Today I’m chatting with author Julie Jones about her author journey thus far, as she releases her debut novel, Blood Follows Blood: The Legend of Ginny Sutton. I’ve worked with Julie in the past, and she has stories in both the Visions and MidnightRoost anthologies from WordCrafter Press, so I know she is a top notch writer who knows how to craft a good story. She is a promising new author and I welcome her here today.
When she asked if I’d like to review her first novel, I was happy to oblige and to invite her to be the first guest on this new blog series, where I’ll be interviewing new authors and reviewing their books. I’m pleased to have her as my guest for this first segment.
So let’s learn a little more about Julie, and then we’ll get into the interview.
About the Author
Julie Jones is an award-winning writer from northeast Oklahoma and author of the Legend of Ginny Sutton, a weird western series debuting in June 2024 with the first book titled Blood Follows Blood.In May 2020, she won the Best Horror Story award from the Oklahoma Writers Federation for Camelot, a chilling ghost story set in the once-impressive and now demolished Camelot Hotel in Tulsa, OK. Julie’s short stories can be found in anthologies published by WordCrafter Press and WordFire Press, as well as her own collection Chain Reaction available on Amazon.
Interview
Hi Julie. I am thrilled to have you as my guest today. Thank you for agreeing to chat with me.
Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your author journey to this point.
I’ve been fascinated with reading and storytelling as long as I can remember. I wrote poems and stories as a child and loved thinking up my own Weird Al-style parodies of favorite songs. In high school I was an accomplished student journalist and did well in creative writing and English classes throughout my education. Once my kids reached the age they no longer needed me quite as much, I wondered if I still had any chops. I found a short-term creative writing class at my local technology center and loved it so much I attended two more times. The third class resulted in a long-term writing group, and we published three books together. I learned a lot from that talented group and that’s where I met my editor, Aarika Copeland. In 2020 I entered the Oklahoma Writers Federation short story contest and won the horror category. The honor gave me a fresh boost and I decided to pursue writing even more seriously. Since then, I’ve attended the Superstars Writing Seminar in Colorado Springs three times and had several short stories published. Now I’ve got a novel series of my own!
You’ created a strong female protagonist who is believable and relatable. How wàs the character of Ginny developed?
In early 2022 I stumbled across an open anthology call for weird western stories. The description tickled my fancy and some brainstorming birthed Ginny Sutton. The story was ultimately rejected, but Ginny wouldn’t let me alone. She insisted on spinning yarns about her dead brother-in-law and sharing her heartbreaking backstory. I recognized the spark of true inspiration and began writing down all of Ginny’s adventures. Along the way I tried to put not only my best, but also the broken parts of myself into the story. Some readers will identify most with Ginny’s brokenness and flaws, while some will identify with her strength and determination. Both are valid. Ginny is me, and my mother, and my best friends, and every strong, capable woman I’ve ever known. By the way, the original short story is now chapter four of Blood Follows Blood.
You’ve written a kind of genre mash-up. I love that. Did you chose the genre or did the story dictate it? Why weird western?
It makes more sense to me now than it did when I decided to do it, as odd as that sounds. At the time it just struck me as a lot of fun, so I bought popular books in the genre and read them, then read their reviews. The insights were valuable, but the main thing I figured out was that I needed to do it my way. That meant throwing everything I love into the pot, stirring it all together, and hopefully serving a delicious, satisfying story to my reader. Setting it in the old West made perfect sense once I considered that all my favorite stories, books, songs, and movies feature characters who are self-reliant, personally responsible, capable, mostly moral, and believe in justice. The West encapsulates all those ideals, and to me it made sense to take the quintessential American mythos and marry it with everything that has shaped me as a person.
In your bio, you claim that your fiction is on the weird and creepy side. With your stories in two WordCrafter anthologies, I can verify the truth in that. You’re an average Jane, or maybe an average Julie, but you write all these strange stories. Where do your story ideas come from?
