Kalen Cap

Author of the Teen Thief-Catcher Novels

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Kindle scout campaign kicks off January 5, 2018

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My new novel, “The Ancient tripod of Peace.” has been approved for a kindle scout campaign starting Friday, January 5, 2018. Kindle scout, in their own words, is “reader-powered publishing for new, never-before-published books. It’s a place where readers help decide if a book gets published.” Plus, if a reader selection is picked by kindle press for its imprint publishing, readers nominating the piece receive a free copy of the kindle ebook.

Readers may make up to three nominations at a time. For a free preview of “The Ancient Tripod of Peace,” please visit the campaign here.

I hope readers will consider nominating the novel for publication. Thanks!

New look with growing pains

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Updating the look to the website with a new theme, but haven’t quite figured things out yet.

Please be patient as I seek support in updating this website.

Thank you.

 

Revision Milestone

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Recently completed a full edit revision of the upcoming novel. Work on “The Ancient Tripod of Peace” looks to be keeping on track for a January 2018 release of the novel. I’ve found fellow writers at scribophile.com to be helpful in that regard. The most recent information I have looks like the beta reading and response process may take one month longer than planned, so later in January is more likely than earlier.

 

Author Interview – Sue Seabury

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sue_seaburyAuthor of “The Misadventures of Robin Jane” series, Sue Seabury has a number of young adult novels available. It is great to be able to interview someone that has successfully launched a new series in recent years in this genre.

A bit about Sue – she enjoys exotic travel, good food, and great conversation. Since she doesn’t often get to enjoy any of these, she makes up stories about them.

Here are some handy links to find Sue’s works and learn more about her take on things –

Amazon

Smashwords  

Twitter  

Facebook  

Let’s find out what Sue has been up to.

1. What was the hardest thing about writing your latest book?

Not getting discouraged by the query rejections.

2. What’s your views on social media for marketing? Which of them

have worked best for you?

I have a facebook page and am on twitter. I have seen anecdotal evidence they work, but I don’t have a ton of experience with them. Mainly bumbling my way around, seeing what works, and what doesn’t.

3. Do you let your book stew – leave it for a month and then come back

to it to edit?

Yes. No specific amount of time, but definitely helps to set it aside and

come back with fresh eyes.

4. How do you edit?

I asked a few friends who had experience and/or interest in copyediting

and/or writing. I thought I did a good job finding typos and other errors, but

they found a whole bunch. Seems I’m not the eagle eyes I thought I was.

5. Did you come across any specific challenges in writing Miss

Calculation? What would you do differently the next time?

I didn’t have a clue what was missing from my writing until I started

getting feedback. Now that I know my weaknesses, heck yeah I work

to not make those same mistakes.

Author interview – JR Creaden

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Think people are going to enjoy getting to know author JR Creaden. Both of us recall the childhood impact of Dr. Seuss on our joy of reading. Without further ado, I am happy to introduce JR Creaden

jrcreaden

JR began her authorial career as a child disgruntled with song lyrics. After some early success with poetry and essays, she spent decades distracted by songwriting and academia until her story dreams became too interesting to keep to herself. A New Morse Code, the first book in JR’s YA scifi series Contact Files, will soon be ready for public consumption or vivisection. Her goal is to share stories that inspire readers to embrace cultural diversity, the promise of science, and the value of humor and imagination to build a future that’s more Star Trek and less 1984. When she’s not writing, JR enjoys exchanging “your mama” jokes with her children, floating in lakes, and slaying virtual dragons.

Links:

Website

Twitter

Facebook

And now, for the interview –

1. Did you come across any specific challenges in writing A New Morse Code?  What would you do differently the next time?

ANMC offered some challenges from the first day. My kids and I imagined a world where Star Trek the franchise had existed, but so had some of their histories, centuries before our story occurs in an alternate reality. How do I showcase the differences without referencing the original masterpiece? How to stay on familiar ground without confusing the readers or breaking copyright laws?

Next time, I would obviously choose to be a famous, well-respected author who can pitch the story straight to Star Trek in the first place, so it could be adopted into canon, or I’d know precisely how to avoid such conflicts.

2. For your own reading, do you prefer eBooks or traditional paper/hard back books?

Paper or hardback, all the way. I listen to audiobooks a lot, but only because I can’t go more than half an hour without funneling more story into my head. I like the feel of a book, the smell, the weight of it in my hands. EBooks are convenient, but, if I’m on a device, I’d rather be writing my own story.

3. Do you remember the first story you ever read, and the impact it had on you?

Yes. It was “Oh, the Places You’ll Go” by Dr. Seuss. I completely forgot about that story until I found myself stuck in a dream landscape where “some windows were lighted, but mostly they’re darked”.

In retrospect, that book shaped my attitude all through my life. I never questioned life’s “right” to be difficult or challenging, even scary. Expecting that, my optimism remained strong. Because I will succeed! (ninety-eight and three quarters percent guaranteed!)

4. To what extent do you try to broaden your audience? (What role does diversity play in your writing process?)

I definitely hope to appeal to non-human audiences, as I feel they are grossly underrepresented in modern fiction. As far as human diversity goes—my hero is of Irish and Mexican descent, and a bit of a nerd. In later books in the Contact Files series, I will delve into various LGBTQ concerns that just begin to surface in the first book, as well as other lifestyles such as polyamory and asexuality. With a universe full of possibilities, it seems ridiculous to assume every species would behave like the modern Western world, and I do try to show how beautiful and interesting other cultural styles can be.

