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Ange DuBellet 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am ANGE.
I am a retired “worker” and I now appear as an erotic writer. I’ve written a lot of books, but I’m reworking and publishing them right only now.
It seems that in life, we don’t do what matters most until too late, for various reasons.
I have already published two books and two more will follow in the coming months.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is “Trans Hotel”. Staying awake until late in the night inspired me. I mean staying up late at night, out of bed, out in the blue, sometimes hoping that dawn never comes because that moment is magical. I like to go to public places at night like highway restaurants, or a laundromat that never closes, or a hotel lobby. One night, I was sitting in the lobby of a cheap hotel, sipping a mini-bottle of Jack Daniel’s, snow started to fall. The concierge looked bored. We were in the stillness of the blue. It was the beginning of my novel “Trans Hotel”. The magic but also the despair that brings solitude. I imagined ghosts and people with deep stories who had nowhere to go.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Yes, I wander in hotels’ lobby. I pretend that I have a room there. I do the same in airports, pretending that I am waiting for my flight.
I take an extraordinarily long time to shop something at convenience stores to listen to what people say.
I go to municipal zoos and study animals’ habits.
I drink very fancy and expensive vinagars. That’s how I avoid drinking too much alcohol.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Lots.
I love Jack London and Hemingway. There is also Flaubert. All of them have deep influence on me.
I also love deeply Mary Oliver for her poetry. And Robert Frost, of course. These are the author I am made of.

What are you working on now?
I am working on a book that goes in the opposite direction of Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis”. The main character is a woman who turns into an elephant instead of an “ugly” beetle. She won’t finish in a trash can like Kafka’s insect but travel the world. She will free herself after a devastating marriage. She will be the antithesis of Kafka. All the crazy sex you can experience with a trunk as a very dominant woman!

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I don’t know. After all, despite my age, I am a new author! It can’t be Amazon itself since I write erotic porn and Amazon doesn’t allow advertising for this category. So, I am trying elsewhere. This site seems nice and not very costly for an indie.
As an erotic porn writer, there may be erotic show or salons. We’ll see.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Yes, not only for the writing but in general in life:

What you do must make SENSE to you.

Don’t care much about the rest. Mary Oliver was telling that you can live with just what it takes to feed a chicken and be cheerful with it.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Watch out!
No, more seriously, it may be quite the opposite: don’t care too much about it.

What are you reading now?
I am re-reading “The Matamorphosis” by Franz Kafka. I frequently read a poem by Robert Frost. I am also reading a book for children : “The Magician’s Elephant” by Kate DiCamillo. Maybe someday, I’ll write for children. For the time being, I like sex too much and it drives my writing feverishly.
On the erotic side, I just read “Taken by the Burlesque Dancer” by Margeaux Adler that is very very well done.
There is also an indie writer who usually writes romance named R.B. O’Brien. I just read very good poetry from her “Ruin my Lipstick.”

What’s next for you as a writer?
I think I will stay in the hard-core erotic niche for quite a while. It drives my energy. I know there is a lot of very bad writing in this category. But a good porn story is very powerful. This is my goal to achieve.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
1. The Old Man and the Sea – Hemingway
Because it gives me hope that life is possible without something big (a fish here) even though you catch it, the purpose is elsewhere.
2. The Homer’s Osyssey.
Since in your question, I am alone on a desert island, it makes a lot of sense.
3. Trois Contes by Gustave Flaubert (Three Tales)
The writing is so perfect that I think I could discover more and more in it on my desert Island
4. Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy
I couldn’t live without darkness. And this is the darkest. Even the title is dark since it states that darkness comes from outside.

Author Websites and Profiles
Ange DuBellet Website

Ange DuBellet’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile

John Poitier 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Well, I am sixteen years old and I currently live in The Bahamas(where I am from). I am an uncle( basically one of my best achievements so far). Reading and writing are two of my favorite things to do and ever since I was extremely young, I have always loved doing that.

So far, I have written and published one book.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Mangoes in the Summertime was inspired by, unsurprisingly, my love for food. From there, I actually made a correlation between mangoes and joy. Everyone likes mangoes, because…they’re mangoes! So Mangoes in the Summertime stands for the happiness(mangoes) in our lives, during a given period of time(summertime).

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write everything from the back- meaning that all of my stories, poems, or whatever, are written in the reverse order. This helps me to flesh out the details of the story and see where I’ve been. That way, I know where I can start from…if that makes sense.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Tracy Deonn(the author of Legendborn) is definitely one of those authors who have inspired me with their works. Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” is also one of my major inspirations.

What are you working on now?
Time will tell…

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Social media for sure! Facebook, Instagram, etc…

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write something that will, at the very least, add a little bit of joy into the world.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Do anything.

What are you reading now?
Right now, I am re-reading The Color Purple by Alice Walker and Wicked by Gregory Macguire.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I would love to branch out into different genres of writing(fantasy, drama, non-fiction, etc) while also learning new styles of writing. Furthermore, I plan on writing more about my culture and national origins, for I do feel like these things are essential to my development as a black, Bahamian author. As a writer, I also hope to do some sort of collaboration with my favorite authors.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Oh wow! Ok, so I would bring…Mangoes in the Summertime, The Color Purple, Percy Jackson, and the Lightning Thief, Legendborn, and The Journey.

