Rebecca Hamilton and The Forever Girl

This week, I'm featuring aspiring author/editor Rebecca Hamilton, whose debut The Forever Girl comes out this month.  Today, we're discussing how this story evolved, along with the experiences that convinced Rebecca to launch it herself. Stop by tomorrow to learn how Rebecca co-founded Immortal Ink Publishing, which will open to queries in May.

Either day, you can sign up here to get a .99 release copy of The Forever Girl. For every ten who sign up, Rebecca will give away one free e-book. So get your ereaders ready or dust off your bookshelves and sign up today for this exciting paranormal fantasy.


1. Your blog states you're a mom of three, including one child with autism spectrum disorder. Talk about how you organize your writing day - are you a scheduled or on-the-fly writer?

I try to have a schedule, but it’s really not working out so well. Mostly I write at nights, and use daytime for social media and editing, as I don’t mind being interrupted when doing those things. A lot of days, however, there’s so much to do with the kids that I don’t really get anything done. Maybe that will change once they’re all in school .

 2.  2011 has been a big(ger) year for you. You've started Immortal Ink Publishing and are getting ready to launch The Forever Girl - first in the FG series. What made you decide to go into publishing in the first place?

         The seed first planted itself before I started writing. I have always loved reading, but not only that, I was also amazing at picking out books that me and all my friends would like, no matter how different we were.
         This feeling intensified some time after I started writing, when I got into editing. I used to do paid editing for very cheap, but only for novels that I was personally interested in. Many of the books I edited later went on to agents and/or publishers. I knew I had a knack for editing, but I also knew I had a knack for finding the right stories to edit.
         Meanwhile, my closest writing partner and I had been discussing some kind of literary venue. We didn’t know what at the time—literary magazine? A website to feature authors? Something else? We were always discussing, but no idea ever stuck. In the end, with some additional experiences coming into play, we decided to open Immortal Ink Publishing.

 3.  I've read the first chapter of The Forever Girl on your blog and have to say, I was hooked. You've discussed the impact your MC's religion has had on some readers (Sophia is Wiccan) - talk about how this story grown from its first draft.

            Thanks ! The final draft is completely different from the original. There’s not much the same except for the characters and the very bones of the story. The religion has been the biggest hurdle, especially being an American author. A lot of people now assume I’m Wiccan. (I’m not; I’m agnostic, though I’ve studied many religions including Wicca and Christianity.) It wasn’t until I started writing this novel that I realized there was still such a judgment against the Wiccan religion. Some were upset also that there are some not-so-great characters who call themselves Christians in the novel, but I also have flawed Wiccan characters in my story and Christian characters who are kind-hearted, so I think the balance is there to anyone open to see it.Hopefully the free sample I provide has enough there to convey that the good and bad in my characters come from the characters themselves and not the religions they associate with. 

4. What made you decide to go the epubbing route instead of traditional - snagging an agent, going on sub, etc.?
          This goes back to why Rudy and I started Immortal Ink Publishing. Over the course of the last year, several publishers and agents approached me regarding my book after reading a sample online. I knew my book wasn’t ready, but in several of those cases I was persuaded to send anyway because “things can always be revised”.
           Ultimately, both agents and 2 of the 3 publishers passed, all asking to see future projects. They said I had a great writing style and “voice”, but all had different reasons why they didn’t have room on their list for The Forever Girl. Some hated parts others loved, and vice versa.
         I figured I might be onto something but knew the book needed more work. I hired some well-regarded editors, two of whom mentioned the idea of resubmitting. I’m not Stephenie Meyers or Amanda Hocking, but I had enough that I worried I might I start LOSING interest instead of gaining it if I didn’t make my book available, so I decided it’d be wiser if I didn’t put my book in limbo for another 6-12 months.
          Getting my novel ready meant I had a lot to learn. I figured…what a waste for me to learn all this just for me. As Rudy was also looking to self publish, I suggested we start our own publishing house. We agreed to use our own books as guinea pigs for the publishing house to show what we can offer. I still suspect self-pub will be the preferred option for many, but we hope to be a small publisher that is a good option for authors who don’t want to do the behind-the-scene work themselves or can’t afford to invest in themselves but still want to give their readers a high quality product.

5.  What are some technical details behind epubbing you didn't know before you started the process - the cover, the ISBN number - etc? How hard is it to get it all done these days? How expensive is it?
           I knew a fair bit since I’d seen it talked about so often online. The biggest hurdle for me has been more on the business end—registering a business, for example. The next has been formatting. Sure, there’s some fast and easy ways to do it, but I want to put out the best quality I can. I don’t think it’s really hard (aside from getting formatting done the right way). It’s just time consuming. And, in some cases, it can be expensive to some people. For me, paying what I did for my book covers was no big deal. A few of the covers in The Forever Girl series are done by the same person who designed the overseas covers for the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris.

