How Food and Eating is Important to My Stories(Guest Post: Francis H. Powell)!

How food and eating  is important to my stories

I live in a country in which food is a vital part of everyday conversation…I once when on a holiday with a group of French  friends and day by day and night by night, the predominant topic of conversion was food. My book features a lot of exotic  food and eating.  Sometimes I was forced to doing research or use a lot imagination to picture the kind of menus/food that should feature.

If  writing about a banquet, I had to delve into the kind of food that might be served up at such an event. I certainly would eat a lot of the food mentioned in my stories, as I am vegetarian.

Comparison to type of food is also a part of my writing.  Take this section, from my story “Arrival”, in which an entity pops out of a man’s stomach…

Something jostled inside him and he watched with horror, the seam of his belly split open like a sliced ripe watermelon. Blood, the deep red of mature geraniums, abruptly began pouring out, soaking the bedsheets and dripping onto the floor.

Food and in particular the “temptation” that food offers features in a story entitled “Opium”.  A preacher (called Preacher Moon) lives off the mere basics…is sent to rid a town of sin and opium and to take on a Gangster called Gecko, who tempts him with a “special cake”.

Gecko smiled sweetly at the preacher, twiddling the dragon ring

on his finger, then glanced at the cake. "Will you not have something

to eat with us, Preacher? I'm about to cut this cake," Gecko said in a

relaxed, convivial way, reaching for a gilded knife.

The preacher's face soured. It was clear to him that Gecko's offer

was a gesture of hospitality rather than threat, and he was extremely

hungry from the long ride. In truth, he'd lost count of the time since he

had last eaten, and then, it had been mostly grasshoppers he'd come

across on his travels.

Still, how could he accept food from such a loathsome sinner? "Food from the devil's hand no doubt," he growled in a bitter tone, shaking his head in the negative and averting his eyes from the cake and the exotic fruits the young girl had placed on the table.

In the end the Preacher succumbs to the temptation and forced to try the cake, not realizing it contains a rather special ingredient...

The ending of my story Bugeyes, includes a banquet, in which a young Lord is celebrating his newly acquired inheritance.  The banquet is then sent into turmoil by a visitor, “Bugeyes” who has arrived to claim his inheritance, having been rejected by his parents from birth on account of his huge eyes…

What kind of food would guests be eating on such an occasion?

Suddenly, the tall doors at the far end of the huge dining hall

thundered open, revealing a solitary standing figure. It was a young

man, clearly under-dressed for the occasion, so much so that his

appearance made the dinner event and everyone attending seem

overtly ostentatious. The guests were in the middle of sipping bowls of

saffron seafood soup, anticipating the roasted baby pigeons, Baltic

herring and beef Wellington, to be washed down with glass after glass

of different free-flowing wines perfectly matched to each. The string

quartet serenading the guests with soft chamber music stopped

playing.

As the mysterious figure approached Lord Christopher, there was

a collective intake of breath and everyone prepared for something even

more scandalous than the young Lord's behavior towards Arabella at

the dinner table.

Arabella immediately recognized her brother, Bug-eyes, and was

totally perplexed. He never went to parties, and he'd certainly not

shown even the slightest interest in this one.

My story Maggot also features a banquet, right at the beginning of the story.  A circus owner is forced to sell his daughter to a tyrant, to pay off his debts.  The bargaining is done at a banquet.

Maggot was enraged and banged his fist on the table! Knives,

forks, spoons and plates flew into the air, tossing food everywhere. Up

to this point, the banquet had been cordial, even good-humored.

Necessary pleasantries and toasts had been exchanged. But as soon as

the serious negotiations had begun, indeed when money was brought

into the equation, everything quickly went wrong. Where before

congeniality had bound them, blood-lust now welled, taunts were

being whispered and enraged voices were promising vengeance for

inexcusable slurs.

Food is a key element to the story, as the young girl “merchandise” tricks the tyrant into eating a grape. Once eaten she tells the tyrant named “Excellency”  that everything he sees, touches, or smells will be ugly. The tyrant tries to violate her, but her threat seems to bare truth.

The grape, however, was horribly bitter, and he picked up his baton, arched his

arm back and brought it down on her hand. Apollonia shrieked with

pain.

