It has been so many years in the making, it's hard to believe that soon I will be holding my two books in my hands. Yesterday I received the pre-proof galley for DEVIL'S DANCE and today for THE DEVIL'S DUE. As soon as I read through them and return them to the publisher, we'll have advanced one more step up the ladder.
This is a short post because I've got to get to my reading of the galleys. The longer I delay, the longer it will take to go to print.
This may sound a little egotistic, but whenever I'm at this point in a book, I try to read objectively, as though I'm not the author and have no knowledge of the story. Devil's Dance is holding up very well. I find myself wanting to keep reading even though I know the story backwards and forwards...maybe even sideways after all these years. My style has changed so much since the first attempt, and yet some elements remain the same.
ARLISS
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Author Morgan St. James to moderate Sisters in Crime panel - Free-Press-Release.com
Author Morgan St. James to moderate Sisters in Crime panel - Free-Press-Release.com
This promises to be a fun, interesting panel, open to the public in Culver City CA at the Julia Dixon Library. Morgan and fellow mystery authors Shelia Lowe, Laura Levine and Patricia Wynn share what it takes to create those wonderful mysteries...the ones where you just want to curl up and keep reading.
This promises to be a fun, interesting panel, open to the public in Culver City CA at the Julia Dixon Library. Morgan and fellow mystery authors Shelia Lowe, Laura Levine and Patricia Wynn share what it takes to create those wonderful mysteries...the ones where you just want to curl up and keep reading.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
I THINK I WAS BITTEN BY A TIME VAMPIRE!
For the past few weeks I wake up sure that I'm going to finish everything on my "to do" list. So why do I have most of the same things on my list the following day?
It seems like the internet just sucks the life out of you. You sit down to do a few things and the next thing you know, hours have passed. It's not like they're frivolous things, either. Maybe it's that I just have too much on my plate these days. I guess I'll have to learn to say a simple "no" or "I'm sorry, I can't" once in a while.
That's hard for me because I'm one of those people who think I can do everything. I've been like that my whole life.
Anyway, enough bitching. This week DEVIL'S DANCE and THE DEVIL'S DUE took another step toward the time when they will be published. The paperback/e-book/Kindle editions are at the point where the publisher is ready to set up the galleys. Of course, those must be reviewed and the cover designed, but it's one more step. The audio publisher is getting ready to record.
The moment I love is holding the newly published book in my hand and then listening to the audio book and seeing how the narrator brought the characters that were once only in my imagination to life. Hmmm. Time to start the PR and to book some advance launch signings.
Preparatory to that, here are the back-cover type blurbs for both books:
DEVIL'S DANCE
By Arliss Adams
How much physical and mental pain can a sixteen-year-old girl stand? Jeanette Connor is about to find out.
It's Chicago, 1955, and she is on the brink of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: a contract with the New York City Ballet. However, since she’s a minor, her mother must co-sign and she has different ideas. Jeanette's dream is smashed and instead she soon finds herself in a high-class brothel, being offered up as a little-girl-virgin type. Then a client beats her to within an inch of her life, and she's left for dead in the snowy night.
She vows revenge, but first has to put her broken body and shattered emotions back together. That's easier said than done, though. Her struggle to regain her life carries her to California, the land of dreams, which for Jeanette Connor will become the land of nightmares.
THE DEVIL'S DUE
By Arliss Adams
As a teenager and young adult, Jen Connor has withstood violent rape, a near-fatal illness, the loss of a husband, and the smashing of all her dreams. But that was only the beginning.
Now, at thirty, she faces a new set of challenges. As she returns to Los Angeles, the site of many of her nightmarish experiences, from her new home in Seattle, she knows what awaits her: powerful, vindictive former in-laws who are determined to reclaim Jen's son at all costs. But what she doesn't know is an evil figure from her past now calls LA home.
Her only allies are a Russian ballet instructor with shadowy contacts, an acid-tongued critic, the new man in her life, and her long-lost sister. Together they stand against Jen's adversaries, but will they be enough?
It seems like the internet just sucks the life out of you. You sit down to do a few things and the next thing you know, hours have passed. It's not like they're frivolous things, either. Maybe it's that I just have too much on my plate these days. I guess I'll have to learn to say a simple "no" or "I'm sorry, I can't" once in a while.
