Hello friends!

Today it is my honor to host Nancy Golinski, who also writes under the pseudonym Gibby Campbell. Nancy has published both non-fiction and fiction books, and her fiction spans everything from paranormal to Amish romance and back again!

Nancy/Gibby appeared alongside yours truly in ‘Desire Me Again’, and we will also both be featured in the upcoming ‘Cowboy Desire’. I hope Nancy doesn’t mind me riding on her coattails! It’s always an honor to share a cover credit with her.

So without any further ado, my dear readers…

Meet the one and only NANCY GOLINKSI!!!

(All opinions and statements contained in this interview are solely those of the author providing them, and may not necessarily reflect my own. – Virginia)

What was your first published work? What do you think of it now?

I wrote a nonfiction book called Exercise Your Way to a Happy Hysterectomy while recovering from surgery.  It’s still my best selling publication.  I think it’s a bit rah-rah cheerleader now, but there’s some good suggestions in there.

Do family members or friends help with your writing? Your marketing?

I have one friend who is a brutal beta reader.  I’m not kidding.  She’ll write things like, “What the hell were you thinking?” or “If I read ___ one more time, I’m going to bitch slap you.”  

Do you have stories you want to write that you haven’t yet?

Sure.  I think every writer does.  I have 2 nonfiction, 2 murder mystery, 2 paranormal, one old world romance, and one space sci fi romance.  They’ll come out eventually.  I also tend to write several manuscripts at the same time.  Right now I have an erotic romance, an Amish romance, and a contemporary romance in progress.  When I get stuck or bored with one, I just move on to another.  It’s my solution to writer’s block.

Is there a story you’re afraid to write for some reason? Why?

Yes.  The space sci fi one.  I have some intimate scenes in my head that are waaaayyy out there.  I think they might even make my publisher, Ric, blush, and that’s saying something.

Are you married? How does being a writer affect that? Has your marriage affected the way you write love stories?

I have been happily married for 19 years.  My husband brags about my writing, and our relationship has greatly influenced how I write love stories.  Let’s just say if he ever actually reads one of my books, I will be in big trouble.  Fortunately, he is not a reader, and he’s super busy at work. 

If you could see one of your stories made into a movie, which one would you pick and why?

Holy Matchmaker.  I see it as a sweet Hallmark movie. 

Do you listen to music when you write? If so, what kinds? Does music influence your stories?

Always.  Usually I put on something quiet and mellow…Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Dean Martin, James Galway, Jim Brickman…you get the idea.  I don’t think music influences my stories, but art does.  My entire Holy Matchmaker novel was based on a painting called Emma with Chicken by Nancy Noel.

Is your writing time planned out or structured? Do you go on writing ‘benders’?

There’s no plan to my writing.  I just write when in the mood.  I treat it like a hobby.

What to you is the most rewarding aspect of being a writer?

Creating something and then reading it and wondering where the heck it came from. 

Which character of yours is your favorite? Why? Whom would you pick to play him/her/it in a movie?

Dr. Victor Turov, because he’s sexy as hell.  I see a younger Gerard Butler in the role with a Russian accent.

Do you write when you take a vacation, or do you prefer to simply relax?

It depends on the vacation.  We go to an island on Lake Erie every summer, and when my husband is out fishing, I write by the water.  It is the most creative location I have ever found for writing.  I always come home with a list of new ideas and several chapters cranked out.

Do you prefer to read fiction that’s similar to what you write, or do you pick different types of stories?

I read everything.  If someone suggests a good book, I check it out.  My faves are mysteries, suspense, and a lot of nonfiction.  What I shy away from is explicit violence.  That stuff haunts me. 

What’s one quirky thing about you that your readers might not know?

I used to race on a sailing team.

What’s your favorite movie? Why?

While You Were Sleeping.  It’s a great rom-com, but it also came out right when my mom passed away.  When I couldn’t sleep, I would put that movie on, and somehow it brought me comfort.

What’s a question I haven’t asked that you’d like to answer?

Question: How can you write erotica and Christian fiction? 

Answer: Kinky girls have faith too, you know.

LOL… GREAT answer! Thank you for appearing today, Nancy!

NANCY/GIBBY’S BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE AT BOTH AMAZON AND BARNES AND NOBLE. (Sorry there’s no link. Amazon’s links are EXTREMELY invasive and hijack your entire website!)

CONNECT WITH NANCY ON FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/gibby.campbell.52

ON TWITTER: @CampbellGibby

Suzanne Smith describes herself as a ‘dark romance’ author…

Which, of course, makes her one of my literary heroines! Suzanne Smith is the author of the critically acclaimed novel ‘The Brute and I’. Her short story ‘The Mortal Vampire’ is featured in ‘Mystic Desire’, a paranormal anthology published by Black Velvet Seductions. Her short story ‘Bullets and Bustles’ will appear in the upcoming ‘Cowboy Desire’ anthology, also by Black Velvet Seductions. (I’ll be sharing a cover credit with her, at long last! That’s like getting a part in a movie with your favorite actress!)

So without any further ado, ladies and gentlemen… I give you the one, the only, SUZANNE SMITH!!!

(All opinions and statements contained in this interview are solely those of the author providing them, and may not necessarily reflect my own. – Virginia)

When did you start writing? What made you first decide to try your hand at it?

I started writing a few years ago. I was looking for a hobby to occupy my time when I retire from my day job, sometime in the near future. I took several online writing courses with a fabulous teacher/editor named Laurie Sanders. It was fun and challenging so I stuck with it. Writing seemed to be tailor made for me.

