Author's Name: Jean Marie Ward
Website: wardsmith.com

Jean Marie Ward writes urban fantasy, and the first book in her Chronicles of the Nine Sisters series is now available from Samhain Publishing.

New Release:
WITH NINE YOU GET VANYR
Samhain Publishing, March 2007

How much would you give to live your fantasy? Think fast-your Wishstone is waiting.

At Atlanta's Dragon-Con, nine fan girls make a wish on the mysterious ancient artifact known as the Wishstone and find themselves transported to the world that inspired their favorite TV series. Only the show couldn't begin to prepare them for the real thing.

Domain is a world without change, frozen in a time of magic and superstition, where the immortal sons of the goddess Reyah fight a never-ending war-mostly with themselves. Reyah doesn't seem to care. The way she sees it, her boys will be boys. They'll settle down once they meet the right girls.

But Earth girls aren't that easy. They've got serious issues with this gig. They like their computers, cell phones, double-ply toilet paper. And they don't believe in fate.

Welcome to Domain.

On Writing

I think I decided to become a writer the day my parents ran out of fairy tales. Had to find new stories to read somewhere! Grammar school readers featuring kids growing up in farms or cityscapes twenty years out of date bored me to tears. They had very little to do with the life I was living as an Army brat and nothing whatever to do with my aspirations--which included acquiring a superpower as quickly as possible.
So I guess it’s no surprise I gravitated toward mythology and fantasy. In college, my literature professors used to tease me I didn’t read anything written after 1800. Unfair! By then a friend--a very good friend indeed--had introduced me to Georgette Heyer and Barbara Michaels/Elizabeth Peters. (Yes, I read funny books as well as write them.) I found Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber and the other 20th century fantasists on my own.

Never did get the superpower--unless you count an unnatural ability to run in high heels.

On the Writing Process

Writing process: Apply fingers to keyboard.

Seriously. I worked as a journalist before becoming a civil servant. Once I joined the federal government, it was more of the same--writing, editing, publishing, committing public relations. All of my jobs required the ability to research quickly and accurately, and produce content as soon as a keyboard became available.

Unfortunately, I don’t have quite the same handle on writing fiction I do on nonfiction. With nonfiction, once I have all the facts and a target length, the narrative unrolls in front of me like a path in a sunny park.

With fiction, on the other hand, I always feel like I’m hacking my way through briars. But that’s part of the fun. It’s so very gratifying once you push through.

However, without question, the hardest part of writing right now is writing in the absence of my long-time writing partner, Teri Smith. Teri died suddenly last October, and right now I feel like I’m trying to run a marathon on one leg.

Don’t know what to say in answer to “Where do you get most of your ideas from?” They come from everything and anything--from a serendipitous combination of unlikely words to the infamous “What if…” Watching the Oscars last night, for example, I was struck by the brief segment on Sherry Lansing. Wow, what a life! Wouldn’t you want to live it through a book?

On Writing Schedule

Do you have a writing schedule/routine?

Not as much as I’d like. I find it easiest to write if I start early in the day and have unlimited time to write through. Real life doesn’t permit that very often.

On Writer's Block

Have you ever experienced writer's block and if so, what helped you overcome it?

Not writer’s block, per se. Journalists don’t get that luxury. If nothing else, your boss will point to research showing that the writing you think is crap reads as well as the stuff you consider your best work. Government supervisors have the same attitude, if not the same handle on the research.

But I have reached points of what I call creative exhaustion--when I’ve written too much or pushed my creative limits so far I’ve got nothing left. Emotional exhaustion--from illness, family emergencies or other crises--can have the same effect.

When that happens, I permit myself to relax. Put the computer away. Take a walk. Listen to music. Dance. Watch a movie with the dh. (The best ones are the ones we can snark at together.) Read a book or magazine--sometimes you just need to put something back “in the well”. The writing urge always returns as soon as body and mind refresh themselves.

On Conferences and Contests

Have conferences or contests played a role in your path to publication?

Contests, no. Conferences--oh yeah! LOL. I met the acquisitions editor who commissioned my solo art book, Illumina: The Art of J.P. Targete, at DragonCon 1999. He also published my first anthologized short story.

Teri and I met Crissy Brashear, founder of Samhain Publishing, Ltd. at another DragonCon, when we interviewed her as part of a feature on Ellora’s Cave for Crescent Blues. When we heard she’d started her own publishing company, we wrote to congratulate her--and ask if she could use another editor or two. She said, no, but she needed good stories. Of course, it helped we just happened to have a manuscript ready to fly.

Which isn’t to say it couldn’t work the other way too. I know a lot of A-list romance authors who owe their start to the Golden Heart or RWA chapter contest. I know bestselling mystery authors who would never have been published without the St. Martin’s/Malice Domestic contest for new writers.

On Getting "The Call"

I’ve never gotten the call. Ever. The art book contract evolved over a number of emails. I didn’t even treat it as real until the editor emailed the contract.

