Viral Variation

Viral Variation

By Julie Eberhart Painter


'Twas the night before deadline and all through the house
No software was stirring, not even my mouse.
The research was sitting all snug in a file
For references handy to notes I'd compiled.

The children were grownups >Twas time to create
For artistic achievement, it's never too late.
I wore no kerchief, my husband no cap,
That's totally unnecessary when you're taking a nap.

I'd just nodded off when a noise loud and clear
Interrupted my slumber, my nap disappeared.
And out on the rooftop there came a loud racket
I sat up in my chair. "We're expecting a packet?"

But what to my horrified eyes should appear
But a feline intruder, who grinned ear to ear.
His eyes were all bugged, his lips, red and scary
I jumped from my lounger; no time did I tarry.

He ran toward my office, my work to attack.
I heard a loud clatter and then a big crack.
He streaked to the keyboard and leaped with a clatter.
I flew to my Windows XP, "What's the matter?"

Catbert stood perched with paws fairly flying.
"My book is deleting!" I heard myself crying.
And there in the email that I thought was protected
A McAfee note proclaimed, "Virus Detected."

The book was erasing, one byte at a time,
"Champagne will fire me. I'll get not a dime."

Quicken's tax program dissolved before me,
While The Evil HR Director ignored me.

The voltage protector was screaming in pain
The heart of my hard drive was losing its brain.

Floppies and CDS, in rank disarray,
Lay littered before me to my great dismay.
The printer kept spewing the book from before this.
"Not that one, the new one!" I barely could hiss.

He sprang on hind legs, then arching his back,
Said, "Just take the Kill Fee, you incredible hack.
Go back to your day job; stop screwing around,
And if you want a nice kitty, try accessing The Pound.

On Road Runner, on Dot coms, on AOL, too,
Get on with the havoc. We've got work to do."

And I heard him exclaim >ere he drove out of sight,
"Let's crash Mystery Writers; they deserve a good blight.
So to all you Romantics, these words of advice:
Don't write sex scenes at Christmas, that's really not nice!"

Julie Eberhart Painter, author of Mortal Coil, contributed this for the Season. Her next Champagne book will be released in May 2010. Check out Julie’s website
www.books-jepainter.com

Interview with Rebecca Savage, the lady behind the intrigue

Julie: Welcome, Rebecca. Thank you for joining our blog today.

Rebecca: Thanks so much for letting me chat with you and your people. I know it'll be fun.

Julie: Your website, www.rebeccasavage.com, especially your bio. in it, is very revealing. It seems that your career changed course in midstream. To what do you owe that change in your focus?

Rebecca: I think I've gone in so many directions because I'm a well-rounded person. I've traveled a lot, especially when I was in the military, and I love languages and people everywhere. I held a top secret clearance in the military, so that helped me decide what type of books I'd write first, but I've started branching out to other sub genres now. So I started in the military, then got out when my base closed and became a teacher of history at the high school level, and now I've added author to my resume. I also do taxes on the side, which means I think with both sides of my brain. Scary!

Julie: Having read as many books as you mentioned, you already had the formula for good romantic suspense. What book of all the ones that influenced you had the most impact on your style of writing?

Rebecca: Okay, so, not to sound like a broken record, but so many people like Nora Roberts, and I have to say I do, too. She's so fast-paced and stimulating. There's never a dull moment in her books. I hope there aren't boring points in my books either, but if there are, they won't last long. I promise.

Julie: Does your background in history affect the voice of your writing?

Rebecca: Yes, I had a hard time switching from writing like I was penning a research paper. Fiction is all action, dialog, and so on. Term papers are a very different animal.

Julie: Would you recommend belonging to the RWA (Romance Writers of America) to our already published Champagne Books authors? And if so why?

