author guest post - Tor/Forge Blog

Notes from K’wan on Passion for the Heist

August 20, 2024October 1, 2024Ariana Carpentieri

A crime would bring them together, grief would bind them and love would make them famous.

Parish “Pain” Wells is a man freshly reintroduced to society, after serving time in state prison. Prior to his fall, Pain had been a heist man who showed the promise of someone who could go on to be a legend. His trajectory changed on the night he had made the mistake of accepting a ride from a friend, and found himself behind bars for the one crime he hadn’t committed. Several years later, Pain returns home to a world that wouldn’t piss on him if he was on fire. The only one who still remains in his corner is his ailing grandmother. It’s for her sake that Pain tries to stay on the straight and narrow. He’s tired of breaking her heart and vows to be a good grandson, but when her medical bills start mounting he finds himself backed into a corner. He needs money, fast, and there’s only one way he knows how to get it.

Since her parents died and Passion Adams found herself a ward of her estranged uncle, a gangster who everyone calls Uncle Joe, her life has been on a constant downward spiral. She moves like a ghost from one day to the next, numbing her pain with drugs and alcohol, while seeking thrills in unsavory places. One morning Passion finds herself the victim of a robbery and the thieves snatch from her the only thing of value that she has left in the world, a locket containing the ashes of her deceased parents. Passion is devastated, fearing she would never see the locket again until it shows up later in the hands of a handsome stranger, who brings something into Passion’s life that has eluded her since the death of her parents… hope.

The two broken souls find themselves inescapably drawn into each other’s orbits, and begin their journey of finding lives outside the ones of poverty and sorrow that their worlds had condemned them to. But when shadows from both their pasts threaten their happiness, Passion and Pain set out on an adventure that would make them hunted by law enforcement and celebrated by the underworld. What initially starts out as a mission of vindication quickly turns into a fight for survival.

Read onwards to see K’wan’s notes on Passion for the Heist, including inspiration, what he’s currently loving, a playlist, and tips for aspiring writers!

by K’wan:

My Inspiration Behind Passion for the Heist:

The Inspiration behind Passion for the Heist? I don’t know if I can narrow it down to one thing, or instance, but it was Nina Simone who gave the book its soul. She has a song called “Black Bird,” which I love. I felt like the lyrics were articulating the story I was putting tougher. The character names (Pain, Lil Sorrow, Lonley, etc) were taken from the song.

Five things I’m loving right now (outside of my family, obviously):

House of The Dragon (though season 2 left me feeling incomplete)
Discovering new authors. I’ve come across some hidden gems.
Getting back into cooking. I used to do it a lot and post the finished products on my socials, but I fell off for a time.
Screenwriting. It’s a welcome reset for my brain in between novels.
Becoming more familiar with social media. I’ve always known how to do the basics, general posts and stuff, but technology has come a long way since the MySpace days. There’s a ton of different things I’ve found advantageous both in business and personally. I’m a junkie for learning about new things, so I’m kind of trying to catch up on that.

Playlist:

I have a playlist for Passion that my readers can check out on my Apple music page, as I have playlists for a lot of my books. For Passion for the Heist, I’ll share the essentials:

NY State of Mind by Nas
Shakey Dog by Ghostface
Black Bird by Nina Simone
Crash This Train by Joshua James
Come Join The Murder by The White Buffalo & The Forrest Rangers
Things Done Changed by Biggie
Gimmie the Loot by Biggie
Take it Back by Wu Tang
Dread Loc by Meshell Ndegeocello (that’s Passion’s theme)

Tips for aspiring writers:

To master anything, you must first be a student of it. Respect the craft. Writing isn’t a thing you do, it’s something you have to obsess over. Most importantly, always write from your heart and not what you think people want to read.

My personal experiences are channeled in the stories, but using people, places and things I’ve encountered in life to give my character true souls—it’s what makes them real. I’ve walked a lot of these places I write about and have interacted with the people. Art should always imitate life.

Click below to pre-order your copy of Passion for the Heist, available August 27th, 2024!

Author Features / New Releases / What's New

The Inspiration Behind A Certain Kind of Starlight: ‘Stars Fell’ by Heather Webber

July 13, 2024October 1, 2024Ariana Carpentieri

In the face of hardship, two women, Addie and Tessa Jane, learn how to rise up again under the bright side of the stars in A Certain Kind of Starlight, the next book from USA Today bestselling author Heather Webber, “the queen of magical small-town charm” (Amy E. Reichert). Under the bright side of the stars, Addie and Tessa Jane come to see that magic can be found in trusting yourself, that falling apart is simply a chance to rise up again, stronger than ever, and that the heart usually knows the best path through the darkness.

Read below to see Heather’s beautiful statement on the inspiration behind her upcoming novel, A Certain Kind of Starlight!

by Heather Webber:

Stars Fell

In a couple of weeks, I’ll be in a car, headed south to Alabama. Just like I was back in 2007, when I visited the state for the first time. In the way that some things never change, I’m sure I’ll be eating things not very good for me, listening to music and singing—badly—along. I’ll probably groan at the traffic in Nashville and break into a big smile when I see the green Welcome to Alabama road sign.

After I cross the state line, I know I’ll start looking for Alabama license plates that have Stars Fell on Alabama written on them, because there’s a soft spot in my heart for those plates, that phrase.

Back in 2007, when I saw the plates for the first time, I didn’t know the story behind the phrase. I quickly learned it was in reference to a widespread meteor shower in 1833, where it appeared as though hundreds of stars were falling from the sky. I was enchanted with the thought of it.

Although I’ve referenced the celestial event a couple of times in previous books, I knew one day I wanted to write a whole magical story around a fallen star—and I did just that in A Certain Kind of Starlight.

In the novel, the town of Starlight, Alabama, is famous for the field where a star once fell a hundred years before, leaving behind a shallow crater. At night that crater glows with a magical aurora where people can find clarity and guidance in the light. No one needs that clarity more than two sisters who come back to town to help their beloved aunt run her bakery while she deals with health problems.

At its core, it’s a story about broken hearts, literal and figurative, and trying to heal them even while knowing they might not be fixable. And although the book deals with some tough topics, it’s a heartwarming story full of love, forgiveness, healing, and learning that only through darkness can stars shine the brightest.

During my upcoming trip to Alabama, I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on the skies at night, watching for falling stars. And during the day, I’ll keep hopeful eyes on the road, looking for the license plate that inspired this story, even though those plates were retired in 2009.

Will I see one?

I think so.

Because, as we know, I’m a big believer in southern magic.

Click below to pre-order your copy of A Certain Kind of Starlight, available July 23rd, 2024!

Author Features / New Releases / On Writing / What's New

Peering Skyward: Looking Up from the Bottom of the Research Rabbit Hole by T. R. Hendricks

April 12, 2024June 11, 2024Ariana Carpentieri

T. R. Hendricks’s Derek Harrington returns in The Infiltrator, an adventure of man vs wild—and the domestic terrorists hidden there.

One year after the clash with his former students in upstate New York, retired Marine Warrant Officer and SERE instructor Derek Harrington is the tip of the FBI’s spear in their mission to eradicate the domestic terrorist group known as Autumn’s Tithe. After several successful operations, intelligence points to one final camp in the remote Kentucky wilderness, and Derek prepares to take down Autumn’s Tithe for good.

