Guest Blogger - Layla M. Wier
Nov. 21st, 2014 07:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jana_denardoI'm happy to have my friend, Layla M. Wier back with her latest novel. It sounds like a lot of fun so I'll let her tell you all about it.
Hi Jana! Thanks so much for having me back! This month I'm blog touring for my new novel Held For Ransom.
It's so fascinating to me how every story, whether long or short, involves a completely different creative process. Once I got the basic idea for Held For Ransom -- a mysterious drifter, who travels around the country doing anonymous good deeds, shows up in a small Illinois town -- the entire novel basically jumped out of my head. I wrote the rough draft in just a little over a month, which is by far the fastest I've ever written anything approaching a novel-length story!
It also required less revision than a lot of my projects do. For me, writing the second and third drafts can be an enormous process, involving color-coded sticky notes, index cards, and computer-printed pages with notes scribbled on them in different colored pens. Held For Ransomthough, was a relative breeze. I think the only major change that I made at the second-draft stage was to pull out a subplot that had ended up going nowhere; there were originally some scenes between one of the protagonists and his childhood bully that I decided to cut, since it started out as a major plot thread and then wandered off into nothing.
It's especially surprising to me that the story came together so well because at the beginning of the novel, I didn't know any more about our motorcycle-riding do-gooder mystery man, Ransom, than the other characters did. Usually that's a sure-fire recipe for having to go back and add a bunch of important plot stuff at the second-draft stage! (Not to mention a lot of caffeine-fueled sobbing as I try to shoehorn major plot elements into parts of the story that were never meant to contain them ...) But no, this time around, Ransom's backstory emerged slowly and organically for me as he revealed his secrets in bits and pieces to the other characters.
(And no, I'm not going to spoil the surprise! If you want to know who Ransom is and what makes a guy give up his previous life for the life of an itinerant motorcycle-riding, good-deed-doing bum, you'll have to read the novel and find out!)
But yeah, sometimes writing is full of teeth-gnashing and sobbing and frustration, but sometimes the words just flow. Maybe some novels, like some love stories, are simply meant to be.
Excerpt:
“Who are you, anyway?” DJ asked, leaning forward, and Ransom went tense—an instinctive prey response to being cornered. “I don’t mean to be rude, I just don’t know what you’re doing in our little town. Are you on vacation?”
Ransom managed a laugh, and it even came out sounding easy, though DJ was frowning slightly—not an angry frown, but a puzzled one, the look people got as they tried to solve a puzzle. “I’m out here from California,” Ransom said. “I wanted to see the country, that’s all. My life isn’t very exciting. Tell me about you.”
The little furrow vanished. DJ smiled ruefully. “You think your life is boring. I still live on the same street where I grew up. You know where I went to college? Heatherfield. The farthest away from home I’ve ever been is Chicago, and that’s just to visit my sister.”
“Buy a motorcycle,” Ransom said. “Hit the road.”
“Is that what you did?”
He shrugged with studied casualness. “More or less.”
“It’s not that simple,” DJ said. “I wish it was.”
“Who are you staying for?”
That gave him pause. “Well, not really for anybody, I guess. It’s not like that. Mom… died, last winter. Dad left. But someone’s got to take care of the house while he’s traveling, and I have a job. I can’t just up and drop everything and take off.”
“That sounds lonely,” Ransom said.
“Everyone I know is right here in this town. Being lonely is the absolute last problem I have.” But he looked wistful. Then sudden humor broke through, like sunshine through clouds. His eyes, Ransom noticed, were a beautiful clear brown. “You know, Ransom, I’ve known you a few hours and I’m already telling you things I don’t talk to anybody about.”
“I’m a good listener.” And the strange thing was how much he’d found himself enjoying it. Just listening to DJ talk about the prosaic problems of his everyday, small-town life was like a balm to Ransom’s battered, leaf-in-the-wind soul.
Held For Ransom
by Layla M. Wier
Genre: M/M Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Length: Novel/200 pages
Release Date: Nov. 14, 2014
Blurb:
Two weeks before Christmas, the small town of Osmar is gearing up for its annual winter carnival, but the death of the event’s long-time organizer might mean the end of the festivities. Everyone is turning to her son DJ to save the carnival, but DJ can barely save himself. He's spinning his wheels in Osmar—working part time at the gas station, living in his parents' house, and trying to figure out what to do with his life. DJ is caught in a large, loving web of well-meaning family and friends, but they can't fix his life for him.
