers a sinister plot while illegally trespassing on coal breaker grounds. While speeding on her ATV through a stripping pit, she notices a strange residue. It’s not coal dirt. It’s much more evil than that.

Are the coal companies trying to open a portal to Hell?

Martha must battle incredible odds. If she wants to save the region, she’ll have to go head to head with the local Chamber of Commerce, a group of leviathan ancients who despise anything new. She’ll have to avoid a pack of Molly Maguire wannabes who always manage to show up when she least wants it. And she’ll have to figure out how to stop the coal drill from breaking the last barrier between man and Hell before the phone company drops her internet service again. . .

I promiised myself the day I read a country-based urban fantasy would be the day I accidentally-on-purpose stepped on my reading glasses. We read to escape, and some of us read more than others.

Thank goodness for writerly interventions.

I’d be irresponsible if I didn’t listen to Jade Blackwater, fellow Pennwriter and Philly expatriate, who recently pointed out the existence of popular rural-urban fantasy. Her first example was “Twilight.” Forks is no Manhattan or Chicago or St. Louis. It is (or, she says, at least was before the “literary tourism” kicked in*) a teeny, tiny, twenty-five-mph pass-through-in-a-blink logger town. All that existed prior to Twilight were some old original saw mills, a couple of greasy spoons, and some small rural homes.

Definitely not urban.

Another great example, she added, is M. Night Shyamalan, one of our own Philly hometown heroes, who did his share to keep Southeast PA at the top of the list of apparently creepy places to visit. Remember the film “Signs” and the yucky alien leg in the cornfield that you just had to pause and replay on quarter speed?

That’s right. Corn. Not urban.

Kind of made me feel a little bad, she did, for making fun of rural urbans. And to top it all off, a reader who saw the Martha Underfelder Koch book blurb didn’t realize it had been complete sarcasm and commented: hey! That sounds like a cool story! Has it been published yet?

Maybe it’s time to drop that pesky urban label, however kick-ass-admirable it may be. I don’t want to be the one to coin a new phase. (Jade can—she’s a lot braver than I.) Regardless, urban fantasy doesn’t have to be as urban as it implies. Darn those slippery shelves we call genres.

And, as it turns out, I may not have to settle for a rural-urban label anytime soon. I had pitched my agent with the genre paranormal chick lit—a genre I feel wonderful about because chick lit is one of the loopholey exceptions to the romance rules—and he is confident that it can sell as paranormal romance, after all. To top it off, if it’s any indicator of future success, I recently finaled in the paranormal category of a popular RWA contest. Looks like I’ve got a whole new genre to investigate now.

Sigh. There’s that bittersweet thing again.

*Jade provided some excellent links to info on the Twilight surge of literary tourism. See how a popular book can affect a dying town and give it a taste of immortality (bad puns intended):

Youth Looks Elsewhere — Logging Classes Are Given The Ax — Forks High School Teen-Agers Give Up On Declining Industry
September 3, 1990
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19900903&slug=1091142

Federal Aid To Help Lift Forks Out Of Economic Slump
January 12, 1994
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19940112&slug=1889254

Fans of “Twilight” vampire series pump new blood into Forks
July 27, 2008
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/entertainment/2008075490_twilight270.html

Vampire tourism going strong in Forks
August 7, 2009
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/travel/2009618933_webvampiretourism07.html

Maybe I *do* need to write about Schuylkill County, after all. It might do wonders for my property values. =)

Book Signing with Pennwriters Area 5 Representative Walt Honsinger

Join Pennwriters’ own Walt Honsinger for a book signing this Friday, October 23, 2009 from 7pm-9pm at the Lancaster Barnes and Noble in the Red Rose Commons.  Walt Honsinger will be there to share his latest work, The Blue Ocean’s Peace.

Walt Honsinger is a dedicated volunteer supporting Pennwriters members throughout the south central region of Pennsylvania and beyond.  Walt’s novels draw upon his diverse travels and adventures, his love of the great outdoors, and his keen writer’s imagination.

Join Walt, shake his hand, buy his book, and of course — get it signed!

Visit Walt Honsinger’s website to learn more about his novels and upcoming events.

Volunteers Needed for the Pennwriters Website

CALLING ALL PENNWRITERS:

Do you have skills in web design, image manipulation, or content management?

Are you experienced with Joomla! and other open source web design tools?

