Announcing Hags

This Present Darkness meets The Blair Witch Project in my new novel Hags. After 15 years in prison for a rape he says he didn’t commit, Micah Probert returns to his hometown of Naperville, Illinois, where he starts his first day by discovering a human-sized faerie flitting about in his backyard, a dead body in the parking lot behind his house, a pioneer ghost in his kitchen, and a local coffee shop that serves the darkest roast this side of Hades. It’s in this coffee shop that his ex-girlfriend from high school now works and where he runs into her sister, the victim in Micah’s long ago rape trial.

But the real action begins when Micah learns that the beautiful young woman living next door to his fixer-upper, the girl he has just started dating, may actually be a witch as wicked as any from medieval times. Mix in a few dark secrets, a serial killer or two, a hot romance or two, and this novel takes you deep into the heart of horror in the suburbs. Will Micah heed the call to spiritual warfare with the evil forces mounted against him in time to save the city of Naperville? And will he discover the secret identity of the second hag who is out to destroy him?

To celebrate the launch of Hags, I’m planning to give away the Kindle version for free for five days. This five-day giveaway is my way to share my writing with as many readers as possible. I’m hoping you’ll enjoy reading Hags so much that you’ll help me spread the word about my new novel. As I’m sure you’re aware, this type of BUZZ is essential to generating interest, book reviews and sales. I should have the date finalized for the giveaway so I can announce it in the next day or two. If I don’t run into any glitches, the five-day giveaway will begin next Monday, October 8, 2012.

In the meantime, if you haven’t read my first indie novel, Fulfillment, it’s still available. You may click here for the Amazon Kindle version or click here for the paperback. Fulfillment is the Christmas story as pure suspense, thriller, horror, mystery, romance and spiritual warfare. Satan is out to stop the first Christmas by attacking Mary, a pregnant teenager with moxie and connections in high places. Keep your lights on.

Here’s another novel idea…
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Asking the Wrong Question

Asking what happens next is the wrong question because it focuses on plot. You will read for plot because it's too big to miss. But by taking your eye off the question of "what happens next" in favor of "how is the character changing," you’ll find new meaning and enjoyment from reading fiction. Some readers prefer to read for plot the first time through a novel and then go back later to read for the character development or character arc of the story. Others will read for the character arc from the outset, knowing the plot is not going away.

Character arc is all about how the author moves the character through a learning process. As the character learns, so do you. The plot is a device for making the transition enjoyable for you as a reader.

One way to begin thinking more about character arc is to read for the way the character exists at the beginning of the story and then observing how the character is at the end of the story. How is the character different? What were some of the changes the character went through? Here are some things to look for at the beginning of the story and the end.

Increase innocence at the beginning of the story
In order to make a strong character arc, an author may revise their first draft of the story to bring more emphasis to the character arc. One way to do this is to make the character more innocent or naive at the beginning of story.

One device, used in quest-type stories, is to have a wisdom character speak with the main character. The main character denies the truths offered by the wisdom character only to learn later that it’s the wisdom character’s advice that saves the day. Or the author may have two or more young characters mock the wisdom character. Think teenage angst story where the high school students mock their English teacher only to learn later that the lesson the teacher was trying to impart holds the secret of solving the biggest challenge in the plot of the story.

Add experience and wisdom at the end of story
The author will emphasize the completion of the character arc by adding dialogue or action at the end of the story to allow the character to express new-found wisdom resulting from the journey. The innocent teenager, who started out on the road trip fifty short chapters ago, ends up becoming the wisdom character for a middle school sibling who, of course, doesn’t listen and could care less. Or the author may simply have the character reflect back on the now completed journey.

When you read a good story, you can’t possibly miss the plot. It jumps out and bites you. And if it doesn’t, the story becomes the one you put down unfinished. Don’t worry about the plot. Instead, stay focused on the main characters. Read to learn where they are headed, what experiences they are having, what information they are learning, and how they are growing. Enjoy.

For your next novel read, may I suggest Fulfillment? You can read a chunk of it free. You may click here for Amazon Kindle or click here for paperback. Fulfillment is the Christmas story as pure suspense, thriller, horror, mystery, romance and spiritual warfare. Satan is out to stop the first Christmas by attacking Mary, a pregnant teenager with moxie and connections in high places. Keep your lights on.

