The Next Big Thing

The Next Big Thing

 Blog Hop

by

GVR Corcillo

The Publishing Revolution - which will not be televised, but downloaded - gives THE READER freedom like never before. Publishing companies are no longer the definitive gatekeepers deciding what the reader will have access to. Now, the reader can smash through the gates, cause a flood, and ride the waves. Readers, and I am one heck of a reader myself, can explore books and authors and make their own choices.

That's what The Next Big Thing Blog Hop is all about. A writer answers ten questions about her or his latest project, then tags more writers to blog the following week. It is one more way for writers to connect with readers and let them know what's out there.    

Last week, I was tagged by the talented and delightful Kitty Bucholtz, author of the refreshing and cozy Little Miss Lovesick. I was also lucky enough to have a short story in the same anthology as she did, Romancing the Pages. 

After my interview, I will tag two more writers who will keep the blog hopping along.

Now, on to...

1: What is the working title of your book?

My novel She Likes It Rough has just been released in trade paperback,but it certainly hasn't always been called that! First, it was Between a Rock and a Hard Place, but as I wrote, the book became less and less about a dilemma. Then the title became Into the Wild, but then I realized there was a very different book out there named Into the Wild, so I changed my title. Though I hadn't even been thinking of the Jon Krakauer book - I had gotten the title from a line in the movie The Fellowship of the Ring. When the Hobbits ask Strider where he is taking them, Strider responds, "Into the wild," a line I thought just reverberated with excitement. And it was sexy, too, since Viggo Mortensen was the one delivering the line! Next, the title became Girl Gone Wild, but so many people despised that title because of the videos that I changed it yet again. When I hit upon She Likes It Rough, I knew I'd nailed it. My heroine Lisa Flyte makes it rough on herself, doing so many things in the book that terrify her, but on a deeper level, she has been making it rough on herself her whole life because she has always been too scared to live her life to the fullest and go after what she really wants. 

2: Where did the idea come from for the book?  

Viggo Mortensen, again! Kind of. Years ago, I was flipping channels and came across the Sylvester Stallone movie Daylight, written by Leslie Bohem. Viggo Mortensen was in it, so I stopped to watch for a bit. Viggo plays an outdoor extremist who is also a businessman. That sparked the idea for my hero Jack, a an adrenaline junkie who designs gear for outdoor sporting adventures. The rest of the story evolved from there. The inspiration for Lisa? Well, I have this, uh, friend, yeah, a friend, and she's afraid of so many things. Heights, big animals, loud noises, wearing the wrong thing, what her mother thinks of her... 

3: What genre does your book come under?   

I call it a romantic comedy, but that is not exactly a book genre. Contemporary humorous women's fiction is the closest. Though I have to say, I am not a huge fan of pigeon-holing books into genres. I often wonder what would happen if J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye were released today. Would it be labelled Young Adult and dismissed by serious literary critics the world over? Would it make it to the reading list in almost every high school in America? I wonder.  

4: Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?  

Mandy Moore and James Marsden. Mandy Moore plays down-to-earth better than any other actress I've seen in her age range. Her performances in Dedication and How to Deal convince me that she would be perfect as Lisa. And James Marsden - this guy is such a good actor that the depths and nuances of his characterizations actually overshadow his amazing looks. And that is my hero Jack to a T - he is so hot that he seems daunting from afar, but once Lisa sees him up close and gets to know him, she realizes he is a guy with issues, attitudes, and opinions that keep her on her toes and knock her for a loop. 

5: What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Can daring outdoor adventures with an adrenaline junkie give a daydreaming scaredy-cat the backbone she needs in order to get tough and make her life count for something?

6: Is your book self-published, published by an independent publisher, or represented by an agency?

I've created my own company Blackbird Press to self-publish my books. Wow! The control and the satisfaction of creation is exhilarating! Without a doubt, self-publishing is very hard work, but I am loving every second of it. 

