Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
For quite a few years now I have been writing mostly on blogs, mainly for a film blog called ScottsMovies.com. I think it is one of the oldest movie blogs around, since I started it in the mid-1990s. I was born and grew up in central California, lived for many years in and around Seattle and currently have been living in the west of Ireland for the past decade or so. I published my first novel this summer, and I have four others in various stages of the writing process.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
It has a kind of long and strange title: Maximilian and Carlotta Are Dead. The inspiration for it came from a few different sources. I wanted to convey some of my experiences and impressions from having lived for a year in Latin America in the 1970s. I also wanted to tell a story that highlighted a friendship between young men, drawing on my own experiences with my childhood best friend. And I wanted to tell a Huckleberry Finn story that would be updated to the place and time when I myself came of age.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t know how unusual this is, but I do all my writing in HTML. In other words, I write my books the same way as if I were creating a web page, with all the codes and tags inserted as I go along. That means I use a plain text editor instead of a word processor. It’s just a habit I’ve always had as someone who generates web content, and it definitely simplifies things for producing an e-book.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I really like Hemingway’s simple, declarative, straightforward writing style, and he is someone I definitely try to emulate in my writing. That didn’t really work for the first book, though, since it was in the first-person voice of a teenager. In Maximilian and Carlotta Are Dead, I was consciously trying to channel Mark Twain and the way he wrote Huckleberry Finn in dialect and with a young person’s voice. I was also influenced by Evelyn Waugh, although I doubt most people would pick up on that. But some of his themes involving young male friends and Catholicism can be found in my first book. Another writer I really like and try to use as an example is the Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa.

What are you working on now?
I am about halfway through a fantasy novel. So far it is the only real “genre” book in my queue. It is based on a story I wrote in high school for a Spanish class and which then evolved into a bedtime story for my daughter when she was small. It has princes and a princess and swordplay and monsters and all that good stuff. I have also made a start on a follow-up to Maximilian and Carlotta Are Dead. It takes place about nine years after the main events of the first book.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m still figuring that out. Because I have been blogging for years now, I have that audience I can promote the book to, but reaching a larger audience is obviously a challenge since there are already so many books–and so many good ones–out there. GoodReads is definitely an indispensable place to communicate with people who love books and are interesting in reading new ones and then spreading the word.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
I’m afraid I don’t have anything more insightful than the advice that has always been out there and which always gets repeated. If you want to be a writer, then you simply have to write. You need to write something everyday. If you want to make a living at it, then you will spend at least half your time doing things that aren’t writing, so be prepared for that. Find people to read what you write and who can be honest with you and then listen to them. That’s the only way to improve your writing.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
My dad used to tell me to find figure out what I loved doing and then do that for a living. The rest would take care of itself. He was right. If I had tried to figure out what profession would make me the most money and then had gone into that, I probably would not have been as happy. And I have done pretty well at working at jobs that didn’t even exist back when I was going to school. The bottom line is that people will work harder at something they like than at something they don’t like.

What are you reading now?
I’m reading At Swim, Two Boys, a 2001 novel by Jamie O’Neill which is set in Dublin around the time of the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland. It is this quarter’s chosen book for the GoodReads Ireland group. Like my own book, it is a story of a friendship between young men during a turbulent time. The title is a nod to a seminal 1939 novel by Flann O’Brien called At Swim-Two-Birds.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Right now I’m in the process of getting the paperback version of Maximilian and Carlotta Are Dead on the printing press. It should be available in the next few weeks or so. When I have some copies in hand, then there will be another round of trying to publicize it. In the meantime, I want to get back to my fantasy novel and finish that. After that is the sequel to the first book. And after that is a novel set in the burgeoning software scene in Seattle in the 1980s. And after that is a novel set in rural Ireland at the height of the Celtic Tiger economy.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
If there was a book called “How to Build a Raft Out of Little or Nothing,” I would want that one! Seriously, I might bring The Collected Works of H.P. Lovecraft and/or The Collected Works of Robert E. Howard since I would want some escapism. Old favorites I might want to bring for comfort would probably be Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and/or Vargas Llosa’s The War of the End of the World. And I might bring that last one in the original Spanish. In that case I would also want to bring along a Spanish/English dictionary!

Author Websites and Profiles
Scott Larson Website
Scott Larson Amazon Profile

Scott Larson’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Twitter Account

Scott Larson is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
My name is Amy Flint and I am the author of the Porter Biggleswade series. I’m lucky enough to live in York, which is purportedly one of the most haunted places in England. The city draws large crowds intrigued to learn more about our paranormal history.

I have a background in archaeology and I used to work in Pompeii and at the British Museum. I had the idea for the Porter Biggleswade series after moving to York in 2011 and discovering that ghosts are a key part of York life. It seems that most people have a ghost story to tell.

Shadows in the Mist is the first book in my Porter Biggleswade series. I will be starting the second book on 1st September!

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The title Shadows in the Mist was inspired by the lead character Dr Porter Biggleswade, who is a paranormal investigator famed for the ability to see ghosts. Porter is known as the ‘Shadow Reader’.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I listen to film scores (Gladiator, Braveheart…), anything without words. I have it playing in the background – it helps me to focus.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
That’s a tricky one! I love to read, and would suggest that I am, subconsciously, influenced by every author that I’ve ever read. That said, I love Joseph Heller’s wit, but I also enjoy Lindsey Davis’s relaxed style (particularly her Falco series).

What are you working on now?
I am currently undertaking research for the second book in my Porter Biggleswade series, which I will be starting to write on 1st September. I can’t wait!

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Word-of-mouth, social media, Goodreads and, of course, amazing websites like this have been brilliant for promoting Shadows in the Mist.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
As long as you believe in your book, stay focused, and you’re prepared to invest the time to market your work then, I believe, you will succeed. I believe in Shadows in the Mist, and I’m determined to make my Porter Biggleswade series a success.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Rome wasn’t built in a day!

What are you reading now?
Sherlock Holmes – the complete series. I love the classics.

What’s next for you as a writer?
The second book in my Porter Biggleswade series. Watch this space!

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?
Do I really have to limit myself to 3 or 4 books?! Fine… I would take: Catch 22 by Joseph Heller (for wit), Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (for escapism), the Encyclopaedia Britannic (for length), and Shadows in the Mist by Amy Flint (as a reminder of my life before I was stranded).

Author Websites and Profiles
Amy Flint Website
Amy Flint Amazon Profile

Amy Flint’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Amy Flint is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Your Path to Unshakable Happiness is my first book although I have others in the pipeline.
I have taught this form of Buddhism in an Oregon prison and in a substance abuse recovery center as well as worked with newcomers in my Buddhist group. I just love working with people new to the practice.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
I was a counselor for 25 years an so a lot of human suffering. During those years I often wondered if there was anything which could enable people to overcome their problems and become happy.

Then in 1994 I was introduced to a simple Nichiren Buddhist chanting practice and told if I did it consistently I would become happy. I was in a period of major transition and struggling with fears and worries. I was told this was a prove-it-to-yourself practice. You didn’t have to believe anything. Skeptical, I decided to try it. In the next few weeks I saw my life turn around and start to work the way I wanted it to. Over the next few years, I heard the experiences of 100′s of other practitioners, and saw how they had overcome problems and become happy. I was galvanized. Maybe I had found what I’d been looking for.

After practicing for 12 years, I decided that I had to write this book to make this form of Buddhism accessible and share the practice that had been so effective for so many people.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t think so.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Books by Daisaku Ikeda, and Nichiren Daishonin. Ikeda has written about 60 books on this form of Buddhism and Nichiren was the monk who gave us the practice.

