J.E. Taylor on writing with her son

Today's guest post is by J.E. Taylor, sharing the work she is doing with her son! Also a reminder that we have seven free Kindle books, Kindle Fire giveaways, and more at http://ebookswag.com April 4-5, so pop over and enter daily!

J.E. Taylor:

The other night I watched The Walking Dead with my twelve-year-old son, at his request.  Now we’ve watched Supernatural together for years and he’s into the crime shows as well.   I think I was a bit naïve on the graphic nature of the show because after about ten minutes, I made the decision that this was not the show for him to be watching.  

My son was very disappointed when I opted to change the channel and I was reminded of my innate curiosity as a young teen.  The Night Stalker on television was always a good fix and then the string of thrillers and slasher flicks.  I continued to enjoy twisted horror movies for most of my young adult life as well as books – both Stephen King and Dean Koontz really fed my morbid curiosity.  

As I sat watching The Walking Dead, I realized I was right around the same age as my son when Halloween came out.   And he’s got the same imagination, curiosity, and love for the twinge of fear that I do – that adrenaline rush you get when peeking at the screen over the blankets.   I’m secretly thrilled that he has the same love for action and scary themes I do, thus I was beyond thrilled when he came to me last summer with a fantastic idea for a young adult series.

We started writing Don’t Fear The Reaper, the first book in The Death Chronicles series – which is due to be released this summer.  He’s been very patient while I’ve finished Crystal Illusions and prepped for this blog tour, so today, I figured I’d not only let your readers catch a quick glimpse at the teaser for Crystal Illusions, which is out now, but I’d also give them a special preview of our YA Thriller - Don’t Fear The Reaper – Book One of The Death Chronicles. 

Crystal Illusions – Available Now

Assistant D.A. Carolyn Hastings has an uncanny knack for putting away criminals. With one of the best prosecution records in recent history, her future as Manhattan’s next District Attorney looks certain. But her sixth sense for winning cases threatens to work against her when she starts seeing a string of murders through the eyes of the killer.

With suspects piling up as fast as bodies, and the motives of those closest to her questionable, Carolyn doesn’t know who to trust. When the FBI assigns Special Agent Steve Williams to the case, Carolyn discloses her deepest fear - that the man she loves may be the one responsible for the city’s latest crime spree.

The only thing Steve knows for sure is Carolyn has an inexplicable psychic connection with the killer, and all the victims have one thing in common…a striking resemblance to Carolyn Hastings.

And he knows it’s only a matter of time before this psychopath knocks on her door.

Available now on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Crystal-Illusions-Steve-Williams-ebook/dp/B007JBWCIQ/

Excerpt from Don’t Fear The Reaper – Book One of The Death Chronicles – Coming this summer:

The first time I saw a reaper, I thought I had fallen asleep in class again.

Mr. Sanchez was in the middle of reaming out Clyde for not having his homework for the hundredth time this year and mid-yell, his red face turned purple and he clutched his chest. When Mr. Sanchez fell to his knees, the sight of the black cloaked figure behind him, nearly gave me a heart attack. My chest burned with the sudden rush of adrenaline and my throat tingled around the scream that begged to erupt, but I clamped my lips closed.

The silver gaze peered out of the hooded darkness, staring directly at me, like he knew I could see him. His bony hand reached out and came to rest on Mr. Sanchez’s head. The rotund teacher’s grey eyes rolled back and his breath wheezed from his half-open mouth.

“Call nine-one-one!” The cry broke my paralysis and I bolted to the front of the room, trying to recall the CPR instructions I had in health class at the beginning of the year. Three chest compressions then pause, three more before blowing in the victim’s mouth. The silent instructions replayed in my head and I went into action.

It wasn’t until the E.M.T.s wheeled the cold dead body of Mr. Sanchez out of the room that Julia took my hand for support.

“Nick, you tried,” Julia said.

I looked into her golden brown eyes and that’s when I knew it wasn’t a dream. Her warm hand, her soft, teary voice, cracked through my defenses and I started to shake. “I couldn’t stop him from taking Mr. Sanchez.”

“Stop who?”

I opened my mouth to speak but before the words could tumble out, I snapped my lips closed. She was already looking at me like I had a few screws loose and this would only topple that look into the realm of disbelief. I didn’t want her to think I was any crazier than she already did. I turned away, wiping my misting eyes on my sleeve.

“Stop who?” she repeated taking my arm and swinging me toward her.

“Death, who do you think?” I snapped, my tone harsher than I wanted, harsher than I meant to be and she recoiled. “I couldn’t stop death,” I said, softening my tone and taking a deep breath to cool my nerves. “I couldn’t stop Mr. Sanchez from dying.”

Before she could speak, the PA system whined into action. “Dylan Nicholas Ramsay, please come to the office.”