Rebecca: Okay, well, this one could get me in trouble either way, huh? Here goes. I have benefited immensely from the local level groups of RWA such as Carolina Romance Writers and Missouri Romance Writers, and the National Conference I attended in 2007 in Dallas was great, but...if you don't go to the conference, or join a local group, I see no benefit to being a part of the RWA national organization. The RWR Magazine (Romance Writers Report) is okay, and it gives you contest info and such, but the main benefit is being a part of the local group. So if you're gonna spend the money to pay the yearly fee to belong to RWA, then join a local group and go to the meetings. The members of those groups will be your best sources of information.

Julie: You showed a lot of discipline and integrity not hopping into RWA’s pool of judges when they put out the call at the local chapter level each year. You said you weren’t ready to judge or join critique partners then. What did you base that feeling on?

Rebecca: I didn't want to judge until I'd been judged. If I hadn't sold and published my own works, how would I know if I was doing the right thing or had the knowledge base or experience to judge or critique someone else's work? I'm not perfect now, but I've been working with editors and critique partners a while now, and I think I know what they're looking for. My writing has improved because of those folks, so I hope others can trust my judgment. Of course, I was an avid reader, but it's like driving. Watching and doing are two very different things.

Julie: Hoax agencies and publishers dupe many beginning writers. What would you say are the three most obvious warning signs that these people are not for real?

Rebecca: 1.) If they ask for money, they are bogus. All money flows from the author, not to them. Never pay for editing through false agency. I fell into that trap. See my warning in my bio. I paid $89 for a paragraph of generic advice, then found out the agency was a hoax. 2.) If no one in your groups or on any of your loops has heard of them, or if they've heard bad things, they're bogus. Ask. Ask. Ask. 3.) If they're not a part of some overall organization, they're probably bogus. Check them out.

Julie: One of the most impressive things that I noticed in your history was your faith in yourself and your willingness to, as Stephen King likes to say, “kill your darlings.” All those edits and reedits when you still may not sell the book can be wrenching. What drove you to stay with this and continue writing new material?

Rebecca: I'm a stubborn fool. “My” quote at the bottom of my emails, on my website and on everything I sign for my high school students is: Never let anything hold you down. Rise above it. I live by that motto. I'd never get anywhere if I didn't. Neither would anyone else. Besides, if you send your work to enough people and get the same feedback from enough editors, publishers, critique partners and everyone else, you'll soon learn they're right. Do the edits.

Julie, Tell us about your latest book to be released in September with Champagne Books.

Rebecca: Consequences: It's set in St. Louis, Missouri on The Hill, the Italian area of that great city. I'm from a small town near there, and I have a lot of family still in St. Louis. I go there often, and I love The Hill. I lived in Italy for five and a half years, so I speak the language and love the people. I had eight Italians in my house this June and traveled with them across the country. See my website for my travel info. So, the book is about a police officer, grieving for his murdered fiancée. He stumbles across a manhole on the street where his fiancée was killed, and he finds seven women shoved into the hole. He is a homicide detective, and he has to find out the identity of the serial killer and stop the rescued women from being murdered. The killer is still after them and won't stop until the task is finished. The heroine is the last victim, and the hero believes she'll be the most helpful in solving the case.

Julie: Sounds fascinating. I will buy that book for sure. It was a pleasure to talk with you, Rebecca. Thank you for your time today. How can our readers reach you?

Rebecca: http://rebeccasavage.com
Please, email using the contact form there. Anyone who contacts me within five days of this interview will be entered to win one free pdf copy of one of my books if they email me through that form.
Thanks for listening, and let me know if you like my work. I hope everyone does. I'd hate to be pegged as boring. It's my greatest fear...next to cheese. I'm lactose intolerant, so cheese is my ultimate worst fear. LOL

Interview contributed by Julie Eberhart Painter. Email snorkeljul@aol.com Website:
www.books-jepainter.com, author of Champagne Books newly released Mortal Coil.

Julie Eberhart Painter interviews Jim Woods

Julie: Welcome, Jim. I see you are “out of Africa,” for a while. How many times have you been to the Dark Continent?


