Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a self-published children’s author / illustrator, with a soft spot for cuddly toys, and a love of climbing mountains. I currently have 18 children’s books available on Amazon, including a series of 10 rhyming picture books.

My credited “co-writers” are a bunch of cuddly toy book writers, called the Top of the Wardrobe Gang.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
“The Chronicles of Ragnar Rabbit (Book 2) – My First Mission” is the name of the book that I’ve just released. This is a comic-style Beginner Reader about the adventures of a toy rabbit.

I started this series for a bit of a change inbetween writing my rhyming picture books. I guess the ideas in it are inspired by my own love of adventure, and by wanting to bring some of the excitement of films such as “Mission Impossible” in a package more suitable for younger readers.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I think all my writing and illustrating will be seen as very strange to “normal” people. Due to severe neck problems, I’m unable to use conventional work stations. Instead, I write and illustrate on my iPad using my right hand, whilst lying on my left side. (Drawing often involves balancing the iPad with my right knee, which can be amusing to watch for my family!)

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I used to particularly love reading adventure books about the Famous Five and the Hardy Boys. Before that, I loved the zany rhymes of Dr. Seuss.

More recently, as an adult, I began reading many of the great books by Michael Morpurgo.

What are you working on now?
I have several more rhyming picture books written, which I need to start illustrating. I’m also reformatting all the pictures in my older rhyming picture books in order to make them look good in landscape rather than portrait orientated pages. This is for them to be made into “read aloud” books within the “Baby’s Brilliant” app. The app is currently on iTunes.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’ve yet to find one. Promotional options seem to evolve constantly.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Work hard, keep improving, and don’t give up!

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
You can never please everyone, so stop trying to.

What are you reading now?
Sadly, apart from constantly checking out other picture books, my main reading at the moment involves trying to learn to code in HTML, to give me more formatting options for my eBooks.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I feel that I’ll be wanting to create rhyming picture books for a while yet. I’ve also got 3 or 4 more books planned in the Ragnar Rabbit prose 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?
Dr. Seuss – Oh, the places you’ll go!
Collins gem – SAS Survival Guide
Jan Sadler – Natural Pain Relief
Jon Kabat-Zinn – Full Catastrophe Living

Author Websites and Profiles
Melinda Kinsman Website
Melinda Kinsman Amazon Profile

Melinda Kinsman’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I have always written poetry and music, but this is actually the first novel I have written. It took me a while to finally sit down and devote the time to it, because of my work and family obligations. Now that I’m retired, I’ve been able to have the discipline to do the proper amount of research and character development necessary to write a novel that does justice to the concept of the book.
Today, I live in Fort Mill, South Carolina, with my wife Helaine. I’m originally from Baltimore, Maryland. I earned my bachelor’s degree in English from The University of Maryland and my master’s degree in Literature from The American University.
My other passions are softball, traveling, debating politics and religion, the Baltimore Ravens, my children, and my grandchildren.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
This novel is titled “The Revelation of the Nones.” It was actually inspired 40 years ago by the play “Jesus Christ Superstar.” In the play, the question is asked about what would have happened if this self-proclaimed messiah/superstar came in more modern times with the advantage of mass communication. Back when I saw the play, mass communication meant newspapers, magazines, and T.V. Now, however, it encompasses those things as well as the explosion of social media. I took that general idea and combined it with the rapid growth of people globally becoming dissatisfied and unaffiliated with organized religion. I tried to explore the reasons for the growth of this group, now identified as “Nones,” and put the potential results of their dissatisfaction with organized religion into the perspective of speculative fiction. The organized religions of the world are losing followers rapidly today. I’ve tried to use the fictional framework of the book to discuss the reasons for this and provoke thought as to what the alternatives might be.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m a very detail oriented person. I research things to death. I worked hard to try to make my characters realistic, which was a big challenge. It took lots of re-writes and trying to see the book in my mind as a movie with real dialogue.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I read a lot of James Patterson’s books (back when he wrote as only James Patterson). I loved how his short chapters kept the reader constantly moving forward. I am also a big science fiction fan, and follow many authors’ works. I particularly like speculative fiction, or books that take a subject, expand it out, and ask “What if this happened?”

What are you working on now?
Actually, I am focused on getting this novel off the ground. I think it is an important topic that is very relevant today. I want to work to get people to read it and react to it.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
My book is only recently published. In order to get a measure of how people are reacting to it from a technical and an artistic point of view, I’ve actually been very successful meeting in person with book clubs. I love the philosophical discussions that take place around the topic of my book. Sometimes the discussions can go on for hours and delve into deeply personal stories about my readers’ feelings about their religion or organized religion in general.
I am just beginning the process of utilizing social media and various web sites.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Be patient, and be willing to invest the time in researching those details that will allow your book to resonate as “real” with your readers. Also, get a good editor. No matter how many times you re-read your book and have friends/family read the book, it is impossible to pick up everything. Have a professional do it. Finally , marketing your book can be a long and tedious process. Take your time, and again, be patient.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“Walk with the angels.” This basically means to simply do the right thing, no matter what other people might try to get you to do. There are lots of short-cuts you can take to get what you want in a less than honest way or in a way that can hurt others, but generally, if you just try to do the right thing you’re better off in the long run. This theme runs throughout my book as well.

What are you reading now?
I’m reading Book 6 of John Scalzi’s sci-fi series “Old Man’s War.”

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’ve got some ideas, but right now my focus is to build an audience for The Revelation of the Nones.

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 guess a survival book would be helpful! After that, I’d probably bring a couple of Leon Uris books because they are long and always very interesting, The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (If I could take that entire series, I would), and Tom Wolfe’s “The Right Stuff” (Which I’ve already read several times).

Author Websites and Profiles
Arnie Stone Website
Arnie Stone Amazon Profile

Arnie Stone’s Social Media Links
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a new Independent Author, I just started writing in February of this year. Although, I have always had stories running through my head. I was beta reading for Michael Anderle (The Kutherian Gambit Series) and we were talking and he suggested I join his 20books50k group and put some of my ideas down on paper. I joined the group, who all motivated me to start writing my stories down. I created a world that I would like to live in and the story has mostly written itself.

I have 3 books published so far and my 4th book will be out May 13th. I am working on book 5 right now. My first 4 books have been short stories with 70 – 78 pages, or novellas. The 5th book will be a full length novel, if all goes well.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is Eclipse of the Heart, Book 4. It is the continuing saga of my main characters B’Lana, Ash, and Lancer. It was inspired by the characters themselves. This is a story they wanted written, so I am going along for the ride.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I have a note app on my phone and it is always within reach. I have had ideas come at the strangest times so I want to always write them down for later. I have ideas all the way up to book 20 and beyond, if I am blessed to keep writing.

Also, in my author’s group, we were discussing names one day. Several of us kill off a lot of characters. Some of mine die without names. I was looking for some cool names and a few in my group volunteered theirs. I have killed off on author (Martelle is in book 3) and in book 4 is another one (can’t share his name yet or it will ruin book 4 for you). I also created a character, name taken from another author friend, who I thought I would kill. Xandrie is a female fae warrior who shows up in Book 3. I was going to kill her. It was to be a gruesome battle and death. But my character didn’t want to die, so she kinda wrote herself into the story and befriended B’Lana. I am running a Twitter campaign to see if readers want her to live or die. You can tweet #KillXandrie or #SaveXandrie and when the time comes I will see which one wins.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Michael Anderle has mentored me on writing and how to make it your career. I would not be here without his help. But I also have been influenced by KM Shea. She writes clean YA novels that really draw the reader in to her stories and made me realize that I can write a good, clean book that anyone can enjoy, not just young adults.

What are you working on now?
Book 5 to my series. It was unplanned to begin with. I started with an overall story idea and the first part was to be 4 books. As I was writing book 3 certain things happened in my story that were unplanned so I knew I was going to need that 5th book before I could introduce the next part of the story.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I am still new to this, but so far I have seen my best results with BKNights in Fivver and with BooksGoSocial. I have a few more places I am working with and looking forward to giving them a try. One is BargainBooksy.com, that promo is coming up on May 13th when I launch book 4. Then I have two giveaway promo’s I am in; one in June and one in July. I am keeping data on sales, book and author rankings so I will know which ones work best for me.

And I will be using AwesomeGang this next week for the first time! I have heard really great things from those guys, looking forward to seeing the data.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Join a writing club. There are a ton of them out there! You need their support and encouragement. Find a mentor if you can, that has helped me. I can’t say enough good things about Michael and how he has helped me. He even did my first two book covers!

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t fear social media. It is too important to overlook. I hated Facebook, that’s right. I was one of the few who did not have a FB account, if you can imagine. But once I started writing the other authors told me I had to have one. So I created a site for my book series and have even done some FB promotions.

I already had a Twitter account, so that wasn’t too hard for me. I didn’t have many followers. I started with 85 followers and within 5 weeks added another 500 and counting. Some are really awesome authors who will RT my tweets when I have a new release. When that happens, my tweet gets sent out to over a million accounts now. It has really grown since I did the BooksGoSocial promo. I ended up with almost 200 followers just over the weekend from them. And my KENP doubled that weekend. I do believe it was from all of the tweeting about my new book.

What are you reading now?
People Raged by a friend, Craig Martelle (he is the author I killed in book 3). It is book 1 in his new series and totally different from what I usually read, but also very exciting. Who doesn’t love a good spy novel? Next up after this book is The Sanction Series by HJ Lawson. It is a YA Sci-Fi Dystopian series.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I just returned from Santa Barbara doing research for book 5. There are some interesting local legends I wanted to learn more about and possibly add them to my story. Some where exactly what i was looking for and some weren’t. My mind turned some of their local lore into something that I think will be extremely exciting and new for my world. Which helps to segue into my origins story for the entire world I have created. Book 6 will be more like a prequel then the next part of the story. It will however, start off at the end of book 5 then go back in time a few thousand years. I will give you a teaser, the fae and rippers actually came from Earth back when it was still young. They are a distant relative to the Nephilim. But I don’t want to ruin the surprise so no more spoilers for you!

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?
Snow Queen by KM Shea, I have read it twice already and could read it many more times!
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, who couldn’t read about Mr. Darcy over and over forever?
Anna Karenina by Tolstoy. I have started that book many times, once in Russian, and can never finish it. It’s too big to keep my attention. So if on a deserted island I should have time to finish it.
I would love to bring one of Michael Anderle’s books, but I would die if I couldn’t read the continuation! So maybe my 4th book would be the conclusion to KM Shea’s Snow Queen, Sacrifice. I hate to leave a story unfinished. Which is why I have trouble reading traditionally published books; they take 12 – 18 months to put out their next book in a series and I hate waiting. That is why I will publish every 2-5 weeks in my series, depending on the length of the book.

Author Websites and Profiles
J.L. Hendricks Website
J.L. Hendricks Amazon Profile

J.L. Hendricks’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
My writing career sprung from working for his uncle in a small office in Greenville, SC. During periods of downtime, his uncle told him to “look busy” when clients came in to the shop instead of reading books. His solution was to write short stories. He based these short stories around his days as a youth in Mt. Lookout, WV. He eventually tied this collection of stories together and added a few new characters to create his first novel Moment of Impact in 2006.

Three years later, after moving to Concord, NC just outside of Charlotte, he released a sequel to his first novel, A Murder In Concord.

After the promotional period for the sequel ran its course, he began a third novel, but set it aside after creating the website WVUPros.com. A site dedicated to following the West Virginia Mountaineers who used to play for West Virginia in their pro careers. The site started as a hobby, but quickly took off. Caleb set the book writing aside to focus on building the new sports website. His articles appeared on nationally recognized websites such as ESPN.com and SI.com. He made appearances on ESPN Radio in Beckley, WV and on WVSports Radio, as well as contributing articles to the college football preview magazine The Signal Caller in 2013 and 2014.

In the fall of 2013, he started writing an adventure novel about the search for Blackbeard’s Lost Treasure using real places and events. That novel was released on April 28, 2016 by Black Rose Writing.

When not creating new adventures on the written page, Caleb owns a social media marketing and website development company in Concord, NC.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest novel is titled BLACKBEARD’S LOST TREASURE. I last released a novel in 2009 and a few years ago, I had the urge to do another. My wife and I were on vacation at a small island and we watched a program on TV one night about Blackbeard and his alleged treasure that had never been found.

The next day, we were at a small bookstore on the island and I found a few books detailing the island’s history. I found out that the first settler on the island had had his estate destroyed by unknown pirates. When I read that, I had a brief burst of thought laying out the entire book right then and there.

In the end, the finished product wound up being so much better than the idea I originally began with.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I mostly just write in my office with some combination of Zac Brown Band or Jimmy Buffett playing on a speaker in the corner to get me in that tropical state of mind.

Now, it’s not a habit, but when I get writer’s block and can’t figure the way out of a scene or where the story should lead to get from A to B to C, I seem to think best by taking a long drive or in the shower.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Readers of Clive Cussler will find this novel generally follows his formula. I grew up a big fan of his works as well as John Grisham and Greg Iles.

What are you working on now?
I have began writing on a follow-up to Blackbeard’s Lost Treasure. At the end of that book, I set it up so the two characters in it will perhaps go on similar quests in the future. The next mystery from the South they will try to solve will be The Fountain of Youth.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
As a social media marketer by day, promoting my books via Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest is second nature. Over the past six months, I’ve really worked on SEO for my website, calebwygal.com, and have seen those efforts pay off.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep writing. If you’re stuck, hone your craft in some other way, whether it be through the use of story prompts or through a blog.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
From Stephen King: Write with the door closed. Don’t be afraid of what others might think of your writing. That first draft should be raw and from the heart.

What are you reading now?
Star Wars: Bloodlines by Claudia Gray

What’s next for you as a writer?
To continue writing novels and develop my sports blog.

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?
Ooo. Tough question.

In no particular order of favorites: The Lion’s Game by Nelson DeMille, Rendezvous With Rama by Arthur C. Clarke, Sphere by Michael Crichton and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.

Author Websites and Profiles
Caleb Wygal Website
Caleb Wygal Amazon Profile

Caleb Wygal’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Hi, I’m Sara and I’m an American author currently living in Sweden and loving it. I love nature, and especially forests, and Sweden is beautiful in both regards. I’m not sure I would have started writing if I didn’t move here. Or if I did, I don’t think I would have written the stories I have. It’s been an inspiration of mine.

I’ve currently written three books–two full-length novels and one novella. I’m also currently working on a serialized novel that I update weekly on my blog. It’s been challenging keeping up with it, but a lot of fun.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is A Shadowed Spirit. It’s the sequel to my first book, The Thirteenth Tower. What inspired the first book was really my love for being out in the wilderness, and my love for folklore. I wanted to incorporate those things in story form somehow. A Shadowed Spirit is, in my mind, the natural following of events from the first novel.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t think so. I do only write on my laptop, usually on the couch, but I can write on the go if needed. I have a desk PC in our little office at home, but I don’t use that for writing for some reason. It just doesn’t work for me there.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Neil Gaiman has probably been my biggest influence. I remember after reading Stardust that I thought, “I want to write stories like that.” I think it was the first time I actually seriously considered becoming a writer. L.M Montgomery has been another influence for her distinct and quirky characters. And the illustrated book Faeries by Brian Froud and Alan Lee is the book that made me fall in love with fairies and folklore when I was a kid, which definitely influences my writing.

