Putting Ordinary Characters into Extraordinary Circumstances

Let’s face it—everyone knows that wizards and superheroes have an advantage when fighting the forces of evil—the advantage of supernatural powers. But what about us mere mortals? What chance do we have? Admittedly, not a very good one. But isn’t that a great way to ramp up a story’s excitement factor?

Take F. Paul Wilson’s Repairman Jack series. As a college student, Jack’s mother is murdered by a vandal and Jack commits his first act of vigilantism by giving the vandal his “just desserts.” He begins to do various “fix-its” for people who have problems the police can’t seem to solve. This often leads to confrontations with supernatural creatures which he faces using nothing more than his human wits.

Jonathan Maberry's Joe Ledger series is another great example of a mortal caught up in a bizarre, chaotic world—a world of zombies created through bio-terrorism. As a former police detective and U.S. Army Ranger, Ledger has skills, but no magic bullets or supercharged reflexes. He’s just a dude with human strengths and weaknesses. And that’s what makes it interesting.

  

There are other examples of the normal vs. the paranormal in shows I grew up with as a kid, The Night Stalker being one—Darren McGavin as Carl Kolchek, a rumpled mess of a news reporter who always seemed to end up fighting supernatural creatures, including vampires and werewolves. Somehow, Carl always came out on top, albeit a little worse for the wear.

As a reader, I have an easier time identifying with characters like that than I do with, say, Thor or Captain America. Nothing against those guys—I’m a huge fan of Marvel—but I love to see normal people kicking paranormal ass. I guess that’s what led me to write a book like THE CAIN PROPHECY (yeah, you saw that coming, didn’t you).

 CIA operative Gabrielle “Gabe” Lincoln and her partner, Gordon Powers, must find and destroy a ruthless, superhuman assassin known only as Cain. Although Gabe is intelligent and lethal, she is no match for Cain, who belongs to a race of beings that populated the earth long before humans came along. Let me just give an example of how brutal Cain is—in one part of the story, he kills a Saudi special ops guy by ripping out his spine. Not someone you want to screw with.

Gabe and Gordon, along with a team of former special ops soldiers, are forced into a showdown with Cain amidst a sea of sand dunes, beneath a blinding sun in the blast furnace known as the United Arab Emirates. Human against superhuman, natural versus supernatural. Even with all their technology, Gabe and Gordon and their team are barely a match for Cain. Who will be the victor? Buy my book and find out! Available Nov. 10 wherever books are sold! (Got another plug in there! Woohoo!)

I’ll probably always use characters like Gabe and Gordon. I like writing stories that show the strength of the human spirit and our ability to persevere against seemingly insurmountable odds. Like a quasar in a black hole, we are at our brightest when the pressure is at its most intense.

For more info on me and my writing, check out my website at www.tobytatestories.com or follow me on Facebook and Twitter.  THE CAIN PROPHECY is endorsed by Bestselling Authors Jonathan Maberry, Steve Berry and A.J. Tata. Look for it on Nov. 10!

Dealing with negative book reviews

I don’t mind negative book reviews. I really don’t. Every writer will get one at some point. I think it’s important to know what people don’t like about your writing as much as what they do like. Nobody should get pats on the back 24/7. It’s just not good for the soul. So I try to glean from them any bits of information that I can to improve my writing.

I know that a lot of authors worry that negative reviews will affect their sales…well…negatively. I have found that not to be the case. My books are still selling steadily, even with a few one-star reviews. I have seen books that remained on the best-sellers list in spite of a majority of bad reviews. People know what they like. I’m not saying reviews have no effect, but maybe not as much as we like to think.

Then there are vitriolic reviewers who will lambast you for daring to write something they don’t like. They hate your style of writing, your characters, your plot, maybe even the fact that you live on the same planet and breathe the same air they do. I have had reviewers comment that they couldn’t believe someone would publish such garbage, that only my friends gave me favorable reviews or that I wrote my own reviews under a fake name, and on and on. Not that I’m anyone special, but I can’t help but detect an undercurrent of jealousy or envy in some of those so-called reviews, especially after signing with a new publisher and a new agent.

I have found that the best thing anyone can do in those cases is to ignore it. Or do like me, and blog about it. Either way, it’s best not to engage with people who write hateful reviews. It only encourages them. Just let them fade into their own little corners of existence, and instead, focus on the good reviews and the people that support you. After all, they’re the ones you’re writing for, not the people that hate your writing.

Critique is a different thing. I love critique, especially from people who make writing their business, like editors and agents, because it makes me stronger. I like critique from readers, too, because it helps me gauge whether my audience is satisfied, or if I’m going in the right direction.

But ultimately, I have to write for myself. It has to please me first, because if I’m not really happy with what I’m doing, then what’s the purpose in writing at all? If I’m not happy with what I’m doing, regardless of the haters and the naysayers, then I’m not only letting myself down, I’m letting my audience down, as well.

For more info on me and my writing, go to www.tobytatestories.com or follow me on Twitter and Facebook.

My journey to finding a literary agent

The day has finally arrived when I can say, “I have an agent!” —but not just any agent, mind you—the awesome and talented MacKenzie Fraser-Bub of New York’s Trident Media Group. Now when the phone rings and I jokingly say to my wife, “That might be my agent,” I won’t be joking.

 

  

That doesn’t mean, of course, that it’s time to kick back and take it easy. It’s more like a new beginning, kind of like stepping up my game and saying, “Okay, I’ve made all this noise, tooted my horn and got the attention of a major agency. Now, it’s time to live up to the hype I created for myself.”

Which I fully intend to do.

