Candice’s Comments (group member since Nov 28, 2012)

Candice’s comments from the Ask Candice M. Hughes group.

Often when reading a novel, the most important thing that comes to mind in getting the novel developed and into the readers hands is writing it.

Writing is certainly one of the most fun parts. Fun, but also sometimes agonizing and frustrating for the writer. However, there are also many other activities that go on "behind the scenes" as it were. First, at least for me, there is fairly extensive research. Sometimes I will spend a few months conducting research and thinking about the book before I write a single word. For some of my novels, I have traveled to the locations I am writing about to get a feel for the place and learn details that I can't get from the Internet. I love the research phase. At this point, anything is possible. It is easy to be passionate about the book concept.

After the research and writing comes the editing. For me, that is at least as long as the writing phase, sometimes longer. Editing can include big changes from re-working the plot or a scene to making grammatical changes or just re-wording. Often my author friends will review and give input here too.

When I'm reasonably happy with the book, it goes out for proofreading and copyediting. These are usually minor changes to fix small errors that crept in during editing or had not been noticed.

After this phase, the book goes to a designer who creates a layout, applies fancy fonts, and makes a fabulous cover that will draw everyones attention. Covers are very important to me. I like to get several opinions before selecting one.

Once all this is done, the book will be proofed again, usually several times to make sure that no mistakes have crept in, especially during conversion to digital formats (I call this the black box).

After all these various steps, finally, I get a book I can hold in my hands or view on my e-reader.

I usually have several novels in different stages at once. But, it feels good to have one published and shift focus on to the next.

It's raining today- one of those grey and deary New England days.

Another question I've gotten in interviews is what my literary influences are. Here on GoodReads everyone can easily see what authors I read (Stephen King, Terry Pratchett, Ian Rankin, Lee Child, Steve Berry, James Rollins, and so on).

I thought it would be fun to discuss some of the classic authors I enjoy. In this category, I must mention Shakespeare first. I view him as having developed archetypal stories that will endure forever. I also look to mythology, history and art for ideas.

There are many authors I have enjoyed whose books I haven't reviewed. For example, Agatha Christie, Virgina Woolf, PD James, Zora Neale Hurston, Frank Herbert, Tolkein, and many others.

From this grab bag of authors, I guess you can tell that I read a pretty wide range of genres. Although more recently, I have tended toward upbeat, entertaining stories.

The main thing is one can never have too many books!

It's raining today- one of those grey and deary New England days.

Another question I've gotten in interviews is what my literary influences are. Here on GoodReads everyone can easily see what authors I read (Stephen King, Terry Pratchett, Ian Rankin, Lee Child, Steve Berry, James Rollins, and so on).

I thought it would be fun to discuss some of the classic authors I enjoy. In this category, I must mention Shakespeare first. I view him as having developed archetypal stories that will endure forever. I also look to mythology, history and art for ideas.

There are many authors I have enjoyed whose books I haven't reviewed. For example, Agatha Christie, Virgina Woolf, PD James, Zora Neale Hurston, James Herbert, Tolkein, and many others.

From this grab bag of authors, I guess you can tell that I read a pretty wide range of genres. Although more recently, I have tended toward upbeat, entertaining stories.

The main thing is one can never have too many books!

One of my most favorite things about writing is dialogue. I enjoy thinking about how people sound when speaking. What type of words would this character use? What type of punctuation? Do they have an accent? What gestures would they use?

To me, these sorts of things have a big impact on how the character is viewed. So while content (what they are saying) is important, I feel how they are saying something is almost as important.

This is one factor for me as a reader that can really throw me off and disrupt my reading experience. The personality, age, sex, nationality and so on of the character and their manner of speaking need to match. So I work hard to achieve this synergy for my readers.

I can't claim to be unique in my feeling of the importance of character's voices. Stephen King talks about a similar idea in his book "On Writing".

Another idea that he highlights that I agree with is his concept that writers need to create and follow a situation rather than worrying about plotting.

What I do is come up with an idea for a book then develop my characters and put them in the situation and see what happens. That's the fun part- seeing what the characters will do.

