Put that Halloween costume to good use and come on out to Stan Lee's Comikaze this weekend! I'll be signing books with the FAAAAHBULOUS Elizabeth Watasin at booth AA-1311.
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Monday, October 28, 2013
Magic After Dark
Do you love Maggie for Hire? Do you say that you do, but guiltily don't know if you love Maggie for Hire or not because you haven't picked up a copy yet?
It is your lucky day!
SM Reine - Sacrificed in Shadow
Marie Hall - Crimson Night
Deanna Chase - Influential Magic
Danielle Monsch - Fairy Tales and Ever Afters
Kate Danley - Maggie for Hire
Dannika Dark - Sterling
Available on:
It is your lucky day!
Dive into six different worlds of vampires, demons, fae, fairy godmothers, mages, and all things magic. Prepare for a wild ride, whether you’re looking for nail-biting drama, mystery, intense action, humor, new breeds of paranormals, or passionate romance. Induldge in this amazing boxed set from six bestselling urban fantasy authors:
SM Reine - Sacrificed in Shadow
Marie Hall - Crimson Night
Deanna Chase - Influential Magic
Danielle Monsch - Fairy Tales and Ever Afters
Kate Danley - Maggie for Hire
Dannika Dark - Sterling
Interview with JD Horn
As part of the 47North Author Blog Swap, this month I'll be interviewing JD Horn, author of the upcoming book The Line (Witching Savannah)
Why did you write The Line?
My first novel, The Essence of Things Hoped For, found me my agent. Essence is a very personal and hopefully literary work into which I poured my heart. We shopped Essence around for about a year, but no bites. It seemed that everyone who read it loved it, but… (There were a lot of buts.) Rejection left me with the choice of giving up or taking another run at a “first” novel.
The question for me became whether I could write something with commercial appeal that also embodied my “essence,” the aspects of my soul that compel me to write. I got lucky, I fell in love with a character, Mercy Taylor, and with a place, Savannah. I cannot attest as yet to the true commercial appeal of The Line
(it doesn’t go on sale until February 1 of next year), but the dark and twisted bits of my Southern Gothic psyche have found a new place to play.
What is it about this project that makes you happy or proud?
The good folk at 47North,publisher of The Line
, liked Mercy enough to allow me to use it as the basis of a new series—the Witching Savannah series. It has been wonderful returning to Mercy’s world, learning more about her and her deeply-flawed but loving family.
What was one of the first books to inspire your interest in this genre?
Wow. This is tough. Peter Straub’s Ghost Story, Dracula, a whole slew of stories where the supernatural infiltrates everyday life. Lovecraft’s wonderful mythos. Most importantly, though, Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita.
Who influenced your voice as a writer?
Armistead Maupin, Charlaine Harris, Alice Hoffman and a bunch of dead Russian guys.
How did you learn how to write? How did you develop your style?
My undergraduate degree was in Comparative World Literature. Rather than inspiring my writing career, comparing my early efforts to the completed works of the greats nearly crippled me. It was only after I began reading the easy and natural style of Maupin’s Tales of the City series that I realized there was a place for me in the literary world.
What is your process when you begin a new project?
I turn on my computer, turn off everything else, close my eyes and listen to the voices. I ignore the ones that tell me I am not a real writer, that tell me I won’t succeed or that I need a pint of ice cream. I listen and keep listening until I hear the voice who wants to tell me a story. Then I start typing what it says. No inner editor allowed.
What are some writing tips or tricks that work for you?
Learn to use the delete key. Learn to love the delete key.
What is one of the happiest moments in your writing career?
Having readers take me to task for the events that happen to Ellen Taylor Weber (Mercy’s aunt) and realizing that my characters were becoming real to these readers, that the readers were falling in love with them just as I had. Signing the ARCs of The Line at NY Comic Con. Meeting my agent and getting a yes from 47North.
What advice do you have for people who want to become writers?
Focus on the creative process, not on the end result. Be willing to start over. Never, ever, ever read Rita Mae Brown’s writing guide Starting from Scratch. Read everything else she has written, but not that. Oh, and take advice from other writers with a grain of salt.
What upcoming projects are you working on?
Getting ready to work on the copy edits of The Source (second in the Witching Savannah series) and continuing work on The Void (Witching Savannah). On the back burner is a novella, Shivaree, about vampires in post-Korean War rural Georgia. Also, I am planning on revisiting The Essence of Things Hoped For to see if new life can be breathed into the manuscript.