6.  Now that you're familiar with the process, what advice do you have to other authors thinking about epubbing?

           Get a great cover artist. Get opinions on your cover from people you can trust to be honest with you. Get an excellent editor. Be sure they provide quality editing, and remember you will need to do several edits on your manuscript from large scale to small, preferable in that order ;) Do your research and don’t be in a rush.

Other epublishing authors have told me that the importance of a great cover can't be overstated. And the one for TFG is really great.

Thanks, Rebecca. Join us tomorrow for part two to find out more about submitting to Immortal Ink Publishing.

Logline and first 250-word critiques

This week, I'm hosting critiques for nonwinning (adult genre) entrants to the Baker's Dozen auction, hosted by Miss Snark's First Victim last month. Five brave souls have volunteered to have their words ripped apart  analyzed. Helpful suggestions ONLY please! Our aim, as always, is to encourage each other.

If your post is below, please comment on all the others. If you're just stopping by, we'd love to hear constructive criticism on how to polish these entries to a shine. And do swing by the lovely Lauren's blog, as she's hosting additional entries for critique over there.

Coming up: on Friday and Saturday, my interview with Rebecca Hamilton will post. She's a debut author of The Forever Girl, as well as acquisition editor for the fledgling Immortal Ink Publishing. She's going to be giving away a fantabulous prize you won't want to miss.

Post #1

LOGLINE:
In contemporary London, 25 years old paranormal consultant Robyn Wise joins forces with the ancient spirit living inside her, to fight the Dark Cloud, a malevolent entity determined to absord Fairyland's power. If Robyn fails, all good magic will disappear from Earth and our world will be turned into a hopeless desert.

FIRST 250 WORDS:

“Do you think he will come, Miss Wise?”
“Of course he will, Mr Wilson, no worries.” I say, trying to hide my concern with little success; dissimulation has never been my best feature,after all. That's probably why my client doesn't seem at all reassured; he keeps twisting his fat fingers while his piggy eyes dart around the place.

He’s nervous and I'm terrified, which is perfectly normal when you consider that I'm here, at night, in the middle of nowhere ... with a werewolf. A very nasty werewolf.

To make things even worse, there's not a single cloud in the sky, it's oneof those clear winter nights that show up in London once or twice a year.

My usual luck. Of course there's a full moon tonight, so a few drops ofrain wouldn't hurt, in case things go wrong. But they won't, let's be optimistic for once shall we? After all, Mr Wilson is a werewolf determined to be cured, that's why we are here in the middle of nowhere,waiting for a shaman to perform a healing spell on him. Let's just hope he's punctual, please, I've never counted  on English punctuality so much in my entire life. That's probably because my entire life depends on English punctuality, in this particular case: to work, the spell has to beperformed before the moon rises and my client transforms into a blood-thirsty monster. Thirsty for my blood, of course. In this particular case.

Post #2

Title: Shield & Crocus
Genre: Fantasy

Logline:
Aging superhero First Sentinel finally has a chance to overthrow the oligarchs who have ruled his city for fifty years, but it means making a bargain with his oldest enemy, a gangster who has schemed her way to the top. His team takes the offer, plotting a mission to destroy the Rebirth Engine, a machine that wracks the city with magical storms. If the team cannot turn the oligarchs against one another, they will hunt his team down and crush their rebellion.

First 250:
Wonlar’s apartment was a carefully constructed ruse.  Papers, schematics and yet more papers covered the floor, spotted with yard-high stacks of books, delicate arrangements of spare parts, and sealed bottles of reagents.  Bookshelves filled the walls from floor to ceiling along three sides of the apartment, broken only by a closet, the hall to the bedrooms and the opening to the kitchen.  Over the last twenty years, the apartment had settled into Wonlar’s image: scholarly, brilliant, and scattered.

That was the intent.  His neighbors wouldn’t expect that Wonlar Gonyu Pacsa, absent-minded artificer and handyman could also be First Sentinel, leader of the Shields of Audec-Hal, the only major force standing against the rule of the oligarchs.  If they thought he was barely organized enough to keep track of whose oven he had to fix by Monday and mumbled to himself incoherently, they wouldn’t ask questions about why he was up at all hours and never seemed to be around for parties.

Wonlar stood above a table, squinting to focus on the job at hand.  He was approaching his seventy-first birthday, but he looked no older than any other Ikanollo.  He had the same square jaw, the same high forehead, sun-yellow skin and dark brown hair.  For other races, cadence and personality were most of what set Ikanollo apart, since each man looked like every other, each woman a perfect copy of one another in features and build.

