Interview with Christine Verstraete on Community Fridays

Welcome to Community Fridays!

During Community Fridays, I interview authors, editors, publishers, and pretty much anyone else who I can get my hands on from the writing and publishing community. Hope you enjoy, and feel free to suggest new participants. Check out current and past interviews here. Only have a minute? Click here for interviews at a glance.

Today I've interviewed Christine Verstraete, along with some of the characters in her book. Hope you enjoy! Also, scroll down to my previous post for more information on how you can win prizes in Christine's scavenger hunt. Happy hunting!

Sam, her bff Lita, and Petey the Dachshund were thrilled (well, as much as a dog can be thrilled anyway) to be asked to stop by Emma's blog as part of the Spooky Blog Tour for Searching For A Starry Night and The Witch Tree by author Christine Verstraete. The two books...Oh, wait, the girls had something to say...

"Awww, c'mon, Sam."

"Lita, what're you moaning about?"

"Sam, not fair! You didn't say anything about that."

Sam raised her eyebrows. "About what?"

Lita moved closer and lowered her voice, "You know. Spooky stuff and a Witch Tree. Ugh. Nothin' I want to be hearin' about. Count me out."

"Lita, wait." Sam tried to keep her friend from walking off. "It's nothing to be scared of. Just a little tour around the 'net to talk about our book and the spooky ebook. You'll be fine. Trust me."

Lita snorted. "Huh. Last time I trusted you I ended up getting scared out of my head. You always seem to find the creepiest stuff. You just can't ever leave it alone."

"Lita, honest, this time..."

Q: Okay, girls, this is the author. Let me interrupt. The blog tour is pretty harmless. Just a way to let everyone know about Searching For A Starry Night and The Witch Tree. How about you answer some questions?

"Well, okay. Only if Sam agrees to forget all that ghost stuff. Creeps me out."

"Woof."

"See? Petey thinks so, too."

Q: All right, now, girls, you both learned a lot about detective work during your adventures. Do you see yourselves doing that as a career someday, or do you have something else in mind?"

Sam scrunched up her face as she thought. "Hmm, that could be fun. You get to sneak around and look in people's houses when they don't know about it."

"Yeah, Sam, and then you get arrested for being a Peepin' Tom. Way too dangerous."

"Guess, Lita's right this time," Sam said. "But Nancy Drew always seemed to do okay. And she got to ride all over in that cool little car."

"Sam, that wasn't real, it was a movie."

"Oh, you forget we're fiction, too, right?"

Grrr.

"It's okay, Petey," Lita said. "If Sam wants to think she's not real, she can do that. Alone."

Q: Now Lita, tell us a little about working with your friend, Sam. I hear the two of you had some problems.

"Well... we weren't doin' too bad, then Sam started talkin' about old Grandpa Sylvester, and ghosts, and Petey was diggin' up all kinds of weird things. Whew. I've got goosebumps just thinkin' about it. I told Sam she needs to be more considerate and stuff."

Q: Sam? Did you and Lita have any problems?

"I told her I was sorry. Really. I never ever want to lose her as a friend. We've been pals since we were little kids. But we figured it out. We're okay. We solved the mystery, too and found the missing miniature painting. I think we're a good team, right?"

"Right!" Lita said and gave Sam a high-five.

Petey leaped up on his hind legs, not wanting to be left out. "Woof!"

"You too, Petey," Sam said. "You, too."

"Yeah, even if you do dig up trouble," Lita said and laughed.

Q: Now back to the author. Let's ask her a "writer" question. What kinds of things DON'T get your creative juices flowing?

Numbers. Financial non-fiction. Yawn. I write for newspapers, but I've always preferred features. I have written on some "heavier" topics in the past, but I'd rather not anymore. But I do enjoy a straight news story once in a while.

Q: What do you enjoy most about writing fiction?

You get to lie.

("You can do that?" Sam asked.)

Kidding. Seriously, it's fun to be able to make up a whole story and see where it will go. It's even more fun to get an idea, flesh it out and find that it works. Nothing better.

Q: What's your best writing advice?

Have fun with it. Sometimes you can get too serious, then you get bogged down in all the things you "should" do. You can always delete and tighten later. I have to remind myself to keep writing, even if something isn't working. I can go back to it. I outline, but I do let myself deviate from it. Sometimes, you get better ideas to add in if you let the ideas come to you as you're writing.