7: How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

Years! This book has gone through so many incarnations. Very little is left from the first 'first' draft except the hero's name and the scene in his office that involves the wetsuit. Over those years, not only the story, but also my writing style was evolving as I became more and more comfortable with and confident about my own voice.

8: What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary. The playful irreverence of the story as a woman tries to become the hero of her own life echoes throughout my book. With one big difference. My heroine Lisa's goal is never to get a guy or get married. Her prime directive is to make her life count for something, to become more significant. Her interaction with the hero Jack is a big part of that journey, but Lisa never focuses on her 'single' status as something she needs to remedy. Because of this shift, She Likes It Rough reminds me of Lisa Lutz's Izzy Spellman Series. Though my book is not a mystery, it uses wacky situations to explore not only romance, but relationships with family, career angst, and ways and means of getting along with the rest of the populated world.  

9: Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Let me tell you who inspired me to do something even more amazing than write this book - I'll tell you who inspired me to publish this book. Leonard Wang Kingsley! I went to school with him, and we met up again a few years ago at a class reunion. So, we began emailing each other. (We live on opposite coasts.) Last spring, he sent me an email suggesting I self-publish my novel. Really? I thought. Could I be so bold? He sent me a list of everything I would need to do, and ever since that email, I have been working on everything on that list! With his help!  Debra Holland, a wonderful and phenomenally successful author that I have known for years, has been another inspiration. She self-published several of her novels last year and has blasted a beacon of light and guidance across the world of publishing.

10: What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Jack and Lisa'a adventures out in the wild were so much fun to research and write! Lisa is so scared, but she steps up and jumps when Jack says jump - into the middle of the ocean, off a cliff, out of a plane. Lisa jumps completely out of her own world - a world dominated by pop culture references to the movies, TV shows, songs, books, and commercials she's been surrounded by all her life. How she melds what happens in the wild with what goes on in her everyday life is the essence of the story.  

Tag - you're it!

What an energizing interview! Now I'm tagging two more writers to blog next week about their captivating latest projects.

Claire LaZebnik, 
author of humorous women's fiction and delightful YA! Click on her name to see what she is all about and what she writes and blogs!

Paula Martin, 
author of wonderfully satisfying contemporary romances! Click on her name to see what she is all about and what she writes and blogs!

The Next Big Thing....
Though I blog every night (sometimes day), this The Next Big Thing Blog will remain posted as my primary blog for the next week. However, comment on my blog if you want to check in with me, see how I'm doing, ask about my writing, or find out about my tallies. I will write back with alacrity! 

GVR Corcillo

author of

  

She Likes It Rough

"All Summer on a Date"

"Jane Austen Meets the New York Giants"

Queen of the Universe coming this Fall

Whatever Lola Wants

Many years ago, I wrote a category romance novel Whatever Lola Wants. I entered it in many contests, and it either won or placed in every contest. But then when I submitted it to a publisher, it was turned down with alacrity. I folded like a lawn chair. I never sent that book out again.

Why not? Who the hell knows?! Maybe Eli Manning knows. I just wasn't much of a gamer.

Not long after that crushing rejection, I submitted a short story to a Marlo Thomas anthology. I didn't write according to any perceived rules or limitations - just my voice telling my story. I sent it in around 11:50pm. The deadline was midnight. The next morning my husband woke me up and handed me the phone: the anthology wanted my story.

From that day on, my writing changed. I strayed away from category romance and began writing first person, present tense stories. Like "Jane Austen Meets the New York Giants." And "All Summer on a Date." And She Likes It Rough.

Whatever happened to Whatever Lola Wants? I am rewriting it my way and calling it Queen of the Universe.

In fact, I started rewriting it today. I accomplished all of the goals I set up for today. And all almost before 3am!!!!! Yay!!!!! My website glitch took a lot longer to fix than I thought and my cat got sick, but I still did it all. All that AND made some new friends on Facebook. And reconnected with awesome writer Cheryl St. John who I met many years ago at a conference. And she really got me thinking about even more stuff I need to be doing as an author. A good, tiring day.