For fun:
You're in heaven (so anything is possible) and you own your own television network. What shows are on your channel?
Sadly I am a sucker for soap opera. In my heaven, As the World Turns and Edge of Night would still be in production. Oooh, and Dark Shadows, too. That and British murder mysteries.
What is your favorite pen to write with?
Do crayons count?
Favorite beverage while writing?
Coffee, black.
Name five books you love.
The Master and Margarita
The Brothers Karamazov (seriously, not just saying it)
Doctor Zhivago
American Gods
And now I cheat, everything by Douglas Adams
Leather bound editions or paperbacks with a great pulp fiction covers?
I want books I can live with, not books that are too precious to handle. Give me paperback, or better yet, give me Kindle.
What is your favorite quote about writing?
“Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them. There's many a best-seller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.” Flannery O’Connor (a good Savannahian, but probably not a witch…)
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Spirit of Denial
For all of you fans of A Spirited Manor today is your lucky day my friends! Announcing Book II in the O'Hare House Mysteries.... drumroll... SPIRIT OF DENIAL. It's about a mummy. Now say the title out loud. Yes.
In this sequel to A Spirited Manor, Clara O'Hare and Wesley Lowenherz learn that the phantasm set free at Lord Oroberg's seance is just the beginning. An ancient Egyptian curse has been unleashed by feuding archaeologists and everyone will be digging an early grave unless they contain this spirit of the Nile.
Mysterious Galaxy 10/26 at 3PM
Head on out to Mysterious Galaxy Redondo Beach for the Halloween event Nine Novel Nightmares featuring readings by nine 47North authors (including yours truly), prizes, and other assorted awesomeness! Plus, come on. It's Mysterious Galaxy! Do you need any more reason to show up?
2810 Artesia Blvd.
Redondo Beach, CA 90278
310.542.6000
Redondo Beach, CA 90278
310.542.6000
Friday, October 11, 2013
Big Orange Book Festival
In the SoCal area this weekend? I'll be signing books at Booth #3 at the Big Orange Book Festival on the campus of Chapman University. Come out and say hello!
http://bigorangebookfestival.com/
http://bigorangebookfestival.com/
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Europe!
My old sketch and improv buddy Travis Richey made this great little video that yours truly just happens to be in. Yay!
Labels:
Curtiss Frisle,
Elle Russ,
kate danley,
sketch,
Travis Richey,
YouTube
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Mystery and Imagination Bookstore TONIGHT!
If you're reading my blog, you probably already know my story. But juuust in case, here's a recap. November 2010, I self-published my first title, The Woodcutter. That first month, I sold 22 copies. The second month I sold eight.
Flash forward to today and I am a full time writer, have close to 80,000+ sales globally, am traditionally published, won a bunch of awards, and one of my series is under option for a movie and television consideration.
So how did that all happen? And more importantly, how can something like this happen for you.
Tonight, Wyatt Doyle, myself, and Andrew Bisconti will be doing a free, hour long panel at Mystery & Imagination Bookshop in Glendale about the business of publishing. I will brain dump all of the knowledge I have learned over the past three years straight into your ears. People helped me out getting me here and this is just a way to pay back the kindness. So come out! I will have presents for people who bring good questions!
https://www.facebook.com/events/157920927747299/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming
Mystery & Imagination Bookshop
238 N. Brand Blvd.
Glendale, California
7PM
Flash forward to today and I am a full time writer, have close to 80,000+ sales globally, am traditionally published, won a bunch of awards, and one of my series is under option for a movie and television consideration.
So how did that all happen? And more importantly, how can something like this happen for you.
Tonight, Wyatt Doyle, myself, and Andrew Bisconti will be doing a free, hour long panel at Mystery & Imagination Bookshop in Glendale about the business of publishing. I will brain dump all of the knowledge I have learned over the past three years straight into your ears. People helped me out getting me here and this is just a way to pay back the kindness. So come out! I will have presents for people who bring good questions!
https://www.facebook.com/events/157920927747299/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming
Mystery & Imagination Bookshop
238 N. Brand Blvd.
Glendale, California
7PM
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Declaration
Artistic resistance is a funny thing. It is that fear which begins to grip you,
that tells you what you really want to be doing is watching Netflix instead of
working on that THING. That project. That one little corner of the universe that is
so uniquely yours that no other person on the planet can fill it.
