A Light Through the Darkness

It's October 27th, and that means it's the paperback launch of JC Hutchin's novel 7th Son: Descent! As a special treat, I've invited Hutch by to answer a few questions...

Hey Val! Let's dive right in, shall we?

1. 7th Son: Descent comes out today, October 27th, but you've already released this book once, as a free podcast novel. Is this a path you'd suggest to new novelists? Why or why not?

I certainly suggest that storytellers embrace the Web, and create a website, as well as Facebook and Twitter accounts. I also suggest that they release some free content on their sites -- excerpts of their work, a few short stories, etc.

But I'm reluctant to tell novelists to release the full manuscripts of their work online (in text or audio form) unless they've thoroughly analyzed their goals and circumstances. If you're questing to simply share your tale, by all means share it. However, if your goal is print publication, carefully consider pursuing the "traditional" route of querying agents before you release the work online.

Creating a podcast novel is an extraordinary amount of work -- no newcomer can fully anticipate the workload, particularly if you wish to effectively promote the work as well -- and it provides no guarantee of publication. I released 7th Son in podcast form because the book had been rejected by dozens of industry pros in 2005, and I felt I'd exhausted my options. If I couldn't sell it, I'd share it.

2. Tell me more about 7th Son: Descent. Why should I buy this book?

Descent is a high-tech thriller set in present day. I think the book's jacket copy does a great job of encapsulating the book's concepts and plot. (And since I wrote the jacket copy, it's coming right from the horse's mouth!)

"As America reels from the bizarre presidential assassination committed by a child, seven men are abducted from their normal lives and delivered to a secret government facility. Each man has his own career, his own specialty. All are identical in appearance. The seven strangers were grown -- unwitting human clones -- as part of a project called 7th Son.

"The government now wants something from these "John Michael Smiths." They share the flesh and implanted memories of the psychopath responsible for the president's murder. The killer has bigger plans, and only these seven have the unique qualifications to track and stop him.

"But when their progenitor makes the battle personal, it becomes clear he knows the seven better than they know themselves..."

3. 7th Son: Descent is very different from your last novel that came out, Personal Effects: Dark Arts, which was more of a supernatural thriller. Which genre do you prefer and why?

I love both supernatural thrillers -- which is a fancy way of saying "horror" -- and technothrillers, and love writing in both sub-genres. I grew up reading lots of King and Crichton. I'd love to blur the two in a future work.

4. What was the best lesson that writing 7th Son: Descent taught you?

To persevere. 7th Son was my novel-length work of fiction, and I encountered all of the classic hardships all new authors face: self-consicousness, fear, self-perpetuated writer's block, procrastination, the works. I eventually realized that paying attention to those destructive elements didn't get the book any closer to being completed.

If it ain't moving the needle, it ain't worth your time.

5. What writing rituals do you have?

Very few. I like to write alone, with some music played low. That's about it.

6. You Twitter a lot - do you find that helps or hurts your writing? How about your promoting?

I don't see how it could possibly hurt my writing. It certainly is a key ingredient in my online outreach and promotion.

7. Nowadays, writers are expected to do a lot to promote their books, and you seem to be the king of promotions. How do you come up with ideas? Is there anything you draw the line at?

My ideas hail from watching what's happening in the space, and deducing what promotions work and don't, and then taking those good ideas and bending them into something innovative ... something I think would be fun to do. For me, it all starts with "wouldn't it be cool if...?", and if the idea sticks with me for more than five minutes, I begin to analyze the angles. How much will it cost in money, effort or time? Is it easy to manage? What's the benefit? Etc.

8. How do you plan a series?

I wouldn't know from experience, actually! The 7th Son trilogy as we know it was originally written as one long manuscript. It was an epic-length novel. Only when I chose to podcast it, did I chop the manuscript into thirds.

However, I'm certain that planning and writing a series is a lot like writing any other work of fiction: You plan it out, you plant the narrative seeds, you pay it off.

9. What's next for you?

I'll be promoting 7th Son until the end of the year. After that, I'll start cooking on some new fiction projects. One of them is a podcast fiction series called "The 33" that promises to be a lot of fun. I also have a few high-tech and supernatural thriller novel ideas to work on in 2010, as well.

Thanks for stopping by, Hutch! And as for me, I've already ordered my copy of 7th Son: Descent from Amazon. I highly recommend you do as well!

Today is a great day - we have our very first guest stopping by! Jeri Smith-Ready, author of the new book "Wicked Game", which I am currently reading still (because I don't want it to end!!!). Jeri was nice enough to answer some questions I had, and stopped by. So, without further ado...

1. Vampire DJs? What was the thought process behind "Wicked Game"? How did you come up with it?

I was driving to work, flipping the dial, and came to a classic rock station playing “Bad Company” by the band of the same name. I thought, Hmm, “Bad Company” would be a perfect title for a paranormal book with a shady main character.

By the time I got to the office, I had a fully formed idea for the vampire DJs stuck in time and a heroine with a criminal past. If I hadn’t been listening to that station at that moment, the series would have never been born. Kind of scary (for me, at least).

The punch line is that even though it all began with “Bad Company,” the publisher ultimately asked me to change the title (which was a good thing—WICKED GAME is much better, I think).


2. Where do you write? Tell us about your writing space.

Because I have a laptop, I can write anywhere I want. For actual creative writing I tend to find a place that’s sort of cavelike. The bedroom, the guest room/cat room, or the family room in the basement. When it’s raining (or nighttime), I can write anywhere, because the whole world becomes like a cave. But sunny days tend to distract me too much.