It was Friday, and I was in love all day.

Tallies:

Total blog hits:188

She Likes It Rough sales: 6

Website hits: 503

GVR Corcillo

author of

  

She Likes It Rough

"All Summer on a Date"

"Jane Austen Meets the New York Giants"

Queen of the Universe coming this Fall

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice....

I'm posting this blog about 11 hours early. Why? Because it's February 2oth! My husband's birthday. So later tonight, I do not want to be writing my blog. See? This is a perfect example of scheduling passions, which I talked about in my blog Put Down the Duckie! a few posts ago. I am not about to have no time for Ron when he gets home, but, I am still going to get my writing work done for the day.

February 20 - what a great day. Sigh. Today I heard the leaves rustle, looked outside, and saw the shadows of a tree's leaves dancing across the hood of my car. And suddenly I was transported back to my childhood, back to spring days of Chinchilla, Pennsylvania, when chill winds and clear cold sunshine would dominate the day.

And then I felt, I knew, how lucky I was to have grown up in Pennsylvania, with its fireflies, and potholes, and towns with names like Hop's Bottom. Why so lucky? I guess because it made me who I am. It's all a part of me, and that is valuable.

I think people (this author being no small exception) have a tendency to make excuses based on history and present circumstances.

Yeah, it's easy for him, he doesn't have two kids to put through college.
Sure, but she's got a rich husband.
Maybe if my parents had been brilliantly successful....
If I lived in Alabama in 1930, I'd have a lot to write about, too.
Back in the sixties, people really had causes worth fighting for.
If I had a car like that, girls would like me, too.
Yeah, but she's not working two jobs.

Here's the deal, as far as I can tell - we all have our issues, our circumstances, our obligations. But these do not block us from achieving our dreams ( unless we pile them up in front of our dreams, insisting that we have no place else to put them.) No, our issues, circumstances, and obligations do not block our dreams. Rather, they are the stuff our dreams are made of. All of our personal "stuff" is who we are, and dreams are another version of who we are. Instead of thinking, "I have_______ in my life, so I can't _______,"try this: "I have ________ in my life, so how can I __________?" Forget the path you wanted to take, and focus on the terrain in front of you and how to tackle it.

Seriously, it works.

GVR Corcillo

author of

  

She Likes It Rough

"All Summer on a Date"

"Jane Austen Meets the New York Giants"

Queen of the Universe coming this Fall

Ruby Slippers

I was terrified.

In less than twenty minutes, guest speaker Jessica Brody would be talking about screen writer Blake Snyder's book Save the Cat!, which outlines the 15 beats every successful story needs in order to resonate.

Damn!

What a day to come to a writer's meeting! I had the proof of my soon to be published novel in my hand. Was I about to find out that my story sucked and really wan't even a story at all? Had I come all this way for nothing?

But to my amazement and relief, listening to Jessica check off the beats was like watching the Oscars the year Return of the King was nominated. First beat, okay, got that. Second, good. Third, got that one. And just as Return of the King, one by one, won every Oscar it was nominated for, my story had every one of the 15 beats. Halleluja! My opening and closing images reflect one another beautifully. My false defeats and false victories are in place. My darkest moment happens right on cue. And my thesis - the line in the beginning that sets up the whole story and the problem that the story will solve - nailed it. Why did I ever think someone like him would put up with someone like me?

I'd never read Save the Cat! nor paid particular attention to Joseph Campbell's The Hero's Journey. I had no outline. I just wrote my story. With some inherent sense of good story telling. Apparently. Without realizing it, I knew what I was doing. The power was in me all along, just like Dorothy and clicking her ruby heels at the end of The Wizard of Oz.

Yet for years, I'd doubted myself. It took Fairy Godmother Jessica Brody to get me to open my book, look inside, and see all the beats lined up like popcorn on a string. It had been no easy task to get the beats there, but now that they are, they feel so right. And honestly, it was only about the millionth time in my life that my knack for writing has been officially sanctioned. Jeepers - when I was a sophomore in college I tied with an MFA graduate for first place in a writing contest. It just took me a good long while to start believing. And it wasn't until I took the decisive action to publish my book that my belief felt real to me.  

