The
Curse Merchant
by J.P. Sloan
Genre: urban-fantasy
Publisher: Curiosity
Quills Press
Date
of Re-Release:
September 15th, 2014
Cover
Artist: Conzpiracy
Digital Arts (http://www.conzpiracy.co.uk/)
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22621765-the-curse-merchant?from_search=true
Description:
Dorian Lake spent years cornering
the Baltimore hex-crafting market, using his skills at the hermetic arts to
exact karmic justice for those whom the system has failed. He keeps his magic
clean and free of soul-corrupting Netherwork, thus avoiding both the karmic
blow-back of his practice and the notice of the Presidium, a powerful cabal of
practitioners that polices the esoteric arts in America. However, when an
unscrupulous Netherworker interferes with both his business and his personal
life, Dorian's disarming charisma and hermetic savvy may not be enough to keep
his soul out of jeopardy.
His rival, a soul monger named
Neil Osterhaus, wouldn't be such a problem were it not for Carmen, Dorian's
captivating ex-lover. After two years' absence Carmen arrives at Dorian’s
doorstep with a problem: she sold her soul to Osterhaus, and has only two weeks
to buy it back. Hoping to win back Carmen's affections, Dorian must find a
replacement soul without tainting his own. As Dorian descends into the shadows
of Baltimore’s underworld, he must decide how low he is willing to stoop in
order to save Carmen from eternal damnation... with the Presidium watching,
waiting for him to cross the line.
About The
Author:
I am a storyteller,
eager to transport the reader to strange yet familiar worlds. My writing is dark,
fantastical, at times stretching the limits of the human experience, and other
times hinting at the monsters lurking under your bed. I write science fiction,
urban fantasy, horror, and several shades in between.
I am a husband and a
father, living in the “wine country” of central Maryland. I’m surrounded by
grapevines and cows. During the day I commute to Baltimore, and somehow manage
to escape each afternoon with only minor scrapes and bruises. I am also a
homebrewer and a certified beer judge. My avocations dovetail nicely!
Find J.P. Sloan Online:
Website http://jp-sloan.com/ | Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000439460903&fref=ts | Twitter https://twitter.com/J_P_Sloan |
Goodreads
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6569197.J_P_Sloan
Holy cats… I got tagged by the illustrious 2014 Kindle Book Awards nominee Sharon Bayliss
to participate in the MyWritingProcess Blog Hop. It’s like some kind of
social media contagion… I’m a carrier. I’ve been infected. FOR THE LOVE
OF GOD, Put me down before I turn!
Seriously, though, thanks to Sharon for tapping me to participate. I
have plenty of opinions, and it’s rare that I’m actually invited to
voice them. So… when I devour your brains, you all can thank her on
Twitter @SharonBayliss.
Here’s a quick blurb of what this blog hop is all about: “We
writers share these things, but informally during workshops and at
conferences (and, for a handful of established writers, in printed
interviews), but not so much through our open-forum blogs. With the
hashtag #MyWritingProcess, you can learn how writers all over the world
answer the same four questions. How long it takes one to write a novel,
why romance is a fitting genre for another, how one’s playlist grows as
the draft grows, why one’s poems are often sparked by distress over news
headlines or oddball facts learned on Facebook…”
Here are my responses to the four questions:
1) What am I working on?
Right now, I’m roughly 38,000 words into a horror/western stand-alone
novel with the working title of YEA THOUGH I WALK. It’s a creature
feature set in the Wyoming Territory during the frontier expansion. In a
nutshell, it’s vampires vs. wendigo vs. cowboys, with some serious
mind-fuckery sprinkled throughout.
Meanwhile in the back of my head, I’ve been tossing around a rough
skeleton for the third Dark Choir novel, THE CURSE MANDATE. I have
larger points which will land, but it’s like trying to stitch together a
dinosaur skeleton without knowing if the bones you’re sifting through
all belong to the same dinosaur.
2) How does my work differ from others in its genre?
The genre of the Dark Choir series is categorized as Urban Fantasy.
From my experience reading in the genre, The Dark Choir books play their
magic way closer to the vest than some of the more visible properties
out there… The Dresden Files,
for example. The magic is far more subtle… you’ll never see Dorian Lake
launch a plume of fire from the end of a staff, nor will you find
vampires lurching around in feeding dens. The feedback I received from
THE CURSE MERCHANT upon its initial self-published release seemed to
echo the sentiment that it makes suspension of disbelief easy and
immediate. This is precisely what I wanted… a world-building experience
that was more similar to the recognizable real-world Baltimore than some
parallel universe with witches and giant panda-bats.
