Good Morning/Afternoon depending on your time of day! In these interviews you will discover what other authors are doing to write their books. The also share what they are doing to promote their books. Sit back and enjoy a cup of your favorite beverage and maybe you will learn a few things to help you with marketing your books.
This week I wrote a post about making a Facebook fan page for authors. If you like it please comment and share it on social media. Much appreciated.
Vinny
Rebecca aka RP Dahlke
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I sort of fell into the job of running a crop-dusting business when my dad decided he’d rather go on a cruise than take another season of lazy pilots, missing flaggers, testy farmers and horrific hours. After two years at the helm, I handed him back the keys and fled to a city without any of the above. And no, I was never a crop-duster.
I write about a tall, blond and beautiful ex-model turned crop-duster who, to quote Lalla Bains, says: “I’ve been married so many times they oughta revoke my license.” I wanted to give readers a peek at the not so-perfect -life of a beautiful blond. Lalla Bains is no Danielle Steele character, she’s not afraid of chipping her manicure. Scratch that, the girl doesn’t have time for a manicure what with herding a bunch of recalcitrant pilots and juggling work orders just to keep her father’s flagging business alive.
I am presently editing the 4th in the Dead Red Series (above) and I also write a romantic mystery sailing trilogy (yeah that’s a mouthful but you gotta call it something so this is it). This series is based on my experiences sailing in Mexico with my husband aboard our 47 ft. Hylas. Boy, the characters you meet sailing are enough to write for the rest of my life–but I prefer to stop at three in this series.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Hurricane Hole, is the 2nd in the romantic mystery sailing trilogy. Stories of sunken treasure abound with many sea stories, but this one involves Chechen mobsters with sunken cargo, but it’s not what you’d think. And then there’s a hunky Greek billionaire’s son whose talents as a deep sea diver will bring him into the cross-hairs of said mobsters, and the American soap queen who rescues him after his boat burns to the water line, and her questionable crewmember who is still trying to sneak back into the States–that is if he can avoid the Feds who will slap him in jail if they can catch him.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Unusual? I lay on my couch with my laptop, my little Papillion keeps my feet warm.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Sue Grafton and Janet Evanovich.
What are you working on now?
My next book in the Dead Red Mystery series is titled, “A Dead Red Alibi” and I had several independent stories come together to produce the premise for this one book: When Lalla and her dad take a trip to Arizona to inspect her new property, Dad disappears. But Lalla enlists the help of a local tracker and is relieved to find him unharmed in the bottom of a mine pit. Unfortunately, he’s got company–a local police chief, and it looks like he’s been murdered. Then too, a young woman artist living nearby has also been murdered. What’re the chances that these two murders are going to be related? Well, if you’re Lalla Bains, you don’t guess, you start looking for the killer!
Hopefully will be published on Amazon in early June.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Well, now that you ask. I created the first genre-specific newsletter. Est. 2011, All Mystery is now multi-platform promotion. It’s a colorful, linked newsletter goes out Tues and Thurs. to 7000+ fans of mystery and suspense, then stays on our home page until the next batch rolls over. Authors also get tweets, RT’s, Facebook 2 pages and multiple groups) Google+ and Pinterest posts.
New releases, Deals and Steals”
http://allmysteryenewsletter.com
Author information page: http://allmysteryenewsletter.com/author-information-form/
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Writers block doesn’t exist when you put your fingers to the keyboard and let ‘er rip.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Write every day. Don’t expect to have your first draft be golden.
What are you reading now?
When I’m editing, which I’m doing now, I don’t read. But mostly I read mystery.
What’s next for you as a writer?
more Dead Red series. My readers seem to like it.
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?
All of Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series. They’re long enough to keep me busy until the boat or plane finds me.
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
For the last fourteen years I have been living just outside of the city of Barcelona in Spain. I’m actually an Englishman, I’m not Spanish, I was born about an hours drive north of London in, what was then, the small town of Braintree.
Braintree back then was a nice small town and it was a pleasure to grow up there, but as soon as I became a teenager, it suddenly became far to small.
I spent my seventeenth birthday in a campsite on the outskirts of Paris and realized I felt free, like the whole world was stretched out before me. I sat outside the big stadium in Paris listening with a bunch of people while Supertramp played their ‘Live in Paris’ concert, it was amazing; that was September 1980.
Rather than returning to the UK I went south and picked grapes in Burgundy, then moved even further south and spent Christmas in Greece picking olives and working in a bar.
The world really does go on and on and it doesn’t end with the click of a tv remote control.
In Israel I worked as a volunteer on a couple of Kibbutzes, picking fruit, driving tractors and generally having a wonderful time. I learned to play guitar and met people from all over the world. I took trips all over Israel, across to Egypt and spent several months traveling with Bedouin in the Sinai desert. A friend dragged me out of Sinai half blind because I had ‘snow blindness’ not from the snow but the glare of the desert sun on the sand – my sunglasses had been stolen. I then lived in Jerusalem in the Arab quarter for six months just soaking up the place, it really is an incredible city.
At the age of 20 I returned to the UK and became a carpenter and then a salesman. I took stockbroker exams after lying about my school qualifications, back then it was called the reps and traders exam and then after a couple of years got the urge to travel again. I went to Hong Kong… but the trip took two years going via India, Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand.
I’ve spent a lot of time traveling. I’ve seen some amazing things and met some incredibly interesting people.
I don’t like watching tv, I like movies occasionally, but not just hours of watching program after program without remembering what I saw. So now I write.
The places I’ve been and the people I’ve met now come back alive in my books, so I’m still traveling, even if I live in the woods with my two kids and my dogs, my mind is still trekking the deserts and touring the souqs and markets with the bustling crowds.
I have published three books so far. The Flight of the Griffin and its sequel, Chaos Storm and an Arthurian legend called Shadowland – combined they have nearly 250 reviews with an average of 4.3 stars out of 5
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The last book I wrote was Chaos Storm, it’s the sequel to The Flight of the Griffin which was my first writing project.
In the first book we met four boys who are aged between twelve and fifteen years, they live on a boat named The Griffin. One of the crew, Pardigan steals a bunch of stuff from a merchant and among the items is a book which sets them on a quest to complete an ancient spell. The book gives the boys some rather special gifts that help them evade capture by an evil hunter, Matheus Hawk and a whole bunch of nasty demons led by Belial the demon lord. Guiding the boys on their quest is a shape changing girl named Mahra.
In the sequel, Chaos Storm, the crew of the Griffin are called upon to help the Kingdom in a time of war. To the north, the warrior queen Morgasta is massing her barbarian hordes, while across the desert another army is approaching led by an ancient Djinn – the army are known as the soul eaters.
Chaos Storm was inspired simply by my need to keep telling the story of the Griffin’s crew, there will be a third book making this a trilogy.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m not sure if I have unusual habits because they are all quite normal to me…
I tend to write late at night when my children have gone to bed and my two dogs have stopped barking at the wild boar that crash through the trees in the forest.
I don’t listen to music, just the sound of the trees and occasional owl.
I have no plan when I write, I just let the story play out in my mind and tend to write about two thousand words then go back and edit, which helps the story take shape allowing me to go on.
I set myself no targets and will sometimes write every night for a week, and then not write for a month – I write for pleasure, not as a form of punishment!
I will often sip from a whisky while I write, or maybe a glass of red wine…. is that an unusual habit? I think not…
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I have been a voracious reader from an early age.
I remember my father giving me a Wilbur Smith book when I was about ten and I read everything I could by him.
John Steinbeck was a writing God, no word was ever out of place.
I read everything from fantasy to spiritual, biographies to historical essays, I love to read and when I’m not reading I’m writing… or singing songs and playing guitar rather badly, but maybe that’s after the second glass of wine!
What are you working on now?
My second book was an Arthurian legend, the story of Uther Pendragon, father of Arthur, it’s called Shadowland.
Shadowland is set as the Romans are leaving Britain and the Saxons are invading. The British tribes are scattered and unprepared. Uther, a real historic figure, rises to unite the tribes and stand against the Saxons. It’s a tale that will have you guessing and dreaming along with me!
Shadowland is really popular I’m happy to say. It has 173 reviews on Amazon with an average of 4.3 stars out of 5 as an average and its currently being made into an audio book.
My current project is a sequel. I didn’t think there would be a sequel but so many people have asked me to write one I sat and searched for a story and found an incredible continuation.
Shadow of a King will be published end of 2014.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I hate promoting, but it has to be done.
I have the normal facebook and twitter accounts and actually use twitter a lot.
For some time I gave ebooks away on Amazon for free on various promotion days, but I don’t like free, I worked hard to write my books it seems demeaning to give them for free. I now reduce the price at various times to entice new readers, but mainly I sell books as people tell others to read them.
Among the websites to promote on, Awesome Gang of course is right up at the top of the list along with BookBub and Pixel of Ink.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Enjoy what you are doing, just a few authors among the many make real money selling books, most of us just get by with selling just a few hundred a month if were lucky.
Find a new voice, a new story something fresh from within. There are too many vampires and un-dead out there at the moment. Too many schools for wizards and magic rings, find something fresh and new.
Get a good editor. You absolutely cannot rely upon your own ability to proof and edit your own writing.
After you have a good editor then get a good cover designer, do not make your own covers.
Ignore either of these last pieces of advice and it will be a false economy, I have a great editor named Caro and a wonderful cover designer, Adriana Hanganu.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Live life consciously. Make everything you do a conscious decision. (Most of us just fall from one moment to the next as if someone else were piloting our bodies, we’re half asleep!)
What are you reading now?
I’m currently reading two books, Red Country by Joe Abercrombie and The Physician by Noah Gordon.
