[TSS]The Side Effects of Being A Writer - Guest Post by Karen Harrington

Recently I read Karen Harrington's amazing book JANEOLOGY and was blown away by it. It's one of those books that you really don't know what to expect but are completely satisfied with the journey. You can read my review here if you missed it before.

Today Karen has agreed to be my special guest and I'm so happy to have her! Karen and I have become online buddies through our blogs and Facebook over the last year or so. Recently we had a very interesting exchange about how personalities come across and more specifically how surprised I was at the drastic difference between how I've come to know Karen and the dark subject matter of her book. In this post, Karen has expounded on that in her own inquisitive and humorous way. So, without further ado, here's Karen in her own words . . .

The side effects of being a writer

You’ve heard those drug commercials with the laundry list of possible side effects.

This drug may cause stomach upset, drowsiness, changes in eye color, walking, driving or having an affair in your sleep, colored urine or amnesia.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the side effects of being a writer. They are often as unexpected and funny as those listed above (which are all REAL, by the way, depending on the drug used.) I’ve kept a diary of my experience as a debut author and I can tell you – I have a list of unexpected side effects, all of which make me smile.

- Strangers send me nice emails. (This is simply wonderful. Please email your favorite authors. Who doesn’t want a friendly note?)

- Strangers send me emails demanding to know more about the ending. (This makes me smile.)

- I only make about $1 per book. (But I get paid much more in other means than money.)

- People tell me the acknowledgements were one of the favorite things in the book. (Wow, I wrote that paragraph in what, ten minutes?)

- People ask me when my next book is coming out. (Squeeee!)

- Readers ask me how I could write the point of view of a man so believably. (I never thought about this when I was writing the book, but virtually everything I’ve ever written has been from the perspective of a man.)

But recently, our lovely blogger Lisa got in touch with me after reading Janeology and posed a new thought. She commented “I’m curious. I’ve gotten to know you a bit through Facebook and on your blog and was surprised by the dark subject of your book.”

Talk about things that make you think.

Lisa’s curiosity got me to thinking about the whole nature of public perception as it relates to blogging and Facebook. This is a fascinating area all by itself. For instance, one of my Facebook friends met a girl, fell in love with a girl and broke up with a girl – and I read about the entire relationship life-cycle via his Facebook status updates. Reading the intimacies of his joy through heartbreak – one sentence at a time – probably caused me to make assumptions about his personality. By the time of the break-up, I was ready to flog the girl who broke his heart. She seemed mean and cruel while he seemed so sensitive and misunderstood.

Was this true? Maybe. Or maybe he was the jerk. Or maybe worse – a stalker! Only he knows. But his Facebook personality certainly made him sympathetic.

Now, this whole topic makes me wonder if a writer’s virtual personality necessarily has to match his/her writing themes. Do I necessarily need to post things about human nature and the dark nuances of humanity so you’ll know I write novels about troubled souls? Perhaps I do, but the blog wouldn’t last for long.

When I was first published, I did whatever my publisher advised. If they said, start a blog, I did. If they said join every social networking site, I did. I thought I was blogging to sell books, but then I realized I was doing it for the sheer benefits of connecting with other people. A writer’s day is pretty solitary, but checking in with blog friends and Facebook pals is sort of like getting up and walking over to a co-worker’s cubicle and saying “Hey, did you get those TPS reports?”

So for this reason, I’ve created a blog that (I think) offers the kind of at-work discussion I’d like to have with you during a stressful day. Sometimes it reflects my writing themes, but mostly it reflects my writing struggles and my reading interests. When I take a break from writing a particularly emotional scene, it’s nice to switch gears and read a book review or write an opinion piece. Does this give an opposite impression from the themes of my writing? Well, yes. Only time will tell if that has an impact on my future readership. My upcoming novel, PRODIGAL SON, is about the ripple effect hypocrisy has on a family after their patriarch, a famous mega-preacher, falls from grace. Will it sway readers either way if, on the day this book is released, I post on essay on why I think the Snuggie craze is hilarious? Maybe so.

I guess what I’ve realized about my conversation with Lisa is this: Having a virtual personality is an interesting side effect of being a novel writer. And come what may, I’ll continue to do it because the social benefits are far greater than I could ever have imagined. (And where else can I write my opinions on Snuggie’s?)

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I can't thank Karen enough for graciously taking the time to write a special post for my blog. I also can't encourage any reader more to take the time and read JANEOLOGY. It's an amazing story that will stay with you long after you've finished the book. It touched me so much that I have begun my own journey into my family's history and am building my own family tree. With the help of Ancestry.com and my parents, I'm learning more about my ancestors than I ever thought I would. If you'd like to learn more about JANEOLOGY, read an excerpt from the book or contact Karen, please visit her website.

