Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve been a fitness trainer for 30+ years. I have two books published. With the first book, Monty, which is a children’s book, I took the traditional route of publishing and the book did very well.

My current book, Fitness Confidential, was self-published by me and my writing partner, Dean Lorey. The book has been out for almost a year and has enjoyed top ratings on Amazon with over 700 reviews, over 600 of which are five star reviews. Fitness Confidential is currently nominated for an Audible.com Award.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The book is Fitness Confidential. My inspiration came from the fact that there were no well-written fitness books. The twist that kept me writing each day was that co-author, Dean Lorey, and I, decided to weave my life story of over 30 years in the fitness industry into the book. The book industry had never seen anything like this and decided to pass on it. They have been trying to make a deal with me ever since. I guess hindsight is really 20/20.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I literally write with a Louisville Slugger 34 propped against my thigh. I know this sounds like I am trying to be cool but I really do. It’s there to remind me to keep my eye on the ball.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
John Kennedy Toole, Napolean Hill, J.D. Salinger, Tennesse Williams, Hemmingway.

The book that influenced Fitness Confidential was Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain.

What are you working on now?
I’m actually working on the sequel to Fitness Confidential. The plan is simple…I now have an audience that’s interested in the prescriptive version of this book.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I use my site, VinnieTortorich.com, along with Facebook and Twitter. I also have a Podcast on iTunes called America’s Angriest Trainer. To be honest, it’s the 900-lb. gorilla when it comes to selling Fitness Confidential.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t give up…

Get used to hearing “No” a lot…

Get used to hearing “No” more…

And remember when someone tells you things like “This has never been done before” or “You can’t sell it like this” know that you’re on the right track. The one thing I’ve learned about publishing companies is that they don’t know their ass from Tuesday and Amazon’s got them running scared.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Take the garbage out…

If you want to know what this means, read my book, Fitness Confidential. I actually take time explaining this.

What are you reading now?
The Wahl’s Protocal, by Dr. Terry Wahl

Trust Me, I’m Lying, by Ryan Holiday

What’s next for you as a writer?
As I said above, I’m working on the sequel to Fitness Confidential.

I also write one newsletter and several blogs per week along with writing at two podcasts per week.

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 least 2 of those book would be Jack Reacher novels by Lee Childs

1 Playboy from the 1980′s (when pieces and parts were still real)

Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

Wilderness Survival, 2nd Edition by Gregory J. Davenport

Author Websites and Profiles
Vinnie Tortorich Website
Vinnie Tortorich Amazon Profile

Vinnie Tortorich’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Vinnie Tortorich is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Hi!

I’m from a small city in the north of the United Kingdom called Hull. I live with my partner, daughter and a demon fuzzball (read:Cat) called Essie.

I have been writing for years as a hobby, usually poetry or short stories. I currently have a collection of short stories called Alone self published on Kindle and I am working between editing the first full length novel that I have written and writing another.
Hopefully they will both be published within the next year or so, but I don’t like to rush these things.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
I can’t tell you the name of my latest work in progress, but I can tell you that it’s working title is Poisoned Earth.
It’s inspired by a great many things. I am a huge fan of post-apocalyptic and dystopian fiction and this work in progress is inspired by the end of the world, and what comes after. At least in my minds version.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Hmm. Good question.

I do have a tendency to write notes on anything and everything. I have been known to write ideas on receipts, my hand and even on the side of a water bottle in sharpie.

I’m also useless at pre-planning my writing. Once I get a solid idea for a story in my head (or on my bottle) I just sit down and get it written. Once the full story is written I go back and plot out the timeline before editing.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I’m an avid reader. In fact, my partner is sure that I love books more than I do him.

I would say that I am very influenced by Stephen King and his approach to writing. I have seen him discuss his craft many times and I’m inspired by the fact that he writes because he loves to write. That should be true for everybody.

I am also influenced by many of the current dystopian YA authors such as Veronica Roth, Kiera Cass and not forgetting Suzanne Collins to name very few. Their ability to rebuild the world into something new is something that I hope to be able to achieve too.

What are you working on now?
As I said above I currently have two post-apocalyptic novels in progress. They are both separate stories and both in different stages.

I am also pretty much always working on short stories and poetry, and fill a notebook at least every few weeks with pieces that I’ve written. These pieces usually never see the light of day, but sometimes they’ll stand out and be developed into something a little more.
I do plan to share some of these on my blog eventually.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
It’s all about the social networks.

I love Facebook and Twitter for book promotion and I really consider them to be the best tools for all Authors promoting their work.
I also love the community on Goodreads.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Do nanowrimo. (Google it) Make friends with other authors and bloggers. Take a creative writing course, trust me it will be worth it.

Don’t rush, don’t push. If you take the time to learn your craft and then a little more to perfect it you will create something amazing.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Read. If you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the tools to write.

What are you reading now?
A Game of Thrones. The first book in George R.R. Martin’s “A song of Ice and Fire” series, and Allegiant by Veronica Roth.

I usually have two or three books on the go at the same time. One upstairs, one downstairs and one in my handbag.

What’s next for you as a writer?
More writing.

I am focused on finishing and publishing my first full-length novel in 2015, followed by another in 2016.

For now I am self-publishing because I want to share something that makes me happy. Eventually I may consider an agent and traditional publishing. I would love to see my books in paperback and sitting on a shelf in my local bookstore.

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?
Two notebooks, a survival handbook and any book with a lot of large, flammable pages.

And a pen.

Author Websites and Profiles
Tracy C Sallis Website

Tracy C Sallis’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tracy C Sallis is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am an Indie self pubished Author and so far I’ve written a trilogy which is called The Everything Trilogy. It is a complex love story spanning the three books. The books are Enough Isn’t Everything, Everything She Needs and Everything I want.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The books are Enough Isn’t Everything, Everything She Needs and Everything I want. These books resulted from a challenge set to me by a friend when I commented that a book I was reading did not give me enough of a story line to hold my interest. I like to feel involved in what I was reading and in my books tried to bring the reader into the story, both in terms of giving the characters strong personalities and an interesting storyline. From the feedback so far, I seem to have managed this quite well.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Yes! I write EVERYWHERE. I write in the car when my husband is driving, and move my laptop around with me when I am working at home. I even write when I’m making dinner, in bed and sometimes during the night. When I need to focus or have a deadline I want to meet, I sit on my bed, with the window blinds drawn down. Effectively shutting everything out and concentrate on the glow of the screen. I don’t keep notebooks or lists I rely on memory.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
S.C. Stephens is probably the most influential author for me. She gave me everything I like in a book and the kind of book I like to write. Thoughtless by her, it probably my favourite all time book so far. Sylvia Day, Emme Rollins, Shanora Williams. and M Leighton, Eve Carter and Colleen Hoover are up there too.

What are you working on now?
Quite a daunting project actually. My readers have asked for Alfie (the main male character’s) point of view. The books are written as a reflective piece from Lily, (the main female’s). I was a little hesitant at first; because the trilogy was so well received, and the expectation of this may be for this to be in keeping with Lily’s POV. However, the storyline does allow for expansion in areas that weren’t touched upon and the book to have a different feel.

Also, for those that read the trilogy it answers more questions about why the characters displayed particular behaviours, thoughts and feelings or reacted in a certain way. So although the story was told, it will offer a read that has more than just a regurgitated view of the same story. What I am trying to achieve is for it to be a stand alone book for those that haven’t read the trilogy at the same time.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
This is a difficult one, its difficult for Independent Authors of limited resources to get the word out there about their books. So it is important to network well with other authors and blog sites to ensure that people come to know the name of the books, and the author’s work. Social media is key so far for me, and I’m still learning every day.

Twitter and Facebook are my main resources at present, although I do have a day job, so the time I can do this is limited. Sometimes nuggets like iauthor follow and they have advertising available.

There are groups within facebook to post articles and promote your work, and blog sites are amazing. They review books and this helps gain interest and will support authors by letting them do page takeovers so that authors can interact with both people who have enjoyed the books as well as highlighting our work to possible new readers. Bloggers also run interviews, do spotlight pages on authors and promote cover reveals, building anticipation for pending releases.

I have been fortunate to meet some great people who have read my book and want to promote my work, people that see my work retweet it on twitter, or like posts I’ve made or do ‘shout outs’ when the bloggers ask for favorite author’s names or favourite books read.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Your readers are the most important people you will ever meet. Get feedback. Take what you’ve written seriously, people have spent money reading your work. Get an understanding and working knowledge of social media. Support other authors, share their work. It may feel like a competition at times and to some extent it is because everyone wants to sell their books, but we also need books to keep ourselves stimulated and feed and water our minds as well. So by supporting your favourite authors you are encouraging them to produce their next masterpiece! Take time out, walk away from that computer and get some R & R. It helps maintain a sense of humour!

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Stay true to yourself. Listen to your conscience.

Act how you would like others to act towards you if others act unkindly towards you they are showing their own insecurities.

Don’t be a sheep, be yourself. Being an Individual takes courage, but individuals attract attention.