What are you working on now?
My serialized novel, Hazel and Holly, has been taking up a lot of my time lately, just so I can keep up with the weekly installments on my blog. Once things calm down from publishing A Shadowed Spirit, I’ll return to writing the third novel in the series, which is tentatively titled The Archon’s Arrival.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Honestly, I’m still trying to figure this whole promotion business out, but so far connecting with the people on my blog has been what works best for me.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t be your own worst enemy. Writing is hard enough without beating yourself up all the time. Write what you love, try new things, take chances, and push yourself out of your comfort zone.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I’m not sure if it’s advice, but a quote from Ray Bradbury has pretty much become my mantra: “You only fail if you stop writing.”

What are you reading now?
Right now I’m reading Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell. The movie has become one of my all-time favorites, and so I’m enjoying reading the book and seeing the similarities and differences in the story. I’m also reading The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, and thoroughly enjoying it.

What’s next for you as a writer?
To just keep on writing, for as long as I can.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Oh no. This is going to be hard. OK, to whittle it down to the absolute favorites (in no particular order):

The Mists of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Stardust, by Neil Gaiman
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Irish Folk and Fairy Tales Omnibus, by Michael Scott

Author Websites and Profiles
Sara C. Snider Website
Sara C. Snider Amazon Profile

Sara C. Snider’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I was born in New York City during a winter blizzard but was raised under the sunshine of Southern California beaches. As an educator and author, I have been teaching classes in various real estate topics for 30-years. I am a recognized authority on the subject with more than 40-years experience in the real estate industry.

I teach real estate appraisal at various community colleges throughout Southern California. I have published a textbook on the practice of real estate brokerage, California Real Estate Practice (ISBN:0-13-121187-0). I have also authored several e-books: a real estate primer, a hands-on guide for new licensees and veterans needing a jumpstart; a real estate appraisal guide and six books in the Alex Wright Mystery Series. Scammin’ was the first in the series.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
‘The Key to the Ranch’ is the latest in the Alex Wright mystery series. I wanted to write about an historic crime and offer some visual impressions of Southern California in an earlier period.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I believe in writing a basic outline of the story and a list of characters. As the story develops, the outline grows as does the list of characters. Eventually the story and the characters take over. They write the conclusion to the story.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Stewart Woods character Stone Barrington probably is my greatest influence although I have read most of the better known mystery authors.

What are you working on now?
I’m currently working on a story that occurs prior to the beginning of the Alex Wright series. It involves the death of his parents. It is called ‘They Died So Young’.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I try to involve as much of the social media as I can. As a self-published author, I have no contact with the news media so any exposure I can create seems beneficial.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep writing. We need to practice our craft constantly to improve our skills. Unfortunately we need to also spend time promoting our books if we want to develop a readership. Never the less, find a place and time to write on a regular basis.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Write about something you know. I’m a story teller not a great wordsmith. So I try to tell a story in a way that will interest a reader.

What are you reading now?
I’m something of a history buff. My current read is ‘Ring of Steel’ by Alexander Watson. It gives an account of WW1 from the Austro-Hungarian point of view.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I will be working on the 8th story in the Alex Wright series. There are elements in the new release, ‘They Died So Young’ that hint at the next story.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
I’m a day dreamer, given so much time I imagine a useful book like Robinson Crusoe would be helpful plus photo books of cars, museums, and Paris.

Author Websites and Profiles
William Mansfield Amazon Profile

William Mansfield’s Social Media Links
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I have published 22 books since 2012, but I have two manuscripts that I haven’t published. My recent release, Takaani, is a change of pace for me. It’s a horror novel. A lot of my work is historical and nonfiction, but I took on a couple of new projects in the past year. I published three children’s books, and that was interesting. It has been an exciting time.

I have two series of books focused on an army magazine published during World War II. Both series have been very popular in several countries, and I really enjoyed researching and writing those books. History is my thing, but I don’t think I will end up writing historical fiction.

On a more personal note, I was raised in a small town in Tennessee. I’ve lived here all my life. Cows outnumber people, and there is farmland on three sides of my house. It’s a simple place with simple people. It’s great and terrible at the same time. It’s quiet, but my favorite restaurants are a county or two away. All my life I thought I would die in this same town, but recent changes in my life suggest otherwise. My husband and I intend to be beach bums in a few years. That’s the plan.

And, of course, there are some really great people here. I have four totally awesome kids, but I can’t really call them kids now. Two are grown, and the other two are almost grown. I have the best granddaughter in the world. The kid cracks me up. I just love her to death. I also have two dogs that are pretty great most of the time. I say most of the time because they are the most sensitive alarm system you have ever seen. Let a leaf blow across the lawn and the barking begins. I won’t bother telling you how bad it is when someone knocks on the door.

I saved the best for last, of course. My husband has to be the best husband in the world. Hands down, the best. Without him, I never would have the time or opportunity to write. I was always a stay-at-home mom. Once the kids no longer needed me every waking minute of the day, I started writing and he supported me. And I don’t mean financially. Well, he supported me financially, but he also gives me tons of moral support and encouragement.

So, what do I do in what little spare time I have? I read. I enjoy photography. We camp in our fifth-wheel trailer. We travel. We spoil our granddaughter. We enjoy spending time with our children.

That’s probably more about me than you wanted to know.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is titled Takaani. I ventured into horror more than a year ago, and I ended up scrapping the manuscript. I read over it and realized I had a pretty dark mind. I worried it was too dark, and I feared if people knew just how twisted my mind was that I would end up locked up somewhere. Over time, I thought about how I had joked that Stephen King’s mind had to be really scary. I’m a big fan. King is still plugging away at his work, so I started thinking I should take a chance.

I noticed the horror genre was filled with vampires and zombies. There were so many books about the same thing, and I wanted something different. I started researching legendary creatures, and I stumbled upon one I didn’t know. Nobody knew it. So, I kept researching and found legends and places that simply vanished without a trace. They didn’t have stories, so I gave them stories.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Does talking to the laptop screen count as unusual? Maybe there are others who do the same thing, but I found myself talking to it as I tried to work out plot details. When a character in Takaani veered off the path I assumed he would take, I would often ask what he thought he was doing. Strangely enough, it helped me move the story along.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Definitely Stephen King. I’m a big fan of his older work. Christine was amazing. He had several great works around that same time. I always felt like the movies based on his books butchered his plots, though. They never do his work justice.

What are you working on now?
I’m taking a short break before I delve into another book. I am working on another horror, but I am going to take a few deep breaths before I start working out the plot in detail.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I don’t think there is a best method or website. Don’t focus on one thing. Just get it out there. Put it everywhere. Don’t focus on just a couple of sites. That is how you fail. People look for different things in different ways, so it’s important to promote in as many places as you can.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Stop doubting your ability. You can do it. Stop rushing. You’re not taking too long to finish whatever you’re working on at the moment. Stop worrying about how people will respond to your work. One person may not love it, but there are thousands of others who will. Don’t sell yourself short, but make sure you have a thick skin. Don’t take criticism personal. That’s a hard thing to do, but you have to learn to accept criticism.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Me? Just keep swimming. That little blue fish gives good advice. Just keep plugging away, and don’t give up.

What are you reading now?
My mind is mush from finishing up a plot twist and diving into another. I couldn’t focus on anything more than a short story, so I’m not reading anything right now. When I read a book, I like to give it the attention it deserves. I can’t do that right now, so I’m waiting.

What’s next for you as a writer?
More writing, of course. If you’re a real writer, you never really stop 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?
Comes the Blind Fury by John Saul
Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews
Christine by Stephen King

Oh, and a collection of Edgar Allan Poe’s work

Author Websites and Profiles
Amy Pilkington Website
Amy Pilkington Amazon Profile

Amy Pilkington’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Hi everyone! My name is Andrew, and I’ve worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade as a post supervisor, story producer, and writer. I was born and raised in New Jersey, where I grew up on a steady diet of James Bond movies, comic books, and action-adventure TV shows like Mission Impossible, The A-Team and The X-Files. I’ve written several screenplays, some comic books, and tons of promotional material. I was also a writer on the Youtube Red show Fight of the Living Dead. But this year, I got serious about writing my own fiction, and I completed two books in the Thomas Caine series.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is Devil’s Due. Although I published it first, I actually wrote it after Tokyo Black, which launches this summer. Since it’s a novella, I was able to get it edited and published quickly, and I released it first. I wanted to give early readers a little taste of the Thomas Caine character. Since the book is a prequel, I thought it would be interesting to take the character of betrayed assassin Thomas Caine, and show an incident that influenced his development. Maybe it will give readers some insight into his state of mind at the start of the upcoming novel. Plus, it’s got exotic locations, gunfights, martial arts, explosions… what’s not to like?

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Although I mostly write at home, so far I have finished both books in the series at a small coffee shop in Koreatown. I think from now on I;m going to have to make that a tradition!

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Too many to name! I’ve always been a big reader, but some have pointed out Ian Fleming, Raymond Chandler, Steven King and William Gibson as influences. And they’re right, I definitely read and love all those authors!

What are you working on now?
I’ve just begun the next Thomas Caine thriller, Red Phoenix. This time, Caine travels to China, and must choose between his quest for vengeance against the man that betrayed him, and keeping a promise to an old friend.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’ve just begun to dive into marketing, and the business side of my fiction. So far I’ve had good luck with Facebook ads and Twitter, but I’m thrilled to be working with sites like Awesome Gang, that connect directly to excited readers. It’s gratifying to know that readers are out there, and I look forward to meeting as many of them as I can!

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Find what works for you. There are so many different ways to write… fast, slow, quick spurts or long sessions, Plotter, Pantser. If one method isn’t working for you, change it up! Try something different. There’s no right or wrong way to do it, there’s only the right or wrong way for you.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I’m always reminded of the story Steven King tells, about how he threw away the first few pages of Carrie. He didn’t think it was any good. The fact is, there’s no way to know until it’s finished. So finish! Odds are, if you think it’s bad, it’s probably better than you think it is. And if it is bad, then you’ve learned something, and the next one will be better. Finish!

What are you reading now?
Dance, Dance, Dance by Haruki Murakami (one of my all time favorite books), The Dark Arts by Edward Follis, Launch to Market by Chris Fox.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I have ideas for at least two more books in the Thomas Caine series, as well as other genres and characters I’d love to write about. I’m also in the process of producing an audiobook of Devil’s Due, which is very exciting! It’s a completely different experience to hear your words read aloud by a trained narrator. I hope readers love 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?
Dance, Dance, Dance (told you I love it!), From Russia With Love, Neuromancer, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The Stand (OK, I cheated, that’s five.)

Author Websites and Profiles
Andrew Warre Website
Andrew Warre Amazon Profile

Andrew Warre’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I was traditionally published for a self-help book ‘You Vs World” and then was a ghostwriter for another 5 books. My latest book ‘The Deep Enders’ is my first plunge into the world of young adult fiction.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is called ‘The Deep Enders’.
I worked as a journalist, covering hilarious stories in Australia’s wild north for many years. Over this time, I tucked away lots of funny stories and characters that, many years later, worked their way out into a novel.
I’m passionate to see positive Aboriginal characters portrayed in books and to write the sort of books that my teenage sons actually want to read.
We work a lot in video so we worked with a short film producer Mark Pedlow to create a pretty good book trailer too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVQKdpbkSMc

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I like noise. I like having a house full of noisy kids, music playing or be in a busy cafe. My writing style is highly accessible, readable, for ordinary people so I don’t feel the need for a sterile environment. (Of course, quiet is good when it comes to the editing process!)

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I’m a big fan of Australian authors Tim Winton (Cloudstreet) and Bryce Courtenay (The Power of One) but I also love a rollicking adventure like Clive Cussler.

What are you working on now?
Right now it’s hussle time. Selling books, speaking at schools, libaries and festivals, promoting ‘The Deep Enders’ through social media and of course YouTube.
After that, I’ll sit down and start mapping out book two in the series.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Personally, we leverage off our own social media sites (we have 2.6M subscribers on YouTube and lots more on Instagram/Twitter/FB etc).

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Engage with your potential audience. Don’t be afraid to get out there and hussle, promote and even ask for reviews. Everyone is busy so they often forget to follow through, even if they fully intended to buy/review your book. Be polite and egg them on.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Failure is a comma

What are you reading now?
Why Weren’t We Told? By Henry Reynolds.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Book two in The Deep Enders series … and bunch of public speaking.

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 Life of Pi – Yann Martel
The Persimmon Tree – Bryce Courtenay
My draft for The Deep Enders 2 … so I’d have something to do under the coconut tree.

Author Websites and Profiles
Dave Reardon Website
Dave Reardon Amazon Profile

Dave Reardon’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I was born in Kenya in 1985. I thought I didn’t have any talent until 2002, when I realized I could write poetry. I was a seventeen year-old high school student. Excited with a new discovery of myself, I began writing poems based on all kinds of topics. My colleagues used my love poems to add zest to their love letters.

Since 2004 after clearing high school, my poetry zeal went underground until 2011, when I started submitting them to online poetry sites. I won placements in some poetry contests, motivating me to write better and more poems.

My first publishing break came in 2014, when my poem “Poem without Words”, appeared in Shot Glass Journal Issue #11. Since then, my works have appeared in almost a dozen online journals and magazines, e.g. Three Line Poetry, Every Day Fiction, Paper Wasp, Brilliant Flash Fiction Magazine, and many others.

I am eagerly looking forward to publish another poetrybook collection in the near future.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is called “The Milky Way In Words”, published by Booktango.

The title of my book was inspired by the Milky Way Galaxy, where our planet Earth is part of it. Well, my poems blend in different writing styles, topics, and genres, becoming a kind of a beautiful collection of my most amazing works coexisting together.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I can’t think of any, unless waking up in the middle of the night, if an inspiration visits.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Maya Angelou, Alan Poe, Joyce Peseroff, Yehudia Amichai…..they are several.

What are you working on now?
I’m writing fiction stories, hoping to compile them by the end of this year.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’ve used Facebook Ads and Facebook Pages which concern literature.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
If you haven’t written a poem, story or novel, and you want to do it, just write it down. Share your pieces with your close friends, and you’ll realize how good you are.

Also, never shy away from submitting your works to online publishing journals or magazines. That’s where I began. If I didn’t submit my poem to Shot Glass Journal, I don’t think I would have had the courage to accept myself as a good writer, and to create a poetry book.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“Logic will take you from Point A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere” – Albert Einstein.

What are you reading now?
The Manuscript Found in Accra, by Paulo Coelho.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I have a dream of winning a Nobel Peace Prize in Literature.

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?
Manuscript Found in Accra, The Alchemist, and Veronika Decides to Die, all by Paulo Coelho

Author Websites and Profiles
Teddy Kimathi Website

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a social entrepreneur. I began in the footwear business in a work study program when I was a kid at 15 years of age. It’s been decades since then, but I’m still in the shoe business. Only today I work with nonprofits, churches, schools and others to help them raise money, support micro-entrepreneurs and lower our collective carbon footprint with shoe drives. I also have a number of other businesses and independent brands under Elsey Enterprises.

I’ve written 7 books so far. My first one was, “Almost Isn’t Good Enough”, which was followed by the motivational book “Get Off the Couch: Grip & Rip and Break the Barriers Holding You Back in Life” and the “Not Your Father’s Charity” book series.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The name of my latest book is from the book series and it’s called “Not Your Father’s Charity: Dominate in Your School Fundraising for Success, As Easy as ABC.”

The reason I wrote it is simple. I see parents and schools in need of money. There have been countless cuts and pressures placed on schools. This, in turn, affects the quality of education for millions of students. So, I wrote my book to help parents, schools and school groups to think differently about fundraising. Good and solid fundraising goes beyond having families sell candy and cookie dough.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
No, I don’t think so. My ultimate goal is simply to have my voice come through on the page and have a conversation.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I enjoy reading anything about disrupters. I like books about leadership and business. I am big on making things happen and books about those topics are a main driver for me.

