Author On Author - James Somers on Joseph Flynn

Good day, Zealots!

Just pretend this is Thursday =)>. Sorry for the delay, but here is week two of A-o-A! This week, James Somers asks Joseph Flynn some 'digging' questions... get it, Joseph Flynn - Digger... tough crowd. Any who, I'll give it away to James.

James Somers: Who are a few of your favorite authors and how have they influenced your own writing style?

Joseph Flynn: Starting way back and working forward: Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Frank MacAuliffe, Ross Thomas, John D. MacDonald, Gregory Mcdonald, Donald Hamilton, James Crumley, John Lescroart, Daniel Silva, and probably several others I'm forgetting at the moment. These authors all have influenced me insofar as they've created characters I'd probably enjoy meeting in real life. I try to come up with characters with whom my readers will enjoy spending time. Gregory Mcdonald also had a stylistic influence on me in that I like to write lean prose leavened with a streak of humor.

JS: As an experienced published author, do you find that it's become easier for authors to have their work published than it used to be...why?

JF: No, I think it's harder due the consolidation of formerly independent publishing houses under huge corporate umbrellas. Also, publishing, much to everyone's disadvantage, has largely adopted the movie biz's blockbuster mentality. Boo.

JS: Many published authors still have "regular jobs." Is there any other line of work for you, besides churning out edge-of-your-seat thrillers?

JF: Interspersed with rolling in dough from lavish advances, I lend a hand when my wife, who runs her own graphic design business, needs writing help.

JS: Can you give your fans a sneak peek of what's coming next from the desk of Joseph Flynn?

JF: I'm working on the sequel to my most recent novel, The President's Henchman. It's called The Hangman's Companion. In this story, Jim McGill goes to Paris to help a fellow former Chicago copper try to vindicate himself after he kills a French superstar soccer player. Working with a Regional Security Officer from the State Department and a French investigating magistrate, McGill has to find a missing blonde who was the only witness to the incident.


Great questions, James. Joe, I can't wait to see what the follow-up to Henchman will be like, sounds intriguing. Just a word to the wise: never play basketball with Jim McGill. I hope we can look forward to another game.

A Few Congrats Are In Order!

Good day everyone,

I just wanted to send out a few congratulatory greetings to authors Craig Alexander and Steven Savile.

First, let's start with Craig. Craig, author of The Nineveh Project, has just been chosen as one of the ITW's judges for one of the following 2010 panels: Best Novel, Best First Novel, or Best Paperback Original! That means that between September and December he will be reading 30 novels!

Next, Steven Savile won his Scribe Award nomination for Best Young Adult Novel with his international bestseller, PRIMEVAL: Shadow of the Jaguar.

Congrats to you both! Virtual applause coming your way.

MEG SharkBite Contest - One Week Left!

Hey MEG fans,

That's right, only one week left to get your chance at being in MEG 5, along with a signed copy of MEG: Hell's Aquarium! If you indeed want to take part, do not let a week discourage you. To get into the top 50 (where you need to be to get your signed copy and in MEG 5), it only takes 320 views! So, those of you with a bunch of friends on Facebook, Myspace, or Twitter, be sure to sign up and take a shot at living in Steve Alten's MEG world!.

To join, just go to the MEG: Hell's Aquarium Shark Bite Contest page and follow the directions - it's that easy. Be sure to be creative with labeling your video. Spread it around, do video responses to related vids, and work hard at being an appetizer in NIGHT STALKERS!

To those of you who are already in the contest, be sure to check your placement (as it has been posted since weekly since week one). If you are not in the top 50, work hard to be there! A lot can happen in a week...

Author On Author - Daniel Brenton on James Somers

Hey zealots!

This starts a new mini blog like the last Authors Are People Too! segment, but it is all authors asking their fellow authors questions. This week we have Daniel Brenton asking James Somers some pretty thought provoking questions... so let's begin.

Daniel Brenton: I couldn't help but run across this on your site: "In addition to writing, Rev. James Somers currently serves in the ministry as the Assistant Pastor of Martindale Baptist Church. He also works as a Surgical Technologist, specializing in Neuro-Spine surgery and has a family including his wife Christy and five boys.."

The obvious question is .... what do you do in your free time?

Now, kidding aside, are there any specific time management methods or techniques (Like GTD) you use to shoehorn those extra hours into your day?

James Somers: Actually the info you saw is old news--now I'm the Senior Pastor of Grace Baptist in Harriman, Tennessee...so the plate has gotten a bit more full. As far as time management is concerned, I tend to use breaks and lunch times at my day job to write. If I've got a scene in my head then I'm fairly quick to get it down on my laptop which goes with me almost everywhere.. I guess I make good use of times when someone else might just sit around to relax. I like to keep moving.