What are you reading now?
Hmm..several books at the same time. An off genre one called A Hackney Child by Morag Livingstone and Hope Daniels. True story and amazing read. Marc Nobbs (erotica author) A Good Man (for a peer review) And Perfect Plans by CJ Wells ( for peer review)

What’s next for you as a writer?
When Alfie’s POV* ( not the title) is finished. I have another series that I had started and shelved to write what the reader wanted. So I’ll be revisiting that to complete it. I had been doing well with it until I was being asked several times a day for Alfie. As a writer, I had experience a small amount of writer’s block, but never the opposite. Ideas about Alfie started coming to the fore and it was like static interference for what of a better description. So I decided that this had to go down before I could free my mind and move forward and do justice to the series. Also, with The Everything Trilogy still being fresh in my mind it was probably the better way to do 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?
Thoughtless (I’ve read it a couple of times, and would love time to revisit it.) S C Stephens

The Boy Who Sneaks in my Bedroom Window Kirsty Moseley

Breathless Eve Carter

Sheet Music Ann Lister

*I can only have four???

Author Websites and Profiles
K L Shandwick Website

K L Shandwick’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

K L Shandwick is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I grew up listening to my parents, especially his Mother who was an incredible story teller who kept the neighborhood kids spellbound by her constant wild stories of childhood, life, and ghosts that held our imagination. I love telling stories and inherited that from her, and have used it in my professional life. I love reading and movies, and hearing a good story but now prefers to tell the stories that have been in my head for years… and now I write them.

I have been a professional speaker, minister, Talk Radio Host, Comedian, and even once ran for public office. I grew up in the South, where the pace of life is slower than I can sometimes tolerate but wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. I currently lives in Atlanta, GA with my wife, three children, Buddy the Wonder Dog, and Squeaker the Silent Cat.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Stranger In The House is the latest book I’ve released and I have a follow up that carries the main character Ashley Steele.

I got the idea from an old story of a returning war hero in World War II, and the idea struck me how it was the same issue that could face someone who returns from a terror war that America has been in. From there we find the main character Casie Steele as she discovers her husband is coming home after being a prisoner of war for almost seven years.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not really, except the ideas keep coming for other works. I’ve got right now four stories outlined and also have three non-fiction titles that I’m working on.

I hope I write good descriptive stories, but I’m not a fan or extremely long descriptions that don’t move a story along. Unless the color of the carpet plays a roll in the story or setting, I don’t include it, and it pains me to have to read such, so I don’t write such.

My greatest enemy is time, and not having enough of it, and dream of the day I write full time by a pool or the beach.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
That can be tough and easy all at the same time.

The Bible (incredible life lessons wrapped in parables and stories)

Chandler; Dickens (some of his); love Mark Twain; Tom Clancy; Stephen King

Chandler & Hammet – love the context of the settings

and my Mama loved detective stories, which were pulp fiction.

What are you working on now?
Although I’m working on another story now, “The Chair Falls At Night”, I’m itching to dive into Ashley’s next story, “Steele In The Air”, which will continue the story of Ashley Steele. It’s outlined and keeps playing in my head.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Right now I use my twitter both personal and author sites:

Personal:

Twitter @jchrisvaughn http://twitter.com/jchrisvaughn

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/jchrisvaughn
Author:

Twitter: @cvaughnwrites http://twitter.com/cvaughnwrites

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ChrisVaughnAuthor

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Nothing other than overcome procrastination.

I sold my first piece of writing some 15+ years ago, and have made money off and on copy writing for friends and clients, but have put off writing for fear of rejection.

I’ve made a living off of speaking and have never been afraid to take a stage or podium because you get instant response to what you bring to the event; but to give someone something that I’ve written causes all sorts of insecurities… so my advice is the same advice I keep telling myself…. write and put it out!

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
1. Write!

2. Don’t Procrastinate!

3. Write some more

4. Shut up and write

What are you reading now?
An indie steampunk novel along with several non-fiction leadership books; looking forward to another indie book about Atlantis and then have a few after that that are mystery/thrillers.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Just working and getting over the regret of procrastinating so long at letting others read what I write, so I’ll focus on step four above – shut up, and write!

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 take my Kindle and a solar charger – my Kindle has about 200 books t currently has

Author Websites and Profiles
Chris Vaughn Website
Chris Vaughn Amazon Profile

Chris Vaughn’s Social Media Links

Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Chris Vaughn is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Many years ago I attended college with a view to ‘going into’ journalism and at that time you had to have shorthand and typing so did a Liberal Arts course! I then got a job in a film production company and then worked at a top London ad agency for 6 years.

When I left to start a family, my passion of fitness took over and as my love for journalism had never waned I approached the local paper and was given a column. I having been actively involved for over 23 years now in the health & wellbeing industry and have continued to write articles and contributions to newspapers and women’s magazines about fitness, diet and lifestyle. I’ve written two books.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The Detox Factor. I’m a huge fan and advocate that health, beauty and wellbeing start on the inside – at the gut!

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write better when I’m somewhere hot and not in my ‘normal’ environment.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I prefer non-fiction – and would automatically pick up those sorts of books first.

What are you working on now?
A book about lifestyle.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I have an amazing friend who’s very good at this!

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Just do it!

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Just do it!

What are you reading now?
The Good Psychopath

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m always writing articles so doing more of those.

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?
Gosh – I would want to take my whole library so thank goodness for the Kindle!

Author Websites and Profiles
Angie Newson Website
Angie Newson Amazon Profile

Angie Newson’s Social Media Links

Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Angie Newson is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I have been writing for a good many years, mostly for my own pleasure, but in the last five years I have taken the craft more seriously, and have started to edit and re-edit books I wrote years ago. The first one of these is AGAINST HER WILL, which was self-published on Amazon KDP last year. Since then with the help of my editor and proofreader I have been putting the finishing touches to my next novel, which hopefully will come out around August/September time.
I was born and bred in the West Midlands in the UK, and have spent all my life working in the finance sector. I have have always been an avid reader, my heros are King, Koontz, Ellory, Dickens, Connelly, Gerritsen, Follett, amongst many. My genre is Thriller, Suspense, Thriller, Psychological. I spend a lot of time writing and reading, and would find life so empty without this craft.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is entitled ‘AGAINST HER WILL’ It is about a beautifully young woman who is brutally attacked, and what follows is her struggle to come to terms with what has happened to her.
I’ve always felt strongly about how rape affects women, and how few of these women ever report these crimes to the police. Of those reported, many never come to trial and if they do conviction rates are low. Therefore I wanted to write a book from the victim’s perspective, to give an idea what she has to go through, and show how it can even destroy lives.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I have always written in a certain way. I get an idea, write down the basic premise, then start writing by hand. I have no idea exactly what is going to happen until I write, although I may have some sense of how it will end. After the book is written, I then type it out, changing things as I go along. Then once that has been done, I go through it at least four times, before with my editor and proofreader I will go through each chapter until I am satisfied.
I write mainly at night after work, and in the afternoon at weekends and holidays. I usually like to have my earphones in and listen to music while I write. This I find inspires me, and helps me concentrate better. It can take me anything from two to three years to finish a novel. Of course if it wasn’t for my day job, I would be able to do this much faster. I live in hope that one day I may be able to write full time. That is my dream anyway.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I have been influenced by lots of writers and books. As a boy I used to read Just William stories and also Biggles and Tarzan. At school I loved Dickens, in particular Oliver Twist and Great Expectations. Also I liked Cider With Rosie, and in particular To Kill a Mockingbird.
Later I was inspired by Alistair MacLean, Desmond Bagley,and Wilbur Smith’s great South African adventure stories. In later teenage years I discovered Stephen King, and Dean Koontz, both expects in the field of horror. I like to think I can read anything and everything and there are few genre’s I haven’t enjoyed reading.

What are you working on now?
At the present time I am working on another Mystery Suspense novel, about a young boy who goes missing, and the consequences of this for his family over time.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I have tried lots of different sites and methods to promote my books, but I always limit myself to spending a certain amount of money, or it can get ridiculous. I mainly try to connect through the social media i e facebook, twitter,linked in, good reads etc, but find it difficult to make much headway this way. I have tried lots of promotion sites, and find sites such as Awesomegang the best, as they can send emails to their subscribers rather than putting your book on their site. I have found free promotions are still useful, so long as it’s for the full five days, and also you need to promote to as many free sites as you can to make any inroads in your sales. Bookbub is probably the best site, but it is very expensive, and selective, so this might put a lot of people off.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Have a great story idea, get the story as good as you can get it. Rewrite and rewrite, hire a reputable editor and proof reader, spend a bit of money getting a fantastic cover as this is the first thing your readers see. Plan your promotion, and be prepared to spend a lot of time doing it, and hope for the best. There are millions of authors out there, it takes much hard work to be successful, and also luck can play a part as well as having a good damn book.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Be persistent and never give up, and keep on writing.

What are you reading now?
I usually read two books at the same time, one on the train on the way to work, another at home when I find a few spare minutes. The Flight by M R Hall at work, about a mysterious plane crash, and The Replacement by Patrick Redmond at home. This is about a set of twins who mysteriously find each other in later life.

