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~~Articles~~
Mother Nature's Helping Hand ©
By Fran McNabb
Appeared on the avalonauthorsblogspot on
June 8, 2009
The Gulf Coast is my home. Its miles of beaches
and line of barrier islands,
and countless
winding bayous and bays have
been an influence
on me, and now I find it's an
important influence
on my books.
I guess it's true that we write what we know
and love.
In ONCE IN A HALF MOON my hero is a charter
boat captain who loves the freedom
and beauty
of the water. Boats have been
part of my
life as well, and I was fortunate
enough
to find a husband who loves being
on the
water as much as I do. Just last
week we
spent the night anchored at Ship
Island,
one of the barrier islands just
off the coast.
He grilled me a steak and we
watched the
sun set as we ate. Nothing can
compare to
the awesome beauty of a sunset
on the water
- unless it's watching the sunrise
while
drinking coffee on the stern
of the boat.
In my February 2010 release ON THE CREST
OF A WAVE, my heroine finds herself
helping
a Union officer on this same
island. Where
we anchored I could see the fort
that was
taken over by the Union forces
in the early
part of the Civil War and then
used as a
Confederate Prisoner of War Camp.
It's hard
to walk the island today over
a hundred years
later and not think about what
happened on
that barren stretch of sand.
How can you
not be creative in a setting
like that?
I'm always asked where I get the ideas for
my novels. It's hard to say how
ideas originate.
One day your mind is a blank
slate and the
next your fingers are flying
across the keyboard.
I guess if I'm honest with myself,
my surroundings
play an important role in formulating
stories,
and I'm lucky enough to live
where nature
evokes an emotional response
and strikes
a creative chord.
Think about your surroundings. Do you live
in the mountains, the plains,
a coastline
or in a big city? Sometimes we
take for granted
what we see every day. Today,
take a moment
and actually see the beauty and
the awe that
Mother Nature has provided. You
never know
if the idea for your next book
is waiting
for you to discover it there.
Small Houses, Big Rewards ©
By Fran McNabb
Harlequin/Silhouette, Bantam, Berkley --
these houses are household words in the publishing
industry, but there are other, smaller houses
where authors have made a long-standing home
or given their writing career a start.
Three authors, Sheri Cobb South,
Don McNair,
and Fran McNabb share their knowledge
of
the houses where they have recently
signed.
Sheri Cobb South's most recent
publication
in January 2006 is IN MILADY'S
CHAMBER, a
mystery published by Five Star.
Don McNair's
debut novel, THE LONG HUNTER,
is a coming
of age novel, published by Medallion.
The
hardback, young adult novel will
be the premiere
novel in their Palladium Line.
Fran McNabb
has recently signed with Avalon
Books. LIGHT
IN THE DARK, her short contemporary
romance,
will be part of Avalon's holiday
line-up.
It will be available in October
2006.
FIVE STAR
After publishing young adult
novels and Regencies
for years, Sheri Cobb South turned
her attention
to writing mysteries with IN
MILADY'S CHAMBER.
Her 65,000-word novel was bought
by Five
Star, a publisher of hardcover
editions for
the library market.
Five Star is part of the Thomson-Gale
group,
which also owns Macmillan, the
textbook giant.
Sheri doesn't consider her experience
with
the publisher "typical."
She already
had a slight "in" with
Five Star
through her large-print sales
of other books
to Thorndike, another imprint
of the same
house.
She considers herself a success
story from
Silken Sands Conference, where
she met Russell
Davis, an editor who directed
her chapters
into the hands of the right people.
Her experience
with the publisher has been a
satisfying
one. She has had input into the
cover art
and was able to write her own
jacket blurbs.
From time of acceptance to actual
publishing
date was about ten to twelve
months.
Sheri is impressed with the promotion
that
Five Star gave her book. ARCs
went out to
all the Big Four (Publisher's
Weekly, Library
Journal, Booklist, and Kirkus
Reviews) as
well as several smaller, genre-specific
sources.
(One of these was review maven
Harriet Klausner,
whose review appeared on Amazon
as a five-star
rating). Sheri received a dozen
ARCs to send
to additional sources.
Martha Longshore, a chapter mate
of Sheri
and another Five Star author,
writes as Tess
Pendergrass. Having published
six books with
them, she adds that their books
are high
quality and will remain on the
library shelves
for years. "I've learned
a lot, improved
my writing, and the people I've
worked with
have all been wonderful."
AVALON PUBLISHING
Avalon Books is an old, well-established
house founded by Thomas Bouregy
in 1950.
Avalon calls itself the Family
Channel of
Publishing with its publications
of mystery,
westerns, and contemporary and
historical
romance. The word count ranges
from 40,000
to 75,000.
Fran McNabb's short romance has
44,750 words.
"That's one of the reasons
I submitted
to them. I didn't want to lengthen
the story
simply to have a larger word
count. I had
Avalon in mind when I wrote the
novel and
never submitted it to anyone
else."
She submitted a partial and within
a week,
the request for a full arrived.
A year later,
she e-mailed to check on the
status of two
of her manuscripts and within
two weeks,
she received a call from Associate
Editor
Susan McCarty.
Avalon markets to libraries.
"Being
a retired English teacher, I've
always had
a love affair with the library,
so having
a hard cover on the shelves thrills
me."
Books can be ordered directly
from Avalon,
from Amazon, or through any bookstore.
As a first-time author, Fran
says her experience
has been great. "My editor
has answered
all my questions, and I had input
into the
cover art and wrote my own blurbs
for the
jacket."
MEDALLION
Don McNair felt as if "he
won the lottery"
when he found Medallion Press.
"It's
the old story; ten years of rejections,
and
suddenly I'm 'discovered.'"
Medallion Press, a relatively
new publishing
house, covers a broad market
with traditional
distribution, publishing mainstream,
mystery,
thriller, suspense, historical,
romance,
dark fiction, horror, fantasy,
science fiction,
romance, and young adult."
"They are a lean machine,
and are actually
a "virtual" company,
with little
overhead to allow more spending
on promotion."
A full page of Publisher's Weekly
- the back
cover, no less - announced the
availability
of Don's book to booksellers
and libraries.
Medallion will use THE LONG HUNTER
to enter
the library market, giving the
book "a
good, long life."
Don wrote THE LONG HUNTER, a
65,000-word
1770's coming-of-age novel, about
ten years
ago. After years of rejections
on submissions
to adult fiction publishers,
he finally realized
the manuscript should have been
marketed
as a Young Adult novel. Even
though it was
meant for an adult audience,
the protagonist
was age 14-17, and the story
was written
in the hero's close POV.
Within five days of submitting
to Medallion
Press, Don received a call from
owner Helen
Rosberg. After getting rave reviews
from
her own daughter who read the
sample chapters,
Ms. Rosberg asked for the full
manuscript.
Within the week, she called again
to say
she was sending a contract. She
ended with,
"Don, your book is going
to have a life."
Don gives a word of caution to
YA writers.
"Don't talk down to the
audience. If
I had started with the idea of
writing a
YA, I would have possibly wound
up with a
much different book. Serendipity
speaks!"
Don reminds those of you who
haven't published
yet to take heart. There IS a
chance that
the next phone call you receive
will be from
that eager editor, ready to make
your day.
This article may be reprinted or forwarded
to sister RWAź chapters with
proper credit
given to author and Silken Sands
Newsletter,
the newsletter of the Gulf Coast
Chapter
Romance Writers of America (GCCRWA). www.gccrwa.com
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