Toni V Sweeney is an author of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Her newest work "Wizard’s Wife" is available from Class Act Books. 　

Toni V Sweeney is an author of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Her newest work Wizard’s Wife is available from Class Act Books.

How did you come up with the title?

Once there was a wizard and he had a wife. There you are. One title, coming up! the title. Actually, I muddled around for quite some time but nothing I thought of seemed appropriate, so finally I just gave up and made it the obvious.

What is this book about? And what genre is this book in?

The book is a contemporary fantasy. It’s the story of a young woman who marries a man she thinks is a scientist from Ireland. He turns out to be a wizard from a dimension called Ais Linn, one of the magickal people whom the Irish called the "little people." He’s been sent to Earth to protect it from a coming astronomical event which will weaken the portals the fae used to enter our world and allow an evil sorcerer and his men to enter.

Who is/are the main characters? And why did you choose them?

The two main characters are David McMuir, the wizard, and Megan, his wife. They’re the title characters. For a wizard, David’s a bit of a dreamer, accustomed to being the favored son, though when it comes to carrying out his mission, namely, to protect the Earth, he follows through expertly. He’s a Trooping Faery—that is, a human-sized one—and they’re very attracted to mortals, so when he meets Megan, he immediately falls in love with her. So much so that he dares go against his father’s orders to marry his mortal sweetheart. Fortunately for David, mortals are also attracted to him so Megan is just as deeply in love as he is, though she’s a little more down-to-earth. When David confesses what he is, she prefers to think her husband is delusional rather then accept the fact that he’s a faery. After she’s eventually convinced, however, she follows him back to Ais Linn because as his wife, she believes she should be wherever her husband is.

What is the coolest or best part about your book? (Any Favorite scenes, the world-building etc. )

One of the parts I like best if the section where David finally convinces Megan he’s a faery, by showing her how he actually looks. He does it gradually, kind of easing into it; first he makes himself look like Merlin, with a long white beard and a robe with stars and crescents all over it and a pointed hat. Then, he shows her his real self…6’2" of drop-dead gorgeous fae, with a 6-foot wingspan, pointed ears, and vaporous antenna. And all she can do is stand there and tell him he can’t possibly be one of the Little People because he’s too tall!

Do you have a favorite character in the book? If so, why?

Well, I like the villain, Exeter Dubhtina. He’s just so evil, and enjoys it so. He’s the kind of bad guy you love to hate. Another character I like is Sir Liam Connery. Liam is the leader of Exeter’s Wolf Pack, a group of werewolf faery knights who ride around the Samhain Garrai (the Dark Garden) and terrorize the sprites and leprechauns. Liam is the lover of Brigid, twin sister of David’s familiar Ossian, and is caught in the crossfire of being loyal to his master and loyal to the woman he loves.

Is this book part of a series? If so? What can we expect in future books?

It may be a series, I haven’t decided yet. The ending is certainly left open in a way to indicate that. We’ll just have to wait and see.

If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your latest book?

As a matter of fact, I did do the book over again! The original manuscript was lost and I had only a few pages extant. Then those disappeared when I moved, and I even lost the synopsis I had made, so I simply wrote the book over from scratch.

Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?

I learned a lot about the inhabitants of the Land of Fae, which faeries are good, which are evil, and that they come in all shapes and sizes, from 6-foot Trooping faeries like David, to 1-inch sprites. I also learned a good many superstitions, and also a whole lot of Gaelic, which these particular fae speak. There’s an English/Gaelic glossary included at the end of the novel, also.

Do you have a publisher? And if so, why did you choose them?

Wizard’s Wife is being published by Class Act Books. They also published three other books for me: Serpent’s Tooth, Bargain with Lucifer, and Brother Devil. The last two are a set and were written under my pseudonym, Icy Snow Blackstone.

If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?

Jim Butcher. I enjoy his Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only practicing wizard, series tremendously. Harry continuously crosses the line between the world of magic and the world of mortals, and is always proving the unreal world is never as we’ve been lead to believe. In a way, Wizard’s Wife was inspired by some of Harry’s adventures.

What books are you reading now?

I review books on my website so I’m always reading something from the many submissions sent to me by writers—mysteries, romances, sci-fi, fantasy, and horror.

What are the current writing projects that you are working on?

I have another novel coming up for publication in March, 2011, a novella called Gypsy Charm, and I’ll be beginning edits on that fairly soon. I also have a half-finished novel from my series Lovers of Leonesse called The Seventh Mothman, an alternate universe fantasy. I recently finished another in that series called The King’s Swordswoman, which is set in an early period of Leonesse’s history.

Do you write full time? If not, do you hope to do so one day?

I used to write after I came home from work, once I had dinner and the dishes, etc., out of the way. Now that I’ve lost my job and can’t seem to find another, I consider myself "forcibly retired" and I write full-time. In fact, whenever anyone asks me my occupation now, I tell them I’m a writer. Writing and handling three websites keeps me plenty busy and is a full-time job.

Do you recall how your interest in writing originated?

