by Jennifer Lyon
A friend and I were discussing what makes a “bigger†book. There’s no real definition for bigger, but the one thing I can guarantee you is that it’s not word count. Words are a tool to tell a story, they are NOT the story.
So what is “bigger?†I think it comes down to universal themes that resonate with a larger audience.
For instance, in the Harlequin/Silhouette category books, like Desire, Special Edition, Super Romance, etc, the writing is tightly focused on the emotions of falling in love, and therefore, limits the audience. That does NOT make these books any less enjoyable, it just narrows the audience.
But a bigger book has more ‘commercial’ themes. As an example, let’s talk about the movie Ghost. It works the same in books or movies, and my husband and I just watched it over the weekend so it’s fresh in my mind. The movie has been out for something like 20 years, yet it has a timeless quality to it, and I think that’s because of its themes.
The sudden loss of a loved one. Every person has or will experience this.
What happens when we die? Look at all the books, movies, religions and philosophies dedicated to trying to explain it.
Can a dead loved one reach us? Can we reach them? There’s a whole industry of psychics and others making money off “contacting the dead.†The emotional fragility of grieving will make even the strongest of us reach for any flicker of hope.
Letting go of a loved one. There’s many shades to this one. In the movie, it was time for the hero and heroine to let go of each other so the hero could move on. I had a moment like that with my mom at the very end of her life. She was so sick and I remember the moment clearly where I finally closed my eyes and said to my deceased brother; “You can have her now. Anything to stop her pain.†I was ready to let her go and she passed soon after that.
Betrayal by a friend. In the movie, the hero is betrayed by someone he knows and trusts. Who hasn’t at least seen that happen if not experienced it?
These themes touch all of us, helping us to relate to the movie or book on a personal, intimate level. And that helps create a bigger feel to the book.
In my books, I try to find these universal themes. It’s even more important, I think, because I’m writing paranormal. In NIGHT MAGIC, my heroine, Ailish, is handfasted to a demon and has two weeks to either complete the bond and become a demon witch (who is evil), or she dies.
Now I doubt many of us have ever been in that predicament. But the core theme there is something like: Can a good person be betrayed or tricked into becoming evil? That’s a pretty timeless theme, one that religions have explored and argued since the beginning of time. These themes spin off into more:
Betrayal: Ailish trusted her mother, and she betrayed her.
Redemption: Can Ailish atone for a mistake she made when she was 16?
Handicap: Ailish is blind, something that I believe really humanizes her.
Can she face her own death?
How far will the man who loves her go to save her?
I’m using the idea of “themes†here loosely, but these are the universal concepts that we have some familiarity with and therefore connect us to the characters strongly enough to feel like we’re in their skin. We understand their struggles and conflicts.
P.S. NIGHT MAGIC, the third book in my Wing Slayer Hunter Series went on sale March 22nd, and the forth book SINFUL MAGIC will be out May 31st.
Jennifer Lyon always wanted to be a witch. When her witch-powers didn’t materialize, she turned to creating magic in her books. NIGHT MAGIC is the third book in an enchanting, passionate and supernatural series. Jen’s also has a super secret alter ego known as Jennifer Apodaca, the author of the award winning Samantha Shaw Mystery Series. Visit Jen at http://www.jenniferlyonbooks.com/
6 0 Read moreDo you guys ever have one of those days where your muse isn’t cooperating? This blog is a parody I wrote about that frustrating feeling a while back for another blog. It’s from a police detective’s POV.
Missing Muse Report
12, May 2008
Description: Slippery and Sneaky
Status: No Freaking Idea
Monday morning, at eight oh four a.m., a woman came into the precinct. She wore jeans and a t-shirt with the words, “I Kill for Chocolate,” written across her chest. In a clearly agitated state, she reported that her Muse is missing.
“When was the last time you saw her?” I inquired.
“Never. I’ve never seen that hussy. She’s like…smoke. Well not smoke because that would suggest fire. And trust me, I have not been on fire. So she’s like fog, except not fog. Fog is not the right word to describe her. Dry ice? Still not the right word to describe her. Okay, uh, let me think. Do you have a thesaurus?”