Jim: I think I’ve been to southern Africa eight times, and have stayed for as long as six weeks at a time. The first two trips were work assignments when I was Field Editor with GUNS magazine of San Diego. The first was at the invitation of SATOUR, the South African Tourism Board. They invited a total of seven outdoors writers and broadcast media hosts from the U.S. and Canada to report on the recreation opportunities in the country. I was one of only three magazine editors on the junket. The next opportunity came two years later, this time to Zimbabwe, an advertiser–sponsored safari with the purpose of reporting on the sponsor’s new products. I was one of four selected because of our following or popularity in our respective magazines.

After that I was hooked on Africa and went back several times later, on my own dime, and with my wife. Wives don’t go along on press junkets. We’ve also visited other locales across Africa—Morocco, Egypt, Kenya, Zanzibar, Zambia, and Botswana—but South Africa is my preference as a destination.

Julie: It’s certainly the most unusual. I see that guns play a large role in your books and have been part of your life. When did you first pick up a gun, and how have you used this knowledge throughout your career?

Jim: As a Kentuckian, guns just came naturally to me; at least I like to think of it that way. I shot alongside my father as a youngster, but I actually bought my first gun, a .22 rifle, when I was about fifteen. I made a handshake deal with the gun shop to pay it off over time; my parents were not involved. It was the first contract of my life. It couldn’t happen today with the laws governing firearm purchases, and it certainly couldn’t happen between the dealer and a minor.

Julie: Where did the idea for Assassination Safari originate? Were you involved in any hairy moments while traveling in southern Africa?

Jim: Having spent considerable time with South Africans of various cultures, I learned about some of the inner workings of the country that never made the newspapers. In fact, a South African Indian who has immigrated to the U.S. and lives in Oregon, traveled to my home in Arizona just to meet me as author of Assassination Safari. His comment at leaving our house, with his forefinger to the side his nose was “You know things.” It was an acknowledgement, not an accusation.

Julie: This meant you had special knowledge or powers?

Jim: I think he implied insider information, and I admit to having conversations with South African political dissidents, and hearing opinions expressed that were intended to stay unpublished.

My most harried African moment occurred in Angola, en route to Zimbabwe on my second press junket. We American journalists were taken off the plane by Cuban mercenaries and held at gunpoint (a nasty AK-47 directed at each of us) for several hours before release came through some unheralded diplomatic channels.

Other hairy moments include encounters with dangerous game, a charging Cape buffalo, and a myopic white rhino, but at least at those times I had the gun.

Julie: Or I wouldn’t be interviewing you. Why did you feel compelled to write this book—gorgeous cover, by the way.

Jim: Assassination Safari was step two in my becoming a novelist. After several safaris to South Africa, a story generated within me about an American becoming the driving force behind the modern day safari industry in that country. I met a family of South Africans who actually is credited with that accomplishment, and with their approval, I borrowed the recognition of his efforts. That novel, still in work, is Gemstone, and is the story of the fictional Gemstone Safaris, and the character is Jim Stone. I intended the novel to be an important work; however, I also recognized that I had no training as a novelist. I set out to self-educate me by writing a training novel.

My first novel was The Outlander, but being new to the craft, I wrote it too short, falling as it did at the cusp of novella and novel. That was the criticism from a few publishers who liked the idea but not the page limitation, but I also ran into bias against anything South African because of the apartheid politics of the country at the time. But politics change with time and I amended the book’s length by surrounding the centerpiece, The Outlander, with a handful of short stories. The resultant collection, Gunshot Echoes, is published by Champagne Books. Having learned from that first effort, I broadened Assassination Safari to a full novel length, by delving deeper into the details that make a character come alive and the plotting believable.

The Outlander, Assassination Safari and my WIP, Gemstone, while all set in South Africa, are not prequel and sequel. However there is a character, Jim Stone of Gemstone, who appears in all three. In The Outlander, he was a background character, alluded to in relation to the safari clique, but had no part in the story. In Assassination Safari, Jim Stone has a voice and point of view that contributes in a small but key way to the story. Gemstone is his fictional personal and professional story.

