Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m based in Calgary in Western Canada and am an author of science fiction and fantasy novels for children and young adults, including The Alchemist’s Portrait, The Sorcerer’s Letterbox, The Clone Conspiracy, The Emerald Curse, The Heretic’s Tomb, The Doomsday Mask, The Time Camera, The Sphere of Septimus, Flashback, and Future Imperfect. I’m also the author of The Children’s Writer’s Guide, The Working Writer’s Guide, The Social Media Writer’s Guide, and many non-fiction books.

I offer a wide variety of presentations, workshops and author in residence programs for schools and libraries, covering such topics as the writing process, editing and revision, where ideas come from and how writers turn them into stories, character development, historical fiction and historical research, story structure, the publishing world and more. I’m an instructor for adults with the University of Calgary and Mount Royal University and offers a variety of online workshops for both children and adults. I also offer a number of services for writers, including manuscript evaluation, editing, writing workshops and coaching, plus copywriting services for the business community.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My later novel for young adults was published this spring. Future Imperfect is an exciting adventure featuring technology, teenage geniuses, corporate espionage, and mysterious messages. Most kids these days are very familiar with laptops, tablets, and video games, and don’t go anywhere without their cell phones, so the technology and gadgets that feature in the story make the novel very appealing for young readers.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I do tend to mostly write late at night but many writers do that, so I’m not sure whether that would be classed as unusual. I also sometimes go to coffee shops to work on outlines for stories, specific parts of chapters, and so on, or occasionally just to get away from the home office for a while.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I read a lot of science fiction novels and collections of short stories while growing up, as well C S Lewis, Tolkien, other fantasy writers and ghost stories. I also read a tremendous number of comic books as a child, which were great for the imagination. At high school, I studied a great deal of history and have retained my interest in the subject up to the present day. I also read voraciously on ancient civilizations, mysteries, the supernatural, and the unexplained.

When I began my career as a writer I was influenced by the earlier books in the Harry Potter series. However, I didn’t want to write about wizards, dragons, or magic, but rather about the things that I was interested in, such as time travel, the paranormal, superheroes, ancient mysteries, or history. I was also influenced by Phillip Pullman’s The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass, along with some other excellent fantasy and science fiction works.

What are you working on now?
My paranormal novel, Flashback, was published in 2015 and two sequels are coming out next year, so I assume that I’ll be doing some editing work on those. I’m also currently working on a science fiction trilogy about a parallel universe that I hope to have completed by the end of the year. I’ve had the concept for quite a while, but it’s one of those stories that continually improves, in my opinion, and as it’s being written I get ideas all the time to expand it further.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I have a website, blog, and am very active on social media and while these are very effective I still find that promotion in person seems to be the best method for books written for children and young adults. I do a great deal of teaching and conduct writing workshops for both children and adults, which helps to promote the novels and other books. I also do many book signings at local bookstores throughout the year. This not only helps to sell books but also to promote my other services for writers, such as editing, coaching, or online workshops and courses.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Writing is in some ways the easy part. It can be a very long process not only to write a book, but also to get it published. A book is a marathon measured in years rather than weeks or months. Don’t be afraid to revise and revise over and over again. Most authors go through many revisions before their work reaches its final format. Remember too that your book will never be to everyone’s taste, so don’t be discouraged. A firm belief in your own success is often what’s necessary. After all, if you don’t believe in your book, how can you expect other people to?

Read as much as you can and write as often as you can. Keep an ideas file, even if it’s only a name, title, sentence or an entire outline for a novel. You never know when you might get another piece of the puzzle, perhaps years later. You also mustn’t forget the marketing. You may produce the greatest book ever written. However, no one else is going to see it if your book doesn’t become known to potential readers. Be visible as an author. Do as many readings, signings and personal appearances as you can. Get your name out there and hopefully the rest will follow. Especially for newly published authors, books don’t sell themselves and need a lot of help.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Probably to keep writing, read as much as you can, and always be open to new ideas. After all, you never know when you’ll get a really good one.

What are you reading now?
I’m always reading a wide variety of things, either online or in books and magazines. Sometimes this is for research purposes or during the editing process for clients but at other times purely for pleasure, either fiction or nonfiction and either new material or books in my own collection that I refer to every now and then.

What’s next for you as a writer?
As I mentioned, the sequels to Flashback will be published next year so I’m sure I’ll be tinkering with those stories in the coming months. I also hope to start work on two sequels to Future Imperfect. The novel has proved quite popular so far so I want to explore the possibilities of further adventures for Alex, Stephanie, and the other characters that appear in the novel. I’m also considering at least two potential sequels to my fantasy novel, The Sphere of Septimus, which was published in 2014.

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 not sure but perhaps a book all about tips and advice related to surviving on a deserted island might be a good idea.

Author Websites and Profiles
Simon Rose Website
Simon Rose Amazon Profile
Simon Rose Author Profile on Smashwords

Simon Rose’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I write about religion and spirituality with paranormal twists unearthed from my family’s history. I write about my passions, what moves me, what shoots out of me like a rocket. My key inspirational force is my spirituality.

I was born in the South, a coal miner’s granddaughter, but my father escaped the mines, went to college and moved his family to Ohio to work for the rubber companies in 1959. I spent every weekend as a little girl traveling back to the Appalachian Mountains. My memories of my childhood run as strong as a steel-belted radial tire and as deep as an Appalachian swimming hole. As a little girl, I was a transplanted hick in a Yankee schoolroom. I grew up in the North. So my influence comes naturally from both regions. But the dusty roads in the coal towns of the ‘sixties are where my career as a writer was born.

First book, a collection of short stories: Southern Fried Women, Satya House Publications, 2006

“With a clear Southern voice and a remarkable gift of storytelling, Pamela King Cable has crafted a masterful collection of short stories. In themes ranging from flea markets to coal mine strikes, Southern Fried Women speaks of the wounds, joys, and sacrifices experienced by women who held strong in the winds of adversity and emerged bruised but miraculously unbroken. Each story is as thought provoking as it is beautifully written.”

~Beth Hoffman, NYTimes Bestselling Author, Saving CeeCee Honeycutt

Second book, a novel: Televenge, Satya House Publications, 2012

“Cable’s unflinching fictional exposé of the dark side of televangelism has a human victim in the person of Andie Oliver. … Cable, a former member of a megachurch, places Andie’s desperate struggle against the oppression of (Reverend) Artury’s church, its brutal inner circle, murderous practices, financial fraud, and (husband) Joe’s abuse. This powerful story, skillfully written and with well-drawn characters, reveals the classic entrapment of vulnerable people in the name of a vengeful god …”

~PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

“Televenge is … an emotional rollercoaster that ends as intensely as it begins . . . those who commit to Cable’s tome will find themselves captivated and deeply devoted to Andie. Fans of Fannie Flagg and Janet Evanovich will be hooked on this saga of religion, romance, and crime.” Library Journal Editor’s Pick BookExpo America 2012 ~LIBRARY JOURNAL

Newest release, a novel: The Sanctum, Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas, 2016

“Pamela King Cable has created an unforgettable heroine in Neeley McPherson, a remarkable young woman of such courage and spunk that she dares to stand against unspeakable abuse and injustice not only for herself but also for her beloved caretaker, Gideon …Thoroughly enjoyable book!”

~Cassandra King Conroy, Bestselling author of Moonrise and Same Sweet Girls

“This coming-of-age tale, The Sanctum, brings readers deep into the underbelly of the Carolinas, introducing us to a spunky young woman named Neeley who captures our hearts and breaks them at the same time. When life takes a few bad turns, she hits the road with a friend she is determined to protect from the dangers of violent racism. Tucked in the mountains, Neeley comes head to head with robed Klansmen while learning the secrets of her family’s past. With a circle of compassionate strangers, a first love on the brew, and a pack of wolves in her midst, Neeley discovers the true meaning of family and faith. In this gothic but inspirational tale, Pamela Cable thrills readers with her tight plotline, lyrical scene descriptions, and complex character development. She also leaves us aching for more.”

~Julie Cantrell, NYTimes and USA TODAY Bestselling author of the Christy Award winning novel of year, Into the Free

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The Sanctum – Late in 2008, and for the next two years, I labored over a new story to give myself a break from the heat and intensity of my novel, Televenge. Little did I know of the fierce obsession and passion that would overtake me in writing The Sanctum. Wanting to include the possibility of the paranormal and spirituality from different points of view, I focused on a young girl with fuzzy, red hair who called herself Neeley, and the story began.

This skinny, parentless thirteen-year-old who wore thick eyeglasses and hand-me-down dresses captivated me from page one. Placing my little redheaded girl on a tobacco farm in 1959, and in the caring hands of an elderly African-American male, a rugged individual who wasn’t afraid of his gentle side, I quickly fell in love with them. The novel slowly wrote itself, dragging my heart behind it.

Many of my stories are based on people I’ve known and places I’ve been. History also plays a great part in my work. As a writer it is my desire to transport a reader’s mind—but my ultimate joy is to pierce your heart. When I was a little girl someone in my family taught me respect for all people. He said we were related to the great Martin Luther King since after all, my maiden name is King. I soon realized it wasn’t true, but I never forgot what he said. Later, I discovered blatant prejudice had incubated for decades within my family. My southern grandparents believed wholeheartedly in segregation.

For over a decade I lived near Summerfield, North Carolina, located northwest of Greensboro. This area is historically saturated with horse and tobacco farms, which today still dot the landscape. By chance I discovered James W. Cole (1924-1967) was ordained into the ministry in Summerfield at the Wayside Baptist Church in 1958. He toured as a tent evangelist and broadcast a Sunday morning radio program, becoming an active member of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, and eventually the Grand Dragon of North and South Carolina. The man intrigued and appalled me, and since the first part of the book takes place in Summerfield during that time period, I wrote him into the story.

The International Civil Rights Center and Museum is located in the recently restored Woolworth’s building in downtown Greensboro, a Woolworth’s that also found its way into my story. As I further studied the Civil Rights Movement, I thought of it in terms of rights for all people. My great grandmother was a full-blooded Cherokee, according to our family’s historian. So I then researched the Trail of Tears.

And finally the wolf appeared. An animal that has fascinated me all my life, the wolf is about family and order. It is a subtle character, but a voice to be reckoned with. I studied wolves carefully, and found people who loved the animal enough to create wolf sanctuaries. I spent time on a sanctuary near the town of Bakersville in the Blue Ridge Mountains, a five-hour drive from my home. When I arrived a sign read, The Wolf Sanctum. From that moment I called my novel, The Sanctum.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I have a designated office, my place of refuge, with a library and a weathered desk filled with memories. While I write, I listen to music without words. Words are distracting. Classical music, or arrangements from motion picture soundtracks can set a scene into motion. I’m not one to write in coffee shops or anyplace with commotion. I work hard to keep my ADHD self on track.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
On my thirteenth birthday, I received a copy of Gone with the Wind. I devoured it in a weekend. Margaret Mitchell became my hero until I discovered Flannery O’Connor, Harper Lee, and Eudora Welty. The rich story content of the south fans the flames of many writers’ fires. But for me, their work was a springboard, catapulting me into the possibility of creating my own unique stories driven by compelling and unforgettable characters.

