Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Hi, I’m a speaker, author, and synesthete. I’ve entertained and encouraged people for years via books, on stage, teaching in classrooms, and one-on-one. My writing ranges from motivational to how-to and from fiction to poetry. To date, I’ve published more than 20 books. Some of them may just be what you need to make your day even better!

Having me speak at your next meeting, workshop, or conference is a great idea! Why? Because I’ve learned know how to overcome in life, and since I’ve done thousands of presentations over the past 20 years, your people will be in good hands!

In 1990, I was homeless and living out of my truck (not fun!). I came back from that through real estate. Then, the boom / bust in the early 2000s forced me to start over again.

Those experiences have given me insight into various markets and life in general. Despite the odds, I continue to overcome life’s challenges and turn them into successes!

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
“Japanese-English: Winston T. Mouse (Kindle), Bilingual” was inspired by some of the kids I taught in school. Watching how they interacted with each other made me think about the whole idea of perceptions, attitudes, and feelings. Based on positive feedback I’ve gotten on the book, explaining the concepts in a tangible way was apparently a good thing.

Have a great day!
Marty

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I tend to write late at night, when the world is quiet. Stories flash through my mind like short movies. I sit there and watch the “film” play and then do my best to capture it in words and/or illustrations.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Author – Jane Yolen — great stuff.
Book – The Forgotten Door, by Alexander Key — all-time favorite kids book

What are you working on now?
Developing a coaching system to help other people write and publish their own children’s books.
(So many people have been asking me, recently, that I have to develop a system beyond the one-on-one method.)

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Amazon Kindle, Facebook, Twitter, & Instagram… and “Tell-An-Aunt”… my relatives are wonderful when it comes to them telling other people about the stuff I publish!

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep writing! Don’t give up. Tell the world the stories that are burning inside you. Those are the ones worth telling.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
“Well, how would you want to say it?…Okay, then write down what you just told me.”
[…still works, every time]

What are you reading now?
“Turn the Ship Around” by David Marquet; “Power of Professionalism” by Bill Wiersma ; “Marketing” by Alex Jeffreys
I read one book every day or so, using the photographic reading techniques taught by Paul Scheele. [some say it’s hokum, but it’s worked for me for 15 years!]

What’s next for you as a writer?
Ask my readers what they want to read more of…and then give them 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?
Bible, Dictionary, World Atlas, George Bayer’s collected works on Commodities Cycles.

Author Websites and Profiles
Marty Reep Website
Marty Reep Amazon Profile

Marty Reep’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a wandering soul. I’ve visits many countries with great intentions to visit more. I’m a very lucky fellow indeed.

I’ve written one novel, several novellas, a couple of short story collections and I have tried my hand at plays too. I hope to put on a play in February 2018.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
I am preparing for the launch of a new novella called Splutter. I wrote it while I was running for election as a councillor. The days were long and there was a good deal to do. Writing was a way for me to relax during the campaign, even if only for a half hour.

The book itself is a stream of conscious tale of a person with more money than sense. It’s fantastical and quirky and will require a health suspension of belief.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Everything unusual happens in the stories themselves. If I were to be unusual in my writing habits too then I’d scarcely have a moment to write.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I often read non-fiction books about history and politics. I’m fairly well-read when it comes to newspapers too, so a lot of ideas at least start with a real world happening.
I’ve read a lot of Gore Vidal, Kurt Vonnegut and Noam Chomsky. I used to read a lot of 19th and early 20th Century novels as well. The likes of The House of Mirth, Of Human Bondage and The Forsythe Saga to name but three.

What are you working on now?
I’ve just finished a second collection of bedtime stories and I’m finishing a novel about a set of storybook characters and their author. I am waiting for word back about a play I wrote which is about a god returning to Earth after a spell away and their attempts to rebrand themselves.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Honestly, I don’t do enough of it. Interviews like this are my attempt to rectify that.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Be sure to get fitted for a enterpreneurial / business person hat as soon as possible. Your creative hat is probably well-worn and snug fitting but the business hat needs attention too.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
I tend to give advice away, I don’t know what to do with it myself.

