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Coming Soon From Eldritch Press!

2/28/2015

The world of corporate greed runs rampant after the government collapses, leaving police, fire, and social services in the hands of the wealthy. Debtor prisons for the lower and middle classes overflow and quarantine camps have filled to capacity, turning the streets into a personal battleground for terrorists fighting against a world headed toward ruin as resources run dry and civilization becomes ruled by The Private Sector.

“A versatile literary maestro, Lane’s characters breathe, her language sings, and her plotting is nothing short of remarkable. You owe it to yourself to give her a read, no matter what kind of fiction you like. You’ll love her work. I promise.” --Trent Zelazny, Nightmare Award-winning author of Fractal Despondency and Butterfly Potion

“In the tradition of 1984, Leigh M. Lane delivers a terrifying vision of the future—a horrific future that may not be so distant after all....” --Lisa Mannetti, Stoker Award-winning author of The Gentling Box and Deathwatch

For more information visit: http://www.eldritchpress.com/leigh-m.-lane.htm

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Words From the Grammar Nazi: Replacement Therapy, Part 3

2/20/2015

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She’ll point out every little mistake. She’ll scream at you for using comma splices and split infinitives. She has no tolerance for fragments and run-ons. Today, she’s taken over the Cerebral Writer, and hate her if you will, she does know her grammar (and she only wants to help).

Today’s lesson: Make figuring out appropriate pronoun use a little easier by replacing them with simplified words or phrases that are easier to gauge.

Mistakes Using Pronouns

One issue I see too often is pronoun misuse, the most common being confusion between the subject pronoun “I” and the object pronoun “me.” Nearly as common is misuse of the reflexive “myself.”

First off, a subject pronoun works when describing an active noun: someone or something that is doing something:

I am doing something.
She is doing something.
They are doing something.

An object pronoun, rather direct or indirect, is having something done to it. (Pardon the passive voice.)

That was done to me.
That was done to her.
That was done to them.

A reflexive pronoun is something someone does to oneself.

I hurt myself.
She hurt herself.
They hurt themselves.

Now, consider the following incorrect pronoun choices:

Me and my friend went to the park.
They gave the gifts to my friend and I.
They always give trouble to people like myself.

The following replacement examples to show how all three are incorrect:

She went to the park. Since “she” is a subject pronoun, the correct first-person pronoun is “I”: “My friend and I went to the park.”

They gave the gifts to her. Since “her” is an object pronoun, the correct usage here would be the object pronoun “me”: “They gave the gifts to my friend and me.”

They always give trouble to people like them. Since “them” is an object pronoun, the correct choice is the object pronoun “me”: “They always give trouble to people like me.”

Now, consider the following:

It was I who corrected the mistake.
It had been he who had broken the rule.
He's always been spiteful toward they who shall remain nameless.

With the replacement advice I've given so far, you might assume the three sentences above are incorrect. You would, however, be wrong in this case. While it is correct to write “It was me”; “It had been him”; and “He's always been spiteful toward them,” when looking at constructions such as these, you'll need to consider the phrase rather than the individual word. Let's simplify each.

I corrected the mistake.
He had broken the rule.
They shall remain nameless.

In the above examples, you have to look at the words’ functions and the roles they play in their attached clauses in order to get the pronoun correct.

Now, let's take a quick look at the differences between the relative pronouns “who” and “whom.”
“Who” is a subject pronoun, while “whom” is an object pronoun. When the pronoun is the object of a preposition, the choice is pretty easy; we all know “to whom it may concern” and similar constructions; however, the choice between these two is not always so easy.

In order to choose correctly, use the same tactics you'd use with any other pronoun. If it is doing something, use the subject pronoun; if something is being done to it, use the object pronoun. If in doubt, replace and compare:

Who went to the park? She/he/they/I went to the park.
Whom did she love? She loved her/him/them/me.

Whether referring to first, second, or third person, the types of pronouns--subject, object, or reflexive--used in sentence will always remain the same. Therefore, by replacing pronouns you know are correct with those you are unsure about, you can know your choices will always be grammatically correct.

While you might have readers who also do not know the rules, there is always a chance that editors, agents, or reviewers reading your work do. If you take the time to know and understand these rules, your writing will be sharper and you will be able to present it to the world with confidence and skill.

Until next time, my pretties! (Insert evil cackle.)

