Monday, March 7, 2011
Sitting 'Round the Campfire with Jana DeLeon
*Camera comes up on a darkened deck – a match in Bo’sun’s hand the only light around*
Alright, people, gather ‘round. *Bo’sun tosses the match into a fire pit, sending a blue burst of flame straight up* Good thing we moved that mast out of the way. You heard the orders, everyone make a circle around the fire. Don’t be hogging the marshmallows and by all that’s holy, don’t get yer rum too close to the fire.
Today we’re talking ghosts, spookies, and all things that go bump in the night. Raise yer mugs and give a warm welcome to our special guest, the Deadly pirate herself, Jana DeLeon!
One of the things writers hear most often is "write what you know." Now, that doesn't mean your heroine has to be the best toilet scrubber in the country or have the county-fair winning recipe for meatloaf just because you do. It just means you should take your life experiences - your emotions - and pour them into the characters to give them depth.
I’ve always loved a good ghost story – tales around the campfire, slumber parties with a bunch of giggling junior-high girls, the creepy, fun stuff of childhood. When I started writing I never thought about writing a ghost. After all, I write contemporary romance and most people don't believe in haunts and spooks. But I was determined to find a way, and booked a stay at the most haunted hotel in Texas.
I checked in on a Sunday afternoon, and the clerk handed me a key to my room and a code for re-entry into the hotel after five p.m., since there was no hotel staff onsite after that time. Then she added that I should feel free to walk around, sit on the balconies, etc. because as I was the only person currently staying in the hotel, I wouldn’t have to worry about disturbing anyone else. I couldn’t believe it – all alone in a haunted hotel! It was the kind of stuff those campfire tales were made of, and I could hardly wait for the sun to go down.
I’d like to tell you I saw a ghost, but unfortunately it wasn’t to be. Of course, you have to take into account that I sleep like, well, the dead, and then there’s that whole snoring issue. Heck, for all I know there were five ghosts playing poker and singing karaoke. But I didn’t let my lack of real-life experience put a damper on my story. I just did what any good writer does – I made it all up.
My first books to feature a ghost make up the Ghost-in-Law series with interfering, maddening ghost, Helena Henry. I had to work a bit to get a ghost in a contemporary humor story, but my editor went for it and three books featured the meddling Helena and her many escapades creating trouble for heroines and heroes alike.
One of the most valuable things a writer can do to sustain a writing career is to diversify. I'd been reading the Harlequin Intrigue line forever and loved it, so that's what I tried next. And guess what's contained in my first book - you got it, a ghost! Intrigue was a totally different writing experience as the format is almost half the length of a single title book and there's no humor. So I wrote a "gothic-lite," complete with a spooky, old mansion deep in the Louisiana bayous.
The Intrigue releases this week and is entitled THE SECRET OF CYPRIERE BAYOU. If you like your ghosts with a side-dish of laughter, the entire Ghost-in-Law series (Trouble in Mudbug, Mischief in Mudbug, Showdown in Mudbug) is available in e-book format.
I'm still holding out hope to one day see a ghost, but in the meantime, I'll have to get my fix with books and movies. And of course, deciding what to scare people with next.
Now it’s your turn. What scares you? Have you ever seen a ghost? If not, do you believe in them or is it all a bunch of bunk? Chime in for your chance to creep away with your own copy of Jana’s latest release, THE SECRET OF CYPRIERE BAYOU.
Alright, people, gather ‘round. *Bo’sun tosses the match into a fire pit, sending a blue burst of flame straight up* Good thing we moved that mast out of the way. You heard the orders, everyone make a circle around the fire. Don’t be hogging the marshmallows and by all that’s holy, don’t get yer rum too close to the fire.Today we’re talking ghosts, spookies, and all things that go bump in the night. Raise yer mugs and give a warm welcome to our special guest, the Deadly pirate herself, Jana DeLeon!
One of the things writers hear most often is "write what you know." Now, that doesn't mean your heroine has to be the best toilet scrubber in the country or have the county-fair winning recipe for meatloaf just because you do. It just means you should take your life experiences - your emotions - and pour them into the characters to give them depth.
I’ve always loved a good ghost story – tales around the campfire, slumber parties with a bunch of giggling junior-high girls, the creepy, fun stuff of childhood. When I started writing I never thought about writing a ghost. After all, I write contemporary romance and most people don't believe in haunts and spooks. But I was determined to find a way, and booked a stay at the most haunted hotel in Texas.