Here’s another novel idea…
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Read for the Way Authors Change Characters

The more you know about the craft of writing, the more you gain from reading a novel. For many readers, it’s enough to discover what happens in the story. The problem with an action focus is you miss the movement of the characters through a learning process.

You will enjoy the story more if you read for the character arc. Story is about the characters. The plot is merely a device for moving the characters from where they are to where the author wants them to go. Authors can use any number of devices to move the character through an arc, including:

Plot – the events of the story. The plot is the journey. The author places the characters in situations that force change. Every scene requires the characters to adjust in some way as they react to what is happening around them. Even if the modification is as simple as learning one new fact, the character has transformed in some way. As you read, look for the way the action affects the characters.

Hook – a device the author uses to keep you interested in the story. It’s the cliff hanger ending to a chapter that makes you want to keep reading. Authors use hooks at the beginning and end of every scene and sometimes in the middle of scenes. The action of the hook forces change on the story. Such adjustments force the characters to grow or weaken to form the up and down sides of the character arc.

Forced events – plot again. Characters change when they must to survive. The author positions the character in a situation of kill or be killed. When the character works up the gumption to pull the trigger, she is changed forever (so is the villain, but that’s another character arc – one that the author just ended). Gaining knowledge can make the character tougher, meaner, harder or more cynical as in noir fiction. Or, despite the awful things happening around the character, new experiences and knowledge can lead to an understanding of how to stay optimistic in a sometimes cruel world as happens in many romance stories. When a bad thing happens, you have a choice: either you live in a hard, cruel world… or you live in a world where bad things sometimes happen to spoil an otherwise good life. Which way does the author take the character?

How does the way the author changes the characters affect you as a reader? If you read only for the action, you'll still be influenced by the author's choices in creating the character arc for each major character. But you may not be aware of how the story is affecting you other than a vague feeling. But if you follow the character arc, while still enjoying the action, you gain a better understanding of how the story affects you so that you can answer questions like:

• How does the genre you like to read affect you? Do you become more cynical as you read noir stories? Or do you become more romantic as you read romance stories? 
• Why are you drawn to read the genre of novels you enjoy most? 
• Does the author create a reality consistent with your evolving worldview? 
• How does the author undermine your worldview? This can happen when an author gives a noir drama a happy ending, for example. Or the romance author ends a novel with a growing cynicism in the main character.

As you read your next novel, look for the main character’s response to the events of the story. The character's response is more important than the event itself. Character is more important than plot because the lessons of the story are within the characters, not the plot.

For your next novel read, may I suggest Fulfillment? You can read a chunk of it free. You may click here for Amazon Kindle or click here for paperback. Fulfillment is the Christmas story as only Paul R. Lloyd can tell it: pure suspense, thriller, horror, mystery, romance and spiritual warfare. Satan is out to stop the first Christmas by attacking Mary, a pregnant teenager with moxie and connections in high places. Noir-style action designed to keep your lights on.

Here’s another novel idea…
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Are You Missing the Best Part of the Story?

For many readers, the story is all about the plot. They want to know what happens. The danger with a plot focus is you become so busy following the action that you miss the most important part of the tale. You will enjoy the story more if you read for the character arc. Story is about the characters. The plot is merely a device for moving the characters from where they are to where they need to be.

What is character arc?
Character arc is the journey the character is on as he or she moves through the plot. Like real people, characters are at a particular place in their development as human beings (or cyberborgs if you, like YA author Karen T. Smith, prefer sci-fi). And like most of us, fiction characters don’t change unless some outside event kicks them in the butt and gets them started. If you want the character to leave home, kill off the parents. If you want the character to take a cross-country trip, fire them from their job and kick them out of their apartment.

See how the action or plot of the story is dictated by the author's desire to move the character forward? While many readers focus on the murder of the parents or the start of a road trip, the real adventure has to do with how the events of the story change the character.

While you’re focusing on the main character, keep an eye on the other characters. What are the characters like at the start of the story? How do they change along the journey? How are they different at the end of the story compared to the beginning?

For a story rich in character, read my novel Fulfillment. You can read a chunk of it free. You may click here for Amazon or click here for paperback. Fulfillment is the Christmas story as only Paul R. Lloyd can tell it: pure suspense, thriller, horror, mystery, romance and spiritual warfare. Satan is out to stop the first Christmas by attacking Mary, a pregnant teenager with moxie and connections in high places. Fiction designed to keep your lights on.