Author Websites and Profiles
John Poitier Website
John Poitier Amazon Profile

John Poitier’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Carrie Close 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Carrie Close was born and raised in Maine, where she is currently pursuing a BFA in Creative Writing from the University of Maine at Farmington. She and her boyfriend Josh, have a son named Zephyr and a daughter named Zarya. Her first collection of poetry and short stories, What Have I Done? is forthcoming from Unsolicited Press in March, 2022.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
What Have I Done? is a collection of poetry and short stories that I worked on for several years. A lot of the pieces I wrote from prompts given in my writing workshops in school, while others were inspired from my lived experiences, or pulled from my imagination. They only became a collection when one of my professors insisted I put it all together.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
These days I mostly write while my baby daughter climbs all over me and tries to get to my laptop. Although my preference is to write undisturbed, with a drink in hand.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Anne Carson, “Glass, Irony, and God”
James Baldwin, “Giovanni’s Room”

What are you working on now?
I’m working on a novel, about a girl named Simone. There are some short pieces about her in “What Have I Done?” I’ve been working on her story for a long time, almost 10 years. I hope to be finished with it soon.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I don’t know, this is my first book, so this is all entirely new to me!

Do you have any advice for new authors?
I’m not nearly wise enough to be giving advice.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Keep writing. Even if you think it’s bad. Don’t look back. Just keep pushing forward, you can edit later.

What are you reading now?
I’ve been reading lots of poetry. I just finished Deke Dangle Dive by Gibson FayLeBlanc and Lawrence Booth’s Book of Visions by Maurice Manning

What’s next for you as a writer?
Finishing my novel and getting that published hopefully! Oh, and I’ll be finishing up my BFA in the fall, and then I plan on applying to MFA programs.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
“Glass, Irony, and God”
“Giovanni’s Room”
“Pride and Prejudice”
“The Art of Racing in the Rain”

Author Websites and Profiles
Carrie Close Website

Kuntal Chakraborty 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Hi, this is Kuntal Chakraborty, a new fiction author, an independent tech writer, and a web entrepreneur at present. I’ve written two small fiction storybooks so far, which are
” The day I Didn’t See Myself ” and ” Untraced “. These books belong to the mystery/suspense genre. On the other side, my articles related to the latest technological evolution and web entrepreneurship have been published in some publications from the UK, Canada, and the USA. Before taking up the writing profession, I have worked as an IT employee in some of the global European MNCs. In my free time, I usually watch new movies, read interesting stories, blogs, etc.
Oh, I’m a die heart fan of martial arts.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The latest book is ” Untraced”. The story is about a young man who was trying for taking an internal branch transfer within the company to return to his hometown. But it didn’t happen. So he decided to try for a new job at another company that can provide him with an opportunity to work from his hometown. But the reality was completely different when he faced something that is completely unexplainable in words and almost uncanny.

The idea was very random. However, the base of the story was inspired by the situations of those workers who work far away from home and hope to get back to their home locations someday.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Ideas can spark in the mind anywhere-most likely when you don’t look for them. This happens for me too. So, whenever I get any random ideas, I try to keep them noted on my mobile phone for the time being. Later I develop the story or write articles on it either in the early morning ( mostly dawn ) or at midnight.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I’m a comics fan since my childhood and have been raised by reading the creations of Lee Falk, Herge, etc authors. Besides, I’ve read Bengali books written by authors like Hemendra Kumar Roy, Satyajit Roy, etc. Lines and quotes written by Oscar Wilde, attract me much.
Also, I must say that books written by legendary authors like Alexandre Dumas, Mark Twain, etc have influenced me always.

What are you working on now?
I have a few story ideas in my mind. However, I’m trying to write a romantic story, which will soon be published once completed.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Firstly, I should confess that I’m not good at marketing and promoting matters. Also, I’ve only written two books so far. Despite all this, I try to use social media platforms, Goodreads, or my own website to promote my books.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Everyone has a different thinking style. But not all can communicate or express their views in a better way clearly with words. So, read a lot from different sources. That’s how writing style develops.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Listen to your gut feelings. They speak the truth.

What are you reading now?
It’s unplanned.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Hopefully a romantic and an adventure story.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Really? In that case, I will surely try to escape from that place as soon as possible.
Otherwise, who will read my stories? ..LOL

Author Websites and Profiles
Kuntal Chakraborty Website
Kuntal Chakraborty Amazon Profile

Kuntal Chakraborty’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Twitter Account

Megan Diedericks 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am 20 years old, I live in South Africa, bi and my pronouns are she/her. I have finished a YA fantasy novel, but it is not yet published, and my debut poetry collection is self-published through Amazon. I am constantly having new ideas and working on new pieces, so here’s to hoping they will see the light of day soon!