At the same time ex-FBI Special Agent Hannah Kittle, or Sarah as she is known to the group, devises a plan to meet Derek and her one-time Bureau colleagues head on. Yet her benefactor’s faith in Sarah’s ability to lead Autumn’s Tithe is waning, and other plans are being enacted. Knowing full well what it means for her should those plans succeed where she has failed, Sarah will stop at nothing to see that she is the victor.

As the competing agendas unravel, events place Derek and Sarah on a collision course, setting the stage for a confrontation that will bring Autumn’s Tithe right to Derek’s doorstep.

Read below to see T. R. Hendricks’s take on what it means to do in-depth research for the sake of writing, and how falling down ‘the research rabbit hole’ is paramount in developing precise details that’ll help build an excellent story!

By T. R. Hendricks:

Chances are that if you’re on this website right now, you’re just as familiar with the jokes and memes about writers and their research as I am. The ever classic, “If the FBI ever saw my search history,” elicits no small number of chuckles, but it also rings true with dogged perseverance. Yes, we all go down the rabbit hole at times, but in this context it is done so in the pursuit of those elusive details. The ones we know that once discovered will add an extra layer of authenticity – even credibility for having done the work – in turn elevating our manuscripts to the next level.

In the, “this will surprise no one category” there was no small amount of research into prominent components such as survival skills, military equipment and weaponry, and even the psychology of cults when writing both THE INSTRUCTOR and THE INFILTRATOR. But the devil is in the details, and those details at times required lengthy stretches searching for them. I can recall specifically with THE INSTRUCTOR (we’ll keep it here to avoid sequel spoilers) numerous ventures into the undiscovered country that is the world wide web.

There was one iteration researching the Yankees schedule in early summer of 2018 that resulted in a blowout win. In a podcast I recently did, I explained how I had to spend an hour searching for the USMC regulation articulating the number of folds and measurements of each for the sheet and blanket on recruit racks (beds) just to be certain my Army upbringing didn’t skew that point. “How long to bleed out from a puncture wound of the femoral artery” I’m sure made a great addition to my NSA watch list tally, especially since I made one of those memes I mentioned earlier out of it.

The physics of beaver dams. Velocity of a ball bearing fired from a slingshot. Man traps utilized by the Viet Cong. The physiology of envenomation by bamboo vipers and timber rattlers on the human body. Fun times.

I’m of the opinion that this research, even if delving into hours-long rabbit hole sessions, not only counts as writing, but is indicative of talent that manages to blend them into the story so that they are seamless rather than just window dressing. It may be that the research is limited in its application. For a recent project I’m working on, I spent two weeks getting the details down for a single chapter. Other times the research may result in only a paragraph, even a sentence. Sometimes you’ll never use them at all, because the idea that spawned the search didn’t materialize in the story. Other times you’ll nail it, and then have to kill that precious research bunny darling in the editing phase.

My point being, the rabbit holes are a necessary process (provided you stay on topic and don’t miss deadlines because of it – looking at you, TikTok.) The time put into research early on will manifest into productivity later because you know exactly what you want to say with the details to back it up. Moreover, that single chapter/paragraph/sentence could mean all the difference between readers saying, “this author gets it” and “this author hasn’t the first clue what they’re talking about.” Yikes. I’m sure you’ll agree that we’re all trying our damnedest to avoid the preposterous-induced eye roll.

All that said, I thought it might be a fun take to show you how I arrived at the bottom of a particularly long hare hollow. This journey relates to both preliminary overall plot construction and specific scene orchestration elements for the yet-to-be-title-revealed third installment in the Derek Harrington series. Reader beware: beyond this point is a front row seat to how my mind chains stuff together.

No shit, there I was (obligatory Army vernacular to start the story) sitting down to an afternoon free of obligations, save for the blank page on my screen and the keys beneath my fingers. First I needed a remote location to set the scene, but not too remote. There needed to be an airport nearby and a town large enough to accommodate the presence of a VA hospital or clinic. I settled on a place in Michigan, which then led to the next need, a Mom and Pop coffee shop in said town, complete with their menu and specialty caffeinated concoctions.

To work another angle, I drifted into U.S. Government Accountability Office reports and a congressional mandated assessment on the current state of Veterans Affairs infrastructure (stimulating reading, by the way). For a conversation in the upcoming scene, I needed to search for terminology denoting the study of the way in which certain body movements and gestures serve as a form of nonverbal communication (it’s kinesics). Obligatory hardware searches into the Army’s next generation rifle followed, so as to give my sentries the latest in available weaponry.

Do you know what corner of the U.S. government handles experimental web hosting? Yeah, neither did I. To facilitate the ensuing conversation resulting from the kinesics dialogue, I then went diving for that little nugget. Turns out there’s a whole organization called the Defense Information Systems Agency. Who knew?

The set up for a character introduction turned into looking up the various departments within the FBI, most notably what would be considered Internal Affairs for the Bureau. However, as I wanted this character to be a woman of Israeli-American descent, I then ventured into dual citizenship requirements between the two countries, which chained into female combat positions within the IDF, which prompted a prolonged search for a PDF copy of a Krav Maga combatives manual, and ultimately landed me in a search for the top ten most beautiful Israeli women in the world to model my character’s appearance after (I can assure you that any lingering on this last search parameter was purely for character development).

To make a comparison to turbulence, I wanted to reference a mechanical bull. My next search was, “Average mechanical bull ride times for beginners.” However, to accurately place the bull in Derek’s backstory, I had to spend the next few minutes venturing into the location of the USMC’s School of Infantry. After finding it was Camp Lejeune, I had to then research what the School of Infantry’s weekend liberty policy was, to see if it was even feasible that a young boot Derek would be allowed to venture into a bar in nearby Jacksonville, North Carolina to witness and/or participate in a mechanical bull ride.

Since I had now introduced turbulence during a flight – a flight involving a prisoner transfer – further down the tunnel I went. Stick with me here. I started with the Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System utilized by the Federal Bureau of Prisons and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. This turned into research on the aircraft assets available internally to the Department of Justice, which subsequently led back to another GAO report on the misappropriation of DOJ aircraft (again, riveting stuff).

Thus ruling out the government’s air transportation, I turned to researching the types, range, passenger capacity, and cost of chartered private jets. These planes had to then be cross-referenced with the size of the airport in the town I picked in Michigan, plus the nautical miles necessary to travel to New Jersey, to ensure that the jet I chose would both have the fuel to make the trip and capability to land on the runways in both locations.

Having arrived at the end of my three and a half hour writing session, I saw that the research rabbit hole had allowed me to produce a whopping 309 words. However, they were 309 highly detailed and accurate words that lent themselves to not only authenticity, but also critical and convincing components to the story. Do I wish I had put more down that day? Sure. Do I regret spending that much time burrowing? Not at all.

This is how I like to write. It’s the level of exactness I want to get to. Sure, some details could be fictionalized. I could easily extend the runway in my Michigan town if I needed to. Things like that fall in the reasonable suspension of disbelief all the time, and I make allowances for them when necessary. But for the others, the ones that shouldn’t be glossed over, this is the pursuit that in my humble opinion, takes a story from good to great.