Here’s another novel idea…
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Do You Care If the Novel You’re Reading Is Self-Published or Published?

Often readers, including many experts, mistakenly believe published novels are automatically better than self-published novels when the opposite is often true. The reality is published books offer you, the reader, no advantage over self-published books.

Publishers claim they vet their books, which is true, but serious self-published authors also vet their books, often to more rigorous standards than publishing houses.

Publishing house vetting typically includes the assigning of an editor to work with the author. Self-published authors have their books reviewed by their critique groups made up of other writers and authors. Some self-published authors even hire their own professional editors to polish their books. So which would you prefer to read: a book polished by a publishing house editor or a committee of other writers?

Published novels are usually available in bookstores, but for new authors, the book is only available for a very limited time, usually only a few weeks. Self-published authors have a difficult time gaining access to book stores, but they can do it by jumping through some hoops. But what difference does this make to you, the reader, if you purchase your books online at Amazon or other online book dealer?  Often, the self-published book is significantly less costly than a published book.

So how do you decide which to purchase? The easiest way to choose which book to read next is to read the first chapter. This is easy to do in a bookstore because the book is right there in front of you on the shelf. Online shoppers can usually read the first chapter on Amazon or other website.

Many readers make their purchase decision based on the first sentence or first paragraph of the story. Does the author grab your attention? Do you care about the story from the beginning?

Authors of thrillers and other fast-paced stories know they have to start with high action. If it’s not on page one of the story, they know readers will move on to another novel.

If you prefer more laid-back stories, such as a romance, cozy mystery or certain literary fiction, then you want to give the author space to set the stage of the story. But even with slower-paced novels, the author should grab your attention on page one with the poetry of the description or with interesting dialogue or whatever it is that works for you in these kinds of stories.

Bottom line: If you don’t like page one, you’re not likely to enjoy reading the rest of the novel. And reading the first chapter allows you to judge the book before you purchase based on your own tastes and preferences – without regard to whether the novel is published by a publishing house or directly by the author.

Read the first chapter of my novel Fulfillment free. You may click here for Amazon or click here for paperback. It's the Christmas story as only Paul R. Lloyd can tell it: pure suspense/thriller, horror, mystery, romance and spiritual warfare. Satan is out to stop the first Christmas by attacking Mary, a pregnant teenager with moxie and connections in high places. Fiction designed to keep your lights on.

Here’s another novel idea…
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What is Point of View?

Point of View (POV) is the choice the author makes in determining who will tell the story. Will the story work best if told by a narrator who is not a character or from the perspective of one ore more of the characters?

First person stories – “I” stories – are told as if one of the characters in the story is telling what happened. “I woke up with a headache and headed for the drug store.”

“He” or “she” stories are told either from the narrator’s point of view or one of character’s viewpoints.

The omniscient narrator viewpoint allows the narrator to see all and tell all. It’s the style story teller’s often use when telling a ghost story around a campfire. “It was a dark and stormy night when two teenagers parked out at the old abandoned mansion…”

This style of storytelling allows the author, as narrator, to inject himself or herself into the story to offer an opinion or to express a reaction to the story. Some readers and critics find author intrusion annoying. The literary term is didactic. The big thing to keep in mind is the narrator acts like a god because the narrator sees all, hears all, and may tell all.

There is a softer version of this type of story in which the narrator is less intrusive. The author tells the story from the viewpoint of a single character, like the “I” story, but uses “he” or “she” style writing. “Bob Shay woke up with a headache. He headed for the drug store.”

In this type of story the author parks an imaginary movie camera on top of the head of one of the characters and records what goes on as the character goes through his or her day. This type of writing limits the story to what one character sees, hears, smells, tastes and feels. In some stories, the author moves the camera from one character’s head to another character’s head so you get more than one viewpoint.

Do you have a preference when it comes to POV?

POV is an important component of all stories, including my novel Fulfillment. You may click here for Amazon or click here for paperback. It's pure suspense/thriller, horror, mystery, romance and spiritual warfare told mainly from the POV of Mary, a pregnant teenager with moxie and connections in high places.

Here’s another novel idea…
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What Is a Story Hook?

What is it about a novel that grabs your attention and makes you want to keep reading? Why do you choose one book over another? Authors call it the “hook.” Hooking begins with the front cover where you see the title and the author’s name. If you heard of the author, the name alone may hook you into reading the book. Authors like Stephen King and Dean Koontz fall into this category.

