Laurie is so much better than I am at promoting- 🙂 Indies Unlimited’s talent pool is phenomenal. If you’re looking for a new author to read, you’ll want to check this new volume of first chapters out.
Archives for July 2013
I am so humbled by this orchestra
You gotta watch this.
Smashwords Adds Pre-order Capabilities
Read the blog post here: http://blog.smashwords.com/2013/07/smashwords-introduces-preorder.html
Staying True to Yourself
Great post by author-editor Laurie Boris on slowing down to get it right…
Feel Good Friday – My Birthday and a Ghostly Party
Two friends are having a big day today! Surf on over and say happy birthday to one and congrats to the other!
Awesome Authors–Lynne Cantwell
My guest today on Awesome Authors is the inimitable Lynne Cantwell. Lynne’s a fellow minion from Indies Unlimited and writes urban fantasy. Her latest works are The Pipe Woman Chronicles 5-book series and I

have to say that even though urban fantasy isn’t my go-to genre, I thoroughly enjoyed Seized, the first book in the series. So much so that I’ve downloaded the rest and plan to read them soon. Here’s her bio:
Lynne Cantwell grew up on the shores of Lake Michigan. She worked as a broadcast journalist for many years; she has written for CNN, the late lamented Mutual/NBC Radio News, and a bunch of radio and TV news outlets you have probably never heard of, including a defunct wire service called Zapnews. In addition to writing fantasy, Lynne is a contributing author at Indies Unlimited. Her vast overeducation includes a journalism degree from Indiana University, a master’s degree in fiction writing from Johns Hopkins University, and a paralegal certificate. She currently lives near Washington, DC.
D: Welcome, Lynne! Thanks for stopping by. Please tell us a little about yourself.
L: Thanks for having me, D.V.! Umm, let’s see, fun facts to know and tell: I’ve got two twentysomething daughters, one of whom writes fanfiction and has more fans than I do. Howard Dean once called me from a humvee in the middle of a Vermont ice storm. But my most recent claim to fame is that I’ve been to all 50 states in the U.S.; I nailed the last one, Alaska, in May.
D: That’s fantastic! Congratulations 🙂 You’ve just completed the Pipe Woman Chronicles. Could you tell us the idea behind this five-book series? Is there an underlying theme?
L: Maybe the underlying theme is respect. I have a lot of trouble personally with the knee-jerk Good vs. Evil dichotomy that is ingrained in Western thought. I think a lot of the world’s problems would be easier to solve if we didn’t keep demonizing people whose appearance and/or beliefs are different from our own. So I deliberately didn’t put any characters into the series who personify Evil; everybody’s got a credible reason for doing what they do. And there are no perfectly Good characters, either; sometimes even the gods screw up. Yet the gods, unlike humans, all respect one another.

D: Why did you decide to write urban fantasy?
L: Back in 2011, when I was casting about for a plot for National Novel Writing Month, a friend who was into urban fantasy began passing along her used paperbacks to me. After I read a number of books in the genre, I decided to try my hand at writing my own. Little did I know what I was getting myself into!
D: When did you realize you wanted to be an author?
L: Hmm. Define “author.” I mean, I’ve always thought of myself as a writer. I wrote my first book when I was in the second grade (not that I’d advise anyone to read it!). And over the years, I tried, off and on, to get an agent or sell my short stories. But getting a novel published has always been on my bucket list.
D: Why did you choose indie publishing instead of going the traditional route?
L: My first novel, The Maidens’ War, was published in 2010 by a small press called Calderwood Books. When I had SwanSong ready to go, Calderwood had not yet started listing its books on Amazon, which was a marketplace I very much wanted to be in. So I figured out how to do it myself, and I enjoyed it so much that I’ve been an indie ever since.
D: What are you working on now?
L: I’m just starting to work on a trilogy that will be set in the same fictional universe as the Pipe Woman Chronicles. It will take place about ten years after the end of Annealed, mostly with new characters.
D: Another great set of books to read 🙂 Where do you see yourself (and indie publishing) in five years?
L: Last year, I put myself on a seven-year plan: I’ll be eligible for early retirement in 2019, but I can quit sooner if I get to the point where I’m supporting myself with my book sales. Fingers crossed!
As for the future of indie publishing, it’s hard to tell where we’re headed. The marketplace has such a Wild West feeling to it right now. I think big trad publishers are doing their best to implode, whether they realize it or not; the question is whether Amazon will continue to support indies, and whether someone else will come along to encourage them to keep doing it. Don’t get me wrong: I’m not an Amazon hater – not by a long shot. But it would be comforting to have another company that treats indies as well as Amazon does, both to give them some competition, and to give us somewhere else to go if the Zon decides to go in a different direction.

