Important Info for Lust, Money & Murder Readers

I wanted to give all my Lust, Money & Murder readers a heads up, particularly those of you who may be in the middle of the series.

If you have read many of these books, you already know that they are written in trilogies.  I've now repackaged them to better reflect this, naming each trilogy after the part of the world where the significant action takes place.  I also have new cover designs, as you can see.

Why did I do this? you may not wonder at all. Although it's always best (IMO) for readers to start with the first book in a long series like LM&M, this arrangement gives readers many more entry points.  It also makes it clear that the LM&M books can be read in more "bite-sized" chunks.  Having a new, more colorful cover for each new book also helps visibility on the retail sites.

My series download page has been similarly redone so you can easily navigate around the trilogies - http://mikewellsblog.blogspot.com/p/lust-money-murder-download-links.html

Not one word of actual content has been changed.  I hope you enjoy the books!

The Fascination of Coauthoring: Guest Post by Author Devika Fernando

Note:  This post has been reposted from author Devika Fernando's blog.

The Fascination of Coauthoring

Have you ever read a book written by more than one author? I have – and now I’ve gone a step further and also written a book with another author. Bestselling author Mike Wells offered me this unique chance. He’s the mastermind behind the project that has taught me a million things and is huge fun. Let me shed some light on the fascinating topic of coauthoring and why it can be successful.

What is coauthoring?

Don’t mistake coauthoring for ghostwriting. The former involves two people and their input into a book, the latter means one person does all the work and another person gets credited for it and sells it. Coauthoring can be compared to a multi-author anthology, with the difference that there aren’t many stories contributed to one collection but one story with two contributors. Another term for this is collaborative fiction. This principle is fairly common in non-fiction but still rather rare in fiction. However, co-writing is on the rise.

There are different ways how to handle co-authoring:
-    An author takes another author’s finished (but unpublished) work, edits and remodels it, and publishes it.
-    Both authors brainstorm an idea and plot, and one author writes the first draft. The second author will then edit and rewrite to publish the book.
-    Both authors write simultaneously or in instalments / chapters until they finish, edit and publish the book together.

Mike Wells has tried the first and second method. The first one has resulted in the crime novel “With Mother’s Approval” and is a collaboration with author Robert Rand. The second one involved me – pinch me, I must be dreaming – and will be available as the romantic suspense novel “Forbidden” soon. To quote Mike on both adventures:  “This is a new direction I’m trying and so far it’s been working great. The book I collaborated on with Robert Rand is receiving rave reviews, and I expect the same result with Devika’s.”

As for the third method, it works well too. I read “Bought in Blood (Sanguinem Emere, Book 1)” and loved it. Carmen Dominique Taxer wrote it with her partner Richard T. Wheeler (I believe she focused on the vampire scenes and he wrote the scenes from the detective’s POV). There are quite a lot of books coauthored by a husband-and-wife duo or authors who are friends. Sometimes the team publishes under a common pseudonym, as is the case with Grant Naylor, Lewis Padgett and Judith Michael. Other coauthored books display the renowned author’s name prominently and show the coauthor’s name in smaller font. Usually the royalty is split or there are some other (financial) benefits for the co-author.

Here are some other examples of authors who ‘hire’ co-authors (some of them really famous):
-    Lincoln Child & Douglas Preston
-    James Patterson
-    Tom Clancy
-    Wilbur Smith
-    Nicci Gerard & Sean French
-    Janet Evanovich
-    Clive Cussler

Advantages and tips

If you search the internet, you’ll find comments that denounce coauthoring and say it’s a trend doomed to fail. From my point of view though, I can see many reasons for and advantages of collaborative fiction.
-    One of the team might have specific experiences or special knowledge the other author doesn’t have.
-    It’s a great opportunity for those who don’t have enough time, because you’re sharing the workload.
-    You can learn a lot in the process, maybe even rediscover yourself or venture into other genres.

Here’s Mike Wells’ take on why and how authors can benefit from coauthored books.  “One of the main reasons I am doing it is to amplify my range and output—the more titles you have out there, the more books you sell and the larger your reader base grows. The risk, of course, is that you produce books of lower quality due to various factors, such as the “too many cooks spoil the broth” problem. However, I think by carefully agreeing up front exactly how the book will go, who will do what, etc., you can avoid this problem and actually have a synergistic result, a book that is better than either author might produce on his/her own for the reasons Devika stated above.”

Of course there are things to be considered. There needs to be a sort of “working plan”, each author needs to know their tasks and responsibilities. The authors have to discuss and agree on copyright, earnings, distribution and marketing. Communication is essential, and you need to work together on more than one level.

Book Cover/Title Change - Picasso Chase to Lust, Money & Murder, Book 4

I wanted to let everyone know that I've decided to change the cover image and title of the book I was calling "The Picasso Chase, Book 1 - Cattoretti's Return" to "Lust, Money & Murder, Book 4 - Cattoretti's Return".

The reason I've done this is that many people did not realize that this new book is actually a continuation of the popular Lust, Money & Murder series - the story does, in fact, take up at the moment where LM&M #3 left off, when Elaine Brogan fights tooth and nail with Giorgio Cattoretti in Italy and kicks him over the cliff.

I originally titled the book the way I did because this new book, and the following two (coming soon), can be read as a standalone trilogy, without reading LM&M 1, 2 & 3.  This is also the reason I came up with a different cover style and design.  It was one of those "seemed like a good idea at the time" situations--I suppose I didn't have the perspective of most readers.

If you've already bought the book as The Picasso Chase, Book 1, don't worry--everything inside is exactly the same. The book itself cannot be accidentally bought twice because there is only one book on all the retail ebook sites (with one IBSN).  If you want the new cover and title, you can simply go to your retailer and send it to your e-reader or app again.

Here are the links for your reference:

Amazon USA - Amazon UK - Apple iBooks - B&N Nook  - Google Play - Kobo - Smashwords

I apologize for any confusion this may have caused you. 

By the way, if you happen to be one of the folks on Facebook who gave me feedback about this issue when I asked for it, I really appreciate it - all the advice was very helpful.