What are you reading now?
I was reading a book about grants. It was a real page turner. Think the DiVinci Code meets tax return forms.

What’s next for you as a writer?
A trip to the moon as a kind of extreme writer’s retreat.

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?
Really big phone directories so if it gets cold I can start a fire

Author Websites and Profiles
Cearúil Swords Website
Cearúil Swords Amazon Profile
Cearúil Swords Author Profile on Smashwords

Cearúil Swords’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I grew up in Louisville, Kentucky and now live in the metro Atlanta area. Before my latest novel, I wrote a young adult science fiction thriller series called, “I Am Human.” It’s about a silent alien invasion and how the fear of the aliens slowly changes the community. As the novel progresses, the main characters – Matt and Savannah – begin to question their community’s response to the invasion and have to make some tough decisions about just what it is that makes us human.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is Vampire Manor. I love fantasy and paranormal fiction, and I had an idea for a new origin story for vampires that’s based on a real myth. In fact, the myth is so suggestive of a vampire origin story that I can’t believe it hasn’t been used before. Vampire Manor is essentially an Historical Paranormal novel, because it’s set in a 1920s Tennessee mill town. The dark Tennessee mountains lend a wonderful “creep factor” to the setting, and then there are also all the issues of the big divide between the rich and the poor that existed at that time in the United States. Vampire Manor is a great way to learn a little about U.S. history, if you think you’d enjoy your history with a side of vampire!

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Only that I prefer to write at night. Perhaps that just makes sense, however, since I write fantasy and paranormal fiction!

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I’ve been devouring books since I was first able to read, so it’s almost impossible to answer that question – there have been too many influences! I’ve read fantasy, paranormal, and science fiction since elementary school, though. Some of my earliest favorite books were in that genre – A Wrinkle in Time and Half Magic, for instance.

What are you working on now?
I’d like to continue Vampire Manor into a series, so I’ve been plotting a sequel. I’d like to develop the origin story and the romance, as well as have Lillian go head to head with some of the more dangerous elements in the manor. The stakes will really go up in the second book. I’m waiting to see the fan response, however – I’d love to hear from the fans and work some of their ideas into the book! Also, I’m almost halfway through writing a magic school fantasy book. Of all my books, it will be the most imaginative, and it is FUNNY. I hope to release it in a few months. Sign up to be notified on my website at www.rlburke.weebly.com, or click the “follow” button on my Amazon author page to be notified when it releases. Trust me, you won’t want to miss it!

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I still have so much to learn about the marketing side of this business, but I’ve loved learning it.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep it real, even when you’re writing fantasy. Never manipulate your characters to serve the plot – readers hate that. The plot must follow the characters. If you’re writing and all of a sudden you find yourself saying, “Wow! I didn’t expect THAT to happen!” then you know you’re on the right track.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
A high school language arts teacher once said to me, “It doesn’t matter how important your writing is. If it isn’t entertaining, no one will read it.” How true.

What are you reading now?
Books about marketing books, a Japanese cozy mystery, an urban paranormal novel, and a book about how algorithms relate to everyday life. I probably read as much non-fiction as fiction.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Complete my fantasy novel, finish plotting a sequel to Vampire Manor, and just 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?
Besides “How to Survive on a Desert Island”? That question is just excruciating to a reader. I guess I’ll go with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Huckleberry Finn, and then I’m going to cheat and bring my Kindle.

Author Websites and Profiles
R.L. Burke Amazon Profile

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I was born on a tropical island in the Indian Ocean, spent my childhood in the savannas of Southern Africa and have worked in South East Asia, North America and Europe. I’ve been an accidental traveler all my life, and have lived in fifteen cities, in seven countries, on four continents to date, so I’m kind of a recovering nomad.

I’m also a bit of a rebel and left home at a young age to distance myself from a difficult childhood. I worked for minimum wage, cleaning stinky toilets at one point and sleeping in basement rooms to put myself through a bachelor’s degree. I went on to get an MBA from Europe and worked my way through the corporate world for more than a decade until I rediscovered my life’s passion for books and social change.