What’s next for you as a writer?
There is always the next book to write. Any ideas I get, I write down in a notebook, and from this a new book is born.

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?
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee as it is the greatest book ever written, and one you can read again and again.
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, a great historical book, that is so long but never boring.
11.22.63 by Stephen King, probably the best time travel book ever written, and near King’s best too.

Author Websites and Profiles
PETER MARTIN Website
PETER MARTIN Amazon Profile

PETER MARTIN’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Twitter Account

PETER MARTIN is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
From India,graduated as an engineer, worked in a government department till 2005. Retired now, just touched 70 recently, bachelor, living alone.

Got one book, JESTUS, published. Second book,is under the process of publication. Am writing the third book now.

Interests: reading,writing, cricket, old film songs, spirituality, yoga, contemplation.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Jestus on Rampage. The book is under the process of being published.May take a few months. It is a sequel to the first one.The motivation was the inspiration to create a trilogy on Jestus.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Slightly unusual; these days. I write on paper and then get it typed on the computer!

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Many: Dumas, Victor Hugo, Canon Doyle, H.G.Wells,Alistaire MacLean,Chase,Raja Rao, Ludlum,Richard Condon,William Goldman, Eric Von Lustbaeder…

All of them

What are you working on now?
A third book. It is about ‘popular science’.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Facebook and Twitter come to my mind. But frankly, I am not savvy about these things.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Persevere, persevere, persevere. Make a lot of research on you subject first.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
None alas! I just trust my intuition.

What are you reading now?
The Bible, King James version.

What’s next for you as a writer?
One more book; what else?

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?
Only one book. A book which I have not finished studying, a tough book to onderstand — MYSELF!

Author Websites and Profiles
SURY V.S Website
SURY V.S Amazon Profile

SURY V.S’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

SURY V.S is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I studied law at university and completed my postgraduate training at the College of Law. As a lawyer, I specialize in commercial dispute resolution, which is basically helping businesses to solve disputes between one another. I’ve cut my hours recently to concentrate on writing. I enjoyed my time in the law but it isn’t what I want to do in the next twenty years or so.

Outside of work, I blog about Middle East politics and keep up-to-date with new technology and foreign policy. I’m interested in all aspects of politics but my passion is international relations. I have three children and when I’m not spending time with my family I like to explore the great outdoors, especially by the coast and mountains. I did a lot of mountaineering in the past, but you have to be super fit and although I like to work out, I simply don’t have the time to get to that level of fitness anymore.

I like to read, of course, mostly thrillers, crime and military history. My musical taste is eclectic, everything from Eminem to operas by Richard Wagner. I’m a big movie buff, again mostly thrillers and military, although I’ll watch any genre as long as the quality is good, and I enjoy South American and European cinema too. I know I spend too much time on social media, especially Twitter, which can be flippant as well as informative. I have over 15,000 followers and love the interaction. I believe the capacity to reach the world in almost real time with content that matters is a force for good in the world and would it hate to see it hijacked by advertisers.

I have written two novels and one novella. My two new books, a sequel to State of Honour, Tom Dupree #2, and my WW2 novella about the last days of the fall of Berlin are due out this year.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My novel, State of Honour, is published worldwide by Harlequin, now part of the HarperCollins group. It’s a cinematic-style, fast-paced, action-packed political/military/spy thriller. It recently became a bestseller in the US, reaching #98 in the overall Amazon Kindle chart and #1, #2 and #2 in sub charts, as well as #14 in the overall Barnes & Noble chart. It was also a bestseller in India, where I have a lot of Twitter and Facebook fans, and sold well in the UK, Canada, Germany and Australia.

The book was inspired by my interest in Middle East politics, especially the schism in the Muslim faith between Sunnis and Shias, and the desire to write a real adventure story that readers couldn’t put down. I’ve had two female readers contact me and say that they read it in one sitting, which is quite an achievement, given it is over 100,000 words.

I also wanted two write what is known as an international thriller, one with big themes like redemption and the complexity of geopolitics, while at the same time keeping it face-paced. I also wanted to write cinema-style action scenes where the reader feels right in the thick of it. I want the reader to have as much fun reading it as I do writing it. I even enjoy the countless hours of research, as I’m a stickler for detail, right down to the type of sniper scope a foreign soldier would use.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
As I still work in the law, albeit not with the heavy responsibilities of running a large business as I once did, I write mostly in the evenings and at weekends. Sometimes I write to the early hours of the morning, which gets me into trouble with the long-suffering but very supportive love of my life, Catherine.

I also like to go for long walks and play out scenes in my head like a video. They can be both action scenes and dialogue. I always carry a notepad to write them down. I plan every chapter of the book before I start writing, although I don’t adhere to it slavishly. My readers particularly like the twists in State of Honour and nobody has seen the main ones coming as yet. They would tell me if they did!

What authors, or books have influenced you?
They are a mixture of the masters of thrillers like Frederick Forsyth and Tom Clancy, and more literary thriller writers, such as John Connelly and James Lee Burke. I’m also a big fan of Cormac McCarthy, Joseph Conrad and Ernest Hemingway. The Day of the Jackal and all of Mr Forsyth’s books have influenced me in terms of getting the detail right, and modern authors such as Brad Thor and Vince Flynn in terms of plot. I’m an avid reader and believe that a writer needs to read outside of their own genre too.

What are you working on now?
I’m currently working on Tom Dupree #3. He’s a Special Agent in the US Bureau of Diplomatic Security, who specializes in close protection work and counterterrorism. He gets to go all over the world, and as I like to keep up-to-date with international affairs, I do my best to make his adventures topical.

I’m also working on a YA/adult thriller about a teenage girl who’s brothers go missing. It’s in the planning stage at the moment, but a great character is immerging, a modern-day knight, and I’m excited.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
The choices are endless, of course. As I said, I’m a social media nut and certainly Twitter has been great for me. I’ve not only sold books there, but also made some good connections for interviews and blog posts etc. I’ve even had two film directors contact me as a result, but I’m not holding my breath.

Apart from the obvious social media sites, which should ideally be connected to one another and lead back to the hub, namely your website, Awesomegang and other writing websites help enormously. It’s all about something called metadata, which is even more important than reviews. Basically, metadata, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, is data about data, such as this interview on Awesomegang.

But nothing beats word of mouth, of course, and Iike it or not, a writer has to be a little shameless when it comes to self promotion, otherwise you will fail to get noticed.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
My advice to new writers is: write something every day, read often, find your own voice, and keep plugging away.

Also develop a disciplined writing process and keep it simple. I have tried to write from scratch, with just a basic idea, but that doesn’t work for me. It’s like going hiking without a map, so I now plan my novels with a roughly fifty-page chapters’ synopsis. I start by setting out who my hero is, the villain, the other major characters, the settings, and the overall theme. For a thriller, it’s important to work out what the high-stakes issue is too. This isn’t written in stone, so the process is essentially fluid and capable of change.

The more you do at this stage the less you have to do when you write the book. You can concentrate on getting a scene right rather than trying to figure out how it will fit into the plot. This doesn’t mean that you have to continue on the planned route as you are in the writing process, but it does mean that you only take little detours rather than full 180 degree turns. And when you do decide to go off-road, you’ll find that you will do so with confidence, because you are still within sight of the main highway.

So my advice is to plan your novel before you begin to write it. It will improve your plot simply by keeping each chapter cohesive and relevant.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
You miss one hundred percent of the shots you don’t take.

I like the cleanness and simplicity of this quote, and yet it’s so profound. Life is all about taking risks and, metaphorically speaking, going down dark alleys. I don’t want to be an old man sitting in a chair in a nursing home with nothing but regrets for the things I didn’t do. Life is all about doing as far as I’m concerned

What are you reading now?
I’m rereading Berlin: The Fall, 1945, a nonfiction book by Antony Beevor. It’s a seminal treatise on the end of Nazi tyranny, coupled with a scathing commentary on Stalinist cruelty. What comes across in this wonderful book, which reads like a thriller novel, is Beevor’s extraordinary grasp of his subject matter, his meticulous research, and refusal to stoop to generalities. The population of Berlin suffered for their sins, especially the woman, and Beevor does not pull any punches. This is a testament to the fact that we are one step away from brutality – one step away from being everything we judge to be abhorrent. A modern masterpiece, for sure.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Apart from getting out my two new novels I’ve been approached by a couple of literary agents with a view to a print book. I’m not hung up on getting into print but if I can reach a wider audience I’ll go for it. I have a ten-year plan, which is basically to get a bunch of books out there, both eBooks and print, with different publishers and in different countries and then sit back and think, okay, now I can take a break.

Perceived wisdom says that publishing will change dramatically in the next ten years but different pundits have different views. I think writers will have an even bigger potential readership via as yet unknown platforms, which will be increasingly crafted for transmedia. It’s exciting.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
1. For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway

To remind me that less is more in writing and what’s important is the uniqueness of the human spirit.

2. War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy

To get lost in an epic masterpiece and forget about my predicament.

3. Catch 22 – Joseph Heller

To remind me to laugh in the face of hardship.