What are you working on now?
I’m working on a workbook for people who have bought the book , to lead them step by step into the practice.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m experimenting to find out. Right now I am doing a KDP giveway for my Kindle book on Amazon from August 28-August 31 at http://www.amazon.com/Your-Path-Unshakeable-Happiness-Practical-ebook/dp/B00LNRX2BI/ref=sr_1_1_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1408732087&sr=1-1&keywords=Margaret+Blaine

Do you have any advice for new authors?
I think it’s important that you have a passion for what you are writing about. When you have that then you become willing to do whatever is needed to write the book and get it out. You have to be willing to step outside your comfort zone.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
When it comes to writing, just take it one step at a time and never give up.

What are you reading now?
I am a prolific reader and usually have two or three books going.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Some short books on various aspects of Buddhist practice.

Author Websites and Profiles

Margaret Blaine Website
Margaret Blaine Amazon Profile

Margaret Blaine’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile

Margaret Blaine is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Hi, my name is Brian Lang. I’m a husband, father of two teenage boys and work full-time in software development. Writing has been a hobby of mine since high school, lo these many years. I’ve written several books, but so far only published one of them. Early on I read a lot of Ian Fleming and Robert B. Parker, so my writing was in that vein: thrillers, mystery. I may pull one of the mysteries out of mothballs and work on it again, because I liked the character I created.

But at some point I picked up Tad Williams’s Dragonbone Chair and my perspective changed. So much of what I considered a restriction in general fiction could be lifted in a world of fantasy. Rules could be broken, or at least bent, and that let my imagination loose.

AHVARRA: THE HEART OF THE WORLD is my current one published book.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
AHVARRA: THE HEART OF THE WORLD is my latest, and only, published work to date. It was inspired really by a couple of things. One, I wanted to write a stand-alone fantasy. When I started AHVARRA, I was reading a lot of Guy Gavriel Kay’s works, and I love that books like TIGANA and A SONG FOR ARBONNE are self-contained stories. I wanted a beginning, middle and end without requiring the reader to be hooked into a series stretching over multiple books. I also wanted to tackle the nature of man in some sense. So much of fantasy is heavily focused on good vs. evil. I wanted to take the perspective that even the bad guys have objectives and ambitions, and while the good guys think the evil guys have chosen their objectives poorly, that’s not necessarily how the evil guys look at it. In short, I wanted to create real people making hard decisions, sometimes good, sometimes bad, rather than the standard archetype.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not really. Pretty standard stuff. Sit at the laptop, open Scrivener, write write write. I’ll drink the occasional scotch but it’s not a required tool!

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I mentioned a couple of them earlier, but clearly Tad Williams got me thinking that fantasy was a genre to pursue. Guy Gavriel Kay is amazing, quite frankly. His use of language is almost lyrical. I typically get his novels in hardback on day one and then slowly read them, wanting to draw out the experience. As I head down a darker path with some of my newer writing I am learning quite a bit from Joe Abercrombie, who writes gritty action scenes better than anyone in the business.

What are you working on now?
Two things actually. One is a book whose events occur on the other side of the Heart of the World. So, the book is not a direct sequel to AHVARRA but the story unfolds in the same world. Several of the early reviewers for AHVARRA pointed out that I’d built a rich world and they hoped to see more stories from there.

The second is a collaboration with a friend of mine from college. She and I were discussing something on Facebook when an idea struck us, and we’ve begun writing a fairly dark origin story/fairy tale.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’d probably have to say NeoGAF. I’m a member there and post regularly in the Writing and Reading threads about my book, when I have sales, etc. I’d wager that a good portion of my sales so far have come from GAF members. Thanks, GAFfers!

Do you have any advice for new authors?
I know a lot of writers will say “Write! Write write write!” But I think that’s short-sighted. I wrote a blog about this once actually. You can’t just sit in your basement and write. You need to live. You need to interact with people, actually talk with them, to understand how dialog works. You need to get out and watch people talk to each other. You have to engage, interact, have experiences. And then go home and write about them. The more you live, the more true-to-life your writing will be, and that typically makes readers happy.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I went to college in a small liberal arts school on the eastern shore of Maryland, called Washington College. I went there because I’d been writing for a couple of years and I wanted an English degree and to focus on Creative Writing. And they have a great program for that.

And my mother said, “That’s fine, but you better minor in something that’s a bit more practical!” So I got a business management minor. Those two things combined helped me become a technical writer and got me into the software development industry, which has been a nice career to have while continuing to write for fun.

What are you reading now?
I’ve actually just started reading The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson. A bit of an older work and along the lines of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, but it was highly recommended by several of the members on GAF. And so far so good!

What’s next for you as a writer?
Learning how to prioritize a little better. When I was writing AHVARRA, I knew there was time for writing, incorporating comments, edits, etc. But now that the book is out, I need to balance how to market AHVARRA while also getting time to write the new books.

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?
TIGANA and A SONG FOR ARBONNE would be definites. Easily my two favorite fantasy novels. I’d probably go with something from sci-fi to balance that out, like Jack McDevitt’s A TALENT FOR WAR. And finally something like Nelson DeMille’s THE GOLD COAST, which I found to be a marvelous Gatsby-like story.

Author Websites and Profiles
Brian Lang Website
Brian Lang Amazon Profile

Brian Lang’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Brian Lang is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
So far I have written 3 books. Two were mainly for children- one was poems and short stories for children&parents. The 3rd one is a thriller.

I got interested in writing years ago. I’ve always enjoyed scribbling a poem down on paper. One day I began some short stories. Then next thing the stories grew longer. One of them became the start of my last book.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The last book was “Setting this killer inside me free-book 1″. I started a story years ago but never really did anything with it. So one day after reading over it again, something clicked and I began changing things around, adding notes to it and came up with that one. It is not based on anything or anyone. Many of my friends think the character is based on them or myself. Rest assured- he is not.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not that I can think of at this time.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
My first and favorite has always been Edgar Allan Poe. I have enjoyed his writings. For a good horror book I’ve always read Clive Barker. My favorite author of today is Anne Rice. She is brilliant and has been my inspiration for wanting to write more. Her son Christopher is also a favorite- I’ve read all of his books so far- waiting on the latest to come out.

What are you working on now?
One that takes place in a remote plantation. A couple buy this place, not knowing what lurks around it. No title to it yet.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Lulu.com and I print out business cards with the site info to the book for everyone to find it easily.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Just never really give up. If you write something and put it away, wondering if you’ll ever write more to it, just know that one day you will write more to it. May not be tomorrow, or next week, but it will be written someday.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Never write anything that I would not want to really read. That was told to someone else and they said it was the best advice, and that is one thing I recall when starting to write- do not begin writing something that I would not be interested in reading.

What are you reading now?
Nothing at this moment. I finished reading Clive Barkers “Mister B Gone”

What’s next for you as a writer?
Hopefully more books.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
I’d bring: “The Vines”- by Christopher Rice, Writings of Edgar Allan Poe, “The Vampire Lestat” by Anne Rice and a journal- so that I could sit and write for hours.

sharon hass’s Social Media Links

Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

sharon hass is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
My debut novel, ‘Of Bodies Changed’, has just been published, although I’ve worked as a journalist, editor and social commentator for many years, mainly writing for LGBT and humanist newspapers and magazines in the UK. I’ve also had short stories and poetry published in anthologies, but this novel is my first major piece of fiction.