If you answered YES to any of these questions, then we want to hear from you!  Our Website Committee Chair Jamie Saloff is seeking volunteers to support small tasks for maintaining and improving our website at Pennwriters.com.

To volunteer please contact us via email at car[at]pennwriters[dot]com.

Thank you,

The Pennwriters Board of Directors

From Writer to Author: How I Became a Secret Book Spy

When I picked up a stack of loose leaf and a Bic gel pen a few years ago, I didn’t suspect that a complete novel would actually leak its way out. I didn’t suspect that I’d keep at it long enough to complete anything I’d be genuinely proud enough to show anyone. And I certainly didn’t suspect I’d spend the next few years actually researching the business side of writing.

Back then, I was still a reader. For me, writing and business only collided when I bought someone’s writing at someone else’s business. I never thought past the big categories of MYSTERY, ROMANCE and SCI-FI/ FANTASY when it came to genre.

Writing a book drastically changes a reader’s perspective. You stop browsing in bookstores; you become part spy, part hunter, and sometimes part stalker. I used to pick books to read based on their cover art. No kidding. If it had a Michael Whelan cover, I read it. (It’s probably one of the reasons why Melanie Rawn’s books are so near and dear to my heart. And that painting of the Crimson King gives me warm fuzzy shivers, which undoubtedly is the polar opposite of the feeling Stephen King originally intended.) Such is the power of cover art.

However, once BLEEDING HEARTS was complete and began to find success on the contest scene, my thoughts turned to publication. I remember an entire day spent looking at websites and blogs, searching for the magic bullet that would get me from writer to published author in no time flat before realizing: there is no magic bullet.

Marketing takes serious research, tons of know-how, and all the right connections. Getting published would take more than a morning of Googling.

I dug in. I Amazoned myself a massive library of books on the subject. I printed reams of references from the internet and every time I found the answer to one question, I found a dozen links leading to a dozen more topics I hadn’t even dreamed about. Genre. Word counts. Queries. Agents. Editors. Imprints. And before I knew it, I’d become a Secret Book Spy.

It felt so dirty.

Bookstores became secret ops training grounds. Instead of reading the jacket blurbs, I read acknowledgements. I ignored cover art and went straight for the imprint logo. Instead of peeking inside to get an idea of how smooth a read it would be, I scanned the covers for reviews and awards and author blurbs.

Forget the story; I wanted to know about the book.

How depressing is that? I’m still a reader, for crying out loud. I have more friends in books than I do walking and breathing on the planet. I daydream about books I read in my youth, ones I lost as I grew older, ones I forgot the title or the author and have no hopes of finding again. Writing my book has tarnished my youthful book-reading innocence.

I proofread books when I read now. I try not to. It’s not just rude—it’s blatant ingratitude. My favorite authors slave away at their stories, and all of a sudden I’m a big know-it-all who could actually have the nerve to point out opportunities for improvement. I should be horse-whipped.

Luckily, I recognize when I get that way and I usually stop myself. I should start wearing a rubber band on my wrist and give it a snap to stop my undesirable behavior. Or a shock collar like my dog wears. That would work, too. But, I digress. . .

Months of spying lead me to a piece of intelligence that changed my life forever—I needed a partner, a go-to guy, a man on the inside. In short—I needed an agent. An agent would have the connections I needed to get my book published. An agent would have the links, the insight, the expertise on positioning my work and getting it to the market. And an agent would only be found by querying.

During my Quest of the Query, I realized that months of spying had failed in providing me the single-most necessary piece of intel: what genre did I write? BLEEDING HEARTS is fantasy with a love story, but can I sum that up in a single genre?

I’d soon find out the answer was anything but simple.

For me, the easiest-to-define distinction between genres was the broadest: literary verses commercial, although my initial reasoning was, in itself, flawed—I figured that literary meant “summer reading list” material. That, of course, isn’t true anymore, considering that Harry Potter now appears on the list of Books Children Must be Threatened Into Reading.

Genres don’t stop at mystery, sci-fi/fantasy, and romance, as I had assumed back when I was a reader. Oh, no. Genres split into categories and sub-types. (I remember reading over a list of category romance types for the first time and thinking: whew! Thank God I don’t write that. Oh, the bliss of ignorance…) Romance just didn’t fit well with a bittersweet ending, which, as a part of a three-book series, my first book has.