Favoring his left leg, Wonlar stepped over a short pile of books on rare reagents.

--M.U.

Post #3

TITLE: Spirit Weaver
GENRE: Fantasy

LOGLINE:
When the man she loves unexpectedly disappears, Lora abandons her high post in the army and sets off alone into enemy territory to search for him. This choice turns her king against her and inspires an oppressed people who become convinced she is destined to save them from tyranny. Captive to a prophecy she doesn’t believe, she must accept leadership or risk the life of the man she gambled everything to save.

First 250 words:
Lora thrust her ski poles into the knee-deep snow, raising a mittened hand to shade her face from the glare of the sun. She stared past the wolverine ruff of her parka hood, down the slopes to the evergreen forests rolling out like a legion of the king’s Honor Guard.

Now that she was here, the fear turned her gut into clenching coils—like a snake consuming itself. The snake twisted at the thought of what she might find in the valley below, twisting tighter at what she almost certainly would not find.

Yet she had to know what had become of Gaern. He was the only man—the only person, even—to have somehow found a way through her inner-most defenses.

She searched for the smoke-haze of Eloedir rising up through the crowns of the distant conifers, though she knew all signs of her village would be hidden beyond the valley’s bend. Her own frozen breath was the only sign of life now, drifting back past the unstrung shaft of her wooden bow protruding above her right shoulder. Over the other shoulder gleamed the mottled bronze hilt of a curved saber engraved with the swan of the king.

Lora adjusted her pack, stamping her feet in their bindings to warm her toes. She pushed forward down the slope, finally letting her eyes settle on the place below where five years ago her father and brother had been slain.

--M.A.

Post #4

Logline:

Special Agent Alexandra MacPherson can't decide which is worse - a witness who dies or a suspect who won't stay dead.

First 250:

Sometimes it all comes down to the gun you choose. SIG Sauer P226 .40 S&W or Rossi .357 Magnum revolver with a six-inch barrel. I’d picked the SIG. I should have gone with the Rossi.  
I sneaked a look at the battered clock on the wall of the loading dock. Doyle was only five minutes late. Not so long I worried he’d had second thoughts. I needed him to show soon, though, before my unease fermented into something harder to conceal.
The SIG was a cop’s gun. I knew if anything tipped off Doyle, it would be the gun. 
“He’s late,” Mike said.
I shrugged. Played like I didn’t care, hadn’t noticed. 
“You see the game last night?” Mike asked.
“What game?” 
“The Sox.”
God help me. A Sox fan. I’d happily watched the Phils beat the Braves the night before, but Kate Campbell didn’t give a shit about the national past time. “No,” I said. “I don’t follow baseball.”
“They play the Yankees tomorrow.”
“Well, I do hate the Yankees.”
“Who doesn’t?” Mike dropped the remnant of his cigarette to the floor of the dock and crushed it under his shoe.
Kate Campbell was a vegetarian who sold lattes at an internet cafe and lived in a dump near Temple University. A fugitive from the United Kingdom for alleged involvement in a train derailment in North West England, she fancied herself a modern day Guy Fawkes. 
I was ready to be done with Kate Campbell.

--T.K.

Post #5

Logline: Border Crossings tells the story of three women from three different worlds whose lives intersect as they enter the world of organ transplant and egg donation.

First 250 Words:

Two years of opening hospital-room doors hadn’t eased the dread of seeing her tiny son lying vulnerable as a soft-bellied fish on the starched white sheets of the bed, wires and tubes surrounding him like the tentacles of a giant squid. Knowing that those mechanical tentacles monitored his fragile heart and fed him the medicine that kept him alive didn’t stifle the anxiety: How will Koji be today? Is it a good day or a bad day? Yuki counted silently to three and pushed the door open.

Koji’s crooked, five-year-old grin beamed out from his moon face, and she could tell right away it was a good day. Even better: the mechanical tentacles were stored neatly away. Her little fish was free. Yuki scooped him up into her arms, pressing his small, bony chest to her. She nuzzled into his neck, searching for his smell underneath the hospital antiseptic.
“You’re squishing me, Mama,” Koji said, squirming from her embrace.
“Sorry, sweetheart. I’m just so happy to see you.”
“Why?”
“I’m always happy to see you, silly.”
“Oh,” said Koji and he looked nervously at Asana, the nurse, who was fussing around the room, rolling up a piece of plastic tubing and stowing it in the cabinet.

Yuki stood up and bowed in greeting, silently chastising herself for not acknowledging the woman sooner.
Asana handed Yuki Koji’s chart and said, “From a heart standpoint, it was a good day.”
Yuki nodded vigorously, her excitement building as she looked at his numbers:

--J.F.