What are you working on now?
At the moment, I’ve taken a break from writing new books. I have published a lot of books in these last two years. I want to focus on my business, Elsey Enterprises, and the shoe drive fundraising social enterprises I have, which are Funds2Orgs, Sneakers4Funds and Shoes With Heart. We’re growing rapidly and I want to keep working these businesses for success and social impact. That drives me and makes me get up every morning wanting to get right back to work.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
We use social media. I am a big fan of social media and I think authors have to not be shy about using it. Social is something that is aligned with who I am as a person because I believe in relationships and connections. So, social networking and social media are very big for me.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write. Period. Don’t sit around waiting for the perfect moment or inspiration. Just write.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The best piece of advice came to me when I was 15 years-old. I was told by a teacher that I would never amount to anything. I was a tall and awkward kid, as most of us are in those years. It was hurtful.

I told it to another teacher, Jackie Busch. She told me I could do anything. She simply believed in me and that’s the best thing she could have done. The best advice can come from anyone who simply believes in you. When you have that, you can do anything, and I did. As a matter of fact, Mrs. Busch wrote the foreword to my latest book. She’s remained a presence in my life for decades.

What are you reading now?
I’m all about customer service. I believe in it to the core of my being. I believe in excellence in service. And, I’m currently reading about customer driven companies.

I’ll give you an easy example. Yesterday I telephoned three places. Each time I was placed into an automated loop. No one picks up the phone anymore. I even called a nonprofit to donate $100 right then and there. You want to know what happened? The automated service hung up on me.

What’s next for you as a writer?
As I mentioned, I think for the time being I am resting from writing. But, in the future, I want keep writing about leadership and motivation. Life is what you make of it. I care about seeing people achieve their dreams.

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 Bible. I would bring the book “Steve Jobs” and I would bring my book “Almost Isn’t Good Enough” to remind me that I can get off the island and I would just have to figure out how.

Author Websites and Profiles
Wayne Elsey Website
Wayne Elsey Amazon Profile

Wayne Elsey’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter AccountPinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was 11 years-old. And specifically, I recall wanting to write a book that would help adults.

I’d seen more mature things as a child and I suppose I wanted to help myself understand what was happening around me. Journaling became my outlet.

Over the years I’d attempted different kinds of writing but never had any success. It wasn’t until I was sitting alone at the airport, flying home early from vacation after learning of my husband’s infidelity, that I picked up a pen and started writing what is now, Wine, Sex and Suicide – My Near Death Divorce.

My second book is called, My Heart is Broken. Now What? That book offers 12 practices to help heal a broken heart. I have an audio program based on that book.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Wine, Sex and Suicide – My Near Death Divorce.

The intention was to write about doing a year of volunteer service projects as a means of healing my broken heart. While I did do many volunteer projects by day – by night I numbed my pain with alcohol and sought comfort from strangers as a way to soothe the pain of my husband’s infidelity.

It’s a very vulnerable story to share, but with suicide rates 3 times higher for divorced people, I know I’m not alone in what I experienced. And if my story helps someone not feel so full of shame, it is worth it.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Nothing unusual. I realize that I like to publish journals. Memoirs are wonderful, but they are written from the perspective where you’ve gained the wisdom from the experience. I like to document experiences and see where they lead, what will I learn, how will I grow, what challenges will I face. And for some reason, I like to share these publicly! I’d say that’s unusual.

I have a few ideas brewing for the next personal experience books.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I mostly read non-fiction in the area of personal development, spirituality and self improvement. But books I’ve enjoyed are: The Street, by Ann Petry, Judy Blume books when I was a pre-teen, Jeannette Walls, Franz Wisner, Elizabeth Gilbert, Mary Karr, Pema Chodron, Mike Dooley, Don Miguel Ruiz and more.

What are you working on now?
I’m working on a simple healing from loss and disappointment book tentatively titled, Soul Garden Healing.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’ve found that writing articles and having them published on different websites is helpful for readers to find my books.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t compare yourself to other writers. Try to enjoy the process and don’t be hard on yourself if you don’t write every day. Everyone has a different rhythm to life. Some people write only while on planes and trains, and others write every day at a certain time. Do what is best for you.

I’d also emphasize not editing while writing. Get the words on the page first in the big purge – where your fingers are trying to keep up with your brain. Don’t re-read it immediately. Give it a day or two. Then allow yourself to edit, but also keep in mind that an editor will help fix verb tense, grammar issues and story flow.

Just keep moving forward. Work with an accountability partner or a coach, like me, who can help keep you on track to meet your goals and help guide you through the self publishing process if that’s the route you’ve chosen.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
To be in the moment. It’s all we have.

What are you reading now?
Let Go
A Buddhist Guide to Breaking Free of Habits

Martine Batchelor

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m writing a book proposal for Soul Garden Healing and would love to be published with Hay House for that one.

I’m also developing a course for the Daily Om on getting back to being yourself after a breakup.

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?
Just gazing at my bookshelf, I would bring a daily meditation book, a thesaurus and one of my mother’s art books.

Author Websites and Profiles
Patty Blue Hayes Website
Patty Blue Hayes Amazon Profile

Patty Blue Hayes’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I started writing in 1994. I published my first book, which was my master’s project in 1998 with a professional association. I retired from the government in 2015 and started writing full time. Over the years, I have authored and coauthored over 70 articles. My articles have appeared in Professional Safety, the Journal of the American Society of Safety Engineers; Perspective, the newsletter of the Public Sector Practice Specialty of the American Society of Safety Engineers; PM World Journal; the International Journal, Organization, Technology and Management in Construction; PMI GovCOP Magazine, the government sector magazine of the Project Management Institute; and several journals of the U.S. Army. I have written physical and electronic books that include fiction and non-fiction. I have also written chapters for three technical books and two stories that were published in anthologies. My work has earned nine awards. I have also presented technical papers before national audiences. I am a member of the Riverside Writers where I serve as the Treasurer and the Virginia Writers Club where I serve as Recording Secretary.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is a novel A Walk Among the Dead. It was inspired by my experiences living in Germany during the fall of the Iron Curtain, Reunification of Germany, and the withdrawal of US Forces from Berlin. They were very exciting times.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
No, I just write and research like I was taught in college.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I really like Edgar Allen Poe and Ayn Rand. I also like Clive Cussler and Leonard Scott, whom I worked with in Berlin. although I am sure he doesn’t remember me. He was a celebrity then too. As a child, I read a lot and was influenced by the classics like Grapes of Wrath, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Invisible Man to name a few.

What are you working on now?
I am working on two novels. The first is a paranormal mystery set in the Ozarks of Missouri. I was intrigued by the Beaman Monster incident in Sedalia, Missouri. My book is about the monster, real and unreal, of Missouri. I am also working on a sequel to A Walk Among the Dead. This time, Inspector Maggie Hoffmann tries to solve another crime perpetrated by former East German Police and several murders. It will be based in Berlin too.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I don’t really have a single best method or website for promoting my books. I have worked with several of each over the years, but selling non-fiction books is very hard. I have learned that the only way to sell books is to keep trying. I am trying many of those sites again with my novel, but in a different way. I am also trying new sites and methods too.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
I would tell a new author to keep writing. You can’t publish what you haven’t written. I also tell new authors that even if you don’t strike it rich to keep trying. The success is in the writing.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The best advice I ever received with respect to writing was to keep writing. I have never had a problem writing non-fiction, but my first novel was very difficult. I kept trying to edit and write. When I tried just writing I was able to complete a 50,000-word story that could be edited. If I hadn’t tried that I think I would still be working on that book.

What are you reading now?
I am reading Nazi Gold by Ian Sayer and Douglas Botting.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I am going to stop writing non-fiction and focus on fiction. I have a few more non-fiction articles I want to finish and after that no more. I want to also learn to write short stories and fiction articles.

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?
Anthem by Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. The Colorado Kid by Stephen King, and Rocket Boys by Homer Hickman.

Author Websites and Profiles
Fred Fanning Website
Fred Fanning Amazon Profile

Fred Fanning’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I currently reside in Smyrna, Georgia, with his wife Lisa, his dog Kylie, and two cats, Remy and Samantha.

The Way of the Dhin is my first science fiction novel, I have co-authored a study guide as well.

I’m a lifetime lover of Science and Science Fiction. I have a BFA from The University of Georgia, and an MBA from Kennesaw State University. I work for IBM as a consultant for Cloud Identity Services.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book, and my first science fiction novel, is The Way of the Dhin. I was inspired to write it while talking about some fantastic science fiction ideas with a friend. I then noted that one of my favorite authors, Iain M. Banks, had died, and that the genre would be needing some new blood and that it would be hard to fill his shoes. Then it came to me. “I should write a novel.”

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t know many other writers. Yet. I find that I do a better job when I just write, rather than spend a lot of time “reading about writing”, so I’m actually not all that sure what qualifies as unusual these days.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Iain M. Banks, Richard K. Morgan, and Neal Asher. And of course John Scalzi, John Ringo, and, well, Larry Niven. And about 200 other Science Fiction authors, I guess. Those first three are the top of the list as far as inspiration for writing The Way of the Dhin.

What are you working on now?
Marketing the book!

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Haven’t gotten there yet to determine a best method.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Just Do It. Just write. Do not spend loads of time reading about writing, reading about how other writers do things, reading about being an author, reading about how to sell, get a publisher, etc. etc. All these things are secondary to WRITING.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you’re right either way.

What are you reading now?
The Departure, by Neal Asher.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’ve got some material that will be either a short story that’s supplemental to The Way of the Dhin, or will be the start of a sequel.

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 my Kindle count as one book?

Author Websites and Profiles
John Clemmer Amazon Profile

John Clemmer’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I live in Bristol in the UK with my wife and my young son. I have been writing now for about 16 years, but have only very recently (2016) taken the plunge into self-publishing after many failed attempts to pique the interests of an agent. I write what I like to read, which is mostly fantasy, but I’d like to dabble in some other genres in the future – I may even have a romance novel up my sleeve!

At the moment I just have the one book published – Fear’s Union, which is the first part of an epic fantasy trilogy. However, I am planning to release a novella later this year (mid-2016), called Mandestroy, which is a bit of a prequel to Fear’s Union. This will be eternally available for free on all major ebook stores.

Beyond that, I plan to write the later books in the series as soon as I find the time (I do have a full time day job too obviously), but I also have a number of “spin-off” ideas that I want to explore. There just aren’t enough hours in the day!

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
It’s called Fear’s Union, and it’s the first part of an epic fantasy trilogy.

Inspiration – I was originally inspired to write this back in 2001(ish) when I watched LOTR and promptly re-read the entire LOTR saga including all associated standalone books. This rekindled my love of fantasy books, and it’s been snowballing ever since. It’s fair to say that the story has come a long way since, but that it the root of it.

Oh and music – I love walking around with my headphones in, letting my mind wander. Bliss.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m not sure I’m entirely sure what “normal” writing habits are!

In an attempt to squeeze every last hour out of the day, I currently review my work by loading it into Kindle on my phone so that I can pick it up absolutely anywhere. It’s not the greatest tool, but it certainly is flexible!

And I do always write to music, which I imagine others don’t necessarily do. I know that for some people music is distracting, but for me it is more like petrol – it drives the words out!

What authors, or books have influenced you?
My favourite fantasy authors (where I draw a lot of influence from) are as follows:
– Scott Lynch (the Gentleman Bastard series).
– Joe Abercrombie (the First Law trilogy).
– Tolkien (obviously)

And other books that have really struck a chord over the years:
– Bernard Cornwell’s Arthurian series;
– Asimov’s foundation series;
– East of Eden by John Steinbeck (brilliant!)

What are you working on now?
A novella called Mandestroy. It’s a bit of a prequel to Fear’s Union (though not essential reading!) and it actually explores the life of one of the bad guys from FU. It’s been fun to write. This will be published mid 2016 and will be free for all.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m pretty new to all this, so I don’t really consider myself a tour de force yet! Obviously the Awesomegang seem excellent, but hopefully I can build a bit of buzz around ,my author platform: www.jhockley.com. There’s loads of great info there.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Just write. It’s the only way to get better.

Oh and listen to the praise, but REALLY listen to the criticism. Especially if it’s coming from someone of authority.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Time is the ultimate scarce resource. That may actually be one of mine (or it might not!) but it gets to the nub of the matter. Spend as much time as possible doing what makes you happy. Simple.

What are you reading now?
Joe Abercrombie’s “Half the World”
And “Shades of Smoke” by Alan Denham & Graham Buckley – Alan approached me to read and review this on my blog, which was quite flattering.

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

Oh, and trying to work out how best to tell the world about my story. Tough gig.

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?
War & Peace – I’ve never got around to reading it.
The Silmarillion – it’s a tough read, but as a piece of world building, it is unparalleled.
Mark Lawrence – King of Thorns. It’s next on my to read list.
And the second book in the Amra Thetys series by Michael McClung – look it up.

Author Websites and Profiles
James Hockley Website
James Hockley Amazon Profile

James Hockley’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a writer of novels, comic books, short stories, graphic novels, and the occasional screenplay. I don’t have an exact count of everything I’ve written handy, but I was first published in 1992 so it’s in the area of 100 stories in one format or another. As you may have guessed, I love to write.

Here’s my official bio for 2016:
An award-winning author, Bobby Nash writes novels, comic books, short stories, novellas, graphic novels, and the occasional screenplay for a number of publishers and production companies including IDW Publishing, Sequential Pulp Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Moonstone Books, Airship 27 Productions, Pro Se Productions, Raven’s Head Press, Stark Raving Press, Farragut Films, Dark Oak Press, Avatar Press, Fight Card Books, Radio Archives, BEN Books, and more. A comprehensive list of Bobby’s published titles and upcoming releases can be found at www.bobbynash.com.

Bobby is a member of the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers and International Thriller Writers.

He was named Best Author in the 2013 Pulp Ark Awards. Rick Ruby, a character co-created by Bobby and author Sean Taylor also snagged a Pulp Ark Award for Best New Pulp Character of 2013. Bobby has also been nominated for the 2014 New Pulp Awards and Pulp Factory Awards for his work. In 2015, Bobby’s novel, Alexandra Holzer’s Ghost Gal: The Wild Hunt won a Paranormal Literary Award in the 2015 Paranormal Awards.

For more information on Bobby Nash please visit him at www.bobbynash.com and across social media. If you see him walking around the con, please say hi and make sure he’s not lost.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest release is the Sherlock Holmes & Domino Lady trade paperback collection from Moonstone Books. It is in stores as of May 11, 2016.

Sherlock Holmes & Domino Lady is a new trade paperback collection containing a brand new Domino Lady comic story, a brand new Holmes/Domino illustrated prose story by Bobby Nash, a Holmes/Domino Lady prose story by Nancy Holder with NEW illustrations, reprints Sherlock Holmes/Domino Lady issues#1 and 2, and The Holmes Holiday Special story!

Written by Bobby Nash and Nancy Holder
Art by Reno Maniquis, Nick Diaz, and Mike Fyles.
Cover price: $14.95

Nancy Holder and I have been working together on Domino Lady comic book stories for a few years now and our editor at Moonstone, Joe Gentile, offered me the opportunity to write a new prose story featuring the characters together on an adventure, I just couldn’t say no. They are both a lot of fun to write.