On paper I’m more boring than drying paint but I’ve always loved the weird and macabre, the fantastical and futuristic. I grew up in a town of less than 1,500 people before the internet existed, so books were my escape. I don’t know how many of my classmates spent their summers on the Ringworld with Louis Wu and His Motley Crew or fled Emond’s Field with the Dragon Reborn, but I did. I suppose slice-of-life stories or standard fiction doesn’t appeal to me as much because I live in those worlds already. Take me somewhere impossible to ride along with incredible people doing amazing things. That’s what I want to read.
This tale begins with the story already in motion. Instead of giving us background or introducing the character, you just slam us right into an action scene, then fill us in on the rest as the story unfolds with little exposition, works for this story quite well. But I have to ask, how did you decide that that was where your story needed to begin?
I once received the advice, “In late, out early.” Meaning, don’t bore the reader with things like Ginny walking across the high desert lugging her saddlebags and worrying about water. Start with the inciting action and backfill, then end the story when it’s over, not five pages of exposition later. That piece of advice dovetailed nicely with my journalism training where I first learned the importance of snappy introductory sentences and paragraphs that hook the reader. I decided to lean into the classic pulp novel feel with this series and structure each chapter like its own episode. I wasn’t sure if it would work at first, but feedback has been positive. There’s a lot of action and Ginny endures quite a bit, so I wanted to give readers plenty of points along the way where they could break from the story if they wanted or binge if it was just too compelling to stop. But each chapter purposely has my twist on the classic pulp episodic feel.
What was the best part of writing this Blood Follows Blood? Why?
Discovering the story along the way and brainstorming creative ways to connect the events was by far my favorite part. I also crammed so many hidden easter eggs into this book (and its sequels) that I’ve now forgotten them all. Some are obscure and only other fans of that particular thing will recognize it, and some are just for me that nobody knows, but they were all fun to include. I love every weird thing in this book, and figuring out how to connect it all together was one of the most enjoyable things I’ve ever done.
What was the most difficult part of the book to write? Why?
Editing was tough, and I have to give recognition to Aarika here. I tend to write blunt-force style and things like emotional cues and sensory details run sparse. She did a lot to highlight where I needed to add those things and challenged my thinking on some of Ginny’s desires and motivations. At one point I realized time and distances weren’t working out and had to fix that, but because everything in this book is so interconnected, it was a job to make sure I caught all the ripples downstream of every change.
What is the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever been given?
This is tough because I’ve been honored to meet and visit with many incredible authors. I wish I could remember who told me “In late, out early” but I don’t. The very best thing a writer can do is finish the story. All the other advice that’s given to authors can be addressed once the first draft is done, but if someone is new to the craft, just finish the story. And one more thing, why is the most important question you can ask yourself about your story and your characters. Why was Ginny out in the high desert? Why did Jim’s corpse walk into her camp? Why does she hate him so much? Stories are built on this word.
It’s been a pleasure to have you as my guest today. Please tell readers where they can find out more about you and about Blood Follows Blood: The Legend of Ginny Sutton.
Thanks so much for your time! I’d love for everyone to follow me on Facebook and/or Instagram, and over on my website is a signup form for my monthly newsletter. Readers will want to definitely check it out, as subscribers get early news, chances at secret giveaways, and every newsletter ends with a picture of my dog!
How many times does a woman have to kill the same outlaw?
Broken and alone, Ginny Sutton roams the West. After hunting down and killing Jim Puckett—her former brother-in-law and notorious leader of the Mad Dogs gang—Ginny believes justice has finally been served. Until he walks into camp hellbent on claiming her soul.Plunged into a waking nightmare of possessed posses, thirsty vampires, stubborn corpses, and every other manner of supernatural evil her enemies can raise against her, Ginny is forced to embrace one universal truth:
HOPE IS NOT A STRATEGY
All she wants is peace. But the fates have other plans for her, and more than ever her survival depends on grit, wit, and an open heart.Will Ginny survive her bloody path to absolution?
Saddle up for a wild ride into the weird west where the myths are real and body count matters!