3) Why do I write what I do?
I write the kinds of stories I’d want to read. Well… not ALL of the
stories I’d want to read. I leave some of the next-level extreme science
fiction to others better equipped. At least for the time being. I enjoy
the atmosphere of the Dark Choir series. It’s a world into which I
enjoy escaping, filled with fine liquors, engaging femmes fatale, and a
protagonist I’d spend real time with in the real world.
And as for YtIW, it’s an ambitious novel… perhaps my most ambitious
to date. It’s a period piece, and there are some storytelling
conventions which require LOTS of attention and fore-planning. It’s
rather like going to the gym for a nice, solid workout.
I write what I write because it’s an utterly immersive experience for me, and it’s a blast!
4) How does my writing process work?
Ho HO… glad you asked. Actually, loyal readers of the Fistful are
pretty well-versed in my anal, left-brained system of spreadsheets and
outlines. In case you’re new, here’s a flurry of links for you to check
it out:
- I begin with an idea. I have enough story ideas to fill up an
entire Word document, so I can’t expressly say how it works. They just
come. I tend to bat the idea around in my head for several weeks before I
can tell whether it has legs.
- Then I make a plot outline.
- Then I take the plot, flesh out bullet points into a list of scenes, and then make individual scene worksheets for each.
- Then I take each major character in the story, and cook up an extremely long and thorough character worksheet for each.
After that, I simply start drafting. By the end of the exhaustive
pre-writing phase, sitting down to bang out word counts isn’t that
difficult. The keys are to keep writing without stopping to edit, leave
the polishing for a day after the first draft is complete, and spend
“down time” (usually in the car during my commute) hashing out dialogue
out loud. If anyone were in the car with me, they’d assume I was having a
psychotic break.
When the first draft is complete, I let it age like a smelly piece of
horrifying cheddar. When all emotional bonds between me and the
manuscript have withered on the vine, I pick it up for a ground-up
reread and revision pass. The first pass is spent hunting down plot
holes, testing believability, pruning abandoned leads, and shoring up
weak characterization.
On my second pass, I test for readability… pacing, dialogue, prosody.
Yep… prosody. I end up reading quite a bit of the manuscript out loud.
I’m surprised at how many people don’t do this. At the same time, I
hammer it with a course editing mallet, catching the really glaring
typos and misspellings.
With that entire process complete, I farm the manuscript out to my
alpha reader (spoiler: it’s my wife). When she gives me all of her notes
on plot and characterization, I tidy up the manny with a third pass,
then send it out to my beta readers. I give them a month or two to
really hash through it, wherein I tend to launch into my next project.
Yep! These overlap.
When my betas come back with their notes, it’s time for the final
plot revision pass and edit. Following this, it goes out to
acquisitions… or at least it will when I get around to wrapping up YtIW.
There you have it. I try to write every evening after my boy hits the
hay, and usually get between 1500 and 2000 words in per day. I tend to
finish first drafts in the space of three months, not counting
pre-writing.
ALRIGHTY, BUCKAROOS! I can feel the virus necrotizing my flesh, and
the hunger for brains has become all-encompassing. Time to tap some
people to spread the contagion, and share with the world their writing
process. First on the meat-train:
HEATHER MARIE,
YA Fantasy author. She’s always posting up “for reals” Tweets, and I
bet she’ll be highly forthcoming with regards to her writing process.
She has a pretty sweet novel coming out soon…
DEBRA DUNBAR,
urban fantasy and paranormal fiction author, horse owner, and critique
group partner. Debra is prolific with a capital FFFFFFFfffffff…. Her
ragingly successful Imp series has garnered a legion of fans, and she
just keeps pumping out the awesome. I bet her writing process includes
way more Gatorade than mine.
SAM CURTIN,
self-published author of paranormal horror, student of anthropology,
and advocate for pagan interests. She’s got quite the full plate between
work, study and her recent nuptials. I’m curious how she continues to
make the word counts rain.
And of course… COURTNEY SLOAN, author of horror, sci-fi, urban fantasy, and my wife. I know her writing process… but YOU DON’T!!! So there.
Off to chew brain stems, kiddos… om nom nom…
The Dark Choir Series
BAIT AND WITCH
In this short story prequel to The Curse Merchant, Dorian Lake
travels across the Chesapeake Bay to help a client who is being harassed
by a backwoods sect of religious extremists. However Dorian quickly
realizes that his client is anything but helpless. Caught in the
crossfire of forbidden magic, Dorian must find a way defuse the
situation before someone gets killed… or worse.
Available soon from Curiosity Quills.
No comments :
Post a Comment