Interview with C.L. Shore

1. What is your release called and what is it about?

Seeker of Truth, a mystery/suspense novel has just been released by Eternal Press. The story also contains some romantic themes, including paranormal romance.

2. Could you give me a short sample passage?

In this passage, Sister Lucie is up late, working on aspects of the mystery.

Sister Lucie decided to take a walk around the apartment. Her neck was a little stiff, probably from nervous tension. She rolled her shoulders a couple of times. I guess I was so tense that I didn’t move much while reading those first pages. A book fell from the bookcase onto the floor with a soft thud. She scrambled over quickly to its resting place and picked it up, Look Homeward, Angel. Maybe Mark was agreeing with her.

She opened the volume’s front cover, and an old Polaroid photograph fell to the floor. She picked it up and cautiously fingered the edges. Mark’s gaze met hers. She lay on the edge of the bed and held the photo in her hand, just below the level of the mattress. The picture had been taken on a trip to Michigan about six years ago. Mark stood with his back to a grove of trees. The glint of sunshine sparkling on blue water was in the background. Mark gazed into the camera with his beautiful smoky-gray eyes. “Thank you, Mark,” Sister Lucie said, looking down at the photograph. “I’m so lucky to have known you, let alone love you and have the experience of being loved by you. I’m so lucky.” She rolled over on her back. Dusk had fallen long ago, but every light in the apartment was on. She held the picture above her head, and then pressed it to her heart. “Thank you, Mark,” she said again. She closed her eyes.

Here’s the cover blurb

Detective Jed McCracken is tempted to dismiss his first phone call of the week as a prank, until he realizes he's talking to his late partner's widow, Sarah. Jed hasn’t spoken to her since her husband’s death and is shocked to discover that Sarah is now Sister Lucie. She’s distraught over breaking news about the murder of a former fellow nun and intent on finding her killer. Together, they rekindle their lost friendship while untangling a network of deception, lust and greed. Although they appear to be closing in, the killer proves elusive, prompting Jed to persuade Sister Lucie to bait a trap.

Will Sister Lucie outwit the murderer…or become his next victim?

3. Whom do you consider your writing influences?

That’s a great question. I think I’ve been influenced by some of my own favorite authors. There was a time when I read a lot of Andrew Greeley’s work. Like a lot of writers, I read the works of many authors and try to note what is good or effective about their writing.

4. Where are you from?

I grew up in Wisconsin and have lived in Illinois, Iowa and Indiana. I consider Indianapolis my home.

5. How experienced are you as an author?

I’ve done quite a bit of professional (nonfiction) writing, but Seeker of Truth is my second novel and the first to be published.

6. Is there anything else you would like your readers to know?

Seeker of Truth started out as a novel about running. Originally, I planned to do a series of mysteries that took place near major running events. Then, I came up with the idea of a psychic nun as my protagonist. I made her a widow, because I wanted her to have had the experiences of being in love in a committed relationship. The story took off from there. Now, the running premise is no longer that important. I’ve started working on the prequel to Seeker of Truth. In the prequel, the amateur detective’s husband is still alive. He actually is a police detective..

7. If I lived in an enormous mansion where you were welcome to stay, what would you want your guest room to be like?

At the moment, I would want the room to be very plain. I think this would be most conducive to writing. I would ask room to allow me to stay in the room for hours at a time, so I could concentrate on my writing.

First Comment Prize Drawing

This might be a slightly pathetic thing for me to do, considering I have only four followers at the moment of this writing, but I am announcing the Great Comment Prize Drawing Experiment. One commenter in the month of February will be chosen to receive the following prize of their choice:

1. A PDF copy of ONE (1) of my three published novels.

2. A Crocheted Chubby Cthulhu doll, hand-crocheted by myself:

As sold at http://www.etsy.com/listing/66958205/crocheted-chubby-cthulhu for $6 plus $3 shipping ($5.00 if you are outside the U.S.).

3. Or finally, a hat-scarf-fingerless gloves combination set, like so:

The yellow-brown combination is no longer available; your options are pink-brown and lavender-green.

Let the first contest begin!