And fantasy didn’t simplify things, either. Once I began to research genres, I knew I couldn’t just slap a HELLO MY GENRE IS FANTASY label on the cover and send it off into the world because fantasy wasn’t quite specific enough for the manuscript. I quickly eliminated sub-genres like epic and high fantasy and took a breather at contemporary before deciding urban fantasy was a nice place to be.

Although paranormal covered the “weird” elements, I never saw the term paranormal fantasy—paranormal has a BFF named romance and early on I didn’t really let my book hang out with either of them (never mind that the love story is central to the plot.) To complicate matters, the urban fantasies I read all had kick-ass heroines and gritty action scenes. My main character admits she’s no Lara Croft—she craves safety and security over risky and dangerous (just turns out the world has different plans for her.)

And so it was that the Secret Book Spy came up against her greatest nemesis: the best-fit genre for a book that best fits neither. (Too bad there wasn’t a super-cool gadget to get me out of this jam.) Deciding which genre to query under would take a lot more research.

The mission continues…Watch for my next article “Who Put the ‘Urban’ in Urban Fantasy?”

New Fiction Writers Workshop in September 2009

New Fiction Writers Workshop in September 2009

When & Where: Running Wild Writers will hold a Fiction Writers Workshop beginning Thursday, September 24, 2009. In the heart of an artists’ community, workshops will be held at 1241 Carpenter St., Philadelphia, PA 19147 on Thursdays at 7 PM.  The Fall 2009 Fiction Writers Workshop runs  for ten weeks.

Workshop Details: Members will have the chance to workshop two pieces, maximum of 5,000 words each. The pieces will be given thorough written feedback by the instructor as well as feedback from fellow attendees.

Costs: The ten week course will cost $410 for non-Pennwriters and $375 for Pennwriters.

Registration: Workshop registration is available at www.runningwildwriters.org.  Join Pennwriters online at www.pennwriters.com.

Lisa’s Bio

A former correspondent for the Philadelphia Theatre Review and Features Editor for the Picolata Review, Lisa Kastner currently writes freelance and by invitation in literature and the arts. Her literary interviews include Charles Baxter (Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature 1997) and Lee Martin (Pulitzer Prize Nominee 2006).

She is the Founder of Running Wild Writers Community, LLC and the President of Pennwriters (www.pennwriters.com), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to assisting the novice to the award winning and multipublished writers to learn and succeed in the craft. She is the founder of the Pennwriters King of Prussia Critique Group and has led workshops on business communications. Her short stories have been published in 63 Channels Journal and The StraightJackets Magazine.

Running Wild Writers Community

Running Wild Writers Community is a not-for-profit created to assist up and coming writers to learn and excel in the craft of writing. Running Wild welcomes writers from all forms and all genres. Located at 1241 Carpenter St, Philadelphia, PA, Running Wild Writers is in the heart of a Philadelphia artists’ community.

Contact: Lisa Kastner
Instructor
lisa[at]runningwildwriters[dot]org
www.runningwildwriters.org

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Local Writers Make Room to Run Wild

For immediate release
1 August 2009
Contact: Lisa Kastner, Founder
lisa[at]runningwildwriters[dot]org
www.runningwildwriters.org
 
Local Writers Make Room to Run Wild
 
Running Wild Writers, LLC  debuts as Philadelphia’s newest writers’ community with its first Fiction Workshop beginning September 2009.  Founded by Philadelphia-based writer Lisa Diane Kastner, Running Wild provides a venue for writers of all forms and all genres to learn and succeed in the craft.  Kastner is a fiction writer, former correspondent for the Philadelphia Theater Review, freelance journalist for the Delaware County Times, Features Editor for the Picolata Review, and President of Pennwriters, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit writers’ organization. 
 
“In my years with the creative writing community, I have repeatedly been asked to provide writers a venue to more thoroughly explore the craft of writing.  Running Wild Writers is the answer to that request.”
 
The inaugural Fiction Workshop will begin September 24 and will run once a week for ten weeks through December 2009. Attendees will have two opportunities to submit up to 5,000 words of original material to be reviewed by participants and to receive a detailed assessment from Kastner.
 
“What makes Running Wild Writers unique is that we believe all forms and genres are valuable. Most workshops specialize in a specific genre such as literary, thriller, mystery, romance and so forth. At Running Wild, we believe that writers can learn and grow by reading and writing across genres,” said Kastner.   “The same is true for form.  Writers need to experiment in creative non-fiction, poetry, and fiction writing to hone their skills and discover who they are as writers.”
 