Both are great books by very talented writers whom I greatly admire. I always seem to be reading more than one book, picking up either as the mood takes me!
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m now six chapters into Shadow of a king, the sequel to Shadowland, but I also have various other ideas swimming around in my head. Spain has some great stories and a rich history that I will almost certainly delve into. I want to write a book set in Barcelona, but the Barcelona of the Templar’s and Inquisition. I also have some ideas for another fantasy book.
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?
John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, The Lord of the Rings simply because it is the birth of fantasy and I love reading it again and again and finally I would take the third book in the trilogy by Patrick Rothfuss. I though the first two, A Wise Man’s Fear and The Name of the Wind were awesome.
I’m afraid, therefore, that I can’t leave for the desert Island until book three is published… will there be a bar?
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Hello to you wherever you may be.
My name is David Carter and I am based in Christchurch, Dorset, England, and I have written eight books, though like many other writers I must have written at least that number again that for whatever reason have never been completed. Sometimes they work out… and sometimes they don’t!
Besides writing books I am also an active bookseller, though more often than not they are other people’s titles, (weep weep!) but I am working hard on that. I have at any one time over 12,000 titles in stock so that keeps me out of mischief, at least for most of the time.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Good question. My recently released book is called “The Sound of Sirens” and it’s a murder mystery thriller type thing featuring my detective, Inspector Walter Darriteau, and like all his cases it is set in and around Chester in the north-west of England.
What inspired it was that I saw on TV, on one of those true life crime fighting programmes, a guy walk into a pub one night, and this was all shown on CCTV graphic footage – and he simply pulled out a gun and shot dead some unfortunate soul who was peacefully going about the serious business of playing a game of pool.
And I couldn’t get this image out of my head, and kept thinking about it, and began wondering why the gunman had done that, what drove him to do it, and what had the pool player done to deserve such a dreadful fate, and the more I thought about it, the more complicated it became, and I imagined that there had to be a decent book in there somewhere, and from that brief incident “The Sound of Sirens” grew into a 325 page murder mystery book.
The funny thing was that I already had a great ending for the book (Well I think so, you will have to make up your own mind on that!) that I had previously written in a short story a couple of years before, and it just fitted perfectly with where the story was going, so the two became married together and this book is the result. As I said, sometimes these things work out… and sometimes they don’t!
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t know about unusual, but I try and write as much of the book as I can in my head – I do have a good memory and that helps! – so for example I write a fair bit – in my mind – last thing at night before I fall asleep, and just so long as it doesn’t keep me awake, which is does sometimes, I can usually remember almost all of it in the morning and then, of course, I am hurrying to get it down before I really do forget anything. The funny thing is that when I wake up sometimes the story has gone in a completely different direction, and occasionally there are whole new chapters there that I hadn’t even thought of before. Weird I know, but true nonetheless.
If I get stuck on something, not writer’s block, I never suffer from that, but stuck in so far as the story isn’t panning out as I want, I find that a good walk can often help with that.
I am lucky enough to live by the coast and most mornings I will go for a brief walk along the cliffs and “write” my book in my mind, and that often inspires me, in fact the blowier, (more blowy? – is there a word “blowier”? – hold on a sec, I’ll check, yes, blowier’s good, even though my spellchecker doesn’t like it!) the blowier the better, for writing and solving problems.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
There are a lot, but of course most of them are the same writers I happen to read, so for example John le Carré, Robert Harris, Lee Child, John Grisham, and to a lesser extent, Stephen King, and when I was a teenager, Ian Fleming, and when I was a school kid, the novels of G A Henty, a writer who seems almost forgotten now. I also enjoy sports’ biographies too, and the better ones in that field, particularly cricket ones, do make their mark.
What are you working on now?
I am proofreading a new 150,000 word novel entitled “The Legal and the Illicit” which is another murder mystery type thing that is set within the commodity trading world, and I have already started another Inspector Walter Darriteau case, so far untitled, and if that isn’t enough, a few ladies have asked me to write a sequel to “The Life and Loves of Gringo Greene” which I will probably do, time permitting, so that will keep me busy for the foreseeable future. Hopefully I will finish them before the lights go out.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I confess, I am something of a greenhorn when it comes to marketing and promoting my books, and have been spending some time researching various websites that might help me to do precisely that.
In fact that research brought me to this awesome website – sorry about the pun, but for what it’s worth, I think the best thing one can do is to tell people at every opportunity about your books, especially when you have one that is newly released. Don’t be shy, don’t be bashful, get the info out there and tell people!
So I am working hard on the whole business of promotion and this week I was interviewed by a major newspaper, so hopefully that will help raise the profile of my books.
I also have my own website too of course at www.davidcarterbooks.co.uk.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
I am not sure I am qualified to give advice, but if I had to offer something I would repeat what Stephen King says, and that is to read more. If you haven’t got the time to read then you haven’t got time to write. By reading more you will find that your own writing will improve considerably, almost without you noticing.
Another thing I always do and would recommend is to read your work out loud. That will often show up any clunkiness that has crept in, and it especially helps with dialogue. If there is a lot of dialogue it’s great if you have someone else to read an opposite part, then so much the better, and that can be fun too, sharing passages of dialogue with a loved one long before the book finally sees the light of day. Try it!
And lastly I would say, and I know this is hard to do, but don’t be in too much of a hurry to put your stuff out there. We have all seen and read indie books that have been published way before they were ready, (I have made that mistake myself!) so be patient! Take great care over your work, and only release it when the book is as best as it possibly could be.
Ideally, if you can stash it under the bed for a year after you have finished it, so much the better. You will surely see improvements and corrections when you look at it again with a fresh eye.
When I finished “The Life and Loves of Gringo Greene” I stored it under the bed and it stayed there for five years. When I eventually brought it out I edited it down from 550 pages to 425 pages and it’s a much better book for that. It is not perfect by any means, but it sure as heck is a lot better read than it would have been if I had published it as it was.
Oh, and double lastly, try and incorporate some humour, or humor if you prefer, into the book. I write grizzly murder thrillers, but there is always an element of humour in there too somewhere.
What is it they say? “You can win a woman’s heart if you can make her laugh”, and maybe that should be: “You will write a successful book if you can make your readers laugh”.
One of the reviewers recently wrote about “The Sound of Sirens”:
What’s more, there is the trademark David Carter humor—not the laugh-out-loud kind, but the kind that burbles thinly underneath the plot with enough consistency to serve effectively as comic relief from all the mounting tension…
Which is precisely the reaction I was hoping to receive, and that was good to read.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Not sure whether you mean to do with writing, or life in general, with that question, but the same advice is probably appropriate, and that is to make the most of every single day – for you only have so many of them.
And, try always to be honest, it’s not always easy I know, but it is the best way, and as my old boss used to say: Treat everyone as you would wish to be treated yourself. That’s good advice for sure.
What are you reading now?
I have just finished Robert Harris’s “An Officer and a Spy” about the Dreyfus affair that rocked France to its foundations at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, and I would certainly recommend that highly. There are lessons in there even for today.
I recently bought a book that caught my eye called “True Stories of D-Day” by Henry Brook. My dad served at D-Day. He was minesweeping off the French coast all night before the main task force went in.
It is the 70th anniversary of D-Day this year, 2014, and it’s important that we remember all those incredibly brave guys who went from these shores around here, British, American, and Canadian, to liberate the Continent, far too many of whom never came back.
So I will read that, and then I have the latest Lee Child and John Grisham books to read on my bedside table, untouched presents, so plenty to be going on with, and I almost forgot, I have read about a quarter of J K Rowling’s “A Casual Vacancy” – though I have to confess I am finding that a wee bit hard going.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I think I have covered that one already, but I would also like to find a good literary agent, but if I don’t, I am happy to continue on the indie publishing road. That way I have all the control, and it sure as heck beats leaving them for ever gaining dust in the drawer, or in my case, under the bed!
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?
People usually answer this one with the Bible, and the complete works of Shakespeare, and come to think of it, to my shame, I don’t really know the works of Mister Shakespeare that well, so yes, I will take “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare” which would keep me quiet for a very long time, and at least when I was rescued, always assuming I would be rescued, at least I could answer those tricky TV quiz questions such as: from which Shakespeare play does Puck come? A-hah! I’m not saying!!!!
I like family sagas too, preferably with an undertone of war and disruption, so I guess the obvious one is “War and Peace” – over a thousand pages, so again I am looking for good value for money.
Then I’d like, and this one will mean absolutely nothing to American gentlemen, but any Englishman will know immediately what the book is all about, the latest issue of Wisden’s Annual Almanack. The current edition is the 150th and runs to 1,584 pages, so great value again, you see, and untold hours of pleasure and entertainment!!!
Lastly, and no, this is not a vanity trip, but I would also like my biggest and most recent unreleased book that I could spend as much time on as was left to me, proofreading, re-writing, editing, and correcting, so that when I eventually came home, under my arm would be the most perfect book that I was ever capable of writing. There wouldn’t even be so much as a curly comma out of place!!
Thank you for reading this far, and I hope I haven’t bored you to tears, and a big thank you too to this Awesomegang website and the people behind the screen, for giving me the opportunity to talk about my books. I appreciate it.
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
By profession, I have spent 25 years working in technology projects across a number of industries. Outside of that, I am a pretty avid reader, but not as much as I used to be when I lived on the road for a long time.
I love to play with hot glass and glass blowing. There’s nothing like glass at a couple of thousand degrees to keep your attention.
