The Turnagain Arm by Julie Flanders

It's my huge pleasure to present Julie Flanders' new book, The Turnagain Arm, a prequel to Polar Night. I can't wait to read it!



Polar Night's Aleksei Nechayev leaves war-torn Russia in 1917 and makes his way to Alaska. Settling in at a railroad camp, Aleksei comes up against an adversary who seems to know the truth about the newly-turned vampire's identity, and who soon gives Aleksei much more than he bargained for at The Turnagain Arm.

Cover design by Michael Di Gesu

Only 99 cents on Amazon Kindle

Book Blurb: 

Locomotive wheels screech to a halt. Potters Creek, Alaska is nothing more than a small camp set up alongside the tracks. A weathered sign dominates the scene.

The Turnagain Arm Saloon 

Est.1917

Only one passenger remains and exits.

The early afternoon full moon peaks through a shimmering snow fall as a shadow casts over each split rail. The wind howls, sweeping the cloak of a hooded figure. He follows   the tracks toward the distant saloon. A hulking man crunches through the snow, attracting his attention.

Calling out to him in a foreign accent, the townsman stops in mid step. The stranger catches up and engages him.

Until…

The man disappears under the stranger’s cloak.

Blood drips from his lips, and he wipes the remaining trickles from his mouth. After disposing of the body, the mysterious figure continues on his journey. He glides through the snow as if on a sleigh, leaving no footprints behind.

*          *          *          *          *

Within a short period, he convinces Vasyl, the owner of the saloon, to hire him. Aleksei charms everyone he meets. But soon mistrust enters every tense line on Vasyl’s face as others disappear, and his wife falls under Aleksei’s spell.

The classic game of cat and mouse continues, but who will win?

Is a mere mortal any match for Aleksei?

A spark ignites within Alexei after yet another of Vasyl’s attempts to disgrace him.

This man knows of me. He must be a witch. Aleksei laughs. You are no match for me or my plan.




About the Author: 

Julie Flanders is a librarian by day and a writer all the rest of the time. Julie is also a television show addict with a particular fondness for Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead and a slightly obsessive sports fan who cheers for the Ohio State Buckeyes, the Cincinnati Reds, and the Cincinnati Bengals. She is a life-long animal lover and an animal rescue advocate and shares her home with her rescued dog and cat.

Julie’s published novels include the paranormal thriller Polar Night and the historical ghost story The Ghosts of Aquinnah. Both are available from Ink Smith Publishing. Polar Day, the sequel to Polar Night, will be published by Ink Smith in January, 2015.

Julie is a proud member of the speculative fiction writing group Untethered Realms. Meet the rest of the group and explore their books at http://untetheredrealms.blogspot.com/.

Please visit Julie at her website at julieflanders.net or contact her by email at julie@julieflanders.net. She can also be found on Twitter at @JulesFlanders.

Enter to win one of two prize bundles featuring a $15 Amazon.com gift card and an ebook copy of The Turnagain Arm. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Guest posts and a new story

To celebrate the release of Our Beautiful Child in paperback, I've been hanging out at a couple of other blogs this week...

• I'm over on Between the Lines sharing Five Books I've Read More Than Once
• and explaining why I think Novellas are Awesome at Beck Valley Books.

Thanks to both Cathy and Sharon for inviting me to their blogs.

My beautiful book, Our Beautiful Child

Release date: 10^th June 2014
Publisher: Battered Suitcase Press

Add Our Beautiful Child to your Goodreads shelf

"The Boathouse collects misfits. Strange solitary creatures that yearn for contact with the outside world, but not too much. They sit, glass in hand, either staring at the table in front of them, or at some distant point on the horizon.”

… so says the narrator of Our Beautiful Child. And he’s been around long enough to know.

People end up in this town almost by accident. Ella is running away from her nightmares, Sally is running away from the memories of previous boyfriends and Rona is running away from university. Each of them seek sanctuary in the 18th century pub, The Boathouse; but in fact, that’s where their troubles begin.

Ella finds love, a moment too late; Rona discovers a beautiful ability which needs refining before she gets hurt; and Sally meets the captivating Murray, who threatens to ruin everything.

Three women. Three stories. One pub.

And now, a huge thank you...

... to everyone who is helping out with my reveal today and tomorrow.

I found out on Monday that my book was scheduled for publication on 10th June, two weeks and one day later.