"What are you trying to do? Poison me?" he shouted.

Apollonia rubbed her stinging hand, and looked at him with

surprising composure. The torment written all over her earlier had

lifted completely, which both baffled and troubled Excellency.

Instead of whimpering, the young girl pointed an admonishing

finger at him and warned, "Strike me again and everything you smell,

see, touch or hear will become bitter, foul and ugly!" Excellency

paused, then scoffed as the girl, seemingly satisfied with the effect of

her warning, stretched out in front of him like a cat enjoying the heat

of the sun. Watching her, he reasoned the threat was little more than a

childish ploy to buy time before the inevitable. Still, he'd heard that

she came from Gypsy stock, and her mother was said to be well-versed

in curses and incantations.

When he wakes up after trying to have his way with the girl, this is what he wakes up to…

The fruit, which last night had looked so appealing, had turned a

sickly brown. Rotten and fetid, white maggots crawled on the fruit,

while black clouds of flies hovered above it. He felt he was going to

vomit. Excellency looked at the young girl sleeping peacefully on the

other side of his bed, and vaguely remembered trying to violate her,

his ultimate failure further embittering him.

My story Little Mite, also features a meal.  Two families are at the point of uniting, an  ideal marriage is being planned.  The father of the bride has gone to great lengths to provide a meal for the groom’s family.

In fact, the chef had outshone all expectations. Several

cases of vintage wines accompanied the lobster bisque with crème

fraîche, the caviar toast, the roast leg of new lamb with Italian stuffing

and red wine sauce, the best cheeses France could offer, and handmade

ice cream topped with crème caramel and rum-soaked raisins. Little

Mite had especially enjoyed the desert. This was followed, for the

adults, by rich Jamaican coffee. All in all, both families concluded it a

resoundingly successful next step in the long list of social events

presaging Conner and Hannah's eventual union

The meal seems to going well until Little Mite the sister, bitch from Hell, decides to play one of her pranks. Leading the Groom’s younger brother away from the grownups, she then leads him to her father’s work shop, where upon she glues his hand to a coffee table and then proceeds to whip the innocent child with stinging nettles.  When her misdemeanor is brought to light, the wedding plans descend into turmoil. The groom breaks up with his fiancé and reunites with an ex…Little Mite is punished, but her older sister never forgives her…

It is true to say that one way or another food is an integral part of my stories. It is great to describe food or to use food as way of describing something…

Flight of destiny Is a collection of short stories about misfortune. They are characterized by unexpected final twists, that come at the end of each tale. They are dark and surreal tales, set around the world, at different time periods.

http://theflightofdestiny.yolasite.com/

          

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Things I Didn't Know About Writing Before I Took the Plunge(Guest Post: Lanie Jacobs)

“Things I didn’t know about writing before I took the plunge”

My writing career began with an idea that really was as simple for me, as saying, “Hey, I want to write a book.”  So, that is exactly what I set out to do. I did some research on my characters, came up with plots and sub plots, thought about my topic and made little sticky notes in my office.  I planned out my characters and then my plot began to form along with my characters.

Then — after writing about fifteen chapters —I decided that I wanted to take a writing class.

Wow, that really opened my eyes to everything I had been doing wrong.  It took me months to correct my mistakes.  Honestly, I should have just started fresh, but I am stubborn. I was bound by the thoughts going through my mind that this was my rough draft — and it was going to be the only rough draft.

Yea, right.  Actually, no — it ended up being one of many. My stubborn ego took a few hits along the way, but today, I am still just as stubborn as ever.

The first thing I learned, is how unorganized I was. To be a writer you have to be organized and prepared, right? Well, not this girl!  I was an organized pile of hot mess. Sticky notes here, note book notes there.  Emails and rough drafts all over the place.  Like I said, I was a hot mess.

Though I am still a bit of a mess, I have learned that organization is better than frantically searching all over the room, for that one note about that one scene that you simply must have at that exact moment.

Then I was told you need to have an outline.  Wait! What?  Well, my stubborn mind said no you don’t, you got this.   And guess what — I so did not “have this.”  So, after my second rough draft, I broke down and created an outline.  Oh, my beautiful piece of work how I love you!   I will never start another book without an outline.

