Return to Scranton!

Posted on January 30, 2010 by Eileen Watkins

Weather permitting, I will be going back to Scranton, Pa., next Saturday (2/6) for an Open House at the New Age bookstore Possibilities. Apparently they hold this event for all their authors every year on Super Bowl weekend. Maybe the assumption is that people who like New Age stuff and like to read aren’t into football? Anyway, I expect to be there 1-5 p.m. Possibilites has been carrying DANU’S CHILDREN for a couple of months now, and I will be bringing up more copies to sell and sign.

The location is especially appropriate because my experiences visiting my mother’s relatives in Wilkes-Barre and going to college in Scranton inspired me to write DC. I always had a sense that people in that Lackawanna Valley region lived kind of in their own world. The coal boom and subsequent bust really left a mark on the place geographically and psychologically. At the time I attended college up there, Scranton was very blighted and many storefronts and other buildings downtown were empty. Meanwile, slag heaps left over from the mining days would smoke and burn in the night (spontaneous combustion of the gases), giving off sulphurous fumes…now and then a 7-11 would sink into the ground due to mine subsidence…and my friends from town would tell me about a huge Catholic church that once slid several feet downhill until the parishoners “miraculously” stopped it with a novena. Since I already had an interest in writing paranormal thrillers, I stored all that material away for future use!

On the other hand, living as I now do in a slightly more rural part of New Jersey, I also wanted to write something about the wonder and power of nature, and the need to respect the natural world…or else! I thought northeastern Pa. would be the perfect place to set a man-versus-nature story. And in this case (spoiler alert) nature wins!

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Market Research

Posted on January 24, 2010 by Eileen Watkins

I’m also starting a blog on Live Journal and I’m planning to link it with this one. Meanwhile, maybe you can help me with a little market research!

If you’ve been reading this blog, some of this background will be familiar–I just finished a draft of a paranormal romantic suspense novel, ONE BLOOD. It is a prequel to my first published book, DANCE WITH THE DRAGON, so the events in this book have to sync up with the start of that one. Unfortunately, that book was written around 2000, and certain details about current events and popular technology may seem out of date now. My publisher says re-issuing the book would be a problem, which I understand, so I’m thinking of setting the prequel a couple of years earlier, in the late 1990s.

My question to prospective readers: If you picked up a “thriller” novel and read on the flyleaf that it was deliberately set in the late 1990s–with a suggestion that the story arc would eventually take the characters into the post-9/11 era–would that intrigue you or turn you off? Would you think, “Why would I want to read a book set in the near-past that isn’t ‘historical’?” Or would you judge it strictly on the basis of the story, the writing, etc.?

I’d appreciate honest feedback! Thanks.

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Progress on Perilious Prequel

Posted on January 16, 2010 by Eileen Watkins

So far, I am thinking of setting ONE BLOOD in 1996-7. I’ve even printed out calendars of those years. 1996 syncs up especially well with the days on which I have things happening in the book–for example, I have Halloween falling on a Thursday, so that it’s followed by one work day. But those things aren’t crucial…

If I continue with this approach, the tricky thing will be to avoid anachronisms, and make sure I don’t have buildings in existence in Princeton that weren’t built yet (such as the big, new public library downtown, which only dates from 2004) or technology too advanced for the period. Just as it was hard for me to envision rampant cell phone and laptop use in 2000, it’s hard for me to remember NOT to include some of those things now.

One question I can throw out, to those who might have still been in college in 1996-7, or had kids in college then: Would some Ivy League students already be using laptops in the classroom, or would they still be taking notes mostly by hand? (Even if you didn’t go to that kind of school, you can probably guess whether wealthy kids would have had access to those things.) Thanks for any tips you can give me!

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Prequel Perils

Posted on January 10, 2010 by Eileen Watkins

So, I’m almost done with a solid first draft of ONE BLOOD, my prequel to DANCE WITH THE DRAGON (one chapter left to read to my critique group), and I decide to reread DD. Mind you, by the time one of my books comes out, I’ve committed a lot of it to memory. On the other hand, DD was the first book I had published, back in 2003, and it was submitted to Amber Quill a year before that.

