Virtual Tour Stop #9: Guest Post at School of the Ages

The virtual tour continues with a visit to author Matt Posner's blog and a guest post I wrote, entitled, "1,000 True Fans--Who Needs 'Em Anyway?" See what I have to say about it and show me some love, groupies!

Click HERE ---> http://schooloftheages.webs.com/apps/blog/show/16316995-1-000-true-fans-who-needs-em-anyway-guest-post-by-mysti-parker

Virtual Book Tour Stop #8: Interview at Fangtastic Books

Today's virtual tour stop brings you an in-depth interview with yours truly. Do go check it out and say hi!!

Click the linky below:
       
        http://www.fang-tasticbooks.blogspot.com/2012/06/interview-with-mysti-parker.html

Virtual Tour Stop #7: Guest Post at This Author's Life

Guest Post & Giveaway: This week's first tour stop has us stopping in at The Wasted Witch again to wet our whistles and to meet another of the cast of Serenya's Song. Go say hello to him, and each commenter (if you haven't already read it) will have a chance to win a copy of the book! 

Just click HERE --->An Evening With the Cast of Serenya's Song, #2: Jayden

Interview with Cristena Rehn, 2nd place winner of the May Flash Fiction (MFF) Contest

I'm very happy to have Cristina Rehn here today in the hot seat. Her second place MFF entry was entitled "Banished", and you can read it here:


MFF#6: Banished by Cristena Rehn


Cristina is a fantastic writer I met through Writer's Village University's F2K program, a free six-week writing workshop. For more information about it, click HERE.


Have a seat, Cristina and tell us what you do when you're not writing.

I’ve worked full-time at a non-profit member association representing municipal public health departments for the last eighteen years.  My work is varied and includes quite a bit of writing.  Other than my lengthy commute, I love it.  My non-paid work hours include the usual family things: cooking on the nights my mom doesn’t, pretending I care marginally about housework enough to ensure we all have clean clothes and dishes, running around to my daughter’s activities, snatching a few romantic moments with my husband, and dealing with my stalker cats.

Your blog is called Quiet Content. I've heard rumors that you are a lover of quiet, as is the rest of your family. So am I, but with three kids at my house, it's a rare commodity. Is quiet something you've had to work hard at maintaining, or are you all naturally inclined toward silence?

Having only one shy girl keeps the noise level down, for sure!  My husband, daughter are all introverts, to varying degrees, so we’re all inclined towards silence - though we have our chatty periods too.   My mom lives with us and is an extrovert, but gives us our space.  I also come from a family of ministers (Step-dad, Sis and Mom – I think it’s the world’s most thankless profession), so there were always quiet periods at home needed to recharge.  Being single into my mid-thirties, and living alone much of that time, also acclimated me to long hours of quiet time.  I still crave it and carve some out each day.

What genres of books do you enjoy reading, and which works/authors have inspired your writing?

I’m all over the map with genres. I like satirical novels, literary novels, mysteries, YA, sci-fi, adventure, fantasy, romance.  I love history and read a good amount of non-fiction, particularly anything about Theodore Roosevelt, a fascinating character!  My writing to date is YA focused. John Green, Holly Black, Barry Lyga and Libba Bray are favorites who inspire my work in that genre.  I’ve also read all the works of Christopher Moore, James Thurber and Stephen Fry because they make me laugh out loud.  The older I get, the more I prefer books that entertain me, rather than those with weighty and sad deep truths.  There’s enough of that in real life.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you've participated in NaNoWriMo. It seems like every writer but me has done it. Can you tell those of us who haven't heard of it or haven't participated, exactly what that is and what you like/dislike about it?

Click HERE to check out NaNoWriMo!

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month.  The challenge is to write a 50,000 (or more if you’re prolific) word novel in the month of November.  You validate your word count, but they do not keep any records of your work, and there are cool prizes (generally discounts to writing related products and services).  They also hold Camp NaNoWriMo – two sessions this year in June and August, and Script Frenzy for script writers.  November 2011 was my first NaNo and I won!  


I liked the challenge of a goal that forced me to keep writing even when inspiration waned. It’s also a great opportunity to interact with other writers, with its “We’re all in it together” vibe. People across the world participate, and although I didn’t attend any, many places set-up local in-person write-ins to meet and work with others in your locale. My daughter participated with me in the Young Writer’s Program, where she could set her own word count. She’s nine and she ended up with a 5,000 word story, dictated to typist Mom.

The hardest part for me was not editing as I wrote. I tend to churn out a few chapters, then spend some time editing what I’ve written before moving on to the next part of the story. You can’t afford to do that when you’re doing NaNo, if you want to make your goal. Another challenge was that my family supported me until the reality of the benign neglect of them that NaNo requires hit. Support waned rapidly by the second week of November.

Are you working on any novels/stories now, and can you tell us about them?