D: What’s your favorite genre to read?
L: Fantasy. I’m pretty much over the sword-and-sorcery and coming-of-age stuff, though. My favorite author is Stephen R. Donaldson, and I’m eagerly awaiting the release of the tenth and final book in his Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever this fall. I also enjoyed Steven Erickson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen series. And I love Graham Joyce, whose books seem to tread a fine line between fantasy and psychological horror.

D: If you could time-travel (backward or forward) where would you go and why?
L: I’ve always been intrigued by the medieval period and the Renaissance – everything from the clothing to the music. But I wouldn’t want to live there forever. With my luck, if I got stuck there, I’d be scrubbing pots in the scullery instead of sewing fine seams with the ladies.
D: What do you do when you’re not writing?
L: Other than the day job? I read, I knit, and I spend way too much time on Facebook. Sometimes I remember to go to bed.
D: Do you have any advice for new writers?

L: Stick at it! Keep writing. Then let your work sit for a few weeks, and go back and edit it. When you think you’re ready to publish, get yourself an editor – or at least some beta readers who know something about grammar, spelling, and story development, and will be honest with you about your work. In other words, when your mother tells you your book is terrific, don’t just take her word for it. Oh, and visit Indies Unlimited, where you’ll find a wealth of good advice for indie authors. (I had to get the plug in, or the Evil Mastermind would short me on gruel. You know how he gets.)
D: LOL. Yes, yes I do. Thanks again for stopping by, Lynne.
(Lynne’s information and buy links for the books are below the excerpt.)
Excerpt from Seized: Book One of the Pipe Woman Chronicles by Lynne Cantwell:
Shannon lived in a triplex north of Sloan’s Lake, only ten minutes or so from my loft in LoDo (the nickname for Denver’s trendy, if I do say so myself, Lower Downtown neighborhood). It was a Wednesday night so traffic should have been light, but the bars were closing and the crowd was clogging up the streets. Working my ginger Nissan Cube free of LoDo at last, I pulled up behind a car that was sitting at a stop sign…and sitting…and sitting. No traffic was coming in either direction that I could see, and my earlier ebullient mood was evaporating by the second. Finally, in frustration, I cried out, “Just go, already!”
The car ahead leaped into the intersection. A horn blared as another car shot into my range of vision from the left, narrowly missing the first car. As the driver on the cross street flew by, still honking, the other driver rocked to a halt on the other side of the intersection and just sat there.
I realized my hand was covering my mouth. I pulled it away with an effort and sat for a moment, glancing between the flaring brake lights across the road and my hands trembling on the steering wheel. Finally, the other car’s brake lights went out and he, or she, drove away. Slowly and carefully, I did the same.
Shannon met me at the door, her grin dissolving into a look of concern. She snatched the cookies as if she was afraid I would drop them, then took my coat and steered me to the wicker loveseat. An opened novel sat, flipped over, on the coffee table, atop a pile of papers. She removed the aluminum foil covering the cookies and set chamomile teabags to steep in two mugs with a matching Navajo design. Then, finally, she said, “What happened?”
I told her. About the other driver, and about the settlements.
As I talked, my brain began clicking things into place. It wasn’t just that I was getting really good at my job – it was too easy. People were far too suggestible around me. The client had told Perry that I had a magic touch. That he couldn’t help agreeing with everything I said.
I could tell someone to get out of my way at an intersection, even if it put that person in danger.
“Something weird is going on,” I finished, rather lamely.
“Yes, it is,” Shannon agreed.
END EXCERPT
Purchase the Pipe Woman Chronicles:

