Hello and Welcome back to Writerly Wednesday. P.I. Barrington is our Writerly Wednesday Guest.
Interview
1. What is your favorite marketing task that has resulted in a sale?
It’s funny but personal appearances (doesn’t that sound cliché’? LOL!) Like presentations or workshops or things like book festivals are both fun and pretty much guarantee sales. I love doing them; it really is fun especially if you’re trying to give insight into writing. Book festivals are fun because you can wander around and talk to other writers and buy their work too. I love doing libraries because readers as well as other authors attend and you can interact with them—your readers.
2. What do you like about your publisher or why did you decide to Self Publish?
I’ve been published both ways—via a publisher and self. I chose to self publisher for different reasons than a lot of authors. I wanted two things: because I wanted to see how the story was received and to keep the rights to it. It was a lot of work. I might or might not self publish again, I’ll have to wait and see. Personally I love working with publishers. They offer so much from editing to artwork and guidance as well. Many authors feel that having a book published through a publisher validates their work and I think I agree with that as well. But besides all of that, being published that way is such an incredible learning experience!
3. What do you have under your bed?
Everything, lol! I mean it! I have an entire bathroom décor from soap to soap dishes packed away waiting for my bathroom renovation. But I have stories, envelopes, files of worksheets for everything from world building to common names, boxes of my favorite books, inspiration files you name it! I do have a king sized bed or nothing would fit.
4. Are you a plotter or a pantser when you are writing?
I’m a bit of both but mostly a pantser. What I love most about pantsing is when I’ll put in a detail in the beginning of a story that I have no idea why I did it but then it becomes critical to the plot later. I’ve said it a million times but I am such a supporter of the subconscious and its ability to work things out for me, at least, as an author. I’m always surprised when that happens and it’s one the things that keeps me writing.
5. Do you write in a bubble or do you prefer critique groups, writing buddies or other companionship during the process?
Most of the time I write alone and have never belonged to critique groups. I do however write with my sister and that’s critique enough, LOL! We’re more brutally honest with each other than any critique group or partner could be and we both need that. There’s no pretence, no trying to spare feelings. I like to work that way because it makes us take our work seriously and keep going even when things aren’t peachy keen. More importantly, it makes us better writers. There’s no room for self-indulgence or patting ourselves on the back. It gives us a thicker skin for criticism and it means much more when we do compliment each other.
6. When do ideas come to you and how do you capture them?
They can come from anywhere really. I do have a secret place that always inspires me and that I shall never reveal. My self-published book Isadora DayStar came to me in a truly unusual way. I used to watch a late-night show called “CreationScapes” where they showed incredibly beautiful landscapes and places with music and Bible verses. It was on the religious channel The DayStar Network and one night before I slept, the DayStar logo came up on the screen. I thought, “What a great last name for a science fiction character!” About five seconds after that the first name Isadora popped into my head. Voila’! She was born. Most of the time when I have a good idea it’ll stay with me and I only rarely write down a line or two, usually if the idea comes when I’m in bed. Most of the time if the feels good enough to me, believe me, it sticks in my head and I obsess all over it, lol!
7. What is your favorite word processing program and what other tools do you use, pen, notebooks, white board, index cards, finger on fogged bathroom mirrors?
I’ll usually obsess over ideas or characters so I don’t have a lot of success with physical methods like index cards or software programming and as I’ve said I’ve tried almost everything. Every so often I’ll use character, location, plot worksheets but I always stray from them when new ideas come up. I use baby name books religiously though I’ve got a like ten book collection! I also am of the generation before technology when we used pen and paper and old typewriters so writing in cursive or printing is also something I do. Nothing can ever replace the satisfaction of writing longhand for me. It’s how I learned to write and I’ll always love it. I get very concerned that they’ve stopped teaching cursive in schools. I believe that is a dangerous thing for both future generations and our development intellectually and tactile learning. It’s a terrifying thought that we are dumbing down so much and so easily due to the Internet and the technology it has spawned. That’s my soapbox statement.
