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Stephen Penner: From Children’s Books to Paranormal

Both social networking and blogging benefit writers in a myriad of ways, creating connections and community. Since signing up and logging on, I’ve met authors and writers who live near or far, some who publish from one end of the spectrum to the other in terms of genre. My guest today, Stephen Penner, is a perfect example of such — the versatile author.

I met Stephen when we both worked on stories for the anthology, The Dead Shoe Society. Stephen coordinated deadlines and acted as the group cheerleader, kick-starting our own NaNoShoeMo in the month of October, with the goal of finishing that 10K short story in 31 days…or else (the “or else” being my threat to myself. Stephen is a very nice fellow). He also wrote a titillating line to his own great story:

Assistant District Attorney David Brunelle looked down and admired his shoes: three-inch, red leather stilettos.

I’m thrilled to host Stephen here to share on his road to publication — one that began with children’s literature and has since branched out into so much more.

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My Writing Journey

First of all, I’d like to thank Christi for giving me an opportunity to share a bit about my writing journey. She and I recently collaborated, each contributing a short story to THE DEAD SHOE SOCIETY anthology, seven very different and very excellent short stories dealing with the unexpected theme of death and shoes. As it turns out, THE DEAD SHOE SOCIETY and my story, “Lady Justice Wears Heels,” are perfectly illustrative of my writing journey and the one thing above all else that’s made it possible: the support and passion of other writers.

Several years ago I wrote a pair of paranormal mystery novels (SCOTTISH RITE and BLOOD RITE). I started the traditional agent querying process, and had a few requests to see the manuscript. But it never got past that stage and my life got busy in other areas. I set those manuscripts aside and figured I might get back to writing in a couple years.

Well, it turned out to be more like six or seven, and rather than an adult mystery, I had written and illustrated a children’s book. Times were starting to change in the publishing industry. Rather than seek an agent, I secured a publisher directly: Nimble Books, a small press in Michigan. They have now published four of my PROFESSOR BARRISTER’S DINOSAUR MYSTERIES books, and number five will be available soon.

This gave me some new motivation in my writing career. I joined Twitter and Facebook and began networking, mostly with other writers. One such writer, Michelle Anderson-Picarella, invited me to contribute to a short story anthology about the Seven Deadly Sins. I was happy to do it and wrote a decidedly un-kid friendly story about Wrath. What was great about that was the feedback I got from the other writers. Not only pointers on how to make it better, but a general acknowledgement that I could write a pretty good story.

Next came THE DEAD SHOE SOCIETY. Again, somehow I got invited to contribute. Again, it was an adult story. And again, I got encouragement and feedback from some very talented writers. Writers like Christi and Jonas Saul; Kate Cornwell and Mark Souza; Lori Gordon and E. Victoria Flynn. Very good writers. And we were going in together on a good book. Jonas and Kate knew a lot about the publishing industry and they were kind enough to share their insights.

In the meantime, I’d been watching the industry continue to change and thinking about those novels I’d written a few years back. In fact, I’d written two more novels between the children’s books (MARS STATION ALPHA and THE GODLING CLUB). So I had four finished novels just sitting on my hard drive. I wanted people to read my books. And I finally believed I was a good enough writer to put them out there and see if anyone wanted to read them.

Well, turns out they did. I’m no John Grisham or Stephen King, but people are buying and reading my books. As an author there’s no better feeling. I’ll be writing more now; my journey is just beginning.

For information on all my books, please visit http://stephenpenner.com

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Thanks, Stephen! Now to you, reader. Are you a writer who’s dedicated to one genre but thinking of another? Maybe you write young adult fiction but have an itch to publish a memoir? Or, you’ve penned a romance novel but are secretly drawn to the challenges of science-fiction. Could it be, you just toss up the story cards and wait to see where they land? Spill it.