My Review
Blood Follows Blood: The Legend of Ginny, by Julie Jones is a captivating weird western that will keep you thinking, “What else could possibly happen?” And, “How much can one girl take?”
This story has so much nonstop action that it makes the reader tired, but Ginny Sutton takes it all in stride. I guess when you live in a world where nothing stays dead, battling supernatural beings wouldn’t make you bat an eye, and deals with the devil would come as no surprise.
For five long years Ginny Sutton had been is a woman haunted by her past and out for revenge, chasing Jim Puckett half-way over the mountains and back. When she finally decided to give it up and go back home to Oklahoma, she caught up with him and chased him some more, hunting him down like the mangey dog he was. But now, Jim won’t stay dead, and the devil’s got a price on her head.
I was impressed with the craftsmanship of this debut novel. Jones has done her research, setting the perfect tone for the tale, with a strong female protagonist I couldn’t help but like.
A delightfully dark, weird western tale that you won’t want to put down. “Bravo!” to Miss Jones. I give BloodFollows Blood five quills.
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If you are an author releasing a debut novel, and you’d like to be a guest on “Chatting with New Blood”, please drop me a line at kayebooth@yahoo.com.
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This segment of “Chatting with New Blood” is sponsored by The D.I.Y. Author and WordCrafter Press.
Being an author involves not only writing, but often, the publishing and marketing of the book.
In this writer’s reference guide, multi-genre author and independent publisher, Kaye Lynne Booth shares her knowledge and experiences and the tools, books, references and sites to help you learn the business of being an author.
You are reading this, so chances are good that you are familiar with me and my writing, as well as WordCrafter Press and its books, because I talk about all of these things a lot. Since you are hanging out here, reading my posts and those of my wonderful blog team members, there’s also a good chance that you are interested in my work, so you will be interested in this opportunity, as well.
Being a multi-genre author creates the need to reach multiple target audiences. I write western, paranormal, science fiction, dark fantasy & vampires, and maybe even a little bit of romance. Although unpublished, I’ve even written a children’s series. That makes it more difficult to hit my target market and find readers who enjoy the kind of book I write, but I’m learning that I’m just not a write to market kind of girl. I have to write what my heart says, and it refuses to remain in a single genre.
I’ve decided to build a street team to help spread the word about new releases and release events. So, I’ve created a private Facebook group “Kaye Lynne Booth & WordCrafter Press Street Team” group, where you can help by becoming a beta reader and providing feedback prior to release, or reviewer, or just an enthusiastic fan, sharing new release and release event information on social media to help get the word out.. This is a group for those who want to help create, promote or just support me and my books, and find opportunities to free books, for an extra perk. As a member of the group, you will be privy to news regarding works-in-progress, new releases and upcoming book events, as well as early cover releases and sneak previews.
I hope that you will click on the link above and join us, as 2022 looks to be a exciting year, with between 7 and 12 new releases coming!
WordCrafter Press will be putting out, not just one, but three anthologies this year, including the resulting anthology from the annual short fiction contest. The call for submissions for the 2022 WordCrafter Short Fiction Contest will be posted in January, this year’s anthology will also feature the stories by invitation, which will not be included in the contest, but will be included in the Visions anthology. The other two anthologies will be by invitation only, Once Upon an Ever After, and Slivered Reflections. WordCrafter Press will also be doing a new edition of the writer’s reference, Ask the Authors and a new edition of Poetry Treasures. For my own books, I will be dropping my contract with Dusty Saddle Publishing and publishing a special edition of Delilah myself, and publishing at least the first three books of my science fantasy Playground for the Gods series, and possibly the fourth.
If you join my street team group, you’ll be privy to all the latest news about all these great releases and more! Bring your enthusiasm and help me make my writing dreams come true. And don’t forget the free books and other perks. See you there!
Welcome to the first official WordCrafter Book Blog Tour featuring the WordCrafter western paranormal anthology, Spirits of the West. We’ve got a great tour lined up, so let me tell you a little about this unique anthology and the stories featured within. I hope you’ll all follow along with the tour as the week progresses, to learn more about this colorful story collection.
