Protection Has a Cover and Blurb…

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… can the book be far behind?  Hopefully not!

When Gabriel MacKenna enters Wentworth Prison in 1931, he promises himself two things: never to be buggered and never to turn prison queer.  Tough, smart, and ruthless in a fight, he quickly makes a name for himself inside.  But Gabriel, saved from the noose by a social crusader, is serving two life sentences.  And life is a very long time to endure Wentworth with no comforts but prison food, card games and cigarettes.  To survive endless days without the touch of another human being…
Five years after Gabriel’s incarceration, Joey Cooper arrives at Wentworth.  Every convict claims imprisonment through a miscarriage of justice, but Joey is truly blameless.  Trained at Oxford as a physician, the young doctor is innocent of prison culture and too handsome for his own good.  Facing eighteen years behind Wentworth’s towering gates, Joey cannot hope to survive without protection.  And protection is just what Gabriel MacKenna offers.  At a price…
Cover art by J.David Peterson.

Interview with a Vampire (Novelist): Danielle Blanchard

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Welcome, Danielle!

Q: I won’t ask why you chose to write about vampires. I will ask, is there another series out there that you particularly admire? Or one so badly done, you just had to put your own spin on the bloodsucking genre?

Oh, without a doubt, there are many genres I admire. My first foray into writing was women’s literature with an entertainment-pop culture twist. It was series about Hollywood called The Beautiful People. Don’t get me wrong, I love the series but I self-edited (big mistake) and since I am not nearly as good as self-editing as many authors, I have a wonderful editor, Felicia Sullivan, who has decided to re-edit the whole series for me. It is available now but the revised editions come out in March and April of 2012.

Other than that, I absolutely adore horror and thrillers. I have dabbled in those genres as well with the upcoming The Plague (The Beginning: Book I will be released in February of 2012). I also love mystery and steampunk but I don’t see myself doing any steampunk at the moment. I am not good with straight up romance but if romance is intertwined with a thriller or mystery then I love it… nothing better than a hot sex scene in the middle of heart-pounding action.

To be honest, there are some great vampire books out there but some of the heroines truly annoyed me. Why can’t a woman be strong? Why does she always have to be subservient to a man? Perhaps that is why I have a problem with a lot of romance novels and the vampire genre in particular. I enjoyed Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles and the homo-erotic aspect was thrilling to me but I wondered what would happen if I tried the relationship dynamics but between a man and a woman?

In many ways, Manon is like a man in that she has had to rely on herself her whole life until she gets stuck with her brother for a while and all of the sudden, here comes this stereotypical man sweeping in to save the day. They are bound to butt heads because it is every woman’s dream to have a man take care of her but at the same time, there are freedoms we give up when this happens and I think it is fascinating for the reader to watch as her boundaries are tested by her lover and what happens when she feels he has stepped too far into what she considers to be her territory.
Q: Most writers I know are — like you! — highly intelligent. Yet quite often female writers tend to create heroines 20-60 I.Q. points stupider than themselves. I’m talking, half Bella Swan and half the Little Mermaid. But your lead in Death Wish, Manon, is anything but stupid. She’s doesn’t apologize for her sexuality and she doesn’t narrate the story in that please-like-me tone. Was this a conscious move on your part, or did you simply write the character as she occurred to you?

That was definitely a conscious move on my part. I wanted her to be spunky and full of life; more than that, I wanted her to be a kick-ass character who didn’t have “Save Me” engraved on her forehead. She doesn’t apologize to anyone about her behavior and right or wrong, she makes no excuses for her actions. I wanted her to have a certain raw pizzazz and although she may annoy the hell out of some readers who find her too “hard”, I think there is also a very feminine side to her as well.

I just couldn’t imagine a heroine who had spent most of her life in the system being “soft”. We all know and have heard stories of what it is like to be a foster child or to grow up in a setting where a person is going to receive some hard knocks. I think you see that not only in Manon but her best friend, Eva, who also grew up in the system. They are gorgeous women but there is also a brittleness there because they weren’t allowed to grow up surrounded by fantasies. Their life was firmly in the realm of reality and I hope one can see that in their characters. 
 
Danielle Blanchard
 

Q: Did any of your own life experiences influence the book?

Nope. This was the ultimate fantasy and pure fiction. I loved creating this book because nothing about my life is showcased what so ever (except for maybe having to live with family part). My sister and I have been roommates (although we live in a big house) since we moved to Las Vegas. I love staying with her and because we are so far apart in age, we get along really well. We have our moments but more often than not, it is smooth sailing.