Therein lie some of the challenges. A lot has happened in the world over the past seven years. I have had readers comment to me that DD is a bit behind the times in technology. The most glaring example is when a cassette tape falls out of a boom box! Street kids may still carry boom boxes (better for annoying the people around them than an iPod), but today it would have a CD, at least. Also, when a victim is kidnapped there’s no mention of whether she tries to use a cell phone.

I was aware of these glitches, but in rereading, I discovered some others. I mentioned PEAR, a psychic-research organization that existed at the time in Princeton but has since downsized and changed its name. In OB, I gave it a completely fictional name. And the explanation that my heroine gives to someone for how she ended up living and working with the hero is different from what I have done in ONE BLOOD.

Now you could say, why don’t you just make it exactly the same as in DD? Because the way I’m doing it in OB works a lot better!

A while back, I mentioned some of the glitches to my editor and publisher, and asked about revising DD for future editions. They told me it would be a lot of trouble, pretty much like publishing a whole new book. My editor suggested that I set OB in an earlier time period, too, so that both could be read as set around the Millenium.

At first I didn’t like that idea, but now I’m mulling some version of it. I thought of putting a disclaimer at the beginning of OB, saying that it is set two years before DD, around “the turn of the 21st century.” I will mention that readers who go on to DD will find some discrepencies between the name of the psychic institute and the explanation that the heroine gives for how she hooked up with the hero. Seems to me that would cause the least disruption.

Any thoughts? Alternate suggestions?

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Productive Holiday

Posted on December 28, 2009 by Eileen Watkins

Although I celebrated Christmas a bit beforehand and a bit afterward, I spent Friday and Saturday on my own. This was not a bad thing for a couple of reasons: 1) I was nursing a cold, and I probably got over it more quickly because I didn’t have to do anything too strenuous, and 2) I had time to wrap up the first draft of ONE BLOOD and really think about what I was doing. The second-to-last scene, in particular, required some additional research and choices about where to set it, etc.

I’m happy to say that I think the ending hits the mark. This book has been a balancing act between paranormal thriller and romance, leaning toward the first most of the time. It does wind up on a more romantic note at the end, but I want to keep a sense of black humor.

On Jan. 6, I go back to my critique group with the second-to-last chapter. Before the end of the month, they’ll have let me know if I’m on the right track. Then, then rewriting…!

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I’m basking in a “Meager Puddle of Limelight”…

Posted on December 19, 2009 by Eileen Watkins

I’ve been notified that I’ve won the 2009 Meager Puddle of Limelight Award for Best Opening Line, a competition administered by Jon Gibbs on his LiveJournal blog “An Englishman in New Jersey.” Only LiveJournal members could vote, and I’m gratified to have won because I know I don’t have that many friends on LiveJournal! It was by secret ballot, and anyhow I entered anonymously, which it turns out I didn’t even have to do. One of these days I’ll figure out how computer technology works…

My opening line was “Without meaning to, Camilla Torres had picked a good place to die.” That is, legitimately, the opening line of the book I’m currently writing, ONE BLOOD, the prequel to DANCE WITH THE DRAGON. Jon tells me there were 67 entries, 52 people voted and my entry got 23.1% of the vote. He said I win a “metaphorical trophy,” but I gather he’s also going to interview me on his blog, which is a really good prize.

Meanwhile, my first draft of ONE BLOOD is stalking toward completion. I’ve finished a climactic scene in which the hero and heroine finally see eye-to-eye (spoiler alert), and as I figure it I have three scenes to go, which I plan to divide into two chapters. Still haven’t completely figured out the second-to-last scene yet, because it will take a little more research, but I should have plenty of time over the holidays. I actually get some time off from work, though not a whole week.

I just finished THE LOST SYMBOL (Dan Brown, of course) and enjoyed it. Every author has his or her strengths, and Brown’s certainly is keeping you turning the pages. The symbol stuff can get to be a little much, his characters are pretty two-dimensional and seem to exist mostly to voice his ideas, and he uses so many italics that I now feel very restrained by comparison. But his villain was interesting, suitably scary, and some of the twists were very clever. Things move so fast in his books that you don’t spend a lot of time analyzing the flaws.