6 Tips to Help You Get That Novel Written

Many people have a deep desire to write a novel but just can't seem to get it done.  Here are six tips that should help.

1.  "I don't know where to start."  Most folks who want to write a novel already have an idea for a story but simply don't know where to begin.  An old Hollywood adage is:  "Start on the day that's different."  Presumably your hero's life is fairly routine until some event happens (called the Inciting Incident) which triggers the entire story and launches the hero on his/her journey.  Start just before that event takes place.  This way you don't bore the reader with too much explanation and ho-hum material

2.  "I just don't have the time."   John Grisham wrote his first novel on a legal pad while working full time as a lawyer, in work snippets as short as ten minutes.  I wrote the entire Lust, Money & Murder trilogy during one-hour train commutes between Oxford and London.  If you truly want to write a novel, you can find the time.  One trick is to put yourself on a regular writing schedule, even if you write only 30 minutes per day.  It's helpful if you can do this at the same time of day or night, which ties the activity to your biological clock.  You’ll soon start feeling an urge to write when that time rolls around, which is a great help in propelling you along.

3.  "I get lost after the first few pages."  Learn to think in scenes, like in a movie.  First, some important thing happens to your hero.  Then, another important thing happens.  Then another.  Etc. Write your novel in this way, like a film, all the way to the end.  Start each scene quickly and get to the important action, then exit and move onto the next.  Don't waste your own time, or the reader's time, with a lot of warmup material or filler.

4.  "I keep writing the beginning over and over again."  This is usually because you're second guessing yourself and editing your work prematurely.  Resist the urge to edit ANYTHING until you reach the very end of your novel.  Charge ahead like a bull and don't let anyone or anything stop you.   Keep up the momentum and let your creative voice flow freely all the way to the end of the first draft...then you can come back and edit.

5.  "I keep getting stuck in the middle of the story."  Virtually everyone who writes a novel suffers from writer's block at some point, and usually it's because they've lost track of where the story is going.  One good trick is to jump forward and write out the scenes that you KNOW will be in the book.  Later you can come back and fill in the gaps and connect all the scenes all together.  You'll find that the more scenes your write, the easier the whole process becomes and eventually everything will fall into place.

6.  "There's a critical voice inside my head that stops me from writing."  All of us have a so-called Inner Critic that says such inspiring things as "You have no idea what you're doing" and "Who are you to think you can write a novel?" and "No sane person would ever read this drivel."  It's impossible to write a whole book with this negative voice jabbering away in your head.  You have to make a deal with it.  Simply say,  "Would you kindly keep your mouth shut until I finish the first draft?  Then you can criticize all you want."  What you'll find is that the farther along you get, the less power that critical voice will have, and by the time you reach the end of your novel you'll be much more confident.

In closing, I have one final tip, perhaps the most important one of all: HAVE FUN.  If at any point your writing starts to feel like drudgery, stop and take inventory.  Go over this short list of tips again and see what might be tripping you up.

Happy writing!

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The Crucial Importance of "Candy Bar" Scenes in Your Writing

I recently read through a long thread of comments from a random group of authors talking about their writing process during NaNoWrMo (National Novel Writing Month).  Many of them were lamenting about the same problem, how they had to "slog" or struggle through much of their story to reach those delicious candy bar scenes.

What is a so-called candy bar scene?  It's not a scene that involves a Snickers or a Kit-Kat, if that's what you're thinking.  It's a scene that "tastes" so good to you, the author, that you just can't wait to reach that part of the story so you get it all written down.  It's a juicy scene that you have been looking forward to sharing with readers perhaps ever since you had the idea for the book.

Well, I have some advice for you new writers out there.  EVERY SCENE in your book, from Page 1 to the very end of the story, should be a candy bar scene. 

Now, before you raise your hands defensively and say, "No, Mike, that's just not possible—there are great scenes in every book but there has to be some filler, too, all books have it..."

No, all books don't have it.  I can open up any of my all-time favorite novels (I'm not going to name them) and turn to ANY page in the story and—voila—I'm smack in the middle in a candy bar scene!  Each and every scene is scrumptious and engaging.  There are no plodding, lackluster, or filler scenes.  This even includes flashbacks and simple scenes that at first glance do not even appear to advance the plot.

If you want to write a truly great book, you must do likewise.  During your writing process, you must, with great care and discipline, eliminate every non-candy bar scene from your story, whether that means cutting the scene out (often the case) or reworking the scene (even more often the case).  If it's the former, simply muster up your courage and delete that scene.  If it's the latter, put on your creative thinking cap and dig deeper.  Ask yourself:  why am I not as excited about the scene as I need to be in order to make this into a wonderful book?  Trust me.  If you are not in Candy Bar Mode when you're writing a scene, the reader won't be, either.  Your story will drag along at this point, and your reader will have exactly the same feeling of wanting to get past this part and move on to something more interesting as you do.

So, how can you jazz up humdrum scene so that you're just as fired up about writing it as every other scene in the book?

Unfortunately, there is no simple formula for solving this problem—it's a creative one.  But I can share a quick example from one of my books to show you how I do it.  In Lust, Money & Murder, there is a section of the story where my hero, Elaine Brogan, graduates from a conservative, all-girls high school and then wins a scholarship to a very liberal, coed college.  When she enters the college as a freshman, she is not only shy and self-conscious around boys, she's a virgin.  All this makes her feel like a misfit, especially around her sexy, open-minded roommate. 

In these pages of the story I decided to summarize, rather than dramatize, how she lost her virginity in a well planned-out way.  It was a few paragraphs long and rather boring to write.  I was clearly not in Candy Bar Mode.  But I went on writing the rest of the story, knowing I would fix it, somehow, on the second draft.

On the next read-through, it became even more obvious that I wasn't nearly as enthused as I should have been when writing that part of the story—the narrative came across flat.  I thought something needed to be there but I wasn't sure why.  I first simply decided to cut it, but when I studied the scenes that preceded and followed it, I realized that cutting it would leave a gap.  Many readers would wonder how Elaine made this difficult transition from a conservative, all-girl environment to the liberal, coed one.