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Interview with Diane Sager, author of SUMMER OF HAIGHT '67

2/13/2015

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Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Diane Sager in promotion of her recent release, Summer of Haight '67. Diane will be giving away a $15 Amazon or Barnes and Noble gift card, so make sure to comment and enter using the Rafflecopter box below.

Interview:

1. Did you draw upon anything personal when you wrote this story? If so, how did it help/hinder your writing?

My characters are not based on anyone I personally know but I’ll admit to being born in the 60’s – OK, you got that out of me, reluctantly! LOL

Summer of Haight ‘67 is a fiction novel but I wanted the setting for my story to be 100% authentic. I immersed myself in the 60’s hippie culture and spent hours and hours on research. The book is factually correct. I listened to music from the late 60’s constantly, particularly the psychedelic era. I even bought a record player (remember those?) I got my old LP’s out and bought even more from eBay… Grateful Dead, Big Brother & the Holding Company, Jimi Hendrix, The Charlatans, Country Joe and the Fish, to name but a few. There are Hells Angels, Black Panthers, political unrest and a horrific war. I wrote and researched constantly during the 15 months it took me to complete it. I wore hippie clothes and I even found myself saying 60’s words. I stopped at the drug scene though. It’s just not my bag!

I also have some first-hand experience to back up my research. As a very little girl my parents drove me through the Haight district to look at the “freaks” as my Dad called them. I saw them dance around adorned with flowers and beads, obviously high as a kite but I didn’t know that at the time!

I “met” some great people during the writing of the book – Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, Micky Dolenz, even Charles Manson made an appearance! I mingled with the Hells Angels, the Black Panthers and the Diggers to name a few. This is a fictitious story based around real life events of sex, drugs and psychedelic music. My main character Katie has a horrific accident in 2014 and it hurls her back into her 20 year old hippie body – but with the memory of a 66 year old. It’s a trip, man!

There is the gruesome war in Vietnam and the political unrest and protesting that came with it. I learned a lot and my hope is that my readers will too

2. How did you choose the Summer of Love theme for your time-travel idea? What inspirations led to this story?

I started my writing career as a horror writer and I have books published under my “zombie/apocalyptic/vampire/horror” name of D.S. Sager. I have two books completed for my Evil Vein trilogy.

When it came to writing my 1960’s hippie supernatural time travel idea, the thing that jumped out at me, and I think most people who lived in Northern California, was the “Summer of Love” in 1967.

As I said earlier, I was a small child when I saw this phenomenon and it stuck with me over the years. I often wish I had been a bit older to be able to experience it fully. I always loved the 60’s music and clothing. Who didn’t love the Beatles and the other great 60’s bands? It has an enchanting, carefree feel about it although there were some awful things going on in the world.
So I settled on 1967 in San Francisco and I started my research. It turned out to be a huge history lesson for me over the 15 months it took to write and I hope my readers will love the story and know that this is how it really was back then. By the way, I have another storyline in my head with some of the same characters – perhaps to another monumental time in history. All I can say is it’s coming SOON !

3. You chose a clever homophone for use in your title. Are there any other choices in language or style that you used to enrich your novel?

Thank you. Surprisingly, this is the first time I have been asked this question. To be as authentic as possible my characters use terms and phrases that were widely used in this period. They speak in a lingo and style that screams 60’s – perhaps it was all the sex and drugs and rock & roll !!

I struggled a bit with the title. It had to indicate a period in time and the so called Summer of Love became known around the world. My husband suddenly said “Summer of Haight ‘67” and it clicked. 67 gives it a time period and we get the vision of the Summer of Love on Haight street. Plus my editor LOVED it too.

As I mentioned, I am a horror writer too and if you say Summer of Haight without reading the words it twangs just a little of the macabre. Go a bit deeper and there is some hatred in the story as Katie goes back in time and confronts the man she married in her former life that turned out to be a disaster. She can fix that !!

THANK YOU so much for this interview. Your questions were a pleasure to answer.

About the novel:

Katherine Rhoads has a tragic accident which sends her back in time. She wakes up as the 20 year old hippie she was back in 1967 in the Haight/Ashbury district of San Francisco.This was the period known globally as the “Summer of Love”. It’s all here, Hippies, Hells Angels, Black Panthers and the abhorrent war in Vietnam. “Katie gets the chance to re-live this era with her friends Frog and Moonbeam. This time she knows what to expect and tries to change things... Can she?