All my life, I guess. I’ve been making up stories and writing them down as long as I can remember. When I was seven, I used to draw illustrated panels and write story captions under them. Two years later, I received a portable typewriter for my birthday and started typing out the stories, and just went on from there, eventually graduating to electric typewriters, electronic typewriters, and then to computers..

Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?

At the moment, it’s getting motivated. I’m finding it more and more difficult to make myself sit down and write out the stories. They’re there, I just seem to be stricken with a large dose of procrastination at present. I’ve been writing for 60 years, so I guess I can be excused a little bit.

Do you have any advice for other writers seeking to get published for the first time?

Just one word: Determination. If you’ve got that, sooner or later, it’ll happen, though often it’s later than sooner.

(Wizard’s Wife will be released by Class Act Books (http://www.classactbooks.com) in January, 2011.)

Thanks Toni for Dropping by!  It looks to be a great book!  Everyone go out and buy it!

Romance Author Susan Roebuck and her thoughts on her journey to being published.

Question: You've just had a book published, tell us something about it.

Sue: It’s called “Perfect Score” by me, Susan Roebuck. It has a mixed genre: romance, suspense and M/M. It's unusual in the fact that, being M/M, it's not erotic at all. In fact it’s more about family relationships, corruption, growing up, integrity, responsibility, and being a man of worth in a society of the worthless.

Q: How easy was it to get published?

Sue: To be honest, being on the submissions circuit is one of the most stressful activities you can embark on. Debut novels are hard to sell at the moment and when I started I had no idea how to go about approaching agents with my “pitch” or “submission”. I learned the ones in the UK prefer to receive a one-page synopsis which, for me, was harder to write than the book! In the US the agents prefer a quick “pitch” with a hook to get them interested. Boy, what a learning curve. How do you get a 105,000 word book down to five sentences?

I was surprised to discover how few in the UK accepted emails. So I tried the States where email was more the norm and which made sense because the book is set in the US. Thank God for the Internet, is what I say. How else would I have found out that you can contact publishers directly? I looked up all the agents’ and publishers’ blogs I could find, discovered Writers Beware, learnt what self-publishing was (and decided to stay away from it) and learnt what, and who, the vanity presses were (and definitely decided to stay well clear).

I know my initial queries sucked. After thirty rejections, I received two publishers’ emails accepting the book on the same day. Rather like buses – you wait for ages and then two come at once. They were both e-publishers but one was bigger than the other. So guess which one I went for? And I haven’t regretted it – I’ve received excellent advice and help from Awe-struck Publishing. Now it’s published, I’m on a learning curve again – how to market the book or “developing your writer’s platform” as they say.

Q: What advice would you give to anyone starting out on the publishing route?

Sue: Research everything – find blogs from agents of your genre and see what they want and how they want it. Make sure you only submit to those agents and publishers who accept your genre because it really is a waste of time to do otherwise, no matter how tempting Curtis Brown looks.

Thirty rejections, I’ve since learnt, is nothing. Some people receive over a hundred or more before someone takes their manuscript. Learn to deal with rejections. It’s part of life and you mustn’t take it personally. Some agents are full up, some are reducing their clients and some just haven’t read your hard-worked letter. Hang in there. It’ll happen some day (like true love). If you really don’t get anywhere, consider using a professional editor (there are consultants in this field) and be prepared to pay for a genuine opinion, because you can’t go by what friends and family tell you, they don’t want to hurt your feelings. Be prepared for the whole process to take a lot of time – if you’re taken by a publisher then you need to give them time to produce a cover and you’ll have to work with an editor to get the book in shape. It took mine about 10 months from contract to publishing.

Q: How is the promotion going?

Sue: It’s a full-time job. There are reviews to beg for (and you STILL get rejected!), guest blogs to do, find places to give your book away free for promotion, comments on Twitter, Facebook. Blog-writing, joining groups. But if you want to make writing a career you have to do it. And it’s worth it: I’ve been getting great reviews.

Yesterday I got five stars from The Romance Reviews which made all the work worthwhile and Rainbow Reviews gave it 4.5 stars and said, “the ending is probably the most romantic thing I have ever read (in any book)”.

Here’s the blurb from the book:

It’s the 1960s and feckless, exasperating Alex Finch is a rich, handsome and talented singer/songwriter who longs for two things: a career as a professional rock singer, and to have his love for Sam Barrowdale reciprocated. But drifter Sam's two aims are simply to earn enough money to pay his sister's medical bills and to hide from the world his reading/writing and speech disability. At this time the word "dyslexia" is generally unknown so to most people he's just a "retard". From the severe knocks life's dealt him, Sam's developed a tough outer coating and he has no time for a spoilt, selfish guitar player.

Despite his defects, Alex's love for Sam never wavers and when Sam unexpectedly disappears, Alex begins a somewhat bungling quest to find him, only to discover that Sam has a fearsome enemy: Alex's powerful and influential yet sociopathic uncle.

As Alex spirals downwards towards alcoholism, many questions need answering. Just why did Alex's evil uncle adopt him at age eleven yet deny him any affection? And what's the mystery behind Alex's father's death?

Both seem to face unbeatable odds. Are they doomed to follow separate paths forever?

Buy it from Awe-Struck Books: http://awe-struck.net