I put on my thinking cap and started brainstorming.  I began to imagine, in great detail, how Elaine would lose her virginity...and I realized that this could be funny.  Poor Elaine feels like a social misfit and wants to escape this feeling as soon as possible.   She's also very pragmatic, a problem-solver.   This was a chance to show more of her character, too.  I decided that she would go out and hunt down three different suitable-seeming guys, and the first two would be disasters but the third one would rise to the occasion, so to speak.  This triggered the analogy of Goldilocks and the Three Bears—the first guy would be too hot, the second guy would be too cold, and the third guy would be just right...or at least he would appear so at first.

Then I started creating these three characters, with the idea that the third and last one—Mr. Just Right (Almost)—would actually turn out to be a sports fanatic who was virtually "pickled in Viagra."  When he's on top of Elaine, going at it, he startles her by crying out "Go, Rodriguez, go!" At first she thinks he's speaking to his own manhood, but she when opens her eyes she sees that he's watching a basketball game on TV. 

By the time I had visualized these few scenes I couldn't wait to get in front of the computer and write them out.  They were funny and engaging to me.  I was clearly in Candy Bar Mode.  The three paragraphs were expanded to three pages.  It was a solid day's work, but well worth the effort.  One of the most frequent comments I receive about that book on the social networks is "Go, Rodriguez, go!" with a smiley face tagged on the end. 

So, if you want to write a great book, don't let yourself get away with any non-candy bar scenes.  Be merciless with yourself.  If you're not fully enthused about any part of your story—and I mean any part—go back and cut it or rework it until you are.

Now I think I'll go have a Snickers.

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Happy New Year! (2014)

I want to wish all of my readers and fellow authors a Happy New Year and thank all of your for your support during 2013.

I thought this would be a good time to share what I hope to accomplish in the coming 12 months so you'll have an idea of what to expect:

Sequel to Lust, Money & Murder - as I mentioned in the December newsletter, I'm working hard on this project.  Although the way I ended the first series made it particularly challenging to write a sequel, rising to that challenge has resulted in a rich story that I believe is just as engaging, if not more so, than the original.  In fact, struggling with this sequel has made me realize that there a quite a few books that could be spun off from the original, books featuring different characters that many readers have expressed interest in knowing more about. These include Nick LaGrange, Luna Faye (Elaine Brogan's tough-as-nails martial arts instructor at the Secret Service Academy), and Dmitry (the Russian taxi driver who helps Elaine in Moscow).Escape from Attica. Lust, Money & Murder audiobook has already agreed to narrate the sequel and hopefully can start as soon as it's in her hands.
You can expect to see the sequel and one or more of these books in 2014.  Also, Sue Sharp, who narrated the original trilogy has already agreed to narrate the sequel and hopefully can start as soon as it's in her hands.
I've already outlined several of these and even designed a cover for Luna's story,

Passion, Power & Sin Audiobook - this is a fairly long series, with about 22 hours of estimated recording time, but I hope to have this out in  the latter part of 2014.  I'm auditioning narrators as we speak.  This series also has the potential to branch out into more stories featuring Heather Bancroft and/or the minor characters (Alana Maya and David Winsor, for example). I feel some inspiration to move in this direction, but will have to gauge how readers feel about it--the series has not been out long enough to tell.

Wild Child 3, 4...etc.?  This is a series I really need to finish, but I'm in a sticky place with it.  The readers who want more are very loyal and vocal, but, unfortunately, small in number.  Believe it or not, Wild Child is the slowest selling ebook title of all that I've published.  I still haven't figured out why, especially considering the amazing history of the paperback version of the book.  But to those readers who are waiting for the continuation and conclusion of the story:  I will finish it, I promise.  I just don't know when.

That should keep me busy!

As always, I'm open to questions and suggestions about what you would like to see from me - always feel free to let me know your thoughts by commenting below or emailing at mike (at) mikewellsbooks.com

I wish you a happy and rewarding year ahead!

Thriller Author Mike Wells Interviewed on The Carnage Report

The following interview is reprinted from The Carnage Report, August 26th, 2013

What inspired you to write?
 
For me, that's a little like asking what inspired a bird to fly, or what inspired a fish to swim.  I am a writer; writing is what I do.   I feel a strong urge to write each and every day, and I've had this urge as long as I can remember.  This urge is different from "inspiration," I think.  To me, inspiration is a kind of high, and like most highs--whether naturally or artificially induced--it wears off pretty fast. 

Inspiration might get me started on a book, but I could never actually finish a whole novel, which takes months or years, fueled by inspiration alone.  I would never get through that difficult middle part of the story, where, as the author, you have to struggle with the thorniest story issues.  

Did your family play a role in the development of your literary skills?

Definitely.  My mother is also a writer.  Some of my earliest memories are the sound of her tapping away on a typewriter, writing short stories and other pieces.  In fact, the sound of someone clicking away on a keyboard in the next room is very comforting to me.  Maybe I caught the desire to be a writer through some sort of osmosis, or it's in the genes, I don't know.  

My family, as well as my wife and her family, have always been very supportive of my writing.  They have grown along with me in their supportive roles, too.  My wife has learned to be a fantastic developmental editor and her mother, who is a retired journalist, also helps a lot with both the overall shaping of my books and marketing.

Do you have any literary influences on your work?

I'm sure I do, but I'm not that aware of them when I'm writing.   Stephen King, Rod Serling, Thomas Hardy, David Mamet and Sidney Sheldon have influenced me a lot.  I’ve dissected their books and screenplays in great detail, trying to understand how their plotting, characters, dialogue, and other story elements work. 

What do you think of the state of the book market at the moment?

The fact that ebooks are revolutionizing the publishing industry in a disruptive way has been a godsend to me.  The gatekeepers, the literary agents and editors who were the barriers in traditional publishing, are no longer in the way.   Now authors can easily self-publish and reach readers, and the general public decides which books are good and which ones are not. What could be fairer than that?  Of course, the negative side is that virtually anyone who can push buttons and put together strings of characters (not necessarily forming intelligible words or sentences) can publish.  