Author Websites and Profiles
Gary Haynes Website
Gary Haynes Amazon Profile

Gary Haynes’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Gary Haynes is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a native of Central Montana and currently live in Utah. I am almost ashamed to admit it took me decades to get serious about writing. After completing the Tracy Hickman online course “Scribe’s Forge” I began the transition from hobby writer to professional writer. Two years ago I stumbled across a newly formed writing group on linkedin. This group started out with just one 750 word story per month, but has expanded from there.

I currently have six books in print. Five of those books are a result of the above mentioned linkedin group and are published under Professor Limn Books. They are:

Giant Tales 3 min stories
Beyond the Mystic Doors
From the the Misty Swamp
World of Pirates

Giant Tales 10 min stories
Lava Storm

A progressive Fantasy

Gryffon Master

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is my self published debut novel, The Enemy Within-Book one of the Destiny Series. I released it on May 19, 2014 in soft back and ebook on Amazon. It is also available on Smashwords.

The Enemy Within actually started way back in 1978. The characters were originally created for D&D. In 1989 I was reading Tracy Hickman’s series Rose of the Prophet and suddenly decided I wanted to write like he did. Since I had the D&D characters at my disposal I started the first sketches for The Enemy Within.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I find I am one of very few authors that actually have my title in place before I write the first sentence and very rarely change that title. I rarely write down notes before I actually write anything and I never use an outline.
I have also learned that I am a little odd because I decide on my theme before I ever consider characters or plot.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Without question Tracy and Laura Hickman first. It is such an honor now to call them my mentors as well. Other authors I follow faithfully include: Raymond Feist, Rita Mae Brown, Amber Argyle, and Margret Weiss. I also still love to read books from two classic authors: Agatha Cristi and Sydney Sheldon.

What are you working on now?
I have just signed the contracts and placed the final touches on stories that will go into the next three books from the Giant Tales Collection. All three books will be released by this fall.
I have also just completed the first chapter of Enemy Unmasked- Book two of the Destiny Series and I am hoping to have that released by the end of the year as well.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Right now I am still getting that figured out and will gladly take any advice anyone would like to share.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Take a professional class to learn the craft and get with a group that will honestly critique your work. Never count on friends or family to be honest with you about your work. Find yourself an editor that you can work with and NEVER publish anything until you have done so.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Write , write , write. When you feel like you have nothing left pick up the pencil or sit at the computer and keep writing as that is the only way you will learn the craft. I have heard those words over and over again from professionals such as Tracy Hickman, Dave Farland, Tamara Pierce, and many others.

What are you reading now?
Witch Song by Amber Argyle.

What’s next for you as a writer?
To complete the Destiny Series. After that I am going to start on my YA series Elrod’s Adventures.

Within the next couple of years I would like to link up with a news station here in Salt Lake and do a
series of stories about homeless teens.

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?
To Kill a Mockingbird
Any Sydney Sheldon book I could grab
One of Rita Mae Brown’s Mrs, Murphy stories
And possibly Gone With the Wind

Author Websites and Profiles
Lynette White Website
Lynette White Amazon Profile
Lynette White Author Profile on Smashwords

Lynette White’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Lynette White is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Seasoned energy healer Johan Oeyen has been actively helping people experience dramatic, dynamic changes in their lives for over 10 years. Using the unique techniques described in his debut title, he has guided individuals through battles with late-stage cancer, chronic pain and reproductive problems, among other issues, and has witnessed firsthand the miracles we are all capable of achieving. He has also ventured to create peace and healing in the world by serving on the board of charitable foundations.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My debut book “The Handbook of the Magician” was inspired to explain the healing techniques that I have used over the years, while making it available to children as well, so they can read the handbook, or it can be read to them.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
The book is written in the ‘I-form”, which allows for a deepening understanding of the message, which is that we are all Magicians, healers of life, and we haven’t forgotten over time. The Handbook helps to remember, and lays the foundation of the inner understanding to allow for healing for ourselves and those around us.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I have learned, and keep learning from people around me, and from authors like Eckhart Tolle, Dr. Wayne Dyer, Jane Roberts, Don Miguel Ruiz, Dr. David Hawkins.

What are you working on now?
I am currently writing the sequel to the Handbook, which is called “Conscious Mind”. It explains to the mature reader the underlying structures of energy and ego that lead to different types of healing. It explains the difference between reconstructive and regenerative healing.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
My current clients and their referrals are the best promotors of my writings.

What are you reading now?

The Five Levels of Attachment by Don Miguel Ruiz Jr.

What’s next for you as a writer?
My desire is to be a full time healer.

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 Power of Now and A New Earth from Eckhart Tolle

The Four Agreements from Don Miguel Ruiz Jr.

The Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda

Johan Oeyen is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Hi,

I live on a little hill in NE Texas where everything is bigger–including the bugs. I homeschool my 3 children, run a cleaning business, and try to keep up with the millions of hobbies that interest.
I have written 3 iPad picture books for Flyingbooks.me including “There’s A Lump in My Bed”, a rhyming books filled with colors and fun animals illustrated by Jenna Matsalla. “Forests for the Children”, a introduction to the Nobel Peace Prize Winner Wangari Muta Maathai through lyrical text and awesome illustrations by Helen Pallares. The last, “Move it! Move it!” is in the works and a story about trucks.
I have had several short stories appear in magazines such as PKA Advocate, Rainbow Rumpus. 2014 will see two more in Skipping Stones and Nature’s Friend. I also love sci-fi and fantasy and have two stories coming out in that genre as well.
My current project, of which “A Different Kind of Cheerleader”, is a series of inspirational young adult books with physically challenged teens as the stars.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is A Different Kind of Cheerleader. It is the story of Tansy, a 13 year old paraplegic with a chip on her shoulder at life and God. The inspiration came from seeing pictures and reading news stories of para-athletes all over the world. The strength of character and body for them to achieve their dreams is inspiring. It got me thinking about a girl who had had her dreams shattered, but who learned that through God anything becomes possible. Having an awesome BFF and an ex-marine as an assistant coach helped too!

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not really. I grab writing time as I can. My favorite thing to do is sit outside and edit while the kids play. I think more clearly in the sunshine and have found I can block out A LOT!

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I devour books. Literally. Sometimes one or two a night. So to pin it down on one or two authors really isn’t fair. I grew up reading things like The Chronicles of Narnia, Little Women, The Secret Garden, Charlotte’s Web. Now I read just about anything. I have lots of author friends through my local writer’s group and they are all wonderfully inspirational.

What are you working on now?
Right now I am finishing up a Christian romance and have submitted it to an agent. But the second of the para-athlete series is constantly intruding and wanting to be written–along with a sci-fi short story for an upcoming comic con contest and a fantasy. I will have to decide on one–soon.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
This is something I am still learning. But I have become a Twitter addict. I love it. So much information in those itty bitty messages. In fact, all of social media is great for promoting and I think is quickly becoming more effective than tours and signings.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
You have to find a good critique group, at the very least a good beta reader. It is so easy to miss the flaws in our own work and there are just some things that a writer does out of habit that they might not pick up on that others will.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Revise. Revise. Revise. I know this is beat to death and I used to whip something out on paper and declare it good, but now I see how when I agonize over something, even read it through a few times, how much better I can make it. The other piece of advice (also heard a lot) is put your work away for a while. Try it. It works.

What are you reading now?
Right now I have by my bed “Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television” by Jerry Mander and–since this is pretty heavy ready–Brian Sanderson’s “Alloy of Law”.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Most likely Book 2 in my para-athlete 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?
I simply cannot answer this fairly. I would take my nook and load it with as many books as it could hold.

Author Websites and Profiles
Lira Brannon Website
Lira Brannon Amazon Profile

Lira Brannon’s Social Media Links

Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Lira Brannon is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I was born in the UK, near Brontëland. Graduating from the University of Leicester with a degree in English, I taught in the USA, UK and France, where I now live.
My first forays into fiction writing (age seven) give a hint of literary influences and reveal a distinctive style. ‘The Phantom Ghost Girl of Raven Castle’ begins: ‘‘Vicky Dare, the girl detective and her big Alsatian, Rex…”, then stops. ‘The Ruined Cottage’ is longer (“…it was a favourite haunt of mine and I never grew tired of it.”) In ‘The adventures of Carlotta’ “…she dashed to the door her face white with horror” while, surprisingly, in ‘The Secret at the Ball’ “…a secret compartment was revealed! There glittering lay the Lane jewels!”
(Yes, I am a hoarder, incapable of parting with dog-eared notebooks.)
Aged ten, I developed a passion for the theatre, and as a teacher wrote plays for students. ‘A Midsummer’s Nightmare’, where Shakespeare’s lovers get into time warps in the wood, meeting Dracula and Little Red Riding Hood, was a tricky favourite. Everyone wanted to play Dracula. I had to wield authority. (Those with pointed canines had an advantage).Later, unable to find a textbook suitable for adult ESL students, I wrote one myself. Beguiled by a work of French literary criticism about American writers in Paris, I had a go at translating it.
(Hoarder, bossy, dilettante.)
Recently the ghosts of Vicky Dare and Carlotta gave me a nudge and I returned to fiction writing. ‘Biarritz Passion’ was inspired by the Basque country and its magic. (Go see!) As an Amazon fan, I had a go at self-publishing. After wrestling with formatting rules and sweating during the on-line tax interview, I finally hit the ‘submit’ button in March, thus proving that even non-techies can do it.
I’m now working on Book 2 of the series, aided and distracted by good friends, good food, and a wonderful partner. And there’s that tempting little project involving the transformation of a hill of brambles into a Mediterranean garden…

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is a work of fiction, a contemporary romance entitled ‘Biarritz Passion’. It’s the first in a planned series of three – French Summer Novels.
When I first came to live in France I took a holiday in the French Basque country, specifically in Biarritz. I defy anyone who visits the region not to fall madly in love with the area! It’s so… well, go and visit!

