Guest Blogger: Michele Drier

It is my pleasure to introduce you to Author Michele Drier, who is our Guest Blogger today on Conversations.  Michele is going to tell you about her two books, Snap: The World Unfolds and Edited for Death as well as give us a little insight into her writing day and process.  Grab a cup of coffee or tea, whatever your choice, and enjoy!

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A Writer's Life by Michele Drier

 

Ah, the life of a writer!  Going to lavish parties where the A-list people stand around chatting about books and celebrities. 

Jetting off to the south of France to research a book on the bastard son of a French king.

NOT!

 I have two books currently available, am frantically finishing a third and planning two novellas and another mystery for the rest of this year.  And I’m doing this by sitting at my computer roughly 10 hours a day.  True, I’m sitting in my jammies, but I for sure wouldn’t want any of the men who populate my books to pop in.

I don’t know about all other writers, but for me there’s a real disconnect between appearance and reality!

The reality is that I manage just enough housework to keep the show Hoarders at bay.  When I need to go out, I get dressed from the pile of jeans on my dresser and keep a supply of flip-flops and Crocs by the door to the garage.  Most of my day revolves around the cat hollering at me to feed him, let him out, let him in and FEED HIM.

Things might be a little better if I’d ever learned discipline.  I’m the one in high school and college who wrote the paper THEN did the outline. If anybody required that I turn in an outline first, I was sunk.

This lack of ability to plan has followed me through life.  I’ve fallen into and out of different jobs and careers, loves, even a couple of marriages. And its in full swing now in my writing life.

Except...I have a name for it now.  I’m a pantser!

Basically, I write by the seat of my pants.  Don’t outline, don’t develop scenes, don’t make a list of characters.  I do have the story in my mind, I do have the major characters, I do have the plot and the resolution.

I’ve found a highway heading north, but who knows what wonderful side roads will appear?  Who knows whether I’ll pick up that hitch-hiker?  Maybe I’ll want to spend a few days in that hotel.

Which means that I have spend some time in the morning reading the last chapter or so to get into the story again.  And it also means that I’m cranky at interruptions, so the cat gets short shrift.

But, oh, the freedom!  It allowed me to take Amy Hobbes, the protag in my mystery Edited for Death, off to a romantic weekend in San Francisco with an old—and now single—friend!

And because of the detours, Maxie Gwenoch, ME of SNAP, the celeb gossip magazine in SNAP: The World Unfolds, will find herself in the back of a smashed Mercedes limo in a deserted factory parking lot outside of Kiev, while her vampire lover, Jean-Louis, chases Chechen thugs. 

You probably wouldn’t like living in my head; it’s chaos.  And I know I’m not an attractive housemate (except for the cat), but writing’s a great life.

Now, where’s that A-List party, again?

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SNAP: The World Unfolds

SNAP, a multinational celeb TV show and magazine, is the holy grail for Maxie Gwenoch. When she snags the job as managing editor, she's looking for fame, fortune and Jimmy Choos. What she finds is a media empire owned by Baron Kandesky and his family. A family of vampires. They're European, urbane, wealthy and mesmerizing. And when she meets Jean-Louis, vampire and co-worker, she's a goner. 

The Kandesky vampire family rose in Hungary centuries ago. They gave up violence and killing to make a killing on the world's commodities markets and with that beginning they built SNAP, an international celebrity multimedia empire. Now cultured...and having found food substitutes for killing...they’ve cornered the world market for celebrity and gossip journalism.

They haven't fully left the past behind. Their Hungarian neighbors and rival vampire clan, the Huszars are starting to ramp up attacks, maybe looking to start a war to take over all the Kandeskys have built.

Maxie believes she's found her ultimate career. She doesn't realize that she's found a family feud like none other, a centuries-old rivalry between vampire families, with her as the linchpin. Bells ring with Jean-Louis, but she doesn’t realize they’re alarm sirens until she learns that Jean-Louis is second in command of the Kandeskys...but by then it's too late.

Available in ebook only: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0059K50D8

Edited for Death:

Midwest Book Review: "Edited for Death" is a riveting and much recommended pick for general fiction and mystery collections.

Smart, classy, and genuinely entertaining. The clever puzzler, taut and tense, nails the high-stakes reality of a devoted journalist on the hunt for a blockbuster story. Breaking news: this mystery is a winner! Hank Phillippi Ryan Agatha, Anthony and Macavity winning author

A Memorable Book for 2011 on the DorothyL list.

Amy Hobbes never expected to solve anything tougher than a crossword puzzle. When she left her job as a journalist in Southern California, she planned to give the adrenaline a rest, but her next job, managing editor of a local newspaper, delivers some surprises. After a respected Senator and World War II hero dies and two more people turn up dead, the news heats up. Both victims had ties to a hotel owned by the Senator's family. With the help of reporter pal Clarice and the new man in her life, Phil, Amy uncovers a number of shadowy figures, including a Holocaust survivor who's spent sixty years tracking down Nazi loot. It's a complex and dangerous puzzle, but Amy can't walk away until she solves it.

Available in ebook: http://amzn.to/zR0FaA

and paperback: http://amzn.to/roic00