This makes it hard for good books to be discovered by readers.  However, the industry is still better under this more democratic model.  I wouldn't want the system to go back to what it was before, not that it would be possible now.  Having a relatively few “experts” wedge themselves in between authors and the reading public, for the purpose of deciding what people will read, is a terrible concept.  It is a formula for corruption.  

What inspired you to write Wild Child?

There's the I-word again!  I felt the urge to write Wild Child as a result of a dream that I had about a girl that I knew in high school -- in the dream, she challenged me to swim across a lake, and it seemed a more than a little dangerous.  When I woke up I thought, "Hm, that's an interesting situation" and felt a lot of energy underneath it.  I poured myself a cup of coffee and started writing the first scene.  The story grabbed hold and I wrote the entire thing in a very short period, in a kind of creative frenzy.

What advice would you lend to a budding writer who has already completed his first novel?

First, break out the champagne!  Ninety percent of the people who say they want to write a novel never actually start one, and ninety percent of those who start one never finish.  So by completing your first novel, you're in the upper 99th percentile.  You have every right to celebrate!

Now, for the not so good news.  As hard as it is to do, try to accept the fact that this first novel of yours is probably not a masterpiece.  There is little chance of it magically zooming to the top of the bestseller lists or that you will be hounded by a gaggle of paparazzi and crazed fans who all "want a piece of you."  If you try to publish your book via the traditional route, you will probably not even be able to find an agent willing to represent it.  If you self-publish it, it's likely that your book will just sit there online and be completely ignored.  I hate to sound so negative, but these are the facts.  Of course there are rare exceptions to this—you might happen to hit on subject matter and/or a style of writing that strikes a nerve in millions, and have your book “go viral,” but think this is a matter of luck more than anything else.

However, take heart:  if you decided to learn to be a baker, would you expect your first cake to be perfect and take the world by storm?   The layers would probably be sliding off each other, the icing job would look a bit sloppy, and it would taste a little off.  That's how your first book will be.  Accept it.  To write a good novel, a formidable set of skills must be mastered.  And, like baking or roller-blading or designing spacecraft, much of the learning comes through trial-and-error and experience.

The most important thing you can do is get your first book out there in front of as many unbiased readers as possible.  The operative word here is "unbiased."    Your mom will force a smile as she swallows that first piece of cake, suppressing a grimace, and a few people who you thought were your friends will lash out with unmerited criticism because they're envious that you turned out to be in that upper 1%.  As a new author, the only readers who are of value to you are total strangers, folks who have absolutely nothing to lose or gain by reacting openly and honestly.

There are a number of websites that allow writers to post books for free for the purpose of getting feedback, often from professionals--HarperCollins runs an excellent one (www.authonomy.com).  What I would recommend is posting HALF of your book, cutting that first part on a cliffhanger, and then see if people start asking you for the other half.  This is the only true litmus test for whether your writing is any good--if it is, people will want MORE.  Even friends or family won't ask for more unless they're hooked.

If you post half your book and nobody wants to read more, then you need to bite the bullet and start asking why, what's the matter with it?  This is where another 90% of wannabe authors drop off, the ones who cannot accept any negative feedback and falsely believe that great writers simply sit down and whip off masterpieces with no learning curve.  Taking this last difficult and often painful step forward will lead you to address the weak spots that you have in your writing, and you will be well on your way to success.

You have written a lot of books.  Which one was the hardest to write?

The Drive-By Wife, a psychological thriller which I am about to release, has definitely been the hardest book I've ever written.  I'm not saying this because it's my latest book and is heavy on my mind.  I say it because it's the book that's taken me the longest to write.  It amazes me to think that I started in…drum roll please…1995!  Eighteen years, folks, to finish one book.  Of course in terms of actual time it probably only took about a year and a half. 

 I got stuck in the middle of the story and every few years I pulled the half-finished manuscript out of the drawer and valiantly attacked it again, only to find myself yanking out my hair in tufts (which is why I don't have much now) and then finally saying, "I just can't nail this one," and putting it away.  It's very discouraging when that happens but you just have to keep the faith.  

Part of the reason this crime novel was so difficult is that it takes place between three characters and is almost "hermetically sealed," like an Agatha Christie mystery.  The character dynamics were hell to develop and get right.  But it's also because I simply didn't have the skill set to finish the book.  As I said earlier, writing a good novel requires mastering lots of skills, and the learning curve is never finished--this particular book really required me to stretch beyond anything I've written before.

Do you have a writing process?

Yes.  When I start on a new book I become very organized, get everything all lined up and ready to go, telling myself that unlike all the other books I've written, THIS one will go smoothly.  Then I start writing, trying to maintain that order, becoming more and more desperate as things begin to fall apart, and eventually I say "Oh, hell" and dive head-first into the deep end, struggling, choking on water, jumping all over the place in the story, half-drowning and fighting for dear life...and after a few months of this struggle, my wife finally drags me out and gives me CPR, and the first draft is done.  The rest is relatively easy.

For you, what comes first?  Character or plot?

That's one of those chicken-and-the-egg questions, because as you well know it's nearly impossible to separate the two.  Sometimes Character and Plot arrive together, unbidden, with a lot of fanfare, in a horse-pulled carriage, and they graciously step out and introduce themselves to me.  Other times I have to round up a posse to go track one or the other of them down, and I often find them cowering in a cave somewhere, refusing to come out. 

Interestingly, Billy, the villain and most memorable character in The Drive-By Wife, appeared out of nowhere in a scene in another story I was writing in a completely different genre.  Billy was so fascinating that I simply took that scene and started developing a plot around him, one that would really let him shine as a villain.  

Conversely, in Lust, Money & Murder, the plot came first.  I had an idea that there might be a criminal somewhere out in the world who could counterfeit U.S. paper money so well that the fakes would be indistinguishable from the real thing.  So I had the plot first, and then I needed to create interesting characters who would fit that plot, a villain and a hero.  

But if you want to know the truth, these two elements, plot and character, come at me much faster and much less distinctly than it sounds here--whenever I'm working on a story idea, the characters and plot hit me almost simultaneously and I jump back and forth between the two very rapidly--I mean, ten times back and forth in five minutes, that kind of thing. 