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Writing Lessons & Pinky MacOinkus: Guest Post by Jan O’Hara

I met Jan O’Hara somewhere along the cyber highway. The when or where doesn’t matter so much as the fact that I liked her immediately. Maybe it’s her red hair or that sassy attitude or the fact that she loves Colin Firth as much (if not more) than me. Any fan of Colin is a friend of mine. I’m thrilled to host Jan today; she offers us great insight into writing and leaves us with a link to a virtual hug any time we want one. Welcome, Jan!

How Introvertus Interruptus Taught Me
Four Simple Writing Lessons

As a self-identified introvert, who generally becomes re-energized in solitude, imagine how surprised I was to find myself rocking a people-filled errand day this past summer.

It didn’t seem to matter where I went, either. Whether I was in the coffee shop, the grocery store, the bottle depot, the library, people were uniformly warm and receptive to my jokes. “Wow,” I remember thinking. “This could be addicting.” For a brief time it almost seemed possible to have a hive-free social life.

Then I caught a woman eyeing my chest.

Now, peeps, you don’t know me, but trust me when I say she wasn’t flirting with me or evaluating me as a sexual competitor. Nor was she a reality show makeover artist who’d found her next hapless victim client. Rather, she was my educator, for as her gaze scanned my boobage and a smile bloomed on her lips, I finally understood what had triggered that morning’s success:

  1. When I’d straggled out of bed and, in an unthinking moment, thrown on my husband’s pumpkin-orange t-shirt – the one with the caption My Mama Thinks I’m Special – I began to project a certain personality.
  2. Presumably thinking I was informal, approachable, and had a healthy sense of humor, strangers engaged me at an atypical level.
  3. We began a positive feedback loop in which pleasant conversation led to more of the same.
  4. The change was so profound I rethought my self-imposed label of “socially awkward.”

Why am I telling you this, and what bearing does this have on the world of writing? Well, I took a few lessons from that experience:

1. When working with people, it’s hard to go wrong if you operate from a place of self-deprecating humor. This is true whether you’re crafting blog posts, tweets, a Facebook status, or simply putting butt in chair to write fiction. People are eager to laugh and connect.

2. If the writing is going well, huzzah! Carry on. But if it isn’t and you’re trying desperately to recreate whatever worked three months or three years ago because that is the way you write best, dang it!, reconsider. Quite simply, we aren’t always the best judge of why things go well or go poorly. All we can do is experiment in a spirit of hope and tenacity until we find the combo that works for right now.

3. Be mindful of the stories you tell yourself about your struggles as a writer, because to some degree, we get what we expect. Optimists label setbacks as temporary, external, and specific to particular circumstances. So for instance, it’s healthier to say, “I haven’t mastered the art of scene transition yet,” than to say, “I suck as a writer.” (And it’s healthier to say “I tend to be an introvert” rather than “I’m a socially-awkward hermit.”)

4. Take the time to view your writing environment with fresh eyes. What does it tell the world about the importance writing plays in your life? What does it tell you? Within the resources available to you right now, are you making it as easy as possible to slip into a productive writing mode?

For instance, I work better without clutter. If my office gets away from me and I don’t have time to tidy it, I’ll head to the coffee shop or library to write, then come back to establish order.

I also work better when I don’t take myself too seriously, so I’ve tried to extrapolate that Forrest-Gump-shirt ethos to my office, using free or reasonably-priced props that require little maintenance. Once set up, they act on a subliminal level to relax me and buoy my spirits.

This is why my office walls feature Betty Boop tin art and I’ve been known to wear Mr. Bean t-shirts. My mechanical timer, which I use to motivate myself for less-pleasant tasks, is a pig named Pinky MacOinkus.

On days where I’m feeling a touch of loneliness, I switch Pinky out for a timer my brother made specifically for me. The latter displays a customized picture and sound, so every time I use it, it’s almost like getting a hug. (If you have a PC and would like to try it, you are welcome to download the TartAlarm with this link).

