Last year I was invited to contribute a short story with a paranormal them to an anthology from Leap Books titled SPIRITED. I was super excited, especially when I found out that some fantastic authors would be joining me.
Since my THE SEER has some amazing fans, I wanted to give them a new story with favorite characters Sabine and Dominic. So I wrote PHANTOM OF THE PROM; a ghost, prom, romance.
SPIRITED is out now online and in March a paperback comes out, too.
This book is split up in three different genres of stories: PAST, PRESENT and FUTURE. My story is in the PRESENT category. I thought it would be fun to share the titles and authors for each story:
SPIRITED paranormal Anthology, edited by Kat O'Shea
THE PAST
1. Strangeways vs. the Wraith by Judith Graves
2. The Senet Box by Jill Williamson
3. Stained by Mark Finnemore
4. Thread of the Past by Dawn Dalton
PRESENT
5. The Cold One by Candace Havens
6. Death becomes Her by Kitty Keswick
7. Oast House by Carmen Tudor
8. The New Girl by Maria V. Synder
9. Aftermath by Halli Dee Liburn
10.Phantom of the Prom by Linda Joy Singleton
FUTURE
11. Night Queen by John W. Otte
12. To Hell and Back by Shannon Delany
13. The Story of Late by Heather Kenealy
Hope you check out our stories!
Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: The Seer, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 3 of 3
By: ,
on 2/1/2012
Blog: WRITERS & READERS ROCK (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: friendship, writing, romance, mystery, historical, paranormal, ghost, seer, anthologies, anthology, the seer, maria v. synder, Add a tag
By: ,
on 11/5/2010
Blog: WRITERS & READERS ROCK (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: books, mystery, audio books, series, nanowrimo, the seer, ya, Add a tag
FIVE THINGS ON A FRIDAY
1. Plans to attend ALA Midwinter are going great! I'm signing DEAD GIRL and THE SEER 6, MAGICIAN'S MUSE on Jan. 8 and Jan. 9th.
2. Almost done reading the 7th book in PENDRAGON series by D.J. MacHale -- exciting and creative series.
3. In my car, I am listening to WHITE CAT by Holly Black. (wouldn't it be funny if her name was Katherine so the book could be WHITE CAT by KAT BLACK?) By the way, I was happy to be in traffic since I am so loving this book and can't wait to find out what happens next. It's a fantasy mystery--a favorite genre!
4. I am doing NaNoWriMo for the first time ever and hope to finish the draft of my dystopian (abbreviated to U.S.) and have met my 5-day-a-week 2,000 words each day goal. Hit over 11K words today. And yes, I am proud of myself. Lots of editing ahead, but this story really excites me and I can't wait to discover the shape of each scene.
5. Had a cool email from a fan who is annoyed at one of the big bookstores since they don't have my new THE SEER book, MAGICIAN'S MUSE, and she's now determined to make them carry my books. I could use more fans like her!
Blog: The Spectacle (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Joni Sensel, Chris Eboch, Dead Girl, The Farwalker’s Quest, The Seer, The Well of Sacrifice, series, Haunted, sequels, Linda Joy Singleton, Add a tag
All the buzz right now is about the latest book in a certain trilogy. Some of us on this site have written series or sequels. I wrote the Haunted series and Linda Joy Singleton’s work includes the Dead Girl and The Seer series. Joni Sensel’s The Farwalker’s Quest was recently followed by a sequel.
What author wouldn’t like to have a series, whether the original contract is for several books, or a single title is so popular that readers (and the editor) want a sequel? And what reader wouldn’t want to return to a favorite literary world?
And yet, series can be a hard sell. Some publishers of course focus on series, typically the direct to paperback, open-ended type. I sold Haunted (about kids who travel with a ghost hunter TV show, for ages 8 to 12) based on a first manuscript, series proposal, and outlines for books 2 and 3, to Aladdin, a paperback series publisher. But most publishers want to see how a first book does before they request a sequel.
“Characters that carry over a number of books certainly work well, but this isn’t the same thing as a series,” a former Llewellyn Acquisitions Editor said in an interview. “I’d rather see a strong standalone with sequel potential. If a single title works and the main character isn’t too old, it’s rarely a problem to continue the story into a new book, if there’s interest.”
Another editor commented, “I wonder how many trilogies or series were conceived as such—and how many began as one-offs that performed well and/or became bestsellers, at which point authors are often encouraged to write a follow-up.”
I wonder as well. As a writer, perhaps the best thing you can do is to bring your first book to a satisfactory conclusion, but leave the sense that the characters will go on to have other adventures — and wouldn’t it be nice to read about those?
This is also comforting for the author, who doesn’t feel as much like she’s abandoning her characters forever. (I ended my historical fiction novel The Well of Sacrifice with the characters heading off to a new Mayan city. I imagined their adventures, though I never wrote a sequel. Some teachers who use the book in the classroom have students write about what happens next.) This is a bit different from “And they lived happily ever after” — unless you believe that happily ever after would involve new challenges and adventures!
As readers — or writers — do you like to feel that a book is complete and self-contained, with no questions or concerns left for the characters? Or do you prefer an ambiguous ending that suggests challenges ahead? Something in between?
The Well of Sacrifice is a drama set in 9th-century Mayan Guatemala.
Chris Eboch likes happy endings!
Filed under: Chris Eboch Tagged: Dead Girl, Haunted, Display Comments Add a Comment
As both a writer and a reader, I’m a fan of the series, whether it stands alone or ends on a cliffhanger. If I loved the first book, I have no problem spending more time with the characters and their world. Some of my greatest reads are or part of a series. Some stories are just genuinely too big to fit in one book and shouldn’t be confined.
From the writer’s stand point though, the only issue with a first book that ends on a cliffhanger is that if it performs poorly, you can forget about a sequel. And any reader that happened to want a sequel is left looking like Batman without his utility belt.
But even with a standalone, I still appreciate loose ends or ambiguous endings. It depends on the story. Not all are the same. Or should be.
Unless it’s a crime/mystery novel–I’m thinking more in terms of sci-fi/fantasy–I think every series should have some sort of overlaying plot that binds the collective…and not just the characters.
Which is why, to me, it seems that authors who outlined or planned to write a series from the beginning usually end up with the better result than authors who became bestsellers and were enticed to continue that story. Sometimes a story should have ended with the greatness of Book 1 and nobody would have ever missed the unnecessary follow up.
As both a writer and a reader, I just want to enjoy the story however long or short, series or one-off.
It’s a real dilemma. I hate series books where the story doesn’t get resolved at the end of each book, at least the main parts. I hate cliff-hanger endings where I have to wait sometimes for years to find out if the characters are even still alive. But I like reading about the same people.
I sold my books as a series, though each book does have a complete story. They just all tie together. I hope I hit the balance of resolving the current problems while leaving future ones open for more stories. It’s difficult.
On the other hand, I went back to my characters to write some shorts just for fun (the books are all written, just waiting on editing and publication). It was like putting on a pair of old slippers – comfy and very familiar. I know these characters, I know the setting. I’ve already done most of the work. I just have to pull a story out of them. I think that’s what readers enjoy about series. It’s like hanging out with old friends.