I have been acting since 1989. A French class was full, and I got moved into
drama class. A girl failed in the whole
No Pass/No Play era and I was her replacement in the play. Cue a decade of magnet schools, college majors, and shows in NYC.
But then I moved to Los Angeles and I got this thing Bruce
Campbell refers to as "The Spores".
That thing I've only found in Los Angeles where you are told over and
over and over again that things start happening when you finally decide you
don't want them anymore, so you better not want that film career quickly so
that you can finally start getting cast.
So you spend a lot of time trying to convince yourself you don't want to
be an actor. Going to the beach and
checking out new restaurants and shops and clubs. And it works.
You start getting auditions and you meet them with an eye roll instead
of a cheer. You get cast, and you hate
being on set.
Earlier this year, I realized that I hate film and
television acting. I mean, with a
PASSION. I'd get parts and despise every
minute of it… because I didn't know, in my bones, what I was doing. Acting on film is basically just doing a cold
reading. You spend all year trying to
get a gig, they put you in front of the camera and you get to say, "Would
you like wine with dinner?" It
sucks. So, I decided not to do it
anymore.
But then, a few months later, I remembered the only reason
why I wanted to do film and television was to have enough of a stable income
that I could act on stage. And suddenly,
with this whole writing thing, I realized I have the stable income… I could act
on stage as much as I want…
So this summer, I spent nine hours a day, three days a
week, for five weeks out in the middle of this forest studying Shakespeare and
Alexandar Technique and Laban and scansion and Elizabethan rhetoric. And I realized I'm really good at acting on
stage when I stop apologizing for the fact I'm not any good on film.
Taking this shift, this leap, and only doing theater for
theater's sake… I have been reminded of its transformative power, of the way we
actors can touch lives and change people's perceptions of the world, even better than a newspaper article or pie chart of statistics or some guy yelling at you on talk radio. I did a reading the other day and a little
old woman got up from her walker to stop me on my rush out to squeeze my hands
and tell me I was wonderful. And knowing
the effort it took for her to come down to the theater, how we were her biggest
source of entertainment that day, what it took for her to support the arts and
she was there… it just reminded me that theater for theater's sake is
important. The creative cesspool of Los
Angeles is not the world. There are
people who are searching for this artistic "more" and it is alive and
powerful.
And I haven't felt this alive or powerful on stage in
years. I was talking to a friend about
it and he said, "It is nice to do theater that you don't have to apologize
for afterwards."
I feel like have been apologizing for a long time. My feet were in two different worlds and neither was getting what it needed. So, now my feet are firmly planted and it is terrifying to step out boldly
again. But I feel like a loggerhead turtle
who knows how to find that beach where she was born. This is my beach. It is where I am called. And, yes, the resistance is still there. I have
a class tonight with an amazing group of artists who are sitting down to tear
apart Henry VI just for fun, and the resistance says, "Maybe you should
stay at home and… work… clean your house… watching some Netflix… who needs people..."
But I'm not listening anymore.
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Me! An interview with me!
While we're talking interviews, Charlie Holmberg was kind enough to return the favor and you can find her interview with me over on her blog by clicking http://myselfaswritten.blogspot.com/2013/10/interview-with-author-kate-danley-and.html! Go give her some love!
Author Interview - Charlie Holmberg
Why did you write The Paper Magician?
I was getting close to finishing up my current project,
so my mind had already put out feelers for what my next story would be about.
And then I went on a road trip, and road trips tend to spur thinking.
I had always liked the idea of having a character do
paper-based magic, but I’d always considered them as a quirky side character.
I’d tried once before to invent a magic system big enough that would have paper
manipulation as a branch, but I never came up with anything. Then, whilst on
the long road between Moscow, ID and Salt Lake City, I thought, Why make it a
side? Why not have the book be about
paper-based magic? And it bloomed from there.
What is it about this project that makes you
happy or proud?
I felt like I had created an interesting and truly
succinct plot for perhaps the first time ever, ha. I felt the idea, or at least
its execution was fairly original, and I really liked my character. After
writing The Paper Magician, I
thought, this is it. This is the book that gets me an agent. Turned out I was
right. :)
What was one of the first books to inspire your interest
in this genre?
Oh gosh, I really don’t know book-wise. Lame as is
sounds, it was actually an anime I watched when I was thirteen (I had no idea
what anime was at the time) that made me want to write fantastical books. And
though I’m not much in Japanese cartoons anymore, I recommend Tenkou no Escaflowne to anyone. Great
storyline, no silliness.
