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To celebrate the fabulous review Kirkus gave Born of Deception, (which you can read here!) I will be giving away five ARCs of Born of Deception!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Born of Deception

by Teri Brown

Giveaway ends May 01, 2014.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

 I am a huge Wild Sister fan.  I love both the magazine and the message and when Jen “came out” with her a newly discovered  Aspergers diagnosis, I was fascinated. I knew my readers would be too, so I asked Jen if she would be interested in doing an interview with me. She would, she did, and here it is:) First, a little about Wild Sister Magazine.

Wild Sister is a revolutionary e-mag and global sisterhood of women who rock at life. The aim of Wild Sister is to inspire women to love themselves, follow their bliss and change the world.

Now more about Jen!

Name: Jen Saunders

Position: CEO, founder + editor-in-chief of Wild Sister Magazine, creator of the Wild Sisterhood + co-founder of the Autistic Women’s Collective.

Me: When did you start Wild Sister and why?

Jen: I started Wild Sister in 2011, after discovering many inspiring female bloggers online and wanting to gather them all together to create one awesome collection of voices. I’d always wanted to read a magazine that made me feel good about myself, but I could never find one in the slew of gossip-heavy, photoshopped tabloid mags that fill the newsstands. So I decided to create the kind of magazine I’d always wanted to read.

Me: Have you always been creative or driven to have your own business?

Jen: Definitely, I’ve been creative for as long as I can remember, and I’ve always wanted to work for myself.

Me: Have you always felt “different”?

Jen: Yep, I didn’t know how or why, but I always felt like I didn’t fit in.
 
Me: How did the diagnosis of Aspergers come about?

Jen: I saw a girl on TV talking about her life with Aspergers, and I related to all of it. That started me down the path of researching and reading as much as I could until I was sure I was Aspergian too.  Less than a year later, I was diagnosed.

Me: How did the diagnosis make you feel?

Jen: So many things. First, relief. Other words that come to mind are liberation, validation, clarity, understanding, forgiveness, and acceptance.

Me: Do you think there’s a link between your aspergers and your desire to run your own business? Why or why not?

Jen: I think so. I always had a lot of trouble working a full-time job, all the social aspects of it were incredibly draining and I always knew I did my best work when I was passionate about what I was doing. Starting a business built around something I loved was the best thing I ever did. I turned my special interest into a business, taught myself how to do it all very quickly, and used my creative skills to do it. These are all my Aspergian traits coming into play.

Me: Anything else you want to share?

Jen: For any women out there who are on the Autism spectrum, I invite you join the Autistic Women’s Collective. It will be an online community for Autistic women, by Autistic women, and aims to provide a safe space for us to connect, and promote acceptance and neurodiversity through sisterhood.

So, I’m going to get all esoteric and shiz here on the blog. Hey, it’s my blog, I can say what I want, right?

So let’s get down to it… As some of you know, I was diagnosed with a pituitary gland tumor back in 2001 or so. Treatment included a ten hour surgery and radiation. I’m a big believer in taking away life lessons from our experiences and quite frankly, I think I forgot the lessons the universe was trying to teach me way too soon because I was hit with throat cancer two years ago this spring. This bout included two surgeries and another six weeks of radiation. Because the radiation was in my throat it affected my eating and as you know, eating affects your whole quality of life.

I got it universe. I really got it this time.

Of course the irony that I discovered the cancer at the same time that I’d just received two major publishing contracts wasn’t lost on me either. I don’t know if it was because I was ten years older or if I am just a lot more in tune to these things but the yin and yang of the situation was a real wake up call.

So now I run, lift weights and eat well.

Like writing, self-care isn’t easy. I have a million excuses why I shouldn’t run that three miles/write that 1000 words. I self-sabotage by telling myself that I will never getting any faster/any better. Basically, the doubts that splatter my writing spirit with excrement are there as I reach for health and try to live life to it’s fullest.

I used to think that someday I’d be able to rid myself of the demon of self-doubt, also known in writing circles as the evil editor, but now I know better. But I can make the demons weaker. How?

• Positive self-talk. Remember the little engine who could. I can. I will.
• Follow with action. All the positivity in the world won’t help me achieve my goals unless I take ACTION.
• Making small goals and achieving them helps me a lot. First one mile. Then two. Submit an article. Then two. Make friends in the industry. Attend a conference. Finish a book. Join a gym.
• Then up the ante with bigger goals. Run a 5k. Then a 10k. Get an agent. Publish a novella. Meet my deadlines.
• Nourish my soul. Live in the moment. Stop in the middle of the run to take a picture. Look up at the trees as the sun shines through the leaves. Reread paragraphs that sing. Think about how wonderful that food tastes. Meditate.
• I enjoy each emotion because they mean I’m alive, that I feel, but I don’t let the emotions possess me.

And every morning I tell myself that I only have one life and I need to embrace it. Every damn moment of it.  So the heck with self-doubt. Life is too short and far, far too precious. 

I loved my sister, Donna. I love her still. The last 24 hours have been surreal and make no sense to me at all. When something like this happens, I always want to make a timeline– as if by categorization, I can make sense of the senseless.