I have done a lot of writing over the years. I do a lot of it in terms of documentation, but in my misspent youth published a few short stories. I went back to writing for myself to manage stress and boredom for a lot of the years I traveled, and it became a handy tool to work through the environments and scenarios I encountered. There is nothing like people watching in the airport to trigger ideas for stories.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
I had an idea I have been playing with for a number of years about different mythologies, and how could it fit into the modern world. Playing loose with multiverse theory, I played with the idea of pocket dimensions as to where all sorts of beings, up to complete civilizations could hide. With that as a mechanism, I then start looking at our historical myths and how some of that could play out.
I have a somewhat twisted sense of humor, and so I then thought about the idea of agencies that are trying to control divine beings, and assuming that would not work out well. At the same time, I was thinking about the story of a young wizard banished from his home, that was recalled. That came from a title I had played with, ‘Home Summonings’ which became the series.
All of the books in the series have bad puns for the titles, and the first book is called ‘Bound and Hagged.’ This is referencing the powers of the main character having been bound from use, and his being haunted by a very liberal takeoff on the old hag of mythology.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m not sure how unusual it is, but most of the story ideas come while I’m driving around, working in the yard, or doing anything but writing. I can do a quick outline of a few words, and draft it out in my head. Later, I can sit down and sketch it out on paper after doing a few mental rewrites. The notepad in my mobile is full of notes I may or may not ever use, but I grab them when they float through.
I also tend to be working on multiple projects at once.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
My office is stacked with books. I bounce between genres depending on my mood. I am a huge Robert Heinlein fan. I have a couple of his books I am still looking for, but have read almost all of his catalog. Same for Vonnegut, Tolkien, Arthur C. Clarke, Douglas Adams, Frank Herbert, Asimov, Philip K. Dick and keep going. I remember reading the original HG Wells, and Jules Verne stories as a kid. In nonfiction, I spend a fair amount of time following studies of history, anthropology, science, mythologies, religions, and people in general.
For more current authors, Jim Butcher is great, the Preston and Child novels, and Neil Gaiman. And I’ve gotten into a number of indie authors. I’ve had a guilty pleasure out of Rick Gualtieri’s Tome of Bill series.
What are you working on now?
I like to write the story and go on to another work to let it percolate a bit. Its entertaining for me to go back and reread the pieces that made sense to me at one time, and don’t any more. I let Bound and Hagged sit for about 3 months after finishing the second draft and wrote the first draft of the second book, called ‘Mistrials and Tribulations.’ I did another round of edits on B&H and sent it to my test readers while I started on book 3, ‘Unbound and Determined.’
I’m about a third of the way through book 3, and will do the next round of edits on book 2, hopefully starting in June. I’m looking to release it in the July time frame, and book 3 in November. I have done the outlines for the full series, currently looking at 9 books total.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Awesomegang of course!
I’m still working myself on getting my own fanbase going, but I think a lot of it boils down to connecting with readers. I work with a few different groups putting on events, and its all about finding where your target audience lives.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Over the weekend, I was at an event and I found out how many people I’ve known for years have also written, or tried to do so. I think the most important thing is writing for yourself. Let your writing help you develop not only as a writer, but as a person. You might be surprised as to what comes out.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
A couple of things.
1 – Write. It doesn’t matter what it is, but put some words to paper every day. It does not matter if it is the next chapter, or just a tweet, the act of writing makes you write more, and better. Okay, so twitter may be a bad example.
2 – This one is hard for me, is finding the point where you are ready to release the work. You can continue to tweak and update forever, but at some point, you have to decide you have raised the child well enough, and expose it to the world.
3 – Read and write things that drag you out of your comfort zone.
What are you reading now?
I’m wrapping up John Conroe’s ‘Execuatable.’ After that, I’ll dive into either Scott Lynch’s ‘Republic of Thieves’ or I may hit one of the Preston & Child books I have in the stack.
I’m also working through Bauer’s ‘The story of Cryptology’ and Cline’s 1177 BC.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Other than continuing the Home Summonings series, I’m working on a couple of short stories, and outlining a potential parallel series about the Longbow organization from the series.
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?
Tough one. A book on survival, including how to build a raft. A bible that included as much of the Apocrypha as I could find. The complete works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (I love Sherlock). And I’d have to grab the book of Job from Heinlein.
As a bonus, I would have to give Moby Dick another try. If I had nothing better to do, I might make it all the way through. And worst case, paper is handy stuff…
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve written the following: 2 Fiction Romance Novels, “The Love of You, a Novel” and “Elevated” due out this year. / Three cookbooks – My Dollar Delights Cookbook, One short story – The first of the “Lunch Break Series” – “Ma-Sofia’s Railroad Escape” (release 05/09/2014) and One Christian Business Guide – REACH; Resource and Encouragement for those who want to start a business.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
“Elevated” – Two souls relinquishing the past to embrace the future.
I was inspired by a guy I saw delivering used tires. I don’t know him. I saw him and the story line went on from there.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write everyday. However, on Sundays, I only write in my journal.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Toni Morrison is my favorite author. I was allowed to read “The Song of Solomon” as a teenager. It was my first adult novel.
What are you working on now?
I am working on another fiction novel for release in the latter part of the year. It is yet to be titled.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
There are so many wonderful choices out there. I believe Awesomegang.com is definitely at the top.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write everyday!
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t give up!
What are you reading now?
I am reading a business book. “Why we want you to be rich.” – Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki. It was on sale for $3. Talk about a discount!
What’s next for you as a writer?
I have a desire to see my books as film. I am working toward that goal.
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 Holy Bible
Does my journal count?
A “How -to” guide on finding water in the desert.
A “How-to” guide for getting of an island when stranded.
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am co-author of a popular book on the evolution of the human “pecking order” which was published in 1972 and another one on how astrology bedeviled the singing emperor Nero published in 2005, among others.
Since my first kids’ book is a complete break, I picked the pen name Bruce Boyce for this series because these are the middle names of my great-great-grandfather who lived on St Helena and whose beautiful sister Charlotte, who was known as “Rosebud” by the French court, was a frequent guest of Napoleon during his imprisonment there – a brush with greatness that I am very proud of!
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Almost everyone is interested in where they came from.
I felt I had accomplished something when I was able to trace my ancestors on my father’s side back to the late 1600’s in the person of a humble hide tanner in London. His contemporary on my mother’s side was a French Huguenot fleeing persecution.
But 300 years is of course a mere drop in the ocean of the story of our lives. TIME TAXI was fueled by my yearning to trace my genes further back … to Medieval times … to Roman times. Even further back to the Stone Age. Why stop there? I wanted to go back to when I was a lemur-looking creature. And further back to when my genes lived in a tiny nocturnal mammal that scurried to avoid the heavy tread of the dinosaurs. Further back … even further back to the first fish that crawled out of the primeval ocean, to the first microbe that stumbled on the miracle of reproducing itself, the Adam and Eve of everybody’s genes.
Since I am a teacher by training (I taught briefly in South Africa and London) I felt challenged to present the wonderful story of human evolution to children in a way that would be both informative and fun. TIME TAXI was born.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not really. Like Hemingway (I think it was) I normally write for only two hours a day, always in the morning after my walk in the lovely Santa Monica mountains above Malibu, every day except weekends. I am most put out if the Person from Porlock comes calling while I’m writing – Google it if you don’t know who that is!
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I always say that Camus’ Outsider (aka Stranger), read when I was an undergrad at Rhodes University in South Africa, was the first book to light me up. Since then there have been so many, although Robert Ardrey’s African Genesis was a huge influence on my first book, The Dominant Man: The Pecking Order in Human Society.
What are you working on now?
Promoting Time Taxi! I’ve just finished the trailer:
What do you think?
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I don’t know much about promoting books although it’s a most interesting learning curve.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
It’s probably best to decide at the outset if you want to make a living out of writing (good luck!) or if you’re doing it for fun.
If you need to make money it’s all about choosing a genre and sticking to it (unless you’re JK Rowling of Harry Potter fame who has written a very good adult detective story Cuckoo’s Calling).
Otherwise self publish and be damned!
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Choose a genre.
What are you reading now?
Gone Girl. It starts out as a rather vapid comedy of manners about well-washed New York yuppies and then keeps getting creepier. Fine use of adjectives.
The best novel I’ve read recently is The Orphan Master’s Son. Creepy all the way!
What’s next for you as a writer?
Time Taxi Book 2 if enough kids clap their hands.
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?
I love Conrad’s Heart of Darkness although it’s rather thin. Four of the thickest books I could find. Dostoevsky perhaps.
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a east coaster, born and raised in NYC. I’ve been writing stories since I was 8. I do tend to be a little…well, different when come up with stories, going from anything from action adventure with a side of humor to my first kids book.
I’ve written two books: “A Prayer For The Dying”, a story about a young man who carries the cure for a deadly disease within his own blood, and my first kids book (aimed at middle aged folks, even though adults would like it as well), “Cluck The Undercover Chicken.”
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
“Cluck The Undercover Chicken” is my latest book. It is based on stories that I used to tell my oldest when he was between 7-10. What I did with the book was take everything my son like about it (the humor and the action involved, as well as Cluck’s arrogance) and built an entire world around it. I also tried to make sure I inserted enough content in the book where adults would get a kick out of it as well. The extra angle of the writer interacting with Cluck was also a driving factor as I wrote it.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Putting ideas on every piece of paper I can find. My head is always coming up with story ideas, and since most days I can’t get on my computer to put it down, I have paper everywhere with ideas with new short stories and ideas. Also, I can be watching TV, and an idea pops in my head and I either blog about it or share it amongst friends. For all I know, I may have left a best seller on Facebook.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Mythology, really. It was all I read when I was a kid. The different ideas of a civilization believing in something different that what I am used to when it comes to deities in some odd way made me want to write about different realities.