Now, I'd learned a lot of lessons since I published Cat and The Dreamer with my publisher back in 2012 - I knew I needed big cover reveal, reviewers ready and waiting, a grand release party. But two weeks didn't give me time to implement my grand plans, and so I turned to Facebook and bloggers, and asked for some very short notice help.

Some wonderful people offered me space on their blogs (and others apologised that it was just too short) and I can't thank them enough.

So if you're wandering around blogland today, and you see my cover, please take time to comment and tell that blogger that they are awesome for coming to the aid of a writer in distress. Thank you.

Once again, I'm ahead of the game

When I was at school I was always about two years ahead of fashion. This of course made me unfashionable. I'd be searching for a long black skirt when everyone else was wearing short; I longed for a pair of grey cord trousers when everyone else was wearing skinny bleached jeans. And two years later, when everyone was wearing long skirts and cords, I'd moved on again. I am a pioneer (and a modest one, at that!)

I wrote novellas when everyone else was writing novels...

And now, novellas are back, says the Telegraph. The growing popularity of e-readers means people are happy to read something a little shorter. Indeed, reading War and Peace on a Kindle might give you RSI after a while!

I never chose to write novellas, I write the story I want to tell at the length it wants to be. I've experimented with forcing a story to be a specific length, and it never really works well. I covered this point in my last couple of posts - trying to fit my story within an allotted word count - so I won't repeat myself.

So, anyway, I'm cool now... Are you?

Are you put off a book if it appears too short?

Have you written a novella?

An IWSG update

Thank you to everyone who commented on my IWSG post this month. If you didn't see it, I was trying to decide whether I should cut words to fit a specific market, or continue with the story as I wanted to tell it.

I decided to cut words! I realised I had no choice, I would kick myself if I didn't at least try - on account of my huge crush on this publisher! It was only 3300 words over the absolute maximum (and I checked, there's no leeway), I could cut that easily... In fact, my words in the IWSG post was easy peasy.

Oh dear... those dreaded last words.

As I started to cut a few words here and there, tightening sentences that admittedly were already pretty tight because I can't write any other way, I also started to add words: I needed to clarify a certain point I was trying to make, I'd cut off a train of thought halfway through. And I'd forgotten Christmas. When you're trying to denote the passing of years in a small number of words, Christmas is always a great bullet point.

My word count now stands at 4000 words over the maximum. Looking at the numbers alone, I can see where I can slice it - the story is top heavy, the first chapter is over three times the length of the final one. But I've read and re-read, and I just can't slash any more words without losing the impact of the story.

It looks like I won't be able to submit to this imprint after all...

A couple of tags

Elizabeth at Use Your Words... tagged me in the Next Big Thing thing a couple of weeks ago, so I thought I'd give it a go:

1. Working Title? Our Beautiful Child and other stories

2. Where did idea come from for the book? There are three novella length stories in the collection. The first one I wrote is The Traveller, which contains my most favourite character ever. The second one Ella's Story wasn't supposed to be connected to The Traveller, but I noticed I'd set the story in a similar town, with similar landmarks. And then, eventually, I decided to write a a third based in the same town, because the idea of a trilogy felt right by then. Although some of the characters overlap a little bit, they are completely separate and can be read as individual stories.

3. What genre does it fall under? Contemporary alternative paranormal-ish romance!

4. One sentence synopsis? (Cheating: one sentence for each story!!)

• Ella's Story - a recurring dream about her own death sends Ella into turmoil, especially when elements of her dream start to come true.
• The Traveller - a stranger in town captivates most of the women, but he has his eyes on just one.
• Our Beautiful Child - Rona is chosen by the local ghosts as a channel between their two worlds when a fake medium tries to hold a seance in the local pub.

5.Self-published or agented or what? Hopefully published by Vagabondage Press, my publisher for Cat and The Dreamer.

6. How long did it take to write first draft? The Traveller - the first story - started life in 1999 I think, but there were big gaps between writing stories. The final story took the longest, because I just couldn't grasp all the elements of the story - I was thinking about it for a couple of years - and now it's my favourite.

7. What actors would you choose to play your characters? Erm... I'm going to pass on this one because I can't think of anyone who could play them. My favourite character is based on two real people, so only they could play him - but I don't think either of them are actors!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Next, Teresa at The Wittering Woman tagged me in Seven Things About Me. I've done a lot of tags where I've had to share seven, or more, things so I'm not sure I can come up with anything new. I'll give it a go...

