Five Tips from Nikki Magennis

 from Nikki Magennis

1) Write poetry. Poetry can help a writer focus on rhythm, sound and pacing and encourage you to be rigorous about your word choices at a sentence level. These skills will spill over into your other writing, too. 

2) Record conversations. Real life dialogue is a fascinating, messy beast. I love writing and reading transcriptions, and it'll help your dialogue to look closely at how people really speak.


3) Edit. I'm tempted to write this for the last three points, but that would be cheap, so I won't. But let me say as strongly as I possibly can that every piece of good work has to be edited over and over again, preferably with a bit of time lapsed between drafts so you can come to it with fresh eyes.


4) Find at least one good beta reader. Critting other people's work as well as sharing yours with peers is scary, dangerous and invaluable.


5) Never stop questioning everything, particularly your own work. I've been writing professionally for years and I still feel like a shitty beginner. This is good. I hope I always feel like a shitty beginner - 'may my heart always be open to little birds', to put it more poetically. You should be constantly challenging yourself on all fronts - whether on subject matter, style, structure, form, purpose. Everything.

More of Nikki's work can be found here: www.nikkimagennis.com

The Next Big Thing - Lisette Ashton

I've been tagged in The Next Big Thing by fellow writer Nikki Magennis (website: www.nikkimagennis.com) whose last novels, Circus Excite and The New Rakes, are published by Black Lace.

I’ve also been tagged by authors I. G. Frederick (http://www.eroticawriter.net/) and Madeline Moore (http://moremadelinemoore.blogspot.ca/2012/12/the-next-big-thing.html) so it’s obvious that this has been a popular meme.

Anyway, I'm instructed to tell you all about my next book by answering these questions. So here I go!


What is the working title of your next book?
The working title was Dragon Horn. It’s now been published under the title  Dragon Desire: The Quest for Satisfaction.

Where did the idea come from for the book?
I was writing a short story for Mitzi Szereto’s Thrones of Desire anthology and got hooked on the fantasy worlds of guys with swords and women dragons. My original short story was almost like a taste of what happens a generation before this story begins. There’s an island of dragons, some beautiful maids, a mage with powers of magicks, and a powerful aphrodisiac drink that can melt the clothes from a young maid’s bosom.

What genre does your book fall under?
Erotic fantasy.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
There would need to be parts for Eliza Dushku, Emma Watson, Johnny Depp and Robert Pattinson. These are attractive characters and they deserve to be played by attractive actors.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
A seer, a charlatan and a mage are on a quest to secure the ultimate aphrodisiac and not even a dragon will come between them and their goal.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
The book came out December 20^th and is published by Mischief Books. It’s available here in the UK  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dragon-Desire-ebook/dp/B00ALKTUWS/ref=sr_1_6?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1357489252&sr=1-6 and here in the US http://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Desire-ebook/dp/B00ALKTUWS/ref=sr_1_3?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1357489293&sr=1-3&keywords=Dragon+Desire.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
This took nine months. It was one of the longest periods I’ve ever spent working on a novel. I think this was partly because it involved a lot of research to make the period seem convincing. I was researching pre-medieval history (an era that’s notoriously hard to study). I was also trying to ensure that language used by the central characters reflected the period, so each draft involved a heavy reliance on dissecting the etymology.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
I don’t think any writer can approach fantasy without acknowledging some debt to Tolkien. Also, there’s no denying I’ve been influenced by the atmosphere in George R R Martin’s Game of Thrones titles. I’ve also had a lot of fun discovering more about the genre by reading Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth stories and Terry Brooks’s stories Wishsong of Shannara.

Who or What inspired you to write this book?
As a writer, I always challenge myself to write something outside my areas of comfort. If I’m writing the same thing repeatedly I get bored and lose interest. This was a challenge that kept me interested because it was so far removed from my usual milieu of contemporary erotic romance.

What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?
I’m hoping that readers might be interested because it’s been written by the same author who produced the collection of short stories Twisted, or the novels The BloodLust Chronicles, Faith, Hope & Charity, amongst many other titles.

My thanks to Nikki Magennis, I G Fredrick and Madeline Moore for tagging me.