I have never been a foster child (I grew up with both my parents) and although I am pretty tough, I am not in Manon’s league in any stretch of the imagination. I can’t even fight (yes, I am a pathetic excuse for a grown woman as all I can use is passive aggression to my advantage… lol). 
 

Q: Dream casting time. Who should play Manon, Mikkel, and Nico in the movie version?

Oh, that is extremely difficult casting but let me take a stab at it… Manon would definitely be played by someone tough yet pretty… Minka Kelly could get away with playing her though I can only hope her acting skills are passable enough. If not Ms. Kelly then definitely the exotic and gorgeous Jessica Alba could play Manon no problem. Mila Kunis is also very kick-assable and gorgeous as well so she could get away with playing my leading lady too.
 
My blog, my choice: 100% Mila!
 

Mikkel… mmm, drooling here but definitely Charlie Hunnam (one of my favorite actors and one of the few blond men in Hollywood who has left his hair naturally blond) or Alexander Skarsgard but everyone associates him with True Blood so that might be a problem.
 
Alexander Skarsgard … never a problem    
 
 

Nico, I was definitely dreaming of Theo Rossi (Mr. Hunnam’s co-star on Sons of Anarchy). I don’t even have a back up as Vin Diesel is too old (and not tall enough) so Mr. Rossi is definitely my one and only choice. 😉

Eva, Armand and the others, we’ll have to save for interview number two. 😉
 
Thanks, Danielle!  On my blog I don’t do book reviews, per se, but I do shout-outs, and your book deserves one.  Check it out, folks!!
 

Do Not Dare Me

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Notice my heterochromic eyes

There is … a woman.  She is known as the Hussy.  She dared me to write this post.  Oh, and I will.

The ABCs of David Bowie

A … is for Ashes to Ashes, a song that inspired a BBC series

B … is for bisexual, which he mentioned was more a social interest than a physical reality

C … is for cocaine, best not go there

D … is for dance, as in let’s

E … is for Brian Eno, whom he worked with

F … is for Franny and Zooey, a book that inspired the name of his son

G … is for GLAM

H … is for heterochromia  (his eyes)

I … is for his wife, Iman

J … is for Jones, his original surname

K … is for his song Karma Man

L … is for Labyrinth

M … is for Mars, Spiders from

N … is for Nikola Tessla

O … is for Oddity (Space)

P … is for punk

Q … is for for his song Queen Bitch

R … is for the Royal Albert Hall, where he made a surprise appearance during a David Gilmour concert

S … is for Susan Sarandon, his co-star in The Hunger

T … is for The Man Who Fell to Earth

U … is for U know you have at least one song on your iPod

V … is for his song Velvet Goldmine

W … is for Wikipedia, where half of this comes from

X … is for the Brit show the X-Factor, where he was honored for his song Life on Mars

Y … is for his song Young Americans

Z … is for Ziggy Stardust

And Hussy — HAH!!

Project Updates

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Ice Blue:

On vacation the better half re-read Ice Blue on her new Kindle.  I was shocked at the formatting errors.  Yes, for the marginally competent they are probably easy to avoid, but I just don’t have the time or patience.  So I decided to eliminate the typos, too.  Found a great copy editor, Jenn (click here!) and a great formatter (click here!) and there will be a hopefully pristine new Ice Blue just in time for its featured ad on Pixel of Ink this Sunday, November 20th.

Blue Murder (Lord and Lady Hetheridge #2):

In which the series’s subtitle becomes true at last:

Blue Murder, second novel in the Lord Hetheridge cozy mystery series, opens at a Halloween bash in London’s posh Chelsea district.  A townhouse is filled with the University College’s social elite: young and rich, over-sexed and over-indulged. Amid the fright masks and paper skeletons, sensitive Kyla Sloane flees into the walled garden for a moment of peace, only to find the corpse of Clive French. Clive, a pasty-faced, unpopular student, has fallen with the murder weapon – a shiny new axe – still buried in the back of his skull. Before Kyla can call 999, she hears screams inside the townhouse. Down the stairs staggers rugby star Trevor Parsons, an axe sunk deep in his head. He points at his girlfriend – the party’s hostess, the imperiously beautiful Emmeline Wardle – tries in vain to speak, and drops dead at her feet.