Every time I write, I struggle not to type like I talk.  It’s hard being Southern.   I have a tendency to type a little, let’s say, hickish.  Some may not have that problem… but I surely do.  The struggle is real.  Wait, hold on, let me get my educated hat on. There that sounds a lot better, and wow, did I actually write that?  Yes, those thoughts really go through my head.

When it is all over and you are ready for editing, polish it ‘till it shines.  And then, when you think it’s polished, polish it again.  Editing is such an important part of the process that — if you can’t edit it yourself — make sure you find someone who can.

One of my struggles in writing, other than my own head, is being an independent author, the marketing is not as easy as I thought it would be. I love the fact that I can write what I want, when I want, but sometimes it is hard to stay focused on a project.  I don’t have anyone telling me to change something that I don’t want to change, but, sometimes a second opinion is just what I really needed.  While I don’t have deadlines to meet, sometimes that lack of pressure allows me to procrastinate a little too much.  Marketing is not my forte, so I have struggled on that part a great deal.  Finally, let me just say that writing isn’t for the weak.  You must be determined, focused, and persistent to succeed.

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Researching and the Mash Up Parody(Guest Post: Ebenezer Scrooge)

Researching and the Mash up Parody

Researching is always a unique experience based on the book you are writing.

You could say this book was born through a research trip. The genesis of Ebenezer Scrooge: Ghost Hunter was a Dickens Fair – much like a Renaissance Fair, except the participants explore the streets of London circa 1850.

As I watched the plethora of actors wander through the fair and was asked for my “drinking papers” at the pub, I fell head over heels in love with the time. Then the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come appeared on stage and scared a grown woman so much she screamed. Not too long after, the idea to mash up A Christmas Carol thundered through my head as I was trying to fall asleep.

Research for a book that is based on a famous classic is completely different than a typical work of fiction because there is a wealth of material to draw inspiration from. I started my research by watching the only movie adaptation of A Christmas Carol that was in my personal DVD library: A Muppet Christmas Carol.

It might seem like a silly choice, but it turned out to be the exact right choice for me. It was great to see the dynamic of playing key roles as different animals and gave me permission to really play in my imagination. Additionally, Gonzo portrays Dickens throughout the movie and (here’s the important part), quoted whole passages word for word. The movie was a springboard, to bounce ideas off of and imagine the same characters telling a different story.

Next came the reading. A Christmas Carol is in the public domain, so copies of the book are available for free in all sorts of formats. I read it through once on my iPad, then I settled down to the version on my computer, notating each and every place I saw an opportunity or challenge to overcome. This is where the idea for the new conflict and climax started to take shape.

When it came time to populate my story with supernatural villains, I immediately rejected vampires, werewolves, and zombies. They’ve become the stereotypical villains of horror. (Plus, zombies REALLY freak me out) The character slots were already defined within the story, but I wanted to give them a unique supernatural twist - as long as I could find the right myth – or one just close enough. I spent a long time on the Internet searching for myths and lore close to what I imagined.

The final piece of research was done long after the book was completed. I felt odd about putting my name next to Charles Dickens and wanted to read more about the original genius. It turns out; Dickens was a huge proponent of international copyright law. In his day, publishers in America were reprinting his works and he wasn’t seeing a dime. He toured America in 1842 to lobby his fellow writers to petition Congress.  It would be 16 years after his death that the first formal international copyright laws would be drafted.

While the book was covered for a time by copyright laws, A Christmas Carol now falls into the public domain. That means that anyone can adapt the work and reprint the book, so long as certain rules are followed. (That was another research tangent tackled with the Internet.) If you ever consider mashing up a classic work, be sure it is in the public domain.

Though he probably wouldn’t be happy about the copyright implications, I think Dickens would be pleased that his story is a classic. At it’s heart, Ebenezer Scrooge: Ghost Hunter is still a story of redemption – but for a modern audience.

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Writing a Different Novel on Fashion Guest Post by Katarina West

Writing a Different Novel on Fashion

Much can be said about fashion, but no one can deny that it is big business nowadays. The fashion industry is a world of its own, employing people in textile design and production, or design, or retailing and marketing, or media – and household brands like Louis Vuitton and Gucci are part of global conglomerates that are no different from multinationals like Pepsi or Microsoft.

