GO: Hi Karina, [...]]]> I’d like to welcome Karina back for another visit. This time I asked her to share what  Vern    and his friends were up to between the first book and this new one. Here is  what she shares about this time period. Let’s welcome Karina, Vern, and the rest of the crew.

GO: Hi Karina, do you want to introduce Vern and the other characters or do you want to just hand over the podium to them?

KF: Thanks for having us here today. Since it’s about them, I’ll let them speak for themselves, so here we go. Vern, bring out everyone and get to it.

VERN: [Hi Gloria. Hi everyone.] We came home from Florida to discover the roof had a leak.

SISTER GRACE:  Aye, that bad, but more importantly, we spent the next several months working with the US government and the Elvish tribes over the problem with scanatine-flavored drinks.

VERN:  Could have done it in two weeks if we’d just let the elves drink some.

Grace:  Vern!

VERN:  Just saying there are times when a hyped-up brain and an accelerated time sense could come in handy.  We spent a lot of time doing work we didn’t get paid for–work that could have fixed the hole in the roof.  We found all kinds of drips after that hailstorm in September…

HEATHER HASKEL (aka RHODA DAKOTA):  September!  That’s when I got my first letter from Charlie.  Why did it take you so long to write, honey-bunchkins?

CHARLIE WILMOT:  My love, a big music star like you, interested in a herald from a small duchy?  It was too much to hope for.  If the duchess hadn’t pushed me, I hate to think–

HEATHER:  We might never have met.  I’m going to thank her again.

VERN:  …and all my bedding got soaked.  Took forever to dry.  Some of it got ruined…

SISTER GRACE:  It was a difficult winter, but at least it kept the Despredatores at home.  Things were rather peaceful.

VERN:  Which is bad for business.  We didn’t get the loan for the roof.

HEATHER:  Stan, what about you?

RAKNESS, STAN RAKNESS:  Sorry.  Classified.

SISTER GRACE:  The parish came and helped us fix it.  It was a wonderful Christmas present.

VERN:  Yeah–out in 30-degree weather, breathing fire on the roof like some kind of draconian welding torch.  Did I mention that I’m a warm-climate dragon?  Bad enough we had to deal with the snow–

CHARLIE:  And you wrote that song for me at Christmas–and it made #1.  I was in heaven for a week because you’d said you loved me.

HEATHER: (giggle) It was the only way I could; my parents were so worried about us, even if we hadn’t met yet.  But that Valentine’s Day–

CHARLIE:  Best day of my life.

SISTER GRACE:  And the Christian Brothers bought that lot in Territory.  It’ll be good to have a Catholic school there.  Especially with that Real Humans gang in town now.  (Sigh)  They’re going to be trouble, ’tis a fact.

RAKNESS, STAN RAKNESS:  In fact, I can neither confirm nor deny I was in the country…

VERN:  Come March, that windstorm blew off the repairs and I had to go flying after it.

HEATHER:  That’s when I signed the contract for Live and Let Fly.  I was so excited, but the best part was being in Los Lagos, nearer my Charlie.  Then that paparazzi caught us kissing, and we went public with our courtship!

CHARLIE:  One moment of indiscretion.  I don’t regret it at all.

SISTER GRACE:  I think Gloria was asking about what cases we handled over the past couple of years.

RAKNESS, STAN RAKNESS:  Sorry.  If I told you, I’d have to kill you.  National security, you know.

VERN:  What did we do?  I just remember battling the drips.  Lots of drips.

SISTER GRACE:  Yes, the roof had deteriorated.

VERN:  Yeah, the drips in the roof, too.  That was one good thing that came out of Live and Let Fly.  We got a new roof.  I love that roof.

SISTER GRACE:  Aye, me, too.

__________________________

GO: Well now you all know what Vern and his friends were up to, but wait, you still have to learn about their next adventure and the only way to do that is to read their book. So let me tell you where you can get a copy.

First, here’s a short excerpt to whet your interest:

Festival was Friday. We had two days to stop a Nordic demigod evil overlord—overlady, overbeing, whatever—from blowing up a nuclear power plant, possibly destroying half an island full of revelers in the process, and creating an Interdimensional Gap through which she can bring the rest of her giant relatives to set up housekeeping where the Faerie Catholic Church didn’t have the power to control them. In other words, two days until Hel broke loose.