As well as journalism, I also worked in human rights law as a legal representative for people who have fled persecution and sought asylum in the UK. The world has become an incredibly belligerent place in the past few years, and yet there appears to be less sympathy for those who are suffering from the games of the powerful. I left the law and became a writer in the hope that I might be able to make more of a change. Everything I write is concerned with challenging power, of one kind or another.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
‘Of Bodies Changed’ is a work of fiction, but it was inspired by my own experiences of living in a monastery as a teenager. It was also a method of mythologising a relationship that ended in my twenties. A friend recently asked me: “is your novel a work of catharsis or provocation?” I would say it’s a bit of both.
The title of the book comes from the first line of Ovid’s Metamorphoses: ‘Of bodies changed to other forms, I sing’. In fact, my book is a modern retelling of some of the Classical myths told in the original Metamorphoses. Each chapter in my novel incorporates a different story as the narrative unfolds.
I think it’s hugely important to use ancient stories to help us make sense of problems and challenges in our own lifetimes, otherwise there was no point in these stories being passed down, or in us passing our own stories on. Humanity can’t progress without learning from the mistakes of the past. And, to be honest, most of these pagan stories have great poignancy for the human condition. They’re often much more relevant than the platitudes of Christian fables.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
It helps me to have complete silence, to know I won’t be disturbed for many hours, preferably days. I dream of having a desk in a shed in a field, surrounded by moat, and a forest around that. Even the cat padding about on a piece of paper (like she is now) can put me back by hours.
I write best at night, when the world is asleep. I lived in the centre of Liverpool for four years and never wrote a word.
When I wrote the first draft of ‘Of Bodies Changed’, I was living in a very quiet, wooded area of Cambridge. I was working part-time during the day, which gave me the chance to have a structured writing schedule. I would write throughout the night, from 6pm until about 6am, and then get a few hours sleep before going to my part-time job in the afternoon. That was my life for six months. I loved it.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
John Fowles was a great inspiration – although I should confess I still haven’t read all of his books. I was besotted by The Magus, but less impressed with The French Lieutenant’s Woman. My relationship with favourite authors is complicated. I tend to put them on pedestals, believing they can do no wrong and that everything they produce will be as perfect as the first work of theirs that I read. I never want that honeymoon to end. So, when I was less impressed with French Lieutenant’s Woman, I didn’t know whether to read any more of Fowles’ books. What if I was disappointed again? What if I was wrong to put him on a pedestal? It’s a tricky relationship…

The genre I admire the most is Magical Realism. Fairy tales and myths have always been important in human history and prehistory; they enable us to look at and analyse the society in which we live as from a distance, from an oblique angle. It’s often impossible for us to objectively see the culture in which we live because we are immersed in it, saturated by it. Certain beliefs and behaviours seem ‘natural’ or ‘common sense’ to us purely because we are born into and submerged in a society where such things are commonplace. In a couple of hundred years time, people will undoubtedly look back and question some of the things we unthinkingly accept now.

What Magical Realism often does is to present a world that is almost identical to our own, but which is ruptured or disturbed by something ‘unnatural’, fantastical, mythological – things that are contrary to ‘common sense’. The familiar is de-familiarised and, in the process, we are given a glimpse of our society as an outsider, our viewing-seat is shifted. We are given the gift of time and/or distance to critique ideologies that we would otherwise be oblivious to. In Jeanette Winterson’s Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, an orange ‘demon’ appears to talk with the protagonist in an otherwise realistic novel. Angela Carter’s excellent Nights At the Circus and The Bloody Chamber, Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children and The Satanic Verses, and Joanne Harris’s Chocolate – all of these brilliant Magical Realist novels present a familiar world that is made unfamiliar by the introduction of something fantastical. Magical Realism offers us the rare opportunity to critique our own society as an outsider.

Science Fiction often has this quality too, hence two of my favourite reads of all time are Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Marge Piercy’s Woman On The Edge Of Time.

What are you working on now?
At this very moment, I’ve been given about three days to finish writing a short story for an anthology that’s being published in early 2015. Deadlines sterilise my imagination, they immobilise me. When I overcome this terror and finish the short story, I can dive back into the novel I’m currently writing – another contemporary tale about power relationships, tinged with Greek mythology. If I took on religion in ‘Of Bodies Changed’, then I’m confronting politics in the next novel.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Word of mouth. Live literature events. Going out into the world at book events, launches, festivals, readings, open mic nights and presenting new work in a living environment. There is something ineffably human about telling stories face-to-face. It goes back to the primal beginnings of civilization. It’s how the first poems were produced, it’s how literature began. And it also improves the quality of one’s writing.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write every day – even if it’s a diary. Read someone else’s writing every day. Go to live literature events as often as possible and read your own work – but, more than that, listen to others. Be humble enough to learn from others. That is all.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“If it hurts none, do what you will.”

What are you reading now?
Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. I have been reading it for at least two hundred years, it feels, and I will still be reading it in another two hundred. When I finally defeat the great Russian novel, the next book on my shelf is the much-lauded ‘Any Other Mouth’ by the brilliant Anneliese Mackintosh, which I can’t wait to start.

What’s next for you as a writer?
If I have my way (i.e. a desk in a shed in the middle of a meadow), then I should be finishing my next novel in nine months’ time.

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 first would have to be Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’; every home should have one.
The second would be the Complete Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley: the greatest English poet.
The third would be James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’; pretentious perhaps, but I have owned a copy of this book for two decades and still never read it. Besides, I’ve recently become an Irish citizen and they won’t give me my passport until I pass the Joyce exam.
And finally, Wuthering Heights. Obviously.

Author Websites and Profiles
Cliff James Website

Cliff James’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Cliff James is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Hello readers my pen name is Nyaisia J and I am a urban drama writer. I have one novel published and currently working on the second.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
There He Goes is the title of my debt novel. There He Goes was inspired by not only my real life encounters but also of those close to me.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
To get myself in the mood to write I make a music play list to go with the theme of the book.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Alot of authors have influenced me in one way or another. Just reading a good book in general will motivate me to write. Some of my favorite authors include Leo Sullivan, Pamela Ann, Melody Ann and L J Smith to name a few.

What are you working on now?
I am currently working on part 2 to There He Goes titled There She Goes. In this one it will focus on some of the other characters we were introduced to in part 1.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
So far I have found Facebook and other social media sites to be very helpful with promoting.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
My advise to new authors is to learn your craft and don’t be afraid to ask questions.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The best advice I have heard was to never give up and never stop growing as a author.

What are you reading now?
Currently I’m reading Addicted to Love by author Demettra

What’s next for you as a writer?
What I hope would be next for me is a chance to travel and gain new readers in the process.

Author Websites and Profiles

Nyaisia Joseph Amazon Profile

Nyaisia Joseph’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile

Nyaisia Joseph is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I was born and raised in Singapore. I am a Public Relations Practitioner who began my writing career in journalism. I have written for magazines, newspapers and news syndication. My career also took me to Cairo, Egypt where I reported for Egypt Today. I had lots of fun in Egypt, and it was also the setting that inspired me to complete my novel.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
SMOKESCREEN. I was inspired to write the novel pursuant to Singapore’s relationship with Israel. The little island in Southeast Asia, surrounded by large Muslim countries like Malaysia and Indonesia, suffers from a state of paranoia and mistrust of its neighbors.

Singapore went to the extent of getting Israel to train its army, and since then both countries have also reportedly enjoyed all levels of “security relationship.” The island also made major purchases of IDF tanks, as well as aircraft, anti-aircraft missiles, and surveillance technologies.

Singapore has also had its fair share of adventure despite its far location from the Middle East. To that extent, Muslims have little role to play in the Singapore army, their loyalty often being questioned.

Back in the 70s, several Palestinian commandos raided an offshore island in Singapore and attempted to blow up an oil refinery as a political message. During my stay in Egypt, I also met many Palestinians and I used to come across Israeli tourists at the seaside resort of Dahab in the Mount Sinai region, near the Israeli border. My observation and personal encounters with everyone served as ingredients for the novel. Details are classified. As the old saying goes, if I tell you, I’ll have to…

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t plan my manuscript. I construct pages in my head and with a little bit of help from inspiration here and there, the story begins to unfold. When I get stuck, I’ll take a break and resume when the ideas start to flow again.

I tend to method act in some cases as I feel this is helpful to produce stronger characters so that readers can appreciate the story more.