I checked in on a Sunday afternoon, and the clerk handed me a key to my room and a code for re-entry into the hotel after five p.m., since there was no hotel staff onsite after that time. Then she added that I should feel free to walk around, sit on the balconies, etc. because as I was the only person currently staying in the hotel, I wouldn’t have to worry about disturbing anyone else. I couldn’t believe it – all alone in a haunted hotel! It was the kind of stuff those campfire tales were made of, and I could hardly wait for the sun to go down. I’d like to tell you I saw a ghost, but unfortunately it wasn’t to be. Of course, you have to take into account that I sleep like, well, the dead, and then there’s that whole snoring issue. Heck, for all I know there were five ghosts playing poker and singing karaoke. But I didn’t let my lack of real-life experience put a damper on my story. I just did what any good writer does – I made it all up.
My first books to feature a ghost make up the Ghost-in-Law series with interfering, maddening ghost, Helena Henry. I had to work a bit to get a ghost in a contemporary humor story, but my editor went for it and three books featured the meddling Helena and her many escapades creating trouble for heroines and heroes alike.
One of the most valuable things a writer can do to sustain a writing career is to diversify. I'd been reading the Harlequin Intrigue line forever and loved it, so that's what I tried next. And guess what's contained in my first book - you got it, a ghost! Intrigue was a totally different writing experience as the format is almost half the length of a single title book and there's no humor. So I wrote a "gothic-lite," complete with a spooky, old mansion deep in the Louisiana bayous.
The Intrigue releases this week and is entitled THE SECRET OF CYPRIERE BAYOU. If you like your ghosts with a side-dish of laughter, the entire Ghost-in-Law series (Trouble in Mudbug, Mischief in Mudbug, Showdown in Mudbug) is available in e-book format.I'm still holding out hope to one day see a ghost, but in the meantime, I'll have to get my fix with books and movies. And of course, deciding what to scare people with next.
Now it’s your turn. What scares you? Have you ever seen a ghost? If not, do you believe in them or is it all a bunch of bunk? Chime in for your chance to creep away with your own copy of Jana’s latest release, THE SECRET OF CYPRIERE BAYOU.
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41 comments:
Jana, I'm so glad you're visiting us today!! You're always entertaining at Killer Fiction--and now you're trying to scare the crap out of us here. :)
Snakes scare me most. Though my Dad is skilled about working me up into a frightened frenzy if I have to go outside when it's dark. "Beware of the cougar." "What cougar?" "You know, in the Ozarks they set that cougar loose and it was seen around St. Louis." "Don't be ridiculous." But then suddenly I'm making up excuses NOT to be walking around outside in the dark because of potential cougars.
Do I believe in ghosts? YES. Have I seen one/felt one? No. My house has one, I'm told. I have more sensitive friends who have wigged out in my house--and I hadn't warned them about said ghost--and we've gotten out to the car and they started grilling me about what that was. And I've been told it's a malevolent male spirit, but he's not bothered me. But I used to sleep naked in the house--so maybe he never had a lot of grief for me.
Pass me some chocolate. We haven't run out, have we? That'd be truly scary.
S'Mores! I love s'mores! And damn the calories!
What scares me? Well, after my sudden cardiac death, and three days in a drug induced unconsciouness, I do worry a bit that there is nothing out there. Though what bothers me more is dying without accomplishing anything, being forgotten, being invisible.
Which might mean I'm actually scared of becoming a ghost. I could see me flitting about, shouting out, "I'm here! I'm here! I'M HERE!"
Damn it.
I do wish the graham crackers didn't get all soggy, out here at sea...
When someone dies suddenly and unexpectedly, often violently, there may not be time for the spirit to make the transfer to the next world. In that case a ghost is formed as spirit trapped in the vicinity of the place of death. At least that's the theory.
Naturally, after a violent death the ghost is likely to be pretty pissed off and a little malevolent.
After researching in Quantum Theory for many years, very little about this existence surprises me anymore. The subatomic world is filled with 'ghosts' that appear and disappear at random. 'Ghosts' that exist in two places at once. 'Ghosts' that can tunnel through solid objects.
As the mind is probably quantum mechanical in origin, it is quite natural for it to experience ghosts.
To test some of the theories, we need a controlled experiment.
Someone gullible and unsuspecting needs to be killed suddenly and the space around the death monitored carefully for temperature variation, electromagnetic disturbance, optical anomalies etc.
It might be difficult to perform in the real world but in the fiction world .... How about it Jana?
Lovely to meet you! :D
I do believe in the possibility of ghosts. I've never encountered one personally but I can't rule them out. I'm mostly afraid of spiders. I've had a phobia since I was 3. Why it started no one knows. My mother said I've always felt that way about them. I'm also afraid of sharks but I grew up in Oklahoma so there wasn't much chance of running into one! LOL
Hellion - I can handle snakes although I don't like to be surprised by them. But I can't stand spiders! That's when I become a total girl. LOL
2nd Chance - I think if people were willing to admit it, that many fear the same thing you do. I'm glad you're still with us, now!