Today, I write, speak and connect with readers with one goal in mind – to inspire and empower the lives of young women around the world, especially those who live in the darkest corners of our planet. I do what I do because I remember what it’s like to be a scared and lonely girl with few opportunities and little support.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest series is called the Red Heeled Rebels.

I started to write full length novels in 2010, mostly memoirs of a lifetime of traveling. It was only recently, I decided to write a story about a young woman who goes through experiences I witnessed, experienced or learned about, having lived in many places where women’s rights are not respected. I wanted to write a story about a girl who goes through adversity and hardship, but who rises up and fights back, and comes out stronger and wiser, despite what she endures. I write these stories because I’m compelled to write them.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I tend to listen to soft classical instrumental-music when I’m editing, but when I’m writing the first draft of a novel, I blast a playlist with blood-pounding, cinematic, fantasy epic music which can keep me going for hours.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
My love for books began when I was very young. I used to read Jack and Jill stories using a torchlight under my blanket till late at night, when I was supposed to be asleep. I graduated to Enid Blyton and Nancy Drew, then onto Jules Verne, Isaac Asimov, Daniel Defoe and others. As a child who moved to a new city, a new country or a new continent every few years, I found it hard to make friends, so books became my companions, and authors, my allies. I gobbled up every book I got my hands on and savoured every word I read.

I remember one day, discovering a dusty, ripped copy of the Gulag Archipelgo, a difficult read about the Stalin era. This was not a book for a child, but there was not much else in my little school library, in that remote town where we lived at that time. That book taught me the strength of words. It taught me how storytelling can shine a powerful spotlight on injustice and how mere words can transform ideas and minds around the world.

What are you working on now?
The series I’m writing now is called the Red Heeled Rebels – a coming-of-age, adventure series with an international twist. Beginnings is the prequel short story to this three-novel series.

The series is about iron-willed young women who kick off their shackles to fight traditions that keep them down, band together and fight their oppressors from child-bride brokers and human traffickers to their own families who try to subjugate them.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Word-of-mouth bar none. I love it when my readers tell me, excitedly, that they can’t wait to share the book or story with their friends. That kind of promotion is the best and makes me tickled pink. It makes me feel they’re coming on this journey with me and they are having as much fun as I am.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
My first advice would be to read. Read a lot, in many genres. This will not only give you insights to the world around you, but also show you the skill of putting one word after another to create captivating characters, plot lines, stories. I always have two books on my bedside stand, one fiction, one non-fiction, and every night, I read for an hour before going to sleep. I can do this now without having to hide under my blanket with a torchlight!

The second advice I have is to sit and write, every single day. Everyone has to start somewhere, so without ruminating about aptitude, validation or permission, the most important thing is to just start, and you’ll find skills and ideas will come. Validation and permission, on the other hand, are not necessary. I dedicate all my mornings to writing, and do not allow anything or anyone to intrude this sacred time. Some days I write rubbish, but I still learn from it, and in the end, I find I improve a little bit every day.

The third advice I’d give is to turn off that inner critic we all have within us. There are ample external critics who may tear our hard work apart, who may even hate what we write about, so why allow our own minds to get sucked into that fruitless drama? It’s important not to censure ourselves, which would be like dying with our dreams still hidden within us. A sad life to live, indeed. Yes, we must be wise and respectful with our words, but we must never be subjugated by anyone else or our own minds telling us we’re not worth it. We write because we have something to say, so write it out loud and be proud.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The best advice I ever saw was from a cartoon of a stork trying to swallow a frog, but the frog’s had a death grip on the bird’s throat. Moral of this story: never, ever give up!

What are you reading now?
I’m reading Brenden Buchard’s Motivation Manifesto – a beautifully-bound hard-cover book and that is awesome on the outside as well as inside. It’s a great book about discovering your freedom and living your life to the fullest.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I will 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?
I’d take all of Gerald Durrell’s books with me. His wrote enchanting travel adventure stories filled with animals and family antics. He made me laugh and giggle through some tough times of my childhood. Getting lost in his books could make any bad situation feel good – even if for a short while.