Julie: Tell us more about your writing career. You’ve been on both sides of the desk with the production and editing of books and magazines. Elaborate on that and tell us what you found the most challenging.

Jim: My publishing career began long before my books became reality. My first job related to the industry, an after school and Saturday job with a magazine distributor, was stripping covers from outdated magazines for return to the publisher for credit, and assembling orders of new issues for the route men to deliver to the newsstands. But up to my getting into writing novels, I had written and edited nonfiction for much of my life. In military manuals, I explained to U.S. Air Force technicians with tenth-grade educations how to remove a live warhead from a Maverick missile (I had to do it myself in order to write the procedure), and how to test and service a dual-gyro stable platform at the heart of supersonic aircraft inertial navigation systems.


Julie: What educational preparation did you have for this?

Jim: A writer’s education comes from many sources, not the least of which is his/her interaction with the street. Mine is supplemented with formal academic studies in engineering and journalism. I’d like to brag that the engineering courses I took at the University of Southern California (USC) makes that school my alma mater but I spent more time at a small and only locally recognized college in Moorpark, California, where my major was journalism. I added to both those courses of study at Pierce College in California and later at the University of Arizona. The U.S. Navy put me into extensive electronics training and that was the start of my engineering studies upon my discharge. However, engineering for me turned into more writing than building, and writing won out.

From my positions as engineering writer/technical editor in the defense and aerospace industries, I moved to commercial publishing. I answered an ad in Guns & Ammo magazine for a junior editorial position, and with a couple of freelance gun articles already accepted by that magazine, I was invited in for an interview. My portfolio was slim so I fattened it with an impressive-sized engineering report that I had ghosted for the department manager. After explaining my part in the voluminous report, that I actually had written it to go out under the PhD’s signature, that I had directed the typists and artists in preparation of the book, I was hired, but not for the junior position. The company was looking to replace their books editor, a separate function from the magazine, and found my editing and personnel handling capabilities right for the job. Over the years I served as Editor, Managing Editor, and Editorial Director for the books division but also for Guns & Ammo and Petersen’s Hunting magazines.

With a personal move to Arizona, I contracted with GUNS magazine as Field Editor, supplying my monthly feature article and specialty column from my home office. That assignment lasted several years, ending only because I succumbed to a personal request from a manager and friend at Hughes Missiles in Tucson to take over and overhaul the engineering publications department. That promise of “just two years” turned to ten before I left them on their own.

Trying to re-enter the freelance magazine fraternity, I found that all the editors I knew had moved on and the new ones, who recognized my past work, did not see me as the answer to their current needs. But I had books simmering on my back burner. My first success was a quick-reference writing tutorial, Two Dozen Lessons From An Editor, which was little more than an accumulated collection of my monthly columns in a club magazine. The same publisher also took my collection of short fiction, Journeys, after my sending him a bound copy of the self-published edition.

Still more at ease with nonfiction, the changeover to fiction being my most interesting and challenging career move, I worked on my memoir of world hunting experiences, and that book is published by Champagne Books as Parting Shot. But, I’ve also co-authored a collection of short fiction, Olla Podrida, with Champagne Books author, Carol Costa (but not as a Champagne Books title); and I have contributed to various fiction and nonfiction anthologies.


Julie: Is Olla Podrida in Spanish?

Jim: Spanish, Mexican anyhow, for “spicy stew.”


Julie: What do you read when you’re not writing or editing another writer’s work?

Jim: My library holds approximately 1000 volumes, an equal mix of fiction and reference books. I’ve read most of them but have one short shelf set aside for books yet unread. I have close to 100 reference books on historic and current firearms; maybe 200 history texts, and at least 100 volumes related to some aspect of Africa, including fiction by my favorite author, Wilbur Smith. He’s written thirty fiction novels set in Africa and I have all but his latest two, which are on my list to do. I have a handful of novels that I re-read from time to time; Doctor Zhivago comes to mind. There are others, like the Wilbur Smith stories.