What are you working on now?
Plot outlines for two books; Bitter Homes and Gardens, and The Pinnacle

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
It was different for each book. For my first book my husband and I literally wore out two cars, traveling from New York to Florida and every state in between. For three years, I spoke at over 250 venues, selling my book at the back of the room. Southern Fried Women is still selling well after ten years as a result of that effort.

After Televenge was released, I appeared at the International Book Expo in New York, Fox News Radio New York City, and CBS TV in Atlanta. I spoke at Book Clubs, Womens’ Groups, and churches across the country. Televenge received attention from media outlets worldwide.

For this newest release, The Sanctum, my efforts have been heavy on social media, so far.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Newbies in this business—get your heads out of the clouds and see the writing world for what it truly is. If after you’ve done that, and you still want to write and publish, then do it with your eyes wide open. Writing is a tough, tough business. It’s grueling, actually. It takes no less than ten years of writing, rewriting, and learning your craft before you are actually ready to publish. But writing is the easy part. The length of time it takes from finishing the novel to publication is painfully long. Social media, marketing, building a platform, getting your book into the laps of your readers, that’s the hard part.

Now, with all that said … there is no greater sense of accomplishment than leaving a legacy of a hard-earned published book. Nothing greater than that …

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I received this simple advice from Diana Gabaldon many years ago. She said to me, “Read. Write. Don’t stop.”

What are you reading now?
The Feathered Bone by Julie Cantrell

What’s next for you as a writer?
A year of heavy promotion for The Sanctum, and digging into research for my next two books.

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

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells

And … my worn-out, tattered Holy Bible

Author Websites and Profiles
Pamela King Cable Website

Pamela King Cable’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I started writing a billion years ago, however, I didn’t try to write a novel until October of 2012. Now, I am just starting the writing on book #40. I have preschool, Young adult, a lot of novels and even two comic books about the pain of growing old. I have a few health problems, so if I meet my goal of 40 books in 4 years I will be done I think. I am an avid reader and reviewer though, Sometimes 8 to 10 books a day. I want to take readers on a journey from reality for even a short while and in turn like to be taken on that journey when I read others books.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The book, coming soon is called “Realities” The book is about life, but it has a supernatural twist with a conspiracy for good measure. Mandy is a senior in high school when she is told her boyfriend Ron has committed suicide. Mandy also finds out she is carrying Ron’s child. As she investigates the death of Ron, Mandy is going to find out the reality of his death and the strange repercussions that affect her and her unborn son.
My crazy mind inspired the book. Everything I see hear, watch and read sends my mind in circles until I put pen to paper and let the ideas out. I write all the books longhand.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write longhand, then type the stories, but before they are released I have to do my editing with a paperback copy. I guess I just have to hold the books in my hot little hands to make sure all is right.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Every author influences me. I love the classics. Because I usually read at least one book a day and sometimes 7 or 8, I am in awe of how many writers are so good. I have added a lot of new favorites to the ones I revert to when I need a good read. It is sad that so many authors I have read aren’t known to others. Some day I hope I can find a way to fix that.

What are you working on now?
I am just starting book 40. My goal is 40 in 4 years. I have until October of 2016 to meet that goal and barring unforeseen circumstances I think I can do it. The tentative title is “Presence”. The story of a woman who has connections to the other side, good and bad. I’m not sure where the story will go, my characters always take care of that for me.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I like Facebook and the groups there, but on Twitter, I have 15000 followers who are always tweeting about my books and I. The one thing I always find fascinating is repeat readers of my books. They read one and then go back to check out the next. The reviews are amazing and I am so thankful to readers. They touch my heart and soul.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Just write if that’s what you love. I think when you open a book if you feel like you are sitting down and talking with an old friend, then the author knows how to make that special magical connection. I hope my books do that for readers.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t give up! If you sell one book and get one review by someone who loved your book, that is priceless.

What are you reading now?
I just finished reading a book by James Patterson. He has been kind enough to send me copies before they are released and asked me to be a reviewer of his great books. I have 4 more sitting in my kindle reader, but by the time you read what I am writing on here they will be done and replaced with more.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I think my next job, because of my health will be helping others to get their books promoted and a lot of reviewing of those books. As a writer, I don’t see any more in my future, but 40 should be good for now.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
I would take a blank notebook first. You have to write your own adventure.
A dictionary for those hard to find words
and a bible to help me get through

Author Websites and Profiles
P.S. Winn Website
P.S. Winn Amazon Profile

P.S. Winn’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
It didn’t take me long to figure out that I enjoy writing about too many things. Food, drink, travel, theatre, books, history, gardening… I’ve dabbled and scribbled in all these areas, and more. It also didn’t me long to figure out that poetry takes up few words and, I thought, should be easier to do. It isn’t. But that hasn’t stopped me. I’ve written five books, (and been contributor to many others), four plays, lots of songs and hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Try and Stop Me! The Poetry, is my second book of poetry and comes out this summer. It provides a glimpse of the journey that the father of a suicidal, depressed teenage girl took. It is the story of fatherhood, and all the pain and joy that entails. It was originally planned as a novel but I grew impatient so instead of 80,000 words I put out 5,000. Then I realized the novel still had to be written, so that’s what I’m doing now.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
There’s nothing unusual about writing while sitting down with a drink, I suppose. Although some might wince at the unusual concoctions in my glass, on occasion. What seems to be unusual is that I’m a writer that never, ever takes notes when I’m out and about, or travelling, or overhearing conversations. Over the years, family and friends have given me many beautiful journals and notebooks, all of which remain untouched in a cupboard in my office.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
So many authors and so many books! I enjoyed Shakespeare when I was a teenager but rarely see or hear him now. I loved Spike Milligan in both his crazy and serious moods. Bill Bryson is a good storyteller, and I often enjoy books passed along to me from a local ladies’ book club, such as Girl on the Train, A House in the Sky, The Light Between Oceans, Us…

What are you working on now?
A novel entitled Try and Stop Me! It’s based on a true story of a father who struggles to prevent his depressed teenage daughter from committing suicide. It’s actually way more fun than you’d think, being grounded firmly in the “if you didn’t laugh you’d cry” corner of the world. It’s an intriguing story with many surprising turns and revelations, and it’s hard to figure who is trying to heal or help whom.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I almost never promote my books. I’m lazy and forgetful, and, sorry, quite modestly Canadian.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Read a lot, and write even more. Find your own voice and write for yourself; if others enjoy reading your work consider it a bonus. Writing is a good investment of time. Good writing takes lots of time, but good work lasts far longer than it took to write.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t be lazy – edit!

What are you reading now?
I’m between books and having trouble finding one I can lose myself in. I’ve been enjoying a few biographies of musicians – Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, George Harrison, Billy Idol…

What’s next for you as a writer?
I want to finish the novel this year but I know I will get distracted by wanting to write more poetry. I should also write to my mother (who lives across the ocean).

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 very rarely read a book more than once, but in the spirit of having a small library to browse while stranded, I’d say:
A book of Spike Milligan’s poetry (not sure which one) to help keep me sane.
English Journey by J.B. Priestly, to remind me where I came from.
Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, because that’s almost like having a thousand books in one.
Albert, ‘Arold and Others, by Marriott Edgar, just because.

Author Websites and Profiles
Dave Preston Amazon Profile
Dave Preston Author Profile on Smashwords

Dave Preston’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I have written a total of 15 books between fiction and nonfiction. My first love is any type of romance novel, but there are times when another story calls my name. I also work as a freelance writer/editor/web designer, completing 100s of articles a year.

I love writing and I can’t imagine doing anything else. I feel so blessed to make a living doing something I truly adore.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is Cupid’s Quest, which is the first book in the Cupid’s Crossing series. The town itself is what inspired the book. I was actually working on another story idea and had set it in this little town called Cupid’s Crossing. I spent weeks creating that town, naming the streets and buildings, and creating a map.

Then, I suddenly realized that that character and story I was working on did not fit that town at all. So, I set that story aside and I started a new one with Gracie, the main character, who runs her parents small nursing home. From there, the characters just took over for me. The old folks who live in the nursing home are a hoot.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I think I’m just unusual all around. I’ve never really been in step with the rest of the world. When I was in grade school, the other kids picked on me horribly. I can remember crying and praying for God to please make them like me better. However, I know realize that was a time in my life that I needed to go through to survive being a writer.

That time in my life made me strong. I taught me to like myself and to not change to please anyone else. I have some pretty firmly held convictions and I stick to those no matter what others think about them. I also know that things like loyalty and integrity matter more than anything else.

So, unusual habits, not really. An unusual person, yes, definitely. And, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I like to be alone. I like my own company. I love animals, because they are good company and let me work without talking me to death. I’m perfectly happy going to dinner or the movies alone and I hate small talk.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
My favorite book of all time is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. It has so many different layers and social mores of the time.

I have very eclectic reading tastes, though. I also enjoy anything by Dean Koontz, admire Stephen King’s skill in writing, and often read books by new and upcoming readers or friends.

I enjoy at least five or six good non-fiction books every year, too.

But, the book that has probably influenced me the most is the Bible. When someone is being cruel, I turn to Ephesians 6:12 and remind myself that my battle is not truly with them. When there is a loss in our family, I turn to Psalm 147:3 and remember that He is always with me and a comfort to me. When I’m thinking about doing something I shouldn’t, I remember things I’ve read and it usually stops me.

What are you working on now?
I’m working on book # 2 in the Cupid’s Crossing series. It is called Change of Heart. If you read book # 1, you’ll meet Sinclaire. She works at the nursing home with Gracie and you get to meet her and start to hear her story. Book # 2 continues her story and you’ll also get some more time with the old folks and get to check in with how Gracie and Brandt are doing.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I spend a lot of time on social media letting those who are already fans know what I’m up to. I also have a monthly newsletter I send out. Some of those subscribers have been on my mailing list for 20 years, because I had published a book even. I consider many of them dear friends.

My family is also awesome at sharing my posts and talking up my books. I love them anyway, but it feels so good when they do that because I know they believe in me.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t let anyone discourage you from your dreams. Families sometimes don’t understand it when you decide to embrace the writing life. If you’re anything like me, you may try dozens of creative pursuits, because you’re seeking, searching, and absorbing information. When you finally realize you want to be a writer, you might have reputation for trying things and not sticking with them.

I’ll never forget that one family member said to me. “Pfft! Writing? You’ll quit that in two months, too.”

It’s 21 years later…

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Never stop learning. I had a teacher who told me that in grade school. It has stuck with me over the years and I truly do love to learn. Sometimes I take a course at the local college, or an artistic type lesson. Sometimes it is simply through reading or studying on my own. However, I am always open to learning about new things and trying new things and it has truly opened a lot of doors for me, particularly in my non-fiction writing for clients.

What are you reading now?
I am reading Imperfect Echoes by Carolyn Howard-Johnson. I try to read books by writer friends whenever I can and I’ve known Carolyn for may years.

What’s next for you as a writer?
My goal is always to just reach that one reader that might need a message of hope or to be uplifted by something I write. While we all dream of hitting the New York Times bestseller list, I try not to think about that. I know writing is what my purpose is and my mission is to reach the people that are sent my way.

