Author Carolyn Steele Joins the Staff of Indies Unlimited

Author Carolyn Steele

Those of you who pay attention (I told you there would be a test later) know that Carolyn Steele has written some fine guest posts for us, based on her experiences as a paramedic and a hospice worker. She has worn many hats, and the richness and diversity of her journeys endow her writing with an ample authority. Plus, I caught her lounging about aimlessly, making her an easy target for my tranquilizer gun, which I have now nicknamed “The Recruiter.”

Carolyn has been a psychologist, a paramedic, a patisseur (which is something having to do with food way too fancy for me to afford), a proofreader and several other things, not all of them beginning with P. She began writing the day she decided to see the world…doing both just to find out whether she could.

Originally from London, England, Carolyn is now settled in Kitchener, Ontario. On a whim, she trained to drive 18 wheelers and hit the road to see what would happen. There will soon be a book. She will be off soon on another shiny project to see if pest exterminators are interesting. Multi-faceted or easily bored? It depends who’s asking.

Between adventures she writes advertising copy and inflammatory leaflets, develops and SEOs websites and dabbles in podcasting. Someday she will write about her more serious passions, palliative care and PTSD.

Plans, podcasts, tales and the first book can all be found on Carolyn’s blog, Trucking in English.

Please welcome Carolyn Steele to the Indies Unlimited family.

Box? What box? We don’t need to think outside no box…!

On genres and tropes and gender roles and HEAs and HFNs and all the other neat little boxes some people still think we need to use….

For those who don’t know what a trope is, it’s a metaphor or literary device. I’ve seen the word used most often in regards to romance and erotica writing, where the ‘trope’ is the semi-requirement that all the heroes be tall and good-looking and every novel has to end Happily Ever After (HEA). Or, in the case of erotic romance sometimes just Happily For Now (HFN). Just recently I was dinged on this (dinged being my word for the sound made when someone whacks you upside the head) by a reader of one of my books. She said she liked the book overall but that it ‘couldn’t be a romance because it didn’t have an HEA’ and gave me one star.  Well… we won’t mention (often) that the book in question is a thriller, not particularly a romance – although it does have a romance in it – and the ending was pretty much telegraphed from the beginning, because I understand. Most of us who aren’t watching Game of Thrones want our happy endings. But as G.R.R. Martin has proven Continue reading “Box? What box? We don’t need to think outside no box…!”

A Perfect Rejection

Author John BarlowThis post is about rejection. More specifically, it is about a rejection letter that I received from an editor at Mulholland Books, an imprint of Little, Brown (Hachette).

My noir mystery What Ever Happened to Jerry Picco? was submitted to Mulholland by my (then) agent because it seemed to fit the imprint’s profile for intelligent, inventive crime. The book involves the disappearance of a midget porn star. However, it is not an explicit book; it’s about a missing pornographer, a sort of noir-romp with a few references to Shakespeare and fairy stories. NOT sexually explicit. Bear that in mind. Here’s the letter:

Thanks so much for the chance to consider WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO JERRY PICO? I took this under very close consideration; there’s much to like here. The writing, throughout, is pitch-perfect; Flores* is clearly in command of a masterful, thorough knowledge of the genre, and it shows in both his prose and in the bizarre, fringe characters with which he populates this well-executed novel of investigation (Pico’s wounded, needy and binge-drinking bombshell of a lover is especially appealing). Continue reading “A Perfect Rejection”

Week 18 Flash Fiction Challenge Poll

The time has arrived for IU readers to begin voting in this week’s Flash Fiction Competition. On behalf of the IU staff, I want to thank all the entrants for doing such a great job with the writing prompt and the merciless constraints of the exercise.

This week, there are 4 entries from which to choose. You may review the entries here. Please spread the word and encourage your friends to vote by using the share buttons at the bottom of the post!

The poll will be open until 5:00 PM (Pacific Daylight Time) Thursday

Select your favorite entry for the week 18 Flash Fiction Challenge: Gold Fever

  • Rich Meyer (42%, 13 Votes)
  • Ed Drury (32%, 10 Votes)
  • A. L. Kaplan (16%, 5 Votes)
  • Elisavietta Ritchie (10%, 3 Votes)

Total Voters: 31

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