So, fashion is huge. But when it comes to fiction on fashion, the weird thing is that it isn’t as varied and wide-ranging as the world it depicts. We’ve got great romantic comedies on fashion, like The Devil Wears Prada and Bergdorf Blondes, and all kinds of deliciously entertaining chick lit novels. But we haven’t got any serious novels on fashion; no novels that portray the fashion world the way it really is.

And yet there’s also a darker side to the fashion world. The pace of the industry is ruthless, and fashion designers are pressed to churn out as much as eight collections a year. Many can’t handle the pressure, and so behind all the glitter and glamour you hear rumours about rehabs or alcohol and drug abuse. Not to mention such big personal losses like the suicides of Alexander McQueen and L’Wren Scott, or the downfall of John Galliano after an anti-Semitic rant.

That was my starting point when I began to write my debut novel Witchcraft Couture. I wanted to say something about the fashion world, the way it really is, but since my genre is magical realism – loosely speaking at least – I wanted to transform the reality of today’s fashion business into a wonderful, magnificent fable. And that’s how I invented a story of a talented yet pathologically insecure fashion designer who in the midst of his umpteenth creative block finds a magic machine that turns all his designs into sartorial triumphs. He starts to use the machine secretly, without telling anyone, and becomes one of the hottest names in Italian fashion (because yes, my novel is based in Tuscany, where I live). But his dark secret has a price, and so my protagonist finds himself a prisoner of a never-ending nightmare that merely worsens as the story moves on.

Witchcraft Couture is a fantasy story on creativity and creative work, and as I don’t have a background in fashion, writing it meant three things: reading, reading and reading. I read about anything and everything that had to do with fashion: about the industry, about famous brands, about designing clothes. I even studied manuals for setting up your own label and the latest research on textile technology! Plus, for a long time books on fashion history were my favourite bedtime reading, not the least because I love the fashion of the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. The designs were so beautiful, and there were so many larger-than-life fashion designers, like Elsa Schiaparelli, or Balenciaga, or Vionnet, or Coco Chanel. One of my favourite books in this category is Shocking Life, Elsa Schiaparelli’s autobiography, which is a great read because her life was simply astonishing. One day someone will undoubtedly make a movie of it!

I also interviewed fashion designers. That was fairly easy to organise, because I live in Italy and fashion here is everywhere: on the street, in shop windows, in the evening news, in everyday life. This was one of the most inspiring parts of my research, and our conversations were enlightening to say the least. All in all, I can’t but feel deep admiration for fashion designers, for their sheer ability to live and work with such hectic speed.

Now it’s almost a year since Witchcraft Couture came out, and I’m just about to publish my second novel, Absolute Truth, For Beginners. It tells the story of a twenty-something woman who falls in love with a world-famous mathematician – so, a story miles apart from catwalks and red carpet evening gowns. There’s no rational reason for me nowadays to follow fashion blogs or read about the latest Milan fashion week. But so deeply ingrained in me is the habit of following fashion – and so fascinating is it to follow it – that I still do it, out of sheer curiosity.

And who knows. Maybe one day I could write another story about the glimmer and glitz of international catwalks, and the labyrinthine reality behind it.

Witchcraft Couture

Oscar Pellegrini is a talented fashion designer with a deadly enemy: his own critical mind. He destroys much of what he designs and has been drifting for years, gradually retreating from the fashion business he loves but holding on to his dreams of success.

A chance meeting with a former girlfriend triggers a creative crisis so deep that Oscar escapes to Russia, where he drinks and despairs like never before. Just when he thinks he has lost everything he discovers a magical machine that turns ordinary outfits into irresistible sartorial triumphs. Oscar takes the machine back to Italy – and before he knows it, he has become famous for his designs, and celebrities and socialites are fighting to be first to wear his gorgeous garments.

But the happily-ever-after ending for the fashion messiah turns into a nightmare

when his dresses acquire a life of their own, gaining energy and evil as time goes on. Haunted by his creations, a dark secret he is no longer able to hide, Oscar finds himself fighting for his life and sanity, and searching for the answer to a question he never knew existed.

Is there such a thing as stolen genius, and if there is, can it turn against the very person who stole it?