I am working on a new project which I’ll unveil next year that will offer a new story series based on the town I live in, but the town has a new name and details.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
The Bible
Pride and Prejudice
Something about how to live in the wilderness (ha ha)

Author Websites and Profiles
Lori Soard Website
Lori Soard Amazon Profile

Lori Soard’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
K.C Tansley lives with her warrior lapdog, Emerson, and three quirky golden retrievers on a hill somewhere in Connecticut. She tends to believe in the unbelievables—spells, ghosts, time travel—and writes about them.

Never one to say no to a road trip, she’s climbed the Great Wall twice, hopped on the Sound of Music tour in Salzburg, and danced the night away in the dunes of Cape Hatteras. She loves the ocean and hates the sun, which makes for interesting beach days. The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts is the first book in her YA time-travel murder mystery series.

As Kourtney Heintz, she also writes award winning cross-genre fiction for adults.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts was a concept my best friend, Anthony, and I dreamed up when we were in 7th grade. The 11-year-old me loved the idea of ghosts, curses, spells, castles, time travel, and a murder mystery. I was a huge fan of soap operas like Dark Shadows and Santa Barbara and that’s where the romantic thread came in.

Back then, I only thought about the story I wanted to tell and this was it. Anthony and I never got beyond the character sketches and general concept because the original idea had way too many characters. He still has a notebook somewhere filled with dozens of character sketches.

Decades later, when I was working on Wall Street and mourning the end of the Harry Potter series,
I thought if I could write my own novel, the characters would always be with me. That was when the 28-year-old me remembered the story the 11-year-old me was dying to tell. I emailed Anthony and he gave me the go ahead to work on it. And then the work truly began.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I can assure you all my writing habits seem perfectly normal to me.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I was a big fan of ghost stories and Gothic stories as a kid. I remember reading about banshees and
thinking there was nothing cooler. One of my all time favorite reads is Wuthering Heights with its
Gothic love story. Agatha Christie mysteries were a must-read for the 11-year-old me too. I loved the intricate plotting and how it all came together so perfectly in the end.

As an adult, I read The Woman in Black, and it probably contributed to some of the creepier moments in the story. The Harry Potter series played a big role in my writing this book because I was distraught over Hermione and Harry leaving my life. I didn’t read the final Potter book until a few years after the series ended.

What are you working on now?
This summer I’m working on the second draft of the sequel to The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts. It will be out in the fall of 2017.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I think the blog tour and all the ARCs that my publisher gave away were really helpful.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
If it doesn’t work, try something else. You can always improve on any aspect of your work whether it’s your writing craft or your marketing techniques.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Be the best version of you rather than a second rate version of someone else.

What are you reading now?
The Retribution of Mara Dyer.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’ve got a short story to finalize this summer for a competition. The sequel to TGWIG. And an idea for a standalone novel that is begging to get written.

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?
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Le Petit Prince, and Vampire Academy

Author Websites and Profiles
K.C. Tansley Website
K.C. Tansley Amazon Profile

K.C. Tansley’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
For 5 years Anastasia was an accountant and whiled away boring days doing routine work. But one day she decided to change everything. Today she is a successful psychologist and journalist. Her methods of work are so effective that the results of her clients look more like a fairy tale. Anastasia writes for such publications as Cosmopolitan and Psychologies. She says: “The main results of my efforts is clear when there are positive changes in people’s lives.” This personal motto has been confirmed by her successful work for 6 years and multiple positive reviews.

Anastasia’s books:
How to love yourself. 50 ways to improve self-esteem.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
How to love yourself. 50 ways to improve self-esteem.

Why do I have a right to write about self-love and to teach how to love yourself? During the last 5 years I have been organizing trainings on this topic. And I see in real life what exactly changes one’s attitude towards themselves from hatred to love.
This book was created rather simply. I took my course and started picking the most effective exercises, the ones that really worked and gave stable results.
In this study guide you will not find some boring medical and psychological research or statistics. Why have it at all? I think that your goal is to start loving yourself, but not to accumulate useless information.
The self-love theme came to me by accident. However, I must confess that not all “accidents” are accidental. A year before I started dealing directly with it, I had learned about a training with the same name and thought: “How silly. Who would be interested in this topic? Do you really need to learn how to love yourself?”
Then I found some self-love related practices, and having seen other people’s results, I realized how important and vast this subject was!

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write with my IPad, usually.

What are you working on now?
1) How to discover your calling.
2) How to get out of depression.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Let’s write a good book!

What are you reading now?
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Author Websites and Profiles
Anastasia Zaloga Amazon Profile

Anastasia Zaloga’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a licensed breeder of German shepherds and have over 10+ years of experience. As a successful breeder, I have gained valuable experience about the breed and many other breeds as well. I decided to write books about how to become a successful breeder, how to care for your new puppy, and am in the process of compiling a 10 book series featuring the top ten breeds as ranked by the AKC. To date I have written 5 books and they can be found at https://www.amazon.com/author/-virginiaclark

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is titled A Puppy Love Guide; About the Golden Retriever, Tips for Bringing Your Golden Puppy Home, and Doggone Delicious Recipes. This is the 3rd book in a series of 10 that I am writing and the series features the top breeds as ranked by the AKC. My inspiration for writing thhis, and all my other books, comes from my love of dogs, breeding, and especially puppies!

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
My writings flow easily from my mind to the page because I have such vast knowledge and love about and for dogs. When you know your subject well, it is easy to write about it.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I love many authors from many genres. Though I enjoy to read, my real influence to write comes from years of experience as a licensed breeder. I have learned so much over the years and want to share the wealth of knowledge with others.

What are you working on now?
I am working on a 10 book series featuring the top ten dog breeds as ranked by the AKC. Next on the list is the Bulldog.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I use various sites to promote my books. Because my non-fiction books are all about dogs, I tend to use my Google + platform more often than other sites because I can easily target the market that is interested in the subject of dogs and puppies.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Find a subject you are interested in and write about it well. Be informed, and use your spell check! Another useful tool I rely on is Flesch and Flesch-Kincaid readability test scores. It is surprising how many people do know know about readability scores and how valuable a tool it is. If you are reading this and are not familiar, I recommend you Google both tests and find out how you can utilize it on your own computer to check your work.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t eat yellow snow!

What are you reading now?
The Arraignment by Steve Martini

What’s next for you as a writer?
To complete my ten book series and then promote, promote, promote!

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
To Kill a Mocking Bird
The Bonfire of the Vanities
Anything by Barbara Taylor Bradford

Author Websites and Profiles
Virginia Clark Website
Virginia Clark Amazon Profile

Virginia Clark’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve written 2 novels, Roll with the Punches, and Alice in Monologue Land. I’ve also written a collection of stories that take place at the college where Alice in Monologue Land occurs–it’s called Kiss My Sweet Skull: The Alice Chronicles. All my work has a bit of mystery, a bit of romance, some adventure, and a lot of humor. And all of it is about strong, large women taking on daunting tasks–often in comical ways. Kind of like most of the women I know.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The latest book is the collection of short stories about Alice Chalmers’s colleagues and students at Garden Beach College–Kiss My Sweet Skull. I loved those characters so much that I decided to follow them through their own stories. Betty, Frannie, and Annabelle each get their own (love) story with a bit of mystery, and Alice pops up in each one.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I never complain about not being able to write. Most writers count words in their WIPs and worry about not being able to finish. I usually write way too many words and have to cut a few thousand. LOL

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Janet Evanovich and Jenny Crusie and Elizabeth Peters have been my idols. Also Mary Kay Andrews. They all write humor and a mix of action with mystery and humor–with strong female leads and a little romance.

What are you working on now?
I’m working on a WIP without a title. It takes a character from Roll with the Punches, Hippo, and tells her story. Hippo is a VERY big girl, and she’s used to getting her own way, so we throw her some monkey wrenches and see if she can solve a mystery involving her own, somewhat unsavory family.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I have a lot of promotional helpers. Freebooksy is great. Robin Reads is wonderful. Then there’s Awesome Gang and Sweet Free Books!

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write the story–full of conflict and suspense and fun. Then rewrite it. Then rewrite it again. Then let someone smart look at it. Then rewrite it again. At some point, it will be really shiny. Then publish it.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Swimming is good exercise for people with bad knees.

What are you reading now?
Girl Meets Class by Karin Gillespie and Save the Date by Mary Kay Andrews. Also Malice at the Palace by Rhys Bowen.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m always writing a book and a constant stream of readers’ theater plays to produce with the seniors at the local assisted living. Those plays keep me really sharp at the writing game, plus they’re fun to read and produce.

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?
3 new humorous mysteries by the authors I mentioned above–at least one Janet Evanovich book, a Jenny Crusie book, and something with the gorgeous Southern writing from Karin Gillespie or Jill Connor Browne. Plus something dense that I’ve never read–maybe Elizabeth Gilbert’s newest book.

Author Websites and Profiles
Amy Gettinger Website
Amy Gettinger Amazon Profile

Amy Gettinger’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Made numerous attempts at writing books on varied subjects and genre. Completed one for publication and working on second.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The name of my latest book is KRYSTAL VISION, the first in the KRYSTAL VIBRATION SERIES. The inspiration came in 1992 after having come to the conclusion that terrorism was going to be a part of my children’s lives, and that if something wasn’t done to thwart the growing terrorist insurgence, every country would be at risk of annihilation.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
None.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Asimov, Tolkien, Faulkner, Hemingway, Dickens, Hugo, Cervantes, Steinbeck, Tolstoy, Lewis, Coleridge, Dickenson, and Joyce.

What are you working on now?
In addition to a number of short stories and future blogs, I am toiling away on the second novel in the KRYSTAL VIBRATION SERIES.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Word of mouth, email, Facebook, starmandscircleassoc.com.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Always be willing to learn, improve, edit and never give up.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Write about what interests you.

What are you reading now?
Dante’s: The Inferno

What’s next for you as a writer?
Research for the next in 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?
The Bible, The Works of Josephus, Lord of the Rings Trilogy, Asimov – Foundation Series, Don Quixote.

Author Websites and Profiles
Richard Corrigan Website
Richard Corrigan Amazon Profile
Richard Corrigan Author Profile on Smashwords

Richard Corrigan’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I grew up in Brooklyn, New York. My yard was home to a fig tree—one of the few trees in the entire neighborhood. During the last thirty years, as a clinical psychologist, I’ve been privileged to witness a host of fascinating individuals discover healthy philosophies. I’m a mother of twins, grandmother, friend to my rescue horses, feral cats, and my two playful pups.
Today I live on 60 acres nestled in the middle of a pine forest. In this tranquil setting, I delight in reflecting upon nature. I enjoy playing with my camera and my antique piano. Other days, I putter in my garden, have fun creating new recipes, or enjoy painting rooms in my house. Most of all, I find this location the perfect place to write fictional tales.
My six novels, four novellas, and two stories are available on Amazon.com, Stop by and visit my Amazon author page: viewAuthor.at/EBSullivan
Novels: Alaska Awakening, Between the Vines: a memoir, Bloom Forevermore, Dance Fantasies, Different Hearts, and Grandfathers’ Bequest
Novellas: “Christmas Escape”, “Christmas Guardian Angel”, “Christmas Between the Vines”, and “Spotlighting Crime”
Stories: “Visitor” and “XOXO”

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Forty plus vineyards and wineries in my surrounding neighborhood inspired me to write my latest release, Between the Vines: a memoir. My Italian heritage—old world wisdom, and Italian proverbs—influenced the development of my characters. In her memoir, Lucia recounts poignant memories of life on a vineyard. She takes her first steps, experiences her first kiss, and learns primary lessons between the vines. Swept away by a passion to transform luscious grapes into superb wines, Lucia embarks on a romantic adventure laced with both tender and harsh realities. Cultivating grapes demands work, devotion, sacrifices, and expertise. Knowledge, timing and luck are necessary to make fine wines. Enlisting Old World philosophies and wisdom Lucia attempts to tackle personal and professional challenges. viewBook.at/BetweentheVines

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I usually write last chapters first. While each story seems to take on a life of its own, and travels in unplanned directions, it typically arrives at my original destination.

