Hello and thanks for visiting. My guest today is Liza O'Connor, author of Saving Casey.
Liza, when did you know you wanted to be a writer?
I’ve always loved to write novels.
I’d come home from a hard day of stressful work and detox by writing. I had to
put a timer on my light in my home office so the lights went off at 11 p.m.
ensuring I’d stop writing and go to bed. When I write, I lose track of time.
Without the timer, I would write until 3 in the morning, which did not bode
well for the following work day. Still, the click and the room turning pitch
black, except for the glowing pc screen, always took me by surprise and I so
wanted to turn the lights back on for another hour of writing…
About eight years ago, I grew weary
of that timer and stopped working so I could write all day and night if I
wished. I didn’t try to publish, I just wrote to my heart’s content. Not a
concern about publish-ability or offending readers with controversial topics
and statements. I just wrote whatever I wanted. Complete freedom of expression.
I also genre hopped with no worry about
confusing my readers, because I didn’t have any readers to confuse.
I call those my Liza Unfettered
Years. They were pure self-indulgent joy. All I had were critters. (I belong to
two excellent critter groups because even unusual plots and disturbing characters
should be well-written,)
How long did you write before you got published?
In 2012 I wrote a story, Saving
Casey, that one of my multi-published critters insisted I submit for
publication. I had actually placed it in my ‘unpublishable but excellent
novels’ folder. But she thought it needed published, so I sent it off. The
first publisher rejected it, the second publisher made no response whatsoever,
not even to my queries once their 3 month promised response time came and went,
then I sent it to Decadent Publishing for their Bono Book division. When I
received their response, I expected it to be a rejection, not because it wasn’t
a great story, but because it touches too many ‘avoid’ issues. To my shock and
great pleasure, they liked the book; they just wanted me to change the age of my
character Troy.
Their suggestion would make the
story more palatable to a wider range of readers, so I had no problem making
the change.
From my first attempt to landing a
contract, it took me 6 months and 3 submissions to find Saving Casey a home.
What is your favorite scene from your book?
It’s when Cass comes home from the
hospital. She can’t believe the absurd level of wealth of her new family. Her
middle-class attitude can’t help but make fun of it all.
What are you working on now?
I’ve got three books I’m working on.
Lyrical Press just contracted my
story Ghost Lover for publication. It’ll probably come out in the first half of
2014. It’s a humorous sweet, double-romance with a lascivious ghost and his
ghost ocelot intervening when it appears his family line is about to go
extinct.
Since a year and a half gap is too
long between books, I’ll be independently publishing Worst Week Ever in 2013
midyear. It’s probably the funniest book I’ve ever written and a favorite among
my critters. Being of a curious nature, I wanted to see how independent
publishing compares to using a publishing house.
Honestly, I suspect I’ll prefer
using a publishing house, but to give this experiment a fair shot, I’m using
one of my best novels and have hired an editor with proven talent, Danielle
Fine.
Then I’m working on a paranormal
romance suspense thriller. I’m hoping to get it submitted and contracted for
publication near 2013 yearend, but if I don’t work a little faster, that
probably isn’t feasible.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Since Saving Casey is my debut
novel, I’ve lots of first-hand advice.
Do not rush into publication. First,
join several critique groups, and then drop any that aren’t working for you.
(They vary in their approaches. Locate authors with similar voices to yours and
ask them to become your personal crit partners).
While you’re building your backlog,
TAKE A MARKETING SEMINAR.
You need to market yourself even
more than your book. Books come and go. But you, the author, must remain
current. Marketing yourself should begin before you ever submit a novel to a
publishing house. In fact, if you don’t have a social network presence at time
of submission, you might be rejected even if they love your book. This is a ‘market
or perish’ new literary world. They need authors who understand and are fully
committed to marketing themselves and their books.
Create a backlog of really good
books first before you send out your first submission. 3-5 books is reasonable.
I’m not the only one who advises this. It’s standard advice. But let me assure
you, it’s great advice. Once you sign your first contract, your writing time
will become scarce as water in a desert. These books will give you a buffer to
allow for future submissions while you acclimate yourself to all the new stuff
you are learning.
Well that’s it for the questions. I
had fun answering. Hopefully, you’ll enjoy reading them and they inspire you to
read Saving Casey. Be warned, you’ll laugh, cry, and yell at characters when
you do.
For this blog stop’s contest, I’m offering
to put tats onto one lucky commenter’s picture. Just leave your email and say
you want your picture marred.
Liza, thank you so much for your interview and your good advice. Readers, if you'd like to win that prize follow the tour and comment often. You can find the tour schedule at http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/01/virtual-book-tour-saving-casey-by-liza.html Let's have a blurb and excerpt now.
BLURB:
Eighty-year-old Cass wakes up in the body of a
troubled seventeen-year-old girl named Casey, which all believe has survived a
suicide attempt. Cass intends to turn the girl’s life around, only it’s harder
than she expects. All Casey’s troubles have now become Cass’s and someone wants
her dead.
Excerpt:
Upon settling down on the toilet, Cass noticed the floor to
ceiling mirror facing her and screamed at the sight of the creature within it.
Short black hair spouted about its head, black circles surrounded both eyes and
fell like triangular knives down the cheeks. Black lips, stretched in horror as
if in a nightmare. Pulling up her pants, she moved closer to the mirror.
She was a ghoul, an honest to God ghoul!
The door crashed open and her father stared at her, fear and
panic clear in his eyes.
She touched her face. “Please tell me these aren’t
permanent.”
His panic remained a second longer as her words filtered
into his brain and then he pulled her into his arms. “Don’t worry, we will get
them removed—if you want to…”
“If? Oh, I definitely want them removed,” she said.
How can I turn around my life if I look like the walking
dead from a low-grade monster movie?
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Adventure
Bio:
I live in
Denville, NJ with my dog, Jess. We hike in fabulous woods every day, rain or
shine, sleet or snow. Having an adventurous nature, I learned to fly small
cessnas in NJ, hang-glide in New Zealand, kayak in Pennsylvania, ski in New
York, scuba dive with great white sharks in Australia, dig up dinosaur bones in
Montana, sky dive in Indiana, and raft a class four river in Tasmania. I’m an
avid gardener, amateur photographer, and dabbler in watercolors and graphic
arts. Yet through my entire life, my first love has and always will be writing
novels. I love to create interesting characters, set them loose, and scribe
what happens.
SAVING CASEY
BUY LINKS
Bonobookstore:
http://bonobookstore.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3_54&products_id=79
Amazon Link
to Saving Casey:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A7KRSOO
Barnes&Noble
Link to SC:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/saving-casey-liza-oconnor/1113795362?ean=2940015849295
Video links:
Saving Casey
Trailer: http://youtu.be/WxcaMP0Dgzc
Abridged My
Crappy New Life series: http://youtu.be/p6QzYsxJ7jQ
Liza links:
Blog and
Website: http://www.LizaOConnor.com
Facebook
Profile: http://www.facebook.com/liza.oconnor.90
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/Liza0Connor
Saving Casey will be reduced from $5.99 to $2.99 for the duration of the tour (March 5th-April 11th) at Amazon, B&N, DP/Bono, ARe, Coffee Time Romance, BookStrand and Smashwords.
.jpg)
.jpg)