In June 2016, the first issue of the Domino Lady: Threesome comic book hits stores. Domino lady teams up with two different characters each issue to thwart villainous schemes and stop crime in their own unique way. Issues 1 & 2 are written by Nancy Holder and myself. I take over as solo writer with issue #3.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Most of my unusual writing habits are bad ones. You know, not writing, getting easily distracted, checking social media, that sort of thing. Of my good writing habits, making sure I hit my deadlines is top priority for me.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I am influenced by oh so many authors, both good and bad in writing and in how to act as a writer. Seeing how others handle situations or treat their fans is an education to me. Some who have positively influenced me include Michael Connelly, Van Allen Plexico, Beau Smith, Jonathan Maberry, John Hartness, Alex Kava, George Perez, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Gail Simone, and more. Watching these writers has taught me a lot and helped me to be a better writer.

What are you working on now?
I am currently juggling two novels that are on tight deadlines. I’m working on the LANCE STAR: SKY RANGER novel “COLD SNAP!” for Airship 27 Productions and an as yet untitled novel starring THE AVENGER for Moonstone Books. I’m also working with an artist to put a comic pitch together, but it’s way too early to say more about that. On deck is EVIL INTENT, the follow up novel to EVIL WAYS for BEN Books.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
It’s hard to say which one works the best as I do a good deal of promotion across several platforms. Social media is certainly one method, though kind of limited. Being interviewed by book websites such as this one, doing podcasts, guest blogs, conventions, appearances, you name it. I do whatever I can to get the word out about my work.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Set goals and make a plan. Not every writer wants the same thing to come from his or her writing. If writing is just a fun hobby for you, that’s great. You can make a plan to reach that goal. If you want to write as a career, that’s great too. There is a different set of plans you can implement to help you get there. Know what you want, set goals, then set out in search of that destination. Also, if you want to write as a career, then you’ll have to treat writing like a job. That means making deadlines, missing out on social events to meet said deadlines, long nights, etc. Like any other career, you get out what you put in. Writing is hard work and involves a whole lot more than just writing. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Promote your own work because no one is going to care about your books/stories as much as you.

What are you reading now?
I am currently reading Black Widow: Forever Red by Margaret Stohl from Marvel.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Another project. Another book. Another deadline. The cycle continues.

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?
1001 Fish Meals, Smoke Signals For Dummies, boat building on a budget, and whatever’s on my tablet (including email).

Oh, did you want a serious answer? That’s tough. I really don’t know.

Author Websites and Profiles
Bobby Nash Website
Bobby Nash Amazon Profile
Bobby Nash Author Profile on Smashwords

Bobby Nash’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a happy grandmother of three but as of last month, four. A newborn granddaughter is waiting to meet me at the end of this month since her parents and little big brother live far away from me. I enjoy a morning round of golf whenever my buddy is in town. We play as soon as there is enough light to see the little white ball. I love gardening and creative writing.
I have written mostly short stories, a few non-fiction books and some children’s books. In my country I have published English grammar books and a series entitled “I Can Read” which is a collection of well-loved tales retold in simple language for young children.
I also love to read thrillers and enjoy classical music as well as piano pops.
In my blogs at blogspot.com, I share pictures of places I’ve travelled to and my thoughts.
y blogs at blogspot.com

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The name of my latest book is THE WAYWARD SHEEP, My Journey to Salvation and God’s Love. I felt compelled to write it after a sermon by my church pastor about using gifts which God has given us, to glorify and serve Him.
God has been good to me. He has blessed me richly and saved me on so many occasions. I can feel His presence in my life and especially when I am afraid. I reach out to Him and He never fails me. So I feel compelled to share all these with people in the hope that my book will bring them closer to God, renew their belief in Him and to those who do not know Him, I truly hope that in my sharing, they will get to know Him as a loving God who wants them in His family.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Yes, I write in my head whenever I’m waiting to see the doctor, waiting for transport or simply when I’m bored. Then when I’m able to get some length of time to myself meaning, no house chores demanding my attention, I will then put my thought on paper.
Sometimes it’s the moods that propel me to write, or very strong emotions that spill out onto paper in the form of poems.
I don’t have any fixed regular periods of writing except the time when I was given 2 months to write the series of 4 grammar books for a publisher!! I had to discipline myself to two hours in the morning and another three in the afternoon everyday till I made the deadline.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I admire crime thriller writers like Tami Hoag and Patricia Cornwell among others but I don’t think they have influenced me because I write love fiction and erotica.

What are you working on now?
At the moment I’m working on poems. I want to publish my poems. I also have begun writing short 100 word stories. I might combine them into a collection but I haven’t decided yet.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I haven’t really promoted my books because I didn’t know how to or where to begin, until a friend recommended some sites to me. So I’m checking out on those. Ii don’t have much money to spare on book promotions as I no longer work and do not have a regular source of disposable income, just a very small pension.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
I can only say that one should write from the heart. Let your passion take you wherever it leads. Of course you need to plan out the basic plot of your story, then let it grow and lead you.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The best advice I’ve heard is to keep on writing, keep at it and keep dark thoughts of defeat at bay. Keep on until you complete your first draft, then go back to it and improve on it, whether it is add or subtract.

What are you reading now?
Still a Patricia Cornwell novel, Depraved Heart. It’s taking me a longer time to read now that my eyes are much weaker (old age!!). When I was younger I could read three books at a time!! Those days have gone past and will never return.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I will keep on writing, perhaps try a full length book. I find that daunting but if I don’t try, I will never know if I can 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?
I would bring a poetry book, a thriller, a love story and one of Shakespeare’s plays, either Macbeth or Hamlet.

Author Websites and Profiles
Peggy Chan Website
Peggy Chan Amazon Profile

Peggy Chan’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am an Indie Author, and I have written two novels so far. So far, my novels are part of a triology called the Warden Series. My first book is called All In: The Globe Trot Shuffle. My second book is called Cash Me Out: Life and Death in Paradise. I’m pursuing the self publishing route.

I was born in southern California, but live on the Crystal Coast of North Carolina. I am a Veteran of the United States Marine Corps, and I am also a veteran of the Invasion of Iraq in 2003. I used my GI Bill to get my Associates degree, and then my Bachelor’s degree.

Since then, I’ve gotten married, and we’ve had several children. I’ve worked overseas as a contractor to the Department of Defense in places such as Iraq, Oman, and Qatar. I’ve also held a bunch of other jobs before, and after the Marines or when I was a contractor.

Now I work during the day, and pursue my passion of writing novels at night. I do this as a labor of love. It’s my hobby, and something I love doing. I enjoy writing, and love telling stories.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Cash Me Out: Life and Death in Paradise is my latest book. It is the 2nd book in a trilogy that I’m writing. I got the idea for the series, because it was something I’ve been thinking about for years. When I was in Iraq during the war in 2003, I heard about our military members finding gold or money in palaces. We all thought about how incredible that was. We talked about what we would do with the money, how we would get it home, and how we would spend it. Remember, we were 19? A lot of my fellow Marines including myself came from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, and homes qualified for free or reduced lunch! The military was a way to escape our neighborhoods, and the idea of so much money just lying around was insane. Who wouldn’t have been tempted? We never did find anything in a palace, but if we had? I’m certain that we would have took some pictures of it, but then turned it in. This series is a look into that finding money concept, and living life afterwards.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I type fast. Home row, no looking down at the keyboard. I can type an incredible amount of words in an hour if I get on a hot streak. Writing 5,000 words a night isn’t a stretch for me. I usually write late at night when I should be sleeping. If I set a chapter or word count goal for the next day, but do it in the morning? I will write another chapter that night.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I’m a huge fan of Steven King, Tom Clancy, Kurt Vonnegut, and a few other authors. One book that always stuck out to me was Bernal Diaz Del Castillo’s personal account of the Spanish Conquest of New Spain. It’s fascinating. I know the reality of it for the Natives was horrible, but enjoy reading it anyways. It’s not the fact that they take over Central Mexico and Central America. It’s the fact that such few men faced such huge odds, and won. It’s an incredible story, and gives a great insight into what really happened during Cortez’s conquest of the Aztecs. Diaz told his story in such a way that still resonates today.

What are you working on now?
I’m at a crossroads. I just finished book two of my trilogy. I have several other projects lined up. I’m deciding in the next day or so to either write book three in the trilogy, write a novella or two about characters in the series, or to pursue another book not in the series. I feel like I should get an expanded body of work out there, and not just stand on a trilogy alone. My problem is I have so many ideas, but only so much time to write them out.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I have a hard time promoting. I’ve paid for some, and got no sales. I used free promotion ones, and got a few sales. I used other pay sites, and got some sales. I used other free promotion ones, and got no sales. I think it’s not the time to promote right now. I have two novels with no reviews or ratings. I’m an new Indie Author that people may not want to take a chance on. I have seen with my 2nd book being self published that I have generated sales in both books. Twitter is a hit or miss, and so are facebook groups. I don’t know if there’s a magic formula or special website I should use. I’ll let you know when I find it. Until I get a few more novels out, I’m going to promote on goodreads, twitter, wordpress, facebook, and a couple of free promotion newsletter sites for now. It’s more important for me to get books published than to pay to promote, but go weeks to months with no progress on other books.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write. When you think you’re done, write some more. Promote if you can, and try not to go broke while doing it. Just continue to write, and get a few works out there. If you’re only going to do a book or two, then you can promote after you’re done. Unless you are an author being paid an advance by a traditional publishing house, write. Get some novellas out. Write a series. People will buy one book in the series, and buy the rest to see how the story plays out.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The same as I said above. Focus on the writing. Your work will be out there, and you can always advertise later. It’s more important to get the ideas out of your head, and onto some paper.

What are you reading now?
I just self published a few days ago, so I’m reading my novel on my app. It’s a nice feeling to read what you wrote on a device! Seeing it in your hands, and knowing that you accomplished something…

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m going to keep my day job, and pursue my hobby. I want to put out so many novels that I can fill a shelf in my living room cabinet. It’s a big, long, empty shelf.

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 Stand, All In: The Globe Trot Shuffle, Cash Me Out: Life and Death in Paradise, and The True History of the Conquest of New Spain

Author Websites and Profiles
Paul Parker III Website
Paul Parker III Amazon Profile

Paul Parker III’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m the blind son of carnival owners. I grew up wanting to follow in my dad’s footsteps and run the family business. I actually got to do this for about 11 years. He was my business partner and best friend. We drove a million miles together getting the show from one town to another. After his death from cancer, me and my brother patrick weren’t able to keep the show going. This lead to increased weight gain and depression that I only came out of when a doctor told me I would either have to get healthy or die. I was checked out by a good physician. She first had me tested for sleep apnea. I have it and my life started to change once they began treating it with a CPAP machine. It helps you breath at night. I got more energy and found my passion for life again. This lead to my starting an online brokerage company for amusement park and carnival equipment. I had to learn so much including how to hand code html, building an email list, growing social media networks, recording videos, blogging, replying to comments, etc. I later learned about word press and transferred my site. I had been hanging out in a lot of face book and linked in groups to promote my business. Many of them commented on how inspired they were by all that I was doing online. I told them heck I’m just a guy working hard to build a business and support a family. They said Max there are a lot of people who don’t have any physical disadvantage and yet they are doing nothing with their lives. They convinced me that by showing up when I could easily sit on the couch eat junk food and watch TV. I was an inspiration. That lead to a second website called the blind blogger where I share the more personal experiences of being a blind entrepreneur. I was challenged to write a book as part of a online summit. I wrote about my journey and the lessons learned along the way. It was called Leading You OUt of the Darkness Into the Light a Blind Man’s inspirational Guide to Success. People have been impressed and inspired. I started doing podcast and radio show interviews to promote it and have now become an expert on using online media to share your story promote your products and build your brand. My most recent book is Its Not the Cookie Its the Bag. Its a book about what I learned about losing weight and keeping it off. I had gastric surgery and lost over 250 pounds. I learned a lot of lessons about good physical mental, emotional, and spiritual health that I share in the book. I love to sing and often sing as part of podcast and radio show interviews. I live with my crazy dog penny half greyhound half dalmation so we call her a greymation. She is my mindfulness coach reminding me when its time to put the laptop down and get to my real job of scratching those places she can’t quite reach. I’m a good old fashioned southern gentleman and I’m single. If you have a question, just ask. I’d rather answer an awkward question than have you guess. Thanks, Max

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Its Not the Cookie Its the Bag. I was listening to all the ads during the last holiday season. Between Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years, there are lots of ads for diets, diet books, fitness centers, exercise machines, weight loss clinics, and surgery too. I thought with all that I have learned about losing weight and keeping it off why not write a book about it. People often say that if the blind guy can do it why not me. I am often referred to as the No Excuses guy because I just don’t do excuses. I believe there is always something you can do to improve your situation. I hope the book alps a lot of people finally get healthy and stay that way.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write on my laptop while lying down. I often plan my next blog post or chapter while in the shower or riding my bike that doesn’t go anywhere. I’m blind so I have no way to look at how my work will appear on the screen or page. For this reason I work based on what my words, sentences, and paragraphs sound like.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Eric Weihhamayer Blind climber who summited everest; Rachel Scdorous Blind Ididerod dog sled racer; Nick Vujicic born with no arms or legs; Jennifer Rothschild amazingly talented blind singer and author; along with people like Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, Mike Robbins, Elizabeth Gilbert, Dr. Laura, Gretchen Rubens, etc. And I often find as much encouragement and enjoyment in life from the pages of a good fiction book such as those from people like Nora Roberts, John Sandford, Robert B. Parker, J D Robb, Sandra Brown, Steven King, Tom Clansey, Clive Cussler, Faye Kellerman, Robert Patterson, Patricia Cornwell, just to name a few. I often remind readers of my blog that often the mind wants and needs a good mindless read as much as the body may want a snickers bar or some ice cream.

What are you working on now?
I’m working on rewriting my first book into a much more detailed version with many mor examples. I also have a new online radio show on the Universal Energy Radio Network. Its called Get It Moving Mondays. Its a show to help people take action by giving them a public source for accountability.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I prefer podcast, radio shows, youtube interviews, etc. I find that when people get to hear your voice and find out who you really are it helps them connect in a way they usually don’t from blog posts or magazine interviews. I am blind and don’t live in an area with the greatest public transportation. Doing these online interviews helps me avoid having to deal with logistic issues of speaking in person. I would love to do book signings and talk to college kids or business groups; but its not for me right now. Any method can work as long as you let your real true self show in the process.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Read every day and write every day. They all say that writers write. This is true. You have to do it to get good at it. But I find most really talented authors read a lot. I suggest that if you ar having trouble getting started then maybe your goal is too big. I start out every writing session by telling myself I’m going to write for five minutes. No matter what I can do five minutes. So can you. Usually I look up 30 minutes an hour or more later and wonder where the time went. Just like most marathon runners didn’t start out thinking they would run marathons most authors don’t start out thinking of writing a 300 page novel. Most start out thinking I have a story to tell. So, tell your story. I don’t have to tell you not to think about grammar, punctuation, spelling, or formatting when you are writing. I know this can sometimes be hard for some people, but its really freeing once you get the hang of it. And just remember you can always hire an editor to turn your great story into a visual masterpiece.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
My dad always said if you don’t ask they can’t say yes. Never be afraid to ask for help. Also, don’t be afraid to tell people God the universe what it is that you need and want. The more you put it out there, the more it will find you. This is how I found my editor Lorraine Reguly of Wording Well.