Author Websites and Profiles
Tikiri Herath Website
Tikiri Herath Amazon Profile

Tikiri Herath’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I am a Christian businessman living in Romania with my wife (who is from Romania). I had published 5 books before I moved here, and this year I published 2 more books, making it 7 books I have published so far. My wife has published 2 books, both of them this year.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My most recent book is “Thirty Days of Thanksgiving,” which I started a few years ago. I finally finished it recently. I see that thankfulness is less and less common, so I wanted to write a 30 day devotional on the topic and also put a study guide for small groups at the back of the book.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I don’t write books continuously, usually. I might put off writing a certain book for a while until more thoughts come for it.

What are you working on now?
For a few years, I’ve been working on a book called “Double Glance.” It’s about a pastor in the End Times, when the world is against him and what he preaches.

I also am working on my first Romanian book about customer service. I plan to publish it within a year or so.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I use Facebook a lot, but the best method is word of mouth. It’s hard to promote books now that many people write, but it’s a fun challenge, and writing is something worth pursuing.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep at it. You may or may not publish the first book you write (I wrote many stories as a child and still write some stories, but I probably won’t publish them). You need to keep writing because that’s the way you improve your style.

What’s next for you as a writer?
Well, I’m writing the content now for a membership site my company is launching on November 1, 2017. The site is called Christian Language Learning Network (www.christianlanguagelearningnetwork.com). It’s not a book, but it’s content about how Christians should go about learning languages to fulfill the Great Commission.

Author Websites and Profiles
Jeremy G. Woods Website
Jeremy G. Woods Amazon Profile

Jeremy G. Woods’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve been a writer in odd ways all my life. Five years ago I decided to try to write a novel. I wanted to see if I was a writer, the person who observes life and shares it in the written world of fiction. I have written five books so far and I plan to write more.

I love being an independent author because I get to write what I like creatively. My novel, The Clown, was a Staff Pick on Write On by Kindle in Humor. I wrote The Draculan Hunter soon after with the same satire just to poke fun at life (and vampires). I also write old-fashioned Romances. I think I keep coming back to humor because the funny side of life reveals so much truth about ourselves. I sometimes think satire is sadness turned upside down.

I also like Romance, and wrote The Kiss that Saved Her which is a retelling of Snow White. Fairytales are wonderful because the format makes it possible to write lovely prose. Sometimes we like to be poetic when we write and I find Romance novels allow for this type of wording better than humor. I’m a teacher by training and I like to have a theme in all my books because I think books help us grow as people. Of course some books are more about entertaining than others. I love satire because it’s so subtle.

I’d like to thank Awesomegang for such a great place for writers to get the word out that our book is out there.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The Draculan Hunter was inspired by Lucifer. I’m serious. I wanted to show evil is what evil does and so the Draculans are doing bad deeds all over Philadelphia, and yes, they are going to get their comeuppance. But you have to read the book to see how. As I like to blurb: vampires die.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
No. Well, not really. I write best when I get an idea that burns a hole in my imagination.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
I love the Classics. I love Nathaniel Hawthorne. I love Eugene O’Neill. I love Chaim Potok and once I got to meet him years ago. As for books, I still cry when I read Little Women. There are a lot of modern books that are great too, like Diary of a Wimpy Kid which I read because my son loves them.

What are you working on now?
I’m finishing up with a book called Treasures of a Lasting Kind which is a middle school fiction book. It’s an inspirational buddy story. I really love the two best friends in the book, Taylor and Charlie. They are a lot of fun to write.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’ve used Facebook promotions, and some other sites like Free-Ebooks.net for promotions.

I publish through Pronoun platform which makes it easy to self-publish. In the future I’m planning on getting together an audio version of some of my work, which will open a new way to market books.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t become discouraged. Believe in your work and continue to write. It is a tough field, but the art we create has such lasting value. A good writing group will help solve any feelings of isolation and there are plenty to be found on Facebook. Make sure to keep on learning no matter what. Don’t take criticism too seriously either for that is why a lot of people stop writing.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Write even if you don’t feel like it. This is a great way to get through writer’s block. We all get some form of writer’s block and at those times we think we’ll never write again. If we just sit down and write, even if it’s horrible, the good stuff will start to stir again. I also believe in the muse. I just don’t know when it will show up.

