Meteors and Menorahs by Nessa Claugh
Please welcome Nessa Claugh author of Meteors and Menorahs
Nessa Claugh will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
Meteors and Menorahs
byNessa Claugh
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GENRE: Sci Fi Romance / Jewish
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INTERVIEW:
- What or who inspired you to start writing?
I’ve always been fairly introverted and writing gave me an opportunity to consider the story I wanted to tell without the pressures of an in-person audience. Trying to tell ghost stories to people I didn’t know at sleepovers and camp always fell kind of flat because I always sounded unsure of myself. I had really high anxiety when I was younger and it meant that talking to people–even adults–was difficult and led to some real issues with communication. The first time I wrote a story down in fourth grade, not only was I able to come up with something coherent, I got some really encouraging feedback and pointers on how to make the next story better, and it led to more and more writing over the next few decades. As an adult, I’ve come to realize that taking the time to sit with a notepad or a computer lets me consider what I’m writing, even if I have a story already screaming to get out.
- How did you come up with ideas for your books?
Honestly, they’re all over the place. I like aliens so I’ve been writing a lot of sci-fi lately. I liked the Mars Needs Women trope, but I was also able to see how having that kind of arrangement between another planet and Earth could be easily abused/mishandled. That led to my Ragrim series, where Earth becomes the center of a conflict based on their guardian planet misrepresenting Earth to the rest of the galaxy and vice versa. Meteors and Menorahs started because I’ve seen a lot of friends and family bring someone home who their family didn’t necessarily approve of and I wanted to put a sci-fi twist on that.
- What expertise did you bring to your writing?
I’ve had a lot of different jobs. I’ve bounced around from security to casinos to crematoriums, written college papers for money, taxidermy, and more recently I’ve worked in law enforcement. One would think that with that kind of background I’d be writing heist or crime fiction but having that kind of background just means I’m good at a lot of different things. Writing college papers for classes I wasn’t attending meant my research skills had to be really, really good. I had to learn a lot about architecture, history, marijuana laws, and a bunch of other topics that I had to BS my way through. It means that when I write from the point of view of a job that I’ve never had, I fall down a rabbit hole and hopefully come out looking like I’ve at least worked a little bit in the field of my main character.
- As far as your writing goes, what are your future plans?
Right now I’m also exploring small-town contemporary romance under another pen name, so that’s been fun. I don’t plan on abandoning my ventures into sci-fi and shifter romance, and I’m hoping to start exploring paranormal romance with some more in-depth projects that will hopefully be coming out early next year.
- If you were the casting director for the film version of your novel, who would play your leading roles?
For Meteors and Menorahs, I’d have to say Jake Gyllenhaal for Knar and comedian Jenny Slate for Leah. Leah isn’t very funny in this book. At points, she’s downright rude to herself and the people around her, and watching the sometimes brutal honesty Slate displays in interviews, I think she would be really good in the role. Gyllenhaal for obvious reasons. He’s hot, really charismatic, and would probably be able to play the patient but overwhelmed Knar well.
- When did you first decide to submit your work? Please tell us what or who encouraged you to take this big step?
After writing fanfic for years, I branched into original fiction, but I still wanted the same feedback on my work (don’t we all?) so I kept posting for free on a sister site. I was mostly writing contemporary lesbian fiction at that point, and another author reached out saying they were starting a press and putting together their first anthology and they wanted one of my stories for it. I was super excited to see my name in print so of course I said yes. I got paid a whopping $36 for my novelette, received some terrible reviews that singled out my story in particular, and after a few more anthologies the press folded.
It’s not a success story or a triumphant moment for movies. I’m not super proud of the decision to publish under my real name at that point, especially given the reviews and the fact that I still had a lot to learn as a writer, but I’ll always be thankful to that author for reaching out. I’m not sure I’d have ever gotten the balls to really start submitting anywhere without them. Once I had that one win under my belt, I started submitting to more and bigger publishers, and I recently made my first sale to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, which has been on my bucket list for years. It’s not at all like what I’m writing under this pen name, but it’s been a total validation that my writing is on the right track, and it all stems back from my first “win” as a writer. Your first sale doesn’t need to be that pro-rate sale, even though it’s super cool when that does happen. Some people only ever self-publish, and that’s valid, too. But if you’ve made a single cent off of something you’ve written, it can be more encouraging than any compliment.
- What is the best and worst advice you ever received? (regarding writing or publishing)
Both of them are actually “write what you know.” Best because you do actually need to know something about what you’re writing. Talk to experts. Do your research. Read books. If you’ve never had sex, you can still write a sex scene, but you have to actually readabout it. Don’t just read dry scientific books, either. Read books about sloppy, wet sex. Read about anything you can get your hands on. Get familiar with the human body (or one with tentacles. Or one with blue skin. Or one with horns on the head that otherwise looks human). But get familiar with your subject matter.
