Short Story contributors.

Hi Folks
This is a continuation from Thursdays Food for Thought post at Authors promoting Authors. It was a shame more authors didn't participate. There was a method to my madness. I hinted to everyone that you never know who is watching the blog!!!??? I wasn't allowed to say what was really going on lol

Unfortunately no one seemed to click on, so my innuendo fell flatter than my victoria sponges. The blog was being watched by a company who are looking for fresh, novelists for various drama projects. I can't tell you who yet, there is another huge event planned soon and I don't want to spoil that in any way.

It was their idea to do the post and I thought it would be fun too.
The good news is they emailed me to say, although it was a shame the blog wasn't very active, they were impressed with two authors who did participate. I can't tell you who because they didn't say lol but they will be looking out for them at the next event. So well done all of you. Your foot is in the proverbial door lol

I've decided to call the very short story lol
A collaboration of authors

Carrie Sanders sat in the car, which rattled like an old tin can, as the rain pounded on the roof and sighed. What on earth was she doing at midnight, sitting in Rattlers Cove, freezing her backside off? Mist hung like a silken shroud across the shore line obscuring most of her view of the water. With camera poised in her hand, she squinted out of a window which had begun to steam up, annoying her further.
This would be a good scoop for the paper if she got a picture of the, so called, Selkie, who was said to visit the cove every year, for one week. So the locals had whispered to her. Too scared to say it out loud in case the mere mention of it reaped terrible luck on their fishing boats. Carrie didn’t believe a jot of it, but her editor had become intrigued and she had been sent out to investigate. A flash of lightening lit up the sky, casting a hazy light over the water and it was then she saw it. A dark shadowy outline of someone on the beach. Carrie rubbed at her window to clear the fog, and squinted out. She held her wide angled camera up and looked through. Her eyes widened in shock and she blinked several times, hardly believing what she was looking at. There was a selkie and it was a man, who turned and looked straight at her, his red eyes flashing in anger.
Carrie's first inclination was to turn tail and run, to quail in the face of such obvious anger. But then she stiffened her spine, reminding herself why she was there, and the moment passed. Bugger all, the scoop of a lifetime stood within reach and damned if she was going to let it get away.The next flash of lightning to split the sky revealed an empty beach. Carrie swore under her breath, scrambling from the car. She'd never forgive herself if she let this one get away. She'd also never live it down. It would become part and parcel of the local legend that was Carrie Sanders. Local joke more like.Carrie Sanders was known for letting all the good ones get away. She couldn't hold a man to save her life. They all figured her out for what she was and ran for the hills.Putting such dismal thoughts behind her, she was thinking seriously of giving up when a blessed intervention in the form of a jagged flash revealed that the selkie, if indeed that was what it was, had simply changed position. He stood just outside her car, peering into the window. She worked hard not to leap back in fright.
Her heart pounding, she clutched her camera. The movement started him and he jolted back."No! Don't go!" she shouted and opened the car door and stepped outside. This was a photo opp she was not going to miss. Not this time."Carrie!" he said. "I thought that was you."She recognized the voice. It was Jack. Of all people! Stepping forward for a closer look, his face came into full view. Their eyes met and held for a long moment. They both saw it, then. Something moving beyond the rocks. Watching them.
Get back in the car." Jack's voice was rough in her ear, and Carrie's first instinct was to balk at being ordered to do something. But as his fingers tightened around her arm, tension ran through them both like the lightning that played in the sky above them. "Did you see it...him...too?"Jack didn't answer. He took a step toward the car, dragging her with him."You did, didn't you?" So it hadn't been her imagination. The red eyes, the anger...Yes, getting in the car and leaving would be the best thing for both of them right now. But this was the chance of a lifetime. How could she walk away?In a wrenching movement, she tore away from Jack's grip and ran, not toward the car, but away...toward the rocks, and the man who waited there. She was going to get her picture, one way or the other.
Through the pouring rain, Carrie ran hard and fast towards the rocks beyond. Lightning flashed over and over as she came closer to what, she knew not. Carrie only knew that she was not to be denied.Another flash of lightning, far closer that Carrie was comfortable with and the loud crash of thunder came barreling over the landscape, causing Carrie to shriek with fright and nearly drop her camera.Suddenly, she felt something soft and gentle on her shoulder and the rain-soaked young woman turned to tell Jack that she was just fine. The flash of lightning and crash of thunder revealed a sight far more frightening than Carrie thought possible and realized that the hand on her shoulder was not Jacks.
Ran towards the rocks she could feel her heart pumping. She could hear the voice of Jack in the distance calling to her as she ran. The thunder booming violently and lightning playfully dancing across the sky. The brief flashes of light to darkness made her even more determined in her pursuit. She never liked the rain but this story was to important to her. She continue to run towards the rocks panting but exhilarated. Suddenly she felt a blunt push knocking her to the ground. The rain soaked ground cold and unforgiving. Her drenched her covered her eyes but one thing she was certain of she had snapped a picture before the fall.She remembered pointing the camera towards the area she had seen the silkie and the only light the flash of her camera as she fell to the sand.She clamoured to her feet and before her stood Jack. Jack did you see who pushed me she asked. Jack..The figure known as Jack stood there not saying a word. Jack she continued....
She and Jack had a shared history, not one she was particularly proud of but they had been very close over the years. There was a time when all of the locals thought they would be together, marriage, baby's,the whole shebang but that was before Carrie had been betrayed. Jack had wanted her but being aware that he was the most eligible bachelor in town,how old fashioned did that make her sound, he could not resist flirting with every woman he came across. Not in a sleazy way but with an air of confidence that danced in his eyes.Little by little Carries self esteem had dwindled as she tried desperately to compete with the prettier girls in their small seaside town.Her older brothers had made it quite clear that in their opinion their little sister was batting out of her league and should give up any ideas of hanging onto Jack and when She had turned up at his house unexpectedly that spring evening seven years ago they had been proved right.Jack was not to be trusted with her heart and now here he was again, as he was at every momentous moment of her life, trying to spoil things. She would find the Selkie and claim him as her own,that would show him.Carrie ran blundering into the dark her knees buckling as she clambered over the dunes the soft sand shifted under her feet. Despite the spiteful wind she could hear Jacks heavy breath behind her as he gave chase. Panic thumped in her chest as she pounded along the stormy beach.she had run from jack before and she would outrun him now, if he thought he was in a position to stop her he was sadly mistaken.She must find the Selkie man, he would be her champion, he would save her.

