Meet Seldon Scott

I'd like to welcome Scott Seldon, a writer of science fiction, to my blog. He wrote a guest post for us today. Here he will tell us a little bit about how he got started writing, and what his influences are.

Without further ado, here's Scott...

I would have to say writing is in my blood. My grandmother was a historian and a came from a family of journalists. I’m the first one in my family to take writing fiction seriously. Like many writers, I started with fanfiction. There were a lot of unfinished words until I was 15. My first finished story, all of 9 pages, was set in the Star Trek universe but the familiar characters only made a cameo. When Star Trek: The Next Generation began and I heard they were accepting spec scripts, I jumped at the chance. Two rejections later and college took over. I dabbled in screenwriting for a while, completing two screenplays and starting several others.

It is easy for me to cite my main influences because I tend to be obsessive and live and breathe them one at a time. My early influences are YA mysteries and Star Wars. Not only did I devour the films, but the early novels. Some of my early favorites were Brian Daley’s Han Solo books. Then I discovered Isaac Asimov. I devoured the Foundation Trilogy and the two sequels and then went on to discover more and more of his stories. Somewhat in parallel to that, I discovered Star Trek. I watched the reruns of the original series so many times I could name the episode within 30 seconds. That extended to the old Bantam novels and the newer Pocket Books novels. I stuck with Star Trek until I found Babylon 5. Readers of my published stories would probably guess that Firefly has been a big influence, but I didn’t discover it until I’d written my first few novels.

My present course started with a scene. That scene grew into a novel and a universe. That initial story suffers from common first novel issues and is stuck in a drawer somewhere. But it gave birth to the universe and characters I have continued to write in. My main character, Ven Zaran, was a distant ancestor in that first story, now he takes center stage. These first few novels forge him into the the figure his descendants come to idolize. I have a lot of adventures in store for him and I have just begun telling them. While I have been putting my main effort into these stories about Ven Zaran, I have a couple of other universes in mind, different times, places, and a different cast of characters.

Scott Seldon lives with his family in Colorado and works as an IT administrator. Visit his website for the latest updates and to find where his books are sold.

Where you can find Scott:
Scott Seldon Website - Click here to read his complete bio

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Spring Fling Giveaway Hop

Sponsored by: I Am A Reader, Not A Writer

I LOVE SPRING (on east coast USA)! How can you not? Okay, well, I hate the allergies that go along with it. And this year has been my worst by far. But allergies aside, when the crocus bulbs bloom - I know spring is here! I have them planted in my front garden (photo below), and they make me smile when they poke through the ground!

To celebrate the season of rebirth, I'd like to offer a giveaway of my young adult paranormal romance (an eBook novel), The Keeper. The Keeper is not your typical supernatural story. It's far different than the "norm" and has many surprising twists and turns. I will also throw in some spring stickers, a spring bookmark, and some of my signed swag. By the way, I love stickers, they make me happy, too!  =)

For more info on The Keeper see: http://www.amazon.com/The-Keeper-ebook/dp/B006TKEX30/ and/or here: http://bonobookstore.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=20

The Keeper Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8x0K05MHWA

Writer’s Voice, By Patti Larsen

Patti Larsen is my guest today! I love Patti she's a super nice lady, and an awesome author. I'm happy that Patti finally found her all elusive voice and could bring us the Hayle Coven Novels (it's one of my faves)! Here she shares with us how she found her "voice"...

Writer’s Voice

By Patti Larsen

When I started writing so many years ago (I was twelve, I’m now forty, do the math), I had no idea what voice meant or that I was supposed to have one. In fact, as I continued to create and grow, even after I heard the term, I was lost—that ever-elusive voice was missing. Or, at least, I had no real definition and couldn’t find anyone who could solidly quantify it. Yes, I was told, finding your voice is key to great writing. Every writer needs it. But when confronted and asked point-blank how to uncover it, no one was able to actually tell me how to do it beyond, “Keep writing.”

Through decades (OMG really? I’m so old…) figuring this stuff out (and I’m still at it, believe me), after a journalism diploma, five years with an all-female improv troupe (I still miss the F.I.G.H.T. Club), independent film making and screenwriting, inventing, songwriting and performing… I still struggled to find my voice and despaired of ever, ever uncovering what it meant.

It was like this elusive, phantasmal entity endlessly taunting me. Yes, I could write. I was always good at it. But the lack… the lack of voice tortured me until I gave up writing for the pursuits you read above.

Until I found young adult literature, thanks to my darling niece. She thrust a copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone into my hands one day and insisted I read it. When I did (and all the books that came after) it was as if something opened up inside me. This was the genre. This was the source of voice. I just didn’t know how yet. But the passion to write novels flared again and I embraced it.

I remember going to bed one night, asking the Universe (it gets much more crackpot than this, just wait for it) for an idea, a new, fresh path to take. For my voice to find me. If I was meant to be a novelist, to write as I’d always believed, I had to get it right this time.

I woke that same night around 2:30am with a girl in my head (see? More crackpot). She insisted I get up, badgered me until I stumbled to my office and wrote down what she had to say. Only then did she let me go back to sleep.

Suddenly, a floodgate of understanding opened in me, a tide of wonder and knowledge and knowing that was so powerful and so profound it changed everything. Everything. My eyes were wide open, the meaning now of what had been so elusive for so long as clear as a freshly polished sheet of glass: my voice.

I found my voice. But it’s not mine. That’s the secret, the part others had been unable to tell me. But I’m telling you now. That voice belongs to Sydlynn Hayle (the teen witch who badgers me even now to get back to book six of her ongoing story, bless her) and all the clamoring, demanding, smart-ass teenagers who began showing up, one after the other, jockeying for position and my attention until I had (and have) enough books onepaged to take me into 2016.

My voice. Their voices. Awesomesauce. I’ve found it at last.

About the Author: Patti Larsen has a serious passion for YA paranormal and thrillers. Her novels Family Magic and Run have just been shortlisted for the PEI Book Awards. Now with multiple series in happy publication, she lives on the East Coast of Canada with her patient husband and four massive cats.

You can find her:

On her website www.pattilarsen.com

On Facebook www.facebook.com/pattilarsenauthor

On Twitter www.twitter.com/#!/PattiLarsen

On Amazon.com and Goodreads

Epilogue: Interview with Natalie Star + Giveaway

Epilogue: Interview with Natalie Star + Giveaway: Come find out; hot or cold, rain or snow, or what one word would I describe myself as??? While you are there reading, why don't you enter the giveaway. I am chatting it up on the comments! Hope to see you there! =)