What was your first published work? What do you think of it now?

My first book, The Brute and I, was published in 2018 by Ric Savage at BVS. I think that my writing style was good, but, if I were writing it now, I’D edit the beginning chapters a bit more. For example, the hero’s parents were killed by a drunk driver.  He hangs on to a lock of his mother’s hair and her wedding dress to show the reader that he has never really recovered from her death. In hindsight, I only needed to use one of these items to get my point across. Using both only slowed the pacing of the story down.

Do you have stories you want to write that you haven’t yet?

So many. I’m pretty good at conveying emotion in my work and my descriptive writing is decent, but what I’ve yet to put into my stories is humor. Not slap stick stuff, but that gut felt, unapologetic, jaw dropping dark humor in the face of brutality. Think along the lines of Joe Pesci in Goodfellas. I hope someday soon to be able to nail that.

Are you a ‘normal’ person who likes to write, or do you consider yourself more of the tormented/driven ‘artist’ type?

I’m normal. I don’t seem to have an addictive personality like the more tormented, driven writers do. But,my characters are tormented so maybe that says something about me. Lol.

Do you drink? Why or why not?

I’ll have a few beers every now and then, but I’m not much of a drinker. I find it hard to concentrate when I drink. That, and I don’t really like the taste of booze. Whiskey, tequila, vodka- yuck. I do enjoy strawberry daiquiris though, so there may be some hope for Puerto Rican rum.

If you could see one of your stories made into a movie, which one would you pick and why?

Maybe my short story, titled The Mortal Vampire, in the Mystic Desire Anthology by BVS. This one has what I consider to be a very original twist to it. Unfortunately, I can’t say what that is without giving too much of the story away.

How does your life experience influence your writing?

Growing up a poor kid in Chicago, I learned that life isn’t always fair and can knock you off your feet without warning.  But, I also learned to get back up quickly. I think that “down but not out” warrior like mentality is reflected in each of my characters.

Do you try to keep your stories within their pre-determined genres, or do you just tell the story your way regardless of genre expectations?

For the most part, I tell my story my way. But the happy ever after ending that is required in romance is sometimes a compromise.

Do you listen to music when you write? If so, what kinds? Does music influence your stories?

No. Music distracts me. But many times, when I’m listening to a song while I’m working out or running errands, I’ll think, wow, that reminds me of the relationship between my hero and heroine. The song You Say (the Anthem Lights version) makes me think of the characters Lilah Evans and Philippe Renault in my current work in progress, tentatively titled Lilah’s Limit. A beautiful melody with lyrics full of love and hope.

Is your writing time planned out or structured? Do you go on writing ‘benders’?

My writing time is not planned out or structured.  I don’t write at a certain hour every day. I don’t even write every day. I may have one day that I don’t write anything at all, but the next day, I may write six hours. So, I guess I’d qualify as a writer who goes on benders. 

What to you is the most rewarding aspect of being a writer?

Connecting with people from all over the world. For someone from the UK, Australia, Canada or anywhere else thousands and thousands of miles away to tell me that they read my book astonishes me. It makes me feel somewhat omnipresent.

If you could pick anyone to narrate one of your books, who would it be?

Lawrence Fishburne. I love his voice. Deep, clear, commanding. It’s almost hypnotic.

Which character of yours is your favorite? Why? Whom would you pick to play him/her/it in a movie?

So far, Emma Tombs in the newly released Cowboy Desire Anthology by BVS is my favorite. In spite of all the terrible life experiences she’s been through and all of the awful things she’s done, she still believes in redemption and the power of love. She’s a complex character. I can’t really think of a young actress that could tap into her hidden layers. Maybe Reese Witherspoon could pull it off.

Do you write when you take a vacation, or do you prefer to simply relax?

I simply relax.

Do you prefer to read fiction that’s similar to what you write, or do you pick different types of stories?

I will read any type of fiction but I always seem to gravitate toward the darker, more disturbing stories, which oddly enough is similar to what I write.

What’s your favorite movie? Why?

Gladiator. Because I’ve always been fascinated with ancient Rome, especially the politics.  And, I must say, I think Russell Crowe completely owns the role of Maximus. I can’t imagine anyone else playing that part as well as he did.

What’s a question I haven’t asked that you’d like to answer?

You didn’t ask me if my kitty jumping up on my keyboard when I least expect it sparks my creativity. Just kidding, of course. I think you pretty much covered everything.

THANK you, Suzanne! It was an honor to host you.

SUZANNE’S BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE FROM BOTH AMAZON AND BARNES AND NOBLE. (I’d post links, but Amazon’s link is rather invasive and makes my page go all buggy. Sorry ’bout that!)

TO CONNECT WITH SUZANNE:

https://www.instagram.com/suzannesmith9948

On twitter @Suzanneromance

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100023187394419

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100023187394419

TO READ MY REVIEWS OF SUZANNE’S STORIES:

https://virginiawallace.com/2020/11/21/the-brute-and-i-by-suzanne-smith-a-review/

https://virginiawallace.com/2020/08/21/mystic-desire-a-review/

Hello, friends! This morning I had the honor of being interviewed by acclaimed author Eileen Troemel for Ava’s Avid Readers. Here… is that interview!

Eileen Troemel Welcome Virginia! Thank you for joining me today! What genres do you prefer to write in?

Virginia Wallace Hm… I started in horror/dark fantasy. But over the years I kind of figured something out: I just love to write. I’ll tell ya any story you want!