Q: Okay, the kids are gone. Now we can ask, what is The Witch Tree?

My short ebook, "The Witch Tree," was fun to write and won a contest at Echelon Press. Jimmy Grayson thinks he's found utopia - a new house, a nice porch to relax on... and then THEY came....

Day by day, they arrive by the dozens, the hundreds, their beady eyes, watching, waiting. Jimmy fears for his sanity.

How will it end?

Who will survive?

Will it be him-or them?

Q: Anything else you'd like to say to our readers?

Visit my blog, Candid Canine this week for details on how to follow my Spooky Scavenger Hunt.

Scavenger Hunt Clue 3:
Stop at the witch tree and try to break a spell
But don't stay long if you want to be well!

About the Author

Visit Christine's website and her blog. Yesterday's stop on her blog book tour has Straight from Hel. Tomorrow's stop will be Joyce Anthony's blog.



© Emma Larkins and Christine Verstraete

Scavenger Hunt Tomorrow! See Rules Here

Christine Verstraete is stopping by tomorrow (okay, technically later today!) for Community Fridays. She's on a spooky blog book tour. Here are the rules for her blog book tour scavenger hunt.

Searching For A Starry Night & Witch Tree Scavenger Hunt!

Enjoy reading some excerpts from Searching For A Starry Night, A Miniature Art Mystery and from the spooky ebook, The Witch Tree . Learn more about both books and even scarier, learn a little more about author Christine Verstraete at each blog stop.

Bonus! Halloween Treats!

No trick! Take a chance to win a PDF copy of "The Witch Tree" or some handmade Halloween miniatures for your desk or wherever by following the blog tour.

How to Play

1. Go to each stop on the blog tour. Each stop ends with a Scavenger Hunt Clue. The clue refers to a page on Christine's website at http://cverstraete.com/. Only a few specific pages are involved.

2. Look for the mini pumpkin on the page corresponding to each question. Find the pages at http://cverstraete.com/.

3. Email Christine the list of all 6 places you found the pumpkins, and their corresponding numbers - plus your full mailing address (US Only) - to chrisATcverstraete.com (replace AT with @)

Contest ends Nov. 8, 2008. All 6 answers and numbers must be included. Two winners to be chosen; one will receive a spooky miniatures set by mail and the other will receive a Witch Tree ebook by email.

Have fun! Boo!

Storytime: Questions From A Vaporous Mind (And Introducing Friday's Guest!)

It's about time I had some fiction up here! For your reading pleasure, here is a little bit of a ghost story. Let the Halloween spirit be with you!

Questions from a Vaporous Mind

"Do you believe in humans?" May asked. She sat on a moss-covered pile of what might once have been furniture in an ancient stone house. Moonlight passed unobstructed through her form. A locket laying on the ground by her knee vibrated, and May tilted her head.

"Prudence says she believes in humans. She says a human wore her once, long ago."

"Prudence isn't even a ghost. She's just a silly curse. And I don't think that you can really understand what she's saying. I think you're just making it up."

The cursed necklace hopped, jumped, and glowed a bright, angry red. It landed on Eustace and fell right through him without leaving a mark. Prudence the necklace rolled into a corner, as if to sulk.

"Fine then. What do you think?"

"Humans, humans," Eustace said, shaking his head. "I think they're just legends. All the stories make them out to be so strange. They have one fixed size and shape. They're free to move about wherever they wish. They can't move through walls, and apparently if you squish them with a big rock they go away and don't come back."

"I believe in humans!"

This came from Helene, who had just materialized outside the gaping window-hole of the crumbling house. Helene was a residual haunting, and appeared around this time every night at the window before running off into the surrounding forest.

"You'll believe in anything," Eustace said, rolling his ghostly eyes.

"I've seen one once! I think it saw me, too, because it ran away awful quick. They say in the human stories that they're afraid of us."

"Yeah, and they also say that some humans go around 'banishing' us to some 'alternate dimension.' What a load of junk."

The sound of footfalls interrupted Eustace. The ghosts perked up and looked around.

"Eep! I bet that's a human now!"

May dispersed.

"You're such a wimp. I bet it's just a dumb old fox."

