The Next Big Thing Blog Hop

The Next Big Thing: “Second of All” by @GenevieveDewey

I was nominated for The Next Big Thing Blog Hop by Jason Jaxx and Vanessa Ryan. The Next Big Thing is an opportunity to talk about your work in progress or work you are about to publish. Once you’ve been nominated you reblog the post of the person who nominated you as a guest blog, then you have a week to answer this set of questions on your story. After you answer the questions you nominate a few more authors who will do the same. It’s a good way for fans of different genres to get a glimpse at what will be coming out next.

  • What is the Title of your upcoming book?

Second of All

  • Where did the idea come from for the book?

It is the second book in the Downey Trilogy and is very much a metaphorical knot in which the lives of the six main characters of First, I Love You become further entangled. Each of them has to decide what emotions, loyalties, and priorities must come first, and what comes second.

  • What genre does your book fall under?

It is Contemporary Fiction, Family Saga, and Romance. Like First, I Love You it doesn’t quite fit any genre mold.

  • Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Jay Ryan would play Tommy Gates in a heartbeat. He’s pretty much just how I picture Tommy Gates only Tommy has green eyes and slightly more rugged features. I think James Hoffman would be hard because he’s a genetic one in a million in that he has dark Mediterranean skin and sky blue eyes. Good luck finding me that. Body and swagger wise he’s somewhere in between Shemar Moore and Maurice Benard. Now Mickey he’s hard because when I say he has a gravelly voice I’m thinking like Michael Wincott, but face wise I haven’t come across an actor that reminds me of what I have in my mind, black hair, green eyes, angular features. The women, that’s tough, I haven’t spent too much time thinking about it, Kiki would have to be someone very beautiful and glamorous, while Ginny is more girl next door pretty and very professional all the time (maybe the blond agent from Criminal Minds?), and Mary’s wild auburn curls are based on an actress friend of mine Amy Orlando but her face has always been my grandmother’s heart shaped face in my mind, and Amy is too young to play her.

  • What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Second of All is the introspective sequel to First, I Love You in which the six main characters’ emotions and loyalties are tested and become inextricably entangled.

  • Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I am self published.

  • How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

Four months

  • What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Again it doesn’t fit neatly into any one genre but it has a very Godfather II feel to it in that you go back and forth in time. The romance within the trilogy is structured like a Nora Roberts trilogy, one pair off per book although the relationships are all throughout the series. The overall feel of the book is very much the Act II of a Shakespearean play, chaos and emotion.

  • Who or What inspired you to write this book?

Me. No, actually, my friend Mary who was the first person to ever read the first few chapters of First, I Love You, helped me figure out really early on writing that book that I wanted to make the story into a trilogy.

  •  What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

I made this book a little heavier on the romance than I did the last to balance the jaunts back into Mickey’s past which are often melancholy. When I wrote this book I did so with the idea in my mind that both the plot and the structure should fit the theme of a Celtic knot. All their emotions and roles and loyalties are tangled up as are their stories. You begin much as you left First, I Love You with Kiki and James, Tommy and Ginny, and Mary and Mickey in their separate trajectories, then by the end I have woven them together to bridge into the third. Another very important theme in this book is Family, what defines it and what purpose it holds in our minds and hearts. This book has been described by my ARC readers as mellow and exciting all at once. That’s perfect really, I meant it to be very subtle with the answers it gives and the questions it should raise in the readers’ minds going into the third.

I nominate:

Habiba Haji (Non-Fiction/Motivational Memoirs)

Penelope Jones (Erotica)

Christopher Shields (Young Adult/Fantasy)

Vanessa Ryan (Urban Fantasy/Horror)

Seumas Gallacher (Crime Fiction)

Guest Blog: The Next Big Thing Vanessa Ryan @VRyan333

Time to do another The Next Big Thing Blog Hop.

TOMORROW I will put up my own answers. Vanessa Ryan (today’s post) was kind enough to let me tag back to her which is totally cheating on my part, but I think you should be used to my moral ambiguity at this point right? 😉

Vanessa is a fellow ASMSG member and writes Urban Fantasy/Horror with Crushing Hearts and Black Butterfly Publishing & Midnight Hour Publishing.

1. What is the working title of your book?

A BLUE MOON.

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?

