J. Leigh Bailey

Follow this link to check out my blog post where I ask the very important questions:

"Why do straight women read gay male erotica?"

Follow this link to my blog to read my post regarding my experiences with Google+!

http://storiesofthedrakon.blogspot.com/2011/07/i-admit-it-i-jumped-on-band-waggon.html

Thousands of people gathering to celebrate books, litterature, poetry, publishing, literacy... is there a better way to spend a Saturday?

Held the weekend of June 4-5, the Printers Row Lit Fest is considered the largest free outdoor literary event in the Midwest with seven stages featuring more than 100 literary programs. The annual festival draws more than 125,000 book lovers to the two-day showcase and attracts more than 200 booksellers from across the country displaying new, used and antiquarian books.

Held on the Near South Side, the Lit Fest stretches five city blocks - on Dearborn, from Congress to Polk.

Believe it or not, I only bought 3 books! The Lit Fest is a great way for Indie authors to get some attention and garner new sales. Of the three books I bought, one was a first book for an author (a fantasy called Sweet Light by Jen Wylie), and the other two were by Indie authors--a Young Adult, urban re-telling of Pride and Prejudice, called Worst Impressions: a Novel by K. L. Brady (follow this link to read my review!) and Unknown Magic, a paranormal romance by Evelyn M. Byrne. I love discovering new (or at least new-to-me) authors!

I can't wait until next year's event!

I'm completely stoked! 

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The fine people at Pill Hill Press have accepted my story "The Twelfth Monster of Chaos" for their upcoming Dark Heroes anthology. 

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The stories that will be included in this anthology have a monster or something monstrous as the hero. The hero might be a vampire, werewolf, faerie, demon, etc., as long as they are not human, stereotypically evil and are acting in a heroic role.

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In "The Twelfth Monster of Chaso" I took some liberties with the Babylonian creation myth.

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 According to the Enuma Elish (an epic poem depicting the Babylonian/Sumerian creation myth) Tiamat the dragon/goddess was the creator of all things, but she was especially known for her affinity with the oceans/saltwater and chaos. She went a little crazy when the gods whom she created with her consort killed her consort. Of course, he was going to kill them because they were too noisy...  Anyway, this really ticked her off and she created eleven chaos monsters (scorpion men, serpents, mer people, storm demons, etc) to kill the gods.  These monsters were led by her new consort/son/general (there seems to be some question as to this guy's relationship to her), Kingu. The gods chose a hero, Marduk, to defeat Tiamat and Kingu. He eventually vanquished her, and her corpse created the Earth and the blood of Kingu created man.

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In my story, there was a twelfth chaos demon--a storm demon--created, but he was a little different. Instead of battling Marduk and the gods, Omar joined his natural enemy and helped destroy Tiamat. Since that time, he's done is best to escape what he considers his betrayal to his creator and brethren and live a solitary existance among the humans.  Then Marduk--the arrogant bastard--tracks him down in a small town in Wisconsin to tell him that Tiamat is rising and Marduk needed Omar's help to protect the Tablets of Destiny which, in the wrong hands, could destroy the world.

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In the end, Omar has to battle a pissed off goddess-dragon, venemous serpents, mutant scorpions, and an arrogant god.

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Oh, and since I'm a big fan of romances, there just happens to be this girl who is getting under his self-loathing, armor-thick skin who ends up in the path of danger...

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We all know that the first sentence, paragraph, scene, chapter of a novel is critical to its success. When a reader is browsing in a book store and grabs a book off the shelf, they will invariably skim the first few sentences to decide whether or not to spend the hard-earned money. Sometimes, some rebel will read the end first, or open to a random point in the middle, but on the whole, if the cover blurb leaves one waffling, the beginning chunk will seal the deal or break it.

Now I'm going to share another reason the beginning is important: E-Readers. I have an Amazon Kindle, and I love it. One of the things that Amazon does, and I'm pretty sure Barnes & Noble and Sony and Apple do it too, is offer free samples to help the potential customer decide whether or not to actually buy the title.  Let me just say that I LOVE this feature. It's especially useful if I'm considering an author I'd not previously read before. I can read the first scene or chapter, depending n the size of the excerpt. If I like what I'm reading, I can buy it right away. If I don't, I delete it and don't have to suffer through buyer's remorse.

For me, I can tell that I'm enjoying the sample and will buy the title when I forget that I'm reading a sample. I'll reach the end of the sample and be surprised (and disappointed) that I can't just keep going.

For example, yesterday I loaded two samples: Dragon Bound byThea Harrison (a paranormal romance) and Poseidon's Pleasure by KC Kendricks (a LGBT romance).

Here's the first paragraph from Dragon Bound:

Pia was blackmailed into committing a crime more suicidal than she could possibly have imagined, and she had no one to blame but herself.  Knowing that didn't make it easier. She couldn't believe she had been so lacking in good judgment, taste or sensibility.

Here's the first paragraph from Poseidon's Pleasure:

I was quite sure I'd lost my mind. A man my age had no business booking his holiday season vacation with a rainbow singles posse on a Caribbean island. The plane ride had convinced me I'd better hang with the girls, not because lesbians were tamer, but they'd at least be kinder in their criticisms when I donned my swim trunks.

Both of these first paragraphs are intriguing. The first begs the question of what crime did Pia commit and in what way was it suicidal? The second reveals a lot about the main character, his "voice" and his self-image.