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
From an early age I was a member of a theatre group. Theatre and drama have remained very much part of my life. So when writing, I close the door of my study, pace up and down and act out the dialogue(in a low voice). Fortunately no one has actually witnessed this bizarre phenomenon as I am always ready to leap back to the desk and pretend to be having a coughing fit if anyone opens the door…

What authors, or books have influenced you?
How many words are allowed? I have to start with the Brontes. Born and brought up in that area, all budding romantics fall under their spell. You only have to set foot on the moors, see the purple heather stretching to the horizon and hear the curlews circling in the sky to fall into the Bronte trance.
I’ll just mention two other books, Sentimental Education by Flaubert (yes it was on Woody Allen’s list of what makes life worth living in ‘Manhattan’) and ‘Life and Death in Shanghai’ by Nien Cheng – ‘the triumph of the human spirit over mindless inhumanity’ to quote The Washington Post. A book that everyone should have on their bedside table.

What are you working on now?
I am currently writing the second volume in the French Summer Novels series. This continues the story of Edward and Caroline, and develops the character of Jill, mentioned in the first book, Biarritz Passion.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Biarritz Passion was self-published in March 2014. I am like Alice in Wonderland, lost, amazed and still trying to figure out how to promote – help, anybody?

Do you have any advice for new authors?
If I can do it, you can do it. KDP is a great way to kick off. After that, in terms of marketing, read, listen, experiment and cross all your fingers and toes.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I’m a great fan of David Hockney. Early in his career he painted a slogan on a chest of drawers which he could see when he opened his eyes in the morning: ‘get up and work immediately’. Great advice for layabeds like myself.

What are you reading now?
‘Roma’ by Steven Saylor. Fascinating. Just finished ‘The Rosie Project’ by Don Tilman – I laughed, I cried. Wonderful.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Three books are planned for the French Summer Novels. Kicking about in a drawer is the draft of another book, also set in France, but more of a thriller than a romance. Who knows?

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 Collected Works of Shakespeare’. I could read them forever and still learn new things. I could learn them by heart and keep my brain fizzing. I could act every role, and keep myself entertained.’Notes from a Small Island’ by Bill Bryson. It would remind me of my native country and keep me in stitches. How does he do it? Also, Proust ‘In Search of Lost Time’, French version. One of those books on everyone’s to read list. I could read it in French then scratch out a translation in the sand, keeping myself busy till that ship came along and rescued me.

Laurette Long’s Social Media Links

Goodreads Profile

Laurette Long is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Hi, I’m the author of the multi-award-winning Diamond Peak Series. I write heart-warming and inspiring magical realism and contemporary fantasy for young adults and adults. I’m also an editor, a reviewer, an occasional high school teacher, and a mask-maker. I love creating digital art and sitting on my veranda staring at the rain forest. I used to be a dancer and a Visual Theatre performer, and I live in Australia with my husband and a cheeky Burmese cat called George. I also have a gorgeous teenage daughter.
I’ve written five novels and a book of short stories.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The last book I published is called Eternal Destiny. It’s the final in the Diamond Peak series. It’s the most inspiring off all the books in that series because it’s the culmination of a long journey physical and mental journey, and the ending is truly mind-blowing. I was high on inspiration writing it so it’s very inspiring to read. What inspired the book? Deep meditative experience, I guess.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m not sure what’s unusual because I don’t know what others do, but I often write with a cat’s head on the edge of my keyboard, or on a cushion on my desk if I can get it to move there.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Herman Hesse. Garth Nix’s Dark Kingdom Series inspired me to actually start writing the Diamond Peak series, but it’s hard to pinpoint any one book. I read so many.

What are you working on now?
Worlds Within Worlds. It’s an adult contemporary fiction/magical realism work about a character called Prunella Smith (Ella for short). She’s an author and the story deals with the different worlds an author inhabits – the real world, the online world, the world of her characters and stories, the world of her dreams and memories. It starts as intertwining story threads, they start to merge in the middle and become suspense at the end.

I’m hoping it will be movie length, ie read in one evening.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
My personal website: http://tahlianewland.com
I also spend quite a bit of time on Facebook, not specifically to promote my books, just because I enjoy it.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t be in a rush to submit or publish; learn your craft well; employ a professional editor experienced in fiction to do a comprehensive edit that includes all 4 kinds of editing, you’ll learn heaps. Better still, use a service that uses 2 or 3 editors on your book. It shouldn’t costs more than one editor. If you don’t think your budget will stretch, at least get a line edit on some of the book.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Be spacious.

What are you reading now?
I just finished Amy Spahn’s Enduring Endurance, which I really enjoyed.

What’s next for you as a writer?
As a writer? Finish Prunella Smith, Author: Worlds Within Worlds. It’s possible that after that I’ll write Prunella Smith, Dancer.

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 Tibetan Book of Living and Dying and my own Diamond Peak Series.

Author Websites and Profiles
Tahlia Newland Website
Tahlia Newland Amazon Profile
Tahlia Newland Author Profile on Smashwords

Tahlia Newland’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tahlia Newland is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I was born and raised in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland. I studied environmental biology and later studied deer biology for my PhD, at University College Dublin. Instead of pursuing my life-long interest in wolves and predator-prey interactions, after completing my doctorate, I taught English in Madrid, Spain, for four years while my girlfriend finished her doctorate in molecular biology. We married and moved to Boston, USA, so my wife could pursue her career and I decided that teaching was a vocation I was happy to continue. After seven great years teaching Biology at Boston’s Cathedral High School and Zoology at Bridgewater State College, we returned to Spain three years ago so my wife could set up her new research group in her hometown of Pamplona shortly before our daughter was born.
I have loved writing since my teens. I began with poetry and had one of his first poems published in Voices, a small Dublin poetry magazine at the age of fifteen. Since then several more have been published in journals and anthologies such as Albatross, The Tennessee State Poetry League, Poems of Nature and various anthologies of Forward Press imprint in Britain. I began writing fiction soon after and wrote the novella that would later become Leaving The Pack at the age of seventeen. Though my academic writing took precedence for a number of years, and I am still involved in deer biology and management, I kept writing other things in my spare time and always dreamt of one day being able to do it full time. While living in Madrid, I wrote some non-fiction articles for the Magazine Hot English and while in Boston for the newspaper Dig. There, too, I took a feature-writing class in Emmanuel College I was awarded as thanks for mentoring a student teacher. I prefer fiction writing, though.
I am an avid wildlife enthusiast and ecologist, and much of my non-academic writing, especially poetry, is inspired by wildlife and science. Sometimes I try to describe the science behind the supernatural in my novels. I have written a little bit of everything: to date a four-act play, a six-episode sit-com, around 30 short stories and 4 more novels.
After two more years teaching English and science in a secondary school, last year I moved to a private teaching academy to develop their English program. This has not only given me more time with my daughter and enjoy Pamplona and its surroundings, but also allowed me to finally devote time to fully developing my writing career.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is called Leaving the Pack.
It was inspired by reading Whitley Streiber’s novel Wolfen. I thought if a species of intelligent wolves could exist, why not a race of men who were like wild beasts inside, whose hormone and pheromone production was affected by the moon? No reason. It seemed scientifically feasible to me. I started it when I was seventeen as a short novella describing the people and the main characters because I loved the idea, and wanted to create a new world. Over the years I extended it into a novel, because the more I thought about it, the more complex the story became. At the same time, I saw that werewolf stories were becoming popular again – though werewolves were often the second-class citizens of vampire stories! – yet none were like my werewolves. I just wanted to get this angle of the truth behind the myth out there.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not really. I carry some kind of notebook everywhere and scribble ideas, then plaster everything on a word file and start piecing it together like a linear puzzle until I have a layout with lots of bits written and then I fill in the blanks to make a story, and then I edit and rewrite to iron out the inevitable inconsistencies and repetition! It’s not unusual – just inefficient!

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Jared Diamond’s Guns Germs and Steel, and Collapse, Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, James Lovelock’s Gaia, EO Wilson’s The Diversity of Life, Malcolm Gladwell’s books on statistic, and The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram. have all influenced my thinking.
Hemingway, Steinbeck, Richard Adams, have made me want to excell in my storytelling.

