Tag Archives: guest blogger

endless and forever and constant

Ah, stumbled upon this the other day.  A chat with the titular Martuk . One of my favorite interviews. It ran a few years ago when I was releasing Martuk the Holy: Proseuche, the sequel to Martuk the Holy.

Always loved this one.

***

He glanced around the cafe. Noticed the group of German tourists scanning their maps, a jumble of shopping bags at their feet. The mother chatting on her cell phone, her eyes fixed on the baby sleeping in the stroller. He watched the waitress, an older woman with thick hips and thin arms, as she leaned on the counter. And the young couple tucked away in the corner, their fingers clutching stout porcelain. “I’ve watched the world change,” he said. “Civilations rise and fall. Whole worlds end. Yet it still remains the same. Always the same.”

For a moment, I’d forgotten who he was, this Martuk. Had forgotten about his birth in the sun-blasted Zagros mountains one thousand years before Christ. Had forgotten the centuries he’d seen. The bloody chaos he’d caused and the agony he’d endured. Reminded myself that this was a man who’d had a long life, a long immortality, even before something as unremarkable as a cup of coffee even existed.

I gave him a moment. “If I may, why the second book?” I said. “Why Proseuche? Was it something as simple as the story continuing?”

“Nothing’s that simple.” He finished his espresso in one final swallow, his finger raised to order a second. A small nod from me, and a second finger lifted to indicate two. “Writing doesn’t excorcise the ghosts. It emboldens them.”

“So why write?”

A moment of silence followed by a brief shrug. “Who am I without my ghosts? In this world that changes yet remains the same, they are one of my few constants. Their anger, their rage. Their fear and regret and sorrow. These things, I know them. They are familiar. Even here, even now, they walk with me.

“They are amaranthine. A word I now love, by the way,” he said with a grin. “Endless and forever and constant.”

***

Not only will this push the envelope, it will guild that envelope in gold, hone it to a razors edge and use it in a beautiful & brutal ceremony. It so heavy and beautiful and I loved every moment of it, Martuk is going to strike nerves.”

– Zakk @ The Eyes of Madness

 

Proseuche_Cover-FINAL

You really should know …

Jenn Nixon.

Oh, you should also know this is the first in what I hope will be a regular Feature, the chance to introduce you to bloggers and authors and otherwise incredibly cool people …

You really should know.

See? Title makes sense now, right? 🙂

There’ll be cool covers to look at, questions asked and answered, bios and blurbs (perhaps) and maybe excerpts and other offerings. Gonna try and make this memorable and fun.

And it begins …

First, the good stuff. Here’s a quick blurb about her book Lucky’s Charm:

To protect her family and find a killer, Felicia “Lucky” Fascino assumed her adoptive father’s identity and joined the network, an organization of moral assassins to finish the job he began. Eliminating the man responsible for murdering her mother has consumed her for the last five years. While keeping her Uncle Stephen and cousin Elizabeth at arm’s length, Lucky begins to feel the weight of her career choice and reclusive lifestyle. Then a chance encounter with an enigmatic hit man, during one of her jobs, turns into a provocative and dangerous affair. Distracted by the secret trysts with Kenji Zinn and mounting tension within her family, Lucky makes reckless mistakes that threaten her livelihood and almost claim her life.

And a bit about Jenn:

Jenn’s love of writing started the year she received her first diary and Nancy Drew novel. Throughout her teenage years, she kept a diary of her personal thoughts and feelings but graduated from Nancy Drew to other mystery suspense novels.

Jenn often adds a thriller and suspense element to anything she writes be it Romance, Science Fiction, or Fantasy. When not writing, she spends her time reading, observing pop culture, playing with her two dogs, and working on various charitable projects in her home state of New Jersey.

Want some links? You got ’em!

Website: www.jennnixon.com
Facebook: facebook.com/JennNixonAuthor
Blog: www.jennafern.blogspot.com
Twitter: @jennnixon

How about a cool cover?

Boom! Here you go:

Pretty damn cool, right?

And, yeah, I got nosey and did a lil’ Q’n’A. Enjoy.

What do you do the minute after you type “The End”? Pop champagne? Take a deep breath? Go for a walk and think about edits?

Funny thing, I’ve never typed “The End”. I once had a thread on Facebook asking if other authors did. Some do all the time. Others do it occasionally, some like me never write “The End”. In a way, I never think of the story as having a final end. In most situations it’s a new beginning for someone. When I do finish a draft, I usually cheer to myself and sometimes eat a cookie. Then I tell everyone!

If you could write only one genre for the rest of your career, what would it be and why?

I’d say Romantic Suspense because it can be tame or spicy on the romance side and suspense covers the mystery and thriller genres I also love to write in.

A new author struggling through the writing of their first book comes up to you and asks for one, solid, non-cliché piece of advice. What do you say?

Learn the rules. There are many “rules” for writing fiction, some you can break and others you probably shouldn’t and others you can bend. Some of the rules like passive voice and show vs. tell are easily found online, many can be learned through working with an editor or being a part of a writer’s group, and other rules can only be learned by trial and error!

How important is it to have a blog? Do you find it makes a difference in how you write or how much you write?

I started my blog as a personal journal type diary. As I started writing with publication in mind, it turned into more of communication tool for me to connect with other people, share thoughts and opinions about things going on in the world. I still have that aspect to my blog but have expanded it even further by hosting other authors and artists pursing their dreams. I’m not sure if blogging has had an influence on my writing, I never thought about it to be honest. Something to ponder. ☺

Okay, the muse is on what feels like an endless coffee break, the words just aren’t there, and you’re going to pack it in for the day. So you’re going to kick back and read something instead. What is it? Any favorite author you turn to or favorite book that feels like a familiar, old friend?

If I’m not reading a book by a fellow author friend, I’m reading John Sanford or Lee Child. Right now they are my two favorite authors because they write about my favorite characters. I freely admit that I rarely re-read books, but I do save them all. I figure once I’m older and retired, I’ll revisit many of them.

What’s next? Any books, sequels, prequels, movie deals on the horizon?

I have the sequels to Lucky’s Charm complete and ready, sent Lucky’s Break the publisher! My Sci-Fi Romance MIND: The Beginning is in the editing stages with a sequel in the wings. Movie Deal…I hope one day in the future! That would be super. ☺

Thank you!!! (^~^)

Thanks for having me!!

‘Till next time, kids …