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
“the darkest of times, the darkest of thoughts”.
It is a poetry collection wherein I describe my struggle with love, what happens when that love fades, grief, as well as my mental health.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I can go weeks without writing, then sometimes I’d be up until 3am hunched, over my laptop like a little goblin just tapping away. Though, I do not think that is a unique writer experience. Sometimes, when I need to write but my brain won’t give me words, I just stare forward until something simple (like my dead plant in a pot) suddenly gives me the inspiration I need.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. I have always known the story, but I only recently read it and it was amazing! To me, it was kind of a commentary on how society treats and views those who are different from the norm.
I also love Stephen King’s works, I am a huge horror fan!
Some of Emily Dickinson’s poems are constantly scratching the corners of my brain, she was a true genius.
The truth is, though I love to read, I am an extremely slow reader (in the sense it takes me forever to finish a book, even though I could do it much faster). I write more than I read.

What are you working on now?
I am working on a few short stories and poems to submit to magazines or websites who are publishing anthologies!

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I use my Instagram @/megandiederickspoetry mostly to promote my writing. It’s easy to interact with readers and I love making posts!

Do you have any advice for new authors?
The same advice I try to make myself believe everyday: Never give up, your writing isn’t horrible, just keep going at it until you make it.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“Every first draft is perfect, because all a first draft has to do is exist.” — Jane Smiley.
I saw this on a screenshot of a Tumblr post and immediately wrote it down in my notebook.

What are you reading now?
Red Dragon by Thomas Harris

What’s next for you as a writer?
I hope that it would be for my novel to be published, so that I can be somebody’s new favorite author!

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
The President’s Vampire by Christopher Farnsworth
Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian
The Lake House by James Patterson
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Author Websites and Profiles
Megan Diedericks Website
Megan Diedericks Amazon Profile

Deborah Ivey 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I have written my own book and coauthored 5 books. I love to read, travel, make new friends and shop.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Overcoming the Odds. I wanted to tell my story

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
No I don’t think so.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
African American authors have inspired me

What are you working on now?
I’m working on a journal.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Social media

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Just do what you are comfortable with and don’t let no one put limitations on you.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Just write and it will all come together

What are you reading now?
Romance books

What’s next for you as a writer?
Build up social media presence and coaching

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Bible, romance books

Deborah Ivey’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Pinterest Account

Amy Miller 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a recruiter and business owner as well as a life coach and motivational speaker. I’ve been writing my whole life, however I just published my first book.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Ready Set Recruit: The Hiring Manager’s Guide to Recruiting with Confidence is my first book and it’s newly released. I see a lot of unnecessary inefficiencies in the recruiting process and I want to help people leaders in a bigger and more impactful way.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I often wake up at 1, 2 or 3am inspired and ready to hit the keyboard!

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Don Miguel Ruiz, Eckhart Tolle, How to Write a Movie in 21 Days, Save the Cat

What are you working on now?
Book marketing! I plan to begin writing my next book in March. First I’ll finish a Ready Set Recruit Series and then pivot to Self-Help Motivational for the general population.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Amazon

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Get your ideas out on paper BEFORE you begin revising. Just get the first draft down.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
My own advice! Don’t worry about how it’s going to work out, just get started and keep moving. The steps will show up.

What are you reading now?
Rich Dad Poor Dad

What’s next for you as a writer?
Four more books in 2022 and some speaking engagements

Author Websites and Profiles
Amy Miller Website
Amy Miller Amazon Profile

Susie Helme 

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I have published The Lost Wisdom of the Magi, which won the 2021 Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award for Best Historical.
I’ve finished writing The Genizah Codex and am seeking other authors with whom to do beta-reading swaps.
I am also writing Dreaming of Jerusalem and The Receptacles of St. Ananias.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The Genizah Codex is a murder mystery in three timeframes, where the three storylines are connected by refernce to an ancient document. That document is my first novel, The Lost Wisdom of the Magi.
I conceived of the idea because I wanted to write a murder mystery where the central mystery was not about who committed the murders but rather something else.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I tense up my shoulders something rotten and have to spend a fortune in massage therapy.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Mary Renault, The White Goddess by Robert Graves, The Golden Bough by Sir James Frazer

What are you working on now?
I’m working on my fourth novel, The Receptacles of St. Ananias.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I used Reedsy a lot, but other than that, I’m clueless.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Form/Join a writers’ group. Ours, Bounds Green Book Writers (BGBW)(www.boundsgreenbookwriters.com), continues to go from strength to strength.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
One of my fellow BGBW members Elaine once asked me ‘What is it (my novel) about?’ I procedded to waffle about the plot, ‘It’s about this girl who’s a swordfighter, and she goes here and goes there.’ She said, ‘No, what is it about?’ I’m now looking for that in my work–overall theme, character arc, human drama rather than just plotpoints.

What are you reading now?
I am beta-reading The Boilerhouse, by Jonas Dreft.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I would like to publish The Lost Wisdom of the Magi in the US and publish The Genizah Codex in the UK and US.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
The Bible, War and Peace, Joseph and His Brothers, A la Recherche du Temps Perdu (I picked the longest ones)

Author Websites and Profiles
Susie Helme Website
Susie Helme Amazon Profile

Susie Helme’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account