DB: Like many of us, I've seen the Christian Fiction market grow over the years into the juggernaut it is today. Who do you feel are the "don't miss" Christian Fiction authors, and could you give us a little bit on them as to why?

JS: My favorite Christian author is Wayne Thomas Batson. I've come to know him through email, having approached him through a mutual blog review. He reviewed "The Chronicles of Soone: Heir to the King," after it was published by Breakneck Books and gave it a great review. He then went a step further and introduced me to his agent, who then took me on after reading the sequel to COS:Heir to the King...not only has Wayne been a good friend, but he's a great writer as well. He's written "The Door Within," trilogy as well as two pirate fantasy novels and soon he'll release, "The Berinfell Prophecy--Curse of the Spider King." His work is not only appealing to Christians, but non-Christians as well.

DB: As a Christian, and especially as an assistant pastor, what part does your fiction play in you ministry? Do you keep them separate? Do you have fans among your congregation, or do you leave your "writer's hat" at the door, so to speak?

JS: I really don't push the writer part on my congregation...as a pastor I usually don't even mention it. I'm too busy with other things, and for me, I would feel like I was taking unfair advantage of the opportunity and my people. They might feel used in that respect and after all, I'm there to minister to them. Writing is my personal getaway. I write for enjoyment and in the hope others will enjoy the stories with me first and foremost. If I ever landed a big publishing deal that would be great, but not having that doesn't bother me in the least because technology has opened up so many satisfying opportunities.

DB: Beyond your Variance/Breakneck debut, Chronicles of Soone: Heir to the King, I see you have four other novels. Three of the four hold copyright dates of 2009. Seeing that we're only half-past 2009, what's the story there ... or is the question really, "how fast do you write?"

JS: Believe me, I'm not that fast :) I had several novels finished and no particular publishing leads for them, so I decided to go ahead and put them out myself. I happen to do cover work, and have had a blast creating covers for my other novels. I've been releasing them on Amazon Kindle, in particular, now that it's really begun to take off with the new versions. Since I'm more interested in writing and being read than making a living from it, I've really been satisfied with concentrating on Kindle releases, even though all of my novels are also available in paperback as well. By placing my novels on Kindle and lowering the prices, I've found my sales numbers better than Chronicles of Soone ever was in paperback.

DB: I started reading your novel-in-progress Apprentice, with which you are taking the exceedingly brave step of publishing it chapter by chapter on its own blog. I personally would be deathly afraid of writing myself into a corner. How is that going, and do you have any thoughts or suggestions for anyone who is contemplating "hanging it over the edge" like this?

JS: With Apprentice, I've done that just for fun...we'll see how many people actually bother reading the advance chapters. At any rate, I'm not one to go back and make major changes to my story after its written. I tend to know what I want as I go along and once I finish a chapter it's not going to be drastically revised or put me in a corner. I tend to muddle over a chapter or scene for a bit before I get into putting it down. Once the movie in my head has gotten that far, I'm pretty safe with getting it typed out the way I want it to stay. My advice? Have fun with writing. If it wasn't fun for me, I would find something else to do :-D

Thanks guys! It's always interesting to get a view into peoples minds, and this was a great one to start with.

As always, we welcome your questions, so if you have anything off of what Daniel asked of James, ask away!

ThrillerFest - Literacy

Good Wednesday to you all!

Back on board with the ThrillerFest goodness. So, here it is (just imagine), it's Saturday morning, the Debut Author Breakfast, good food - great laughs - nice people. Then towards the end, David Baldacci comes up to the podium after being introduced by co-president Steve Berry to speak to us all. He starts out by telling us some great stories about how he has been mistaken for other authors in public while eating dinner (lesson there being, never let your head get swelled and think that you are bigger than you really are), along with other great yuk-yuk's. He gets us all in a glowing mood. Then he proceeds to talk about literacy and that he founded Feeding Body & Mind, an organization that supports literacy with drop boxes for new and used books, along with combining forces with food banks (hence the name).

He then proceeds to go on and inform us that nearly one half of all Americans are illiterate...! What? Did I hear that right? Am I that naive?

If you are as shocked to hear that as I was (and still am), then I suppose that I am not. As readers and writers, is it our duty to stand up and make a difference? To stand up and shout to the masses that 'this is unacceptable'? I suppose that, only speaking on my own behalf, it is. Not just because I work for a publishing company and want to increase sales (what for-profit company wouldn't?), but because it's the right thing to do. Which of you would have liked it better if your parents didn't read to you before bed as a child? Show of hands anyone... no one? And what parent wouldn't want to see their child succeed above and beyond their wildest dreams?