What are you working on now?
I’m in the final stages of editing a novella, “Reflecting Spirit”. Influenced by a trip to the magical Amazon jungle “Reflecting Spirit” interweaves a modern day romance with a legendary one.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
When writing, don’t worry about being right just write from the heart.

Author Websites and Profiles
E.B. Sullivan Website
E.B. Sullivan Amazon Profile

E.B. Sullivan’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I have authored three books in law, human rights and humanitarian laws so far.To add to that list,I have authored ‘Love locked on the Rock’ ,as a work of fiction.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Love locked on the Rock. I have always believed in eternal and faithful love.That was the thought I grew up with,and it was instilled in me through the scriptures as a Christian, which turned out to be my inspiration. It is not impossible to find the love as portrayed in the book,rather one has to live it so as to find it.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I make effort to keep it simple, and build the matter with vividity.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
The ‘Bible’ has had the greatest influence over my life and my writing.

My favorite that tops the fiction list is Victor Hugo’s Le Miserable.

Other books on law,Art of a lawyer,Hart’s concept of law etc.

What are you working on now?
My next work on the way to publication is International Human Rights Law,Part 2 ( Rights of a Child).

The other is Philosophy of Law.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Among the others, Google and ofcourse, awesome gang .

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep trying,never quit.Writing is a passion to be pursued until it meets victory and beyond. Authoring a book becomes effortless when the subject to be dealt with is a subject of your heart.There is someone somewhere in the world who thinks like you do.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
All wisdom comes from the Lord.

It doesn’t depend on the size of your army nor the strength of your war horses,but the battle belongs to the Lord.

What are you reading now?
Re-reading Le Miserable

What’s next for you as a writer?
Disemmination of experience based knowledge,inspire and change lives. Happy people make happy homes,happy homes make happy society,happy society builds a nation,and happy nations make the world worthy to live in.

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 the Bible,that’s it.

Henrietta Newton Martin’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
My name is Lyndsay, but I write under the pen name D. K. Hamilton. I’m an engineer by day, runner, country music fan, & beach lover fulfilling my dream to be a writer. I’m also slightly addicted to Snapple iced tea and Starbucks mochas. I’ve been an avid reader since I was a little girl, and by the time I reached my late 20s, I decided to make my dream a reality and write a book. So far, I’ve self-published my debut novel, The Other Side of Later, and I’m working on its sequel, which I hope to publish by the end of the year.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
A great piece of advice I received when I first started writing was to write about what you know so that’s what I did. My latest (and only so far) book, The Other Side of Later, takes place in a small town on the Jersey Shore. I’ve been a resident of South Jersey for my entire life so the places and even a lot of the characters reflect what I know best. Someday, I hope to step out of that comfort zone, but for now, I like that my stories reflect where I come from. I think it gives them a sense of authenticity.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m not sure if it classifies as unusual, but I wish I were more organized when it came to writing. Most of the time, I get an idea and I just take off with it to see where it goes. It’s great from a creative sense because there have been times I’ve written a couple thousand words in no time, but I usually end up having to go back and work an outline so that all events mesh together. I also usually listen to music as I write. With each book, I create a playlist and I find myself associating certain songs with particular scenes of the book. By the time I’m finished writing, I have a soundtrack for the book.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Emily Giffin is one of my favorite authors. I find that the most amazing part of all of her novels is her ability to capture tough life-changing decisions and characterize the dynamics in a wide array of relationships. Life is full of tough decisions, and from the outside looking in, it’s always easy to judge what’s right and what’s wrong. However, Emily Giffin so eloquently flips that perspective. What is the rationale when we have to make that decision? The lines between right and wrong are easily blurred, and we’re left to make decisions and live with the consequences. She always challenges her readers to look beyond the moral boundaries of right and wrong, and I find it so inspiring.

What are you working on now?
Currently, I’m working on the sequel to The Other Side of Later. I hope my readers are looking forward to catching up with the characters!

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Marketing is an area I’m still struggling with. I use Twitter and Facebook, and I try to blog on my site as frequently as possible, but I still haven’t found my niche.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
I’m still relatively new myself, but I’d say if you love writing, then keep writing!

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I read an article one time that said to write about everything you do whether it’s washing the dishes or food shopping or any other routine activity. It really helped as I wrote The Other Side of Later. There’s a scene in particular, where Julia’s car breaks down in the middle of an intersection, and that came straight from a personal experience. Once the craziness of my day settled down, I came home and wrote about what happened. It turned out to be one of the easiest scenes to write in the whole book!

What are you reading now?
I love chick lit and romance. At any given time, you can find any of the following authors on my Kindle: Emily Giffin, Barbara Freethy, Jenny Hale, Holly Martin, Barbara Delinsky, and I know I’m leaving some out, but if it’s chick lit or romance, I’ll probably read it and love it!

What’s next for you as a writer?
I plan to continue to self-publish, and like I mentioned before, I hope to have my second novel out by the end of the year.

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 one, but I’d probably pick The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Looking for Peyton Place by Barbara Delinsky, Love the One You’re With by Emily Giffin, and then a new release by one of my favorite authors I listed about. The first three are three of my favorites of all time so I know they would keep me entertained!

Author Websites and Profiles
D. K. Hamilton Website
D. K. Hamilton Amazon Profile

D. K. Hamilton’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 London in 1962, and now live in Melbourne, Australia. I’m an author and blogger with a passion for social justice. I received my doctorate in Social Ecology from the University of Western Sydney in 2006. I’m the author of two novels, both released in 2015 by Odyssey Books, Asylum and The Drago Tree. I’ve written two more novels: A Perfect Square, due out in August 2016 and The Cabin Sessions, scheduled for release in 2017.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
All Because of You: Eleven tales of refuge and hope, is my first short story collection. With one exception, all of the stories were inspired by my own experiences. Some of them are more autobiographical than others. I wanted to show, mostly to myself, that it is possible to write about personal subjects that are difficult and confronting, and not end up with versions of a therapeutic ‘Dear Diary.’ My big discovery was that catharsis is located in the delete key.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write best before sunrise. I always write my first drafts on paper and I don’t look back over what’s already written until I reach the end.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
My greatest influences are Iain Banks, Fay Weldon, Marge Piercy, Doris Lessing, Umberto Eco, and Iain Banks again. I always come back to this Scottish author.

What are you working on now?
I am working on a sequel to The Drago Tree. A work of crime fiction, it’s called La Mareta. It’s set on the exotic island of Lanzarote, one of the Canary Islands located off the coast of Morocco. Lanzarote is my favourite place on the planet. I used to live there. And setting my novels there means I get to go back and visit. It’s a truly extraordinary place.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I don’t have a best method for book promotion. I think book review blogs are a terrific way of reaching out to readers, especially those who feature authors.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
My advice to new authors is to not give up. To work hard every single day, for at least three hours, and to find a good book, or two or three, to read while you are writing. Books similar to yours that you can use as models, books who speak to you, so that every time you lose confidence or inspiration, you can open the page and read a paragraph or two and very quickly your own inspiration will flow. It’s as if through the voice of the narrator, those other authors are whispering directly to you, showing you all the tricks of the trade, encouraging you to persist.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
To write to impress a reader who is a little bit brighter than you are.

What are you reading now?
Chains of Sand by Jemma Wayne.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I have another project on slow cook. I think it’ll be another crime novel. That’s all I’m prepared to say about it just now.

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?
Walking on Glass by Iain Banks
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Paradise by Toni Morrison

Author Websites and Profiles
Isobel Blackthorn Website
Isobel Blackthorn Amazon Profile

Isobel Blackthorn’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I write mysteries and thrillers with a strong romantic edge centered on Paris, my favorite city. My first novel was Treasure of Saint-Lazare, a historical mystery about a 16th-century painting stolen by the Nazis that disappeared at the end of World War II and hasn’t been seen since. That much is fact; my novel supposed that a gang of criminals got the idea that a couple of ex-American soldiers or their families knew where the painting had gone and decided to find it at all costs — including several murders. It’s a historical mystery, a thriller, and a romance tied up in one bundle.

Treasure of Saint-Lazare was chosen the top historical mystery of 2014 in the Readers Favorite writing competition. It sold well (reaching #29 among all Kindle books) and is still selling.

Last year I published a sequel, Last Stop: Paris, about the last steps in the efforts to Eddie Grant, the protagonist of both books, to identify and bring to justice the evil genius behind the murders and Eddie’s own near death experience in Sarasota, FL. It was a finalist for the Shelf Unbound Best Indie Book of 2015 award.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Last Stop: Paris is a true sequel to Treasure of Saint-Lazare. You can read it as a stand-alone, but it will mean more if you’ve already read Treasure.

The series was inspired by my own time in Paris and my time in Europe years ago as a journalist — World War II is a topic that still resonates with Americans of any generation.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t think my habits are unusual, but they’re firm. I do quite a bit of advance research and keep a lot of material in Evernote. I outline using a couple of tools, but Scrivener has become my main choice.

I write my drafts in longhand and then type them into Scrivener. When part of the manuscript is ready for editing, I do that with pencil and paper.

Most of my ideas and notes are dictated into a pocket voice recorder, which Dragon then transcribes and sends to Evernote. I’m experimenting a little with dictation of the manuscript itself, as well. Time will tell about that.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Every would-be writer of my generation was influenced by John Le Carré, and I’m no exception. I’ve read the classic American authors — Steinbeck, Hemingway, Fitzgerald — and many who are less well known. Among contemporary writers, Ann Patchett is a favorite, as are Alan Furst and Hilary Mantel. I’ve recently read the work of Don DeLillo and Patrick Modiano, the French author who won the Nobel Prize in 2014. I reviewed his “Young Once” on my blog, PartTimeParisian.com

What are you working on now?
My third work will build on the first two, but will introduce an entirely new set of main characters (although the originals won’t be far in the background). It will be set in Miami, Paris, and one other location in Eastern Europe, and will reflect the political chaos left behind by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the efforts of the Eastern European countries to bootstrap themselves into the West’s way of doing business, but succeeding only in transplanting the worst of Russian oligarchy and crony authoritarianism into their own economies. The absolutely predictable result is the turn toward authoritarianism, which looks disturbingly familiar to anyone who’s read the history of Europe in the ’30s.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
After trying a lot of marketing methods I’ve come back to the basic Amazon approach of free days, plus mainly Twitter promotion at other times in the KDP Select cycle. I have a substantial Twitter following (around 16,000), and I use some Facebook ads. Sites like AwesomeGang have been very valuable in building readership around the free periods.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
1. Have a good idea.
2. Think about it a lot, kick out the bad parts, improve the good parts.
3. Put butt in chair and write.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
#3, above.