I generally do business stuff at the dining room table. Lots of pointing and clicking (for working on the website or whatever) requires a mouse instead of this horrid little touchpad. Then when I move into the Cave of the Day, I feel like I’m ‘going to the office.’

That’s the theory, anyway.

3. You have a playlist for "Wicked Game" - how did you come up with it? How does a song make your playlist?

I actually didn't pick the music for the playlist (90% of which can be found at www.jerismithready.com/books/wicked-game), I picked the music for the story itself. My publisher later asked me to add to the front matter a list of all the songs mentioned in the text. I was thrilled to do it, to call attention to the music that inspired the scenes.

The fun part of forming the list was figuring out which songs to choose when they were mentioned only obliquely. For instance, the text in one scene said that Shane played a Bob Dylan song and then a Pogues song. So I had to figure out which songs he would play (I went with "Isis" and "The Old Main Drag," if anyone cares). I also went back in the text and put "a Liz Phair song" in the background of one scene, just so I could add "Flower." It's a perfect song for Ciara and Shane. Every line.

Also, each DJ has their own playlist on www.wvmpradio.com, a real site with real music (and real merchandise!). The radio station is still fake, though.

4. What's the best piece of writing advice you ever got?

Focus on the things you can control—the quality of the writing and the relationships you can build—and don’t sweat the rest. You can’t control the personal tastes of an editor or agent, but you can study the markets and improve your craft. After you’re published, you can’t control your print runs or your bookstore placement, but you can write the best book possible and make connections with readers. At every stage, you can act like a professional.

5. What's the worst piece?

Don’t rewrite. Just finish it, send it out, and move on to the next thing. I knew this was bogus when I heard it. Sure enough, the person spewing this advice to a room of aspiring authors later confessed to me in private that most writers were hopeless and that everyone who should be published already was. That cynicism taught me to be suspicious about advice from established authors. We’re always speaking from our own experiences and agendas, so keep that in mind when we give advice.

I think this person’s point was that you shouldn’t rewrite endlessly in an attempt at perfection, and don’t use rewriting as an excuse not to submit. Which I agree with. But they literally said, ‘Don’t rewrite, just send it,” because they were assuming that these aspiring authors were probably writing crap, anyway. Ugh. It still makes me mad.

6. Do you have a Muse? If so, what does he/she/it look like?

Nope. It’s just me and the characters in there. That’s crowded enough.

7. What do you have coming up as far as new projects?

I’m finishing the second vampire book, BAD TO THE BONE, which will be published in May 2009. To tide readers over until then, I’ll post a series of tie-in short stories on my website every other month beginning in June, stories that depict the “turning” of each of the vampire DJs. My newsletter subscribers will get to see the stories a week early (to sign up, just go to my home page at www.jerismithready.com).

I’m also putting the final touches on THE REAWAKENED, the third book in my ASPECT OF CROW romantic fantasy trilogy from Luna Books. That will appear in November 2008. I’m sad to see it end, but I felt really strongly about keeping it to three books as originally promised.

As soon as that’s all turned in, I plan to collapse. Then a few days later (before I get my revision letter for BTTB), I’ll work on a proposal for a YA series I started way back in 2003. Or maybe after I reread it, I’ll decide it’s time to move on and develop a new YA idea I have. It’s usually better to look forward and tackle new projects than rehash the old ones, but we’ll see.

8. Do you believe in writer's block? How do you beat it?

I definitely believe in writer’s block. It’s a horrible thing. I’ve never had it to the point where I couldn’t write at all for an extended period, but I’ve seen it happen to others. I hate when people pooh-pooh the idea and say writers should just suck it up and get to work. That’s like saying there’s no such thing as depression. We’re not robots.

If a scene isn’t working or I don’t know where it’s going, I’ll write a different one. By the time I get back to the tough scene, sometimes the solution has presented itself. Sometimes the whole thing just needs to be chucked.

Walking the dog also helps. Getting outside, moving the blood through my veins and brain, can jumpstart the process. Plus it makes her wag her tail, and that always brightens my day.

9. Do you have any advice for struggling writers?

Get plenty of sleep. Seriously. It’s not just a health concern (after all, I support lots of unhealthy activities). It’s about the writing. I read a study that said the part of our brains that governs creativity is the first part to deteriorate under sleep deprivation. Also, I find that when I’m tired, I lose all ability to evaluate my own work. It all turns into a load of crap. Which makes for tough edits.

Also, and this is just my opinion (as opposed to the sleep thing, which is fact), I think that once you’ve started submitting the first book in a potential series to editors and agents, you should start another series instead of working on Book Two in the first series. Chances are, that first book won’t sell, but if editors see that you have potential, they’ll ask you, “What else do you have?” If you tell them, “Uh, I have three more books in that series you don’t like,” well, that’s kind of a dead end.

More important, when you turn your mind to a new idea and world, you’ll probably find that your storytelling ability jumps to an entirely new level.

Thanks so much for having me, Val! I really enjoyed your questions, and I’ll be happy to take more in the comments. :-) I love to hear from readers, so I encourage anyone to contact me. I also give away free bookmarks and signed bookplates for any of my books and frequently hold contests on my blog and in my newsletter.

For more about Wicked Game, check out www.jerismithready.com/wicked-game. To visit the DJs and listen to a sample of their shows, go to www.wvmpradio.com. Jeri and Ciara can also be found on MySpace, though mysteriously never at the same time (Jeri and Ciara).

Thanks, Jeri! And everyone, keep watching for my review of "Wicked Game"! Better yet, go out and buy your own!!!! And feel free to ask Jeri any questions you might have in the comments thread!