It’s no secret that I love ghost stories, which is why the theme each year for the WordCrafter Short Fiction Contest always seems to lean toward the paranormal genre, although other genres may be involved. It’s also no secret that my first novel was a western and I enjoy writing and reading this genre, so it shouldn’t be surprising that the 2020 theme was western paranormal. I didn’t get a lot of submissions, but the ones I did get were top notch stories, and the resulting anthology, Spirits of the West, contains eight stories with western and paranormal elements, from six very different author’s worlds. The theme for the contest was not a traditional genre mixture, and there’s not much that’s traditional about the anthology.
My story, “Don’t Eat the Pickled Eggs”, is a western paranormal mystery, to confuse the genres even more. It’s a colorful story, about the disappearance of a saloon owner, a ghostly nighttime visit to leave a warning, and a young boy named Stinkweed, who holds the key to the mystery. You’ll be able to learn more about the inspiration behind this tale on Jessica Bakkers.
Roberta Eaton Cheadle contributed two South African western paranormal tales, which help to make this anthology very unique. “The Thirstyland Journey” and “The Ghost in the Mound” tell stories of pioneers, traveling across the South African wilderness – a different type of western, but with just as many ghosts. Both are powerful stories of survival, courage and determination and are welcomed additions to Spirits of the West. Robbie will be telling us more about both of these stories on Roberta Writes and Robbie’s Inspiration.
Jeff Bowles, the author of the winning story in 2019, contributed “Wenekia”, an excellent story of Native American folklore and traditions. When two young boys sneak out to eavesdrop on the tribal council gathering, they learn more than they bargained for when they witness the reality of legend. Sue Vincent’s Daily Echo will have a post for us about Jeff’s story on Saturday.
“The Clouds in the West”
Arthur Rosch contributed a science fiction western paranormal story, “The Clouds in the West”, which takes the cowboy to another world, where the rider may not always control of his mount, and leaves the ending open to reader interpretation.
The winning story in Spirits of the West was submitted by Enid Holden. “High Desert Rose” is a more traditional western tale of revenge, but Holden does it with a heroin, rather than a hero, and the spirits are watching. Patty’s world will feature an interview with Enid on Wednesday and wrap up the tour on Sunday for us.
“Gunsmoke”
Also included in the anthology are two stories that were not contest submissions. Tom Johnson’s story, “Gunsmoke” really doesn’t have a paranormal element, and is included as a tribute to Tom as his only western story in a lifetime of science fiction and pulp titles, as the author is no longer with us. And Enid Holden contributed a second story, “Queen of Spades”, which didn’t make the submission deadline, but is every bit as good as her winning story.
“Queen of Spades”
Time constraints did not allow for posts on some stories, but I hope you’ll join us on the tour this week to learn more about this very special collection of stories and their authors.
Like this post? Let me know in the comments. You can be sure not to miss any of Writing to be Read’s great content by subscribe to e-mail or following on WordPress. If you found this content helpful or entertaining, please share.
2020 has been an difficult year for all of us as Covid 19 turned lives upside-down. Here at Writing to be Read and WordCrafter, we saw some great accomplishments, in spite of the fact that my genre theme schedule fell apart half-way through the year on the blog and content was a little more sporadic. I had to figure out how to adjust to my own “new normal”, which life changes brought my way, but they also led me to remember who I am. Now, I’ve analyzed and regrouped, and I’m ready to head into the new year with new ideas and projects.
WordCrafter’s 2020 Virtual Writing Conference
One of the biggest things for WordCrafter was the 2020 Stay in Place Virtual Writing Conference back in April. We ended up with twenty-two distinguished authors, offering live stream and video lectures, and interactive workshops and discussion panels, with free content for the Facebook event and a Zoom platform for the interactive stuff. We had a good turn-out with only a few glitches, and we’re preparing to do it again in 2021.
WordCrafter Press releases in 2020:
Ask the Authors
In April, the Ask the Authorswriting anthology was released after two years of compilation. This book is an ultimate writer’s reference with tips and advice from twenty-two authors, and it started right here, from a 2018 blog series of the same name. In November, the print edition of this book, (and all WordCrafter Press books), became available, as well.