If you look at the stories of ancient Egypt, especially the drawings on the walls, you’ll notice that the drawings portray images of people in one dimension. It does not give you details of the characters and who they really were. In writing my novel, I wanted my characters to jump off the page like popcorns on a hot stove.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Many authors – too many to list down, honestly. But the immediate few that springs to mind include Robert Ludlum, Tom Clancy, Len Deighton, Agatha Christie, Ernest Hemingway, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I even read non-thriller authors to get influences, especially since they discuss life, culture, human values and religion.

Although Smokescreen is a thriller novel, there is a little bit of philosophy in it. One of the subject matters that I raised revolves around the eastern and western beliefs and how they look at life. Islam, Christianity and Judaism share common values. For example, they all agree on what is right and what is wrong. However, in Asia the concept of what is right or wrong does not exist. It’s more a question of what can be done and what cannot.

Let me give you an example, several years ago, a young man, an Australian of Vietnamese descent, was arrested by the Singapore police and later hanged for smuggling drugs. I told a taxi driver that it was a sad case that the life of a young man was not spared, but he was silly to take the wrong path. The cabby shrugged his shoulders and replied that the young man took a risk and lost. He added that if he could have gotten away with it, then he was a winner. So you see, there’s really no right or wrong with some people.

What are you working on now?
I am working on another suspense-thriller, which is set in Europe. It’s going to take a while for me to finish. It is an entirely different story. It gives me goose bumps whenever I work on some of the scenes because they are eerie, if I do say so myself.

Honestly, I didn’t think I was going to write another. It was hard for me to write my first, I almost gave up. But the proverbial train kept dragging me up the hill. And then I found myself working on a second manuscript.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Apart from the many PR and marketing tools that I am applying, I am part of a YouTube project that’s made in Canada called Fiction Frenzy TV. Every two weeks, you’ll find me doing something from showing places based on scenes in the novel to talking about my book and writing. I am not the only guest author there, there are others. But we all get our fair of promotional broadcast time.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
I have been mocked at, insulted, sneered by many people who thought I was living a fantasy when I told them I was writing a novel. I come from a society where people mostly follow the leader. There is a lack of critical thinking here in Singapore. I think everyone had a shock to learn the novel was completed and eventually acquired. So my message to new authors: Don’t give up and believe in yourself.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Listen to your inner voice. Nobody knows you better than you. Maybe your pet cat or dog does, but humans, gotta watch out for those guys…

What are you reading now?
I am reading a few books by Keith Thomson, Jon Mcgoran, Jake Needham and Anne-Rae Vasquez. They include thrillers, science fiction and paranormal fantasy.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Honestly? I don’t know. But I hope to write more. You know, being a writer – at least when your first book gets published and recognized – you get a nice sensation that comes with it. It’s a very rich feeling. It’s hard to explain, but you feel accomplished.

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 Quran for hope, Robert Fulgham’s All I Really Need To Know, I learned In Kindergarten for a good laugh, and Nick Schade’s Building Strip-Planked Boats to escape from the island. I hope rescue comes in time before I finish all these books. But if they do make a TV series based on my castaway life and write a ballad about it, please send the royalties to my family members. Thanks in advance.

Author Websites and Profiles
Khaled Talib Website
Khaled Talib Amazon Profile
Khaled Talib Author Profile on Smashwords

Khaled Talib’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Khaled Talib is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I decided to write a novel way back in eighth grade. Happily, it only took me twenty years to accomplish that goal, which is pretty consistent with how I do such things.

My background is mostly technical (information systems and film production), and I try to draw on that from time-to-time. I have also been a student of all things “fringe” from an early age. The subject of the paranormal as modern mythology has always fascinated me. I’ve also tried to draw on that area of study when possible.

I’ve written quite a bit, but it has all been non-fiction (and dull) to this point. My current novel, “From Here to Nearly There,” is the first work of fiction that I produced.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is entitled “From Here to Nearly There.” It’s the story of a surveyor and mapmaker who goes from Yorkshire to a guest cabin on an interstellar super yacht.

What inspired it? Well, I’ve studied UFO-lore and the paranormal for a long time. I am what you might call a sympathetic skeptic. From an “is it real?” standpoint, I think the jury is out. From the standpoint of great science fiction, it’s all gold.

So the book is partially inspired on real UFO and paranormal reports. But only just. It is also inspired by my love of travel and (in particular) my love of England. I guess that makes it part travelogue and part sci-fi thriller. Sounds like a good mix, if I say so myself.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I have nothing but unusual writing habits! That is the problem. When I write non-fiction, I can do so in my artificial writing environment. For some reason, that doesn’t work for me when it comes ti writing fiction. So, gone is the pleasant music (too distracting), coffee (makes me too jumpy) and snack food (why write when you can eat?).

Instead, I have forced myself to sit in a dark room with a laptop and silence. It is quite unpleasant, but surprisingly productive.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Neal Stephenson is probably the greatest living writer of fiction. Bill Bryson is without question the finest writer of non-fiction. They are both heavy influences for me.

Recently, I have been re-influenced by a couple of authors who impacted me when I was young. C.S. Forester comes to mind. I started reading the first of his “Hornblower” novels many years ago. I did not stop until I had read every page the man wrote. It’s just pure gold.

What are you working on now?
I had intended to turn to Book Two of the “Voyage in the Near Distance” series but have since changed my mind. I am instead beginning the outline process on a mystery novella (maybe novel). The idea is to recharge a bit after having written something so serious. We shall see.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
This one, obviously, is great. Vinny is great at customer service. Twitter is important but easy to overemphasize. Andrew Butcher has a great list of web resources, but I can’t recall the URL.

I haven’t done the free promotion yet, but one is in the works. I have it on good authority that the giveaway promotion works well, and I suppose I will find out.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Take your ego out. Do not try to write a book about yourself. It won’t work, trust me. If you’re a doctor, lawyer, or accountant then you should avoid writing a book about a doctor, lawyer, or accountant. Of course it can work, but you will probably find yourself shoe-horning your own life into your story. Again, can be done, but it takes skill.

Honestly, it’s a lot more fun to create an character with his or her own “fingerprints” and motivations.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Hard to say, as I have been given a lot of advice in my life. I would probably say that the best, from a writing persecutive, is to be unafraid of “killing your babies.” By that, I mean that a writer has to be able to delete or radically alter a piece of their story if that piece just doesn’t work.

What are you reading now?
“Abaddon’s Gate” by James S.A. Corey. I devoured the first two books in the “Expanse” series and am looking forward to digging into Book Three.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Taking a break. Well, no, I’m actually going to start researching story lines and settings for the next book.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
“In a Sunburned Country” by Bill Bryson. I’ve read it three times and will likely do so again. “Anathem” by Neal Stephenson. Possibly the greatest work of fiction ever penned. And of course “Survive!” by Les Stroud. I think that last one is pretty self-explanatory.

Author Websites and Profiles
Alec Merta Website
Alec Merta Amazon Profile

Alec Merta’s Social Media Links
Twitter Account

Alec Merta is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
My work has been published and reprinted several anthologies, magazines and online places over the past few months.
My very first solo project, however, is 100 Nightmares– a collection of 100 horror stories, each written in 100 words with over 50 illustrations.
Some of my stories will also be appearing in forthcoming collections.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
100 Nightmares is a collection of 100 horror stories, each written in 100 words with over 50 illustrations.
Inside, you’ll find monsters—both imagined and real. There are vengeful specters, characters with impaired psyches, dark fairy tales and stories and illustrations inspired by bizarre creatures of Japanese folklore.

It’s currently available at Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JVRJNG0

Though my works have been published in various publications but I wanted a solo project… something that would represent me as a writer.
I’ve always been passionate about micro-fiction and I believed that there’s no better way to showcase my concise writing style than to make an entire collection. I figured with 100 stories and 100 distinctive concepts each reader is bound to meet his/her worst nightmare somewhere within the pages. Though the stories can stand alone, I decided to pack 50 illustrations in the book because I wanted my first book to be extra special.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Hmmm… nothing too unusual… except sometimes I believe that I seem to work better on an empty stomach.
Bad habit, I know.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
My influences include H.P. Lovecraft, Clive Barker and Poppy Z. Brite.
These authors and their stories convinced me that there is indeed beauty in horror.
Clive Barker’s Books of Blood remain to be among my favorite books.