What are you reading now?
I’m always reading two books. I will have one fiction and one nonfiction. ONe is for pleasure and one is for while riding my bike or walking on my treadmill. My self improvement book right now is I Am by Joel Osteen. My for fun book right now is Swim Suit by James Patterosn.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I want to edit and publish my memoir. I want to get a traditional publishing contract at least once. I want my continuing story to be made into a movie or TV 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?
The Lord of the Rings, The Dark Tower Series, the Grass is Always Greener on the Other Side of the Septic Tank, and Every Day a Friday.

Author Websites and Profiles
Maxwell Ivey Website
Maxwell Ivey Amazon Profile

Maxwell Ivey’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a long time teacher. I focus on teaching entrepreneurship and passive income creation. I’ve written 4 books that are available on Amazon. I’ve also edited and published over 100 book by different authors.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Content is King – How to Write Killer Content for the Web.
The inspiration for this book came from my Udemy course by the same name. I love teaching people how to write, how to publish online content and how to earn passive income. It just made sense to follow up the course with an eBook

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I love using dictation software to write. I’ll stand at my stand up desk and chat away at the computer. Then I’ll copy it into Word and re-write and revise and edit what I’ve dictated. It’s a really fun way to write. It goes faster and provides more variety than sitting at the computer the whole time.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Tim Ferris, Tony Robbins, Tom Robbins, Jack Kerouac

What are you working on now?
I’m writing a book on how to publish books on Kindle.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I normally rely on excellent keyword selection and let Amazon market my books. Lately, I’ve been growing an email list on my blog and that has been great for promoting my books.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t–you’re right.” – Henry Ford

What are you reading now?
Tom Robbins – Tibetan Peach Pie

What’s next for you as a writer?
Write a book about Kindle eBook publishing

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?
a book of good jokes, 2 Tom Robbins books, and a cocktail cookbook.

Author Websites and Profiles
Steve McDonald Website
Steve McDonald Amazon Profile

Steve McDonald’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile

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

My name is Angelina Kerner and I am an indie author. I have started writing in high school. Overall, I have written about ten books. I love writing fantasy romance and crime fiction.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Deity’s Soulmate is my published novel and is the latest. The inspiration came to me through the creation of my character, Gardenia, from high school. Gardenia has been with me for so long that finally I got the guts to write her story. It was long overdue. Her story is still not finished. At the moment, book two and three are in the works.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I tend to carry a notebook with pens with me all the time, in case I would receive an inspiration.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Marion Zimmer Bradley and James Clemens have inspired me greatly. If I could meet James Clemens, I would be in heaven. His “witch fire” saga is purely amazing! I fell in love with the characters and bought all of his books in one week. He has so much passion! I would love to bring out my passion from writing and to be able to influence young authors as well.

What are you working on now?
At the moment, I am working on my next novel, which is a sister novel to my published novel. It has romance, phoenixes, and competition for love.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
My personal website and word of mouth. I am still new to promoting my novel, and hoping that I will have time to learn to make things happen.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Bribe your artistic friends with chocolate to come up with book covers and illustrations for your work. Chocolate works!

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
You can’t please everyone, so don’t try.

What are you reading now?
Currently, I am re-reading “The Martian”.

What’s next for you as a writer?
To publish more books and hopefully inspire more authors.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
James Clemens – Witch Fire Series

Author Websites and Profiles
Angelina Kerner Website
Angelina Kerner Amazon Profile

Angelina Kerner’s Social Media Links
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve written a dozen books–with more on the way–including The Glades County Cowboys series, a populare Harlequin American Romance series. My book, The Bull Rider’s Family, won the National Readers’ Choice Award winner, and my books have been nominated for the prestigious RT Book Reviews Reviewers’ Choice and Booksellers’ Best Awards. I lives on Central Florida’s East Coast where I write women’s fiction and contemporary romances with a dash of Southern sass. I love to stay in touch with readers through social media.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write, and keep on writing!

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Be true to your voice.

What are you reading now?
I love women’s fiction and can’t read enough of it!

What’s next for you as a writer?
Follow my own advice, keep on writing and be true to my voice.

Author Websites and Profiles
Leigh Duncan Website
Leigh Duncan Amazon Profile

Leigh Duncan’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m just a guy who likes to make stuff up in his spare time—the spare time that isn’t occupied by obsessive Netflix binges, I mean.

Right now, I have four novels out, as well as six volumes of my New Devil series, although I hope both those numbers will be going up in the near future.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My most recent book is called Alph Beta. It’s a weird little story about an arrogant, self-absorbed writer who, with the help of his own characters and his real-life friend, learns to become a better person, as well as a better writer. I started writing it as kind of a loving mockery of the many, many books writers have written about writers. In this case, my character (Alph) writes a story about another writer who’s writing about yet another writer. It’s very self-referential and kind of tongue-in-cheek. And hopefully it’s funny.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I admit that many writer clichés appeal to me—for example, the image of a writer slaving away over his manuscript with a stiff drink. Except I personally don’t drink alcohol, so I often sit down to work with a nice heavy glass full of, like, lemonade or milk or V8 or something. I feel like that’s pretty unusual.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Just about anything I’ve ever read and haven’t hated has probably influenced me.

I have been in awe of Stephen Crane’s diction for a many years, but his somewhat bleak naturalistic themes aren’t really the kind of things I want in my own stories. I’ve loved what I’ve read of Oscar Wilde and Kurt Vonnegut and Isaac Asimov. Daniel Keyes’s Flowers for Algernon is probably my all-time favorite novel.

But lest anyone thinks I’m pretentious, I should point out that I’ve read and enjoyed a ton of Crichton and Koontz and Rowling and such. And my first literary obsession might have been a sadly little-known young adult sci-fi writer named William Sleater. Man was a genius. Seriously, go read Interstellar Pig or The Boy Who Reversed Himself.

What are you working on now?
I’m in the middle of a sequel to Tiem Mechine right now. I’m trying to figure out how to keep things convoluted and bizarre enough to live up to the original, and it’s definitely a challenge!

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I don’t have one.

Seriously, I’m terrible at promoting my books. I’m slowly learning, though. I recently had what was hands-down my most successful free Amazon promo for Tiem Mechine, which I’m pretty sure I can mostly credit to ReadCheaply.com, but there can always be other variables at play, and I’m going to have to do more experimenting before I declare ReadCheaply my Lord and Savior.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Measure twice, cut once.

That was meant to be amusing and useless, but now that I think about it, it still kind of works. Obsess over your work to get it as perfect as you can before you take the plunge and release it. Sure, you can always edit it or reformat it or get new cover art down the road, but measure very carefully before you cut. I think indie writers especially have more scrutiny on them. Because we’re not from a professional publishing house that has poured resources into deciding whether to accept a manuscript, editing and formatting what they do accept, and then preparing and packaging the final product, readers are less likely to just assume our books are awesome.

Also, be much, much better at networking with other self-published authors than I am. That will definitely help.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Measure twice, cut once.

Ha, see what I did there? I mean, I know the saying is intended to apply to carpentry, but I think it applies well to writing and to, well…life.

What are you reading now?
Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

What’s next for you as a writer?
More writing. I’ve been focusing on fleshing out my catalogue lately. I hope to have another novel out by the end of the year, and 2017 should, with a little luck, welcome the conclusion of The New Devil series. I’m also thinking of branching out a little, genre-wise. Maybe try my hand at horror or something.

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?
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, my complete works of Stephen Crane, and a book about survival skills. I was a crappy Boy Scout, so I’m gonna need some refresher courses about starting fires and building shelters and stuff.

Author Websites and Profiles
Alex Hansen Website
Alex Hansen Amazon Profile
Alex Hansen Author Profile on Smashwords

Alex Hansen’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
It still comes as a surprise that I can go out my front door and in a 5 minute walk be on the beach. Has it really been 21 years since I made the decision to make this island my? I have been a teacher of children here for almost all of those years in a culture drastically different from the one I grew up in. I have learned, lived, and found joy in ways I never knew before. Imagine the healing power of the sun’s warmth every month of the year! Every day the smiles of those I meet match the warmth of the sun. Never tiring of looking at the ocean, for me this activity is a meditation.
Writing is a third career for me; I have been a successful educator, teacher, and learning coach, and before that a clinical dietitian and food service director. Although I has always written in some form all my life, dedicating serious time to my dream of being a writer has only just begun There is a novel waiting to be revisited, and many short stories I want to bring to life.

My husband and I, along with two comical and much loved chihuahuas, live in a small community on the north coast of the Dominican Republic.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My first and latest book is PERMISSION GRANTED How to Find and Follow a Path to a Life True to Your Self
This the story of how I travelled from a cold life in the north to a place where life would be warm and one in which I can finally be true to my Self. I hope, that by sharing this memoir, my experiences and discoveries will help others to also find and follow a path to a life of real joy at last.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t suppose this is unusual but I love to write early in the morning when it is quiet and the day is still waiting to be born; it seem that ideas and words come to me so easily then.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
So many really; I have been an avid reader all my life. Barbara Sher’s books on finding the life and work you want have been key for me as I have pointed out in my book. She is a life coach of tremendous talent.

What are you working on now?
I am still preparing the print version of my first book

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Still too new to say

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Just Write

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Choose JOY

What are you reading now?
David Richo’s book The Power of Grace

Author Websites and Profiles
Judith Pratt-Jefferies Amazon Profile

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a first-time author who never even thought about writing a book until I was forced to keep a blog during breast cancer. It was the easiest way to keep everyone informed. The feedback from the blog was that I should write. But I hated writing! I like spreadsheets and numbers! Nevertheless, I eventually couldn’t get rid of the nagging feeling in my gut, so I started to write. And unlike many other things in my life, I actually completed this one!
I am a Decision Support Analyst by day at a community hospital in Monterey, California. I live alone. I enjoy being outside and getting to visit family (all of who live in different states and even countries!) I am a self-diagnosed personal development junkie and at almost 42 years old, I’m still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
“Carry On and Ditch the Excess Baggage! A Journey through Depression, Divorce & Cancer.” The title is somewhat self-explanatory, but I was inspired to write it, as I mentioned above, because of the feedback I received from a blog I kept during breast cancer treatment. I wanted to be honest about the hard times, but also include some humor.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m a huge snacker, and I switch between salty and sweet. My laptop keyboard bears the effects of my nervous eating habits.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I read Elizabeth Gilbert’s “Eat, Pray, Love” as well as Cheryl Strayed’s “Wild” and Stacy Morrison’s “Falling Apart in One Piece.” Each of these shaped my journey through my own tragedies and helped me find ways to put a positive spin on negative things. I also love the writing style of Tina Fey and Mindy Kaling. I want to be able to admit my foibles with laughter rather than embarrassment.

What are you working on now?
I’m currently looking at getting my book into print and possibly an audiobook. I’m also testing my hand at a website with a blog to see if anyone wants to continue following my journey toward healing.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I had no idea how to do any type of promotion. I joined Self-Publishing School, an online course, and hoped for the best. I learned that there are a myriad of options out there, but most charge for their services. I’m hoping that just getting myself on as many of the free promo websites as possible will jumpstart me into a paid promo.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep writing. Put one foot in front of the other. If you need to take a break from the process, do it. But always come back. Always. The feeling on the other end is worth every drop of sweat. It was helpful to be part of a community (for me that was Self-Publishing School) that can keep you focused and give you a format to ask questions and get guidance. I also highly recommend and accountability partner who is on the same journey.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Expectations lessen joy

What are you reading now?
Books from other authors in my Self-Publishing School course.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I want to take a crack at a website/blog and then hopefully have some life experiences that will give me more to write about.

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?
A novel to help me lose myself
A self-help book on things to do when stranded on a desert island
A how-to book on building a raft and/or signaling for help when I was done with being stranded

Author Websites and Profiles
Tiffany Allen Website
Tiffany Allen Amazon Profile

Tiffany Allen’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I live in Salt Lake City Utah. I have a degree in Dental Hygiene. When I’m not saving the world one tooth at a time I put on my mom hat for my five year old daughter Zola. I love to spend my free time traveling the world. Descendants of the Dragon is my first novel.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Descendants of the Dragon. I was inspired by so many things. I have an obsession of sorts with Dinosaurs. I happen to live in a place where I am surrounded by them. My main character Zee who is a paleontologist stemmed from that love. I spent some time teaching English in a remote village in China twelve years ago which inspired so much of this book. The personal growth and awakening of my character is a journey that I think many people in life can relate to. I grew up in a city/state where for a long time everyone around me belonged to a similar social class and religion (Mormonism). The majority of decisions that were made were done with religious intentions. That kind of influence and power has a significant affect on a person. Discovering life out for yourself whether it is what your parents want or your church wants, or what you ideally want is a journey on its own. I think there was a lot of real life experience and emotions that went into this story that I wanted to tell.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
So many obnoxious writing habits. Almost as embarrassing as putting my workout playlist on blast. It’s hard enough putting something you’ve invested so much of yourself in out there to the world.. I”ll spare myself and everyone else on this one.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Where do I even begin… My list of loved books can span anywhere from being a total Twilight, Hunger games, Harry Potter junkie, to The Book Theif, Khaled Hosseini, Lisa See, Anita Shreeve, Laura Hillenbrand. So many to name I feel bad leaving them out. I respect anyone who takes the time and effort to write a story that is an enjoyable escape from the day to day realities of life.

What are you working on now?
My second book that is in a series with my first. Self contained novels but they definitely grow off of each other.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Facebook groups, Reading deals, this website of course, word of mouth.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep pushing forward. There are high days and low days. It takes time for people to read a book and to gain momentum. Don’t give up and keep writing!

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The wise man travels to discover himself

What are you reading now?
Bossypants by Tina Fey. It’s hysterical when you’re having one of those weeks.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Keep believing in my characters and my story and get a new paragraph down every chance I get.

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 book Thief, Unbroken, A long way gone: Because everyone needs to realize that even in their hardest times it can always be worse. To someone a quiet desert island sounds like paradise.
Seriously…I’m Kidding by Ellen: Because it will make you laugh and that’s important.
Then some awesome no effort required romance like Twilight or 50 shades to keep the love alive and have an unrealistic fantasy to escape into when being surrounded by ocean, palm trees, and sand, isn’t good enough.

Author Websites and Profiles
Kelcey Hill Website
Kelcey Hill Amazon Profile

Kelcey Hill’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I live in the deserts of eastern WA, also known as the Evergreen State. Quite the misnomer. I’ve written a number of short stories and novels, though Edge of Desperation is the first I’ve published through Amazon.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Edge of Desperation is set in the Wielder World, where people can Wield the Nerve of the World and use various magical powers. Women can do so freely. Men, unfortunately, must deal with Taint and Corruption.

The idea was a way for me to create a world where the gender roles are flipped a bit, where women tend to be more dominant, but in subtle ways. This book was also inspired by Dune, where the women were afraid to ‘look into the dark places’ and didn’t expand their abilities beyond a certain level, while the men did. In the Wielder World, men might go mad, but they also have abilities women don’t.

Also, I love to read gay fantasy, and so I’m writing what I want to read.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Unusual? Is getting up at 5 am before my day job every day to write unusual? If not, then no.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I think as writers we are influenced by every book we read. I can’t put my finger on just one writer, but I love Barbara Kingsolver, Hemmingway, and Patricia Briggs.

What are you working on now?
More of the Wielder World. The series has a long arc and I’m currently working on book #3, titled Afflicted to the Core.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’ve no idea. I’m new to this promotion business.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write, write, and write. Learn to write well. Read good books, not fluff. Unless you want to write fluff, then write fluff well.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Write, write, and write. How’s that?

What are you reading now?
Ancillary Mercy and Aeronaught’s Windlass. See a theme there. (answer, both Hugo nominations.)

