What would you like to tell readers about yourself?
* She's been with Wild Child Publishing. since 2000 as either an author or an editor. Currently, she lives in Texas with her family and assorted animals.
* She follows a Native American life style--believing that each thing does indeed have its own spirit, and avoiding processed foods. If she couldn't kill it, catch it, or pick it in the wild, she doesn't eat it. Other than that she loves fast cars, good writing, and good editors. They are a writer's best friend.
What are you going to tell us about today?
* 'What would I tell a new author?' & then my story Life Flight
* As well as being an author, I am also an editor. On top of that, I mentor several authors. One of the questions I am often asked is, Why do I have to do that (fill in the blank) followed by (insert headline making author) doesn’t. The question still catches me by surprise. Then I try to think back to the first novel I finished. I was so in love with that, now trunk novel, that I was sure it would be the next best seller, I was on my way to the bank, followed by a million adoring fans, with a fist full of royalty checks.
* The difference, I think, was that I was also working as an editor. I knew that, (insert headline making author’s name) had an editor, that they most likely had a box, or two, of rough drafts and false starts, and did I say it already? An editor. Most the time when you crack open a book and you look at the dedication page, what do you see? I thank my mom, my dad, grandma Joe, and so on. Rare to find a dedication page that says and thank you to my editor. I’ve seen a few, but not many. Why?
* Part of it is vanity. No one wants to attribute their success to someone else. If you win a race in a new pair of running shoes, do you thank the maker of those shoes? Very unlikely. So it’s the same with authors, rarely do they thank their editors. I think this leads to those on the outside of the industry to paint a picture of their favorite well to do author, sitting in a chair, smoking jacket on, and banging out a perfect first draft. It leads them to thinking that first draft is perfection without a single word being touched.
* The reality check is often in the form of reviews, if the author self publishes and gets their book out of the hands of family and friends and into the hands of objective readers, and in rejections if they go that route. My advice to new authors: Writing is work. Let me clarify that, writing is creative, yes, but to produce a great book, is work. It means editing, no it isn’t an editor’s job to fix punctuation (typos yes), or run a spell check, or to rewrite your novel while you bang out the next one. That’s the writer’s job, to learn their craft, and, yes, this means grammar and spelling and all of that, then write the best story you can and submit the cleanest draft you can, after it has been read by a few beta readers that don’t share any of your DNA.
* I learned the hard way, I handed that first draft, of the now trunk novel, over to a beta reader and every single thing they pointed out felt like a punch in the gut. I got mad. I cried. Then I subscribed to a few writer’s magazines and got down to work. If a reader finds fault in the story, mechanics or plot, move on, but if several do, it’s not that you are misunderstood, or your writing, it might be that you need to hone your craft a bit.
* Bottom line, learn the craft, and writing is a job, if you can find a degree of separation from the work, the work will be better for it.
* Now for a look into the story
* Kat is trying to escape an abusive marriage. Her soon to be ex is a master at manipulating the system, and her family thinks she should stay with him, "because no other man will want her". She's looking for escape in any form she can get it.
* When they meet, sparks fly. Trapped by a blizzard, can two damaged people, who think there is no chance of love in the world for them, find each other, and survive an unforeseen circumstance that puts both of them in danger?
* Mystery, romance, and danger, fill this novel, with a story that will draw you in and not let go.
* I tightened my arms around Kat. Forever. Then she would have to stay right in this room with me--in my arms. Nothing made sense, everything my life had been for the last twenty-five years rang like a bad dream, a nightmare from the pits of Vietnam. So dead inside that any feeling fed me, woman after woman, man after man, no one let me hold on to what I felt for more than a few shared moments. Lies whispered to the tiny ember of my soul that I had left. This is the one, they told me, this one will make you feel, will bring you back to life.
* They never did.
* Kat ran her hand down my arm. Snuggled closer to me. A chill that had nothing to do with how cold the room had become, shook me. Spoke to me. I could again with her, and I knew I would keep feeling what I was. Alive. Warm. As if I had a soul inside me, not just a demon who preyed on others for my next fix of emotions.
* “I should fill that heater and get us some warmth again.”
* “Yeah, I suppose one of us should,” she said with no intention to do so in her voice.
* I tightened the bear’s embrace I held her in, tangled my legs with hers. She pushed at my arm, wanted to make me let go of her.
* “I don’t want to let go of you yet,” I said. If I let her go, the surging emotions inside me would vanish with the warmth of holding her.
Buy Life Flight here...
Freya's Bower | All Romance eBooks | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
Find Shaunna Wolf here...
Author Page Freya's Bower | Website | Blog: Critters at the Keyboard | Facebook Author’s Page | Pinterest |Twitter | Goodreads | Book Blogs | Authors Den | Google+ | LinkedIn
Thank you for joining us here today, Shaunna Wolf! It was a pleasure getting to know you and your story.
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