So the two elements shape each other until the overall story is nice and round, everything works from both a character and plot point of view.  In fact, that's the most difficult part of writing for me, going back and forth and massaging the plot and character until it all fits together seamlessly.

Do you have any new releases in the pipeline?

Yes, as I mentioned previously, The Drive-By Wife will be released shortly (around September 1st).  This is a psychological thriller about a young, upper middle-class couple who are terrorized by a seedy truck driver who becomes obsessed with the wife. He tries to blackmail the couple into letting him spend the night with her each time he passes through town. My wife describes it as “Cape Fear” meets “Psycho.” 

Following The Drive-By Wife, I plan to have Lust, Money & Murder, Books 4, 5 & 6, out by the end of the year, in time for the holiday season.  This will feature the same characters, including the villain, who was in the first series.

I want to say that I appreciate the opportunity to give this interview, and to thank you for asking such good questions.


Connect with Mike on twitter @MikeWellsAuthor or visit Mike's site here,

Also, you can purchase Mike's books at Amazon here

Three Ways to Make Your Story Pull Readers In from the First Page

Readers often tell me that my books draw them in from the first few sentences.  This is of course a very pleasant thing to hear, but it’s also no accident—I’ve spent many years refining my technique and learning various ways to quickly engage the reader.  For the benefit of other authors who are learning the basics, I thought I would write a blog post and discuss a few of these techniques in detail.  While I admit it takes practice and finesse to execute them well, the methods are simple enough and can be learned by anyone who aspires to write more engaging fiction.

1.  Open with Enticing Dialogue that Immediately Establishes Tension

One of my young adult novels, Wild Child, opens with a single line:

“Let’s swim over to the cliffs.”

Dialogue is always attention-getting in itself, but this short sentence also contains two tension building elements.  Cliffs are dangerous in themselves, and swimming “over” to them sounds a bit risky, too, even though we do not yet know who is speaking and where these people are located.

The question is cleared up in the next paragraph, in which we learn that the two characters—one male and one female—are on a lake, lounging on a small boat, and the cliffs are a half-mile away.  That’s indeed a long swim.  More importantly, in this second paragraph we also learn that Kyle, the person to whom Briana is speaking, isn’t at all keen on the idea.

In the next few paragraphs, it becomes clear that the two are both teenagers and that Briana has a reputation for being a “wild ass” and often pushes Kyle into taking risks, even when it’s against his better judgment.  Kyle tries to make excuses, telling Briana that another boat could come along and that the driver might not see them swimming, but she keeps pushing him, calling him a chicken and rousing his male ego.  Although not stated, it’s obvious that Kyle doesn’t want to look like a coward, especially in front of a girl.  He finally gives in.

They’re soon in the water and both swimming hard.  Now we’re fully engaged with the story.  We want to see who’s going to win this “race" to the cliffs, and we’re also worried that something might happen them as they swim across this large, seemingly deserted body of water.

2.  Use a Titillating Prologue to Showcase Your Deliciously Twisted Villain

Book 1 of my Lust, Money & Murder series opens with the line, The man picked her up in Vernazza, a picturesque village perched along the rugged coastline of the Italian Riviera.

From these few words, we already know that a man has picked up a woman, and in an exotic location.  These two facts are enough to pique the interest of the nosy part of us that wants to read on merely to see what juicy things might come next.

And come next, they do.  Sentence 2 reads: From his salt-and-pepper hair, and his lined face, Maria guessed that he was in his early 50s.  The implication here is that the man is much older than the woman or girl, and that he’s buying her.  We read on to find out that our suspicions are correct—he’s “spending lavishly on her,” showering her with drinks, dinner, a dress, shoes...

Now we wonder:  will this approach be successful?   By Paragraph 5, we know it is, and that Maria is a more-than-willing participant in the tawdry arrangement.  When she asks the man’s name, he shrugs it off with, “Are names important, cara?”  All she knows is that he is a businessman from Rome, and she supposes it doesn’t matter.  This is followed by a short paragraph which delivers a bit of the hoped-for “juicy details” (you can read the book to find out—it’s a free download).

But as far as engagement goes, that's all just foreplay.  It's a sneaky method of keeping the reader's attention until we reach the next scene of the prologue—the key scene.  This takes place after our two naughty characters have had a three-day frolic of nonstop sexual and sensual pleasure.  Maria still doesn’t know the man’s name, and neither do we, which makes us suspect that he is up to no good.  Indeed he is...we watch, with a kind of detached horror, as he deftly manipulates her into testing out a large amount of counterfeit bills at a nearby casino and then “rewards” her by shoving her off a cliff (yes, another cliff!) and “into the abyss.”

Nice guy, huh?

Readers tell me that they want to keep on reading the book to see how the hero—whom we have not yet met—will deal with this monster.

3.  Show Your Hero Being Mistreated by the World and Make the Your Reader Sympathize

In my newest series, Passion, Power & Sin, I also used a prologue to depict a colorful and “deliciously evil” villain, one who readers hopefully want to see more of.  In this case, I present you with Ricardo Maya, an egotistical Venezuelan man who lives aboard a 300 million euro superyacht in what can only be described as obscene luxury.  He’s clearly involved in some sort of a scam that is so financially devastating to his victims that many of them commit suicide.  But writing an engaging prologue isn’t enough.  You also have to quickly capture your reader’s attention when he or she reaches the main body of your story..

In the case of Passion, Power & Sin, when we turn to Chapter 1 we are introduced to another character who is apparently living in obscene luxury.  Her name is Heather Bancroft, and she is happily on her way to work in New York City, “floating” along Fifth Avenue in her chauffeur-driven limousine, peering out the tinted windows with pity at all the poor slobs who struggle to make ends meet.  From this description we assume that she must be some high-level executive in Manhattan, or maybe a celebrity of some sort.  We learn that she shops regularly at Tiffany’s and Oscar de la Renta, has a personal trainer named Hanz, and spends her weekends sipping Dom Perignon and nibbling on beluga caviar.