Aw, crap. What does Principal Murdock want now? I hung my head, grinding my teeth together for a moment as anger wiped away any trace of despair. “I gotta go,” I said to Julia and stepped out of her grip, trudging toward the office wondering just what Principal Murdock was going to lay on me this time. Was he going to throw that sappy sad expression at me again, the one that always made me feel like a lost reject? The look that made me feel like shit.

Mr. Murdock offered a tight smile when I entered the office. “Nick, how are you holding up?”

Jeesh, how the hell do you think I’m holding up? I just saw my teacher die. “I’m fine sir.”

“I think you should talk with Mrs. Lambert for a spell,” Mr. Murdock said and delivered the look I expected.

“I said I’m okay.”

Mr. Murdock raised one of his wooly-mammoth eyebrows. “I understand you were yelling the entire time you were trying to revive Mr. Sanchez.”

Shock slammed into my chest, drying my mouth and shooting tingling waves over my skin. “Wh-what?”

“A few of the other students said you were yelling at someone or something while you were doing CPR.”

“I, uh, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I knew I was cussing the hell out of the reaper, but I didn’t realize I was swearing out loud.

“I think you should talk with Mrs. Lambert for a while.”

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Sean Platt: Yesterday's Gone serial ebook project

Sean and I have crossed paths here and there over the years, and when I found out about his serial ebook project, I had to know more. So here is Sean, in the digital flesh.

Hi Scott! Thanks for having me, it's great to be here.

1) Why a serialized fiction project?

Serialized fiction is something my writing partner David Wright and I have been interested in for a long time. In fact, we started our first serialized project more than two years ago at our website, Collective Inkwell. It was a horror novel called Available Darkness.

We published a new entry each Friday and developed a decent sized audience in a reasonably short time, but life nudged its way to the front and we both got busy with the immediate needs of life which forced us to pause the project. We resurrected it earlier this year and published it on Kindle and print this summer.

But our new project, Yesterday’s Gone, was an entirely different beast from day one!

By mid-summer, our small imprint had published five titles. Unfortunately, those five titles were in four different markets. We knew we really needed to fix this. It's difficult to hit critical mass on Kindle without multiple titles. But just because someone loves your book about vampires, doesn't mean they’re going to love your book about how to build an online writing business.

Yesterday's Gone was designed from day one to capitalize on the all-too-easy to click Kindle consumer phenomenon. This serial was a way for us to get six high quality titles to market that would keep readers at the edge of their seat, leave them wanting for more, and hopefully telling their friends about all the fun they had reading.

2) Did you choose a post-apocalyptic story because of the nature of the project, or was that always in the plans?

That's a great question!

Full credit for the premise goes to Dave. We were already discussing doing a serial, but to his way of thinking, it would be easier to get our first season to market if it was set in a world where we wouldn't end up drowning in research. With a post-apocalyptic setting, we essentially built ourselves a giant sandbox where we made all the rules.

Of course, there were still a ton of things to research and we had to make sure our dates and times all lined up, and that locations in our story matched locations on the map. This was especially difficult while doing some of the larger scenes in New York and Times Square, but was still significantly less work than it would have been if we were writing something set in the real world.

3) How does the collaboration work? Back and forth for each chapter, or write and rewrite?

Dave and I have been writing together for three years now. We met during what was the first few weeks for each of us online. Our collaboration is natural, organic, and wonderfully fluid. A project of this scope would've been impossible without it.

As far as Yesterdays Gone specifically, we started by writing the “pilot.” We decided there would be six characters and that each of us would handle the POV for three of them. Once finished, I sent my work to Dave and he pieced them all together.

For episodes 2-6, we each stuck with the characters we started with, following the same process, where I would write my three POV’s then send them to Dave for arrangement. I polished his copy and sent it back. Dave excels at structure, and I'm slightly better voice so that rhythm works really well for us.

4) How many episodes will you do, and what happens after they are finished?

There are six episodes in the first season, and right now we have at least three seasons planned, though if the audience is asking, we’ll definitely deliver more. We’re not sure six episodes is the perfect number for a season. Seems like there’s a lot to experiment with there. The next serial we have planned will have a different number of episodes and a slightly different page count for each one, almost for sure.

Dave's been getting the episodes to Kindle one at a time, but we’ve been fast-tracking the entire project since there isn't the big built-in audience that there will be for Season II. Once we’re in the second season, we’ll launch each episodes anywhere from a week to a month apart, depending on audience feedback.

5) Do you see other possibilities for invention and experimentation with form in the digital era?

Absolutely! I am thoroughly in love with where self-publishing is right now, and I think experimentation is everything. We have many, many plans, in multiple genres. And we can't wait to explore them all.

We hope you enjoy this trailer, and will share it on Facebook, Twitter and email. You can start with the pilot of Yesterday's Gone for just $.99 or get the entire season for $4.99, which is a super great deal!

If you’re a reader who likes the extra goodies (like exclusive chapters and sneak peeks), or an author who wants a behind-the-scenes look at the writing and marketing process for this project, sign up to be a “goner,” here.

Thanks for having me at the Haunted Computer, Scott. 
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