Meanwhile, Anthony Hetheridge, ninth baron of Wellegrave, chief superintendent for New Scotland Yard, is contemplating proposing marriage – again – to his lovely young subordinate, the willful, impetuous Detective Sergeant Kate Wakefield. This time, he is determined to meet with success. The ring, a gorgeous family heirloom, is already stashed in his desk. The ancestral Hetheridge who commissioned the ring presented it to his sweetheart on St. Valentine’s Day, 1926. And he received a swift and decisive answer: no. Hetheridge, ever logical and rational, doesn’t believe in curses – yet secretly fears the magnificent family ring may be hexed. So he waits, hoping for an ideal moment for his second proposal to Kate…

Blue Murder should be out around late January 2012.

Something Different:

I’m trying to arrange a blog tour for this book, which has had some nice reviews.  Here are a few:

http://kaetrinsmusings.blogspot.com/2011/11/something-different-by-sa-reid.html


http://bookbagsandcatnaps.com/2011/11/book-review-something-different-s-a-reid/


http://dearauthor.com/book-reviews/overall-b-reviews/b-plus-reviews/review-something-different-by-s-a-reid

Protection:

The next book from S.A. Reid (my adult romance alter-ego).  The cover is almost ready.  Here’s the blurb:

When Gabriel MacKenna enters Wentworth Prison in 1931, he promises himself two things: never to be buggered and never to turn prison queer. Tough, smart, and ruthless in a fight, he quickly makes a name for himself inside. But Gabriel, saved from the noose by a social crusader, is serving two life sentences. And life is a very long time to endure Wentworth with no comforts but prison food, card games and cigarettes. To survive endless days without the touch of another human being…

Five years after Gabriel’s incarceration, Joey Cooper arrives at Wentworth. Every convict claims imprisonment through a miscarriage of justice, but Joey is truly blameless. Trained at Oxford as a physician, the young doctor is innocent of prison culture and too handsome for his own good. Facing eighteen years behind Wentworth’s towering gates, Joey cannot hope to survive without protection. And protection is just what Gabriel MacKenna offers. At a price…

Fearful Symmetry (Past Lives Book #1)

Still working on the final version.  I’m hoping it will be ready by spring.  Can’t rush these things.

In the pipeline…

  • Soulless — an atheist and a vampire team up in England circa 1798 to save a village from something truly evil (S.A. Reid)
  • Update Your Status — maybe my first attempt at YA.  Maybe not.  Need to see how “appropriate” the final manuscript is.  The youngest (17) member of a family of con artists discovers a magic object of incalculable value.
  • Hephaestus’s Gift — Far in the future, the Terran Empire’s homeworld, Earth, is a graveyard thanks to Cuttthroat Virus.  95% of the Empire is infected or dead.  But on a backwater planet, a group of telepaths may have discovered a way to fight back.  These psis, led by a very unusual family, are humanity’s only hope for survival.  

The Real (Effing) Man Award 2011

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I am pleased to present this year’s recipient of the Steph Abbott Real (Effing) Man Award.  But first, a look at some past winners:

Proof that in the future, there will be RFM
As Letterman called him, the ass-kicking president
My 2010 winner, Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn

What, You Ask, Is the Selection Criteria?

Let’s begin with what the RFM Award does not recognize or imply.

A RFM is not necessarily a Romeo or a stud, although he often is because, well, he’s a RFM.
A RFM is not necessarily a nice guy, a good person, or someone you’d trust overnight with your daughter.

To receive this award, the character in question must do simply this: make me exclaim aloud, “Now that’s a real [effing] man!”  And after Sunday’s episode of The Walking Dead (which you’ll notice I am still watching, despite my recent pointed criticisms) we have a winner.

RFM, 2011

2011’s RFM, Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon in The Walking Dead

Oh, Daryl.  Still in dogged pursuit of a lost little girl.  Impaled by an arrow?  No problem.  Dead guy nibbling on your shoe?  You put him down hard.  Need ammo?  Yank the arrow out of your wounded flesh, load it in your crossbow and let fly.  Then you climb up a mountainside in agony (wearing a zombie ear necklace to make yourself smell like them) and stagger back to camp.  When confronted by friends who mistake your dogged pace for zombie-ism, you make a quip about them shooting you.  When one of them actually DOES shoot you, you collapse while making another quip.  And finally, while recovering, you apologize for not bringing back the missing child.

Now that’s a RFM.

Kindle’s Free Top 100

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Amazing cover…

Looking For Something To Read?