What are you working on now?
I am about halfway done with the sequel to my first book, as well as bouncing ideas off my son for the 2nd “Cluck” book. We came up with so many villains for Cluck to face, there are plenty places for him to go, especially as the relationship he forms with the author continues to expand and grow.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Wow, I wish I knew that…I’m hoping right here (chuckling). I have spent my time basically contacting folks who might be interested in my book and ask them to read it. Also, my publisher has given me an option to offer a free chapter of the book for folks to sample, in return for a few questions answered. That has helped with sales, since folks have an idea what the book is about.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write.
Write.
Right!
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
When I stopped writing for a while, I got a call out of the blue from an old friend, who happened to be a pastor. We caught up on things, and he asked about my writing. I told him that after 75 rejection letters from literary agents, I just figured it wasn’t in the cards for me. He paused for a moment, and said the following:
“Don’t give up. You don’t want to get old and say “What if…”
I started writing “Prayer” the next day.
What are you reading now?
Sadly, I’ve spent my time promoting the book, as well as to attending to other personal matters. However, I did finally get around to reading the first book of “The Hunger Games”, about a 1/3 of the way through it. They definitely left a lot out of the movie.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’ll be honest. I love to write, but I lose interest when folks don’t read what I write, whether it is on my blog, my books, or just short stories that happen to pop into my head. With “Cluck”, I’ve never worked on anything so hard writing-wise in my life. I cut all the fat that I can see, so I could make it entertain as wide as an audience as possible. I only want a few hundred folks to look at my work, say “hey, that’s pretty cool”, and spend a couple of bucks.
That’s my fuel…my fire; it gets me excited to come up with something new for them. I figure that if you use your most precious commodity (time) to read something I wrote, it is the greatest compliment as a writer, which gives me the drive to write more.
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?
Greek Or Roman Mythology
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am the author of ‘The Keeper’s Vow’, a young-adult paranormal story. I live in Japan with my husband and 7 month-old son. I teach at a high-school and absolutely love all of my jobs: mother, writer, school teacher. I originally live in Boise, Id, where my first published novel is set. When I’m not working, I”m day dreaming about my work or trying to stop my son from finding every inch of plastic in our house (it’s his obsession and I wouldn’t mind if I wasn’t absolutely sure he’d in hail the bags!)
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book, the first in the Guardian series, is called ‘The Keeper’s Vow’. I was inspired to write it starting four years ago when I had a thought: “what happens when we don’t tell the people we love the truth—what happens we create the monster inside of them?” In the book, Katie (the main character) slowly peels back her past and realizes that when we lie and hide from the truth, we hurt the people we love most.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t think it’s unusual, but I have to day dream and listen to music that moves me emotionally. Also, I don’t write a single word until I know the scene and the emotions pushing each character through it. My best work comes from this process.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Hands down, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter. I grew up on the series, and even today, I feel magic when I read her books. She writes with Truth and Magic. Another huge influence is Jaclyn Moriarty. The first time I read her books I absolutely knew I had to write. Her books mesmerized me and I knew that was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life: impact readers the way she impacted me.
What are you working on now?
Currently, I’m working Book Two in the Guardian series. It will main take place in or around Gray City as Tristan and Katie are swept up in a power vacuum. Tensions rise between werewolves, vampires, and (to Katie and Tristan’s astonishment) witches: a race the Guardians don’t even know exist.
I’m also working on another huge project that is an Epic fantasy. I can’t go into too much detail here because even I’m not sure how this world will play out.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’d have to say a little bit of everything. I try to support the young-adult contemporary/fantasy/paranormal community through Facebook, Goodreads, and Twitter. I hope, in return they will support me.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Many say: Write. Write. Write. But, I believe in: Think. Think. Think.
For me, it’s important to think about the story and the characters. Not about the plot, or X’s hair color. Rather, what is the motivation behind all these seemingly random events or who is X and what are their honest motivations?
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I had a writing teacher in college, Alan Heathcock (author of Volt) and he once made us write down rules. These rules were supposed to be like a vow to ourselves: things we would or wouldn’t do as writers to make great stories. I think all writers should have their own rules. It keeps you honest.
What are you reading now?
I’m trying desperately to trim down the pile I’ve let build up after the birth of my son. but right now, I’m starting Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor.
What’s next for you as a writer?
NexT? Well after sorting through my epic fantasy I’m going to go one of two ways: YA Contemporary coming of age or a YA Space Cowboy series. I’m all over the place, I know. I can’t help what inspires me.
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?
First, I’d try to argue that my kindle is in fact one book and then take an additional 2-3. However, if I can only take 3-4 hard copies, I’d have to take my Harry Potter’s. I’d carry in the last four (4, 5, 6, and 7) and smother the first three (smallest) in my pants.
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I live in Guelph, Ontario, with husband Ron and four bun babies: Tegan, Pepper, Butters & Beckett. I was born in Bristol, Tennessee and graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a BA in English and an MA in Literature. Vampires have been a passion since age five. I hope to one day work full time as an author, since there are many, many books living insidemy head.In my spare time I enjoy watching Japanese Anime and reading vampire stories….along with other great fiction. I’m also very interested in good health and is an advocate of Ketogenic eating, using whole and natural foods. Future dreams include writing many more books, spending more time with my son, Jacob and sister, Susie. Currently, I have written and published one novel, Rising Tide: Dark Innocence, the first in a YA Vampire trilogy.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My book is called Rising Tide: Dark Innocence and has a very strong, female, lead character named Maura. At first I dreamed of her a long, long time ago in college. She lived in my head for almost a decade, little details of her coming together over the years until she was like a real, living person I knew. I’ve dreamed of her a lot and her story just wrote itself in my head. I hope it all fits in the trilogy….that might grow into even more books! She has some very exciting and dangerous adventures to come.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Well, probably the most unusual habit I have is that I can’t write in silence. I either have music or a scary movie on while I write. I know a lot authors play music, but sometimes a great zombie flick can be just as inspiring, playing in the background. I also love having my babies around me. Watching four bunnies play and come hop up on the couch for pets is definitely inspiring.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I started writing my book in 2008 and hadn’t read Twilight. A friend picked it up for me and I fell in love. Since my own book was about vampires, it inspired me very much. My vampires are very different, as is my main character, but just reading such a magical story made me want to write even more! I’ve also read almost everything by Anne Rice and she has been a huge influence. I even wrote a paper about her life in one of my University English courses.
What are you working on now?
Right now, I’m working hard on marketing my book. We have a book signing in Bristol, Tennessee where I was born, then two in May. One in my current hometown of Guelph, Ontario and another in Buffalo, New York. I’m also taking at least one day each week and working on book two in my trilogy. I always make time to write.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I love Goodreads. I do a giveaway for my book on there every week and it gets it in front of a lot of eyes. Of course I’m very excited my book will be featured on Awesomegang, and can’t wait to see it posted. I also have a blog tour coming up with Orangeberry on April 25th that coincides with a 99 cent promo I’ll have running on my novel for five days.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Yes! Never give up. Don’t listen to the naysayers and don’t let anyone get you down. Keep pushing every day. Make meaningful connections and never stop working toward your dreams.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Believe in yourself. It’s so true because if you don’t, no one else will. I put my whole heart into everything I do and just see a positive outcome in my mind at all times. Putting that positive energy out there definitely comes back to you in a big way.
What are you reading now?
I’m getting ready to go on a road trip and have On the Lips of Children by Mark Matthews on audiobook ready to go! I’m very excited about this one and can’t wait to listen.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Right now, I’m working on the next two books in my trilogy, Undertow and Riptide. I’m so excited because I’ve already had readers of Rising Tide beg me to hurry up and finish the next book. World’s best compliment in my opinion! I’ve started several other books as well, one about a psychopath and the girl who survives him and another YA paranormal novel with a twist I haven’t seen done yet (that I know of!).
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?
If I were stranded on a desert island I would bring Twilight for sure, my favorite book of all time. My love for rabbits would drive me to bring Watership Down and rounding out the trio would be Anne Rice’s Memnoch the Devil.
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Kathryn Longino is the pen name used by the writing team of Kathryn Dionne and Shondra C. Longino.
Ms. Longino writes under the pen name, Abby L. Vandiver and has authored two books. In the Beginning, an Amazon #1 bestseller, and its stand-alone sequel, Irrefutable Proof. She has a ton more books in her head, and is working on getting them all written down on paper and published.
Kathryn Dionne is the author of The Eleventh Hour Trilogy, also a #1 bestseller on Amazon, as well as a children’s book, Derek the Fireless Dragon. Her next book is a follow up to the Eleventh Hour Trilogy entitled Chasing Time and will be out in the Summer of 2014.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The name of our book is At the End of the Line.
Like the characters in our book, we’ve never met, but speak often over the phone. At the end of one telephone conversation, Kathryn asked, “What about if we wrote a book about two women that form a friendship but have never met.” And we did!
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Abby: I jot down thoughts I have on the book on paper napkins, receipts, the backs of envelopes or on the recorder app on my phone. I don’t do outlines, but will sometimes write down the chapters and a two or three word description of what’s in the chapter. I don’t use music or anything to inspire me. I just write. Sometimes writing chapters out of order and shuffling them around once I’m done.
Kathryn: I like to use an outline. I start at the beginning of the book and write straight through, not worrying about the editing or anything until I’m done. For the most part, I can see the entire book in my head.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
We inspire each other. We’ve both found authors that we like, and may learn from their style, but we pretty much do our own thing.
What are you working on now?