Eustace floated past a couple of walls until he came in view of the space where the front door had once stood. There, an odd creature stopped in its tracks and stared straight at him.

"Hello?" the creature asked in a trembling voice.

"Um, boo?" Eustace responded.

The thing let out a blood-curdling shriek, and raced out of the ruined house and away through the forest. Eustace returned to his seat as May reappeared.

"I told you humans were real! That was a human! I knew it!"

"Yeah, yeah," Eustace said in a mournful voice. "I should have squished it with a rock. You know what they say about humans. One of them catches a glimpse of you, next thing you know the whole place is swarming and you can't get rid of them."

Don't forget to stop by this Friday, October 31, for a Community Fridays interview with a truly spooky lady, Chris Verstraete. There's a scavenger hunt! And prizes!

Literature As A Form of Art

The main lesson I learned at the F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Conference at Montgomery College in Rockville, MD this weekend is that there's a big difference between 'books' and 'literature.'

Here are the things I liked about the conference. Susan Cheever, the keynote speaker, did a wonderful job. She was witty, engaging, and informative. The winner of the annual award for outstanding achievement in literature, Elmore Leonard, was also a pleasure to see in action, both during a morning panel about crime fiction and during his reading. And I enjoyed the workshop with Stacy Barton, during which she gave me a new way of thinking about character development through making murals.

I think it was a good experience to attend this conference, because it was completely different from the other events I've been to. At the same time, it is not a conference that I would recommend for emerging authors.

To many, literature is an art form. Novels are meant to be broken down, analyzed, their merits judged relative to the existing body of sanctioned works. Some people are allowed into the pantheon of great literature, and others aren't. F. Scott Fitzgerald never made a living as a writer. He is remembered not for his persistence or his marketing skill or his flexibility, but for creating what is widely known as one of the greatest works of American Literature. And that's great for him, and wonderful for all the people who celebrate his work. But it's kind of depressing for emerging authors who are looking to make a living, not looking to make art. Because publishing houses, in general, aren't interested in great literature. They're looking for something that will sell.

Personally, my goal isn't to write the next Great American Novel. Instead, my goal is to give someone a thrill, fill a need, leave them satisfied once the story is over, and sad that there isn't any more. And it's hard to learn how to do that from people who want to get to the essence of the written word. To me, it's not about essence, it's about substance. Characters readers can relate to. An engaging plot. A story that's easy to follow, and easy to understand. A book that children and adults alike will finish and say, "Now that was a rousing tale!"

What are your thoughts? What, to you, is the difference between 'books' and 'literature?' Is it possible to achieve success as an author without impressing the literati?

Interview with Maryann Miller on Community Fridays

Welcome to Community Fridays!

During Community Fridays, I interview authors, editors, publishers, and pretty much anyone else who I can get my hands on from the writing and publishing community. Hope you enjoy, and feel free to suggest new participants. Check out current and past interviews here. Only have a minute? Click here for interviews at a glance.

Today's guest is Maryann Miller, author, scriptwriter, reviewer, and editorial consultant.

You recently took your book, One Small Victory, on a 'blog book tour.' How is this different from a 'real-life book tour?' Would you suggest a blog book tour to other authors? What were the pros and cons of going on one?

The virtual tour doesn't involve driving or showing up in your best duds. :-) From that perspective it was very convenient and didn't cost nearly as much as a real book tour. A virtual tour is a good way to meet a lot of people via the Internet, but it does lack the immediacy of actually seeing folks and talking one on one. The chats and messages back and forth online are close, but nothing like that ability to make eye-contact and know that the person is really interested in your book and what you have to say at a presentation. At the last signing I did in a Border's store, I met a young man - maybe about sixteen - who was very focused and asked some really good questions about the writing process and about my book. He then asked if he could have my autograph, so I signed one of my bookmarks and gave it to him. He thanked me, shook my hand, and left. A little while later he came back and said he wanted to buy one of my books for his mother for a gift. That can't happen on a virtual book tour, but I think that is the only downside of a virtual tour. The benefits are many, including the fact that the blogs are live for a long time, and I would really recommend it as a tool for promoting.

You write screenplays in addition to novels. Are these two things very different to write? Many people read novels, but fewer people read screenplays. How do you get into writing them? What is a "logline?" (I picked this up from reading the descriptions of screenplays on your website, never heard of it before!)