What are you working on now?
I’m working on a couple of short stories to be submitted to anthologies. I’ve also been invited to write a flash fiction piece for a horror website so I’m working on that one right now.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Indie authors don’t have the advantage of having a dedicated marketing team and professionals to look after the marketing of their novels. I’ll admit I’m not very good with marketing and I don’t have a devoted team of professionals to help me out. However, I am fortunate enough to have a few author friends and blog friends who were willing to help me in promoting my book. Some are not very much into horror but I’m very thankful that their confidence in my writing was enough to gain their support.
I always try to remember that if I don’t promote my work, no one else will. I promote my book on my blog because that’s where I have the most following.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Strive to be original… always.
Have faith in your work.
Remember that at times, criticism can be constructive and praise can be destructive.
For new indie authors, keep in mind that it’s important to respect and support Independent publishing and fellow Indie authors by ensuring and maintaining the quality of your work.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
A fellow author, Gary Murphy, once told me: “Develop your own voice, that’s my best advice. People will inevitably admit if you’re original…”

What are you reading now?
I’m currently reading the Best of Horror 2013 by JWK Fiction. I have a story in the anthology entitled “Wooden Lips” from Cellar Door: Words of Beauty, Tales of Terror Vol II.
I always make it a point to read the anthologies that I’m part of. I found that it’s a great way to discover new authors and read fresh fiction.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I was invited to submit a story to my very first Bizarro anthology. I had lots of fun writing my piece for this particular collection. I’m really flattered that the editor thought of me and I’m psyched that I will be featured together with many talented writers of the genre. The book is coming out this fall. Watch out for 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?
1) Whatever it is that I’m currently reading (I would hate not to be able to finish it)
2) The Complete Works of H.P. Lovecraft
3) The Complete Stories and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
4) and something new from an Indie author

Author Websites and Profiles
K.Z. Morano Website
K.Z. Morano Amazon Profile
K.Z. Morano Author Profile on Smashwords

K.Z. Morano’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

K.Z. Morano is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I started out writing short stories and poetry at the tender age of 10 before turning my attention to music, receiving a Bachelor’s in Voice Performance and a Master’s in Musicology. But I eventually found my way back to writing, and since then, my award-winning stories, poems and articles have appeared in dozens of national and regional publications and anthologies. A three-time Derringer Award finalist and 2012 winner for my short fiction, I was also honored by the American Independent Writers and Maryland Writers Association for my Scott Drayco stories. PLAYED TO DEATH is the debut novel in the Drayco series, with future installments scheduled for late fall and next spring. I currently live in Virginia with my husband and enjoy flying above the Chesapeake Bay in a little Cessna. Feel free to stop by my website at bvlawson.com and sign up for my newsletter. No ticket required.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
I’ve always loved mysteries, thanks to my librarian mother who helped feed my habit with new books, and when I started getting serious about penning a novel, a mystery was a natural choice. Wanting to combine my music background with my writing, I created Scott Drayco, a former piano prodigy whose career was cut short by violence, leading him into the FBI and eventually freelance consulting. I also wanted a setting that hadn’t been used before, and after a few visits to the small towns on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, I knew that’s where I wanted to set my first book.

I first started writing PLAYED TO DEATH a decade ago, even sending an early version off to a few agents, although I eventually set it aside for several years to concentrate on bringing in a steady paycheck. But once bitten, the writing bug never truly leaves you, so I kept up my writing via short stories and eventually found my way back to the novel.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I create a writing cave, with as little light and sound as possible, even using headphones to block out extraneous noises. There are times when I also unplug from the router, so that the Internet isn’t a temptation. We are surrounded by so many distractions in our lives these days, I find that blocking out everything but the images and words in my own head make it easier to submerse myself into the story I’m working on.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Again, thanks to my librarian mother, I was never without a book to read. In addition to the mysteries she passed along by Ellery Queen, Agatha Christie, Rex Stout, Arthur Conan Doyle, and others, I also devoured books that expanded my small-town girl worldview such as Alan Paton’s “Cry the Beloved Country.” I think every book I’ve ever read influences me a bit, from historical works by Austen, Shakespeare, and Dickens, to satirical writing like Miller’s “A Canticle for Leibowitz” and Toole’s “A Confederacy of Dunces.”

What are you working on now?
I have drafts of three additional installments of the Scott Drayco series that I’m editing, as well as two books in a new series featuring the unlikely pairing of Vermont detective Adam Dutton and mysterious female con artist Beverly Laborde. Plus, I have two new short-story collections I’ll be publishing soon, as well as a novella, and I have a Scott Drayco story coming out in “Grift Magazine” later this year. Future projects over the next couple of years that I’m starting to outline include a historical literary mystery and a trilogy that may turn out to be fantasy, young adult…or not. It hasn’t told me what it wants to be yet.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m still in the early stages of promotion. I’ve read hundreds of articles, books, and blogs on the subject of marketing and promotion, and there are as many opinions and experiences as there are writers, as you might expect. With over three million books published in the U.S. alone in one year (according to Bowker), discoverability is getting harder all the time. Word of mouth is the best tool, but to do that, you have to find ways to get your books on reader radar. Facebook and Twitter can be helpful, as can sites like Awesome Gang, and a newsletter list is also a good thing to have.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
If you are really, truly serious about being an author and not just a one-book-wonder, then you have to develop a very thick skin and steel yourself for rejection and disappointment. You also have to treat your writing like a business, with a five-year business plan, a professional website and online presence, learn how to network, and realize that you’re running a marathon and not a sprint. Most of all, write each and every day. After all, 1,000 words per day is 365,000 words per year, enough for four medium-length novels.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the marketing/promotion, financial, and even educational aspects of the writing business, which can sap all your energy and creativity and lead to writer fatigue and disillusionment. So, as Scott William Carter says, you need to apply the W.I.B.B.O.W. test – “Would I Be Better Off Writing.” And, as Kristine Kathryn Rusch adds, if the answer is yes, then “Stop whatever marketing you’re doing, and get back to the keyboard.”

What are you reading now?
I have a TBR (To Be Read) pile of about 500 books that resembles the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Whenever I’m deep within my own novels, I tend not to read as much fiction so as not to unintentionally pick up someone else’s style. So I pick up nonfiction books, usually biographies or science books.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Getting back in my chair at my desk and aiming for my daily word count.

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 Complete Works of Shakespeare” (does that count as one?), “The Norton Anthology of Poetry” (the big one, three pounds!), and “The Norton Anthology of World Literature.” Okay, the last selection is two sets of three volumes each, so you may not let me count that. If not, I’ll substitute the “Longman Anthology of World Literature, Compact Edition.” And either they have all have to be large-print editions, or I’ll also need a big box of reading glasses.