Eileen Troemel I’m not a fan of horror but it fascinates me what other people like. What draws you to the genre?

Virginia Wallace I think fear – like love – is a core feature of the human psyche. There’s something cathartic about turning fear into entertainment. Notice that most popular folk tales have an element of darkness to them.

Eileen Troemel Most fairy tales started as stories of caution – don’t go into the woods, beware the wolf, and so on. What type of horror or dark fantasy do you prefer? Are your female characters spraining their ankles for the bad guys to get them?

Virginia Wallace lol… NO!!! I avoid clichés like the plague. And yes, the pretty girl spraining her ankle so she can be easily mutilated is a TOTAL cliché! Notice the pretty girl always runs upstairs, too, instead of out the front door and down the street…

Eileen Troemel Good to know. Are you a thriller type or the gore type of horror?

Virginia Wallace Both!

R.M. Olivia Are you inspired by locations?

Virginia Wallace Very much so. My stories tend to be set in places I’ve been, so I can create a compelling setting. When I set a scene in a place I’ve never been, I look at lots of pictures. I started out as an artist, so the visual elements of a story are very important to me.

Eileen Troemel You say in your bio you’re nomadic – how many states / countries have you lived in?

Virginia Wallace I was born and raised on the Chesapeake Bay, in southeastern Virginia, USA. I spent years freezing in the upper midwest, and a few more in the mountains of New England. As far as other countries go, I’ve only been to Canada.

R.M. Olivia Yes!!! Mountain men with sexy beards and built bodies here we come!

Virginia Wallace Too funny, Olivia!

Eileen Troemel After the pandemic is done, are there places you’d like to travel to that you haven’t been to?

Virginia Wallace I have a sneaking suspicion that the current state of affairs is about to blow the world slam up. But I’d love to see Scotland, Ireland, and rural England. That’s where my ancestors are from, and where a lot of my favorite stories are set.

Eileen Troemel Those are on my list too. My fantasy is to write in an Irish cottage for six months…. Do you have a writing fantasy get away?

Virginia Wallace Honestly, no. Writing is how I escape my day to day life. If I visit somewhere wonderful, I generally don’t feel like writing. I mean, why escape from an escape?

Eileen Troemel very true…

Virginia Wallace I have a feeling that the best way to get me to write would be to throw me in jail!

Eileen Troemel What inspired your Cowboy Desire story?

Virginia Wallace That’s a good question… when the call for submissions went out, I kind of ignored it. My initial thought was ‘who the hell do you think I am, Louis L’Amour?’ So when I came around and decided to do it, I only had about a week. I shot for science fiction, since that’s one of my favorite genres and, oddly, one that I’d never written before.

Eileen Troemel How did you find writing in the new to you genre?

Virginia Wallace To be honest with you, it’s my favorite short. I think the fact that I had to pull the trigger on it so quickly actually made it better. I simply did not have the luxury of over-thinking it.

Eileen Troemel That’s always good when you’re writing. Is your story set on earth or a different planet?

Virginia Wallace It’s set in Montana… somewhere that I’ve never been, so yep, I had to look at LOTS of pictures!!!

Eileen Troemel Beautiful state! And a great setting for a cowboy story. Care to share a little about the story?

Virginia Wallace I always cringe at that question, because I’m never sure how much to say before I drop a spoiler! But it’s about a lovely young lady who’s struggling with both relationship issues and a crippling medical condition. And yes, R.M. Olivia, there is indeed a sexy, sweaty cowboy!

Eileen Troemel Have you read Louis Lamour? Did his iconic western writing influence you at all?

Virginia Wallace I’m kinda blushing now… No, I’ve never read Louis L’Amour.

Eileen Troemel Try his Haunted Mesa – I found it scary and not able to be put down…

Eileen Troemel Are you a plotter or are you a pantser?

Virginia Wallace A bit of both, I think. My shorts are VERY off the cuff. My full length novels begin with a finished ending and a loose outline, and then I write towards the ending. I adjust the outline periodically as my characters meddle with my story line.

Eileen Troemel Characters can be troublesome! Do you have a favorite character across your writing?

Virginia Wallace I do. He’s a tragic figure, a conquering anti-hero known to his people as ‘The Dark One’. But that book is down the road, so SH! It’s a secret.

Eileen Troemel Have any of your characters changed the ending of your story?

Virginia Wallace Oh dear god, yes. Some of my characters tend to be bomb-throwing anarchists. I GOT YER PLOT RIGHT HERE, LADY!!! KABOOM!!! HAHAAA!!! WHEEE!!!

Eileen Troemel Does that make the ending better?

Virginia Wallace Better? No, just different. But I’m all about the perfect ending. If you don’t stick the landing, your story becomes forgettable no matter how good the rest of it was.

Eileen Troemel Agreed!

Eileen Troemel Are there any genres you want to write in that you haven’t?

Virginia Wallace After ‘Orion’, no. I think I’ve pretty well hit ’em all! I honestly never saw myself as a romance writer!

Eileen Troemel What genres do you avoid? Why do you avoid them?

Virginia Wallace I don’t do erotica. Some of my stories have sex scenes because sex is a natural part of life, but I don’t like being gratuitous. I don’t want my reader turning the pages again and again going oh look, they’re screwing… yep, screwing again… uh-huh, yep, still screwing…

Eileen Troemel What are you currently working on?