So yeah, stop worrying about time spent searching. Go ahead and follow the rabbit to that elusive tidbit. This session might have only been 309 words, but having done the work, future sessions would be in the thousands. If it’s your style, look for those details until it makes your writing pop and your heart content. Just make sure you don’t branch off (at least not too much).

Gal Gadot is quite distracting. I get it.

Click below to pre-order your copy of The Infiltrator, available April 23rd, 2024!

Author Features / New Releases / On Writing / What's New

Big Magic and The Argument I had with my Main Character by Carol Dunbar

July 25, 2023March 7, 2024Ariana Carpentieri

A harrowing and emotional novel set in rural Wisconsin—A Winter’s Rime explores the impact of generational trauma, and one woman’s journey to find peace and healing from the violence of her past.

Mallory Moe is a twenty-five-year-old veteran Army mechanic, living with her girlfriend, Andrea, and working overnights at a gas station store while figuring out what’s next. Andrea’s off-grid cabin provides a perfect sanctuary for Mallory, a synesthete with a hypersensitivity to sound that can trigger flashbacks from her childhood.

The getaway that’s largely abandoned during the off season starts out idyllic, until Andrea’s once-loving behavior turns controlling and abusive, and Mallory once again finds herself not wanting to go home. After a particularly disturbing altercation, Mallory escapes into the subzero night and stumbles into Shay, a teenage girl, injured and asking for help. But it isn’t long before she realizes that Shay isn’t the only one who needs saving.

A story about sisterhood and second chances, A Winter’s Rime looks to nature to find what it can teach us about bearing hardship and expanding our capacity to forgive—not just others, but ourselves.

Carol Dunbar is the author of the critically acclaimed novels, The Net Beneath Us—winner of the Wisconsin Writers: Edna Ferber Fiction Book Award, and A Winter’s Rime. Read below to see the inspiration behind her upcoming book, finding the voice of her main character, and how she discovered the best way to tell her story!

By Carol Dunbar:

The idea for my second novel dropped into my head whole and perfect like an egg; at its center glowed the yolk of my personal experience with trauma and what I was still trying to understand.

Most of that first draft I wrote by hand in journals: the process felt intimate, confessional, and propulsive. My main character Mallory came through very strong for me. She was ready to tell her story; as a writer, I felt ready to receive it. It was a magical partnership.

Then, we got into an argument about the right way to tell her story.

In her book about the creative process, Big Magic, author Elizabeth Gilbert writes about how ideas swirl around us begging for attention until we agree to take them on and make them manifest. I totally truck with that. I was 30,000 words into an entirely different novel when this story took hold. I knew I had to write it, and I knew I had to write it now.

The plot centers around Mallory Moe, an army veteran returning home after serving overseas, who is going through a quarter-life crisis. She can’t sleep, she’s in a bad relationship, and she hasn’t talked to anyone in her family in four years. To avoid being home she goes on long walks after working overnight shifts at a gas station store. One night, she runs into Shay, a teenage girl who is injured and asking for help. Shay is in even worse shape than Mallory, and in trying to help her, Mallory is finally motivated to confront the violence of her past.

For guidance on how to tell this story, I looked to Elizabeth Strout’s My Name is Lucy Barton. I thought her fiction-as-memoir style would work well for Mallory’s story of healing, and I studied the opening chapters of Lucy Barton, breaking them down beat by beat. I typed out the entire first draft of A Winter’s Rime in first person, using Mallory’s voice. I printed out that draft and put it away for six weeks.

When I went back and read, it didn’t work.

First person was the wrong voice for the story because it was Mallory who was undergoing the transformation. She didn’t yet have the self-awareness for those moments of self-discovery. I needed third person for its distance and ability to navigate and weave the past and present narratives.

My next draft I wrote in third person, and everyone in my writing group was like, “Woah, what did you do? This is so much better.” It worked, but I kept getting these strong nudges from Mallory. Sometimes when writing I would slip into first person, and this was very confusing to me. I thought I had the voice wrong, so I hit the pause button and started experimenting again.

I tested out second-person, using the epistolary style that Ocean Vuong so artfully employed in On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. It has this propulsive quality to it—he’s absolutely driven to understand what happened to him and his mother; Mallory is absolutely trying to understand what happened to her. For several weeks I played around with writing the book as a letter from Mallory to Shay, but that also resulted in another failure.

I went to a three-day workshop taught by Diane Wilson, author of The Seed Keeper. I told her about my struggle with how to tell this story, and she suggested I try using a rotating first-person voice. I had used a rotating third-person voice in my first novel, The Net Beneath Us, and I loved being able to view the same event through the eyes of multiple characters. The next morning, I eagerly dove into the exercise that Wilson had taught us.

Using the full name of another main character in my novel, I closed my eyes and said the words, “Noah Quakenbush, tell me your story.” Then I listened, ready to write. And it was really funny because he would not talk to me. I heard nothing but birds chirping from outside. Everybody clammed up, none of my characters would talk, and I got the sense that they were afraid to talk. This was Mallory’s story, and they knew it.

Okay, fine, I thought. I can get on board with that, but as the writer, I needed to find a voice structure that worked for the book.

In No Country for Old Men, Cormac McCarthy used both first and third-person voices. I studied that, then did an entirely new treatment of the novel, using the third-person voice for the main driving action of the story, with italicized first-person passages where the healed Mallory got to talk, sharing her insights. When my agent read it, she didn’t like those italicized passages. None of my readers did—they got in the way of the plot’s momentum, and messy Mallory was way more interesting.

It felt to me like I was in a wrestling match with my main character and I didn’t know how to make both of us happy.

At an author event with Elizabeth Strout, I asked her how she knew that first-person was the right voice for her Lucy Barton novels. She told me, “Voice is the golden thread that I follow when writing. I trust it implicitly.” Those words gave me the balls to press on and trust my crazy process.

What I found was the monologue. Instead of recounting what happened to Mallory as a backstory scene, I used first-person monologues in present-action scenes, where Mallory is finally able to tell her story for the first time. She can only do this once she meets Shay, and that makes their scenes so much more powerful. It was very moving to me, to hear a survivor talk after years of not being able to talk.

Finally, Mallory and I were in agreement.

I’m really glad I trusted my instincts and kept searching for the right way to tell this story. I do believe there is something to Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic, that as writers we are “neither slave to inspiration nor its masters, but something far more interesting—its partner.”

Click below to pre-order A Winter’s Rime, available 9.12.23!

Author Features / Behind the Scenes / On Writing

On Writing In Constraints by Jacqueline Carey

July 7, 2023July 6, 2023Rachel Taylor1 Comment

Writers love a challenge and today Jacqueline Carey, author of Kushiel’s Dart and the upcoming companion novel, Cassiel’s Servant, joins us on the blog to discuss the constraints around writing. Check it out here!

By Jacqueline Carey

I enjoy writing in constraints.

I’m not talking about the kind that come with straps and buckles and blindfolds… although to be fair, I’ve written about those constraints more than your average fantasy author. When your heroine has been chosen by the angel of punishment to experience pleasure in pain, you’ve got to expect a healthy dose of spice.