I’ve had worse deadlines. I could afford a long bath in our whirlpool tub and a good meal first.

_____________________

Want more? Due out next Friday April 20, 2012 at the MuseItUp Publishing bookstore.

You can find Karina at the following:

Website: http://fabianspace.com, http://dragoneyepi.net

Blog:  http://fabianspace.blogspot.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karina.fabian

Twitter:  http://twitter.com/#!/KarinaFabian

Google +:  https://plus.google.com/103660024891826015212

Okay, we’re back. Welcome back Karina. I think we’ve kept our [...]]]> Wow, you’re in for a treat today. Not only do I have an interview with Karina, but I also have a brand new trailer for this newest book of hers. So how about I start with the trailer. Enjoy, we’ll be back shortly.

Okay, we’re back. Welcome back Karina. I think we’ve kept our visitors waiting long enough so shall we proceed right into the interview?

GO: Karina, all good stories originate somewhere. How did this one get started?

KF: It really was a boy-meets-alien-girl/boy-turns-hero kind of story when I first wrote it, but that was too small an idea.  When I looked at the manuscript a decade after I’d written it, I realized the main characters were wrong.  No one suddenly gets psychic powers and goes on to have a normal, even cool, life.  So I thought hard about what it would really be like to be telekinetic–and to have no filters.  It was harrowing!  That’s why the story became a trilogy.  In Mind Over Mind, Deryl’s got to find his way back to sanity and some semblance of normality before he can even think of finding the alien girl, much less becoming a hero.

GO: You write about fantasy with unusual characters, has this ever caused you to have nightmares and if so what was your most frightening nightmare?

KF: I don’t usually dream about my characters or my books, that I remember, anyway.  My nightmares are more mundane–arguing with my father, failing at something, or the car-is-out-of-control kind of dreams. (Incidentally, the worst that ever happens in the car dreams is that I get scared.  No one ever gets hurt.  I take that as a sign that God’s watching over me, and my subconscious knows it, too.)

I do have weird, storylike dreams at times.  This week, I had a dream about a land-based race of people at war with the sea people.  (I was on the land side.)  The land people had a potion, but I was telling them not to use it.  Even as I was talking, someone poured two drops into the sea, and it contaminated the entire sea, killing the sea people and everything else in it.  I was so mad.  I told the person she just hurt (and potentially killed) the land people in that area because she’d poisoned all the fish they would eat, too.  I woke up as we were doing damage control.

GO: What do you enjoy the most, and the least about writing as a profession?

KF: The most, playing with ideas and characters.  And I end up learning the most esoteric stuff, like how to move in zero gravity, the legend of Coyote who turned himself into a grandmother so he could dance with the girls, how exterminators in California get their licenses–stuff I’d never dream of looking up except I needed it for a story.

The worst is marketing.  I don’t mind doing it, and even enjoy it sometimes–like doing book tours–but there’s not concrete way to measure my success, so I often feel like I’m shooting in the dark, and I really prefer to know what I do has an effect.

GO: What drives your stories?

KF: The characters, definitely.  I love living out different lives, and having them take me along on their adventures.

GO: Can you share your next project with us?

KF: My next novel coming is Live and Let Fly, the long-awaited second book in the DragonEye, PI universe.  Vern is a dragon working as a private detective in our world.  Sister Grace, a Church mage, is his partner.  In Live and Let Fly, they uncover a plot to create a second portal into the Faerie universe, this one specifically to bring the worst beings of Norse mythology into our world and usher in Armageddon.  It comes out April 2012 from MuseItUp.

Writing-wise, I’m finishing the second in the Neeta Lyffe, Zombie Exterminator series, I Left My Brains in San Francisco. It’s 30 years in the future, and zombies are an international pest, not unlike rats.  Neeta and her partner, Ted go to a zombie exterminators convention in San Francisco.  It’s supposed to be a working vacation–until rabid environmentalist zombies come crawling out of the ocean.  Some vacation!

GO: What advice would you give to someone who wants to be a writer?

KF: You know, everyone asks that.  Really, the best advice is write–don’t make excuses, don’t get intimidated.  Write, then figure out what to do with the story later.  The first draft of Mind Over Mind (then a single novel called The Miscria) was so shallow and trite, I laugh to think I ever thought it would get published.  The result of much work later is an awesome trilogy I’m thrilled to see in print.

GO:  What is your definition of success?