Head over to Amazon.com’s Kindle store and check out their top 100 free books here.  As of this moment there are kid’s books, calendars, a Christmas romance, a Jake Lassiter mystery by Paul Levine, a standard English Bible, a cookbook, and several classics, including A Tale of Two Cities, A Christmas Carol, and Dracula.  All free.

A Tale of Two Cities

I like Dickens.  Always have.  As a writer it’s fun to read A Tale of Two Cities’ iconic beginning and wonder what modern writing experts would make of it. 

Chapter I
The Period

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way–in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.


Probably the style is one modern editors and publishers would reject right away.  Whether you agree or disagree, the sentiment above could be written about our own world and time.

Zombies: A Self-Limiting Phenomenon?

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How long can she last in the summertime?  In GEORGIA?

AMC’s The Walking Dead

So during vacation my better half, Donna, got me to catch up on a TV show called The Walking Dead. I’d heard good things about it and I’m a big fan of certain zombie movies, especially Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland. So I watched, but by episode two of the first season, I was getting frustrated.

For starters, this Zombie-pocalypse has been going on for awhile in the heat of a Georgia summer. They are not supernatural zombies, just infected humans. They’re not completely dead (they’re eating) but they’re incapable of healing and shown in various states of decay. So — they should all be reduced to molars and femurs by now.  Sorry.

But putting that aside, there are other frustrations. I can’t remember the last time I saw a TV show so nakedly crying out for the application of the The Bechdel Test.

The test is named for Alison Bechdel, a comic strip writer and artist.  In order to pass, the show must meet the following criteria:

  1. it includes at least two women
  2. who have at least one conversation…
  3. about something other than a man or men.

Most episodes of The Walking Dead fail this test.  Lori only cares about three things: her husband Rick, her former lover Shane, and her son Carl.  Andrea only cares about her sister (a plus!) but when she and her sister get together to fish, their conversation is about how much they miss their father.  Carol’s season one subplot is her abusive husband.  Really?  Domestic abuse is still a problem when every day is a literal fight to keep from being eaten?  Honey, he has to sleep sometime.  And you’re down by the creek washing his clothes with a rock?  And when another female questions this — the women being relegated to washing clothes — the response is, “That’s just the way it is.”

Please.

“Don’t Look At Me, I’m A Girl”

Now for anyone who doesn’t know me in real life, I am a wuss.  I don’t hunt or fish.  I am not an outdoor type.  I am a pasty writer who’s most comfortable indoors and once jumped out of a swimming pool screaming because a frog got in, and I didn’t want it to “touch me with its little froggy hands.”

Still.

My desire to eat far outweighs my generalized wussiness.  When the character Shane offers to teach the boy Carl to catch frogs for dinner, Lori says, “Don’t look at me, I’m a girl.”  Later she physically shrinks from the fish caught by Andrea.  Really?  So girly you’re afraid of fresh fish?  When you’ve been subsisting on roots and berries for heaven knows how long?

The only worthwhile character, Daryl Dixon

So All the Male Characters Must Be Slam-Dunks, Right?

No.  Rick, the lead, is so bland and boring.  He’s Mr. Goody Two-Shoes.  Shane is fairly interesting, but his (spoiler!) shocking murder of Otis the Heroic Fat Man has shaken my support of him.  He might come back from it, but I don’t know.  That was pretty lowdown.  T-Dog has no particular persona and Glenn, who initially struck me as interesting, doesn’t get to do much either.  Thank goodness for Daryl.  He’s smart, funny, practical, believable, and has an interesting backstory. 

One of these days I’ll write my own zombie story, if I can work out the logistics.  One thing is for sure: only interesting people will survive in my Zombie-pocalypse.  And any women stupid enough to wash their men’s clothes in the creek with rocks, while Eddie Bauer stores stand unguarded with crank-washing machines designed for campers, will be eaten alive.

Writing as S.A. Reid

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So — above is my latest book.  I know, it was supposed to be Fearful Symmetry (Past Lives Book #1).  Here’s what happened.  Fearful Symmetry was actually complete last year.  Some of you read the original version.  I liked it, and it was good enough to get shopped around with the “Big Six” (the traditional publishing industry) but it didn’t get selected.  And I decided if I was going to self-publish it, I would make it even better.  I tweaked some plot details and some character situations.  I rewrote it to the 2/3s point, got a great cover, and thought I would have it finished by September.  Then the Muse shifted gears.

