It’s been a year since I started developing the internet social media necessary to gain the attention needed, and it’s only just beginning to show tentative signs of becoming a small snowball. Now to create the hill for it to roll down. This is only one of my first “interviews” for the internet. It’s called a Blog Hop which I think of as a chain letter to keep going so it spreads. Like a chain letter I added my part and hope it’s interesting enough for seekers of good books to curl up with and enjoy it.
See my note at the end: (The connections will follow this chain if you continue with my friends. They are authors with their own stories and novels, most having been at this media game much longer than I have. It should provide a variety to consider.)
The questions only provide the tip of the iceberg so connect with my websites and other blogs. They’re provided elsewhere on this site. Look at the books published and those in the making.
And don’t forget to go back up the chain to visit with my friend Gay Ingram. Her blog can be found at http://gayingram.blogspot.com ; her website at http://gayingram.webs.com; and her Amazon page at http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B008VS6AJI.
The Interview:
1. What is the working title of your book?
Well, the published title of my major novel is Where the Horse Run: Mass Extinction, Book I–the first of a trilogy. I have three others I’m working on.
I’m editing Where the Horses Run, Book II, Sacred Hills, and I’m making notes on The Furies of Orestes and Silas Little Bear and the Multi-colored Dragons. I’m also working on a small child story for my granddaughter, which I don’t plan to make public. I’m seldom working on one book at a time until I get everything lined up and I’m wrapping it up, which doesn’t include editing.
2. Where did the idea come from for the book?
Books II of my “Horses” series is a continuation of Book I, Mass Extinction. It’s been in my head for 20 years, but how to write it came to me about six months after my last horse died and it felt as though there were no horses left in the world. I’ve been working on this trilogy for over six years.
With many of my stories, if not all, opening scenes come from nowhere and pour out. Usually they’re very good which is encouraging, but I know I’ll have to work for the rest. For “Horses” I had to work for that beginning. I had to keep backing up in the story for a starting place.
“Furies” started as note of a scene that came to mind after reading a report in Scientific American. I looked up my working title, “Retribution,” in my thesaurus and found a Greek word referenced that I didn’t know. I did a Google search and discovered The Oresteia by Aeschylus. I focused on the third story of this Greek tragedy about the Muses. It fit with the situation I had in mind, so before I got further on the story I had a title and a cover designed.
“Silas” came about due to my desire to write a middle grade or above story with a young boy as the main character. My “Meshyah” series have two young girls and a boy as the main characters. So far, the boy there plays a lesser role. It made me consider the need for more male characters. I decided the boy was half Native American spending the summer on the reservation with his Native American family. With my research for the Native American culture in my “Horses” stories I made this one another spin-off, sort of. I’m still working out the time period in relation to the “Horses” story and an adult version of the “Meshyah” series, titled DOME, in all caps.
My granddaughter’s story came from a title I used in TREE & SKY. It came to me long before she was born, but I was determined one day I would write a children’s story for her with the title. My problem is I’m not an illustrator and I can’t afford to pay someone, so I’m still working out how to do the pictures I want.
3. What genre do your books fall under?
“Horses” is a contemporary Sci-Fi/Fantasy, with a lot of historical fiction in the story. It’s apocalyptic but not as dark as those type stories usually are. It’s more of a discovery of what it might mean for mankind if such a warning event occurred.
“Furies” is a psychological thrill, I hope. I want readers to experience the distress the main characters go through and I want it to have a surprise twist…a puzzle to work out that will only make sense once revealed.
“Silas” is a Sci-fi/Fantasy, set a little bit in the future, but mainly a hero story. Silas and an adult character, along with the dragons, will have a “testing” they’ll have to go through in order to set the world right again. For Silas it’s part of his vision quest experience.
And the small children’s reading for my granddaughter will be fun, have cooperation and things to learn about.
4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
For “Horses”, Kate Hudson and Woody Harrelson. Other actors are considered for a few other characters, but while writing one of them died. I didn’t want to jinx the story or the actors so I refused to consider others.
For “Furies” I really don’t have any actors in mind.
For “Silas” there’s only one and that’s for the adult character – Rupert Grint from Harry Potter’s last movie, when he was dressed up with the long brown hair and beard, wearing a long coat. He wasn’t shown clearly in the movie, but in a deleted scene shown in the special features he was very clear. I really liked the look. When Harry said, “I wouldn’t know you if I didn’t know you,” it was very accurate and I saw a value in that character for him. When thinking about how the Silas story would progress I realized that would be the perfect place for such a character. Interestingly, Silas already called his pony Rupert, though his name is Blaze.
