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Hi Everyone

My writing career is going on fifteen years now and during that time I have been asked hundreds of questions in interviews with magazines, newspapers, writer’s groups and the like. Inevitably some questions are the same, again and again, and this gave me the idea to select a few of those questions and put my replies up on my blog, which will simultaneously be posted on my new website: .

The first question and answer is below, but first I have good news to share about The Avena Series. About six weeks ago, I handed the third and final book to The Avena Series in to my publisher Bloomsbury. It’s called FEARLESS, and I have just heard that my editor loved it. Yeessss!!! Yeessss! Yehooo! This is me, the closest I can get to jumping up and down!

Ask any author and they will tell you it’s always a nervous time waiting for your editor’s decision and subsequent comments for improvement. Believe me, there will be revisions, but that’s okay. I don’t mind revisions. The hard work I can take, knowing the editor’s objective and professional views will lead to improvements that will make FEARLESS a fantastic finale. I’m actually looking forward to sinking back into Ebony and Nathaneal and Jordan’s hearts, their minds and the worlds they come from.

I will keep you posted on completion and publication dates as they are confirmed to me.

So here is one of my most frequently asked question:

Did you always know you wanted to be a writer?

Answer:

I remember enjoying writing stories when I was a young girl, eight, nine and older, but it wasn’t until my early thirties when I started writing with the idea of publication one day. Up until then I hadn’t thought of writing a story someone else might want to read. I was content to read, the bigger the book the better.

When I was growing up we didn’t have any books at home, except for a set of encyclopaedias to help us do our homework. They were amazing books, especially for children, and I got a lot out of reading them. But we didn’t have fiction books. And once I’d read “Oliver Twist�, I was hooked. I became very familiar with my school libraries.

When in my early thirties, I had just started back in the work force after my three children had all started school. I was teaching various classes in Office Administration and Computer Studies at an adult technical college part time, and though I enjoyed teaching I felt there was something else I wanted to do with my life.

I enrolled in one writing course after another, entered a few short story competitions, and from the encouragement I received from my tutors began writing manuscripts of around 50-80 thousand words. I remember being surprised at how wonderful it felt to complete my first full-length manuscript. My first book was a romance and was promptly rejected by romance book publishers. But that did nothing to dissuade me. I penned another seven romances before I finally got the message that romance writing was not my forte. (It’s harder than it looks!)

My daughters, who were at the time young teens and voracious readers, asked me to write a book for their age. I ran through an idea with them at the dinner table and when they gave me their excited approval I went ahead and wrote a dystopian novel I called ‘Enerith�. It wasn’t published, and neither were the two that came after it, but I have not looked back. I knew then the type of books that suited my style were paranormal fantasies in a modern setting for young adults.

‘Old Magic� was my fourth try at a young adult novel. It was sold within three weeks to the highest bidder at a London mini-auction, and translated into more than a dozen international languages.

‘Old Magic� has not stopped spinning its magic for me yet. I hope to have exciting news to tell you in my next blog.

Until next time, take care of each other.

Marianne

Hi everyone

This morning I was asked the following question in a tweet, dated 21st of June, 2014.

How do you come up with a title?

A title is important. After all, along with the cover, it’s the first image a reader is going to have of your book. So you want that title to grasp the main content of your story, reflect your writing style and the novel’s genre. And you want to do this in as few words as possible.

So how did I come up with my titles? My first, Old Magic, had a literal sense to the essence of the story. Kate uses the words ‘old magic� in dialogue. It was the vehicle used to solve Jarrod’s ancient family curse. Old Magic was essentially perfect and my editor agreed.

My second book was The Named. This was a nightmare and in the end I didn’t pick it. I had a working title that was, according to my editor in an email exchange I wasn’t supposed to read, absolutely hideous and needed changing immediately. On reflection I can see now how bad my original title was. It didn’t say anything about what the book was about. It didn’t tell the reader it was a young adult paranormal fantasy with time travel. It didn’t say it was about a special group of people with paranormal powers who were chosen to keep the world safe.

I got better at picking titles with The Dark and The Key and I believe that was because these two were the second and third books that followed The Named and I knew the titles were perfect when they came into my head while I was writing them.

My fifth book Hidden wasn’t so easy and my editor picked the title. It was on my short list anyway, so I was happy to give my approval. I had three different working titles for Broken, but by the time I finished the manuscript I had selected Broken and knew it was right.

Coming up with a title is a different experience with every novel. Some titles just pop into your head as you write them. These are the easy ones. It’s as if your sub-conscious is selecting them, and you know right away that they’re going to work. While other titles you have to think a lot about, brainstorm possibilities, seek advice from colleagues, family and friends. After your readers have read your manuscript, ask them to come up with three titles for you. I’ve done this, and it can prove to be a great help because sometimes you’re just too close to the story to see the perfect title.

I want to say that in the end it’s your choice, but that’s not necessarily so, unless you self-publish. I trust my publisher because they have the marketing skills and they know what’s selling out there in the big world.

I hope this helps anyone who is looking to select a title for the new book. Good luck everyone. Until next timeMarianne Curley...