Karen, thanks again, my friend for sharing your thoughts and your talent.

Janeology by Karen Harrington

Have you ever seen on the news a story about a mother who killed her own child and wondered 'What would make her do that?' or 'How could she do that to her own child?' In JANEOLOGY, these are the very questions that Tom Nelson is asking about his wife, Jane after she drowns one of their toddler twins. Thankfully, the other survived.

It was a day like any other until a policeman showed up at Tom's classroom at the Texas college where he teaches, to tell him he needed to come home with him. That there was some trouble at his house. Not in his wildest imagination could he have perceived what he would discover there.

After Jane's trial, where she was committed to a psychiatric hospital, the prosecutor's office soon began to focus on Tom and he was charged with Failure To Protect. Why hadn't he seen this coming? Didn't he know his wife was unstable? Was he guilty of not protecting his children from their mother? The answers to these questions are the basis for Tom's legal defense.

With the help of his dedicated lawyer, a lot of research and a clairvoyant who has her own interest in the case, they begin a journey into Jane's family history that leads them to startling revelations that at least begin to explain why Jane did the unthinkable.

JANEOLOGY is a book that has a dark side and I found myself getting lost in Jane's past as her husband tries to make sense of it all. Karen Harrington draws on the abilities of a clairvoyant in her story to travel through time and look into past lives that have ultimately contributed to one woman committing an unforgivable crime against her own child.

The story is told in the days leading up to Tom's own trial with each chapter introducing a descendant from Jane's family tree, beginning with her mother's geneology and bringing it full circle with her father's family history. I thought the way in which the story was told was imaginative and brilliant. When telling a story with many family members, it's hard not to get lost or to lose track of who is who. This is not a problem in reading JANEOLOGY.

Once I started reading, I had difficulty putting it down. It's the kind of book I enjoy reading the most. Not a lot of fluff or descriptive reading. Just the meat of a good story. Another thing I liked most about it was the ending. I felt completely satisfied and it didn't feel like it was predictable at all. I can't say anymore about it, but I liked the way it ended. I do have one regret and that is that I waited so long to read this book.

Visit Karen's website to learn more about JANEOLOGY, read an excerpt from the book or watch the book trailer. You can also visit her Blog at http://www.scobberlotch.blogspot.com.

JANEOLOGY

Author: Karen Harrington

Publisher: Kunati Inc.

Published: April 2008

Pages: 256

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Stars

Teaser Tuesday: 2.2.10

Teaser Tuesday is hosted each week by MizB at Should Be Reading. It's a fun way to share the books we're reading by offering a sample of writing. Here's how it works:

• Open your current book to a random page
• Select two sentences to share being careful not to include any spoilers.
• List the name, author and page number you took your teasers from

I'm continuing on with a book I used last week and will be finishing later today. The premise of this book is so interesting and different than any other book I've read. It's the psychological thriller JANEOLOGY by Karen Harrington . . .

"What we don't know about our mothers and fathers may be all for the better," I said. "But truly, would it change a person to learn in the middle of life that his bloodline is something altogether different than he thought?" ~ page 183

Teaser Tuesday: Janeology

I love Tuesdays because we get to share a piece of the books we are reading this week. It's fun to sample all the wonderful books out there. Since I'm still reading the same book as last week, I'm taking my teasers from the second book I'm reading, which I started just last night. It's Karen Harrington's JANEOLOGY . . .

So Dave's bad gene theory marched forth. But the journey to creating this defense, well, it didn't include merely my own memories of Jane. To find those errant genes, I would soon learn, we had to climb up and down her family tree, a feat that was somtimes as bizarre as Jane's crime itself. ~ page 56

For more Teasers, visit MizB at Should Be Reading.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

I didn't get as much reading done last week as I'd hoped so I didn't finish a book. However, I did have author Jennie Shortridge as a guest last Monday. [You can read it here] She wrote a very interesting piece about food and how it has played a part in her books. Since my blog is a mix of food and books I thought it was great of her to write such a post. I'm believing this week will be a more productive reading week though. I'm pretty excited about the books I'm reading. . .

I'm in the middle of Karen White's THE HOUSE ON TRADD STREET and it is proving to be as good as I'd hoped it would be. I've never before read anything by this author and I'm asking myself Why? I love her writing, with its wit, that I didn't expect in this book. I will definitely be back-tracking and reading her other novels.

The other book I picked up Saturday and will begin reading this week is JANEOLOGY by Karen Harrington. I don't know why it's taken me so long to read this book, but I'm really looking forward to it, especially since her second book is just around the corner!

Well, that's what I have planned for the week and I don't see it changing. What are your reading plans for the week? This weekly meme is hosted by J. Kaye's Book Blog, so be sure to pop over there to see what other book lovers are reading this week!