What’s next for you as a writer?
Write, write, and write. Broken record, I know. I’m going to be working in the Wielder World for a while, but I have several works/series I plan on writing. Next up is probably a high fantasy series. With cat people! I love cat races.

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?
When Will There Be Good News by Kate Atkinson. Illusions by Richard Bach. And the Harry Potter series.

Author Websites and Profiles
Nat Kennedy Website
Nat Kennedy Amazon Profile

Nat Kennedy’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve written several short stories, three novels that have yet to be published (The Renegade Mage Chronicles), and have contributed to Blizzard’s Starcraft universe in the form of two other stories, The Exit and Momentum. My latest project is a co-written children’s “Choose Your Own Adventure” inspired series called Ultimate Ending Books.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is The Tower of Never There. It’s part Stephen King, part Twilight Zone, and part Krull (the 80’s adventure movie).

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I like to outline first, before I write stories. Although occasionally I’ll get inspired, open up something as simple as a text document, and just start writing.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
The Stand – by Stephen King, is still my favorite book. I also love Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft.

What are you working on now?
Right now I’m working on Fugitive – the 3rd book in the Renegade Mage Chronicles.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I like to do giveaways over at Goodreads. There are some very cool people over there who can give excellent feedback.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write, write, and keep on writing. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t get published, just keep on writing and everything you do will get better.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“Do… or do not. There is no try.”

-Yoda

What are you reading now?
Nemesis Game, by James A. Corey

What’s next for you as a writer?
To continue publishing the Ultimate Ending book series. Man, those books are fun to 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?
The Stand, by Stephen King
The Dragonlance Chronicles, by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weiss
The entire Harry Potter series. Can’t go wrong reading about those awesome characters.

Author Websites and Profiles
Danny McAleese Website
Danny McAleese Amazon Profile
Danny McAleese Author Profile on Smashwords

Danny McAleese’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Born and raised in the UK, I was educated through the British Grammar School system, which unfortunately no longer exists. An avid and voracious reader from an early age, I developed a love for the written word. Over the years, an eclectic taste in book genres developed, encompassing everything from the classics through sci-fi, fantasy, detective & thriller novels and biographies. The real mainstay was always the suspense thrillers, which is where the seed of an idea, which became The Piedersen Conspiracy germinated. A second book, Stanhope Stanilav is currently part way through the writing process and will hopefully be available in June of this year. A further book Athelstan’s Legacy is also under way.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The Piedersen Conspiracy started life as BEC, which stands for business e-mail compromise. After reading an FBI report regarding a scam whereby a company was targeted and transferred monies to a fraudulent bank account I was intrigued by the scam. It is a huge fraud that is worldwide and hardly anyone seems to be knowledgeable about it. I wove a story around it and for some reason a huge shipping empire seemed the ideal conduit. Whilst the scam is pivotal to the story line, as the story developed new ideas came to the fore and The Piedersen Conspiracy came into being.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m sure many of my fellow authors would think I am pretty pedestrian in my writing habits. I do have a tendency to start writing when I’m inspired and all thought of climbing into the shower, getting dressed or eating can be placed on the back burner.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Obviously, nearly all authors read books in the genre they write in. I enjoy such authors as James Patterson, Lee Child, Harlan Coben and Michael Connelly. I have also had the privilege of working with a number of lesser known authors who are nevertheless excellent writers. These include Tim Stevens, James P. Sumner, John Carson, Barry Buckingham and Rex Grainger. My reading tastes remain eclectic and I’m happy to read books from various genres as long as the book is well crafted.

What are you working on now?
The current project is Stanhope Stanislav. Based on Ed Vandera, one of the main characters in The Piedersen Conspiracy, it is based in Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad. A British Intelligence Officer defects in Russia and resurfaces with murder and mayhem on his mind. Ed is the Special Ops Officer who is sent in to infiltrate and neutralise Stanhope’s organisation. A task that becomes all the more difficult when Ed discovers a billionaire oligarch has his own agenda and tries to persuade Ed to work with him, not knowing his true role in the matter.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Book promotion is a major hurdle for any budding author. There are plenty of programs out there, all of which claim to be the great elixir that will shoot you into stardom. The problem is any formula that works for one author at any given moment in time does not ensure the same level of success if copied and repeated. The marketplace is a moveable feast and no single method is going to work for everyone. Sites such as this offer a great platform for new authors, especially if used in conjunction with social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
The best advice I could offer any new author would be to find a good editor/proofreader. There are affordable options out there and that was certainly my first port of call. Despite Amazon’s promises, there are numerous books being put up on Amazon that have never seen a spellcheck program, never mind an editor. Readers are rightly indignant at finding poorly presented books and a certain path to disaster is to present an unedited manuscript.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t give up the day job. There are very few authors who achieve fame and fortune, though we all aspire to earn millions and be the next J.K.Rowling or J.R.R.Tolkien or James Patterson. Despite that I’m certain I will make a modest income if I stick at it for long enough.

What are you reading now?
I am reading Blank by Richard C Hale. The book is somewhat different to much of what I read, but is an interesting phenomena about a boy born with no face. Conveying the concept as well as it is in the book, would mean me doing the author an injustice.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I intend to develop the characters of Ed Vandera and Marti Ellis throughout the coming books. My hope is to complete a further two novels in the series by the end of 2016.

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 perennial question of which books to take. I would certainly have to have a copy of Lord of the Rings. I read the book long before it became the huge blockbuster that spawned the films. I have read the book several times and have to say I never tire of it. I would probably cheat and take an anthology of the Harry Potter books, if such a thing exists. That way I get more bang for my buck. I would also have to have something to make me laugh, so either a Tom Holt or Tom Sharpe novel. As they both write brilliant books anyone of their titles would do.

Author Websites and Profiles
Christian Dane Website
Christian Dane Amazon Profile

Christian Dane’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am the author of the Goose Pimple Junction mystery series. I’ve just published book 4 in the series, Rogues & Rascals in Goose Pimple Junction.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Rogues & Rascals in Goose Pimple Junction was actually inspired by my own divorce. I let my imagination drive the book, but it all started out from my dislike of lawyers after going through the divorce process.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Why, what did you hear?!

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Any and all I have read. Seriously. I tend to gravitate to mysteries, and love I Robert B. Parker, David Rosenfelt, Michael Connelly, Chris Knopf . . . but I also read the occasional chick lit book. I think my severe reading habit was what made my foray into writing a fairly easy transition.

What are you working on now?
I just finished book 4 in the series, so I am trying to market it and get the word out. I’m also doing a lot of daydreaming about book #5.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’m not sure there is one best. I have a list on my blog of suggested sites to help authors market their books. It’s sites like Awesomegang combined with others that help spread the word. You can find my list here: http://abluemillionbooks.blogspot.com/p/marketing.html
And thank you for all you do Awesomegang–you really are awesome.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Get Beta readers. They are essential.
Pay for work to publish your book, i.e. editing, cover art . . .
Read your work out loud.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
There’s no such thing as a free lunch.

What are you reading now?
Robert B. Parker’s The Devil Wins by Reed Farrel Coleman in audiobook, Seven Brides for Seven Bodies by Stephanie Bond in Kindle.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Oh, let’s dream big and say the New York Times best seller list. Until then, I will be continuing to add more books to the series.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
That question is so hard, it blows my mind. I’d pick the Bible, but the other two? No way I could choose. I’d have to close my eyes and grab two.

Author Websites and Profiles
Amy Metz Website
Amy Metz Amazon Profile

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

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
As a former English teacher, I’ve always loved the written word–there is such power in it for good.

My husband and I are both retired now and we enjoy the outdoors and our family, not in that order!

Currently, I’m working on the preliminaries for my third novel. What a pleasure it is to dig into the research for it, and to meet so many fascinating people who carry around a wealth of information in their heads. The old saying is that people are always learning, and when we deliberately set out to learn all we can, the end product is always worth it.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Book II of the Second Chances Trilogy has recently gone to print; it is entitled “The Bridegroom of Castle Heights” and is set in one of my favorite neighborhoods in Waco, Texas. It is about a young couple who have settled for a marriage of convenience, but it is an empty life and a hopeless one, too. In their search for the missing pieces of life, Tyler and Sumner must learn to grieve the past and then to let it go. It’s never easy to change, but they will either learn to adapt or their marriage will not survive.

Inspiration sometimes comes from the generosity of strangers, and such is the case with “Bridegroom.” Due to a physical ailment, I was sent to a physical therapist who, quite literally, restored my ability to walk. I am indebted to this perfect stranger for the rest of my life.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Okay, this is going to sound really old-school, but I write all my stories in long hand first, in 5 subject notebooks, and I color code each book. Right now, Book III is in purple and yellow!

Another oddity is that I love to write outdoors where the breeze ruffles the imaginary leaves on the pages as I write. Sounds so weird when I write that!

Now, this probably isn’t all that strange to most writers, but I often wake up in the wee sma’s of the morning, curl up in my husband’s lounge chair, and scribble away.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
So. Many. Authors.

As a child, I gulped down Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mysteries, which morphed into stories like “Caddie Woodlawn” and “The Cabins Faced West.” In junior high, the terrible pre-teens, I read “Johnny Tremain” by Esther Forbes probably fifty times. Even now, thinking of Sam Adams crouching under the heavy timbers of the attic where the Sons of Liberty met secretly, sends a resonating reverberation down my spine. Why did the Americans choose to fight the Revolution? “So a man can stand up,” Sam told the others.

As an adult, I have been greatly influenced by George McDonald, an early Scottish writer who has influenced some of our early theologians both here in America and across the pond, as well. More recently, I love reading anything by Lisa Wingate, a woman for whom I have the deepest respect.

What are you working on now?
Whoo! Okay, right now the story is the continuing life of a character from “Courting the Mrs.” Trey is a teenager when we first meet him in Book I, but as he matures and begins his career in Book III, he must now come to a recognition and an acceptance of the abuse he endured as a child. People are incapable of healthy relationships until they learn to deal with the past, and Trey is no exception.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
My best method is prayer, and I mean that seriously. There are many women and men who pray for me faithfully, and who hold me and my characters accountable to God’s word.

Secondly, I have a wonderful friend who is my expert in all things about publishing independently.

Last of all, I try to remain open to the possibilities around me. Sometimes I need to go out of my comfort zone, but that’s okay. I find great joy in discovery.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Writing demands discipline and love. Write what you know, what you are passionate about, and what satisfies a place deep inside. Then be ready to take it all apart and write it again, and again, and again until it’s right.

Another thing I do is read aloud to myself as I write. That way I can hear the words and the cadence of the voices as I try to pin my characters to a page so that the reader can hear them, too. Hopefully, the reader will love them like I do.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Someone said once that if we love what we do, we won’t ever have to work a day in our life. For twenty- one years I taught high school, and I have to say that I didn’t work very many of those days. The same is true of writing. I love telling stories about life and the Lord. So when I’m writing, I’m not really working.

What are you reading now?
I just finished “All the Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr and loved it. What a gentle, incredible tale of a dark period of history that is spun out of the brightness of a soul that refuses to hide in the darkness.

And then I will return to my old favorite, Lisa Wingate’s “Texas Cooking.”

What’s next for you as a writer?
With seven grandchildren, there’s no telling! I wake up every morning asking the Lord to direct my day, and so every day is a brand new adventure.

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?
My Bible and the thickest blank notebooks I could find!

Author Websites and Profiles
Karen Marstaller Website
Karen Marstaller Amazon Profile

Karen Marstaller’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Well so I’m an immigrant to this great country and a proud resident of Florida from the early 70s. I’ve now published 3 books In the series of Jokes against Humanity. I set out to write a collection of jokes that landed in the sweet spot of definitely NOT being politically correct, but also avoided being overly silly or entirely mean spirited and hurtful with little redeeming humor value. Most of the joke books sold on Amazon seemed to land in one of those two categories.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Jokes Against Humanity 3 is my latest. Once I finished publishing Volume 2 I realized I still had some fantastic material from jokes, some of which I first wrote down in the late seventies and early eighties.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Yes . Doesn’t everyone? I’m writing a sci fi novel that I started in 1989. The unusual habit is that writing is not my day job and this silly novel has taken me over 25 years to write and it’s still not finished. I still put everything down on a legal notepad by hand, and only after I’m somewhat satisfied, do I bother transcribing pages to a word processor,

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I grew up reading sci-fi. Asimov, Bova, Ellison and Frederick Pohl were my early influences. I always dreamed of crafting a tale in their style. This is probably why it’s taken me so long to complete that darn sci-fi novel!

What are you working on now?
My pool filter

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Awesomegang.com certainly has great resources. I do prefer one on one interaction with readers so Twitter seems like a platform that I’ve tried to embrace. I realize it doesn’t have the impact of a paid carpet bombing campaign, but I’m ok reaching my fans one at a time and doing so on a much more personal level,

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Be patient. Write with passion and for no one but yourself.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Maya Angelou once said something along the lines of they’ll forget what you said but they’ll remember how you made them feel. This is so true. (At least it was true in her day before everyone recorded everything on their phones). But think about it – when you talk to a friend or to your family or coworkers, the words you speak will most likely not be remembered even shortly afterwards, but the emotions you invoked. Those will persist – often for a lifetime. Do what you can to ensure those emotions are positive.

What are you reading now?
The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie

What’s next for you as a writer?
I will finish and publish my epic sci-fi novel.

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?
Well I’m not religious (and that’s probably a result of growing up with many so called religious folks including several who went on to become ordained priests). So no, I would NOT bring a bible. I would bring books that would keep my mind engaged and entertained. Bill Bryson’s a Short History of Nearly Everything is a seminal work from him. Asimov’s Foundation Series and my Jokes Against Humanity Box Set

M. Harry Ballsych’s Social Media Links
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
A lifelong lover of literature, I was first published at the age of eighteen . My passion for the written word started early, and as a child I would carry her mother’s novels as part of my wardrobe.

I am the author of three traditionally published books. Salvation, a century-long romp through the life of a maladjusted vampire, was published in 2012 by Melange books. My first literary fiction title, Benjamin, was published the following year, also by Melange Books. Cold Breath of Life, my first poetry collection, was released by Hidden Brook Press in 2013. I have also independently produced a collection of short fiction called Whispers: A Collection of Dark Tales, which was released in 2014, and a young adult fantasy novel, Switch, which is the first installment in a new series called The Witches of Armour Hill. I’m currently writing the sequel, entitled Twisted, which will be released late this year.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The novel I’m currently working on is called Twisted, and it is the second installment in The Witches of Armour Hill series. A couple years ago, my father took a new position in Peterborough, Ontario, and I had a chance to look around the city a little bit. There’s great history all over Peterborough, but there was one story that stood out over all the rest.

In 1840, a woman was tried for witchcraft in Peterborough. They found her guilty, and she was burned at the stake. Yes, in 1840.

How can you not be inspired by something like that?

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I think my most unusual habit is that fact that I’d rather write on literally ANYTHING than type. I hate typing. Something about staring at a blank screen with my fingers on a keyboard – it just doesn’t work. When I’m looking at a blank sheet of paper (or a napkin, or a receipt, or that piece of my coffee cup I tore off this morning) with a pen in my hand though? Everything just flows perfectly.

I usually let myself get to about 5000-10 000 words on random sheets of paper before I force myself to take a typing day, and get it all on the computer.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I like to think that everything I read influences me. The goods things, I try to incorporate into my own writing. The bad things, I know to avoid.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
My advice for new authors is something I wish someone had told me when I was younger – don’t wait for anyone else to validate you. If you’re writing, then you’re a writer. You don’t need an agent or an editor or a publisher to tell you when you’re writer, because you already are. Now, you just need to decide what you’re going to DO with the things you write. (Scary, I know)

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t ever give up the control you have over your own work.