Welcome to Kirstin Battestella

Good morning Kirsten and welcome to not so sunny kent. As it is raining, I thought we’d take our brunch into the lounge and chat today. I hear that you have a book hot off the press. Tell us a bit about it.

Love: Ann and the Viking is the first title in my new FATE and FANGS: Tales from the Vampire Family series with Muse It Up Publishing. The novellas and vignettes here- Love, Punishment, Struggle, Debauchery, Lust, Humanity, Resurrection- are based in the same universe as my 2008 Eternal Press novel The Vampire Family. This set is hosted by the family’s occult go to guy Professor James-though he isn’t always so reliable and unbiased as he pretends to be. These 7 books are also first hand accounts; some of them are actually earlier material that was excised from the first full length novel because of the viewpoint. As was the case, I wanted this collection to come inbetween The Vampire Family and the next full length sequel so we can slow down and- for better or worse- find out what makes bad boy Mestiphles, goody goody Samantha, and the rest of the divided coven tick. There is a certain uncomfortable intimacy in getting to read the inner most thoughts and feelings of the confused Elizabeth, naughty Victoria, or lovelorn James. I find it amazing to get into the heads of antihero characters and witnessing their m.o.! They’re vampires you know, so there’s a lot of room and most definitely times and places to explore with these characters. Really, is it any easier to break up with someone after 200 years? FATE and FANGS opens with the medieval steamy in Love: Ann and the Viking and continues through Civil War strife in Debauchery and concludes in contemporary melodrama for Humanity and Resurrection. And yes, some of these folks are totally melodramatic predators and proud of it. There’s no glitter glow here, and Muse has been so cool in handling our dirty love, gore, and period-hopping adventure. Whew.

Wow, they all sound fabulous. I have a lot of time for vamps and am especially interested in these confused thoughts of Elizabeth. Lol It looks to me like you have not had time to breath. So what’s next on your writing agenda?

