As promised in yesterday's post, here is the Q&A for The Next Big Thing blog chain.
Please read to the end. I've included links and information about several, very worthy, authors.
3) Under what genre does your book fall?
Young adult (as in high school and up), fantasy, gothic and vampire
4) Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
I’ll let Hollywood figure it out, although I do think Voltaire would make an awesome Kellen.
5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
See question number one.
6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
Self-published by
choice, since I want to maintain the integrity of the story and the creative
7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
Through the years, I had
played around with various scenes and drafts, but I never got busy with it
until the 2007 Labor Day weekend. Money was tight, and I decided to write it as
a novella for my seventeen year old son’s birthday. I realized two things once
I started: it wasn’t a novella, and it wasn’t a weekend project. I presented
Timothy with what I had written and then started anew. I pecked at it here and
there for about nine months or so until I learned about the release of a
movie—“Twilight”--that seemed as if shared the same premise of my book. At that
point, I quit. That October, my daughter Rebekah brought the book home from the
library. Once I began reading it, I knew my story had nothing in common with
“Twilight.” I completed the novel in March and began my round of submissions
the following month.
8) What other books would you compare this story
to within your genre?
Charlotte Bronte’s “Jane
Eye” and Daphne Du Maurier’s “Rebecca.”
9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?
The book is a unique meld of teen obsession, science
fiction, and traditional vampire elements (complete with an unusual Van
Helsing-type slayer) with a dash of Celtic fantasy.
Connolly always wanted to write a novel, be a comic, and act. For twenty-eight years he would sit with drink or drug in hand, fancying himself to be the next Hemingway or Walken and penning stories of great adventures, safaris, and foreign wars. He would win Oscars, he thought.
The stories never came, but the next high always did. Instead, he fought the wars—on a battleground inside his head-- with the bottle, addiction, and fear. His adversary was God and his racing thoughts.
Sentenced to addiction and depression, freed through grace and faith, spared to catch his dreams of becoming an actor and comic and writer, Connolly’s first book, Soul Parole, features selected writings from his blog, Every Day is a Gift. Connolly is currently working on his second book.
To read his blog visit www.tommyconnolly.blogspot.com. Learn more about Connolly at www.tommyconnolly.com.
Thomas Meisinger:
Meisinger was born, raised and educated in Chicago's southwest suburbs. He began performing stand-up comedy in 2009 while in college. You may have seen him at The Comedy Shrine, Edge Comedy Club, and other establishments he doesn't like enough to give free publicity.
If he spent as much time filling out job applications as he did writing jokes during his last semester, he would probably have a better paying job. He has since shifted his focus to writing.
Meisinger spent a year working on his first novel, The World Is Shallow; That's Why I Never Learned How to Swim, which is currently available on all major eBook retail sites. The humorous fictional autobiography has received rave reviews from family, friends, and stray cats wandering his apartment.
His favorite hobby is people-watching at coffee shops but let's face it, he really just has a staring problem. Check out his five blogs:
www.baconeggsandwhiskey.blogspot.com.
www.deargrandmamargie.blogspot.com
www.penguinsarepretentious.blogspot.com
www.spiritualvitamin.blogspot.com
www.thomasmeisinger.blogspot.com
Please read to the end. I've included links and information about several, very worthy, authors.
1)
What is your working title of your book?
“Visage.” This is the
second book in the BryonySeries (a drop of blood, a deceptive fantasy). In the first, “Bryony,” a ‘70’s teen trades
her blood with a Victorian vampire for a trip back into time. In this second
one, after trading her blood with a Victorian vampire, that same 70’s teen
plunges into a misleading contract, trapping her into another bargain to save a
life.
In
January 1985, was lying on the couch and reading from a book of classic, short
vampire stories when I had an idea of a teen girl falling in love with the
romantic illusion that surrounds many vampire stories. By the time my three
year old and eight month old were waking from their naps, I had mentally
written a skeleton outline.
3) Under what genre does your book fall?
Young adult (as in high school and up), fantasy, gothic and vampire
4) Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
I’ll let Hollywood figure it out, although I do think Voltaire would make an awesome Kellen.
5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
freedom to express it as I wish.
7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
See questions number two and seven.
10) What else about your book might pique the
reader’s interest?
Now for the other authors:
Sue Merrell (the author that invited me):
Merrell has been a journalist for 40 years, retiring two
years ago from The Grand Rapids Press in Michigan. For the past decade, she has
specialized in covering live theater and other entertainment events.
Her
memoir, Laughing for a Living, reveals the behind-the-pen stories of
interviewing famous stars such as Tony Curtis, Cary Grant, Julie Newmar, Bette
Midler, Molly Ringwald, James Earl Jones, Jerry Lewis and more.
Merrell's earlier career in Illinois inspired her second book,
Great News Town, a fictional mystery-thriller loosely based on a series of
murders which occurred in 1983 when she was assistant city-editor at the Joliet
Herald-News.
She is currently working on a lighter mystery about a 60-year-old
teacher whose beaus keep dropping dead. It's dangerous just to know her. For
fun, Sue makes mudpies at the pottery wheel in her basement. Read Merrell’s The
Next Big Thing interview and learn more about her projects at www.laughingforaliving.blogspot.com/2012/12/next-big-thing.html.
Tommy Connolly:
Connolly always wanted to write a novel, be a comic, and act. For twenty-eight years he would sit with drink or drug in hand, fancying himself to be the next Hemingway or Walken and penning stories of great adventures, safaris, and foreign wars. He would win Oscars, he thought.
The stories never came, but the next high always did. Instead, he fought the wars—on a battleground inside his head-- with the bottle, addiction, and fear. His adversary was God and his racing thoughts.
Sentenced to addiction and depression, freed through grace and faith, spared to catch his dreams of becoming an actor and comic and writer, Connolly’s first book, Soul Parole, features selected writings from his blog, Every Day is a Gift. Connolly is currently working on his second book.
To read his blog visit www.tommyconnolly.blogspot.com. Learn more about Connolly at www.tommyconnolly.com.
Thomas Meisinger:
Meisinger was born, raised and educated in Chicago's southwest suburbs. He began performing stand-up comedy in 2009 while in college. You may have seen him at The Comedy Shrine, Edge Comedy Club, and other establishments he doesn't like enough to give free publicity.
If he spent as much time filling out job applications as he did writing jokes during his last semester, he would probably have a better paying job. He has since shifted his focus to writing.
Meisinger spent a year working on his first novel, The World Is Shallow; That's Why I Never Learned How to Swim, which is currently available on all major eBook retail sites. The humorous fictional autobiography has received rave reviews from family, friends, and stray cats wandering his apartment.
His favorite hobby is people-watching at coffee shops but let's face it, he really just has a staring problem. Check out his five blogs:
www.baconeggsandwhiskey.blogspot.com.
www.deargrandmamargie.blogspot.com
www.penguinsarepretentious.blogspot.com
www.spiritualvitamin.blogspot.com
www.thomasmeisinger.blogspot.com
1 comment:
General Education Development (GED) tests are given to individuals who were not able to complete high school but would like to get a diploma that is equivalent to a high school diploma. Passing GED will give them a better chance of employment, as well as give them the opportunity to continue their college education without having to take high school. Test-takers may take advantage of free GED practice tests to help them prepare for the actual examination.
ged free practice test printable
Post a Comment