I have a few “finished” first drafts that I’m ignoring until I’m ready to start the revision process.  For now, I signed up for June’s Camp NaNoWriMo just for fun.  I’m way behind and unlikely to reach the magical 50,000 word count, but I’m working on a YA story called Camp Vamp.  I’m doing this one seat of the pants, no outline or plan.  The story: Two friends enroll in a summer camp for night-owls: gamers, would be astronomers, future lounge lizards.  In case the title hasn’t clued you in, it turns out that the counselors and other campers like the night for more sinister reasons.  Expect Vamps, Weres and Ghosts.   I suspect zombies to pop up at some point too.  For my August Camp NaNo, I plan to turn a story I wrote for the Writers Village University F2K Fiction course (when we were classmates!) into a novel.  It’s a novel that revolves around the setting and circumstances of a major flood that devastates a rural community - which happened in my community last August.  I’m working on the outline and character sketches now.

Don't look now, but here's a random question: What's the best costume you've ever worn?

It’s a toss-up between Bunsen Honeydew of the Muppets (w/ a friend as Beaker) in 7^th grade, and The Jolly Green Giant and Sprout with my tall husband taking the lead role as the JGG and short me as Sprout.  We hope to do the Heat Miser and Cold Miser this coming Halloween.

Finally, would you like to share an excerpt from one of your projects? 

Sure!  I already sent off my first page critique prize and received great feedback, so I’ll share an excerpt from that.  This is from my November 2011 NaNoWriMo project, titled “Take the Consequences”:

Of all the things in life to be late for, a funeral has to be the worst. Miri sighed and scanned the grassy fields along the roadway for hidden hazards. Driveways.  Squirrels. Errant cows.

Seemed like she was always late.  Late learning her ex-boyfriend, Daniel, was a cheating bastard. Late getting the hell away from her control- freak mom. Late realizing that those two things were not unrelated. Her life-long bent towards compliance finally snapped - too late.

But late to her aunt’s funeral topped the rest, though she'd never met Aunt Aga, her last living relative on the Oneiros side of the family.  Not living anymore, dummy.  You’re it. 

Miri meant to visit - once she turned eighteen and Mom could no longer tell her what to do.  Her mom’s lifetime of lies replayed in her head:  They were horrible after your dad died, sweetie.  Thought we weren’t good enough for them.  They don’t care about us at all.

Maybe it some of it was true.  Miri had just turned two when he died.  True or not, she believed Mom, until she intercepted the mail on her sixteenth birthday and discovered that Aunt Aga sent her a birthday letter and gift each year, without fail, along with an invitation to visit.  An invitation Miri swore she’d accept when she was old enough to be out from under Mom’s thumb.

So much for good intentions.  I'm freaking nineteen now, it's my first trip to Auburn, and Aga's dead.  Miri gave herself a mental smack. 

The endless fields morphed into a blacktopped rollercoaster of twisty hills and curves.   Miri jerked her steering wheel and her brain back on track as the lane made a hard left. 

This better be the right road.

Thanks so much for stopping in, Cristena! I wish you the best of luck in all your writing goals!


****
Cristina Rehn lives in Upstate NY with her husband, daughter and mother.  A full-time job, a full-time family  and two demanding cats don't leave much time for writing, so it's still a hobby.  She hopes someday she'll shine and polish up something enough to be published, but for now she just enjoys learning from other writers about both the craft and the business.  Her hobbies are writing and reading, and eking out as much solitude and silence as she can to do both.  Her daughter banished her from birthday parties years ago. 

Cristina's Blog: http://cristinarehn.blogspot.com/

Interview with Angie Ballard, 3rd Place Winner, May Flash Fiction (MFF) Contest

I'm very pleased to have Angie Ballard here today, where I can interrogate her mercilessly like I do all my interviewees. Angie wrote a wonderful flash fiction story for our MFF contest. If you'd like to read it, click here:


MFF #11 by Angie Ballard


Now, let's get to the nitty-gritty and find out about the woman who calls herself The Jammie Girl?? Love your blog title. I've been snooping over there, and have to ask. Are YOU a Jammie Girl? Do you hang out in your jammies until noon, like some people I know? (I made it to the shower at 11:40 today!) 

My blog title began as an inside joke, because I'd worked for years as a nurse, getting up at 3am every morning and relishing my days off when I actually could wear jammies at long as I liked.  I discovered quickly that I wasn't the only person out there who felt they were more productive if they wrote, cleaned, cooked, or whatever all before changing out of pajamas!

Tell us a little about yourself, Angie. What do you do when you're not writing?


 I grew up in Lexington, Kentucky and am a graduate of the University of Kentucky.  I've been married twenty-five years, and have two sons, ages twenty and thirteen.  And, no, we didn't realize at the time that having our children seven years apart would guarantee us a teenager in the house for fourteen straight years.  I love to cook, I'm a voracious reader, and I have two large dogs I spoil unashamedly.  Right now I'm off work recuperating from my third and fourth cervical spine surgery, so the rest of my hobbies are on hold for a bit.