So, what are we to do? Well, the common response would be to donate. Money obviously always helps. But times are tight, we all know that. What about donating books that you no longer read that you think others would enjoy? That's great too (I was once told that a used book shows love)! Lastly, time. Time is a funny thing as it has no real value (unless you are on the clock)... other than intrinsically. You could be doing so many other things, right? Spending time with family, friends, maybe yourself alone quietly. Well, you could do all those things while helping someone beocme literate. Bring your kids with you to the library during an evening story time while you read to the dozen or so kids who come. Maybe invite a friend to go into helping adults become literate together and join forces to teach the group the finer things like monsters and zombies (or birds and star-crossed lovers if that's what you are in to). Possibly even start an organization where other writers and readers come together to promote literacy for a day with fun events for both kids and adults. It's all up to you in what you feel comfortable with.

I'm not here to make people feel bad or force you to do anything, just to bring awareness that this is a real issue, one that shouldn't be overlooked. If you do care to participate, Feeding Body and Mind and Reading Is Fundamental are two great places to start. If you have others that you are partial to, spectacular. But, in that one life that you affect, you begin a ripple effect. Let's start that here together, today.

New and Improved StevenSavile.com

Hey Zealots,

Steven has done a lot of work to get his new website up and running to coincide with the release of his title that should be near and dear to all of your hearts, SILVER. It's at the same address as before, StevenSavile.com, but there is lots of new content for you to check out! The most interesting of which is the Steve-Chats Page which you can subscribe to at FeedBurner. He's still working the bugs out, but the site is quite the cornucopia of information. Did you know that Steve has edited novels and anthologies? Or that he interviewed David Gemmell just before he died (which the whole thing is up on the site.)? Or that he will be a contributing editor for the ITW's The Big Thrill e-zine? You can also find the typical stuff a good author let's his fans know, like up coming books with release dates and descriptions, amongst other things.

So, go enjoy. Waste some time learning about Steve, the large amount of proverbial food that he has put on his plate to accomplish, and get hooked on him like so many others have throughout the world.

Steve Alten's Latest Interview

Hey MEG fans!

Recently, Steve was on with the great people of The Daily Buzz, and here is the interview in case you missed it.



It was a great interview with a perfect though... the most dominant sea monster ever to exist! Enjoy.

ThrillerFest 2009 - Do Thrillers Deserve More Press?

Good day everyone!

It's been a few days since I've talked about ThrillerFest, so I figured why not today? Actually, this is something that has been weighing on my mind since Saturday when I witnessed the panel. So, let's begin...

Run by Jeff Ayers, accompanied by David Baldacci, Evan Boorstyn (Grand Central Publishing), David J. Montgomery, Neil Nyren (G.P. Putnam's Sons) and Douglas Preston, this was quite an interesting panel. The question was posed, "Do thrillers deserve more press?", to which the overall voice of opinion was, "yes". Why do they deserve more press you might ask? Well, newspapers are sadly going down the tubes - the place where books got the most press. And as they continue to fail, what will be there to replace them? Online postings on the newspapers sites? I'd have to say no since anytime I go there to look for reviewers to send our materials to, the BOOK pages look sad and pitiful. Other forms of printed materials like magazines? I doubt it, unless of course they are already established like Booklist, but as you are well aware most revolve around viewable forms of media like the big and small screen. How can you blame them - they go to where the money takes them!

So, what's left? Maybe that small thing called the internet? You got it. Just like anything else, you need to evolve if you expect to live. Places like TheNovelBlog (one of my personal favorites) need to thrive... and they need your support! And it doesn't matter where you go, just find one that you like and support the cause of an art form that has been around for so very long.

Of course, this all hits home for me since I work here at Variance. Most people reading this wouldn't think twice about how much press a book gets. But for me, this is my way of life - marketing books to you which you will hopefully purchase and thoroughly enjoy only to return again for something else we publish. There are only so many ways though that I can reach out to you with the same content until you begin to block out the message, 'we have talented authors with great novels'. So do everyone a favor, find a great review site, maybe two, and ask them to review books that you are interested in reading. Do your part to help books gain the press they truly deserve.

ThrillerFest 2009

Good day, Zealots!

What an amazing 3 days I spent in NYC at ThrillerFest. I don't even know where to begin. It was quite an experience for me, a simple country boy like myself going to such a bash. Don't get me wrong, I've been to NYC, granted it was only once though, but that wasn't new to me. I've been in hotel's like the Grand Hyatt (used to be a carpet installer for some of the biggest in best hotels in Boston - was invited to stay in a few). And through all of this, it wasn't the sites, it wasn't the fact that I was in the presence of some of today's greatest writing talent - literary heroes for many of us - but the fact that so many of them, well all who I met actually, were so honest and inviting to someone like me, a self admitted nobody. Thank you all for making this, my first ThrillerFest, an unforgettable experience. I definitely can't go on without saying the biggest thanks to everyone who made it possible, including Liz Berry, who I seemingly saw around every corner wondering how things were going and if I was having a great time. That goes for Kathy Antrim too.