Screenplays and novels are very different in terms of structure and format, but they both do demand the ability to tell a good story. In one, you are just going to do it visually as opposed to having someone read your story. Screenplays are not generally marketed for casual reading as people would find the format very difficult to follow. There are brief narrative descriptions of people and place, then dialogue centered in the middle of the page. Not an easy read. :-) I started writing screenplays when I won a contest for one of my short stories and the contest judge said the story was very visual and suggested that I turn the story into a screenplay. I did, and submitted the screenplay the following year in the same contest at the University of Houston. I won first place and discovered that I have a knack for writing scripts. I have written several, and two of them have placed high in major script contests. The best way to explain what a logline is, is to say that it is the short one or two sentence description of the story like you see in the TV guide. It has to tell what the story is about, as well as peak some interest. Those are incredibly hard to write because they have to be so concise. People ask what our stories are about and we can tell them in lots of sentences. But for a logline we have two sentences max to get the concept of the story across.

When people want you to review a novel, do they send you a copy of that novel? Do you write a review if you don't like the novel? Do you ever tell someone that you can't write a review for the book?

For review requests, I like authors to send me a press release with all the information about the book. If I think it is something I might want to read, I will then ask for the book or an advance review copy. Most of the time I do not write negative reviews. If I don't like the book, I will just pass. But for Blogger News Network, where the editorial guidelines are not as strict as ForeWord Magazine, I will occasionally pan a book, especially if it is one that has been getting a lot of buzz for being a really good book, and it actually has some weak writing. I think readers deserve the best that a writer can do. Most of the time I do not tell the writer if I am not going to review the book. Most writers know that we send our work out and take the chance that it won't get reviewed, or it will get a lukewarm review. That's part of the business. I sent copies of One Small Victory and Play it Again, Sam to reviewers and never heard from them one way or another.

Among your many duties, you are a member of the co-op editor blog The Blood-Red Pencil. Do you think that editing has improved your writing? Do you ever run across a piece of writing that you refuse to edit?

Editing has absolutely improved my writing. After you tell a client about passive writing, you can sure spot that in your own when you get back to a work in progress. I have declined to edit projects that were obviously written as a catharsis for some trauma and were so poorly written that the writer needed to take a basic creative writing class to start a rewrite. I can do some mentoring and teaching as I edit. I'm doing that right now for a client, but it has to be a project that has some potential of getting published. Unless the writer just wants to write a cohesive autobiography. Then I will take on the project, but the fees will be much higher than for editing work that just needs a little bit of help.

On your website, you offer writers a chance to experience a 'writer's retreat' of your own creation. What a terrific idea! What gave you the idea to provide a retreat for writers? Do you find that it helps to inspire writers when they 'get away from it all?'

The writer's retreat idea came from a good friend, Laura Castoro, who often will rent a cabin in the Ozarks for a few weeks to finish a book. She came to visit me several years ago and said my little ranch reminded her of that cabin -- very pretty setting, quiet, and conducive to writing. She also suggested I offer the editorial services because she considers me a good editor. I do know that this place really feeds my creativity. We need to nurture that in ourselves, and a little time outdoors just marveling at the beauty really gives me a boost. I'm sure it is the same for many other writers.

What is your one super secret tip for aspiring authors hoping to get published?

I don't know that there is one super secret tip for aspiring writers. Writing and getting published all involves a lot of hard work. We have to work as hard on the marketing as we do on the creating, and through it all, we have to be professional.

Lastly, because this feature is about establishing bonds within the writing and publishing industries, can you name one author, editor, publisher, etc. who's doing great things right now, and why?

I'm not sure if the folks at the Blood-Red Pencil are doing great things, but I think the blog certainly is a great resource for writers and I commend Dani for coming up with the idea. As far as publishers go, university presses are now publishing more fiction and trying to be a publishing outlet for writers who are finding it harder and harder to get into the NY houses. As are independent small presses.

About the Author

To learn more, visit Maryann's website. Maryann has written One Small Victory (Five Star/Gale) and Play It Again, Sam (Uncial Press). She's also part of an upcoming anthology, One Touch, One Glance Anthology (Freya's Bower).



© Emma Larkins and Maryann Miller