Julie: Thank you so much for stopping by to share your adventures with our readers. It’s time to wind up this conversation, but before we part, how can our readers reach you?

Jim: Thanks Julie. My e-mail is jwoods@ultrasw.com, and my website is www.ultrasw.com/jwoods.


Interview contributed by Julie Eberhart Painter. Email snorkeljul@aol.com Website:
www.books-jepainter.com, author of Champagne Books newly released Mortal Coil.

Excerpt - Mortal Coil by Julie Eberhart Painter

The Ponytail Perp is on the loose. Ellen, the long-term care facility administrator and single mom, could lose her job and she's conflicted about her feelings for the detective whose trying to solve the crimes. In the comfort of her kitchen, she and her almost eleven-year-old daughter, Patti, share a tender moment processing their grief. It's the first time Ellen admits to herself that her husband's death may not have been an accident. But can she ever tell Patti?

***********

A few nights later, Ellen and Patti were putting supper together. Sherman was curled safely off in the corner, watching for the signal that his dinner was ready.
“Mom, do you ever get lonely?”
Ellen put the pot back on the stove and looked at Patti. “Sure. I miss your father terribly. You must miss him, too.”
Patti picked up the dog’s dish and began ladling dry dog food into it. She faced her mother, spoon in the air. “I think about him a lot, Mom. Sandy’s parents have been really nice to me. They include me in a lot of their family stuff, but sometimes I feel like a charity case. It’s not like when we used to get together--when Daddy was here and the weekends were... fun.”
“We can’t expect the Millers to include us the way they used to. Les is their dad and he sets the pace with his own family. I don’t think he wants the widow...” Ellen’s voice caught in her throat. “...the neighbor lady tagging along on their family outings.”
“We had so much fun when Daddy was here. He knew all about baseball.” Patti paused. “He was...”
“Special?”
“Yeah.” Patti put the spoon on the counter and walked into her mother’s arms. “I miss him, Mom. The KidzCamp counselor said I always would. Doesn’t it ever stop hurting?”
“It will hurt less someday, especially if they find the person who was driving the car that caused the accident. But for both of us, there will always be an empty space where your daddy was.”
“I get scared sometimes. I woke up this morning, and I couldn’t remember what he looked like.”
“You’ll remember him again, just the way he was when you were little. You have his pictures to remind you. We should get one laminated so you can carry it with you in your backpack.”
“You moved them downstairs, but I know where they are. I went to look for the pictures this morning. I just couldn’t go to school without seeing him. Is that okay? Is that normal?”
“Sit down a minute, honey. Let me explain something.”
Patti sat.
“Everything you’re feeling is normal. It’s okay to remember your dad any way you want to. No one should talk you out of it.”
“Do you think about him... a lot... when you’re at work?”
“Sometimes. Mostly I think about him at home and on those long, empty weekends you mentioned.”
“When the kids have things they do with their families. That’s the worst.”
“Maybe you and I could go see Great-gramma some weekend soon--when the weather in Pennsylvania gets better, before your softball season begins.”
“I’d like that. She’s very old, Mom. Is she gonna die, too?”
“We all die. We just don’t know when. She’s quite the miracle at her age.”
“Daddy wasn’t old. He was only forty-five when… And you’re forty. Are you--? But his was an accident.”
“People die when it’s their time.” Ellen had never told Patti she thought Tom might have been deliberately hit. At her age, Patti shouldn’t know about that kind of meanness. “We just have to move along in our lives and trust that we have enough time left to do what we came for.”
“I hope you have a hundred years, Mom.”
Ellen hugged her daughter. A hundred years without Tom sounded like a life sentence.
~ * ~

Interviewing Julie Eberhart Painter

Tami: Hello Julie! Welcome to the blog! How are you doing today?

Julie: Fine, of course, when I can talk about writing.