Waking Echoes Appears in an Ad

Happy Valentine's Day!

I've been having a lovely morning and afternoon with only one class, lunch with my new boyfriend (so we're still in the excessively silly & sweet phase), chocolate-covered strawberries, and the promise of cuddles during a movie this evening.

But when I went to check my mail, things got even better. I received an issue of Realms of Fantasy, which perplexed me because I have submitted a short story of mine to RoF before and was turned down, and I didn't recall ever ordering a copy, what with sour grapes and all that. Lo and behold, on the inside cover of the February issue is a full-page ad for several Eternal Press Young Adult titles. As you can see, on the top right corner is Waking Echoes by Donaya Haymond. (Forgive me for the blur, please; I have perpetually shaky hands.)

<--- This is the outside cover, for those of you interested in picking up a copy. You can get one at http://www.rofmag.com/. I like the art.

I must say that I feel somewhat vindicated now, after RoF rejected what I consider the best short story I've ever written, though I understand the problem with the bottleneck between slush pile and restricted column space. Tyree Campbell of Sam's Dot publishing accepted the story, called "Phantom Limb(s)" for Aoife's Kiss, where another story of mine, "The Mormon Bohemian", was published in 2007 and voted Best of Issue. "Phantom Limb(s)" would have appeared in a regular Aoife's Kiss and "The Mormon Bohemian" in an anthology, except that Aoife's Kiss appears to have gone bankrupt - at any rate I can no longer seem to contact anyone involved in it, and it no longer appears in new volumes of Writer's Market. My fairy godmother (my editor/mentor Sally Odgers) tells me that this is a common problem in the fiction industry.

Ms. Campbell said that though she loved "Phantom Limb(s)", she recommended that I send it to a journal that could pay me more, and gave a few suggestions and tips. Realms of Fantasy was one of her picks. I've put my ambitions for the story on hold for now, though I may try submitting it other places later. If all else fails, the protagonist holds a supporting role in my incipient first non-Laconia novel, and I could integrate the story into the book. Or, as Sally once advised, I could try getting a short works collection published.

Anyway, I'm very pleased by this development, and especially honored that Eternal Press chose one of my titles to feature in the spot.

A Fictional Snippet

(Written for extra credit in a creative writing class. Thought it might provide some amusement.)

My first date with a nonhuman woman went as well as can be expected. I didn’t really go into it with a heart open for love, because I was of the last generation that did not grow up with the Magics as an integral part of society; the vampires, werewolves, shapeshifters, magically talented humans, Elves, Eudemons, Archaedemons, dryads, Greymalkin, selkies, garudas, djinn, etc. etc. No, that had happened to me when I was in my late twenties. I realize how that marks me as an unhip oldster, at least for a human, but at least I’m not like those geriatrics who insist on All Humans Here and that “those goddamn pointies” go back into the woodwork where they were for the majority of modern civilization. I’m not prejudiced. I’m just not a natural at interacting with them.

However, two things forced my hand. First, I was running for mayor of Laconia, the small city where the Elves had first revealed themselves and begged for help against the Eudemons. I’m not from around here – coincidentally, I’m from the much-less famous Laconia, New Hampshire – so my election committee thought I should make some gesture to show how I’m in tune with the spirit of the community. Second, I recently divorced, and the American public likes to see politicians at least attempting to have a social life.

There were significant cons to every type we considered, though. Even the most well-behaved vampires get uncomfortable at a dinner date and can’t be anywhere with strong light. I had to schedule the date for a full moon night, since nothing else fit my schedule, so that barred werewolves for anything not disturbingly kinky. Eudemons are peaceful these days, mostly, and every bit as physically attractive to humans as Elves, at but going on a date with one in the thirtieth anniversary year of their defeat by the U.S. Marine Corps might look sleazy for a politician. Personally, I get the willies around a woman who bleeds corrosive acid at any time, even though we have their traditional antidote for the effects readily available. Greymalkin are deaf, and they have a tendency to make cryptic clairvoyant predictions all of a sudden, which derails my small talk skills even with those new Audi-Aider devices that help them communicate with people who don’t know sign language. And they’re kind of…fuzzy. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Just not my thing. Dryads get into romances with each other but they don’t even have the necessary parts to be remotely sexual, since they’re all gender-she’s that come from trees (I hear there’s a dryad porn industry in Canada; I’m not quite sure what they do). Shape-shifters have a tendency to get upset if you don’t treat them as human whenever they’re in human form. The djinn are only corporeal on our plane of existence if they put a lot of effort into it.