Quantum - I'm all for a scientific experiment, and in fact, can give you a list of people I'd like to volunteer. (evil grin)
Stacie - my soul sister! Spiders are icky and they will crawl on you rather than run. I think that's what I don't like. I agree that sharks and anything in water is scary, and I love the ocean. But not knowing what's beneath me is creepy.
Jana, welcome. And pay no attention to Q's suggested experiment -- he's not usually that scary. LOL *shivers*
I hate being scared. HATE it. So if I found out I'd be the only one in a haunted hotel. . .that just would not happen!
I don't have any ghost encounters. Thankfully. Chance, I'm chuckling at the thought of you being a ghost that needs attention. :)
Poor Jana. She had FOUR comments awaiting moderation. LOL! And it's HER day! I took care of it so you should be good to go now.
I do believe in ghosts, but I've never considered them to be scary. I guess they can be, but I always thought of them as just hanging out. Supposedly, my grandfather took a ghostly walk through the house he built shortly after he died. Thudding footsteps were heard coming down the stairs, someone when through the front door, and then he was gone. Family members say there were muddy boot prints on the stairs that were his.
I never saw it, and I wouldn't put it past my cousins to make that kind of thing up. Considering I LIVED in that house, you'd think I'd see something.
I'm with you ladies on the spider front. Hate them. Freaked out once thinking I was face to face with a scorpion. Turned out to be a crawdad. I'm a yankee, how was I supposed to know?!
I love ghost stories, but while I was growing up I avoided them because they hit too close to home.
I've been blessed (or cursed) to see ghosts all my life. The phenomenon intrigues me now, but when I was a kid, it used to scare the bejeebers out of me.
Donna - But being scared is so much fun! I think that's why I love horror movies. They don't scare me at all, but I love the rest of the audience's reactions, and I keep hoping that one day, I'll see the movie that makes my skin crawl.
Maria - that is so cool! Someday, you and I need to chat. :)
LOL Bo'sun - that red color didn't give it away? That's hilarious!
It was scooting towards me across my driveway! My neighbor heard me screaming and came to the rescue. Then laughed at me for a good hour.
Jana - You're one of those people? LOL! I can't stand scary movies. In fact, things that most people wouldn't even consider scary movies are scary to me. Had terrible nightmares as a kid, and still my parents never learned. They'd still let me watch Freddy and Michael and Jason, then be surprised when I stayed up all night refusing to close my eyes.
Duh!
Wow, Maria, you see dead people? You need to hang with Hellie at the farm and see if her ghost really left her alone cause she was naked. LOL!
Actually, I'm even worse. I'm one of those people that if I need a good laugh, I go to a horror movie on a Fri/Sat night to listen to all the high school kids scream. They are a riot!
I'm so excited to see you writing for Harlequin Intrigue! It's one of my favorite lines to escape to when I finally get a break from reading review books! (And just happens to be the line I'm targeting my WIP to) :)
How was the submission process and working with the Intrigue editors for you? No big secret details needed, just curious how long the process was for you.
Oh, and I'm totally afraid of snakes but totally fine with spiders, rats, etc. Just those slimy, no-legged snakes that get to me.
I do think I believe in ghosts and kind of think my house might be haunted. We do know that 2 people died in it right before we bought it and I feel like I'm being watched osometimes when I'm home alone. There was an old couple who lived there. The wife died and then about 1 year later the husband died - both in the house.
Scapegoat - the submission process for me is essentially a non-factor because I have an agent. I always recommend an agent, even if you're writing category only. Once submitted, we all play the waiting game, but with an agent, it's considerably shorter.
My editor is fabulous to work with. No hovering, no micromanaging - they just chose writers and stories that fit the line and appear to turn them loose to do their stuff. But she's also very available to toss around story ideas and provide more insight into the line.
Good luck with your own submission!
I forgot about the ghost in my aunt's house. She's a gypsy so very open to that sort of thing. Shortly after moving into her house, which is quite old, she saw a spirit walking down the stairs. He was a young man, looked to be from the 60s, and didn't come across as malevolent at all. She actually talked to him. He told her he grew up in the house and died young in a motorcycle accident.
Some years later, a man showed up at her door saying he'd grown up in the house and just wanted to see the old place. She asked him if he had a brother who died in an accident and he did. She then described him and was exactly right. I'm pretty sure she totally freaked the visitor out. LOL!
Welcome aboard, Jana!
Well, at the risk of sounding crazy, I've seen a ghost.
One of my old BFs lived in this really really old farmhouse. Lots of weird stuff. Wake up at night to feel like someone was watching me. Feel like someone was standing outside the shower curtain while I was in there. The dog would bark and stare behind me-all the time. Lights would go off randomly or the TV would go on.