That's hard for me because I'm one of those people who think I can do everything. I've been like that my whole life.
Anyway, enough bitching. This week DEVIL'S DANCE and THE DEVIL'S DUE took another step toward the time when they will be published. The paperback/e-book/Kindle editions are at the point where the publisher is ready to set up the galleys. Of course, those must be reviewed and the cover designed, but it's one more step. The audio publisher is getting ready to record.
The moment I love is holding the newly published book in my hand and then listening to the audio book and seeing how the narrator brought the characters that were once only in my imagination to life. Hmmm. Time to start the PR and to book some advance launch signings.
Preparatory to that, here are the back-cover type blurbs for both books:
DEVIL'S DANCE
By Arliss Adams
How much physical and mental pain can a sixteen-year-old girl stand? Jeanette Connor is about to find out.
It's Chicago, 1955, and she is on the brink of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: a contract with the New York City Ballet. However, since she’s a minor, her mother must co-sign and she has different ideas. Jeanette's dream is smashed and instead she soon finds herself in a high-class brothel, being offered up as a little-girl-virgin type. Then a client beats her to within an inch of her life, and she's left for dead in the snowy night.
She vows revenge, but first has to put her broken body and shattered emotions back together. That's easier said than done, though. Her struggle to regain her life carries her to California, the land of dreams, which for Jeanette Connor will become the land of nightmares.
THE DEVIL'S DUE
By Arliss Adams
As a teenager and young adult, Jen Connor has withstood violent rape, a near-fatal illness, the loss of a husband, and the smashing of all her dreams. But that was only the beginning.
Now, at thirty, she faces a new set of challenges. As she returns to Los Angeles, the site of many of her nightmarish experiences, from her new home in Seattle, she knows what awaits her: powerful, vindictive former in-laws who are determined to reclaim Jen's son at all costs. But what she doesn't know is an evil figure from her past now calls LA home.
Her only allies are a Russian ballet instructor with shadowy contacts, an acid-tongued critic, the new man in her life, and her long-lost sister. Together they stand against Jen's adversaries, but will they be enough?
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
THIS IS WHEN IT GETS EXCITING!
Right before Christmas I finished going through the pre-publication edits so the editor could send the manuscript for DEVIL'S DANCE back to L&L Dreamspell. Next comes the preparation of the galley and cover. The other day I received an e-mail from Books in Motion. I didn't think they would be recording the audio book until the 2nd quarter of 2010, but lo and behold, they are ready to record and it looks like all formats will be released at the same time.
How cool is that? After fourteen years, the book will be reality, with the second book in the set, THE DEVIL'S DUE, to follow shortly afterwards.
I can't wait to see the cover, and of course hold the book in my hand. DEVIL'S DANCE is dedicated to all of the young girls and women who have and have not survived kidnapping and/or rape.
The fictional story of Jen Connor's struggle to rise above what happened to her is not that different than what is happening all the time in reality. This book is set in 1956, when Jen is seventeen years old, and follows her life to the point where it is finally getting back on track after a series of tragedies. This is the story of a scared, intimidated girl becoming a self-confident woman and going on to help others.
When I said it is still happening, only a few months ago there was a story on TV about a teen who had been kidnapped by her good friend's father and sold into a brothel. That girl managed to escape. It never seems to end, and I am happy to shine a spotlight on this in the hope of raising awareness. It's much different now than it was in 1956 in most ways, but this is something that seems to prevail.
Her story picks up in THE DEVIL'S DUE and evolves into a mystery.
How cool is that? After fourteen years, the book will be reality, with the second book in the set, THE DEVIL'S DUE, to follow shortly afterwards.
I can't wait to see the cover, and of course hold the book in my hand. DEVIL'S DANCE is dedicated to all of the young girls and women who have and have not survived kidnapping and/or rape.
The fictional story of Jen Connor's struggle to rise above what happened to her is not that different than what is happening all the time in reality. This book is set in 1956, when Jen is seventeen years old, and follows her life to the point where it is finally getting back on track after a series of tragedies. This is the story of a scared, intimidated girl becoming a self-confident woman and going on to help others.