Just as we’re getting sick and tired of hearing about all this extravagance, not to mention feeling more than a little envious of Heather's lifestyle, we find out this is all simply a fantasy she engages in every day to keep her mind off her aching feet as she makes the 40 block walk to work.   In reality, Heather can’t even afford a bus ticket, let alone a chauffeur-driven limo.  When she arrives at the office, we further learn that she occupies a tiny cubicle “wedged between the kitchen and a copying machine” and is nothing more than a low-level assistant at a PR firm who is ordered around like a galley slave.  We also discover that she’s actually from North Carolina, not New York City, and that she recently moved to the Big Apple thinking—wrongly—that she could make enough money to save her mother’s house from foreclosure.

Heather is clearly miserable, but she’s keeping her chin up and doing her best to cope.  The next morning, when she gets a rare chance to prove her true worth to the higher-ups at the company, we are eager to root for her and continue reading to see how she makes out.

Conclusion

These are just three different techniques that I’ve used in my storytelling to grab the attention of readers early-on and keep them turning the pages.  There are many others.

Feel free to steal them.

Note: I offer mentoring, story editing, book cover design, interior layout, and other services to authors, time-permitted. More information here. 

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Getting Professional Feedback on Your Writing

I know how important it is for writers to get professional feedback on their work, especially in the early stages.  Good feedback from pros can greatly improve your technique and storytelling style.

I'm often asked by other writers to give such feedback. I really wish I had time to do this, but between writing my own books and promoting them, and occasionally teaching classes, I simply don't have a moment to spare.

Having said that, one of the best ways I know to do this is to post your work on websites that are set up for authors to get feedback from other readers and other authors, such as Wattpad, Inkitt.com, Radish, and Amazon's Kindle Vella.  One method I recommend is to only publish part of your "big" story at first, ending it on a cliffhanger, and then seeing if people ask for more.  That is a sure sign that your writing is engaging.  Similarly, if no one asks for more, that's a sure sign that it's not.  In the latter case you have to try to find out why and modify, edit, improve your work until people do ask for more when they're interrupted in the middle. 

Very few writers are "born" cranking out fantastic stories from the start--most of us have to spend quite a long time, usually years, to master the skills to a point where we're good enough to write salable material.  Another way to assess this is to publish a few short, serial books on one more more of the large e-book publishing platforms and make the first book free.  I have done this in the past, learned a lot, and in some cases made significant changes to my story/writing style that greatly improved uptake of a story. A third way to test your written story is to send your first few chapters and a synopsis to literary agents (there are hundreds of good ones) and see what interest/feedback you get from them in its salability to traditional publishers.  IMPORTANT: please only do this with stories that have not been published anywhere else--this is an unwritten rule.

Of course, I'm always happy to answer quick questions on the subject of writing, so please don't be shy about asking.  I have a lot of advice for writers posted on this blog.

One word of caution:  I have found that it's best to try and get feedback from ordinary readers, rather than readers who are also writers.  This is because writers always view the work of others through their own stylistic lens and judge it against what is "good" according to their standards, which is highly subjective.  For more on this topic, see my post called Developing Your Artistic Style.

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This Week's Reader Interview with Becky Scarberry

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

I was born in Southern California and lived there until I was thirty. I now live in the Boston Mountains of Arkansas on a non-working farm. I have had four different careers throughout my life.  I was a Buyer for Hughes Aircraft Company, office manager for a Builder/Developer, legal secretary/paralegal and a claims analyst for an insurance company. I retired at the age of forty-five. I have loved art since I was a child. I love to draw and oil paint. When I was in my 30’s I was given a book on how to scrimshaw. I ended up making quite a bit of money selling it in California, Nevada and Oregon. I haven’t scrimshawed since 2000.

When and how did you discover that you love reading fiction?

I don’t remember what grade it was exactly, but after writing my first book report in school, I became hooked on reading all the fiction I could get my hands on. That never changed. I took every type of English course I could while in high school and college.  My favorite class in high school was journalism. I was convinced I would become a reporter one day.

What are some of your favorite books and who are some of your favorite

authors?

I love almost everything written by Dorothy Garlock. I also love “The Gold Coast” by Nelson DeMille and I consider it the best novel I have ever read. I also like James Patterson. Now that I read ebooks, consisting of many genres, I have a new list of favorite authors and novels.  One special eBook, I can’t bear to not mention is “Vanishing Act” by Indie author, John Scherber.  It’s #6 in his Paul Zacher mystery series of nine.  It has a supernatural or paranormal component, but it is a true mystery. He writes in a similar style as author, Jeff Bennington. Now I want to read everything he has written. It’s no secret to those who follow me on Twitter, another Indie author’s works I admire is Des Birch. There’s only one novel I haven’t yet read by this brilliant author and it’s now in my kindle.

What is your favorite thing about reading fiction?

Up until I started writing fiction, my sole answer would have been for escapism, but now that I write fiction, my answer is two-fold. I learn to write smarter, more creatively and with a better style. Since I’m on the Kindle Book Review team, I read more reviews than ever before. I have learned what the readers like and expect from an author.

Do you have any “pet peeves” about authors, something they do that annoys you?

I find it disappointing when the authors kill off the one character I was rooting for throughout the entire novel.  I also find it confusing when too many characters are introduced all at once. It’s not quite as big a deal now that I have a Kindle Fire because I no longer have to grab pen and paper and make notes. Instead, I can put notes regarding the book I’m reading on a document and save for future reference.

Do you write fiction yourself?

I wrote a screenplay, years ago, but right after final edit, a very similar movie hit the big screen. I wrote my debut novel one year ago, which was an adventure story for young adults with murder in it. I have since decided to consider that novel as writing practice. I started my second novel, a thriller, but soon stopped to write two short stories for a couple of contests. So many young adult Beta Readers liked one of them, “Messages From Henry,” so much; they suggested I turn it into a novella. That’s my current project.

What do you think about ebooks vs.paper books?

On the whole, I think they’re fantastic. Since I joined Twitter, I have been told numerous horror stories by extremely talented authors about attempting traditional publishing. Had those talented authors never Indie published, I would never have had the pleasure of reading their books. On the down side, ebooks are easily pirated and it concerns me. One other thing that I don’t like is that if I want an Indie author’s signed autograph, I have to wait for them to put it in paperback and go to their book signing. I have a huge collection of kindlegraph signatures and cherish them, but it’s just not the same.

