Expect the Unexpected this Holiday Season...

We’re now full throttle into the holiday season, and I’d thought I’d share an interview I did with my Canadian publisher, Lacey Bakker, who owns Pandamonium Publishing House, and just celebrated their 10^th Anniversary this past October. Woohoo! Congratulations to Lacey, and all the authors and staff for this amazing accomplishment! This interview was originally done live on Instagram, so below is the transcript. Enjoy…

1) When you started writing Lost and Found, did you immediately know you were going to write a series or did that happen later in your process?

You know, I thought I might be writing a series with the same group of characters, but the original idea took a turn for the better. I wrote Blackflies and Blueberries first, which was inspired by my experience as a tutor for the Muskoka Literacy Council, and a real-life psychometrist who my daughter personally knew. I was going to play off this series (think like Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys). Then, I got a job at the local animal shelter, and everything came together. This was the book that needed to go first in the series, needed to be told, and comes from my heart.

2)  Why did you choose to set multiple stories in the same town, and what makes Fairy Falls special as a backdrop for your stories?

This town is really the attraction of the series, and the glue that connects all the stories. Fairy Falls seems to bring out the latent or dormant psychic abilities in the relocated teen characters of each book. There’s a reason for that, which I explain more in the third installment, Sticks & Stones. Let’s just say that the Druids who founded Fairy Falls in the 1800s had something to do with harnessing the power that lies underneath this quiet tourist town.

My intention for this series is to pass the baton to a new generation who are more plugged in or in tuned with their intuitive and psychic abilities. It’s kind of like ripping the veil away from what’s been there all along.

3)  Animals play a huge role in your first book. How do you capture their personalities so vividly, and are any based on pets or experiences from your own life?

Actually, I based all the animal characters in Lost & Found from my job as an animal care attendant, and searched for any small quirks in their personalities to create the unique furry characters you see in my book. While tending to the animals at the shelter, I found myself wondering what they’d say? How would they act and sound? What did they really think of humans? So, chasing down the animal voices frolicking in my head, I wrote their story.

4)  If you suddenly had a psychic power from one of your characters for a day, which one would
you pick and what would you do first?

Oh, that’s easy! I’d love to communicate with animals like Meagan does. I know it’s an attainable skill if you study under someone who teaches this ability. Maybe one day, I may take the course and see what materializes.

As for what I’d do first? Be of service to a local animal shelter. I’d read as many of the animals’ energies as I could. I’d try to bring some comfort, healing or peace to them, and find out how they came to arrive at the shelter. I’ve seen so many stressed out or fearful animals, it may help to walk in their paws, and see how I can help them adjust to a situation they did not ask for.

5)  Your books feature such distinct characters. Do you start with the story first or the characters, and how do you bring them to life on the page?

Both, actually. The seed idea comes from either an experience – like the animal shelter or being a tutor for literacy – and then the characters arrive, ready to go, and let their story be told. I used to live in cottage country, so I had the perfect backdrop and experiences for the series. I do have a rough idea of the story, and where it’s going, but it is a process, and sometimes those characters can take over and run the show.

Bringing characters to life is actually easy for me. However, put them in with other characters, and you need to make each voice unique and believable. So, I give my characters’ flaws, challenges, and adversities in their day to day lives. These are the traits readers need to connect with, feel their pain, and relate to, or you’ve lost the point of telling a story.

6)  Do you have any unique habits, rituals, or quirky tricks to get into the “zone” when writing your books?

A dram of scotch. Just kidding. I used to light a stick of incense before I sat down to write, but my hubby complained of the smell. LOL! I still do it when I can, and sage my room once a week when I’m in the writing mode. Call me eccentric or call me a witch. Either way, I’m good with that. Calling in any angelic or esoteric help works for me too.

7)  What’s the strangest or most random source of inspiration that ever sparked a scene, character, or book idea?

A dream gave me the idea for the first young adult series I created which I called The Last Timekeepers. However, for Lost & Found, it was a cat we had named Shadow who set the stage for the lunging scene in the book. Trust me, when you need to use welding gloves to transfer a cat from a dirty cage to a clean one, your anxiety level goes ballistic. Another scene that comes to mind is getting revenge on my son’s then-girlfriend by, let’s just say, getting baptized by a murder of crows. It was so satisfying to write!

In Blackflies & Blueberries, the strange dome-like house that the main character’s great aunt lives in, is a source of inspiration because it was a real cottage on the lake where we used to live. Life imitates art, right?    

8)  If someone is curious about starting a series or writing their first novel, what’s one piece of advice you wish someone had given you?

That the whole writing process is a journey, not a destination. Cliché, but true. Whether you’re writing a series or a trilogy or a stand-alone novel, be in it for the long haul. Book series could take you well over two decades or more. Trilogies, maybe one decade or more. Even that stand-alone novel could take you years to write, depending on the genre and research needed to fill its pages. Check in with yourself every so often by revamping your writing plans, getting real about what kind of writer you want to be, and how to show up in the world. Remember that slow and steady progress assures success, and to be your authentic self. Always.

If these books piqued your interest or you know of a reader in your life who’d love to dive into this series, and discover Fairy Falls for themselves, please check out the links provided. Welcome to Fairy Falls. Expect the unexpected.