What are you reading now?
I have some writer friends on a site (Chapters123.com) and I’m reading their unpublished work. As for published novels, since it’s October, I’m reading the Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I plan to begin a new novel which goes back to the Romance genre. I’m going to make this one a Christmas theme and have it ready by next Christmas.

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?
Okay, this is cliché but The Bible. It’s a lot to digest so it would take years to finish. I’m assuming the desert island is remote and I’d be there for a while. Then there’s Jane Eyre for Romance, and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy because I like humor. And of course, anything by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Author Websites and Profiles
E.M. McCarthy Website

E.M. McCarthy’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
Hi! I am a 17 year old Poet, residing in Melbourne Australia. I published my very first book called ‘Untold Journeys’ last year and am currently working on the Anthology ‘I Bared My Chest’ with 20 other female authors. Probably making me the youngest author to work on an international anthology!

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
I Bared My Chest is an anthology. It is inspired from freedom. I was offered to be a part of it after having an interview with one of the lead authors, Frankie Picasso.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
None

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Crime Books are my favourite to read. However, my writing style is totally different to what I read.

What are you working on now?
I Bared My Chest

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Facebook, Instagram and twitter are really good too. I just put up quotes so people can come and check out my pages and then see the books etc.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep going. All authors start at the bottom because everyone’s writing careers start with one idea. You are not alone

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
There is a right time for everything. If your book is not getting published then dont stop, but stop stressing too, because it will get published when the time is right.

What are you reading now?
The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen

What’s next for you as a writer?
I dont know, I’ll see where life takes me

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

Author Websites and Profiles
Malaika Gilani Website

Malaika Gilani’s Social Media Links
Goodreads Profile
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a retired professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies at U.C. Davis. I’ve written five books of non fiction and a memoir, Tasting Home, which appeared with She Writes Press in 2013 and won twelve independent press awards. My latest book is fiction, Oink. A Food for Thought Mystery which is set on a campus non unlike that of UC Davis. It’s protagonist is Emily Addams, a foodie professor of women’s studies at Arbor State. Of course the book is not at all autobiographical. I’m at work on another in the series, Terroir which deals with women winemakers.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Oink. A Food for Thought Mystery was inspired by real life events. (Not the poisoning!) In the 1990s budget cuts to the UC system were accompanied by an increasing focus on making a profit. Small programs like my own were threatened with defunding, but the women’s and the ethnic studies programs came together to resist and to form a community based on the value of mutual care, pleasure, and common cause. The book is a humorous send up of the university for its increasing devotion to greed and self-advance and a reminder of how community is essential to human life.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Well, I still draft on unlined paper using a 2 1/2 Ticonderoga pencil, though now I sometimes use a pen. Obviously, I began writing before computers existed. My brain is wired to paper and pencil.

What authors, or books have influenced you?
Tony Hillerman above all. What I like about him is that his novels are written from the perspective of people on the margins and that they deal with serious issues while also being entertaining. He gave me the idea of writing a campus mystery told from the point of view of those on the margins of university life.

What are you working on now?
I’m working on Terroir which is about secret contamination in the university and in the wine making industry. It’s also humorous and serious at the same time.

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I use boosted Facebook ads a lot and Facebook groups. I also maintain email lists of people who’ve expressed interest in my work.

Do you have any advice for new authors?
Take a writing class. It offers discipline, feedback, and a sense of community which are all extremely helpful. I’ve also belonged to several writing groups and they are very sustaining.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Annie Lamont’s says not to be afraid of writing a shitty first draft.

What are you reading now?
Out of Egypt for a writing group. To the Stars Through Difficulties. The First Bad Man.

What’s next for you as a writer?
I’m going to continue with the mystery series and try to rewrite the screenplay for my memoir.

If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
The collected Chekhov, the collected Shakespeare, the collected Austen.

Author Websites and Profiles
Judith Newton Website
Judith Newton Amazon Profile

Judith Newton’s Social Media Links
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account