That’s a loaded question. I started writing the novel when I was recovering from an illness. I didn’t like being sick and I wondered why things happened the way they did. But in a broader sense, I had the odd talent of saying things that would then come true––and they were usually not desirable things. I was married at the time and it got to the point where my husband would stop me from talking––he didn’t want me to say what if…and have that thing come true. So I wrote a novel about this.

3. What genre does your book fall under?

It’s an urban fantasy/horror, written in a chick lit style.

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Hmm. I think someone like Cameron Diaz, or Beth Behrs, the blonde in TWO BROKE GIRLS, could play Lorrie, the heroine. She has to be a bit zany. Aubrey Plaza, from Parks and Recreation, could play the snotty receptionist at the art gallery. Chris Pratt, also from Parks and Recreation, could play John. As to the rest, I’ll leave that to Hollywood, should they ask.

5. What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

A woman’s desire for acceptance among her peers and as an artist, leads to some tragic and unexpected events.

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

It’s going to be released on April 1, 2013 by CHBB Publishing (Crushing Hearts and Black Butterfly Publishing). And that’s no April fool’s joke.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

I wrote for four months until it became 100,000 words. Then I pared it down to just under 70,000 words.

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I don’t know. Today, I think of it as SEX IN THE CITY with a horror spin, though when I wrote it before the mid-1990s, the chick lit genre wasn’t popular. Maybe it’s a little like THINNER, where eating a certain pie makes people get thinner until they disappear, though in my story food doesn’t play a big part. But like THINNER, it’s about bad things happening and not being able to figure out know how to stop them.

9. Who or what inspired you to write the book?

Before writing A BLUE MOON, I had read the novel DEATH IS A LONELY BUSINESS, by Ray Bradbury, which takes place in Venice, California. That gave me the idea to write an urban fantasy set in Venice, where I had once lived. While writing A BLUE MOON, I attended a lecture by Ray Bradbury. I talked to him afterward. When I told him his DEATH IS A LONELY BUSINESS had inspired me to write, he winced––because it wasn’t one of his best sellers, I think––though it was quite good. He said when I got it published to send him the eighth copy, because I should send the first seven copies to reviewers and family. Sadly, he passed away this year, so I won’t get to do that.

10. What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

As the expression goes, sometimes life imitates art. As I mentioned, I had the odd talent of saying things that would come true. After writing this book, I moved to New Mexico and met some of the characters I had written about. I met someone like Suzie, Lorrie’s best friend, who became my best friend. I met a character like John, though in real life he was more malevolent than in the story. However, the worst of it was, one of the events in the book came true for me––my house burned down. I guess, sometimes you have to be careful not only what you wish for, but what you write.

Read more about Vanessa and her writing here: http://vanessaryanwriter.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-next-big-thing.html

Guest Blog! The Next Big Thing via @JasonJaxx

Hello I’ve been tagged by Jason Jaxx for the Next Big Thing Blog Hop (and by two others as well, so more to come!) I will be answering questions about my next book (Second of All) in a few days, then tagging a few authors with blogs to do the same. PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU WOULD LIKE ME TO TAG YOU!!!!

Jason is an erotica author, so 18+ only please. 😉 Here’s what Jason’s been working on:

What is the (working title) of your book?
Secret Story Time: More Filthy Fantasies

Where did the idea come from for the book?
This is a follow up to be first compilation of erotic short stories: Dirty Secrets & Filthy Fantasies. I tend to write shorter pieces while working on longer books as a way to keep things fresh and exciting for both me and the readers.

What genre does your book fall under?
Erotica…most definitely Erotica. So definitely Adults only!

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Sexy pornstars. Not much acting skills required for these tales but they would need to be energetic!

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
A collection of short erotic tales designed to be read in secret, late at night when the urge to read something a little bit more dirty strikes. You will be introduced to characters placed in situations where the potential for erotic activity is realized swiftly and with explosive results.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
Self-published

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
The stories were written during the last six months. I’ve just finished compiling and refining them.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Any that inspire bouts of one handed reading!

Who or What inspired you to write this book? My fevered imagination and a stressful work environment conspired to form the suggestions that allowed these tales to be unleashed from the dirtier recesses of my mind.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
It will be free and it will be packed with hardcore erotic action! There is the potential for some of these stories or characters to make recurring experiences. I wait eagerly to hear which strike a chord.

Read more here:

http://www.jasonjaxx.com/post/37257794146/the-next-big-thing