But how, you may well ask, did you get this far? What’s your secret? To which I answer: perseverance and persistence. I would also like to think I write good books, as well. Put those three things together, and you have a winning combination.

But five years ago, when I started my agent search, it seemed like an insurmountable hill. Actually, it was more like Mount Everest. I had just finished writing my first complete novel, a supernatural thriller, and had no experience whatsoever as a published author. I had virtually no short stories published, just some articles in magazines and the stories I wrote as a full-time newspaper journalist.

I wrote up my query letter, my biography, and my story synopsis, and then started firing off emails to any legitimate agency that represented my genre. I got a few full manuscript requests, but after a year, I had amassed nearly 100 rejections. By that time, I decided I was going to try some small presses, which I did, and got interest from two publishers. DIABLERO was eventually released by Nightbird Publishing in Oct. 2010.

For my next book, a supernatural technothriller, I was still unable to find an agent. I got an offer from DarkFuse to publish, and in Dec. 2012, LILITH hit the streets in hardcover, paperback and eBook. I was happy. 

Soon after, Crossroad Press published my young adult sci-fi thriller, GOD PARTICLE, and I eventually did another book with DarkFuse, a horror novella called THE BLACK CHURCH. 

When I finished writing the follow up to LILITH, a book called PRIMORDIAL, NY Times bestselling author Douglas Preston agreed to read the manuscript and give me an endorsement if he liked it. Two weeks later, here’s what he said: “Primordial by Toby Tate is an exceptionally well-crafted sci-fi supernatural thriller that tells a gripping story of ancient evil and modern horror, with exotic settings, vivid characters, and a plot that moves with the speed of a tsunami. The atmospherics are excellent and the story offers plenty of surprises right up to the shocking end.”

Can’t beat that for an endorsement. With that blurb in hand, and four published books under my belt, I went on yet another agent hunt. Once again, there were no takers. I was flummoxed.

But then, out of the blue, I got an offer from Permuted Press, publishers of zombie and apocalyptic fiction, who were looking to expand into other types of horror and sci-fi. They not only wanted PRIMORDIAL, they also wanted the sequel as well as a novella prequel, and they offered to reissue my first novel. Four books altogether. I was ecstatic.

 

They sent me the contract, and I realized upon printing it out that it was 20 pages long. The longest contract I had ever signed was three pages. I had to get an agent. I really did not feel comfortable signing a contract that long and involved.

I asked them to give me a week, which they did, and an author friend of mine suggested a few agencies I should contact. I contacted exactly two. They both wanted to read the manuscript. When MacKenzie from Trident made an offer, I knew I couldn’t pass it up, because Trident had been one of my dream agencies since the beginning. 

So there it is. In a way, I’m glad I didn’t have a NY Times bestselling book right off the bat, because where do you go from up? I believe that things happened exactly the way they were supposed to, and still are. I’m just slowly climbing the ladder, and I have to admit, so far I’m enjoying the journey.

For more info on my books and my music, go to www.tobytatestories.com, and follow me on Twitter and Facebook.

Douglas Preston, Permuted Press and me

So far, this year has been full of surprises. Not all good surprises, but I’m only going to talk about the good ones because I’m a “glass half-full” kind of guy.

Let me start with the manuscript of a book called PRIMORDIAL that I finished writing nearly six months ago. I had already moved on to a new project, a book I’m already about halfway done writing. I started looking for an agent to sell the other book, which is a sequel to my supernatural thriller, LILTIH, and I was getting some interest. One of the agents was still on Christmas vacation, however, so I had some time to polish the manuscript. Looking it over, I realized the book was at least ten thousand words too short.

  

I started thinking about how I could lengthen the manuscript and when inspiration struck, I rolled up my sleeves and got to work. Ten thousand words later, I turned in said manuscript to said agent. Said agent said “No, thanks!” So did several other agents. Keep in mind I already had four books published, two with a well-known indie press.

In the meantime, NY Times bestselling author Douglas Preston, of whom I am a huge fan, agreed to read my book as soon as he had time. Two weeks later, I got an email saying “Hey, Toby, I loved your book!” He gave me the best blurb (for you non-writer types, that’s an endorsement) I ever got for a book. I was a happy camper, and did a happy dance in the middle of my kitchen, much to my dog’s chagrin.

I was now suddenly getting full manuscript requests from agents as well as a couple of indie presses I had sent the book to. One of them was Permuted Press, the same people who originally published JOHN DIES AT THE END and other great apocalyptic and zombie-type fiction. Although I knew they were probably inundated with manuscripts, I went ahead and sent PRIMORDIAL and then put it out of my mind.

  

A couple of weeks later, there was an email from the president of Permuted Press, Michael Wilson. “Oh well, another rejection,” I figured. But as I read, I discovered it was an offer to publish PRIMORDIAL. Before I even finished reading the entire email, I was calling my wife to tell her the news, followed by another happy dance.

The next day, I was talking to Michael on the phone. He offered to not only publish PRIMORDIAL, but the next book in the LILITH series, as well as re-issuing my first book, DIABLERO.

Yep, you guessed it. Dance time again.

Before sending off my manuscript, I had done some research on Permuted Press. The authors I spoke to were very happy with their experience, which was a big plus for me. They are also expanding their operations in several ways: (1) By moving into science fiction and fantasy, as many other horror publishers are doing; (2) By getting their books into brick and mortar stores via Permuted Platinum, (3) By teaming up with big-6 companies like Simon & Schuster for some of their bestselling titles.

In fact, one of the new owners is former Simon & Schuster deputy publisher Anthony Ziccardi, another plus for me.

Some would say all these events are just happenstance, or coincidence, or just plain luck. But when it comes down to it, don’t we really make our own luck?