No, literary constraints are what I’m talking about. CASSIEL’S SERVANT is a companion novel. It mirrors KUSHIEL’S DART at every step of the way. From the outset, we see our protagonists embark as children on parallel paths, growing into the roles that will define them. And once their paths merge, the entirety of Joscelin’s actions and dialogue in CASSIEL’S SERVANT is constrained by the framework of KUSHIEL’S DART. And since that novel was narrated by Phèdre nó Delaunay, who misses little and forgets less, there wasn’t a whole lot of wiggle room in terms of events.

So why write it?

A number of years ago, I wrote a poem on commission for a benefit. I pledged an Elizabethan sonnet and polled readers. Overwhelmingly, fans wanted a love poem from Joscelin, my stoic warrior-priest, to Phèdre, the daring courtesan who stole his heart. For the first time, Joscelin spoke. Not just lines of dialogue—he opened up his inner narrative. And it turns out that my taciturn hero given to letting his blades talk for him is more thoughtful and self-aware than I knew, with a keen sense of the absurd.

I wasn’t sold on it right away. I took a detour into the desert with a different warrior brotherhood in STARLESS, but it wasn’t enough to silence Joscelin’s inner voice. It was stuck in my head like a refrain. Finally, I allowed myself to imagine what Phèdre and Joscelin’s journey might look like through his eyes.

A lot different.

One thing about constraints, they force you to be creative, patient and diligent. My Sundering duology was constrained by the concept—LORD OF THE RINGS reenvisioned as epic tragedy. It was constrained by copyright issues that meant I had to recreate Tolkien’s plot structure and build a world to support it in forms that were at once original and yet recognizable as mirrors of the source material.

More recently, MIRANDA AND CALIBAN is a retelling of Shakespeare’s The Tempest which was wholly constrained by the original source material. There’s a lot of empty space between the beginning and the ending of that play. Like twelve years’ worth! It allows room for creative improvisation.

Side note: Renaissance magic is wwaaaayy more boring than you might expect. My commitment to historical authenticity forged some surprising constraints. Renaissance magic is mostly astrology and casting horoscopes. Kind of like a slumber party for gouty mathematicians and their wealthy patrons.

In some ways, CASSIEL’S SERVANT might be the tightest literary squeeze yet. I had to adhere to my own original source material. Once we left the Prefectory of the Cassiline Brotherhood, there were very few opportunities for improvisation within the strictures of the plot.

But it doesn’t necessarily take a lot of space to land a knockout.

One thing (among many) for which Bruce Lee was famous was the “one-inch punch,” featured in various Southern Chinese martial arts styles. According to Wikipedia and the countless kung fu movies I watched in college, this is a skill which generates tremendous amounts of impact force at extremely close distances. MythBusters registered the impact of a one-inch punch at 153 lbs with a force gauge. Uma Thurman one-inch punched her way out of a buried coffin in Kill Bill.

For me, writing with constraints requires a similar skill. It forces me to concentrate on extracting the maximum dramatic impact from any pivotal scene. And the one place of freedom, of expansiveness, of infinite possibility, within the story as it unfurls is inside of Joscelin himself.

There’s a lot of intrigue in KUSHIEL’S DART. Picking apart the tangled threads is one of the pleasures Phèdre’s perspective as a courtesan, spy and pawn in this ongoing game of crowns and thrones affords.

Joscelin, on the other hand, would be hard put to care less about political intrigue. It’s not just that he’s uninterested in it—it takes a shocking turn of events for him to fully grasp the fact that this frivolous-seeming assignment is deadly serious. It’s also due to the fact that House Verreuil is basically a D’Angeline version of “old money”. Political maneuvering and speculation are considered gauche. If you have some interesting thoughts on dog breeding or hydraulics, they’re all ears, but money and politics are things one does not discuss in polite society.

Fittingly, Joscelin’s life is circumscribed by constraint. As the middle son of an old aristocratic family, he’s pledged from birth to the Cassiline Brotherhood, bound by tradition and filial duty. He’s bound by his vows and his own sense of honor. Falling in love with Phèdre is the one-inch punch that turns his world upside down and shatters his heart to pieces. Writing in constraints has its rewards!

There are plenty of fight scenes in CASSIEL’S SERVANT and I loved writing them from Joscelin’s view in the thick of the fray—even during the numerous times he went down swinging in captivity. But for me, nothing lands as hard as that one-inch punch of true love.

Jacqueline Carey is the New York Timesbestselling author of the critically acclaimed and award-winning Kushiel’s Legacy series of historical fantasy novels. Recent novels include the Shakespearean adaptation Miranda and Caliban and the epic fantasy standalone Starless. Carey enjoys doing research on a wide variety of arcane topics, and an affinity for travel has taken her from Iceland to China to date. She currently lives in West Michigan.

Pre-order Cassiel’s Servant Here:

Author Features / New Releases / On Writing / What's New

Author Mixology: Crafting a Military Thriller that Packs a Punch and Goes Down Smooth

April 14, 2023July 11, 2023Ariana Carpentieri1 Comment

Dive into The Instructor, former Army intelligence officer T. R. Hendricks’ fast paced, action-packed debut thriller that’s Jack Reacher meets Survivorman, the first novel in the Derek Harrington series!

Derek Harrington, retired Marine Force Recon and SERE instructor, is barely scraping by teaching the basics of wilderness survival. His fledgling bushcraft school is on the cusp of going out of business and expenses are piling up fast. His only true mission these days? To get his ailing father into a full care facility and to support his ex-wife and their son.

When one of his students presents him with an opportunity too good to be true—$20,000 to instruct a private group for 30 days in upstate New York—Derek reluctantly takes the job, despite his reservations about the group’s insistence on anonymity. But it isn’t long before the training takes an unexpected turn—and a new offer is made.

Reaching out to an FBI contact to sound his concerns, Derek soon finds himself in deep cover, deep in the woods, embroiled with a fringe group led by a charismatic leader who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. When what he wants becomes Derek’s head, the teacher is pitted against his students as Derek races against time to stop what could very well be the first attack by the domestic terrorist cell.

Interested in getting a taste of what inspired T. R. Hendricks to write his pulse-pounding debut thriller, The Instructor? Then read onwards to see all of his ‘ingredients’ and how he mixes them together to create a recipe for the perfect story!

By T. R. Hendricks:

“THE INSTRUCTOR”

5 ounces of active duty service
3 ounces of 80’s action movies
½ cup of heavy metal anthems
1 tablespoon wilderness survival research
1 teaspoon adrenaline
Equal parts experience and emulation
A few dashes of cynical dark humor
Garnish with effort, determination, and belief

A lot of people ask the question, “what was your inspiration” behind my debut novel. While that is a unique story in its own right, in this age of the influencer I thought it might be unique to explore things that shaped my imagination and ultimately led to the story in THE INSTRUCTOR. An inspiration explanation with a twist, if you will…

At least in my case, it helps to have a solid foundation of military service to develop your story from, but this isn’t a necessity. Plenty of phenomenal authors like Nick Petrie and Connor Sullivan have crafted military veteran protagonists that so convincingly leapt from the page that I believed they both were veterans themselves. For me, my time on active duty lent itself to a wealth of experiences, interactions, knowledge, and even consequences that when blended with the rest of the recipe, made up the base of my story.

