Friday Hot Seat - A New Author Get's Pinned

I’m excited to have Lisa Fender in the hot seat today.  Lisa and I met several years ago and when she discovered I was an author she asked if we could have coffee.  Turns out she had the dream.  She wanted to know if I would look at something she’d written.  There were issues with the mechanics (like I still goof on, especially in first drafts), but I saw a lot of potential in her story idea and encouraged her to keep going and work on the techniques.  She did! And I’m delighted that tomorrow I will be attending the book launch party for Fable, the first book in a series she and her sister, Toni Burns teamed up to write.  Turns out, Toni had the dream too!

Is there anything surprising you’ve learned about the publishing industry that you’d like to share with us?

Oh, where to start. I think the most important lesson is you don't have to go through a publisher to get your book out for sale. You can launch your book on your own, but if you want to do it right, it's not cheap. Why I decided to self-publish is because for one, I didn't have to wait possibly years to get it published, and two, you have to do all the marketing yourself anyway, why pay someone just to have their name on the book. You don't make much money as it is, why give even more of it to a small time publisher, or even a middle of the road one. 

The chances of a first time author getting a contract with one of the big names is slim to none, and they pick your title and cover. We did that all by ourselves, and I think it turned out pretty good. It's a wonderful and fun story. There's action, intrigue, a quest, and even a love story. What more could you want?!

 What is the naughtiest thing you ever did...that you got caught?

 When I was in my teens, (I think 17) I got caught with my boyfriend up at the lake by our house, doing it off the path. A man walked by and heard us and stopped to call out who's there. I've never gotten my jeans buttoned so fast in my life! Ah...the 70's. Sex, drugs and rock and roll!

http://www.lisafender.com
http://www.facebook.com/fablebookI

 Leave a comment for Lisa and get entered into a drawing for a signed copy of Fable and a $10.00 Starbucks gift card.

Fable

Book 1 of the Lorn Prophecy
by Lisa Fender & Toni Burns

Blurb:

 Stevie Barrett lives an ordinary life in Golden, Colorado, where nothing remarkable ever happens. That is until right before her high school graduation, when Stevie’s life takes a bizarre turn. Her best friends, Jack and Alyssa, want to be supportive, but are confused by the events plaguing Stevie.

Stevie’s mom is attacked by men with glowing gold eyes. A strange being spies on Stevie, hidden in shadow. She has waking visions of a people called the Djen and their archaic world. And when her and her BFFs don’t think it can get any weirder, Stevie heals a stranger with a touch. The abilities build until they are a tidal wave awakening within her and threaten her sense of reality.

 Her efforts to understand what is happening lead her and her friends to discover a group known as the Rebellion. These warriors from another dimension are hunting her. Their leader is a man bent on destroying Stevie and possessing her legacy. In order to stop him and save everyone she loves, Stevie and her friends must embark on a quest to find and return Tecton, one of the five Orbs—relics—of the other plane she comes to know as Djenrye. The journey will alter everything she believes, propelling her into another world and another life.

Excerpt:

At the sound of Tonka barking, she wrenched the faucet handle hard enough for metal to screech on metal. “What—really, Mom? Tonka’s still outside?”

When no response came, Stevie poked her head out the bathroom door. “Mom?”

Wait a sec… The lights are off. Mom’s not home?

She went down the hall, opened her mother’s bedroom door, and turned on the light. It was empty. A quick walk to the window to glance at the driveway revealed the vacant space where her mom’s SUV should be parked. I can’t believe I was so mad I didn’t notice.

She walked out of the room and absently flicked off the light. Her yellow lab was still outside and her mother nowhere to be found. The darkness of the house closed in around her.

Creeping back down the hall, she peered in her room, and was relieved at the lack of movement and unfamiliar shapes. She tiptoed to the top of the stairs and looked down to blackness.

Tonka’s barking stopped. Stevie strained to hear anything, but all was still. An uneasy feeling washed over her.

Spring nights usually brought the sounds of crickets, birds, and an occasional coyote howl, but never silence. In fact, the normal cacophony of nature’s music frightened her “down the hill” friends the first time they stayed overnight. Comfortable in the symphony nature freely provided, Stevie would tease them about being “city kids”.

But this quiet was complete. It created its own strange vibration. There is stillness, and then there is deathly silence. This felt like the second. Compounded by Tonka’s sudden calm, the void was a weight pushing down on her. Stevie had never been claustrophobic, but a sense of being entombed and exposed at the same time unnerved her.

Quietly, she moved down the stairs, avoiding the middle one that creaked, afraid to bring noise into the void. At the landing, she turned right, in the direction of the kitchen. She passed the grandfather clock with its steady, rhythmic ticking, and glanced at the time.

Ten o’clock. Where are you, Mom?

Entering the kitchen, Stevie kept as close to the walls as possible, attempting to blend her five-foot-seven-inch frame in with the shadows. Through the open blinds of the sliding glass door, a full moon cast weak light across the floor. Beyond the glass, Tonka’s shape could be seen in the backyard.

Stevie inched across the pine floor. Again, careful to avoid the creaky joints, she positioned herself in such a way that only her head would be visible to the outside.

The yellow lab stood at the base of the nearest cottonwood, front paws clawing at the trunk, attention completely focused on the branches above. Tonka appeared to be attempting to climb the tree.

A mountain lion? That would account for the silence, at least.

Living in the foothills, it was not uncommon for wildlife sightings, even bears or pumas. Stevie searched her memory, but couldn’t remember when the last sighting had been broadcast. She leaned into the glass; hands cupped on either side of her face, and squinted into the night.

A tall figure stood on a thick branch, silhouetted by the moonlight. The way that it balanced on the tree, the easy athletic posture and height—it could only be a man. Tonka resumed her barking and the distraction drew her eyes downward. The lab’s normally yellow fur glowed green. Straining to make out the source of the strange light, she looked again at the man-shape. A gasp escaped her lips and she jumped back.

What the hell?

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