Feeling a headache coming on, I said, “Let’s skip the description. What is your relationship to Muse?”
“Hot and cold. No, too bland. Fire and ice? Friend and foe? No! No more clichés! My relationship to Muse is complicated. Like a cat! Yes, she’s sort of like a cat, friendly and sweet sometimes, then aloof and bitchy other times. Like a cat.
I realized I was bobbing my head back and forth like I was watching a tennis match. I tried to recap what the woman had said, “Muse is a cat? Ma’am, this is a police station. We don’t look for missing cats.”
“My Muse is not a cat! Where would you get such an idea? I said she’s like a cat. That’s a metaphor. Well I said like, so it’s actually a simile. But not a cat.”
I turned to look at the woman fidgeting on the chair facing my desk. “Have you been drinking?”
“Sure. Absolutely. I’ve tried it all. Wine, gin tonics, coffee and Kaluha, I still can’t find Muse! This morning, I woke up at 3. AM!!! I meditated. I did Yoga. I lit candles. I asked my Higher Self for guidance. I downed two pots of coffee! And I still can’t find that sneaky, double-crossing, word-tease, idea-slut, anywhere!”
I had had enough. “Let me get this straight. You are reporting Muse missing, but you can’t describe her, have never seen her and you look for her by doing Yoga, lighting candles and drinking coffee?”
“Yes! Exactly!”
“Ma’am you do realize this is a police station? That it’s a crime to make a false report?”
Her blue eyes lit up, she sat forward and put her arm on my desk. “Do you get a lot of false reports? I mean what kind of person makes a false report?”
He opened his mouth, “Well—”
“A desperate person, maybe a woman who can’t tell the truth, but…” she stood up. “Thank you!”
“Uh, for what?”
She frowned, her blue eyes studying him as if he were a little dim. “Haven’t you been listening? I lost my Muse. Now I found her. You people do good work. Later.”
I watched her bounce out as if she were twenty pounds lighter. “What just happened?”
Jennifer Lyon always wanted to be a witch. When her witch-powers didn’t materialize, she turned to creating magic in her books. BLOOD MAGIC is the first book in an enchanting, passionate and supernatural series. Visit Jennifer Lyon at www.jenniferlyonbooks.com
At the last OCC meeting, I received two roses for selling two more books in the Wing Slayer Hunter Series. When I went up to get the roses, I just gave a brief line about the next book and got off the stage.
My friends were annoyed with me. They said I should have talked more about all the books, and the series, and the sexy hunters…but that isn’t exactly what I would have wanted to say.
This is…
This series is about magic, and the witches and witch hunters who wield the magic to fight against evil. The first book, BLOOD MAGIC, is truly the book I always wanted to write and, interestingly enough, it was the hardest book I’ve written. I drew on everything I had, and when that wasn’t enough, I drew on friends: Marianne Donley, Laura Wright, Michele Cwiertny, Maureen Child, Kate Carlisle, Mindy Neff, Michelle Thorne, Sandy Chvostal and some that I’m sure I’m forgetting. They never let me lose faith in the book or myself, and they stepped in when I was in a panic. During revisions when I was so lost I couldn’t eat or sleep, Marianne said, “Send it to me right now.” And they got right back to me with suggestions that were dead on.
Friends like that? Priceless.
And my ace in the hole? I love my editor. I clicked with her from the first time I talked to her. She worked hard on that book, pushing me to do major revisions, always there to answer questions or brainstorm. We have a genuine respect for each others talents, and a trust that we each will do exactly what we say we will. She made BLOOD MAGIC a better book, and me a better writer.
Then the economy tanked. My publisher restructured and laid off employees.
I was trying not to panic.
My editor called to assure me that my place at Random House was secure. Oh good! My editor still had her job! The book was still on track to publish. I turned in the second book and wrote the proposal to sell more books in the series and was feeling pretty good.
Six weeks later, my agent let me know my editor had been laid off.