We are working on getting the word out about our new book, At the End of the Line! Marketing is a full-time job. Coauthoring the book was such a wonderful experience, and we’re sure that we’d do it again, so look for more from Kathryn Longino. But our next project will be our own individual books. For Kathryn, she will be writing Chasing Time. And Abby will work on a paranormal romance book hopes to release June 2014.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Of course Awesome Gang. We have both come here when we release a book (just like we are now). And we love Ereader News Today. They are a great organization that really likes helping Indie authors. We recommend everyone look into what they have to offer. We think that book tours are an awesome marketing tool and we are doing one in May with Fabulosity Reads. (Can we do all of this free advertising here in our interview?) And, last but not least. Twitter. A great way to stay in touch with readers and other authors.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Yes. GET AN EDITOR! And if you can’t afford one, at least get a proofreader. Very important. So many reviews being left on books that are self-published are not based on content, but rather on form. If the grammar is bad, or even the formatting is off, it’s mentioned in the book review. To avoid those negative comments have someone look over our book.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Abby: Show don’t tell. And use “he/she said” instead of “she exclaimed,” or “he giggled.” And not to use a lot of tags around the dialogue.
Kathryn: Be careful of logic gaps.
What are you reading now?
We are reading At the End of the Line. It’s so good, not only couldn’t we put it down, but when we got to the end, we wanted to read it again! (And again.)
What’s next for you as a writer?
Like we said, we have many more books inside of us screaming to get out. We encourage our readers to “stay tuned.”
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?
At the End of the Line
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I live in a condominium unit overlooking fabulously inspirational Northside Park in Minneapolis MN. I subside and reside with my wife who is also an artist; the ones with colored pencils or brushes in hand. I earned a BA degree in English from the University of Minnesota-Duluth in 1989. Success, having my writing read and possibly bought, was always the plan. To implement it, I began writing stories, poetry, snippets of everything I saw. Before I was married, I lived (and made it out alive) in a very much crack-infested urban area of South Minneapolis. I dealt with roaches, crack-heads and shrill siren sounds every night. The days, hanging out at Brit’s Pub, gave me insight to how the have-nots live.
I grew up in the relatively tranquil suburb of Richfield, Minnesota. During and after college I traveled. Germany, France, Egypt, England, Israel, Norway can be claimed as places I’ve visited, derived poems from, recorded my benign experiences. My first Poetry book, Scenes the Writer Shows {forty-one places a poem can go} conspires to retell the snippets of life abroad.
My pose has so far manifested itself in the genres of nonfiction, creative nonfiction, and historical fiction. My first novel, The Orthodoxy of Arrogance (Trafford, 2013) is historical fiction. My second novel, Agent of Orange (Trafford, 2014) also fictionalizes history in a way James A Michener never did.
I relate fads, trends, and news events of the time to my characters. I write how they live, what they learn, and how the events affect their lives.
My first effort was a small nonfiction book called Would God Move a Ping-Pong Table: a cumulative analysis of faith and religion (Loft Press, 2005). This book follows religion, and the faith it requires, from the Inquisition to the September 11 terrorist attacks. It is full of factual information dealing with everything from faith healing to the Golden Rule. The only part that borders on creative nonfiction is the chapter from which the title comes. At UMD I prayed for a Ping-Pong table to be moved, and it was, ostensibly by supernatural forces.
My other shorter stories have been published in paper and online magazines, anthologies, and journals. My first occurred in 1998. I currently participate in a writer’s group at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My current novel is titled Agent of Orange. One day, at my former “career” in Medical records, I was for some reason thinking of the line from Apocalypse Now “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” I am fond of word play, and said the line over in my mind. I wanted to relocate it, to after mass it, and distance it from that horrific weapon. I came up with “I love the smell palms make when they sway in the morning.” The story kind of grew from that line, that idea, the location of Palm Beach, Florida.
The novel grew to involve the Marine Corporal, Chauncy T. McClarren with the baggage of a disabled friend (who was his Sergeant) and a goddess-like woman who only his friend suspects is a fugitive. The story has grounding in my own life as far as being biracial, having known my mother, and having never met my black father who was killed in 1997.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I like to write the moment I awake. I’ll begin with a haiku. It is something I began posting everyday on Facebook a few years ago. I write the morning off. I sometimes get so involved I’ll be eating breakfast for lunch. I write a poem Saturday and Sunday. I post them on my blog under the heading “Weekend Line,” perhaps a bad pun. Although, I do see poems as broken lines, just right, that are meaningless alone, unlike a prosaic sentence.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Charles Bukowski, O’ Henry, Salinger, Fitzgerald, Laura Hillenbrand, Lennon (John)
What are you working on now?
I am getting ready to publish my second book of poetry. The poems share a common link. They deal with relationships. Sixty poems explore how the human race has evolved. They look at how it relates to fine or benign aspect of politics, religion, technology, friendship, and ageing
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Do you have any advice for new authors?
write, write, write, write, write Edit as much. Develop a thick skin. Believe in yourself. Persist and don’t let any one crush your ambition
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I read once that one reason many people will diminish hopes of your becoming a writer is that they don’t have the nerve to try
What are you reading now?
books to research for my next project, including Political Upheaval
What’s next for you as a writer?
A family memoir. My folks were heavy into politics in my youth. They, along with many others, took steps to end the War in Vietnam. Bold moves were made to force Johnson out of office in 1968. They succeeded in that. You know the rest. A contingency of McCarthy Democrats wanted a concise end to a war that tore America apart. My book is fact; it all happened, whether it was about Chicago’s 1968 convention, to which my dad was a delegate, or me seeing the moon landing at three years old.
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?
Catcher in the Rye, Catch me if you can, Factorium, One Flew Over the cuckoo’s Nest
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am Christina Hoffman.
I was born in England and later hop-scotched across the globe (or, rather, I was exposed to multiple wonderful cultures and adventures!) with my family until we finally settled in the United States.
I have put my suitcase down, for now at least, in blissful San Francisco.
If that wasn’t good fortune enough, I am finally making my dream of writing meaningful romances come true. I love sexy stories with heart, relationships that are sweet and insanely erotic. Enough with the chains and the degradation. I need some romance in my Romance!
I have known so many intelligent and driven men and women who have felt they could be smart OR sexy. Seriously, my when my best girlfriend, who is gorgeous, was in medical school, the women were beautiful. But they didn’t know it. Or they suspected they might be, and worked extra hard to cover it up. They had to take on the role of serious grown-up, and acting like sensual beings was practically a career ender.
Okay, well, we can’t change the world overnight! But after-hours, we can do what we like with our minds AND our bodies. Why not have some amazing adventures? That’s what I write about in my books, and I hope you’ll see yourselves in my heroines or my heroes, and know that you, too, are allowed to feel amazing.
Welcome to the world of smart and sexy. I’m so glad you’re here!!
Love,
xoxo
Christina
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My debut novel is called “Invitation”.
The story really just came to me over the course of a couple of days. I knew I wanted to tell the story of a person who had once been very passionate and open to life’s experiences, but who had been shut down. I wanted to show the value of sexual intimacy as something good and even healing. Once I had that part of the story, I had to create characters that could make this happen.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Well, this is a bit embarrassing. You know, I procrastinated so long trying to set up this perfect little “office” area for myself — flea market desk, cute shelves, bulletin boards. You get the picture. But when I finally just kicked myself in the butt and got writing, it turned out that the only time there was really any peace was at night with everyone asleep. And it’s freezing where I am, so I write in bed with my little laptop on my knees! It’s giving me wicked backaches, though; so maybe if the book’s a success, I’ll be able to write in the daylight at my desk.
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
“Green Card Soldier” is my first novel. For almost 40 years, I worked as a military journalist, newspaper editor and public relations practitioner around the globe. From drafting feature stories during the Vietnam era through coverage of the Lake Placid Olympics, I’ve documented service members at work worldwide with my writing, editing and photographic skills.
Today, I live in Fort Worth, Texas. I retired three years ago as the civilian public affairs director at Fort Hood in Central Texas. That was after serving 11 years as the Army’s spokesperson in the “media capitol of the world” – New York City. I like to describe myself as a freelance writer and quality management consultant, pursuing a creative writing future in both fiction and non-fiction.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My inaugural novel is titled “Green Card Soldier.” Since the Revolutionary War, it’s not been uncommon for refugees to take pride in America and want to show their patriotism by serving. Although newspaper, magazine and Internet coverage of “green card” troops has been extensive, little has been done to tell their stories through the heart and mind of a Green Card Soldier. That’s what my literary voyage attempts to do.
According to the U.S. Department of Defense, there are about 31,000 non-citizens (approximately 1.5 percent of the force) currently serving on active duty in the U.S. Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard. More than 4,100 deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan from all branches of the Armed Forces. These brave men and women may be permanent legal residents, but they are not U.S. citizens. At the same time, they have voluntarily chosen to defend the very country where they now live.
I find it an honor and a privilege to dedicate my book to those who routinely stand in harm’s way and especially the heroes who’ve made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of America’s freedom.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
The unusual might be that my writing habits are quite regimented. I’m sure that’s a reflection of my decades of military and civil service. I attempt to write creatively at least 5-6 hours daily, but since this is my retirement time, a beautiful day, interesting concert or visit with friends might easily get in the way.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
There are simply too many great writers out there for me to attempt identifying a specific group. I enjoy a wide variety of literary work with a focus on great writing style over genre.
What are you working on now?