KF: Fulfilling your worth as a human being.  For me, that means raising my children to be responsible adults, supporting my husband in his career, keeping a good home, and writing books that give people a few hours of escapist fun and/or help them in some way.

GO:  How do you describe your style of writing?

KF: Ecclectic:  I’ve written everything from comedic horror (Neeta Lyffe) to gripping fantasy (Mind Over Mind) to spiritual devotionals (Why God Matters: How to Recognize Him in Daily Life).

Bizarre:  zombie extermination?  Dragons as noir-style private eyes? Nuns in space?  I love to put new twists on old ideas.

Spiritual:  I believe faith is part of the human experience, so I don’t shy away from religion in my stories.  I don’t preach, but if a character needs to pray or to define his morals as coming from God, I’m not stopping them from expressing that, either.

GO:  What is your favorite self-marketing idea?

KF: Glad you said “favorite” and not most effective.  My favorite is to make book trailer videos.  I love playing with ideas and the combination of music and pictures.

GO: What is your writer life philosophy?

KF: Write what you love; love what you write.  Don’t make excuses to not write.

Thanks for joining us today Karina, before we go can you tell my readers where they can purchase Mind Over Mind?

KF: My book is available at Amazon and Kindle. You can also order it from your favorite bookstores by giving the ISBN:  978-1897942369.

Well, thanks for joining us here today. Can’t wait till the next one is out next year. Come back and visit us then too.

Today we have with us an author who has been here before, but this time Karina Fabian has her dad, Deacon Steven Lumbert join her. Glad you could join us here today and share a bit about your joint authorship of your book, Why G-d Matters. We will hear thoughts from both [...]]]> Good morning everyone.

Today we have with us an author who has been here before, but this time Karina Fabian has her dad, Deacon Steven Lumbert join her. Glad you could join us here today and share a bit about your joint authorship of your book, Why G-d Matters. We will hear thoughts from both Karina and Steven in today’s interview.

GO: Karina to start us off here, tell us a bit about your book and how you came to write a book with your dad?

KF: Why God Matters tells of several experiences from my father’s and my lives that showed us God’s loving hand and that strengthened our faith. Along with the stories of those experiences (think Chicken Soup style), we offer some short lessons on increasing your own faith, plus quotes from Scripture and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

I was asked to write this book by Tribute Books to fill a hole in their production line. They already knew exactly what they wanted–right to the format. It was actually pretty easy, but I felt intimidated about the assignment because I felt I could only offer an overly feminine perspective, and the book really needed a balance. Then in church, it hit me–I have a deacon father! I called him up and invited him to collaborate and it was the best thing I could have done–for the book and for me.

GO: When two writers co-author a book there is a chance that their writing styles would clash. Deacon Lumbert, when Karina asked you to co-author this book were you concerned about the style issue? How did you work this out so that the finished product was consistent in style?

SL: I didn’t even consider that issue. As this is my first time writing a book, I was excited to work with Karina. She is an accomplished and published author. I had confidence in her. We agreed on a process for reviewing the writing, but I can tell you she is a tough critic.

GO: Karina, I believe this was the first time you’ve co-written a book with your dad. What were the biggest surprises you’ve encountered as a writer during this experience?

KF: Actually, this was the first time I’ve co-written a book, period. I actually think it went easier because it was with my dad. I have to admit, though, I was a little nervous. I know my dad–he’s a dear, smart and funny, but he’s a TALKER, and it comes out in his writing. I know there’d be some serious editing and I wanted to be sure that I not only didn’t wreck his style, but that I didn’t get into arguments.

As it turned out, the biggest surprise was the best. I’d give a critique (one that would make a lot of writers cry, frankly) and Dad would come back with this work that was so improved! Then we’d tweak until they sang. Looking back, I think a lot of his stories are better done than mine, and I’m the one with 20 + year’s experience. I am so proud of my Daddy!

Other great surprises were personal–learning the full story of the Lumbert Trouble Boys. Realizing just how much we meant to each other in our faith journeys as well as our life journeys. God blessed us with the chance to write this book.

GO: Steven, have you written a book prior to this one? I know you’ve written many sermons, which are a different kind of writing, I’d think. What are your thoughts about the experience?

SL: This was the first time ever. As you mention, I have written many homilies/sermons, and many, many reports in my previous work. However, the style used in writing a book is totally different and I had to get used to it. With the experience, I think I will now be writing more effective homilies/sermons as I now realize a more effective way of writing.