I was devastated. Losing an editor who believes in our work at such a critical time, particularly when publishers are tightening and cutting, meant the series could be dead before it even got started. My agent swore it was okay. I tried to believe her. (My agent and I were both very sad for my editor, who was simply a victim of the economy as a last hire.)
The weeks of waiting were endless. I did revisions on the second book, and kept trying to believe that they would buy more books.
It was getting harder.
Then I got the call from my agent that the publisher had offered for two more books.
Selling two more books under these circumstances is amazing, incredible and makes me feel very lucky. In spite of the tough economy, BLOOD MAGIC is doing well and the series is starting off strong.
So the one thing I want to get across is that this business of publishing—it’s always a struggle. But doesn’t that make success so much sweeter?
And the friends we make along the way? Priceless!
Jennifer Lyon always wanted to be a witch. When her witch-powers didn’t materialize, she turned to creating magic in her books. BLOOD MAGIC is the first book in an enchanting, passionate and supernatural series. Visit Jennifer Lyon at www.jenniferlyonbooks.com
Building a name in publishing is tricky under any circumstances.
Changing your name after you’re published is just crazy.
So of course, I changed my name.
When I began my career with the Samantha Shaw Series, there was talk about Apodaca being too difficult to pronounce. I said, “Uh, hello, Evanovich?”
Okay, I didn’t say it, but I thought it! As it turned out, my publisher grew comfortable with the name and we went forward.
Several years later, my agent began submitting a paranormal proposal I wrote that was bought by Random House/Ballantine.
Insert HUGE excitement here. It would take six blogs to tell you how surprised I was, how scared, how sure I was that they’d realize their mistake. All the usual insecure crap. But enough of that!
Everything was going along swimmingly until I got a call from my agent, “We have a problem.”
No one wants to hear that from their agent! I sincerely thought my editor hated the completed book. I saw a blue vest at Wal Mart in my future. Then my agent said, “The sales people can’t pronounce your name.”
Holy Cow—way to scare me to death!
Long story short, Jennifer Lyon was born. Now we had to introduce her around and we had to do it fast. One thing I have learned over the years is that the promotion that works best is the promotion we enjoy.
So even though my Wing Slayer Hunter series is dark and sexy, I decided to go with a light and fun plan to promote Jen Lyon. First I set out to differentiate the two names:
Apodaca writes mysteries and romance. She is the boring serious one. She never gets into trouble.
But she has an alter ego: Jen Lyon, who insists of writing paranormal. Lyon is a lush who thinks she’s a witch, and if there’s no trouble around, she goes out, finds it and drags it home. She does the things Apodaca would never dare do.
Then I created a blog-site for Lyon where I gave her this whole personality. She loves witches and appletinis and men. This has turned into an ongoing joke on the blog. People who visit the blog bring cyber-appletinis. Sometimes they conspire to steal things (and by things, I mean the hunky men I’ve posted on the blog in a category called Wing Slayer Worthy) and they give Jen Lyon appletinis so she won’t notice their theft.
It’s taken on a life of its own. It’s hilarious and fun.
Will it sell books? I have no idea. All I know is that we’ve released the Lyon and I don’t know if we’ll ever cage her again!
BLOOD MAGIC is officially released tomorrow!
Jennifer Lyon always wanted to be a witch. When her witch-powers didn’t materialize, she turned to creating magic in her books. BLOOD MAGIC is the first book in an enchanting, passionate and supernatural series. Visit Jennifer Lyon at www.jenniferlyon.com
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She knows in her blood and in her bones that her Destiny is a member of the Clan. She must reject him as an enemy. But can she?
More info →Sin City in 1955, where the women are beautiful and almost everything is legal-
More info →A Slice of Orange is an affiliate with some of the booksellers listed on this website, including Barnes & Nobel, Books A Million, iBooks, Kobo, and Smashwords. This means A Slice of Orange may earn a small advertising fee from sales made through the links used on this website. There are reminders of these affiliate links on the pages for individual books.
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