Author Websites and Profiles
BV Lawson Website
BV Lawson Amazon Profile
BV Lawson Author Profile on Smashwords

BV Lawson’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

BV Lawson is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I was born and raised in New Hampshire, the youngest of five. I consider myself lucky because I’ve been fortunate enough to spend a lot of my life exploring outside of New Hampshire. When I was eleven I spent the summer in Alaska with my father and again in the winter when I was fourteen. I remember one night during the summer going to bed at 11 PM. As I went to close the blinds I saw children playing outside because it was still light out. The winter was the exact opposite. I would arrive at and leave school when it was dark.
I always wrote stories and poems, but never thought of it as a possible career until high school. For a school assignment I was told to write a poem and the teacher was going to submit all of the students’ work to a poetry journal. I ended up being the only one picked to be published in the journal. It was then I realized I could really do something with this.
When it was time to pick out colleges I had no idea where I wanted to go. It wasn’t until I picked up a brochure of the college my sister was currently attending, Emerson College in Boston. They had a writing program that sounded amazing, opportunities to study abroad in Europe, and a program in Los Angeles as well. I knew I had to get in and did.
While at Emerson my love for writing increased as I got to take writing classes in personal essay, fiction, screenplay, and children’s. I was accepted into their Europe program and spent four months living in a castle (Kasteel Well) in the small village of Well, The Netherlands. I took classes four days a week and traveled around Europe the rest of the time. How amazing it was to learn about art in my art history class and then later that week go to the Louvre in Paris or the Tate Museum in London to physically see what was printed in my text books. My love for travel continued after the program and to date I have been to thirteen foreign countries.
My last semester of college I spent in Los Angeles and interned at MTV Films. I could walk across the Paramount lot to go get lunch and end up in line behind a famous actor or actress. It was both crazy and awesome. MTV Films treated their interns like they were part of the family. I got to spend my days reading scripts, writing script coverage, and going to the set of the movie they were making at the time. I was in heaven.
I ended up staying in Los Angeles for a year and a half working at a modeling and talent agency on Sunset Blvd. I then made the decision to move back to New Hampshire. Every time I moved to a different state I would always end up coming back to New Hampshire. It was home. Thankfully I did because if not I would have never met my husband or found the inspiration for my first published book, Lucy’s Amazing Friend. I believe some things happen for a reason.
New Hampshire doesn’t provide a lot of opportunities to work in the entertainment industry so I first ended up working for a non profit organization, then as a paraprofessional, and then later on working in government administration. Life gets crazy and not being around others who wrote, I began to write less and less. I think it was the birth of my first niece that lit the fire in me to start working on children’s stories again.
After my father’s death and a back injury which forced me to quit my government administration job, I realized I had had enough of doing what I didn’t want to do. My three loves are children, writing, and traveling, not working in an office. Life is too short. I became a nanny for two different families and even more determined to get my children’s stories published. Later on I’d work on traveling more.
There is so much more left with my life I want to do and I know I will. When I decide to do something I do it. I want to travel more, finish the novel and screenplay I’ve been working on for years, and publish more children’s stories. I was blessed with having a husband and family who supports me as much as they do. It might take some time to accomplish this ambitious list but I know I will. Life is too short not to.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Over a year ago I went to a reading at RiverRun Bookstore for Ellen Walker, author of Bringing Up John. She wrote a memoir about raising her son John, who lives with autism. It wasn’t until shortly before the reading I found out my husband Tim was friends with John in high school. There is a section about Tim in her book about the impact he made on John just by being his friend. Tim had no idea. To him, John was just John. That night at the reading Lucy’s Amazing Friend was born.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I need complete silence and have to write with ear plugs in.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I would have to say my children’s writing professor at Emerson College, Lisa Jahn-Clough who is also a children’s author. It was during that class I really began to love writing children’s stories.

What are you working on now?
Another children’s story called Thomas and the Magic Vacuum, inspired by the little boy I nanny who LOVES vacuums. He has his own toy vacuum.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I have my own website www.stephanieworkman15.com but definitely Facebook has been the best way to promote. Family and friends are the best at helping spread the word and being supportive. I set up my own author page which is www.facebook.com/stephanieworkman15.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
I recently wrote a blog on my website called Using Quotes in Your Published Book: How I Learned the Hard Way. Check it out at.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
When my book first went up on Amazon there were typos on the back cover. Frustrated, I turned to one of my old college friends who has two books out. Lori Deschene, author of Tiny Buddha, Simple Wisdom for Life’s Hard Questions and also Tiny Buddha’s Guide to Loving Yourself: 40 Ways to Transform Your Inner Critic and Your Life. She told me things like that happen. Her first book had typos on her back cover as well. She said she felt my pain. I’m trying to let the things I can’t control not stress me out so much.

What are you reading now?
Mystic River by Dennis Lehane. I saw the movie years ago and loved it.

What’s next for you as a writer?
To write more children’s stories and finish both the novel and screenplay I’ve been working on for years.

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 probably bring my husband instead. He’s one of the most entertaining and funniest people I’ve ever met.

Author Websites and Profiles
Stephanie Workman Website
Stephanie Workman Amazon Profile

Stephanie Workman’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Stephanie Workman is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I started writing because I wanted to be a rock star. At first, I wrote songs, but I soon realized they weren’t very good and my voice was worse. I self-published my first book in 2013 and since I’ve released 3 novels and 1 short story.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest is called Chasing Fireflies. The story, which is part of my Morning Star trilogy, is inspired by my love of shows like The Rockford Files and Criminal Minds. Book-wise, I really wanted to jump into the crime fiction genre after binge-reading Joe Konrath’s Jack Daniels series.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I actually come up with a title for a book before I start writing it. It’s like the seedling and the roots just grow from there. I don’t really have a set daily word count, but I do like to stop in the middle of a heated scene. That makes it much easier for me to get cranking again than starting with a fresh chapter.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I mainly write horror, so of course, Stephen King is a big influence. I really like the structure of Joe Konrath’s Jack Daniels stories also. Until I read those books, I didn’t think I’d like to write a series, but the characters are so developed that it’s easy to get lost in their world. A well-written series will have you champing at the bit for the next installment. With this trilogy that I am writing it gives me the opportunity to create a world that I hope readers will enjoy.

What are you working on now?
I’m working on the second book of the Morning Star story. It’s called Babylon Sister and should be out in November 2014.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m still learning. I made a huge mistake when I first self-published. I didn’t research marketing. I hit publish without a game plan. It’s a mistake I’m still paying for today, but I’m gradually gaining more marketing knowledge. For me, the best method so far is stacking promos. It’s a trial and error method. Some sites work for certain genres and not others. You just have to play around until you find what works best for you.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
It’s probably been said many times before, but — writing the book is easy part. For a book to be successful, you’re going to have to spend time nurturing it. And for that to happen, you need to research marketing, promotion, and networking. Hitting the Publish button does not send you through a magical portal that transforms you into a best seller. It doesn’t even guarantee you one sale. You have to prepare yourself and your book before you publish. You have to be willing to put yourself out there. If you’re an introvert, get over it. You have to be ready to accept rejection. I’ve always said that for writers the forecast calls for heavy criticism, wear thick skin. Giving out ARC copies in hopes of getting reviews to go live as soon as you publish puts you ahead in the game.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
It’s a quote from Jim Morrison. “Expose yourself to your deepest fear, after that, fear has no power.”

What are you reading now?
I’m reading Iain Rob Wright’s “Soft Target” and “Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral History of Heavy Metal.”

What’s next for you as a writer?
My plan is to finish the Morning Star trilogy around February of 2015. A character from the trilogy will be teaming up with Joe Konrath’s Jack Daniels for a few adventures in the future. After that, I’ll just keep on writing.

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?
Joe Hill’s NOS4A2 , and probably the Game of Thrones books because I’d die before I had the chance to read them all.

Author Websites and Profiles
Paul Seiple Website
Paul Seiple Amazon Profile

Paul Seiple’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Paul Seiple is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
My Native American (Tlingit) name is Kadashan. When I decided to use Kadashan as my pen name, I asked three well known elders if it would be okay to use my Native name. They agreed so long as I did not use my journalistic license in my essays to damage the good name of my great grandfather, Kadashan. i recently decided that if I tell the truth that I would be careful.

My first book was a short story collection called This Is Yakutat, a short story collection about our village. I rewrote it and changed the place names in the stories to their original Tlingit names, and changed the name to Yaakwdaat Aya (This is Yakutat). It is now available free on Amazon.com. The stories are illustrated with my water color paintings.