For those not in the know, I met Angie when I joined Louisville Romance Writers, our local chapter of the Romance Writers of America (RWA). How long have you been a member there, and can you tell us about the benefits of joining a local writers' group?


I have been a member of LRW for two years and I can honestly say I have never met a more supportive group of people, both personally and professionally.  If I wasn't active in a writing group it would be too easy to take my writing less seriously because I wouldn't be basking in the literary successes of the other members or being held accountable for whether or not I'm really making an effort to write and be read.


Who and what are some of the authors and books that have inspired you most?

I write Women's Fiction, and some of my favorites are Jennifer Crusie, Mary Kay Andrews, and Dorothea Benton Frank.  But I also own everything Stephen King has ever written and would probably buy and enthusiastically read his grocery list given the opportunity.

You've written a cookbook entitled: Tight Budget, Tiny Kitchen, and No Time: How to Eat Well in Your First Apartment. Boy, I wish I had that when we first married and lived in that rinky-dink one bedroom. When did you publish this, and what inspired you to write it? 


When my eldest son went off to college two hours from home it was very traumatic (for me - not at all for him).  Since I tend to show my affection by feeding people it was so hard to know he wasn't having his favorite home-cooked meals.  Of course he was perfectly happy living on pizza and Taco Bell, but I put this book together as a sort of labor of love for use in his first off-campus apartment.  The tips and techniques are ones I use myself since being off work an extended period of time quickly renewed my interest in living and cooking frugally.


Let's hear about your novel-in-progress. I have to say, I think the whole group was smitten with that first paragraph you read during our April meeting. I've been hungry for tater tot casserole ever since! What's the title, genre, and gist of the story?

It's called Lordale, which is the name of the little beach town in which most of the story is set.  It's Women's Fiction, slanted more toward Commercial Fiction than Literary Fiction.  I believe in the reader getting a happy ending :)  The main story revolves around Maggie, a middle-aged woman who has finally gotten everything she has worked so hard for, but realizes she may have sacrificed too much along the way.  Her young friend and neighbor, Amanda, mirrors Maggie's struggles as she deals with a busy career, the huge responsibility of being her mother's caretaker, and an unexpected romance.

Do you have an excerpt you'd like to share?

The next morning Maggie woke up the same way she usually did: to the tap of toenails on the hardwood floor and the touch of a cold nose on her arm.  She pulled on her crumpled shorts and T-shirt from the day before, laced up her running shoes, and grabbed a bottle of water and an old tennis ball.  Sam, her plump chocolate lab, was doing the potty dance by the back door by this time.  It was barely dawn, but Maggie never minded Sam’s early wake-up calls - she’d always enjoyed the hour or so of solitude waking up before everyone else provided.  Sam’s brisk trot set the pace for their warm-up, and Maggie turned back a few minutes later to admire the two sets of footprints - one human, one canine - that were the only ones marring the perfection of the early-morning sand.

Last but not least, everyone gets a random question when they have an interview here. Yours is: Do you have a food that you love, but most people find repulsive? Or alternately, do you hate a food that most people love?


Is there a word for pathological fear of coconut? That would be me. I won't even eat chocolates from a box that's marked just in case someone put a coconut one in the wrong spot by accident. Bleh!


Thanks so much, Angie for sitting in my interrogation chair today. I wish you the best of luck with your writing and everything else!


****
Angie Ballard is a nurse, mother of sons, and dog-lover who got started writing with her blog, The Jammie Girl, which is part chat with a girlfriend over a glass of sweet tea, part conversation overheard in the grocery store checkout line, and part Thanksgiving dinner with the crazy branch of the family.  Although her only published work to date is a frugal cookbook she is currently writing her second novel in the Women's Fiction genre when she's not wasting time on Facebook and Twitter.

Virtual Book Tour Stop #5: Guest Blog and Giveaway at Roxanne's Realm

Stop #5 brings us to a little tavern called The Wasted Witch in the quaint town of Summerwind. You never know who you'll meet here. Come find out, and don't forget to tip your waitress! Just click on the link below:


Roxanne's Realm: Guest Blog and Giveaway with Mysti Parker

Virtual Book Tour Stop #4: Promo at Flutey Words

Me in Costume at Karen's Book
Barn & Java Stop, LaGrange, KY

I've got a twofer appearance today, so you can stop in at author/flutist Aubrie Dionne's blog and say hi! Also, please share this one via Twitter, FB, etc if you have a chance. And I'd love to see a comment or two over there :) Just click the link below:

http://authoraubrie.blogspot.com/2012/06/serenyas-song-by-mysti-parker.html