For me, this meant turning to self-publishing, but I know that it will mean a lot of different things for a lot of different people. However you decide to interpret it, it is SO important. Your book is your baby. You put hours and hours of your life into those pages. Don’t leave it to someone else to decide what happens to them now.

What are you reading now?
I’m currently reading The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano, Slow Learner by Thomas Pynchon, and The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams, because I’ve never been any good at literary monogamy.

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?
Don’t do that to me… chances are I’d die from the stress of trying to decide before I even made it to the island!

Author Websites and Profiles
Alyssa Cooper Website
Alyssa Cooper Amazon Profile

Alyssa Cooper’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I was born in Long Beach, California, but lived most of my life in the suburbs of New Orleans, Louisiana and believe truly that it will always be my home no matter where I live. I’m the daughter of William (Bill) and Mearl Heffker, and graduated from L. W. Higgins High School. I married my childhood sweetheart, Jeff McKevitt and my partner in crime, lol.
I have been many things in life; a wife, a mother, a salesperson, owned a lucrative landscaping business and raised horses, but my love of writing never wavered. Hurricane Katrina, a curse to many, changed my life. The business gone and my family scattered, I moved to Alabama, then to the mountains of Georgia.
Life urged me on, so when I found the first chapters of a manuscript I had started while still in New Orleans, I sat down at the computer and never looked back. My vivid imagination and love for fantasy has culminated into a story I hopes will captivate anyone who loves a good journey. Fracture The Secret Enemy Saga, started so many years ago was the beginning of the road. The Hunted and Secrets is the continuing journey, with Destiny to be released in 2016. With several more books to go where do I go from here? Who knows where the road will lead but I hope you will take the journey with me.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13539142-fracture

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My ongoing series, Fracture The Secret Enemy Saga, was not the first book I wrote but it is the one who demanded to be first. I had lost touch with my writing over the years as life and a family took center stage but after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast my life change.
One day, after moving to North Georgia, I was cleaning out a closet and found the box of my unfinished stories. I sat down in the floor and picked up what was then called, A Rip In Time, and my life literally changed that day. I didn’t know where I was going but I knew where to start and now three books later and two more tho follow, I’m on the path I wast meant to travel.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m not sure, lol. I think all writers are a little unusual. I’ve been known to pull off the Interstate and write down a scene or get up in the middle of the night because the characters won’t let me sleep.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Anne Rice, Stephen King and Dean Koontz are my favorite writers but my favorite books are the Lord of the Rings series and Game of Thrones. The are large and sweeping worlds that one can get lost in for days. In my minds eye they are the best visual reads I have ever held.

What are you working on now?
Wow! Are you ready, lol? I’m working on four projects; book four of Fracture, titled Destiny, a tweens series, titled Wendy Woo and the Dragon’s Eggs~in Search of Camelot, a shapeshifter novel, titled, Aiden’s War, sand a secret project that I can’t spill on at the moment.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I think you have yo be diverse these days. There is no one site you should keep your eggs in. Facebook and twitter are my go to sites but blogs, Pinterest and Instagram are great for promoting as long as you don’t spam people. No one likes a constant barrage of buy mes hitting them in the face everyday. Be gentle is my motto.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
NEVER GIVE UP! This life is not easy. The instant fame you see is not as fast as you think it is. It takes hard work and a good product to make it in this world. The musts are; an engaging story, a properly edited book and a great cover. Do your homework and ask for help. The indy author community is a family.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“You better publish that book.” From my hubby after reading the rough draft.

What are you reading now?
Nothing at the moment. I need to finish my projects first.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Getting famous, hahaha! What’s next? I took a James Patterson class and during that class we wrote a mystery piece for a contest (I didn’t win). I really liked the concept and may finish that work.

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?
Are there any books titled “How to Survive on a Desert Island”, hahaha! That would be first on the list. I’ve always wanted to read Battleship Earth but never have. Maybe that one and-this is a hard question. I’ll have to think on it.

Author Websites and Profiles
VIRGINIA MCKEVITT Website
VIRGINIA MCKEVITT Amazon Profile

VIRGINIA MCKEVITT’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
“Did you see that?”
Mum wanted me to reply with something to do with the beautiful ocean we were driving past. However, what I saw was a knight fighting a dragon. Eagerly I turned the page in the book to find out what happened next, completely oblivious to my surrounds. That was the basic blueprint of our car trips when I was younger.
Luckily there were a lot of trips and, as much as I wanted to keep reading at the time, she managed to coax me into seeing the magic of the world around us. Hence when I wrote about the scenery in town I won an international award when I was 13. Thanks Mum.

A couple of novels later and here I am, sharing the magic and hoping you’ll like what you see. I write fantasy for children aged 9+ as well as poetry. More recently I’ve added adult fantasy to my repertoire (the kind with whips and chains, not the kind with whips and…hang on. Start over. The kind with swords, angels and talking gargoyles, with just a blend of crime. Not erotica.)

When not writing I’m probably feeling guilty about not writing. Or playing an RPG, TCG, fishing or bushwalking.

So far I have 5 published books- 2 children’s fantasy (9+), 2 poetry collections and an adult fantasy similar to Stephen King’s ‘The Gunslinger’ but with an infusion of crime.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Of A Dark Heart.

Travel is the most inspirational thing for me. So the setting for Of A Dark Heart came from a trip across the Nullarbor (it’s a desert in Australia). As for the story…that is harder to source. The main character Excalem was someone I had wanted to write about for a while. I like the idea of someone doing all the wrong things for what he thinks is justice. As well as the imagery of a dual wielding swordsman, with an exquisite crystal blade and fiery cleaver, was too strong to ignore!

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
37 cartwheels then a belly flop into the pool. That usually gets my creative juices flowing

No, not really. Nothing too unusual. I sit in a worn out red leather chair, found on the side of the road, which clearly once belonged to a barber (it’s amazing where hair can end up). Tchavolo Swing plays to get me in the mood, although that’s only a new edition. I used to listen to Classical Gas by Mason Williams on repeat when I wrote my first 2 novels.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Too many to list in full.
Lego/ Goosebumps Pick-your-own-adventure books. These were what first got me interested in reading in grade 3.
Deltora Quest by Emily Rodda. My first steps into fantasy with great riddles and puzzles along the way. I still love it now.
Magician by Raymond E. Feist was the book I was reading when I realised that someone in the world had actually sat down in a room and written this story. (Previously I presumed books just appeared. Probably in a factory manned by Santa’s elves.) Plus they were paid for it.

What are you working on now?
My next poetry collection is almost finished.
In addition I have a sci-fi/dystopian halfway done and the third book in The Casse Lands series has begun.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Book signings in person work best for me.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Find a writing group.
Kidnap them, lock them in a basement and never let them out.
Go out and find another writing group.
Repeat.
Using this method you will become the world’s number one author. Just make sure you have written something first. Otherwise you’re just a criminal.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Finish the book.

What are you reading now?
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

What’s next for you as a writer?
Sales, hopefully.
More writing.
Dealing with my horde of devoted fans.

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. A large notebook so I can keep writing.
2. The biggest ‘pick-your-own-advenutre’ book, probably a Goosebumps version.
3. A life size pop-up book that contains a page on shelter. Maybe a castle.
4. The Neverending Story. Note: All I know about this book is the title and I’m hoping it’s not false advertising.

Author Websites and Profiles
Chris Foster Website
Chris Foster Amazon Profile

Chris Foster’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a mom and wife living in Houston and work a full time job. I write in my scarce spare time and currently have 3 published works. I’ve written 5 and writing my 6th right now.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Lost in Shadows is my upcoming release, May 31st. It’s a dark romance and was part of an anthology that was released on Valentine’s Day. It’s a short story but packs a punch.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Unusual? Hm… I used to get Starbucks every night and write for an hour or two with sonatas playing, but that didn’t last long. Now I write when I can. I hardly plot anything out, just write where the characters take me.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Yasmine Galenorn and Nalini Singh are my two favorite authors. They are truly amazing at their craft and I hope to be half as good as they are one day.

What are you working on now?
Currently I’m working on the prequel to my debut novella, Children of Darkness: Genesis. It will be a story of how my nightmare demons came to be.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I haven’t found the perfect platform or website yet. I’m still attempting to break into the writing world one reader at a time. Hopefully that will change soon! I’m mostly on Facebook and Instagram right now.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Grab as many blog posts you can about marketing and promotions. Everyone swears by different things but they won’t all work for you. Be a sponge.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“Don’t spend your time chasing lists and obsessing over the little things. The time will come for you to shine, and you’re a true bright star. Keep writing until then.” My mentor and sensei told me that.

What are you reading now?
I don’t get to read much anymore, but the last book I started was Crossing the Line by Jacquelyn Ayres. She has two amazing series that I just can’t get enough of.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Well, I can’t really plan out too much because you never know what tomorrow will bring. I plan to keep writing and putting out books for people to read and hopefully get a good following.

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?
That’s a tough question and my answer changes every time. Where the Red Fern Grows, Archangel’s Blade, and chasing Reese.

Author Websites and Profiles
Courtney Shockey Website
Courtney Shockey Amazon Profile

Courtney Shockey’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Despite sitting on a whole bundle of unfinished shorts, and a full YA sci-fi novel, I’ve recently published my first piece of work ‘The Strangeling’.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
‘The Strangeling’ – A Tale From Original Earth. The best way to describe this short is a mish-mash of sci-fi, philosophy and ethnic re-imagination. I drew inspiration from various cultures and tribes through history, as well as our expanding understanding of science and dimensions.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I can’t write without being in total isolation with music playing. If I sense someone around it’s basically impossibly to write, because I’m far too distracted by the presence of their energy flow.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Roald Dahl has always been my idol author, but my list of writing heros is vast. Janet Fitch, Isaac Asimov, Madeline L’Engle, Peter V. Brett, Stephen Ambrose, David Wong, Rudyard Kipling….we could be here all day.

What are you working on now?
Currently I’m rough drafting the next short in the Original Earth series. It will have brief appearances by the characters you meet in ‘The Strangeling’ but will primarily introduce new faces and places.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Amazon. They know what’s up.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t stop. No matter how much you fail (and you will, a lot), no matter what every know-it-all-nay-sayer says, keep going. Creative story-telling is maybe the greatest talent a person can mold in their life. So get after it, and tell the doubters to kiss off.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Life is nothing but individual perspective. Just because there’s two different opinions doesn’t mean either one is wrong, so keep your mind open and your mouth shut until you’re sure of what you believe.

What are you reading now?
‘The Skull Throne’ by Peter V. Brett, the fourth book in his Demon Cycle series. If you’ve never read his work, drop everything right now and go purchase/check-out ‘The Warded Man’. It is the most inventive, solid work that I’ve read in years.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m going to chase sci-fi for a while, but I am going to start dabbling with comedy in the next few months.

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?
‘White Oleander’ by Janet Fitch. I’ve read it countless times over the past decade and it never gets old. Every paragraph is poetry, it’s pure gold.
‘John Dies at the End’ by David Wong. If I ever write with half of the sporadically mind-bending ingenuity as he does, I’ll consider my life complete.
‘Crime and Punishment’ by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. That guy was way, way ahead of his time. Fabulous, warped, beautifully written tale of psychology, philosophy and murder.

Nicole Cannavaro’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a single dad with three kids and a dog, and I’ve published six books. I’ve actually written way more than that, but seriously, they were really bad. Consider them my apprenticeship. I keep them under lock and key, dreading they’ll one day see the light of day. I need to get a shredder. But I’m very pleased with the six books that did make it past quality control. They include my Alien Infiltration series (not as painful as it sounds), and my one space opera, Callisto.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Callisto (I think I mentioned this once already). I was probably inspired by a sci-fi book I read by an unnamed author that made me think, “OMG, seriously? I can do better than this.” Thus does pride cometh before a fall, as it took several years for the project to make it to market. My other, more positive, inspiration was the book (and movie, Denzel Washington was awesome in it): Man On Fire. Not a space novel, admittedly, but I had a little girl at the time, and the theme of paternal protection resonated with me. Throw in some detailed research on gangs, social breakdown and how to survive on a frozen moon, and there you have it – a tour de force of a hundred ways to die in space. If you like flowers and poetry, it’s probably not your thing.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
What, like extreme ironing, where you try to smooth out the creases on your shirt while sky diving or having sex on a water slide? Well, I might be able to get the laptop on a water slide, but most of my writing habits are pretty mundane: Drink coffee, stare at screen, get an attack of the munchies, empty the biscuit barrel, have another coffee, stare at the screen some more, etc. Somewhere in the middle of all that, writing gets done. Miracles do happen, but only with coffee.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I suppose my earliest influence was Enid Blyton, as I read all the Famous Five books, and adventures are what I like to write about now. I tried reading one of those books to my children recently, though, and they couldn’t stop laughing at the idea of a girl called George and a boy called Dick. Kids today, eh? I abandoned the book at page two and sent them out to scrub the yard instead, the ungrateful wretches. More recent influences include Len Deighton, especially his excellent Goodbye Mickey Mouse, the book that first taught me about characterisation. Michael Moorcock gave me a handle on introducing fluidity to my writing, and Eric Van Lustbader’s Sunset Warrior series lit up my teenage years with some of the best epic action scenarios that still slip into my writing now. And, of course, I have to mention Susanna Clarke’s masterpiece, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel. It’s so good that it actually made me want to quit writing. So, kind of the opposite of an influence really, but I survived (damn you Susanna!). I’ve also enjoyed reading a lot of non-fiction soldiers’ memoirs, because I love the action, the humour and the poignancy. It’s the perfect mix for fiction, I think. And yes, I have ripped large amounts of it off.

What are you working on now?
That depends. If you’re reading this in the future, I could be writing anything, but right now I’m nearing the end of my first post-apocalyptic zombie novel, which will be the start of a new series and is scheduled for release in July 2016. Cue lots of gore, action and a hero on a quest across a zombie wasteland to find the man who betrayed him and left him for dead. And it might not be who you think.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Apart from dancing naked round a fire at midnight and crossing a gypsy’s palm with silver? (Doesn’t work, by the way, unless you like to stir-fry your noodle. The nurses will never believe you, and the gypsy will always do a runner.) Well, I have my blog, which helps, but the bulk of the heavy lifting is done with sites like this one, and Awesome Gang is permanently on my go-to list. Freebies and bargain giveaways are the way to go.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Yes. Never leave an Oreo in your milk for more then three nano-seconds unless you want to be slurping up soggy chunks at the end. And never answer the phone when you’re ironing, unless you want to steam your ear.

But seriously, if you want advice on the trade, I can only say that you should write with your heart, but make sure your heart aligns with the market. Write what you want in your own unique style, but make sure it’s not that different from your contemporaries. And finally, enjoy what you do, and suffer because of it. Contradictory? Yes, because this kind of question presupposes that there’s only one type of new author: the author who wants to be successful. Not every author wants that, however. Some are happy simply to commit their work to print (or pixel), satisfied if only a few friends read it. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But my most pertinent piece of advice is: work out which of those two author types you are, because it’s a rare piece of luck to be able to be both. If you do want to be successful, then the market matters, and it will change how you write. And that can hurt. So think about what people want to read. Or don’t. But understand that you’ve just made a choice.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I’m not sure I’ve heard any good advice. I’ve been fed on a diet of outdated nonsense, the bland posturings of know-it-alls, and things that never actually applied to my situation. So I tend to learn stuff the hard way. Sometimes it’s the best way. While not exactly classed as advice, I’d have to say that the best maxim I ever read was that written by Richard Bach: “A professional writer is simply an amateur who never gave up.”