An Elf seemed the best idea. They are the most major of the minorities in Laconia - if we simply count humans as humans and don’t break it down by race – and in general they are a peaceable and pleasant people. I failed to see the thing that doomed me from the start, though. When they were still mythical, one of our names for them was The Fair Folk.

Her name was Verity, and she was lithe and refined, a little black silk dress and dark plum lipstick to set off her coppery skin. She smelled of lavender and spearmint. Her silver eyes were filled with caring. Her walk was almost a dance. I had barely gasped at the sight of her when she burst out laughing. “Oh, you poor man, how long has it been?” she asked, composing herself. “Sorry. I did not mean to be rude. Which table would you like?”

But I blushed like a kid at Prom and slinked away the moment she turned her back to examine the room, driving away as quick as possible. For the Elves can sense your every emotion, and you cannot knowingly lie to them. There was no way I could have excused myself to get a change of underwear without her redoubled laughter haunting me until I died.

I Can't Believe I Forgot to Mention

Waking Echoes, solely out of the three novels published already, is also available for sale in print form by the Barnes & Noble online store. You can find it at http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Waking-Echoes/Donaya-Haymond/e/9781615721429/?itm=2&USRI=waking+echoes .

Of course this is very exciting. It's not as much a big deal as being in one of their brick-and-mortar stores for a traditionalist, but I do have to remember that online and e-book sales are on the rise...

Wait, what's this? I type in Waking Echoes and I get...OMFG (if you'll pardon my reverting to adolescence)! It's also for sale on the Nook! It wasn't before! This means people requested it!

AAHHHHHHH! :D

Okay, so they misspelled the "Haymond" as "Hammond". A recurring fly in my ointment of delight, as it were. But nevertheless, here it is: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Waking-Echoes/Donaya-Hammond/e/9781615721412/?itm=1&USRI=waking+echoes Hopefully someone will correct the error soon.

'Scuse me, I need to tell everybody.

A Slight Tweak in the Title

I have just been informed that an author Eternal Press is friendly with already has a book with a title that ends in "Oh My!", so I've agreed to change the title of my fourth novel to "Humans and Demons and Elves". That's probably what people would have called it when talking about it anyway. Eight words is a bit of a mouthful for a title.

Funny enough, this has the earliest history of any of my novels, despite being the fourth. My best friend and I came up with the original plot and characters when we were in seventh grade. We intended to make a graphic novel. Sadly, I moved to China with my parents before we were able to get very far. I have offered her a share of the writing profits, as she's still my best friend to this day, but she's refused. So I'll just have to get her extravagant gifts with my money. Mwahaha.

The Blog is Revitalized!

It's been a long time since blog posts, mainly because I always feel like I can only say so much about already-published novels before it gets both redundant and onanistic. But I will be returning to regular updates now that my fourth novel, Humans and Demons and Elves, Oh My! has been accepted by Eternal Press. It will probably not be published until the summer, but I'm excited anyway.

Here's a blurb for it, just to get you going:

The Elves of North America use dimension-bending magic to conceal their woodland villages from humans, though it fails to protect them from the beautiful-but-deadly Eudemons. Edofine is less prejudiced than many, even befriending an Archaedemon, whose people are known for switching sides in the ancient conflict. But when young Edofine's clan is destroyed, he has only one person to turn to: his cousin Kryvek, who was adopted by humans who established the Official Magics-Humans Institute (OMHI). Will Edofine be able to adjust to human society? Can the OMHI help him despite facing its own crisis? Could he possibly be falling in love with Kryvek’s friend Lira, a half-Elf half-Eudemon working for the OMHI? His life has fallen to pieces, and the reconstruction is full of surprises.

I'm very excited, but I should probably go to bed now - more soon.