Excerpt:

Feeling dizzy, she shut her eyes and rubbed her temples for several minutes, running through the accident in her mind. She remembered going down the embankment and hitting the tree. She knew she had been in an ambulance and she remembered a slew of doctors surrounding her. Yet here she was sitting on a couch…somewhere familiar, a place she knew but couldn’t recall.

A brown chenille bedspread covered the couch. There was a basic wooden coffee table, several antique lamps, one in the corner and another on an old table by a beveled window. The hardwood floor of the room was covered by an imitation Persian carpet.

The walls and even the ceilings were filled with posters; old bands like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Big Brother and the Holding Company, the Yardbirds, and even the Monkees. Some were drug related, promoting marijuana, mushrooms and LSD. Others were political, protesting the Vietnam War, even including a caricature of Lyndon B. Johnson dressed as John Wayne.

On the ceiling directly above her was a poster of Clint Eastwood draped in a poncho, cigar resting on his lip. A pose from For a Few Dollars More. She knew the film well. Beside it were several blacklight posters, psychedelic peace symbols, a hookah smoking caterpillar, and an assortment of twirling colorful designs.

The television, an old tube model from yesteryear, was in a wooden cabinet covered by stickers: STP; two local radio stations, KLIV and KFRC; Champion spark plugs; bare feet and peace symbols of various colors. Beside that was a flower painted guitar case that leaned against the wall. Everything in the room was familiar. She knew this house. She had been here many, many times, so why couldn’t she remember whose house she was in?

About the author:

Author Diane Sager was raised and resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with her awesome husband Russ, three dogs, two cats and an African grey parrot named Storm. She holds a fascination for all things macabre and has developed a deep knowledge of serial killers, vampires, zombies, the Tarot, world religions, witchcraft, horror and the occult.

However, her latest indie release, Summer of Haight ‘67 is none of the above albeit a little supernatural.... This story is nestled between her zombie series Evil Vein, published by Permuted Press and penned under her “apocalyptic” name of D. S. Sager

A former high school teacher of emotionally disturbed and high-risk youth, Diane is now dedicated to full time writing.

Contact her at celticdi@gmail.com, follow her on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads, or check out her website. You can find her book on Amazon.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Ageism, Sexism, and the Ageing Woman

2/2/2015

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I read this blog post today, a response to an article posted yesterday that offered fashion “advice” to women over 30. The offending post suggested women over 30 were too old for such garments as graphic tee shirts (of which I have a healthy collection) and pretty much anything revealing or cute.

Blogger and author Kristen Lamb rebutted with style and grace, but I still have a bad taste in my mouth from the post that inspired it. Taking Kristen Lamb’s lead, I’m not going to share any links to that arrogant fashionisa’s post, but I do want to say my piece.

Given we’re at the beginning of Women in Horror month, I think the article was timely. It raises similar issues to the ones that make a female spotlight necessary, and those issues all revolve around the same biggie: perception. The grievances many women suffer due to gender are similar to the ones that tell us it is not good enough that we merely age gracefully. There are changes in expectations, and there are changes in the way society as a whole views us. It tells us we must be pretty, sexy, and youthful—and it punishes us when we fail in any of these categories.

As a female horror writer, I feel like adding middle age to the mix creates a double whammy. Now, not only am I a woman who often feels slighted or overlooked for being a woman, I fear the possibility of disappearing altogether with my fading youth. Articles like the “fashion advice” for women over 30 only help to reinforce social views and private fears. And as much as I’d like to say, “That idiot has no idea what she’s talking about,” I feel society’s push for me to cling to my youth to the very last thread, being dragged, kicking and screaming, into this next chapter of my life.

In a perfect world, we could all simply be—be ourselves, be what is true to us, be without fear of judgment or preconceived notions—but of course the world is far from perfect.

And so are all of us.

The social pushes to defy youth are the same ones that push teenage girls into eating disorders. When we see we don’t fit the mold set out before us, we fall into the lie that tells us those damning words: You’re not good enough.

So, what do we do to change this? I wish I knew. It would be far too simple for all of us to decide merely that these social values are harmful and wrong. Group thinking, the collective consciousness we create through influence and judgment, is stronger than that. Still, something’s gotta give. We need to find a way redefine our values.