What are you reading now?
The top of my Kindle library now is “Earthly Powers,” by Anthony Burgess, which may have the best opening line of all time. Look it up.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I have a half-dozen tentative plots laid out in Evernote and will work through those. When the current book goes to my editor in about three months my plan is to start a longer, sweeping novel about a Franco-American man, heir to an industrial fortune, who takes the unpopular step of joining the U.S. Army long before World War II begins. When Pearl Harbor comes, he’s ready and qualified to be a highly effective military spy behind the German lines in France, where he was born.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
That is a tough one. I’d want to re-read “Bel Canto,” by Ann Patchett; “All the Light We Cannot See,” by Anthony Doerr; and, on the nonfiction side, “Arguably,” by Christopher Hitchens; and something by Michael Lewis, maybe “The Big Short,” because the characters are so memorable. Also “Stoner,” by John Williams, an old book recently revivified by the New York Review of Books and well worth any writer’s time.

Author Websites and Profiles
John Pearce Website
John Pearce Amazon Profile

John Pearce’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m an English author in the UK. I’ve had over 35 short stories published (although have written many more) My latest was included in the Little Brown Book Group’s Mammoth Book of Jack the Ripper Tales and I have 4 YA novellas published through Evernight Teen: Traitors’ Gate, Bad Blood, Bad Timing and Lost in Wonderland.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book, Lost in Wonderland was my homage to Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. It was the book’s 150th anniversary last year and I wanted to write something that honored the book’s themes of being lost and growing up but didn’t just follow the same plot and characters displaced in a different genre. The title was always going to be Lost in Wonderland, it didn’t change whilst writing/ editing unlike other books I’ve written.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Hmmm, suppose it depends on your definition of unusual! I think the only thing I do, that most writers don’t, is that I write my chapters out of order. I have a plan but tend to write the scenes I’m most passionate about first, then fit it all together at the end.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
When I was younger, the first horror books I read were by Poppy Z Brite – an amazing writer that can make even the most grotesque sound beautiful. I love reading a good series and always found that Laurell K Hamilton’s books had incredibly engaging characters that kept you reading. I really appreciate a good idea too, something that hasn’t been done before – although these books are kind of hard to find!

What are you working on now?
I’ve usually got at least 2 manuscripts on the go at once. I’m currently working on the last installment of the Battle of the Undead (vampires VS zombies) series which is called Bad Karma and also the second in my new series, The Twisted and The Brave which is called The Assassin of Oz.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I think Goodreads is where its at. Lost of genre specific book groups and the whole thing is geared toward readers. I’ve also started serializing my free book, Traitors’ Gate on Wattpad. They say that this site is 90% readers to 10% writers – so I’m hopeful that this one will be well worth the time.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
You can’t please everyone all the time, this way madness lies! Also, have a thick skin and remember that a lot of success in this industry is down to luck and meeting the right people – so get yourselves out there and make the most of every opportunity.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Get on with things! You’ll never regret pursuing your dreams today – but you will regret putting them off till tomorrow.

What are you reading now?
I’m currently reading The Crown by Kiera Cass. I loved The Selection series but I’m finding this one difficult. I think its because the character of America in the original series was a ‘normal’ young girl and the protagonist in The Crown is a princess – definitely a different mindset and I’m finding it hard her relate to.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Lots of writing! And a boat load of promotion for my books. Pretty much what every author has to do these days.

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?
Not allowed my kindle? I’m sure I could Macgyver up some sort of coconut adapter.

Okay: Dracula by Bram Stoker, I am Legend by Richard Matheson, Outlander by Diana Gaboldon and my own Lost in Wonderland (to remember the good old days when I wasn’t stuck on a desert Island)

Author Websites and Profiles
Nicky Peacock Website
Nicky Peacock Amazon Profile

Nicky Peacock’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
So far, I’ve completed one novel: The Farthest City. I’ve also published a few short stories (Lonely, Lonely in Lore (available for free on Smashwords, B&N, and iTunes), and Space Tagger in Neo-opsis).

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The Farthest City is a hard science fiction novel inspired by movies like the Terminator where machines wage war on the human race; however, The Farthest City flips that idea around and asks: what would happen if machines saved the human race?

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I do most of my writing on the train to and from work, during lunch when I can step away from work, and at the library when I can escape there. I also like to write on Steno pads where I can draw arrows connecting ideas and even sketches from time to time.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
John Steinbeck, Haruki Murakami, William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, Tim O’Brien, J.R.R. Tolkien, Joe Haldeman, Ursula K. Le Guin, Cormac McCarthy, James Patrick Kelly, George R.R. Martin, James Harriot (James Alfred Wight).

What are you working on now?
I’m in the plotting and world-building stage of a series of novels set throughout the Milky Way Galaxy (or at least our part of it). The series starts with the idea the galaxy is occupied by alien species much older than humanity, including some beings that have evolved to the point of being god-like. Developing alien cultures, and even different human cultures as humanity expands into space, is proving to be a lot of fun.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’ve had a lot of success using Reddit, but I’m now experimenting with various promotion sites (such as Awesomegang.com!).

Do you have any advice for new authors?
In today’s super-saturated fiction market, it can be hard to get attention for your work, but don’t give up.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I’ve heard a lot of great advice over the years, but I would point to this as a good example: http://www.hughhowey.com/so-you-want-to-be-a-writer/

What are you reading now?
I just finished Old Man’s War by John Scalzi.

What’s next for you as a writer?
My goal is to just keep writing, improve, and have fun.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Count Zero (Gibson), James Harriot’s “All Creatures Great and Small” series, The Diamond Age (Stephenson).

Author Websites and Profiles
Daniel Swenson Website
Daniel Swenson Amazon Profile
Daniel Swenson Author Profile on Smashwords

Daniel Swenson’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a self-published science fiction author from Rhode Island who has written five science fiction e-books for Amazon Kindle. I have a mild case of Aspergers syndrome (a form of autism) and I am the CEO/sole employee of Turtle Rocket Books.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is Working-Class Superheroes. I was inspired to write this book by my life-long obsession with the superhero genre, both on cinema and in comic books, and the need to say something about it. This story would have made a great comic book series, but I can’t draw very well. It works as a novel, though.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Just the fact that Cheez-its help. I don’t know why they help. I’m not a chemist and the company isn’t paying me to say that (yet). But they help me get rid of writer’s block for some reason.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Bruce Coville was the first author that made me want to write. He was the first author that I saw combine weird ideas with relatable characters in a way that spoke to me.

What are you working on now?
A sequel to my fourth book ‘The Inter-Terrestrial’. It’s called ‘Dookimon: The Inter-Terrestrial volume 2’.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Goodreads. Not sure which one has resulted in the most attention, but having my own site (turtlerocketbooks.com) helps you promote elsewhere.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Just write and find an appropriate outlet for you.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I pitched the idea for The Inter-Terrestrial as a screenplay once and the exec said that there was too much going on and I should write it as a novel.

What are you reading now?
My stash from Free Comic Book Day last month. I’ve been busy.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Promoting turtlerocketbooks.com at Boston Comic Con in August 2016. Releasin Dookimon and writing a sequel to The Tattler.

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

Author Websites and Profiles
Chad Descoteaux Website
Chad Descoteaux Amazon Profile

Chad Descoteaux’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Like a lot of writers, I’ve harbored the writing dream since I was a teenager, sending off my invariably rejected short stories, while reading novels and thinking, “I could do that.” Lo these many years later (“Life is what happens while you’re making other plans.”–John Lennon) I’ve written six (one for NaNoWriMo), but only have self-published two, through Amazon. The others I now consider my “learner” novels. A couple were good enough to get me an agent–one got as far as a final review from a major NY agency–but as anyone who’s gone down that road knows, it’s a long slog, only slightly less painful than banging one’s head against a brick wall. But I’m a stubborn little cuss, and along came Amazon. Dracula Lives is my second one there.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Dracula Lives. I guess all ideas, as they bounce around in a writer’s brain, start as the “what if?”. And we always get the advice, “Write what you know.” And I know and love the old Universal horror classics, and haunted castle stories, and Roger Corman’s Poe movies with Vincent Price, and I wanted to write something that captured some of that. When Universal started making the so-called “monster rally” movies in the forties, Dracula Meets the Wolf Man and so on, I wanted to capture all of that in my novel–while of course figuring out an original story.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Not really, but my writing space has a little plastic figure of Edgar Allan Poe with a Raven on his shoulder, sitting in the corner, looking over my shoulder, if you will.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Dean Koontz, certainly. I consider him the level to aspire to. The Exorcist is a book that burned into me.

What are you working on now?
Here’s my plan as a horror writer: I want to write a series of books (not necessarily having the same character; some might, but some will be standalones) under the umbrella of what I’m calling Tales from the Shadowland. They will be unabashed horror stories for adults. Dracula Lives is the first. Currently I’m working on the next. Think Alien meets Jurassic Park (again I’m channeling movies I love).

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
To be honest I haven’t done enough promotion to have a really good idea about that, but for Dracula Lives, I made it free the first official day of its launch, and bought an ad at FREEBOOKSY to promote that. I was very pleased. In that one day I went to #2 in one of my categories (I’ll never know if it made it to number 1, couldn’t keep my eyes open until midnight). I got 1400 downloads, and I’m sure that was mostly because of the ad.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t overthink it or agonize. If you think you can do this–to borrow Nike’s line–JUST DO IT! There are a bazillion books and articles about HOW TO WRITE A BOOK–and I read a ton, and too much of that can just clog up your brain. For every piece of advice that says do this, there’s a piece advice that says don’t do that. Here’s an example about whether or not to outline: Jeffrey Deaver, highly acclaimed thriller writer, says he “absolutely” outlines, and quite extensively. Michael Connolly, highly acclaimed writer of crime novels, says he never commits a word to paper before he starts the novel. Everyone’s brain is hard-wired in a unique way for processing information, and you have to come with a method that works FOR YOU.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I’ve heard it many different ways, but what it boils down to is to use the material that’s inside of you to write. It’s the one unique thing you to have to offer the world–your stories and your voice. Simply copying trends and writing what everyone else is writing won’t do. One way I’ve seen that expressed that I really like is: The suit of clothes that looks good on someone else will rarely look good on you.

What are you reading now?
To be honest, right now I don’t read in the traditional sense of sitting down and reading a book from beginning to end for pleasure. I’ve read many many books, and have many around that I want to read, but lately I’ll just pick up a book to see how other writers handle the technical stuff: the “he saids/she saids”, how often they paragraph, how long their chapters are, and so on.

What’s next for you as a writer?
As touched upon in a previous comment, developing my “brand” of Tales from the Shadowland and writing the stories for that.