I’m currently attempting to market my first novel through developing a comprehensive and integrated social media platform – something that’s much easier said than done. I can already tell this will take as much discipline as my attempts at writing. I can already see how people can find book marketing to be an all-consuming effort that such one into a black hole of publicity while the creative writing effort must wait it’s turn.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m trying to develop an integrated platform to publicize my new novel. A strong Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/GreenCardSoldier), Twitter (https://twitter.com/Bruceznyc) and Pinterest (http://www.pinterest.com/brucezielsdorf) presence is intended to compliment and drive visitors to my novel website (www.GreenCardSoldier.com). I’m proud of the website and what it has to offer those who view it.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
If you’re doing your own virtual marketing, be prepared to exert as much effort in its development and maintenance as you did in the writing and editing of your book. I was fortunate to have the assistance of a traditional publisher in bringing my book to print, but it was made clear to me up front the majority of the Internet marketing activity would be my responsibility.
With that said, the best advice this novice can offer is: Do you homework. If you’re not comfortable with online activities, then become so. There are a myriad of marketing essays, self-help articles, and how-to videos available on the web for free with which to develop your skills and confidence. Bottom line: If I can do it, you certainly can.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Oh, I’m sure it sounds old school and trite, but crusty ol’ colonel once told me to:
1. Clearly define the mission.
2. Set goals necessary to accomplish that mission.
3. Break those goals into manageable parts.
4. Accomplish each aspect of the journey with vigor.
5. Never look back until the mission’s complete.
What are you reading now?
I’ve become obsessed with Niel deGrasse Tyson’s “Cosmos – A Spacetime Odyssey.” I’m overwhelmed by the simple magnitude of each episode in the series and find myself scouring the library and Internet in an attempt to better understand the monumental concepts with which he continues to challenge viewers.
This has resulted in my reading many obscure articles and essays by Isaac Newton, William Herschel and Carl Sagan, to name but a few. If Tyson’s presentations are driving my curiosity to such a degree, I can only hope many young people are also being inspired.
What’s next for you as a writer?
Much of what I’ve read about Internet marketing of creative works, I doubt I will see much from the results of my labor for several more months, but I accept that and will continue to charge forward. At the same time, I feel the creative tug to start writing the next novel and don’t feel that pull should be ignored. I have a basic concept for a follow-on novel, a rough outline and the preliminary character development complete. Now it’s time to engage the creative juices and see what flows.
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?
Again, this is too difficult a choice to make, but if forced to grab a few books and run, I would definitely include “The Holy Bible” (great war stories), Carl Sagan’s “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors” (to make me think until my head aches), David Attenborough’s ” The First Eden” (encourages me to philosophise endlessly) and Kahlil Gibran’s “The Prophet” (for peace of mind).
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m twenty-seven years old and have written nine novels.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is Sometime, Maybe and I’ve always loved dealing with complex, emotional issues. It’s hard to pin point what inspired me to write it, I think it was mixture of different things I’ve read and seen over the years!
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
No!
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Penny Vincenzi, I LOVE her books. Its amazing how much she’s able to write and the number of plots she puts in.
What are you working on now?
I’m currently in the middle of Playing For Keeps which should be out late May/ early June. It tells the story of a complex love triangle. Two of the characters are related to each other so it gets a bit messy and there’s plenty of drama!
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I do all I can, I have a site: http://carlagodfreyebooks.iconosites.com and I fill out interview forms such as this one, I’m hoping it all helps!
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Read! Read as much as you possibly can. But don’t t read any old thing, you have to be passionate and enthusiastic, so jut read books in the category you wish to write for.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Never give up.
What are you reading now?
A New York’s Winter Tale by Mark Helprin
What’s next for you as a writer?
A rest! I’ll chill for a while until I think up my next one!
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 Best of Times by Penny Vincenzi
The Second Footman by Jasper Barry
The Innocents by Francesca Segal.
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a British author and scriptwriter. I’ve been writing fiction for two decades now – both my own stuff and work for tie-in worlds like Doctor Who, The Sarah Jane Adventures and Friday The 13th. I’ve also written a horror feature film called Stormhouse, which was released by Lionsgate US.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The most recent book of mine is A Sincere Warning About The Entity In Your Home, which is a 10,000-word short story available via Kindle. Quite simply, I wanted to write something scary and had the idea for a story which is set in the reader’s own home. I like things which are exclusive to each medium and which only one medium could do, and this is one of them! I like the way books are essentially a collaboration between author and reader. Authors give readers the information, then the readers put it all together in their heads. And I love the fact that everyone reading A Sincere Warning About The Entity In Your Home is imagining their own home.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t think so. Everyone writes hanging upsidedown from the ceiling while chanting Satan’s name, right?
No? Okay. Wow.
Nah, I don’t think I do. I tend to spend hours on every writing day, trying to psyche myself up to write. And failing. I get more and more frustrated until finally I write intensely and furiously for a couple of hours. I think a lot of writers are like that. Word volcanos.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Let’s see now… Terrance Dicks, who wrote most of the Doctor Who Target novels. Chuck Palahniuk. Stephen King, who isn’t just a master of horror but of storytelling, full-stop. My favourite novel of his is probably Pet Sematary because it’s so dark and has the courage of its convictions. Funnily enough, King dislikes it himself. I also like his son Joe Hill’s work very much. And staying recent, I’ve been inspired by the work of Lauren ‘The Shining Girls’ Beukes and Sarah ‘The Three’ Lotz, who are both fantastic writers. And in comics, I love Warren Ellis’ stuff and Garth Ennis’ Preacher and Hitman series.
What are you working on now?
I have a new agent, Oliver Munson at AM Heath – who also represents Lauren Beukes and Sarah Lotz, which impresses the hell out of me – and we’re shopping a new novel around.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I think Twitter’s pretty powerful if you have enough followers, but it’s vital not to do it. And especially when you have a new book out, that temptation is great! But you have to be strong and keep your self-promotion as part of the mix rather than the dominating factor.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t forget to read novels and lots of them. It’s important to practice writing, endlessly, but it’s also vital to know your medium and have a really strong feel for it.
What are you reading now?
Various non-fiction books about exorcism! Currently ones by Father Gabriel Amorth, a ‘real’ exorcist.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m going to finish this new novel, which I’m looking forward to. It’s important to be excited about your work – I’d really hate to feel like I was on a treadmill, pumping out words for cash. I also have a TV series idea on the go with a UK production company, so work will continue with that. Thanks for the interview, AwesomeGang!
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Hello. I am a 15 year veteran with the United States Postal Service, and I wrote my first book after I compiled the wacky, hilarious, and shocking things that happens to postal workers–things the public never sees. I meant for it to be nostalgia for my co-workers, but they laughed so hard, they asked me to publish it. Since then I have published six ebooks, my second paperback is coming out next week, and I have three audiobooks in production. One of the audiobooks is a collection of women’s erotic fantasies entitled 10 Shades of Blush: The Softer Side of Kink. The guys at work really loved hearing that one!
I truly care about community service and charity organizations, and would like to donate some of my profits to help others. During the month of May, I will be holding a campaign where $1 of every sale I make, regardless of website, price, or format, will be donated to National Military Family Association in honor of Memorial Day.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Jane’s Journey: McClusky Series Book 1 will be out by May 1st
I had researched my family tree, and found that a young woman named Jane came to Philadelphia from Ireland, alone, and started a new life. She was the first in our family to do so, and I admired the courage she must have had. I just ran with it. That is the only thing in the book that is true… the sexual abuse, murder, and other tragedies are all in my head.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I do! I have this uncanny way of writing in my head before it hits the paper. I often have to jump out of bed in the middle of the night just to get it out. I do no outlines, no preparation. I like it this way, because when I write, I am not sure what is going to happen, or which characters will do what. So there is no way for the reader to know! Plus, I don’t write myself into a corner, where I want one thing to happen, but need to rewrite to make it work.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Stephen King but in a bad way— I hate all the description he uses. Taking 40 pages to describe a room drives me nuts. I think this makes me extra cautious to not be too verbose. Style wise, I would probably say Danielle Steel, and I love James Patterson as well.
What are you working on now?
I am working on “Still Postal: More Stories of a US Postal Worker” and “Newborn Nazi”. That is a book about a family with four siblings, the youngest of whom was forced into the Hitler Youth organization. The older siblings are split on their loyalties, while one of them starts helping Jewish families escape Germany. The youngest eventually become a Lieutenant in the SS, and finds out about his sister’s activities. Will he turn her in? Will he help her? You will have to wait until July to find out!
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I have found that interaction makes the best promotion, whether online or in person. When people get to know you as a person, rather than just some words on a screen or page, they are more receptive. I hand out business cards everywhere I go, offering those who visit my site a free ebook. I have given books for free, and I have been using Facebook and Twitter. Goodreads has been a great source or networking as well. Visit me at www.rhodadettore.com
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Research, and don’t take no for an answer. If twitter doesn’t work for you, then try facebook. Don’t listen to nay sayers, and try not to pay for anything. I published a paperback, printed business cards, have a website and have literally spent $10 of my own money doing it. Vistaprint is excellent for anything in print, they will give you 250 business cards and you only pay for the shipping ($4). Createspace is great to print your book and you only pay for the proof copy, the customers pay for their own printing– my proof $4. Vistaprint also has a great website package, they give you the first month for FREE, and then a monthly fee depending on the options you choose, and whether you pay for the entire year.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
No one can stop you, but YOU.
What are you reading now?
Happy Birthday by Danielle Steel
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m going to continue to publish a new book in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook every two months. I plan on joining the book fair circuit, and doing some meet and greets at local libraries. Once I make it big, I’m going to buy an island off the coast of Aruba, and any former postal workers are welcome to stay for free
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?
Lies My Teacher Told Me – AWESOME book that compares what history textbooks say, and what they purposely leave out.
