Blooming Author: Jason Beymer!

“Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be.” ~ George Sheehan

Jason Beymer's dark comedy Rogue's Curse will be available from Lyrical Press on August 16, 2010.

Tell us about Rogue's Curse. What is it about and where will it be available?

Rogue's Curse is a dark comedy set 2000 years after the Rapture. When Doban, a nasty rogue, discovers the talisman responsible for the Rapture, it embeds itself to his skin. Now the ancient prophet who created the talisman wants it back, and he manipulates the king into launching a manhunt. And (just to sweeten the pot) Doban must turn to the only woman who ever loved him—a woman he once left to die in a tomb—for help. Rogue's Curse has tons of sex, monsters, palace politics, romance, humor and adventure.

But mainly the focus is on the relationship between Mona and Doban. What has happened in the two years since he left her to die in the tomb? How did she survive and escape? And most importantly, can they set aside their differences long enough to stop a second Rapture? At its heart, Rogue's Curse is about second chances, and whether or not we repeat past mistakes when presented the opportunity.

Bottom line: 2000 years after the Rapture, the world still sucks.

Rogue's Curse will be available as an eBook for purchase on 8/16/10 from Lyrical Press (as well as other fine eBook distributers).


Click here for an excerpt.


What were your inspirations for Rogue's Curse? What sorts of thing inspire you as a writer in general?

Characters. Sitting at my local coffee chain, I see so many characters. Can I say the name of the chain? Star-blmmm. The employees are very nice to me, and allow my ass to fester on the comfortable, plush chair. Some writers sit on the county transit and fill up pages while glancing around them. Not me. I'm a coffee voyeur. There's lots of us, actually. Bet you didn't know that. See that guy sitting on the chair typing? He's typing about you. Oh, I see you decided to wear your sweatpants with the word "Love" stretched across both cheeks. Bad choice. You just made it into my zombie-fashion story. Be warned: if you walk into my field of vision while I'm writing, you are fair game. I'm especially fond of inattentive parents whose precious darlings hover around my precariously perched laptop.

Before I wrote Rogue's Curse, I'd written stories for my World of Warcraft guild (yes, I brought up Warcraft. I went there), and decided it was time to write a book. Several character ideas buzzed inside my head, so I took out the laptop and turned them loose in a first draft. This was my favorite part of the process.

In general, I just want to make people laugh. If it's funny to me, I hope to God it's funny to you, too.


Let's talk about your process. How do you approach a story, do you start with outlines or something else? Where did you work when writing Rogue's Curse? Do you think it was the optimal writing environment for you?

My optimal environment is a loud, busy coffee house; my optimal time is morning. I get up at 5am every day and hit the coffee barn when they open. My creative batteries keep a good four-hour charge, then my head becomes a mucky mess as the day's responsibilities take shape. Oh, if I could spend all day writing! What worlds I would create (or I'd just play more xbox… Meh. It's probably better this way).

When I start the process, all I want to do is build a foundation for later drafts. I type as fast as I can, trying to stay one step ahead of my inner-editor. Once I have a solid first draft, I fill a big poster board with index cards for every chapter, juggling them into some sort of order. Then edit, edit, edit. I've found that editing on a Kindle works best for me—I use the notes feature and end up with hundreds of changes each day. Paper is good when you're still in the embryonic stages, but Kindle rocks for sentence-level edits and read-throughs.


Tell us about your "story of getting published." How long did you submit before you were accepted? How did it feel to get accepted?
I sent several query letters to big literary agents and publishing houses; I received several form-letter rejections in return. Then I sent the same query to a few small e-publishers; they sent back personalized rejections and feedback on how to improve my query letter. So I tried a new strategy: Send my queries to e-pubs, get feedback on why my queries suck, fine tune and start hitting the big names on the Writer's Market again. But suddenly…BANG…Lyrical Press accepts my query, spoils my plan and offers me a contract. I was like "What the f@#$ is this?" when I opened the email. I was accustomed to receiving "Sorry, but we are….", "Please excuse this form rejection, but…" and so on. I was elated. I hired a lawyer to review the contract, negotiated a few minor things with Lyrical (they were very flexible), and signed a contract I was happy with.


What are the publicity plans you have coming up?

Blog, tweet, beg, dance. I'm new to this. I have to rely on the kindness of strangers like you. I'm a recluse, a shelled turtle. But I'm trying to extrovert myself. Currently I'm doing a "101-Word Daily Stupor" experiment on my blog to drum up attention. Come check it out! Also I contribute reality TV show rants to Moronlife.com.

I've signed a contract with Lyrical for another book, Nether, which will release next summer. It's an Urban Fantasy this time, but also a Dark Comedy in the same vein as Rogue's Curse.

Thank you for this opportunity to discuss my novel, Sue!

email: jason@beerandtv.com
Blog: http://www.beerandtv.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/beerandtv