I served as the President of my tribal council for twelve years. Here I became well informed about Native American history and tribal governments and how they interacted with the federal government. I was also familiar with the U.S. Constitution and so I wrote articles about these issues. I used my information to write a column for the Juneau Empire for six years. These essays have been compiled into a book and is now on Amazon.com titled The Law of Nature and Nature’s God.

My only novel is out of print, but can be found as a collectors item these days. It is called When Raven Cries. In the works is another novel and a non-fiction documentary.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The Law of Nature and Nature’s God is a collection of essays I compiled from my column from the Juneau Empire. what inspired me to write this was my knowledge and research about the Natural Law. I attempted to tweak the essays and insert into the premise that if we want to make changes in the way country is heading that it is important to return back to living the natural laws.

The Founding Fathers of America knew and understood the Natural Law and mentions it in the Declaration of Independence. Native American lived the Natural Law before western influence and assisted the Founders in formulating the federal system patterned after the Iroquois Confederacy. The essays also discusses the lack of spirituality in America, and why I think we are headed down the path of socialism.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Sporadic. I write when I am inspired. I work on several projects at the same time. I do my best work early in the mornings.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
John O’Hara short stories. He was the first author I read when I was in college and inspired me to write short stories. John Smelcer’s short stories about interior Alaska has encouraged me to continue writing about my Native history and culture. The 5000 Year Leap by W. Cleon Skousen helps me to understand the principles of what made America a great country and what we need to do bring our country’s greatness back again. He spends time explaining the Natural Law.

What are you working on now?
A novel: Of the Dying Years, about a young man who come to southeast Alaska, and falls in love with a .Native girl. This was a period of time when the Tlingit people were trying to be accepted as citizens of the United States. At the same time this young man was trying to be accepted into the Tlingit culture. Both issues we learn is not as easy as one would think.

Non-fiction: Gunaaxoo Kwaan which means people of Dry Bay. This is a first person story of my search for the Ancient village of Guseix, a village on the Akwe River where my ancestral roots comes from. Since I was a child I always felt that i needed to find out who I really was as an Alaskan Native. When I learned about the village of Guseix from my elders, I set out on the adventure of trying to find the village where my tribal house once stood along the banks of the river. Many, many, many years passed by, but when we finally located the village site and identified the seven tribal houses, a void that stuck with me all those years was finally filled.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
www.kadashan.simplesite.com and promos offered by KDP Select and what I am learning with websites that offer free promotions.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Read a lot—read everything you set your eyes on and fill the “filing cabinet” of you mind with a variety of information.

Write a lot, but write about things you know.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Write every day—even if it only a few sentences or a paragraphs

What are you reading now?
Thinking in Indian by John Mohawk Reader

Wampum Belts and Peace trees by Gregory Schaf

What’s next for you as a writer?
Finish writing Of the dying Years and Gunaaxoo Kwaan.

I want to do another short story collection about modern day Native Alaska

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

Democracy in America

An Enemy Hath Done This

First Things First

Author Websites and Profiles
Bertrnad Adams Sr Website

Bertrnad Adams Sr is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a late bloomer as far as fiction writing is concerned. I’ve published 4 business books all related to my work as a communications consultant. While I was writing the business books, I took a stab at writing fiction.

During the years while my business books were being written and published, I wrote three mystery manuscripts. The first is a standalone. The other two are series books. I wrote mysteries for two reasons: 1) genre are easier to place and 2) I love reading mysteries. What I wanted to do was to write a book I’d love to read.

So, what do I love to read? I love books with strong characters. I don’t enjoy reading books that are so plot driven that the characters take a backseat (become cardboard). It’s the characters that keep me coming back to read. I want to know what happens to them. I care about them. Nonetheless, I still like a good strong plot. Things have to happen.

Because I tend to like plot and character, I could not write literary fiction where plot is usually nonexistent.

At this point I’m my life, I’m pulling back on my work as a communication consultant/trainer/coach and am focusing my time on writing.

Other tidbits about me. I’m a huge cat lover (I have 4) and I love everything about Italy (I have studied the language and speak it well enough to fool some Italians into believing I’m a native).

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The Clock Strikes Midnight.

I originally wrote it in a totally different way. I wrote it from the point of view my primary protagonist when she was a teenager. The inspiration came from within. I wanted to write a book about a strong woman who overcame difficult circumstances.

That first draft enabled me to learn a lot about the characters. I knew them inside out because I knew their early motivations. I did a re-write of the book which became The Clock Strikes Midnight in which I began with adult characters. In other words, my characters grew up but they were still struggling with their past.

The story is about two sisters who as young children experienced death, trauma and separation. One desserts the family. The Clock Strikes Midnight is her return to the family in order to revenge her mother’s death and to make right some of the wrongs of the past.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write with a computer. I know some writers still use a pen and paper, bur I’ve never been able to do that. I come from a news writing background in which I was taught to think at the keyboard. That skill enables me to write fast from my computer.

I’m not sure it’s unusual, but once I’m in the throes of writing a book, I loose track of time. I’ve often missed appointments (something I never do otherwise).

Cats often invade my writing space. They walk across my computer and sit next to me at my desk. When they get particularly feisty, I know I’ve neglected them for too long.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I read all the time and I read many authors. Some I’ve particularly loved are:

1) Colette and the Colette Omnibus

2) Lee Smith, particularly Fair and Tender Ladies

3) Martha Grimes (all the Richard Jury mysteries)

4) Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey’s A Woman of Independent Means

5) Collene McCullough’s First Man in Rome series and of course Thornbirds

6) Susan Howatch Everything she’s written

7) Lee Edgerton, Hooked

What are you working on now?
I”m working on an amateur mystery series which will debut Jenna Scali. She’s a thirty-something graduate student studying criminal psychology and working for a psychiatrist. Her best friend and sometimes partner in crime is a gay history professor from England who also teaches belly-dancing.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I promote my books on my website and through my blog, twitter feed and Facebook author’s page. I like to write writer’s tips, conduct author interviews, do book reviews as well as market my book.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
New authors need to study the craft of writing fiction. They can learn from reading but that is not enough. I suggest taking classes both in person and online.

Furthermore, it’s important to have beta readers–people who will read your work and give you honest criticism. Listen to the criticism with an open mind.

Read lots of books and learn from what you read.

Finally, don’t give up. It’s very hard out there. If you want to get published, you must persist. I would not recommend self-publishing unless you want to use the book for marketing your business. Publishers are very helpful in the editing and production process.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Read your book out loud.

What are you reading now?
I’m reading three books at once:

The Sister by Max China (a writing friend)

The Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro

Orphan Train by Christine Baker Kline

What’s next for you as a writer?
I want to see my mystery series published. Once that happens I will begin the third book in that series and see where that takes me.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
I’m bring my e-reader with all my books! But, you say, “no power or wi-fi.”

Ok, I’d bring The First Man in Rome Series and Susan Howatch’s series on the Episcopal Church.

Author Websites and Profiles
Joann Curtis Website
Joann Curtis Amazon Profile

Joann Curtis’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Joann Curtis is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I was born in India and now live in Texas with my family. I write NRI (Non Resident Indian) fiction and non-fiction books. My fiction stories are rooted in Indian tradition and yet very modern. You might see a glimpse of Bollywood in my stories and will definitely enjoy the emotional ride. My non-fiction books focus on leadership skills and my readers get practical take-aways.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is called “Arranged Marriage”. This is book two of Mr. Imperfect series. Most of my fictional stories are contemporary romance, this one is different though. I wanted to explore the subject of how two people get together in a conventionally arranged marriage and what their journey looks like.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write only when I have my creative juices flowing, which means I don’t write everyday. Sometimes I take a long break after starting a book because I don’t feel inspired enough. When the inspiration comes back, I start writing again.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Overall, I have been inspired by Deepak Chopra and Daniel Goleman. On a day to day basis, I draw my inspiration from various books and authors (no one in particular). There is so much to learn from everyone, whether it is writing style or plotting or book marketing.