BIO:
After a long detour through the entertainment industry, P.I. Barrington has returned to her roots as a fiction author. Among her careers she counts journalism and radio air talent. She lives in Southern California where she watches the (semi-wild) horses grazing in the hills behind her house.
Her work includes:
Future Imperfect Trilogy (Crucifying Angel, Miraculous Deception, Final Deceit)
Isadora DayStar
Independence Day (Zippered Flesh: Tales of Body Enhancements Gone Bad anthology)
She can be contacted via email: pibarrington@dslextreme.com and loves to hear from readers.
Her websites:
http://thewordmistresses.com
http://www.pibarrington.wordpress.com
Twitter: @PIBARRINGTON
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PIBarrington?ref=tn_tnmn
Crucifying Angel, Book One: Future Imperfect Blurb:
It’s 2032 and there’s a new high stakes game in Sin City. The deadly combination of a mysterious cult, a serial killer, and growing list of victims is the payout for the disintegrating city of Las Vegas. The ozone is gone, casino skeletons stand half-built and much of the city has ground to a halt. Homicide Detectives Payce Halligan and her new partner, British ex-DCI Gavin McAllister, the last of a handful of dwindling law enforcement, search to apprehend the serial killer who crucifies women upside down and carves his initials into their bodies as his signature.
The trail leads to The New Creation, a cult that leaves them with more questions than answers and as their attraction to each other grows both struggle to deal with past . When Payce suddenly goes missing from The Amazon casino, Gavin begins a desperate search to find her and teams up with an unlikely partner, 15-year-old James a tech wiz with an electro-magnetic brain implant.
The chase leads them underground to a maze of tunnels in an abandoned research center that they must navigate to find both Payce and James’ girlfriend Edana. Will they find them before The Crucifying Angel carves his initials on them as his final victims?
Excerpt:
“It’s — it’s too soon. I can’t — I won’t ever get involved with a partner again, Nick. Not after…” She turned completely away from him. It was the closest she’d ever come to talking about it.
“You will in time, Payce. I’ll be here if you ever need me. Okay?” He walked up behind her and put his arms around her collarbone, squeezing her.
At last Payce turned around.
“Okay. Thanks, Nick. We’re friends, okay? I want to stay friends. I don’t want this to come between us.”
He frowned into her eyes and she pulled away again, finding it difficult to smile again.
“I gotta go check out a patrol unit,” she told him. “I’ll see you later.”
He said nothing but remained staring after her until the door shut behind her.
But now the dreams returned with a vengeance and a twist and nothing she did alleviated them. Now she ran away from Ethaniel, away from whatever unnamed horror that followed her, grasping after her with dead and blackened hands. She could hear Ethaniel calling after her, his voice distorted, a singsong rhyming that she did not understand. She awoke as the hands grazed her arms, perennially shocked once again to realize they were only dreams.
Payce did not want to associate the return of the nightmares with the appearance of her new partner. She suppressed any twinge of guilt whenever she looked at Gavin, the exact opposite of Ethaniel. He was dark and rarely smiled and then only sardonically and with sarcasm. She knew she could use that as a defense against getting too close if things came to that. Yet his eyes sucked at her like magnets, pulling her to a place she did not want to go.
That was okay, she reasoned. She could put up a good front, she’d done it for the last three years and this would be no different. Except that she would not let things get as far as they did with Nick. No, she’d keep Gavin McAllister at arm’s length forever if need be, and even farther if they became friends.
BUY LINKS:
http://www.amazon.com/Future-Imperfect-Book-One-ebook/dp/B002VWKEYC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367214016&sr=8-1&keywords=Crucifying+Angel+Book+One+Future+Imperfect
Thank you P I for letting me do this for you.
Come back next week to see who my next guest will be. Visit Friday to read some short fiction and don’t touch anything sharp.