Authors like James Rollins, Jon Land and Sean Chercover were amongst the masses. It was refreshing to see these guys in the panels, Rollins with his humor, and Land and Chercover with their honesty. Throughout the week, I plan to talk about a few of the panels I went to, who was involved, topics of discussion, etc. So more on these and other authors in the following days.

Of course, it was wonderful to see Variance's authors in action! Many of our authors were there including Jeremy Robinson and AJ Tata as panel masters, Joseph Flynn as a panelist, and Jeffrey Stephens as an attendee. It was great to finally put a person with a name and email. Excellent job to those of you who were participants.

Others I had the gracious opportunity to meet included: Aaron L. Brown, David Sakmyster, Janice Gable Bashman, Matt Bronleewe, Don Lafferty, Joe Moore, Douglas Preston, Lee Child, David Baldacci, Jack DuBrul, Chris Kuzneski and Jeff Ayers to just name a few! To those of you I didn't put up, you're no less important and I would like to thank you all too!

In closing, I realize this has been a long post, and who knows maybe only a few of you actually decided to stick around to read this last part. But what I would like to close with is something that was said at the awards banquet on Saturday night. The question was asked of the audience (to the effect of), "What are you going to have put on your tombstone?", and that struck me. Everyone dies, it's a fact of life. And sure, I've heard that rhetorical question asked before, I'm sure you have too. I don't know why it rang with me this time either. Maybe because I was in a room filled with so many grand names, large or small. Maybe it was because, of those people who reached for success through good times and bad, whether they had made it there already or were still striving hard to accomplish their life's goal - though I can't speak for them - I'm sure each and every one of them were back today working harder than ever to accomplish what it was they were trying to achieve. I can only speak for me knowing that here I am, a better man for this experience.

For those of you who were there, I would love to hear your favorite memories of the weekend. Thanks for reading. Talk to you all soon,

--Stan

Thank you!

Good Monday, everyone!

Back from the holiday weekend, I start up my daily routine of Outlook and Google Analytics, an astounding number of emails begin to flood my inbox. Beyond that, my blog Analytics has an enormous spike on Thursday... Wow! What a response to Steven Savile's SILVER. I have already responded to them once with thanks, but now I come again, posting a separate message to those who went the extra mile by posting referrals from their sites to ours! Please be sure to visit the following friends - great content, great friends:

• Stel Pavlou
• Andreas at Cross-Cult Publishers
• TLM-Blog
• James A Moore
• Stefan Linblad
• Mark Seiber at Horror Drive-In

If there is anyone that I missed, apologies, but a heart felt thanks goes out to you too.

The SILVER Cover is Here!

That's right, the wait is over! For you die hard fans, this has been a long time coming. Even longer for those of you who are Steven Savile fans. But here it is, SILVER, in all of its Larry Rostant glory:



One of our best covers to date, and it should be as a lot of blood, sweat and tears went into this bad boy. So, what do you think? Be sure to leave your thoughts! Do you think that this could make him the #1 bestseller here in the US that he is internationally? Want to help make that happen? Pre-order SILVER at Amazon today!

Need a little push for the pre-buy? Here are the blurbs we have to date, more to come of course:

"SILVER is a wild combination of Indiana Jones, The Da Vinci Code, and The Omen. Read this book...before the world ends."
-- Kevin J Anderson, international best selling author of THE SAGA OF SEVEN SUNS and coauthor of PAUL OF DUNE

"Move over Dan Brown! Steven Savile's coming for you and he's got a silver dagger!"
-- Stel Pavlou, international best selling author of DECIPHER and GENE

"With SILVER, Steven Savile has delivered a stunning and bold thriller that sheds new light on the world of terror and uncovers a dark history that rocks the foundations of the modern world. A must read!"
-- Jeremy Robinson, author of PULSE and KRONOS

To match these great blurbs, SILVER rights have been sold to more than a dozen countries world wide! Jump on the band wagon and join the rest of the world in SILVER fever.

AJ Tata on O'Reilly TONIGHT!

Good Thursday, Zealots!

I hope all you US inhabitants are looking forward to the anniversary of the birth of our nation over this long weekend. Be sure to keep those close to your mind and heart this weekend who keep us independent, both stationed around the world and here closer to home!

Along those lines, Sudden Threat and Rogue Threat author, Brigadier General (ret.) AJ Tata, will be on Bill O'Reilly's The O'Reilly Factor tonight, live at 8pm EST (5pm PST). If you are more of a night owl, it will replay at 11p EST (8p PST), and tomorrow morning at 5a EST (2a PST). Joining him will be former presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee, also a Fox News show host of Huckabee. Be sure to tune in!



This isn't the first time that Tata has been on Fox News, visit our YouTube Channel to see all of his appearances, including Fox and Friends.



After you watch the show, I would love to hear your thoughts! Be sure to stop by and leave a comment. Enjoy.