What is your favorite Mike Wells book and why?

I’ve read so many of them this is difficult to answer. Although I loved Baby Talk, I have to say Lust, Money and Murder. I love all of the characters.  The places where the characters lived and visited had a cinematic quality and I’m fascinated by the counterfeiting of currency. Elaine’s expertise in the field is especially impressive.

Thanks very much for your interview, Becky!

I’ve enjoyed answering these questions and was thrilled the day you asked if I would consider signing up for this interview. It’s a true pleasure reading your books and knowing you.

Email address: r3scarberry@yahoo.com

Twitter: @Scarberryfields

Facebook: http://t.co/wlUYJr5

Website: The Kindle Book Review http://bit.ly/nhJQL1

This Week's Reader Interview - KK Sierra

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I'm a recently divorced mother of three in my early 30s. I work for a software company so I'm a bit of a nerd. In my free time I love to read, write and play with my kids. I enjoy encouraging them to find their creative sides. We like to go on adventures. We hike, camp, visit museums, take ferrys and road trips.

When and how did you discover that you love reading fiction?

I have loved reading for as long as I can remember. One of my fondest childhood memories is of my mother in her rocking chair outside my bedroom door, reading aloud to my brothers and me. Her soft voice and the magical words would lull me off to dream land. In elementary school, I went through most the books in the library. I still remember the excitement of getting to move to the main library where the "big kid" books were. In elementary and middle school, I often stayed up late, straining my eyes to read by the light of my alarm clock. When I reached high school, I many times used the excuse of "a big report due tomorrow" to stay up and finish a book. I even recall a few times when I'd glance at my clock and realize in horror that I'd read the whole night away and I had to be up for school in a few short hours.

What are some of your favorite books and who are some of your favorite authors?

My favorite genre was discovered while working on the critical care unit at a hospital. I worked the evening shift and it often got really boring. One night on break I went down to the hospital gift shop and found the newly released Silent Treatment by Michael Palmer. The book enthralled me and I was amused at the irony of finding such a terrifying medical thriller in the hospital gift shop. I would happily pick up anything by David Baldacci. Recently I've also discovered I enjoy the works of Tom Clancy. I tried to read them before and couldn't get into them. I guess I just needed to be in a different place in life to enjoy them.

What is your favorite thing about reading fiction?

Fiction lets you be anyone, imagine anything. It's a wonderful escape from reality. I love how I can picture the world as it unfolds in the book. I also like how if something is scary or offensive I can just skip a paragraph or two.

Do you have any “pet peeves” about authors, something they do that really annoys you?

I hate it when characters don't grow. In my opinion, you can only get away with that on The Simpsons, not with books. If ten books later, your character is still the same ditsy girl she was in book one, I'm going to lose interest. I also get frustrated with inconsistency. If I remember that back in book two Janie Jones was Irish, she certainly shouldn't show up as an African-American in book seven.

Do you write fiction yourself?

I would say I dabble. I love to write and you can find some shorts I've written on my blog. I have a novel in progress. Someday I may become more serious about it, but for now it's an enjoyable hobby that's bringing me in contact with some really wonderful people.

What do you think about ebooks vs. paper books?

There are advantages and disadvantages to both, in my opinion. I love my Kindle. I love the instant gratification. Finish a book and find yourself anxious for the next part in the series? Have it delivered in moments to your e-reader, cell phone, laptop, etc. It's great.  Before I had one, I used to make middle of the night runs to Barnes and Noble to feed my cravings! I also love that e-books make it so much easier for otherwise unknown authors to throw their stuff out there. I also travel frequently and love the convenience and lighter bags.

On the other side, I love real books. I enjoy looking on my shelf, seeing a series I enjoy and walking over to pull it off the shelf, maybe thumb through to my favorite scene and reread it. I buy my kids "real" books all the time so that they have books to collect, read, share and love.

My biggest argument for real books was the ease with which they could be loaned. I suppose this is a disadvantage financially to an author. However, if a friend loaned me a book that I enjoyed, it would usually inspire me to go find more books by that author, where I may have NEVER picked up that author's work otherwise. The new advantage e-readers have with Amazon's new lending program is I don't have to worry about whether or not I'll be getting my book back!

What is your favorite Mike Wells book and why?

I've read three Mike Wells books: Lust, Money & Murder, Wild Child and Wild Child 2. While I absolutely adored both the Wild Child books, I think I have to say Lust, Money & Murder is my favorite book so far. It was intriguing and kept me guessing. The characters were authentic with believable thoughts and feelings.

Thanks very much for your interview, KK!

Thank you very much, Mike, for the opportunity to share my thoughts.

I can be reached via twitter at @k_karie or e-writer@kksierra.com. I ponder, get introspective, rant and write at http://kksierra.blogspot.com

Does Bruce Willis Have a Dog? Less is More

I’ll never forget the first time my wife read one of my novels.  As she was finishing the last few pages, I sat at my computer, pretending to work,  butterflies in my stomach.  Would she love it or hate it?

When she was done reading, she set the manuscript aside and gazed over at the TV set.  She seemed lost in thought.

“Well?” I said uneasily.

“Mike, does Bruce Willis have a dog?”

I was taken aback.  “Excuse me?”

She went over to the VCR and picked up the videocassette case for Die Hard, the movie we’d watched the night before. 

“In Die Hard, does the character that Bruce Willis plays have a dog?”

“Well...hell if I know!  I don’t remember any dog in the movie.”

“Exactly.  We don’t know whether he has a dog or not because it doesn’t have anything to do with the story.”

I looked over at my manuscript.  “What are you saying?”

“What I’m saying is that you could have a really great book if you did a lot of cutting.  The way it stands, the story is bogged down with too many irrelevant details.”

Irrelevant details?  What an insult!  A long, heated discussion ensued, and I viciously defended each and every word in the book.  It ended with me shouting “What the hell do you know?” and storming out of the house, vowing to never let the moron I married read another word of my writing.