What are you working on now?
Too many things to get them all done as soon as I want them finished! I have been slowly working through a long novel set in the pre-Columbian Caribbean, for many years now. The first draft’s about half done, at 130k so far – I’ll get there in a few years! I am halfway through (50K) the first draft of a novel I got the idea for just a couple of months ago and am doing my best to get done before summer. It will need some feedback from beta readers and some friends who I have asked for help with research, but the subject matter is a secret until it’s submitted (I write too slowly to give away anything too soon!) Besides that, I have written an outline and 30k words of a sequel to Leaving the Pack, which I hope to complete by the end of the year. The third book in what will be a trilogy is sketched out in my head and now and then I am forced to get things down on paper, so there’s about 10k of that down. There’s also a non-fiction book on the sociology of hunting that I hope to get at least a treatment of finished over the summer. Then there are a few other ideas that have been put in the drawer until I can allow my brain the luxury of getting back to them. They are patient creatures, though, and I think I’ll get to them in the next year or two.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I am only a recently published author, so I have yet to pinpoint which works for me. I am using my facebook page, and my website/blog, which are getting lots of followers, but I don’t know if the followers are going to buy my books!

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep writing. There is no point waiting till you get a reply from a publisher before going onto the next book. Perhaps the first book will find a home in 5 years or 10, or never, but your 5th book might, and by then, you’ll know enough to be able to fix that first book, or just publish your back catalogue very quickly.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Let the readers decide if your work is bad, and screw the publishers, to paraphrase JA Konrath. After writing 20 years, it was nice to get a publisher, but I didn’t realise until then that others were already making money and entertaining readers having gone around the gate rather than through it.

What are you reading now?
I am on the third book of a trilogy by Philip Mann called A Land Fit for Heroes and I just finished listening on Mp3 (which I do la lot of) to Millennium People by JG Ballard and have started listening to Nemesis by Philip Roth.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I will keep developing my blog writing, keep writing poetry and posting some of those and submitting to journals. I hope that I will have a few more books with Tirgearr Publishing by Christmas – a novella called One Night in Madrid which I have just submitted as part of their City Nights series, and a novel set in the west of Ireland that is being edited by the amazing Lucy Felthouse for them. I hope to submit my current WIP there this summer, and the sequel to Leaving the Pack by Christmas, too. At the same time I am seeking a home for a YA paranormal romance and a Chiildren’s book about a boy who can see Leprechauns. I have a contemprary fiction novel about begging and drug dealing in Madrid also submitted and waiting for a reply.

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 Girl in a Swing, by Richard Adams, East of Eden, by John Steinbeck, For Whom the Bells Toll, by Ernest Hemmingway, and Finnegan’s Wake. I have not read the latter, but it would take me a while to get through.

Author Websites and Profiles
David J. O’Brien Website
David J. O’Brien Amazon Profile
David J. O’Brien Author Profile on Smashwords

David J. O’Brien’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile

David J. O’Brien is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a former business person with a degree in English Lit. Originally from the Boston area, I’ve been living in Southern California for a long while. I married a great guy and we have a family now. I’ve always loved to read. The passion for writing came later. When I was younger I wasn’t patient enough to be a writer. The thrill of business was my calling back then. Now that I’ve experienced more of life, I feel I have more to say. Writing, for me, is the ideal creative outlet.

Sufficient Ransom is my first book.

http://www.sylviasarno.com/20-things-you-didnt-know-about-me/

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My debut novel was inspired by my years living in Italy. After a high profile kidnapping in Rome in the 1970′s, bodyguards began accompanying some of my Italian classmates to school. I remember my parents talking about their own fears of kidnapping. Decades later, those childhood impressions re-surfaced and inspired Sufficient Ransom.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
It would be nice if I were able to write in a coffee shop or outside somewhere. Unfortunately, I need to be completely alone to write. No one in the house even!

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Ayn Rand, Victor Hugo, Charles Dickens, and Agatha Christie are the big ones. Atlas Shrugged is my favorite book.

What are you working on now?
I’m working on a World War II novel set in Italy. Stay tuned!

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I have learned that promoting a book is an endless endeavor. Especially for a new writer in this climate, where readers have so many choices. But there are a lot of avenues open to Indie writers to promote our work. Awesome Gang being one of them. So far so good.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Learn your craft and use criticism to improve your writing. Don’t take any of it personally!

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t worry about what other people say. Write what you like and your kind of readers will come to you.

What are you reading now?
I just finished reading Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody. A seminal book that every American should know about. Now I’m on The Thirty-Nine Steps By John Buchan.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Write some 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?
Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury. And Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.

Author Websites and Profiles
Sylvia Sarno Website
Sylvia Sarno Amazon Profile

Sylvia Sarno’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Sylvia Sarno is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I used to be a professional writer – but I’ve done many jobs, pizza-delivering, painting and decorating, fruit picking, waiting on tables – as well as the other stuff like a bit of freelance journalism, researching and writing for short films, working in advertising as a copywriter, fashion writer and editor/proof-reader.

In recent times, I suppose I’ll have to take on the tag: ‘author’ tho’ that’s still pretty new to me. I’ve now got three books e-published which is something and am working on a couple of others: I always promised myself I would do this in later life when my interest in clubbing and partying diminished. And it’s great to find myself amongst a community of other writers and readers.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is called Jabberworky & The Other Odd Story. It’s a compilation of short stories, some of which were written about 8 years ago. Just A Bit Extra was a story that came up when I was delivering pizzas! I wrote it very quickly in about three hours after a visit to the dentist when my wisdom-teeth were accidentally removed by a substitute dentist (it wasn’t meant to happen) and I couldn’t go out, being numbed up to the eye-balls! It was easy, the words just rolled out.

The Couple In Front was a story I’d always wanted to write, since visiting Normandy one summer. I thought it would be easy after writing Just A Bit Extra. It was as easy as pulling teeth, ironically enough. There is no formula for writing, not in my experience.

Jabberworky is I think, a bit of a rant, inspired by watching TV News a few years ago and seeing the augers of world recession up there on the screen, no good news. And I was kind of annoyed by Gordon Brown at that time, I believe, telling us not to bother thinking about MP’s expenses and the like and that we should be focusing on stuff like roof insulation. So, I wondered, what if you have roof insulation already? Are you allowed to think about other things – like British MPs flagrantly exploiting the system? And when, I wondered, was the last time we were told what we could and could not think? That led me to the medieval, a time I realised I knew nothing much about – so I did some research…

Another thing that inspired me was learning that the fabulous author and old newspaper-man George MacDonald Fraser, author of The Pyrates and the fantastic Flashman series of books, had died. I’d met him once on the journey, somewhere in my teens and thought – no more will we be able to read anything new from that particular source – and I loved his long sentences and his general disregard for Microsoft’s helpful green line that tells you your sentences are far too long etc. There was also stuff in the news about the Hadron Particle Collider and gain-sayers talking about the end of the world and investigations into something called Dark Matter – and it all started sounding a little medieval to me. Kind of funny that we’ve got this far – and yet haven’t. Have maybe only scratched the surface. Though of course, we assume we know so much. As the medieval alchemists probably thought.

So somehow, amongst all that, Jabberworky was born.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write at odd times without any particular routine – thought I’m working on that. As Stephen King said – you have to be there for the writing genie to show up. And I think he probably only works 9-5.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Too many to mention – the two mentioned above certainly: George MacDonald Fraser and Stephen King but there are so many others as well,

What are you working on now?
I’m working on a follow-up to my novel Down To Zero (the first in The Eaters of Light series). I’m toying with the title: The Big Maybe for that – and have so far written the Prologue and a couple of chapters. The third in the series, is probably going to be called The Eaters of Light.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Creating your own web-site is a must – it establishes your presence and that’s absolutely necessary. Twitter is good, connecting you as a writer to other authors, author forums and readers. Writers Cafe is good for seeing how your work might go down, if there’s any enthusiasm at all from readers. And then of course there’s this one: Awesome Gang. Sites like these are invaluable.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
I’ve put my 12 tips for formatting your work as an e-publication on my web-site at www.medeaswray.com – garnered after dredging through huge amounts of guides and tutorials. Follow them and I believe they’ll help. And live in hope. Write because you want to – because you have something to say. Even if there’s only a few people out there who enjoy it at the end of the day.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Stephen King’s On Writing is excellent. I’ve read it over and over. What he says about writing with the door closed and then editing with the door open is really good advice.

A few other people have said: ‘Don’t give up your day-job.’ – and I think that’s good advice. (Think Stephen King would agree as well.)

What are you reading now?
I’m reading J.G. Ballard’s Empire of The Sun about his time as a child in a Japanese prison of war camp in Shanghai during WWII. Harrowing and strange.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m just ploughing on with writing the sequels to Down To Zero – as above – and thinking about covers for them. I might come up with a few more short-stories and I’m not averse to editing/proof-reading for other people.

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?
Probably self-help manuals about what to do when stranded on a desert island – I think that would probably make sense. Other than that I think I’d take a few of George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman series to keep my spirits up and supply a much-needed laugh or two.