1. I had two imaginary friends when I was little, called Iccance and Occance. (The spelling might not be entirely right!)
2. I got so nervous on my wedding day that I couldn't eat until about nine o'clock in the evening. I hated being the centre of attention! (It was a long time ago, I'm much better now.)
3. I've just sat here for five minutes thinking of a number 3, and I'll probably take the same length of time to think of a number 4.
4. I'm very bad at singing, playing Trivial Pursuit and playing any kind of sport which involves hitting a ball with something.
5. But I'm quite good at making omelette!
6. I wave at train drivers.
7. I own the DangerMouse complete box set.

Phew, I did it! 

I'm not going to pass this on to anyone specifically, but if you'd like to take part, especially with the Next Big Thing if you have something to talk about, then consider yourself tagged!

Help!

It's been a while since I've had a blank post to fill. Over the past month, I've had posts telling you to visit other blogs, I've been tagged to share information about myself and excerpts from my WIP... I almost  feel like I've forgotten how to write a post!

But lo! - there is something I'd like to take your advice on. Please read on...

I've just about completed my WIP, a collection of stories which I'm suddenly scared to submit. Yesterday, I realised that my publisher doesn't actually publish collections. 

I'm currently torn between abandoning the project and writing something else, or writing a killer query that will explain why I think these stories work together. (If my publisher is reading, I am so, so sorry - I'm usually very good at reading and obeying submission guidelines!)

I really believe in this WIP. I've been working on it for a long time, and I still get goosebumps when I reach the final pages of the final story.

My options are:

1. Sending off the query. In doing this, I'll be fulfilling the obligations of my current contract which asks for first refusal on similar works. If rejected, I can then consider another publisher or - gulp! - going it alone.
2. In my killer query as it stands, I've explained that these stories could be standalone novelettes, thereby showing that I do understand the guidelines, but blatantly pointing out that I've chosen to ignore them, and risking my publisher's ire.
3. Not sending this WIP to my publisher, or to anyone else. If I send it to someone else, I'll be ignoring the obligations of my contract and annoying my publisher who's been fantastic. However, by not submitting this WIP, I'll have to start something from scratch, and currently I have nothing in reserve.

I see so many pros and cons with all the options that my head is spinning. So I really want to know...

What would you do?

Murdering my darlings

Phew... the past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of activity, without a single word of new material written. So, at the weekend, I put all thoughts of marketing for Cat and the Dreamer on hold and got out my soon-to-be-submitted trilogy of novellas and read them as a whole, and - yay! - they worked. I held my breath, I got goosebumps, I wanted a character to do the opposite to what she was planning. I got caught up in my own stories!

Except for one. The second story in the collection was the first to be written - written eight years ago, to be exact. And as I was reading, I spotted a lot of changes that needed to be made. Even the first sentence, which I thought was spectacular when I first wrote it, now seems dated and cliched. And then, I saw it. I saw the worst piece of writing - a whole section that I'd shoehorned in, because I needed to get my character from C to D.

Out came my red pen, and... my darlings are gone - all 2000 of them. Murdered, slashed... gone :-(

Deleting words is not usually something I do. Not because they're all good, you understand. But because my work is usually shorter than I'm hoping and I spend a lot of time increasing the word count.


Currently there's nothing instead - just a big gaping hole in the plot. In this section, the MC has to lose her job,  introduce another character to the guy she likes, watch them flirt and then have an argument with him. It sounds easy enough, doesn't it? But the spectre of the old version is lingering. Even though I'm sitting down with a completely blank piece of paper, with my beautiful fountain pen poised, I'm struggling for inspiration.

So today's question is: have you ever needed to delete huge swathes of your work, and how did you fill the hole it left behind?

Nudging Fate

I believe in Fate. Totally and absolutely. I've always known I was going to be a writer, for example. If I hadn't had that certain knowledge, I think I'd probably have given up by now and be spending far more time down the gym and in the pub. But knowing it would happen has kept me writing.

Sometimes, however, Fate needs a bit of a nudge. I have to get really depressed about not having a short story published for a year, before I get an email saying I'm being published. The very morning I mentioned to Hubby that money was tight over January, he got a phone call for a block of work.

And, after I splurged my insecurity about not hearing from my publisher last Wednesday, today I received the first edits!

So, thanks to everyone who commented and gave such wonderful advice - you were absolutely right!