Virginia Wallace Right now I’m in full-blown ‘production mode’. I helped launch ‘Cowboy Desire’ a couple weekends after my solo novel ‘When the White Knight Falls’ went on pre-sale, and in the middle was the author proofing of WtWkF. My novel ‘The Angel and the Beast’ is in edits now with a hired editor, and when the dust settles on that one its prequel ‘The Children of Apep’ is ready for edits. Whew!

Eileen Troemel You have been busy!

Virginia Wallace I’m playing catch-up, honestly. I spent years writing with very little effort going into seeking a publisher. I just got discouraged by all the rejection emails, you know? But it only takes one person, one publisher who actually gets you and likes your work… and then it’s off to the races!

Eileen Troemel Did you consider self publishing?

Virginia Wallace I self-published for several years… but that’s exhausting, and often expensive. Plus I need editors and proofreaders. I’m a storyteller, not an English professor!

Eileen Troemel What’s your favorite part of writing?

Virginia Wallace Hm… I love the writing part. But what I love best is going back and polishing the story. Finding the PERFECT word instead of just a good word. Tweaking everything until it’s absolutely flawless!

Eileen Troemel That’s wonderful.

Eileen Troemel How much time do you spend writing? Do you have a routine?

Virginia Wallace No. Remember what I said about bomb-throwing anarchists? Where d’you think my characters got that? That having been said, I’m a TOTAL workaholic!

Eileen Troemel Well our time is up – thank you so much for joining me today! Please share how people can follow you.

Virginia Wallace

Follow me on FaceBook at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100051882828372

On Twitter at @VirginiaKWalla1

On MeWe at https://mewe.com/i/virginiawallace1

On LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/virginia-wallace-63b2731b1/

Or follow my blog at www.virginiawallace.com

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/…/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_book_5

TO ORDER EILEEN TROEMEL’S BOOKS: https://www.amazon.com/Eileen-Troemel/e/B00JL4OXLS?ref_=dbs_p_ebk_r00_abau_000000

When I was a kid, I often pictured writers as people who just sat around serenely composing stories. When they were finished, I imagined, they would simply send their manuscripts to their respective publishers and have a glass of wine.

Guess what? It don’t work like that, kiddies!

Rather, it goes something like this…

Thursday 1/21

5:32 PM – As I’m sitting in my car waiting for the engine to warm up after leaving the day job, I check my email. Lo and behold, my newest book When the White Knight Falls has been uploaded to Amazon. I haven’t the foggiest idea what to do.

5:33 PM – Panic.

5:34-5:46 PM – Drive home with a stone-cold engine, recklessly risking a reckless-driving arrest the entire way.

5:47 PM – Run upstairs and fire up the trusty laptop.  Open FaceBook Messenger and scream for Callie Carmen. (As well as being an acclaimed writer, Callie also works on Black Velvet Seductions’ marketing side. At least I think she does. Maybe she just feels sorry for clueless ol’ me.)

5:47-5:54 PM – Sit in a puddle of cold sweat, watching those three little dots bouncing at the bottom of the Messenger box. I don’t know if Callie’s typing me instructions, or just telling me (at great length) to chill the @#$! out.

5:55 PM – Read Callie’s instructions. It seems I just need to put out a clarion call for my friends, to ask if they’ll re-post and share my ‘cover reveal’ and pre-sale announcement. At least, that’s it for Thursday evening. The list of instructions for Friday is rather daunting.

5:56-6:28 PM – Cob up an ad asking my friends to re-post and share the flurry of other ads I’m planning to unleash. Obsessively check my spelling, and then run the ad by Callie (lest I like, misspelled my own name or something).

6:29-6:47 PM – Upon being a given clean bill of health by Callie, begin distributing said ad. Agonize over every post, wondering just how many postings I can get away with before being flung into ‘FaceBook Jail’ for ‘spamming’… again.

6:48 PM-12:22 AM – Obsessively monitor social media for signs of re-posting.

12:23 AM – Go to bed.

12:23–7:10 AM – Don’t sleep.

FRIDAY 1/22

7:11 AM – Stumble out of bed.

7:12 AM–2:30 PM – Set up and tweak more accounts than an offshore bank. Drive both Callie and Ric Savage (my publisher) nuts with questions. Back up everything on an external drive about every three minutes, lest my laptop explode like a pipe bomb and destroy all my work. Keep external backup drive in the next room between backups, just in case my laptop actually does explode like a pipe bomb.

2:31 PM – Crack open a case of extra light beer. Every writer needs a sedative now and again, but there’s no need to get sloppy.

2:32 -8:48 PM – Obsessively comb all media, double-check all links, make sure all the necessary files are in place and backed up. Email out Advance Reader Copies of my manuscript to co-workers who request them. Obsessively monitor all chat boxes lest I accidentally miss a request.

8:49 PM – Get squawked at by a family member for leaving empty beer bottles on my writing desk. Apparently they clink when I type. That’s annoying, I’m told.

8:50 PM – Call a lid. Pop a squat on the couch and binge-watch through my box set of ‘The Twilight Zone’.  But I can’t go to bed just yet…

12:00 AM – Post the first few social media links featuring the new book, where my European co-workers can find and distribute them.

12:05 AM – Go to bed.

12:05-6:45 AM – Watch the ceiling spin, with Rod Serling’s voice playing eerily in my head. (Why doesn’t that guy’s mouth open when he talks? His teeth stay tight together the entire time. S’weird. Seriously…)

Saturday 1/23

6:46 AM – Get out of bed and fire up the laptop.