Author Websites and Profiles
Medeas Wray Website

Medeas Wray’s Social Media Links

Twitter Account

Medeas Wray is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
My name is Jason W. Blair and I am a novelist. But aside from writing captivating tales that tug at the heartstrings, I am first and foremost a reader. I have just finished my second novel with many more to come. I enjoy reading, writing, but not arithmetic. And though the world is fast-paced and consistently busy, I find tranquility in spending at least an hour of my day simply sitting in my reading chair, closing my eyes, and listening to the absence of noise that the world serves up in large quantities.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is entitled, The Garden of Ages, and it is a book about the choices that we all make in life. And how they affect our loved ones when we eventually pass on. Throughout the story, we follow Walter Baines as he enters into the great beyond. And in that vast, new world, he encounters dragons and wolves and many other perils (including an earthquake, a raging inferno, and a massive flood).

The story was inspired by the world’s fascination with death, and the life thereafter. But ultimately, it was also influenced by my own interest in the matter as well. Let’s face it…we are all going to pass on someday. And when we do, what will we encounter? Will our loved ones embrace it as something beautiful (ie. Our going on to a better place) or will they be stricken with grief and guilt over the time that was robbed from both them and I?

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
No…I wouldn’t necessarily say that I have any unusual writing habits. There are — as is the case of many other writers, I’m sure — certain things that I absolutely must have in order to write. For example, I need to have a pot of coffee and tobacco. Also, I need to have complete silence; not all the time, but a majority of my time, however. One of the ways I overcome this is to put in earplugs and wear sound-channeling headphones (not attached to any music whatsoever). It is much like double insulation for my brain.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
With The Garden of Ages, I was very much inspired by the Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis. But I also kept J.R.R. Tolkien in the back of my mind. And Michael Crichton as well. In the midst of this list, I understand that Crichton is in no way, shape, or form, in the same ballpark as Lewis or Tolkien. I hold his writings in high regard. He was a very accomplished writer whose works were lavished with rich examples of higher learning. This was one of my goals in writing The Garden of Ages. And in any of my books. I love to teach others; so in all of my books, I offer detailed historical accounts on places, things, and activities.

What are you working on now?
Well, with the completion of my latest book, I am working on my next project. It is a novel entitled “Snapshot Finish” which is an adaptation of of a much shorter, earlier story I wrote called “The Camera and Mr. Dinsley”. It is a story about a man living in California in the year 1958. His hobby is cameras. And his name is Bernard Dinsley.

Mr. Dinsley hears about a camera for sale, through his pen-pal living in Tokyo named Reuben Taub, and Dinsley desires to acquire it. This takes him halfway across the world. To a little town called Takayama, Japan. But what Mr. Dinsley doesn’t know is that the camera he so desperately desires, will ultimately destroy him as a person. And it will destroy everyone and everything he has ever cared about. It is a camera that can steal one’s soul, making the remainder of their life a desolate existence.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Although I have many outlets to which I outpour information about current and upcoming projects, I tend to use Facebook and Twitter the most. But of course, readers can access all of my online material easily and comfortably from the official website: www.JasonBlairBooks.com simply by clicking on one of several icons at the top and sides of the page.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Never lose your dream, no matter what others may tell you. If you have been given a talent, and a true desire, to become an accomplished novelist, then you must stick with it. It isn’t an easy path, but it is certainly rewarding when readers tell you how much they appreciate and enjoy your work.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I believe the best advice I have heard, as of late, comes from the Disney Movie “The Haunted Mansion”. Madame Leota (the gypsy played by Jennifer Tilly) said this: “You try, you fail, you try, you fail. But the only true failure is when you stop trying.” That is pretty much the basis for my entire career as a writer. I have learned that to be a successful writer, you must be open for honest criticism. And always be prepared for failure, because it will come. Even for the most notable authors.

What are you reading now?
I am not reading anything at present, due to my rigorous schedule. However, when I am afforded the opportunity (I intend on taking a few weeks off in the next month) I plan on purchasing several books from several fellow authors that I have collaborated with various outlets: namely Christy Golding and Brian Anderson.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Well, of course I’ll be working hard on “Snapshot Finish”. I hope to have that completely by late October, but I’m not sure if that’s entirely plausible. Then, afterwards, I’ll be returning to my first book, Desperate Shadows, and revamping it. When it was released, the book was around 370 pages. But during the writing of it, I had decided not to include quite a bit of the story.

For this reason, I am including it in the second edition of Desperate Shadows. It will be unabridged. And it will split into a double novel, more than five or six hundred pages. So readers can look forward to the new, unabridged version of Desperate Shadows in 2015. The two parts are entitled “Every Town Has Its Secrets” and “The Midnight Terror”.

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?

Author Websites and Profiles
Jason Blair Website
Jason Blair Amazon Profile

Jason Blair’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Jason Blair is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a contemporary romance author of three published full length novels.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My most recent release is titled “Darling’s Desire” and it was inspired by the small town I grew up in. I liked the idea of setting a rock star romance in a sleepy little town. The story called to me because of the mix of cultures, fame and the mystery of unusual deaths all occurring around a lake. I guess I watched a few too many of those Scooby Doo mysteries with famous guest stars growing up!

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I spend a lot of time writing by speaking into a microphone. It helps me when I am blocked on dialog. I also make charts of what is happening in my stories but I don’t know that any of that is unusual.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I love Julie Garwood, Susan Johnson and RL Mathewson. Garwood’s books are romantic and funny with a heavy dose of suspense while Johnson writes steamy hot sex in exotic locations. Mathewson’s stories just leave me smiling.

What are you working on now?
My current project is a paranormal erotic romance about an incubus demon and a veterinary technician. It really will have to be read to be believed!

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Get your name out there everywhere. Do blog hops with other authors, cross promote and just keep writing.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep writing, keep writing, keep writing – it is my mantra.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
You are going to be spending another 4o years in the work force, you might as well figure out something you don’t hate doing. That’s what my dad told me when I was scared of going back to night school in order to get into a better job. Best advice ever.

What are you reading now?
Currently I am reading “Perfecting Patience” and will be reviewing this awesome rock love story soon.

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 take two reference books (I don’t really know anything about desert islands after all) and my copy of Julie Garwood’s “Ransom.” That story always makes me smile.

Author Websites and Profiles
TD Hassett Website
TD Hassett Amazon Profile

TD Hassett’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

TD Hassett is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
First off, I’m a Marketing Geek. When I started my first business, a web & graphic design firm, I had no clue what I was doing. I was great at designing websites. My clients loved me and raved about how awesome I was.

The problem was that I only had 2 of them and that wasn’t enough to pay the bills. So, I decided I really needed to learn marketing so I wouldn’t have to go back to another job.

That’s when I picked up my first marketing book.

If I remember correctly, it was “101 Ways To Promote Yourself” by Raleigh Pinskey.

From there I started building my library at about a book a week on marketing, sales, business, etc. I was hooked on studying marketing and how to grow a business.

So far this is our first published book and I’ve got a second one already written and in editing right now.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
“Marketing Tidbits: 50 Quick & Easy Ways To Grow Your Business” is our first book with myself and my partner Cindy Clemens. It’s the first in a series that we are writing.

Many people have a negative mindset around marketing thinking it has to be complicated, sleazy or expensive. We (my partner/co-author Cindy Clemens and myself) want to make a difference and change that mindset.

As long as you have a great product or service adding value to other people’s lives, marketing is a good thing.

Our goal with this book is to give the newbie and veteran business owner alike a checklist of things that they can implement in their business one at a time without getting overwhelmed and frustrated.

Think you need to grow your business? Pick up the book and read a chapter. Then go do it!

Once you make that one thing a habit go back and read another chapter.

It doesn’t matter what order you read them in, each one is independent of the others yet they all compound on each other

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I do my best writing at a coffee shop with a large mocha and my headphone in listening to some kind of techno music. I don’t know if that’s weird but I find it’s my most productive time for writing.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Napoleon Hill – His books have stood time and are just as powerful today as they were when they first came out.

Larry Winget – He’s blunt and honest. I love that he’s so authentic. I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know him and he’s not different in his books or on stage than he is in person. I love that about him.

What are you working on now?
My partner Cindy and I are each working on separate books now. Her book is called “Website Tidbits” and mine is called “Networking Tidbits”

Mine is in editing right now and I’m hoping that each of them will be published in the next month or so.

Our goal is to create a series under the YourMarketingUniversity.com brand so we can keep helping entrepreneurs in other ways.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I do a lot of speaking so that is a great way to promote and sell books.

We’ve also used KDP Select with a $0.99 special and landed #1 in two different categories. That alone added more exposure for us and other speaking opportunities (leading to more book sales).

It’s a non stop circle. Sell books to get exposure. Get exposure to sell books.

It’s working really great though. I’ve been able to use the book as a tool to get on radio shows, podcasts, speaking engagements, etc that I would never have been able to without it.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Remember that writing the book is just the beginning. You have to be willing to go out of your way to market the book and get it in front of as many people as you can.

I’ve spoken to groups of 3 people and have been a guest on radio shows that I’m not sure they had ANY listens live.

It’s all exposure and it also lets you practice to get better telling you story.

No gig is too small!

I see authors that think that once the book is written that their publisher will do all the rest. It really doesn’t work that way. If you’re independent, it’s even more in your hands.