The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers — You never know when you might run into one, and you need to be able to identify them.
Flight of the Romanovs – A sad tale of the last czar’s family.
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
In the fourth grade, I wrote down the vague goal of becoming a “writer and an artist” when I grew up. On a journey that led from philosopher to graphic designer to stay at home parent and even a stint as an Investigative Specialist with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, I finally got around to that “writing” part which I now pursue full time.
I live in Denton, Texas where I write beside my unnervingly quiet dog, my history-obsessed son and my extremely patient wife. I volunteer my time to community issues and I’m currently the scoutmaster for my son’s Boy Scout troop. I’m a regular at the North Branch Writer’s Critique Group and I’ve taken creative writing courses through Stanford University’s continuing studies program and workshops at local cons.
I hold a black belt in Tae Kwon Do which was marginally more useful in a former life not making my living from behind a desk. I enjoy the outdoors and when I’m not leading my scouts on virtual campouts in Minecraft, I’m making them haul their gear across any number of state parks in the North Texas area.
My first book, Crimson Son will be released on June 14th, 2014. I have published stories in numerous venues both online and print.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My new book, Crimson Son, is a superhero novel that isn’t entirely about superheroes.
The novel deals with complex issues of family and heroism all wrapped in a non-traditional superhero story. This book was deeply inspired by my own experiences as a father and the strains a demanding career can place on a family.
I was also driven to write a “superhero” story where it was okay to not be super – okay to be imperfect, physically weak, or unable to solve every problem on your own. Spencer, the book’s main character, learns that real heroes are the ones with something to lose. The blurb:
Nineteen-year-old Spencer is the son of the Crimson Mask, the world’s most powerful Augment. But Spencer’s only superpowers are a quick wit and his ability to constantly be mistaken for a “kid”. Since witnessing his mother’s abduction two years ago, he’s been confined to his father’s arctic bunker. Now, he’s wasting away in the “Icehole”, waiting for his father to defeat the Black Beetle and rescue his mother.
With nothing but a multi-tool and a boatload of emotional trauma, Spencer leaves the bunker behind seeking to uncover his mother’s fate and confront his absentee father. As he stumbles through a nest of conspiracy and top secret facilities, gathering together a team of everyday people and cast-off augments, Spencer soon discovers that the Black Beetle isn’t his only enemy, nor his worst.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m a pantser, which means minimal to no plotting (not that I write without pants, though I will not argue that definition). Often, I start with a prompt, put my fingers on the keys and see what happens. For a novel, I usually have a general overview of the world and a broad idea of the direction I want to see the plot head, but the details all get hammered out on the fly. Often, this leads to interesting discoveries and I rethink the entire direction. It’s very liberating. And maddening.
I manage to pull this off almost entirely thanks to a roleplaying hobby that predates my professional writing by a few decades. I was always the guy selected to be the gamemaster because I could pull off a cohesive plot line while reacting to player decisions on the fly. Writing is in many ways easier because I’m the only one with input into the story!
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Like most writers, I was an early bloomer when it came to reading skills. My mom really encouraged this because as a child she made reading to myself and my twin sister a priority. We repaid her by asking her to stop reading to us so we could devour books faster. (Precocious and callously practical then – now I’m just a smartass.)
I recall many of those early readers, from Seuss to the poetry of Silverstein. But the first real chapter book I ever read that left a lasting impression was C.S. Lewis’ The Magician’s Nephew. I was so entranced by his style, imagery and even the British spelling of things, it sunk deep into my subconscious.
I didn’t realize how deeply that story affected me until I started this full time writing journey and sat down to re-read that book. I’m not an overly emotional person, but I was nearly moved to tears when I read the description of the Wood Between the Worlds after so many years. When the children surface and you realize that they came from a single pool and the wood is filled with more and more pools and the possibilities are endless. He created a place where every writer stops before picking a pool and jumping in head first. (Note: This was prior to reading Grossman’s “Magicians” which will also make you cry about the portal realm but for very different reasons.)
What are you working on now?
A fantasy novel. It’s epic fantasy but like Collateral Damage the story focuses on an unlikely hero at the center of the maelstrom. The book does have a quest of sorts and other typical elements of fantasy but the real story explores the nature of identity.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’ll tell you when I find it. Honest. I’m very new to this process and am learning so much everyday. At the moment, I’m still in search of that magic formula. Right now, the best thing seems to be not just one site, but visiting a new resource everyday and giving it a shot. I’m pretty open about my adventures and misadventures in the world of writing and publishing and you can read about it at my website: http://russlinton.com/category/writing-blog/
Do you have any advice for new authors?
My biggest piece of advice would be – work hard. If you ever find yourself not working hard at this, you’re doing it wrong.
As a self-published author, these are the best and worst of times to be a writer. Too many people are rushing the process and getting their book out there as soon as they possibly can. If you want this to be a career and you want to succeed, you HAVE to take the time to do things correctly. You have to work hard.
Critique partners, beta readers, editors – someone other than a relative needs to check your work. You will also need to pay someone to do these things. You have to treat writing like a business and if you produce a professional product, more likely than not, people will come back for more.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Write.
What are you reading now?
Currently, I’m reading “The Golem and Jinni” by Helene Wecker. So far, I’m enjoying the book and it is pretty closely aligned with my own style. The tale follows two unwitting immigrants to New York, both of which have their own incredibly unique background. As the title suggests, one is a Golem, the other a Jinn. They both go about trying to have normal lives while recognizing they are indeed inextricably tied to the extraordinary which constantly pulls at their inner selves.
What’s next for you as a writer?
My upcoming fantasy novel, working title “First Song”, should be out mid 2015 and I hope to have a few more short stories published between now and then. Until then, my writer side is battling my underdeveloped marketing side and trying to get the word out about “Crimson Son”.
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?
I’d take a portable solar charger and my Kindle. When and if either device died, only then would I then seek to escape said island.
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a former teenage mom and wife, the divorced mother of two young adults and one teenager, and the grandmother of one precious little boy. I have a degree in biological science and I am a licensed RN. I worked as an RN for over ten years before quitting to write full time. I have written and published 11 books in the genres of Women’s Fiction and Inspirational Romance with many more on the way!
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My most recent release is the latest installment of my Been So Long series: Been So Long III (Whatever It Takes). It is the ongoing saga of a woman torn between two men who have been a part of her life for a long time. It is really about her battle of love vs. lust. What inspired me was the fans of the series who were clamoring for more of the story and the characters who spoke loud and clear about what they wanted to happen.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not really. I can write anywhere and at anytime. I can tune out noise and I don’t require any certain setting.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Alice Walker’s The Color Purple was a big influence on me. I also love to read books by Terry McMillan, Bernice McFadden, and James Patterson.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on a Been So Long prequel and a book that will be a continuation of my Bluesday series. I also have a couple of other things I’m working on. I can’t seem to work on just one book at a time, lol.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’ve had a lot of success with Facebook. Twitter is good, as well.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write what feels right, not what’s popular. Stay true to your voice and follow your heart. And NEVER give up!
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“Never forget why you started.” Not sure who said this.
What are you reading now?
Believing God by Beth Moore
What’s next for you as a writer?
More books written and published, and hopefully, more readers.
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 Holy Bible
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m from Connecticut, married and we have a little girl. My degree is in Philosophy and I still have an active interest in the field. I work two jobs. One is in insurance compliance and the other is as a writing tutor for a local college.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The name of my book is “What Happened to Mommy’s Boobs?”. For a while now, I’ve written humorous poetry for fun to share with some of my friends. One of these friends would give me assignments like, “Write a limerick explaining the problem of free will,” or, “write a haiku that sums up Russell’s views on religion.” This friend was diagnosed with breast cancer. When I asked her if there was anything I could do, she asked me to write and illustrate a poem in the style of Dr. Seuss called “What Happened to Mommy’s Boobs?”. I wrote it and realized that if I put it on sale, I might be able to raise some money for breast cancer research. So I did.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not really, but I do like writing from prompts. It makes it easier to get started and easier to finish.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I’m a fan of short stories and humor. Some of my favorites are Hemingway, Austen, Steve Martin and John Swartzwelder.
What are you working on now?
I have a children’s book I’m trying to finish and I have an idea for some short philosophical fictions.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
This is my first book, so I’m trying to figure that out.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
No, but I’ll happily take any advice that’s out there.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Say what you need to say and then shut up.
What are you reading now?
I’m reading Emile by Rousseau and Last of the Mohicans by Cooper.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m not sure. I’ll see where this takes me.
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?
I’d take Hemingway’s complete short stories, Emma, and The Great Gatsby.
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Authored General Laws and Interpretaton , Sultanate of Oman, Part 1, which happens to be the first perspicuous edition specifying certain legal provisions in the Omani labour law.
It serves as a guide even for the expat community in Oman.
Presently working on two more books
1. Part 2 of the above book
2. Philosophy of law
3. FIction : Love locked on the Rock
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
General Laws and Interpretation, Sultanate of Oman-Part 1
Having spent 3 years in Oman and serving as a legal consultant, I observed alot of confusion in understanding of the laws among the masses and the interpretation of it by my colleagues in the legal field and the implemenation of the laws by the coprporate structures.
Corporate structures in Oman,place illogical reliance solely on internal HR departments even for interpretation of laws which according to me is a folly. The HR personnel within these structures are compelled to decide on issues relating to interpretation of statutes sans proper qualification to achieve its purpose,thus snowballing a spark conflict within the organsiation into a raging disputes compelled to be refered toexternal adjudicatory mechanisms/courts.Thus the book lays down some principles to be incorporated in the system to obliterate the prevalent legal quandary.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
The Bible, General books on laws, General books on judicial precedents.