This can be both a blessing and a curse, if I’m being honest. Yes, technical items like unit structure and equipment; tactics, techniques, and procedures; even the slang servicemembers might use is easier to reproduce having lived that life for five years. On the flip side, many of the recollections of certain memories, ones that I may have worked a long time to banish and forget, can be difficult if not outright painful to work through as I impart them to the page. That’s the rub of experiences like that. They lend authenticity, “the been there, done that” feeling I want my readers to come away with. I benefit from relating my service and subsequent ramifications in that I gain a realism while also expunging some things I don’t wish to hold onto any longer in my own little cathartic methodology.

Foundation in place, we start adding in the ingredients that make up my military thriller. As a blue collar family, we didn’t have cable TV growing up. What we did have was an affinity for movies, action movies in particular, and an older brother who worked at the local library that happened to have a healthy selection of VHS tapes you could borrow. Through our constant consumption and evaluation of movies, I formulated from a very early age what elements work and where the fat can be trimmed when developing a kick-ass plotline.

For THE INSTRUCTOR in particular I have a couple of favorites that were the most relatable to getting this story going. One of my all time go-to’s, the kind of movie that you have to watch anytime it is on, is First Blood. Readers should easily be able to see the parallels between John Rambo and Derek Harrington in their training, internal struggle, and conflict with the antagonists. I was fixated on the scene in the movie where Rambo fashions all manner of booby traps and uses his superior tactical experience to neutralize the Sheriff’s deputies one by one. It’s still one of my favorite sequences in a film loaded with amazing sequences.

Predator tops the list of movie influences as well. A rescue mission deep in the jungle against an enemy camp that turns into a blistering fire fight. Add to that the “Boy Scout” traps that Dutch and team attempt to snare the Predator with and later the primitive weapons and traps that he uses to fight the alien hunter one on one. The movie has all of the action you need to create an edge-of-your-seat ride.

I would be remiss if I didn’t include perennial 80’s action giants like Lethal Weapon and Die Hard. I loved the Special Forces turned cop character of Martin Riggs, especially his expertise during the fire fight at Dry Lake, his fury during the pursuit of Mr. Joshua through the streets, and ultimately the hand-to-hand combat on Murtaugh’s front lawn. Riggs employed a triangle choke well before the popularity of BJJ and MMA, a move that I forever associated with elite training for that time. Riggs, like Rambo, is a flawed character dealing with his internal demons as much as external enemies.

I love the impact the John McClane character had on me. While true that McClane is not entirely untrained, as an NYPD detective he is much closer to that of the everyday Joe like you and I than he is to elite combatants found in the Special Operations community. This “everyday hero” concept stuck with me and, being a native New Yorker, I loved the inherent attitude and snark that John threw at Hans every chance he got.

Need to ratchet up the adrenaline even more when turning the pages? There’s a few choice songs that were my soundtrack to THE INSTRUCTOR. Anthems that got my blood boiling as I churned out the words, and ones that lend themselves to the heightened pace of the action sequences. Add these to the mix of my military thriller cocktail:

“Fuel,” “Blackened,” and “Master of Puppets” by Metallica
“Hail to the King” and “This Means War” by Avenged Sevenfold
“Savior” by Rise Against; “Kickstart My Heart” by Motley Crew
“Faint,” “Numb,” and “Bleed it Out” by Linkin Park
“Ace of Spades” by Motorhead
“Wash it All Away” by Five Finger Death Punch

As an extra track, I’ve always envisioned the movie trailer to THE INSTRUCTOR set to the cover of “Bad Company” by FFDP. Something about the lines, “I was born, a shotgun in my hands. Behind the gun, I’ll make my final stand,” always resonated with me for Derek’s arc in the book. A man seemingly put on this earth to fight, and despite his best efforts to not do so any longer, he finds himself right back in the thick of battle.

Experience is that which adds the human element. What makes Derek a tangible, realistic person with all of his complex flaws and attributes. In this I relate most of my own struggles with reintegration to civilian life after the military, and the at times crushing nature of wrestling with the full spectrum of PTSD symptoms and episodes. For emulation, all of the credit in the world goes to my own father. A man who sacrificed his personal safety, security, and well being in order to ensure his family had exactly that for 20+ years. In doing so, he set the example to my brothers and I of what it means to be a person of honor, integrity, and loving devotion.

He was also a major contributor to those dashes of dark, cynical humor being developed in all of us, but in no way was he the only one. The types of jokes and overwhelmingly raucous nature with which we all communicate is a direct result of being raised in and a part of a family of soldiers, Marines, corrections and police officers, and yes, even mailmen. If you pick up on the edge in Derek’s dialogue and humor, now you know where it came from.

Rounding out this boozy beverage are critical components. For the sake of the recipe I labeled them as garnishes, but make no mistake, effort, determination, and belief are as critically important to this cocktail as any of the other ingredients. Maybe even more so, and you don’t want just dashes. You want teeming fistfulls of them. Belief in yourself, in your abilities, that you will one day succeed in this writing endeavor gives the drink all the flavor you can muster. Yet talent only can only get you so far, so being determined and putting in the effort is what will up the proof and deliver the kick that will have people screaming for a refill as soon as they’re done.

So there you go, thriller fans. The concoction to compliment your dive into my debut. Throw everything in the mixer. Give it a good shake. Pour it over an ice mold, let it mellow a bit, and then enjoy each sweet and savory sip of adrenaline soaked wilderness survival. Down the hatch.

This round’s on me.

Click below to order your copy of The Instructor, available now!

Author Features / New Releases / On Writing / What's New

The Return of the Reluctant Hero by Kent Lester

December 13, 2022July 11, 2023Ariana Carpentieri4 Comments

A high-octane thriller that sets Dan Clifford against ancient secret societies vying for power in the modern world; in the vein of Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon series.

In The Third Instinct, author Kent Lester brings his signature blend of cutting-edge science, history, and pulse-pounding action to the next Dan Clifford adventure.

Read below to see Kent’s take on what it means to write about heroes with flaws—ones grounded in reality and who are easy to relate to.

By Kent Lester:

What type of fiction? Over the top, or realistic? That is a question most authors ask themselves before starting a new thriller series. There is a place for both writing styles, but my favorite is “near science fiction,” a fantasy world realistic enough to imagine happening in the near future.

When an author chooses a fictional writing style, nothing anchors the story in reality or sends it into the realm of fantasy more effectively than the choice of hero. Is the hero an ordinary guy or a superhero? The trend lately has been toward superheroes, characters occupying a fantastical setting that barely resembles the “real world.” This trend has probably been influenced by the rise in cinematic special effects and the popularity of the comic book universe. In high concept movies, heroes are often gifted with incredible abilities, over-the-top talents, and often, the power to alter reality itself.

Think Superman or Wonder Woman. The antics of superheroes can often stretch credulity, but their superhuman abilities do make for impressive cinematic special effects, spectacular visual imagery, and lots of action. Sure, all those special effects and superhuman feats can stretch the imagination, but often at the cost of empathy and identification with the hero. And naturally, superheroes beget super villains, and soon the entire story premise becomes an overwrought graphic novel. Movies with an excess of special effects encourage passive viewing and a bored audience. With little emotional involvement in the characters, a flashy story is easily forgotten.