Then, one evening, I came downstairs, walking to the kitchen and I thought I saw my BF's roommate doing laundry. I know I heard the washing machine. And there was a guy was leaning over, pulling stuff out of the dryer. But, as I turned the corner, there his roommate was, sitting on the couch, sleeping. When I turned back to see what I saw again, the hall was empty. There was no light on back there, no washing machine on, nothing. Dark in the laundry room, so that I shouldn't have been able to see anything back there at all.
After that BF and I broke up, he said there noticed all kinds of stuff. Eventually they had a priest come in and bless the place. I haven't talked to the guy about it since I haven't to that guy since then.
But boy, it was creepy.
Maria - that's scary.
And I'm with Bo'sun. I hate hate hate scary movies. I can sometimes read scary books but boy do they stay with me.
Damn, that is bad, isn't it? LOL! I'm blaming the crud that is STILL in my head.
Supposedly, my grandfather took a ghostly walk through the house he built shortly after he died.
This is my favorite sentence ever. I actually stopped and was confused that a ghost built a house after he died.
Was it a ghost house?
Okay, I don't like ants. Too many scifi movies when I was a kid with giant ants. And invasions of bazillions of little ants in houses. And movies about those killer aunts that can strip an animal...I think they are from South America. (What was the movie?) I've had dreams of ant hills showing up in the middle of a carpeted living room.
Mass quantities of aunts will give me the heebie-jeebies!
So...Jana...how did you get your agent?
I'm not a fan of hoards of bugs of any kind, but when those giant ants showed up in the last Indiana Jones movie, I had to cover my eyes. *shivers*
Gonna drive me crazy...what was the title of that movie? Maribunta? It was something like that! I'm off to see if I can unearth it at IMDB...
AHA! It was The Naked Jungle and the mass of army aunts are called marabunta!
I am impressed with my memory today! I was really close!
Hello Jana! I love ghost stories! I'm not sure if I believe in ghosts or some sort of alternate reality, but I do believe in the infinite possibilities for "something" going on. I think there's a scientific explanation waiting to be figured out, but that doesn't necessarily make it less scary. But there's no way, never ever, I'd be staying alone in a supposedly haunted hotel.
I love the Intrigue line (although it's been a long while since I've picked one up) and I find it interesting how there is no humor in that format so you also have a lighter series. Do you like writing ghost stories any better with or without the humor?
Okay, I do have a few scary aunts, too. Trust me.
Feel better, Bo'sun? You have a hours built after death, I have masses of armed aunts...
I didn't even notice, but I'm with you on the aunt front as well. Though I have more killer uncles than aunts. :)
Melissa - You wrote a ghost story! LOL! That is interesting that you can't put humor in the Intrigue books. I don't think I could write a book without the funny stuff.
Terri - exactly...I wrote a ghost story, but actually there turns out to be another explanation than the hero being dead! Being a "ghost" is just the most logical conclusion until that paranormal mystery gets explained. It goes both ways. Heck, maybe WE are the ghosts. *Cue scary music.* LOL
Great, now we're all Bruce Willis. LOL!
My sis caught the aunt/ant thing. But she agreed that we do have some scary aunts.
Marnee - could be residual energy you saw and not a ghost. But that's still very cool!
2nd Chance - A friend met my agent at a conference and liked her but already had representation. I was looking for a new agent, and my friend recommended her. So I queried and she liked my book, and offered to represent it. I know everyone thinks there's some magic handshake or payoff amount, but I promise, it's just another business deal. You've just got to query and find the right fit.
Melissa - I enjoy both formats on their own merit, but will be happy to admit that writing without humor is MUCH easier. Humor is very, very hard and very subjective. And I still manage to work in a zinger of dialogue in the Intrigues - you know, just to make it realistic. :)
Jana, I know some of the pirates--*points at Bosun*--is working on their queries and are ready to set them on fire because they're not "perfect" enough. Do you have any tips for queries?
Jana, I just wanted to say that I loved the excerpt of the THE SECRET OF CYPRIERE BAYOU on Amazon! Spooky, suspenseful and fast paced. It really dropped me straight into the story. And the name of the mansion is perfect...laMalediction -- a curse? *shiver* :)
Hellion - I suggest reading my agent's blog, Kristin Nelson. On the right side of the blog, scroll down until you see the links for her query writing posts. She covers a lot of information about what makes a good query and uses queries that got her attention to point out the things done correctly. Good luck, all!
Thanks, Melissa!
And thanks so much for having me!
Poor Hellie. I think I'm tormenting everyone with my whining about this query. LOL! But thanks for asking for me.
Jana - I reviewed Kristin's blog, especially the one where she used your query as the example. :) I've also studied other agent blogs and various query tips. The problem is a blockage in my brain. I'll get it moved, it just might take dubious amounts of liquor.
Thanks for being here!
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