About the Author

Katarina West is the author of Witchcraft Couture, her debut novel, and Absolute Truth, For Beginners (to be published in December 2015). Katarina was born in Helsinki, Finland, into a bilingual family that in addition to humans consisted of dogs, cats, horses, guinea pigs, canaries, rabbits and – thanks to her biology teacher mother – stuffed owls and squirrels.

She spent time travelling in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and went on to study at Queen Mary and Westfield College in London and the European University Institute in Florence, where she completed a PhD in political science and published a book based on it, Agents of Altruism. During those student years she started work as a journalist, and continued writing for various Finnish magazines and newspapers for over ten years, writing on various topics from current events and humanitarian issues to celebrity interviews and short stories. She also briefly worked as a university lecturer on humanitarian issues in Northern Italy.

Katarina lives in an old farmhouse in Chianti with her husband and son and when not writing, she is fully immersed in Tuscan country life, from jam-making and olive-picking to tractor maintenance.

You can visit her website at http://www.katarinawest.com, read her blog at http://www.katarinawest.com/things_I_know_about_life and follow her on Goodreads, Facebook, Google+ and Twitter @WestKatarina

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The Advantages and Disadvantages of Writing Horror(Guest Post by Alistair Cross)

There are advantages and disadvantages to writing in any genre, and horror is no exception. While it is a relatively small market when compared to romance, police procedurals, or political thrillers, the possibilities of horror extend much further because of its presence in every genre - including children’s lit and mainstream fiction. In fact, it’s so prevalent in romance, that it has its own thriving sub-genre, “paranormal romance.”

One of the advantages of horror is that while it can be a genre in its own right - think vampires, ghosts, and other monstrous beasties - it is everywhere. The Silence of the Lambs is considered mainstream, yet it is a horror novel throughout, passing the genre tag perhaps because it is not only well written, but Hannibal Lecter is a human monster. (His extreme senses are much like those of detective Sherlock Holmes’ in that they can seem supernatural. But in Hannibal’s case, they are used to foment crimes, not solve them. That’s the only difference.)

Speaking of the Great Detective, several of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s  tales - such as The Hound of the Baskervilles - appear supernatural although ultimately, the hound and other mysteries are explained away. If the hound had remained a possibly supernatural creature, the same novella would have been labeled horror in a heartbeat.

Horror is subjective. Aliens is science fiction but is really just a haunted house story set in a spaceship and the bogeyman - er bogeywoman - is from another world instead of the depths of our closets.

This is an advantage of horror. There are many definitions of “horror” and the genre one in literature generally has some sort of supernatural bent. There is often violence, but the emphasis is on fear, not gore. In the movies, sheer violence (Saw, Hostel, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, etc.) makes up a very definite sub-genre of horror - the slasher flick. These often lack any supernatural elements.

This is one of the disadvantages of horror. Many people are aware of these movies and assume that all horror - including horrific novels - is simply about bloodshed. A good horror novel may contain it, yes, but it is also - when well written - a novel as worthy of respect as those in any other genre, from thriller to historical to “literature,” which isn’t really a genre as much as an adjective that ought to be earned over time. “Literature” is about good books, no matter the genre, not about a label plastered on the latest Oprah pick. If you fall for that, you’re very possibly falling for publishing hype.

I love to read in the horror genre and many other genres as well because they usually contain elements of the horrific. I write it because addressing fear is simply what comes natural to me. When I wrote The Crimson Corset, I knew my book fell into the traditional horror genre because it’s about vampires. But if the vampires were human, the book would probably fall into mainstream or thriller fiction. Or, because The Crimson Corset’s human protagonist, Cade Colter, is a young man who arrives in Crimson Cove as a youthful innocent and is changed over the course of the story, it could easily be considered a coming of age tale. If his problems were caused by human bullies instead of vampiric ones, the horror label wouldn’t apply and coming of age stories are usually considered mainstream, no matter the imprint on the book’s spine.  Lord of the Flies, a classic example of coming of age literature, is horror, pure horror, through and through - more horrific, in fact, than any slasher story could ever hope to be.

So while there are advantages and disadvantages to writing in any genre, I stand firmly by the philosophy that you must write what you love if you want readers to love your work as well. If product labels are necessary for campaign purposes, that is all well and good. However, I believe the real soul of storytelling defies traditional classification.