My mom called yesterday afternoon and told me that my older sister had collapsed and was taken to the hospital. She spent some time without oxygen and may have suffered some brain damage. My mind, not accepting anything REALLY bad, thought, “Oh, like a mild stroke. She is going to be FINE.” I told my mom to keep me posted. Then I went for my longest run ever, came home, and took a shower. I was incredibly proud of myself and jacked up on endorphins. Then my mom called again. My 97-year-old father had called her and  was crying and it DID NOT look good. It was SERIOUS.

Sometimes I can be a real dipshit.

I immediately contacted my nephew and asked him to update me. I hate getting knowledge 2^nd hand. This is what I learned:

1. She complained about having difficulty breathing. Asked if she wanted to go to the hospital, she said no and used her inhaler. She felt somewhat better.
2. Early in the morning she told her husband that she couldn’t breathe and he needed to call 911. She fainted.
3. She was taken to the hospital, but they could not get her to breathe. Her lungs collapsed.
4. Late afternoon, early evening she was declared brain-dead from lack of oxygen. The family removed her from the ventilator and she passed an hour later. I will never be able to thank my nephew enough for waiting for me to arrive before taking her off life support.

That’s the timeline and it doesn’t even come close to how stunned, shocked and heartbroken her family is. It doesn’t fix it.

Right after talking to my nephew, we packed and made mad dash to Puyallup in a wild winter storm. It took us about 2.5 hours. Hours in which to wonder WTF.

Really, What. The. Fuck.

I’m back home, exhausted, shocked and incredibly sad. But I have a deep need to tell you just how warm, wonderful and funny my sister was. We didn’t grow up together. I came to the family when I was two and she was fifteen already. She loved to tell people that she taught me my ABC’s and 123’s. And also to embarrass me, that she changed my diaper.

• She loved hokey old horror movies.
• She had a wicked sense of humor.
• In spite of some odd family dynamics, she never made me feel like anything but her beloved little sister.
• She loved kitties. (Or at least had a lot of them!)
• She had an incredible ability to forgive.
• She loved to collect old things.
• She was very artistic and experimented with many different arts and crafts.
• She was one of the least judgmental people that I have ever met, but she could still see the ridiculousness of human beings.
• She loved her family

Life wasn’t always kind to Donna, but she was almost always kind to life.

RIP my sweet sister. The next book is for you.

Since I’ve finished my series on being a hybrid author, I’ve been thinking a lot about my own career. What do I want it to look like? Where do I want it to go? I love what I do. I love the challenge of writing books, creating characters, and smoothing out plot snarls. I also love helping other people, especially teens. This summer I’m going to be running two writing workshops for teens, as well as rolling out a brand new business, which I will be debuting at a later date… but all this got me to thinking about continuing education for the hybrid author.

I’ve attended some incredible intensives in the past from some wonderful instructors including, Margie Lawson, Bob Mayer,  Debora Dixon and many others. Intensives can be a bit overwhelming… my brain can only take in so much information at once, so while I’ve gained immeasurable knowledge from intensives, I’ve probably forgotten more than I will ever remember!

So I’ve decided to continue my education on my own. Each week, I set aside an hour or so for study. This takes many forms… marking and reading interesting articles on the publishing industry that go by on my Twitter feed, reading books on the writing craft or reading books on indie publishing and the changing publishing landscape. I’d like to get to the point of setting aside three to four hours a week for this. Why is it so important?

• Knowledge is power. Knowing about our industry gives us a wider sense of our place within it.
• Reading the opinions of the movers and shakers within our industry gives us pointers on how to network with others. Certain people are hubs, so to speak. They’re the ones who know almost everyone within the business and are themselves innovators. These people and their careers are worth examination.
• Studying craft makes us better writers and communicators. We can be experts on the publishing industry, but unless we know how to write, we aren’t going anywhere.

I am reading a book on craft right now, Rock Your Plot by Cathy Yardly and DIY Publishing by Maggie McVay Lynch. What are you reading? Do you think continuing education for an author is important?

Image courtesy of cooldesign/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Soup weather has hit Oregon in a big way. I know, I know, the rest of the country has been getting hit with the storms of the century while the PNW has enjoyed some of the most beautiful weather ever seen. Several weekends ago, my husband and I watched the sun go down  with a bottle of wine on the Oregon coast. There was no wind and no rain–and anyone who has been on the Oregon coast in January knows just how rare that is. And it was 60 degrees. Incredible!

After spending the afternoon on the beach it was time for dinner. As soon as thew sun dropped below the horizon, the temperature dropped and I  wanted a bowl of soup. At the beach you get clam chowder. And it was delicious.

My kids have often called me the soup nazi after an old Sienfeld show because I can concoct amazing soups out of practically nothing. Last night, I made a curried chicken soup with ginger–something I have never tried before. And then, because I’m a little odd, I made up some gnocchi and added them to the bowls just before serving. Talk about genre blending–an Indian flavored soup with Italian dumplings!

Someone online asked me for the recipe and I had to tell her that I didn’t have one. I had a flavor profile in mind and I just kind of added stuff until it tastes good. Then I started thinking about how my writing was a lot like soup.