Two of my own books were also released. Last Call and Other Short Fiction is a collection of my short stories, and my paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets, is now available in print on Amazon, but the digital edition can be purchased through other retailers. In the coming year, I will have a story in the Where Spirits Linger anthology, and I’m working on a new book, The Outlaw and the Rockstar which I hope will be ready to release before the end of 2021.
Raise the Tide
WordCrafter Press‘ first stand alone author’s book was released in December, Raise the Tide, a devotional book by James Richards. We also look forward in anticipation to adding the January release of a massive poetry collection by Arthur Rosch, Feral Tenderness, to this list.
Feral Tenderness
Writing to be Read 2020:
We had some great guests on Writing to be Read. On “Chatting with the Pros”, my author guests featured Diana Raab, Amy Cecil, Cherokee Parks, L. Deni Colter, and Kevin J. Anderson. I’m hoping to transform this blog series into a podcast, which can be accessed through the blog, in the coming year, and I hope you all will join me there. Other authors interviewed in 2020 included Mark & Kym Todd, Jade C. Jamison, and Alan Dean Foster. The most viewed interview was with erotic romance author Nicky F. Grant. Interviews fell by the wayside along with the genre themes, but I’m planning to bring back author interviews for 2021, and I’m working on a new blog segment, “The Authors’ Covid Coffee Clache”, which will address issues of the pandemic specific to authors.
I was also honored to be a judge for the Writers of America’s Spur Awards and I reviewed my top six picks, and the winner of the western romance category, The Yeggman’s Apprentice, by C.K. Crigger. These were the best of the best, and I was honored to be given the opportunity to read and review them.
WordCrafter Book Blog Tours
Also, in 2021 Writing to be Read will be a host for the WordCrafter Book Blog Tours, so we’ll be keeping you up to date on several new releases as they come out. Robbie Cheadle will bring us a new blog series on nursery rhymes and fairytales, “Dark Origins”, and I plan to bring in a new series, “Writer at Work”, which will talk about different issues that writers face. Subscribe to this blog with one of the buttons in the upper right-hand corner to be sure not to miss this great new content or the tried and true content of continuing series on Writing to be Read in the coming year.
Like this post? Let me know in the comments. You can be sure not to miss any of Writing to be Read’s great content by subscribe to e-mail or following on WordPress. If you found this content helpful or entertaining, please share.
I’m seeing a lot of promotions for anthologies these days. This excites me because short fiction anthologies are a wonderful way for rising authors to gain new readers. If you look for them, there are plenty of opportunities for short fiction submissions and contest entries, and many of those hold the possibility of having your short story featured in a new anthology.
All authors want to see their work published, but full length novels take months or even years to craft and polish before being ready to consider publication. And if an author is considering the traditional route of pitching their work until they find an interested publisher, they could be looking at that manuscript gathering dust on the shelves for a very long time. Short fiction offers a chance for authors to get their names out there on multiple works in a much shorter period of time than it would take to write and publish multiple novels.
Even before I published Delilah, I had two short stories accepted for publication online. Then my story, “If You’re Happy and You Know It”, was accepted by Zombie Pirate Publishing and it appeared in their The Collapsar Directive anthology. I learned very quickly that one difference in having short fiction published in an anthology, as opposed to being published online, was the spirit of comraderie among all the authors featured. The other cool perk of being published in an anthology was the invitation to submit to the next planned anthology. Hence, my story, “The Devil Made Her Do It”, appeared in the next anthology ZPP put out, Relationship Add Vice.
The trick to getting into an anthology is to read the submission guidelines and submit a story that meets them. Most of the time, that may mean writing a story specifically for that submission call or contest. When I was invited to submit a story for Dan Alatorre’s Nightmareland, the guidelines were pretty general, “horror”, and I happened to have a piece of flash fiction that fit into the genre. All it required was a bit of polishing and my story, “The Haunting of Carol’s Woods”, was ready for submission and acceptance. But, many submission calls are more specific.