GO: Karina, your book is slanted toward a specific religion, but lots of things you write about can be re-slanted towards other ones. E.g. I’m Jewish and also believe in G-d, but in a different way perhaps than you, your father or other religions do. Would you tell us how you could promote this type of book to a wider audience? What would it take?

KF: It’s true, this book is written for a Catholic audience. In fact, we decided to include quotes from the Catechism of the Catholic Church after Dad used a few as his introductory quotes and we realized how well the Catechism addresses all aspects of living–not just the religious side.

However, the experiences we share transcend religion: learning about generosity from your parents; seeing God’s hand in saving your life; understanding your relationship with God. I think those who are not put off by reading Catholic quotes can find inspiration they can apply to their own relationship with God. Consider it this way: could you read a story about a Buddhist that included quotes from Buddha without feeling threatened? Could you gain something from the experience?

I must admit, though, I’m comfortable focusing on the Catholic audience. My fiction is a different story–and a different interview.

GO: Steven, as an author, how do you want readers to view your book?

SL: As this book is about how God is always present with us, I hope and pray that the readers will begin to see how God is there, how He calls always to holiness of life, even in the everyday happenings.

GO: Karina, all good stories originate somewhere. How did this one get started?

KF: These stories started with a Navy man who fell in love with a Catholic woman while stationed in Puerto Rico. His father made him wait until he was 21 to get married, so June 24, 1966, two days after his birthday, Steven Lumbert married Socorro Vicenty. I was born April 19, 1967, and my sister, April 12, 1968. He and Mom raised us to love God and to love others, and by far, their example was the greatest teacher.

Our stories are examples from our lives. We hope they will teach as well.

GO: Steven, have you and Karina considered writing another book together? If so, is anything planned within the next few years? What would it be about?

SL: I have thought about it, but before any decisions are made, I think Karina and I both agree we need to see how this one goes.

KF: The manuscript wasn’t even finished and Dad was asking, “What shall we do next?” LOL. Right now, I have a backlog of obligations in the fiction realm. We’re going to revisit this question next year.

GO: Karina, has your relationship become better or worse having worked on this book with your dad? Would you recommend this to other writers?

KF: Oh, I can’t recommend one way or the other–it would totally depend on the father-daughter relationship. I’m not sure even we could have had such an easy time if we’d tried this ten years ago.

However, I do feel closer to Dad, and frankly, that was one of my ulterior motives behind asking him to collaborate. With my family moving around the country and Dad and Mom so busy with church, many of our phone calls devolve into reciting our To-Do lists! This gave Dad and me a focus for sharing more about ourselves.

We do recommend that families take time to share their faith stories. In fact, we suggest this at the end of the book. Further, we have a page on our website, www.whygodmatters.com, for folks to write in about little experiences that have enhanced their faith.

GO: Steven, what advice would you give to a writer considering teaming up with a parent to co-write a book?

SL: First thing to do is make sure that your relationship to each other is strong enough to withstand criticism, especially when the child is criticizing the parent. I think that if the relationship is strong enough to withstand that, then pursue it further.

Working with my daughter on this book has been a most enlightening experience. Even though I am the parent here, and supposed to “know it all,” I found that our relationship as father/daughter has become more profound as we both wrote of our experiences of God.

GO: Before we wrap up today, do either you or your dad have anything else to add? Can you tell my readers how they can purchase this book and where they can learn more about you online?

KF/SL: Why God Matters has the Catholic Writers’ Guild Seal of Approval, which testifies to its Catholicity. We hope to see it in Catholic book stores–so if you frequent a Christian or Catholic book store, please ask them about ordering it–and maybe getting some copies to share with their other customers.

You can get more information, see the book video and share your stories at www.whygodmatters.com. There’s also a link there for purchasing the book.

For those who prefer Amazon, here’s a link: http://www.amazon.com/Why-God-Matters-Recognize-Daily/dp/0982256531/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274127345&sr=8-1

GO: Well thank you both for stopping by today. Hope you’ll be back soon

KF/SL: Thanks, Gloria! We really appreciate your hosting us.

Please leave any comments you wish or questions for Karina or Deacon Steven Lumbert.

If you have a nonfiction book just published, or due out soon and would like to be interviewed, post a comment.
Which nonfiction author(s) would you like to see interviewed here? Leave a comment.