What are you working on now?
I am working on my third book in Mr. Imperfect series. This story explores the life of sensuous Maya Sarin, who runs a dance school in the suburb of Dallas. This book will be published by end of 2014.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I find Twitter the best social media site for promoting books.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Be unique and find your own niche!

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Write about what you know!

Author Websites and Profiles

Aditi Chopra Website
Aditi Chopra Amazon Profile

Aditi Chopra’s Social Media Links

Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Aditi Chopra is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a graduate with an Accounting and Finance degree. I’ve always loved reading since I was young. My native language is British English, so writing and publishing American English has been a long learning curve. Toward vs towards, curb vs kerb, color vs colour, the Oxford comma, and several grammar aspects! I’ve been typing in American English for a while now, and I actually have to check if I spelled the British version of colour correctly on the dictionary. All the words are messed up in my head!

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is The Stepsister. It’s inspired by Cinderella. I have been chasing both the TV series Once Upon A Time and Grimm and absolutely love how the writers changes the Disney versions of the stories. So that got me thinking and got me started on that book.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I like to write when I’m completely alone because I tend to act out the facial expressions or certain actions when I’m describing it. But when I’m seated at a cafe with nothing to do but write, I write so much faster!

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Jane Austen. I love all her books, my favorite being Pride and Prejudice. I fell in love with the honor and chivalry found in the characters of her books, and I hope I can portray such characters as well.

What are you working on now?
The third book of the series Ghost Of The Past. It was originally slated to be the final book, but I now think I may have to release a novella (probably free for my current readers of the series) to tie up some loose ends. It was slated to be out on end July…I know I’m late, but I’m working very hard on it now.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I don’t really know much about promoting my books. I only do promotions for my KDP promotions by submitting it to websites to announce my free book day. Then I pray that readers will love my books enough to have a spillover effect on the rest of my books.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Never give up. If God has put it in your heart to write, then write! Learn and improve your skills along the way, but if you have a story to tell, don’t worry about what others say.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
If God is on your side, who can be against you? The world is full of critical people now. When you have a dream, everyone, sometimes even your closest friends and family, want to crush it. I thank God that I don’t have many of those people in my life.

What are you reading now?
Right now? My own novel, part one of the Ghost of the past series, Moving On. I need to get a feel of the characters again before making the final changes to book 3 of the series!

But, a reviewer I approached to review my book was so kind and awesome that he gifted me two books that he believes I will love. One is the modern version of Pride and Prejudice and I can’t wait to start reading that!

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’ve been rather itching to write a Christian sci-fii book for young adults … but I’m not sure. Still considering. I have tons of ideas I’d like to write for romance novels as well.

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?
Does the compilation of Jane Austen books count as one? Am I cheating? Nah, it’s in the format of one book. Then the Bible and Joel Osteen books because reading them always make me feel good.

Author Websites and Profiles
Trisha Grace Website
Trisha Grace Amazon Profile

Trisha Grace’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Trisha Grace is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m Soma, a doctor and a writer living in Canada. I’ve always enjoyed writing poetry and short stories, but ‘Jade Wallace’ is my first novel.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My grandfather always encouraged my writing and expressing my artistic side. The book is a work of fiction but there are snippets inspired by reality. I embody all the different characters, and the fun begins when I make them interact. My own sexual journey as well as my past struggles with addiction have helped to inspire the story too.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Sometimes I write standing up, and when I need inspiration I dance around in my room to Beyonce music videos. Coffee is a HUGE inspiration too ( :

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Janet Fitch’s White Oleander, Elizabet Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love, Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

What are you working on now?
A collection of poetry

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m admittedly new to the game, but so far I’m having success with Pixel of Ink and e-reader perks. awesomegang.com is also…awesome!

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Just write. Don’t worry what others will think. Finish your book and make it the best it can be.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Freedom lies in being bold. Be bold. And be free.

What are you reading now?
Palo Alto by James Franco – a dark collection of short stories told from the perspective of teens.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Book tour coming this fall!

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?
Hellgoing

The Power of Now

The Grapes of Wrath

The Holy Bible

Author Websites and Profiles
Soma Stanford Amazon Profile

Soma Stanford’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile

Soma Stanford is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
My tenth book comes out Aug. 29. I cannot believe how lucky I am to be able to say that!

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Many of my military romances share the “Playing” theme because I love playing with my strong soldiers. The names of each of my “Cursed” warriors, from “The Cursed” series originate from each of their distinctive back grounds. My warriors have roamed the earth thousands of years and each of their names reflect their background. Dagon for example, was the name of an East Semitic Mesopotamian god.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I wake up earlier than everyone in my house, except my cat Itty. He helps me with the coffee pot and sits on my lap while I write chapters until the rest of the house awakes.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Gena Showalter really inspires me. Each of her characters are interesting, provoking, and humorous. Her series The Lords of the Underworld, have every paranormal romance reader enthralled, myself included. I hope my stories will have the same effect.

Nalini Singh wrote my favorite love story to date, The Desert Warrior. The intensity between her characters moved me. I loved the tension which made their love scenes so virile and real. I strive to create the same strong bond between my characters.

What are you working on now?
My next military romance is almost ready for publication. My next “The Cursed” series book, Caleb will introduce new Cursed warriors and I look forward to bringing their books to life soon.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I love Goodreads.com. In fact, I have a giveaway going on over there right now for signed copies of “The Cursed: Dagon”, the first book in the series.

I am also working on making my blog more fun. I just got some forums and I’m going to break them in this weekend. I can’t wait to answer my readers’ questions and get to know them better.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
I would tell aspiring writers to sit down, close their eyes, and write everything they can imagine, everything they have ever wanted to write and don’t stop no matter what. Don’t write what people say to write or what you think you should write.

Write whatever is in your heart clawing its way out, screaming to escape.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Writing is a flowing process, write when you feel inspired and share your personal experiences in your storytelling.

What are you reading now?
“Rebel” (Comet Coalition) by Aubry Ross

What’s next for you as a writer?
I have another paranormal romance series I am working on. It has been shelved since before I wrote Dagon, because my Cursed warriors are tearing at my heart roaring to be set free. I will be putting out another military romance next month as well.

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?
“Fury New Species” by Laurann Dohner; “Fifty Shades of Grey” by E. L. James; and “Desert Warrior” by Nalini Singh

Author Websites and Profiles
Aleena Stark Website
Aleena Stark Amazon Profile

Aleena Stark’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Aleena Stark is a post from Awesome Gang

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve written six books in total that have been published, all under a different pen name. I have probably another ten books which I written but I did not published.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The name of my latest novel is Hells Vipers:You Belong to Me. What inspired me? I love bikers. I love motorcycles. I love alpha males as the anti-hero. I wanted to read an MC romance that seemed realistic. I wrote my kind of MC Romance novel for readers who think like me.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Noise, I have to have the television or some music playing. If I sit in a quiet room, nothing will get finished.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Anne Stuart, I love her books. She is the queen of the anti-hero. I also love Stephen King, JK Rowling and George RR Martin.

What are you working on now?
I’m working on a second Hells Vipers novel. I’m also re-working a paranormal romance that I previously self- published. I’m changing just a few things.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I don’t have one. I’m winging it and learning as I go, getting advice from other authors. I really think that the only good way to promote is by writing. The more your work is out there, the more you will be known.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write the novel you want to read. Don’t try and write like someone else, find your own voice.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
A goal without a plan is just a wish!

What are you reading now?
Nothing. I’m working on my own novels at the moment. I do want to read Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Keep writing and make the Hells Vipers as well known as Sons of Anarchy!

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?
Hells Vipers: You Belong to Me
Hamlet
Wuthering Heights
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Author Websites and Profiles
Jordan Abbott Website
Jordan Abbott Amazon Profile

Jordan Abbott’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Jordan Abbott is a post from Awesome Gang