For the above mentioned submission to ZPP for Relationship Add Vice, submission guidelines required a story that contained elements of romance and crime fiction. Chances are that you don’t have a story sitting in your files with those elements and you would need to create a new story to submit to meet these guidelines. I did have the beginnings of one, as it happened, but that certainly isn’t always the case.
The submission guidelines are important. Read and follow them carefully. Other than the type of story, they may include specific formatting requirements and other submission instructions. Many publishers are strict about their guidelines and will put down a story without finishing it, if the story doesn’t meet even one of the specifications. Of course, that doesn’t apply only to anthologies. Every submission you make should conform to the given submission guidelines, whether we’re talking about short fiction, novel manuscripts, articles or poetry. Why read something if the submitting author can’t even follow directions?
With each of these anthologies, I got that same feeling of comraderie and networking with my fellow authors. I love that feeling. Because anthologies, by definition, have several different authors, they also carry with them the advantage of widening the pool of possible readers. Each author promotes the anthology to their reader audience, so it is possible to extend your own reach beyond your own reader following and gain new readers who read your work in the anthology and want to read more. It’s a win-win for all authors involved.
Naturally, when I started WordCrafter Press in 2019, the first undertaking was to launch a short fiction contest and compile and publish the resulting anthology, Whispers of the Past. The submission guidelines required a paranormal stort story and the contest winner received a $25 Amazon gift card.
Spirits of the West
For 2020, the contest submission call requested a piece of short fiction with elements of both the paranormal and western genres. It may have seemed a weird combination to some, but to me, it seemed only natural. The old west is filled with ghosts and spirits, and my first novel was a western. I think it was the western genre that threw potential authors off, but what resulted from this genre combination were some very interesting stories, including two South African ‘westerns’ by WtbR team member Robbie Cheadle, “The Thirstyland Journey” and “The Ghost in the Mound”, and a science fiction ‘western’ by WtbR team member Art Rosch, “Clouds in the West”. This author of this year’s winning story is Enid Holden, and she has two stories included in the anthology: the winning story, “High Desert Rose” and another paranormal western, “The Queen of Spades”. And my contribution is a story I wrote specifically for the occassion, “Don’t Eat the Pickled Eggs”. “Wenekia”, by last year’s contest winner, Jeff Bowles and “Gunsmoke” by author Tom Johnson are also included. This unique collection of paranormal westerns have been compiled into the Spirits of the West anthology and scheduled for an October release.
Authors can find calls for submissions or short fiction contests all over the internet these days. If you just look for them, you’re sure to find one that works for your writing style and preferences, or maybe one that offers a challenge and takes you into writing realms where you’ve never before ventured. In January, I’ll be announcing the theme for the 2021 WordCrafter Short Fiction Contest, so be sure to watch for that, too. If you want to get your name out there, grow your audience and have people read your work, short fiction anthologies are a great start, or they can be a supplement to already published books. Find one that suits you and submit a story today.
It’s taken twice as long as it should have, but I am now proud to announce the winner of the 2020 WordCrafter Short Fiction Contest. This year’s theme genre was western paranormal, requiring story submissions to contain both western and paranormal elements. WordCrafter left the guidelines open to loose interpretation, resulting a wide variety of story submissions, in which the required elements were used in some very creative ways. It was a difficult choice, but I’m happy to congradulate Enid Holden on her wonderful story, “High Desert Rose”.
As the winning submission author, Enid will receive a $25 Amazon gift card and her story will be published in the WordCrafter western paranomal anthology, Spirits of the West. We’re aiming for a release date sometime in October, so be sure and watch for it. The anthology will also include “Gunsmoke”, as a tribute to the author, the late Tom Johnson, as well as stories by several of authors from last years antholgy, Whispers of the Past.
Like this post? Let me know in the comments. You can be sure not to miss any of Writing to be Read’s great content by subscribe to e-mail or following on WordPress. If you found this content helpful or entertaining, please share.