The most enduring movies are ones with a realistic premise and flawed, reluctant heroes. Think John McClain in Die Hard or Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

In literary storytelling, the choice of hero is even more critical. I’ve always considered books to be a far more active endeavor than movies, so much so, that I often remind my fellow writers that their novels are a shared experience. Every fictional story is a partnership between two imaginations: the author’s and the reader’s. Unlike movies with their fully formed scenes, words on a page cry out for interpretation and embellishment. The reader becomes the author’s writing accomplice, filling in the missing details that inevitably hide between the words on the page. This probably explains how two readers can often interpret a single story so differently, because their individual viewpoints influence the perceived events.

To fully embrace the importance of a story’s hero, we should reexamine the purpose of storytelling in the first place. Ever since the first adventures were breathlessly whispered around a campfire, humans have been drawn to stories. One reason is to feel in control of a world filled with random threats and challenges. Our imaginations are always in control, free to craft the outcome however we wish. We can also learn lessons from others’ mistakes. Stories also allow us to empathize with the feelings of others, to walk in their shoes and experience the story through their eyes. Most importantly, stories allow us to work through our own personal problems and fears in the relative safety of a story’s fictional universe.

That’s why I prefer my heroes to be grounded in reality, because it makes it easier to imagine myself walking around in their shoes. In the so-called “real world,” heroes are seldom born; they are made by the necessity and demands of the situation.

In my latest thriller, The Third Instinct, Dan Clifford is the consummate reluctant hero. (as are most real-world heroes) Dan just wants to return to normalcy after the Covid pandemic and share his ordinary life with his adrenaline-junkie girlfriend, Rachel Sullivan. Unfortunately for Dan, and thankfully for the reader, the real world has a different scenario in mind for Dan’s future. Circumstances will demand that Dan overcome a set of challenges two thousand years in the making. As he determines the truth in a pack of lies, he will discover the hero within himself through incredible hardships.

It is my hope that readers will be able to identify with Dan’s vision, and in doing so, imagine an adventure through their own unique viewpoints. To me, the best fiction inspires us to think about issues in the real world, and our own roles within it. If, however, you just want a good beach read or a mindless adventure, don’t worry. The Third Instinct has plenty of literary special effects and superhuman challenges to keep your imagination occupied. Enjoy!

Click below to order your copy of The Third Instinct, available now!

Author Features

Motherhood and the Zombie Apocalypse

October 8, 2022October 6, 2022admin3 Comments

What would you do if the zombie apocalypse actually happened? Would you pull a Walking Dead and drag out the crossbow you have under the bed (just in case)? Or would you perhaps…rather not deal with it at all.

Olivie Blake, author of The Atlas Six (now available in paperback!), joins us on the blog to discuss motherhood, the zombie apocalypse, and how those two things connect.

Check it out here!

By Olivie Blake

Hi. I’m Olivie Blake. I’m the mother of a teething goblin who never sleeps and whose laugh lights up my soul like a thousand choirs of angels. And if the apocalypse comes, I have no choice. I have to stay alive.

This is not how I would prefer things to be.

I once got into a heated argument over a nacho party platter about why I have no desire to live through any sort of apocalypse scenario. My opponent (sorry, acquaintance) said that she would be willing to survive because she was “curious.” I, on the other hand, was not curious. At all. What happens, I ranted, when there is no more energy company to give you electricity, no more indoor plumbing, nothing left in the stores and so you have to weave and sew your own clothing—how can anyone navigate the lawlessness of human nature under apocalyptic circumstances? My acquaintance said she could probably handle a gun, I said this wasn’t just a matter of weapons efficacy. This was about surviving in a primal state where she and I (similarly built women of unimpressive size and strength) were no longer the apex predators. It was not only my dearest wish to avoid the emotional trauma of watching society collapse—I was simply Not Going to Do It.

“Well, I’m still curious,” she said. We never spoke again.

The point isn’t that I’m insufferable at parties, although that’s one possible takeaway. In her book Little Labors, Rivka Galchen wrote this tiny little essay called “New Variety of Depression.” It turns out, she perfectly summed up my life. It’s true what they say, that a baby gives you a reason to live. But also, a baby is a reason that it is not permissible to die. There are days when this does not feel good.

So, yes. If the apocalypse comes I have no choice. I have to stay alive for my son.

When I was asked to write something about being a writer and a new parent, I’m sure this is not at all what my editors had in mind. Presumably I’m supposed to be talking about how hard it is to find the time to answer an email, much less write a manuscript, or what it’s like to try to be cerebral and innovative when I haven’t slept more than two consecutive hours in over eight months. Or maybe something about how the labor of having to preemptively cater to everyone else’s needs is enough to make anyone think okay, forget the novel, I need a nap. There are a thousand—a million—blog posts to write about how exhausted I feel, how terrified and insecure I am at any given moment as both a person and an artist. About how unrecognizable my mind and my body are. About how much I fear the inevitability of my old friend depression returning to me, and whether I will find the strength to carry it all when I am inevitably forced to greet it.

Instead, I want to speculate about the doom days. Specifically, how I think my reluctant survival will play out should the zombie apocalypse begin today.

Let’s start with my fighting capacity, since that’s where people like to start at parties (from which I am understandably banned). I boxed quite seriously for three years before I got too pregnant to move, so I’m not what I’d call weak or incapable of combat, though I lost nearly all of my muscle tone to pregnancy and it would take a long time to gain it back. I’m not actually angry about this, because when my son was born I told myself it was better to be a little soft and squishy so that he could sleep long and restfully, or at least as long and restfully as he ever did. Being softer has made me kinder to myself, which was unexpected. After a lifetime of vanity and hatred and never for one moment thinking I deserved to find myself beautiful just as I was, I can look at myself now and be grateful. Which means if I get attacked by a zombie I’m probably screwed. But I can’t die, because if I do, who will be the softness for my son when he can’t sleep?

I’m a pretty good cook, although I buy everything from Trader Joe’s and have no gardening experience whatsoever. In fact I’ve killed a lot of plants. But my mother is Filipino, my stepfather is a chef, and for us food is a language of love, and thus a language in which I am fluent. My son is just beginning to eat solid foods, and so far his only loves are 1) purees I freeze as popsicles for his sore gums, 2) mandarin oranges, 3) peanut butter. When he first tastes a food, he usually doesn’t want to eat it with his hands or a self-feeding spoon. He likes to eat it first from my finger. So while I don’t know if I can do the whole self-subsisting farmer thing, I obviously will have to. Because if I don’t, who will teach my son to eat, or help him understand that “I made this for you” means love?

I’m not sure what use I am to the post-apocalypse society, vocationally speaking. I assume nobody will want books about homicidal magic nerds anymore since we live in a world where zombies eat brains. I don’t think I’m the first person to realize their main skills aren’t all that useful for the proverbial end of days, though I suppose that if there’s one thing motherhood has helped with, it’s to make things a lot less existential. Why do I exist? What’s my purpose? These are the questions you don’t ask yourself when you’re running on pure adrenaline and one or two bites of whatever’s about to expire in the fridge (and there’s no fridge anymore, remember, because of the zombies). For so long now, it’s been my job—or rather, my self-appointed task—to ask these questions, and although the existence of my son has reset most of my priorities, it hasn’t erased my need to understand the outer limits of myself, where I end and others begin. So now, when I ask myself why am I here/do I matter/why was I of all people spared from the zombie pandemic that recently destroyed society—I am usually pondering while holding my son. You could argue in some deeply theoretical way (aka the way we no longer have any use for, in the apocalypse) that by having a child, I have already made my efforts to live, in some form, forever. I have done my due diligence for the species. Now the question is how do I live.