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Danny and The Three Monsters(Guest Post)

My name is Andrew Joyce and I write books for a living. Aly has been kind enough to allow me a little space on her blog to promote my latest book, MOLLY LEE. It’s averaging 4.9 stars on Amazon. It is also available in paperback. Please check it out. Here’s the link: http://geni.us/molly

I would love to tell you all about it, but instead, I have to turn the writing duties over to my dog whose name is Danny. You see, he can be pretty insistent at times. We recently had some excitement in our lives and he can’t wait to tell you about it. For what it’s worth, this is a true story. And when you are finished reading it, please click on the link to my book and check it out. Danny is not the only genius in our household.

Amazon ...​ http://geni.us/molly

Web Page ... http://andrewjoyce76.com

Danny and the Three Monsters

Hello dog fans, it is I, Danny the Dog! I haven’t been writing much lately because I’ve been helping my human, whose name is Andrew, look after three Labrador retrievers. What a nightmare! There is Chloe, who is fourteen months old, and then there is Beau and Hank. They are both four months old and they are holy terrors. They live on a boat down at the end of the dock. Their human was going out of town and he asked my human to look after them and Andrew, being the idiot that he is, said yes.

First of all, I want to say to Jeff, the human that lives with the three monsters, don’t ever leave them in Andrew’s care again. I wouldn’t trust him to look after a taco, much less three dogs.

The trouble started right away. Jeff had two crates (humans call them crates; I call them cages) for Beau and Hank because, as I’ve said, they are holy terrors. Andrew went over to take them for their first walk after Jeff left, and of course, he has to take me along to help out. Anyway, Andrew gets them out of the crates and is getting them off the boat when clumsy Hank falls into the water.

Let me paint the picture for you. It was nighttime. It was dark. The water was dark and Hank is black. Andrew and I could see nothing of Hank. We could only hear him splashing around. The dock is about five feet above the water so Andrew couldn’t get him out by standing on the dock. Being the genius that he is (just kidding), Andrew got on the swim platform, which—for you landlubbers—is attached to the back of a boat and is only a foot above the water.

Now this is where Andrew’s “genius” comes into play. He took off his glasses and placed them on the transom so they wouldn’t slip off while he was bending over to pull Hank out of the water. He called to Hank. Hank swam over and Andrew got him onto the boat. Then Andrew went to get his glasses and they were not there or anywhere else on the boat. It looked as though Beau knocked them into the water because he had his paws up in that general vicinity while he was watching Andrew rescue his brother (they’re twins). All this in the first five minutes of Andrew looking after the monsters. And it only got better, and by better, I mean worse. I had a ball watching Andrew trying to cope for four days.

On to the next disaster, but first a side note. For some reason Beau is enthralled with me. The damn dog wouldn’t leave me alone. He put his snoot in my face, ran around me, bounced around me; he was a royal pain in my rear end. Finally, I had to growl at him and give him a little nip on his snoot to get some peace.

Now back to Andrew’s genius. We got the dogs back on the boat without further mishaps. Andrew fed them and all was well. But then Andrew decided not to put Hank and Beau in their crates. He felt sorry for them being cooped up like that. Big mistake!

The next morning when we went to get them, there was poop everywhere. The whole floor was covered in it. The babies had gotten into the dog food bag, ripped it open and ate it all. Then they pooped everywhere and walked in it. They got it on the couch, on the sliding glass doors, on everything. I think even on the ceiling. Needless to say, after spending two hours cleaning it all up, Andrew changed his mind about the crates.

Last night we were hanging out. Andrew was staring into space because he did not have his glasses and could not read a book or see the computer screen. I was on the computer starting this story when Chloe came onto our boat. She’s always coming here and stealing my water bowl! To date, she has taken five. But she should have been locked up on her own boat! Andrew got up, looked out, saw Jeff, and said, “Thank God! Thank God!” I barked the same thing. Our days of taking care of the monsters were over. Thank God!

P.S. This morning Jeff came over with Andrew’s glasses. Beau had taken them and hidden them in his stash place. And by the way, I have my own Facebook page and it’s a lot cooler than Andrew’s. Here’s a link: http://geni.us/dannythedog

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