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Pyschic Reading

Posted on December 6, 2009 by Eileen Watkins

Yesterday I had my first “serious” psychic reading ever. I may or may not have had some quickie reading on a boardwalk when I was a kid–if so, I don’t really remember. Anyhow, I chose to do it at Practical Magick, the bookstore in Pompton Lakes (NJ) where I had my DANU’S CHILDREN signing in October. A friend had told me that the resident psychic, Annette, did a very accurate reading for her.

I’d chatted with Annette during my signing, so she knew something about me, but pretty general stuff. She told me during the reading that my “next book” (either the one that’s currently out to a new publisher or the one I’m working on now, not sure) would be more successful than any of the previous ones. Needless to say, I’m hoping that comes true! Also told me some things about a female friend going out of my life and a male friend becoming more important, problems to watch out for with my cats’ health, etc. All this in only half an hour. I took notes, so I’ll be checking back on the details as time goes on!

She read cards, which looks like an interesting process. (They didn’t look exactly like Tarot cards…I should have asked her the type.) Anyway, if I ever have a story with a character getting a reading–and with my story lines, that’s highly probable–now I’ll be able to write from experience.

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Post-Thanksgiving

Posted on November 28, 2009 by Eileen Watkins

Hope everyone had a great holiday. I spent mine in Scranton, Pa. Maybe it’s true that you always return to the scene of the crime…The drive into town hasn’t changed a bit from my college days, although parts of the downtown are much improved. I was visiting my friend Anne’s family for the holiday. Her sister JoEllen has read DANU’S CHILDREN, and fortunately for me she really liked it. That’s made me brave enough to contact a couple of bookstores in the town to see if they want to stock the book. Maybe it won’t provoke lawsuits, after all…

Hey, considering what Stephen King did to his home town in SALEM’S LOT, I should have nothing to worry about. My fictional “Carbonville” is smaller and has quite a few differences. JoEllen loved that fact that I used the church sliding downhill from mine subsidence, because she could see I based it on something that happened in Scranton in the early 1900s.

Now I have the weekend to myself, and I’m trying to decide among various options, including holiday shopping, putting up my porch lights or finally finishing the latest chapter of ONE BLOOD that I really ought to read at my critique group this week. All fairly demanding…maybe I’ll just watch the “What Not to Wear” marathon on TLC instead!

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Return from Philcon!

Posted on November 23, 2009 by Eileen Watkins

For the second year in a row, I spent my birthday weekend at Philcon in Cherry Hill, NJ. Not a bad way to do it, actually. I sold 8 books, so that made it a better birthday than if I had sold two…or one…or none. I shared a table with fellow members of the Garden State Horror Writers and did a “Rapid-Fire Reading” with fellow members of Broad Universe. It was nice to have a chance to socialize with writers from both groups. I also took part in panels on “200 Years of Phobias” and “What Price Immortality?” You don’t get a lot of time to prepare for these topics, so it can be a test of how fast you think on your feet. (Well, we were all sitting down, but you know what I mean.)

I went to Jonathan Maberry’s reading on Saturday of his forthcoming YA zombie novel, from which he read a very moving passage. Yes, a serious, moving scene from a YA zombie novel! That takes talent.

And I attended an amusing panel that night called, ‘Vampires: Geesh, We Just Can’t Get Rid of Them.” Contrary to what you might think, most of the participants were vampire fans, but analyzed whether the current fad of romantic/sexy vampires is robbing them of their scary elements. I somewhat agree, and put in my two cents during the Q&A session.

Anyway, this is my first entry in this new blog, and I will try to keep up with it regularly, even though I badly need the time for my actual writing. (Another issue I hashed out with the other GSHW folks over the weekend.) I’m nearly through a decent first draft of my next novel, and I don’t want to get so caught up in sharing my grand philsophical insights that I forget to finish it. (I have so few grand philsophical insights to begin with!)

Also, I have a house guest coming this weekend and vacuuming to do. So for now, ‘night all!

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