So, which one did I buy? 

Dragon Bound.

The rest of the sample for Dragon Bound set up the inciting incident, intrduced us to Pia and incorporated the urban fantasy setting, including the nature of the different paranormal inhabitants. I was drawn in immediately to the story and I forgot that I was reading a sample!

The rest of the sample for Poseidon's Pleasure was okay, but the self-image issues the main character had, which were so expertly drawn in the first paragraph, got a little old.  I'll probably still read it one of these days, but when it came to the choice, the writing, the plot and the characters of Dragon Bound were so well done, that I had to go that direction.  In fact, the book was so well written, that I've already added the author's next two releases in the series (coming later this summer) to my wish list and I'll be writing a rave review one of these days.

Anyway, my point is (to beat a dead horse) beginnings are important. But even more important, the rest of the title has to be equally good. 

A friend and I were recently discussing the casting options for the movie based on the book The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Some of the cast we felt matched our imaged of the characters they will play (Amanadla Stenberg, for example, it exactly how I pictured Rue); some we found a little odd (I'm sorry, Elizabeth Banks as Effie just doesn't meet my imagining at all--where's Kristen Chenowith when you need her?)

Amandla Stenberg--cast as Rue. Via IMDB.com

On a whim, I decided to check out the casting for another book/series that I knew would be coming out soon as a movie. One for the Money, based on the hilarious Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich. "Unemployed and newly-divorced Stephanie Plum lands a job at her cousin's bail-bond business, where her first assignment puts her on the trail of a wanted local cop from her romantic past."

For about the first time ever, almost every person cast for the project fits my imagination perfectly. With one exception: the actress playing Stephanie Plum is Katherine Heigl. Don't get me wrong, Heigl is a fun acress and she's got the comedic timing and skills for physical comedy that would make her do well as Stephanie...but she doesn't look like Stephanie. Despite the fact that she's blonde, and Stephanie is a brunette--an easy enough thing to fix if pure appearance is that important--she's so classy looking. She's almost too pretty for goold ol' Steph. Stephanie Plum is a little more Jersey Shore than Rodeo Drive and Heigl, at her edgiest, is just a little too classy.

But the guys playing Morelli and Ranger (two points of the Stephanie Plum love triangle who have garnered as many supporters for each side as the Team Edward vs. Team Jacon) are not only perfectly in line with how I pictured them while reading the books, but they're extremely drool-worthy as well.

Jason O'Mara as Morelli is inspired. (via IMDB.com)

Daniel Sunjata as Ranger...yummy. (via IMDB.com)

There are a number of other movies in progress or coming soon that are based on books that I'm looking forward to. Here's just a few:

Water for Elephants
Harry Pottedr and the Deathly Hallows
Untitled Vampire Academy project--in development
Twilight Saga--Breaking Dawn
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Untitled House of Night Project--in development
The  Forest of Hands and Teeth
If I Stay
Uglies
Beautiful Creatures
The Hobbit
The Mortal Instruments
Wicked Lovely
Shiver
Maximum Ride
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

(Okay, it's actually kind of a long list)

How about you: Any movies based on books you're looking forward to? Or, if you could cast anyone in you own work, or your favorite book, who would it be?

Through the wonder of socal media and internet connections, I heard about this great young author, Adrain Hansford, 18. Gina Maxwell, at Passions on Paper, "met" Adrian, and is sharing this excellent piece. As a girl who reads, I had to check it out.

Date a Girl Who Reads

If you are a girl who reads, know a girl who reads, or are interested in dating a girl who reads, you have to read this. I was beyond impressed with the quality of the writing, and oh my goodness, did I relate to it!

Check it out...it's totally worth your time!

Adrian Hansford was born and raised in North-Central Indiana. She is an aspiring photographer, avid equestrian, and an amateur writer.

I saw this clip from the upcoming moving "That's What I Am." Check it out. (Sorry, I couldn't embed the video, so a link will have to do.)

http://youtu.be/iTs_4ZXL-sQ

Repeat after me: "I am a writer. That's what I am."

Did you know that as long as you have published work available for sale via Amazon.com you can have an Author Page on their site? Of course you know, I sometimes forget that I'm pretty much always the last to know.

Anyway, the other day I decided to do it. So I now have my very own Author Page on Amazon.com

Here's the link, but do yourself a favor (and me) if you check it out, don't look at my picture...yikes, I seriously need to find a decent picture of myself!

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B004XZVFB6

Has anyone done this yet? It's silly, but it makes me feel just a little bit more legitimate as an author.

A little over a year and a half ago, I started a blog. I loved blogging and the people I met while blogging. But, sadly, I was a bit silly in developing my online presence.

For example, the name of my blog and the URL for my blog were based entirely on the novel I was trying to write. And, since I am no longer working on that novel, the name of the blog and the site address no longer make any sense.

Now that I"ve been published a couple of times and have contributed to anthologies that can actually be found at amazon.com, I decided it was time to upgrade the image a little bit. A website seemed like the perfect way to do it. I can still blog, but I can also set up different pages that will allow me to showcase different things--such at the different genres of my work, my blog, a main page, etc.

For those of you who are following me at http://www.storiesofthedrakon.blogspot.com (seriously, what was I thinking when I came upwith thta?) please come over to my new site at http://jleighbailey@webs.com.

For those of you who are sort of new followers, welcome!