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 Exorcist; Jaws; The Keep

Author Websites and Profiles
Robert Ryan Website

Robert Ryan’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I live in Manchester, England and get up to all sorts of nonsense. Writing keeps me out of trouble … most of the time. ‘FAT Girlfriend’ was written alongside working extremely long hours during my employment at Citi Group and other fantastically exciting financial institutions that have been lucky enough to employ me – every one of them said they were very sad to terminate my contract. All proceeds go to a charity called ‘Georgia’s Children of the World’, and every penny they receive goes directly to the children who need it in Cambodia, Romania and the UK – nobody takes anything in wages. We’ve just finished our annual music festival which saw me putting on 16 bands and raising around £20,000. Music is my other love, and there are quite a few hidden and not so hidden musical references in FAT Girlfriend.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
‘Sixty Thousand Muppets’ is due out in July 2016. This is a novella and collection of short stories which are almost entirely not about soccer. Well, at least that’s how it started … it’s true that soccer does burst into each story now and again, but this book is about life and the culture, music, and lunacy that goes around the supporting of a sports team, not the sport itself. Anyone can read it. Well, not anyone – a basic grasp of the English language is somewhat of a pre-requisite. In fact, the more basic, the better.

If you like to laugh, enjoy a good story and don’t take life too seriously, then this is for you. Or not – read it and tell me. Thank you for taking the time to read about the author and my work – it is more than appreciated. If you liked it, please tell others via the Amazon Kindle Review page – it may make my next redundancy easier to take.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m not allowed to discuss it in public. Let’s just say that I have to have the blinds drawn when writing.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
My favourite US author is probably Carl Hiaasen – I love his wit and his irreverence, and the depths of his characters stay with you long after you’ve forgotten the story itself. I have a resonance with his themes as well, and whilst the rivers and canals of Manchester will have very little resemblance to the Quays of Florida, we would all like a less polluted place to live in.

Northern Irish author Colin Bateman has a similar acidic wit, memorable characters and gritty story lines. Both these authors prove you can deal with difficult subject matter and still find comedy in them.

I could name a thousand more authors who have had a direct bearing on my writing, but if I can choose one more it would be Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and other ridiculous stories. Douglas had his own ‘better world’ themes, but his books are some of the funniest I’ve ever read, and I have no problem re-reading them at any opportunity. Life can be tough sometimes – it’s great to lose yourself in something funny for a while.

What are you working on now?
Wondering if I can stay in a paid job long enough to finish off Sixty Thousand Muppets.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’ll let you know when I’ve found it. So far my most successful method is threatening people in the street to buy it.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Yes – avoid giving advice to new authors.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
‘If a man can’t change the world these days, I still believe a man can change his own destiny.’ The Alarm, Spirit of ’76.

What are you reading now?
I’ve just finished The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson. There aren’t too many laughs in it, but it’s a brilliant and terrible story set in North Korea. People who reviewed it said that they kept putting it down because some of the subject matter is so frightening (more so because it will be very close to the truth), but then going back to it because it’s just so good.

What’s next for you as a writer?
It will be a novel, it will be humorous and it will probably result in me getting sacked from at least three jobs during the writing of 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 cheat and and bring the Hitchhiker’s ‘Trilogy’, as there are five books in that alone. After that it would probably be Robinson Crusoe and ‘How to get off a desert island for Dummies’.

Author Websites and Profiles
David Lindsay Amazon Profile

David Lindsay’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
My name is Brenda Kay Winters and I have authored over 215 books-some are in paperback. I write fiction, erotica, crime and suspense and how to books and some historical fiction. Find me on Nook and Amazon. I just finished a four book series called Feminine Litigators and book four is rather funny.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Federal Bureau of Termination-Kurt Vonegut inspired me. It is an illustrated picture book of the future and is very funny.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write at night.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
John Grisham and Emilie Mignnon have infulenced me.

What are you working on now?
Just promoting.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I use Facebook and Twitter

Do you have any advice for new authors?
My best advise is to write daily and take classes to improve your writing.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Do not beleive all that you see or hear.

What are you reading now?
The Litigators by John Grisham

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

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

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am 45, born and raised in Northern California. I started writing about a year after my divorce. I just wanted to read a book the had suspense as well as heat and one day after reading about 80 books I couldn’t find anything that appealed to me so I thought ‘what the heck’ and decided to give it a try. The feedback I got from family, friends and co-workers was positive so it became a new hobby. I’ve written and self-published 4 books now and am about to publish my 5th.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The name of the one I’m about to publish is ; Protecting Keira. The inspiration for this book rolled out of my previous book Guarding Presley. (Both books are a part of the Black Spade Series I’m working on).

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Yes! I can’t write if it’s quiet, so I have to have the TV on in the background and headphones on listening to music. Weird I know.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
L.P. Dover, Aurora Rose Reynolds, E.K. Blaire, Pepper Winters, Penelope Ward. V.i. Keeland. Just to name a few.

What are you working on now?
The 3rd installment to my Black Spade Series; Discovering Lily.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I really haven’t found one in particular, I’m still searching.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t give up! But don’t fool yourself either, getting your books in people’s hands is a full time job. When the writing is done the real work begins. And ask a lot of questions of a lot of people, and be very open to suggestions from people; no matter how they are delivered. I’ve learned things from even the most rude comment someone made to me. It’s basically all one big learning process until you make it .

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t give up your hard work will pay off one day.

What are you reading now?
‘Wolf’ the 3rd installment in the Henchmen MC Series by Jessica Gadziala.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Right now I’m submitting my manuscript to several publishing company’s to see if I will be offered a contract to work with them. It’s going pretty good so far.

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?
Roped by L.P Dover
Roomhate by Penelope Ward
Pucked by Helena Hunting
Fearsome by S.A. Wolfe
RIP by Rachel Van Dyken

Author Websites and Profiles
Cheryl Allen Website

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

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m from a small town in northeastern Florida, but I’ve lived in Missouri for the past 13 years. Besides writing, I am also a teacher. I have a dual Masters degree in Early Childhood Special Education and Autism. I have recently been diagnosed with Essential Tremors. Many do not know what this is and think most people who shake have MS or Parkinson’s. You should read up on ET as many still do not know what it is.
I have two books currently published, Reborn and Completely Alone. I am working on finishing one and editing two other books.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Completely Alone. It was actually the first book I wrote, but the second to publish. I found the idea of a man who had been abandoned and determined not to fall in love for fear of being left again, a real fear.

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

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Jamie McGuire, Katy Evans, and S.C. Stephens

What are you working on now?
Reawaken. It is book two of the Phoenix Phyre series, following Reborn. I wanted to take the secondary characters from Reborn and continue their story.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I do a lot on Facebook and Twitter. GoodReads has also been useful.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Take your time and don’t rush the process.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Never give up.

What are you reading now?
I’m rereading Thoughtless by S.C. Stephens.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I want to continue with the series I have started and see where those characters take me. There is plenty for the characters in both series to do.

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?
Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire, and either the Conversion series by S.C. Stephens or Gabriel’s Inferno series by Sylvain Reynard

Author Websites and Profiles
Rein Scott Website
Rein Scott Amazon Profile
Rein Scott Author Profile on Smashwords

Rein Scott’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a passionate writer, a gifted poet, an accomplished lyricist, a recorded singer, and above all a freelance journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya.
I have penned down FIVE titles, which are readily available and accessible both online and offline in Paperback and eBook formats via CreateSpace Publishers, Amazon, etc. They include:
[1] There is no Country Called Kenya: If you Must Steal, Just Steal a Little Please
[2] The UglyBeautiful Tale of a Stupid, Stupid Heart: When Mother Hen Eats her Grownup Chicks
[3] A Must-Have Guide for Every Aspiring Writer: Easy, Learnable, Realistic and Sure Ways to Earn Money as A Writer Online (Earning a Living as A Writer) (Volume 1)
[4] Please! Remember to Forget Me! And Other Short Stories
[5] Crawling to my Death and Other Poems: A Poetry Anthology
More so, I have two other works that will be hitting your bookstores at the soonest opportune possible. These include a Swahili Riwaya titled Yajapo Yapokee, and an English Novella titled Married to my Shadow: Love is for the Dying and Weak in Spirit.
Additionally, I am an occasional Op-Ed contributor for major local dailies here in Kenya namely:
1. The Daily Nation
http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Letters/Ethnicity-Kenya-Politics/-/440806/2841514/-/fsy6my/-/index.html
http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Letters/We-can-do-away-with-false-prophets-and-talk-directly-with-God/-/440806/2533486/-/bw5vng/-/index.html
2. The Standard Group Media
http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2000083019/why-ex-pm-back-door-admission-to-11th-parliament-is-suicidal
https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/ureport/article/2000192085/lets-avoid-the-road-that-will-lead-the-nation-to-violence
3. News24
http://www.news24.co.ke/MyNews24/raila-a-political-cheat-or-timely-saviour-for-kenyans-20160106
http://uganda.news24.com/Regional-News/1001-reasons-that-makes-kenya-both-a-curse-and-a-blessing-20151210-2
4. Sido News Network
http://www.sabaots.com/Levi_Cheptora_Cheruo.html
5. Kenya Yote

Political Appeasement Killing the Spirit of Effective Devolution

6. Kenya-Today

Police Reforms Should Go Hand In Hand With Judiciary Reforms

7. Kenya London News
http://www.kenyalondonnews.org/?p=3769
Some of my fiction writings have also been featured in reputable sites such aswww.africanwriter.com and www.writeoutloud.com.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My books are mainly centered on the themes of relationships, justice, equality, good governance, and leadership accountability.
The UglyBeautiful Tale of a Stupid, Stupid Heart was inspired by the 2007/2008 Kenya’s Post Election Violence, and the subsequent victory to the alleged perpetrators; There is No Country Called Kenya is an answer to the current wave of perpetual state-sanctioned thieving that threatens to tear Kenya apart, and so are the rest of the titles.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Writing for me is not a linear process. I write as ideas come; sometimes, continuously, at other times, once in a while.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
My favorite authors include:
1. Violet Kala, Zimbabwe
2. Ngugu Wa Thiong’o, Kenya
3. Chinua Achebe, Nigeria
And the books that have greatly influenced my writings include Waste Not Your Tears by Violet Kala, A Man of the People, Chinua Achebe, Weep Not Child, Ngugi Wa Thion’go, and the Late Jaramogi Oginga Odinga’s autobiography

What are you working on now?
A Swahili Riwaya titled Yajapo Yapokee, and an English Novella titled Married to my Shadow: Love is for the Dying and Weak in Spirit

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
There are many readers online nowadays, and as such, social media can prove quite helpful in marketing one’s books. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc., makes it quite easy to share links, info, previews, and sample texts.
Additionally, sites such as booklife.com, and readwriteclub.com, can be quite useful for promoting books online.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
If you have an idea you strongly believe in, and that you know it will impact many a soul out there, do not sit on it…write your heart out…you deserve to be heard as soon as last year!

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
When you are writing, you are just writing. You are not planning, you are not editing. You are writing. Once you have planned your story, it is time to sit down and write it.-JK.ROWLINGS, Harry Porter Series Author

What are you reading now?
I am currently reading God Dies by Nile El-Saadawi, Nawal, and The Common: A Modern Sense of Place: Issue 06 by Owuor, Yvonne Adhiambo

What’s next for you as a writer?
As long as I am alive, I will continue uplifting souls, igniting dispirited hearts, cheering up sad faces, and restoring hope to the hopeless through my writings.

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 will definitely bring along a Bible, a Church Hymnal Book, Violet Kala’s Waste Not Your Tears, and Nelson Mandela’s Abridged Autobiography A Long Walk to Freedom.