Acceptance of With Nine You Get Vanyr was more of a process than a single event. Samhain rejected the first version of the manuscript we submitted. They had to. At 165,000 words it was far too long and too cohesive to publish as a trade paperback. In order for the publisher to see a profit (and face it, all publishing is about profit) it would’ve needed a $35 cover price--which no one would pay for the first novel of two unknowns.

But Samhain editor Jess Bimberg liked the story we told about nine members of an Internet fan group transported to a world where magic worked. So she sent what’s known as a “Revise and Resubmit” letter. If we could cut 45,000 words--and address some technical aspects in the book’s “first act”--she’d be interested in seeing it again.

Teri and I figured we had nothing to lose. The manuscript was large by any standards--which would’ve made it a big risk for any publisher, even in hardcover or mass market paperback formats. We’d told Jess via IM chat we’d try and sent an email when we cut our first 10,000 words. She started checking on our daily progress. By the time we had dropped 25,000 words, everyone at Samhain started getting excited. By the time we carved the manuscript to an acceptable length, we were pretty sure they wanted it. But neither Teri nor I considered it a done deal until Jess emailed us the contract.

How did it feel when we got the email? Just great!

On Being a Published Author

The best thing is the satisfaction of knowing you told your story in a form other people can read and enjoy. The worst part is worrying. You always worry about whether you’re taking the right steps to promote your work. This time, I’m also worrying how my writing will change now that I don’t have the marvelous back-and-forth I enjoyed with Teri. I guess that’s my biggest challenge too--maintaining the quality, humor and panache, the ZING Teri brought to our joint work.

Best Advice Received

The only way to write is to actually sit down and write. Everything else follows from that.

Worst Advice Received

My brain tends to dump information it doesn’t find useful. What stuck with me, though, was the experience of suffering through writing courses taught by writers who felt themselves passed by or overlooked by the publishing industry. They impressed on me one key lesson: Bitterness makes a poor teacher.

On Promotion

I worked in public relations for many years. In that time, the one insuperable truth I learned was, to quote the old saw, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.

In essence, all promotion does is lead a horse to water. You can’t make people buy a book if they don’t want to. By the same token, however, they won’t even consider buying your book if they don’t know it exists.

The goal of promotion is to bring your book to the attention of the readers who like that kind of book--whether it’s mystery, fantasy, romance, YA, etc. As an author with limited funds, that can be a challenge.

It’s easier if you’re working with a NY publisher. Even if they don’t send you on a book tour (and unless you hit the bestseller lists or win a major award, they won’t), they will send your book to major venues like Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus, American Library Journal and Booklist. The writer’s job is to pick up the slack, within reason. Making sure the top review venues in your genre get a copy of your book is a good idea. Spending a fortune on an ad in The New York Times as a first-time genre author--probably not so good.

The best tip I can offer is to take one of the great courses offered by top-flight publicists through RWA chapters and respected sites such as AuthorMBA.com. I recently subscribed to a first-rate course taught by publicist Theresa Meyers. I learned a lot--and remember, I worked in PR.

On Publishers

Samhain has a great “About Us” page. The only thing I can add is everyone is wonderful to work with. And they publish fabulous books too!

On Agents

Don’t know if I’m qualified to comment on this. I don’t have one yet. But based on observation, the key to a happy author/agent relationship is to find a reputable agent who’s as excited about your work as you are. Research is crucial too. Learn as much as you can about an agent before you submit your work. Fortunately, the number of agents who have blogs these days makes the process a lot easier.

On the Future

(Rubs hands together in excitement.) A modern take on the Orpheus legend called Highway from Hell. Teri and I started it because we wanted to have two different series running. With Nine You Get Vanyr is the first book in the Chronicles of the Nine Sisters, which has a story arc of about twelve books.

Highway from Hell marks the first in a four-book, contemporary retelling of the great romances of classical mythology: Eurydice and Orpheus, Persephone and Hades, Andromeda and Perseus, and Psyche and Cupid. When we started mapping this series, we discovered all these stories had one thing in common: a trip to hell. And thereby hangs several tales.

After Highway from Hell, I’ll be starting the next Nine Sisters book, Nine Day Wonders.

Advice for Aspiring Writers

Keep writing. Especially for your first book, write what’s in your heart. Chances are you will be spending a lot of time polishing your first book, and it will be hard to stick with it if the story isn’t something you love.

The Last Word

Thank you for interviewing me. It’s been fun--and thought-provoking--to be on the receiving end of interview questions. No last thoughts, except if your readers would like to learn more about Teri or me or our writing, they should check out www.WardSmith.com.

I’m also running a contest tied to the print release of With Nine You Get Vanyr. The details can be found at wardsmith.com/wardsmith/pages/contests/contest_new.htm.

Visit Jean Marie online at wardsmith.com