The answer, as far as I can gather, is one day at a time. I can’t exist only for the day when my baby finally sleeps through the night or when the zombies invariably come for my softer, squishier form because it would mean missing every moment in between. I can no longer count down until the end. Every heartbreaking moment when he stands on his own without me I realize, paradoxically, that it is my job to teach him how to walk away. Every moment he makes a sound that maybe, might be, only-if-I’m-dreaming (but aren’t I allowed to dream?) sound like “mama” is a moment of my heart. If I am focused on the ending, I will miss them. Every moment that he stirs in his sleep and whimpers and I know, even if science disagrees, that he is having a nightmare and it’s my job to be there when he opens his eyes. Every moment he cries and every time he smiles and every breath he takes that reminds me of the time I sat alone in my car and realized there were two hearts beating inside my body, his and mine. If I am waiting for the worst, I will miss this. I will miss all these moments, and if I miss them, then I will miss the excruciating highs and piercing lows of human experience that it has always been my job, and my dream, to write about.

Possibly you have guessed by now (if you’re unfamiliar with my work) that my book is very, well, thinky. It’s character-driven and meandering at times, there are high emotional highs and low emotional lows, and it asks questions like ‘hey what should we do with knowledge and power’ and also, ‘is it someone’s right to have more of it or someone else’s curse to have less?’ And maybe that isn’t your thing, and you should probably avoid me at dinner parties, if we even have those anymore (you know, because of the zombies). Ultimately, the point I came here to make is that life as a mother is harder than it was before. My work is infinitely more difficult to complete and also more challenging to perform. But also, the scope of my experience goes deeper. I have felt more tired, more hopeless, and also more ecstatic and triumphant and yes, fuck it, #blessed than I could have ever imagined, and even though the apocalypse presumably holds zombies with machetes and no working toilets to be found and I am sure, quite sure, that I will suffer in ways I have yet to understand—despite all of this, I have to keep living.

There are days when this does not feel good. And then there are days when the nachos are delicious, and my son kind of says “mama,” and my husband kisses me without looking because he’s done it a million times before, and I send in my revised draft a little bit later than I wanted to, but I still send it. And life is torturous. And it is beautiful. And it is imperfect.

And it goes on.

Olivie Blake is the pseudonym of Alexene Farol Follmuth, a lover and writer of stories. She has penned several indie SFF projects, including the webtoon Clara and the Devil with illustrator Little Chmura and the BookTok-viral Atlas series. As Alexene, she has written a young adult rom-com, My Mechanical Romance. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, new baby, and rescue pit bull.

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Author Features / New Releases / What's New

The Lavender House Playlist By Lev AC Rosen

September 23, 2022May 17, 2024Ariana Carpentieri1 Comment

A delicious story from a new voice in suspense, Lev AC Rosen’s Lavender House is Knives Out with a queer historical twist.

When your existence is a crime, everything you do is criminal, and the gates of Lavender House can’t lock out the real world forever. Running a soap empire can be a dirty business.

Read below to see Lev’s playlist for his upcoming novel Lavender House!

By Lev AC Rosen:

To me, music is such a great way to capture the energy of a historical piece. Not just as an author making a playlist to have on as I write, but for readers, too. Music evokes a time so quickly. A mention of It’s Raining Men takes you to the disco era. Mister Postman immediately paints a Motown picture. Music is time, and it’s succinct in a way that describing an outfit or room can’t always be. So I knew I wanted to use it when writing Lavender House (and it didn’t hurt that I love the music of the late 40s and early 50s).

But as I started using it more and more, I realized that with a first-person narrator, the music had to be important to the character, too – how does he recognize these songs? And that helped me fill in some of Andy. Music is the thing he loves; it reminds him of his dad, it reminds him of friends, and it kept him company in a way that his fellow officers and his anonymous hook-ups could not. As I’ve been writing the sequel, I gave Andy a new home, and I knew the first thing he would buy for it would be a record player and radio. That’s what music is to him. It’s the first thing he needs to survive beyond food and water.

So with that in mind, one of the first things I did was make a playlist of all the named songs (and a few cut ones) in Lavender House. They were chosen for their vibe, generally, because they expressed the time, and because I like them, but also because of their mood, and how it matched the moment.

Tennessee Waltz, sung by Patti Page

Honestly one of the most 50s songs I could think of, it’s the first one on the page, playing in the background of the bar as Andy tries to drink himself to death. It’s a melancholy song for a melancholy moment.

2. Mixed Emotions, sung by Rosemary Clooney

Again, another song that to me expresses the early 50s very well – but also, perhaps I was tempted by the on-the-noseness of the title for the moment. Andy getting in a car, going who knows where, taking a case he barely understands, when just moment ago his plan was suicide – he’s having a lot of mixed emotions himself.

3, 4, 5. The St. Louis Blues and After You’re Gone sung by Kay Starr and Cold Cold Heart sung by Dinah Washington

For Cliff’s strip tease/lip-synch (though, fun fact: the term “lip synch” didn’t exist til the 60s, so I had to find other ways to say it), I knew I wanted something sexy, but also kind of sad, and most importantly, something interactive – lines he could reach out and touch Andy on, and suggest that it was Andy who was being with holding and cold. My first instinct was After You’ve Gone because of it’s tone of ‘you’ll regret this’ which felt very haughty and Cliff. But after a few drafts, I decided it was too much of a bop, not enough longing in it, and switched to Cold Cold Heart, which had a lot more sensuality to it. And then my editor pointed out I needed the rights to use the lyrics of songs from that time period. Oops. So I did a deep dive into songs which were technically in the public domain now, but had recordings that were done in the late 40s or early 50s. My friend Molly was invaluable here, and managed to find another Kay Starr number for me – The St. Louis Blues. Again it’s about a cold man leaving a sad woman, and while a bit more upbeat, it still has that great sense of longing, and wonderful lines for Cliff to playact to, like “Oh my man’s got a heart like a rock cast in the sea.” And best part? The B-side of the record was After You’ve Gone, so I got to get that in, too – even if I couldn’t use the lyrics.

6. Kiss of Fire sung by Georgia Gibbs

One of my weirder choices, with its opening notes that sound like Pretty Woman and much more modern overall vibe. But I wanted something that felt like a tango. The staff, particularly the couple Dot and Judy, don’t get as much time on the page as the family in Lavender House. So when I had Andy go down into the kitchen to meet them for the first time, before they go stony and cold with him, I wanted a moment where they didn’t see him, and were just being themselves, a moment to express who they were out of sight. This song is sexy and fun, and when Judy and Dot dance to it, even just for a moment, you get a glimpse of who they really are.

7. Would I Love You? Sung by Doris Day

Doris Day is one of the other classic singers of the 50s I knew I needed to use. I wanted a song that was popular enough folks might sing along, and one calm enough to set the mood for the casual family breakfast it plays in the background of. Though Lavender House is brimming with a lot of secrets and emotions, there are moments – especially breakfast, when they all sit down together – when I wanted to fact that they’re still a family who loves each other to come across.