Into this mess comes Ransom, a handsome mystery man on a motorcycle. Ransom is traveling around the country, making up for his past sins by doing “good deeds.” He and DJ have a one-night stand that neither can forget, but that's just the start, because Ransom has a plan to save the carnival, and DJ has a plan to save Ransom… and possibly himself.
Buy Links:
Dreamspinner Press
Amazon
About Layla:
Layla M. Wier is a writer and artist who grew up in rural Alaska and now lives on the highway north of Fairbanks, where winters dip to 50 below zero and summers yield 24 hours of daylight. She and her husband, between the two of them, possess a useful array of survival skills for the zombie apocalypse, including gardening, blacksmithing, collecting wild plant foods, and spinning wool into yarn (which led to her first Dreamspinner Press novella, "Homespun"). When not writing, she likes reading, hiking, and spending way too much time on the Internet.
Where to find Layla:
Blog: http://laylawier.wordpress.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Layla_in_Alaska
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/laylamwier
Tumblr: http://laylainalaska.tumblr.com
Stops on the Held for Ransom blog tour (Nov. 12-Dec. 1):
Wednesday, Nov. 12: Anne Barwell - http://annebarwell.wordpress.com/
Friday, Nov. 14: RELEASE DAY! Charley Descoteaux - http://cdescoteauxwrites.com/blog/
Monday, Nov. 17: Shae Connor - http://shaeconnorwrites.com/
... and **ALL-DAY RELEASE PARTY** on Facebook and Wordpress:
http://laylawier.wordpress.com - https://www.facebook.com/laylamwier
Wednesday, Nov. 19: Grace Duncan - http://www.grace-duncan.com
Friday, Nov. 21: Jana DeNardo - http://jana-denardo.livejournal.com
Monday, Nov. 24: Anna Butler - http://annabutlerfiction.com/blog/
Wednesday, Nov. 26: Aidee Ladnier - http://www.aideeladnier.com/
Friday, Nov. 28: Sherrie Henry - http://sherriehenry.blogspot.com/
Monday, Dec. 1: Because Two Men Are Better Than One - http://becausetwomenarebetterthanone.com/
Hi Jana! Thanks so much for having me back! This month I'm blog touring for my new novel Held For Ransom.
It's so fascinating to me how every story, whether long or short, involves a completely different creative process. Once I got the basic idea for Held For Ransom -- a mysterious drifter, who travels around the country doing anonymous good deeds, shows up in a small Illinois town -- the entire novel basically jumped out of my head. I wrote the rough draft in just a little over a month, which is by far the fastest I've ever written anything approaching a novel-length story!
It also required less revision than a lot of my projects do. For me, writing the second and third drafts can be an enormous process, involving color-coded sticky notes, index cards, and computer-printed pages with notes scribbled on them in different colored pens. Held For Ransomthough, was a relative breeze. I think the only major change that I made at the second-draft stage was to pull out a subplot that had ended up going nowhere; there were originally some scenes between one of the protagonists and his childhood bully that I decided to cut, since it started out as a major plot thread and then wandered off into nothing.
It's especially surprising to me that the story came together so well because at the beginning of the novel, I didn't know any more about our motorcycle-riding do-gooder mystery man, Ransom, than the other characters did. Usually that's a sure-fire recipe for having to go back and add a bunch of important plot stuff at the second-draft stage! (Not to mention a lot of caffeine-fueled sobbing as I try to shoehorn major plot elements into parts of the story that were never meant to contain them ...) But no, this time around, Ransom's backstory emerged slowly and organically for me as he revealed his secrets in bits and pieces to the other characters.
(And no, I'm not going to spoil the surprise! If you want to know who Ransom is and what makes a guy give up his previous life for the life of an itinerant motorcycle-riding, good-deed-doing bum, you'll have to read the novel and find out!)
But yeah, sometimes writing is full of teeth-gnashing and sobbing and frustration, but sometimes the words just flow. Maybe some novels, like some love stories, are simply meant to be.
Excerpt:
“Who are you, anyway?” DJ asked, leaning forward, and Ransom went tense—an instinctive prey response to being cornered. “I don’t mean to be rude, I just don’t know what you’re doing in our little town. Are you on vacation?”