5. What were you like as a child?

I spent a lot of time in trees and creeks, book in hand. My favorite games were playing pretend—spy, detective, survey taker. With my terrible eyesight and genetic clumsiness, I wasn’t one for sports, though I loved riding bikes, swimming, and swinging. I was forever singing—it wasn’t until I began playing guitar that that became socially acceptable.

Author Interview – Gina Hanson

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This month begins a series of author interviews for those writing in the young adult genre. I’m happy to introduce a fellow vegan and animal rescue enthusiast as the first author I’m interviewing – Gina Hanson.

A bit about her first.

Gina Hanson has been writing stories since elementary school. She holds an M.A. in English Composition and an M.F.A. in fiction writing.

Hanson has published several short stories but is still in the process of securing representation for her two YA novels, The Importance of Being and Skye Michaels and the World Below. Her YA work often explores themes related to gender and sexual identity. Her current work-in-progress is a YA novel called Love and Other Hazardous Materials. 

When not writing, Hanson teaches writing at her grad school alma mater. She lives in Southern California with her spouse and their rescue animals. You can learn more about the author at www.ginahanson.com.

Twitter: @HansonWrites

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GinaHansonWriter/

Interview questions and answers

So, what have you written?

I’ve written quite a bit. I love to write short stories, and I have enough to create a couple novel-length collections now. I might do that someday. I have two novels for adult readers. One, I wrote years ago, and it will probably never see the light of day. The second one, THE MANY STONES OF COLBY CAIRNS, was my MFA thesis, and I sent it out to literary agents for a while before giving it a break. I’d like to see it in print someday. I also have a novella of interrelated short stories I wrote in college. I’ve been cleaning it up a bit recently. I hope to do something with that someday as well.

My primary focus right now is on finding representation for my two YA novels, THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING and SKYE MICHAELS AND THE WORLD BELOW. Sometimes it feels like too much of my writing time is spent on the querying process: researching literary agents and sending out materials. I’m ashamed to admit that I have more unfinished novels than finished ones. However, I’m heading into the last few chapters of my current work-in-progress, so I feel I’m getting much better at finishing what I start.

Do you aim for a set amount of words/pages per day?

I do. It varies based on the time of the year. During the school year, I set a weekly word count for myself. I teach writing classes, and with lesson planning and grading papers, my schedule can get pretty inconsistent. To compensate, I set a 2500 word weekly count based on 500 words, five days a week. This gives me some flexibility in missing days without beating myself up over for it.

In the summer, however, my word count goes way up. I generally do not teach in the summer, so I get the bulk of my writing done then. I aim for 7000 words a week, or 1000 words per day. I am very disciplined in meeting my daily count because it’s easy to get behind if I skip a day. I will allow myself time off for illness, but not for vacations. Even if I write 1000 crappy words for the day, at least I met my goal.

If there were an aspect in one of your books that you wish could be true in real life, what would it to be?

SKYE MICHAELS AND THE WORLD BELOW is the story of one girl’s obsession with Skye Michaels, a female rock star who takes the world by storm. Skye is considered one of the best guitar players of her generation, and she sells out arenas filled with her rabid fans. If there were one aspect of this book that I’d like to see in the real world, it would be to have a real musical phenomenon like Skye Michaels. We see popular female musical acts all the time, but Skye is different. She succeeds at a level that has typically been reserved only for men. I’d love to see the day when musicians are asked who their favorite guitar player is, and they respond with a female’s name. That’d be cool. 

The incredibly unlikely thing from the book that I’d also love to see is one of the social side effects of Skye Michaels’ fame–a complete overhaul of animal welfare in America. Skye Michaels is a hardcore animal lover. She funds “rescue cities,” massive sanctuary projects for homeless pets. She is a vegan and turns millions of her fans off meat, causing the meat and dairy industries to revamp their practices to deal with the lower demand. I love the idea that some aspect of celebrity culture could lead to substantial changes in the treatment of animals and our environment.

Do you remember the first story you ever read and the impact it had on you?

THE STORY OF DOCTOR DOLITTLE is the first book I actually remember reading, but I only have flashes of settings and scenes in my mind. CHARLOTTE’S WEB was the first book I remember from beginning to end. It had a profound impact on me in a social sense as I have always been an animal lover, and after reading it, I became more aware of animals being raised for food. I’m sure on some level it contributed to me becoming a vegetarian and then a vegan, and is probably at least partially responsible for my creation of characters like Skye Michaels.

On a writing/storytelling level, I think the friendship between Charlotte and Wilbur had an enormous effect on me as well. Deep friendships are at the core of nearly everything I write. For me, there is no greater story than that of a friendship that endures. I’m sure that first literary friendship I encountered has something to do with that.

What is the best book you’ve read lately?

Easy. KILL THE BOY BAND by Goldy Moldavsky. I first heard of the book when it was sold to its publisher, and I thought the premise sounded glorious. It’s about a group of fangirls who “accidentally” kidnap their least favorite member of their favorite boy band. I bought it the day it was released, having no idea what to expect. I quickly discovered that Moldavsky had mastered the kind of narrative voice I work so hard at in my novels. I felt the writing was so good, it actually blocked me for a few days. Every time I sat down to write, I kept thinking, “I’m never going to develop a voice like that–I’ll never be that good.”

But soon, the book became an inspiration for me. Perhaps even a challenge to step-up my writing game a little. And this may be cheating because I’m going to mention a second book here, but Shaun David Hutchinson’s WE ARE THE ANTS similarly blocked and then challenged me. He uses these interesting doomsday scenarios throughout that I loved so much, that I’ve now been playing around with the structure of my latest work-in-progress. I’ve never read as many great YA books as I have this year. I think the genre has really hit its stride.