Any ideas?

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Book Blast: SHADOW MAKER by James R. Hannibal

2/2/2015

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Today, guest author James R. Hannibal is here to share about his new release, Shadow Maker. He will be giving away a $20 Amazon of Barnes and Noble gift card to one random reader via the Rafflecopter box below. For more chances to win, leave a comment and visit other blogs hosting this book blast. Click here for the list.

About the novel:

How far will collateral damage from a CIA drone strike reach?

When a suicide bomber shatters the peace of a winter afternoon on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., former pilot and undercover Cerberus operative Nick Baron receives an eerie invitation from the chess app on his phone—a mysterious figure named The Emissary wants to play.

Nick and his covert unit—the Triple Seven Chase team—soon find themselves drawn into battle against an unknown opponent who has resurrected an ancient order of assassins: the legendary Hashashin. And there is a long-awaited prophecy being fulfilled by a series of violent attacks which may culminate in a final apocalypse over Jerusalem.

As the Triple Seven fight to stop each attack, Nick tries to keep The Emissary on the hook by playing their digital chess game. The lines between the game and the fight begin to blur, as every time Nick loses a piece on the board, he loses one of his men. And if Nick cannot find a way to stop the terrorist mastermind, a checkmate may kill millions…

Excerpt:

As Nick pointed out the National Air and Space Museum to his dad, he heard his wife quietly giggling to herself.

He never got the chance to ask her why.

Katy’s laughter became a shriek as an immense blast rocked the Jeep up onto two wheels. The driver-side windows blew completely inward, showering the interior with glass. As the vehicle came crashing down onto four wheels again, it veered left into oncoming traffic. Nick fought the wheel to regain control, swerving back across his own lane and skidding into the curb with his foot jammed on the brakes.

The bomb had exploded ahead and to his left, next to Health and Human Services. The fireball that first flashed in his vision had become a black cloud. Debris rained down around them. Something landed on the roof with a heavy thump.

“Are you okay?” he asked Katy, but she was busy reaching for her son.

“Luke!” she cried.

Nick turned with her and found that the toddler had escaped unscathed. Nick’s dad had acted as a shield, taking the brunt of the flying glass.

“Dad, you’re bleeding.”

“I’m fine.”

“Good, then take the wheel.”

Kurt Baron furrowed his brow. “What? Where’re you going?”

Nick didn’t answer. He looked to his wife. She had several small cuts on the left side of her face, but nothing serious. Katy met his gaze and nodded sharply. “I’ll be all right. Go.”

He popped the rear hatch and climbed out of the Jeep, noting as he stepped around to his father’s door that the object that had landed on his Jeep was a severed hand. He brushed it off the roof and into the gray-brown slush beneath the curb. “Dad, get up there and take the wheel. Get them to the hospital in Chapel Point. The closer facilities will be too busy.”

“You get back in the car and get us out of here yourself.”

Nick didn’t have time for father-son competition. The Mall was about to fill with first responders and rubberneckers, and soon there would be no exit. Even more pressing, the reaper’s relentless clock had started ticking the minute the bomb went off. As the ringing in his ears diminished, Nick was beginning to hear the wails of the dying.

About the author:

James R. Hannibal is a former US Air Force Stealth Bomber pilot with over a thousand hours of combat experience including over-watch, close air support, and HVI captures. He graduated from the US Air Force Academy in 1997 with a bachelors of science in Middle Eastern Studies and earned a masters of science from Central Missouri State University in Aviation Safety Sciences. His flying career included the A-10 Warthog, B-2 Stealth Bomber, MQ-1 Predator, T-38 Talon, T-37 Tweet, and the Boeing 737, 757, and 767. When he is not flying or writing thrillers, James occasionally reviews for the New York Journal of Books.

Shadow Maker is available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, IndieBound, Kobo, BAM, Powell's, Walmart, and directly through Penguin Books.

For more about James R. Hannibal and his work, check out his website and Facebook pages or follow him on Twitter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Coming Soon From Eldritch Press!

Words From the Grammar Nazi: Replacement Therapy, Part 3

Interview with Diane Sager, author of SUMMER OF HAIGHT '67

Ageism, Sexism, and the Ageing Woman

Book Blast: SHADOW MAKER by James R. Hannibal

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