It was a strange feeling looking at my story with all these marks that I hadn't made. With the stories I've had published, they've been printed as is - I've had totally control and totally responsibility.

I had a quick read-through this morning, before getting down to actually working on it later today, and it took me half an hour! And that's only for 83 pages. I can't even begin to work out how you'd edit and proof a novel-length piece of work.

I've realised that I over-use commas - they've been deleted all over the place - and my maths is bad. In one scene, there's a difficult sum. And, even after using a fractions calculator twice, I got the answer wrong. How embarrassing!

So wish me luck! I'm diving in...

BIG NEWS

I'm going to be PUBLISHED!!!!

I'm going to be eBooked, Kindled, iBooked, PDF'd!!!!!!!!

I'm afraid - especially after that big opening - I'm going to be a bit vague on the details for now; I don't want to say too much too soon, just in case... well, you know... the realist in me always expects the worst.

But this was the point of starting a blog in the first place, following the journey from being unpublished, through the writing, editing etc, to final product. So, hopefully, as the hard work starts over the next few weeks, I'll be able to share my thoughts and feelings about the process.

The story in question is the one I mentioned here, about tagging it as Romance, so I guess that gamble paid off.

So far, I've signed the contract and emailed it back to the publisher. And I've spent a lot of time grinning. If you've seen me in person, you can probably vouch for the grinning! And right now, I'm just waiting for confirmation that the contract has been received. I just hope I haven't tempted Fate by posting this, but I couldn't wait any longer!!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I haven't jumped around for a while!!

I'm going to be PUBLISHED!!!

The Man Booker Prize 2011

Julian Barnes wins the 2011 Man Booker Prize with a novella! Yippee!

That's all I really want to say. I write novellas, and therefore I'm expecting a huge surge for shorter fiction. (Actually, I don't write novellas - I write novels, but they seem to be complete at around novella length, if that distinction makes sense.)

Except there probably won't be a huge influx of shorter fiction. Julian Barnes probably got this novel published because he's a successful writer and his editor was indulging him. Not many publishers entertain the idea of novellas, or indeed short story collections, from unpublished writers, and I wonder how many wonderful writers are being missed with this policy.

The cut-off for novel-length seems to be different depending on the genre and the individual publisher. 70,000 here, 85,000 there - which makes it, once more, difficult for the writer: I don't think any new author writes for a particular publisher, it's a rather limiting approach should that publisher say thanks, but no thanks.

To refuse to even consider a novella submission seems odd to me: "We really love this story, Ms Writer, but you need at least 30,000 more waffle and padding to be of interest to us."

Why? How would 30,000 words of staring out of windows, brushing teeth, considering the minutae of a tedious train journey enhance the story? Answer: it probably wouldn't. But a nice thick book would stand out on the book shop shelves, and they could sell it for £2.99 more than a shorter book.

I could easily add 30,000 words to my 44,000 word WIP, but it would compromise the style and the impact of the story.

All I can hope is that this is the start of something new within the publishing industry. Fingers crossed!

Novel update, and a confession (but NOT a juicy one!)

I've had a busy week or so since my last post. I've continued to think about the novel I'll be restarting in May, and I've written notes about the ending - I woke up this morning with it buzzing around my head and I had to write it down. There have been a couple of plot problems to sort out, and there's still one to go. My timeline's looking pretty dandy too - I've resisted the urge to colour code it so far, but I'm sure that will happen soon!

Even though I've written two novels before, this one has the most characters, and it's very difficult to keep an eye on them all. A lot of them play quite small parts which are significant later on, so they have to be fully rounded for the reader to remember them. I'm finding it hard to give each character the right 'hook'. I've got index cards for each of them, on which I started to write down the important information I might forget later. For one character I've written: Liar, Has long fringe, Paranoid. Well, that's that guy summed up then. I think I should have written a bit more!! Still, the theory is sound. At least I'll never start describing his bald head.

I think these extra characters are the reason this novel might actually make novel length, whereas before they've teetered on the edge of being novellas, which are notoriously imposible to sell.

And this leads me to my confession. For those who know me well, you will find this very odd, but I've started to look into the possibilities of publishing ebooks, mostly as a vehicle for these novellas. I got caught up reading some articles about self publishing on Kindle, and it all seemed so easy, and I started to think What if...? I don't know if I'll get any further than just thinking, because it just seems so wrong.