Tami: Well we are glad to have you here. Let's talk about that great book of yours. That is an interesting title, what inspired the title Mortal Coil?

Julie: My grandmother lived in a nursing home in a 300-year old building in Philadelphia, PA. After she died at age 105, the home was investigated for a series of murders. It made the national news in 1984. The image of the old folks shuffling around from activity to activity inspired me to use Hamlet’s phrase, “When I shuffle off this mortal coil.”

Tami: A play on words, very interesting.

Julie: My weakness. I love a play on words and plan to use more of them for book titles. Champagne is considering another one now.

Tami: Can you tell me or do you plan on leaving me in suspense?

Julie: “Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.” Tangled Web seemed like a short poetic title to describe the serpentine road my heroine travels, especially this one.

Tami: It sounds like you must read a lot of books.

Julie: Almost as many as Stephen King. I always have a magazine going, a novel or autobiography going and an audio book for the car, although if Gershwin or Andrew Lloyd Webber are playing when I turn on my Public Radio station (WMFE), I wait.

Tami: Who are your favorite authors?

Julie: I lean toward mystery romance. Just discovered Harlan Coben. I like Greg Isles, but don’t like too much sick gore. Nora Roberts is just right. I’ve read all of John Grisham’s novels, and I’m a literary lover, such people as Ann Tyler, Margaret Attwood, and Anne Lamott are inspirational. Lamott’s first book on religion and of course Bird by Bird are her best. I cannot help but enjoy humor. Harlen Coben injects humor and irony that is very effective although some might call it author intrusion. He’s too funny to be deleted. We do think of the darndest things when we’re up against the wall—a place he spends a lot of time!

Tami: Oh, I love Nora Roberts! Have you read her In The Garden Tri.... oh never mind....let’s get back to Mortal Coil. You have several amusing scenes in that.

Julie: Courting and romance should start out lightheartedly. I was pleased that Kat Hall mentioned that in her review of Mortal Coil.

Tami: How long have you been with Champagne?

Julie: I just came into the family and love what I'm seeing. The openness, the help from other authors. My website www.books-jepainter.com now carries a picture of Nora Roberts and me because of Champagne author, Rebecca Savage, who has one of her with Nora at the Dallas 2007 convention. I'm learning a lot from the Yahoo groups.

Tami: You live in the US. How did you hear of us?

Julie: Providence. I was on a ship in the middle of the South Pacific when I was approached by Jim Woods, formerly an outdoor and gun expert who writes adventure for Champagne. He asked ‘Are you the writer?’ I said, ‘Yes. Are you the other one?’ The rest we know. I couldn’t wait to get home and write them a proposal.”

Tami: And that was Mortal Coil?

Julie: It was. I finished my final edit and sent it off. Of course the final edit isn’t really done until the publisher puts you out of your misery by bringing the book out. May was my lucky month!

Tami: It definitely sounds like it. Well welcome to the family and I can't wait to read some more from you. Thanks again for stopping by the blog to chat with me. Take care!

Julie: Thank you for having me. Epublishing is on the cutting edge of a new market. With all the competition in e-readers and small laptops, I feel fortunate to have joined Champagne Books when I did. Keep up your good work. A publicist is our outreach into the reading community.

Tami: OK guys, make sure to stop by to visit us when we will have

Mortal Coil by Julie Eberhart Painter

I was pleased to see that Seniors Today gave me a two-page spread. On the right was your review of Mortal Coil and on the left was my long travel article about the Massacre of Glencoe (Scotland) with the sidebar poem by Sir Walter Scott that begins "Cool is the snow that sweeps Glencoe/and covers the grave MacDonald..." Also, that same day, www.bewilderingstories.com added my flash fiction story, "Caribbean Paradise," about a plane crashing into water. Bewildering stories will alter my bio to add Mortal Coil and my new website. They also have a promotional area for news and reviews.

Julie

Julie Eberhart Painter
Mortal Coil, available from
http://www.champagnebooks.com/
http://www.books-jepainter.com/