6:47-7:00 AM – Prep the bombshell ‘cover reveal and pre-sale’ ad, nervously checking my spelling and wishing I had like, three more days to proof-read it.

7:01 AM – Drop the ad and begin posting it in writing groups, praying I don’t get flung into FaceBook Jail since I already posted the Amazon link twice the midnight before.

7:02 AM- 10:15 AM – Drop the cover reveal on umpteen other sites, all the while dropping hearts on all the re-posts uploaded by my friends and followers. (LOVE you guys!)

10:16 AM – Call a lid. Go to bed.

10:17-11:30 AM – Toss and turn.

11:31 AM-2:19 PM – Post the opening chapter from When the White Knight Falls to this blog. Advertise it on umpteen sites, and drop hearts on all the re-posts.

2:20 PM – Start writing this blog post.

2:21-6:00 PM – Obsessively monitor all activity related to the book launch, all the while polishing up this post. And also wishing I had like, three more days to proof-read it. Decide to upload it 1/24, because my brain’s mush and I might actually be typing gibberish.

6:01PM – Crash and burn. Lights out!

Sunday 1/24

9:30 AM – Wake up to a playful reminder from Callie that I forgot to post today’s re-posting links early in the morning. Whoops.

9:31-9:35 AM – Post requested links, and drop an apology/request to all my co-workers to re-post. Feel like a dumbass.

9:36 AM-2:38 PM – Call a lid. Go to church and eat lunch with family.

2:45 PM – Upload this post and begin to advertise it on umpteen sites…

2:46 PM-? – Oh, you get the picture!

And that, my dear readers, is how you do a Book Launch! THANK you to everyone involved. I’m honored to work alongside such talented writers and marketing staff. God bless you all! – Virginia

TO ORDER MY BOOKS ON AMAZON, CLICK HERE: https://www.amazon.com/Virginia-Wallace/e/B08RCBT7N5/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_ebooks_5

TO CONNECT WITH ME ON FACEBOOK, CLICK HERE: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100051882828372

ON TWITTER: @VirginiaKWalla1

ON MeWe: https://mewe.com/i/virginiawallace1

ON LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/virginia-wallace-63b2731b1/

Being a writer generally feels a bit… surreal.

Writers tend to fluctuate between two planes of reality: The one in their heads, and the one in the waking world. The writer is often fully buried in his or her mental world, but rarely completely inhabits the waking world. The writer can also often be found somewhere in between, wandering in one direction or the other along the fantasy/reality spectrum.

What I do notice – at least with myself – is that my need to dwell in my mental world often creates conflicts with the waking world. If I spend too much time in one or the other, it causes me a fair amount of stress. If I linger too long in my head, wallowing in my thoughts and fantasies, I begin to feel like I’m losing my grip on the real world. Then, like a drowning person, I feel a desperate need to lunge to surface so that I may gasp for air.

But if circumstance forces to me stay overlong in the waking world, I begin to feel like I’m losing my sense of self. And so, like a person languishing in the heat and eager to cool off, I feel the need to plunge back into the sea of my thoughts…

I confess, my instinct is usually to dive for the bottom.

I generally work a four-day week at the day job. By the fourth day, I usually feel rather out of sorts. I’ve become disconnected from myself; I’ve spent too long out of my head. By way of contrast, the morning of my first work day feels completely bizarre, like I’m living out a scene from a Rob Zombie film. I’ve been inside my head for too long, and coming out of it makes me a bit loopy.

In my experience, there are only two people – or groups of people – who can interact with writers at will, and do so without rudely disturbing their in-my-head/out-of-my-head fluctuations. Those people are writers’ spouses, and other writers: The two demographics that are ‘in the know’ as to how the writer’s mind works.

The rest of you?

We love you, at least when we’re living outside of our heads. We love you, we value your company, and we’re grateful for your friendship.

When we’re buried inside of our heads…?

You’re a ghost. A phantasm. A specter, a mist, and a shadow. We’d like to connect with you; we truly would. But at the end of the day you’re just not… real.

Now the eternal question is this: Does the waking world really fade in and out of the writer’s perception, as though he were the god of all reality? Or does the writer simply fade in and out of the waking world, like your drunken uncle who keeps going on long benders?

Does it matter? To paraphrase Neil Gaiman: The writer simply does what he does because it’s who he is; if he did otherwise, he would cease to be himself…

And if he did that, we wouldn’t have any more stories to read.

2003…

Earmark year, for me. For starters, Underworld opened in theaters (September 9^th, if you must know). I went to see it, well, something like fifteen times. Metallica released one of my favorite metal albums ever, St. Anger. My career in kitchen design was winding down, and I was making plans to move back to Virginia. I was in the process of publishing my debut novel (which thankfully is out of print, as no one in his/her right mind would ever want to read it).

Sometime during that pivotal year, I picked up a copy of Ray Bradbury’s The Cat’s Pajamas. First edition, too; I could tell because the pages were all untrimmed. (This, by the way, makes them deucedly difficult to turn. Which tells you for sure that this is indeed a great book, since you must endure much irritation to savor the breathtaking tale contained wherein.)

Or not. And besides, The Cat’s Pajamas isn’t just one story; it’s a collection of shorts in the tradition of The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man and my personal favorite, The October Country. (Of course, I can never forget Ray’s full-length masterpiece, Death is a Lonely Business. I have a signed copy. Leather-bound. Mint condition. Yeah, that’s right!)