8. Too Young, sung by Nat King Cole

I wanted something with a similar energy to Would I Love You? To come on afterwards, to keep the mood going. Too Young has that great sweeping opening and even goes more romantic, perfect for Andy to notice the casual normalness of the relationships here.

8a. The Thing, sung by Phil Harris

I also wanted something that felt like an artifact, a silly 50s song, for someone to immediately shut off after Too Young. This fit the bill. I’ve spared you by not putting it on the playlist.

9. Mad About the Boy, sung by Maxine Sullivan

Oh Gene. Sweet, wonderful Gene, who I knew I wanted to not only introduce here, but set up to become more central in the sequel. Something romantic, and a bit sexy… but also Andy has just been beaten within an inch of his life and is passed out. But when he comes to, Gene next to him, I knew I needed the music to fit. This song is a little twinkly – as I imagine it might be coming out of a post-beating-blackout – but sexy, romantic, mysterious and obviously sets up Gene as an object of affection.

10. Why Don’t You Do Right, sung by Peggy Lee

I HAD to have some Peggy Lee. And why not use this song, made famous by that classic noir icon Jessica Rabbit? It’s one of my favorites. So when Cliff was drunk-dancing again and I wanted the music sexy, this was the perfect choice.

11. The Lady Drinks Champagne, sung by Pat (in the book) and Johnnie Ray (in the playlist)

Pat, the butler, is a wonderful character, and I thought it would be fun to give him a moment to shine, a song to sing as a sort of alarm at Andy’s request. But what song would Pat sing? A ballad for sure, Pat’s the type to enjoy holding a note, but also something filled with melodrama, and as he was supposed to be sweeping, something he could sing to a broom with real style. I don’t know why this song fits all of that so perfectly, but it does, and every time I reread the moment when Pat started singing, thinking of this song made me laugh because I could picture him camping it up so perfectly.

12. Wheel of Fortune, sung by Kay Starr

In an early draft, this plays in the final scene, a sort of obvious statement about how things have turned out and Andy’s life has turned around, but at some point I decided it was far too on the nose, and cut it. Still a fun song, though.

Click below to pre-order your copy of Lavender House, coming October 18th, 2022!

Author Features / New Releases / What's New

Q&A with Author Carol Dunbar

September 20, 2022September 20, 2022Ariana Carpentieri1 Comment

He promised her he would never let go. She’s willing to risk everything to hold on.

In the aftermath of her husband’s logging accident, Elsa has more questions than answers about how to carry on while caring for their two small children in the unfinished house he was building for them in the woods of rural Wisconsin. To cope with the challenges of winter and the near-daily miscommunications from her in-laws, she forges her own relationship with the land, learning from and taking comfort in the trees her husband had so loved. If she wants to stay in their home, she must discover her own capabilities, and accept help from the people and places she least expects.

In her debut novel, Carol Dunbar draws from her own lived experiences, vividly describing the wonder and harshness of life off the grid. Told over the course of a year, The Net Beneath Us is a lyrical exploration of loss, marriage, parenthood, and self-reliance; a tale of how the natural world—without and within us—offers us healing, if we can learn where to look.

Read below to see Carol’s answers to some burning questions!

I understand that you were an actor for many years, doing live theatre and commercial work. What made you decide to give that all that up and move off the grid?

It took me a long time to understand that I was a storyteller working in the wrong medium. When I did, it was difficult to walk away. Theatre will always be my first love, and like a relationship that you know is bad for you, but you just can’t end it, I had a hard time walking away. When my husband found an ad for an off-grid homestead in the forest, I said yes. Everyone who knew me was surprised. My husband grew up in the country and is a woodworker who always wanted to build furniture from his own trees. I wanted to become a writer although I didn’t know anything about living this way. We arrived wearing our bug spray and city shoes with a 15-month-old daughter and an aging dog. We had no idea what we were in for.

Living off the grid has come to mean a lot of things. What exactly does it mean for you?

That’s a good question—my husband and I are not hiding from the FBI! Off grid means not connected to the power lines. We are independent when it comes to our heat, water, and electricity. We heat our home using wood that we split ourselves and we pump water from a well. Now, our home and my office are 100-percent powered by the sun, but when we first moved here, we ran diesel engines to generator our electricity. These are huge engines once used to supply back-up power on trains, and they are the same engines that I describe in my first novel, The Net Beneath Us.

Let’s talk about your first novel. What’s it about and how did you get the idea?

The Net Beneath Us is about a young family building their house off the grid in the woods of rural Wisconsin when a logging accident alters the course of their lives. My main character, Elsa, is determined to carry on while carrying for their two small kids in the unfinished house her husband was building for them. This is a house with no running water or split firewood for heat, and winter is coming, but she’s motivated to stay because of her regrets. This is a story for anybody who has loved somebody and lost somebody. It’s about how to make your way back from a dark place by staying open to the wonders of the natural world.

The idea of an unfinished house came from a mysterious photo. It’s a picture of the house where I now live—but with a second story partially constructed. You can see the two-by-fours and the roof and there’s snow on the ground. But I live in this house, and we have no second story. So, I wondered, why someone would do that? Start building, get that far, and then take it down?

On your website, you also mention a real-life accident that served as a springboard for this novel. When did that happen?

The real-life accident happened four years after we moved here. Our furniture business was in full swing—my husband did the building, and I did the finish work. His table saw jumped back, and he had to take a year off to heal his hand. As difficult as that time was, one thing we were always aware of was that it could have been so much worse. We lost the income from our business, but I was able to get a temporary job in town. Our kids were ages two and five, it was fall, and I didn’t know how to split firewood. That was when I started writing this novel.

So, you followed the adage, “Write what you know?”

I did grab the low-hanging fruit of where I was at. A novel is, in many ways, a time capsule of life and place. I’m glad I wrote when my kids were young because you forget about things that you think you’ll always remember. But I didn’t really understand my main character until I flipped that adage around and wrote about what I didn’t know. Like me, my main character Elsa isn’t from the Midwest and didn’t grow up in the country. This novel took me more than ten years to write, so now, I’m very comfortable with living this way. But when I wrote from that place of not knowing, and showed the transformation, that’s when my story really took off.

How did you celebrate when you learned you were going to be a published author?

I live an hour away from a decent bottle of wine, so when my agent first started shopping around the manuscript, I bought a good bottle of champagne and tucked it in the back of the fridge. Because of the pandemic, that bottle sat in my fridge for a long time. My husband was like, “Um, can we open this?” And I was like, “No, that’s for when I get my book deal!” And you know, he left that bottle alone. He believed and my agent believed, and then one day we did pop that cork, and I don’t remember how it tasted, but it was wonderful to be able to share it with our kids—we let them have a taste because this book has been a part of their lives since they were very young.

What food or drink pairs best with your book?

A cup of hot tea with honey. Tea is what you drink when you’ve had a rough go of it, when you don’t know what to do next. It takes time to prepare, and that process can be centering, it calms you down.

Who – any time or place in the world – would you just love to have read your book?

Kim Kardashian. I would just be so interested to know what she or her sisters would think of living this way—of splitting firewood, of co-existing with wild critters.

On a more serious note, Cheryl Strayed. She’s a writer who I’ve long admired and she’s from this region and also writes about grief. I’d love to share with her what I’ve learned about the trees because I think she would get it.

Tag: author guest post

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