What are you reading now?
I don’t normally read much when I’m writing, especially when I’m nearing the end of a project, but I’ve got three zombie novels on my Kindle waiting to be read. The most recent book I’ve read, however, was I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson. When it comes to descriptions of dystopia and post-apocalyptic despair, there’s not much to rival this one. And the book’s over fifty years old, so you can see how high the bar was set. It’s an exceptional read.

What’s next for you as a writer?
The next project. Always. Finish one, market it, start laying down the foundations for the next one. I currently have more ideas than I can write, and with each year I get more. My only problem is I can’t write fast enough to keep up with my brain.

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?
A book I hate, to light fires with, a book I love, to fan the flames, a beginner’s guide to boat building, and a hefty tome to smack Tom Hanks round the head with if he ever wanders into shot.

Author Websites and Profiles
Rob Lopez Website
Rob Lopez Amazon Profile

Rob Lopez’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Something like 60 or 70. I lose count. I’ve been writing since before most of you were born, everything from Romance with three different degrees of heat, magazine articles, newspaper articles, Science Fiction novels, and novels including aspects of Romance and Fantasy but no shapeshifters or zombies, and definitely no vampires. Shudder! I mean, what’s romantic about some creep in a tuxedo and a flowing cape sucking all the blood out of your throat? Yucch.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is CAVERNS, the 4th and last in The Chronicles of Storn. It all came about because I wrote REFUGE, a tale of people on the planet Storn (named for Josiah A. Storn, the admiral who took a fleet of seven ships, known as The Dirtsider Expedition halfway across the Milky Way), carrying the remnants of Earth’s population. It took them a thousand years to get there, even with the fastest drive ever built. They spend the trip in cryostasis (freeze, for the non-technical people like me–“freeze” being easier to type than “cryostasis”, which my dictionary program doesn’t recognize as a real word). Anyway, the planet is weird. Each of its seasons last around 52 weeks, and if summer is hellish hot, winter is downright deadly. They have to go into freeze so they don’t freeze to death. (Really, that does make sense.) There, cared for by A.I. servos, they can live through winter–well most of them can. Until the the freezer-tubes start failing. Or so many believe. Others suspect they’re being killed off in the orders of Someone High Up who knows there’s a group of “dissidents” folks who think it’s perfectly all right that some of the recently born children have ESP abilities. The dissidents build a refuge far away where they hope to be the first to spend winter on Storn outside of freeze. Not to post a spoiler, some of them actually do (you’d have figured that out already, so you can’t really call it a spoiler). I’m not telling you how they go about it or what the eventual outcome is. I got to the end of that book, and WHAM! a total surprise came marching in. A man named Joe Storn. Of course, everyone knows it can’t be THE Josiah A. Storn, Admiral of the Dirtsider Expedition. He and a troop broke free of the initial landing party, but that was 300 years ago and this guy doesn’t look a day older than 45. When everyone settles down, this Joe Storn character says, “Have I got a story for you!”

So knowing that, I simply had to find out what his story was. This led me to LIFELINE, which starts out “Joe Storn had two problems. One, he was lying naked on an autopsy table, and two, he desperately needed to take a leak.” His story goes on from there, right up to his being shanghaied in Luna, given an admiralty he doesn’t want, and a fleet of freeze ship bound for a world he’s never heard of. He’s not given a chance to refuse, so does his best. When the ships all land, turns out there are a few unexpected dangers, one of which is a virus that makes a lot of people copulate to the point of unconsciousness, leaving them prey to some vicious avians as big as hang gliders. Joe and his special crew, having enjoyed the physical and mental enhancement of some super nanobots, aren’t affected. Despite that, the self-styled Committee of Captains denies Joe & company the freedom to explore. They want everyone back in freeze until the scientists can figure out an antidote to this virus. Failing that, it’s their intention to put a serious libido suppressant into the drinking water. Well, Joe, along with about a hundred others who think sex is just fine, become the Dirtsider Troop since the Dirtsider Expedition is a bust. Hence DIRTSIDERS, book 3 in the Chronicles, takes Joe and his pals on several adventures, some of which are deadly, as they seek out a place they can call their own and do what the expedition was intended to do–settle the planet as a new home for humanity. But Joe knows his troop of less than a hundred people isn’t enough. He has to to find a way back to the ships’ valley so he can release all the corpsicles held in freeze by the Committee of Captains–assuming any are still alive. But if they’re not, there will still be the frozen zygotes, human and animal, ready and waiting to be quickened and grown. Since he can’t get over or around some mighty impressive mountains, the only way to get back is to go under them. Which brings us to CAVERNS, as well as full circle back to the point where Joe says “Have I got a story for you!” But that, of course, can’t be the end. After he tells his story, he, his crew, and the people they’ve just met have a job to do in those caverns, a dangerous one, one in which failure is not an option, because there are precious lives that must, at all costs, be saved. After all, they are humanity’s hope.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Yes. I never, ever, write Chapter Four until the book is done. It’s some kind of mental block. So I just start out with Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three and then keep on writing for as long as necessary to get the story on screen. Then I can go back and decide where Chapters Four, Five, Six and all the rest need to be.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Anne McCaffrey, Robert A. Heinlein, Ann Mather to name a few. I cut my teeth reading my dad’s AMAZING STORIES magazines aboard his boat, then discovered my aunts’ “Nurse Books” published by Harlequin.

What are you working on now?
As above, CAVERNS.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Awesomegang (of course) Goodebooks, Goodreads, Amazon, Author Blogs that invite guest writers.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
If you’re a young married woman, use a pen-name. Bad things can happen. Marriages can fail. If you’ve become famous using the name of a man you might ultimately hate, you won’t want to have to continue use his name on your books. (No, this hasn’t happened to me, but it has to a lot of writer friends.) But whoever you are, if you have the talent, the energy, the drive, and the desire to write, make the time to do it. Don’t believe the snarks who want to cut you down by saying, “You’ll never make a living at that.” Also, when you think you book is perfect, trust me, it’s not. Hire a editor. Not your mom (unless she is one), not your best friend, or a classmate who “has a way with words”. You need someone who knows grammar, sentence structure, dialogue formatting, and spelling. The spell-checker and grammar- checker on your computer are not substitutes for the real thing. After the editor’s done, have at least three proof-readers go over your work to look for missing words, incomprehensible sentences, and sloppy punctuation you and your editor have missed. NEVER, EVER PAY A COMPANY OR ORGANIZATION TO PUBLISH YOUR BOOK. They’ll promise you expert editing, madly successful advertising, fantastic sales and will suck you dry leaving you with nothing but regrets.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Success=Ass in Chair.” (I believe this was attributed to Arthur C. Clarke, or maybe Izaak Asimov, but I’ve been using it so long, if you Google it, you’re liable to find my name attached to it.

What are you reading now?
Just finished listening to David Baldacci’s LAST MILE, 2nd book in his Amos Decker series that began with MEMORY MAN. Haven’t started anything else today.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Who know? Certainly I don’t. When I have CAVERNS locked up I might retire. When I mention that to my husband he laughs. Rudely. The rat.

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, by Ayn Rand; Time Enough For Love, by Robert A. Heinlein; Foundation, by Izaac Asimov (all under one cover); and The Complete Works of Robert Frost.

Author Websites and Profiles
Judy Griffith Gill Website
Judy Griffith Gill Amazon Profile

Judy Griffith Gill’s Social Media Links
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Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a novelist from Columbus, Ohio who enjoys writing and really loves a good scare. Since I was ten years old, I’ve wanted to be a writer, and since I came across Anne Rice and Stephen King I really wanted to be a horror writer. When I’m not writing or blogging, I enjoy reading, watching TV, and just having a good time. Besides being able to write full-time, my goals include getting a couple of cats when I can afford it, writing for Doctor Who, and getting to go on a ghost hunt with the Ghost Adventures Crew.

I have three books out right now, with a fourth being published very soon. My first book, The Quiet Game, is a collection of original short stories I wrote in college. My first novel, Reborn City, is a science fiction novel about street gangs in a dystopian city-state, and the connection between one rising gang called the Hydras and the mysterious leaders of the city. The sequel, Video Rage, comes out June 1st. I also have a thriller called Snake, about a serial killer hunting members of a powerful and dangerous mafia organization.

I’m also currently editing two novels, a thriller called Laura Horn and a horror novel called Rose, as well as compiling a collection of short stories I’m planning on calling Teenage Wasteland.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Video Rage is the sequel to Reborn City, which as I mentioned before is about a street gang called the Hydras living in a dystopian city-state. The leaders of this gang have special abilities, and they’re somehow connected to the leaders of the city. It’s a series I started writing in high school, not too long after watching the movie Freedom Writers. That movie, which is about teenage gangsters overcoming what people think of them and becoming better people, really struck a chord with me and made me see the movie about two or three times after that.

It wasn’t too long after I saw the movie that I had the idea for Reborn City. I was walking home from the library one summer afternoon, listening to some rap music and thinking how that music would have fit very well in Freedom Writers’ soundtrack. And then, I thought to myself, “I should write a story involving gangsters.” That was all it took. Immediately I started thinking of the possibilities, coming up with characters and deciding what sort of world this story would be set in. I didn’t start writing it until around April, but by then most of the ideas were formulated and I was ready to start working on the first draft.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I like to write either when I’m lying on a couch or on a bed, with the computer in my lap. I’ll also usually write in the evening, more often than not typing a few quick words during the commercial breaks of the ten or so shows I enjoy. If I’m not watching TV though, I’ll have something on in the background, usually music or ASMR videos, anything I can zone out to while I work.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Well, JK Rowling is definitely the reason I wanted to be a writer in the first place. Harry Potter blew my mind, and made me want to tell my own stories in fantastic worlds (though it took me about five years after being exposed to Harry Potter before I actually got serious about writing).

However, Anne Rice and Stephen King have probably had the biggest influences on me. I read Interview with the Vampire when I was eleven or twelve, and it blew my mind more than Harry Potter did. Not because of the fantastic world it took place in, though there was that. The writing was so beautiful and rich, the story went in directions that never failed to surprise me. It was such a deep, emotional story, and I loved every page of it. And then I got my hands on Stephen King’s It. Whoo-boy, did that one terrify the crap out of me. I was afraid to go to sleep because I was afraid a clown monster would come for me! Still, I read it, and when I was done I knew I wanted to be a horror writer.

Some other influences have been Dean Koontz and James Patterson, especially when it comes to writing serial killers and other psychopaths. And of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that all the manga I read in my teens has had a huge influence on the sort of stories I come up with.

What are you working on now?
Of course, I’m promoting Reborn City and Video Rage as the latter gets closer to coming out. After that though, I’ll do a third draft of Rose, with the hope of getting it done by fall. That way, I can plan ahead and do the final book in the Reborn City series for National Novel Writing Month. And after that, we’ll see.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Word of mouth, I guess. I’ve done Facebook and Twitter ads, I’ve done blog posts and interviews, but I think that most people have come to my books through word of mouth. Especially positive word of mouth: people who say positive things are better than any marketing team.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write the sort of books you would want to read. People are going to tell you, “Oh, you can only write what you know,” or “You should only write this genre because that’s popular.” If I did that stuff, I would be writing romance novels about young Jewish youth living in Columbus. Which would bore me to tears and I would stop writing altogether. Ignore those people, and write the stories you feel you should write. In the end, those are the stories that people will love to read, because those readers will feel your passion and love for your story.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t be afraid to try new things. If you stay in a small bubble and never try new things, you’ll run out of ideas really quickly. New experiences–from bungee jumping to vacations to foreign countries to even just reading about or taking a class on a subject you know nothing about–are the source of inspiration for authors. They provide ideas that we otherwise would never get. And if you doubt me, I went to Europe in 2014 on a study abroad trip, and had about forty ideas for stories over the course of three weeks. It’s that effective.

What are you reading now?
A whole ton of manga, as usual. I love Japanese comics, and I probably will never stop loving them. When I’m not knee-deep in manga though, I’m reading a book about daily living in Victorian England (putting into practice that whole “new experiences” thing I mentioned). I’m also listening to Battle Royale by Koushun Takami on audio book, and I’m planning on getting Gone Girl the next time I get my Audible credit.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I guess I’ll get Video Rage out, keep writing and editing my stories, and keep building an audience through a combination of blogging, word of mouth, and every other means at my disposal. With any luck, I will be able to write full-time someday.

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 knew I wasn’t the only one who asked this question in interviews! Hmm…let’s see. Well, Battle Royale by Koushun Takami is a fantastic story, so I would like to bring that with me. I would also probably take something over eight-hundred by Stephen King, probably It or The Stand. Other than that, I think I might take a copy of the Old Testament with annotations (love to stay close to my God) and perhaps something inspirational from history, like a copy of Schindler’s List.

Hopefully I won’t ever have to make this decision though. I love new books, so I rarely reread anything these days. Having only three or four books to choose from would probably drive me crazy.

Author Websites and Profiles
Rami Ungar Website

Rami Ungar’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
There’s quite a lot to tell. I’m seventeen, and I’ve written at least five complete books, but my fantasy novel ‘The Doorway’ is the only one I’ve had published. When I’m not writing, I am either sitting in a library somewhere engrossed in someone else’s book, searching for cheap cheese cake, working, or lying on my bed watching series.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The name of my latest book is ‘The Doorway’, and the inspiration for it came from my desire to understand pain, and how people react when faced with something they’ve always wanted. Do they go back to the pain, to fix the problem, or run away because it’s easier? That’s the question I had in mind when I began writing it.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Oh, yes I do. I write my best work at 2-3 a.m., where my mind becomes so feverish that there’s some points where I don’t know what I’m writing anymore. I don’t write plots or settings either. Literally the entire time I’m writing a book, I’m winging it. Also something that helps me is re-reading my favorite books, such as Coraline, Fahrenheit 451, The Clockwork Angel or Throne of Glass.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I’d say my writing style was heavily influenced by Ray Bradbury, but the theme of fantasy/horror came from Coraline.

What are you working on now?
Right now I’m working on a sequel for ‘The Doorway’. Right now it’s called ‘Lumps’, and it’s about a dysfunctional family that moves into a new house, with a strange well in the backyard, a Halloween parade and a night where all hell breaks loose.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I think word of mouth is the most powerful weapon. Right now I’m organizing a writer’s workshop, and am looking to do book promotion events at libraries and schools.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep going. No matter what obstacle you encounter when you’re writing, stick to it and never quit. I don’t think that it’s enough to simply have inspiration and talent. There has to be a gut strength, a will to keep going and finish the project. That’s what writes books.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The best advice I’ve ever heard was from J.K. Rowling’s Harvard commencement speech, which I watched on YouTube. In her speech, she says ‘It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously, that you might as well not have lived at all.’ This advice greatly impacted my life, and the way I used to cautiously approach things.

What are you reading now?
Now I’m reading A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. I recently read a Tangle of Knots, whose author I forget, but I loved that book.

What’s next for you as a writer?
What’s next! Publishing ‘Lumps’! Actually I still have to finish writing it, and editing it and so on. But that’s the goal.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Am I allowed a Kindle Reader? I’m kidding. I’d take some sort of practical survival book, and a large encyclopedia so I could burn it as a signal fire. I think I’d also take a large comic book, so it could replace the movies I’m always watching. The last book would be a diary, so I could write down everything that happened, and when I make it to civilization, publish it!

Author Websites and Profiles
Pet Prayonghom Website