But during the pell-mell rush of work, writing, and drinking binges, The Cat’s Pajamas sat idly on the shelf for years. It got packed up, moved, un-packed, moved to another room, re-located to a different shelf, lost once or twice. It just sat, innocuously, waiting.

I don’t how I forgot it, actually. I adored Bradbury’s writings as a kid, ever since my stepfather told me about his favorite story, ‘The Man’, which prompted me to go read S is for Space. I was hooked from that point forward. The year before The Cat’s Pajamas (or was it a couple of years before?) I read his full-length novel From the Dust Returned, which tells the haunting tale of the Great Family (whose saga originally began in the shorts ‘UncleEinar’ and ‘The April Witch’).

And yet, somehow, The Cat’s Pajamas remained shelved, forgotten.

Life has a way, I think, of withholding its most remarkable gems from us until the moment in which we need them most. It waits until we are bruised, broken, and bleeding before revealing some little tidbit of a thing, some tiny comfort that suddenly becomes monumental by virtue of the simple fact that we needed it so badly.

So thus came that fateful day upon which a discombobulated, out-of-sorts person fast approaching thirty (and with it, old age and certain doom!) absently plucked her copy of The Cat’s Pajamas from the bookshelf. 

In one world, uncertainty pounded upon an already-careworn heart…

Ah, but in another…!

In another, an old southern mammy waits in vain for the little boy she raised to come back and visit her. She sits at the window, imagining all the things that could have delayed the now-successful man, the once-boy whom she rocked on her knees…

In another world, a callous, rapacious bigot is forced onto a tattooist’s table, where he shall soon become what he reviles most, a black man…

In another world, a hemophiliac writer gets a back massage from a jilted lover; she rubs him down tenderly, her fingers tipped with long, sharp nails…

In another world, two lonely people feud over a stray cat, creating a relationship born of mutual loneliness…

Nine.

Twenty-nine…

Somehow, one man’s writings seemed to make those two decades – time characterized, in part, by stupidity and debauchery unending – just disappear. Poof! Just like that. And in that maelstrom of short – almost staccato – tales defined by their dream-like, ephemeral nature, I suddenly realized why I myself wanted to be a writer.

It wasn’t to change the world. It wasn’t to say something wonderful, something earth-shaking. Heck, I’ll even settle for being trite, if I must. Maybe I’d even prefer it.

No, I aspired to become a writer in the hope that one day, in my own higgledy-piggledy way, I could write something that – even for one afternoon – could perhaps make someone forget just who they are, and what they dislike about life.

The greatest writers aren’t the Ernest Hemingways, the John Steinbecks or the J. D. Salingers. History may honor such men, but the average reader usually doesn’t. No, we prefer our space ships and our monsters and our sad, strange characters that seem a little off-kilter and sort of remind us of ourselves… but not really. We care little for brilliant minds and deep, deep thoughts. Just tell us a story; lift us from whatever irritates us, whatever forces us to face reality when we’d rather not.

I can’t describe a blasted thing Hemingway wrote; all I know is that he bored me to tears. But when I’m much older, and my nieces and nephew are tired to death of their TV and their video games and their music… Maybe I’ll tell them a story about Uncle Einar, the crazy old bat-winged man who sleeps in the attic with the spiders. Maybe I’ll spin them the tale of Cecy the April Witch, whose soul flies from her sleeping body every night to peer vicariously through the eyes of strangers. Maybe I’ll tell them about that unnamed, doady old married couple, husband and wife each fighting off death while cheerfully trying to poison the other.

Maybe. Or not; you know how kids are these days. But for myself…

Thanks, Ray!

Why don’t men come with a warning label? (Alex) was a lethal weapon… This was not a man who’d write a letter just to get his way. Not the man who held her at night, whispering sweet words into her ear after a nightmare… – Line from Patricia Elliott’s ‘Her Lover’s Face’

I just read ‘Her Lover’s Face’, by Patricia Elliott…

I wish I could tell you more about the story. I wish, my dear reader, that I could offer you a thorough review. I wish I could lay out the basics of the story in the hopes that you might read it… and in so doing, enjoy it as much as I did.

I can’t.

I can’t, because with every word I type I risk ‘blowing it’. ‘Her Lover’s Face’ has so many layers of intrigue that to say much of anything would risk unraveling them pre-emptively, and thus there’s very little I can write here.

All that I can safely say is this: ‘Her Lover’s Face’ revolves around a coincidence. As Stephen King brilliantly put it (in the intro to Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’) coincidences are usually unforgivable in fiction. There is only one exception to the rule, and that exception is this: Coincidences are only allowable if the coincidence is the premise of the tale. (An excellent example is the classic film ‘The Parent Trap’, in which estranged twins just so happen to meet at summer camp.)

So rather than give you an exhaustive review, I will simply share how the story made me feel…

Haunted.

When I was fourteen, my mother gave me a ratty paperback copy of what would go on to become my favorite book: ‘Rebecca’, by Daphne du Maurier. I would never have read such a story if I hadn’t run out of new books to read, but I was so bored that I gave it a whirl anyway. Little did I know that ‘Rebecca’ would forever alter my view of literature.

‘Her Lover’s Face’ left me feeling much the same way ‘Rebecca’ did. Engaged, breathless, and eager to turn the next page in the hopes that one of the umpteen mysteries of the tale would be revealed to me. But yet ‘Rebecca’ is not a ‘thriller’ or even a ‘mystery’, and neither is ‘Her Lover’s Face’; the tale is too somber, too angst-ridden, and too racked with searing pain.