So - what am I saying? That someday things will come together for you, and at that moment you will realize that the power had been in you to transform your life all along? No. I am saying that the power is in you, right now, so act on it. Just do it. Flip the switch that allows your dreams to come blasting forth to illuminate your life. If you want to move to New Zealand, move to New Zealand. If you want to quit your job and go to medical school at age 52, do it. If you want to kiss the prom queen, despite the punch in the face you know is coming from the prom king, go for it. If you want to cut off all your hair, why not? If you want to patent that invention, do it before someone beats you to it. Do something huge if your heart of hearts wants it. Or sometimes even the smallest change in routine can change a life. Rosa Parks just didn't get up, and she shifted the course of human history.

So click those heels. You've got the power.

GVR Corcillo

author of

  

She Likes It Rough

"All Summer on a Date"

"Jane Austen Meets the New York Giants"

Queen of the Universe coming this Fall

 

The Jane Austen Book Club

In Karen Joy Fowler's novel The Jane Austen Book Club, five women and one man form a club to read and discuss Jane Austen's six novels. As they do, their lives and conflicts echo those so masterfully created by Jane herself. I really enjoyed the book - each character's story facsinates all on its own, and each story delightfully entangles with the others a la Austen.

When the movie version came out, I scornfully dismissed it. I had not seen it - I find scoffing easier the less information I have - but it was clear that the film could never do the poignant backstories justice and so many of the characters were cast too young. 

Then I saw it. 

The film, written and directed by Robin Swicord, brought the Austen-esque parallels into sharper, funnier, more critical focus. Each discussion of a book plays out brilliantly as the members work out their issues with one another and with themselves by ostensibly discussing Austen. For instance, two women who do not hit it off from the word go take jabs at one another as they vehemently argue about Emma and the nature of love. One woman mourns her mother while railing against Mr. Bennett of Pride and Prejudice.  And the in the second to last book discussion, Grigg and Jocelyn really go at it as they discuss Sense and Sensibilty and its opinions of sexuality and abandon. Not to be missed!

It is a captivating fantasy for an Austen fan - a story in which the characters lives morph into echoes of what they're reading, happy endings and all.

But is it a fantasy? The melding of life and literature? Or do we gravitate toward certain stories because we are subconsciously trying to work things out for ourselves? As Eli Manning said earlier this season when asked if his arm was tired, "Who knows?"

Here is what I do know, though. My life is beginning to echo my main character Lisa Flyte's in She Likes It Rough, and that is no accident. It wasn't a sure thing either, and my personal journey is going to be a lot longer than 320 pages, but my life is becoming more like that of the fictional life I created. And my life is changing thus specifically because I created the fictional character in the first place!

When I first decided to write She Likes It Rough, I started from the very simple idea Write What You Know. I am afraid of almost everything, except dogs and public speaking, so I wrote about a scaredy-cat. I want a backbone, so I made my character decide to get a backbone. I had to collapse a restaurant on top of her then completely humiliate her both personally and publicly in order to to get her to make that decision, but she makes it. Once she makes the decision, acting on it becomes pretty daunting. But the very fact that she has something to work for gives her life a different slant. Sometimes she slips right down that slant and lands on her head, but she's a trooper. 

Ever since I published this book, my life has been bopping along to Lisa's beat, as I work to promote this book, write more books, and construct my world instead of just inhabiting the one that came with the frame. I'm not going on daring adventures in the wild to find my backbone, but I am bushwhacking my way into uncharted territory. I'm sweaty, dirty, bug-bitten, and living on rations. It is just so cool!

GVR Corcillo

author of

  

She Likes It Rough

"All Summer on a Date"

"Jane Austen Meets the New York Giants"

Queen of the Universe coming this Fall