Who influenced your voice as a writer?
As far as The Paper
Magician and its sequels are concerned, the wondrous workings of Diana
Wynne Jones, specifically Howl’s Moving
Castle, really influenced my voice. I think The Paper Magician sounds just a little bit different from all my
previous works.
How did you learn how to write? How did you develop your style?
Well, for a long time I just wrote. I started writing at
thirteen and wrote a lot of (unfinished) crappy books and a lot of fanfiction
that still haunts the Internet.
I took my first real writing classes in high school and
had a great teacher. Then I started reading books (I believe my first was Orson
Scott Card’s How to Write Science Fiction
and Fantasy). Then I started attending conventions and taking writing
courses in college. And I read, a lot. In my genre and out.
I think my style more or less developed on its own. I
feel I owe a great debt to Brandon Sanderson, whose writing course at Brigham
Young University I attended for two semesters. Best writing class I’ve ever
taken. He was my mentor.
What is your process when you begin a new
project?
I usually have an idea that brews in my mind for a long
time—months to years. When it finally clicks in my head and flips the passion
switch, I bust out one of my handy-dandy mini notebooks and start writing
notes, generally in the order ideas come to my mind. Character sketches, maps,
scenes, setting, whatever. When the notebook fills up to the point where I have
the bones of a story, I make an outline. When the outline is sound, I start
writing.
What are some writing tips or tricks that work
for you?
I think carrying around a notebook in your pocket or
purse is great for writing down ideas—they can strike you anywhere.
Making a daily word count goal helped me immensely. It
made me get serious about the profession and made me actually finish books.
With writing fantasy, I often come up with the magic
system first. My entire story will circulate around how the magic works.
Something interesting David Farland once told me was to
treat my manuscript like a movie, and interview different people to play my characters.
It helps to get a good idea of what personalities will work best with the tale
you want to tell.
Alpha and beta readers. I have two sets of critique
partners—writers and non-writers. The writers, or the “alpha” readers, get my
first draft. Once I fix everything and make draft two, my non-writers, or the
“beta” readers, get the book. They give me readerly feedback that helps me fix
the smaller things. Having two sets of readers makes for more drafting, but I
think my books turn out stronger that way.
What advice do you have for people who want to
become writers?
Write. I know that sounds stupid, but once you actually
finish a book, you’re already above 95% of aspiring writers.
Take criticism. Take all you can, and don’t take it
personally. Good news is great for the ego, but bad news is better for the
craft. However, take it with a grain of salt. Brandon Sanderson once told me
you’ll only use about 1/3 of the criticism you receive, and I find that to be
true. Unless more than one person (assuming you use multiple readers) has a
problem with an issue you’re not sure about changing, don’t change it. It’s
your story.
What upcoming projects are you working on?
I’m finishing up The
Glass Magician right now, which is the sequel to The Paper Magician. On the horizon is the final book to the
trilogy, as well as an epic fantasy titled Horizon
Drop that’s more or less about seamonsters. I’m excited to dip my toes back
into the epic subgenre (it’s been a while).
Meanwhile I’m working on selling two other novels that I
wrote before getting my agent, and dabbling in some short fiction as well. :)
You're in heaven (so anything is possible) and you
own your own television network. What
shows are on your channel?
30 Rock, Seinfeld, every single Star Trek series, a whole
bunch of NEW Star Trek series, various cooking shows, and America’s Next Top
Model (I know, I’m a horrible person).
What is your favorite pen to write with?
Whichever one happens to be working…
Favorite beverage while writing?
Just water. :)
Name five books you love.
Mistborn: The Final
Empire by Brandon Sanderson, The
Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan (uh… that’s technically like, 16 books. I’d
take the first one. Or the ninth. Or the 14th.) Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier, Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones, and… how about Keturah and Lord Death by Martine
Leavitt.
Leather bound editions or paperbacks with a
great pulp fiction covers?
I’m pleading the 5th on this one… ;)
Tell us about your favorite teacher and how he
or she influenced you.
Writing teacher is Brandon Sanderson. He had the most
knowledge and was willing to just throw it at us. He let people audit his class
for free. He told me how the industry itself works, not just how to string together
a sentence. He made being published achievable.
What is your favorite quote about writing?
Labels:
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The Paper Magician
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