Not Everyone Believes in the Muse

Writers have always been divided on the existence of “the Muse,” that source of inspiration that seemingly comes from outside.  Some people say they can’t write at all without it, without being absolutely inspired.  Others say the Muse comes and goes, but the mark of a true professional is to power through the dry spells and write anyway.

That doesn’t work for me.  Oh, I can write, no problem.  I can write anytime, about anything, and it will be competent.  That doesn’t mean it will be good, or worth reading.  When I “power through the dry spells” I turn out perfectly competent pages of writing suitable for lining drawers or wrapping fish.  That’s it.

So anyway, there I was, working on Fearful Symmetry, and suddenly the Muse started telling me other stories.  Stories that had to be written right away before they disappeared.  Three of them I put out as free offerings.  The fourth one, a story called Protection, got the most passionate, positive response of anything I’ve ever written.  And the fifth one, written in three weeks in a white heat, was called Something Different.  Mostly because it was different from anything I ever wrote in my life.  And I liked the end result so much, I put it out as an e-book.

Why the Different Name, S.A. Reid?

Mostly because I will still put out cozy mysteries as Emma Jameson and paranormal fiction as Stephanie Abbott.  If I’d put out Something Different under my Emma Jameson pseudonym, I could risk alienating those Ice Blue readers.  I’ve sold about 10,000 copies of Ice Blue since March.  I am very grateful and don’t want to hack those readers off.  And Stephanie Abbott’s paranormal stuff, with the superbeings and the psi-battles, etc., isn’t much like Something Different.  Or Protection, which I hope will be out in an updated version around Thanksgiving.

So I am resurrecting my blog but it won’t just be Victorian snippets now.  And Fearful Symmetry will be finished when it’s finished.  It’s a great story, I promise.  Too good for me to just finish it any old way.

I don’t know if I have any blog readers left, but if I do and you’re interested, reply in the comments or email me at steph DOT abbott1 AT gmail DOT com and I will send you a coupon for a free download of Something Different.  Be warned: mature content.  Here are some reviews:

Victorian Sundays

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Since it’s Sunday, here’s a repeat of one of my “rogue kitty” Howard’s posts…

Duty calls

Yet I am here to tell you a bit about Victorian Sundays.

In 1851, a “religious census” revealed less than half of all the English attended any Church or chapel at all, much less the almighty Church of England.

This was often because the working man (and his wife!) had little respite.  The working man was at it from early Monday until late Friday.  Often he worked Saturday morning as well.  This left Sunday for all the necessities: a trip to the barber, repairs around his own house, and a feast with the family.  Not to mention the fact in Victorian times, a working man who appeared in Church in his regular everyday clothes was made to feel ashamed.  Couldn’t he locate some finery for the occasion?

Popery, or allegiance to the Church of Rome

Being a professed Roman Catholic made one a non-conformist.  Also all Baptists, all non-Church of England Protestants, and all Jews.  These folks were required to support the Church of England with their taxes.  Likewise, depending on the era, they paid additional fees as religious non-conformists.  Nice, eh, to be a minority, pay tribute to the majority, and also pay a fee for not agreeing to join the majority?  Talk about the courage of your convictions.  Frankly, most felines would fold.

Sundays


So what was Sabbatarianism?  Just what it sounds like — strict observance of the Sabbath as a day of rest.  This didn’t just restrict all labor, which for the working man was a wonderful thing.  It also prohibited many recreations, such as:

  • reading novels
  • reading newspapers
  • reading non-religious stories in magazines
  • romantic dates for young men and women
  • play with regular toys for children, though a Noah’s Ark might be permitted

Sabbatarians pressed for NO pubs on Sundays, no trains, and no shops.  They were mostly successful.  On a Victorian English Sunday, most shops were closed. and pubs ran shorter hours.  Only the trains continue, unabated.

So did these Evangelical Sabbatarians do anything worthwhile?

They actually did.  One needs only to read the collected works of Charles Dickens to feel the real fire, religious and humanist, demanding reform.  Victorian religious reformers weren’t simply in the business of restricting the workman from his Sunday pint.  They wanted to change the world.  And in some ways they did.  These religious folk rethought Victorian prisons, asylums, and workhouses.  They campaigned against cruelty to animals and took up alms for orphans.  They even established religious refuges for fleeing prostitutes.  All in all, they sincerely tried to leave the world better than they found it.

And now … we  must sleep.  Good day to you!