When I said it is still happening, only a few months ago there was a story on TV about a teen who had been kidnapped by her good friend's father and sold into a brothel. That girl managed to escape. It never seems to end, and I am happy to shine a spotlight on this in the hope of raising awareness. It's much different now than it was in 1956 in most ways, but this is something that seems to prevail.
Her story picks up in THE DEVIL'S DUE and evolves into a mystery.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Okay, okay, I've been really quiet for a while, but I'm back on the scene. A DREAM LOST is now entitled DEVIL'S DANCE but the second book is still THE DEVIL'S DUE.
In the middle of moving from one townhouse to another, the first edit for BOTH books came in. There I sat, surrounded by movers, boxes, more movers, more boxes, trying to work through the first half of DEVIL'S DANCE, when the second half came in.
And so it went for almost ten days. Unpack another box, crawl over one, curse not being able to find what I needed, read another of the editor's chapters, then start all over again. The first half was followed by the second half, which was followed by the second edit of both...and about forty unpacked boxes!
Okay, time for an exhale? Not on your life. THE DEVIL'S DUE came right on the heels of DEVIL'S DANCE. Latest report...all edits gone through, changes made and manuscript approved for galley for both books and only about twenty-five more boxes to go.
Today's good news...the contracts for the audio books came in, so 2010 should be an exciting year for me.
More later.
ARLISS
In the middle of moving from one townhouse to another, the first edit for BOTH books came in. There I sat, surrounded by movers, boxes, more movers, more boxes, trying to work through the first half of DEVIL'S DANCE, when the second half came in.
And so it went for almost ten days. Unpack another box, crawl over one, curse not being able to find what I needed, read another of the editor's chapters, then start all over again. The first half was followed by the second half, which was followed by the second edit of both...and about forty unpacked boxes!
Okay, time for an exhale? Not on your life. THE DEVIL'S DUE came right on the heels of DEVIL'S DANCE. Latest report...all edits gone through, changes made and manuscript approved for galley for both books and only about twenty-five more boxes to go.
Today's good news...the contracts for the audio books came in, so 2010 should be an exciting year for me.
More later.
ARLISS
Friday, September 4, 2009
WHAT IF I WAS THE CHARACTER?
I went through so many emotions when writing these two books, it made me step back and wonder "what if I really was this character?" This woman who progresses from terrified teen in A DREAM LOST to a talented woman in charge of herself, determined to get even for what happened to her, in THE DEVIL'S DUE. How would I have weathered the situations I placed Jen in?
Let's start at the beginning.
Somehow we think about horrible experiences as being what happens to other people...not us. But, when you are in the head of a character you've placed in peril, in my opinion, you have to feel what they feel to make them three dimensional. I don't know of a reader who likes learning about cardboard characters. Like an actress or actor, sometimes you have to think about things that happened to you to get in touch with how the character would be affected.
Someone once told me that reactions are strange things. You see someone trip, then fall. Inexplicably, you start to giggle. Why? Not because you thought it was funny, but because you are relieved it didn't happen to you. Think about that? Have you ever done it or something similar? I remember seeing a crash on the freeway and feeling almost giddy...it was their car, not mine.
So how you would really feel if you woke up in a strange room, couldn't move and realized that you were bound hand and foot. Couldn't call out because of the gag cutting into your mouth. Heart pounding, what do you do?
When I'd reached, oh probably the eighth or ninth draft...remember, I worked on this over a very long period of time...I read that first chapter aloud in a writer's group. One of the members said, "It's a good beginning. It grabs you, but you've got it wrong. I was kidnapped and one of the first things I did was move my fingers and toes to make sure they were there. Sounds strange, but it's what I did. I think she should do that somewhere in the first chapter, trying to get a grip on reality. Where is she? Why? Is everything in tact, or has she been hurt? Let the reader feel her terror."
Another member said, "I don't think she'd think in full sentences. Try short bursts. I think that's what I would do in that situation. Hell, I can't picture having the reasoning power to construct perfect sentences when panic is setting in."
I took their suggestions and went back to the drawing board again. Now A DREAM LOST starts like this:
CHAPTER 1
A door slamming makes one jump, but it doesn't make one afraid. What one fears is the serpent that crawls underneath it. Collette, Cheri
CHICAGO, NOVEMBER, 1956.