Hart’s book on “The Concept of Law”
What are you working on now?
1. Part 2 of General laws and interpretation, Sultanate of Oman.
2. Philosophy of Law
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Google , and now awesomegang.com included in the choice.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Authoring a book becomes effortless when the subject to be dealt is the subject of your heart.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“All wisdom comes from the Lord, so it does not matter upon the size of your army men or the strength of your horses, the battle belongs to the Lord”
What are you reading now?
The Concept of Law- Hart
Battle field of the mind -Joyce Meyer
What’s next for you as a writer?
Create a difference and build lives
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
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
was born in the north of England in 1973. I currently live in the beautiful Austrian Lake District teaching English language in college to young and adult learners, where I share my life with my abstract artist husband, and gorgeous rabbits. I graduated in computer software engineering and worked as a systems administrator before I went into teaching.
My mother inspired me from a very young age to write as she wrote a number of successful screen plays that were sometimes aired on the television when I was a child. I drink tea copiously read fiction and autobiographies avidly always seeking new ways to improve my writing style. I am also learning the art of calligraphy writing.
I have self-published four books and currently writing my fifth book.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The Surgeon´s Son
My inspiration to write this book came from a number of recurring dreams I keep having. I thought it would be interesting to mix the two genres – Horror & Thriller.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Yes if I wake up in the middle of the night with a new idea I get up and record it into my Dictaphone.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
My influences come from a number of books I have read over the years. I particularly enjoy Dean Koontz and Stephen King.
What are you working on now?
I am currently working on a sequel to my last book which features the same detective team.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I think social media such as Facebook and Twitter are good sites to promote my books aswel as promoting them on my own website.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Yes, never get discouraged and always try to be the best at what you’re writing about.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
From one of my editors asking me to go through the whole of my manuscript with a critical eye, particularly paying attention to dialogue.
What are you reading now?
Karin Slaughter – Fallen
What’s next for you as a writer?
Mastering my skill to the best of my ability & enrolling in more creative writing courses.
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?
It would have to be the following:
Lord of the Flies – William Golding
Moby Dick – Herman Melville
Intensity – Dean Koontz
The Shining – Stephen King
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I was a little old piano teacher in tennis shoes for forty years. Then I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I wrote “Goodbye, Beloved Breast” the night before my first mastectomy. Poems continued to spill out. My oncologist said, “You must do something with these.” Like a good girl, I minded my doctor. Fine Black Lines: Reflections on Facing Cancer, Fear and Loneliness was born.
As my mother lay in hospice, dying from her cancer, I journaled, reflected, and wrote poems for her. The Last Violet: Mourning My Mother, Moving Beyond Regret explores my relationship with my mother, prior to, during, and after her death.
This Path We Share: Reflecting on 60 Years of Marriage fulfilled a promise to my husband.
He and I live in Englewood, Colorado. We have four children, eleven grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is This Path We Share: Reflecting on 60 Years of Marriage.
For our 50th wedding anniversary, my husband gifted me with two anniversary bands – eleven diamonds on each because that was the size of our family at that time. I gave him a packet of poems I’d written for him over the years. Thirty-six poems for twenty-two diamonds. What?!
It took me twelve years to deliver. Perhaps I feared that finishing the book would be the end of our story. Our story will indeed end before too long, but the book is done and we love it.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not really. I procrastinate a lot. I generally write when the spirit moves me. However, I am very disciplined about rewriting and editing. I edited one of my books forty-seven times. I also employ editors. I want my final work to be as well done as possible.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I love Hemingway, Anne Lamott, Mitch Albom, and Malcolm Gladwell.
What are you working on now?
I am documenting and reflecting upon my husband’s illness. I am trying to prepare myself to lose my love.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I sold thousands of books by speaking over 600 times in all 50 United States, Canada, and England.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Do the best work you can do, get the best help you can get, and then work as hard as you can to get your work out. Never quit trying.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
It is our job to follow our heart and do the best work we can and put it out into the Universe. What happens next is not in our hands. I have no idea who said it.
What are you reading now?
Speaking Christian by Marcus Borg.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m going to love and take care of my husband. Who knows what will come next?
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?
Necessary Losses by Judith Viorst, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, and Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time by Marcus Borg
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m retired from the Federal Court System and can now spend much more time writing and never have to worry that somebody may come up on my blind side and give me a pink slip. LOL. I live on a quaint wooded acre in NW Ohio with my wife. I’ve written most of my life but only seriously since mid-90s. To my credit, I currently have 4 books plus 1 co-authored book and 14 anthologies or how-to books. Unfortunately, one of my publishers went under and 2 other anthologies are no longer available.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Actually, I’ve just released 2 books – 1 on April 4 and the other on May 1. The first book is a adventure/fantasy type story titled “Pangaea, Eden Lost” and the second book is “52 Weeks of Writing Tips.” The inspiration for Pangaea was pure imagination and a ‘what if” situation. The other book was suggested by a friend of mine since I do weekly writing tips on my website that I share. Having all my innovative ideas in one place was her suggestion that I decided might be a great idea.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Other than the fact that I can’t decide what genre I want to write? I write science fiction, fantasy, horror, adventure, thriller, Christian and now non-fiction. Sometimes you can find me leaning against a headstone in a cemetery or prowling around an empty, dilapidated house. Of course, I also write on the road while traveling in the RV with my wife. I have found outside stimuli is great for the imagination.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
My original influence was Edgar Rice Burroughs and his Tarzan books, then his John Carter of Mars series and finally, almost anything by ERB. I enjoy JRR Tolkien’s tales but don’t enjoy writing high fantasy. My horror endeavors tend to be more “soft” horror in the psychological aspect vs. the blood, guts and gore style.
What are you working on now?
My current WIP is in the style of the 60s/70s epic novels such as Conan or Fafhrd and Gray Mouser. My lead is a female princess/assassin attempting to claim her long-lost realm. Also, my Christian Amish novel is currently working its way around via my agent. And, I have about 11 other novels to finish. My goal is to publish 4 books this year.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Still learning that aspect and trying new things constantly. I feel that I shouldn’t spend too much money at the beginning. My co-author had some great ideas about promoting our vampire book “Ancient Blood: The Amazon” but quickly eased off the $5-10K ideas when our first royalty check arrived. I use Twitter, GoodReads, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Facebook plus my website – www.bobnailor.com
Do you have any advice for new authors?
No matter how much you’ve edited your work, allow a professional editor to go over it and correct the errors that you’re too close to catch. I do editing on a professional level and I send my work out to another editor before I even consider publishing – either via an agent, publisher or myself.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Write your first novel and then stick it in the drawer and forget about it for the next few years. In the meantime, write another 3 or 4 novels and see them published. THEN bring out the first love and go over it, fix it and give it the proper launch. It is your first book, your deepest love, and it deserves to have the best promotion and care.
What are you reading now?
“Write Your Novel from the Middle” by James Scott Bell AND “Hunt for Xanadu” by Elyse Salpeter
What’s next for you as a writer?
I had an idea pop into my head last night and am currently writing down possibilities and plots for the novel. I want to get 2 more books published yet this year but this idea is being unreasonable and I may have to squeeze in time to write the rough.
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?
First book – “Survival on a Tropical Island” — if such a book even exists!
Second book – Any book by Edgar Rice Burrough such as “At Earth’s Core”
Third book – “2BR02B” by Kurt Vonnegut
Fourth book – (cheating here) “The Island” series by Michael Stark.
Also, if I could, a very large stack of lined paper and several pencils so I could write!
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I currently live in a small mountain town in Northern Utah with my husband, son and two spoiled cats. I love writing, reading, snowboarding, snowshoeing, and recently running. After eight years in the Air Force, I hung up my uniform and moved overseas to work for the Army, then the Army Corps of Engineers. After six years between living in Belgium and Germany and lots of traveling in between, my family and I decided to settle down in Utah. Currently I have only written one book, but I am working on the second one as we speak.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is called The Key. The Key is book one in The Arcadian Series. I have always been fascinated with wizards so when I came up with the idea for The Key the story flowed very easily. I have always been a fan of Young Adult books, so I knew that was the genre for me.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Before I write, I have to have something to drink and music. Music really speaks to me, and it is the key to helping me write the passionate scenes. I want my readers to truly feel what the characters are feeling.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Some of my favorites are: Jennifer Nielsen, Cassandra Clare, Veronica Roth, Suzanne Collins Cinda Willimas Chima, Marie Lu, J.K. Rowling and Jason Cheek.
What are you working on now?
I am currently working on the second book to The Arcadian Series. The name and cover has not been released soon, but I hope to have the book out by August 2014.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Goodreads has been the biggest promoter of my book so far. I also use facebook, twitter and I started a blog.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Never give up on your dream. For years I felt my work wasn’t good enough, so I never tried to finish anything. Finally I had to prove to myself that I could do it. I have to say that waiting to complete a full manuscript actually helped me become a better writer. Some things in my book actually came from past experiences. Keep writing, you will get there.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I once asked Catherine Coulter for advice, she said “just write.” I also asked Jennifer Nielsen, and she told me to stop worrying and keep writing.
What are you reading now?
I am currently reading The Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare. I normally fall for the bad boy, but I have to say I am head over heels for Jem. Sorry Will fans.
What’s next for you as a writer?
After I finish The Arcadian Series, I will be finishing up a childrens book that I started to write for my son. It will be for those a little younger in age that crave a good adventure book.
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?
I would of course take The Key. I can read it over and over again. I would then have to take The Ascendant Trilogy with me. I absolutely loved Sage/Jaron’s character in the series.
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.