Like du Maurier, Patricia Elliot understands all too well the complicated workings of relationships, and adroitly uses her knowledge to weave a bewitching tale. Even more noteworthy, unlike many (not most, mind you, but many) romance novelists, she writes men very, very well. Too often romance-novel heroes are just women with square jaws and washboard abs. They’re sexualized, sure, but they very often don’t behave the way real-life men do. (Call me old-fashioned, but I have always believed that men and women are inherently different, and thus there are certain behaviors that are fairly typical of each gender.)

Alex is a man. He behaves like one.

Laryssa is a woman. She behaves like one.

It takes some life experience to learn the difference, and – as a writer – to deftly place oneself into the opposite sex’s shoes for the purpose of telling a story. Patricia Elliott’s public bios describe her as a ‘family woman’, and it’s obvious that life has given her the knowledge she needed to write men just as convincingly as she does women.

As a Christian, I don’t believe in Reincarnation. But if I did, I would suspect that Patricia has been on this earth before…

And I’m betting her name was Daphne. She writes similarly tormented characters, and fills her stories with layer after layer of dark secrets – secrets that sometimes take the entire story to unwind.

And that’s all I can tell you, honestly, lest I commit the unforgivable crime of spilling those secrets. You don’t need to read those revelations from me. You need to read them from the Literary Enchantress herself: Patricia Elliott.

‘Her Lover’s Face’: Available on Kindle if you’re on a budget, but trust me… you’ll want the paperback!

TO ORDER ‘HER LOVER’S FACE’ FROM AMAZON, CLICK HERE: https://www.amazon.com/Her-Lovers-Face-Patricia-Elliott-ebook/dp/B079DS6X9X/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=her+lover%27s+face+patricia+elliott&qid=1607557595&sr=8-1

FROM BARNES AND NOBLE: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/her-lovers-face-patricia-elliott/1127920816?ean=9781936556342

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Writer – (noun) a person engaged in writing books, articles, stories, etc., especially as an occupation or profession; an author or journalist.

As I’ve pointed out before, that definition falls short. It’s certainly not my definition.

To me, a writer is someone so adept at the literary arts that he or she can write on cue. To me, a writer loves writing for the craft itself, so much so that even genre becomes irrelevant. To a disciplined, well-trained writer the written word is an end unto itself.

It took me years to learn that!

My first few outings as a novelist were exactly what my friends expected from me: Dark Fantasy/Horror. They came so easily to me, those morbid tales. (After all, I had spent years playing fantasy role-playing games; nothing hones one’s storytelling chops quite like ‘Dungeons n’ Dragons’!)

Those novels did reasonably well, at least by the standards of the ‘indie’ scene. But this reality sunk in fairly quickly: Fantasy and Horror are extremely difficult genres to break into! Name recognition is everything in those circles. If you’re not already a known entity, most readers won’t buy your book. Which leaves the fledgling author in a bit of a quandary: How does one become a known entity if one must already be a known entity to sell well? (Kinda like Alice Cooper once sang: ‘I ain’t got a job ‘cuz I ain’t got a car/ I ain’t got a car ‘cuz I ain’t got a job…’)

As I thought about what I wanted to write for my fourth novel, something began to slowly dawn on me, something that created a budding paradigm shift in my thinking. That ‘something’ was this: Virtually all of my readers were female.

That completely floored me. Of course there are ‘horror chicks’ out there, a lot of ‘em; I was always in good company there, but I still assumed that most of my readers would be male. (After all, ninety percent of my D&D buddies were nerdy dudes.)

Slowly a plan came together. If I was capable of pulling a female audience into a genre with a male-dominated fan base, then perhaps I could also tackle the world’s best-selling genre: Romance. The demand for romance novels is completely off the rails, and romance readers are far less discriminating than fantasy/horror readers. If the cover blurb and a cursory flip-through captures their interest, they’ll read your book; you won’t be placed back on the shelf because you’re not Danielle Steele.

And thus I found myself at a crossroads: I could either keep writing what I wanted while selling poorly, or I could write what the market wanted and enjoy more success. But here was the rub: Could I learn to write what the market wanted while finding a way to make it interesting to me?

So (after reading boxes full of romance novels, by way of research) I began working on a manuscript entitled Kilbride…

Kilbride turned out to be a total dud, and sat in a shoebox for over a decade. It was a mediocre piece of work, and I knew it.

Life went on from there. I continued writing, and enjoyed a fair amount of success as a blogger. I also wrote a few more fantasy novels, although I didn’t work very hard at marketing them. And all the while Kilbride sat in the closet, gathering dust and nearly forgotten…

I don’t recall what made me brush it off, and give it another read. But somehow, the reason for my failure became immediately clear: I didn’t have a solid handle on the romance genre.

And ironically, I’d also had a solid handle on the genre all along.

My fantasy novels developed a cult following due mostly to their love-story sub-plots. I was so freaked out by changing genres that I somehow missed the fact that I’d been writing romance all along. Everyone engages in romantic pursuits, from the giggling college-girl to the tobacco-chewing hillbilly. Humans instinctively seek relationships. As the Bible says, ‘male and female created He them’.  The genders comprise two halves of a whole, and humans – virtually all of them – instinctively ‘pair up’.

How did I miss that?

Ultimately Kilbride was a flop because – despite having well-developed characters – it lacked tension, and conflict; I somehow got it into my head that romance novels had to be sweet and sappy. I should have known better; all stories revolve around conflict.