How about the title? Does it snag your attention? It should. It was created to grab your interest like a newspaper headline. The other “hook” on the front cover of a paperback novel is the cover art. Creative cover art leads you to turn the page to learn more.

The title of my novel, Fulfillment, raises questions about what is being fulfilled. We all want to achieve some level of fulfillment, so this must be a story where someone achieves it, right? But the cover also tells you that it is a suspense novel so you know something evil or bad is afoot. The image of a baby in the womb strikes you. And there’s that tiny barely there cross casting its long shadow onto the baby. Is this a novel about Jesus or Christians in some way? Maybe it’s about the fulfillment of a prophecy of some sort. But what prophecy? There’s only one way to find out.

You’re hooked.

Okay, you checked out the cover, and if you’re in a bookstore (remember those?), you checked out the back cover copy, all of which is written to hook you into reading the book. So now you open the book. You read the blurb on the inside of the cover that describes the story. More hooks there. Next, you’re on page one, chapter one. You read the first sentence. What do you think? Do you want to keep reading or does the story sound dopey? 

The first sentence should grab your attention and lead you to the second sentence… and the third. You want to know more. What’s this story all about? The first sentence has to be a big hook. The other big hook, usually on page one of chapter one, is what’s called the “inciting incident.” This is the big hook that makes you want to read the entire book to find out what happens or whodunit. If it’s not on page one, it’s usually somewhere in chapter one.

My novel Fulfillment begins: A loud roar shook the house.

Who or what roared? How can a roar shake a house? What kind of house? Whose house? What does the house look like? Read on and find out if you’re hooked.

The inciting incident, as the name implies, is the action or situation that starts the story. For example, a young couple stops at a remote motel late one night. Once settled in their room, the vampire makes her appearance. The inciting incident is the vampire’s appearance. Usually, the author will be a bit more subtle. The inciting incident will be the wife’s disappearance. Or the car breaks down and they have to stop at a nearby farmhouse for help. The farmhouse looks haunted. Is it? What’s that sound the husband just heard? The wife missed it, but something went bump in the night. From this beginning event, the story is off and running.

Notice that the incident that starts the story raises all sorts of questions. What went bump? Is that house really haunted or just old and dilapidated? Why did the car break down? Can they get it going again or do they have to call for road service? Will their cell phones pick up a signal out here in the middle of nowhere? We know something is going to happen because it is a novel after all, isn’t it? But what? Read on and find out. Oops, you’re hooked.

In Fulfillment, the first sentence describes an event that precedes the inciting incident. The actual inciting incident doesn’t appear until later in chapter one when an angel shows up to deliver a message to the main character. And the inciting incident isn’t the angel’s message, as powerful as it is. Rather it’s the main character’s response to the message that starts the story.

The inciting incident alone doesn’t keep you reading, but it helps. The other thing that keeps you reading is the cliff hanger. That’s the hook at the end of the chapter or the bottom of a page or the end of a scene that makes you want to know more. You can’t put the book down because something awful just happened or is about to happen and you have to know what happens next.

The cliff hanger combines with the opening hook. The first sentence of a chapter or scene makes you want to know more by raising a question or issue in the story. The author wants you to think, “Oh crap, now what’s wrong?” Something is preventing the main character from achieving her goal. What is she going to do? Read the chapter or scene and find out because you’re hooked.

For an example of this double hooking, I end chapter 17 of Fulfillment with the following paragraph:

Into Joseph’s carpenter shop floated a horde of shadowy invisibles to join their compatriots hanging from the ceiling. This new group dripped saliva and panted as they hungered for the lifeblood of a man’s soul.

What do you think? Do you want to know more? I begin the next chapter with this paragraph:

In the darkness, a thousand demons swore insults at Joseph. A million more hurled blasphemies as heavy as boulders upon his body. Yet another million hurled spears and arrows of regret, remorse, sadness, and loneliness.

Hooks grab your attention so that you want to know more. They make the story exciting. Hooks are important to the author because they don’t really want you to put the book down. We’re afraid you’ll never pick it back up. Hooks are important to you as a reader because they increase the excitement of the story and make you want to know more. Keep reading stories that grab your attention and hold it until the words “THE END.”

Want to know more about Fulfillment, click here for Amazon or click here for paperback. It's pure suspense/thriller, horror, mystery, romance and spiritual warfare.

Here’s another novel idea…
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