Ransom managed a laugh, and it even came out sounding easy, though DJ was frowning slightly—not an angry frown, but a puzzled one, the look people got as they tried to solve a puzzle. “I’m out here from California,” Ransom said. “I wanted to see the country, that’s all. My life isn’t very exciting. Tell me about you.”
The little furrow vanished. DJ smiled ruefully. “You think your life is boring. I still live on the same street where I grew up. You know where I went to college? Heatherfield. The farthest away from home I’ve ever been is Chicago, and that’s just to visit my sister.”
“Buy a motorcycle,” Ransom said. “Hit the road.”
“Is that what you did?”
He shrugged with studied casualness. “More or less.”
“It’s not that simple,” DJ said. “I wish it was.”
“Who are you staying for?”
That gave him pause. “Well, not really for anybody, I guess. It’s not like that. Mom… died, last winter. Dad left. But someone’s got to take care of the house while he’s traveling, and I have a job. I can’t just up and drop everything and take off.”
“That sounds lonely,” Ransom said.
“Everyone I know is right here in this town. Being lonely is the absolute last problem I have.” But he looked wistful. Then sudden humor broke through, like sunshine through clouds. His eyes, Ransom noticed, were a beautiful clear brown. “You know, Ransom, I’ve known you a few hours and I’m already telling you things I don’t talk to anybody about.”
“I’m a good listener.” And the strange thing was how much he’d found himself enjoying it. Just listening to DJ talk about the prosaic problems of his everyday, small-town life was like a balm to Ransom’s battered, leaf-in-the-wind soul.
Held For Ransom
by Layla M. Wier
Genre: M/M Contemporary Romance
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Length: Novel/200 pages
Release Date: Nov. 14, 2014
Blurb:
Two weeks before Christmas, the small town of Osmar is gearing up for its annual winter carnival, but the death of the event’s long-time organizer might mean the end of the festivities. Everyone is turning to her son DJ to save the carnival, but DJ can barely save himself. He's spinning his wheels in Osmar—working part time at the gas station, living in his parents' house, and trying to figure out what to do with his life. DJ is caught in a large, loving web of well-meaning family and friends, but they can't fix his life for him.
Into this mess comes Ransom, a handsome mystery man on a motorcycle. Ransom is traveling around the country, making up for his past sins by doing “good deeds.” He and DJ have a one-night stand that neither can forget, but that's just the start, because Ransom has a plan to save the carnival, and DJ has a plan to save Ransom… and possibly himself.
Buy Links:
Dreamspinner Press
Amazon
About Layla:
Layla M. Wier is a writer and artist who grew up in rural Alaska and now lives on the highway north of Fairbanks, where winters dip to 50 below zero and summers yield 24 hours of daylight. She and her husband, between the two of them, possess a useful array of survival skills for the zombie apocalypse, including gardening, blacksmithing, collecting wild plant foods, and spinning wool into yarn (which led to her first Dreamspinner Press novella, "Homespun"). When not writing, she likes reading, hiking, and spending way too much time on the Internet.
Where to find Layla:
Blog: http://laylawier.wordpress.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/Layla_in_Alaska
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/laylamwier
Tumblr: http://laylainalaska.tumblr.com
Stops on the Held for Ransom blog tour (Nov. 12-Dec. 1):
Wednesday, Nov. 12: Anne Barwell - http://annebarwell.wordpress.com/
Friday, Nov. 14: RELEASE DAY! Charley Descoteaux - http://cdescoteauxwrites.com/blog/
Monday, Nov. 17: Shae Connor - http://shaeconnorwrites.com/
... and **ALL-DAY RELEASE PARTY** on Facebook and Wordpress:
http://laylawier.wordpress.com - https://www.facebook.com/laylamwier
Wednesday, Nov. 19: Grace Duncan - http://www.grace-duncan.com
Friday, Nov. 21: Jana DeNardo - http://jana-denardo.livejournal.com
Monday, Nov. 24: Anna Butler - http://annabutlerfiction.com/blog/
Wednesday, Nov. 26: Aidee Ladnier - http://www.aideeladnier.com/
Friday, Nov. 28: Sherrie Henry - http://sherriehenry.blogspot.com/
Monday, Dec. 1: Because Two Men Are Better Than One - http://becausetwomenarebetterthanone.com/
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