Published!: MALFUNCTION by J.E. Purazzi

Today on the ShoreIndie blog we're celebrating the publication of one of the books that was a 2017 Round 1 Winner, Malfunction (The Malfunction Trilogy, Book 1) by J.E. Purazzi, which went live on Amazon on Sunday, October 8th. J.E. was kind enough to take time out of her busy schedule to do a brief interview with us about her book and her experience with the ShoreIndie Contest. Read on to learn about the inspirations for Malfunction, what it took to get it publish-ready, J.E.'s advice to emerging indies, and more.

ShoreIndie (SI): Congratulations on the publication of your novel Malfunction! Will you tell us a little about the inspiration for the trilogy?

J.E. Purazzi (JEP): Sure! The original idea was just going to be a short story for Wattpad, something to try to gain an audience for my fantasy project before I really knew good marketing practices. My first glimmer of the idea was focused on the virtual reality and was about a kid (a blend of Menrva and Cowl back then) in a subterranean city, escaping through Virtual Reality only to find out that the game they were playing was real. As I worked on the concept, hammering out the plot holes and applying existing science, I ended up sticking with the one image of the climax in the second book and wrote the first draft of Malfunction in about a month.

One of the ideas that carried through all the drafts was that of human beings being reduced to objects in order to provide safety and pleasure to others, a concept that I think is really relevant to the issues of modern-day slavery and human trafficking.

Your Novel's Structure

by Sione Aeschliman

What is structure?
When we talk about the structure of a novel, we're describing the order of the major plot points, the work that needs to be done by the major plot points and between those plot points, and the timing of the major plot points, with the goals of ensuring that the story 1) hooks the reader, 2) sets up accurate expectations in the first fifty pages about what the story's about, 3) maintains forward momentum, and 4) delivers an appropriately intense emotional payoff.

My approach to narrative structure is influenced primarily by the three-act structure as explained to me by my friend Diane Gilman, who wrote screenplays for many years, and by Viki King's description of the nine plot points in her book How to Write a Movie in 21 Days. Influenced being the operative word; what I offer here is not a simple mash-up of those two approaches but rather my own interpretation of them with modifications to fit commercial and upmarket fiction for today's readers.

Act I: The Beginning
This is The Beginning of your story, starting on on Page 1. It introduces the novel's setting, tone, characters, and theme(s) and includes two inciting incidents: the one that happens within the first five or six pages, and the one that heralds the end of Act I, around page 50.

Yes, that's right: Act I is only 50 pages long, if that. Here's a post that discusses Act I in detail.

10 Reasons I'm Excited about ShoreIndie

by Sione Aeschliman

[Note: this post was updated on June 1, 2017 to reflect last-minute changes to the submission process.]

A few weeks ago I wrote a post called "6 Reasons to Follow #ShoreIndie," in which I gave some arguments for why writers should follow the ShoreIndie Contest regardless of whether they intend to submit. Today I'm going to focus on my own personal reasons for being excited about this contest - as its creator, as an indie author, and as a member of its editing team.

1. I know of no other contest like this for indie authors.
Existing contests open to indie authors fall into two main categories: published manuscripts and unpublished manuscripts. This contest falls into the latter category, and it distinguishes itself from existing contests in that 1) it is run by freelance editors, not by a self-publishing service; 2) TEN authors, not just one, will win professional editing; and 3) the prize packages are designed to include services and resources to help emerging indie authors begin to grow and sustain their careers, not just publish a single book. So yeah, I'm pretty darn proud of what we've put together. The contest being the first of its kind? Bonus.

2. Supporting indie authors as leaders in the publishing industry.
I am a person who is driven by a fierce independent streak and a strong commitment to social equality and self-empowerment. So it makes total sense that I'd be excited about the fact that we who write the books now have access to the means of production and distribution. But it goes beyond that, too. One of the biggest opportunities that self-publishing authors have is to push the boundaries laid down by traditional publishing - by publishing content deemed too risky for traditional publishing, by blending and inventing new genres, by introducing readers to voices and perspectives that aren't yet making it through the gates of traditional publishing. I firmly believe that once the self-publishing community has proven that there is a market for a wider range of voices and perspectives, more traditional publishers will be willing to take these projects on. Everybody wins.

Meet ShoreIndie Editor Sione Aeschliman

Sione Aeschliman (pronounced see-OWN ASH-lemon) is an editor and writing coach with a Master's degree in English and over fourteen years of editing experience. Since becoming a full-time freelance editor in 2012, she’s had the honor of working with authors from several countries on a wide variety of fiction and nonfiction projects. Last year she was an editor in the Pitch to Publication Twitter contest and faculty at the inaugural The Work Conference in New York City. This year she’s a #RevPit editor, creator of the ShoreIndie contest, co-editor of an anthology of floating-inspired prose and poetry for Coincidence Control Publishing, and teacher of genre fiction writing at the Show:Tell Workshop for Teen Writers and Artists.

Under her own name Sione writes prose and poetry (and prose poetry) about dusty heart-drawers and being chased by nunchuck-wielding ducks. Under pseudonym she is the indie author of seven books published in the last five years.

Although she lives in Portland, Oregon, she does not own a bicycle and is woefully underprepared for the zombie apocalypse, but her adorkable dog, Milton, is an Expert Urban Forager. She can't wait to read submissions and connect with members of the Twitter indie author community.

For ShoreIndie 2017, Sione is excited to accept...