Author Websites and Profiles
Levi Cheruo Website
Levi Cheruo Amazon Profile

Levi Cheruo’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Courtney Asunmaa enjoys writing romantic novels about beautiful women. Born in 1985, writing has been one of her passions since she was twenty-one years old. Courtney turns to writing as an outlet to place emotions, dreams, and a vivid imagination. A romantic individual in life. Courtney puts these sentiments into her writings. She likes to tell romantic tales. She enjoys writing in the art of the romantic language. She is an intellectual romantic. These writings are spoken with a beautiful, romantic language. She enjoys traveling. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Finance at Ashford University. Courtney also writes opera librettos, plays, song lyrics, TV scripts, movie spec scripts, novels, and poems.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest books are A Lover’s Dream is a play. Also, Poems About Star-Enchanted Lovers
My Love for Her: Volume I are poems. I was inspired by women.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Sometimes, I like to write on the beach.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Ayn Rand, Jane Austen, Emily Dickson, Leo Tolstoy, Aristotle, Oscar Wilde, and Fyodor Dostoevsky are some of the books that I have read.

What are you working on now?
I am working on another two plays, a book of poems, song lyrics, movie spec scripts, and a opera libretto.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
The internet as a whole.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Know how to use the internet.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Don’t pee in the amazon river. Don’t drink the tap water in other countries.

What are you reading now?
Hedge Fund of Funds Investing, Arthur Schopenhauer, political philosophy books, W.B. Yeats, Cyrano De Bergerac, and Lesbian Decadence.

What’s next for you as a writer?
To continue to write more books and music. To write more.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Depends on what you are asking. As I would take my own books that I wrote. If it is for others and for help I’m bored and stuck here reading, than, I would take Ayn Rand- Atlas Shrugged, Jane Austen- Persuasion, and Oscar Wilde- The Picture of Dorian Gray, and Anna Karenina-Leo Tolstoy.
If it is for survival purposes and having common sense, than I would pick 4 books on how to survive on the island. On topics such as avoiding hostile tribes and animals, avoiding the mosquitoes and bugs, how to get food and water, and basic ways to build a boat to get off the island.

Author Websites and Profiles
Courtney Asunmaa Website

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
My name is Laurencia Hoffman. I have written five books so far. When I’m not writing I enjoy listening to music, watching films and making my own line of natural products.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is called A Wish for Remembrance. The idea came to me when I fell in love with the “soap opera” Dark Shadows. It was a great source of inspiration for me!

What are you working on now?
The Wages of Sin Series with my writing partner Sophie Smith. Book two hasn’t been published yet, but we’re in the process of writing book six.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t give up. If you truly love writing, stick with it. And don’t compare your success to someone else’s. Take your victories as they come and learn from your mistakes.

What’s next for you as a writer?
After the Wages of Sin series is finished, I have a number of books that I’d like to polish up and send off for publication. I write mainly paranormal fiction, but I’ve dabbled in other genres as well, and I would like to see how they compare.

Author Websites and Profiles
Laurencia Hoffman Amazon Profile

Laurencia Hoffman’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a fiction and non-fiction writer. In fiction, I write romance, romantic comedy and magical realism. In non-fiction, I write about fitness, wellness, self-help, psychology and war trauma.

I have written several manuscripts over the years and been close to publication many times. However, I remained close but not published traditionally, so I decided to eliminate frustration by moving into self-publishing. This experiment is currently in process. I’ll be happy to share if it worked once I found out.

When I’m not writing, I work as a certified personal trainer or as a pre-licensed marriage and family therapist.

I currently live in the Los Angeles area, but I am originally from Germany where I worked as an actress and muscial theater performer. I wrote in Germany too and I was published in magazines.

Why I came to the US and why I stayed is not quite clear to me either. I first came here to attend an acting school almost 20 years ago. I meant to go home afterwards, but I somehow ended up married to an American. I think that’s what may have done it; I stayed. I still live with this American man and far too many rescue animals in an old craftsmanship house by the beach.

It took me about 10 years to be able to learn English well enough so that I could write in English. I’m now a dual citizen and I try to go back and forth between continents as often as possible. The breeze across the Atlantic is invigorating. I recommend it.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My first self-published book is “Bodysculpting for Bombshells – Fast and Easy Fitness for Loving Your Body and Feeling Desirable”.
To be very honest, I was so terrified of self-publishing that I chose to re-write a free fitness ebook I had featured on my personal training website for many years over self-publishing one of my novels. The fitness ebook was well received by clients who couldn’t afford personal training, and I wrote it to provide these people with a safe and easy-to-follow fitness guide.
When I re-wrote this book, I had earned 2 Masters degrees in psychology and my perspective had changed from focusing on safe exercise technique to positive body image and womens’ empowerment.
“Bodysculpting for Bombshells” is now an upbeat feel-beautiful book; one that utilizes exercise as a tool for feeling good in one’s own skin versus a book that’s solely written about exercise.
Besides, I’m not a great fan of fitness books. They can be awfully dry to read and I wanted to save my readers from the dreadful chore of educating themselves with a boring book.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I’m not sure if it is unusual for a writer to want long hours alone every day, and for the world to go away. That’s about as unusual as it gets. I like to work very long days as a personal trainer so I can afford entire days alone at home during the week.
The best thing about my husband is that he goes to work on those days and leaves me alone, and that he doesn’t mind.
I do have a quirk about Trader Joe’s gummi bears imported from France. Gummi bears are the best remedy for writer’s block, or any other block that really stems from bouts of perceived inadequacy. When feeling stuck, have a French gummi bear.

Oh, I do have another quirk. I always dress up for writing. I can’t imagine writing in pajamas or sweat pants. I don’t own pajamas. But I’m pretty sure my muses are offended and won’t show up if I’m not dressed up for them.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I love books and the written word more than anything, so the list would be nearly endless.

The crime author Lynn Hightower influenced me greatly through her detail oriented writing style and outstanding writing classes.
I love Audrey Nieffenegger’s “The Time Traveller’s Wife” for magical realism. One of my favorite books is “White Oleander”.
I love “Those who saved us” about WW2 trauma.
I can never turn down Emily Giffin because of her psychological character development, and I can’t say no to anything by Jennifer Crusie because her romances make me laugh.

What are you working on now?
Courage. I’m working on the courage to self-publish my novel “The Creed”, which was almost published many times and was nominated for he 2011 Kirkwood Award.
Afterwards, I want to polish a few other dusty old manuscripts listed on my website and publish them, and of course I would like to continue on a womens’ fitness series.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I can’t answer this question yet. I’m too inexperienced. I’m running an experiement what works and what doesn’t. I’ll be happy to share when I know. Advice is also welcome.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Do it anyway. If you know you are a writer because it is what makes you happy, because it makes you feel at one with the world or the rest of the universe, because you become peaceful inside and more loving towards yourself and others, do it anyway. Keep doing it. Keep writing and finding ways of sharing your writing.

Enjoy the process of being a writer and embrace the obstacles or problems that come with it as “privileged problems”. Since everything worthwhile tends to come with an amount of struggle, we are lucky if we may struggle with what we love the most.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
It’s similar to what I wrote above. Since everything worthwhile is hard and has struggle attached to it, we might as well struggle with what we love. The architect Michael Lehrer gave me this advice.
It made it possible for me to realize that struggling with writing or getting published didn’t mean I wasn’t good enough. It only meant I was having a normal experience.

What are you reading now?
I’m reading the Spiegel daily, a German political magazine, because I’m interested in the influx and crisis of Syrian refugees in Europe.
I’m out of novels, which is a serious problem.

What’s next for you as a writer?
More work. A lot more work. I’m learning about marketing, which I find dreadfully overwhelming. I want to publish a print edition of “Bodysculpting for Bombshells” within the next few weeks, and then publish my first 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?
Audrey Nieffenegger “The Time Traveller’s Wife”
Lynn Hightower “Fortunes of the Dead”
Stephenie Meyer “The Host”

Author Websites and Profiles
Vivi Stutz Website
Vivi Stutz Amazon Profile

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a gothic romance author. I’ve penned dozens of novels, novellas, and stories under my name and pen names.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Oh, goodness. It’s Light the Black Candle. A walk downtown where I live inspired it. I thought, that building is a mystery, so I wrote about it.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t know about unusual, but I’m quite prolific.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Wuthering Heights, Dragonwyck, and everything by Barbara Michaels

Author Websites and Profiles
Lisa Greer Website

Lisa Greer’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m Mia! I live in the mountains of Colorado with a grumpy cat and several ducks. I’m a recovering philosophy grad student. I’ve published one book, but written many more that are to be released soon!

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is called “Going Bearserk.” Would it be bad to admit that the pun actually inspired the plot? It did. I was cracking jokes with a friend about titles for bear shifter romances, and we hit upon this one.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I have to stop writing at periodic intervals to check out my bathtub full of ducklings. (We’re keeping them in until they are old enough to brave the outdoors.) So every once in a while, I’m explaining plot points and character choices to an army of little yellow beaks.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
My favorite books have always been fantasy. If I had to choose one, I would say that Tamora Pierce put me on the path of being a writer when I was young.

What are you working on now?
I’m working on another book in the same world! Coming soon!

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Sourcing ARC readers is important. You’ve got to get a social media presence to find people who would be interested in getting advanced review copies of your books.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Just write! It will never be perfect, but it will be good. Publish. Write again.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Sam Beckett. “Fail again. Fail better.”

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?
Aw man…that’s like asking me to pick a favorite duckling.

Author Websites and Profiles
Mia Arden Website
Mia Arden Amazon Profile

Mia Arden’s Social Media Links
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Kathleen Baldwin loves adventure in books and in real life. She roamed the Rockies, wandered the desert, enjoyed way too many classes in college, was stalked by a cougar, lost an argument with a rattlesnake, fell in love at least a dozen times, and married her very own hero. Together they’ve raised four free-spirited adventurous children.

She has written several award-winning Traditional Regency Romances including Lady Fiasco, Mistaken Kiss, a Holt Medallion Finalist, Cut from the Same Cloth, Highwayman Came Waltzing, and Waltz With A Rogue. Her fantasy YA, Diary Of A Teenage Fairy Godmother is a Golden Quill Finalist. These days, Kathleen is writing an Alternate YA Historical Romance series for TorTeen, a Tor/Forge (Macmillan) line, The Stranje House Novel Series. A School for Unusual Girls, released May 2015, Exile for Dreamers, released May 2016, and three more novels to come in the series.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Exile for Dreamers, book two of the Stranje House novels, is my most recent release; it came out May 24th, 2016.

My young nephew inspired the basic Stranje House series concept. He insisted I should write a book about girls learning to be warriors. He was very specific, too. The girls should go away to a school and there should be an older and wiser mentor teaching them. Clever little dude got my creative water wheel turning and soon I couldn’t stop the ideas from flowing.

The girls in my story aren’t just learning to be warriors, they’re becoming spies in the war effort against Napoleon. Being a warrior is all part of a more complex training.

EXILE FOR DREAMERS, though, is specifically based on my own experiences with dreams. I’ve always struggled with my dreams and deciphering their meaning . . . Tess’s dreams are an amplified version of that problem.

Writers draw can only from what they know. So, in a way every character, every storyline is a little bit of our souls inked onto the page.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Sometimes music will help me to go deeper into the world, but mostly I grab my water jug and sit down and write. I love writing.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I love so many, adore Georgette Heyer, but I also love Marissa Meyer’s work, or Meg Cabot, Daphne Du Maurier amazes me, so does Frank Herbert.