What isn’t on my writing agenda, Margaret? I still do some hometown newspaper work, have been for the last seven years, and I write reviews, film criticisms, and other articles and essays for anything and everything that will have me in print or in the vastness of internetdom. There’s still the bells and whistles yet for the FATE and FANGS follow up, too. Yes more beyond these 7 tales! Currently I call it Requiem for the Vampire Family. But I am slow, or at least slower than the speedy writers today, and it is getting big, maybe into two books. That might be The Vampire Family Forever. I stink at titles! I’m also doing some editing for fellow EPer and neighbor Leigh Wood. She’s more twisted than I am, and I am getting into her Horns of Myleness unicorn kink just a bit too much. I enjoy alternating the work and the material. I don’t tear through a world for both fear of rushing it all on and worry about staying too long on the stale. I like to switch it up, get practice and tools from non fic ways for the genre. Edit sexy medieval smut as Leigh calls it to push my own writely boundaries for ideas. The key is too always be writing something. Not that it is all always good, but getting it out there on the page, gaining experience, and habit. Hopefully it’s all fabulous and positive habits, but c’est la vie.

*Sniggers* medieval smut. I rather like that phrase lol Pick your favourite character from your new release and tell us about them

Ah, I can’t choose! For Love specifically, of course I like my leading man, Eric, the titular Viking obviously. I wrote his introduction to the Welshire vampire world years ago. He’s so strong and yet even considerate in his cutthroat ways. You’d think his vampire woman Ann would be so please with the rough love, yet she is always in Antonio’s shadow. When I first started writing about The Vampire Family, none of this glitter undead baby stuff was going on. I was interested in the actual family dynamics- which are already totally effed up- and how adding immortal darkness and power would shift the teetering balance. Now everybody has a ‘vampire family’. What ever happened to the word ‘coven’? Doesn’t anybody like covens anymore?

Aren’t covens more for witches than vamps? What is the best marketing advice you can offer.

I dare say I’m not that good a marketeer. I know how to promote, where to do it, what and when. Unfortunately, I don’t feel I have the zest or spin angle upon which true salesmen thrive. I don’t like to be pushy. I’m old fashioned. I think a work should speak for itself. Of course today that is no longer the case but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t write your manuscript any differently. You should damn well write your book like it is the next big thing, the Great American Novel. I’d much rather read something of greatness then get the used car salesman push. Write your book to the best of your ability. That is the best marketing you can do for it. Granted you do need to consider genre and audience a bit while in the draft, but write for yourself, write to create the best damn literature possible. Don’t get swelled in the head with the promotion with a half finished or half assed manuscript. The best advice is to not let the marketing obsessions of today compromise your writing vision.

I think we could all follow that advice. To jump totally out of subject, being a romance writer I love to hear about a real romance. So, probing gently lol where did you meet your partner?


Is Sears romantic? My husband and I both worked the magic of retail! Romance shouldn’t necessarily peak at the meeting. It should grow in bond, comfort, satisfaction. Wow, I think I’ll just stop there. Too near the danger territory!
Lol spoilsport. Before you go, where can your followers find you
Well, you won’t find me on Twitter. Everyone says it’s the way to go now, and my negativity about it has been called Luddite by some. I just don’t understand the conundrum of busting your butt to write the best dang book possible and then fleetingly trying to catch people’s attention in 140 characters or less. What if Shakespeare could only get one line of a Sonnet out at a time? Ridiculous! I am on Facebook, for better or for worse, and I still have a probably very outdated myspace page! Blogger, goodreads. What dark corner of the internet have I not found yet?

Mmm Maybe Shefari lol I think you have covered the rest.


Blog
http://jsnouff.com/kristin

http://kristin724.livejournal.com/

http://www.facebook.com/kristin.battestella

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Vampire-Family/157922293588

http://myspace.com/kristinbattestella

Thanks, Margaret!

Thursday Blog hop question

QUESTION: How does a writer make marketing their stories easier on themselves?

In my opinion Internet book marketing is an absolute necessity if you want to sell your book.
I have a good, easy to navigate website that heavily promotes my current releases. I also have a link to where you can purchase it.
An auto responder is a good informative, sales or promotional tool. It is just an email that you can schedule to go out to any email list. It can be set up to create a series of emails to send out every Monday for six Monday’s in a row and then once a month after that. The benefits are that you can write the emails ahead of time and that the email can be sent to any list that you desire. Blogs can be sceduled to release you current information too. They need not just be for guest posts. They can work for you and you can check the stats on them to see how much traffic you have. Whether a certain promotion worked or not.
As we have to mostly market ourselves, I am up for anything that makes the path smoother.