For anyone wanting to write a novel, I highly recommend reading "On Writing" as well as Stephen King's novels. A lot of writing craft can be understood by studying master story tellers.

Here is a good summary of "On Writing": http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2000/...

Enjoy!

It's a beautiful sunny morning! I am shockingly ahead in my holiday preparations this year. The last batch of holiday cards is in the mailbox for today's pick up. I even have most of my gifts wrapped.

All this probably means I am slacking off on writing and I should get back to my series so there will be more fun books to read.

One of the things I do to improve my writing is participate in writer's associations. For "Death on a Thin Horse" I included two of the writing groups who had helped me the most in the acknowledgements, Kiss of Death and ColoNY (both are chapters of RWA). I find it invaluable to get feedback from writer colleagues both as part of critique groups and through contests.

More recently, I joined the International Thriller's Association. I had been to several of their annual conferences to attend training sessions and finally decided to join. Their conferences are excellent and offer help and advice from best selling authors.

No matter how much talent a writer has listening and learning from other talented writers nurtures growth.

One question I am asked often in interviews is what other books I have coming up for publication or in progress.

The novel closest to publication is "Dead Evil". I included a preview of this novel in the e-book version of "Death on a Thin Horse". "Dead Evil" is a paranormal thriller with romantic elements.

In "Dead Evil", forensic artist and archeologist, Dr. Hope Howland, is nearly killed by a demon conjured by her grandmother as she helps detective Gabe Bennett, investigate the deaths of young children. Probing into the dark recesses of power and privilege, she discovers not only that she is a witch, but that her wealthy, Mayflower-descended family is pure evil.

I am working toward publication of "Dead Evil" in the spring/summer of 2013.

I have three more novels in the works. The one closest to completion is about a teenager who has both an amazing gift with numbers and an incredible challenge in being autistic. He is the only person in the world who notices that someone is poisoning Americans. If he can escape from his parents, the FBI, and an assassin, he just may be able to stop the poison.

Finally, I am hard at work on a new series of paranormal/sci fi thrillers with one of my signature heroines who can kick butt while working out scientific formulae.

Just got done hanging up my wreath. To me wreaths are a fundamental part of the ending of the old year and transitioning to the new. First the wreath is a circle, which is unbroken and eternal. Second, my wreath is always made of fresh evergreens, which are also symbolic of life (being green even in the dead of winter). I buy a basic evergreen wreath and add pinecones, holly and a big bow (ususally red but sometimes gold). I have a modest garden and holly is one of the shrubs I like to grow.

Back to my novel- Another interesting fact is that I wrote most of the novel while commuting back and forth to my biopharma work in New York City. I'm a person who has to always be productive and the prospect of sitting on a train for a couple of hours a day seemed like a great opportunity to accomplish something great. I brought my personal laptop with me each day (even though that meant carrying two laptops) and typed away while my fellow commuters slept or read the newspaper.

I have heard of other authors writing books on a similar commute on this train line. I wonder if the transit authority would attract even more passengers if they advertised the train as a good way to complete a novel.

Just back from the gym for my early morning workout. There's a real pea soup fog out there. I could barely see an eighth of a mile down the road. Even with the fog, people were out jogging.

Since one of the focuses of the discussion is about my recent novel, Death on a Thin Horse, I thought I'd start off by talking a bit about the research behind the novel. I spend a substantial amount of time conducting research for all my novels. For this one, I started with some knowledge about the various topics then filled in with research.

For example, I have been fascinated with Albrect Durer's work since high school. I was lucky to have been able to see some of his original work at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich after high school graduation and again in college. I gained more information for the novel by reading "The World of Durer" From the Time Life Library of Art.

For Luther, I read "Luther and the Reformation" by Hanns Lilje.

I also do extensive Internet searches for all my novels.

If there are any questions, just post them and check back for the answer. I will be checking the discussion every few hours throughout the next few days. Keep in mind that the discussion ends Tuesday (Nov 4).

Looking forward to answering any questions that come my way!