What are you working on now?
I am in the midst of writing the third installment of the Stranje House series, REFUGE FOR MASTERMINDS! This time we are seeing the story unfold through Lady Jane’s perspective.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Social Media is huge these days so I try to hit the big ones: FB, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. My daughter is trying to get me to use Snapchat, but I’m still getting use to that, but it is really fun! Goodreads is a MUST as well in the book world.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Live a full life. Observe. Really observe, observe REAL life – not TV and movies. Record how you feel and why. Read. Think about what you’ve read, what you liked about the work and what you didn’t, but mostly about what you liked.
Write everyday.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Trust your instincts!

What are you reading now?
I recently finished reading RIDERS by Veronica Rossi. I thought this was a fabulous book and I enjoyed every minute of it. I’m on the lookout for my next book to read.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Right now I am still in the trenches of my Stranje House series and will be for the immediate future. I’m finishing up book three, REFUGE FOR MASTERMINDS. Then I will begin working on book four.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Tough question… well I would be lost without my Bible, so that is a must for me. Then “Rebecca” by Daphne du Maurier, Georgette Heyer’s “Regency Buck”, and I would throw in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” for some added adventure.

Author Websites and Profiles
Kathleen Baldwin Website
Kathleen Baldwin Amazon Profile

Kathleen Baldwin’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Philadelphia’a Thriller Author, Dean Kutzler, writes fast-paced thrillers entrenched with surprisingly true facts hidden around the world. Brownstone is the first book in The Jack Elliot Series.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Brownstone is the first book in the Jack Elliot Series. The book was born from a vast interest in archaeology and the beginning of our existence.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Unusual? I wouldn’t really call it unusual, but I do like to sit outside when I write. I’m inspired by nature and wildlife.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
James Rollins has been a very big influence in my writing career. Stephen King was my favorite author as a kid and still is today.

What are you working on now?
Currently, I’m working on book two in the Jack Elliot Series. I’ve found some more shocking facts that are little known to the world that I cannot wait to share.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Facebook, obviously is the go-to, hands down, as a vehicle for promotion. I also love an online app called DesignFeed. It allows you to put in text content that it then searches for appropriate pictures to create memes with. It is a HUGE time-saver.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write…write and write some more. Practice truly makes perfection or a close facsimile thereof. Writing and reading, everyday…is key.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
See the previous question.

What are you reading now?
Currently, I’m finishing up Stephen King’s Mr. Mercedes trilogy.

What’s next for you as a writer?
After book two in the Jack Elliot Series, I am going to finish a stand-alone novel that I’d been working on previously, tentatively titled Valentine’s Day Surprise. It originally started out as a free Valentine’s Day story, but I was so intrigued with the subject matter that I’d found (hidden secrets) that I was compelled to make it a full-length 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?
Ugh… That is a tough one. Let’s see…hmmm. They have to be large books. 1) Aztec, by Gary Jennings. 2) Gallilee, by Clive Barker and lastly 3) Otherland, by Tad Williams.

Author Websites and Profiles
Dean Kutzler Website
Dean Kutzler Amazon Profile
Dean Kutzler Author Profile on Smashwords

Dean Kutzler’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
To date I have written two science fiction books in the Titan Fleet series – Titan Fleet: The Invictus and Titan Fleet: The Robur – both of which contain adventure, horror and romance. I have plans for the last book in the series – Titan Fleet: The Fahrenheit. I am currently writing a thriller and also a children’s book. I love to write early in the morning with a fresh cup of Earl Grey tea and the words begin to flow.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Titan Fleet: The Robur. The book was inspired by the first one. For several people it was the first book they had ever read. I felt that I owed the reader more action and thrills. I love to write and the thought of others reading my books inspires me to share what is inside and encourage people to read and escape.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I like to outline all my work in pencil in jotter books. I feel writing is an extension of what makes me who I am and I just love writing that way to start with. So nothing different really, I think, to most authors.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
To be quite honest I have many authors that I admire and could make a long list, but what influences me more is the thought that you can do anything if you try, no matter what others may think or say. You can do it if you just take time to write it.

What are you working on now?
I am currently working on a thriller, with gore and excitement, and also I am working on a children’s fantasy book, which is funny, so watch this space.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Just getting my books out to as many sites as I can. Promote lots on Facebook and my author’s page there, and Goodreads, and as many websites as I can.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
When all seems to push against you, push back and write with the belief in yourself that you CAN and WILL finish the book. It is worth all the hard work, and is an amazing feeling. ‘I can’t’ is an easy excuse that anyone can use. ‘I did it’ is hard to achieve and rarely heard.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Simple – Just write it.

What are you reading now?
Kings or Pawns: Steps of Power: The Kings, Book 1 by J J Sherwood

What’s next for you as a writer?
To change genre for a while to thrillers, and keep writing many more action packed books for my fans. I also want to help others realise they have it within them to achieve great things if they try.

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?
Encyclopaedia of medical things, lol. SAS survival book, and a bible.

Author Websites and Profiles
Jason J Black Amazon Profile

Jason J Black’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m from Northern Ireland and I write science fiction and fantasy. I have three books released to date with two more due out in the next year.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is Sunset Over Abendau, the second in my Space Opera trilogy. It takes inspiration from classic SF, and explores the trope of the ‘chosen one’, asking what it would be to be that person and how a life could be ruined by that destiny.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I can write in utter chaos! I run a consultancy, have kids, write at my kitchen table with a bouncy dog for company.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Lots, and often not genre books. But Dune is an old influence, as is AC Clarke. More recently, I enjoy Neil Gaiman and Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

What are you working on now?
I’m working on completing Abendau’s Legacy, the last book of my trilogy, and my first fantasy book, due for release next summer. (2017) I have a couple of standalones I’m reworking and hoping to find a home for, before I embark on a fantasy duology.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Bookbub was hard to beat, but short lived. Networking is the biggest one for me. Also, my blog at www.jozebwrites.blogspot.co.uk is well followed and a key point for people to find me.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t expect overnight miracles! It’s mostly just a long slog. Enjoy the writing for itself and not the rewards.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Get your stuff out there! Don’t wait for the perfect moment or deal, start getting polished work out to readers.

What are you reading now?
I’ve just finished The Martian by Andy Weir. Very funny.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I have short work coming out in four anthologies this year, and some exciting opportunities for longer work, too. Tonight, my first audio book hits the shelves, which is exciting!

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

The Stand by Stephen King – enough in it to keep me going.
Maps in a Mirror by Scott Card – a fantastic collection of short stories
The Time Traveller’s Wife because I just love it.

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am an educator, and a mother to a 20 year old. Faith and family are very important to me; my dog is included in family! I love to read and write! I was moved around a good bit in my childhood, and started writing poems and stories as a child to provide entertainment for long trips. After a while, my family settled in the southeast, but my life was enriched by each of the different places we lived. I have now self-published two books on Kindle. My best genres include science fiction, realistic fiction, and poetry of all types. I love to write poetry about emotions, nature, my loved ones, and even my dog. I enjoy taking photographs of nature and sunsets, or watching sci-fi movies and X-Files or Fringe re-runs.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is “Seeing Through Sampson’s Eyes.” It was inspired by my characters, strange as that may sound. This book is a continuation of the story of Abrielle and Norrie from “Made for Me,” with a little bit of Sampson as well. The characters had some loose ends, and I tried to let them have some closure in some ways, as well as letting Norrie’s curiosity grow as she grows into a young woman.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Unusual? Only that sometimes I will keep writing until my arm hurts, because my characters want their stories to be told.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I have read “The Little Prince” several times. It always seems to hold different meaning for me. My favored authors are Dean Koontz, Stephen King, James Patterson, John Grisham, Phillip K. Dick, and for humor, Carl Hiassen and Laurie Notaro. One does need a sense of balance.

What are you working on now?
I am working on promoting my new release, “Seeing Through Sampson’s Eyes.”

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Twitter and Facebook have been good places to promote my work, but I have recently found out about quotesrain.com which is affiliated with Goodreads. There is some benefit in Goodreads, but the quotesrain site so far seems very handy. I’m still trying to get followers on Pinterest.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
My advice to new authors is to start promoting your book before you publish it! My first self-published book was a surprise to everyone, but that is because I had to work up the nerve to put it out there for the world to see. Well, I got the nerve, and I am learning as I go!

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“Do what you love.” I can honestly say, now I am doing that. I wanted to write and publish books for a long time, but there were things holding me back. I think I entered into an era of saying yes. It happened shortly after I got a dog, another thing I had put off for years!

What are you reading now?
I am reading a book that is part of a book club I am in. It is titled “The Alpine Project,” and is a medical mystery/thriller. I am enjoying it so far!

What’s next for you as a writer?
I am going to start editing a sci-fi manuscript that I finished last December. It is about 200 pages, but I know I need to flesh out a few things, and edit/revise some of the details. I plan to publish this one on Kindle and in print, so it will take more time.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
“Under the Dome” is so multilayered and very involving. Perhaps that book I once read about Blackbeard would be good; it might get me geared up for island survival! Perhaps the Bible. It is a huge book, and I might find comfort in some of its chapters and verses.

Author Websites and Profiles
Pamela Schloesser Canepa Website
Pamela Schloesser Canepa Amazon Profile

Pamela Schloesser Canepa’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve been writing since I was 10 years old, but I’ve graduated from longhand in spiral notebooks to laptops. Diamond in the Rough is my third novel (the first was Denim & Diamonds, the second was Fatal Impulse).

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The idea for Diamond in the Rough has been percolating for years. I am a paralegal by day and several years ago, I assisted a client whose entire herd of cattle was stolen. That was an eye-opener for me – I had no idea what a serious problem cattle rustling is in this day and age.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Does talking to my Muse count? I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who can see and hear her. At least, I hope so, because sometimes she’s pretty shocking.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Stephen King’s book, On Writing, is dog-eared and always nearby. Another author that had a more recent influence on me is Tawna Fenske. I began following her blog before she was published and she just made the USA Today bestseller list. Watching her rise up in the publishing world has been inspiring.

What are you working on now?
The working title of my next book is Queen’s Revenge. It’s will be released in three parts. The story revolves around a young woman who is recruited into a secret society of powerful women.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Word of mouth. I usually pick the books I read based on what other people recommend, and I hope that folks enjoy my books enough to recommend them to their friends.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep writing. This is a tough business and the key to success is perseverance. Keep writing, keep learning, keep improving. Did I mention keep writing?

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Writing is like climbing a mountain. When you begin, it’s fun and exciting and relatively easy and there are lots of folks around you. As you work your way up the mountain, it gets harder, the handholds are fewer and farther between, and there are less people around you to help. The closer you get to the summit, the air gets thinner, it gets lonelier and it’s harder.

What are you reading now?
Winds of Deception by Tierney James and Let it Breathe by Tawna Fenske.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Keep 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?
On Writing by Stephen King
Getting Dumped by Tawna Fenske
Gone with the Wind

Author Websites and Profiles
Lori Robinett Website
Lori Robinett Amazon Profile
Lori Robinett Author Profile on Smashwords

Lori Robinett’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account