Marianne

Hi everyone, I write my books in first person, multiple perspectives � in other words, through the eyes of different characters. Usually I will write alternating chapters through the perspectives of both the lead male and lead female characters, and on occasion there might be a third character, or even more. In my trilogy The Guardians of Time, the first book, The Named, was through the viewpoints of Isabel and Ethan. The second book, The Dark, was through Isabel and Arkarian’s views. While in the third, The Key, I chose two different characters� views, that of Matt and Rochelle. Why did I decide on first person, and in multiple perspectives? It goes back to when I began writing about twenty-five years ago. I experimented with third person versus first and found I enjoyed writing in first person the most. It was intimate, and it put me (and hopefully my future readers) straight into the heads of my characters.

But writing in the first person has its restrictions, and I wanted to tell more of the story than only one character could provide. For example, say I wanted to show what was happening to Matt in Greece in The Dark, I couldn’t have done so unless either Isabel or Arkarian were witnesses, but in that case I wouldn’t get Matt’s inner thoughts. That’s why I decided to try writing in duel perspectives. It started with Kate and Jarrod in Old Magic, which was my first book, published for the first time in the year 2000. I was hooked on this style, and I still use it today.

But writing in multiple viewpoints can be difficult to pull off successfully. You need to give your characters individual voices. They have to maintain their distinct sound right through the entire book or series. You do not want your reader flipping back to the start of the chapter all the time to check who is speaking. This will quickly irritate your reader and they might even give up altogether. Reading is a relaxing pastime, it’s not meant to be hard work.

To make multiple character viewpoints distinctive, the first and most important thing is to know your characters. I’m always squawking on about writing plans and outlines, but even if you like to wing it, to write your book by the seat of your pants, if you’re writing multiple perspectives you need to know your characters intimately. Who they are, what they think, feel, even what they dream and aspire to become. And to do this effectively, you need to prepare Character Profiles. These are essential for writing in multiple viewpoints, especially if you are writing from both a male and a female perspective, and more than one book.

Your profiles should include such things as:
� Description � starting with the obvious, what your characters look like � from physical appearance of hair, eyes, body shape and height to the scar behind the right ear � and importantly, how he/she got that scar behind the right ear. Did he save his twin brother from injury during an accident, revealing his ‘hero� quality, his strong protective instincts? Or did it happen when the pesky five-year-old kid next door threw a plastic wheelbarrow over his head after he teased her about being a weak little girl. If it reveals his/her personality, it goes in the profile.

� Speech � how does your character talk? With a lisp, an accent, a stutter? Is she educated, or did she drop out of school young, leave home because an older step-brother abused her? Or does he sound like an English professor, a lyrical poet, a teenager from a low socio economic area? Does she talk with her hands? Are they always moving to make her point? Does she fidget, revealing indecision or nervousness? Does she sometimes forget she’s talking to an adult because she’s so used to talking baby talk with her two-year-old daughter, it’s been just the two of them for so long. Does your character run his mouth off, especially when he’s nervous, or is he so at peace that he is almost always calm, speaks few words but every word is effective.

� Some writers like to pin a photo of their character near their computer while writing in that character’s view, swapping the picture when changing characters. Personally, I don’t do this because I usually get a strong visual image of my characters from the start, and if not, I will have by the time I finish the Character Profiles. But it’s also because I don’t like my characters resembling actors or models or someone I might know in case I inadvertently inject what I know of that person or actor’s personality, quirkiness or character trait into my character. But it works for others, and if you’re struggling to recall the physical image you created, then by all means try using a picture.

� Being aware of your character’s body language will also help to make your characters distinct. Is their smile straight, curved or crooked? Is it only crooked when he’s teasing a girl? Is it straight when he’s upset? Are your characters impatient, always pacing the floor, or fiddling with a chain in their pocket? Is there a reason she’s always closing her hand around the antique locket she wears around her neck? Did someone special give it to her, or did she wrench it off her grandmother’s neck after she stuck a knife into the old woman’s heart? You also should think about how your characters move, how they use their hands, cross their feet, rub the backs of their necks. You have probably read many times how the worried man rakes his hands through his hair, the girl twirls her curls, or tucks her hair behind her ears. The thing she does that none of your other characters do will help to make her distinctive.

� Giving your characters depth and making them true to life is what you want to aim for, the individual, memorable characters that no one can forget. These are the characters that readers can relate to, the characters that have a history, a past, a family, even if it’s her ‘family� from the five years she spent in juvenile detention. To achieve character depth, you also need to give them regular, everyday attributes such as flaws. Everyone has them. But whatever the flaw or possible heroic quality you give them, you must also give them a reason for it. Like the girl who gets vertigo whenever she nears the edge of a cliff because her mother committed suicide by jumping off one when she was fourteen.

� Resources � There is no set way to write a Character Profile. Some writers favour the Character Profile Questionnaire where you fill in a list of questions. There are many good Internet sites where you can find these lists ready to print as well as giving you more information on this topic. Use the resources that are readily available to you.

� How to start � Always start with your character’s name � this is the first important step to preparing your character’s profile. You will be amazed at how much you get from a person’s name from appearance to personality. My own profiles are usually 1 to 2 pages long, in paragraph form. I don’t use lists, but topic headings. In the end they are your characters and you can make up your own profiles how you like. Experiment until you figure out what works best for you. Good luck.