It’s also the worst for the same reason. Research can be one of the hardest things to do about a project, but the trick is to sell it to your audience. You don’t need to be an expert in theories behind faster than light travel to write a character in hard sci-fi who is piloting his ship alone through a bunch of hyperspace jumps, but you do need to be able to apply it convincingly enough at points where the audience is willing to suspend their disbelief. You can’t lead with an infodump, but if you sprinkle enough actual science here and there to make your audience believe you know what you’re talking about, they’ll be more willing to accept the weirder stuff that may not necessarily fall in line with physics.
- Do you outline your books or just start writing?
I outline. I used to just write whatever, but for longer works, I’ve found that having an outline to guide me reallyhelps keep me on track. I keep an entirely separate document from my main manuscript that contains my outline with all of my scenes so I can keep track of what’s known to the main characters and when, and the namesof everyone. I’ve mentioned that I wrote fanfiction. Back when I was writing with no outline or notes, I completely forgot that one of the two main characters didn’t know something about the other character, and kept going in the story with the assumption that I actually had revealed it, and I got nailedit in the reviews. Notes are important.
- Can you tell us a little about the black moment in your book?
We all screw up. I like writing characters who screw up hard, because we’ve all had that moment where we’ve messed up, we know we messed up, and we double down sometimes because it’s easier to do that than to go back and apologize or realize that we have a flaw. I don’t like hero/ines who only have a little hiccup to get over before they turn into the perfect match for their costar. We’re always evolving and changing as people, and sometimes we have to fall hard to get to that point.
18. Can you tell us a little bit about what it was like to write a series.
Weird. It started off with me trying to write a classic Mars Needs Women tropey ménage because I figured that would sell. It didn’t sell well because I was off the mark with a lot of what I’d written, and then I started doing more research. I started to consider how one planet being the “guardians” for Earth against another invading species or our own ignorance in terms of climate change could quickly spin out of control, and I wanted to explore it a little. I started screwing around with tropes, tried to keep some of the same themes, and while I’m not exactly sure where it’s going at this point, I’m excited to continue it.
BLURB:
‘Your dad invited your ex-boyfriend.’ Already committed to going home for Hanukkah, Leah panics at her mother’s text and invites her crush to come with her. The catch? They aren’t dating. The other catch? He isn’t Jewish. He isn’t even human.
Knar has been studying the physiology of humans for years in preparation to introduce Earth to the rest of the galaxy and present them as a species that can adapt to change well. Although he believes in his mission, he’s also had his eye on his coworker Leah, and her invitation to come home with her for the holidays is just the opportunity he’s been looking for.
Going home for Hanukkah is normally the least of Leah’s worries until her mom lets it slip that her dad invited her ex-boyfriend. Desperate to keep him at arm’s length, Leah invites her handsome coworker Kenneth Knar to be a buffer against her family. Having to pretend he’s her new boyfriend doesn’t hurt, and if it annoys her parents, all the better.
He just has to find some way to tell her that he’s more than just a gentile. He’s not even from this planet. And Leah hates liars.
The menorah isn’t the only thing getting hot this holiday season…
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EXCERPT:
Leah finally came into the kitchen. “You made him lunch? Mom! I was going to take him out to Bernie’s!”
“Bernie’s closed a while ago,” her mother said. “Besides, it looks like you feed him plenty at home.”
She poked my deltoid and Leah blushed. “It’s not like he’s hard to cook for,” she said defensively. “Really? Bernie’s closed?”
“Last year,” Deborah said. “If you’d come home more you could have eaten there more before they shut down.”
Leah’s shoulders tightened, and I was starting to see what she’d meant about needing a buffer between her and her family. I’d gotten what she’d promised and more. Time to go to work.
“We have plenty of good restaurants in Kansas,” I said, hoping it would be enough to change the subject. “No food like this, but I’m sure there is food we can get there that we can’t find here.”
“Nothing like Kansas barbecue,” Leah said.
Deborah’s lips thinned. “You aren’t eating pork.” It was a statement and she stared at
Leah as though begging her to argue.
“You know barbecue isn’t just pig, right Mom?” she asked.
Diversion time. I started listing off all the animals you could barbecue, and by the time I got to what I’d read about the invasive reptiles in Florida, both Leah and her mother were suitably horrified to the point where we were off the topic of Leah’s lack of visits and whether she’d eaten pork in Kansas or not.
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Nessa grew up thriving on trips to natural history museums and Jurassic Park. Once adulthood was upon her, it was only a matter of time before she discovered dominant aliens and shifter erotica. She enjoys titillating the Triassic and stargazing.
Social Media:
https://nessaclaugh.wordpress.com/
https://www.facebook.com/NessaClaugh/
https://twitter.com/NessaClaugh
https://www.bookbub.com/profile/nessa-claugh
Buy Links:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09JFQN6KZ
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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE:
Nessa Claugh will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
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