5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
For “Furies” I really don’t have any actors in mind.
For “Silas” there’s only one and that’s for the adult character – Rupert Grint from Harry Potter’s last movie, when he was dressed up with the long brown hair and beard, wearing a long coat. He wasn’t shown clearly in the movie, but in a deleted scene shown in the special features he was very clear. I really liked the look. When Harry said, “I wouldn’t know you if I didn’t know you,” it was very accurate and I saw a value in that character for him. When thinking about how the Silas story would progress I realized that would be the perfect place for such a character. Interestingly, Silas already called his pony Rupert, though his name is Blaze.
5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
For “Horses” – a search for how and why the world’s equine species vanished en masse, and what it could mean for humanity’s future — all told from the personal experience of the characters.
For “Furies” – a retired profiler and her friend work together to discover who is killing older woman. I can’t say more than that for now.
In “Silas” it’s the confronting of a personal weakness while solving a problem, putting together the mystical aspects which represent the changing from one Age’s cycle end to another Age’s beginning. Silas and this unnamed, so far, adult have to confront two forces in the form of dragons to solve how they should work together to end one Age and begin another.
6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
Book I of “Horses” is self-published, so the second and third are planned to follow.
All the others are expected to be self-published, but you never know what opportunities may arise. If it removes the task of self-marketing I may allow it for one of these books, or one in the future, to be represented. That route is more time-consuming in the wait and my objective is to get all the stories I’ve started over the years completed and out there asap. I want to inundate the field with my titles and my author name.
7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
About five years for the “Horses” series while the other two were only begun within the last six months. I’ve had computer problems and social media take my attention away from all my writing, but I should get back to it soon. I recently feared I’d lost two of the stories in the exchange of information between the computers, but I found the missing ones, much to my relief. I got sidetrack for a few hours working on one of them, just due to the relief I felt.
8. What other books would you compare this story within your genre?
I don’t know about a trilogy like my “Horses” series, but maybe P.D. James’ Children of Men because of the change an event caused in the world.
I started out thinking “Furies” might be as intense as Silence of the Lambs. I hope it is.
The only guide or comparison I have for “Silas” is a short story in a thin book titled Earthquake, but I also keep in mind A Swiftly Tilting Planet and Howl’s Moving Castle.
9. Who or What inspired you to write this book?
The times we live in for “Horses.” For “Furies,” the article I mentioned, and for “Silas” it was the desire to have a male lead in a children’s book. I think they’re in great demand right now. And I’m trying to make the male in my other female-dominated children’s series a little stronger with more involvement.
10. What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
In the “Horses” series there are historical scenes involving Native American life in the past seen in visions and dreams. Lakota Holy Men come to the main characters as mentors in these dreams and visions, with those from the present also helping, showing how different things are, yet remain the same. It’s basically a theme of how all things are connected.
“Furies” involves a sleep disorder, twins, psychological problems with hallucinations, stalking and that twist I hope for.
“Silas” involves a boy’s great imagination aiding him. There’s a point when all the animals can talk to him only; one is his spirit guide and the other is his pony. The dragons can talk, also.
My sister-site for this one, booksbyjvd.wordpress.com, has all my social connections. 
I have my books listed on Goodreads.com, Shelfari.com and Barnes and Noble.com, and many sites that can be discovered in a Google search — just type in the author name. I’m on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and BookBlogs. I’ll be adding more.
My books can also be purchased directly from the publisher starting at https://www.createspace.com/3790672, then click the go to and make the rounds until you’re back to the first book.
END NOTE: I would say — Now don’t forget to check out the following authors: — but those who answered my email query were too busy or had already done this, but a few haven’t responded yet, so I’ll add them if they agree to pass this on. Otherwise, it stops here. I’d call this a Missed Opportunity.
1. http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_…
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Related Blogs
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http://www.facebook.com/l/OAQEWnLmCAQEPWfrxjz9DzI608er4sbpYZv5khSVWHV9aHg/josslandry.com/book-reviews-other-news-the-next-big-thing-2/
Related articles
- Where the Horses Run, Book I Mass Extinction (booksbyjudithvictoriadouglas.wordpress.com)
- The Next Big Thing Blog Hop (fillingspaces.wordpress.com)
- The Next Big Thing (ychi.wordpress.com)
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