Bear with me here.

I’ve written quite a few books now. Some will never see the light of day, some are currently available at your local book shop and still others have long disappeared from shelves. Several have yet to be born. And yes, they are all a lot like soup. I don’t have a recipe for  the books and like my soups, they all turn out different. Yes, there are some tried and true rules of thumb that help me as I layer in the flavors–I always saute my veggies in olive oil , I use quality broth to pull it all together, etc. But the flavors are all different and each are added a little bit at a time until I have the right notes. Last night I added curry and ginger until it was warm and flavorful without being overpowering.

When I write my books, I always start with a blurb that I develop into back cover copy that is then developed into a one or two page synopsis. I have an over-arching flavor profile that I’m aiming for but each book is completely different and I have to keep adding and subtracting until I get just the right note.  Once the main part is done, I go back and layer in the flavor/details until it’s as perfect as I can make it. Then I give my editor a taste, just as I let my husband a taste of my soup. Then, based on their opinion, I fuss with it until everyone is happy.

See, pretty much the same:)

Number four in my hybrid authors series is Lauren Oliver. Yes, the Lauren Oliver. We happen to be agency sistahs!

When  Lauren isn’t writing best selling books, she is the co-founder  and co-architect of Paper Lantern Lit. What is Paper Lantern Lit?  From the website:

PLL is a literary incubator. We come up with story ideas, we plot them using our knowledge and experience with narrative structure, and we coach authors through the writing process. Like architects, we envision, design and layout all the basics of a book, but it’s our writers who inhabit them and bring them to life. When a project is ready, we sell it to one of the publishing giants. So far our sales record is 100%.

In one interview, Lauren said she had too many ideas that didn’t fit in with her particular brand as an author and that was one of the reasons she started Paper Lantern Lit.

What do you get out of PLL? What kind of personal satisfaction do you get, etc.

 I love working with young writers and helping them grow; I’ve been so lucky to have been educated by so many brilliant and talented people, and it was important to me to return the favor. Plus, PLL allows me to explore other creative opportunities and collaborations–if I didn’t have PLL, I’d literally just sit in my house in PJs all day!

Do you think that there are more opportunities for authors to branch out in today’s publishing climate than there used to be? (Both writing wise and other chances to make a living?) Why or why not?

I definitely do! The incredible rise of self-publishing, and the variety of small and untraditional publishing houses and opportunities, give authors multiple platforms in which to start disseminating their work. Plus, it’s easier than ever to connect with fans, which means authors can grow and maintain their audience more successfully.

Again, I’ve known Lois Winston for years via the Internet and have always been awed by her multifaceted career. She is an author, (with two names!) and a crafter and a literary agent. Wow! How does she do it?

Name: Lois Winston

Website: http://www.loiswinston.com

Most recent release: Mosaic Mayhem

 Award-winning author Lois Winston writes romance, romantic suspense, mystery, chick lit, women’s fiction, and non-fiction under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. Kirkus Reviews dubbed her critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” In addition, Lois is a literary agent and an award-winning craft and needlework designer who often draws much of her source material for both her characters and plots from her experiences in the crafts industry. Visit Lois at www.loiswinston.com, visit Emma at www.emmacarlyle.com, and visit Anastasia at the Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers blog. Follow everyone on Twitter and Pinterest!

 Tell me about the Ashley Grayson Literary agency:

The Ashley Grayson Literary Agency was established in 1976 and handles both literary and commercial fiction, children’s fiction, and some non-fiction. Genres we specialize in include mystery, romance, science fiction, urban fantasy, young adult, and middle grade. Our client list includes bestselling authors John Barnes, Bruce Coville, Christopher Pike, and Carrie Vaughn, among others.

How did you go from author to Literary Agent?

After my first book sold in 2005, I was invited to join the agency. I had helped several friends polish their manuscripts, which led to them being offered publishing contracts. Ashley recognized my editing skills and thought both agency clients and potential clients would benefit from my input. I started out reading the slush pile, then began working with authors, and eventually took on some clients of my own.

 That sounds like a ton of work! How do you juggle writing and agenting?

 It helps not to sleep much! I actually juggle three careers. Along with writing and agenting, I’ve never stopped designing. It’s all about prioritizing and making every minute of every day count.

I have heard the term hybrid author bandied about a lot. What does it mean to you?

 A hybrid author is one who runs on both gasoline and electric. <G> Seriously, though, there’s a simple definition. A hybrid author is someone who is both traditionally published and is also indie (self)-publishing. Some hybrid authors are only self-publishing their backlists. Others have begun to publish new works on their own.

In your opinion, what is the best way for authors to take advantage of the changing  publishing landscape?

Be open to all the possibilities that are available to authors right now. I will add a caveat, though. Not everyone should self-publish or self-publish just yet. You first have to have written a publishable book. Too many people are self-publishing books that are definitely not ready for prime time. Learn your craft first. Fiction writing is a skill that needs to be mastered. You may have a long career in journalism or technical writing, but fiction is an entirely different animal and requires different skills. Also, just because Great-aunt Agnes thinks you’re the next Nora Roberts, unless she’s a retired fiction editor, her opinion is worthless.