Workshop Details

Running Wild Writers Community will hold a 10-week Fiction Writers Workshop  from September 24 – December 3, 2009. The group will meet on Thursdays at 7 PM. 
 
Participants will have the opportunity to workshop two pieces, maximum of 5,000 words each, during the sessions.  Each work will be given thorough written feedback by the instructor as well as feedback from fellow attendees.  In addition, the instructor will select elements of the craft to discuss during the sessions.  Craft discussions will be based on the pieces workshopped that evening.  Workshops will be held at 1241 Carpenter St., Philadelphia, PA 19147, in the heart of a thriving Philadelphia arts community.
 
Lisa’s Bio
 
Lisa Diane Kastner, fiction writer, creative non-fiction explorer, and former journalist writes fiction from Philadelphia and draws inspiration from her local experience. Kastner promises that her flaming red head tendencies will neither detract nor overly add to the commentary. If anything, it will bring a bit of flavor, like cinnamon.
 
A former correspondent for the Philadelphia Theatre Review and Features Editor for the Picolata Review, Kastner currently writes freelance and by invitation in literature and the arts. Her literary interviews include Charles Baxter (Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature 1997) and Lee Martin (Pulitzer Prize Nominee 2006).
 
Kastner is the Founder of Running Wild Writers Community, LLC and President of Pennwriters, Inc. (www.pennwriters.com) , a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to assisting the novice to the award winning and multipublished writers to learn and succeed in the craft. She is the founder of the Pennwriters King of Prussia and Philadelphia Critique Groups, and can be found throughout the region leading workshops on business communications, and occasionally performing on the local stage with theater companies such as CelebrationTheater.  Her short stories have been published in 63 Channels Journal and The StraightJackets Magazine.
 
For more information go to www.runningwildwriters.org or contact Kastner via email at lisa[at]runningwildwriters[dot]org.

 

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Win a Custom-Built Website From Querytracker.net!

One of the things on my Writer’s To Do List is to create a web site to promote my writing.

I have a blog (or two or three) but recently I disentangled myself from social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. While they were fun and allowed me to network pretty well, they were more distraction than anything else. (Especially that MySpace thing–I’d get sucked in for hours, just looking at funny comment graphics. No work ever got done when I was logged on.)

I tried building my own site a few months ago. My Serif program is still laying on my desk where I dropped it after giving up on it. I think I had vague designs about waiting until the summer, but that makes no sense. Me get things done while the children are home? Me, concentrate amidst all the chaos? Right. Sure. Not.

The website can wait. Right now, I’m still marketing Bleeding Hearts, and approaching my one year anniversary of querying. No need to rush on a website before I have a book to put up on it, right?

What makes it a happy anniversary is the fact that I spent the year using Query Tracker. I consider myself far ahead of the querying game since I began using that little gem of a website–I’ve improved myself in countless ways when it comes to marketing my work, plus I’ve met some great people. (Lots of good karma there.)

And I’m not the only one having a happy: Query Tracker is turning two years old. To celebrate, they are giving away a free custom-built website. Snag yours here and see why Query Tracker is quickly becoming one of the greates tools for writers.

Want to win a custom-built website? You can earn extra entries by passing this information along. Read the blog for details. Post a note on your own blog or website about Querytracker’s contest, and be sure to visit the site itself, which made Writer’s Digest 101 Top Websites for Writers in 2008 and 2009.

Register Now for the 2009 Pennwriters Conference

Register now for the 2009 Pennwriters Annual Conference: A Writer’s Tool Chest.  Today is your last chance to register without paying a late fee.

The 2009 Pennwriters Annual Conference will be held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from May 15-17, 2009, and features keynote speaker Lisa Scottoline.  Our Pennwriters Annual Conference is an excellent place to participate in workshops and training, to engage with editors and agents, to learn from industry leaders in writing and editing, and to network with writers from all around the world.

To learn more and register for the 2009 Pennwriters Annual Conference, visit Pennwriters.com, or contact Conference Coordinator Annette Dashofy via email at: conferenceco[at]Pennwriters[dot]com.

Happy Holidays

It’s been a while since I posted here, so I thought I’d drop by. Don’t have much going on because it’s the holdays. Looking for something to read? Check out my free online, serialized, interactive novel, The Textile Planet. I’ve launched four episodes so far. Go take a look: http://tinyurl.com/5lbtqv

Warning: strong language