Just remember it’s more work than you think it will be but it’s all worth it in the end.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
That’s really a hard one. There’s so many things I’ve learned over the years that have helped me grow.

I would say it’s something that Jay Conrad Levinson said to me when I met him many years ago.

In case you don’t know, he’s the author of Guerrilla Marketing and was a huge mentor to me via his books for many years before I actually met him.

Unfortunately he passed last year. He made a huge impact on me over the years.

I was at an event in 2007 in Atlanta and saw him there. It was a big deal being that I had never met him before and was confused that he was there since he wasn’t on the list of speakers.

I went to talk to him, thanking him for being such an influence and helping me grow my first business, and I asked him why he was there since he wasn’t on the speaker’s list.

His response: “I”m here to learn. This Internet Marketing thing isn’t going anywhere and I know that if I don’t keep up with it you young whipper snappers are going to kick my ass!”

Imagine hearing that come from the short 70 year old creator of “Guerrilla Marketing”, the biggest brand in the world around marketing.

That was huge for me…

Never stop learning. When you do, you might as well just give up.

What are you reading now?
The Magic of Getting What You Want by David J. Schwartz

He also wrote The Magic of Thinking Big.

It’s a classic in personal development and this book is one that doesn’t get talked about as much. I love reading the classics. It amazes me how relevant they are to today’s world when many of the them are almost 100 years old.

It’s a great book on attitude and how to really get over yourself and become the person that you want to be.

What’s next for you as a writer?
The Tidbits series is top of mind right now. I love doing the books and in today’s ADD society I think that they will make a big impact. Each chapters takes only a few minutes to read and is designed for you to go out and take action right away with them.

I have a few other outlines for books as well. Not sure how soon I’ll get on those but I know they’ll be a lot of fun.

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?
Think & Grow Rich – Napoleon Hill

Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rand

Shut Up, Stop Whining & Get A Life – Larry Winget

Mindset, Critical Thinking and Personal Accountability. Things that all keep me motivated to move forward and do great things.

Author Websites and Profiles
Ely Delaney Website
Ely Delaney Amazon Profile

Ely Delaney’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Ely Delaney is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am the British author of the Alicia Allen Investigates trilogy (“A Model Murder,” “Wilful Murder,” and “Murder in Hand”), and the legal handbook “Fathers Matter.” I share similarities with the heroine Alicia Allen in our Anglo-Italian heritage, solicitor experience (aka “lawyer” in the U.S.), as well as an enthusiasm for crime solving, Shakespeare, All Things Italian and, of course, Pringles. “A Model Murder” was my debut novel, written at the suggestion of a mentor who encouraged me to write mysteries based on real-life stories I encountered while working within the law.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
“A Model Murder” is being re-launched with Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing Select program as a 3-day giveaway May 31-June 2, 2014. It draws parallels between the poor treatment of women workers in hostess clubs and law firms. The story ignites when an aspiring Australian model is found murdered, and her friend, Alicia Allen, sets out to solve the crime. Since the model had taken a moonlighting job at a hostess club out of financial desperation, Alicia is drawn into that arena while working as a lawyer at a London law firm for a psychotic boss. is autobiographical in parts, which probably makes this story even darker because it is real. The legal profession is still male dominated despite what we are told about more women qualifying or more women reaching top jobs. I think for a young woman working within the law it can still be quite hard.

While I was doing a little modeling, I met a model who worked in a club to supplement her income. To research, I talked with women at the clubs. They told me how they got treated depended on the “boss.” They had to generate money for the club by being “nice,” but the degree of how “nice” came from the top. Some bosses looked after their employees better than others. Some women felt pressured, and some did not.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I jot down notes in pencil and then plot the book out. Then I work the plot backwards, having decided on whodunit and the red-herrings. The actual writing took about 8 weeks. I edit as I read aloud: something my mentor taught me to do. I don’t know how “unusual” that is.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Sherlock Holmes, Dorothy Sayers, Sarah Paretsky. “War and Peace.”

What are you working on now?
Oh that’s top secret! I do tend to write when my life demands it. And it is demanding it now, but not in any form that I can share yet.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I have a terrific publicist, Marlan Warren. She has set up my author blog, facebook fan pages, and I do love her Author’s Showcase at Book Publicity by Marlan. She really got to grips with the character of Alicia and understood what drives her. She rewrote all my “pitches” and synopses, which really did not present the books in a way that would “grab” readers. I’m trying out Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing giveaway program to see if it will generate enough “buzz” to make the e-book promotion worthwhile. And with the help of my publicist, we’ve been querying book clubs and have gotten some good responses. Her belief is in “attraction, not promotion” and that works for me as well as the books.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t give up.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t give up.

What are you reading now?
The Alexandria Quartet.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m working on a new novel. Crime Fiction, naturally.

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 the books I’ve written!

Author Websites and Profiles
Celia Conrad Website

Celia Conrad’s Social Media Links

Facebook Profile

Celia Conrad is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Here’s my official bio:

Michael Kingswood has written numerous science fiction and fantasy stories, including The Pericles Conspiracy, The Glimmer Vale Chronicles, and the Dawn of Enlightenment series. His interest in scifi/fantasy came at an early age: he first saw Star Wars in the theater when he was three and grew up on Star Trek in syndication. The Hobbit was among the first books he recalls reading.

Recognizing with sadness that the odds of his making it into outer space were relatively slim, after completing his bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from Boston University, he did the next best thing – he entered the US Navy as a submarine officer. Almost seventeen years later, he continues to serve on active duty and has earned graduate degrees in Engineering Management and Business Administration. Fitting with his service onboard Fast Attack submarines (SSNs), he does his writing on Saturdays, Sundays, and at Night.

He is married to a lovely lady from Maine. They have four children, and live wherever the Navy deems to send them, which for the moment is San Diego, California.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest published novel is Out-Dweller, Glimmer Vale Chronicles #2. As the name implies, it’s the sequel to Glimmer Vale, which this fine site has featured. I don’t know that anything inspired it, per say. I just wanted to continue Raedrick and Julian’s adventures in the Vale because they’re a fun duo. It seems like there’s a lot of fodder for good fun stories in this little valley, and I intend to re-visit it from time to time as the years go forward.

That said, that’s not my most recent published work. I’ve had a couple short-stories, a novella, a novelette, and a pack of 10 short stories (called, interestingly enough, Short Story 10-Pack) published since Out-Dweller came out. You can find them all on my Amazon page or the equivalent on the other ebook sites.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Define unusual?

My company name is SSN Storytelling. In the Navy SSN stands for Submersible Ship Nuclear – a fast attack submarine. Not to be confused with an SSBN, which stands for Submersible Ship, Ballistic, Nuclear – a ballistic missile submarine. Or an SSGN, which stands for Submersible Ship, Guided Missile, Nuclear – what it sounds like. SSBNs and SSGNs have two crews that swap back and forth taking the boat to sea, while SSNs have just one. This means the workload per person is higher, or at least more consistently high, for SSN crew members, and we have a joke that SSN really stands for Saturdays, Sundays, and Night, since that’s when you can expect to be on the boat working. Since I have the Navy and lots of family, I tend to write on…wait for it…Saturday, Sunday, and at Night. Hence the company name.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Too many to list without missing a few. But I have to say my all-time favorite is Robert Jordan, and his Wheel of Time series. Freaking awesome stuff there. I was blessed to by a Memory Keeper (basically an usher and assistant) for the Memory of Light signing at the Mysterious Galaxy bookstore here in San Diego. Talk about a great time!

What are you working on now?
Tollard’s Peak, Glimmer Vale Chronicles #3 is in post-production for a targeted release in late June. Once that’s done, I’m finally going to finish the sequel to my very first novel, Masters of the Sun. I’m also working on shorter stories for submission to the L Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future contest and other venues – that’s something I always try to keep going, because short stories can be fun and they’re a great way to introduce people to a writer’s work without costing them a lot of time and/or money.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
You got me. Every long-term pro I know says the best advertisement is the next book.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t freak out over every little thing.

Follow Heinlein’s Rules:
1. You must writer.
2. You must finish what you write.
3. You must refrain from rewriting except to editorial demand.
4. You must put your work on the market.
5. You must keep your work on the market until it sells.

Ignore the all-too-frequent internet bruhahas that seem to continually surround the online writing community, and especially the online SciFi/Fantasy community. Most of them are pure BS, but they can cost you a lot of time and energy if you get enflamed by them.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?

What are you reading now?
I finally started reading A Dance With Dragons by George R R Martin. I’ve waited almost 2 years on it because I do pretty much all my reading on ebook now and I refused to pay the $15 his publisher wanted to charge for the ebook version. Only recently, with the mass market paperback release, has the price reached a reasonable level.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I think I’ve already answered this 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?
Probably books on survival, fishing, and how to make a raft from the leavings of palm trees. Because who wants to remain stuck on a desert island forever?

Author Websites and Profiles
Michael Kingswood Website
Michael Kingswood Amazon Profile
Michael Kingswood Author Profile on Smashwords

Michael Kingswood’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Michael Kingswood is a post from Awesome Gang