Seized: http://www.amazon.com/Seized-Pipe-Woman-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B007MGRCBU
Fissured: http://www.amazon.com/Fissured-Pipe-Woman-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B008ZDE6JU
Tapped: http://www.amazon.com/Tapped-Pipe-Woman-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B00AGPBOYK/
Gravid: http://www.amazon.com/Gravid-Pipe-Woman-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B00BX4AO9E/
Annealed: http://www.amazon.com/Annealed-Pipe-Woman-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B00CVZVHJ0/
Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/author/lynnecantwell
Calderwood Books author page: http://www.calderwoodbooks.com/#/lynne-cantwell/4526227421
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/696603.Lynne_Cantwell
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lynne-Cantwell/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LynneCantwell
Blog: http://hearth-myth.blogspot.com
Beware Posting Your Work…
Here’s a little tidbit I ran across warning about sites like Authonomy where you can post excerpts of your work to gain feedback. In a perfect world what happened to this author would never occur. But, as we all know, the world is far from perfect…
http://strictlywriting.blogspot.in/2013/07/thetime-hunters-authour-carl-ashmore.html
Kate Jones Series on Sale!
The Kate Jones Thriller Series, Vol. 1 ebook (Bad Spirits, Dead of Winter, Death Rites and Touring for Death) is on SALE for a limited time for only .99! If you haven’t read the first four novellas in this bestselling series, now’s your chance to get ’em, CHEAP 🙂 Here’s the description (buy links and Smashwords coupon code at the end of this post):
BAD SPIRITS (Books 1-5): Kate Jones is on the run with a backpack full of money, intent on finding her way back to the United States from Mexico. Unfortunately, a ruthless drug lord named Salazar is just as intent on finding her, retrieving his stolen money, and making her pay for ever having left him. Is there anyone she can trust?
DEAD OF WINTER: Kate Jones is hiding out in small town Alaska when she witnesses an execution-style murder. Convinced the killers are Salazar’s men and desperate to stop them from finding her, she reports the crime to local law enforcement, hoping to put them off her trail so she can escape.
DEATH RITES: When Kate has to leave Alaska (and Sam) behind, she runs to the last place she remembers feeling safe: the North Shore of Oahu. Against her better judgment, she re-establishes old connections, and soon faces a new problem in Alek, a gifted carver and avid surfer.
Then a brutal murder and theft of a priceless artifact from a museum is discovered, and Kate’s thrown into the middle of what appears to be a violent ancient sect come to life. Her only chance of survival is to rely on her wits…
…and the ancient gods of Hawaii.
TOURING FOR DEATH: Kate Jones is hiding out from her shady past driving jeep tours through the rugged high desert of northern Arizona, determined to stop looking over her shoulder and find peace from her mistake of a gun-toting, former life. Testifying against a Mexican drug lord and a dirty DEA agent didn’t turn out to be a life enhancing choice and she’s been on the move ever since.
Now, five years have passed with no sign of trouble and Kate’s finally starting to believe she’s safe. Her current goal is to make enough money so she can get lost in the tropics when the tourist trade dies off. Unfortunately, it’s the tourists that are dying off and she may be next.
“…Great story, fast-paced, quick read and all around fun!”
“…it’s a non-stop thrill ride…”
“…It’s fast-paced from the get go and the action continues through to the end. This is how I like my books!”
Here are the links to Amazon and Barnes and Noble. The Smashwords coupon code is: TB87N (expires 7/23).
Happy Friday!