But after a little time passed and I calmed down, I opened up the manuscript and started reading it myself, trying my best to be objective.  I decided there were maybe one or two places where I went overboard, explaining too much about the hero’s background and other details.  Finally I went back to my wife, apologized, and gave her the manuscript and a yellow highlighter.  “If you wouldn’t mind, I’d love for you to go through entire book and mark each and every word that you think isn’t necessary.”

“My pleasure.”

When she was done, there was so much yellow on the paper it looked like Bruce Willis’ nonexistent dog had taken a leak on it.

As a writer, this was one of the most eye-opening processes I’ve ever experienced.  What I learned from it is that if you’re writing plot-driven stories, like I usually write, each and every bit of information you include should have something to do with the story.  If it doesn’t, the words needs to be mercilessly cut.

In the famous words of William Faulkner:  “In writing, you must kill all your darlings.”

Die Hard is a very good example of how important this principle is.  In the movie, do we know if the hero (John McClaine, played by Bruce Willis) has a dog?  No, we don’t.  What about his home—does he live in a house or an apartment?  Again, we don’t know, because there are no scenes set in his home.  What about his family?  Does he have any aunts or uncles?  Again, we don’t know, because that has nothing to do with the story.

Now, in contrast, consider The Wizard of Oz. 

Do we know if Dorothy has a dog?  Of course we know this—the dog’s name is Toto.  We know it because Toto plays a key role in the story.  Among other things, it's Toto that pulls back the curtain to reveal the Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz is nothing a harmless old man hiding behind a bunch of fancy equipment.  

Does Dorothy live in a house, or an apartment?  We know that, too—she lives in a house, which is sucked up into the tornado—this is inciting incident for the entire story!  Furthermore, the house lands smack on top of the Wicked Witch of the East and kills her, which is what gets Dorothy in so much trouble in Oz.

Finally, does Dorothy have an aunt?  We know that, too. Good old Aunty Em.  Dorothy misses her terribly when she believes she’ll be stuck in Oz forever and can’t get back to Kansas.  The aunt plays a key role in the story.

So, back to the original question:

Does Bruce Willis have a dog?

In Die Hard, it doesn’t matter.

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Persistence & the Myth of Overnight Success

I’m always irked by the way the news media presents superstars, particularly in entertainment and the arts, as overnight successes.  The overblown images of these media darlings are much like icebergs.  All you see is the tip.  The many years of hard work and failures that it took for these people get there—the other 9/10ths of the iceberg— is hidden beneath the surface.

The reason superstars are painted this way, I believe, is that it sells newspapers and ad clicks.  Most of us don’t want to hear that Brittney Spears’ spent her entire childhood traveling around the country singing at shopping malls, desperately trying every angle she could to break into show business.  Or that Woody Allen was booed off the stage night after night, for years, until he finally developed his unique style of comedy.  Or that J.K. Rowling lived through a decade of poverty and strife while her writing was endlessly rejected by publishers.

Why don't we want to hear this?  Because it makes being successful sound so very difficult. 

But success is difficult.  It's difficult in any field, at any place, at any time.  

The  "instant success" myth is not only misleading, it's damaging to those just starting out.  If you’re trying to be successful at something and success doesn't come immediately, the way it seems to on TV, it’s only natural to think, "Well, I guess I just don’t have the talent, that magical X factor" and throw in the towel.

There is no "X factor."  We can all name lots of extremely successful people who seem to have very little in the way of raw talent.

The secret is persistence. 

If you study the celebrities I’ve just mentioned as well as successful people in all walks of life, you see that the underlying ingredient—even more important than talent—is pure, blind persistence.   I know that you’ve heard this a thousand times, but it’s true.

Mainly I’m speaking to the many fiction writers out there who are digitally publishing their books like I’m doing, trying to make it as self-published authors.  It’s a tough game, baby, I’m not going to kid you.  I was online for 12 hours a day, three months straight, before I ever sold even one book to anyone who wasn’t already friend or acquaintance.  It's disheartening to get up every morning and check your Amazon or Smashwords sales, and see: 1, 1, 1, 1, 1...knowing that the one book you've sold is the copy your mother or best friend bought as a “mercy buy.”  With everyone around you giving positive but shallowly supportive comments, accompanied by underlying looks that say, “What are you wasting your time with this for?  Don’t you realize it’s fruitless?”   

Under these conditions, the temptation to give up—to escape that debilitating feeling of failure—is almost overpowering.

However, if you persist, and you have something of true value to offer your readers, you will eventually break through.

But the same thing applies to any difficult endeavor in which you're struggling to achieve success.

I have always been impressed with stories of prisoners who were able to dig through a three-foot thick wall of concrete using only a nail or a teaspoon, simply through desperate, dogged persistence.  If you scrape off only 1/8th of an inch of concrete per day, after one week you’ll be one inch of the way through; after 3 months, one foot of the way through; and after 9 months, you’ll reach the other side of the wall.

Persistence.  There is no substitute for it.

Will you have to change your approach from time to time?  Definitely.  If your nail doesn't seem to be scraping away any concrete, sneak into the prison library and steal a paper clip.  Or wet the concrete with water to soften it first.  And by all means, peek into the next cell and see what your neighbor is doing.  If she seems to be making progress, copy her approach.

The theme of persistence is evident in many of my novels.  In Lust, Money & Murder, Elaine Brogan persists through hell and high water to avenge the wrongful imprisonment of her father—she spends four years studying hard in high school so she can get into the Rhode Island School of Design, where she takes a double major in Intaglio Printing and Russian, all so she is qualified to apply for a job at the Secret Service.  Once she gets in, she has to fight her way through the organization's incredibly difficult training academy...and those are just her first few steps!  In both Wild Child and its sequel, Kyle Dunlap persists in trying to find an acceptable solution for Brianna's severe addiction to the green water, going against the will of his domineering father, fighting off aggressive government agents who will stop at nothing to get their hands on it, and resisting Brianna's ceaseless pressure join her in drinking it and becoming an addict himself. 

The most important advice I can give to anyone who is struggling to be successful at anything, is simply:

Never give up.