Mysterious Tales from Fairy Falls Teen Psychic Mystery Series:

Lost & Found, Book One Buy Links:

PANDAMONIUM PUBLISHING HOUSE ׀ AMAZON ׀ BARNES & NOBLE ׀

Blackflies & Blueberries, Book Two Buy Links:

PANDAMONIUM PUBLISHING HOUSE ׀ AMAZON ׀ BARNES & NOBLE ׀

Wishing you and your family a safe and happy holiday season. Cheers, and thanks for reading my blog! You can connect with me, learn about my books, grab some free downloads for a short story, writing tips, or fun family recipes at my website: www.sharonledwith.com

Your Holiday Reading Recommendation List by Author Vonnie Hughes...

Some authors produce quality books year after year and I have the utmost respect for them. They don’t churn out something quickly for the Christmas trade and other celebratory dates. Instead, they research and work, work and polish.

Here are a few of my favourites: 

Most books by Tami Hoag such as Down the Darkest Road and Live to Tell. I think my favourite is Still Waters. Why? Because her novels are so detailed, and the solution of the mysteries is never obvious. In fact, the character of the antagonists and protagonists holds the key to the solutions each time. For example, in A Thin Dark Line, it is the generations-old, warped solution of ways to protect a family that bubbles to the surface and the bloody mindedness of an ambitious female cop who stands up for her rights amongst male chauvinism that would chop most women off at the knees, that points the way to reasons for the crime and the discovery of the perpetrator(s).

Many books by Jayne Ann Krentz, not her very early ones where the hero was a dyed-in-the-wool MCP as was the fashion of the day, but her books from about 1998 onwards and also her historicals. Love the way her heroes say “huh.” It can mean so many things: they can be having a revelation, they may disagree with the heroine but they sure as hell are not going to say so, or it can be simply their version of a civil reply to modern discourse. My favourites are the Eclipse Bay series and her historicals written under the name of Amanda Quick such as Mistress (Regency) and The Third Circle (Victorian). Most of all, however, I enjoy her futuristic paranormals such as Siren’s Call set on Rainshadow Island and In Too Deep set in Scargill Cove. These appeal to me because of her light hand with the paranormal concepts and the quirkiness of the main characters. She creates otherworlds without belabouring the point. Sometimes writers create alternate worlds that require an immense investment on the part of the reader to learn the settings and morés of those worlds which can have the effect of having the reader skip pages and eventually put the book down. Not so JAK who, after many years of writing, knows just how far she can go to create a world not so very dissimilar to our own.

Obviously, I can’t go far without mentioning the greatest modern storyteller – Nora Roberts. I don’t like many of her earlier books which now seem dated, and I don’t feel that her paranormal ones are in the least bit convincing. However, I totally enjoy her recent single titles such as Tribute and Whiskey Beach. And I especially enjoy The Inn at Boonsborough series. I once saw a review where the reader criticised the Boonsborough ones because they had too much building detail in them. Now that’s the part I am intrigued with. I am not a purist romance reader, so I like a bit of meat with my coffee froth. I wait for each new release of Nora’s, as do thousands of others, not all of them women by a long way.

Stieg Larsson, in particular his series of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Anti-right-wing extremist and magazine editor-in-chief, what a shame most of his books were only found after his death in 2004. I suggest for those who want a touch of reality watered down with a little idealism, read Larsson. Whether you see the movies first or read the books first, I promise you will enjoy Lizbeth Salander, the toughest cyber-expert on the planet. 

Rick Mofina, a great suspense writer endorsed by the best suspense writers such as James Patterson, Dean Koontz, Sandra Brown, Tess Gerritsen etc. He is Canadian and so less inclined to use acronyms which can be a relief for a reader steeped in jargon which has to be researched. I thoroughly enjoyed Be Mine and my next choice is The Dying Hour. He writes about a crime reporter and unravelling detective in several of his novels, then switches to another team in his later books. If you like suspense and that ‘unable to put it down’ feeling, then choose Mofina.

Another one to keep an eye on: Going to read more by J.M. Gregson. Have just finished The Fox in the Forest about the murder of a well-liked town vicar. The murdered man is one of those rare characters whom everyone liked. Of course, the reader thinks “mistaken identity?” Gregson has an impressive writing record of both non-fiction and fiction. I enjoyed the British outlook to solving crime – stoic, authentic and painstaking – and the author’s writing experience showed by his excellent characterizations. No character was just a sketch. It was an in-depth exploration of people both likeable and unlikeable. 

So, what authors do you enjoy? Have you stopped to ask yourself Why do you like their writing?

Vonnie Hughes is a multi-published author in both Regency books and contemporary suspense. She loves the intricacies of the social rules of the Regency period and the far-ranging consequences of the Napoleonic Code. And with suspense she has free rein to explore forensic matters and the strong convolutions of the human mind. Like many writers, some days she hates the whole process, but somehow she just cannot let it go.

Vonnie was born in New Zealand, but she and her husband now live happily in Australia. If you visit Hamilton Gardens in New Zealand be sure to stroll through the Japanese Garden. These is a bronze plaque engraved with a haiku describing the peacefulness of that environment. The poem was written by Vonnie.

All of Vonnie’s books are available on The Wild Rose Press and Amazon.

Learn more about Vonnie Hughes on her website and blog. Stay connected on Facebook and Goodreads.