And there I saw a ray of hope: I’m good at writing conflict! I stuck my fantasy characters in a literary vise, gleefully creating a nightmarish world for them to inhabit. In so doing, I also gave them a chance to become the noblest – or darkest – possible versions of themselves. This is how life works; why should fiction be any different?

So I cracked my knuckles, and began re-writing Kilbride from scratch…

This time, people were going to suffer. This time, life was going to painful. This time, my characters were going to scream for mercy. This time I would refine my characters by fire; they would either succumb to their various torments, or rise above them.

In some sense, I switched genres by moving into romance…

And in another sense, I changed nothing at all. Because in the end, the common denominator was… me. My worldview, my plotting instincts, my word usage, my sense of humor and my sense of darkness… All of those traits are immutable, as they are with any word-smith.

There are still moments during which I forget that, of course. I had the opportunity recently to contribute to a ‘cowboy romance’ anthology. I originally dismissed it, to be honest. What?! I ain’t Louis L’Amour! I thought. But then I reconsidered. Are you a writer or are you not? I asked myself. You’re not gonna let this assignment kick your ass, are you? My initial hesitation made me the ‘Ginny-come-lately’ as far as my submission went, but it succeeded; the resulting story, Orion, should see print next spring.

Orion cemented my paradigm shift: I just love to write! I’ll tell ya any story you want, so long as you read it. Essentially, all genres are the same; it’s just a matter of where you place the emphasis. You can tell the exact same tale in both horror and romance. It’s just that in horror, you emphasize the pain and the fear; in romance, you emphasize the love, the human connection. But all of those elements will nevertheless be present in both versions of the tale.

And Kilbride…?

Raised from the ashes under the title When the White Knight Falls, it’ll be coming your way sometime this winter. It’s under contract from Black Velvet Seductions, a well-respected romance imprint run by one of the best people I know, Richard Savage.

Brigham Young once wrote that we should ‘pray like God’s going to do it for us, and work like we have to do it ourselves’. My blood, sweat, and tears would have been all for naught had God not steered me toward the right people… and He did.

So yeah, I spent well over a decade re-learning something that I knew all along…

Genre is irrelevant.

Writers are not!

You can order my short story ‘Renewing Forever’ here: https://amzn.to/34NstC7

Or you can follow me at the following social media links:

On FaceBook at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100051882828372

On Twitter at @VirginiaKWalla1

On MeWe at https://mewe.com/i/virginiawallace1

On LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/virginia-wallace-63b2731b1/

‘… I knew at their core, both men had shared a deep hostility and distrust towards the world and nearly everyone in it. That brooding malevolency was one aspect of Marco’s personality that I hoped I had been instrumental in changing.’ – line from Suzanne Smith’s ‘The Brute and I’

Didja ever read a book that just kinda blew your mind?

Call me a Narcissist, but I am ever mindful of one very simple reality: The writer is an eternally ego-driven creature. Period. It’s why we hide in the shadows, day after day, pounding away at the keyboard in the hopes that we might somehow manage to dazzle the world with our brilliance. (Or maybe just baffle ‘em with… well, you know.)

Ergo, the books most prone to blowing my fragile little mind are the ones that are eerily similar to those I might have written. Interestingly, a dear writer friend of mine recently quizzed me about this line from one of my short stories:  This is the difference between a good man and a bad one; every man wants to do violence to his spouse once in a while, for two cannot live in such close proximity without provoking the occasional violent thought.

She asked, do thoughts like that actually cross your mind? I was surprised by the question, because I assumed the obvious answer for most of us is ‘yes’. That line was written within the context of fiction, but I was being truthful about the violent impulses (although I, like most people who consider themselves decent, never act upon them).

I suppose I see anger and violence not as a label so much as a spectrum. It’s not ‘is this person angry or violent’, so much as ‘where does this person fall on the anger/violence spectrum?’ We all have nasty little beasts in our head; it’s simply a matter of how far we’re willing to go to either indulge or defeat them. Suzanne Smith, I suspect, views the human condition in much the same manner as I…

Which explains why, for one lazy afternoon, The Brute and I totally rocked my little world!

The Brute and I is intense, terribly so! Suzanne pulls the narrative from the secret places of her characters’ minds, from the darkest recesses of the human consciousness. Her characters Marco, Alex, Jake, and Emme are nothing if not amoral; Suzanne makes no judgment regarding their actions, and casts no aspersions upon their motives.; they simply are what they are, and she skillfully allows the story to tell itself without adding unnecessary commentary to the narrative.

I really liked that the story was fairly ‘clean’. While tasteful sex scenes are occasionally appropriate in fiction, I’m not a fan of gratuitous, excessive, or explicit content. The over-use of such content, in my opinion, detracts from plotting and characterization… and The Brute and I is tightly plotted, with brilliantly-drawn characters. They’re brooding, larger-than-life, and often possessed of ambiguous or even self-conflicting motives…

As are we all, at least sometimes.

If you’re looking for sappy ‘fluff’, The Brute and I isn’t for you. But if you’re not afraid of the twisted workings of the human mind, if you want a story that feels raw instead of idealistic… then The Brute and I is an absolute MUST-read!

So check it out. S’only three bucks on Kindle, but I’m betting after you read it you’ll want the paperback too!

Order The Brute and I from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Brute-I-Suzanne-Smith-ebook/dp/B07F95G2FS/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=the+Brute+and+i+suzanne+smith&qid=1605995709&sr=8-1

From Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-brute-and-i-suzanne-smith/1129034890?ean=9781912768103

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