I didn’t care if I ever opened my eyes again. Had it really been a year? A whole year of forcing myself to go on? Images raced through my mind like the pictures in one of those flip books—the kind that look like they’re moving when the pages are fanned.
As each new image appeared, my feeling of terror built. They sped up, swirling faster and faster.
Flip. Flip. Flip.
Soon the sheet was drenched with perspiration. A non-stop string of panicked thoughts taunted me. Can’t breathe. Arms, legs. Hurt. Move, move. Paralyzed? Please God, not polio. Relax. Breathe. Nightmare. Where’s Mama? Work early? Breathe. Breathe. Judy still here?
Shout!
I tried to cry out, but my tongue slid around something wedged in my mouth, while hot tears welled in my eyes.
Concentrate!
I fixed on bits of dust clinging to a leafy design pressed into the plaster ceiling, thinking they looked like furry caterpillars ready to spin cocoons.
Flip. Flip. Flip.
The realization hit me like a sledgehammer. Not my ceiling! Not my room!
Well, that gives you a little taste of what's to come. The next post will discuss how I moved on from there.
---Arliss Adams
COMING IN 2010
A DREAM LOST
THE DEVIL'S DUE
Let's start at the beginning.
Somehow we think about horrible experiences as being what happens to other people...not us. But, when you are in the head of a character you've placed in peril, in my opinion, you have to feel what they feel to make them three dimensional. I don't know of a reader who likes learning about cardboard characters. Like an actress or actor, sometimes you have to think about things that happened to you to get in touch with how the character would be affected.
Someone once told me that reactions are strange things. You see someone trip, then fall. Inexplicably, you start to giggle. Why? Not because you thought it was funny, but because you are relieved it didn't happen to you. Think about that? Have you ever done it or something similar? I remember seeing a crash on the freeway and feeling almost giddy...it was their car, not mine.
So how you would really feel if you woke up in a strange room, couldn't move and realized that you were bound hand and foot. Couldn't call out because of the gag cutting into your mouth. Heart pounding, what do you do?
When I'd reached, oh probably the eighth or ninth draft...remember, I worked on this over a very long period of time...I read that first chapter aloud in a writer's group. One of the members said, "It's a good beginning. It grabs you, but you've got it wrong. I was kidnapped and one of the first things I did was move my fingers and toes to make sure they were there. Sounds strange, but it's what I did. I think she should do that somewhere in the first chapter, trying to get a grip on reality. Where is she? Why? Is everything in tact, or has she been hurt? Let the reader feel her terror."
Another member said, "I don't think she'd think in full sentences. Try short bursts. I think that's what I would do in that situation. Hell, I can't picture having the reasoning power to construct perfect sentences when panic is setting in."
I took their suggestions and went back to the drawing board again. Now A DREAM LOST starts like this:
CHAPTER 1
A door slamming makes one jump, but it doesn't make one afraid. What one fears is the serpent that crawls underneath it. Collette, Cheri
CHICAGO, NOVEMBER, 1956.
I didn’t care if I ever opened my eyes again. Had it really been a year? A whole year of forcing myself to go on? Images raced through my mind like the pictures in one of those flip books—the kind that look like they’re moving when the pages are fanned.
As each new image appeared, my feeling of terror built. They sped up, swirling faster and faster.
Flip. Flip. Flip.
Soon the sheet was drenched with perspiration. A non-stop string of panicked thoughts taunted me. Can’t breathe. Arms, legs. Hurt. Move, move. Paralyzed? Please God, not polio. Relax. Breathe. Nightmare. Where’s Mama? Work early? Breathe. Breathe. Judy still here?
Shout!
I tried to cry out, but my tongue slid around something wedged in my mouth, while hot tears welled in my eyes.
Concentrate!
I fixed on bits of dust clinging to a leafy design pressed into the plaster ceiling, thinking they looked like furry caterpillars ready to spin cocoons.
Flip. Flip. Flip.
The realization hit me like a sledgehammer. Not my ceiling! Not my room!
Well, that gives you a little taste of what's to come. The next post will discuss how I moved on from there.
---Arliss Adams
COMING IN 2010
A DREAM LOST
THE DEVIL'S DUE
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