The Jeanne Stein Irregular

Greetings to all my friends and Anna Strong fans!

Thanks to all who sent questions—I’ll get to them in a minute. First, here’s the cover art for an anthology out this month, which includes a story of mine: Elizabeth and Anna’s Big Adventure. As you can tell from the title of the Anthology, A Girl’s Guide to Guns and Monsters, you can expect some action. Hope you enjoy the stories.

This month I was mainly occupied with working on the seventh Anna book, Crossroads. I did speak with a very enthusiastic group at Schlessman Library as part of the Colorado Author series. I love speaking with readers and aspiring writers. It is as motivating to me as I hope it is to them.

There is a contest going on at Literary Escapism:
http://www.literaryescapism.com/7253/new-author-mini-challenge-the-league-2

A chance to win some very big book prizes AND get to know some new authors. Check it out!

Now, on to the questions.

Q. Your characters names are a good fit!
I was wondering how much consideration you have to give to naming your characters? (i.e. do they just come to you, do you go through the dictionary, do you change your mind along the way, do you get hung up on finding just the right name, etc.)

A. Names are very important to me. When I started the series, I wanted a name for my protagonist that would be a reflection of her personality. The funny thing was the first name I wanted was Hannah Storm. But since that was the name of a well-known TV personality, I figured that wouldn’t fly. So I played around with it until I came up with something similar in tone: Anna Strong. As for the secondary characters, it’s hard to continually come up with different and unique names. I don’t use a telephone book, although I may in the future. Now the names of many of my characters are a combination of names of people I have known—the first name of one, the surname of another.

Q. How many stories do you plan to write?

A. I am often asked this and my answer, unfortunately, is "as many as I am contracted to write". I am working on the seventh book of the series. When I turn it in, my agent will begin contract negotiations. Hopefully, the publisher will want more because Anna has more stories to tell.

Q. Why can’t I find The Becoming and Blood Drive in Kindle format?

A. I get this question often. There are rights problems being ironed out. A small press here in Colorado originally published the Becoming and Blood. I believe that publisher has not relinquished the rights. My agent is working on it.

Q. When will the next book come out?

A. The sixth book of the series, Chosen, is scheduled for an August release. As soon as I get cover art, I will share it on both the blog and on the website.

Q. Which conferences do you plan to attend this year?

A. Schedule details are posted on the website, but so far these conferences have been confirmed:

The Tucson Festival of Books, Tucson, AZ; Norwescon in Seattle, WA; Romantic Times in Columbus, OH; Crested Butte Writers Conference, Crested Butte, CO; RomCon, Denver, CO; Bubonicon, Albuquerque, NM.

Still to be confirmed, DragonCon, Atlanta, GA.

If you plan to attend any of these, please come up and say hello.

Thanks to all who contributed questions. The winner (from a random pull) is Leslie Weber! Please email me at the website with your mailing address so I can send get your prize package in the mail.

Next month we’ll talk about the writing life and what it takes to carve a career in this crazy business. If you have any burning questions you’d like to have answered, send them along. Once again, we’ve got prizes to award. It’s easy. Just send a question or comment.

In the meantime, remember to check the blog: http://www.biting-edge.blogspot.com/ for news and views!!