What about you folks? Are you an introvert who’s discovered untapped depths of extroversion? Have you worked to change your internal dialogue about your writerly struggles? If you could make one modest improvement to your writing space, what would it be? Conversely, what feature of your office brings you the most pleasure?

Jan O’Hara left her writing dreams behind for years to practice family medicine, but has found her way back to the world of fiction. Currently the voice of the Unpublished Writer on Writer Unboxed, she’s hard at work on her contemporary romances, hoping one day soon to become unqualified for the position. She lives in Alberta, Canada with her husband and two children, and welcomes visitors to her citrus-infused blog, Tartitude. You can also find her on Twitter and Facebook.
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The Key to Publication is Persistence: Welcome Author, Shannon Mayer

Shannon Mayer writes paranormal romance and is the author of the Nevermore Trilogy: Sundered (Book I); Bound (Book II); and recently-released Dauntless (Book III). One reviewer wrote this about Sundered:

It’s all YOUR FAULT! Today my hair is a mess because I overslept and couldn’t get ready for my meeting without being rushed and I hit traffic because I left a few minutes later than I normally would have, which made me 10 minutes late for my meeting in New Minas…because YOU wrote a book that…was so good that I just kept on reading because I wanted to know what was gonna happen next and then it was 2 am and the book was done and now I have to WAIT for the next one? AAARRRGGHHHHH!

How’s that for writing that brings your readers to the brink and has them begging for more? Wow! The reviews for Dauntless suggest that this kind of energy (and pull) in her writing holds out all the way to the end of the trilogy.

By day, Shannon is a farrier, and like most of us, balancing the day job with the passion to write can be a struggle. Never mind the drive it takes to carry your writing all the way to publication. Today, Shannon shares her story of how getting published is never easy, but it’s possible. And, the benefits run deeper than a finished book in hand. Welcome, Shannon!

*****

Shannon Mayer, Farrier and Author

My publication journey has not been the smoothest of roads. Though I suppose that not too many writers can say that they have had an easy time seeing their books in print. The first thing I did was write a full length, 90,000 word piece of crap that I had edited and then sent out to agents. As you can imagine, it didn’t even get a single request of the five agencies that I sent out to.

After that I moped around for a bit. Got mad. Wrote another full length novel, this one with no regard to what anyone would think and had it edited. Worked with the editor and readers for a good year on it. Queried agents, got requests to see the manuscript. Got rejected. Again.

Sucked it up, re-wrote sections of the manuscript, edited some more, paid for a conference in Seattle and went, with as much confidence as I could muster. I sat down at my first agent appointment, she requested the material; I handed her a submissions package. Thing went fast from there. The agent had me signed to her agency within a week of meeting me. It was a very exciting time.

Then it was more submissions, now to publishing houses. More rejections.  No suggestions though from the house editors on how to make the manuscript better. In fact, I got a lot of praise from the editors. They just couldn’t figure out where to put my manuscript. It was a genre buster and didn’t really fit in anywhere. Damn.

My agent seemed to lose steam after 4 rejections, and I began to wonder what was the next step. With my agent uncertain as to what I should be doing (I did ask, she said she didn’t know) I set my sights on self publishing some novellas. Not only would this give me a goal to work towards; it would keep me writing, and keep me from worrying about what the agent was doing or not doing, whichever the case was at the time.

I decided on a trilogy, started them in June 2011 and had the idea I would have the first 2 books in the trilogy out on Amazon by September 1st 2011. I lined up editors, copy editors, beta readers, proof readers and a cover artist.

Working like a mad woman in between my regular job hours I was able to get the first book out on September 2nd and the second book out on September 15th. The third book I published on October 31st.

So, where does that leave me? Agented, self published and still seeking a traditional publishing contract with a major publishing house. More importantly, it leaves me writing, and loving it.

Read more of Shannon’s work on her blog, follow her on Twitter, or like her page on Facebook. You can also purchase her books, including her most recent one, DAUNTLESS, on Amazon or on Smashwords.